A Day In Pictures

I thought it would be neat to share my day in pictures. I had my camera with me a good part of the day today and took quite a few pictures. What always amazes me is that it seems like I take so many pictures, yet I didn't even take pictures of all of the horses today and I also missed a couple of great photo opportunities. I didn't have my camera handy at all times today and there were a couple of truly great pictures that I missed. Two great photo opportunities that I missed today included:

1. Asterik and Sebastian down for a nap together with their noses touching. It truly should have been a Kodak moment but I didn't have my camera.

2. Elfin rolling in front of an audience. You met Elfin in this post and we celebrated his birthday in this post. Elfin is of course famous for his "dogwalk." He rolls on one side, sits up like a dog and crosses his front legs over each other to push himself to the other side, then lays back down and rolls on the other side. Elfin did his famous dogwalk roll with Ivan, Apollo, Dustin and Leo in a semicircle around him watching. It was such a cute moment and I missed it because I had set my camera down.

I mostly seem to end up with pictures of horses grazing. You do tend to see a lot of that around here! All of these pictures were taken today and I even posted them in the order they were taken.

Traveller making his way through the woods eager for his breakfast

Sebastian and Ogie
Tony and Apollo

Levendi

Tony coming out of the shed to join Ivan and Apollo wherever they were headingIvan, Apollo and Dustin; something really had Dustin's attention

It was Baby who was making his way over to the fence for some cross-pasture socializing

Trillion

Levendi and Dustin

They look tiny in this picture taken from a distance but it is Slinky (Slink in Pink!), Baby, Snappy and Chili; Apollo and Ivan are even harder to make out on the other side of the fence

Chance and Leo

This was not the picture I wanted but yet again I had set my camera down. I noticed that Buffy and Harmony were down napping next to each other with Teddy and Missy also hanging out with hind legs resting. By the time I retrieved my camera and came back to their pasture Buffy had gotten up.

Bubba taking a nap

Billy grazing in front of the barn

The elusive Olivia napping in some hay

Faune

Pictures

I'm sure it is not necessary for me to remind everyone that I am, as always, way behind on posting pictures. All of these pictures were taken in November. Hey, at least we are getting closer to 2009!

Bella the dog and Cloudy the cat; Cloudy has been introduced in this post and also this post Harmony

Buffy

I caught Chance right in the middle of a nap

Sparky

Dad with Bugle in the passenger seat, Bush standing in the back, Bear is the black blob in the back and Trooper is on the floorboard. We call Dad's gator the dogmobile because he never goes anywhere without at least three dogs riding along. I introduced some of the dogs in this post and Bush had his own post.
Trooper yawning while he catches a ride

Fall colors Ogie and Sebastian

Asterik

Asterik, Ogie, Faune and Sebastian with a background of some pretty fall colors

Fall on the farm Chance, Apollo and Leo

Sebastian and Faune

Chance joined us from Connecticut in September and he thought he was still in New England this fall. His winter coat came in the earliest this year.

Leo and Eflin

Sebastian and Trillion

New Addition . . . Almost

We almost had a new addition on the farm today. I really, really wanted this one to join us on the farm. I'm on the e-mail list of the wonderful people that run our feed store, Bonnie's Barnyard. Bonnie sent an e-mail today that she had a client with an orphan fainting goat and were looking to place it in a new home. They didn't have time to do the four times per day bottle feeding. I have desperately wanted a fainting goat for years and after pleading my case with Jason he agreed to the new acquisition. I literally was bouncing around the house full of excitement and anticipation as I picked up the phone to call Bonnie.

Then the bad news came, the orphan kid had already been adopted, I was too late. I will admit this was a major letdown to me. In the seven minutes I had been aware of the kid's existence and availability I had already been compiling a list of possible names in my head, was dreaming of dressing him in a little sweatshirt for the few colds nights we have coming, and cooing over him while feeding him. Alas it was not meant to be although I know we would have provided him with a home any goat would love. Right??

To ease my pain I sorted through some of my recent pictures of our current two goat residents taken in November, December and January. Sniffle.

Bubba in December during our 24 hours of snow; yet another terrible naming job that must be attributed to my Dad. I shudder every time I have to tell someone his name.

Bubba and Billy (yep - you guessed it - another name from dad) in the snow
Bubba

Napping with the chickens in November

One morning in late November I realized I was missing a feedbag. Jason and I looked everywhere for it. We finally found it wrapped around Bubba's neck. Apparently he smelled the remnants of food in it, stuck his head in it while it was hanging on the hook, then managed to pull it down and wrap it around him.

Shaking his head trying to get it off. We finally caught him and removed it.

Chili wondering where in the world his parents sent him as he meets Bubba on his first day with us. This was taken in November

Billy and Bubba napping

A close-up of Bubba fast asleep

Blanket Freedom Day

I don't know how many blankets I removed this morning, and I don't think I want to know! The horses have worn their blankets a lot more this winter than they usually do. However today was in the 50's and tomorrow is supposed to be just over 60 so it was feeling a lot more like middle Tennessee around here today.


The horses and I established a routine pretty quickly as I went around the farm pulling off blankets. Everyone had gotten the memo: when the farm slave pulls off my blanket I immediately go and roll in the dirt. Both of these parts were key, not just the rolling part, but the in the dirt part as well. Not one horse walked away from the gate areas where it is dirt to the acres of grass in their pasture. Without exception they rolled in the dirt, and we immediately had a farm full of dustballs walking around. Clearly they were thrilled to be free of their blankets and celebrated their freedom with rejuvenating rolls in the dirt.


Sparky rolled as well, but I honestly think he was a little bit sad when I took off his blanket. He really loved having that blanket on! I'm still surprised by that, I was so sure he would object to having it put on and would set about trying to remove it immediately. And of course Poco was ready and waiting to play a key role in the removal process.


I hope everyone found something to celebrate today just as the horses did. Although hopefully you didn't celebrate by rolling in the dirt! That said I'm pretty sure I looked like I had done just that by the time I was finished handling all of those blankets. My new cart worked hard today with multiple loads of blankets strapped down, I was definitely the Paradigm Farms trucker today! Tomorrow will be a typical Friday and a busy day on the farm as Gwen the amazing farrier will be spending the day with us.

Chance enjoying a refreshing roll in the dirt

And of course the big shake afterward
Levendi always does an extended roll; he flops from side to side so many times you wonder if the end is ever coming!

Levendi finally finishing up

Homer with Apollo watching in the background

Apollo going down; when you are 18.1 hands tall it is a long way down!

Apollo rolling while Ivan admires his technique in the background

I switched Tony from his blanket to his sheet. Tony has no coat at all so he won't be naked until tomorrow. He still joined in the celebratory events though.

One load of blankets strapped down and ready to roll

Poco the pony wanting to know why he didn't have a blanket to be removed (he still celebrated blanket freedom day with a nice roll). Because you remove them and shred them Poco, remember?