a friday evening in november, cold, but look at the light!

Today was pretty bitterly cold. The horses kept their blankets on, and I actually let Salina and the donkeys have the entire barn as back-up if they wanted to get out of the biting wind. They alternated, taking some sun during part of the day, and getting out of the elements the other.

A huge tarp blew into the fence mid-morning from our neighbor's yard, and while we have our own tarps flapping about, without any disturbance, the "strange" one seemed to un-nerve the equines. Salina was spooky when I fed her lunch, and brave "low man in the herd" Cody was issued forth to walk through the gate, meaning he had to face down the tarp, which had blown along the fence line and gotten tangled yet again.

Once he made it through safely, Keil Bay and the pony came through too.

I moved Cody to the near side of the barn, put Salina in with Keil and Apache, and gave the donkeys back their barn aisle, making the executive decision that it was nearing 4 p.m., they had been out in the wind all day, and maybe some quiet stall time with NPR and hay-filled mangers was what they all needed.

An hour later, I was in the laundry room switching out laundry when I happened to glance out toward the barn. It looked cold, but the barn itself seemed to have a nice warm glow. I could see Cody's rump through his back stall door, and across the barn aisle, Salina's head over the stall door, where she was communing with her donkey boys.



Not sure about the dusky light, I took a second one, using the 'night shot' feature. And look how it came out:



My image of peace and safety for my family, herd, and friends always includes a circle of white light. And there it is.

Here's to a safe, peace-filled, warm weekend for us all.

morning meditation

After my bath this morning, I glanced out the window and was met with this little scene.

I caught this morning morning's minion..., from Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem came to mind.

These darlings of the farm, soaking in the sun.

snow!

I knew it was going to be cold out today. Before going out to feed breakfast to horses and donkeys, I finally got around to cleaning out the front closet, which was stuffed with coats, gloves, hats, assorted and sundry used shipping boxes, plastic inserts, etc., as well as a few games, a bag of clothing needing to go to the thrift shop, and AC filters.

I made up four more bags of thrift store donations, two bags of trash, and matched up all the gloves. There was a barn jacket that fits me and I have no idea where it came from.

Son, daughter, and I all bundled up and went out to do morning chores.

It was nice feeding a warm breakfast to the equines. I'm somewhat fanatical about them having their blankets unbuckled up front while they eat feed, so we got them all undone, let them eat, then buckled them back up again so they could go out and face the very strong, cold wind.

It wasn't bitterly cold, but the constant wind made it seem a lot colder than it was.

On the way to the feed store to buy shavings (this is what happens when you let the shavings pile get down to the dregs and call for a delivery at the last minute... then it rains for three days and he doesn't want to deliver until the ground dries out) so everyone would have a fresh warm cushion for tonight's hard freeze.

When I pulled into the thrift shop parking lot, it started snowing!

By the time I pulled out of the feed store lot down the road, it was snowing hard, and combined with the wind, it was almost like a blizzard. We don't really get blizzards here, but this was close. Of course, it only lasted about 10 minutes, but for that span of time, it was like I'd moved someplace else entirely. I had flashes of Little House on the Prairie, which we read out loud, every single volume in the series, several times when the kids were young.

I couldn't wait to get home to see what the horses and donkeys were doing.

They were eating hay in the field and grass paddock, business as usual. A few minutes later the sun was out, blue skies were back, and our little afternoon blizzard was over.

I created a bit of excitement with a syringe full of crushed digestive enzymes and molasses. Cody was the recipient, and after getting about 2/3 of the dose, somewhat enthusiastically, he decided the aftertaste of enzyme wasn't worth the sweetness, so he took off down the hill. Keil Bay and the pony, ever ready to taste anything, bellied up and shoved their open mouths at me. The pony gripped the syringe in his teeth and tried to run with it, but I wrestled it back and gave each a taste. They tasted, they flapped their lips, and they walked off. Cody came back, thinking that maybe I had switched out the original syringe for something more tasty.

In the barn, the donkeys had their turn. Only Salina, the wise one, resisted. I suspect her 25 years have taught her that nothing good comes from a syringe.

But wow - that pill crusher works great!

updates on the hill

Monday morning dawned COLD here, and it looks like we have at least four more nights of below freezing temps to look forward to. I spent some time this a.m. doing a chore that almost inevitably means "cold weather." Taking the butt straps off horse blankets and rinsing them off so they can dry before blankets go back on tonight! Fun, fun. Oddly enough, the pony's butt strap always stays clean. It's the entire rest of his blanket that gets muddy!

The sudden shift from warmer temps to much colder ones left Salina with a slightly swollen left knee yesterday. I had put some of her "Buff B" powder in with breakfast, because these sudden changes to cold often mess with arthritic joints. The Buff B mix is a wonderful, buffered, apple-flavored powder our vet offers for horses who might need more than just the occasional dose of Bute. I don't use it daily by any means, but for Salina, I use it the night before and the morning of her hoof trims, and also when we have these crazy weather changes.

After I'd given the Bute, I realized her knee was a bit swollen and I wished I'd given Banamine instead. This morning I let her eat breakfast and then some more hay, water, etc., and then I gave her the dose of Banamine. She followed me into the stall after taking the Banamine, and I came inside worrying a bit about her. We barely made it in the house before my daughter told me to go look at Salina, who had walked back out to the paddock, taken a nice roll, and jumped up into a beautiful trot. As if to say - no need to fret. I'm fine.

I have her homeopathic remedy mixed up and will give that this afternoon and at bedtime.

The donkeys are fine. The only issue with the donkeys is that they are so cute it is almost too much to bear! Rafer is moving well, continuing to use his leg and rest it as needed. We have begun to re-introduce the concept of "halter does not mean vet" and "touching your leg only means hoof picking." He is a bit tentative about the opposite hind being held up for picking, which is understandable. Redford continues to be in the pocket of all of us. He trots around like a little dressage star. I don't know how in the world we got so lucky to find two lovable, handsome, sweetheart donkeys, but we did. This is what they're up to, right this moment:



The pony is currently in the paddock because he is insufferable with his grazing muzzle on. He goes after Keil Bay and will NOT let up. A certain amount of this roughhousing is fine, but at some point the Big Bay deserves to graze without the rubber muzzle of a pony being thrust into his face. So the Little Man was led into the dirt paddock and there he will stay until lunchtime.

Keil Bay and Cody are both doing well. It's Adequan injection day for the Big Bay, and Cody is having his supplements AM and PM. If my daughter and I can brave the chill outside, we'll be riding the two boys in a bit, practicing the Training 1 dressage test. I have got to find some riding gloves! I know there are a pair around here somewhere.

Meanwhile, I'm keeping the woodstove going and thinking already how warm today will seem once we get to tomorrow, when the high doesn't make it out of the 40s.

saturday at sunset

We went out just before sunset to get horses in for the night. Keil Bay came up from the front field, and Cody and Apache Moon soon followed. I was picking the Big Bay's hooves out before he went into his stall, when my daughter told me to look at the sky.

Facing the house, this was the view:



And facing out over the arena, this:



I couldn't fit the entire double rainbow in the frame, but it was stunning for about a minute, and then began to be obscured by clouds. But it was nice to see - double rainbows have long been a special sign.

When we came in I learned that the tornado watches have been cancelled, thank goodness. There is rain coming, with some wind, but not the damaging, potentially devastating winds many folks experienced last night.

I have the back door open so I can keep an ear to the wind, book mss to read, and expect to soon smell Victoria's ginger cookies in the oven. Hurry over for her recipe, and you, too, can join the Saturday evening fun. Thanks, Victoria!

And if ginger cookies aren't enough, go check out the Ginger Darlings. Go back into the archives - you'll not regret the lovely photos.