Well there you go...

Well, I thought that Saturday would be boring with planting seeds, moving some rocks, and perhaps mowing the yard. None of that was going to happen.

My Peruvian Paso Mule, Siera, looked gimpy and didn't want to lead at all when I groomed her early in the morning. Her walk was off or she refused to walk which is odd for her since she is very good on a lead rope.

I noticed yesterday that she'd spent time standing quietly or laying down. I checked for colic and her gut sounds were perfect as well as her vitals.

I texted Danny who has taken over doing the farrier work for us. His dad used to come with Danny when Danny was apprenticing with him. Danny has done farrier and blacksmith work since he was able to pick up the tools.

He learned from a very skilled AFA Certified Journeyman Farrier, his father. He can make specialized shoes right out of the back of his truck and pretty much diagnose leg/foot issues faster than a vet. He and his father are recommended by vets quite often in our area.

So my text went to him and he said he'd come out in a few hours.

One thing for sure, in the 4 weeks since her last trim she'd 'Toed out' meaning her toes grew fast and long [which is typical for her]...but never this fast! So she was walking rather stiffly and ouchy. 

Danny saw that right away and worked on her hooves. He felt a bit of swelling in her lower legs and I commented that she hadn't been moving much for the past few days. Maybe she was 'stocking up' from standing and not moving.

Well, we hoped so.

Here is Danny trimming and also doing a hoof test for any possible abscesses. None were found and nothing was 'ouchy' in her feet.

One thing to recall about mules especially Siera. When some mules have an owie, they get overly dramatic.

Let's face it, this gal is The Diva of Mules.

 

Just as we finished up with her, the 'kid' who purchased the 1992 Toyota 4X4 straight truck showed up with a buddy. They had come to claim their prize.

His hunting buddy came along to help and they borrowed Frank's [plow guy] trailer to put the little truck on and haul it.

I cannot say this enough. This generation of hardworking farm men [in their 20's] are so polite. I keep hearing how entitled and rotten this generation is and so far I haven't met one in my community. Let's say this is the way they have been to my face. These young guys are mechanics and farmers, they work hard and play hard.

Matthew's friend took a look at our old Country Clipper and offered me $100 for it. I started to laugh and replied that, no it was not for sale. He really admired it.

I never got Matthew's friend's name, but we enjoyed some time talking about hunting dogs. He has a Blue English pup, a Plott, and a Black and Tan hound. He showed me some of the training videos he has done with them. Ohhh, how I miss the sounds of hounds. I almost asked him if I could come over and see his hounds, but held my tongue. Old crazy lady!

Below is a screenshot from the security camera in the shed. Matthew is using a come-a-long to bring the Toyota onto the tipping platform. Once loaded and tied into place, they pulled out of the shed.

I'm glad that Matthew is experienced in hauling. He pulled out and backed up the driveway to the field where he could turn the whole mess around and head up the driveway.

One more piece of 'stuff' gone!

As for the shed? I'm almost ready for a dumpster to be delivered. But now that I am looking around at the equipment and tools I have left, it would be a good idea to organize everything first.

I may even look into learning how to make some shelving for putting things up instead of piled in buckets.

Could be a summer job for me when I am not doing anything else.

Hopefully the rest of the weekend goes quietly. No rest for a farm lady.

One two three...onward

Monday Monday. Who loves Mondays? Tuesdays, Wednesdays...oh bother...I started this on Monday and it fell into Tuesday...and I landed on Wednesday...

Rain. Sunshine, repeat. That is what April showers are all about.

Moss continues to be the big attraction out in the forest. Phoebe loves macro photography and she loves mosses. Why not?

She sees mosses as delicate little flowers that no one appreciates.

She really enjoys seeing the small world through the camera lens.

But I think she should be more aware of her surroundings, don't you?

While I was out on Sunday morning, I found a dandelion! Actually I found two of them just starting in the pasture. They were pretty small.

Since I had my macro lens on, I thought I'd even get closer. I don't mind laying down in the dirt and grass. This is one of the reasons I wear coveralls.

Closer....
I chose black and white to accent the curly parts of the flower that carry pollen. There are cool names for these but I would never remember them.

Even...

closer!

I felt like this was pretty interesting. Most folks don't give a dandelion a second thought. Photographers love dandelions though. They go through so many changes quickly and there is an easy access to them as they are found everywhere.

My yard pony loves the dandelion flowers. If I stake him out where the dandy's grow, he carefully walks around and eats all the blossoms first.

Apparently, he thinks they are delicacies.

I ordered my cot for the living room. It arrives on Friday. I decided to get a new blanket and dress up that part of the living room with new curtains. Me oh my! I got a matching blanket and curtains! How special am I? 

The cot is easy to fold up and move. I did want one for watching the stars from the porch, so it will have more than one purpose. It may even become a 'guest' cot at some point.

Here is a shot of the curtains along with the blanket draped over the old Captain's Chair I need to find a place for...

Bear approved of it. The window behind the chair will have matching curtains also. It will be my 'open' concept sleeping area and I suppose could double as a 'seating' area [since I always have so many people visiting!].

and then Tuesday went right by and suddenly I woke up Wednesday....

Yesterday, was farrier day with Danny. This shot is from 9 years ago when Danny started working on our animals under the close eye of his dad, Dan. Danny has become an incredible farrier and blacksmith. He carries his portable blacksmith shop in a specialized trailer he had built. 

I don't have any photos of him from yesterday. I was busy chatting and holding the mules.

Before supper, I took a few minutes to trot out to the woods to see if I could find any Virginia Spring Beauties.

They are just barely popping in my woods. 

I even found a Mayflower! It isn't very tall yet, I stuck a Lego Gator and his toy bunny along side. The Mayflower was about 2 inches tall.

So I am closing this out and heading into Wednesday.

Hooves, Hay, and Life

The first couple of days of this week were crazy busy. I mucked right through it because I have to take care of business.

Below is a photo [cell phone] shot of our yearly hay supply. I am so thankful for our hay guy saying he has no problem delivering and stacking our hay for us. 

The skid steer is on the right side of the picture. 

This was our old round pen inside the large shed.

I have a father son team who like to come out together to do our mules. This is Danny working with  Sundance. 

The farriers took time to come up to the porch and visit with Rich for a while. We've worked with these guys for quite a few years. Danny has assisted his dad ever since he could hold a hoof rasp.

Both guys do custom blacksmith work and farrier at the same time. Often our veterinarian refers hoof and leg problems to these guys because they are so knowledgeable.
 

I am behind on removing burrs from the mules' tails this year. Sunshine sports a burr tail. I'll get to it sooner than later. Show Sheen and Hair conditioner work really quite well. It takes a lot of time though.

My new hat. This is safer than a Harris/Walz hat to wear in my area. It takes a moment or few to figure out what it says. 

I think I finally turned a corner. I spoke to a nurse and she recommended taking probiotics and avoiding acidic foods for a while. I had probiotics and I made bland food for myself for supper.

This morning was the first time since September 1st that I didn't wake up with nausea and a splitting headache. I am crossing my fingers on this and hope it continues.

One day at a time.

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.

Wow what a day!

 Here is my Foodie Photo / Foto.

I never 'present a dish' but I am not knocking those who do because...well, I AM jealous because you folks that cook and make beautiful dishes are awesome. 

I decided to decorate Fred's morning meal. Fred is a pony mule who is 37 years old. He is retired and now gets special grain mixed with alfalfa pellets that are softened. I bring it in and let it soak. I had some cut flowers that I was going to toss out. 
Instead, I decorated his meal.

Yeah. Hubby rolled his eyes and shook his head. Why not though? Fred was/is probably the only reason we met each other so many years ago. I admired the little mule and recalled the man telling me his name was Fred.

I didn't recall the cowboy dude's name for most of the week we rode together. But I recalled the awesome little tough mule he rode.

Fred was at our wedding. He was best mule.

The farrier was to show up at noon and I got Rich up from his nap so he could visit with them while I got out ol' Fred and cleaned him up.

The father son farrier team has been with us since 2017. They always make the appointment with us so that they can spend extra time visiting with Rich. They also come out once in a great while during the months they aren't so busy to sit and chew that fat with Rich.

I couldn't catch Rich's old mule Mica later on, so I left a pen open and got our little pony for a trim. Rich walked out and told me he'd go catch her. He was annoyed that I didn't run around the pasture to chase her down.

As I predicted, the old mule walked right into the catch pen as soon as I was busy with something else and she waited until Rich walked in and haltered her. He was quick to point out that HE caught her.

We all watched with our mouths wide open in amazement. 

I murmured something to the affect that I thought all the exercise he was doing during his PT appointments were obviously paying off well. Chalk one up for exercise!

I took over for him after the Danny finished her first hoof so he could sit down on a stool they'd put in the truck just for Rich. [What thoughtful people they are!]

The guys finished up and then stayed to visit. 

I got a text from Daryl the hay guy who said he would be by in the late afternoon with our winter hay. Daryl is a kind soul. Rich used to go get the hay from Daryl, but since his stroke, he doesn't drive and we never have to wonder too much where we will get hay from. Yes, it costs more to have it delivered, however, it gives me peace of mind to know I can depend on him as a source each year.

Daryl and Rich visited. Rich complained about the price of hay. Daryl reminded him of how much he loved watching his mules and was that worth the price? 

There was a discussion about brush hogging the pasture. Daryl pointed out that he could probably have the pasture brush hogged twice a year for about 15 years for the price of the one he'd pay for his skid steer.

Rich moved the bales into the shed, never missing a beat and had them all stacked up neatly for me to feed out this coming year.

Charlie and I took down a temporary fence that we'd put up for the summer near all the old 'stuff' parked in the weeds.

With all that done, Rich said he was exhausted.

He had to be! All day he had to be sociable!

It was amazing, he laughed, he told jokes, he caught a mule. He wrangled the skid steer and 20 huge square bales. 

All in a day's work.

Frigid Farrier Fence

So I was looking for words that described my day yesterday. It was Farrier Day here. I convinced Rich to get out and visit with Dan and Danny. Son and father Farriers. The father is licensed as an international farrier and he is not your fly by night type of guy. We had a lot of those around here in the past. 

Let's just say a good farrier is worth his weight in gold. No hoof, no horse right? 
No pictures of us working. I am the mule getter and catcher... along with the mule holder and groom while all of the trimming is going on. 

Rich had a great visit and actually stayed out and talked to the guys for almost an hour. We consider that a huge feat. There have been a few times that Dan and Danny have driven out just to visit with Rich when he was recovering from his stroke and Pulmonary Emboli. We have learned a deep appreciation for each other. 

With the trimming done, I decided a good cold day would be perfect for picking up the electric line from the 'line' fence. I'd put hot wire up when we had Dexter cattle in the woods. They were great for cleaning the woods but did not respect 4 strand barbed wire fences. The photo below is of our fenceline with reverse insulators. This half of the fence belongs to my neighbor to maintain. This is actually pretty good compared to the portion of fence I need to keep hot wires to keep my mules in and HIS cattle out on the south pasture. There is maybe one rusted wire. IF I was really young, I'd hire someone to come in and redo all the line fences and then send half the bill to the neighboring properties.

But I am not and I won't be spending the next 20 years here. So I repair areas to keep my critters safe and the neighbor critters out. This barbed wire is not something horse owners really want as a fence. However, if you look at the fencing you will see that there literally is no reason for my mules to try and eat on the other side of the fence.

The only danger I've ever had from hardwire fences is that we had two young champion jumping mules.

Opal and Fred were first in their height classes for Coon Jumping.

Here is a sample:

That is Opal. 

There is a poor video of her jumping Here. 

Anyway. 

Fred is 35 and doesn't jump anymore. He will respect hot wire and that was the only way I could keep him in at one time. He would simply jump into the neighbor's grassy pasture and eat and then when he was done, he'd jump over the fence and join the other mules. Mules who Jump bump the fence first to check its height, then they step back and leap it like a deer. Hot wire keeps them from checking it out. Though Fred was our escape artist and once upon a time took 4 other mules on a walk about with him. 

I have a couple more connections to make out in the woods and then the woodland pasture fences will be set up again.

I do miss the donkeys who were experts at stripping all the multi flower rose bushes. 

I had an odd message on our answering machine. A guy called and wanted to know if Rich still had mules and he was looking for a 'good' one. I need to call him back.

No we don't have any for sale. We sold off all of our stock mules/horses/donkeys and cattle after Rich's health took a dive.

I have Mica and Fred ... very retired Senior Mules.  Sunshine and Siera are my riding pals. Mica has equine COPD with heart issues so she just is here living the Life. Fred is 35 and is here because he is Rich's first mule and he attended our wedding as Best Mule. 

Okay, I went way off track. 

No fencing jobs today. These old hands hurt like the dickens in the cold. 

This is what most of our fencing looks like:

Spring and Kids...puppies and all that!

Kid goats that is!

Every play room needs kid goats right? Well, they were born early in the morning outside and were shivering. So they were brought in the house. Mom will be a milker.
These are LaManchas, those fun looking goats with 'no' ears.

The 'kids' will be bottle fed so my neighbors are learning a new skill. Goat milking and bottle feeding the kids. I know that bottle feeding kid goats makes them much easier to handle and they bond with the humans much easier.

I'd show you the human kids and the goat kids together, but I don't have any photos of that yet!

However, I can show you a photo from many years ago...

These are my sons who are grown now.

I can't wait to see more of Lily and Sophia. I have a soft spot for new born anything!

Yesterday was a busy day. Off to the nursing home with edema slippers for mom in law. Eeeks, they had triple wrapped her legs and feet so the slippers ... almost fit but not quite.

Early afternoon was farrier time. Sundance behaved like a charm. She has been a bit 'bouncy' in the past. I am hoping that all the extra footwork I did with her loose in the pasture has paid off.
Sundance will start her training as soon as the large square bales are out of the round pen.

Hank is now a steer. Next week he and Stella will move into a pasture next to the other Dexters so they can become re-acquainted through the fence before putting them back together.

The cattle and the equine are starting to shed. Who would have thought that Stella would love to be curried?

Charlie is doing great. He had no hikes yesterday but we did play fetch in the yard and he got to meet the farriers. They liked him.

Dixie and Charlie helped me on Friday afternoon while I cleaned up one of the pastures and had a very small brush fire to burn up burdock and branches.
Dixie showed her good temperament again by being docile and patient when Charlie annoyed her.

After our busy day Rich and I had waffles for supper and then relaxed and were in bed early.

The daffodils and hyacinths next to the east side of the house are starting to come up and open.
It is only March, but things feel like we are whirling towards spring at a high rate of speed.

Hot Shoeing

The morning started with a phone call from our farrier.

"Say Val said she'd like to see some hots hoeing, well I'm going to be at Linda's and will be hot shoeing Thunder, would you guys like to come over?"

Indeed we did! To watch Dan work is like watching art in motion. He'd probably blush at that description.

We arrived and Linda told her border collies to sit in her 'Mule'. Her cattle dogs are incredible and they were our audience.

The horse to be hot shoed for a Wagon Train was Thunder. He would need shoes to navigate blacktop and gravel roads.
I'm not going to get into the the discussion of shoes vs. no shoes. In our area if you ride often on gravel roads and our rocky trails, shoes are pretty much a must.

First Dan trims the feet.

Here is his portable forge. Hot? Yes it is hot!

Here he puts the hot shoe against Thunder's hoof.
NO, it does not hurt the horse.
Thunder never even had a reaction.
We however were warned that it would be stinky.

The purpose simply for hot shoeing is to create a smooth surface between the hoof and the shoe. It seals the horn tubules and as Dan told me makes the shoe lie nice and flat against the trimmed foot.
[Imagine putting on a pair of shoes that are lumpy and bumpy against the bottom of your foot. You'd get sore feet in a hurry right?]

Dan finishes up the first foot and moves around the horse repeating the process and custom fits his hand made shoes to each foot.

While doing endurance my mule's feet were cold shoed. After watching and understanding the process of hot shoeing, I'd never do cold shoeing again.

Dan makes his own shoes and that would seem to be a lot of extra work. However he takes a lot of pride and care with each shoe.

Dan is also a certified farrier. He understands the anatomy and physiology of the horse. I suppose I could list his credentials if I knew them all.

He does know feet and he does know horses, mules, and donkeys.

Dan can tell exactly how he has to adjust the shoe to fit properly when using hot shoeing method.

Here he determines where he has to make adjustments ...

And then he goes to his anvil and custom fits the shoe.
After a bit more work, the shoe goes on.

I'm not going to pretend to be an expert at hooves, horses, and shoes, or trimming. However I do know that taking care of the equine foot is so very important.

I like watching Dan work and I really like how he explains things as he goes along. Sometimes I have to stop him as I don't quite get all of the terminology and jargon that goes along with a farrier/blacksmith job.

I do know that my small herd of animals are much better off in having him take care of their feet now. He helped get Siera back on her 'feet'. So far she has been the only one we've ever had a with an issue.
Since Dan came to our farm as our farrier, things have gone quite smoothly.

Last but not least.
Our entertainment while we were visiting.

Sully, the mini donkey.