Thursday, September 1, 2011

It's September!!

I love September.  I love autumn here in our mountain community.  The evenings are cool, the nights cold, the mornings crisp and the days warm.  The apples are turning red on the trees and the pumpkins are bright orange in the garden.  The only down side is that fall is also high fire season.  We haven't had rain since the spring so everything is dry. 

Today we were up early to do chores so I could ride before work.  On the way to the barn, I noticed that the grapes are turning purple and the currants are ripe.


I fed the chickens breakfast.

Jackson started working on his bucket while Brett got the hay out and I mucked. 


In answer to the questions from my previous post about the price of hay:  The bales of hay weigh in the neighborhood of 100 lbs.  Each bale lasts about a day - feeding three horses and two miniature donkeys. 

After feeding the horses their hay, Brett went up to feed the dogs and goats.  I got Jackson out after I finished mucking.  I really enjoy mucking in the early mornings.  The sunlight is beautiful as it spreads across the trees.

Brett rode as well so he came back to the barn after letting the goats out of their shed.  When he came back, he wasn't alone...

You all saw that one coming, I know.  Bella hung around the barn while I tacked up and Brett groomed Flash.  When I walked Jackson to the arena, she trotted along next to us.  When we got inside the arena, I tightened Jackson's girth and adjusted the irons.  Meanwhile, Jackson gave Bella a back rub.  He's been very generous with back rubs lately.  Bella stood there a moment, thinking it was me rubbing her back.  When she realized it wasn't me, she did a goaty jump sideways in a startled sort of way.  I took Jackson over to the mounting stump and got on and we herded Bella out of the arena -- she slipped out at C and went back to the goat pen.

Jackson felt good.  I kept it short but the work was good quality.  I went to work a happy girl.

4 comments:

  1. sounds like a great morning.

    and thanks for explaining your hay bales are larger than the ones we have here. ours are more like 50 or 60 lbs i'd say.

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  2. You two sure have a companion (goatie). It's so interesting that she is the only one to figure this out. Glad you were able to have a good ride this morning. It's going to be near 90 here today. Looking forward to the 60s. Your grapes look gorgeous.

    I have 4 horses here and have used very little hay this summer as they are eating grass (not fancy grass) with just 1 flake when I put them in. 100 pound square bales...that would be about 3 or 4 of our bales.
    That would cost me 10-13 dollars.

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  3. What an awesome morning! That Bella is a pill! I let ours out for a little while each day (boys and girls separately) and they do the same thing. I love it.

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  4. I forgot to say how wonderful the grapes look. Boy - what I would do with them!

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Thanks so much for commenting!