Posts from — December 2009

It was a wonderful day.  Wally ended up taking it off from work so we had the day together.  We did a bit of running around, visited his mother and of course took care of the animals.  I can’t think of a better way to end 2009.  We’ll spend the rest of the evening watching television and relaxing.

Tomorrow will be busy.  Minimally, we need to finish Merlin’s shelter and get a new tarp up on the goat shelter.  We also need to finish putting the windows in the milk parlor.  If the sun comes out and it dries out a bit, I hope to get out on Merlin in the afternoon.  The woman who dropped her two ewes off to be bred will be coming to pick them up tomorrow afternoon.  In the evening, we are going to go to the tack and horse auction where I bought Merlin.  Of course we won’t be buying anything, but we both want to go to see what’s there.  That is our idea of a night out: going to a tack and horse auction.  We lead such exciting lives.

While the ground is soft from all the rain and snow, we also plan to get some wooden posts in around the garden and get that fenced in with field fence.  Previously, I used cattle panels, but they would be better used elsewhere.  Once we get the fence back up, we need to bring the sheep up and trim hooves and worm those who need it.  We’ll use the garden as a containment area until we get through all the sheep.  I’m pleased to say that we have lambs from last year who have never been wormed.  They all look in good health so it seems aggressive rotational grazing is effective parasite control.  The next big project on the agenda is getting solid covers on the dog runs.  We are trying to get all the major projects done now before I go back to work.

While we were looking at the sheep this morning, we noticed a few of them were starting to bag up.  Addie and Angel (goats) are also starting to make bags.  Before we know it, there will be a population explosion.  Unless we are able to successfully sell most of the lambs at home next year, we are going to cut back to 20 ewes and keep it at that for the coming year.  Until we can establish that market, which I think we are well on our way to doing, there’s no sense in keeping as many ewes as we have right now.

The only work that Gel has had today was keeping the sheep and goats off the feeders.  As I write this, he and Split are outside playing.  I’m so glad we got Split, for a lot of reasons, including that she’ll rough house with Gel.  Poor Split has had no work in quite a few days.  I really must make an effort to get her out to work every few days or so.  Now that my leg as finally healed up from my fall, I’ll be able to get out and do some work with her.

Fern is doing well in her new home.  She went with Cheri to Kentucky for the holidays and charmed everyone.  We’ll be delivering the agility equipment on Sunday. It seems almost bittersweet that I ended 2009 by selling my agility equipment and bikes, placing Fern and buying a horse.  2010 ought to be interesting, to say the least.  I am looking forward to it.  All in all, 2009 has been a very good year.  I have a very, very good life.

Until later …

I took a break from writing to enjoy the holiday and enjoy it I did.  I can honestly say this was probably one of the nicest I’ve ever had.  Oh, we were busy, as always, but it was a good busy.

The poor dogs haven’t had much work lately, and that may be the way it’s going to stay for a while.  Merlin has changed my perspective on things, in a good way.

Split in particular has suffered a bit since Merlin came.  I finally admitted to myself this weekend that I was holding a grudge against her for making me fall off Merlin.  Of course, it wasn’t in anyway her fault, but I was angry with her.

I don’t like it when things are wrong and I can’t fix them.  The saddle situation was driving me mad.  I went up to a local tack shop on Wednesday and brought back a used saddle (the leather one) to try on Merlin.  Nope, it wasn’t going to fit.  Brought that one back and took the synthetic saddle home.  I put that on him on Thursday, but it didn’t look right either.  I was frustrated beyond belief.  I need a saddle that is going to sit on that horse without turning.  Tough to do with a horse with a wide barrel and low withers.

Wally and I drove over to a local woman’s house to see if she could help.  I had been communicating with her a great deal via e-mail about the saddle situation.  What a small world we live in.  When we pulled into her driveway, Wally asked if this wasn’t the same house where I had bought a small dog run.  At first I said no, but I was wrong, it was.  The woman, Sheila, was preparing for company and asked if the woman who owned the tack shop wouldn’t let me keep the saddle over the weekend.  I called and she agreed.  Yes!

We talked a good amount while we were at Shelia’s house though and a few things that she said hit home.  She said that even though she rode extensively when she was young, as she aged, she lost some of her leg strength and reaction speed (Shelia is younger than me); also that if she fell off her horse and was injured such that she couldn’t work, she couldn’t support her horses.  That’s what really made me reconsider riding in an English saddle.  You need a good amount of leg strength and balance to stay in an English saddle.  I really didn’t want to go with a Western saddle so we talked about Australian saddles.

An Australian saddle is sort of a cross between an English and a Western saddle.  Australian saddles are lighter and more compact than a Western saddle, they are naturally more comfortable for the horse.   The poleys (or kneepads) at the front of the saddle will keep a rider in the seat better than any other type of saddle. In combination with a deep seat, the poleys give the most secure ride around.  Like an English saddle, if you should come off of the saddle the leathers can slide off the stirrup bar in the event that you get caught up in the stirrup.  The seat of an Australian saddle naturally puts you in a balanced riding position, with half of your weight in the seat and half in the stirrups.  The close contact nature of the flaps, leathers, and rigging mean that you get a better feel for their horse, allowing better control.

On Christmas day, I decided to bring the English saddle back and buy a new synthetic Australian saddle.  The price was only a little more than the English saddle was.  I wasn’t terribly happy with the decision to buy a synthetic saddle, but I couldn’t afford a new leather saddle.  I brought the first English saddle that I bought up to the tack shop on Thursday to be sold on consignment and if I didn’t keep the synthetic English saddle, I would be without a saddle and needed to do something.

Enter Craigslist … wonderful Craigslist … Christmas evening I saw an ad for two “top of the line” Australian saddles in Gastonia.  I called the number in the ad and the owner of the saddles called me back.  Sure enough, they were top of the line saddles.  One was a medium seat, the other a large seat.  You could buy one saddle for $200 or two for $300.  I made arrangements to go out to look at them the next day.

We got there around 9:00 AM.  The man met us in slippers and a bath robe.  He lived in a very affluent section of Gastonia.  He still had two horses, but he said they did not get ridden much.  That seems to be the norm in this part of the country: horses that sit in barns or pastures and rarely get ridden.  What a waste of money and horse.  Anyway, the saddles were in his garage which was packed full of stuff.  So full, that the two Lexus sedans that sat in the driveway couldn’t be pulled in.

The saddles were f*king beautiful but hadn’t been cleaned in a long time.  They were dirty and moldy, but we couldn’t find anything wrong with either saddle.  I sat in both of them and thought the larger seat (which also had the widest tree) would have been the right saddle.  I tried to get him to sell me the one for $150, but he wouldn’t budge.  That was when we decided to just take both of them.  I felt that if we cleaned them up I could sell the one I wasn’t going to keep on e-Bay or Craigslist.  On the way home I called Sheila and let her know that I had the two saddles in my car.  When I told her what I paid for them, she said I got the deal of a lifetime.  These saddles, new, go for over $700.  While on the phone with Sheila, I arranged for her to come over and help me decide which saddle to keep and to bring me a girth that would fit Merlin.

This is the saddle, but the image is of the base model.  There are several upgrades to the saddle I bought such as brass stirrups:

Wally and I got home, off-loaded both of the saddles and started cleaning them.  Just that little bit of cleaning that we did made a huge difference.  I need to get some brass cleaner to finish the job.

Sheila arrived with lots of goodies and tons of useful information.  Before she got there, we put the larger saddle on him and Wally said that he thought the smaller one would fit both of us better.  He was right.  Sheila brought a neoprene girth, saddle pad and Webber stirrup leathers.  If the exiting stirrup leathers on the saddle are pulled up as high as they need to be for me to ride, there’s a ton of leather rolled up at the top of the stirrup making it a bit uncomfortable.  The Webber stirrup leathers are not at all cumbersome.  Sheila gave me a lot of pointers on working with Merlin.  She thought he was a very nice horse: sensitive and willing to learn.  The saddle feels wonderful!  It feels extremely secure and fits Merlin perfectly.

Now I need to return the English saddle and girth and leave the English bridle to be sold on consignment.  It fits Merlin okay, but the brow band is tight which makes it difficult to put on him given his tendency to being head shy.  I am hoping the owner of the tack shop will let me swap out the English bridle with the Western bridle that I left on Thursday.  I expect she will given she deals primarily in English tack.  I’ll need to get a new set of reins for the Western bridle.  At which point … my tack is all set!

We sold the larger saddle the next day for $250 which means I only have $50 into the saddle I kept.  The deal of a century!

We got most of Merlin’s shelter up on Sunday.  We need to get the backside on, hopefully tonight or tomorrow night.  We also got the sheep moved.  I thought we might let Liath run loose while we were setting the fence dragging a long line.  Usually we tie her out because she can be hard to catch.  Unfortunately, catching her wasn’t the problem.  While she was loose, “Soupbone” (one of the dogs that live up near Red’s house) curled her lip at Liath.  Soupbone is a very dominant bitch.  Not a good move on Soupbone’s part.  I had to drag Liath off her.  So much for letting Liath loose when we move the fence.  Liath’s aggression towards other dogs is a bit of a concern to me.  She’s fine with Gel, but it was dicey having Fern in with her.  Split isn’t going to take any gruff off Liath, but I’m afraid if push came to shove, Split would be on the loosing end of that deal.  We’ll need to address that situation in the near future.

While Split drives me mad; she is extremely aggravating, but she doesn’t really know any better, I am confident that she can step into Gel’s shoes if need be.  I worked her on the geese on Saturday and she was brilliant.  Her sense of group still isn’t great and I need to work on that, but even without steady work, she’s remembered her flanks.  Working her on poultry is tightening up her excessive flanking which is a good thing.  I might as well put the worthless ducks to use and work Split on them.  The ducks are worthless because if they are laying eggs, I don’t know where.  We’ve got three drakes that need to move on as they are starting to fight each other and harassing the females.  I just listed them on Craigslist.  Not sure if they’ll sell or not.

Until later …

The lesson with Merlin went really well.  It did wonders for my confidence.  There were a number of adjustments that needed to be done to my tack.  As expected, the saddle is too small for me and because Merlin has a round barrel and low withers, it’s going to be a bit difficult to get a saddle to fit him properly.  Getting up to the stable was a bit hairy between Merlin being high as a kite, the surface was wet and in some places slippery and I had to ride on the road for almost a mile, but I made it up there.  Merlin was very good in the indoor arena.  First we lunged him so he could get used to being in the arena, then I climbed aboard.

Getting on that horse is difficult, to say the least.  Between the tendency of the saddle to turn, no matter how tight the girth is and his unwillingness to stand still; difficult is probably not a strong enough description.  The instructor, Erica, suggested a neoprene girth which has some tackiness to it which will help the saddle stay on better.  I went a step further and got a neoprene saddle pad (because of his extreme tension, Erica had also suggested a thicker pad so I killed two birds with one stone with the saddle pad).

My homework is to work on calming him down.  Erica thought that he had been “cowboyed-up” a lot by his former owner(s) and because of that he was in a state of constant high alert waiting for what was going to happen.  It doesn’t take much to get that horse moving; keeping him going calmly is very difficult.  I have to get a training martingale for him to help bring down his head carriage.  He may never settle down completely, but hopefully he’ll relax at least to some extent.

Yesterday, I drove almost 200 miles doing errands, including looking for a new saddle.  I drove out to a local tack shop where they had two saddles that fit me.  One is made from synthetic material, the other is leather.  The synthetic saddle felt wonderful to me, but I don’t know how it will fit Merlin.  Luckily, the owner of the shop is going to let me buy the saddle(s) and if they don’t fit him properly, I can return them.  That is a good thing.

The game plan today is to drive out to the tack shop and pick up one of the saddles (I’m on the fence as to which one to take) and bring it home to try today and if it doesn’t work, I’ll bring it back tomorrow and try the other one.  I’m going to take the saddle that is too small up with me to see if she can sell it.  Apparently, she had two people looking for that size saddle recently so hopefully, it will sell quickly.  I have a few other things, like the bridle we bought at the auction, to bring up to try to sell as well.

If neither of these saddles fit, there’s another one at a local consignment shop that I can try under the same arrangement.  I like the idea of buying used equipment.  I see no sense in buying new if I can find used tack in good condition.

Geez, back when I was riding as a “youngster;” fitting tack to the horse didn’t seem to be such a big deal.  You had a saddle, you put it on the horse and you rode.  Also new from when I was riding is this natural horsemanship business.  I can see treating a horse kindly, but some of the practices that these individuals preach is a bit over the top; it’s quite similar to purely positive dog training.  Erica is kind to the horse, but she doesn’t take any crap off them either.  For example, Merlin throws his head around quite a bit.  He isn’t tossing his head, but he pulls on the bit trying to get the reins loose, at which point, he’s off and running.  He also turns his head around to the left while he’s in motion.  At first I thought he was doing it because there was something wrong, i.e. the girth was pinching him, but I feel sure there’s nothing bothering him.  Why he’s doing it, I don’t know, but he needs to stop doing it because it isn’t safe.  I wish he could talk so he could tell me what has happened to him in the past.

Both of my bikes are sold.  The woman who bought the road bike was thrilled with it.  The mountain bike went to a man who rides during his lunch hour with his co-workers.  He had a bike from Wal-Mart so this one was a definite improvement.  It seems odd for them to be gone.

The banana bread factory is going full steam ahead.  I started at 7:00 AM and made eight batches, the largest I’ve ever made at any time.  I just took out eleven loaves and have another fifteen or so to bake.  These will be Christmas gifts for neighbors and friends.

Poor Split hasn’t had any work in quite a while and she’s become quite obnoxious.  She isn’t going to be as easy to live with as Fern was.  She’s like Merlin, in a constant state of alertness; always looking for something to do.  I have to keep a close eye on her while she’s outside because if I don’t, she’ll be off working something, be it the ducks, chickens, geese or goats.  In the house, it’s the cats.  It isn’t fun to live with.  An off button is a good thing.  She’s young, maybe she’ll settle with age.  Then again, Gel doesn’t always settle in the house.  Such is life with Border Collies.

This is Ruth, a Rhode Island Red hen and she lays an egg every day in this pot on the back porch.  Very convenient.

Until later …

I got out early this morning to go and pick up Fern (the goat) and bring her back home.  She seems happy to be back.  She’s only been away a few days, but the other goats are acting like she’s a newcomer.  There’s lots of head butting going on out there.

I have a lesson today at the stable up the street.  It was originally scheduled for 11:00, but I pushed it up to noon with the hope that the sun will soften and melt what froze overnight.  It’s really a nasty mess out there.  The plan is to go out around 11:00, catch Merlin, get him cleaned and tacked up and head up there.  Depending on the surface conditions, I might simply lead him up there (the stable is that close); but I hope to ride him to take the edge off him.  I expect he’s going to be high as a kite.

At some point in the next couple of days, I’d like to get Split back out on sheep, but it will have to depend on how much snow melts.  She’s anxious to work and making a bit of a nuisance of herself.  A good run off the ATV or, preferably horseback, will help.  Some of the sheep are more than half-way to delivery and I don’t want to work them too hard.  What I’m really looking forward to is goat kids.  They’ll teach Split a lot.

Pictures.  I need to get some pictures.  I either can’t take the time or forget to take the camera with me.  It always seems as though there’s so much going on that pictures fall by the wayside.

Until later …

Cleaning up the mess that occurred when the goat shelter went down and then putting it back together again exhausted both of us.  We spent the morning doing a few errands, including picking up some half-price Christmas ornaments and visiting Wally’s mother.  I’m toying with going for a ride on Merlin, but it’s pretty muddy and slippery so I may just stay in.

When we got home, I kicked the goats out the front, closed the gates and let Merlin out to graze where ever he can find grass.  Split is in the fenced-in area with Rose and Gel is out keeping an eye on Merlin.  Wally is camped out on his road-kill recliner watching a game.  You may wonder what a road-kill recliner is: it is a recliner that we found on the curb one day.  It sits perfectly fine, is clean and doesn’t smell.  Why anyone would just throw it out is beyond me.

While we were out, I bought the ingredients to make both chicken Parmesan and a roasted chicken with stuffing.  I planned on making both meals today, putting the chicken Parmesan in the refrigerator for an early meal and having the roasted chicken for supper tonight.  I’m going to have a busy week ahead so a prepared meal or two would be a good thing.  I plan to start up the banana bread factory Tuesday so I can give some of them away as gifts.  We bought some pretty Christmas containers that I’ll fill with goat cheese for gifts for those who like goat cheese.  We are having a get-together at the Nursing Home for Wally’s mother Christmas Eve and I’m making potato salad for that.  I have to go up to get Fern (the goat) tomorrow and I also have a lesson up the street with Merlin.

We toyed with starting to put together Merlin’s shelter today, but I think we’ll just stay in and take it easy.  Wally will be off four days next week.  Plenty of time to get that done and hopefully finish installing the windows in my milking parlor.  I’ll be milking again before I know it.

Off to start cooking.

Until later …

In addition to selling all of my agility equipment, I also sold both my road and mountain bikes.  While I was cleaning on Wednesday (yes, cleaning!) I saw how much dust they had been gathering and decided that it was time to let them go.  A man is coming out to look at them tomorrow AM.  The money I get for them will pay for hay and a new tarp for the goat shelter.  I also pulled out all of my in-line skate equipment and will be listing that on e-Bay soon.  There isn’t much of a market for in-line skates in this area.  Heck, they are essentially worthless at this point.

Why ride bikes when I can ride Merlin?  Hopefully I’ll have time to take him out tomorrow.

Until later …

It took us most of the day, but we got the mess cleaned up (was it ever a mess!) and the shelter back up.  It’s smaller, 15 feet square, but I don’t think the weight of the snow is going to take it down again.  I guess we should have known better to begin with, but it’s quite unusual to get four inches of wet snow in this part of the country.  We were able to piece together enough of the old tarp to put over the top and around the sides of the panels.  We will have to get tarp for the top (it looks like crap), but for now, the goats have shelter.

We are both beat.

The sheep, Liath and Buster weathered the storm fine.  We brought them out a bale of hay this morning and again this afternoon.  I used the ATV to bring the hay out this afternoon and boy, four-wheel-drive would have been a good thing.  I slipped and slid the whole way.

They are saying we are going to have a hard winter.  I hope they are not right, but if so, we’ll make do.

Until later …

You may recall the wonderful 30-foot long, 15-foot wide covered chain link shelter that we got for very little money.  It’s held up well to high winds and rain, but Mother Nature threw something different at it last night: heavy snow and sleet.

Around 4:00 Wally and I went out to feed the animals and while we were under the shelter I noticed that snow was accumulating on the roof.  I said to Wally that I hoped the weight of the snow wouldn’t damage the tarp.  He agreed.  Because we do not have his shelter made yet (that’s Sunday’s project), we put Merlin in the upper part of the shelter and closed him in for the night.

Thirty minutes later while we were in the house I heard goat bells ringing; ringing loud enough so I knew all of the goats were running.  I looked out and saw the roof of the shelter had collapsed.  We ran out to access the damage and to get Merlin out.

The goats were fine.  Merlin was very scared, but okay.  It took us a few minutes to catch him, but he settled as soon as I got my hands on him.  He’s starting to trust me.

There wasn’t anything else we could do but to put Merlin back down in his pasture and put the goats back up.  They could still get under the shelter and be out of the weather.  Merlin can get shelter under the hedgerow that borders his pasture.

As soon as it gets light, Wally and I will be heading out to check on everyone.  The sheep are in a well-sheltered location, but I don’t know how the fence will hold up to the heavy snow and ice.

Welcome winter!

Until later …

One changes the order of things.

On Wednesday, I looked out at the goats and saw Fern wagging and flagging … she was back in heat.  Crap!  She was bred the end of September and has been living with a buck up until recently so why did she choose now to come back in heat?

Who knows, but yesterday morning Wally helped me pack her up into a dog crate and I brought her up to Janice’s house to be bred to her Saanen.  She had been bred to a nice Alpine buck, but I guess Fern had her own idea of when she wanted to kid and it was not the end of February.  Now she’ll kid in May as will Lilly.  In the grand scheme of things, it’s probably not a bad idea to have two does kid about the same time so there will be a group of like-sized kids to play together.  And who knows, this may be a better cross that what was done in September.

Of course, there is concern in the back of my mind as to why she didn’t settle, but she was not pasture-bred the first time: she was held while the buck bred her.  Most times Mother Nature knows better than we meddling humans and the ritual that goats go through while breeding may be an important part of conception.

We’ll see …

We are currently under a winter storm warning.  Rain is supposed to start this afternoon, change to sleet and then snow.  We could get a good amount of snow.  I hope so.  I haven’t seen a good snow fall in a long time.  Just in case we loose power, I’ll fill the bathtubs with water and we’ll have both kerosene tanks filled.

I rode Merlin yesterday and it was a good learning experience.  You’d think that riding and caring for a horse would be second nature, but it is not and when I said it’s been 20 years since I last rode, in thinking about it, the last time I rode on a regular basis was when I was 16.  After I left home, I road quite a bit, but definitely not on a regular basis.  You forget things.  I discovered yesterday I wasn’t setting the saddle high enough on his withers which is likely why it turned on Saturday.  When I figured that out, it was a real “duh” moment.  Oh well, the day you stop learning is the day you are dead so no matter if it’s something really stupid that I should have already known or something else, learning and admitting your mistakes are both good things.

Yesterday morning, we did another demo up at the Christmas Tree Farm for a group of school children.  The owners of the Farm are currently applying for a grant to become an agritourism farm.  If that works out, they’ll look to use to provide the animals.  That may turn into something good for all of us.

Until later …

Well, I didn’t get much of anything done that I planned to yesterday.  I found a great deal on a jacket for Wally on Craigslist so I drove out to get it.  After I got the jacket, I met his sister to get the ornaments she was going to throw out and then headed home.

I let Merlin out on the main property to exercise a bit and exercise he did!  One of these days, I’ll need to get some photos of him.  Right now, he’s filthy from rolling in the mud.  I’ll be glad to get his shoes off so he won’t tear up the ground so much.  While Merlin was exercising, I started the ATV and headed up to the Christmas Tree Farm to get my tree.  As we pulled into the driveway, there it was, all by itself.  Last year they had about five trees left and had to put them down on the road to sell them after the Farm is sold.  This year, all that was left was this one little tree.  Brought it home and then headed back out to feed Liath and check the sheep.  Met the owner of the Farm and helped her finish picking up equipment, signs, etc. and then went down to her house to see where she kept the cat, dog and chicken food so I could feed her animals while they were at the beach over the holidays.  Came back home around 3:30, just in time to cook supper.

I elected not to ride Merlin yesterday for two reasons.  Primarily, because my knee was still bothering me a lot; thankfully, it’s much better today.  Also, it was extremely wet and soupy.  Not that the weather would have stopped me if my knee was sound.

A female blacksmith that specializes in barefoot trimming is coming out this afternoon to take Merlin’s shoes off and trim his feet.  Hopefully he’ll be able to stay barefoot for two reasons: it’s healthier for him and cheaper for me.  I’m looking forward to meeting her.

Fern is doing well in her new home.  A friend of mine asked me this morning if I missed her and I had to think about that.  Yes, of course I miss her, but not really.  I know that Fern is better off where she is.  We are trying to run a lean operation here and I don’t want to keep a bunch of dogs around who are not getting steady work.  Where she is, Fern is getting trained on a daily basis and ultimately, she’ll get to do agility which is what she really shines at.

Split got to work the Guinea Fowl yesterday while up at Red’s house.  The excessive flanking stopped while she was working them and I could see her eye kicking in.  The next time I put her on sheep, it will be on a smaller group.  When I think about how she flanks, it brings to mind how Kessie and Cian worked.  That frantic flanking irritated the heck out of me, but the difference between what Kessie and Cian were doing and what Split does is quite apparent.  Split is never out of contact with the stock; whereas, both Kessie and Cian were.  At times, their flanking was mindless.  In addition, Split doesn’t flip back and forth trying to move the stock; it readily moves off her.  Even though she wants to work them, I’ve tried to keep her off the dairy goats because they are quite inappropriate for her right now.  They really bring out the frantic flanking because she really can’t control them.  I’m very much looking forward to March when I’ll have a flock of goat kids for her to work.  She’ll learn a lot from them.

Housecleaning: I just can’t get myself to do it.  I think what I might try to do is break the house up into small portions.  Clean a room, then do something else, come back and clean another room and then do something else.  Trying to keep it clean with two dogs and ten cats tracking in mud is difficult, at best.  When she first came here, Split shed a lot.  Thankfully, that’s pretty much stopped.

Off to clean a room.

Until later …