Half boy/half man

The baby Spikers is not a baby any more. He is a year old now, and sometime in the last week, he has figured out that he is a man. I think he figured it out Sunday morning, as that was when we caught him terrorizing the ladies in the pasture. And yes, that means his days in the pasture are numbered.
He is a handsome bugger though. I still really like him. I am not sure how he will feel about me when I pull him out of the pasture and make him live like a man. I will give him a friend or two of course, but he cannot be out sniffing around the girls now that he knows what he is supposed to do with that thing.
He cracks me up, because it seems like it happened overnite that he went from baby to a short grown-up. I am going to try to get some better shots of him, now that I know he is out of his ugly stage that they all go through.
These photos have nothing to do with anything. I just tend to take a lot of them when there is still grass out there to make for pretty pictures.
I could definitely focus better.

In other news around here--the strangest thing happening in my world is that there are kittens in the ceiling. I do not know if I have mentioned this yet, but this weekend, I heard some cheeping or chirping in the ceiling above the orange bedroom. After listening a while, I realized it was a pack of kittens. My best guess is that one of Charlie's ladies decided sneaking in the attic-ish area was the right choice for childbirth.

They talk all the time. Or at least all night. I can tell they are at least a couple of weeks old, since they are so loud, and because they are on the move---they have gone from one side of the room to the other side, and now I can hear them here in the living room. Unfortunately, that is a long ass way from the exit.

Also, I scheduled baby Wonky Legs surgery for Friday May 21. It will be nice to have it behind us. It is frustrating however, that the money I had set aside for it is now being taken up by our mortgage company who did not tell the truth about the closing costs on our refinance. It went from $0 out of pocket to $874. By Friday. How bout that for a shitty surprise?

I have lots more, but what if I do not have anything to say tomorrow? I better save some of it.

And keep the FAQ questions coming--I will probably do the post by the end of the week. There are some good ones in there already. Hope I can come up with some normal people answers.

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.

Gratuitous baby pics

Look at that baby face on Spike--something about him just gets me right in the heart. I think it is those big eyes always following me. I love him.
This big boy went on his first field trip this weekend. He accompanied his mother to the vet an hour away so she could be inseminated--Barry said he hopped right up in the trailer like a big boy. It always cracks me up to see a little bitty squirt made that big leap. I hated to miss it, but not as much as I hated to get up that early--besides I was still sick.
Today it did not rain for a long enough time that I could take some pics. So I did. I always take the pics of the babies in this pasture because there is so much more grass here than the other where the first three babies are. That is kind of crappy. I should do them next.
Cash's baby girl, China, is very much a busy body. She licked my camera lens.
This picture cracks me up, because she looks like an oompa loompa. Just goes to show what happens when you shoot DOWN on a baby horse instead of even with them. She is not really an oompa loompa at all.
Pretty round little girl, isnt she? I like her.
Today I was trying to get shots of the little roan butted girl, but in looking at them on the computer I realize both she and her mama were so dirty, you could not see much.
Not bad shape for about 11 days old is it?
Gypsy was on a tear, which made for fun pics--too bad she was not clean so I could see that pretty coat gleam like it normally does.
She has the tiniest little head-kind of triangle shaped.
It amazes me that Gypsy keeps getting herself into photos where she looks nice. All of her life I have struggled to get decent photos of her and she is the most unphotogenic horse in the world. I can never do her justice. Lately though, these decent shots keep popping up. I love it.

You might think I did nothing this weekend except take pictures. That is kind of close, as I am still recovering from this flu that has kicked my ass. I did manage to get the oil changed in the car--which was over due--and the place lost my keys. It took them an hour to find them. They were sorry, but I saw no evidence of it--how bout a free oil change, or something up in here? Tacky people.

Today, I tried very hard to mow the yard. Nothing went right. First, I got stuck in the mud and had to come ask Barry to get me out. On the way back out to get it out, I was carrying a glass of water, and slipped in the mud, and looked like a cartoon as all the water flew up in the air and landed on my head. I think that was Barry's highlight of the weekend.

We got the mower out, I mowed maybe 15 minutes, and the stinking belt burned in two. That means I have to order a new one, and then wait for it to be put on. Why do I have to wait? Because at the least, Barry got a one-week extension at his work--they have a job to do near Lake of the Ozarks this week, so that is where he will be. I will gladly give up having the yard look right to get another week's work under his belt. WOO HOO! And if it gets bad enough, I can have dad bring his mower out to let me use it maybe. He likes to mow as much as I do.

After that went wrong, I was trying to do something else house-related--I have no idea what. It involved coming up the garage steps, while not wearing shoes. That is not strange. I must have miscalculated though, as I barely got my toes on the step, so of course, my foot ripped down the step and I not only tore up the bottom of my foot, I fell on my face into the house.

That was Barry's second best moment of the day. About that time, he asked me if I had been drinking. I had not, but maybe it would have helped.

I should have just stayed home, but I never learn, do I? I went to the farm to check my mares. Ask me how many are overdue. Go ahead. Ask me. Not one. Not two. We are on number three. Foxy is at 349 days. At 346 I decided that she did not have enough milk, so she got two days of domperidone. I should have left well enough alone, because now she looks like she is going to explode and keeps giving me the evil eye. I can hardly blame her, she looks like she could nurse the entire farm, and yet does not appear to be even considering foaling. She got to spend the afternoon out playing.

Snap is at about 344, and has completely forgotten she was ever bred. I have not even brought her in off the pasture yet. She will be the one to trick me. Diablo is due now, and looks like she is having an elephant, as usual. Squeak is at 319 today, and since last nite, her udder has really gotten massive, and she all of a sudden looks ready to roll. She better hang on a bit though, for her own good. I do not think she is imminent.

Looks like I will be spending time in the trailer at the farm this week, doesn't it? That is okay, I kind of miss it.

What else has happened? Ah, I tried to update my website and screwed it up, so I have to beg someone to help me. I hate that, but better I not look like a fool on the interwebz, huh?

This week, I have a deadline on an important case to meet. I had been subpoenaed for a horse appraisal case but I just got the call that it is off--that is good. Except of course, I had already done some prep--I should have known better.

I went to the gym and did a short workout-- I still cannot get cardio without hacking like I am dying, so it is good I found that out today when there were not many people there. I finally am making some more progress on the weight--I had been jacking around with the same 5 pounds for 3 weeks--put it on, take it off, put some of it on, blah blah blah. Today, I broke the barrier again, and am down as low as I have been since I started this game. I am amazed considering that I have been way too self-indulgent since the traumas of this week started. That inspires me to get my shit together again--go me!

I was even inspired to take shorts out of the drawer and pack them in a box. I figure if they are two sizes too big, that it is safe to do it. I won't get rid of them yet, just in case, but I need room for things that fit. I got to wear a large shirt to the movies Saturday nite, and it looked good. Even with my belt, my pants were falling off--so I guess I need to go through the jeans and do the same thing. Woo hoo! go me!

From my window

SI have been in this house for the third day and have seen some strange things.

For example, Sly is taking this "Man of the House" thing too far. He has been so kind as to mow the backyard for me. I bet that makes me a backyard breeder. Man am I funny. And he has never once bred anything at this house, in the backyard or otherwise. He does his job elsewhere. Anyway, he likes to come see me, but I guess I was not paying attention, so he was seeing if anyone in the Taj Mahal of doghouses that Barry built.
Always looking for a buddy, that one is. I do not think he looks at all like he realizes that this not normal stallion behavior. What an odd duck that one is.

Out of the car window when I went to fetch some cheese out of the horse trailer at the farm today, I saw this fine sight. Horses are so dumb sometimes. If you click this picture to make it big, you will see that it was raining like hell. And not a single one of them was availing him or herself of any shelter. Just standing around in the rain like it was lovely.

There is something to that old saying about leading a horse to water.....they have minds of their own.

Tomorrow morning, Aries will be bred to Sophisticated Catt. Let's hope the semen is as good as the last batch and that we are right that she is going to ovulate at a much smaller follicle than did Haidagirl--Aries was at a 3o mm yesterday, so at the rate she has been moving, she should be around a 36 and that is good enough for the ovuplant to likely work. Cross your fingers on that.

On the job front for Barry--things are still up in the air. We are closer to an answer, but instead of having it finalized today, we know only that things are possibly going to drag out a little longer. By Monday they hope to have paperwork signed that will buy the company some time--including Barry on his job. Send your prayers that what is supposed to happen will happen and everything will work out--the news we have so far is some encouraging--but I do not want to jinx it until it is a done deal.

We are cautiously optimistic.