Busy couple of weeks

Since my friend got hurt, I've been taking care of her horses as well as my own, plus I've got another friends horse here for the trainer to work with. So at the moment there are 8 horses here plus all the other critters. I also have three hens setting on eggs along with one duck and a goose. The goose hatched out at least one gosling on Saturday or Sunday while I was at the ACTHA ride. 

Dream and I went on the ACTHA ride in Estancia and we placed 5th on the Sunday ride.  We have three more rides before the ride season ends and we will be off to San Acacia this weekend for one of those rides. As soon as I get them I'll post photos of the ACTHA ride and the gosling if I can get a close up of it without getting goosed by momma and daddy goose.

My garden is starting out well and I'm going to have to start planting the rest of the garden really soon. The Pear trees are blooming and look like they actually might survive to produce some pears.  the apple and cherry trees haven't bloomed yet and I'm hoping that the spring will be kind and no freeze them or the pears this year.   I've already harvested enough Asparagus for the first good meal of the spring. Kale and spinach are also going well. The Sun chokes are starting to grow next to the rhubarb and garlic starts. It's already looking like a good garden year.

Updates on Sprouting

Well I had planned to make this update a bit sooner, but things got crazy with my friend getting hurt.  First off I haven't been able to get a hold of whole wheat or whole barley to try sprouting those. I tried my two year old home grown Indian corn and whole oats.  The Indian corn did well and sprouted nicely, The oats did a big fat NOTHING.  Then I tried whole corn from the feed store. The whole corn DID sprout, but not anywhere near as well as the Indian Corn.  It also fermented and molded much faster and truly stunk. 

The feed store owner told me today that she can't get any whole barley at all, but the whole wheat will be in at the end of the week. I'm going to try the whole wheat and see how it compares to the corn and oats.

So the sprouting experiments are on temporary hold until I can get new seeds to sprout.

Horse Injuries

I got a phone call early this morning from one of my friends. One of our mutual friends is currently in the hospital in the ICU because of a horse related injury.  My friend was in her horse corral cleaning and brushing her horses. One of her horses decided he wanted to pick a fight with one of the horses and my friend got caught in the middle. One of the horses knocked her down and one or more of them stepped on her head. So now my friend has a fractured skull and had bleeding in her brain and had to have surgery to stop the bleeding.  Currently her prognosis is good and they removed her from the critical list this afternoon. Her motor functions are good, but her speech is not as good. She's been dropping words, not completing full sentences and struggling to find the right words. 

I went over to my friends house today and picked up her horses to care for them while she's in the hospital. So I'll be extra busy with more horses here. 

I'm planning on putting together a benefit trail ride to help my friend as she can't work for a while. The ride will happen within the next two months and will be at the Continental Divide trails that so many people were interested in riding at. I don't plan on it being an ACTHA type competition. I'm just asking for donations and maybe set up a raffle of some items If I get items donated. 


 So for all my New Mexico friends, please put the word out about the ride and keep an eye out for the ride details to come.  For any of my more distant friends, If you feel like making a donation either an item for a raffle or money to help with expenses I'll be working on setting up a fund for donations. 

One reminder, Take care when working around your horses.