A bit of a dreary Monday in December.  Overcast, damp and well typical Winter in Northern California.

My big question of the day... WHY DO WE STILL HAVE FLIES?  I'm convinced nuclear holicaust, alien invasion, another ice age - flies and cockroaches will never die. I've killed more flies today than I did all summer. ARGH!

The horses are all doing well.  It's winter they eat and wander around basically. Half the day it looks like we don't have the big herd we have, as they disappear into one of the valley on the hills.

The rescue group is coming along nicely, no illness, eating well, bright eyed, so today we blended them in with the mares/foals.  They're all on a larger pasture (two adjoining pastures opened together) with free choice grass hay and a fairly heavy alfalfa feeding.  I took a few (bad as usual) photos of them about an hour ago.

Celena out on pasture. She spends most of her time grazing on the hill, she actually ran a few steps today, the first time I've seen her do that.  She's slowly filling out, but it's likely to take through Spring to get back to not looking like a bone.  The rest are doing well too, grazing and moving around.  The healthier ones went for a lovely gallop earlier (of course no camera handy), and really seem to be enjoying themselves.  It's probably very nice for them after being locked up in pens for a few years.

Paperwork

As per my lovely iPhone reminder I started sorting paperwork early this a.m.

DNA/PQ tests were first up. Pull those out and still missing hair for two... /sigh. Add to the 'to do' list to pull Remy and Surprise's hair.

Stallion reports. All done for 2010 - w00t! I thought I still needed to do Frenchie's 2009, so did that too, and then found the receipt in the Stallion Report file. Hmmm. Call AMHA and yes I did that two months ago and with the correct mares tha

t have since blessed us (Cookie and Remy). Cool.

Set up all the files for the rescue mares and 2010 foals. Now to print file toppers and labels. I threw out some more old papers and filed all the recent paperwork back from AMHA. I'm down to 2009/2010 foals - which is huge considering how far behind I was in June.

Rainy November morning

So we fell back today - I woke up earlier than usual add to that Daylight Savings time and I was up at o'dark-thirty, not a time I like to acknowledge ever.

The skies were clear at eleven last night and apparently became a mass of rain filled clouds that let loose. Everything had a nice soaking.  Add to that it's a tad cold, not windy at least.

I do love rain, it's good for the pastures and I love watching it and listenting to it.  But not working in it! Wet hay, wet me, wet dogs.  So the horses are all fed, I'm dry enjoying a cup of coffee with a splash of Frangelico (love that stuff at this time of year) and the dogs are drying in the laundry room.  It's amazing how many of our towels and blankets have been converted to dog 'stuff'.  I think I do more 'dog' laundry than I do for me!


Finally caught Leelee and Bruiser and have them back up front.  When that boy will accept weaning ... he's going to get weaned one day I swear it!  Likely with Bambam in a few months.  He's definitely the worst foal I've had in coming up twelve years with Minis.  He does not like to leave his mom.   Definitely the opposite of independent.

I was watching Bambam while feeding and he looks so much like a big horse in proportion - the legginess and short back, long neck.  I did notice he had a faint whitish strip (probably a few hairs wide) on the inside of his left nostril.  This should make his DNA/PQ more interesting.  I'm sure he'll be a B size.  Healthy and nice I can live with the height.  Not to complain about the B's but I want THAT look on a 30" Mini consistently!


I caught Comet too.  I'm not sure anything's wrong, but she seemed to be favoring her front leg a bit, I couldn't see anything wrong, not exceptionally warm, but with all the new grass growing from the rain, I do worry about founder.  So, she's up with Charm and Woody on a grass diet.  Not happy in the least, but she's there.

All my horses view anything but being out on the hill as torture.  Half acre paddocks are squeeze shoots in their opinions.  Silhouette is the only horse I have that doesn't mind being confined, well her and Little.  They both could live quite happily with very little other horse contact.  So yes, the princess is back up front too.


Noomi had a fun experience today, she found out when you're head is as big as the dog that just fit through a hole in the fence, you get stuck.  When Fence's Attack!  She was having a fit, and of course I'm two pastures away trying to get to her.  She finally unstuck herself and ran for the deck.  Poor baby, she really doesn't know how big she is, as she sees the Mini Aussies slip through holes she can't fit in and stands there with a puzzled expression.  Today she gave it a shot and found out it was NOT a good idea.


Now if it would get cold enough to kill the flies.  They've been horrid this past month, worse than all summer.  I know there is a reason for their existence, but it escapes me now.

Meet Noomi

We've added a new member to our family - Noomi - a purebred Great Pyrenees LGD dog.  She's four months old in this photo taken today.

A good friend, and fellow Mini breeder, Holly Bradshaw, found the puppies, and we took the long drive yesterday up into a gorgeous part of Northern California that I'd never been to before.  We met outside Oregon City and drove up up near Camtonville, then down n a fairly windy one lane road to a private ranch with awesome views.

The breeder met us as her road was fairly impassible with the recent rains, or at least impassible without a fairly sturdy 4-wheel drive vehicle.  We met, the dam and uncle of the puppies. Uncle is HUGE!  We're not sure the puppies will get that big, but there great personality, calmness and the fact they've been raised in with livestock was a plus!  Her mother has even taken on bears and Noomi and her siblings have witnessed it.  So they do know there stuff.

We're just making sure she knows ALL the dogs, horses, llamas, cats and chickens are her family not invaders - lol!

So, Noomi and her sister (Jasmin?) came home with Holly and I.  Noomi slept the whole way -drooling all over my leg part of the trip.  Great puppy.  She's yet to have the usual, 'OMG where am I and where's my mom?' puppy issues.  She had dinner and passed out for the night in Anya's room.  She did wake her up at 4 a.m. to play - lucky Anya!

Today she went out with us to learn the morning work schedule, and has been taking everything in stride - even the leash, considering it was her first experience with one.

Noomi though, as caused quite a stir with our animals.  The horses and llamas which see our dogs every day were like WHAT IS THAT?  Blanca, one of our llamas, was alerting to the point we thought aliens were invading.  If you haven't heard that particular llama noise, imagine the sound effects from a horror or sci-fi movie and you'd be close!

Even the horses acted like we'd brought a bear out to meet them.  If we'd had a camera oh what beautiful head shots - lol!

Our dogs are still not sure what to make of her, but Noomi is totally unconcerned with them.  I think she'll do great here, so far everything has been fine with her and she's adapting well.  No aggression, just curiosity.

Noomi  is named after the brilliant actress Noomi Rapace, from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy movies.  The name means sweetness and pleasantness.  Seems fitting so far!