closing in on spring? really?

We have had several stretches of gorgeous spring-like weather, but yesterday and today we're back to cold and ice. It looks like tomorrow we will start the shift back to warmer temps.

The horses and donkeys are alternately grumpy and playful. Keil Bay is looking especially floaty the past two weeks so I'm eager to get some ride time in when the weather warms up.

I have daffodils in full glorious bloom, and the crocuses are done. The tulips are up and but not quite ready to bloom. 

The vegetable beds are clear and I put in some seedlings that looked sort of pitiful initially but are holding their own out there. I need to start some seeds inside but it's hard to get motivated when it keeps getting this cold outside!

I'm hoping this winter is knocking out all the pesky biting insects.

Writing-wise, I am at the end of the first draft of claire-voyant and nearing the end of my second editing pass on Never Not Broken. I'll be starting claire-de-lune, the fourth novel in the Claire Quartet, at the beginning of April and getting these two editing and ready to roll. 

And I think - thought not quite 100% sure - that gluten-free eating is at least partly responsible for my productivity. For more information on this, I highly recommend the book Grain Brain. It's fascinating.

Hope all are well and that we all get some springtime weather very soon. 

Mid-West Agri plain beet pulp shreds - update!

I started using Blue Seal beet pulp pellets until the Mid-West Agri stone situation is sorted out - and am so disappointed in the pellets I am not sure I can actually feed them.

Aside from taking forever to break down from pellet form, they are slimy/sticky, do not smell like beet pulp, are orangish-colored and mushy, and I cannot get the water to rinse clean. I'm not going to be able to feed this to my horses except for a brief interim period, that's for sure.

If I recall correctly, Standlee beet pulp shreds have molasses in them. But I also just looked at the ingredient list online for their shreds and it says "concentrated separator by-product" - what the heck is THAT? 

But, on a hopeful note...

I just heard from the Quality Control manager at MidWest Agri. They have isolated the issue to one factory out of three that process the shreds.

He is traveling there on Friday to show them the stones I sent him and they will try to figure out what's going on.

Meanwhile, he had already sent me a free bag of shreds from a different factory and if I'm lucky they will arrive today so I can ditch the Blue Seal pellets.

If you feed MidWest Agri plain shreds, use a metal colander and see if you find anything. You can hear the stones clinking if you rinse in small batches - once the water runs through, slide the shreds around with your fingers. You'll hear the stones if they are in there. 

If you don't find anything hopefully it means you have a bag from a different factory and can continue to enjoy the cleanest shreds I've ever seen. (which I'm reminding myself of as I try other brands and forms).

Actually, you might want to use the metal colander no matter WHAT you're feeding - just to check the quality and keep a close eye on what is going into your horse. As I have said before, I've found foreign objects of one kind or another in every feed I've ever bought - and I have only ever bought high end feeds. (the only exception is Hansen Mueller oats)

Again, I am impressed with the response from the Mid-West AGri. My local feed store told me Saturday that the manager called last week and got all the information from them (bag numbers, lot numbers) so he could proceed with sorting this out. 

It's nice to deal with a responsive company and I'm looking forward to being able to go back to their product.

warming up, cooling back down

Our wacky winter is continuing - we've had a few days of nice warm sunshine, 70 today, and tomorrow we're looking at ice pellets and low of 18 degrees.

Keil Bay and I had the first ride in over a week yesterday - he had chiro this past week and with the weather weirdness we had not gotten in riding time. He seemed a bit stiff and I fretted some - thinking that maybe I'm asking too much of him. But I decided that even if we poke along it's probably better to keep riding than to stop. Today was totally different - very nice ride and lovely forward trot work. 

In hindsight I think his front frogs are shedding (and there's a longer story involving hoof trims which I don't really want to go into - suffice it to say I am seeing the value of allowing some self-trimming to go on and let the riding do the work instead of the rasp) and that he was just tender yesterday.

We had a bluebird flying around the arena as we rode and that was nice. I think spring is coming but it's clearly not here yet!

In other news, if anyone is using MidWest Agri plain beet pulp shreds, PLEASE make sure you rinse and soak and rinse and check for STONES.

I had been finding stones in the shreds for several months now - not daily, but off and on. Since I rinse the shreds in a metal colander, I realized I could easily hear them when rinsing - and I also have hands in the beet pulp as I rinse and inspect it carefully.

I decided that I needed to check more rigorously and when I opened the last bag, I started collecting what I found in individual ziplock bags each batch. What I found is rather stunning. After the second day I contacted the company to let them know that I was quite concerned. The quality control director emailed me within an hour and asked for photos, which I was more than happy to send. I also sent two days worth of stones at their request. They are supposedly checking into this and seemed to take it very seriously - I have continued to collect what I find, as I wanted to finish out this bag and have the entire "collection" of what was in it. 

I'll post some photos here later this week - but there are stones bigger than chickpeas as well as many tiny stones. 

While I'm happy that the company responded so quickly, I have switched to Blue Seal beet pulp pellets until further notice. 

The only way I reliably find these is by listening and sliding the wet shreds across the metal colander - they are not visible just by looking, and I can't feel the tiny stones just by running my hands through. 

I know I'll be complaining about ticks and fire ants and fleas and flies but I have to say it - I am ready for spring!!

warm-up

We have one tiny strip of snow left and have had really warm temps yesterday and today - though I did wake up this morning to roaring thunder and rain, so add that to the mudslide that is a part of the front field and several other areas.

I had planned to ride yesterday and in hindsight should have pushed through and done it. I had groomed Keil Bay the day before (along with a hoof trim touch-up courtesy of dear husband) hoping that he would be clean yesterday. Ha! That was crazy thinking on my part. He was caked in dried mud again, so I started from scratch, did a sheath cleaning, and made the critical error of not riding right then. 

Today there were some chores that really did have to be done. All water troughs needed to be dumped and scrubbed, which was painful - adding more water to the mud! - but necessary.

I brushed the Big Bay down quickly - yes, of course, he rolled himself on both sides, again! - and then did some mucking. 

Some of this is catch-up from not getting things done during the snow days.

Daughter encountered the first fly and I encountered the first mosquito so we got those milestones out of the way!

Meanwhile, inside the house, I am woefully out of touch with my cleaning routine, so I'm trying to plug that back in. The gym routine too.

I can say with a fair amount of happiness and pride that I am surging forward with the writing. Since I love doing it AND it can be done any time of the day or night, any weather, it has been easy to keep rolling with it. 

Right now I'm sitting in my green chair in my bedroom, and out the window I see a painted pony, Cody, Keil Bay, and two sweet donka boys grazing their hay while the sun is just starting to set behind them. And Keil Bay looks like a million bucks if I do say so myself! :)

Here's to getting all the good stuff in every single day. 

February column, Thoughts From the Barn, is up!!

Head over and read it - would love thoughts and comments there!

http://www.talk2theanimals.net/a-winter-night-and-light/