Best Of Both Worlds

     Roni and I each have the best of both worlds.  I have challenging yet rewarding school work which is thankfully part time and also horse training
                                                                              and riding, and family
farm fun.  I guess that is actually more than two worlds.  Roni has a nice, comfortable and safe home with us while also being able to see his friends at Wellgreen Farm (including Dude), getting to work there in the indoor arena out of the heat, and getting to be trained by the loving, caring horse person Marj is.  I too am very lucky to get to take Roni down there and work with him and get help form her.

     Saturday morning I woke up to another hot, humid day which the sun later came out and continued to bake the earth and air.  Roni nickered as I approached the barn at 5 am. He, Amiga and Zorro go out on the front pasture together, although Amiga and Zorro are confined to a small grazing pen so they can't get carried away with running around.  We currently have them fenced off way at the north end, so it is quite a hike out there with the two of them. 

     In this first photo Roni was lying and then rolling out by the grazing pen.  When I approached to get a better picture, he stood up and started to walk towards me.



     Joe finished unloading wood shavings so that he could park the little trailer and hook the horse trailer back up for me.  Brother watches as usual.

     Everything was so dried and parched, that I went around with the hose giving all the plantings and flowers a good dousing of water.  The ducks delighted in a clean, newly filled pool of water.  I had to re-fence and plant some grass seed that the chickens had sabotaged, and of course gave it a good watering too.  I also continued work on weeding the rock garden.

     I spent some time in here cooling off and catching up on "desk" work.  Then, in preparation to head over to Moraine view, I packed the trailer, put Amiga and Zorro back out, cleaned stalls, packed my cooler and chair and then loaded Roni.  Shortly after I got Roni unloaded out at the park, (about 5pm) the wind came up and it really threatened to storm.  I was concerned about the two horses out in the storm back home but decided to go ahead and tack up to ride, since I had gone to the trouble to take Roni and all the paraphernalia
                                                                                  out there.  Here
he is waiting to be tacked up.  We ended up having a great time adventuring around the trails that are fairly close to the horse campground.  It had cooled off considerably but never did rain, the storms were all north of us.  Joe got home from his football game in Champaign, put the horses back in the barn during chores and then came out to joined Marj, Richard, Nan and I for a grilled picnic super.   

     Sunday after working in the nursery, I scurried home and back out to Moraine view.  My church service today was with God (and Roni) in the beautiful woods He created. We (group of 4 riders) went around the lake, which is nearly a two hour ride. 

     Then a bit later Joe came out to run and Roni and I followed him through the woods.  Roni's slow smooth gait was a perfect pace  for keeping up with Joe's jog.









      Back at the campground we all relaxed near the fire, enjoying this outdoor world away from home. 

      Once home, I let Roni out front with the cowboys for a bit so he could enjoy the nice alfalfa.  I figured he had earned it.  They were relaxing in the shade while he ate.  Then at dinner time, he was ready to head in to the barn.  This video is a re-enactment.

     Joe and I watched a movie (The Proposal) together after a late dinner.

     It was a brisk 58 degrees for late morning chores on Labor Day.  At first I thought this pigeon was a bird of prey up in the hay loft window.  It was looking down at the ducks and chickens that always eat the bugs that collect over night under the barn light.   When walking the horses way out into the front pasture, I was surprised they weren't more wound up because of the breeze and the chill in the air.  I worked at school work and my blog for much of the morning.  Joe headed out mid morning to golf with his buddies and Roni and I went to Moraine view.  Marj, Richard and I went out
                                                     together for another ride around the

lake, in the opposite direction as yesterday.  Marj split off from Richard and I early on, and then Roni and I went off on our own shortly before getting back.  Roni keeps getting better and better.  There were moments, when out in the open, he really wanted to go.  It feels like he is ready to bolt if I gave him a little more rein and the slightest nudge with my leg.  I did intentionally have him canter at one point, but slowed him back down fairly quickly.  I had wanted to see how he would behave during and after some speed work.  I think he would run till he drops... he never seems to want to quit.  Once I had him slow back down, it took some time to convince him to walk calmly, but I did get him to do that, all the way back to camp, with a fairly loose rein.  He is a lot of horse but has a lot of heart.

Cows resting and digesting in the shade.

     I came straight home from the park, put all three horses out to pasture, and then took off for Courtney and Mike's.  I helped them move kitchen items from their old place to their new house.  Once back home, I noticed some things amiss.  A few of the hammock ropes were broken, the ornamental grasses pushed over and the feeder and wire door to the chicken coop bent up.  And then I saw the cow poop... in and around the coop... but all three cows were in the pasture.  Scratch head
and wonder.  I think Norman must have escaped again and then put himself back into the pasture.  The fence was on and working... so we just don't get it.  I guess Norman wants the best of both worlds too (pasture with cow friends or roaming the yard and farm buildings and causing trouble). 

     I was malfunctioning at school Tuesday... just couldn't think or talk intelligently, but luckily most of the kids were half asleep so it didn't seem to matter.  When home, I decided to grade papers in the lawn chair.  It was fairly windy, but I found a spot out of the wind, in the warm sun, on the side of a building.  I soon fell asleep, having a nice little nap.  


     Joe bought and brought home Sir Loin's replacement, This 200 lb bottle baby girl calf.








     She is part Angus and part Simmental.  Our hay man Mark sold her to us.











        She is almost 4 weeks younger than Norman.   They had called her Baby 90... I already have my hen "Baby" so we are going to call her Babe. 














     She was a runt, so is smaller than Norman.  Now we need to move Sir Loin on to his final destination.


     After we got Babe settled in to the corn crib, Joe moved 20 bails of straw over here from Becks.  They had them left over from the farm show and were now done with them.  So we took them off their hands. :-)  We need them for around the chicken coop and by the kitchen wall in the winter time. 

     When I came home Wednesday, a big truck was stuck in our drive at the curve by the garage.  He had clipped numerous tree branches and was blocking my way.  Andy was trying to direct the guy to help him back out.  I parked in the grass, watched, and photographed the rest.

    Once the truck had backed down the drive, they removed a fence post, dropped down all the electro-braid rope, and drove into the side field, where they unloaded all 36, 15 in. plastic pipes for the tile repair.

















     The truck left the same way he had come... minus going all the way up the drive and getting stuck. 

Once the truck was out, Andy re-cemented the fence post into the ground

and Joe worked on branch clean up.

     After all the commotion was over, we let Babe out of the corn crib to meet the cow boys.  I had moved them into the paddock while the fence was down out front.  They were very curious about her.  She head butted Norman and Frankie but not Sir Loin.  Several times Loin stepped in between her and one of the other boys, as if to kind of protect her.  He was the nicest to her.  She was mostly interested in eating grass.  I couldn't help but take lots of pictures.

 

 

 








 

          Thursday morning Andy was here by 6:30 and started in on digging the trench for the new tile.  He is going to keep it off to the side of the water way because it is

so shallow in the bottom of it, there is not much dirt over the tile all along the water way.  This likely contributed to the breaking of the old line.  The tile has to cross under the water way though, so Andy did that at the north end where the ground is higher. 

     When I got home from school, Andy had the trench done and all the pipe in, and was taking one last reading along it to be sure there was adequate grading (slant) for the water to flow through it.

























     Then Andy started covering the new pipe up with dirt.  He piled the dirt all along it and suggested letting it settle all winter long and then plant grass in the water way next spring.  Joe has already bought a bag of water-way grass mix, so we'll probably plant now, and more later.

 








     Once Andy was done, we opened the paddock gate to let the cows out.  Babe was too scared to go under the cattle scratcher that is draped across the gate opening to the back pasture.  The cows love rubbing their back and necks on it.  It has fly repellent on it and helps with that problem as well as the itchy, shedding hair.  Babe is too short to reach it, but still too afraid to go under it.











     Shortly after Andy left, I got Roni tacked up to ride.  It started to sprinkle, but didn't amount to much, so I rode anyway.  I kept it short, and only asked for him to gait once, and we stayed in the side pasture.  After dinner, the rain really picked up.  We had to bring the horses in early because it had them riled up.  We also put Babe in the corn crib over night.

       The rain was still coming down at a steady pace this morning.  I went ahead and put the horses out.  Babe was reluctant to come out of the dry corn crib.  She eventually did and then followed the cowboys out to the back pasture, going under the cattle scratcher.

     The cloudy, drizzly day felt more like a Monday, and I struggled to stay awake once home, but had much to catch up on here at the computer since the unit 5 server had been down so long Thursday evening.  Joe had a golf tournament and poker game and because of the weather, I decided to stay in and plug away at this Blog post.  It was too wet and muddy to ride, and it looked like more rain was coming.

  I had spotted two humming birds feeding at the Althea flowers outside my office window, so put the hummingbird feeder up.  It didn't take long for them to start using it.

      The horses continue to be content out front, with Amiga and Zorro sharing a fairly good sized grazing pen and Roni within eye sight.







     We had Courtney take her two rocking horses when she moved into her new house last week.  Abbey used to sit on them and look out the dining room window.  I moved a chair next to the window for her and she now spends quit a bit of time on it, usually looking out.  She definitely has the best of both worlds, one as an indoor cat and the other outside exploring the farm yard.  She has even started coming all the way out to the barn when I am out there.
.