A Good Morning

Yesterday, I went to the office and sat in meetings until the early afternoon which meant my foot was down that whole time -- and it didn't care.  In the evening, we went to a wine pairing dinner with Brett's sister and her husband.  The food was wonderful, the wine plentiful and good, and the time at the table long.  Again, other than a bit of headache from the wine this morning, no ill effects from sitting with my foot down for hours. 

My foot was fine all night.  Other than some weird sensations like the toes are made of cotton, and the fact that the toes don't bend anymore, the foot was fine.  I put on my socks and my sandals and went down to the barn with Brett to do morning chores.  I did my full share with no trouble at all.  I fed the goats their morning hay and then gave the rabbits their breakfast.

I gave Jackson his bucket of vitamins and then got the muck cart and rake and began flinging manure into the cart.  Once Brett had hay out in the pasture, I let Flash and Winston out of their stalls.  Everybody enjoyed the morning sunshine and mild temperatures.

A boy and his horse

A girl and her dogs

Brett helped me finish up the mucking and then we headed back to the house for breakfast.  I have to do something about the cherry tomatoes.  They are out of control.

The apples are coming along nicely.  We will have a good crop of big, juicy apples this fall.

I even have my first pumpkin, amongst the weeds in the garden.  I need to work on that too.

After breakfast, I settled on the couch to catch up on everyone's blogs.  There is a confused bird that has been hopping around on the railing, screaming at me, and occasionally flying over the window where he perches for a nano-second and pecks at the glass.  Then he flies back to the rail.  He has been doing this since early this morning.  I think he's confused or lost or both. 

Shhh, Don't Tell

I've been suffering from serious cabin fever but the throbbing in my toe everytime I got up and walked to the bathroom was enough to keep me on the couch, per doctor's orders.  However, this morning when I changed the dressing and soaked my foot it wasn't a grit-my-teeth experience.  For the first time, it wasn't bad at all.  My toe was so comfy in the Epsom salt water that I forgot about it and left my foot in the bucket until the water was cold.  And, it didn't throb when I moved around.

We've had a bit of a break in the heat.  It "only" got up to 96 this afternoon but the biggest change was the drop in humidity...down to 35% or so.  Still, though... hot. 

I went into the garage and grabbed one of these from the freezer:

Then I wiggled my foot into sandals.  (Don't tell the doctor.  He said absolutely no flip flops.  Emphatically.  More than once.  Oops).

 

I made my way to the barn to eat my ice cream.  Slowly, carefully, keeping away from the places where the dirt sits in deep dusty troughs.  The horses were all happy to see me and watched me eat my ice cream with looks of longing.  Passage even came meowing down the barn aisle and wound her way across my lap, threatening to drag her tail through my drumstick.  I saved the last little bit of the cone for Winston.  He didn't think much of it.

I picked up the pieces that were flung all over the barn aisle and took them down to Jackson who was looking quite famished.

He sniffed at my hand suspiciously and clamped his lips shut.  No thank you ma'am.  Good & Plenty was what I was hoping for.
I knew Flash would eat it.  He's not a picky eater, especially when it comes to treats.

The horses were all swatting at the flies with their tails so I got the fly spray and squirted them all.  I also retrieved Winston's jolly ball which had somehow ended up in Flash's stall.  Boys?

It was still hot in the barn, so I carefully hosed down the brick aisle-way.  The temperature immediately dropped. 

Last, I grabbed carrots from the feed room refrigerator.  Everybody got a carrot.  Even the bunnies.

I gave Jackson one last kiss goodbye and headed back to the house.  Jackson's weight is just about perfect now.  And he looks so darn handsome with his "come hither and kiss me" face.  Who could resist?

New and Improved Bunny Digs

Lori asked to see what the bunny area looks like after Camille and her friend destroyed the dilapidated bunny hutch.  The area seems twice as big, with lots of room for scampering around.  The hutch that they use was moved so the solid back faces the direction of the wind so the rabbits are protected during storms. 

They still have the breakfast bar setup in front for their morning snack.  It's a rough life... morning snack, morning nap, scamper time, afternoon nap, dinner... 

Brett and I left this morning for Alisal with Flash and Winston.  We will be up there all week, riding the trails and relaxing.  I'll be taking a break from blogging while we are gone, but I'll come home with lots of pictures to share.  I promise.  In the meantime, I have one more post scheduled for tomorrow. 

See you next weekend!

Quality Animal Time

Camille came up to visit last weekend when the weather was beyond beautiful.  Today is overcast with rain and freezing temperatures moving in.  So, I'm posting about my weekend with Camille and not today's ugmo weather.  She is an animal lover after my own heart so we spent a lot of time outside in the company of the critters.  The weather was gorgeous and far too nice to be stuck inside.

Brett had been busy with the mower and the weed whacker.  The orchard looked beautiful.

Bella was out and about enjoying the weather and keeping tabs on everyone.

Everytime she walks across this bridge I think about trolls being underneath.

She follows Brett around like a dog; supervising his activities.

The rabbits had chewed the legs on one of their hutches -- the nice one, that Camille bought with her babysitting money.  We decided to cut the legs off and let it rest on the ground.  They had already chewed the floor out so it wasn't serving any useful purpose.

Sage and Rocky

The happy couple.

Then we hung out with the goats for awhile.  They mobbed us.  They chewed on our shoe laces, on our sweatshirts, on our hair and they burped in our faces.  We love the goats.

And then we made disaster pizza for dinner.  It tasted good, but the execution was less than stellar.  The recipe made enough for multiple pizzas and round two the other night went much better.  I may post the dough/method recipe as it tasted great - Brett declared it the tastiest pizza I've ever made (and I make pizza a lot). 

Sunday Stills: Portraits

My first portrait subjects were the bunnies.  I was happy with the way these shots came out.  I used the macro setting on the first one.  I was surprised at how close she let me get the camera to her face.  Sweet bunny Basil.

Kersey - I like her tongue poking out.

Sedona -- my favorite portrait shot.  I think it captures her sweet dignified self.

Flash and Brett

Rocky has a Rough Night

Rocky: Winter of 2008

Yesterday morning when I went down to do chores, I noticed blood in the bunny area.  Rocky's rear end was all matted with blood but he wouldn't let me near and I was short on time so I didn't force the issue.  He was bright eyed and hungry - even though he did seem to be missing part, or all, of his tail. 

This morning I had a bit more time before I had to head off to work so I caught him.  Rocky is my son's rabbit, a Holland Lop, and is about eight years old.  My son is off to college and his bunny is living the good life with my daughter's two Mini Lops.  Rocky has been neutered so the bunnies all hang out together.  He's never liked to be handled and so other than petting him a bit in the mornings when they get treats, he is left alone.  I managed to corner him and pick him up this morning.  He was squirming and kicking and carrying on in panicked rabbit fashion.  I turned him over on his back so he couldn't get traction with his hind feet but then they just went a hundred miles an hour in the air.  Sigh.  He's not bleeding anymore although his butt is a big matted mess of fur.  His tail still seems to be there, maybe, kinda.  It was hard to tell for sure but I felt a knobby thing in the tail vicinity.  I figure if he has that much fight in him and he's still eating well and otherwise happy, I'll just leave him alone.

A wet bunny.  One of the girls this past December.

Besides,he's got the girls to look after him.

They take turns grooming him - he is usually spotless - so I imagine he'll be cleaned up in a day or two.
















I wonder, though, what happened.  It wasn't the dogs because they are in the backyard in the evening and in the house at night.  The blood was fresh yesterday morning so it happened during the night.  Racoons are notorious for trying to pull chickens out of their pens, through their fencing.  We have secure chicken pen fencing (chain link lined with chicken wire) so they haven't gotten any of ours.  But we have neighbors who have lost chickens to raccoons.  It's not a pretty sight.  You can imagine.  Or maybe not.  It's gruesome.  Maybe a raccoon got Rocky by the tail? 

Other than that, we're just waiting on the rain.  The first of three storms is set to hit tonight.  Although the storms are coming in from Alaska and are cold, we have been taken off of snow watch.   The snow level is expected to be down to 4,000 feet and we are at 3,200.  So, we'll just be cold and wet.

It's Raining, It's Pouring, -- and It's Lunchtime

I decided to take my camera with me down to the barn to feed lunch...

Jackson wasn't in his nice dry stall.  He was hanging out in the pasture with Kalvin.  They were both very wet.

Sedona was in her doghouse so I couldn't get a picture of her but Kersey was out playing in the rain with Jackson's torn fleece sheet:

Flash was staying nice and dry in his stall.  He was a very good boy this morning when I flushed his wound with saline.  I had expected him to be difficult but he was an angel.  I showed him the syringe with the saline and explained what I was going to do.  He stood quietly through the whole thing.  I love how horses understand when you are helping them.  So, he was good for the saline rinse but he saw me coming with the camera and hightailed it outside into his turnout.  Silly boy -  You can see his distrust of the camera in this picture.

 

The donkeys, Tuffy & Finessa, just wanted me to get on with the business of giving them lunch.

I woke up Passage when I went into the feed room.  She was snoozing on her bed of old horse pads.

When I started getting the hay out, Jackson came back into the barn.  He loves hay more than just about anything. 

I checked on the bunnies on my way back to the house. One of the girls and Rocky were in the hutch.  The other girl (Sage? Basil? I can't tell them apart anymore) was on the hutch roof.  I think they are monkey rabbits...

Other than the one tree that fell, the property is holding up well.  You can see that the arena is under water at one end in this picture, but it could be a lot worse.  And it is pretty...  I love the sound of the rain and how fresh everything smells.

Time to go back in the house.  There is a nice deep puddle by the door.  It's perfect for rinsing the mud off of my wellies.

Then I put my gloves by the wood stove to dry, threw on some more wood, and went to look for my lunch.  Christmas cookies?  Toffee?  More coffee? 

Wishing everyone a warm, dry, peaceful day.