pictures!

I haven't posted picture in awhile, bad me. Everyone loves pictures. This what we did today

Broody hen is Broody

Very fresh eggs!

Yesterday my Father in law brought me over a new friends, his dog caught it. I'm trying to tame it, today it didn't try to bite me, I call that progress.

Freaked out woodchuck

Woodchuck butt

 We also went to feed ponehs

This is how I rock chores

Stampede!

Give us NOMS!

Here I am

This weekend was fun, I forced Joe to take me to the botanical gardens, and we drove by the hospital. I am positive he could have found the hospital since he is familiar with the area and has amazing sense of direction (especially compared to me, I can get lost in my own backyard sometimes, it's a gift) but it made me feel much more secure to know he knows exactly where we have to go when it is BABY TIME!

I love the conservatory, especially this time of year. There are three rooms with different types of plants and with two koi ponds. Such a relaxing place, if we lived closer I would go every day and just hang out. We also hit up the co-op and I got more figs (mmmmm) and some more amazing! best ever! fruit gummies which I then had to share :( Did some visiting Saturday night (made Joe happy) and had friends over to play cards and eat pizza on Sunday, which was nice.

I think I have a little cold, or we just did too much over the weekend and I am over tired. Definitely going to take it easy today and probably take a bath. My energy levels are so diminished right now, I have to work hard at making sure I am paying attention to myself.

There is much debate over Baby naming, I have a list of names I like but nothing really stands out as "IT" yet, which is funny since I really like naming critter, I thought picking a name would be simple.

Ponehs are good, although we just had another melt and the paddock is a mud pit again, this morning I had the added fun of trying to find dry ground to put hay on and a place where the hay wouldn't get blown away as it is very windy out. The ladies are now getting Mega-cell vitamins and everyone seem to eat it better then the grostong minerals. It is a pain though having to separate greedy mare from the other two every time I grain them, if we end up staying here I really want to add stalls in somewhere for ease of feeding.

Going to take a bath now and relax,
xo

fencing, baby and me.

Ponehs have been staying in mostly, I got the section of fence repaired and thought all was well until I tried letting them into the second paddock this morning (slightly drier in there, freakin mud!) and Little Horse and Joy were both out within minutes. So Joe gets to help me figure out the fence this weekend, I give up, they can stay in the front paddock and I will search for somewhat less muddy places to put down hay.

 Joy is being a spaz spaz spaz, spooking at invisble monsters and overreacting to e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. She got into grain during her Grand Wander About on Tuesday, I am not sure what it is about grain that turns into a monster but it is like having two different horses, total Jekyll and Hyde, one is high strung, over reactive, unfocused and quite frankly dangerous. The other is smart, notices everything, quick on her feet and fun. One vet I talked to thought she might be prone to ulcers and the grain irritated her stomach, especially since she has a similar reaction on antibiotics but no way of knowing  for sure without scoping her. Easiest right now to just to keep her on a high forage, low starch diet and avoid the crazies.

It has been kind of a baby-centric week, Monday was Tour the Birth Center Day, since Joe had to work (boo) my dear friend Melissa accompanied me. It turned out to be quite funny, we got lost trying to figure out where we were supposed to get in the stupid building, got sent to the 9th floor then got sent back to the 2nd, found the auditorium and giggled in the back through the powerpoint presentation, toured the Midwife Ghetto (honestly, it's totally set apart from the mainstream birth area, I guess so the nasty natural birthers don't upset the general population.) But the Ghetto is nice, lots of tubs to labor in which sounds wonderful as I adore baths. Then we went and ate yummy Thai food, baby likes Thai food, and strangely enough mushrooms.

Yesterday was my appointment with my Midwife, she is super cool. I ask "are you sure the baby is not freakishly large" and she assures me he is normal size, I go "but you'd tell me if he was freakishly large, right?" and she reassures me that she would tell me and says something nice about my measurements being all good. Just the kind of person you want around when you are worrying about everything. I have gotten kind of huge in the belly area, and feel a lot like sleeping all the time, grocery shopping was a lot of work. Also stopped by the fabric store and scored some nice brightly coloured flannel to make baby blanket, diaper wipes and general baby cleaners, they will be awesome and so much better then the wimpy swaddling blankets you can buy. (thanks for the idea Mom!)

I need to go be "productive" since all I have done so far today is eat yummy food, visit with Melissa and feed critters. I guess by "productive" I mean watch TrueBlood and make baby blankets, whatevs, it works.

Poneh hate.

I hate all the ponehs except the red one, the white one came when called so even though she was out I guess I don't hate her.

Try this again, I hate Little Horse.

She may look cute but is pure unadulterated evil.

Little horse realized yesterday that she could get out, so she was in and out all day yesterday, luckily when she gets out she just follows you like a big dog and demands cookies. I isolated where she was getting out (second paddock next to the barn) and closed the gate so all three were in the first paddock. Sometime early this morning Joy and Littlehorse decided escaping was awesome and busted through the gate so they could sneak out by the barn. I went out to check on them this morning and Poppy was all alone running around the field having a spazz. Joy did come to the front gate when I yelled so can't be to pissed at her.

So I went into the barn and cried for a bit, got the fence tester out and determined that the back half of the second paddock is getting no juice so now need to run up town, to get more wire and try replacing a few sections.

I so do not want to deal with this.

snowsnowsnow

It is such a good thing I am preggo in the winter, I think if it were summer (or even a normal winter) I would be very frustrated with things I want to do but shouldn't.

I really miss riding, I don't want to ride because it is uncomfortable and I feel all discombobulated but I miss being able to ride. I am hoping we get an early spring, the plan is to start lunging Joy and building up her topline while I bond with Baby and adjust to new mamaness, then I want to start getting her on trailrides especially the hill work as that is so amazing for increasing fitness and getting her hind end strong. Joy really responds better to training when she is physically fit, I guess all horses do but with her low frustration tolerance it really pays off to have her body strong while we are working on new things, especially dressage.

So right now Joy is at a good weight, Baby Horse is a little ribby (just had a growth spurt) and Poppy is annoying me with her disinterest in eating a lot. If I just had one I could put more hay out but I am going to have to add in an extra midday hard feed, otherwise Joy will get fabulously pudgy and Poppy will waste away while going "maybe I'll eat in a minute", so going to pull Joy out of the paddock and toss her some hay or something while the others get a tasty mix of alfalfa pellets, oats, rice bran and a little beet pulp so it sticks together. I am also giving up on them ever eating the Grostrong Minerals, and will order another vitamin/mineral supplement soon. I am thinking of putting Joy on Glanzen Complete since she did well on it last summer but if I can find flax seed cheap somewhere I might do that with a vitamin/mineral supplement instead as it is more economical.

I realized yesterday we had very little baby clothes in the teensy sizes, so then I went to a second hand shop and got some really cute stuff. It was fun, but took some time since a lot of baby clothes are really horrible, I wonder why parents are so freaked out by someone thinking their kid is the opposite sex, like the baby cares.

Going to spend some time on house stuff, been slacking recently. I will have plenty of time to take a bath tonight since Friday is the day when horrible teenage boys come over and argue loudly while playing poker, hiding in the bath is my usual defense and it works very well.

I need a nap.

Joy says "hello?"

sideways but you can tell there is cuteness

One of the best things about being preggers is I don't feel lazy for staying in jammies all day since jammie pants are the one thing that is really comfy on my tum. Getting dressed does have it's advantages though since it makes it easier to  pretend I am not lazy and have done more then sleep in, eat breakfast, drink tea with a friend, feed ponehs and eat some pretzels. But I haven't so why pretend? I'm not lazy, I'm growing a person.

Got woken up at 7am by the hay guy who needed to get into the fields he is renting to spread some manure, apparently told Joe he would be out there but who knows. I am not my best after being woken up by someone banging on the door like the barn was on fire, but managed to not be a total  bitch (maybe?). He has some convoluted idea on rigging the pasture gate from two strands of electric with gate handles to something involving moving a fiberglass post to open up the whole line, I don't think he understands I need to divide pasture in half and be able to contain them in the whole thing so can't have just one gate. Still not quite sure why he can't open a gate handle attached to some electric wire but apparently it is a big fuckin deal. I told him Joe would help me this weekend to work something out since Joe is sensible.

Went to the doctors today, everything looks good, never thought I would be such a fan of "normal" but I love hearing that everything is where it is supposed to be.  Then I had to stop at the store since baby needs both ice cream and cookies. I feel huge but everyone keeps saying my bump is cute and tiny, to be truthful I am mostly worried about how fast I can get in shape for riding post baby, don't want to miss all the fun next summer.


Trying to figure out horse supplements stuff,  I'm going to try the free choice mineral thing and going to try the Grostrong minerals , I called a local(ish) feed store and for whatever reason they only had 50# bags and the price was double what is was from the manufacturer including shipping. Since I decided not to go with conventional grain and stick with beet pulp and rice bran, because the only one who does well on grain is Poppy and I don't like having to separate the three every feeding time, I am just not set up for it plus I like forage based feeding. I'll have to see if they eat the minerals free choice.

We are heading north next week to visit family, sooo excited! it does mean I have some work to do here this week though, to prepare. Being gone for a couple days doesn't seem like a big deal until you have critters, then you have to do a lot more planning.

November, really?

Getting on to winter, the feel in the air has changed.

Had a good Halloween, went to a party as The Green Fairy, funnily enough the corset didn't fit three day later so my timing was good. The picture was taken at 1am, so I am more then a little faded but my makeup looked really good.

We are heading up to the bridge tomorrow to visit with family and friends who are driving down from the Upper Peninsula. Should be fun, going to be camping at a friend's cabin in the woods, I am so excited to see my mom and sister. Joe is heading out for work next week and it might be just me and the critters, which is ok but I will miss him. He will be missing the ultrasound as well which really bums me out.

Ponehs are getting fuzzy, Joy is pretty fat. I should take some recent pictures. I put Baby and Poppy on Triple Crown Lite which they seem to like, Joy is getting TC Senior since it lower in starch and I need to wait and see how she does on it. Just been trailriding lately, which is relaxing but I feel a little guilty since I am not working on anything special, but then I go "oh yeah, I'm pregnant and this is just fine"  I do need to improve her "dressage under distraction" before next show season though.

I need to go to bed, we are going to have an early start tomorrow.
So not the most exciting post ever.

In which I talk a little

It's been really hot, no! hotter then that, no! still hotter.

Joy is being good, a little on the stiff side. I am thinking of trying a chambon on her, a friend recommended it as a way to keep her from going above the bit and continue correctly muscling her neck.

Poppy (red mare) is doing well, been tacking her up and taking her for walks and today I lunged her and then ground drove her, it took her a little while to figure out what the hell I was doing behind her. She figured it out though. Her feet are almost looking normal and she is already better with being bugsprayed then Joy is but then that is Joy.

I am planning on making candles, in the process of finding all the materials.

I had hoped to write a humors blog post but now I don't wanna, I have stuffs to do, so this is all you get :P

Introducing the Mare without a name.

It has been a bit since I have updated, Mostly because the computer was being a pain, Joe fixed it and it is starting to be a pain again and I sincerely hope it is not because of my horse message board, sounds dumb but I would hate to give it up but our computer is picking something up despite the anti virus stuff.

Big news is, I bought Red Mare! Went to look at her on Thursday and really liked her so she came home with me. She is very sweet, pretty mover despite her feet being awful and very level headed despite having next to no work done with her.

Here is my new Red Mare, She is a three year old arab/saddlebred.

on her sale ad she made cranky face

But in person she is more like this

Her feet need work and she needs some groceries

Sometimes she looks like a saddlebred

but she is very cute

She seems to settling in well now although in the first two days she broke quite a lot of fence, She kept escaping at dusk, it was very odd since they would all get along fine during the day and in the evening she would go walkabout. I started stalling her in the evening and now she is staying home even when turned out all the time.

Still picking out a name, so far liking Poppy, Amber, Scarlett, Lucy and Ruby. Hard to choose, her registered name is terrible, "My Girl"

This weekend is going to be fairly crazy with having a bunch of company (including my mom and sister, yay!) coming to our house to celebrate Midsummers. I have a bunch of cleaning to do and work outside to accomplish, so might not get a chance to update as much as I would like. Hoping to do an event in the beginning of July so gotta work on conditioning Joy more (and feeding red mare up and working baby on the ground and fencing and weed whipping and)

Dear Baby Horse,

While I understand that being selective about the food one eats can be an useful survival mechanism in the wild, please understand you are not in the wild. I am not planning on poisoning you however I may be tempted to hit you with a grain bucket if you don't eat your lovely dinner. Honestly there is a handful of new food mixed in with the old food, You are not that fond of old food which is why I bought you nice, expensive new food. You need more weight so please eat your fucking food, because I know you will like new food when you stop being suspicious about it, Because you do this with every food I introduce, It is a wonder you weren't suspicious of your Dam's milk and starved as a teensy and (probably) picky baby.
Standing by the gate and waiting for me to bring you different food won't help, Not giving you hay or dinner noms until you eat your fricken grain.

Love, The Food Lady.

So Dancer has been in the other half of the pasture since 8:20 and it is almost 10:23 and I still haven't done chores because someones stupid poneh is Highly Offended that I changed her grain, slightly. She did this when I started her on beet pulp, oats, alfalfa pellets and the Durmor Mare and Foal, Dani stopped eating the Mare and Foal for two days because I added some oats to it, true story. I was hoping she wouldn't notice the addition of Triple Crown Growth because (a) I fed her a little by hand and she seemed to like it and (b) I added a very small amount. She dosne't like the Mare and Foal much so I have been having to mix in a little Rice Bran oil, Growth is supposed to be highly palatable but isn't gonna help her put on weight if she doesn't eat the stupid stuff.

Joy is fat and funny shape, here is Joy in a western saddle which doesn't fit, doesn't she look pleased?


After I get her more fit I am going to have a saddle fitter come out and figure out what saddle will work on her, since my Collegiate Dressage is doing the sliding onto her shoulders thing that ever saddle known to mankind seems to do*sniffle*, I think her back is funny. But there has to be a saddle out there that will be comfy for her that doesn't cost $100,000,000,000,000,000.75 right? Thinking a dressage one since I won't be jumping anything over three or four feet, I think I can manage lower level eventing in a dressage saddle and two saddles are kinda out of the budget for this year anyhow.

Hmmm.... off to feed and get stuff ready for the tack sale this weekend.
xoxo