Posts Tagged ‘Wintervale’
Found It!
Cyndie found the mouse that the cats killed. They put it in the toilet. We are very impressed that they knew the mouse was something that needed to be disposed of.
Meanwhile, the horses have proved me wrong. I believe that I wrote about how often I find them lying down to rest in the afternoons, and that one of them always remains standing to keep watch. Yesterday, I looked up from my task to find that all four of them were on the ground at the same time. I guess they feel safe here. As I watched them, I noticed there was no traffic on our road and no activity underway in any of the fields or at the neighboring farms. It was wonderfully calm and quiet, even with the wind kicking up some fairly robust gusts every so often. I think their behavior is a reflection of the environment where they now find themselves living.
We are pretty happy with the place, too.
Now, the serenity is not without interruption. This time of year, there are an awful lot of gunshots spoiling the natural sound scape. Hunting seasons for a variety of animals start in September and run into December. The biggest hunt around here is definitely the deer season. It opens this coming weekend, so right now many hunters are preparing their guns, test-firing them and calibrating the sights.
We saw the horses startle at the sound of some of the closer shots later in the day yesterday. I’m hoping that the presence of our horses and Delilah will have rerouted the deer traffic away from our land, so the hunters will have no incentive to post themselves close by. I certainly haven’t seen as many deer around here this year as there were last year during the same time period.
I’ve posted images here on the blog of Delilah with her blaze-orange vest on, I wonder if we should get the horses some blaze-orange blankets. We definitely don’t want to have them wear antler hats for the next two weeks. I’ve heard stories that cause me to be uneasy during deer hunting season. Luckily, there are no strangers hunting in our vicinity. It is all private property, and the hunting is done by family groups that are familiar with the area.
I’m just happy our cats have finally decided to participate in some hunting this year. It’s the season!
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Pet News
The weather is holding, and making my earlier post inaccurate, as forecasts now indicate we still have some 50-degree temperatures available to us up here during November. Luckily, we were spared any of the thunderstorms and tornadoes that other parts of the midwest experienced.
I barely had time in the afternoon yesterday to finish off the bracing wires on the corner posts and then start the process of setting posts up the hill for the fence line along the northern border of our property. The sun sets so dang early now that just as I start to make progress, it’s time to gather up the tools and call it a day.
The morning was consumed by a trip to the vet with Delilah. On Saturday evening, after a wonderfully normal day, she laid down early, slid off the back of her bed and didn’t move for the entire time we were upstairs watching a rented movie. It seemed so uncharacteristic for her. After the movie, Cyndie had to work hard to coax Delilah to move, and at that point, it became obvious there was a problem. Delilah couldn’t get up.
Without any warning, she had suddenly gone lame. A quick search pointed to Lyme disease as a likely culprit, which wasn’t a surprise. When we had her in for surgery, shortly after we first brought her home, they ran a blood test and told us it appeared Delilah was already infected with Lyme. Even though we weren’t seeing any symptoms, the course of treatment indicated was for 30-days of antibiotics. We followed through on that, and during that time, and since, we witnessed no symptoms, so we were feeling hopeful.
Not any more.
First, Cyndie, now our dog… I sure hope the horses don’t get it. Or the cats, for that matter. Even though they are indoor animals, we saw them catch a mouse the other night (Finally! It’s the first time we witnessed them get one), and mice are reservoirs for the infection. By the way, we saw them catch the mouse (they actually appeared to be working together), but we didn’t see what they did with it. I thought sure I would be stepping on it when I walked to the bathroom in the morning darkness. Nope. I lucked out.
But we still haven’t found any left over evidence anywhere. They really are more efficient than a baited trap. I have to dump those. I’ve gotten 3 in 3-days in a trap in the garage. Last year, I just tossed the mouse-cicles into the woods. This year, I am wary of Delilah finding them if I do that.
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Practicing Big
It turned out to be a beautiful day yesterday up here in the Northland. We hit 52°F in the afternoon, which made it delightful to be doing outdoor chores. There is no mistaking that our days are numbered. It is reasonable to expect that we won’t see temperatures this warm again until April of next year. I tried to be mindful of the precious comfort afforded me while toiling away in the warm sunshine.
The forecast for the next 10 days shows a trend headed downward toward daily highs only in the 30s.
Before lunch, I took a break from my fence project to tidy up the paddocks. My appearance seemed to draw the horses in from the big field to check on me. I gathered they knew it wasn’t time for the feed we distribute in the morning and evening hours, from the nonchalant manner in which they arrived.
I noticed that Hunter had come close to where I was standing, but was still on the other side of the fence, so I set down the pitch fork and walked out to meet him. Legacy is always watchful, and when contact is being made, he wants to be there. As he approached, the other two trailed along. With the herd now idly congregating, I wandered back to my task. The horses decided to get a drink of water.
I was happy to see them comfortable enough with the setup to gather around, two on each side, and drink through the sound of the unit flowing as it tried to keep up with their demand. Thinking back to when they first arrived here, that sound was unnerving to them.
After their drinks, they stayed around, occasionally nibbling on some hay, so I had company while I continued to scoop. It was a good exercise for all of us to spend time in close proximity. I had opportunity to practice what Dunia suggested in her comment on my Language Barrier post, and communicated using my big energy to command results when Legacy or Hunter tried to chew on the wheelbarrow or gate chain. They responded appropriately, and I felt as though I was on the way to establishing my leadership with the herd.
With all four of them hanging around, I took several breaks to give them special attention. All but Hunter stood still and let me brush and massage them with my gloved hands for an extended time. In between, I would go back to cleaning up the grounds, moving them out of the way so I could get to the spots that needed attention. At one point, they started to crowd me against the fence a bit too much, so I sought to move on, except the direction I was headed was into the corner.
It was time to practice more leadership. I tried walking out of the paddock, thinking …they showed up here to begin with because of my presence, maybe they will want to be with me out here in the big field. It didn’t work. They didn’t budge. I walked back in to where Legacy was standing, his attention having been on me the whole way. I wonder what he was thinking. I began the exercise I learned at the Epona seminar, and which I have successfully put into practice twice before, walking an arc in front of him, as I encouraged him to follow me with my big energy. His first step was not so much engaging as it was threatening, so I hastily made that my turn and brought my energy around the other direction. At that, he took that step I was looking for, toward me.
I turned to direct my energy out of the paddock, without looking back, as he and the herd followed. I must have looked like the Pied Piper. I got them outside the gate and stepped aside to let them run off with gusto. They all stopped with me.
“Okay, you want me to take you farther?”
I re-energized quickly, to avoid losing momentum altogether, and headed out toward better grass. At this point, they rallied their own objective, and strolled beyond where I had stepped aside. Mission accomplished.
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Missing Katie
For those of you who may have noticed something suspicious about the amount of activity I have been engaged in on the ranch lately, I will reveal that I have stopped going in to the day-job. For reasons beyond just saving gas money for the 65 mile one-way commute, or reclaiming the hours lost to driving, I am on leave from my usual employment.
At about the same time I started my leave, a person I worked with there moved on to a new position at a different company. How do you part ways elegantly when someone you used to see every day disappears from your life? Not a day has passed without me thinking of something that I would normally have told Katie about when we next saw each other at work.
Instead, I now find myself trying to talk with Legacy. It’s just not the same, I tell you.
I am trying to be open about the possibility of finding work closer to home, but my few attempts thus far have been met with rejection, so my inspiration is waning. In the mean time, it occurred to me that I can balance the loss of income by taking on some chores that we would otherwise need to spend a lot of money to get done. Yes, that means building fences.
A year ago, I didn’t know a thing about how to build a fence, but after watching the professionals put in our paddocks and string up the border of the big field, I’ve learned a lot. I thought it took them a long time, but now that I am digging my own holes and burying posts, I have a new appreciation for how much they could get done in a day.
It is very important to Cyndie that we get rid of the barbed wire fencing that is close to the trail where she plans to ride horses. Yesterday, I surveyed the most exposed section and came up with a new idea: Leave it be.
That fence has been there so long that trees have grown around the wire. It will be much less work if we simply erect a new fence, just inches inside the old one, and choose fence material that will serve as a barrier to the barbed wire beyond it. Since that old fence defines the boundary of our property, it is technically shared by our neighbor. Leaving it in place eliminates any question as to the location of the old boundary and avoids putting any burden on them to make changes they don’t need.
We really don’t want to cut down trees if we don’t have to, so putting our barrier up just inside the old fence means we can run inside the trees that have grown up right on the old line. It’s a win-win scenario!
Except I’m slow, …and I don’t get to talk with Katie.
Language Barrier
It appears that I continue to be hampered by my limitation of being monolingual, when it comes to communicating with all our animals, and none of them are showing any signs of understanding a word I have been saying.
I kind of expect that from the cats. They are naturally aloof. Although, I haven’t tried too many phrases on them. Mostly, they just hear me repeat, over and over, “What do you want? What do you want?”
Delilah sometimes responds to single syllable commands, but she is inconsistent about it, so I don’t have much faith that she is actually interpreting the words or sentences I have used.
With the horses, I know I should be trying to move out of speaking just from my head, into trying to use my gut and heart energy more, but sometimes the message feels time sensitive and my words are the quickest tool I have. Most often, it is Legacy who I find myself face to face with, and my words have been eliciting a blank-stare response from him.
He seems as frustrated with me, as I am with him. I expect he is probably transmitting his messages to me loud and clear, but they aren’t coming through in plain english, so I am at a loss as to what he is trying to say.
Yesterday, he showed up at the other side of the fence while I was cleaning the ground in the paddock. For some reason, he started chewing on the fence post above the electric wire. Now, the wire is there to discourage them from chewing on the wood fence, so I was half-hoping that he might get too close and feel a shock that would teach him to leave it alone. He may have been just trying to show me that he could, that he was that good, he could work around our little deterrent.
I didn’t want him to do it, so I was feeling peeved. At first, I tried ignoring him, so he might notice it would gain him nothing with me. My frustration got the better of me, when he continued, so I walked over and told him not to chew on the post, and I slapped my hand on the top of the post a few times, to emphasize my point. When that didn’t alter his behavior, I stepped up again and pounded on the post and then told him I was angry. I wanted him to know in his language, so I put my hands on my head, to mimic horse ears, and I pinned them back, telling him, “See? This is how I feel about you chewing on the post. I am angry!”
He didn’t show obvious signs of reacting, so I brought my ‘hand-ears’ forward, so that he might understand they were supposed to be my ears, and with that, I startled the heck out of him! He pulled his head back, and took a couple of steps backward. I pinned my hands back again and told him I was angry!
It was funny, because the part he reacted to wasn’t supposed to be the threatening gesture. Regardless, it seemed to do the trick. I went back to scooping up manure, and he went back to grazing.
Apparently I know more horse language than I realized.
Delilah Again
Delilah stole the show again yesterday. She was a chewing monster in the morning before we went outside. Luckily, what she shredded was a chew toy of her own, so no harm done. I think it is cute that it is common for her to lay her head down on whatever it is she has just torn to bits, to take a little rest. All that destruction must be exhausting.
Later in the day, I let her accompany me, on a leash, for the trip to the barn. I chose to leave her tied up inside while tending to chores in the paddocks. I didn’t have it in me to witness any chasing of horses, and she has not been very trustworthy about behaving appropriately in their presence for the entirety of each visit. When she is good, it is as though she can only hold it for so long, and eventually something gives way and she can’t help but give chase.
What really got me yesterday –and this may be something that you really needed to be there for– was what she did when I finished my barn chores and disconnected the tie line holding her in place. Now I had her by the spring-loaded leash we often use, allowing her to explore, within limits, at her heart’s content. She seemed to have an immediate agenda, and headed for a spot that seemed entirely random to me.
She sniffed and pushed her nose into the apparent nothingness of the dirt, like she so often does. I have watched her appear to be within striking distance of a mole in the dirt so many times, yet come up with absolutely nothing, I hardly glance her way anymore when she starts the routine. Too often, when she starts frantically digging to get after something, she stops and turns to pounce on the sound behind her, which happens to be the dirt she was throwing between her back legs, as it hits the leaves on the ground.
I think she may have attention deficit issues.
Not me. I’m still on track, trying to describe what happened yesterday. So, as I was barely paying attention to her putting her nose to the ground at that unlikely spot, she surprised me by pulling something out of the dirt right there! She is so funny when she gets a critter in her mouth. She gets this expression that looks a bit sheepish, like she is doing something embarrassing. My guess is that she has a sense we might disapprove, which I suppose Cyndie does to a small degree more than I. Delilah also becomes entirely fixated on her “catch” and will take great precautions to maintain possession.
Whatever she pulled out of the ground was so covered with dirt that I couldn’t identify it, but it seemed to be about the size of a mole, and was dangling out of her mouth, swinging as she walked. I couldn’t tell if it was something she just discovered, or if it was something she had previously buried in that spot. I let her lead the way, and we walked out into the warm sunshine bathing the back hill behind our house.
I was more than happy to let her find a spot to lie down and do what comes natural with her little prize. As she licked and licked that dirt blob, I began to recognize the profile of a rabbit ear. I expect it is a remnant of the rabbit she had a couple of weeks ago, and thus, probably something she buried for her future enjoyment.
Work Visit
We put the new “Griz” ATV to use yesterday, and it worked like a charm. One of my goals for the day was to take down the temporary fence we put up to define a grazing area just west of the big field. Our friend, Rich, and his daughter, Sarah, offered to visit and help with some chores, so I also had a goal of having a little fun. Both were accomplished!
They got to meet our horses for the first time, which also served a purpose for us, because we want the herd to be at ease in the presence of visitors. The more chances our horses have to experience receiving visitors, the better.
Cyndie brought Legacy into the barn to be groomed, and Sarah was able to help out with that task. I think she may have done too well, because when we returned to the barn later, to give the horses their afternoon feed, Legacy was covered with mud. He must have felt too clean, and rolled on the ground, in his version of self-grooming, to create a new layer of “insulation.” It was pretty funny to see.
Rich helped me to roll up the poly tape and pull out T-posts. I had rigged a way to connect our little trailer, ill-fitting and undersized though it is, to the Griz, and pulled that along as Rich picked up the posts. We reached that point where the load was becoming precarious, yet had only about a half-dozen left, so we went for it, and with Rich supporting the posts hanging off the end of the trailer, slowly worked our way out of the field.
The load was enough that I got stuck on the slope of gravel leading up to the pavement of the driveway, so I shifted to low, and then put it in 4-wheel-drive, and up it went, easy as could be. Then my only remaining problem was figuring out where the heck I would put all the posts. I hadn’t thought that far ahead!
Rich helped me create some space in the back of the shop garage and we finished putting things away just as soup and fresh-baked bread were being announced, topped off with cookies that Sarah helped Cyndie bake.
Thank you to Rich and Sarah for the visit, and assistance with chores. More than just a helping hand, having another person around when working provides opportunity for banter that energizes the endeavor.
Wintervale is a place that is made whole by the presence of guests. That has become apparent to me. At first, I thought we just needed to get the horses here to achieve the fulfillment of potential this place holds. Horses are a big part of it, but having people here to immerse themselves in the experience is the most precious of all.
Delightful Delilah
I had a very fine day yesterday with Delilah that started a little surprisingly. Cyndie had gotten up early to let Delilah out, and then was occupied with some activity, while I remained in bed trying to fall back to sleep. I was jolted alert by a commotion in the dark at the foot of the bed. Usually it is the sound of the cats doing battle, but that rarely lasts very long, and this sound wasn’t stopping.
My intuition sensed Delilah was in the room, but the familiar clanking sound of the tags on her collar was missing. Then it occurred to me that the reason she would be able to appear in our bedroom in the first place would be, if she got loose from her leash, which would be logical if she had slipped out of her collar altogether. I jumped out of bed in the dark, wearing my usual sleepwear –which doesn’t happen to involve pajamas– and blindly stepped into the middle of the hissing fracas, feeling a bit ill at ease.
By this time, Cyndie was aware something was amiss and had come running. She toggled the light switch and revealed the standoff between the girls. Pequenita will stand her ground, but Mozyr zooms under the bed at the slightest threat. Calm was restored, but my thoughts of falling back to sleep were dashed.
After breakfast, I took Delilah outside to see if I could chuck a ball someplace where she would have to hunt to find it. It is thrilling to watch her dial in the location, as she passes back and forth across the path the ball took. One of my tosses ended up deflecting off a tree, changing trajectory from what Delilah was anticipating. I thought I saw where it landed and waited for her to narrow it down to that spot. I could tell it was a hard one, because she was obviously having difficulty homing in on it.
She would pop out of the woods, and then circle back in to hunt some more. One time, when she came out and headed all the way back toward me, I figured she was giving up. Then I spotted the ball in her mouth. I didn’t believe it, because she hadn’t made it back to the spot I had been watching. I thought she must have found some other ball from an earlier time. I hiked in and checked out the spot I had been eyeing. Nothing there!
Her nose is definitely better than my eyesight.
The morning altercation with Pequenita must have stirred something in the cat, as she came out three different times throughout the day to approach Delilah and make contact. It is not entirely unprecedented that she do that, but it doesn’t happen every day. Three times in one day is of noteworthy significance. When Delilah remains calm in the presence of the cat(s), she gets a treat.
On the third occasion, when Cyndie had arrived home, they were almost nose to nose, gobbling up the treats she was putting down. It was very rewarding to see Delilah maintain her composure for all three of the visits from Pequenita.
Progress has been very slow in coming, but it appears our patience is finally being rewarded. I don’t know about the cats, but I am truly looking forward to the day when we don’t have to confine Delilah to a leash when she comes inside the house.
Incredible Gift
We have received an incredible gift from our friends, Mike and Barb Wilkus. It has Cyndie and me struggling to find a way to fully convey our appreciation. It is a one-of-a-kind painting by Mike. Not only is it a unique and generous gift, the artistry has absolutely captivated both of us. Like a favorite song that you want to hear over and over, we keep finding ourselves drawn to gaze upon this image repeatedly.
Cyndie has collected and displayed a significant number of images of horses, but none of them come close to catching my eye as much as Mike’s watercolor image does. It is alive with the vibrant spirit of a horse.
It is absolutely stunning, and perfect for us, Mike. We can’t thank you enough.
It is a priceless masterpiece that we will enjoy anew every single day.
Oil Averse
Those of you who know me are likely aware of my past aversions to gas-powered engines. My favorite tool of all time has been my trusty Scotts 20-inch reel mower. I couldn’t part with it when we moved, and now we have found it to be the perfect tool for mowing the path of our labyrinth. But, alas, a 20 acre ranch with horses, that has a quarter-mile-long driveway, in a region that gets significant snow accumulations, calls for the power of an engine.
We do have some engines here. We bought the New Holland diesel tractor with a front loader and a back blade, plus the brush cutter. Then we have a Craftsman riding lawn mower tractor. We even added a back up generator that has a motor that requires periodic oil changes. It came with a spare filter, thank you very much. The classic reminder that I have another device that will require occasional oil changes.
Long, long ago, I gave up changing the oil in my cars. I pay someone else to do that for me, and I find it worth every penny, …oops, make that dollar. But how do you get someone to change the oil/fluids in your tractor? Drive it to a Jiffy Lube? That might be possible for the diesel. It’s got a gear for driving on the highway. But the lawn mower? I think not. And our generator is a permanent installation here, so that’s not going anywhere. I’m going to have to start servicing my own engines.
So, as long as I’ve got to start servicing fuel-burning engines, what’s one more?
That Craftsman lawn mower is the machine Cyndie has taken to for all manner of bushwhacking our fields, doing heavy mowing, and hauling with our pull-behind trailer. It has performed admirably, but she is frequently trying to coerce it to do things beyond the scope of its intended use. If she hadn’t gotten that pickup, I think she would be driving the lawn mower to Fleet Farm to fill the trailer with merchandise.
Well, now she won’t have a reason to get that tractor stuck in our fields anymore. Last night we made a deal on a used ATV with a plow blade. It will become the primary workhorse for navigating the far reaches of our woods and fields, hauling firewood, raking the paddocks, dragging the round pen, and even plowing snow in winter.
Now the poor old Craftsman can go back to just being a lawn mower for our yard.
Luckily, our new ATV came with an aftermarket service manual, so I can learn how to do all of the maintenance myself. Is changing oil anything like doing a software update? The time is coming for me to make peace with getting my hands dirty with oil.
Relative Something 