It's YOUR day ! 5.13.12

 Wishing all of the moms who read this little blog a wonderful Mothers' Day :

HAPPY MOTHERS' DAY !!!!

  My mom died back in 2005, the day before my birthday AND on her 15th wedding anniversary......  I still miss her.

Here are few photos of her-  She was my best friend for many years.

Even when she was little, Mom knew to take time to 'smell the roses'.....

Mom & Dad's High School Graduation pictures:

Their 40th Wedding Anniversary !

"Happy Mothers' Day. MoM"

" WATER BOTTLE !!!" 5.13.2012

 This is what my friend tells her dogs when they are being 'bad'. It seems that she and her dog have been going to training classes - and doing quite well from what I hear. They have progressed to the next set of obedience classes and continue to be learning more all the time.

She keeps me updated on how its' all going and this week , its teaching her dog at home that if he's being bad, she grabs a squirt bottle full of water . After warning him by yelling " WATER BOTTLE!", if he doesn't stop, she squirts him.  So far she tells me that it is working.

I agree- squirty bottles full of water are something the farm animals have learned of here as well. My chickens love coming inside the barn, you see. I spend a lot of extra time 'chasing' ( meaning my walking behind them, waving hands, and saying " SHOO !") them out. They love picking up the left over pieces of grains, bugs, spiders and then making chicken poopies in the barn.  I don't care for the poops, so thus, the " SHOOO, Girls !!"  Lately I have been using an old detergent bottle full of water to squirt at them and they have Learned ...  All I have to do is begin walking towards the small table beside the tack room door, and they all scoot out the barn door.  < yay for chickens learning things>

I have also used a squirt gun for the barn swallows who Insisted that the barn rafters belonged to THEM.  It took me two seasons of Spring before I finally made it clear that they must build their nests in the Other barn behind the main one. It has worked- they will do 'fly thoroughs' , but that is all.

And so goes the saga of " WATER BOTTLE !!!".  
 Stay tuned to see who else might get introduced to it.

PA pix 4.29.2012

I took these last Saturday, and have just gotten around to adjusting sizes, etc. The first one is of a church steeple in the distance, near Halifax, Pennsylvania.

And this one is of a field , freshly plowed, and planted. The view is as though one could go on forever in some areas.

Brand New Percherons

4.29.2012
A good friend of mine owns Percheron horses as well. She usually has a couple of well bred foals each year... this year, there were two precious foals born. Both of them were born with in 12 hours of each other. Both of them had some problems with being born, but with diligent care and a great equine vet in attendance, they're both happy, bouncing boys . I drove over to my friend's farm to see the two colts, and help out if I could last Saturday. Oh my, there's nothing as adorable as a one day old Percheron foal !  She named them "Banjo" &"Blue". Both going to be black too. I took my camera and tried to snap some pictures, and they are below.  Hope you enjoy seeing them .

"Black Mist Blue Moon"

"Black Mist Banjo"

First kisses from Blue's "grand mama"

Robin Eggs !

4.29.2012

This morning as Sadie (our American Bulldog) & I were outside for her "morning constitutional", I noticed a bird flying out of a big forsythia bush beside the house. We both checked it out and found a sturdy nest with three small robin eggs in it !

Hope they hatch.

4.29.2012

    It seems that Spring has certainly arrived.
Hens have gone 'broody' ( this means they want to hatch out chicks from their eggs) but creating baby chicks from unfertilized eggs hasn't worked in the past, and still doesn't work. It Will create really stinky eggs, however... There are two determined hens- HotWheels & Widget. ( Barred Plymouth Rock & a small Bantam )  So- they each lay an egg, then insist upon sitting on it,keeping it warm until it hatches. WE know those eggs will become oh so rotten, but THE HENS do not agree.  I already tried getting some fertile eggs for Widget to hatch out, but she'd have nothing to do with 'those things'. I keep taking the freshly laid eggs and put them in cartons, in the fridge,with much screeching and complaining from Widget. HotWheels is happy to sit on 'nothing' but her feet.

The little Lavender Orpington chicks didn't do so well. Out of six, we lost three. Nothing had changed at all, but once one would get weak, it didn't take long to die. A most sad and frustrating month for me, as you can imagine.  We still have three-one hen and two roosters, I think.  One rooster for sure as he's been practicing a crow. If that's what one wants to call a horrid, gurgling sound like a very rusty gate being opened.' Rooster Cogburn'  (RC) needs to practice a lot more !

Our fainting doelings are growing like weeds- and fainting over the silliest things. Each time, I feel so badly for them, but have to admit, it IS funny to see happen. The overhead barn door will cause a faint, if I don't have them paying attention to my opening or closing it..... chickens running out of the barn will, they have even startled Each Other into a double faint ! Misty is the best one for this, Malibu isn't as good at being startled but when she is- Oh myyyyyyyyyy, she's down for a good 10 seconds. Those little goatie tails don't go stiff though. This week they get some vaccinations to keep them healthy as with the horses. I gave the horses their vaccines earlier this month, and all that is needed is each getting a rabies vaccine. Once again, I will owe our farm vet a fortune.... I might give her a chicken as payment. Think that would work ?

I now have a new driving student who is thrilled to be learning about driving horses and hitching. The riding students are a blast as usual.  Below are a few photos of Sarah having her first riding lesson on our P.O.A. mare , Holly. We love Holly because she's sweet, and kind and gentle, but a stinker when it comes to being 'tricky'. Her favorite direction in the ring is towards the barn !

Sarah is SO much fun to teach to ride. She is as horse crazy as the other 9-10 yr olds are who ride here.

Happy Easter Everyone !

 And so it is Easter.....   2012.

Happy Happy Easter to all of you  

Late March- Early April 2012

Springtime is certainly arriving early this year !  We have some grass peeking thru, daffodils, earliest flowers of Spring, are already done blooming. The sleepy ground hogs have even come out of hibernation it seems. The Canada Geese left early in March- usually its not til this time of the year that I say goodbye to them as they fly north for the summer months.  Yes, spring is definately early !

Every so often, a cold night still occurs but it's becoming less and less. Horses are shedding their winter coats like Mad, as are the baby doelings.  Theirs is a 'baby coat' though. The humans around this area are even waking up from what I call "Human Hibernation"- calls for riding lessons, more working students and  ( I hope!!) possible boarders. Once again, I have high hopes for getting this little horse business actually making money.

G'mornin WoodFinn 

Daffodils at the barn

Malibu coming to say hello

Sunset

BoJangles hears something scary ...

There was a LOUD truck going up the road- Lynn & Evie both heard it

So Evie decided to gallop about

Full gallop in two Giant strides

Love this one

turning around to see what was SO scary !

Ehhh, wasn't so scary AfterAll- BoJangles

Shadow n Sadie sharing Sadie's bed

Silverwulf

Happy Percheron  :)

Occasionally we have a dead cat syndrome happen here

Widget ( banty hen ) and Harmony ( Buff Orp) having a discussion about what that is on the ground...

Lost :

3.21.12

One teeny little Banty hen named Widget ! I noticed she was missing Monday. Usually she's right here, wanting some breakfast or to sneak the cat's food. One of the working students said she'd seen her that evening, but I didn't. She wasn't around for dinner either, yesterday. I walked ALL over the farm, calling for her. She knows her name and comes a'runnin' when she hears me calling her, but nothing but silence yesterday. There was one place I Hadn't looked though- in the hay. Yesterday afternoon, while a student was grooming in preparation to ride, I got my little pen light and went searching.  Well, I found her. There she was, wedged between a block wall and a big hay bale.....  Just sitting there.

" hmmmmmmmmmm" I thought to myself as I tried to pick her up. I figured she'd just decided it was a nice place for a nap. Certainly there was no way she'd gone "broody" ( wanting to hatch out eggs and have babies). She was way to young for that ! Once again Mother Nature proved me oh so wrong. Widget had been one busy little hen. When I tried to pick her up, she fluffed herself to twice her normal size, and did a 'growl' of warning. Apparently she thought I was a predator come to snack on tasty banty sized eggs....

That little bitty hen had 14 eggs behind that hay bale !!!!!  She had SO many she couldn't sit on them all to keep them warm .  Obviously that was why she'd stopped laying in her little hen house- they were all there ! I had to squeeze in between 800 pound bales to bend over and gather them all up.

She's "missing" again this morning, since I let her out of her little nest...... Wonder where she'll decide to lay her non-fertile eggs now !?

Doelings ! 3.20.12

They are here, they are here !!!  Long story, short.... a friend of mine owns/ runs Brass Ring Fainting Goat Farm in Tennessee. She moved there a few years ago, and has been raising top quality Myotonic goats for some time. She shows & breeds them .   I have loved the breed for as long as I've known about them, and never could afford to buy two does. So I enjoyed hearing of others' babies being born and seeing the photos shared.  THIS year, my friend offered me two "bottle babies"  and I took her up on her kind offer. There were some others that had "just been weaned" and turned 3 months old on March 16 th. The day I picked them up. We organized a clandestine meeting in the parking lot of a TSC store, and did the Great Goat Exchange there. All went well, and Misty & Malibu arrived here at the farm safe n' Hungry !!!

The first thing we did was go into the "goat stall" ( aka- one of the horse stalls in the main barn) and let them settle in a bit. Then, a late lunch was served of goat feed . The same kind they'd been used to eating..... and later on I let them out into the barn aisle for the first time.......

Can we please come out now, "ma" ?

First time out in the Big Barn Aisle !

Eating some hay first

Me n' Misty

Always checking for a way to get out of where ever they Are...

nom,nom,nom....

Malibu on the left, Misty on the right

Whew- exploring makes a baby thirsty

I'm Sure there will be many more pictures to come as these girls grow up. When they are old enough, I want to breed them and then we shall have kids for sale !

Welcome, Springtime ! 3.20.12

Today, as most of you know, is the 'first day of Spring' !  However, it is cloudy, showery and oh so humid outside.  Yuckie beginning to Spring, if ya ask me.

Updates from our farm :  
My little lavender Orpington chicks are NOT all Hens as I was told they may be.  HA- I am seeing two with some mighty long tail feathers coming in and two, who have 'average' length ones. Now, from what little I know of telling roosters from hens - that's a pretty good sign, Other than crowing or laying eggs. ( Yeah- that would make me 100% sure ;)  They are getting all kinds of stunning soft grey feathers, and are Tall for the age they are. Of course, the hens I bought from a "local" farm store were stunted and never grew to full sized " fat farm hens". This is all a calculated guess on my behalf.  At any rate- they are happy, healthy and today were moved to the tack room !   Now I can clean the garden tub real well, and the carpet in the bathroom as well.  Boy, chicks are dirty - no matter how often one cleans out their little brooders . If the sunshine ever comes out, I'll set up their little puppy pen out in the grass and cover it for their protection. Then I can also get some up to date photos of them.  They were born on February 24th, so in a few days, they will be a whole month old :)

7/10/2011 Emmi & her Eggs

Oddly enough I haven't been publishing ALL of the posts here !  DUH .  Check out the dates of the blog posts so you won't be confused with their order, please. I promise to try hard to not do this any more !
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I got a photo of Emmi setting on her eggs-thanks to my pal, Shanna !  Here's Emmi- she has 8 'bantam easter egger' eggs to care for. Tonight I'll make my first attempt at 'candling' them to see if they're fertile or not.

This little hen is doing a superb job with being a brand new mama-to-be. She only gets off her nest one time daily. She takes a healthy dirt bath, gets something to eat, and drink, catches some tasty bugs, and she's back on her nest.  Mother Nature sure created some wonderful instincts in these chickens !
Here's Emmi:

I imagine I'll have to begin putting a small dish of water / food in a corner so she can have something to drink all day long. It's supposed to be HOT the next few days here, so she'll appreciate that.

The New Door - October 31,2010

The new overhead barn door is here and installed !   It works like a dream- soooooooo simple to lift up. Its designed to look like a carriage house door, but it slides up , out of the way.  The folks who did the work And ordered it for me were Wonderful !   Gotta plug their business:   "Garage Doors Plus"   Lisa & Ron Short, from Enola, PA.  They were so helpful in letting me know what my choices were, and the costs as well, up front. No hidden fees or surprises. I'd called a few other garage door installers, and they all had to " get back to me".  Lisa was on a job, and asked if she could call me back in a few minutes. I figured she'd call later on when they'd gotten home. No- she DID call me back and With some suggestions, AND prices.  Then they both came to see what work was involved and we ordered the door.It arrived faster than I thought and they were here that Monday to install it !  Here are some photos of how it all went. Ron was great about answering my 'stupid human' questions as he worked and I learned a lot about garage doors .
                                                   Lisa & Ron kind of posing !

                                                             This is their info.....

                                            Lisa doing something important- the door is Almost up !

  The finished product !

White Horse of Uffington.

Here is what they did :


England's Uffington Horse is a 3000-year-old iconic carving into a chalky hillside. Was it designed by the ancient Celts as a sign to the gods, like some sort of equestrian crop circle? No one really knows. It's always been there, galloping freely across the vast clear hillsides.

Until this week, that is, when the local people woke up to find a jockey on the horse. and reins. 

The amazing publicity stunt was pulled off by the Irish online gambling shop ("bookmaker") Paddy Power. We're in the final run-up to the Cheltenham Festival of National Hunt racing (steeplechasing, more or less, in US racing terms) and an annual prank was expected. 

As you can see in the video, they didn't carve the soil, but rather used canvas to create the rider.

Paddy Power is known for its pranks and its controversial (and usually quite humorous) television commercials about gambling.

If you needed to end the week with a smile, this should do it. 

Hmmmm.... 3.10.12

I don't know if you have ever heard of the White Horse of Uffington or not, but if you do a search online for it, you can learn all about it.  Seems, some of the folks from Paddy Power decided she needed a jockey- so here's what happened :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=b8p4HQGXgak#!

enjoy

Happy End of February !

 This winter has been good to us. "Warm" temps, little snow, some rainy days- but generally ?  A good winter so far. Now- since I just typed that, we'll get a HUGE snow storm in March, Just to prove me wrong.

Alli , my ancient App mare, has come thru this winter in good weight. Normally, she'll loose a little by this month no matter what I try to tempt her with.... but not this year. Alli Likes warmer weather - as do I.

This is a short one- as I'm attempting to once again, learn a stable management program I purchased. So far, so good, but whew, I'd MUCH rather be driving horses !

Take care, and check back again soon !
Below are a couple of photos from our late January snow :

Welcome, March !

3.9.2011

March is here !  To some, March comes in like a 'lion', and goes out like a 'lamb'.  So far , THIS March in south central Pennsylvania has been all " lamb", with an occasional growl from that 'lion'.  I'm usually waiting for April to show up because this last month of winter can often be more nasty than other months.  But, our daffodils are up and have buds on them ! Our forsythias are developing baby sized buds- both promising glorious color for this upcoming Spring.  Each year, Spring is a new Beginning- and once again, I can see glimmers of green grass, the teeny early spring flowers and I'm sure Spring is arriving Soon.

We have some new chicks - another Spring Event ! These are called Lavender Orpingtons and are going to be stunning birds once mature. Right now, the four peeps are living in a brooder in my bathtub, and are growing like mad. This morning, one flew up on the edge of the brooder and hopped down. What a scary moment that was for her. I don't think she thought all of this flying thru real well- it's just that she has little bitty feathers, flapped and There she Was.  I'll be sure to add a couple of photos of them when they arrived last week. This is the third week of life for these little peepies.

There was a boarder who just never did fit in here who finally moved out the last day of February.  You know how some people know less than they Think they do ? Well, that's how it was here, and proceeded to get worse and worse. We had decided that March 31 was to be their last day of keeping their ponies here, but they chose earlier, and now our barn is back to being a great place again. Its odd how just one "bad apple'' really DOES make things rotten.

One of my working students and friend, Shanna, has purchased a horse for her !  This is the second one she has owned, and is SO excited. We took a road trip yesterday with her mom ( who knows horses too) to see this little horse. Oh my- she was PERFECT ! A perfect size, build, sweet personality and has the basics in training down really nicely. She's just 4, so it'll be a wonderful, long relationship between the owners , I hope.

There has been some interest from some other people in coming here to board, but we shall have to wait to be Sure.

That's about it- other than me remembering to add the chick pix , so here they are in no particular order.....
Misty, Lilac, Layla and Dixie:

Widget Lays An EGG

2.17.2011

This little bitty banty chick that I 'saved' has become a mature Hen it seems. She has stayed ever so friendly and knows she is safe from the big rooster ( Lucky) who constantly bothers her in the barn. So it is in the barn she lives with a few short forays out into the barn yard area....

She loves to come into the tack room and sit on human laps, if there are any. She tells us very important Chicken Things all the time.  This evening, she was cackling about something and I just figured it was something misbehaving according to Widget. No- when I went to re-fill her water dish for the night, I noticed there were TWO teeny tiny eggs in the back of her hen house !  Each day so far, we are presented with one small bantam sized egg in there. I got a photo of a normal sized egg from our Rhode Island Red hen, Lucy, and then one of Widgets so you can see the difference . I hope she continues laying !

Carlene's Bracelet

The day before I had Carlene, my dear Clyde mare, euthanized, I clipped a bit of her tail hair to keep.I didn't think it would be long enough to have much of anything created from it, but it turns out I got a good deal of length. Hope , of High Hope Designs, said she would make a memory bracelet from it. When the bracelet arrived here, I was floored !  It was/ is GORGEOUS ! So comfortable to wear, and now, when I do wear it, I think of all the good times had with Carlene while she lived here at WoodFinn.....

Happy End of February !

 This winter has been good to us. "Warm" temps, little snow, some rainy days- but generally ?  A good winter so far. Now- since I just typed that, we'll get a HUGE snow storm in March, Just to prove me wrong.

Alli , my ancient App mare, has come thru this winter in good weight. Normally, she'll loose a little by this month no matter what I try to tempt her with.... but not this year. Alli Likes warmer weather - as do I.

This is a short one- as I'm attempting to once again, learn a stable management program I purchased. So far, so good, but whew, I'd MUCH rather be driving horses !

Take care, and check back again soon !
Below are a couple of photos from our late January snow :