Another Project Involving Trees and

chainsaws, except I didn't have to participate!! I have a shed in the middle of a few of the pastures with feed bins and where I store blankets, halters, grooming supplies, etc. There were a couple of dead trees, one fairly large, next to the shed that needed to be dealt with. Since we could work away with our chainsaws for a year just trying to clean up trees that have already fallen over we were having a hard time getting excited about pulling over even more trees.

On top of that Jason and I are notorious for having a million unexpected problems occur when we are working away at our home/farm improvement projects. I just knew if we tried to pull the tree closest to the shed over we would end up flattening the shed and ourselves in the process. We almost tackled it ourselves, and even had the trusty Kubota utility vehicle loaded up with chain saws, rope, and a logging chain. We put the bucket back on the front loader of the tractor and had it ready for service. Finally one of us (me) heard the voice of reason that was desperately trying to tell us this was a bad idea. So I called a tree service and happily took pictures while they dealt with these two trees. Of course since Jason and I were only bystanders everything went perfectly and it didn't even take very long.

They had already done most of the limbing on the dead tree at this point but they were still finishing up with a few large limbs

Standing on the dead tree to do some limbing; it made me nervous every time he did that
Ready with ropes to make sure the branch fell in the right direction

Swinging back to the live tree; he climbed the live tree and then would swing over onto the dead tree to cut off limbs. What really impressed me was when he would just hang in the air and stabilize himself with one hand on his rope and cut down limbs one-handed with the chain saw in his other hand. No way could my little arms handle a chain saw one-handed!!

Finally taking down the trunk

Cutting his way through

Yeah! The dead tree is down, my shed is no longer in danger of being flattened, and I only had to watch. A perfect day!

Now taking down the other tree. This one was easy, no big limbs and branches. Jason and I could have easily done this one ourselves but they were here and I liked this no participation concept a LOT.

Almost ready to fall

Going, going, gone!

Dealing With Blankets

I just gathered up the blankets that I need to run over to my wonderful person who does blanket cleaning and repair. I really hate dealing with blankets. Put them on, take them off, change to a different weight, get the dirty blankets cleaned, etc. The most irritating part is dealing with blankets that are on the injured reserve list. Most of the horses don't come with "spares" so dealing with ripped/torn blankets is a real pain. My list of blankets in need of repair that are going to the blanket fairy tomorrow include:

Rambo sheet with broken chest surcingle

Weatherbeeta blanket with huge rip on one side

Dover Rider's sheet with broken chest surcingle and rip in the shoulder

Gatsby sheet with giant rip in it

Dover hug blanket with large rip

Saxon blanket with large rip

As you can see there is no discrimination going on around this farm. We rip and tear all brands of sheets and blankets in conformity with our affirmative action plan!! I can't even blame it on a certain horse or claim that certain groups tend to play too hard and be rough on the blankets as again we are equal opportunity about blanket shredding. Surely I am not the only one who is having to deal with various blanket issues right now??

Horsey Christmas

Like any good horse person I have lots of horse-themed holiday decorations. Most of them have been found by my mom who is amazing at finding great stuff to decorate with. I rarely get past the tack store and the feed store so I'm not the best at decorating. Following are a few of my horse ornaments courtesy of my mom. To everyone Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Feliz Navidad, Happy Holidays etc.!

Huntsman Santa with his hound

My mare Bridget with her foal Lexi (Lexi is now 4). My mom painted their faces and socks so they would be correct - 4 socks on Bridget and 3 socks on Lexi. My mom is awesome, and she probably just wants my tree to look half decent!! She gave me this for Lexi's first Christmas.

The horses need carrots of course!

Horse ornament

Horse trailer complete with horse inside which unfortunately doesn't show up in the picture. Did I mention my mom is the best?

She even made a brush jump for my tree

Christmas saddle

Hunting horn

Grooming box - my mom just continues to outdo herself every year

Sometimes I Amaze Even Myself

Two days ago I was preparing to feed everyone dinner. I made a quick trip to the compost pile to empty my muck bucket and I noticed the horses in the neighboring field were in the woods hanging out. No big deal, they love to go in there and explore and nap, they do it all the time. So I am standing there watching them with a smile on my face until I notice one horse is down on the ground. And he's not moving. I knew right away it was Trillion because he is the only dark horse in that group. Trillion is a bay and everyone else is a gray or chestnut. He should have had his blanket on and actually been a dark green horse with some bay parts sticking out, but Trillion has been known to remove a blanket before according to his mom.

I start calling his name hoping he was just napping but he doesn't move. I scream his name and no movement, nothing. I noticed Sebastian and Asterik were hanging around him and I started really freaking out. "Oh no, he's died and they are staying with the body." I am crashing my way through the woods at this point with all sorts of horrible things going through my mind. "Dear God what happened? What am I going to tell his family? I'm going to miss him so much. How can this be happening?" and etc.

Just as I am preparing to climb the fence I notice something out of the corner of my eye. Of all things, a dark green horse with bay parts sticking out - Trillion!!!!!!! I was overcome with joy and was crying tears of happiness. Since I was much closer now to what I originally thought was deceased Trillion I looked more closely and realized it was a big log. I took a decade off of my life over a downed log in the woods. The sun was setting when I originally noticed "Trillion" but gosh, my eyes aren't that old and surely aren't that tired. It has taken me a couple of days to see the humor in this.

You can see why from a lot further away than this I might mistake this for a dead horse . . . or maybe not

Sebastian and Asterik grazing around "Trillion"

Merry Christmas To Me

I always do the same thing for myself for Christmas and remember a horse rescue or two in my Christmas giving. I will have more about this in another post. Today I simply bought myself my own Christmas present a few days early. Ho ho ho!!

I gotta say dear old Mother Nature has truly turned her back on me the last few weeks. I don't know if someone peed in her wheaties or if she happens to think someone in middle Tennessee did so or what. As I mentioned in my letter to her a couple of days ago we have had tons of rain the last couple of weeks. The last few days we were in the 60's and even the 70's. The next 48 hours will be cold. Waaaaaaaaay to cold for this part of the south, especially this time of year.
To top it off karma decided to play some kind of sick joke on me this morning and the zipper on my coat broke. Like, it completely broke and is utterly useless. I only have one coat for the farm. So I got to work outside in the cold and wind with an unzipped coat for a few hours this morning. Nice.

After lunch Jason and I made a quick trip over to Tractor Supply Co. to purchase another coat for me. I was already unhappy about my zipper breaking, and I was less happy about getting a new coat from TSC. I have nothing against their apparel, I am just very fussy about coats. The one I've used the last few years was actually a nice ski coat and I loved it. It was warm, windproof, waterproof , it wasn't bulky and it was easy to move around in it and do stuff. TSC carries a lot of Carhartt stuff, which is warm but so stiff and bulky. After trying on every coat in the store I finally picked one out. I don't like it and I plan to head to REI after Christmas (I just can't face the crowds right now) and get another ski coat.

Once I had made my coat selection I began wandering through the store. I had mentioned to Jason that I would really like two things for Christmas. First I would like a cart or wagon to drag the blankets around in. Since most of the horses live out 24/7 it is a real pain to actually get the blankets to the horses. I have the blankets stored in a couple of different locations to have them closer to the horses but I still have to drag them out in the pastures. The other thing I asked for is a leaf blower. Why, oh why, am I STILL sweeping the barn aisle every day when I could have that task done in about a minute with a leaf blower? Every time I bring the leaf blower up Jason simply cannot comprehend why I think it would be useful. It seems like a no-brainer to me but apparently not. Needless to say I am confident that Santa will be dropping neither a leaf blower or a wagon down my chimney.

So I'm wandering through TSC and what to my wondering eyes would appear but a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer? Well not exactly but I DID see a lovely cart!! It was perfect, nice and long with sides that can be dropped down if you wish and a wire grate bottom so it won't collect water. So I came home with an ugly, yucky coat AND a new cart to drag blankets around with. Merry Christmas to me!!!!!

Me with my new cart and my ugly new coat. Bear likes being pulled around in the cart.

Bear wondering if his new ride is already broken. No Bear, we just needed to tighten all the nuts and bolts.
Jason tightening the wheels

Checking over everything

Putting more air in the tires. Jason was thrilled (not) to have one more piece of "equipment" to "service"

I Had to Share

this picture of Faune. You've met Faune before in this post. Faune's mom e-mailed me this "action" shot of him she had on her computer this evening. I absolutely love seeing pictures of the residents prior to their coming here, whether they are action shots or not. Since we feel like these horses become "ours" it is like looking through a family photo album when we see pictures of our residents in their previous lives.

Faune won extensively in the hunters in the professional and amateur divisions, but I learned tonight that he occasionally showed in the jumpers as well. He is over-jumping this jump by so much that the photographer couldn't even get his rider's head completely in the picture. And Faune still doesn't even look like he is trying! I've requested more pictures of Faune both showing off like this and just hanging out with mom, and if she can dig up anymore on her computer I'll share them.

And any other "parents" that read this post, if you haven't previously e-mailed me pictures of your boys and girls I would love to see them if you have them!

Faune showing in the jumpers at Saratoga
While I am showing off pictures of our residents, Sebastian's mom sent me this picture of him a couple of weeks ago. This picture was taken at Christmas a few years ago (if the wreath on the stall didn't already give the season away). I love this picture of Sebastian because it looks like it should be a holiday card, and also because his mane is dark and he is obviously a few years younger in this picture than he is today!!

I think this picture should be a Hallmark card, don't you?

Dear Mother Nature

It is obvious to all of us now that you feel bad for forgetting to put some rain clouds over us in September and October. Yes, we got a tiny bit of rain but nothing much. The rain clouds you have parked over us for the last few weeks have MORE than made up for what we missed out on earlier. Thank you so much for trying to make it up to us, but I think everything is accounted for now and you can move those clouds elsewhere. All in all you have given us some pretty crazy weather lately. We're ready to go back to normal now. Oh, and having several hours at a time where it does not rain doesn't count, at this point I'd like a few weeks without rain.

Much Love,

Melissa

Paradigm Farms

I'm sick of having to dress like this every day. It does nothing for my self esteem. Talk about taking one for the team!!

Winter Wonderland

It snowed - we received a bit over three inches of snow Thursday evening!! We received even more rain on Thursday. It rained all day on Thursday and when the sun went down it just barely went below freezing and the rain changed to snow. For middle Tennessee, especially this early in December, 3+ inches of snow is a big deal. Horses and people all had lots of fun in the snow. We had to get our fun in quickly as most of it melted during the day on Friday, and the little bit that remained melted on Saturday. Gwen, our amazing farrier, still made the trek to our farm on Friday despite the challenging (for us) weather and worked away on the frisky horses. Without further ado I bring you pictures of our winter wonderland.

The snow coming down Thursday evening. Being the good southerners we are (well, Jason is a Canadian transplant) we had to go out and play as soon as we realized it was snowing.

Missy and Teddy sharing a peaceful breakfast while Bella hangs out with them

Henry hanging out in the snow. Henry is only here for the winter and just arrived last week. His mom also owns Sebastian so Henry had an "inside track" with us. Henry came down from New York and may have thought his mom had lied and didn't send him south after all.

The goats weren't too fond of the snow, and neither were the chickens. Everyone else was!

Faune

Ogie

My riding arena

The "big boys" hanging out waiting for breakfast

Harmony

Homer impatiently awaiting breakfast

Harmony, Missy and Buffy

Leo and Elfin were playing and having a great time

Snappy, Clay and Chili

Floating Away

I don't know how much rain fell over middle Tennessee Tuesday through Wednesday morning but it was quite a bit. Jason said we set a rainfall record for this time of year and I believe it. The horses have a lot of mud to work with needless to say, and they are thrilled about that! Why do they love the mud so much?

What I want to know is why couldn't we have gotten all of this rain in October and early November when we really needed it? When the grass would still have had a lot of new growth from the rain? I'm starting to sound whiny so I'll wrap this post up by including some pictures. These pictures are all from early and mid October.

Elfin with Chance in the background

Chance with a mouthful of grass
Apollo

Bella

Elfin, Ivan, Leo

Asterik, Poco, Sparky

Trillion, Sebastian and a chicken

Chance

Bella, Bonnie and Jason

Sparky and Jason

Homer crossed his front legs and fell asleep waiting for his turn with the farrier

Sebastian

Jason and Asterik

Asterik with one of the goats

Sparky and Faune

Sunset/Sunrise

Sunset photos from December 6th

Sunrise photos from December 8th

These pictures don't do justice to the colors as the sun set over the hills

Anybody that knows me knows I am not much of a morning person (no comments from the peanut gallery needed), but a view like this almost makes me smile first thing in the morning. Oh, and Jason is even less of a morning person than I am!!

Photo Shoot Part II

Even more of the pictures from our session with the wonderful photographer Kathy Ziegler. Kathy works regularly in the middle Tennesee and San Diego areas. Of course she is available across the country as well!

Me with Bonnie; Bonnie was a poser

Jason holding Lexi who was much for fidgety; I'm pretty sure she was getting on his nerves here judging from Jason's expression!

Bonnie

Lexi

Bonnie

Bear on my lap, Trooper in the back

Trooper the amazing 3-legged dog (No we don't know what happened to his other front leg except it was amputated. We adopted him from the shelter already 3-legged)

Photo Shoot

My mom drove me crazy for months demanding a good picture of me and Jason. I really don't like having my picture taken. Mom was extremely persistent though. I finally caved after almost a year of constant harassing from my mother about pictures. Through a friend I learned of Kathy Ziegler. Kathy spent some time one afternoon in September with Jason, myself and some of the dogs and horses and she took so many wonderful pictures for us. Kathy works in both the middle Tennessee area and in the San Diego. She does lots of weddings, but she also does a lot of portraits. She has many horsemen and women in her roster of clients. Being a horsewoman herself Kathy is excellent at capturing great shots of people with their horses and other pets. Following are a few pictures from our session with Kathy. I'll have more in the next post, there were so many! Be sure to visit Kathy's website and book a session with her!

Bonnie has the star and the snip; Lexi has the stripe and three socks

Things didn't always go as planned!

It's Raining Chicks Part II

Yesterday I told you about chicks raining down into the barn aisle and the stalls. I shall pick up where I left off.

I went in the house to eat lunch, and that afternoon saw the chicks happily following mom around. They were all one big, happy family again. I took a few pictures of them and was satisfied with my good deeds for the day.

The next day I was up early as it was Friday, and Gwen the amazing farrier comes every other Friday. It was a beautiful morning to be out with the horses. After everyone had eaten breakfast and all the water troughs were scrubbed and filled and it was time to start preparing for Gwen to arrive. She usually gets to the farm at about 10am and spends the day with us. I was bringing in horses from various pastures and putting them in stalls to await their pedicures.

I was leading the last horse up to the barn right as Gwen arrived. Perfect timing, nothing like having things run like a well oiled machine. Hah! As I was walking up the driveway into the barn I heard the sounds of the day before - lots of loud chirping. Gwen was just getting out of her truck and made the comment that it was awfully loud in the barn. I told her we'd had a new flock of chicks born the day before and they were probably wandering through the barn following mom.

We walked into the barn and there were no chicks in the aisle. With dread I looked up and saw the exact same thing from the day before, chicks lined up at the edge of the loft wondering where mom was. I stood there and said "That *&^I!@#% hen somehow managed to get those chicks back up in the loft. Today it is HER PROBLEM!"

I pull Leo out of a stall and Gwen proceeds to start working on him as the chirping gets louder and louder and louder. The noise volume literally doubled . . . because the hen and chicks from yesterday's fiasco came wandering into the barn. Holy crap was the first thought that went through my head, another stupid hen hatched chicks up in the loft and then left to get food and water. I couldn't believe it was happening with a second batch of chicks a second day in a row!!

As I fully digested the situation an innocent Jason came wandering into the barn to help.

Me: Jason, there's another flock of chicks in the loft and they are getting ready to JUMP!!!

Jason: Stop shrieking

Me: I'M NOT SHRIEKING

Jason: Yes you are

Chicks: First suicide jumper made the leap to the aisle. He survived. I chased him around the aisle and finally cornered and caught him. I placed him in the stall Leo had just vacated. My life became a bad remake of the movie Groundhog Day as remaining chicks in loft start running amok and leaping into stalls and into the aisle.

Me: Frantically chasing chicks everywhere and trying to keep up with where they are leaping. "Jason, don't just stand there, DO SOMETHING! HELP ME!"

Gwen: In a laughing voice. "Yeah, my husband always responds well when I tell him to DO SOMETHING!"

Jason: They'll work it out, just calm down

Me: Racing around in the stalls cornering chicks as the horses blessedly avoid stepping on them. I'm starting to get teared up again as I plead with Jason to help me catch the chicks in the aisle before they exit the barn and get completely lost and disoriented.

Jason: Desperate to avoid tears he begins attempting to round up chicks. We deposit chicks into the empty stall. Jason scoops up the last two chicks and has a chick in each hand. He is heading to the stall to place them with their siblings.

Me: Wait! Wait! I have to take a picture of you with the chicks.

Jason: Impatiently waiting for me to grab the camera. "One of these chicks just s**t in my hand!"

Gwen: At this point was laughing way to hard to continue trimming the horse

I manage to snap a couple of pictures as Jason complains loudly about the chick poo in his hand. He deposits the chicks in the stall and just like the day before I herded an ungrateful mommy hen to the stall and reunite her with her chicks. Just another day on the retirement farm.

It's Raining Chicks

That title is meant to be sung to the tune of "It's Raining Men." I mentioned in one of my posts in early October about the chicken rodeo we had. I never did fulfill the requests to explain what I was talking about. I know I've mentioned before about the stray flock of chickens that took up residence on the farm a few years ago. Of course they lay eggs and we have some chicks hatch several times a year. In case you didn't know this chickens are not the smartest creatures in the world.

One Thursday in early October, the 9th to be exact, I was finishing up morning feeding and barn duties. As I was walking towards the barn from one of the pastures I could hear a chorus of loud chirping coming from the barn. I knew what that sound meant, a new flock of chicks had hatched. Chicks are little but they are amazingly loud!

Instead of heading into the house I decided to go back to the barn and try to find mommy hen and her chicks. What is cuter than brand new chicks anyway? The ruckus sounded like it was coming from directly inside the barn, and as I walked in it sounded like mass pandemonium. I looked up and saw chicks right at the edge of the loft, precipitously close to falling down onto the concrete aisle. They were at the edge because mommy hen decided she'd had enough of the loft and was hungry and thirsty. Stupid mommy hen didn't realize that her hours old chicks couldn't follow her that easily!!!

I decide to go up in the loft to try and relocate them to a safer location. I cautiously approach them in the loft saying "it's ok chickies, I'll save you." Clearly they didn't understand me and one chick decides to make the jump. I bolt back downstairs to check on his status and he survived his suicide leap down to the concrete aisle. I managed to catch him and deposited him in an empty stall full of fluffy shavings for safe keeping.

Unfortunately his leap caused havoc amongst the remaining chicks in the loft. They have scattered everywhere. Some are making the leap down to the aisle, others are running around in the loft and make the leap down through the hay drops into the stalls. There were two horses in the barn at the time, Asterik and Faune. Asterik was a brand new arrival and I'm sure he wondered exactly what dump his mom had sent him too as chicks fell down into his stall. He very carefully avoided stepping on them, as did Faune.

First I focused on the chicks in the stalls with horses. I caught them and deposited them with the original suicide jumper in one of the empty stalls. Then I started rounding up the chicks in the aisle. I'm sure I looked like I was doing my best Three Stooges impersonation all on my own. I managed by some miracle to corner and catch all of the chicks running around like crazed things in the aisle. I could still hear one very loud, peeping, distressed chick. I finally located him on the other side of the fence, on the neighboring property. I couldn't climb the fence because A) the tree line is too thick and b) the fence is no-climb mesh and it really is not possible to climb it.

Jason had left for a meeting and I called his cell phone in tears and explained my predicament. Of course he has no helpful advice and was laughing his butt off at me as I sobbed on the phone. For some background information I really don't like the adult chickens, but have an incredible fondness for baby animals and I realize it is something of a juxtaposition to be crying over something I won't even like in a few months . . .

I sat down on one of the benches in front of the barn, quietly crying over the fate of this poor little chick, terrified and separated from mommy and siblings, all alone in the world. Then, a few minutes later he wanders back to my side of the fence. I commence chasing him around the barn and finally manage to scoop him up, triumphantly depositing him in the stall with his eleven other siblings.

I then block the chicks into the corner of the stall with some buckets, open the door, and proceed to herd mommy hen (who had been absolutely useless in rounding up her flock by the way) into the stall with them. She repays my kindness, care and concern by attacking me when I go to remove the bucket barricade so the chicks can wander the stall. How dare I approach her chicks! Did I mention that chickens are stupid!! So I fetch a broom and proceed to swat mommy hen away as she attacks me while removing the bucket barricade.

I then call Jason again to let him know I managed to reunite the last chick with mommy and siblings. Triumphant and satisfied I went inside to eat lunch.

To be continued . . .