Rubber Baby Beeper Bumpers!!

Ya know, I can't even remember the joke that went with that punchline but Sara called it; Beep has on beeper bumpers to protect her feet!

Here's a close up of my handiwork which I'm proud to say, has lasted an entire 30 hours so far. Even better Beep is walking just fine.

She doesn't seem to mind her padded feet which is amazing. I was betting she'd fling off her silver shoes in minutes or worse, slip on the snow.

Joe offered to make a studded bottom out of a thin sheet of plywood with little studs, but she seems to be getting decent grip.

Time to go hit the snow on Oscar. We'll go cross country today, maybe try to find that dern fox that keeps taunting Gabby.

Cheers and here's to a peaceful 2008.
b

Winter & Trains

I've been watching the BEST scenes outside the windows lately; frosty, icy branches, arctic skies, hazy mornings...too many good things to point out and my camera has malfunctioned badly lately, along with my pc. It'll take me 3 reboots to get this post up but so be it. I'll outlast the stupid machine!

So this shot was taken this morning outside my bedroom window. I can get exactly one photo before my camrea shuts down and I have to rest it a day.

So I had the vet out today to check on Beep Beep. Turns out she has bruised feet and he prescribed some special styrofoam booties for her. The vet also prescribed bute, which I had been giving her since yesterday and it was helping. At least it's not founder---I was worried about that. She's lost some weight since being here as I've exercised her a few days/week but he wants more weight off so when her feet feel better it'll be time to hit the trails again. If I have to take her snowshoeing with me I will (I'll wear the snowshoes, she can wear her hooves).

I made a special run to Beaver Dam tonight to get vet tape. I have to make a styrofoam pad for her front feet, wrap it with vet tape then duct tape the whole thing to both front legs. That should give her a little cushion while her feetsies heal up. Joe brought over a piece of real styrofoam (not the kind you get with tv sets). It'll take a hack saw to cut, but I have one of those. I'll trace her little feet tomorrow and get the size of her new wee protector pads just right.

And get this..as I was crusing through Columbus I got stopped at the train tracks. THe daily Amtrak was going through. As I sat there watching the people in the cars I thought "how cool is that; it's still an efficient mode of transport, even with the car lobbyists trying to kill it." I was thinking that for about 6 mintutes, along with how much I missed living in NY where I traveled by train often. Then it dawned on me that I'd been sitting there for 6 minutes and with the car turned off, it was starting to get cold! Argh...I decided to turn around and take the overpass.

That worked dandy. I got to the Fleet Farm, got my vet tape and headed home. I got back to Columbus and got stopped by the freight train!!! I had to laugh at that point. Ahh, more time to contemplate the moment which I'm always happy to do. I got home and no worse for the extra time.

Well, hope ya'll are warm and dry wherever you are.
love, b

Mouse Week!

My cat is a mouser. My dog is a rabbit hunter and general small vermin killer. But my chickens are mousers too??

So far the death tally at the farm since August is one skunk and two rabbits (Gabby), a rat (barn cat) and two dead mice in the house. Now the chickens are getting into the act. I found two dead mice in the coop, both with puncture wounds the size of a beak. Don't mess with Dumpling or Pot Pie I tell you!

And last night I smelled something funny in the bathroom. I looked all around and didn't see anything but definitely smelled something funky. I finally looked in a basket and sure enough, a dead mouse in the bottom. Probably got there by way of Spider and the classic cat game of throw the catch in the air. In this case, it landed in the basket where I couldn't see it until it started to stink.

I Febreezed the basket but I'm not optimistic that it will work. I have Febreezed my couch (formerly Gabby's couch but it was my nice couch before she claimed it) and that only lasts about a day before I can smell dog on it).

Well, at some point it'll be spring and I can open windows and air out the place. Speaking of spring, it's almost 40!!! But more snow on the way so will enjoy today and keep my boots by the door.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, and best of all, Happy winter Solstice to all!
love, becx

Enough already!!

Ok, I surrender. It's not officially winter yet and we've got over 2' of snow on the ground.

Yesterday brought all day long snow flurries that added another few inches to the heap. I went skiing out back then took Oscar out and stomped around the back yard, the field, the woods and then the front yard. I know we're in training for dressage but I kind of wish there was some sort of snow dressage category. We'd be good at that.
Note the pile of snow just in front of the chicken coop. That's how much snow has been plowed off the driveway in the last week! For those of you living in warmer climates, please enjoy whatever temperature it is wherever you are. It's 10 today and I'd give anything for 10 more degrees!!

In other news, I wrote out my Christmas list for Santa. Santa baby, if you are listening I've been real good and could you bring me a:
> Skidloader with a cab and heat
> A John Deer Gator with a hydraulic lift
> An ATV (used is fine) with accessories like a harrow, plow and trailer
> 300' of new RAAM fence
> 2 more acres for pasture
> An indoor arena
> An australian shepherd (which I'll name Wilson...as in...."WILSON!!!" )

Think this list will get me anywhere??

Neither do I, but it's fun to write down my shopping list. I have a subscription to "Agri-View" newspaper (Wisconsin's farm newspaper) and it's fun to look at the farm implements for sale.
You know that old saying? A skid loader is a girl's best friend?? Well, on a farm it's true. Next to the dog. And the bottle of red wine. And the hot tub. Ohhh, add hot tub to the list.

Tally ho..time to do something around here.

A View of the Snow

Dang...when the Gods give you snow, you just go with it. It's kind of hard to ride the horse when it's 8" of fresh powder on top of 5" of packed ice. So I got some new batteries for my camera and went for a hike about this morning. This is the view of the back of the house. You can see my ski tracks on the lower left. The whole farm looks different in the snow-pretty but in a different way.

ytttttttttttttttttuj that's courtesy of Spidey cat who just walked over the keyboard. Grrrr. My fat cat has her own insulation so doesn't need to try to sit in my lap 24/7.

Anyway, here's the house as viewed from the chicken coop.

The chickens are hanging in there with it being so cold. I guess they don't need toys like the horses do to keep occupied. I saw Oscar nudging his horse ball around today and that helps to keep his busy body mind busy.

Speaking of Oz, I attempted to ride him on Thursday but the footing was so bad and I made a critical error in clothing choice. As someone has already pointed out, snowboard pants are great for making sure anything snowy doesn't stick to them. Thus, they are slippery when applied to, say, a leather item like a horse saddle. Add to that my giant Columbia boots and a pony on a lead rope and you have a recipe for dee-zaster. Fortunately, we didn't pile up but there was a close call when Oscar was trotting through the snow/ice and I didn't have my feet in the stirrups 'cause my big boots didn't want to tuck in easy. The effect of that was a near launch of the slippy pants rider. Somehow we stayed together but I dropped the rope. I turned Oz around and said "go get Beep" and dernit, didn't he just round her up from the trees she was in and park me perfectly so I could reach down and grab the rope. My horse is a cowpony!

I dropped the rope two more times as we attempted to walk across the garden hill and each time Oz got me in position to catch the pony. After the third time I decided the footing was too risky to be messing around playing cowpony. I got off and walked them both down the street a bit so they at least got some exercise.

When I got up today it was 0 degrees. Good thing I havent' been checking the weathe report. WHen it's this cold the only thing I want to know is "will it end soon?" and if the answer is no then I don't want to know. Faulty logic for sure, but it gets me through the cold days.

Joe and I finished fixing the fence today. We had to put in 12 posts yesterday to replace the broken ones and let me tell you, nothing like pounding a t-post in with a torn rotator cuff in the zero degrees but it had to be done to save the pasture. We got new electrical tape up this morning and the last of the posts and now I can rest a bit easier knowing that the next thaw I won't be watching my pasture turn into a mud field.

That's about all the news that's fit to report. Cold, snowy and, um, cold on the farm. Oh, and the Saeco Vienna Deluxe malfunctioned. Now that's a tradegy but nothing a little trip to the Espresso Shop in Chicago can't fix. Soon, ole VPublish Postienna will be churning out hot mugs of courage once again.

I think my skiis are calling....ciao for now.
b

RIP Marsala

Well, I got home tonight and little Marsala had died. She didn't look so good this morning but she'd been having good days and bad days. She's in the photo above, in front.
Awww, I'll miss that chicken. Never thought I'd get attached to a bird but the way they run around when I come in the coop and squawk to go outside and squawk for treats--it gets into your daily routine.

So I bagged her up and decided to head out for a snowshoe. My new shoes are fantastic. I wore the wrong clothes though. I should have had my snowboard pants on because running snowshoes kick up a lot of snow and it lands right on your arse. Gabby came with and we did a loop of the field behind the house then I took off the snowshoes and went for a run to the corner and back. We got at least 5" of snow last night and it's about 9 degrees right now. Cold enough that I didn't get warm enough running and I had a lot of clothes on. I might be getting thin-skinned! Time to move to a warmer clime???

tally ho...time for a shower,
becx

Head Light!

Welcome to Sunny Hill. New name, same farm. Same crazy farmer blogger at the keyboard.

So the news is I got the best thing ever--- a headlight!!! I've always wanted one and for some reason just didn't get around to ordering one. Thank de lawd for birthdays and a big brother. Brian got me a headlamp and you know that commercial for LL Bean with the excited little kids sitting on the couch with the headlamps on, waiting to catch a glimpse of Santa? That's me. I put the thing on and can't wait to go outside in the dark. Thanks, Brian!

Day one with headlamp: I found two eggs in a different box than the hens had been laying in. The eggs were frozen which was fine as I cracked them open, scrambled them and put them back in the freezer for future quiche. Real farmers eat quiche ya know.

Oscar didn't like the headlamp at first and he took off when I was crossing the yard to the barn. He got over that when he realized the alien shining light was just me.

Speaking of the horses, it's hard to scoop manure now seeing as it's frozen and stomped into the snow to boot. It dawned on me that I really need to pitch fork some of the manure out before a thaw or there will be a sea of manure. blech. I don't mind stepping in dry poo, but wet poo is another matter.

My camera isn't functioning right and I wanted to post a photo of the farm in all the snow. I managed to ski on Sunday, then changed gear and saddled up Oscar and took him and Beep out for a ride. Oscar needed some schooling around the snow piles but other than that, it was a lovely ride in the snowy fields. Too bad the snow has turned to a pile of ice now. I can walk across it and not make a track it's so hard.

So that's the news from the farm. Come on out and bring your skiis/snowshoes/saddle/wine. :)

becx