Posts Tagged ‘Dezirea’
Joyous Horses
We are currently experiencing an outbreak of ‘October’ around here, as our temperature has dropped 20 degrees, the clouds are hanging low, and the chilly north wind is gusting mightily. When this kind of weather strikes in September, Cyndie and I always think back to the year we were married and how cold and wet it was during the week before our outdoor wedding. We figured our plans were doomed, but luckily our special day was classic September with warm temperatures and a crisp, clear blue sky. Just the type of day we envisioned when we chose the date.
It always gives me hope that we can still have some spectacular warm fall days even though conditions may have drastically shifted toward the coming winter.
Yesterday afternoon I spotted the horses cavorting around the arena at high speed, kicking up their hooves and romping around. It occurred to me that they might be feeling the chill and wanted to generate some internal warmth. I finished the fence on the north side of the driveway, and I’m pretty sure they were growing anxious to get over there, so maybe they were venting some of that energy, too. They have spent a lot of time in the last two days grazing and standing as close to the direction of that new gate as their usual confines allowed.
Even though it was after 6:00 p.m. when Cyndie arrived home, I had patiently waited for her before giving the horses their chance. It helped that Cyndie had decided to put a pot roast in the slow cooker in the morning, allowing us to eat a rushed dinner as soon as she walked in the door. Minutes later we were marching to the barn for halters.
I mentioned to Cyndie that Legacy and Cayenne were hanging out together most of the afternoon, so we selected them as the first pair to make the short trip over. All four of the horses were still pretty amped up, and the dance to get two horses out of the gate —the two who had been selected— and only those two, was a bit precarious. Hunter and Dezirea went a little nuts over being left behind.
The heavy gusting wind was feeding their nervousness, so introducing them to this new space involved a bit of jumpiness. They seemed a little conflicted over the desire to be cautious, the ample supply of lush grazing, and the urge to check out the full breadth of their new pasture. We left those two and returned for Hunter and Dezi.
When the four of them were safely reunited in the new space, we were presented with a beautiful parade of prancing joyous horses, Legacy leading the way. They alternated between grazing and running for a brief time before settling down to mostly grazing, while Cyndie and I decided to do some tree trimming.
As darkness was about to descend, I headed over to put some hay out for them in the paddock, hoping it might provide some small consolation when we ask them to leave the pasture. It wasn’t needed. As I walked back toward them, Legacy and Dezirea were standing near the gate, ready to return ‘home.’
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Overwhelming Bliss
Early in the day yesterday, after scrubbing out the automatic waterer for our horses and scooping up manure from the paddocks, I paused for a moment and felt deeply moved by the overwhelming bliss of our place.
Delilah had been a particularly attentive companion during my chores, and afterward, wandered over to rest in the shade. The horses seemed thoroughly content; Legacy and Hunter up under the overhang of the barn, and Cayenne and Dezirea outside the paddock, grazing on the tiny strip I had opened up for them.
It was quiet, except for a few friendly bird calls, and the weather conditions were idyllic. It brought tears to my eyes. This is the environment we have endeavored to create. When it isn’t a muddy mess out here, we have pretty much achieved what we dreamed of accomplishing.
We have 4 fabulous horses, in space that is serving them well, and they seem pretty happy with their situation. We’re pretty happy with it too, and right now I am blessed with being able to be home to care for it every day.
I was working hard to keep Delilah engaged with me while I was giving her some time off-leash. My chores led us down to the labyrinth where I was fixing the sagging wall around the stockpile of fertilizer.
Suddenly there was a great commotion and I spun to see a turkey shoot into the air and fly off over the trees into the woods. I don’t know if Delilah scared it up, or if it surprised her. It was quite a sight. After it was gone, Delilah carried on as if nothing had happened.
To keep her occupied and discourage her from wandering off, I tossed a hunk of a branch into the woods for her to chase. Later, she came to where I was working and almost stood too close. It struck me as odd. Then I stepped back from what I was doing and saw that hunk of wood laying on the ground behind where I was sitting. She had brought it back to me and dropped it. That’s why she was standing so close.
Since it worked the first time, I decided to do it again, later in the day. I tossed a stick into the woods. I figured she wouldn’t find it among all the other branches on the ground. Silly me, I should know better. I should also have had more sense than to send her bushwhacking through our woods.
By the end of the day, she had more burrs stuck all over her than I have yet seen. I spent a long time brushing them out before Cyndie got home, hoping all the while that Delilah hadn’t also been exploring through any poison ivy during the day’s escapades.
Rest assured, I scrubbed my arms thoroughly as soon as we came inside.
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Pizza Delivered!
We had pizza delivered to our home last night! We learned from our friendly neighbors, George and Rachel, about more local food options when they invited us to join them for dinner at the El Paso Bar & Grill after we finished baling hay over a week ago. They suggested a Chinese take-out restaurant in Ellsworth, which we’ve already tried, and a pizza place that will actually deliver to our location.
With Cyndie now working long days in Anoka, MN, and my food prep skills under-developed, we’ve been relying on restaurants more lately. Even if I was doing the cooking, I wouldn’t have time, as the outdoor work has been keeping me busy until 7 or 8 every night. That’ll change when the sun starts setting noticeably earlier. Gotta get as much done as possible while the days are long. So for now, our dinners haven’t been making much of a mess in the kitchen.
The pizza was good, although the crust was a little under done. It definitely stayed hot on the drive to our house, but probably came out of the oven a tad too soon. It would have made sense for us to put it in our oven for a short bit to crisp it up, but we couldn’t get it separated from the cardboard box well enough to allow that. At least it was covered with plenty of good cheese. We must be in Wisconsin.
We’ll try them again sometime, choosing a different selection of toppings before we make any rash decisions about the overall quality of their pizza.
The food I have been serving has been to our animals. Here is a shot of Dezirea enjoying her morning feed with Delilah looming close in search of any morsels that she can reach. The way that dog fixates on horse and cat food, and even… our pizza, you’d think we never gave her anything of her own to eat.
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Inexplicable Realities
How did I spend my 4th of July Independence Day holiday? Mowing. We have finally begun the transition from too wet to too dry. It’s crazy how quickly the environment seems to swing from one extreme to another. While there are still areas with standing water, the grass growing in places that have dried out is already beginning to show a little stress. The happy medium is an elusive ideal.
Last week when I mowed, the residual clippings were excessive and left rows of dead grass. I didn’t bother with picking them up at the time, and after a few days I realized it was significant enough that I wished I had. It inspired me to pull out the grass catcher option this time, even though it annoys me to have to stop and empty it as often as needed. It worked pretty well for the most part, but when the tube rising off the mower deck would plug, the clippings and mud accumulated around the blades beneath the deck.
By the time I finished, it had become a hellacious re-molded surface under there with barely space for the spinning blades. Yikes!
I got another chance to practice removing the mower deck from the tractor.
I’m feeling less anxious about finding someone to cut our hay field after talking with my next door neighbor to the south. In hind sight, I discovered that my usual pattern of allowing myself to endure pressure about doing things “correctly” (like cutting when it is time to cut) is one of the primary forces causing my angst. Just hearing from the neighbor that we can’t cut here yet because it wouldn’t be able to dry enough on the ground, brought me a huge sense of relief.
It didn’t hurt that he also mentioned that the person who rents his field, and will be cutting hay there as soon as possible, would probably be able to help us out if my first option doesn’t come through.
A few posts back somewhere, I made mention of Legacy and Dezirea being hesitant to pass through the gate to our grazing pasture. I think I figured it out. It wasn’t just because the ground was so saturated there, but because their hooves sink so far in the muck that somehow the electric wire running underground between fence posts had gotten nicked and was arcing in the mud. It was hard for me to hear, but they obviously sensed the problem and it made them very uncomfortable.
It is feeling lately as if the line between functioning and failing is a very fine one, making it all the more challenging to reach the goal we are seeking. Our sights are well beyond merely functioning. We hold a vision of positively thriving!
Time for me to go mingle with the herd and practice absorbing more of their amazing horse-sense.
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Ongoing Challenge
In our zealous effort to get Wintervale Ranch functioning optimally in the shortest amount of time possible, we have repeatedly run into weather related obstacles that have hampered progress. I think it’s even fair to say the weather has been more of a problem in the last two years than has our simple lack of knowledge or experience in managing life on big property with forests, fields, and animals that need our care.
The issue feeling most burdensome today has to do with growing hay ourselves. I’ve written before that we are on a multi-year plan to improve our crop, so this one moment in time shouldn’t be such a big deal, but there is a chronological sequence to the 2-or-3-year process that is putting pressure on us once again. In early spring we were hurrying to get the field cut short and over-seeded with a mix of pasture grasses. Now we need to cut it to knock down the weeds and encourage growth of desired grass.
The wet weather has interfered with everyone getting their first cut of the season done.
I learned yesterday that the neighbor who we were hoping would be able to guide and assist us to get our field cut and eventually baled is doubting he will be able to get to us in a timely fashion since he is so far behind on his own fields. Every farmer I drove past on the way home from work yesterday was out cutting his hay.
Time waits for no one. We don’t own (yet) the equipment to cut for hay ourselves (the brush cutter mulches what it cuts), nor the rake to arrange the cut grass into windrows, nor the attachment that makes bales, so we are currently at the mercy of finding someone local to help us out. If we miss this weather-window of opportunity and are forced to wait for the next dry spell, it will mean less nutritional quality of our crop and more weeds that can get re-established again, despite our short mowing to discourage them earlier in the year.
The horses are doing their darndest to help munch down the tall grass in the grazing field in back. Well, at least two of them are. For some reason, Legacy and Dezirea haven’t wanted to cross the extremely wet, soft ground that is just outside the paddock in that direction. You can see the old fence line where the tall grass starts and how the shorter grass in the foreground has been trimmed like a lawn by their previous grazing.
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In this shot across the shaded paddock, you can see the field we want to cut for hay in the background, basking in the sunshine. It is ready and waiting for us to make our move.
I don’t yet know what that next move is going to be.
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Grazing Gratefully
We seem to have turned a corner and there are finally areas starting to show signs of drying out. It is a very uneven process, and the spots that are still wet remain ridiculously saturated and a muddy mess.
We let the herd graze together on fresh grass yesterday! I pounded down the posts for our temporary fence to the desired depth, and when the ground around them dries out, it will be like they were cast in cement. 
With the posts ready, I was able to string up ribbon fence lines that will be electrified, but not before I first had to fix a connection on the existing fence.
I found a splice that wasn’t sufficiently crimped. While I was troubleshooting the problem, I had Legacy’s full support. I’m pretty sure he sensed I was on a project that would lead to him getting access to better grazing. He stood front and center on the spot where I focused my attention.
I wish I could have talked him into using his powerful bite to accomplish something positive for once, and get him to clamp down on that splice. My hand tools were all sub-par for the job. I achieved enough of a crimp to give me electrical contact for the time being, which allowed me to prove the concept and proceed.
Cyndie made a heroic journey on crutches, navigating the uneven and uncertain terrain, to provide moral support, showing up in time to witness the completion and testing phase. All that was left after that was to convince the horses that the gate was open.
It was late enough in the day that we needed to put out their afternoon pans of feed, and that had their undivided attention. It also seemed to temporarily satiate their appetite, so they lolled around in a just-fed stupor, paying little notice to the fact I had opened a gate to the grass.
Hunter was the first one to show some interest in why I was walking around in their paddock. I was able to entice him to come toward me, but only up to the area where the mud got thick. They will cross mud, but they need a big enough incentive to do so, and he hadn’t yet figured out why I was urging him to come across. Before long, Legacy wandered over to see what was going on.
I pulled out the trick that I learned from Dunia at the Epona seminar, walking an arc in front of Legacy until he took a step, and then I turned and lured him along by my energy. We pulled Hunter and Cayenne right behind him. I needed to go to the hay feeder in the far paddock to convince Dezirea to join the fun.
While they grazed, I wandered back to the paddocks to restock the hay feeders. When I returned, Cyndie had gone back to the house, so I phoned her to confirm how short a time they should be limited to on this rich spring grass.
“Now would be good.”
“How do you suggest I do that?” I asked.
I tried calmly coaxing them to head back into the paddock, but these Arabians move from calm to panic in a blink, and you’d think I had slapped them on the butt and fired a shot from a pistol.
Of course, they were all juiced up on fresh grass. They carried that sprint into the paddock far longer than was necessary, from my perspective, but who can blame them? They had finally gotten what they wanted for so long, and that quick, had it taken back again.
I will not be surprised if I find them lined up and waiting at that gate when I show up to put out their feed this morning.
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Nature’s Course
There is no getting around the fact that we are at that time of year when the weather can flip from enticingly spring-like to “as winter as ever” in a single day. It can be a tough blow at the end of a harsh winter to be walloped by storms that give the impression the weather is headed in the wrong direction. Today is expected to be one of those tough blows, but it is not clear what the precise position of the storm will be. We are on the edge of a suspected path which could swing either to freezing rain or heavy, wet snow.
For the time being, I’m going to enjoy this image of our paddock from Saturday, when the snow had been cleared off the ground and the clouds were gone from the sky. We’ll have more of this type of enjoyment in the days ahead. We just need to tolerate a small setback to a winter storm for a few days.
That’s Dezirea munching hay, with Legacy standing by, on watch.
A couple of days later and it looked like this (although, in fairness, this one was taken with my phone looking through a dirty window from inside our sunroom):
At Delilah’s desperate urging, I let her outside to chase a squirrel, or squirrels, which had been tugging mercilessly at her predator instincts while she was trapped indoors. I followed her with my eyes as she sprinted deep into the neighbor’s woods to our north, much farther than she normally explores. The unconscious chase left her in new territory, and I would have been surprised if she just turned around and came back into our yard.
She disappeared for quite a while. When Delilah finally reappeared outside our windows, it wasn’t a squirrel she had as a prize, but the bottom portion of a deer leg. It is most likely that she happened upon a carcass that was left by some other predator(s), but she looked so much like a wolf out there, gnawing on that limb in the heavy falling snow, I felt a renewed appreciation for why our cats appear so wary of her.
She’s just doing what comes natural, but it can be almost scary seeing how incredibly proficient she is about it.
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Alone Again
It has happened enough that you’d think I would be used to it by now, but it’s different for me since we added horses. Cyndie is traveling out of town for work for a few days and I am alone again to tend to the animals. As if being responsible for the horses wasn’t enough, one of our cats, Mozyr, is showing new signs of some kind of illness. Before Cyndie left yesterday, she cleaned up some of his messes and then we went down and pulled the blankets off the horses. It is going to be above zero around here for a while!
It took some coaxing, but Legacy eventually allowed me to aggressively scratch his neck and shoulders after we removed his blanket. Cyndie warmed him up to the idea when she began massaging his aura about a foot away from his body. Shortly after letting me into his space to scratch him, he took an obvious step in and turned to provide me better access. A definite invitation.
I wandered back down to see the horses after they had eaten their evening feed, to take some pictures of them without blankets on. The girls were hanging out by the hay and the boys were both uphill from them.
Cayenne & Dezirea
Legacy
Hunter
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At bedtime, when I came out of the bathroom after brushing my teeth, I spotted Mozyr using the litter box we brought upstairs for him. That’s progress! After that, he wandered into the bathroom for a drink of water from the dish we keep there. Next, he took a few bites from the dry food, and then the canned food that I had put out at dinner time. These are all good signs. The night before, he appeared to have shut down completely, and then yesterday morning he seemed worse, and was messing himself and lying in it.
We probably would have rushed to the vet if Cyndie wasn’t headed out of town. I suppose I talked her out of it when I pointed out that we won’t spend money on treatments if there is something drastically wrong with him, so we may as well wait a day to see if he can shake it on his own. He is under close observation by me, and so far, things seem to be headed in the right direction.
Since I am alone, I’m hoping that’s the only direction things go for the next few days.
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Horse Play
Sometime before Christmas, Cyndie brought home a “present” for the horses. It was like one of those exercise balls that lie around unused in so many people’s basements. One night while the Morales family was staying with us, Jose and I decided to inflate it, but we didn’t set it out right away. I forgot all about it until Cyndie was taking down the Christmas tree and tidying up the house. At that point, it stood out distinctly.
Yesterday, I took the ball with me as I walked down to clean the stalls in the barn. As I approached the paddock, I set the ball down in the snow and it began to roll toward the fence. The horses had already demonstrated being on alert when they saw me coming with the strange looking red orb, but now the alertness morphed into a playful interest. I let the ball stay against the gate where it came to rest while I stepped in to clean the barn.
After a short time, I came out to find all 4 horses still standing by the gate, staring at the big red ball. That was good enough indication for me that it would be okay if I put it inside with them. It rolled downward as soon as it reached the ground and Legacy set off after it immediately.
It was a hit. I took some pictures of them and then tried to capture some action on video. What I got was a lot of fun, but it wasn’t of them playing with the ball.
To my surprise, when the camera came on, Dezirea suddenly made a bee-line toward me to see what I was doing. That distracted Legacy’s attention away from the ball and he started up toward me to see what was going on.
It was all great fun out in the bright cold sun, while the ball lasted. By the time I came back to the barn to get things in order for the evening feed, and to bring them inside for the night, I found the ball in a crumpled heap at the bottom of the paddock. It appears that one of them pulled the plug. Unfortunately, it was a white plug, so if they didn’t eat it, it is lost in the snow for now.
Looks like the exercise ball games around here will be on hold for a while.
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Relative Something 