Busy weekend

Saturday we went to Farmington and went shopping at the Hobby Lobby, Hastings and a farm and ranch supply store called Big R. I got a large selection of yarns to start crocheting projects for an arts and crafts fair at the end of this year. My sister finally agreed to split a booth and she will be displaying her drawings beside my crochet items.

Sunday we went and got another load of hay. We need to be well stocked up for the next couple weeks because at least this coming week we are supposed to get a lot of winter storms and probably some really heavy snows. Since we still have quite a bit of snow from previous snows, it could get quite difficulty over the next week.

Tomorrow, we will have to load up Baby Girl and take her to the vet to get her knee checked out. She is not lame on the knee, but the swelling in it has not gone down. I haven't had much of a chance to keep a good eye on it since I've been working two jobs and feeding at 5 am before leaving home at 7:30 to go to work. Then I've not been coming home until after 8:30 or 9 pm every night and feeding again.  But since tomorrow is a holiday and I finally have some time to get this taken care of she's off to see the vet.

The Beaches of Shy Ann

In early 1996 the monster taught herself a new trick that she loved, but caused alot of problems for me and almost all of the stable area. Just about this time Garth Brooks put out the song Beaches of Cheyenne which helped us create a title for Shy's latest stunt.

One morning, I arrive at the stable, and feed and water both Hobo and Shy then drive over to my work at the vet clinic. About an hour later I get a call from the stable manager " I think you forgot to turn off the water faucet in front of your mule's pen. The water was running when I went down to check on something. I turned it off for you so you don't need to come back and turn it off"   I'm now thinking "Ok I'm pretty sure that I turned it off."  After lunch that day I get another call from the stables. "Did you come back and turn the water on during your lunch?"  I replied "No, why?". The response was "Your water was running again."  At that point we were thinking it was a human culprit. With more that 50 privately owned horses and 25 B Troop 4th Cavalry horses, there were people coming in and out of the private stables almost all day long.  But after several more days of having a water faucet turned on I decided to cover that water faucet with a tall metal trash can.  That seemed to stop the water leaking for a while.  We thought we had the problem solved. Unfortunately, Shy turned her attention to the water hose. I came down to feed one evening and saw Shy with a 3-4 foot length of water hose in her mouth. She was at the back of the pen away from the water faucet where the hose was not supposed to reach! She had chewed off this chunk of hose to play with. Hobo was on the far side of his stall next door watching her carefully. Shy was waving that section of hose around like a whip. Maybe she thought it was a great tool for swatting flies?

The problem with covering the water faucet is that it hides when the water gets turned. So the next time the water got turned on, it flooded about half the private stalls and everyone though we had a broken water pipe. We finally traced it back to Monster's stall and the covered water faucet.

The Monster had learned to use her lips to turn on the water faucet, After we covered it with the trash can, she learned to spin the trash can with her nose until the ribs of the trash can would catch the handle of the faucet and turn it on. In order to stop the monster from continuing to to turn on the water faucet, We had to duct tape the handle down tight and then to keep her from eating the tape, we had to put the trash can back over it to cover it. Now she could turn the trash can all day long but never flood the stable again.

At least she hasn't learned to open gates yet. Oh Yea that will be another issue in the "Monster chronicles", but first there is the issue about her learning to untie herself and go wandering.

THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!!!!!

My mom sent me the following e-mail and I agree with it so much so that I'm posting it in it's entirety here on my blog. 

The Army Years

October 1993, it was time for Shy Monster to be weaned and move on to a new life. At the time I was in the Army working as a veterinary technician at Ft. Huachuca, AZ. I made arrangements with the post stables to rent two stalls and then to head home and pick up my new mule and my gelding Hobo who had been leased out to a local riding instructor. Hobo I'm sure never was happy about being stuck with Shy Monster for the rest of his life. I'm also sure that since he was the longest running witness of Shy Monster's stunts, he had thousands more stories to tell. Below is Hobo as he looked when we went to pick him up from his lease.

Shy and Hobo both arrived at Ft. Huachuca quarantine area as required by the base regulations. and The monster became an immediate hit with all the equine lovers on post.  Since Hobo and the Monster had already had vaccinations before arriving, we didn't find out about Monster's aversion to vaccines for another year. When we did go to give her vaccinations the next year we quickly learned that even young mules can be quite adamant in their dislike of some things. Over the years it has taken on average three to 5 people to give this mule vaccinations. These demonstrations helped her develop the nickname "Monster".  Some where along the line over the years I've also discovered that Shy is allergic to certain brands of vaccine and I believe that a portion of her aggressive behavior at vaccination time has been the result of those reactions. So I've made a decision to not give her vaccinations every year any more. It's far less stress for all involved.

Not long after being released from quarantine and being introduced to the rest of the stable area, we learned more about Shy's attitude on life. First and foremost the word DIET is NOT in Shy Monster's vocabulary. She will eat ANYTHING and she will clean up her plate and make sure that no one else leaves anything behind either.  I got a call one day from a neighboring horse owner who asked me if I would trade stalls with my mule and my horse. When I asked why, she said, because that mule is eating my horses hay. OK So I'm thinking here how can that be when my mule stays in her own pen. Well  it turns out that Shy didn't keep herself completely in her pen.  I sat and watched her one day as she snatched mouthful after mouthful of hay from the neighboring horse. First she goes down on her front knees and then snakes her head underneath the bottom rail of the corral panels and stretches her head, neck and lips as far as they can reach to grab any tiny bit of left over morsels she could get.

Here is the Monster in her stall at Ft. Huachuca.

Despite the monster attitude on some things we did manage some nice times such as the Christmas Parade in Sierra Vista.

Or the 4th of July parade at Tombstone.

 The Monster's story will have to continue on another day because the stunts she pulled in 1996 deserves a full post to itself. 

First double yolked egg of the year

I have about 30 new hens that have just started laying this winter. I knew it was only a matter of time before I'd find a double yolk egg. New laying hens are pretty well known for laying a few double yolk eggs as they work out their laying cycle. This one in particular was so big it would not even fit in the egg cartons. It was almost as big as my turkey eggs and bigger than my ducks eggs. 

As you can see from the photo the broken egg is my double yolk egg and the whole egg is a regular egg. My regular egg could have fit completely inside theshell of the double yolk. Just two eggs made a really good Sunday Breakfast for 2.

How the "Monster" got her name

The "Monster's" official name is B & S Shy Ann. The "B" stands for Bill and the "S" stands for Sandy. My mom and her partner who created B & S Livestock and registered their mules and donkeys with the B&S prefix. That B&S prefix however does create it's own conversation piece.

The Shy Ann part came about as a long standing joke due to Shy's own personality. 

As Shy was growing up she and her mother were placed in the pasture with the other donkeys and mares and all the other foals. My mom would take prospective buyers out to inspect the herds and that is where the little miss began showing off her personality and her mule attitude. This little mule believed with all her heart that SHE needed to be the total center of attention. So every time anyone stepped into that pasture, the "Monster" would make sure to come up and get her fair share of petting and scratching. She believed her fair share was ALL of it. So if an individual turned away from her to check out another foal or donkey or mare, Shy would nudge them in the back.  Very soon my mom would introduce her as "our little Shy Ann" every time she butted her little head in to get petted.  That name stuck and became her registered name.

As for how she the nickname "Monster" well that one developed over much time.  Some of the stunts she pulled when she was with me at Ft. Huachuca, Az when I was in the Army were the beginnings of the development of her nickname. Sixteen years of stunts are better left for the additional chronicles of the "Monster Muley".

A "Monster" is born

It happened on May 3, 1993. A pretty little black and white grade pinto pony mare had a baby who would grow up to become known as "Monster". The baby was planned so that long ears were to surprise to either the mare or her owner. The mare known as Daisy was almost big enough to be called a horse but not quite. Daisy had some other beautiful babies before the "Monster" was born and would have others after. The "Monster" however would make a great impression on those who saw her (well mainly me).

My mom was "Monster's" breeder. She owned Daisy and choose the jack that would complete this cross. From the moment I say this baby know known as "Monster" I knew she would be mine for along time. I mean how can you resist this? (Sorry some of these photos are fuzzy, they didn't scan well and are now quite old)






Now in 2010 this "Monster" has been hanging out in my pasture since she was weaned. And she has many more stories to tell about her life of harassing me. Stay Tuned for more of the life and times of "Monster Muley".

The Equine Bucket List

I found this list on a neat blog called the Rocky Mountain Yankee and she had this list on her blog that has been borrowed around different blogs So I'm adding my bucket list also: The original list will be in red and my answers in green

The movie "The Bucket List" follows two terminally ill men (played by Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman) who embark on a journey with a wish list of things to do before they “kick the bucket.” Here’s our equestrian version of a bucket list—25 ultimate things to experience in a lifetime as a horse lover.

What's on your equestrian bucket list?

1. Gallop along the beach.  Actually not on my list But I do want to ride the Continental Divide Trail from Mexico to Canada
2. Win a blue ribbon, even if it’s for the egg and spoon race! I've done that already but I would like to win a Mounted shooting competition.
3. Enjoy an evening of equestrian theater, from major touring productions such as Cavalia to local performance troupes. Also seen those events.
4. Try your hand at cattle work. Find out what it means when they say a horse is “cowy.”  It's quite an experience and well worth it!
5. Jump! From crossrails to cross-country obstacles, experience the thrill of soaring over fences. I've done trail jumping but not competition and I'm not that fond of jumping for competition.
6. Fall off and get right back on again. Conquering fear is empowering. Yes been there done that to many times to count.
7. See the majestic white Lipizzan stallions of the Spanish Riding School. I've already seen them here in the USA several times. My dream is to go to the Vienna and do the entire tour of the stables and see the performance AT the Spanish Riding school.
8. Come to a sliding stop on a well-trained reining horse. Not on a well trained reining horse, but an awesome cutting horse.
9. Take a lesson with your equestrian idol, _________ (you fill in the blank.) I just don't know there are so many to choose from I can't decide.
10. Nurse a horse through a crisis and back to full health. I used to work as a vet tech and I've spent countless days waling that colicy horse or hosing off severe wounds.
11. Experience the smooth ride of a gaited horse. Peruvian Paso, Walker, Fox trotter, Saddle bred and a beautiful shuffleing Appaloosa
12. Watch the horses come through the Head of the Lake on cross-country day at the Rolex Three-Day Event. Haven't done that but would be awesome to see.
13. Have the courage to do the right thing for your horse, even when it’s not easy. Rest in Peace old Man, It's not so easy to say good bye some times.

 14. Attend the Kentucky Derby dressed to the nines—including hat! Move this one to the top of the list I really, really, really, want to go to the derby!
15. Tackle a trail accessible only by horseback and enjoy the view. Yes that is so cool to do. Great places to ride where no one else can really get to.
16. Take your dream vacation on horseback. That would be to tour Ireland in a Gypsy Caravan, it would be AWESOME!
17. Master the sitting trot. Yea that would be nice
18. Ride a fine-tuned horse in your discipline of choice, be it dressage schoolmaster or barrel champ. Yes done that
19. Watch polo. Even better, try your hand at it! Never got to play, But I worked as a groom for a player and exercised the polo ponies and attended matches.
20. Feed, muck, groom, ride. Repeat daily. Routine stuff here.
21. Wake up to a whinny every morning. My girls are to quiet they don't whinny much, I miss the old man he would always let me know he was waiting.
22. Fly down the track on a Thoroughbred. Or a running QH or a racing Arab. I was lucky enough to attend Louisiana Tech U. At the time when their horse racing equine program was going strong and I had chances to ride a beautiful Arab named SGF Count Orzel and a few QH and TB racers.
23. Meet one of your favorite famous horses in person. Go Man Go and Easy Jet were both standing at stud in my hometown when I was a kid and I got to see both.
24. Ride bareback, bridleless ... or both! Thank God for good horses like Hobo that let crazy kids do things like this.
25. Share a bond with your horse that’s deeper than words.Thank God for good horses like Hobo. I miss you old man!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Which ones have you already done? Which ones would you love to do? And what's on your personal bucket list that isn't listed above?

AML Appaloosas

I haven't posted photos of the horses for a while so here is the herd.

Crocheting for the local Arts and Crafts Fair

For the past few years I've been giving my family crocheted and knitted gifts for Birthdays and Christmas. So this year after Christmas, my younger sister tells me " I think you should crochet a bunch of stuff and sell it at a booth at the local arts and crafts fair in December". So here I am thinking of all the quick and easy crochet items that might sell easily at the fair. So far my list includes things like:

Hand warmers
hats
Scarves
pot holders
crochet dish clothes and sponges
and a few shawls that are quick and easy
Maybe a set of place mats
and those jar lid covers that look so cute on top of home made canned jellies.
I also have a pattern for little covers for the round handles on lids like crock pot lids etc

I did tell my sister that If I was going to get a booth at the fair she would HAVE to come over and put out her art work . She is a really awesome artist even though she doesn't think so. So if she agrees to share a booth at the fair, I'll get busy crocheting items to sell. But for now I have to crochet a quick toe blanket that will cover up Keith battered and bruised up left foot in his hospital shoe so he can start going back to work. He hasn't been able to get a sock over his toe since he broke it on Saturday so he asked me to make him a foot blanket.