Horsing around

I never really wanted a horse. Except maybe when I was 5 when every girl wants a horse for Christmas-- or a unicorn. We took a few trail rides over the years on 'family fun day' and had some distant relatives with horses but other than that my life in Youngstown was quite far removed from what it has become. Rog and his family lived with "Happy" the horse who took up residence in their barn for many years but Rog himself never took much of an interest in horsemanship.

It wan't until we moved to the new farm that the desire to add larger animals set in. The farm was previously used for boarding off track racehorses and was therefore set up as such. 28 stalls, wash room, tack room, drylots, pastures with run-in sheds and plenty of hay. A few of the smaller pastures had been rearranged or scrapped by the time we got here. So I decided I needed a cow in my life. Specifically a mini-Jersey.

Yes, that's a real thing and yes, they're exceptionally cute. Jersey cows make higher protein, higher butterfat milk that makes wonderful fatty cheese. I need that in my life. 

Mini Jerseys can give about 2 gallons a day, which I thought would be ideal so that we wouldn't be overrun with milk given that the goats give is 10-ish gallons a day already. They're also small, cute and more manageable in terms of clean up than a standard size cow. Which is important since we had already built a milking parlor with a door through which a standard cow would certainly not fit. I started shopping, Rog started panicking. Jersey minis, it seems, are quite expensive, surpassing $3000-4000 when sold bred. Cross contamination with manure and parasites when housed with the goats would be a concern. Housing it alone would be another concern. We discussed the possibility and Rog had some concerns with milking yet another animal that would tie us down and he uttered those fateful words "I guess I'd rather have a horse."

To Rog that means someday, many years from now, in the future, potentially never. To me that means I put down 'Cows for dummies' and picked up 'Horses for dummies' and started reading and shopping. The attraction about horses is that there are countless horses that need a home. Unscrupulous breeding practices, financial burden, poor management and judgement make horses an easy target for neglect and abuse. 

I started taking horsemanship / riding lessons over the winter and then began working with a midwest rescue program and waited a few months until someone came in that would be a good fit for aging-beginners-who-don't-want-to-get-hurt. Ultimately the chosen rescue horses did not pan out due to severe medical conditions that showed up once the weather warmed so we were back to square one. The goal being aged senior horses in relatively good health who were in need of a good retirement home that we were certain we could provide. Riding would be secondary, but soundness a plus, of course. Above all, safe, calm animals that would try their best not to kill us. Not asking too much, right? :-)

Enter Sierra - a well loved quarter horse / paint cross, 23 years old. Our trainer met Sierra's owners by chance at a show and they expressed their desire to rehome her due to an upcoming move and other obligations. Sierra is friendly, mild mannered and quite cooperative (most of the time!). 

Sierra - not abused, not thin - in fact, a little chubby

They were gracious enough to send Sierra with loads of tack and supplies and she soon made the journey home. Her adjustment to Capra Lane had its ups and downs, naturally. She traveled from a busy horse boarding facility near Cleveland to a quiet (sort of) goat farm - pretty traumatic to most any critter and she made it clear she missed her equine neighbors. She was especially wary of the loudmouth rooster and our neighbors cows at which she snorted incessantly. Her anxiety waxed and waned until a short time later we located a potential new companion, Rain.

Sierra's nervous corner.

                                  

    

Rain - and her 'feed me' look.

                           

Rain is earning her retirement from a girls horse camp in far northeastern Ohio where she worked long hours for the past 15 years. Rain is a 22 y/o Belgian / paint cross who is extremely well trained, a bit slow and quite social. Again, a good fit for aging first time horsemen.

Rain is happy to fit 'second wheel' position and does not challenge Sierra's role as leader. She is the more vocal of the two and is most excited at mealtime. Her 'Barbie-horse' flowing mane is quite a trap for shavings and dirt in which she likes to roll nightly, daily, frequently, thoroughly...

           

We think the two old mares have retired to a pretty nice place. They spend their days grazing happily in about 8 acres of pasture with a run-in shed for shelter, they now tolerate their goat neighbors antics without fear. Sometimes we rotate them to a smaller 2 acre pasture filed with treats (ie weeds) like chicory, plantains and trefoil. They're comfortable and content in their stalls at night, we'd cut a window between them to allow them to interact and adjust. We ride (slowly) around the property, mostly together as the two ladies are now bonded to the point of being 'buddy-bound'. They test our 'growing' knowledge on occasion but that is to be expected.

                   

Yes, we've added a bit more to the daily routine but there's something a bit therapeutic about sifting turds and shavings into a wagon - really! There is. And horses smell pretty good too. No, I'm not a horse person now, my muck boots still outnumber my cowboy boots, there's no bling on my jeans. I have no desire to attend a horse show and the goats still rank #1 at Capra Lane. For Sierra and Rain I hope they feel safe, well fed and cared for and can benefit from being a little lazy these days. For us they've brought another level of companionship and challenge to the farm and have presented another distraction as as they contentedly stroll across the property in the rear of the house. They look quite good there.

                               

July

The Fourth of July was spent locally - fishing and fireworks. This was the first year in a very long time that Rog did not work the holiday as part of his summer park gig. So we had time for a picnic as well.

                                      

And then the rain stopped. Every little green puff on the radar split up and missed our house completely for at least 6 weeks. Right after we got a new 15 acre hayfield planted. The early rainy season delayed our field prep considerably so we had a few strikes against us already in terms of timing. We stared at it every day as if willing it to grow,

About 5 weeks after planting we started seeing hints of green. Strangely, the grass and clover didn't grow- at all. Alfalfa, which is generally a bit more temperamental and unforgiving, was the only thing to show signs of life. The alfalfa came up sparsely and was soon joined by friends. 

Morning glories, in every color, shape and level of creeping invasiveness.

Some grew like shrubs, some like vines. It's like a damn forest shading the alfalfa. We've spent countless hours walking the field and identifying plants to determine if they're safe to be eaten, ie toxic to the goats. 

Not sure what these are but there are now millions of white hibiscus flowers, and the morning glories have bloomed yellow, purple and hot pink through the field. The purple alfalfa blooms are present but dwarfed. At this point we have no choice but to cut and bale it, figure out of the alfalfa seed is round up ready so we can hopefully kill of the intruders and then overseed it with clover. 

The garden did quite well, despite gross neglect on our parts. We've been enjoying our favorites. 

Coated in farina and fried quickly in grapeseed oil. 

And even on pizza. 

This spring we are out of bacon, yes *out* of bacon and dangerously low on pork products in general. 

So since we needed one more thing to feed, we got a pair of piglets!

In 5 months our bacon stock will be replenished. They have a large indoor / outdoor space that we built and poured concrete for ease of cleaning. 'Pigs' and 'clean' don't generally go hand in hand. The smells are back in full force. Nothing says July like 100 degree heat, pig poop, spilled milk and hundreds of fly carcasses. 

And Rog couldn't be happier, of course. He missed the pigs most of all. 

And because we needed another thing to feed. . . we brought in something even larger. 

Sierra looks lovely in the pasture. 

And then there were two.

More to come on the latest additions. 

June

May came and went and the rain finally stopped. We planted ornamental grasses in front of our propane tank - that's a law in the country isn't it? To try to conceal that monstrosity with tall grasses? 

Our first spring here brought a few surprises, like these peonies in front of the barn. We have a lone petunia that keeps sprouting up under the deck, however that got there. Peonies are one of my favorites, but they're so short lived. We have several - bright pink and dark burgundy, which I hadn't seen before.

The equipment was at the ready, sitting idly, patiently waiting for the ground to dry out. 

More acreage means bigger equipment! This beast can rake mean rows in about a third of the time. Plus it makes for a pretty cool photo. And it made for interesting lawn decor when a hydraulic line blew the first time we used it.

Finally it was time to cut hay! Our days of running short and scrambling to buy a few hundred bales at a time was over! The first cutting was successful enough (about 1400 square bales) that the barns were full and we even had a few spare wagon loads to sell. 36 acres of hay doesn't sound too unmanageable until you start stacking. 

                        

We managed to squeak in a garden, not quite as large as we're accustomed to, but then again, who has the time for weeds! The scrapped wood from disassembling stalls made excellent raised beds. The pig weed filled topsoil filled them up and started a nightmare for weeds. Asparagus and strawberries were started for next year. The blueberry bushes peaked early and we enjoyed several bowls, not having the patience to wait for enough to bake a pie. Lettuce, carrots, herbs, bush beans, beets, turnips, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, sweet potatoes and a brand new fig tree rounded out the food plot. Within a week, most had sprouted, within 2 weeks they were being choked out by pigweed. Those little buggers are hardy.

We cut. And raked. And baled. And stacked. And unstacked. And retstacked.

And got really sweaty. And itchy.

And done! Just before the rain threatened.

June also brought sadness. Having a cluster of older pets really, really sucks some times. Rosie left us at age 13-ish. We aren't certain as she was a rescue but we'd owned her since 2005 when it was believed she was 1-3 years old. One day she was fine, the next she was having difficulty walking and failed quickly within the next 1-2 days at the clinic with heart failure. Rosie was the sweetest, most affectionate and tolerant cat I'd ever come across. And a little freaky, depending on who you asked. We still miss her every day.

And sometimes in sadness comes growth. Two stalls were emptied and prepped in June for our newest additions. More to come...

May

May brought rain. And more rain. And so much green! So much rain that our much anticipated hay harvest had to wait. We used the extra time to put up new fencing, new access gates, repair existing fencing and re-string wire. We re-routed the goats from the front pasture to the back where they can roam freely away from the road and we can also watch them from the deck and even from out kitchen table. Since the news isn't even worth watching anymore it gives us some form of excitement!

We planted a forest. See it? Look closer... In 50 years it will be spectacular. Or maybe most of them would die in the drought to come. Little did we know when we planted them.

We bought dirt. And then we bought more dirt. The foundation of the house is now graded properly and we seem to have stopped all the water seepage. Hopefully I didn't just jinx it. We used some of the dirt to fill garden beds, fill in previously dug up areas of our lawn. As nothing can be easy, this lovely rich topsoil was filled with pigweed - roots, seeds, who knows but everywhere this dirt went, we have red rooted stubborn pigweed and it doesn't want to die.

The May rains did give way to some pretty spectacular sunsets across the property.

We finally finished at least a temporary pasture for the spring kids, we'll work on enlarging it in the fall but we used up all of our post-hole-digging energy on the larger pastures. 

The girls are happily milking away- no A/C yet, maybe next year. The fun in using stall wood to build the milking room has been gaps. Gaps so small you can't see them but the freaking mice sure can - they get in and tear open feed bags routinely. Rog has gotten as crazy with setting mousetraps as I am in killing flies in the house. 

They love their new pasture. It's a little lumpy and bumpy but goats are supposed to be agile right? No more running from cars, they can 'talk' to us when we are on the porch and they run in at milking time without being asked. Blessing has secured her new nap locations and the girls have claimed a new dirt pile to lie on.

All the things I thought about blogging about

But didn't. What a great picture! I should blog about that. What a great meal! I should blog about that. What cute baby goats! I should blog about that. Life got in the way, yet again. Here is a quick catch-up.

After the big burst of kids we were expecting 4 of the yearlings to kid over the course of late March-early April. Emogen had a large single doe, Embry had twin does. Which means we had a really doe-heavy year for toggenburgs and we have a few kids available for sale.

Last, our two yearling saanens finished out the spring, Filomena with mixed twins, 1b, 1d and Linden with a single doe. All four yearlings adjusted to 'milking life' without too much hassle, which isn't always the case with crazy yearlings. So that leaves Charming, who I re-bred twice and is due in early June. She may not even be pregnant, no signs to speak of yet - we're still decompressing though, we'll have time to worry about that later...

Spring came early this year, except for that last freak snow or two. We're prepping for a year of haymaking- I don't want to jinx anything but if the weather cooperates this *should* be the first year we don't have to buy any hay. It also means we will have sore backs and quite possibly not be on speaking terms.

We're starting anew with a garden site, fruit trees, berry bushes, etc. Planning, planting, and opening shipping boxes a few days a week - even the house is a blank slate in terms of landscaping. As always. I've got some ideas.

Fantasy

Reality

Reality

And someone sent me this photo of a stunningly perfect door - now I can think of nothing else. I'll try to be reasonable, it will have to wait - potentially until I can chisel my own!

It can't cost THAT much right?

Here are some re-cap photos of all the things I *intended* to blog about. Happy Spring!

Killer / Attack  baby goats for April Fool's day

Easter dinner

More Easter dinner - Inside out ravioli where the sauce cooks inside the pasta shells, painstakingly made by my mom and sister while I supervised.

BBQ Octopus at my new favorite restaurant in Memphis - a great way to celebrate after your plane gets struck  by lightning

I tamed the beast. He is a stray no longer - he figured out life is pretty good here.

He follows Annie around like a shadow - she tolerates him. Unless he tries to sneak a bite of her food.

The goats forgot they had a pasture. After a winter of being cooped up we quite literally had to walk them out front to show them where the food was. They seemed quite happy to stretch their legs.

Blessing has been on high alert. She's pronking, hopping, herding, hollering and all those other things guard llamas are supposed to do when there are coyotes loitering around. We eliminated one before breakfast on Easter. There's gotta be more where that one came from - good thing she does her job well.