All ears on the Bear

(Bear Corgi, that is)

November Hill farm journal, 50

Pollen is floating everywhere now, even with the cold rain and in a few places locally, frost and snow.  So many leaves have come out on the trees in the past few days, and my pollinator garden plants are going crazy. Our dogwoods are in full bloom. We have a volunteer baby dogwood blooming near the front of our driveway and are so happy to have it there.

I found the first tick on the Big Bay and the second tick (two total so far) on ME, the carpenter bees are still busy, and I have a bird nest in the “shelter” side of my mailbox. The bird building the nest kicked my little Keil Bay Breyer horse right out of there and I found him lying on the ground about four feet away!

It’s definitely springtime but we continue to have odd weather - 80s for a few days, then back down to low 50s with lows at freezing in the evenings. Our usual temperatures this time of year are highs in the low 60s and lows in the mid-40s. As it is, we seem to fluctuate between early summer temps and winter temps.

I’m working on getting ready for my three honeybee nucs, which are said to arrive the second week of May assuming the weather hasn’t slowed the bees down. I am very excited but need to review all my beekeeping school notes and literature, and plan to do the online “Beekeeping Like A Girl” sessions as well before the ladies arrive.

Yesterday we slept in a little (truly, just a little) and when I looked out the upstairs window this is what I saw:

What would they do if they could come all the way in? 

A day with the Big Bay and a Monday morning hahaha

Yesterday after Cody’s ride with daughter I groomed the Big Bay from head to hoof, brushing out his tail completely, and his mane, and trying to get some of the shedding hair off him. He enjoyed the attention, and I suspect thought we were going to ride. He had come in from the field when he saw me in riding boots and toting my helmet. I took them out in case I had time, but he also needed a hoof trim, so that took precedence.

He was enjoying solo time in the barnyard when husband came out with the rasp, and stood nicely while all four hooves were trimmed. No halter, no holding. I went in and brought out not one but four peppermints, one for each hoof, and gave them to him as the final hoof was being trimmed. He Being the Big Bay, he immediately wanted MORE. But seemed happy enough to lick my hands and shirt for the next 10 minutes.

A couple of weeks ago he and Cody (not sure who, or in what combination) broke the very heavy strip of metal that allows us to use oak boards as stall walls and lower/remove them when needed. The entire piece of metal was bent off the wall and three or four of the boards cascaded down like dominoes on top of each other at that end. I’m grateful no horse was injured! When husband made the repair we decided to take the boards out and let Keil Bay have a double stall. I’m still fretting about him lying down to sleep, though I haven’t seen him doing the nodding off thing in the field at all since the chiropractor was here.

I think he likes the double stall. He’s a large horse and although he always slept in a 12x12 stall with no problems, this double one gives him plenty of room to stretch out. He’s never closed in, but I’m now wondering if maybe he would feel more secure BEING closed in for a couple hours a day. With warmer weather coming I can bring him in during the peak heat time and see if that works.

At the end of the day I was sitting with him in the barnyard and when I finally got my things and headed in the backyard gate, I turned back to see this:

I have no doubts he would follow me right into the house if it were possible. It is always in the back of my mind that it SHOULD be possible. A living room with horses. Wouldn’t it be grand?

I’ve written here before about our issues with neighbors’ dogs running loose and coming in the pastures. We’ve also had issues with coyotes. Once the new fencing was in and the farm became fairly secure against dogs, at least those not able or willing to jump a four or five-foot fence, I’ve been able to relax a little, but I let all the neighbors know several months back after hearing a dog barking in the field one night that I would be calling the sheriff if I found any dogs on my property and if any equine injuries occurred as a result of dogs that don’t belong here would be utilizing NC’s livestock law to recover any medical damages.

All but a couple got angry with me and the neighbors directly adjacent determined their dogs deserve to run free and are so well-trained they don’t need to be on leashes. My response to that was to copy the county dog law and send it to them and to reiterate that I would be suing for damages if I or any of my animals are injured as a result of their dogs running free on our property. So they begrudgingly put their adult kids’ dogs on leashes when they visit and parade up and down our fence line (they have more acres than we do, and plenty of other space to walk the dogs, but our fence line has always been the place they come to, for whatever reason). This morning the adult daughter had her dog out there with a long lunge-line length leash on the dog but wasn’t holding it at all. The dog was trotting along our fence line and the daughter was looking over here watching the donkeys alert, flaunting the fact that she had a leash on but refused to hold it.

I was annoyed (our fence is well inside our actual property line so if the dog is at the fence, they’re trespassing) but not stressed since I doubt this dog would jump in. Cody was on guard and the pony would go after the dog in a split second but really, do my horses and donkeys have to put up with this kind of ridiculous behavior? But I refrained from doing anything other than standing on the front porch keeping an eye on things. Suddenly the dog took off down their long driveway and wouldn’t come back when his owner called. Off he went, running down the lane toward another neighbors’ duck pond, more horses in fields, and I had to laugh at the notion that their dogs are so well-trained they don’t need leashes. The daughter ran to get him and 15 minutes later came back holding the dog’s leash.

Interested to see how the rest of the day goes and if they bring the dog back out to “run free.”

And very happy to have the Corgi run in back so mine can run free without leaving the property. Which begs the update: Baloo allowed me to slip his harness on yesterday! So he’s only a few days away from exploring the new space.

November Hill farm journal, 49

This week the dogwood blossoms opened and my loud exclamation of joy turned some heads:

Friday I went to the feed store to get Timothy Balance cubes and two new water buckets and came home with a flat of snapdragons as well. Which used up a couple of hours and resulted in this:

Finally got a shot of the completed dog-proofed front gate:

And daughter gave Cody a ride today. He was a perfect gentleman and oh, how relaxed and happy he was after the ride was over. I love seeing him so comfortable in his body. With his PSSM that is the goal for riding and it was achieved plus some. I hope I can get rolling with him and keep up her good start.

Otherwise, the carpenter bees are out hovering all over the farm. It’s a gorgeous day and still hours to go before the sun sets. More to do, more fun to have. Happy Easter!

Product Review - Pasture Vac

I’ve maybe written here about my right shoulder, which has been sore since the late fall after I (as usual) did too much raking. Once I overused it I’ve had a hard time getting it back to normal. A month or so ago I met with a physical therapist who checked range of motion and strength and gave me strengthening exercises to do as well as general guidelines about how to work on my technique when using my shoulder. I tend to use the right (my dominant) shoulder to do things I’m not quite strong enough to do without that extra shoulder shove.

It’s better but still not normal. The PT said he felt it would heal completely but would take time.

With all this in mind, my birthday gift this year was the Pasture Vac in hopes that I could get the mucking done using different movements and hopefully a bit more quickly. We’ve had it for a month but just got around to trying it out today.

The pros: IT WORKS. EXTREMELY WELL. I can’t believe how perfectly it sucks up manure, sweet gum balls, leaves, etc. It’s a quality piece of equipment and aesthetically very nice. We did nearly the entire back field before having to dump the canister - which has a mechanism that allows you to tip without unhitching it. Very handy. The vacuuming action also breaks the manure down quite a bit so when you dump and spread there are very few actual balls of manure left - great for composting. The motor is externally attached and is a Honda motor which can be easily removed for repair. It is quieter than the mower! (Note on capacity - we got the large size)

The cons: It had to be drop-shipped by a huge 18-wheeler that couldn’t get down our private gravel lane, much less into our driveway. They met husband up the road and put the pallet into the back of our truck. Husband got it out but I was afraid to watch - he didn’t complain so I guess it wasn’t as big a deal as I thought it was going to be! While it works like a dream, the hose is heavier than I expected and between trying to steer the mower and hold the handle and maneuver it with my shortish arms, I’m not sure I will be cruising the pastures vacuuming manure any time soon. However, since most manure tends to be in clusters where the horses graze together, it’s not a big deal to drive the mower, hop off, vacuum the general vicinity, then move to the next cluster. If one person drives the mower and another mans the hose, it is very fast and I can see it being a time-saver using it that way.

Overall: We bought it during a sale and so got a good deal on it. It was still pricy but in the long run if it saves my shoulder from wear and tear, a bargain. There was a small cosmetic piece that was damaged in shipment. The company sent a replacement very quickly with no fuss. I think when my shoulder is stronger and if we had a larger mower it would work more easily as shown in the photo above. Husband can maneuver the hose from the mower much better than I was able to do. However, it uses different movement than mucking/raking so at the very least it will give my shoulder a break that way.

I suspect as we use it more it will get easier to handle. We still need to try using it in the stalls tomorrow to see how that goes. I read that it sucks up a pee spot instantly! And now that we used it in the field I believe it will do just that.