Agriculture

The Birthday Party

This sweet little girl is 4 today. 4. How did that happen? I seriously don’t know. It seems like just 4 years went by in the blink of an eye. I’m sooooo proud of how she’s turned out and some days she leaves me shaking my head wondering how her mind got where it got!

Only having her sister around certain times and with trying to plan a birthday party around our hectic at times schedule, we actually wound up celebrating her birthday 2 weeks early. Hey, a girl is allowed to celebrate her birthday for a month, right? I think so!!

The Birthday Party

I knew the theme was going to be Unicorn’s since sometime last fall. It’s random. It’s so totally her! I did some research online looking for party decorations. I started to order offline but then went to town to Party City to see what they had. They had everything I wanted and I could walk away with it in hand so I went ahead and changed up the unicorn pattern a little and bam, we were set! (more…)

NCHA Hall of Fame

Oh goodness, this month has flown by! Gosh! We’re already at the end of the month and now I’m going to tell you something that happened the first weekend of this month. That was 20 some days ago… But sometimes I get to play catch up and this is one of those things I want on this blog, so that’s what you get… playing catch up.

My uncle has had a goal his whole cutting horse showing career of making the NCHA Hall of Fame. I’m pleased to announce he finally made his goal come true! Woot woot! One of the criteria is for you to win $ 500,000-lifetime earnings. Let’s just say, he made it! And this year he was inducted into the NCHA Non-Pro Hall of Fame.

The awards banquet was held in Grapevine, Texas, the first weekend of June during the NCHA Convention. We loaded up first thing Saturday morning and hit the road for a long 6 hour trip to Grapevine which is just outside of Dallas. We pulled in around 3 pm or so because we actually got on the road earlier than we planned on. What? 6 of us and we got on the road earlier than normal. That’s totally unheard of! Especially for my family… not going to lie. Usually, we get on the road later than planned. (more…)

We got a Filly!

Guys! WE GOT A FILLY!

I just mentioned the other day that all we ever seem to get are stud colts… but we got a filly! WE. GOT. A. FILLY!! It’s pretty darn exciting! For the last 5 years (at least) all we ever seem to get are stud colts. I swear, our stud likes boys. Wait, that sounds weird. Should I explain? Maybe I better!!!

Okay, so as we know from Biology, the male produces the gender of the baby. So… when friends of mine have nothing but girls, I always tease the dad that he just always wanted to be surrounded by pretty girls. Clear as mud? Okay! Anyway… moving on…

One thing I need to point out… The mare who has thrown fillies in the past, you’re looking at her. This mare right here. So far, Blondie and Sis (although we sold her last year) have never thrown fillies since we’ve owned them. They’ve always thrown stud colts. This mare though, she’s thrown 3 fillies now. A sorrel, a dun, and now a Bay. (more…)

Our Newest Edition

Blondie sprouted! haha!

Blondie is our momma mare. In fact, she’s the momma of our my Bucky! This year, we had it calculated when she was to foal, but she had other plans I guess. Two weeks after we thought she’d sprout, she finally did!

One thing I did realize in all of this waiting… this little colt’s (yes I said colt, more on that in a minute) granddaddy stayed in his momma 13 months. I’m not kidding. Now if you know anything about horses, they carry for 11 months. Way back in the 90’s when granddaddy was born, we hauled our mare Lena down to Texas to get bred. We knew the date we brought her home. We know the date they bred her. All those dates were accounted for and when her due date came and passed, by like 2 months, I kid you not, we figured she just didn’t conceive.

Now my dad had been sick and in the hospital. He was released the day before Munchkin was born. My mom got up at 6 am to go out and do chores so that my dad wouldn’t worry about the animals. She went out to find this little heap of what she thought was a big pile of poop. In fact, it turned out to be Munchkin. So, when Blondie came and passed her due date, I giggled remembering Munchkin. Wondering if those were genetic traits and she’d have to carry for 13 months as well. You never know… (more…)

The Bucky Files… His First Year

Normally I post photos and stories of our newest babies on the farm. Those babies typically are horses of course. This morning I went back through to see about Bucky’s post and… I guess I screwed up and didn’t post his. Shame on me. I posted the colt we sold earlier this year and I posted Little Brother 2 Spot‘s post, but not Bucky’s. Shame on me! He was born April 7, 2016. Just a couple days after Little Brother 2 Spot. If you’ll remember, I was swamped with trying to finish up my Master’s, graduating, and leaving for Cozumel. Maybe that’s how I brushed over this post?

Bucky is out of our mare we call Blondie, for obvious reasons… she’s a Palomino… aka Blonde. In the beginning, we thought we might have had him sold so I didn’t mess with him too much. I didn’t want to fall in love with him and then be heartbroken when he went bye bye. It happens. A lot!

Like I said, since I thought we had him sold, I really didn’t mess with him much. One night though I decided I was going to go play with the colts. We had three that year. I opened up the pen where they were and though, I’ll see which one comes out first. Lo and behold, it was Bucky.

Up to this point, none of the colts had really been messed with. It was only less than 5 minutes and he was loving on me and nuzzling me for attention. I decided to go to the barn and get a halter and see if I could get it on him. Now, remember, at this point, I hadn’t had a halter on any of them. The only messing with they really had was when we did chores and fed them. By this time it was early fall, just for a frame of reference in timing. (more…)

Update

  1. So if you read yesterday’s post… I was pouting. I think maybe every once in a while if things don’t go your way, it’s okay to pout? Someone, please tell me it’s okay, even at whatever age I am. My husband asked me who made that rule up and I told him I did.
  2. Last weekend was Abug’s Dance Recital photos. They were to wear Bright Red Lipstick. Now first off, I haven’t worn lipstick since I was in my early 20’s and then I wore more natural/darker colors. So I went and bought bright red. After I had my pouting moment, I put on the bright red lipstick. First off, it matched my shirt. I laughed. Second off, I looked WEIRD! I don’t think I’ll be wearing bright red lipstick any time soon. Not sure what the appeal is.
  3. It’s 16-hour lipstick. I woke up this morning and it’s still there. I laughed again. Maybe that’s just what I needed!
  4. Two weekends ago we were helping raise money for our local CP Center. More details to come on that… But I either have a cold from that or I have allergies. I’m not sure how to know the difference. But either way, I have my sexy voice on. Go me.
  5. I woke up today in a better mood than yesterday. While I’m still frustrated, I’m not pouting anymore. I swear, maybe it was the lipstick… if nothing else, making fun of myself.
  6. No, I didn’t take a picture.
  7. So if you’ve been watching the weather, there are potential storms to hit the midwest. Ours is supposed to hit here tomorrow. Fun stuff. My mom was in North Carolina when we had a Microburst hit here back in 2008 (I think it was). She was in Germany when the Tornado hit here in 2011. She’s out of town again. I’m worried…
  8. We have a mare that is supposed to be foaling… well last week actually. She’s still plugging along. We had a mare back in the late ’90s who held on for 13 months. Mares carry for 11. This mare (technically foal) we’re waiting on has the genes from that foal back in the late ’90s. (Grandpa on the paternal side.)

And that’s all she wrote today!

Easter 2018 (Better Late Than Never)

Easter 2018

Yey! Easter has come (and gone!). This year we made a trip to my aunt and uncles in southern Oklahoma for Easter. It is a 5 1/2 hour trip down, so we left Friday, celebrated Easter (with dinner) on Saturday and drove home on Sunday. Luckily this was our year to have Tbug with us too! Woot woot!

We weren’t able to get Tbug until something like 1:30 on Friday and my dad wasn’t able to get off work until closer to 3ish so by the time we got out of there, it was closer to 4 or 5. I can’t quite remember but does it really matter?

On the drive down I listened to the book, The Time of My Life by Patrick Swayze and his wife Lisa Niemi. I can’t read in a car. I get car sick just sitting in one if I’m in the back seat, so reading is totally out of the question. But Audible to the rescue! It wasn’t a total loss, yey! I’ll have to do a “book report” on that in the coming days. So totally worth reading (or in my case, listening to).

We stopped in Oklahoma City for dinner. Technically Norman at a restaurant called Salt Grass. So totally YUM! Oh and don’t worry, I sent my friend Camille a picture of the water tower. I didn’t forget her on my way through… although I never got a response. In the words of Stephanie Tanner, How Rude! haha.

We got into AC & UB’s close to 11 pm. Abug told UB she was going to get up the next morning at 7 am and do chores with him. (more…)

Meet Thumper and Ginger

Yup, we’re going to try our hand at rabbits. Wish us luck!

Backstory

Last week (yeah, this hasn’t been going on for very long) was Tbug’s Spring Break. She got to spend most of it with us. On Thursday, for whatever reason, Abug started in on wanting a bunny. So Friday afternoon we went and got a few things to start working on rabbit cages. I used to have bunnies when I was younger and thought I still had the cage, but couldn’t find it. Must have been hauled off as scrap a while back, I don’t know. (more…)

Born in a Barn

Born in a Barn

Last night I was standing in the kitchen. The way our house was designed, you can see the back door from the kitchen. Everyone uses the back door. to enter and exit the house unless it’s pouring down rain or slicker than snot. Then usually we use the basement route. Otherwise, EVERYONE uses the back door.

So I was standing in the kitchen and Abug walked in the back door. She left the back door standing wide open. Bad thing to do at our house because the dogs will come in or right now it’s cool out so we let all the bought heat out, etc. (bought air = Sweet Home Alabama line.) I started to smart off, Close the door, were you born in a barn, but I stopped myself. Why would I stop myself… Well… because farm kids are a different breed.

I’ve truly said it before that farm kids are a different breed and they are. They get exposed to some interesting things early on in life. Between watching animals being born, maybe having to help pull a baby to save its life, to doing chores on a multiple time daily bases… whatever. (more…)

Horses are related to Skunks and other musings

Horse on one side of the fence from a group of horses

Horses are related to skunks. If that title doesn’t make you giggle or seriously question my sanity, I’m not sure what does or will.

Why on earth would I compare a horse to a skunk? Well if you haven’t been around horses much, you’re in for quite a surprise. My mornings consist of the same things… wake up, answer emails/read blogs, go outside and turn horses out, start the rest of my day. Not always in the same order and sometimes not for very long on any of the above, but one thing is always certain… I’m going to turn the horses out.

Why not? I mean, they enjoy the great outdoors, right? So… I still haven’t answered that question… why am I comparing the horses to skunks? My horses are trained. I walk in the barn, open the back door, open each individual stall door, and they walk themselves out the back of the barn. Then I close the back gate, get the stud and throw a rope around his neck (because most days I’m too lazy to put the halter on him), and walk him out to his pen.

(more…)