Little celebrations

The riding mower needs a new inner tube or a new tire ... well let's say filling it up every time we used it last year was a pain. 
Hubby actually got out there and took it off! Three years ago I had to have the neighbor come down and help me do it. 

I worked on the pasture weeds and since we were waiting on rain, I couldn't burn the piles of elderberry, sourdock and burdock. It seems as though it is an never ending battle and around the middle of May I generally give up and resort to just weed whipping the plants in spots. The heavier woody stuff gets the machete. However, I have made progress over the years.

My afternoon schedule was to run to a place in town where our local Dept of Health had set up a clinic for vaccinations. I'd scored an earlier vaccination by juggling different sites. My neighbor and I were signed up for the same time. We drove separately and stayed in our seats for the 15 minutes, then we were done. 

I took the flat tire to the guy we have always purchase our mowers and chainsaws from. I like shopping and supporting local people and this guy was a kid when he started out.

He'll fix the tire, get a deck belt for hubby's big ol' zero turn and I purchased an early gift for myself. A nice self propelled mower. I was tired of pushing that old crappy mower up the side hill. Happy Day for me.

I walked out into the pasture and stood. Pretty quick Sunshine walked up and I took her out and saddled her up. I told hubby that I was going to ride our land and just head on down to the creek.

What an ugly shadow of us! 

She was pretty sure that she'd rather not leave her buddies so she just stopped and waited for a bit. Every mule offers hesitation the first time in the year when they leave their pals.
Sunshine gets over it quickly. 

No photos of us following the trails we went through the woods. I was too busy watching out for branches to duck. She took a deer trail instead of the nice wide ridge trail the bulldozer had made for us.

We came up on that group of male Tom Turkeys. They came walking and strutting through the leaves sounding like a heard of elephants.
I love this mule.
She perked up, ears forward and nose flared. I could see the Tom's bright red heads as they walked through the brush. I was hoping they all didn't take off like thunder.

Sunshine took a huge sigh and then we carried on zig zagging down the steep hill. When we ended up on the ridge trail, I dismounted. Always the first time out with a crupper she gets a bit tail swishy. Just her way of saying she would like me to know that the slight tug on her tail head was a bit bothersome.

By midsummer, she ignores the crupper. I may put a britchin' on her saddle this summer to avoid tail swishing and ear twitching.

For a job well done we stopped in our creek bottom and I let her grass on some of the good stuff in the creek. She thought she was in heaven.

Then I tried something no one has tried before. I wondered if I could ride her upstream and around all those boulders and downed trees to hunt for morels later this year.

There is no easy way out of this creek unless you are willing to climb. 

Blurry shot with my pointy shooty camera.
I asked her to negotiate a deep pool of water with a boulder on one side and a tree on the other with no other way around it.

I have to hand it to her. She looked at it, sniffed it, then stepped into it and walked through it. She has all the calm of her donkey dad, Bruce. And lots of the thinking of her mom a scatterbrained arab/quarter mix. Her mom when faced with a difficult situation would stop and think in the woods.
In a field or wide open space ... she'd just go bonkers.

I like an equine who thinks. Sunshine thinks hard all of the time and misses nothing.

Below we check the forest fence above the creek. Wow, it is easier to ride her than walk it!

I counted two insulators that need replacing.

We then climbed out of the valley and headed home. That was enough of the rough stuff for the day. I told hubby that I may take nippers and the machete and clean up the trails the mules made last year in the woods.

I said I could ride much more right at home than trying to figure out if the 4 wheelers were going to be out on the neighbor's land.

Above...one of the Bell Necklaces my mules wear. It alerts slumbering wildlife to get up and move before we get there. Never have any of my mules freaked at wild life, but they do get startled when a herd of gobblers suddenly come out of nowhere and thunder overhead. Most of the time they get stiff legged and stand still.

Then they sigh and we move on.

[The strap is hanging off her side...I'd started to unsaddle her. And yes her mane is wild yet. I will roach her mane once the weather stays warm.]

Many little celebrations for my Wednesday.

Color me happy.

The usual suspects...

Siera, the dark bay mule with the funky brand on her shoulder.

I told my grand daughter that Siera was bi polar. Not mean bi polar. Just sometimes she was happy and sometimes she was not happy. Her attitude can go from ho-hum to giving you cranky looks.
Here she stands off to the side looking a bit ugly at her pasture mates. She is consistent in this manner.
Hay is coming, time to stand off and look ugly!

The red heads and Fred. Poor Fred or is it lucky Fred? He is stuck in a pasture with all females.
Poor Fred.

The red headed sisters are their own little clique. They as a rule don't hang with the bay mules, Fred and Siera. They are usually paired off together. They will even lay down and sleep side by side.
I can take Sunshine out and go riding and Sunshine never pays attention to her screaming half sister. She walks away as if Sundance didn't exist.

Mica.
It must be awful to be the only grey flea bit mule.

She truly is shunned by the other mules. She hangs out just near enough to the other mules but it seems as if the other mules are prejudice against her color. Odd isn't it?

Fred cries and fusses for all of the other 'gals' when I remove them from the pasture, but remains mum when Mica comes out with me.

We'll see how this new herd dynamic works out come next spring. I wonder if it will be the same?
Fifteen will be joining them soon so things should get interesting.

School will be back in session for 15 and Sundance once the weather cools down.

Siera shines through

When we got Siera I never imagined that she would be good for novice riders. However, I've been working with her for quite a while now. I love the fact that when something confuses her she stops.
When something startles her, she ... stops.
When she is upset, she'll back up and she stops.

She can't really buck. I've seen her try. She can't really rear up. She is a gaited mule with different hindquarters than those of her quarter mule pals.
She is calm and quiet 95% of the time.
She will get excited if she is left behind in the pasture. She is calm when she is with a human.
She is even calmer if she is with another mule. Even with the redhead Sunshine.
The redheaded mule sisters tend to stick together. The bay mules tend to stick together out in the pasture.

Still, Siera can be a challenge. I told Ariel that Siera would give her grief in the Merry Meadow because that has been her summer home for many years and...Siera could hear Fred braying his mournful sounds of love for her.

I figured Sunshine would be the problem mule. However she really wasn't. She did exactly what I asked of her and I rode her as if she were her 'mother'. The ditsy Cheyanne.

What the Ariel and Siera learn?
Siera learned that indeed Ariel can be the boss. And that Siera was not in charge of the direction we were going. If Ariel wanted to go around an apple tree, then they would go around it.

After riding the meadow, we tied Sunshine and Siera up to the trailer so they could stand and think about things. We moved to the porch and had a snack.

I decided that Ariel and Siera were ready for another challenge.

We decided to go explore the fields on the ridge. I texted my 'upstairs' neighbor and she was kind enough to take a few shots of us riding together since I never really get the chance to do so.

We rode out towards PeeWee's and simply enjoyed the view from the saddle.

As we rounded the edge of the soybean field and stopped to look over the ridge...Siera did her thing.

It generally surprises the rider. I always joke: "Hey your broke my mule!"
It gets a good laugh.

Sunshine was outstanding. I like to compliment my girls each time we go out and they do the expected good job. We sat on the mules and watched deer graze in a field close to the woods below us.
That is our next riding goal is to do a ride down the old 'camp' road to the creek and explore.
Since no one has cattle on the land anymore the woods have gotten overgrown and choked with nasty weeds. The creek crossing has been washed out again, but I am sure I could get Sunshine through it and Siera too.
We probably won't challenge the creek quite yet with Siera.

After enjoying the view, we headed back along the driveway towards home. The girls were absolutely amazing.

I think I 'll keep these two!!