Thursday, September 29, 2016

More and More

(post by Jason) This week I once again got to feed my long term gravel addiction with nine loads for spreading around gates and in feeding areas in several pastures and six loads for part of the driveway. I don't know exactly when gravel got expensive but I know we spent many thousands of dollars on these loads, and history suggests we'll get to do so again in the spring. 

Gravel is one of many costs that most folks don't take into account when they're figuring up their board prices and we think this is a mistake. In my opinion you have to have an all weather driveway, all weather areas around buildings, an all weather parking area and some all weather areas for feeding/grooming/etc around the gates. These areas take A LOT of gravel to maintain. We have been doing this for a number of years and every year we can count on spending eight to ten thousand dollars on gravel. If our budget allowed it we could use significantly more. Over the course of our working lifetime if we continue to add gravel at rates similar to past usage rates, we will have spent as much or more money on gravel than on any other single improvement on this farm including barns and fences. That's mind boggling but true. 


Now that you know how much money we've got tied up in stone, the next time you visit you can forget about complementing our pretty fences or our well maintained pastures. Instead I want you to bend over, pick up a piece of gravel and say, "nice rock!" before carefully putting it back exactly where you found it. 



___________________________


spreading gravel in a pasture by the gate area

George and Asterik checking out the new gravel pile in their pasture

come back soon

Merlin and Remmy


Lightning, Havana and Cino

Sparky and Sabrina

Gus, Lofty and Faune

Apollo

Calimba and Renatta

Dolly and Charlotte

Wilson, Oskar, Ripley and Toledo

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Tuesday Pictures


Levendi, Moe and Homer

Hemi, Apollo and Thomas

Elfin


Johnny, Donovan and Oskar hanging out

Rocky and Toledo

Sam and Lighty

Rubrico and River

Revy and Chance anxiously waiting for breakfast


Sunday, September 25, 2016

Sunday Stills


Convey

Dawn showing what retirement should be like - a happy horse with a mouthful of grass

Asterik, Cocomo and Gus

Romeo and Lotus

Cinnamon and Renatta

Walden and Fabrizzio

Johnny and Mick

Lily and Cuffie

Cino, Duesy and Merlin

Donovan and Rubrico

Thursday, September 22, 2016

Oscar Returns

On occasion our feral cat Oscar likes to go awol on us. We've been feeding him for four years now but we're still not allowed to touch him. Over the past year he has, at times, lived on our porch 24/7. He eats an insane amount of canned cat food while hanging out on our bistro table on our front porch, usually four cans per day, and he isn't close to being overweight. Currently he is happy with the Meaty Bits selection of canned food, but as we all know that is subject to change.  

Two weeks ago I was returning to the house with Ewen one evening. Oscar often relocates to our back porch during the evenings, and Ewen and I made the mistake of disturbing Oscar as we went in the house. I told Jason when we came in that Oscar looked angry at us for daring to disturb him. I had no idea how right I was about Oscar's anger. We didn't see him again for two weeks.  The first couple of years Oscar began hanging out on our porches he would disappear on occasion for several weeks at a time but he always returned. His disappearances gradually declined in both frequency and duration.  

Over the past several months the longest absence Oscar had has been 4 days, and that only happened once.  We weren't too concerned when we hadn't seen him for one week, but when the two week mark came and Oscar still hadn't reappeared even Jason began to wonder if Oscar had met his demise. We had a daily discussion about Oscar, if he was ok, and if he was still alive. More accurately I talked to Jason and voiced all of my concerns and asked "what do you think happened to Oscar" while Jason contributed almost nothing to the conversation.

Then, a couple of days ago, Oscar suddenly reappeared again. He was laying on the table on our front porch, waiting for us to deliver some cans of Meaty Bits to him, acting like he had never disappared. He had lost a little weight and looked a little bit beat up, but that's usually how he looks when he returns from one of his disappearances. 

When I'm honest with myself about Oscar I realize he is an ungrateful freeloader who has lofty demands (his food fussiness is well documented on this blog) and offers nothing in return. Yet, for some reason Jason and I are both pretty attached to him despite the fact that we've never been allowed to touch him in four years. Thus, we were both really happy when Oscar returned to his throne on our porch. 

Oscar is back on his throne


A Throwback Thursday picture to that time we managed to trap Oscar in a live trap and take him to the vet. In this picture Jason was trying to sort out how to open the live trap without being shredded by Oscar. He resorted to welding gloves.

MyLight and Calimba

Johnny and Mick

Sabrina leading the way followed by Sparky and Bonnie

Norman and Charlotte

Murphy, Happy and Sebastian

B-Rad, Blu and Lighty

Gibson and Flyer

Rocky, Toledo and Walon

pretty sunrise

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Tuesday Pictures


Maise, Calimba, Dawn and Cinnamon having an after-breakfast grooming session

Hesse and Baner

Johnny and Sam

Miel, Happy, Taco and Murphy

3 grumpy expressions as the Pony Power Club naps; Cuffie, Norman and Traveller

Chance and Convey

Revy showing off perfect rolling technique; roll on the first side . . . 

. . . sit up and dogwalk . . . 

. . . roll on the other side

. . . get up . . . 

. . . and shake it off

Wilson and Ripley

George waiting for breakfast

Donneur and Gus

Flyer and Cocomo having a quiet, early morning moment