School bus sitings

Boy, do I ever wish that I had my camera this morning on my bus run. The first thing that caught my eye was a beautiful muley buck. He had to have been a 6 pointer, and was hanging out with his girls. A little further down the road, and in the ditch was some little trees that had been sprayed by the county, so they were more like sticks. About a half mile of them. And built on every stick a spiderweb.

The sun was shining through these most amazing spiderwebs. There were 100's of them, heavy with dew. The sun caught the sparkling dew drops, outlining each web. They were all different, like snowflakes, and they were all made lastnight. That's most amazing.

New babies

Had some baby ducks hatch last week, and the rowen's are hatching right now. Darn, but those babies are so cute.

We haven't been getting the rain some other places have been, thank goodness. Lots of hay that was cut way to soon and is now lying rotting in the field. People must be patient when cuttin hay and wait for a decent forcast.

Both boys are off the rest of the week, 4-h and Calgary, they will have lots of fun, and I'm going to clean while they are gone yeah! and maybe paint. Nothing like paint for freshening up a house.

We picked out some tile for bathroom, It's going to look great.

Been working with the horses, even though I haven't been riding much the last few weeks. Rosie has done a complete 360 degree turn around, and is now my pocket pony. She's still a little jumpy, but has come so far, I can hardly wait to ride her.

rain, rain, rain

Well, to make up for last year, we are getting a double dose this year. We had three inches yesterday, yikes!!! It is so green out there, but we have had terrible wind storms that have taken down lots of trees and wiped out fences.

Bill Roy and Ralph Livingston came all the way from BC to train horses for Lesa and I. They worked their hinies off, and did 4 horses at my house and 6 at Lesa's, 10 hours each. I am so pleased with the job they did, especially Rosie. The change in her is just remarkable. I learned lots, and can hardly wait to apply some of what I've learned to my own horse training. They even convinced me to ride with just a halter on!

Been getting lots of time on Wilbur, I've taken him out on the trails by himself now and he's doing just great! I'm really pleased with the progress he's making. He's going to make somebody a great trail riding buddy.

I've also taken Tara out quite a bit, she is turning into a wonder trail horse, I really enjoy riding her. Now to get to work on the others and get them trail ready! All my 3 and 4 year olds except for Rosie and Eddie, have now been backed and ridden. That's pretty exciting.

Had some anxious moments when Gord's mom was in the hospital, but she's doing much better now, and is back home with lots of family support. Hoping to treck down there next week for a visit.

New foal!

Scarlet finially foaled, a very cute red filly. She is a sweet little thing, super friendly! As she is my only foal born here this year, I can spend lots of time playing with her!!

No name yet, just havent' had time to think of one.

Mare Owners--check studs papers

This is happening far too often, the perfect stallion is advertised, you think he will be a perfect cross for you mare. You look up his pedigree and find that he is not in the owners name~!!!!! What is with that!!!

All mare owners should check with the registry that the stallion they want to breed their mare to is in the stallion owners name. It has been happening way to often, a stallion is advertised then a quick check reveils that the wrong name is on the papers. This can lead to huge headaches when you try and register your foal.

You can look up on line, or just call the registry that the horse is registered with and they will be more than happy to help you.

Almost Spring!!

The snow is all gone, and I'm just going to asume that we will get lots of rain. The old folks around here are telling me that based on all the signs, we will have a hot, wet summer and for now I'm just going to go with that. We are only expecting one foal this year, Scarlet was bred to Money, I hope I get a flaxen mane and tail foal.

The hens are laying like crazy right now, and some are starting to set, same with the ducks so I should soon have little chicks around. Got my broilers and turkey's ordered for the end of April, so I got to get the brooder room all cleaned out and ready to go.

Gord made it back home from the ice roads. A disapointing season as the roads kept melting and they had to only drive at night, it really cut down on the loads that could be hauled.

Just finished kidding out the last of the goats (except for two doeling, and who knows when they might decide to kid). We are up to 35 new babies this week.

Off to visit the Rescue 100 today. It is just staggering the number of horses that have been seized this winter, including a herd of TWH. There has been questions of why, but gee, do you think the high hay prices and drought might have something to do with it? Mind you, if you know you can't feed your horses, then you best sell them!! or give them away or something, starving them to death or near death is not an option. And I guess you wouldn't believe the number of pregger mares that are there. If you know you have no feed, why are you breeding?

Up dated my website, be sure to check it out.

Lots of new babies!

Well, so much for only a few to kid! So far we have about 25 babies, and more to come.

Lesa and I have been getting to the arena pretty regularily. It's been great to take 2 or 3 horses at a time and spend the evening there. It is pretty exhausting though with working the next morning, but to see the progress each horse is making is great and it's better than sitting in the house! I've got about 5 rides on Wilbur now, I'm really happy with his disposition and he's very nicely gaited too. I've gotten on Belle twice now, just being lead around as we don't have the round pen set up and I'm not quite ready to ride her in the large arena.

New Song

I've added a bar to the bottom of my page with a song that I like. I'll try and change the song every now and then. The youtube version with the lion king is especially moving.

2010 Happy New Year!

Another New Year! Thank God! I'm not going to lament the passing of another year, I'm going to rejoice the coming new one. I'm full of plans and optimision for 2010.

Some highlights from 2009 include Gord getting laid off work in October, then getting hired back at the end of November (Yeah!!), our trip to Ontario with four horses. I'd never gone past the Sask. border, so I had an eye opener on just how big this great country really is. We sold a total of 10 horses this year, some young stock, some our broodmares so we could downsize. The drought really took a toll on the farm, we also downsized the goat herd from 60 to 40.

Me and Mira did take in one show this year, and it was great to see every one and all their lovely horses. Then I sold Mira to Guy from Andrew. It was a hard decision to make, but she went to a great home and is ridden and used way more than I ever could.

Health wise, we are facing challenges for the New year. I did manage to drop 22 lbs with help from my good freind Lesa and weight watchers, I'm looking forward to losing another 20. It makes getting on and off your horse way easier!!LOL. My hip is also thanking me. Tyler managed to break his wrist and then dislocate his elbow on his other arm, so he had two broken wings for awhile. All sport related of course! Wesley has been making a conserted effort to lose weight as well and has dropped about 30 lbs, lost 4 inches off his waist and is lifting weights. Don't ask me how much, but I think he can now lift small cars. Gord is looking at laser surgery for his back. It is now being offered in Edmonton at the U of A. His back is significantly worse, and the pain is getting to be unmanagble, so he has to do something. Aparently they take the laser and zap away the bone calcium deposits from the old injuries that are pressing on the spinal cord. Here's hoping, because I want my old riding partner back!!

I'm still driving my school bus, Wes is still going to school in St Paul, Tyler is in grade 9 now and playing every sport offered in school and Gord is looking forward to hitting the iceroads again. Kidding has started with a set of triplets and then a large single baby. We have several more waiting to pop, then the rest will hold off until Feb and March. I only have one foal due this year, Scarlet was bred to Money, I can hardly wait to see what this cross produces.

Been hitting the arena now that it's too cold to ride. I've enjoyed riding Java and getting her gaits set, have got on Wilbur and Belle, so we are off to a good start. I've also made some new freinds thanks to the horses, Dianne and Tara Lynn. Horses sure do bring people together. Looking forward to trail riding with all my trail riding buddies in 2010 and attending a few shows. So much to look forward too.

Mane Event 2009

This year the Canadain Reg. of the Tennessee Walking Horse pulled out all stops for the Mane Event in Red Deer. We put together an awsome demo team consiting of four riders and buggy. I think we did a good job of showing the different things you can do with your walking horse. I brought Mira again, and she was super good. We even cantered when I rode western, but I wasn't confident enough to do it saddle seat as I hadn't ridden in that saddle since last year.

Riders are: Carla Freeman, Lorrie Dyberg, Bill Roy, Me, and in the buggy Keith Oberlie

New additions

We have some new additions! Glory gave us a new filly on May 1 a real pretty little girl. Right on her due date too. Two names that we like are "A Going Concern" or "Glory Be".

I also posted a picture of Jake, our new puppy.

We had hiway clean up today, the weather was real nice, and we had pizza afterward. 4-h is really picking up with the beef show at the end of the month and then the multi show on June 20, so Tyler has lots of work with his steer and Mira.

I've got an incubator now, with 40 eggs on the go, 9 duck eggs the rest chicken. It will be so cool when they start to hatch, I can hardly wait.

so much news, so little time

Here I was going to faithfully update my blog every week, and would you look at it, months have flown by. Gord left Feb. 7 to go drive on the ice roads up north and got back 31 days later as they were done. Lots of contracts were cancelled so the season was quite short. He took lots of cool pictures. This is my favorite. I guess the crazy bird hitched a ride for 2 miles. They only go 15 km/h, so hanging on was no problem. Gord even unrolled the window for a better picture. He got pictures of wild Buffalo standing on the side of the road, 7 bobcats sitting in the snow, a fox who stole somebody's boot, lots of trucks and snow and ice. I think he enjoyed the challenge, because he is all set to go up next year. And no, he didn't make a years income like in the TV show, that's only if you own your own truck, don't have any breakdowns, never get sick, bad weather and the hundred other things that prevent a trucker from working.

It warmed up!!

Finially, it has warmed up. OK, I tried to get a picture of the babies playing on the hill and as soon as I got close enough all the mothers ran up to me to say hello. Goofy things. I also got a shot of Penny, a foal from Money and Blondie. She's turning into a deep liver chestnut, but now I noticed that her legs are getting lighter. So who knows what colour she might end up.

Worked with Dee and Star today. Dee is going to be a big girl, we worked on lunging mostly. She has a hard time going in one direction but I think we made headway today and I should be able to saddle her next time I work with her. Star is just coming 2. He is going to be a real sweety. I had him tied to the fence waiting and he fell asleep! Just worked on picking up his feet, accepting things on and around him and giving to preasure (hips over, that kind of stuff).

Hey, I just discovered that you can click on the pictures and make them huge. If you click on the goat pics, you can see all babies.

New Year's Resolutions

All right, who made a New Year's Resolution? I've decided that I'm not going to make one for losing weight, getting in shape or even riding more. No, I''m going to try and go a little deeper into my self. My resolution is going to be anther cliche. "BE HAPPY" Sounds simple right? But that means not relieing on someone or something else for that happiness. Finding it within and then passing it on. Be happy means instead of fretting over what I can't buy (hmmm new horses?) be happy with what I have. Be happy meands not stressing over what I think my children can succeed at, but what they ARE succeeding at. Be happy means not whining that my husband isn't home, but when he is home make this the best, most positive home we can be in.

Fran

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

So much has happened around here since I last posted. We had several 4-H events which took up several weekends. I did make it to the arena once with Rascal. Had a good ride on him. Tyler took Mira for one 4-h project lesson.

Then the cold weather hit and so did kidding. So far in two weeks we have kidded out 33 goats and have 50 live babies. Not bad considering it was -40 for three days in a row. All right before christmas too! We had upwards of 16 babies in the house at night as I just did not have enough heat lamps to go around. And when the babies are first born, they don't know enough to stay under the lights and are in danger of freezing to death. So we take the babies into the house right after birth to get them completely dry and warmed up, back to mom for some bonding time and maybe a drink then back in the house. I tell you, they are noisy!!

But it is much nicer outside now, all but two have kidded and things are settling down. Just a few bottle babies to feed.

The house water froze up for a few days, the heater tipped over under the house and everything froze up solid. Of course, this was when we had all those babies in the house! Still no water in the kitchen, but at least the bathroom works.

Got another week before school, so I hope to get some riding in. I really want to get some work on Raz and Carpet, and some ground work on those long two year olds started. I did get some time in on Dee and Bell. Tied Wilbure up and gave him a good grooming. Got lots of horse feet to trim and goat feet too, so I should be pretty busy during the holidays.

The fall weather sure has been nice, we've managed to get lots of out door work done, even with Gordon working in Vancouver. With the help of CRTWH, providing a lovely new banner and brochures, and the WHN for the extra magazines, I manned a table at the St Paul Harvest Festival. The Festival is held every second year for six years now and I've been to every one of them. Mornin's Miracle was a wonderful ambassador to our breed, hanging her head over the stall for the entire weekend lapping up all the attention. Although they didn't have breed demo's this year because of time constraints, I did have two of the trainers from the Trainers Challenge ride Mira after they done. The winner of the challenge couldn't believe how smooth Mira was and is now looking at getting one for her arthritic father.

We also participated in Cattle Sorting. It's kind of like team penning, but you only have two team mates and must sort the cattle in numerical order with the first number being called out by the announcer in 75 seconds. The pros could do 9 calves, us beginners were lucky if we got in one or two. It was great fun.

I had a nice visit from Bob Lamport, his daughter-in-law Phyllis and granddaughter Trina back in Sept. Trina met my son Tyler at a 4-H camp and they came up to see our walking horses. Bob imported one of the first stallions into Alberta way back when, by the name of Prince Radar. He still has a few of his descendents on the farm. I brought Mira out and rode her around a bit for Bob. His whole face lit up when he heard that wonderful 1 2 3 4 thunking of a good run walk. It didn't take me long to persuade him to hop on for a ride. It had been three years since he sat a horse and he enjoyed himself so much. The visit was over much too soon, as they had a long drive back.

I've weaned 3 of my 4 foals, as the last one is too young yet, so am having fun doing their ground work. Eddie, my bottle baby from last year is a great babysitter as he is so mellow and relaxed with anything we humans may do that the babies are following his example.

Finially thought of a name for Angel's little colt. CSR Rascal's Lil' Puzzle. He sure is cute, and way smaller than the other babies, even though his mom is like 16hh.

I lost one of my foals. I had decided to wean the last two foals as the first two were doing well. The mares came in for water except for Koko and her baby. Went out to find them and found the baby in the fence. He missed the gate and tryed to hop throught the fence instead. Some how he got the bottome wire twisted around his hind foot and ruptured the tendon and ligament as well as ripping the muscle to the bone. So it was with very sad hearts that we put him down as the vet said that with injuries of this type the risk of tendon and bone infection were incrediable high.



Busy weekend with 4-h as we have weigh in on the 11th. The boys had to go out and round up the cows and then pick out the calves that they want to use this year. We are also going to have a stall mate that will be in the freezer next year. So now we have to tag them and get them haltered.

Sold the last of my goats yesterday, and also got rid of a few more chickens, so now I'll have to go out and take stock of what is left to feed for the winter. Just got to move the bunnies to the barn and I think I'm all set! We still have more to wood to haul, but that's a never ending chore. Mind you, I like not having to pay a natural gas bill!

St Paul Harvest Festival

Just a quick note to let you all know that I've been asked again to set up a booth at the St Paul Harvest Festival. I'm taking Mira and a bunch of stuff to display promoting my wonderful breed the Tennessee Walking Horse.
And because I got talked into it, I'm entering a clinic for beginner cattle penning. Should be a hoot. We'll see how Mira does.

The dazzling colours of fall

During my bus ride every day, I am struck by the absolute beauty of the fall foliage. The mix of the trembling aspen gold, the poplar yellow and the spruce dark green are all layered in the most artistic way.

It literally takes my breath away and makes me want to pause to take it all in. Even the leaves lining one of the few roads that hasn't been bulldozed and "Fixed" are stunning. Roads lined with gold.

I'm listening to Randy Bachman on Vinyl Tap on CBC radio and he's doing a show on movie music. So I'm bopping to Cindy Lauper and girls just want to have fun while I'm typing . If any of you have a chance to catch his show, it's 2 hours of excellent music and the most interesting stories to go with them.

Right now I'm working with the cutest little pony named Star. She is 10hh, black with you guessed it, at star. She's a registered Welsh and I'm training her to be a safe pony for Lesa's little girls. She is an absolute sweet heart. Maybe I should go into training pony's. It's not to far to fall either! Although I'm way to heavy to get on her, Tyler can get on. He just doesn't know it yet.

I'm also doing some work with Belle, one of my two year olds. She had a small hole in the center of her hoof and instead of cracking down, it cracked up into her cornet band. So I took her to the equine vet who took one look at it and wanted a good farrier to look at it. I ended up leaving her there as there is no such thing around here. I told him that she would probably need to be sedated as I haven't done too much work with her and she's been out running in the field. It turns out that they beveled some of the crack and decided a shoe with clips was the way to go to hold the foot together until it grew out. So Belle got a hot shoe on. Apparently she was really good. I was pleasantly surprised, that's for sure. I figured that as I have her at home, I should do some work with her so we've been working on gaiting on the lunge line and desensitizing her to lots of touching and strange things in the yard. She does have a gait to die for and is getting to the point where I just say "walk", "walk up" and "canter" this is just with the halter on, not even the bitting rig.

Here's a picture of Bell's foot before treatment

Fall work is starting to wind down, although we still have much to do. I want to finish the gate for Rascal's pen and get the goat barn cleaned out. It's been pretty nice weather for training horses too, although the last few days weren't that great.

Driving home tonight from picking up Tyler in Vegreville, I was struck by how fast the boys are growing up. Tyler has a girl friend, the operative word being friend. Wes's driving back and forth to St Paul everyday, really enjoying school (not so much English) and holding down a job. They act so grown up now. But at home they are still my boys, leaving clothes everywhere and constantly looking for food.

Gord's been working in Vancouver for the last two weeks. It was only supposed to be two weeks, but you know how those things go. He's doing one more 4 day rotation then will be home for a week, but he's going back. The work is just too steady not to. I guess the trucks aren't working so hard here at home. They figure the job will last until the end of November.

School's In, Back to Work

Me and Rascal in the bush

Well, we survived the first week of the new school year. I'm driving my bus again this year, Tyler's already in grade 8, and Wes is taking Welding at the Comp in St Paul. He's got himself a job at McDonald's to help pay for his gas too.

CHOKECHERRIES!!

The choke cherries are hanging on the trees like fat grapes this year, and I just couldn't stand to see them go to waste, so Gord and I went berrie picking one morning. It didn't take long to fill a five gallon pail, but now I had to deal with them. First the boiling and straining, that took three days, then Saturday I spent the day making jelly. Now I know why I don't do this every year. It is so time consuming!! But sooo darn tasty. Now the kids want me to make crabapple jelly. I hope it gets rainy and miserable outside when I do that, because then I won't feel so bad about being stuck in the house.

Last Monday Lesa came over with three horses to ride, two green ones and Delight. I rode Mira and Lesa rode Nebbie. We just took them out into the hay field as this was Lesa's first time riding Nebbie and I had just trimmed Mira's feet a bit to short and didn't want to take her on the gravel. Nebbie did real well, just got to work on her going to fast, but she's not scary at all.

Next we took out Smartie and Rascal. Smartie is a high energy horse, although she was a low energy horse when Lesa's hubby rode her, and Rascal is my stud. It was an interesting ride. We went to the hay field and then back home on the rode. I thought it would be a good idea to keep going north, but my other stud happened to be on the other side of the fence that had no juice on it. Oops, we got out of there pretty quick.

Then last we took Delight and Rascal out into the big pasture. It was an awsome ride!! There are lots of trails through the bush, and then up onto some pretty high hills were I'm sure we could see Villna. It was almost dark when we got home, pretty darn happy, but tired.

You can see more of our trail ride on Lesa's web site www.rafterdiamondl.tripod.com

Me and Rascal in the hay field

Summer Daze

After getting 3.5 inches of rain, we are back in the heat, +30 for the next few days. It means getting out there early or late to beat the heat.
Me and Lesa went for a late ride last night after it cooled off. Ok, we tried the night riding thing. Can't say I enjoyed it very much. The last time I tried it, I was attacked by a pair of nasty owls. Being dive bombed by owls is NOT fun. Didn't have any cameras on us last night, which is a shame as we were riding in one of our prettiest hayfield's with the setting sun.

Just got Mira back from Nicole's after two weeks of canter training. I'd been working on it during the winter, but I knew that if she got some consistant training she'd do much better. Nicole did a wonderful job on her. I got her to pick up both leads easily, got down to both a halt and a walk. It was so fun. It was tempting to try out our new skill in the hay field last night, but after sinking into a few mole hills at a run walk, I desided I'd better wait for better footing.