spring grass

We got a lot done this weekend around our place. We planted a bunch of little pine trees, raspberries, blueberries, and a couple flower beds. We plowed and dragged the side yard in preparation for reseeding. We dumped a NICE big pile of well decayed cow manure on our garden spot...and we went to look at a mule! Todd wants to try a guard animal with his cattle in one particular pasture where they've had a problem with coyotes in the past. This last calving season, they didn't lose any calves to coyotes, but one calf did lose his tail. We're not absolutely sure it was a coyote that chewed his tail off, but it's likely. I guess it could have been a hungry fox too. It happened when he was still small enough where he didn't get up and run in response to the tail chewing. But, regardless, they have had a few calves lost to coyotes in the past. I did a bunch of reading up on guard animals and decided of all the species, a donkey would be best for us. I searched rescues (via petfinder), and we found a little mule. These pictures are from petfinder. She's shed out more since these were taken and a cute color for a mule.




She looks promising. She's a pony mule, so just a hair smaller than a standard sized donkey. She's only 3 years old. She chases dogs out of their pasture, and she's super confident and very friendly. She was rescued out of the slaughter pen at an auction. We went to look at her on Saturday and we like her. We are going to give her a try. The other nice thing about her is that she might make a nice kids "pony" by the time our kid is ready to ride. We'll just start working with her now. And we might even look into getting her trained for a cart. So, the pony mule is going to come home to us in a few weeks, most likely. I wanted them to get her feet trimmed first (they were very long and I don't want to mess with trimming an animal I'm not familiar with being pregnant).

The other excited thing that we did this weekend was get our horse fence finished and turned them all loose into it!

While I was working on the fence, the horses watched me with interest...almost as though they knew.


But we were taking to long, so they retreated to nap at one point.


When it was time, I went to get Cody to lead her out. Chico and Catlow saw the open gate and immediately went through ahead of us. The wild ones were a little leary about going through the gate, so I had to lead Cody back to encourage them a few times. The finally went through, everyone was loose, then it was time to RUN!


After the initial burst of energy, the tame guys settled down to graze, but the wild ones had to check out every corner of the pasture before they set to grazing.


Look at this handsome mustang enjoying his first real day of grassy pasture freedom since he was captured in November of '08.


I attempted to approach Kachina at one point, but she wasn't interested in letting me touch her. I figured that would be the case since they'd be all excited and interested in the new stuff, so I didn't push it.


In this shot, you can see our house in the background. I'm excited about having them in this pasture because I'll be able to see them more easily from our house.


They would eat for a while, then "spook" themselves and set off running in a big herd, then slow down to eat again before setting off running a little later.



The red buds on the maples, the warm sunlight backlighting the horses, and the new grass really show that spring has come to WI.


And off again! These next two pictures I took from the deck of our house.



And then, a rainbow to end such a beautiful day.


I only let the piggies graze for a couple of hours before luring them back into their boring pasture. They were quite disgruntled when they realized they couldn't go back out, but soon, they'll be out 24/7.

Spring preparation!

Over this weekend, Todd and I spent a lot of time working on getting our place ready for spring. We weaned calves (their cows calve in the fall), put up a new fence to set up the lower pasture for our horses, staked out where the round pen and garden will go, started turning sod in a new flowerbed, and planted some seeds in pots to get the growing season started! It was a very therapeutic weekend. I also, of course, had time to love on every one of my horses. They are still shedding, so welcome the itching, brushing and scratching. Kachina follows me everywhere in the pasture. I'm not sure exactly what she wants because she doesn't always want me to brush on her (she'll sometimes move away after I've pet her head and then move to scratch her neck, other times she'll stand forever and let me scratch her). She just has so much spark in her. She's playful, inquisitive, flighty (sometimes), and definitely outgoing (with horses and with people). Griffin tagged along behind her a few times when she was following me, so I'd stop to scratch on him too. I think the scratching was definitely what he wanted. He's not so obvious about asking though...he'll just watch me scratch other horses wait while I approach to scratch on him too. He's a little more reserved with people, but still gets along with the horses well. Oh, and he really hates dogs and does try to stomp them whenever he can. The dogs know, and stay out of his way.

The following pictures were taken by my mom as she was walking down to visit Todd and I while we were fencing. I rarely take pictures that have me in them, so here ya go.

These first couple pictures are the horses in their pasture. They stood up on the hill and watched us across the field as we fenced. My mom calls the two dark ones (Cody and Chico) the twins, since they are always hanging out together and she can't tell them apart (she's not a very horsey person) :) Notice that Kachina and Griffin hang out together quite a bit too, but they are just very social and fit right in with the herd. Notice that Catlow is missing from the picture...



She is still a loner and has not really bonded with any other horse. I feel sort of sorry for her, but she seems perfectly happy that way. She's still in the mix with the others, but she prefers to be off on her own a lot, and had not really bonded strongly with any other, but still needs them to be in her herd.



Todd and I are measuring off our fence. We put a spacer fence alongside our neighbors so that our horses can't contact eachother and potentially get in trouble through the fence. Jasper, my dog, is always there to help me out.



And here I am measuring the auger to figure out how far down Todd needs to go to set the corner posts the correct depth. I look a little poochy in the belly here...it's mostly fluff from my vest, but I am definitely starting to show a little. I'm just over 3.5 months along now! At my next appointment, mid-April, we get to find out the baby's sex!

Thought you might like to hear about the tame horses for once!

Catlow has been getting out daily the last several days. She was walking through the electric fence. I fixed it repeatedly, but I was too chicken to test it myself. It turns out that we had wired the new larger pasture incorrectly and so it wasn't hot all the way around! It took this long for a horse to figure it out and brave the fence. And of course, it's because their pasture is becoming eaten down, but it is by no means barren of grass. She just discovered how easy it was to graze through the fence, and then just step through, bagging out the wire as she went. Cody and Chico still respected the fence and so they never went through.

So, we fixed the connections, and then increased their pasture to include the lower part of the field too. They've got some NICE long grass to graze now.

Here are some pictures of them exploring the new pasture, with the dogs tagging along and getting in trouble for chasing them when they ran at one point!