Ruly's Great Adventure Last night we had a horse get loose. My niece and her friend came running up the stairs at 9 pm to tell us a lady had driven up and said a horse was loose on the road. I thanked the lady and then proceeded to walk across the paddocks to the far field. I counted the horses as I went. The geldings were surprised to see me and snorted at me until they could figure out who I was. The mares recognized me almost immediately. I counted the horses and I was missing one horse, Ruly. Since all of the gates were still locked I scanned the fence line and soon found a break. Somehow she had knocked down three boards in a four board fence. I did not find any blood. That’s good!Boy, these horses are strong! I looked around on the street but could not find her. I came back with the car a little later. I found manure on the street and hoof marks near our neighbor. Since I did not see Ruly I was now pretty sure she was in the woods. It was going to be darn near impossible to find her and get her out of the woods so I went home. Trying to lead 1200 pounds of excited horse out of thick brush would be difficult and very dangerous for me. I went home and went to bed. She would find her way out. Andi made one more trip in the car to try and find her before going to bed. The next morning Andi woke me up early. She has seen Ruly. Ruly had made it out of the woods but was now blocked by a fence. For all the damage to the fence Ruly had suffered only minor abrasions. She was still excited but probably grateful to see me. Her great adventure was over.
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Mice are cat toys I was working on a new video yesterday and things were not going smoothly. To top it off Sassy had chased a mouse upstairs and was now chasing it around the room. She would catch it, let it go, bat it once or twice until it ran off, and then chase it. When you live on a farm and you need to concentrate this chase scene can be very annoying. The little field mouse was exhausted. So I scooped up the mouse into a plastic container and released it into the woods.
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Handling Stallions Our young colt, Apollo, was feeling the urge to be a breeding stallion today. He was hanging out at the gate where he could see the mares and was calling to them. They did not call back so I don't know what triggered this. He was a challenge to bring in this morning but I got him in by keeping my cool and convincing him everything was okay. Patience and calmness are a necessity when handling excited horses. He hasn't done this before so we will have to watch him carefully.
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Catching up on farm work Yesterday I spread the last of the 75 tons of gravel on the road and at the gate for the horses. Then I noticed that the wheel on the bush hog was broken and the front tire on the tractor was flat. I recently replaced that tire so it must be a puncture. What a pain in the butt!
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Toads and wolf spiders signal that Spring has arrived! I couldn't help but notice a toad and a wolf spider had taken up residence in the barn aisle. I haven't seen any insects but these fair weather creatures are a pretty good indication that warm weather is here to stay.
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You're the man! I made an emergency analysis and fix to our plumbing and my wife is saying, You're the man! She really likes her shower. I won't tell you what she is like when she cannot get her shower.
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Living in a barn Our house is actually a combination house and barn. This can be really convenient if taking care of horses is a high priority in your life. It does have its drawbacks though. Around the evening feeding time my wife came upstairs to take a shower and watch Oprah and the news before dinner. Then she started screaming, "There is no hot water!" I was sent off to investigate. The water heater sounded like it was heating and the washing machine was not running. Then I found the culprit. The girls had used the hot water to fill the water buckets for the horses.
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