Bijou--this one is a challenge

so it is a good thing she is so stinking cute. This is Hammer's little sister, Bijou. Check out those crazy stripes that run down her sides....not quite brindle, but she sure is approaching it.

I do not know why this is, but Mel's babies that are dun show more dun characteristics than any of the others. Echo, the yearling sister, looks exactly like this--just bigger.


After we get this one named, you all get a break from naming for a while. Won't that be nice? Melodys full name is GDA Playboys Melody. She is by Playboys Guard (by Freckles Playboy), out of a daughter of Freckles Hustler. Sly is the daddy--as if you cannot see that right up front.

A lot of Mel's babies have musical names. One is Play me a High Note, there is one called Slydun to the Music. I would like to stay with that name theme if it is at all possible, but am open to other ideas as well.

And as the papers come in, I will update you all on which names each one ended up with...because my attention span is too dang short to remember them all by now!

I tried to set this to post while I am on the road to Columbus Day camping, but I see I screwed it up. A Shortened trip to be sure, and a first time to take Madison. Pray I don't crash the trailer, and that everything goes well! Specifically pray that we do not get flooded out or stuck anywhere!

This and That

I am so boring. But a lot of things have been going on around here--mostly little stuff, but stuff all the same.

For example, Madison finally beat the hay spear on the tractor into submission, so that we could put the bucket on and move the rock for the weaner castle. We did that Tuesday nite. It really grates on me when I cannot do something I want to do, so that is a big relief. I still have about four tons of rock sitting in the middle of the driveway, which will start driving me crazy, but for now, I am content.

The farrier was there Tuesday, and pronounced Fonzie free of any changes in his feet from his laminitic episode. Looks like we may have caught it in time to avoid any damage, although it is a little early to be sure we can call him good. I did let him go in with the babies to play, since he has been locked up so long. I may regret that and change him to another holding area soon--he is either getting beat up on or picking on someone else half the time I look.


Five others got trimmed too--including Harley who will be going to training next. She is Gyro's two year old--her last foal. She is in a funky growth spurt, but is 14'3" at the hip and plenty stocky. She did great for her trim and cockleburr removal, and her vaccines.


Target got trimmed too--his feet are a disaster. No matter what we do, they are a mess. Makes me nuts.

While the farrier was there, he helped me deal with Bijou who drives me crazy. She needed haltered and let out of the stall where she has been since weaning. Melody's babies are a pain in the ass, but when they come around, they really come around. She will be great eventually--if I let her live that long. I suspect she will be fine in the baby pen. I hope. Since it will be hard for me to fix if she is not, that is. On that note, China scratched her eyeball somehow--so she is being doctored for that. She is behaving wonderfully for it--always coming right to me to offer to have her eyeball goobered up. I like that.

Speaking of Mel's babies--Hammer was unwilling to load in a timely fashion on Sunday, so he is reacquainting himself with the inside of a trailer. We built a pen for him that is attached to the gray trailer--and he is fed inside of it. If he wants to eat, he has to go in the trailer. Tuesday morning, I checked on him while it was pouring rain--he was standing outside looking pathetic. By the time I got home Tuesday evening, he was happy as a clam standing inside the trailer like he was ready to roll. He stayed there a long time. I was at the farm probably three hours and he was in and out like clockwork. I love that trailer trick--it worked WONDERS on his brother Mojo.

This is what he looked like after our little tool around the farm Monday nite--before he realized this trailer was getting ready to be his world. He looks so innocent, doesn't he? I love this little bugger. Even when he looks a little swishy from standing like that.

Hammer has clearly loaded reasonably well for the rest of his life, but has recently decided he would rather not. This should snap it in the bud, as I want him to go with me camping this weekend. Since Barry won't be here to drive the horse trailer, and I am not about to attempt to get the Mack Daddy trailer in and out of the drive--we will load in the road outside the farm...not the place to have words with the Ham. Let's hope this works to make things as easy as they were for Mojo.



What else do I have? Ah--I thought Boce moved his kitties, but he has not. They are living in the black hole that is my garage. Mama came to me and acted sweet so I gave her a can of kitty food I had bought for the previous kitties. She shared it with her babies, who are laying on my favorite yellow blanket. I wondered where that was. Boce was very nice to not interfere in their dinner, even though his nose was twitching like crazy trying to figure out what their food was. He visited the babies and was very protective of them.

The last info of note is that I finally gave in and had my elbow xrayed. I could see a crack in it, but have no idea what the doc is going to do about it. My bet is nothing. I expect I will hear from him tomorrow. All I want is that shot that makes it stop hurting.

That is about all I have to offer up--nothing of great significance. It is getting ready to get exciting around here though, over the next few weeks...so put on your seatbelts and get ready!

Lumpy and bumpy and mumpy

It is the time of year when the early babies start looking insane. This is Bijou,Melody's baby girl, born in March. She is starting to shed out, and it makes her look like she has mange. And of course, she is filthy, and it looks like the inside of her ears has mold growing in them. She does not, she just looks like a transient. The changes on her are a little more obvious than on other babies, because of the color.


Baby Spikey on the other hand, is still quite handsome. He is shedding off around his eyes though. Note how big this halter is on him---it is for brand new babies and it was still way too big. It even has a knot tied in the crown piece so it would not fall down around his neck.
I took these jillion pics to show his swollen lymph nodes. You can kind of see them here.

But lookie here--they are MASSIVE. And hard. But he is eating and drinking like normal, I saw him nurse tonight, which seems like it would hurt to me.


Those are some big ol honkers, aren't they? I dreamt last nite that she had a bunch of beer pull tabs like from the old days in there, and then when the doc checked him out, he found that he had swallowed golf balls and they were stuck there.


He looks normal if you cannot see those things. Dr. M saw him this morning, and he is not concerned, he said he is obviously fighting off something just like they are supposed to, and he will be fine. To make myself feel better, I could put some iccthammol on there to get it gooey and out of him, so we did that tonight. No antibiotics, no pain killers, no nothing except for iccthammol. He feels good, he raised hell 13 ways to Sunday when we brought him out of the stall to take these pics.

It did my heart good.

One more day of work---then we are off on vacation. Barry delivers the girls to the boarding place tomorrow so that they can be preg checked, or bred, or whatever they need while we are gone, but other than that, we are fairly well-prepared. That has to be the first time that has ever happened.

Surprise-no RAIN!

Today's rain prediction was off by about twelve hours, I guess. Thank goodness though, as it let us catch up on so much that has needed to be done but cannot be when it is always raining. I got both yards mowed--which is about 3 or 4 hours of mowing. That helped repair the back yard where Sly, Fonzie and Twist have torn it all to hell where they kept coming into it over the last week while we had a fence malfunction. There was not really much to mow as they have been working on it so much, but it does look way better. There were many piles of horse poop on the back porch, which is always charming. I know it as Sly though, as there is evidence that he stood in one place for a long time, or repeatedly and pooped on his own poop--since it is by the window, I know it was him, as he always likes to come look for me at the back door. My boy loves me.

Barry got the new jump wires on the gates, so that problem of the malfunctioning fence should be resolved. He also cut down a bunch of irritating little saplings, which for some reason makes a huge difference in how things look.

The rest of the day was spent working at the farm.

Poor Gypsy is fighting having this baby. She has been stalled with little turnout lately, as I knew she would spit this child out in the mud given the opportunity.
She got to go out for a while today, and she did not even appreciate it. She spent most of the day looking at me, over the fence, while I did everything else.
She even looks depressed to me. She has gone six days later than she did last year, which was her maiden year. So she is 346 days today. No wonder she is miserable. I am so excited to see this baby --so she is not the only impatient one.
I also was able to give some baths, since it was 75 degrees. It does not show up in the pics, but Sly was almost metallic after getting the winter dirt out of his coat. He did not even get a thorough bath, but a basic scrubbing.
He is such a pretty boy. I think he is wondering why he has not been to the farm to see his ladies, and I have not broken it to him that he may not be seeing many of them this year at all. I have turned down outside requests and am considering giving most of his ladies the year off and only using our outside breedings.

Twist got a bath too--and he changed shades at least 6 times from filthy to his almost white color.
Grandpa has evidently forgotten what the point of hay is. He has been staying in the bull shed area and forgetting to go out to the round bale. I think he is trying to avoid trudging through the mud, and who can blame him for that? And it does not really matter since he is on Senior anyway, but it seems sad to me. Late afternoon, Barry suggested we throw him out with Gypsy in that pasture, to perhaps get her moving instead of standing at the gate looking pathetic. That would have worked great except he really likes grass, so he did not move very much, other than to roll and move to different sections. He was very excited to get real grass again.

Looks pretty good for a 29 year old man, doesn't he?

Also while at the farm, we had to chase down Haida Girl to Regumate her in anticipation of her upcoming breeding to Sophisticated Catt, and her recent episode of stalling has clearly made her half a loon. She was having so much fun out in the pasture that we stopped what we were doing to watch her put on a show. I don't know that I know many horses more athletic than that one, but of course, she quit when I got out the camera. Aries had to have her Lutalyse shot in anticipation of Dr M's visit on Tuesday, also to have her bred to Sophisticated Catt.

While out there, we got some shots of other random folks, including Melody's little girl, who is awful darn cute. I do not know however what the llama impression is she is doing here.

And no, she still does not have a name. I am leaning toward calling her Bijou, which was one of Lorna's early suggestions. It has grown on me, and then someone else suggested it, so maybe it is meant to be.

Two young men, Reno and Uno were captured and dewormed and told some unfortunate news. They too will be seeing the vet on Tuesday, for the brain surgery most young men need. I love me some mass gelding day, and it has been four years since I have had many to do all together. Two is not so much, but it is more than one so it qualifies for "mass gelding day". Uno in particular is a really nice colt, put together so nicely, and has a great attitude. I hope to get him out for some pics tomorrow, if we get a break in the rain. If things go right this week, they will see the farrier as well.

Cash had her foot dressing changed. I think the abcess is settling again, as she seemed a little ouchy today. I will have that addressed again on Tuesday as well, if this round of treatment does not draw it out. This one is taking a lot longer than usual, for some reason. She got to go out with her baby girl last nite, and we left her diaper full of iccthammol on her and turned her loose. Man did she have a good time. She looked ridiculous, running balls to the wall while wearing a baby diaper and duct tape on her foot, but whatever. She was only out for a few hours, but it did her good to get to buck and carry on and play with her little girl. Hopefully, soon, that will be her full-time status.

Barry started getting the big horse trailer ready, in anticipation of our big trail ride with some internet crazies, and Headleys and Jodi next week. The weather has stabilized enough that he could fill the water tanks, which will make life much nicer for me when I have to stay there with Gypsy this week. Although, God willing, she will spit this child out tonight, so I can really keep the doc busy when he is here Tuesday morning.

It has been a long day, but we got so much done, it was very satisfying. I have been sinning nonstop on the food and drink since Thursday nite, so I am back on the wagon tomorrow. I am at 29 pounds down which is pretty dang good. I already need a new hole in my new belt. My trainer had to cancel Friday, so I feel like I have not done anything, even though I certainly have. I am already addicted to that.

It is almost time for Saturday Night Live, so it is time to push post on this one.

But let's call this my first post for Camera Critters
How did I not know this was going on?