A Tribute to Barn Catz.

 As many horse people know, a barn cat is of the utmost importance in ones' barn. They hunt for mice, and sometimes, rats, they help keep birds from nesting in the barn rafters, and they're generally good company to anyone who comes along . These girls are my barn catz.... Moxie , the tabby , and Kiisa, the calico. They were apartment raised and never felt fresh air until they came here to live. They're superior mousers, and keep us all but 'mice free'. They're polite to those humans who come here, and keep a close eye on everything.

Below is Moxie- she is a little timid ,but once you are her friend, it's forever   ( keep reading)

Moxie takin' it easy in the shade.

Kiisa sleeping

 

  Kiisa again- she Loves boxes to sleep in

Lounging in the barn aisle after breakfast- Kiisa

Kiisa heading out to the pasture...and mice :)

Doing what she does best-  watching the activities at the barn

I found this video on youtube, and thought to share it with you. This is for all those wonderful barn cats- especially the two who live here- Kiisa and Moxie. Thanks for the good times, girls.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSaZ9jkgMPA

enjoy, and big thanks to MaryAnne Kennedy for creating it !
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 And a cute poem by Sue Millard about MICE.

The mice had been out drinking.
Their tails wove in and out.
They staggered up the piping,
and fell off down the spout.
They reached the airing-cupboard
and nested in the sheets,
they peed upon the bedspreads,
on towels wiped their feets.
Then leaving several pellets
of shit upon shelves (upper)
they hiccuped, belched and farted
and went to look for supper,
for as you know when drinking,
though lager fills your belly,
it also makes you feel as though
you'd eat a docker's welly!
They fancied Ruby Murray,
but nothing could they find,
for in a decent bathroom
a curry's naught but wi-ind.
So gnashing sharp incisors
and scraping needled paws,
they set about a drunken search
to find that bedtime course.
And when I rose at seven,
and flicked electric power
to heat the flowing water
and give a nice hot shower,
I found the mice had feasted
behind the cupboard door.
They'd shredded paper wrappings
and dropped them on the floor:
they'd punctured all the toothpaste
and then to top their tope
they'd guzzled anti-frizz shampoo
and eaten half the soap.
Then finally, hung over,
they'd made themselves at home
and sprawling bloated fast asleep
were snoring shaving foam.

5/22/2011

Updates on the barn restorations.... The carpenter got finished last week- after accomplishing all he had to get done. We now have brand new steps going to the hayloft ( YAY- no more ladders!), all of the stall windows have been re-worked, and now open & close easily, and there are firring strips on each of the ceiling seams , making it look oh so nice. He also repaired the kicked in concrete blocks ( yes- those horses really wanted to be free !!) and now the back stall walls all need to be scrubbed clean. But those holes are filled in and more safe.

This past week, our painter showed up. They painted the stall ceilings in the same cream color that our new over head door is.  This coming week, we HOPE the rain holds off enough so they can get the two eaves on each end of the barn painted and all of the windows as well.

This poor barn- it was built in the mid '60s and hadn't really been maintained properly until we bought the place in 2002. Sure the guys working here had done their best, and big repairs that were needed were done, but little else. When the former owners moved on, the barn was left empty and barns, like houses, NEED to be lived in. So the decay had continued.  I'll add a few photos of how the stall boards looked and still look today.

Unpainted:

 Painted ! We're STILL waiting for the stall front company to arrive...

Inside the stall fronts now-

BAD cribbers lived in this barn before our horses.

 This horse was trying to chew his way to freedom....

 They even chewed the TOPS of each stall and the heavy wood uprights

Big dents in the old boards made by neurotic horses wanting to be OUTside.

Windows repaired and now ready to be re-painted !  This is our tack room...

This week ahead , the stall front company is Supposed to show up to have the whole barn torn apart and re-done correctly.

Then we can have our ''Barn Clean Up Day !''

May 2011

 It's May....  The "april showers" should be done with by now, flowers are blooming like mad, the grass has Already been mowed twice, and needs it again.  And STILL it rains.  Most horse folk are totally tired of the rain and will whine at any given moment about not being able to ride, use their rings to train in, or in my case, drive my horses. If the sunshine is out, the ring is muck. So the sun leaves behind heavy rain clouds and it rains on us.

I am so far behind in conditioning my mares that it is just plain sad. I'll try to remember to add some pictures of our RAIN . I think there was one or two very pleasant spring days in April- but only from one's ankles , Up. The rest of the time there were high temperatures of 80 degrees, and the humidity was about as bad.  Sometimes its as though Mother Nature is trying to tell me to just give it up, and go eat bon-bons in the house.

Here are some of the flooding photos from this past month :
This is BoJangles. I don't believe he was clean much at all last month...

We had flooding in the creek... HIGH water

Abby in the muck...  Yuck

Wicked bad storm clouds this evening along with tornado watches/ warnings:

See my ring ?  Lovely, ehhhhhh ?

 

this is the Other side of it....

A closer shot of it- this water was a good foot deep :

Another one of our creek... at one point, it had to be a good 5' deep.