November Hill farm journal, 29

The past few weeks have been crazy busy. My son has accepted a very generous offer from Cornell University to its PhD program in astrophysics beginning this fall, and this past week learned he has been awarded UNC-Asheville's Manly E. Wright Award as the graduating student deemed "first in scholarship" by faculty across all departments. He has also been invited to speak at commencement! I'm so very proud of him and happy that his homeschooling journey with us led him to find his way to studying physics and the stars. I am so excited to see where his studies in graduate school take him.

My daughter is equally engaged in her own studies as an undergrad majoring in integrative physiology and neurobiology. She's been busy wrapping up a good semester and will be moving into her sophomore year, which seems unbelievable.

These two have been the human heartbeats of November Hill ever since we moved to the farm. With all the animals we live with there are many heartbeats - but I feel a marked shift in the landscape of November Hill itself as these two move into different life stages, where their interests lead them away from home and its focus.

This week on the farm I'm seeing the intense leafing out of trees and the greening of our property. The lane is no longer visible from the house, nor are the homes across the lane. Our neighbors to the side are much less prominent in our vista. As spring fully takes hold I feel the shift into the time of year when November Hill feels like a jungle, complete with all the little critters one might expect to thrive in such a climate. Ticks, ants, flies, bees, wood roaches, butterflies, moths. The night sounds are huge and symphonic. Bunnies, deer, birds. We are teeming with life.

The arena has taken on a definite green tone, which means it's time to start dragging. I am composting madly and finding the process speeding up. As usual, I feel like I'm about 156 items behind on the to do list, but things will get done.

Bear Corgi and I are still working on his canine good citizen skills. The certification test conflicts with my son's graduation so we'll be taking it at a later date. Stay tuned for the results of that as well as a possible new addition to the family!

I've been remiss with birthdays this month. Apache Moon is turning 17 in a few days, and Keil Bay is officially 28 years old. I cannot believe it. These two were the original equines who made the move with us to the farm and I still remember with clarity the morning they arrived. We led them to stalls filled with shavings and new water buckets and gave them hay and time to settle in. They turned out to the dirt paddock first and then to the back field and then the front. I think we followed them step by step that entire day, monitoring every moment as they explored their new home. They paved the way for Cody and Salina, and then Rafer Johnson and Redford. They have helped make November Hill the haven it is for all of us.

So, spring is here. And I have projects to finish, start, work on. Riding to do. Waters to keep clean and full. Bugs to battle. Plants to keep in line. Before you know it we'll be into summer and those many-shower days.

Easter bunnies celebrating life on November Hill

It has been a total nightmare trying to get this video onto this blog. I give up! I've made the post I put on Facebook public and am linking to it here so that hopefully I can wish everyone a happy belated Easter with the amazing little scene we came home to late last week. My daughter took a huge amount of video of these bunnies who kept at it for 15-20 minutes or so before finally retreating to the woods' edge. It's one of the most amazing things I've seen here, and I've seen a lot of magic on the hill.

GO HERE TO SEE THE VIDEO

beekeeping tales, 4 (plus tangents)

I'm very sad to say that I've decided I need to postpone setting up my first three hives to next spring. When I first signed on for beekeeping school I wondered if it would be possible to get the hives going this spring and, as usual for me, leaped into Do It Now mode. I didn't realize just how busy I would be and I also neglected to consider that with my son going off to graduate school this fall (he accepted Cornell's generous offer, yay!) I would be helping him move during the midsummer when bees here tend to need attention.

Reality hit last week and I made the hard decision to wait. I'm lucky - our local beekeeping association offers many and regular opportunities to help with the hives they maintain at our local community college campus. And there are many beekeepers willing to let new ones come and watch/learn. So I'll be building skills this year and hope that next spring when I start I'll be a better beekeeper for having waited.

Another issue that has come up, which deserves its own post, but I'll go ahead and write it here, is that Bear Corgi is doing really well in his Canine Good Citizen class. BUT. And this is a but I didn't anticipate. His work with me and his trips out into the wider world have created some separation anxiety. He wants to go with me ALL the time. He wants to go to the barn with me, to the garage with me, to the mailbox with me, basically he wants to go everywhere we go when we leave the house. It's become clear that he is going to have to have a new canine companion so our leaving isn't quite the ordeal it has become for him. The puppy search is on. And most of you who read here understand the commitment of taking on a new puppy. This isn't the search for the Maremma Sheepdog pups, which leads me to yet another part of the saga.

We have scheduled construction for May for barn gutters and for a farm entranceway gate and fencing to completely enclose our existing property. With all this going on, including the contractor coming in and out, delivery of materials, etc., I felt it would be a lot of commotion during the exact time frame I would be setting up new hives.

We also got quotes for new dog/horse-safe perimeter fencing and are looking to do that in the fall, which along with the gated entrance will get us ready for livestock guardian dog(s). Which made me rethink the location of my hives and I realized the place I had planned to put them won't work for the longer term. So postponing gives me time to get all that re-considered and organized.

Isn't life wonderful? Just when you think you have it all under control something shifts and new plans have to be made.

In the big picture, waiting a year to keep bees is best. But today, I feel sad. I'll be learning and writing about that process, though. And I suspect a puppy in the house will lessen the sadness just a bit.

horsekeeping rant, reprised

I know I've ranted about this previously here but it seems like a long time ago. This morning I was reading an email digest for a horsekeeping forum I've been on for years. Someone is asking about caring for a horse who foundered at some point and the boarding barn is being resistant to requests to customize the routine for this horse, who can't take the rich feed they use, needs soaked hay, and needs more feeds per day due to the forage only nature of the prescribed diet.

First, boo hiss to the boarding barn. You're taking money for horse care. Provide it. Horses aren't stamped out of some one size fits all mold.

Second, in the back and forth that followed after the owner posted asking for help, and kudos to that owner for seeking some state of the art advice on the issue of insulin resistance in horses, it was revealed that the horse lives in a 12x12 stall and GETS NO TURNOUT.

The owner wrote that the horse "has never been very nice" and thus gets no turnout. The horse is ridden but that is it for time outside the stall. Can we just call the stall what it is in this instance? Cell. The horse is in a cell 24/7 other than the few hours a few days a week when ridden.

No one is addressing this thus far on the forum. I don't want to shame the owner, who is at least trying to find out how to manage the IR.

But when I read the posts just now I wanted to throw something.

What kind of life is it to be kept in a 12x12 space for your entire life? I think most of us would end up being "not very nice," especially if our feet hurt at the same time.

What do horses need to be happy?

I think they need shelter, access to forage 24 hours a day, limited if need be by using hay nets, clean water, the company of other horses, or perhaps donkeys, or even goats, and space to move. By move I mean walk, trot, canter, gallop, lie down, roll, stretch, and "graze" - whether something growing or something provided.

It boggles my mind that anyone thinks a horse, whose entire physiological system is based on movement, can be kept healthy and sound living in a stall 24 hours a day.

November Hill farm journal, 28

The barn roof, shelter, and cupola are done! I'll share some more photos later but this one shows the view from the house and it's become a favorite already. I love seeing the shadows of the oaks on the green metal roof, adore the cupola, and greatly enjoy seeing the equines making good use of the shelter off the back stall. Rainy days will be easier now.

We have some sprucing up to do around the barn and then we'll shift gears to some other farm updates, including gating the driveway and fully enclosing the perimeter as well as new perimeter fencing all around. Once that's done I can proceed with livestock guardian dog plans. In a wonderful stroke of serendipity our contractor put me in touch with a local woman who has horses and chickens and goats and Maremma Sheepdogs and she sometimes has puppies. She's very connected in the livestock guardian dog world and already found a litter of pups in Virginia, which is easy driving distance for us. We won't be ready in time for this batch of pups but it's good to start seeing options. She loves her Maremmas and has been a wonderful resource. Our contractor told me her dogs were friendly but would not let him go through the gate into the pasture without the owners there to give the okay. That's exactly the kind of dog I hope for!

The carpenter bees are out and the dogwoods are just getting ready to open fully so spring seems to be settling in. We finished the winter store of hay, have moved hay storage back to the newly-repaired hay tent, and are seeing the equines more interested in grass still rooted in the earth. Rafer Johnson may need to go into his grazing muzzle! Yesterday the donkeys got hoof trims and all got ears brushed out and some goop carefully applied to keep the nasty ear-munching gnats at bay. It was good to see the ear flicking stop as I made my way through 10 ears.

I'm starting to see pollen in the water troughs and with the bugs starting and temps rising we may be looking at some afternoons in the barn with fans before long. The first tick was removed last week and the first batch of fly predators arrived and that is a sure sign of what is to come. Hopefully the predators do their jobs!

I have so many projects going on it's a big mess of unfinished business. But I have a list and slowly things get checked off. Now that the commotion at the barn is done I'm ready to get back to riding. I got a new helmet for my birthday and it's time to test it out!