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 !
**********************************************************************************
 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.

Hoppy Easter & a Garbage Truck ???

 Over the years up here in PA,we have gotten an interesting
"Easter bunnies" showing up.

One year, we had Easter Geese. Some actual bunnies,some ducks, and who knows who will show for this Easter.

This garbage truck showed up on Thursday-
perhaps THIS is our " easter bunny" for this year ??

And a shot of one of our barn kitties,'Kissa',doing what she does best :

More New Things at WoodFinn 4/23/2011

 This past week,Brad Reisinger came out to add some firring strips to our stall ceilings, and oh joy- a stairway to our loft !

Here's a photo of his tools , all set to get busy building...


And for those local folks who are following our blog, a photo of his van-  " Free advertisement" !  We highly recommend him  :)

More exciting things happening here

 Today was the day for Fencing! Mr Fisher ( Of Fisher's Fencing in Richfield, PA) called last night to make sure it was still alright to come work on the pasture fencing. They arrived just as I was turning horses out this AM. I got out of their way, and they got started tearing the old ugly wire fence down, and rolling it up. I was cleaning stalls, and getting morning chores done as they were chugging along doing that. They had it all down and Alan started putting up the new wire. Its small squares of high tensile quality wire and gets smaller as it goes down. The top squares are approximately 3x2" and at the bottom- very small.  Very SAFE fence for the horses who live here. We are getting this new fence to replace the disgusting hi-tensile strands of wire that was here when we bought this farm AND the cheap crap that I hired some guys put up right after we moved in. It was all stretched, and torn in areas- and NOT safe at all. Plus it looked horrid. Then as soon as  the ground firms up, we'll have them come back and re-place the hi-tensile wire along the road front , up one side past the neighbors' houses, and to the far corner of the farm. That way, we'll have no loose dogs in our fields, and no kids either. The horses will be much safer as well.

They ran out of wire fencing before they got one pasture done- the one around the ring & plans are to return tomorrow to get that accomplished, plus begin tearing out wire in the other pasture.

Below is the front pasture , minus the old stuff, waiting for new.

 Again- waiting for new wire fence !

  And this is how it looks when done- 

running up the lane towards the barn :

This is SO thrilling to me..... To others, it might not be so, but to a horsewoman ? Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhyeah.... new fence !

Happy April and what's happening

It's April!  FINALLY Spring is on that way. We had a rough start to April, with some rain and snow in other areas near our farm. We just got rain, luckily. Rain, in turn, creates mud which has been prevalent here lately. Everyone I speak to is in agreement-  Spring can't arrive Soon Enough !  The horses are shedding their winter coats like mad, and my daffodils have bloomed at the house. Those at the barn are still waiting for it to get warm enough up there. It's  cooler at the barn than at the house.

The chickens have started laying eggs like mad !  I get 6 one day, then 4-5 the next- and this is from Five Hens.  Someone is really doing a super job at laying eggs, it seems.


This morning my husband had an appointment with a "handy man". They discussed things that Glenn wanted done concerning the barn. So far, we're getting all of the stall windows repaired, and new plexi-glass in them if needed, the big ends of the barn are going to be painted- to match our hen house- and the ceilings in all of the stalls repaired. The BEST surprise to me was a stairway up to the hay loft !!!!   I'll have steps to walk up instead of climbing up a ladder- that was a Grand surprise for me. 


Things are being accomplished around here- and I'm 100 % amazed at it all. This is better than a kazillion Christmas' to a horse woman and I am so blessed.


I have to get a photo of the hen house ( yes, finally got it all done being painted last Fall) so you can see the colors chosen for the main barn.  


Yes- April is a most wonderful month here at our farm !

March ... SNOW ????

 Yep- it snowed.  Last night, around bedtime, I checked to see how much sleet we'd gotten, and lo' & behold- it was Snowing !  This morning, I got up, dressed, and looked out a window. No, I hadn't been dreaming- there was snow on the ground. About 3" worth- wet, heavy snow- perfect for making snow people.(no sexists here!)
I grabbed my camera on my way out to the barn and snapped a few 'snowy' pics which I'll add below.  The horses had All stayed in their barn last night because of sleet, rain predicted. Well, the weather forecasters were Wrong once again.  Oh well, such is an early spring ! The snow is busily melting now due to the fact that it has warmed up Quite a bit. It should be creating some scrumptious MUD for us to struggle thru.

                Once again- a snowy walk to the barn

My Yucca plant- looking decidedly yucky :
  

Hemlocks along the creek...

my Dogwood... 

 poor ring- it was flooded AND iced , then snowed on:

Once again- the infamous Buffalo Mtn !

Betcha can't tell which way the winds were blowing :

Our creek was flooded as well... 

It'll be worse now with the snow melting.

By tomorrow, it will all be gone but was pretty while it lasted.

Wonderful Weather creates a Clean Carpet

I walked up to the barn early this morning..... my new side kick, Devon wasn't going to be here for a few weeks because she'd been in an accident last week. All the morning chores were left for me to accomplish.  I was greeted by 3 tons of Percherons saying " g'morning to you !"  and then Kiisa, one of the 2 barn kitties as she waited for me to bring her breakfast out. I opened up the tack room door leading into the barn, and fed her. As I did, there was a loud group of whinnies from those horses in their stalls.  ( oh joy- they'd been pooping ALL night long too) I recognized Alli, Scarlet, Sunny, and one really deep chortle from Adele. Jazz, the new girl on the block was looking out of her stall to see when I was bringing FOOD. After everyone had quieted down, she decided to ask 'how long till breakfast' in her little girl whinny.


Got everyone breakfast, and walked out to let the drafters in for the day - And their breakfast.  Abby was well behaved - a nice surprise- and BoJangles took his time walking into the barn. Evie cantered in as usual, while Lynn waited for me. We walked to the barn together... Those three horses know exactly what stalls they live in, and I trust them to choose the correct ones.


 The sunshine felt SO good this morning ! All the "little horses" were turned out for the day with some hay to eat and I got to work.  Taking a Big chance that March wouldn't toss us any more harsh freezing weather or snow, I removed all the wonderful heated water buckets out of all the stalls, and replaced them with 11 freshly scrubbed, and disinfected water buckets that are used during the warm months. Filled those with fresh water and felt good that my horses all would have nice clean water. After getting the 7 dirty stalls cleaned, and checked out each to be sure there was no ammonia smells in them, I raked them all smooth with the clean bedding. Raked out the aisle and went to mix dinner feed in the tack room. I'd been letting the carpeting on the floor go pretty much all winter. Its' so frustrating to have it covered in dirt/ mud  again,after spending time sweeping it all out. I dumped their dinner feed in the feed tubs, and decided to try to get that floor neatened up some more. Junk , plastic bags, winter gloves, and blanket bags were all over the place..... leg straps from blankets, and lots of dirt / dust.  UGH.... 

So I got busy.... swept the crud into small piles, and then got the barn vac out to slurp those up. I then swept Under saddle racks, tack trunks, and got the bathroom neat n' tidy too. Vacuumed all of that up and then went over the floor again with the shop vac.  I was making progress. Then I got out my 'webster' and got the cobbies down and off the walls, and took a glance at ALL of the 'stuff' stuffed in corners. < sigh>  Winter had been hard on our tack room. Took a lot of items off and out of corners, and found proper places for them, and found I had a couple more items for a Pony Club tack swap a friend n' I were going to .  By now I was running on empty , big time.  Tired, I sat down in the wonderfully comfy chair that is in the tack room, and enjoyed the fact that I had certainly made at least a dent in the mess. 


Yep, I had run out of energy for the day.....  so I called it quits for cleaning.  Walked up to the hens coop to check for eggs, and there were 4 fresh eggs waiting !  Emmi must have just layed an egg, because she was in one of the nesting boxes...  Turned off all the lights, shut the tack room door, and headed down to the house for some lunch.  What a good day- it felt good to not be freezing cold, and having to be bundled up like an eskimo.....


Tomorrow ?  The big table in the tack room is going to be cleaned !

Jasmine Arrives 2 19 2011

She's here- FINALLY. After waiting for 3 days, she was delivered around noon. I'll add some pictures here of her upon her arrival and today when she got to go outside for the first time .  We led her to her stall, and she was softly blowing in fear of what she might find down that long barn aisle. Once in her stall, Jasmine did a cursory explore and made a nervous pooh pile. I guess she wanted to 'claim' it as hers.  We left her alone as she was happily scarfing up her yummy hay. After the seller left, I went back to her stall to say hello and inspect her more closely. She is THIN under all of that awful long raggedy winter coat. Where she had been living, she was on 24/7 turnout with a lot of other horses. They only got grass hay in a round bale- no grain.

Today Jasmine got turned out for her first time here. She took a mouthful of hay, and began exploring her new digs. Up the hill, and across, checked out the neighbors across the way, and then back down again...

She looked at Scout n' Adele who were busy eating their morning hay. After inspecting all her small area until she is friends with our horses, she came back down to have some more hay of her own.

So Jasmine has arrived.  We'll give her some time to 'unpack' and settle in .  Then she'll get to be groomed by some students who've been waiting to meet her. I hope this mare fits in here perfectly..... Stay tuned

New Help

I have been running an ad on the local Craigs' List for some folks who would like to learn more about horses in exchange for their labor. I got a few responses, but some wanted to come and have all the fun- with none of the work. Some wanted to come later in the evening and skip the stall cleaning,etc.... Some didn't know one thing about horses, but wanted to learn- then got intimidated , I suppose.  Only a couple actually showed up for a visit- and one actually is going to be a BIG help here .  She's done a fine job so far- one morning- and I hope she hangs around until we get thorough winter and this farm gets pretty again.

The weather has been nice but had High winds yesterday and today it is colder. The temps are "supposed" to hit nearly 60 degrees by Friday... YAY !  I realize this is a mere tease of nice weather from Mother Nature, so I'm enjoying it to the fullest and Then will go back into 'super care' mode for this farm.

Jasmine !

 It seems I have purchased a new horse this past week. I'd been looking around just slightly for another lesson horse due to losing our Suzi this past December. I want to bring in more students for lessons because there doesn't seem to be anyone wanting to board " way up here".

Her name is Jasmine, she is 6 yrs old, and is a very large pony size at 14.1 hands tall. She is a blood bay color with one white sock on her left hind leg. She's a non-registered Standardbred and is touted to be a fine trail horse. When I went to see her last week, she had never been to the farm where I was told to meet the owner. I got to see how she dealt with new things and she passed that test with flying colors !  I watched her get ridden, and found her to be just 'okay' with it all.  Jasmine needs some more ring miles to become a better, well trained horse .The most positive item is her wonderful sweet personality. She is adorable and in my barn- she will become More so.  I have a very happy barn with happy horses in it- so Jazz will blossom here. 
Here is a photo of her looking oh so pretty last summer:

She rides and knows how to drive as well, so Now I have another lesson horse for those who want to drive too. I can' t wait till she is here !!

Wow- Warm Weather & Glenn's birthday

2/11/2011

Today, my dear husband turns 62. HE says he is " old " now, I say that is nonsense. His body may be, but his quick wit, great sense of humor and more is Very well intact and working just fine. We are planning to celebrate tomorrow ( Saturday) and go out to dinner at Pizza Hut this evening....

Our area is being blessed with a tease from Mother Nature for a few days. Usually in February, one expects snow storms, ice storms and more, but THIS week is supposed to be Gloriously WARM. I actually did horse chores this morning with out 3 layers of clothing on !  This week is going to be wonderful....... from one's knees , up. Soon the snow will melt, and that will create much mud, which will in turn be ground up by big and small horse hooves. < sigh>  We are on the down hill slide towards Spring now- and I , for one, will be VERY happy to bask in warm sunshine once again.