HOT!!!!

OK, I know ya'll who live down south don't consider almost 90 hot, but up here that is like... broiling. The ponies have spent the last two days standing and sweating. So I've been hosing them down three times a day. Brego LOVES it. Mary tolerates it. Sparrow detests it. Of course with all that hair the heat seems to be rougher on Brego. But he will be appreciating all that hair come this winter, lol.

I've been in the pool every day this week. It's still cloudy but looking better.


Schrodinger the cat is coming home from the vet today. YES I found someone who would spay her even though she might have been bred after her great hole digging escape from the bathroom. She was NOT bred but was back in heat. Also totally infested with tape worms. *ew* They were one of the few places that would just spay her. I would love to be able to test her for every dang thing under the sun, get her UTD on every shot she needs, etc. But I can't. I didn't ask for this cat. I already have almost $200 into her from her stuck kitten, and she isn't even really MINE (I mean she is mine NOW, but I never wanted her... she just kind of arrived here and made herself my responsibility). I don't have $280 to spend getting her brought up to the point that a house cat should be. I wish i did, but I don't. So this $100 option is the best I can do for her and I am SOOO glad I found someone who would do this. It may not be ideal but at least she won't have any more kittens.

They did point out that one of her extra toes turns inward and has no pad on it and without being kept trimmed or being removed the nail could curl into her foot. Which I already knew because I already cut it out once while she was in the bathroom. I'll trim the nail once every few months, assuming she sticks around after this whole thing. I'm NOT paying to have that dang toe amputated!! They had a quote for me and everything. $185. *slaps forehead*

Anyway, I'm glad she is done, even if I resent having to spend the money. She is a good cat. She doesn't deserve to die just because I'm broke and where ever she came from was populated by morons. Plus she is pretty territorial and has been chasing all the other dropped off cats away. It's worth the money to me to keep her here if it keeps other cats away. I just hope she STAYS territorial after the spay. Plus she is rediscovering her hunting skills so she can go back to earning her keep, yay!

Schrody, with her first litter of kittens and our barn cat Socks:



Schrody with her second litter of kittens in our dirty sink:



Hiding under our tractor back when she was too wild to get anywhere near:



So yay! No more kittens!!!!

Knitty knit knit!!!

Yes, I have still been knitting! And I learned some single crochet to finish a project! And I didn't end up with a hideous hand cramp because it it either!

I've done some wash rags and such, started some leg warmers that I may unravel and make into something else even though I have put like 15 hours into them I just don;t like how they are turning out. I bought a cheap 10 piece set of bamboo circulars and they are surprisingly nice quality for the money I spent. I mean, don't get me wrong, they are CHEAP and you can tell. The bamboo is soft and gets dented just from knitting with them unlike my good bamboo straight needles that are nice and hard. But for $25? Hey they are way better than I expected for that much money!

Anyway, I made a small throw rug with yarn an online friend gave me:



Then I decided to actually work from a pattern for a change, and I made myself a lucky hunting hat. lol. I unraveled the ends of the yarn on the braids after taking these pictures. It was quite hot when I took these, so I didn't keep the lucky hunting hat on for long, lol!! The camo yarn was in the stuff my friend sent me, the orange I had here. I learned how to do some crocheting to put the border on.





I'm working on a simple lightweight pull over out of some other yarn she gave me, no pattern just basically going to be a sack with arm and neck holes, lol.

Edit to add: I forgot to post a link to the pattern I used! So here it is:

Camo Earflap Hat!!!

Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your belly grow?

I'll tell you how it grows, it grows from stealing the food the other horses drop on the ground, ya little fatty!

As you can see, Mary is not hurting for groceries:



Last week I started locking her in a stall so I could feed Brego and Sparrow without her standing under Brego and eating everything he dropped or getting all witchy to Sparrow and chasing him away from his food so she could eat it. I swear she gained weight from standing in the stall for 15 minutes twice a day LISTENING to them eat. Good golly.


So last week during their lunch I started longeing her. They don't get much for lunch, so it doesn't take long for them to eat it but I decided today to start doing this during every meal. I'm taking it easy on her because she is out of shape and it is hot out there today, but hopefully it will show in her physique before long. I don't mind her being stubby legged and long bodied and fat bellied. In fact I like it. But she is starting to jiggle and dimple again. That is dangerous for her health.

I've been working with Brego again, too. Other than my normal daily cuddling, that is. Not making him work hard but back doing some ground work that I had slacked off on. Now I don't follow any one trainer or style of training but I do have my own methods that aim for having the horse know most of what he needs to know when you ride before you ever get up on his back. We are still a few pounds away from my English saddle fitting him so... I've been doing what I can from the ground. I started with getting him to give me his head. Now I have been working on putting pressure on his side where my leg will go while pulling the rein and having him walk around me. Also doing some slow longeing in small circles to remind him that I can control his head and his feet. If he gets too far out from me he tends to just tuck his head and muscle away from me. hence the reason i want to get my round pen built! He has been doing well, and I have been pretty happy with him. He really does want to please, right up until he gets sick of playing along then he goes dead headed, lol.

It was smart to back off on the ground driving, it is much easier to avoid him hitting that dead head spot when I am right there next to him. I think I am going to have to work backwards with him to what I usually do. He just isn't real confident out ahead of me, but he does so much better if I am close to him. So driving training can wait.

I may hose him off tomorrow. It was hot today and he was a sweaty boy. Of course he rolled in every bit of dust he could find so he looks hideous and filthy. I laugh every time I look out there and see him coated in dirt.

I also worked on the pool some today. It's good to go now, I think. I was in there for about an hour and a half and it was divine. I told Brego it is a shame he couldn;t join me in there, he would have loved it, lol.

Edit to add:

Since i fixed the temp fence again there have been no escapes, yay!!!!

The Great Escape parts 2 and 3....

So I rearranged the fence yesterday morning to get electric to it (or so I thought), and turned the bird brains out. We were planning to go into town to get some stuff (yay library!) later in the morning so I wanted to get them out there early. The morning goes on, we are getting ready to go, and Tsu looks outside and says, "Oh ****, they are out back!"

So I look out back and all three are out there running at high speed for the back of the property. *head desk*

Brego and Mary get out and they just want to eat, Sparrow gets out and he RUNS. Stupid runs. Brainless "Oh crap I am out what do I do now oh gosh oh gosh oh gosh" runs. And Mary and Brego get caught up in his panic. Well, to be honest I don't think Brego knew it was panic, he just looked like he was having WAY too much fun.

*deep breath*

My land is a half mile deep and only about 250 feet wide. Once you get about 1/4 mile back there is old barbed wire down in the grass. It was supposedly removed years ago by my ex but when I went back out there after moving back I found it, still there. Plus we have what we euphemistically call "the pond". Which is, in reality, just a mucky hole about 12 feet wide where my ex dug out dirt to build motorcycle jumps. It is steep sided and if a running horse were to hit that and not see it I'm not sure what would happen but it wouldn't be pretty. But all of these are way way back there and in all the years I have had animals here I have never had one go past the line of bushes that looks like a pretty solid dividing line between the front and back of the property.

Until yesterday.

Morons.


So I calmly start to whistle for them, get a bucket with some feed in it, move the temp fence so they can get into the barn lot, make sure the drive is still blocked by the other side of the fence to keep them out of the road... but they take one look at me and go, "Oh crap! We are in so much trouble! KEEP RUNNING! She has a bucket? IT'S A TRAP!!!!!"

Tsu is outside having a smoke, so I set the bucket next to him and say if they come close to try and get their face in the bucket, then I go grab halters. I start wishing I had a tranquilizer gun and wondering how much those cost and if you can even buy them. When I come back with their halters Tsu is walking back from out back with a line of horses behind him like he is the Pied Piper of Stupid-Horse-Ville.

I get them back in the barn lot, grinding my teeth to keep from yelling at them (I'd already had a bad cat day with one of the cats barfing in my rubber shoes, so I was cranky). Then we went and did our stuff. When I got home I was trying to figure out what to do. If I can't keep them in the temp fence I have to buy hay for the summer. Which just seems stupid when I have all this GRASS out here.

Tsu wants to get a new fencer box so if they try it again it will just dump them on their butt and that will be that. My fencer is OLD (I bought it in like 1991/92 when we lived working as a care taker for a VP of General Motors and I needed to divide some pastures, i think. So... OLD...) so I DO need a new one. Anyway, I was going to replace some of the wire on the temp fence with tape hoping that it being tougher would require the moose to be in contact with it longer so he might get a good zap and back off before actually escaping when I realized that the way I had the fence hooked NO ELECTRIC was getting to the top wire at all.


DUH!

*slaps forehead, twice*

So... I added a third row of electric, tape this time, along the top. I made sure all three lines were connected so juice would get to all of them. I tightened up the temporary posts, I marked the fence with neon surveyors tape. I made sure all three lines were hooked to the electric. And I prayed that Sasquatch was slowly pushing through the fence and not just running through it, because if he just ran through it none of this would matter.

I was counting on the fact that two days of successful break outs would have him feeling cocky and he would try it fairly soon after being turned out this morning, so I got the fence going and let them out then went in the house to watch.


Sure as shooting about 15 minutes later Brego walks right up to the fence and starts slowly walking through it. Leaning his chest into it. Mary and Sparrow right behind him expectantly waiting for their personal escape professional to let them out so they could have a fun run again. One step, I cringe. Two step, I start saying "aht! AHT!" (not that they can hear me). Three step, I'm kinda getting pissed, standing there in the living room with my coffee in hand wondering why the heck he isn't getting zapped as he pops fence posts out of the ground when suddenly he shoots straight up into the air, lands on all fours at the same time then shoots backward four steps with a loud squeal as the fence collapses in that spot and he turns tail and makes a screaming b-line for the barn lot.

I don't think I have ever been so delighted to see a horse get zapped in my life.

My fencer is so weak it couldn't have been much of a shock but after two days of pushing through and not getting so much as a tingle it obviously was enough to set him back. I went out and tightened the fence back up and they have been peacefully grazing out there and avoiding the fence for an hour now. I'm hoping that lasts. The idea of mowing down all this grass then having to feed hay to the horses just chaps my behind. I may still pick them up a round bale to give myself some time to get more fencing up and a new fencer box with some more Oomph to it. Hairy bear is learning if he gets it just right the hairiness will protect him from the zaps so I think we maybe should upgrade before winter otherwise he will be roaming the neighborhood every chance he gets.


On a side note, Holy moses did he look gorgeous running around when he was loose. And he shakes the ground like a draft horse. How is it possible that he shakes the ground that way? He weighs less than most of the horses I used to care for and they never shook the ground like that. maybe it has something to do with the fact that for his size his feet are huge and he moves like a draft. I dunno but it sure is a rush when he goes galloping by and the ground just shakes.


So wish me luck, or something, that the fence changes will remain effective.


The stinkers.


I'd rather not have to make any more great escape posts.