Jun 22, 2012

Heartbroken.


I posted about this little mustang pony that I was training a few months ago. His name is Buck. He belongs to my neighbor, Chad, and I adopted him onto my farm so that I could finish up his training and, honestly, to begin my great plan of kidnapping this little fella. 

I call him Bucky Boy, Buckaroo, and little man. I called him anything really that was cute, because honestly, he's the cutest horse I have ever known. 

Buck's first trail ride. 

 
Slow and steady was always the beat of his drum. 
 
His girlfriend Rose out on a trail with him.
Me and Buck a few weeks ago.
Such a spunky little thing.

I woke up this morning and found out that 'my' sweet, precious Bucky had been hit by a truck.
First stage of grief set in, denial. 
I said "What?! No!"
I couldn't believe it. Not Buck. Not a horse off of my farm. Not sweet Buck.
My horses have NEVER gotten out in the road unless I was on them. They never get out of their pasture unless I leave the gate open on accident.
All gates were closed last night and the electric fence was on. I had just ridden the day before and I know I closed the gate by the road that is my pathway around our cattle gap that introduces you to our driveway. I don't know what happened, but we are assuming he jumped our four board-over four foot- fence that faces the major highway we live on.  There were no tracks in the driveway leading up to the cattle gap, and there were no breaks in the fence that he could have gotten out of. It doesn't add up. Even if he did get out and get into the road, where he got hit doesn't add up to where he could have gotten around the cattle gap. He jumped the fence. 

I had just ridden him the day before. Our first bareback ride out of the pasture. He did so good. Like always. He always was perfect. He was always so sweet and loving. Why do all the perfect horses have freak accidents? I just can't understand WHY he decided to jump out and get in the road. He has almost 100 acres to roam and he wants to jump out of it. 

I talked to the man that raised Buck earlier in the year and he told me that Buck's mother is a full blooded Mustang whose bloodlines come from a long line of Mustang horses. We all seem to think that has something to do with it. 

That little horse would plow through every weed, breyer, and yucky grass blade in site. He ate anything!
Apparently he also wanted to roam like a Mustang does. Chad acquired Buck for free after he kept escaping out of his former owners pasture... 

That little horse belonged in the wild with all his ancestors. 
Now he's there. Running free on as much land as he can carry his little hooves across.

I loved that horse as much as I love my own horses. I wanted to kidnap that horse and make it my own. I will surely miss that little flaxen mane and tail out in my pastures... and I will miss counting up to six as I drive on and off of our farm. 

Love you Bucky.

Jun 17, 2012

A Father's Day Kinda Post!

Happy Father's Day, Dad!!! 
We love you!

 

Dad, Ashlee, and Linsey

 
 Dad and Alex
'
 
Dad and Me

Dad and Hank

Dad and John

Jun 16, 2012

Chickens Galore.

So if you have been keeping up with my blog and read my past two posts, you know I have 42 baby chickens.

My mom and I have wanted chickens for a while and both of my sisters have chickens, so it was only fitting that we have chickens too! 

Plus, we live on a farm. We have cows, horses, dogs, cats... we need chickens!

Now we got em! 

We got some feather footed Cochins! All different colors. Ironically got two of each.  These are what they call straight run... we don't know what they are and I hope we don't have any roosters! (yeah right.) Ashlee ordered ten straight run cochins last year and got NINE roosters. What a joke.

Buff Orpingtons

Silver Laced Wyandottes 

Barred Rocks
Americaunas
Production Reds
and Speckled Sussex

The above pictures are no longer accurate on their size. They are getting HUGE! They have all their wing feathers pretty much and they're all flying around the watermelon box.

They are quite fluffy and they are learning how to roost!

Barred Rocks learned how to roost first. They got the biggest first for some reason... followed by the production reds, buffs and americaunas. The little cochins are still as fluffy as they can be, so they can't fly well yet! I saw a speckled sussex on the stick today, so the cochins will bring up the tail end!

I can't believe how tiny they were when we first got them. They are growing fast!!

I have been slowly desensitizing the dogs to them day by day. Lola was first and she deserved a big wap on top of the head after going after the first one I put on the ground to show her. She went over to the car on the other side of the garage and laid down. I took a different chick over there and she just turned her head away saying 'how dare you put that in front of me'. It was so funny!

Latch was next, he also deserved a wap on top of the head. After that he never has messed with them again. He even let one barred rock chick jump all over his front legs and paws, just staring at it the whole time. Such a sweet heart.

Cutie pie... she's a different story. She LOVES babies. So, I haven't had to worry about her YET. I know for a fact she looooves to chase chickens... Poor chickens in the middle of our horse ride were tortured a couple of times, but never killed. She is pretty much deaf all around and can't hear very well when you tell her 'No'... we'll see how that goes. 

I showed Tug his first chicken today and he must have learned from Lola and Latch's hits they got not to mess with the chickens! he's pretty smart! He just looked at it and turned around like it wasn't very exciting. 

I even try to entice them a little by picking the chick up and letting them flap their wings back to the ground... the dogs don't bat an eye! So hopefully we will be set on the dogs and chickens relationship! No dead future chickens I hope! If they start chasing the chickens... I'm going to get one of those nifty shock collars and zap their little butts.

That's all that is going on right now! Just trying to get these baby chickens out of the garage! Our coop will be here by next weekend!! It was built by David's Chicken Coops. I'm really excited about it! It is going to be verrry pretty! We will have to build the 'run' off the side and run water to the pen, then we will be all set to put the chicks in!

Once I can let them out when they are bigger and I have my twenty of the forty, I will take pictures and post names! :)

Jun 6, 2012

Photos

A few photos to sum up the past month

Picture I took tonight on the way home...
My precious little baby that had to be culled. :(
 
New Necklace


Early morning leaving for work

Lola belle

My love.

Lots of this!

 


little baby!!

Our house. Typical site.

 Opie!

Sister
Baby Faegan!
 and lastly... my favorite meal!

Jun 4, 2012

The Last 30 Days

I have been BUSY! 

To sum the past 30 day so of my life up... amazing! 

There has been a lot of anticipation on my side of things.
Josh and I were waiting for a trip to get here. We made a six day trip down to Boca Grande, FL to visit my grandfather and boy did we have fun! I love going on trips with him. Everything is always perfect.

We got to go TARPON FISHING! :)

I hooked a tarpon at 8:26 and fought him until 10:18. I handed the reel over to Josh only to get it back 20 minutes later to reel him in the rest of the way. Over 2 Hours of fighting that fish.
The fish was giant... 150lb
Come to find out... we had such a hard fight because he was Foul hooked. Oh well it was fun anyways!
Pictures don't do him justice....
Wish I could have gotten my hand in the picture.. he could have eaten it. 

I also was anticipating the arrival of 40 precious little beings.... 42 to be exact.


Aren't they precious!!  I love them. Half are mine/mom's and half are my sister's.

I was also anticipating some check offs for nursing school. Check offs that kept me in the program. I passed so no worries there!

I have been able to do a good bit of riding as well. Sweet horses are doing just fine!

Now I am anticipating a beach trip with Jaclyn and a 7 day cruise with my family and Joshua! It's gonna be a good, good summer!!

Possibly more time for blogging?! Possibly!