November 2008

Riding Ivan in the Moonlight!


November 1:

We are in the midst of a mouse invasion here. Either there is a litter of mice that have hatched inside, or they are coming in from the outside. Either way, Kumquat is thrilled. She finally figured out how to kill one last night, after chasing several others around and playing with them, but not killing them over the past few days. This morning there was a dead one in the kitchen. Luckily, Donnie was the one who stepped on it in the dark...... ....Everyone in the county would have heard the shriek if I had stepped on one in my bare feet in the dark.

A couple of days ago I was standing in the living room with 4 cats laying around the woodstove and watched a little mouse cruise right by my foot. When I yelled and pointed it out, all the cats looked at my finger and wondered what my problem was. The mouse kept on trucking.

Kumquat the Mouse Herder

Nov.3:

I worked with Ivan a little on the ground last night while Donnie trimmed Zippy's feet. Ivan seemed so happy to be doing something. I think he is a horse who wants a job....and maybe a few mints for rewards. We worked on moving away from pressure, front and back feet, by crossing one foot over the other. We haven't done nearly enough work on that, and I want him to know how to sidepass across things soon. He did pretty good! He is also getting pretty good about letting Donnie handle him, that used to freak him out. Hopefully we will have him socialized to people soon.


Nov. 5:
Election Day. Sooo glad the elections are over!
Life back here in Podunk, VA should get back to normal now. I am going crazy from not being able to work how I want with Ivan, but may just go ahead and saddle him up this coming weekend. It is three weeks today since my little procedure and I am feeling pretty good! I showed Megan, my farm helper, what Ivan was learning the other day, crossing one foot over in front of the other going to the side, and he did it perfectly the first time I asked him to do it! He is such a smart little horse......


Nov.6:

Poor Isis the goat is having major problems. She broke her horn at the skull a week ago and has had ups and downs since. I found her unable to get up yesterday, although she ate the apple slices I gave her. So I had Megan call her dad to bring his gun and we would do her in while she wasn't looking. Megan and I got to work for a little while, happened to look in on Isis and she was up and eating and drinking! So Death got called off for the day. (I have never shot one of my animals before, but Isis is so fearful of being handled that I think it is the best way to put her down without causing her terror at the last moment.)
Then this morning she was down again and unable to even sit up, but was hungry for those apple slices. I fed her three entire apples and leaned her up against the wall. I figured I would call Megan's dad again. Then a few minutes later, Isis was up and eating her oats and apples again. I think she must be running right on the edge of her energy reserves. As long as she eats and can get up a bit, I won't do her in, but it won't be long now. I hate this part of animal stewardship...Isis is 14 1/2 years old and has had a very good life for a goat, but it seems it has passed so fast.

Nov. 7:

I believe Isis may have been brain damaged a bit when her horn was broken, or developed an infection afterwards there. She was basically paralyzed the past couple of days, she couldn't even sit up on her chest when I would try to prop her up. She was put down this afternoon. She didn't seem to be in any pain, but just couldn't control her body. I have three male cashmere goats left, one of them Isis' twin brother, Inkblot. He is 14 1/2 years old and will probably be the next to go. His brother Lightning is 12 years old and Phantom is 7, so I'll have goats for a few more years.

Nov. 8:

We have worked ourselves into a frenzy today. It started off pretty and warm and as the day has progressed, it has gotten colder, cloudier, and windy. It is not so pleasant outside now. Besides cleaning up after the horses, we had a neighbor come here grooming our arena with his tractor. It looks very nice. The first thing Ivan did was roll around in the nicely loosened footing and take a dust bath. Then the fellow used his tractor to dig a grave for Isis for us, which reduced our work by a couple of hours. The nice thing is, he traded that work for my goat tattoo set that I no longer need and he was getting ready to order one! No money exchanged hands and we are both happy. I love trades like that.

Nov. 12:

Remember the radio contest Donnie was in last June? Well the results were finally published in QST, the Amateur Radio magazine. Donnie won first place in his category nationwide!! He is a happy clam tonight. They listed the first 160 radio operators in his category (one radio, one operator, 5 or less watts) and he came out about 200 points higher than number 2! The guy he always competes with, and loses to mostly, was number 5 this year. Hurray for Donnie!!!

I had my little procedure a month ago today. It went pretty well and I should be cleared to do what I want tomorrow when I see the surgeon. Ivan misses our work together .

Speaking of Ivan: Hide your eyes if you are tired of Ivan pix. I just found these from the last ride we had before my little procedure.....



Riding Ivan in October


Nov. 13:

I saw the surgeon today. He says I am doing fine, but would prefer I not do anything too strenuous for another couple of weeks. So I asked if this included riding my horse and he said I shouldn't do that either because the trotting might upset stitches or something. So I said how about if I only walk my horse, I am going nuts here. He said "you horse people drive me crazy. Just walk your horse" . (His nurse is a horse person who also had a hysterectomy, so he probably did get driven crazy by her.) So anyway, I now have official permission to ride Ivan, and since we haven't done any trotting yet, walking only is not a problem!

Nov. 14:

It has been raining off and on for the past couple of days. We need it, but it puts a stop to riding Ivan. The farrier is coming tomorrow to do Ivan and Kazi's feet. I watched Kazi float down the hill this morning in a beautiful canter when I went to get them in. I think her feet must be feeling pretty good. Ivan floats, too, but looks more racey than Kazi. She looks more collected. I think Ivan will make a good trail horse. Daisy gallumps along . She is a sweet horse, but grace is not one of her attributes. She is very pacey.

This morning I went out to see Donnie off as he climbed in the truck to go to work. I was standing next to the driver's window when he clicked on the windshield wiper to clear the windshield of the rain we had in the night. At least a quart of water got thrown in my face, hair and down the front of my sweater... ...I was soaked, my glasses were soaked and I couldn't see a thing. I stood there gasping and Donnie says calmly, "Wow, that was spectacular...I guess I had better go NOW.".....Yep.

Nov.15:

This morning I went out to turn the horses loose and right at the gate in front of where Kazi and Daisy were waiting was a strange looking mess that I thought was mouse guts. yuck. I thought the barncats had gotten busy overnight and left a trophy for the horses to step on. So I decided to nudge it past the gate so the horses wouldn't step on it. Just when my toe touched it, it sprang apart into two long skinny nightcrawlers that rapidly slurped back into their respective holes which were about 6 inches apart! I was so shocked . I didn't expect copulating nightcrawlers this time of year. I looked around and found another pair a couple of feet away that slurped into their holes when I got near them. Apparently they were throwing an end of the year party.....If they try it in a day or two, they will become wormcycles. It is going to be cold enough for snow flurries by tomorrow night.

Nov. 17:

It has been spitting snow here today and is cold....really cold....and going to be colder tomorrow. Yuck. They say we may have an inch of snow tonight. THEY could be wrong....Kazi didn't get her front feet done yesterday because it was too chilly for the epoxy to set up. The farrier may have to bring a heat lamp. Ivan continues to do three out of four feet well. That last foot has spooks attached and I will have to work on it.

Nov. 18:

We have 2 to 3 inches of snow, but it is hard to tell because the wind is howling and there are drifts. Pix this morning:


Nov. 22:

Daisy got her 7th month Rhino shot this morning. Seems to have weathered it just fine.

Nov. 24:

Is it ever going to warm up here? Sheesh. Usually we will get a day or two of cold weather, then back to fairly normal temps. It has been about 20 degrees below our normal averages of 50s in the daytime for over a week. Yuck. I have been hauling hot water down the hill already.
Kazi's feet still haven't been done in front because the epoxy takes about 50 degrees to set and now she is starting to limp. We are going to have to get her indoors somewhere to do her shoe re-set.... (Okay, I'll stop ranting about the weather for a few minutes....maybe...)

Nov. 25:

I have been run ragged the past two days. Yesterday I had errands in two towns to take care of...in the rain....and today Dave the farrier was coming and I had to clean the mare stall out so he could do Kazi's feet in there out of the weather. I dusted lightbulbs and tons of cobwebs, and moved the bedding to one side to clear the floor. I worked harder in that stall than I did in the house afterwards . Kazi's feet are now looking very pretty! She has her clogs reset, and the angles on her hooves look normal. She was so good the entire time, too. Considering it took over 2 hours to do just her front feet, she was very patient. It was after 8 pm when we got done and then we ate the homemade chicken soup I had cooking in the crockpot for dinner. That took the chill off...

Nov. 27:

I felt the baby horse formerly known as "Speck" moving today!! Daisy doesn't appreciate all the feels I have been sneaking lately . She has been acting more pregnant lately, laying down for naps in the middle of the day and such. Kazi got very lovable when she was pregnant, but Daisy hasn't gotten more mellow in the same way. If anything she is a bit irritable. I guess it is a difference in mama horses. We know "Speck's" name now, but I won't tell until after he is born..... ...(It ain't "Speck".)

Nov. 28:

Happy Day After Thanksgiving! Or Black Friday...
We didn't go anywhere today. Donnie chased down an electrical connection problem in the wiring all day and I picked up horsey doo, fixed leftovers, napped, read, and goofed off most of the day. Nice! This evening I played with Ivan on the ground a bit. He is so anxious to start working again....for mints if possible, of course. He remembered everything we did from 6 weeks ago and even picked up that back foot for me and stretched it out easily. Good horsey.... Now if I can just get him to do it for Dave next time.

Nov. 30:

I just looked up how big "Speck" is right now. Daisy is 222 days pregnant today and Speck is somewhere between the size of a beagle and a small lamb. I was wondering if what we were feeling was really Speck or just gas, but I guess it is Speck after all!!

We put the lights on our Christmas tree. I need to get two more strands of the new LED blue lights tomorrow to finish up the lights and then we can decorate it. Those LED lights are so bright! Kumquat was very helpful while we were stringing the lights up, she spent most of the time in the top of the tree. I suspect our ploy of having her get used to the tree for a week before we decorated it hasn't worked too well. She knows every branch and can climb it very quickly. It's going to definitely be a plastic ornament year.....;-)

November sure hasn't seen a lot of Ivan training, due to my surgery and recovery time, and then the really cold/rainy/snowy weather. Hopefully December will have us working again! we have both missed it.