Mica

 1998-2024

Mica

She was gentle as all get out and a had speed and stamina. She could sit and spin out from underneath you if you didn't know what you were doing. [A reining fool!]

But most of all her talents were her temperament and willingness to go anywhere and do anything with grace and confidence.

For most of her life, she was my husband's mule. Though I did ride her in the last few years. It is odd that since she was our only grey mule, the other gals ostracized her often.

We will miss you Mica with your coarse mix of braying and whinnies in the mornings and your gentle demeanor.

Run those rich pastures with Fred, Badger, and Cheyanne, I know they are waiting for you over that bridge.

Winning

I called our farrier because the girls needed trimming and Mica was limping quite badly. Mica is our elderly mule who is 27 years old. She is retired due to her other health issues.

She was a header and heeler in her day, along with team penning. 

As the guys said, 'She's been there, and done that.'

Mica had an abscessed frog, it went up her frog and split up her heel bulb. 

In the shot below, we are soaking Mica's foot in Epsom salts before we wrap it to keep it clean.

They were able to figure out what was wrong with her right away.

Holding Mica is Gracie. Her mom is also one of my CrossFit coaches. Her girls have been to my place to spend the day with me a few times. They were out last month for riding. 

I asked her mom if she could come and help me with catching up the mules and taking them in and out of the gate. I also thought it would be interesting for her to learn a bit about hooves from our farriers. Dan and Danny. Dan is an Licensed farrier and belongs to the International Farriers Association. If I have a hoof, leg problem, I call these guys.

The Diaper Boot. 

We made a diaper hoof boot to keep the wound clean. The guys taught me a new trick of adding a layer of Duct tape to the bottom of the diaper. I'll have to pull this off and soak her foot once a day for about a week until the abscess hole heals.

The diaper offers protection and cushioning for the sore frog. I've used this before with great success.

The guys said that Mica was such a good patient. She never offered to pull away or act up during the time we worked on her. 

When the farriers left, Gracie and I saddled up for a ride off the farm. I suspected Gracie would be just fine riding like this since she has friends that have horses and she goes to ride with them quite often. She tells me that they canter, trot and do all the kid things I used to do on horses.

I try to recall all the crazy stuff we did as kids on my uncle's horses and in some ways, I think we were better riders because we were not supervised most of the time. 

When Siera tossed her head around a little in protest of leaving her pasture mates, Gracie just ignored her antics and told her to behave. 

To Siera's credit, she is a very calm animal who doesn't really spook [unless she sees a bicycle!]. Her normal reaction to the unknown is to freeze and then relax and go on. 

We rode for about 40 minutes and checked out the neighbor's fresh round bales and then headed home. It was a good first ride away from our place for the season. The two mules together act much better than taking one out at a time.

Since it was so hot and humid, we gave the girls a quick little sponge bath so they could go roll in the dirt.

I have to admit, we really enjoy these chances to have Gracie and her sisters visit.
Rich literally lights up like a Christmas Tree when the kids are here.

And that is a win for everyone.

Another rambling mule post

Darn, I feel so tall when my shadow is like this!

Those LONG ears. Siera has super duper long ears. She is pointing out a young buck to me...

She is actually listening to me here when I tell her to 'walk on' and stop being stupid.

We walked by a trail that she knows goes towards home and thought she should turn there....

After our evening trail rides, I am ready to tackle the longer route and sent a message to my neighbor, Justin, to see if he'd like to go with.

It has been almost a year since I went on this long trail, so on Saturday afternoon, I will walk it to make sure it is passable.

Then I'll take each of the girls on a solo ride through it. They know this route too as they have done it since they were trained under saddle.

Disclaimer. I did training. They will 'neck' rein on trails as they see the path ahead of them. If they disagree with your choice of trail they will resist. 

Mules often resist because:

They sense the trail in front of them is not in their best interest.

Or it is dangerous in some way.

Or...they just don't see the point.

Following a mule's instinct is sometimes the best option. Unless they are bluffing.

Mules test your humor and your patience. If they do not feel the need to repeat a lesson over and over, they will just stand and refuse to do anything.

Last year I invited a person to ride with me and all the way along she complained that Sunshine was not what she expected. She wasn't polished like the horses all of her friends had. 

Her friends had show quarter horses, and she rode in their arenas. I imagine that compared to them, Sunshine was a bit of a brut. 

The only training I have done is giving them ground manners and riding manners. We need to get from point A to B safely and the rest is just noise. They go right and left when asked, unless they don't feel like it. They back up and step forward on verbal commands. They are polite with their ground manners and allow me to pick their feet while they are loose in the pasture. 
They come when called.

And their Whoa is impeccable.

These girls are not perfect, but they are reliable. Siera and Sunshine have taught kids to learn to ride. Fred, who died last winter at 38 yrs old also taught kids and grand kids to ride. He even took care of  adult riders who had no idea of what they were doing.

Once Fred thought you should know your stuff, he'd challenge you. The perfect pony mule!

I guess we have been so very lucky with our mules. Below is a photo from the last time hubby rode. The kids convinced him that he could just go with them once. He never rode again, but this was a memorable moment. [He could still move around outside without oxygen.]

He is on Mica, the grey mule, grandson Dennis is on Fred, Ariel is on Siera, and I am on Sunshine. This was 5 years ago this month. 

I do miss having the grands here to ride, however, I only have Siera and Sunshine as riding mules now. The grands have jobs and come to visit maybe once a year.

Hot! Oh Hot oh and other farm stuff.

July 2023 has been one of the most unusual months in recent memory. Rarely did we have a beautiful sky in the mornings. The sunrises were orange or brown and once even a frightful red [without the rains!].

It makes me wonder how the wildfires and smoke are effecting

wonderful creatures like the Monarch Caterpillar..

 or my neighbor's crops... 
the drought, smoke, and hot days, cold nights??

What sort of strange times do we live in? 
Rhetorical Question.

Moving on.

Yesterday I spent some time with the fellow who came out to tune up our skid steer. It was having an issue. 

Caveat, I do dislike machinery. I don't like operating machinery -- farm machinery. Period. He replaced three thingies that make the lights, blower, and starter run properly. Fuses. That's what they were. He admired our nice skid steer. I did mention that I would be happy with one of the first ones we ever had. It was simple with no electronic fusies to fuss with. He offered to trade me for his older little one.

I learned a few things from him and he showed me how to check hydraulic fluid and other stuffs. He explained it nicely so that my eyes and brain didn't explode, shut down, nor did my eyes glaze over.

The gent that we have purchased large square bales called me back this morning. I said "Hey Darryl, bet you can't figure out what I called for!"

"Oh," he said, "I'm sure it was to talk about the weather or perhaps good books to read?"

He always jokes with me.

He'd been waiting for me to contact him. I gave him an estimate of the amount of hay I'd need to carry me through next year. 

I pared it down from last year. We've lost Fred and Mica won't make it through this winter. She is the grey mule we have. 

Her COPD/heart situation has been depleting her strength and condition. It would be cruel to let her hang on into the cold. 

Today she wouldn't even trot up to the next pasture rotation. She literally walked slow while struggling to take breaths. It would be cruel to keep letting her suffer like this. 

Anyway, Darryl said he'd make sure we get what we needed. I have it delivered all at once and stack it in the machine shed. I pay him on the spot.

He said he was turning down a lot of requests and was taking care of his regular customers first.

I get it. We are grateful that we've been faithful customers of his for the last 10 years.

Rain. It would be good to get some.

We mowed some of the yard yesterday. This morning I cleaned all the stock tanks and put out fresh cool water for everyone.

I even got out of making supper tonight! Ms. Olive invited us up to her place for homemade pizza.

Stay cool if you can.

Mules and More

Our fuzzy girls.

Sunshine is 25 this year and still going quite strong. We call her our little red mule. She is out of my grade Arab/Quarter mare which was the first and last horse I ever owned. 

Sundance is Sunshine's little half sister. Same mare, different donkey dads. Sundance is 14 this year. I've ridden her under saddle twice but she is retired with Ringbone. I've had two offers on purchasing her but took a pass on it. She makes a good pasture pet.

Oddly enough Sunshine got the flaxen tail from her mom, while Sundance got the flaxen mane from her mom! Both are brilliant red mules. We often refer to them as the Reds.

Here is Siera, our Peruvian Paso mule. She is really quite a nice ride. She hates leaving home, and hates leaving her mates, but will go eventually. On the other hand, she is gaited and fun to ride. Once she relaxes, she is pretty calm. With another mule along she is literally lazy. 

The ones behind Siera are Mica the grey who is 25 and retired due to health problems. She was a reining fool in her day. She can sit and spin with the best of them! 15 is the horse. She is a pain in my arse. I won't even go into her story. Let's say she and I have agreed to dislike each other immensely.

The weather is bizarre, we have Red Flag Warnings, Flood Watches, and a Weather Watch for snow up to 6 inches on Sunday evening to Monday morning along with thunderstorms on Saturday afternoon.

Miss Ariel is here and yesterday afternoon we went out the the two Flea Markets in Readstown. They are both called Crazy Franks. We had fun browsing all the cool junk and other things. One of the places had a 40 foot wall of nothing but Ertl farm equipment and assorted tractors. I found a tiny tea cup and plate that would go nicely with my little teddy bear girls when they have tea together.

Another bluebird came by and gave us a moment of excitement. We hope they come around again this year.

With this streak of hot weather, the trees have been showing off their catkins with leaf buds soon to follow.
The Virginia Bluebells are emerging along with Dutchman's Breeches. 

Virginia Blue Bells

Dutchman's Breeches

Pussy Willow Trees

These plants always show up first in Tainter Hollow along Tainter Creek. I think the Trout Lilies and Wood Anemone will follow quickly.

I have to change her diaper...

Me: Oh Jeeze Louise...look at Mica, she is gimping on her hind leg!

Hubby: Go check it out.

I came back in and made the report after cleaning her feet and checking her legs.

She had a fairly deep crack in the heel area of her frog. She was trying to walk on her toe with that foot.

I felt the frog and the heel area...and noted that it was a bit warm and slightly swollen.

I copied these images from the internet and texted the farrier that comes out to our place. He good at what he does. I know he is one of the guys that the local vets call in for problems they need help with. IF I knew half of what this guy has forgotten I'd be a genius with horse anatomy.

He is also a traveling farrier. He did text back saying he was trying to get his son out to our place to look at her. His son has been working with his dad for over 10 years and now does his own work along with a full time job and he creates some incredible blacksmith work. 

I got a call later from Dan and we had a long conversation while he asked several questions. 

"Mica is the one with the string halt issue in her back legs right? So getting her to stand and soak her foot is not going to work." 

Stringhalt sample...Mica never did this while under saddle. String halt is considered an idiopathic condition and shows up at a walk. It is called equine reflex hypertonia. It is not painful, it is just there. Obviously there is more to it than just this, however as she ages it is more pronounced.

Mica, 25 yrs old, is retired after a long career of heeling, roping, and gymkhana along with trail riding. She can sit and spin like a top. However, her days of that work are long behind her and she enjoys eating and pooping. More about Mica here in Meet Mica.

So Dan asked me if I had sugar and betadine and access to a diaper. He instructed me to clean her foot and flush out the crack then pack it with a sugardine mix. Wrap the hoof in the diaper for cushion and vet wrap it to keep it dry.

He'd call as soon as he got home to see how she was doing.

I called Olive and she trotted down with two diapers and we proceeded to treat Mica. 

In 24 hours after making a 'boot' out of a diaper and using sugardine, she was walking nearly normal. After 48 hours, the heat was gone out of her heal bulb.

Mica's diaper boot:

I didn't have Vet wrap so we made a duct tape hoof boot to keep her frog dry.

She is totally happy with it.

Yesterday she had no heat in her pastern or heel bulb. I hope we licked whatever was bothering her. 

Today I need to change her diaper and retape her for another two days.

I noticed she pushed around the other mules at feeding time so she is feeling more herself.

Dan will be out to check her out, so we know if we are dealing with an infection, and abscess, or bruise.

For now? Color me happy. 

The diaper and duct tape are great ways to make a medicine boot that won't fall off. 

I got shot! ....

Ok. No drama here. I'm talking about the vaccination. 

The nurse that gave to me was excellent! I never even felt the poke. 
Drink LOTS of water I was told by my neighbor who works at my Dental Office when I dropped off my payment. The folks at the Department of Health said the same thing.

"Lots of water. Listen to your body. If you feel tired...nap." 

You know what is kind of weird? I enjoyed visiting with the nurses and the girls while waiting for my 15 minutes. I enjoyed visiting with my neighbor who works at the dental office. Yeah. I felt like it was a BIG day out. 

Plus I got to catch up on the ridge information. One neighbor had a quadruple bypass and a prefab house is going in on the corner. That makes 3 brothers from the same family moving onto what was once cropland that was inherited about 25 years ago by their father.

My upstairs neighbor and I got our shots at the same time and plan on having outdoor coffee or wine together in 2 weeks to celebrate.

Other interesting things. 

We watched crows hunt down a rabbit. 

Mica the white mule has heart failure stemming from breathing issues and heaves or equine COPD. One part of the day she is fine, the next? She seems tired and naps a lot. Rich has had her for 20 years. She is not in dire distress, her heart rate and respirations are normal, but she has "regurgitation". The blood backflows because her heart doesn't work like it should. 

The super dry conditions aren't very helpful for Mica. I moved her to a grassy area with Fred and the 2 of them did fine but were obsessed about not being able to see the rest of the herd. Stubborn old mules! They ate the nice grass and pounded paths of worry with their hooves along the fenceline. I'm going to try another tactic if we don't get rain soon. 

~~ Last night when I went to bed my arm started to ache and I figured I was in for a bad night. 
I slept soundly except when Rich dropped stuff in the kitchen around midnight getting his nightly snack. I'm a light sleeper and I bolted out of bed. I thought he fell. All good, ... he dropped frozen pizzas on the floor while fishing out the ice cream bucket.

~~ Insert Eye Roll here~~

I woke up and was surprised that my arm didn't ache like it overnight. I did chores, gave Mica some meds for her breathing and took a walk at daylight with Charlie.

Do you see what I see?

One black Morel.
I find this very interesting because it is so dry here. The moss is brown yet a morel found enough moisture from under the leaves to come up. The tree above it is in its first years of dying so I follow the root system each year and come up with one or two black morels very early in the morel season.

Today's plan. Drink lots of water and take a nap if I want to. I'm not going to do a lot of Farm Work. I'll move Lil' Richard to trim around my MIL's old car and Sven the Goat to do some trimming next to the old tractor.

Maybe I'll go and scout out some trees. 

Here is our home in black and white [Infrared]. This is the north side of the house.

This is the tidy view that doesn't show the wrecked garage and the mess that would be behind me. I love this place. 

Stay well. I'm chillin' today.

One of those days

Ever have one of those days that it all goes to heck?

I thought it was going to be a good day after a yucky night, Wednesday. My hands were sore and so were other parts of my body, but I chalked that up to cutting down trees with a hand saw and working mostly bent over for a good part of the afternoon. Rich had a restless night too. Must be an thing for older people right? Wait? I don't feel like an older person.

I should have quit before the day started.

As the sun peeked over the trees tops, Mica the mule was laying down in her paddock and acting as if she were colicing. I went out to feed everyone and grabbed some Banamine the Vet had left me for these situations. I used my stethoscope and listened for gut sounds. They were a bit weak. Mica also has Heaves which makes her cough and fart at the same time. She often has gas and Rich always says that she should be my mule with all that 'power'!

She was terribly uncomfortable. I dosed her with some Banamine orally and put her out next to the goat in a pen against the shed. I knew she'd be pissed to be separated from Fred and would walk the fence-line. That would save me from having to walk her up and down the driveway until she passed gas or pooped. Ahhh, such is the farm life!

Mica, self exercising

Fred, doesn't care

After Rich got up he said he felt like he was struggling for air. For a week or so now his morning 02 levels are sometimes a bit low. He has 02 on his CPAP so I switched the concentrator over to a long hose for him.
Yes he was low.

He started coughing a bit yesterday which alarmed me since he hasn't had a cold or cough since he'd gone through Throat Cancer treatment.

Things seemed to be going okay. He left the 02 hose and walked over to get water and his meds.

Bam. I always use the Oximeter to see how he is doing and when he sat back down I did our morning routine. I read mine 02 and he reads his. 

His HR had skyrocketed and his 02 fell like a rock. I gave him the cannula to put on and we watched the numbers begin to balance out. Big sigh.

By lunch time I'd done the cleaning and situated his meds for the rest of the month. I'd ordered the meds that needed replacing and crossed my fingers that the postal service and UPS would come through in a timely fashion. We have not suffered like other areas have in this respect. 

Any meds requests are not urgent until after the start of the new year.

I decided to stick close and not do any woods work. Reading seemed to be a good choice. Charlie kept my lap warm and I read.

By supper Rich had a climbing fever and a nasty cough.

"Did you give me the Covid?" Oh, you know that would be the question that he'd ask.

"Not that I know of."

"I am not going to the hospital." Oh the stubborn man.

Of course immediately I thought of my last trip to the store. How long ago was it? Who did I run into? 7 days since my last trip to town. 

Friday I hiked with a friend...we distanced. And he'd had a negative Covid test recently.

But...

"I'm not going to the hospital. I'm cold." 

His fever spiked to 101. 

I stayed up most of the night. Ever try to get a cranky child to drink water?

This morning the fever is gone and he still feels crappy. 

We shall see what today brings.

And in this day and age? Is it a cold? Could it be Covid? How on earth did he get sick with all the precautions we took?

I am the only link to the outside.

Soooo...

Yet I've never felt ill.

Let's see what today brings.

PS~Mica recovered quickly from her tummy ache and is back coughing and farting up a storm once in a while. Fred is nagging her and they are bickering this morning as the sun comes up.

Perhaps this is a good sign?

Mule Attitude

So the big snow is occurring. I don't think it is going to be a 5 to 10 inch snowfall here, however ... the 'event' is not supposed to end until this evening.

I added bedding and hay to Sven's indoor pen. I considered shutting the door to his pen but the other day when I did have it closed he 'locked' himself out. He has access to a rather large area outside and spends most sunny days observing his Kingdom from a mound.

Here Charlie is checking for yummy goat poo.

I loaded a huge hay net for Mica and Sunshine to put in the large stall I built.

Suffice to say that Mica turned into an evil beast when I put her in the stall and put Sunshine in with her for company. She kicked at Sunshine and shoved her around.
I think a few factors entered into this. Mica has a paddock next to the shed and I separated her about a month ago from the others. She has Sven on one side of her and Little Richard on the other. I've been giving her a bit of sweet feed twice a day.
One: Mica wasn't in Sunshine's herd anymore.
Two: Mica preferred Little Richard and Sven to Sunshine's company
Three: Sweet Feed has helped her maintain her weight but has not helped her attitude.

Hmm. I may have to start thinking about using some beet pulp.

Anyway, I got them calmed down and dumped the hay out of the net and separated it into the far corners of the large stall.
Meanwhile, the storm did rage on outside with high winds and blowing snow.

The other mules huddled around their piles of snow and then disappeared into the woods to get out of the stinging winds and snow.

Morning:

Sundance says good morning!

Fred. No good morning.

Get my breakfast!

Fred is 33 yrs old.

Siera and 15

These two are nearly inseparable.

The Breakfast Club

This morning it was obvious that Mica feuded with Sunshine all night. Sunshine was dry as a bone and calm. Mica was sweaty and high strung. I had to tie Mica up in order to take Sunshine back out to the pasture.

Sunshine met up with her herd mates, and walked calmly into the bigger pasture and took a snow bath.

I brushed Mica and fluffed her coat. I walked her quite a bit in the shed to cool her off and at times she wanted nothing to do with me. Once I put her out in her paddock she went and stood by where she gets her morning sweet feed and paced the hot wire.
I ignored her and put out hay.

I'm happy to report that she is back to her peaceful self. I'm guessing the old saying that sometimes when you try to be super nice to a mule, it backfires on you.

As it happened....

This is my favorite view in the whole wide world.
The view between a mule's ears.

Of course this is Sunshine's ears and her mane is wild and wooly just like everyone else's on the farm this time of year. I don't roach the manes towards fall as the mules need that extra insulation on the top of their heads.
Well, at least that is what I think.

Molly texted that she was coming for a visit and bringing two friends. I was properly surprised to find that one of her friends was a guy. Nope, he wasn't a boyfriend of Molly or the other gal, but they are all pals at school.

More interesting was the fact that as we talked a bit Friday night I noticed his t-shirt and asked him if Glenbrook North Highschool was indeed the one in Northbrook. He said it was. I was stunned. And then I laughed.

"I graduated from Glenbrook North 45 years ago!" We spent a few minutes discussing a few streets and I told him what Northbrook was like when we had moved there when I was a kid.
And...we both went to the very same grade school.

I had one more intramural CrossFit 'game' 20.5 to do Saturday morning and I told the 'kids' that they could clean out burrs from the mules' tails and manes if they wanted to do some bareback riding when I got back.

All the mules had been cleaned up of burrs and brushed, well, all except Fred who was his usual anti social self.

Everyone was eager to try bareback riding. Only Will hadn't done it before. I decided to just stay in the adjoining pastures. Everyone would get some more experience on the two young mules with nice round backs...and some experience riding the bony backs of Mica and Fred.

I allowed them to switch mounts to see how different each animal was. Siera behaved as expected. After a while of riding in her pasture she decided to test her riders by putting up a little mule protest.

Mules generally don't like doing the same thing over and over so it was no surprise. Plus Siera felt she could get away with refusals.

I explained to Will and Sonya that these were not 'lesson' animals like they had at their school. These mules were more into trails and doing difficult things, not an open pasture where walking was boring to them.

Everyone enjoyed themselves and I imagine there may be some sore butts and legs this morning.

I brought out their cell phones after the ride was over so they could all get photos of themselves on mules to share.

I'd requested the phones be left in the house before riding. You should have seen their faces when I said that! Shock! [Well Molly wasn't shocked]

All in all we had a fun time and Molly's friends got introduced to mules.