Foxy's Surprise

Anyone care to guess?

By way of history, when Foxy came to us we were told by the owners that the people THEY got her from had told them she had an STD (venereal warts) but they had treated it and it was all taken care of, just some scars on her "parts" but all cured... they showed me the scars, just looked like little white spots on her skin, but it was nice to know where they came from...

Over the past 5-6 years we have had Foxy running with Wyatt, Trooper, Austin, Dillon AND Wiley at various times, and she has never gotten pregnant... so we thought that perhaps the STD had rendered her sterile, and quit trying... but at the same time, didn't worry any more about having her around the boys because she was "safe". In hindsight I am wishing I had done some research on this issue... but I didn't take the time. A couple of months ago our volunteers John and Rose were out, and while John was digging up old fence posts, Rose and I were brushing minis and she was asking about the pregnant jennets so I was pointing out the various girls and explaining what stage they were at, I have several that are more than halfway through their pregnancies and starting to get that "pear" shape... we turned to Foxy and then we looked at each other and looked at her and looked at each other and I went OMG! Because I thought she was sterile I didn't keep records on her like I do on the donkeys so I am scrambling to remember when she was where and with who last year... are we going to have a mini horse or a mule??? Checked her udder immediately, nothing to give me concern there at that time, but I upped her mare-and-foal (she was already getting some to put a little weight on, she eats slower than the rest and was missing out on some of her food so I had moved her to private quarters so she doesn't have to share, and giving her extra to get her built up again) and she's been growing ever since...





So I've been checking her udder weekly like I do the donkeys, and on Sunday:

It's FOUR TIMES the size it was just last week! Which on the donkeys means a baby within a month... so at this point I am pretty sure it will be Dillon's baby, as best I can remember she spent the summer with him last year because she eats slow and he won't push a woman away from her food (my little gentleman), AND because she won't push him away from his like his harem does all winter, poor little man ;) (although he thinks it's a fair trade, and I DO make sure there is plenty of food and it is spread out in several feeders so he gets enough).

So she has been moved to the foaling pen and is getting checked several times a day!

And I think she is wishing I would QUIT taking pictures of her and her big belly!

Did I Say "Little" Big Trailer Modification???

Oh boy did I open up a can of worms with my work on the trailer floor...

I had a question for Randy and called him to look... and he asked me, "what's this?"... pulled the rubber mats off the wall and discovered that while the side panel looks like this on the outside:

It looks like THIS on the inside!!!

Before you can ask, let me assure you that the structural steel on the trailer is ok - it is just the side panels and the smaller top rail that held the wood in place that were rusting away behind the rubber mats...


If we chose,we could put the rubber back and the horses would be safe... but we would know that this was there, and getting worse... so we decided it had better get fixed NOW rather than later as we had originally planned. And as long as we have everything torn apart, I get my tack room built NOW instead of later as well!

So here is a "before" picture of the left side of the trailer...


First we removed ALL the wooden boards from the floor:


Randy is cutting out the upper "stock" portion of the front left:


And I am grinding welds to get the lower solid portion off the back right:

After which Randy cut most of it off, but the edges were a bear...

View from the inside:


Randy has the top left section out!


Finally got Hilary out of bed and she took over grinding the last section, the front right, with Randy showing her where the welds are:


Although I had grinded off all the welds the other day, Joel basically handled the lower left rear panels himself:




The lower panels on the front left were a real problem:




These front 2 panels will be solid on both sides, with the hindmost panel on the right side being an access door, and this will be my new tack room:



This project would go a lot slower and be a lot harder if we didn't have the help of this guy:


The new metal was ordered Friday and picked up on Monday:

So once the last little bit of demo and clean-up are done we can get started putting things back together!

Stay tuned...

Our New Roommate...

We got a new dog!!!!!

No, really, we didn't... we got a new roommate, Randy's little brother Joel... and JOEL has a dog... so there IS a new dog on the ranch. Francesca is a chihuahua mix about the size of Sherman and Rocket... and so far she is getting along ok.

And Joel has already been a HUGE help on the trailer project... which I am getting ready to tell you about tomorrow!

MMMMMOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Mikey has mostly big dogs... I have mostly little dogs. Mikey has mostly big equines, I have mostly little equines... Mikey has big cows - darn it, I don't have cows!

YET!!!!!

Looky what we found:


Yup MINIATURE COWS! Actually they are Zebu... but seriously they are about the same size as my donkeys!!!!!



And this handsome bull is called "Turbo"!


The guy also had (among a ton of other animals) some deer:



Including a brand new fawn that I got to touch...



And a video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLLH-mnKtW0

We are "in negotiation" but have tentatively picked out a couple of adorable young bulls:
This one, it was the star that "got" us...

And this one, the eyes that are lined like my Dillon:


Hey! Hang up that phone!!! You are NOT to call the loony bin on me!!!!!!!

Benjamin goes home...

On the way to class I delivered Benjamin to his new home with Mike and Ruthie, he is joining Charles and EVERYONE was so excited to see him arrive...

For the whole story, you have to go check out their blog:

http://thelifetimesatthenonameranch.blogspot.com/

I am adding them to my blog list so you can follow along with Charles and Benjamin as they take over the whole place!!!!!

(Seriously, go look, Charles has the run of the HOUSE!!)

The Conversion (Part 2)

Randy went by yesterday and took some pictures of the progress on the truck... the box has been removed!


Sure looks long from this angle!

The guy also asked about the springs, where Randy planned to take the truck to have some removed (for less bounce now that the truck won't be so heavy - same thing we did to the school bus we were modifying to a motor home years ago) and he said while things were apart he could do it for the same price, so now we have one less separate step to take!!

And he went by again today... harder to see since they moved the truck... but they have removed one section of the drive train...


The holes you see in the frame were holding the spring brackets for the old location of the rear tires... the holes toward the front will become the rear holes for the new location, and the rest of the frame will be removed.
Again, stay tuned!

Jasmine's New Nikes

Thanks so much to my friend Sabrina for her expert help in fitting! Once I knew what size to get, I ordered Jasmine's Old Mac G-2 boots... and of course they did NOT arrive before San Diego! So I was panicking, well Sabrina to the rescue again, since she was taking Savannah on the trip and the boots she had that fit Jasmine were Jersey's boots, she kindly loaned them to us! And when we arrived home, we found Jasmine's waiting...

Aren't they pretty?

First time on hooves

And darn it, already got them dusty and full of dry weeds!!! {grin} but we had a nice ride!!! Thanks to Hilary and my friend Laurie for going with me!


I meant to take a picture of them close-up again afterwards but it got dark on us...

And looking back at the pictures, yeah, I think I need some practice putting them on, looks like the "inserts" aren't exactly in the right place - but we will get there!

Of all the boots I have seen I really like the looks of these, and Sabrina says hers have done a LOT of miles! So I for one am looking forward to that... and I THINK Jasmine is too... at least so far she doesn't take off when I come out to the pasture with her halter in hand!