Discovering Epona

Mondays

2011-06-13T11:58:00.000-04:00

Kaeden's face in this video, in which his dad messes with him by blowing raspberries on his belly, pretty much sums up my feeling about this Monday, which even though it's just started, already supremely sucks.

My new blog

2011-06-11T11:49:00.000-04:00

Hello All,

Just a quick post to let ya know I've finally got my new blog up, all about Kaeden, my new boss. Here's a preview of him, & I hope you & all your horses are fat, shiny,& healthy, with endless sunsets on the beach to ride into!

http://squidgeletboss.blogspot.com/

Last Post

2011-05-29T16:56:00.000-04:00

Goodbye Tucker

Goodbye, Big Blonde Boys

Hello All,

I haven't written a blog post in so long, as my life has just been flat to the floor crazy. We sold the Big Blonde Boys, we moved our lives cross country to Oregon, and we're now living in a city. I work at Subway, Tristan works at a pub, Kaeden got his first vaccine on Thursday, and the Big Blondes work 8 hour days, logging, teaching, & apparently swimming in the river.

We're just trying to get our feet under us, so regretfully I have no more time or effort left for this particular blog, now that Bobby & Tucker are no longer with us. It hurt more than I have words for to let the horses go, to let the dreams they carried for us go to someone else, but Kaeden comes first now, for both of us.

I may revive this blog someday, in the distant future if we ever have horses again, but for now, I'm working on a new blog for my new focus-Kaeden.

We will be visiting the horses in a few weeks, as we are flying back east for Tristan's brother's wedding, so I will post pictures on my other blog, & I will try to keep up with everyone else. Thank you everyone for support & comments over the past year, & I hope the summer treats everyone warmly, with no black flies or sunburn to speak of.

It's Time

2011-03-31T19:08:00.000-04:00

For those longer term followers of this blog, you may have noticed a different focus lately...say the last 11 months or so? Since I found out I was pregnant with Kaeden, every choice we've made is to try to keep all of us together, happy & healthy-all of us being Tristan & myself, Kaeden, & of course the reason I revived this blog, the fuzzy blonde boys Bobby & Tuckerman.

For reasons all of those horse people out there will understand, we can no longer afford to stay where we are, & where we are moving to we can't keep the horses. Kaeden comes first, & being able to support ourselves. There's just not enough job opportunities in Vermont where we are for us to stay here. It's the hardest decision we've made so far, but we have to find a new home for the horses.

This hits us especially hard because Tristan bought this team to start a business with, & we had daydreams of Kaeden taking his first ride on these gentle giants.

So now we are trying to find a good place for them to go, either a free lease or a lease to buy. Those who have visited my blog before know about these horses, what they have done & what they are capable of. If anyone knows of anybody looking to lease or purchase horses such as ours, they can fit in a lot of places: someone who wants to compete in show driving, do some light farm or logging work, some driving for fun, or someone looking for two nearly bombproof trail horses for slightly older children or novice riders. I say nearly bombproof because if you explore my blog, you can find out about Tucker's love of cows :)

I do have a craigslist ad for more specifics: http://burlington.craigslist.org/grd/2298018781.html

I will be keeping this blog up, however I will be shortly changing it's name because there won't be horses in my life for awhile-just a few cats & my mother's dog.

Later I'll write a longer post about the boys, but now the youngest member of our family demands feeding, or something :)

Sunday Stills-The color blue

2011-03-27T20:24:00.000-04:00

Blue is only relatively easy for me because we have a baby boy=blue for most people, plus I love the color blue :) So, without further ado, how many shades of blue can be found in each picture?

Sunday Stills-Canine Companions

2011-03-20T05:00:00.003-04:00

This one is a bit harder for me, as I don't have a dog of my own at the moment. I haven't since my dog Ginger, who looked exactly like the dog in the show "Mad About You" with Helen Hunt (the following picture isn't mine) had to be let go of when I was in 3rd grade, much to my distress.

Maybe someday I'll have a dog again, a big calm protective galumph of a dog to be Kaeden's Lassie, but for now I have two giant fuzzy (one no longer so fuzzy) horses instead.

Right now there's really only one dog I interact with, & that is my friend Cody's (Kaeden's godmother) sweet big fluffy cloud of a dog, Willow:

Willow is my fantasy of a dog for Kaeden: Utterly sweet & laid back, will do anything for scratches, & is equally content to lay about all day or follow Cody on back country ski trips. The only thing I hesitate about with this breed, the Great Pyrenees, is the fur. So much fur! & it gets dirty so easily, & takes so much time to brush or wash out. But Willow is worth it, & Cody has mentioned that there is a long line of people willing to fight over Willow if anything should happen to Cody. But these two are quite the perfect pair-I want my own Willow dog! Sigh, in the nebulous someday I suppose. For now, everyone enjoy their Sundaes! :)

See more Sunday Stills here.

Warning: Naked horse!

2011-03-19T22:21:00.000-04:00

All winter we've been battling Bobby's rain rot, with a combination of hopefulness, deep grooming sessions & beta-dine baths. Nothing has worked, as the poor guy has just gotten itchier all through the winter. Finally last week I got fed up & we decided to take the drastic step of shaving off the big galumphs winter coat. Which of course means he's stuck in his blanket the rest of the winter, but hey, that's why we bought them, right?

At least it's already March. Have you ever tried to body clip an entire, full grown winter coat off a 1900 pound, 18.2 hand draft horse? I don't recommend it, for the sheer amount of horse hair that will find it's way into every inch of your clothing & require a special load of laundry to get it out.

It's taken us a week to do it, & we still have his head to do, mainly because we can only work in short bursts when Kaeden is asleep. But clipping him did reveal the extent of the rain rot, & it's both worse & better than I'd feared. If this next round of beta-dine baths doesn't work, their yearly checkups are happening in a month & our wonderful vet Molly will bring up some special medicated scrub for him, & antibiotics if needed.

In other news, I tucked Kaeden in the Moby & took him down to the barn one of the days we worked on clipping Bobby (which requires bringing Tucker in to his standing stall, because at this point if the horse's are out of sight of each other for too long there is NOT HAPPINESS on their end).

I don't even think either horse noticed, even when Kaeden woke up & started to wriggle & squeak for his next meal. But that's a draft horse for you: If it's not food, or in Tucker's case cows, they really couldn't care less about it. Maybe they'll care more when Kaeden learns to grab things :)

Tomorrow is our next, & hopefully what could be our last, hay delivery, so now it's time for bed. Hopefully we'll sleep tonight-Kaeden was not down with the whole sleeping thing last night, so naturally not one of us slept a wink. Thanks kid. Good thing you are cute!

Sunday Stills-The Letter P

2011-03-13T14:54:00.000-04:00

I will say, the letter B awhile ago was much easier for me...think Belgians, blondes, boys, etc & I'm set. But the letter P? Let's see what my camera came up with....

The utterly invaluable pacifier!...

A photo opportunity with one set of grandparents, one of whom is Patricia....

Sadly lonely fuzzy ponies during a rare sunny moment...

& for fun, a snowy pumpkin!

First Walk

2011-03-12T21:23:00.000-05:00

Yesterday the dreaded cabin fever got the best of me, & I couldn't stay inside one moment longer. Thankfully it was actually a beautiful afternoon, with a hint of spring-the south wind was blowing, causing everything to melt like crazy. For a little while the clouds were over there, with sunny blue skies above, & the temperature around 50 degrees. So I suited myself up in the Moby Wrap & took Kaeden for his first walk outside (aside from quick dashes to/from a vehicle).

It was a short walk, because the wind started to pick up, my poor neglected thighs started to hurt & of course there was other work to be doing. But we got out! Plus Kaeden loved it, or at least he was zonked the entire time, not even a whimper of protest. However, upon turning & walking back up to the jail (sorry, house), I noticed something wrong with Bobby's blanket:

In case you can't see it, there was a belly strap dangling, clearly not attached, which makes it a hazard for several reasons. So while walking back up the road, I had the following conversation with myself:

"Sigh, what more trouble can these horse's get themselves into? I better go fix that before there is more trouble, or Bobby decides ripping his blanket would be a great idea."

...5 seconds later: "Oh wait, kid. Is the kid ready to meet his fuzzy uncles? I told Tristan I would wait until he was here to introduce the two. Guess I'd better wait."

..."But disaster in the making there! It'll only take a few seconds to fix it..."

..."Our horses are some of the chillest, calmest horses I've met in years of being around horses. But they are unpredictable-remember what Tucker did to Willow the dog back in January? Better not risk it, I don't want to fall on Kaeden."

"But disaster! Imminent danger & blanket ruin! I'm an equine professional! It'll be fine!"

Etc etc.

In the end, decided not to go into the pasture, mainly because Tristan wasn't there. I'd promised I'd wait until he was around, not just so he could be the designated photographer (Kaeden's first meeting with horse slobber) but so if anything went wrong, I'd have help right there. Instead I put Kaeden down to sleep & ran down to the barn to fix the blanket. No harm done, & the exercise was good for me.

Just as an example of the kind of damage the winds we get up here can do (& the reason the boys spent the day & night in the barn):

This is the second time the solar tracker has been pretty effectively destroyed by the winds. The year before last, right before Christmas, there was a 90+mph wind storm where the tracker got stuck upright before the wind. The tracker was ripped completely off the stand, did a few somersaults & landed right beside the barn-where all the animals, cows, cats, & horses were waiting out the storm. Scary stuff.

Tomorrow we may be able to go for our first sleigh ride, since it's supposed to be another 50 degree & sunny day! Here's hoping :) Now it's time to sneak dessert before Kaeden realize's that I'm eating & that actually it's himself himself how should be doing the chowing down!

A month later...

2011-03-11T11:34:00.000-05:00

...I finally get the most important blog post up! So much for my goal of one post a week....I can hear other mom-type people laughing at my naivety right now, ah well. But, without further ado, meet Kaeden Ahearn Fulford, born February 11th, 2011, at 3:05pm on a gorgeous, sunny winter afternoon at home, caught by dad & cared for by my two midwives & their apprentices:

Shortly after Kaeden was born, my parents came & rented a cottage just down the hill from Lincoln, & we spent two weeks with them, while we learned about Kade & his preferences & demands from life. My parents, with the help of craigslist, managed to supply us with a year's worth of gear for Kade: cloths, diapers, a swing, a Pod (which we call our Baby Vibrator), a jogging stroller, & my favorite piece of all: a Moby Wrap!

All told, Kaeden has been rather a zen baby. Most of the time he's content to lay on his back or stomach, staring up at the world & trying to place everything. He only gets fussy when he needs something, & once he gets that something, he's all zen again. His favorite thing is baths with both Tristan & I in the tub with him-our first bath in the sink didn't go so well.

As for our other "children", the weather this past month has been horrible. Freeze, thaw, sleet, 3 feet of fresh snow in 24 hours, ice falling from the sky, 50+mph wind storms complete with sleet & snow. So the boys have been pretty much living in their blankets, or in the barn when the wind is too fast to feed them outside. Poor neglected creatures that they are, they are still managing just fine, though it's been a month since they've done any work at all. I can't wait until I'm healed, & the weather warms up, so I can take Kaeden outside with me & go work the team again, or even-gasp-go riding again!!!!
But not quite yet, because Kaeden is quite awake now & demanding me to fix something.

Sunday Stills-Emotions

2011-02-06T13:02:00.000-05:00

This week's Sunday Stills is about evoking emotion in the viewer, not taking a picture of an emotion, which proved to be a little tricky. But here's my attempt to keep up with the challenge, with winter, the big fuzzy blonde boys, & my goofy husband type person Tristan providing excellent evokers...(if that's a word)...Enjoy!

In the midst of a storm

2011-02-01T21:06:00.000-05:00

Even though it looked like this when I went out to feed this morning....

Tonight our fuzzies are safely tucked inside their blankets with ample hay & water to munch on (I cannot thank myself enough for having insisted on the tank heater this winter, it truly is one of the most useful pieces of technology we own) because their is yet another MAJOR STORM heading our way. We have about 2 feet of snow on the ground here, & by tomorrow night we're going to have another 18 inches on top of it. Pretty much every school in the state of Vermont is already closed, so you know it's going to be bad.

Tomorrow Tristan & I were supposed to go visit this lady up in Burlington to look at buying & talking to her about cloth diapering, since this is the last major purchase we have to make before Kade makes an entrance, & I know nothing about cloth diapering except what the internet tells me.

Instead we'll be in the process of unburying ourselves, making sure the horses are comfy & secure in their blankets, & firmly telling Kade NOT to come out until the roads clear. My mother, knowing how stubborn & pioneer womany I like to try to be, joked with me today that I'd go into labor at the worst possible time: say, 2am tonight, since the plows don't generally get out until 4am (I know this because I've been up going pee at 4am for the past few weeks & can see them go by outside the bathroom window). My mother thinks she is funny, but this is actually a terrifying thought, since in bad weather we are so in the boonies it'd take a lot longer for the ambulance to reach our place.

So tonight before bed (notice I don't say "sleep": lately just as I arrange the pillows in a comfy position, either my hip starts to hurt so I have to go through the whole production of rolling over, or I have to get up to "utilize the facilities" as Tristan & I call bathroom going) I'm going to focus on one thing: telling Kade what a sweet deal he's got going on in the womb, & that there's still technically an entire week of which he is totally welcome to hang out & enjoy it (but after which time, my focus is going to be on telling him what a sweet deal it will be outside). Now to go make puppy dog eyes at Tristan & hopefully get a bit of massage to make laying down more comfortable with Kade's feet in my ribs & head pushing on my bladder....

A quick sketch done by Tristan a few weeks ago

We love you Kadeling...now stay floating warm & safe inside, for just another week!

Sunday Stills-Circles

2011-01-30T09:51:00.000-05:00

In keeping with my goal to post at least once a week, I went actually seeking circles for today's challenge instead of just combing what pictures I already had. Since it was Saturday when I took these pictures, we had to fill the horse's 100 gallon water tank, which around here is quite the production. Thankfully, the horses as usual provided excellent camera fodder....

Tucker looking all concerned because the cows were making noise in the pasture right behind the barn, & there's nothing that terrifies Tucker more than cows....

The mostly circular dot on Tucker's nose that I tell Tristan to kiss when he checks on them every night before bed...

The most important part of our type of harness, the D-ring...

The aptly named spit ring that the lines go through to keep them neat, so named because you should be able to spit through it from behind the team...

the hames ball, in which if you kinda cross your eyes you can see Bobby standing patiently, waiting for the crazy fat pregnant lady to put the camera down & let them get to work, please...

& although very much not a circle, the boys reward for a good day's work (or loafing), a whole bunch freshly delivered (which feels like having a good security blanket, even though this whole stall will last our one ton McLardo Brothers 3 weeks)...

And now on orders from my midwife, it's time for another walk...& because it's Sunday, that means I can get husband & horses to go with me again!

Sunday Stills-The color green

2011-01-23T11:51:00.000-05:00

Here is the beginning of my goal to post at least once a week, starting with Sunday stills. Of course it's winter, so it seems the only green things around are evergreens, but wait....seek & ye shall find...

a leftover holiday decoration...

a green man & his firewood...

a fat pregger lady making her chubby horse haul her around...

signs for bumbed out snowmobilers...

&, of course, horses cozied up with blankets & a treat of 2nd cut hay to get them through the next two days, of which we'll be lucky if it rises above zero. Down to -30 tonight, wonderful!

Life again

2011-01-21T22:03:00.000-05:00

I am a horrible blogger, but somehow I persist. I think I just need to make a goal-one post a week, always do Sunday Stills-& keep to it. Maybe that'll make it easier to be more regular, or maybe Kade's popping out will change life so profoundly I won't be able to remember if it's Sunday or not, or how many days it's been since I last posted...

Anyway, quick catch up of the past however long it's been since I've posted, terrific bloggess that I am...

Blessingway/baby shower thingy went off quite well. Got to see a friend of mine that I haven't seen since graduation, which was awesome. Belly casting was also a lot more fun than I'd hoped. Cheesecake made by Faith, Tristan's grandmother, was out of this world wonderful. Tristan also had a blessingway the same day, a bunch of men over to support him, so I didn't feel so guilty taking all the attention on my fat pregger belly.

Not so awesome: Tuckerman. We girls went out to feed lunch to the fuzzies, & my friend's dog, sweetest dog on the face of the planet, slipped into the pasture with us. Dog's been around horses at school, Tucker & Bobby have been around dogs everywhere, not for a second in my dumb-owner brain did I think this would be a problem. Tucker went after poor dog & kicked her-thankfully it was a glancing blow & she wasn't hurt, he was just warning her off, but of course never in a million years did I think he would do anything like that. I hate being the cliche, telling non-horsey people that horses are inherently unpredictable, & then being caught by something like this makes me feel just plain stupid. Not to mention horrible for our horse scaring my friend's dog. It wasn't until later that I was told that one of the cows had gone crazy that morning, escaped from the pasture & gone running around into Tucker's territory & probably scaring the bejezzus out of him, so that my friends dog, a big white Great Pyrenees, could have offended him. Stupid owner moment.

Who, me? I'm innocent angel horse!

In other news, I'm considering a new name & focus for this blog, which isn't really surprising, since I'll be going from learning all I can about horses (not that Discovering Epona will ever really end) to learning all I can about not killing/scaring my kid for life. Despite what other mothers tell me, I'm not convinced I'll somehow become Mommy overnight after the delivery thing-with Mommy hearing & knowledge of what the kid is doing at any given moment, let alone clipping fingernails or dealing with the fact that, for a bit, it's going to be normal for him to be yellow.

We'll still have the boys, of course, & one of the new things to think about is how to introduce Kade to the horses, & when is too early for the kid to be slobbered on by the great big fuzzies. Not that our fuzzies slobber much, but Tucker tends to go a little overboard with lipping at things presented to him, like hats, fuzzy kittens, & Tristan with long hair.

But what kind of title encompasses both horses & baby, is catchy & not too much of a mouthful? More thought required here, in the midst of deep cleaning our room, rearranging everything (read: Moving all the books out to make room for baby clothes, diapers, & various other baby equipment) going to my last week of work, & getting everything in place for L-Day: Labor Day!

To leave off, I will sadly admit that with Kade about the size of a watermelon & about as unwieldy to carry around at 37 weeks of baking, I am no longer hauling my fat pregger belly onto one of the fuzzies backs because my balance is so, sadly, off. (I'm sure they are relieved. I'm pretty sure the last time I heaved myself onto his back, Tucker rolled his eyes at me). Instead, per orders of the midwife, we walk. Since if I have to walk, the horses & Tristan have to walk, it's only fair.

A year of Blondes

2011-01-01T20:53:00.000-05:00

Warning: Large photo post ahead, long loading page...

First of course came January, full of sleigh rides & plenty of family (not to mention snow)....

Along came February, with me returning to school, & teaching Tristan that Valentines Day can be celebrated horsey style...

In March came my last trip home to visit my parents, the death of my faithful first car Isabella, huffing chainsaw exhaust & sawdust...

April brought with it frantic scurrying to finish up school, a stolen weekend here & there to see what my blonde boys had gotten themselves into for the summer, & frantic searching for a post graduation job...

May brought more than a few changes & emotional upheavals: Graduation after four long, difficult, wonderful years; jumping straight into a commitment to Tristan & our two blonde boys, then a long, harrowing trip out to Michigan to a world where horses are treated completely differently than I'd grown used to...

June found me not settling into my new job on Mackinac Island so well, & the realization that Tristan & I were to become parents a bit sooner than we'd expected...

July brought morning sickness that had me ralphing my guts off the side of my wagon beginning at precisely 230pm every day, & a desperate desire to return home...

August brought with it my desired trip home (though it took 48 hours via feet, ferry, Greyhound & car), settling into adult responsibility & our own place, & the confirmation of our hunch that I was soon to be surrounded by not three but four blonde boys...

September found me in my new job with the Y, Tristan enjoying his job with the Shires, & my unhappy goodbye to my formally belove Carhartts...

October brought the first hints of winter, of real uncertainty, & the beginning of Bobby's troubles...

November brought reality in the form of harsh realizations & compromises, more intense Bobby-care, and our second ever official date...

December at last brought a move to help with some of the uncertainties, a certain amount of settling in for the winter, & the emergence of Kade's personality & strength...

What 2011 will bring is for another post, because it is now past time for the fat pregnant lady to find a comfortable position, which her son Kade makes more difficult with every day, especially with his newfound love of tucking his feet between her bottom ribs & using her bladder as a stress squeeze ball.

An eventful week

2010-12-28T17:28:00.000-05:00

What happened this week? Hmm, things did happen...oh yeah, like Christmas & a major blizzard. No biggies. Christmas was quiet, which I quite enjoyed considering the fact that I had a two hour mommy nap (read: completely out of it) in the middle of the day. But it started off strong! Popped up, determined to give the big (now more reddish than blonde) fuzzy boys their own Christmas feast. Viola:

In case you wanted to know my uber secret horse pleasing recipe, here it is:

Shredded carrots; shredded apples; ground flax seed; ground peppermint pieces; a generous dollop of molasses; & safflower oil, well mixed, then added to the boy's usual boring ol' beet pulp, which had been soaked for 10 minutes in hot water.

For some reason, Tristan insisted on doing the mixing himself, with his bare hands instead of the perfectly acceptable sweat scraper, or one of a thousand long handled spoons we have in this house. Personally I think it's a chance to let the 10 year old little boy out. But hey, Christmas day, right?

We proceeded down to the pasture to feed the fuzzies this delight, but I made a mistake: because we'd made too much for the mixture to fit in the regular feed tubs, we dropped Bobby's portion in the green muck bucket (that I don't think I've ever actually used for mucking) & dumped Tucker's on a big pile of hay.

I think this caused some jealousy in Tucker, because he would take a few bites of his pile, then circle around, trying to get into Bobby's bucket. Needless to say, this didn't work out so well for Tucker.

Can the "Mine" be any clearer?

We entertained ourselves for a good half an hour watching our fuzzies snorfle up their treat, but there's only so long even I can stand outside & watch horses eat (in winter anyway) although Tristan has other ways to amuse himself (warning: helmetless pictures ahead):

Of course there were a few presents for ourselves along the way, which was a bit of a surprise because I know that most people in our families are saving up for baby gear this way, since Kade is due to make his grand entrance in just over a month & a half. A few shots of everyone's respective piles:

Ogion, Tristan's middle brother, his Italian wife Sara, & her mother Paola, who spoke about 5 words of English...but we still managed (I hope) to make her feel welcome! She did make herself at home, helping Sara cook various kinds of homemade pasta & cakes!

Russell & Gillian, Tristan's stepdad & mom, figuring out their presents

Yours truly, opening plaster bandages-more on that later!

Tristan stole his brother's hat & is trying to pull of some type of "gangsta"

All sorts of goodies! Handmade soaps, Yak Tracks (awesome, my fifth winter of Vermont living & I finally got a pair!) various dark chocolates for baking, awesome full arm mitten thingies, & assorted treats.

Of course no Christmas of ours lately would be complete without a sleigh ride, but as we didn't get everyone on board & moving out until it was almost dark out, this is the only picture I was able to capture of the ride:

Bohdi is ready to go people!

I'll write more about our portion of that lovely blizzard, which we spent all day digging everything out from, later, but now it's time to curl up with the newest installment of my all time favorite zombie movie series, Resident Evil: Afterlife (what can I say? I picked up my love/hate relationship with all things zombie in college, & it hasn't left me!)

Bobby is SO afraid of zombies!

Night time sleigh rides

2010-12-23T13:42:00.000-05:00

Despite the fact that neither Tristan nor I actually slept on the night of the solstice/lunar eclipse, thanks to good ol' Vermont winter weather we caught no sight of the eclipse. Sad for us. What we did see was happy people. There was a solstice gathering here at Metta Earth, & as soon as Tristan & I returned from work in the evening we harnessed the boys & took a group out for a late night sleigh ride across the fields. Everyone loved it, asked a zillion questions about the horses (we let them watch the last parts of the harnessing) & gave our chubby boys a zillion compliments.

However, sadly, I hate this question that always seems to get asked by non-horse people: "Are they Clydesdales?" Stupid Budweiser. Clydesdales are bay, our Belgians are blonde and/or reddish depending on the light you view them in. Unfortunately, to non-horsey people (at least the ones I've met, & I've met a lot giving tours on Mackinac Island this past summer) all big horses are Clydesdales. Sigh.

Anyway, after we dropped the group off to return to their respective homes, Tristan took me out for our own quiet-ish sleigh ride in the far field, just the ponies, snow & snuggling up to each other. Of course I have no pictures because the flash in my camera has been broken for quite some time, but the memories are good enough for me :)

Now back to reality, time to go wash the laundry I've been avoiding all week & helping Tristan to build an insulated box for the horse's water tank...the joys of winter, right?

Best all time Christmas present to myself...a working tank heater, how I love you!

McLardo Brother's return to work

2010-12-20T12:16:00.000-05:00

I'm not fat, Mom, just well padded!

Recently I've been noticing just how much fat padding our galumph Tucker has managed to put on for this winter. It's quite a lot, everywhere-his neck, his back, his butt & thighs. I'm grateful he's got some extra flubber to keep him warm this winter, but really. His harness & bridle barely fit, even with all the buckles at full extension. We haven't even been feeding him as much as we've been feeding our problem horse Bobby, yet despite being almost 2 hands shorter, Tucker weighs almost as much as Bobby, & Bobby is no longer underweight (yeah for beet pulp & good hay!) So now we call them the McLardo Brothers, or Tubbo, & this weekend was the first time in a while they've actually had to work.

We are all harnessed & ready to go...what about you people?

It's also the first weekend this winter we've had time to get the sled out. First, though, the rock bars had to come out to get it unstuck. When we put it up for the summer we didn't do anything smart like put it up on blocks, so over the year it had sunk & frozen solid into the ground. Took Tristan & his stepfather Russell a half hour to get it wedged up enough for the McLardo Brothers to pull it out.

Then because of how wonderfully out of shape our horses are, all we did was two loads of firewood up from the barn to the house (which consists mainly of standing around patiently for the boys-fat they may be, but they haven't forgotten their manners!) & go do a quick search for a Christmas tree in the far field.

Just standing here, lalala, not getting into any trouble...

On Sunday we trimmed Tucker's hooves since they were getting a little long, & that actually went the best yet. All we (by we I mean Tristan, with me feeding our poor tortured horse some hay) had to do was get out the file & rasp his toe back & his sides a bit, & viola, perfect Tucker hooves. So we had time for me to heave my ungainly body on Tucker's bare back (remember the extra padding this horse has?) & go for a gentle stroll around the neighborhood, stopping at Jessica's place (our friend with the four Icelandic ponies) for a nice chat. Of course for Tristan, no ride is complete without a full out canter across some snowy field, which thanks to the couch like nature of our giant ponies, I managed to stay on for.

A lot of this is starting to feel like deja vu to me (isn't this a lot like last winter?) , only I'm not sleeping as well this time around, thanks to the heartburn, constant need to use the facilities, being too hot while Tristan is huddled under the blankets, finding a comfortable position, & random kicks & punches to my various internal organs, all courtesy of Kade. How nice of him.

In other news, I finally got blankets for the horses, which for some reason is something I've desperately wanted to do since Tristan got the fuzzies almost two years ago, but that for various reasons I've managed to resist.

Bobby modelling his Weatherbeeta Lando Medium Weight Turnout Blanket.

Tucker cozied up in his Weatherbeeta Genero Medium Weight Turnout Blanket.

But no longer! I have reasons which include saving money for getting the blankets, & saving the barn-remember Tucker's recent barn destroying attempt? It's really best for these horses to be OUT, pretty much all the time. Now with blankets, they can stay out when it's ridiculously windy (we get gusts up to 90+mph here), sleety or rainy or just generally yucky. I only put the blankets on in those conditions, & whip them off as soon as the conditions pass. This way, the boys keep those beautiful reddish thick winter coats that I love burying my hands in so much.

Well, I figure that's enough words for now, & I have to go check on my Christmas cookies....

Unintended Break

2010-12-13T10:15:00.000-05:00

Well, I hadn't intended to be gone for a month from this blog, but somehow one thing led to another, like life does, & I'm just getting back to it now. I do apologize for the lack of new pictures in this post-when we packed to move I forgot where I put my camera (that's been happening to me a lot lately). So the horse's new blankets, my grandmother's engagement ring, the foot of snow fall we had last week in our new/old place, or Kade's growing hammock (aka my baby bump); none of these I have pictures of. Bad photographer is me!

A month ago Tristan was told he was being laid off on December 1st from his job for Cathy Wells, which was really a huge panic for us. He was making almost 1500$ a month at that job, not even working full time. He loved that job, working at Shelburne Farms with Cathy's Shires. But, because she misrepresented to him about pretty much everything-where the money for her horses was coming from (her now retired ex-husband), what she was doing for Shelburne Farms (playing around, actually), & assorted other things, he lost that job. So, panic mode for us. To solve our problem of rent, we moved back to Lincoln with Tristan's parents, where we were last winter. With two very important additions: We have a room in the house (right across the hall from the bathroom, which is quite important to me nowadays!) & this past weekend we installed a wonderful tank heater in the horse's 100 gallon stock tank, which means I don't have to carry buckets of hot water 100 yards or break ice on the tank four times a day, neither of which I really have the energy for anymore. Plus, at my last prenatal appointment, one of my midwives, Chenoa, gave me the evil eye when I told her I haul around buckets of hot water & 50 pound bales of hay. Apparently I'm not supposed to do those things anymore...but I won't tell her about the fact that the horses must be fed & it's up to me most days when Tristan is off at work if you won't!

So there was two weeks of chaos, packing & moving & unpacking. For those two weeks, I had a cold. Now, that doesn't sound like that big a deal, except for the fact that I was miserable & not very functional, during moving time. It was wonderful, really. Plus, the day after we got all our stuff up here (Lincoln is about 1000 feet higher than Charlotte) a foot of snow was dumped on us. Wonderful!

But somehow we got through all that. Just when we thought we'd be able to take a relaxing day, yesterday, during the storm-70+mph wind gusts, driving sleet & rain-Bobby decides it would be a perfect time to get colic. Compaction colic, to be precise. Wouldn't touch his food, wouldn't drink, obviously quite uncomfortable. So we called out our wonderful, intrepid vet Molly Witters (whose feet we do worship at) because within 45 minutes of calling her, she had Bobby doped up, with a tube shoved down his throat, pumping mineral oil into his gut. One disaster avoided.

Seems like we never have to call Molly out for Tucker, our Houdini, but just for Bobby. First his weight loss, then his heaves, then his hoof abscess, now his colic. Tucker, however, is problem free-or would be, if he didn't figure out how to unclipped himself, slither out of his stall somehow, knock over our metal can of beet pulp & proceed to eat to his heart's content. This is how I found him this morning in the barn. One reason I hate keeping these horses in a barn-no matter how well constructed his stall or how well tied, Tucker will get out & cause a mess. But on the doctor's orders, Bobby had to stay in so we could monitor him (despite the wonderful wind storm that kept them inside all day & night, because we couldn't feed them hay outside) & since these guys panic if they are out of each other's sight for more than 30 seconds, they both have to be in.

But no more! They both have blankets to get them through the worst weather, so they will stay outside! This I do declare! Now I have to go check on Tucker. It didn't look like he ate that much beet pulp-rather, he spilled most of it-but just to make sure I don't have to call Molly out again.

Cool hair & fuzzies

2010-11-09T14:22:00.001-05:00

The weather this past week has been in one of two categories: downright manky & just plain horrible. This has prevented us from doing much of anything besides putting our heads down & just getting by-with lots of tea & tons of blankets.

We've left the boys inside the run in for the past four days out of seven, because even though Bobby's abscess is all healed, it's been too cold & wet to leave them outside. To make up for this, we hauled in some last few pieces of downed wood on a day I can't remember-pretty sure it wasn't yesterday- (Tristan tells me it was Saturday).

Today we went for a good two hour ramble around the neighborhood, during which Bobby stayed perfectly sound, yes! It was quite the cozy ride, one reason to ride bareback-at least part of me stays warm!

Who's driving this thing????

I'd write more, but it is time for me to take off & get to work, & come back when full dark has already fallen. Gotta love winter, right?

Sunday Stills-Halloween!

2010-10-31T20:23:00.000-04:00

Today I had big plans for our last baby-free Halloween: Namely, grab the guts out of a pumpkin, stuff the emptiness full of goodies for the fuzzy boys (mints, apples, broccoli, along with their beet pulp), reattach the heads & let the boys figure out how to get to the good stuff. This did happen, but only after a bunch of other boring chores, & we went shopping to get the apples & mints.

So, apologies for the cruddy pictures, as we didn't get to the giving the boys their pumpkins until well after dark-stupid winter. All these pictures were taken by the light from our headlamps. On the other hand, some of them are pretty spooky & ghostly, right? Maybe I did it on purpose! Yeah, that's it!

Anyway, enjoy, & here's the link for other Sunday Stills: http://sundaystills.wordpress.com/2010/10/24/sunday-stills-the-next-challenge-halloween-2/

Quick Post

2010-10-27T21:46:00.000-04:00

I'm making this quick for one of two reasons: a.) It's almost our bedtime because we both work tomorrow, & I still want to read some more of the book I'm sucked into before Tristan comes in & shuts off the light, thus ending my reading day:

& b.) I actually am quite tired, what with the lovely Kade sucking every bit of extra energy I've got in order to roll around, kick, punch, & just generally enjoy life in his all-encompassing hammock.

Bonus picture of the 16 inch baby bump:

I did want to throw a question out there to any horse people who read this blog for a bit of advice. Even though it's only been 4 days, the twice daily routine of soaking Bobby's foot & re-wrapping it in a diaper, vet wrap, & duck tape is taking is toll, in terms of time & resources.

(As a side story, I didn't know what size diaper I would need for his foot when I went shopping, but I assumed I'd need the biggest. When I asked the poor teenager on duty at the supermarket if they had bigger diapers, he gave me the "Crazy Lady, Run Away Fast" look & did just that.)

Because of this, I've decided to get a medicine boot, of which only Davis makes one big enough for Bobby. (Yeah, guess what size he needs!) It's too late to call our local tack shop, but I really hope they have the right size so we can go pick it up tomorrow, otherwise we'll have to wait a few days & order it off of horse.com, the only place that has it stocked in Bobby's size.

My question is, how do you really make an Epsom salt poultice, something I can leave in the boot with him? So far all we've been doing is a very watery soak, & there's a ton of different answers on the internet. Can anyone steer me right?

Anyway, back to the book! (just five more minutes, please??????)

Sunday Stills-Fall Foliage

2010-10-24T11:23:00.000-04:00

Well, after all, I am in Vermont. Where else can you get such spectacular foliage? Bonus-the Belgians look amazing in the fall!

Apologies for not keeping up-it's been one thing piled on top of another for the past two weeks here, with Tristan & I scrambling to keep on top of everything. Our Subaru pretty much died, so we had to find another car fast. We tried out a truck, just couldn't afford it, & with Kade on the way we need a baby safe car. So we ended up signing a three year lease on a brand new Toyota Scion-very zippy car, like a city version of the crippled Subaru.

Once we solved that, we decided we have to move, for a variety of reasons, so we're looking for a cheaper place, but it's hard to find a place when you're a young couple with two draft horses & a kid on the way. And yesterday, of course, was when Bobby decided to get his first hoof abscess. Nothing too major, but enough to make him tender (not dead lame, though, which is fortunate). Which means twice daily Epsom salt soaks, which Bobby is fine with (with me holding his head & kissing his oh so soft muzzle & telling him how amazing he is). However, he's not so fine with picking up said foot (his left front) so we can diaper & duck tape it. Ah well. We caught it last night, & even after just two soakings & being kept in the run in (aka, out of the mud) he's doing better, so hopefully a few more days will see him well. Meanwhile, he gets to be bored with little room to run around in. Ah well.

Anyway, today is take it easy day for us, with the boys mostly inside & us out of the icky rain. Enjoy what's left of the weekend!

Colors of Fall

2010-10-11T10:37:00.000-04:00

Who is holding these wild mustangs back???

Our wonderful vet, Molly, came out & brought her boss with her, Dr. Dennis, a man who's been breeding Belgian draft horses for years. We stood around for an hour with Bobby in the cross ties, demonstrating what a good, patient horse he really is, while Tucker munched hay in one of the stalls. Bobby was alternately poked, prodded, and padded. Molly listened to his lungs, watched him, took his temp, stole his blood, & shot him full of steroids. What we learned during this lovely visit is that Bobby is a saint at times, our hay is musty & not that great overall so now we're searching for a new hay supplier, and Bobby has a mild case of heaves. So mild that we can notice him working a bit harder to breath just standing in the aisle, but she couldn't hear his lungs working much harder, so she told us the basic stuff for managing it for now, & to keep him in light work until his weight is back up, which, given another 150 pounds or so, he will be. Apparently we don't need to feed the alfalfa cubes-too much protein. So we're cutting those out, upping the beat pulp, and adding fat in the form of rice bran oil. With occasional treats hidden in the mixture, and the beet pulp soaked in hot water now because it's getting cold.

Without further ado, please enjoy the sights that I'm enjoying every time I walk outside to feed (although you can do it without being cold!)

The spot: Found!

2010-09-30T12:05:00.000-04:00

I've been a bit jealous previously, reading other blogger's accounts of their horses doing weird & funky things when "The Spot" has been found. The jealousy comes from the fact that neither Tucker nor Bobby has exhibited much interest in any of the places we've scratched. But a few days ago, during the early evening feeding, Tristan dragged me outside to show me that he'd found the mythical spot on each of our boys: their bellies.

What do we do? We proceed to spend the next half an hour making our horses twitch!

Tucker's reaction

Bobby's reaction (please ignore my snort at the end, I couldn't help it!)

Anyway, hopefully this garners a few laughs. I had to post it because I woke up today feeling pretty good (despite or maybe because of yesterday's 5 mile walk to work) & gung ho about harnessing the boys up for a long drive, but alas, right now it's pouring down rain, grey & dreary, the worst weather for taking a jaunty drive around the countryside. At least the boys turn chocolatey when it rains.

Complete Baths & Good Horse Care

2010-09-24T12:32:00.000-04:00

First off, a warning: Long long post ahead, both in terms of pictures & words. But the pictures are some of the good ones, so you can skip the words if you'd like :)

A week ago now it was warm enough, before the rain came & cooled everything down again, to give the horses what could possibly be their last real bath before winter really sets in. I even made Tristan stick his hand up inside that most pleasant of places on a gelding's body & clean out in there. Since I have done both horses the last three times it's needed to be done, I was quite unsympathetic to my poor fiance. I'm nice that way.

Needless to say, I had a ton of fun, I got some really great pictures, & the horses had a great time stuffing their faces & acting as our fuzzy lawnmowers. Except when we had to get their faces wet, as you can see Bobby is a fan of:

You can also see Bobby's condition pretty well in the above picture. All the weight he's putting back on is going straight to his gut, not his ribs or hips, so he's a horse with a beer gut (ha ha.) But that is why, after getting this blog up & eating lunch (because Kade or whatever his name is going to be won't let me go more than two hours without eating) Bobby gets his harness on to once again harrow the pasture. As illustrated below, Bobby is (in my very biased opinion) quite the looker when he's working.

But, to continue, I do read the Fugly Horse of the Day blog, & while I don't agree with absolutely everything she says, I do agree with most of it. Her post a few days ago was about how "normal" people, despite all the excuses at hand, still manage to provide not only decent but also excellent animal care. This post did get me thinking, because ever since I got home in August, I've been thinking (read: mildly obsessing) about every aspect of our horse's lives. Blame it, somehow, on the pregnancy, cause that's okay, right?

Anyway, most people on the Fugly blog commented on how their daily routines fit around their animals. This is quite true, because no matter what we do, both Tristan & I are always considering the horse's feeding schedule, and making sure we have the time to do a bit of manner training when we feed their grain, since lately both horses have gotten too pushy & aggressive at feeding time. Since I just know my balance is going to go quickly down hill in a hand basket, I don't fancy being shoved around by two one ton draft horses when I'm holding feeding tubs full of soaked beat pulp, oats, alfalfa cubes, & flax seed oil (& sometimes the cut up carrots I sneak in there).

So when Tristan or I feed grain, we stand over the tubs full of equine deliciousness with a lead rope & make it clear that neither horse is to approach closer than 3 feet when we're still standing over the tubs. Bobby is a little quicker on the uptake with this, & he's slowly starting to understand when we say wait, we mean wait. Tucker, however, can't stand still. He paces around in a circle, then gets as close as we let him & stretches out his neck to his fullest extent. Admittedly, it's one way to get him to stretch.

Anyway, the point I'm trying to work my way around to here is this is just one of the ways we try to make sure our horse's lives are even better & less stressful than ours. I have a lot more musings to write about this subject, but Little Fulford says it's time to eat, & before we eat, the horse's get another half bale of, of course, organic first cut hay.

Random pictures from the last week to enjoy!

First Pictures

2010-09-18T10:43:00.000-04:00

I had my ultrasound on Wednesday, & the reason it's taking me so long to put up the pictures is a combination of work & laziness, coupled with tiredness because, of course, I'm anemic. But, without further ado, here's Kade Fulford, at roughly 19 weeks old, treating Momma's womb like a hammock & entertaining himself in various ways...sucking on his thumb, hiding his face, & flashing the tech. Enjoy everyone!

Sunday work day

2010-09-12T16:51:00.000-04:00

Today we were actually able to get some of the work done with the boys that we wanted to do, namely because Tristan wouldn't let me curl up & nap because it was grey & dreary outside. He's good at that sometimes. Instead I got my bum off the couch (warm couch!) & helped harness up the boys, & that is when I noticed that Bobby has put on some weight! Not a ton, but what we're feeding is making a difference! Yippie! Plus Tucker is already starting to shag out with his winter coat...makes me nervous for how early they are expecting winter....

But, we got them harnessed up and hooked up to the wagon to go grab some wood that Greg & Tristan had split in the woods, which I'm sorry to say I didn't get a picture of because I'm bad at remembering my camera...

Suffice to say, Molly, Tristan & I took about 20 minutes to load up the wood, during which Bobby fell asleep & Tucker tried to eat everything in reach...saplings, ferns, tiny snags of grass, etc. They then stood for the next half hour as we unloaded all the split wood & stacked them on pallets on what vaguely resembles a back porch. Which means our boys, despite being worked very rarely, still have their manners, for the most part. Yeah!

Then we dropped the wagon off, & proceeded to skid logs down our driveway to be bucked & split later, & since Molly helped, Tristan took the part of explaining the uber basics to her while I drove the boys, which they did super well on. Did I mention the Big Blonde Boys are amazing?

Now the boys are chucked back outside with food in front of them, & it's time for me to clean the room, which I have been avoiding all day.

And because I can't resist...I'll show you my new laptop background!

New Discoveries

2010-09-09T19:12:00.000-04:00

You know how "they" say you learn something new everyday? I have determined this to be true. Today, while working Tucker single for the first time in half a year, harrowing our tiny pasture, I learned that we have a hornets nest in the ground along the fence line of said pasture. I learned this when Tucker started to frantically back up, waving his head around & dancing around like a prima ballerina. Which I mean to say, he does very well, I just wish he didn't do it all over the chain harrow we borrowed from a friend of ours.

But, now that I know about it, what are we going to do about it? Tristan doesn't have a suggestion that doesn't involve Raid, but since this is the pasture the poor kids are stuck in until the first frost hits, I'd rather get rid of the stingers in a slightly healthier way. Has anyone ever encountered this, & dealt with it? I did check to see if the boys have ever been stung, but I couldn't find any, which is nice. Still, now the hornets are pissed-Tristan got stung three times trying to determine exactly where the nest was.

But, before we found the nest, Tucker was doing remarkably well, considering how long it's been since we're worked them single, & the fact that we left Bobby, dorky in his anti-fly gear, in the pasture, not working, right where Tucker could see him, which I think Tucker knew wasn't quite fair.

After we discovered the nest, we hustled Tucker out of the pasture & decided it'd be a great time to go grab some of the logs Tristan had dropped last week. I wouldn't have done this had I been alone, because Tucker has the horrible habit of backing up when he's alone, but with me driving & Tristan hooking up, we managed a whole two logs with no disasters, but that was enough for poor Tucker's psyche for one day. Plus, the pregnant lady really, really had to pee :)

But, because it's been a grey, dreary day, & now it's raining, I believe it's time to convince Tristan to curl up with some popcorn & one of the best movies ever: Chocolat!

Lazy Labor Day

2010-09-06T21:25:00.000-04:00

Scary horse eating covered bridge of doom!

Today was a pretty laid back day for us, which is nice to have occasionally, though it does leave me ample opportunity to worry. But today I put that away, determined to enjoy the "holiday." When I was at Sterling, which is a work college, we celebrated Labor Day by guess what? Working. That was the day we'd clean up campus & get everything set for winter, with firewood & everything. But today, for the first time in four years, I wasn't among my school mates working all day. It was a decent change, though in some parts I already miss college....

Still beautiful!

I am glad that for now, I have one less worry, as I've finally figured out the horses's feeding schedule, for now at least. They get two bales between them each day, which since it's not winter is plenty, spaced out at half bale intervals. Half in the early morning, when we go out to mix their mush-1 quart of grain, 3 quarts of beet pulp shreds, 1/2 quart of alfalfa cubes, all mixed & covered with water to soak for four hours. At lunch we'll throw in a half cup of flax seed oil before we feed half of that out-Tucker doesn't get much, just a few bites to keep him from feeling jealous-then another half bale with that. Another half bale at dinner time, then another half bale around 9 or so at night, with the rest of the grain fed out. It does drive me nuts to be surrounded but so much nice, rich pasture, & to be feeding our boys hay. I know it's healthy enough, but everything I've been taught the past four years is to put horses on pasture-good pasture-whenever you can. But we're new to the area, so I don't know who to ask or how...sigh.

What scary horse eating thing is over there, Tucker?

Drool, I only wish I could have a nice little farm like this someday...sigh

Anyway, I pestered Tristan all day to go on a nice long trail ride with me, maybe try to persuade our horses to dip a hoof or two into the nice sized creek behind our property, but no joy. He was too sore from cutting down & bucking trees yesterday for our winter's firewood, so eventually one of our housemates, Molly, came home, & she's down for riding any day. Since Bobby's a bit down in weight, his collar doesn't fit like it should, so I hesitate to put his harness on & exercise them that way, but a nice, easy, 4 mile walk they can't get out of. One of the things I love about Bobby, he's a very easy going kinda horse, which makes it safe enough to throw somebody up on him who doesn't have a lot of riding experience. Plus, it's nice & safe to ride on our new road-lots of twists & turns, so no one can get going up really fast, & it's not a through rode, which is really a nice perk. Hence, the pictures that follow-Molly's terrible with her hand position, though her seat isn't bad. I apologize for mine-I usually have a better seat, but trying to keep an eye on somebody else & deal with Tucker, who can't walk straight without constant direction in a million years, takes a bit of concentration on my part :)

I know I've probably mentioned this before, but I forget how big our boys really are, until a car comes driving by & it's tiny!

As you can see, Bobby is thrilled by these evening walks of ours

Anyway, it is time for the boy's evening feeding & heading to bad, back to work tomorrow, probably a bit more desperately trying to find a job coupled with firewood. Have a wonderful night everyone :)

Back again

2010-09-05T17:55:00.000-04:00

The boys in all their dorky fly gear, desperately needed

So, it's been, what, close to three months I haven't updated? Shame on me, bad blogger lady. Now that I've beaten myself up, would you like to hear why it's taken me so long to get back into blogger world? It's a long story, but to make it short, here are my top three excuses:

I had really bad internet where I was living on the Island, as in, it mostly didn't work when I was off work. I could have gone to a place where it functioned well after I got done with my shift, but sheer exhaustion coupled with laziness kept me from such excursions.
Had I wrote about what I eventually came to feel about the way I was treated, the way the horses were treated, the general feeling I got from my coworkers of being back in high school (think: tons of spiteful gossip & a lack of caring about anything with four legs) I would have been fired, pretty quickly.
I found out I was pregnant halfway through my summer work on the Island, & having to wrap my head around that & what to do about it, while working 16 hour days, left little room for something like blogging.

Driving up the West Bluff of the Island...at least my job wasn't without some beauty

Now that we're past that pleasant part, once again I must catch up with everyone else's lives, & catch up with mine....

As you may have guessed, I left Mackinac Island on the 2nd day of August, & after an epic, sometimes uncomfortable, certainly unforgettable 48 hour bus trip back to Vermont, I made it home. Home is now a big house in Charlotte, with another young couple & an older woman with her teenage daughter, & the ability to look outside from the breakfast table & say good morning to our Belgian draft horses (or laugh at them, as I frequently do).

The view from the kitchen table

I'm still wrapping my poor brain around the fact that I am: a.) Not going back to school this fall, for the first time ever; b.) pregnant, & c.) adult. All of these things come with a load of constant worry for me, which is not helped by the whole money factor, or the fact that our horse Bobby is about 200 pounds underweight, & every time I look at him I worry if we're doing the right thing in working him, & if his diet is good enough (despite the very fact that we are doing pretty much exactly what our saintly vet Molly told us to do...she also told me not to worry, some horses are just hard keepers...why does Bobby have to seemingly be a hard keeper??? As if anyone needed more stress in our life.....) etc.

Notice the ribs, not what's ahem, hanging low....

this is going to pick up 40 bales of hay, more on that topic later :)

I follow Nuzzling Muzzle's blog as closely as I have time for, and sometimes I try to tell myself: "Look! Your life is not as crazy as hers! At least you have time to breath, & only two horses to her three, plus dogs & kids!" This lasts for all of 10 seconds, then I glance out the window again & I can see Bobby's ribs, his whithers too high, or I realize I won't fit into my favorite jeans for much longer, & how am I going to pay for the ultrasound next week? & all the worries come crashing down again.

But I can & will deal with all these stresses, because, after all, I'm home, with Tristan (who, when he's not treating me like spun glass, is as fantastic a partner as anyone could wish) & with our boys, who with the judicious use of carrots & apples, I've taught a few fun tricks to since I've been home.

Now, after I go use the restroom facilities for the zillionth time today, it's time for me to go for our evening ride, if I can drag Tristan away from bucking firewood long enough, & then...time to catch up on everyone's blogs, like a good blogger!

Touring, finally

2010-06-01T19:15:00.000-04:00

Abe hanging out with extra collars

So, Sunday I shotgunned with a veteran driver, hearing the first, downtown part of the tour over...& over...& over again. Sunday was hugely busy, back to back tours, so I heard the one guy's tour 8 times over the course of the afternoon while I drove the team. This particular driver's tour was canned, & very boring. He said the same thing, with the same inflection, at the exact same time, & with the same level of excitement...zero. It's no wonder he didn't get any tips that day, I was bored out of my mind for most of the day, even with my job of trying not to run over anybody or anything.

So many bikes to steer around!

I know this job can get tedious, as all the "more experienced" drivers tell me, & you basically say the same thing literally thousands of times over the course of a season. That's a valid point, but at the same time, for 99% of the people on your tour, it's their first time hearing about the guy who's stomach wound never healed, so a doctor studied the digestive system through the hole in his belly, or about the lilac trees that make the Island famous. I think this job won't be so tedious if I remind myself to view it through the eyes of a "Fudgie", aka tourist-for many, it's the first time, & all the facts I'm giving them on the tour, while not all of them may be fascinating, most of them are certainty interesting.

Lilac trees!

Today I had my chance to strut my stuff, so to speak. This was the start of a new group of employees being trained, so as I came in too late for last weeks group, I was with the new "school bus" for half a day. I drove the bus & gave the downtown part of the tour without a hitch, & had fun doing it! Listening to some of the drivers, I got to fearing that I wouldn't like the job, that it would be boring or frustrating. So far, so good, though ask me again come August! I did such a good job, both on the driving & the narration, that the instructor dude let me shot gun with one of the 3-horse hitch drivers through the state park. The dude I shotgunned with, Jeff, is an excellent tour guide, coming from a family who's business is tour guiding. He doesn't know much about horses, but he does care about them, that much is obvious, & he does want to learn all he can about them & make their lives as pain free & easy as possible. He's one of those approachable, easy going guys who really gets his whole carriage engaged & interested in what he has to say, whereas the guy I was with on the 2 horse hitch had people talking on their cell phones on his tours.

Whatcha doin'?

The one thing I don't really like about the job is that when I'm driving, which I do love! I don't have a great amount of time to take pictures. Eating my sandwich for lunch is hard enough! On my walk back to the Lenox, the place where most of the Carriage Tours employees live, every night, I try to take some pictures, but by that time I'm usually on the march to get to dinner on time.

Fort Mackinac, the reason for the State Park...more on that later

At least I'm doing my real job now, & it's both easier & a little harder than I thought, having to pay attention to everyone & everything around me, even more than I had to in the woods or on the farm at Sterling. Trees in the woodlot are unlikely to try & swerve around me on a bicycle, going way too fast after all! I've decided that I'll take a post for each major thing on the Island, such as the Grand Hotel, the Fort, the lilacs, etc, & focus just on those things. But, for now, it's supposed to start raining tomorrow, so I'm going to make sure my rain gear is all in my bag, packed for the morning.
Good night all!

Mackinac Island

2010-05-29T19:48:00.000-04:00

The sun as viewed from the bus in Sault St. Marie, roughly 4am

So, I have finally arrived, safe & sound & exhausted from three days of travel, by car, plane, city bus, Greyhound, shuttle, & ferry. In the past four days, I have worked 41 hours, & my first day off may not be for another week. But what have I been doing? Not exactly what I signed up for. I was hired to be a carriage driver, giving tours of the Island to groups. I haven't even touched a carriage yet. For some reason, they didn't know where to put me, so I've been in the barns, helping get horses cleaned up, harnessed, hitched, and helping with the barn stuff-mucking stalls, feeding, etc. Not that this is a bad thing, much, just not what I'd hoped for. The bad part about it is, I'm not "trained" do to a lot of things yet, so I'm not allowed to help with certain things, even though I have experience. This is frustrating, since I'm not receiving the training to help with these things.

Empty tour carriage

I have gotten to drive the dray a few times, which is how everything that isn't human gets transported around the island. I also spent a day with a very well trained team of Belgians, Bud & Pete (I hope I got their names right...so many horses to keep track of!) driving the street sweeper...cleaning up poop. Driving around downtown on Main street is an obstacle course, what with bikes parked haphazardly, people on bikes that haven't ridden bikes in years, people being tourists, & other carriages & drays & horse drawn taxis.

So far, it's been an interesting couple of days. My roommate is an awesome lady from Florida, & she & I get along quite nicely, which makes night time after work a bit easier. She lets me borrow her fan, since she's cold at night & I'm way too hot :)

Main Street

As I'm nodding over my poor laptop as I write this, I've decided that I'll post pictures when I can, & one wordy post a week, when I'm not so exhausted. There's more to tell about life & work on the island (which, with the lovely weather we've been having, is quite beautiful) but I'll get into it tomorrow...or the next day...:)

For now, enjoy some pictures!

Drays lined up on the dock

Grand Hotel Hackneys

Where I work

Finally Pictures!

2010-05-23T22:58:00.000-04:00

So, just a disclaimer (or two), most of these pictures aren't mine...I was too busy to carry my camera around, but I resolve to do better for the rest of the summer! Also, warning: very long post ahead! That said, let's catch up!

So, on Thursday night of last week (so long ago!) the College took the entire senior class (all 27 of us) out to a really uber nice dinner & pretty speeches by our advisors. The food was suberb, soft & butter chicken, potatoes that I couldn't get enough of, & rhubarb pie...drool!

On Friday I packed like crazy, fitting an entire life into about 10 bags, only two of which are actually going with me for the next five months on Mackinac Island. On a side note, I really had to work hard to get everything to fit in one black trunk and my big orange Dana hiking pack...I'll be on the Island for two seasons & since I've heard it's rainy, I brought ever piece of rain gear I have, from pants to jackets and gators. I may have gone a little crazy, but I hate being wet.

Anyway, graduation....it was lovely, and crazy and insane all at once. It's a Sterling College tradition that all graduates are barefoot, but we all decided at rehearsal that it was too cold to do that, so we all wore Muck boots or hiking boots. Very Sterlingish with all the fancy dresses, skirts, and pants out to play :)

My friend Hacksaw (long story how he got that nickname, but it stuck-even the teachers called him that) was chosen to be a student graduation speaker, & this guy is known for his...off the wall humor, even for a Sterlingite. He didn't disappoint, & this is the Dean of Academics reaction to Hacksaw's speech:

Here is everyone else's reaction:

Sexy, sexy boots, huh? (not that you can see them, but they are there!)

All lined up

Getting congratulations from Tristan...my mom says I totally have a John Lennon thing going with my glasses...ah well.

After graduation my parents took us out to an uber nice dinner before we all headed our seperate ways, my parents to their condo in the White Mountains & Tristan & I back to spend the week at Metta Earth, after a side trip to pick up Tristan's oldest brother, Galen, at the Burlington airport (he flew all the way from Scotland for our ceremony!)

Tristan worked the next two days, so I alternately puttered & got ready for the ceremony, shopping, getting RSVP's, cooking, baking, and going slowly more insane. But it was all worth it! The ceremony was sweet & beautiful & all we could have hoped for. Tristan leaked the whole way through, truely a very sweet thing.

We set the ceremony up so first we welcomed everyone...

then made speeches at each other (mine was more funny, Tristan's was beautifully poetic & made me cry)...

then we had everyone come up with a piece of cord & drape it over our hands while giving us wishes or good tidings...

Older brother Galen, & other older brother Ogion....

my teacher & advisor Anne...

Tristan's mother...

Tristan's cousin Mikala...

then we helped each other drink from a Celtic quaich that Galen & his wife's family sent us...

The only low point to the ceremony was the black flies. They drove me crazy, getting into my ears and biting me everywhere, so I twitched throughout the whole thing, probably looking a little insane (our brother is getting engaged to this girl?). But, it was beautiful, and our people were so very supportive.

Other stuff was happening throughout the week as well. Right before the ceremony, I put Mom up on Bobby, her first ride in about 6 years, for a nice ambling stroll:

Tristan was kidnapped by Corey while Mom & I were out riding, and she took him shopping and got him so he looked like this for the ceremony:

All mine!

So, in the interest of not making this post impossibly long, I'll post more tomorrow before I get on the plane, & fly for Mackinac! Thank you everyone for an amazing week, including you, fiance Tristan!

Enjoy the week, everyone!

Whirlwind

2010-05-17T21:51:00.000-04:00

So, I did manage, somehow, to get graduated. There was a heartfelt speech that made me cry a bit, a funny speech that made me laugh & cry a bit, & the slightly frantic passing out of diplomas and the hug line, where all the faculty line up & hug all the new graduates. We got through the hug line just before the sky opened up & dumped on us, lucky!

I had a day of blissful, unthinking rest...haha! Not really. More like, frantic figuring everything out for Tuesday, repacking my stuff, finding a nice little hideyhole for Tristan & I on Tuesday night, & shopping & printing & directions & cooking & setting up and it's tomorrow and ARGH! *head explodes*

Still so much to do, so time for bed & then up early tomorrow! Pictures soon, I promise!

Last week

2010-05-10T21:57:00.000-04:00

Hmm...it is officially my last week of college. Technically last two days, as the last day of classes is Wednesday. Then All College Work Day & the Senior Recognition Dinner Thursday (where the students & advisors go out to a fancy place to eat & say nice things about each other & hash out memories), a breather on Friday (time to pack) & then my parents will be here Saturday for graduation. It still hasn't fully sunk in yet!

Anyway...what did I do last week? Oh yes, I got soaked. We had storm after storm roll through on my Draft Horse Day (Thursday) when I was out with the students & the teams. One moment, I was basking in the sunshine, 80 degrees & happy to be not all bundled up...the next I couldn't see for the darkness & I was shocky from the startling cold of the rain dumped on me. To make matters even better, I had to unhitch the team I was driving, Brandy & Lincoln, in said downpour that nearly knocked my glasses off my face. To be helpful, Brandy swung out so she was perpendicular to Lincoln as soon as I got one trace chain unhooked...which meant I couldn't get any other of the chains unhooked. Not my best moment, truely.

But over the course of the week, I was successful in taking a whole ton of pictures. A small sample:

View from my dorm window

My teacher Jill with my friend Cody's Great Pyraneese Willow, the best dog in the world (the breed Tristan & I are looking to get)

I have a ton more photos, but I still have two papers to write for finals! I hope everyone is enjoying the spring storms...but not getting soaked by them like me!

Sunday Stills-The letter B

2010-05-09T12:51:00.000-04:00

Almost too easy...enjoy! I'll post an update about my crazy fast week tomorrow....counting down the days until graduation!

B is for so many things....Blondies!

and bits....

and beach...

and bucking...

and baby bunnies!

not to mention butts!

and who could forget Bobby, one of the best horses of them all?

and because I couldn't resist...Belgians!

So much for that goal

2010-05-02T22:06:00.000-04:00

Well, I had set the goal for myself to take as many pictures as I could, by trying to fill up my faithful camera's memory card. I did get some good pictures, but I didn't come anywhere close to the amount of pictures I wanted to take. However, tomorrow begins another week. As it is my last two weeks of college, I'm trying to get pictures of everything I've been taking for granted for the last four years, because after this, I won't be here every day anymore. Wow...it's a big thought I'm trying to wrap my brain around, while still busy with the work I still have to do in order to graduate....

But this week, I will fill up my memory card. In between starting to pack, and get rid of stuff, massive amounts of homework, final projects, planning the handfasting, getting the last of my work hours in, and going to class...yeah, lots of pictures!

At least the sun has finally come out. I can start wearing dresses again, because I won't freeze to death doing it! Spring is finally here, & I love it.

So, here are a sampling of the pictures I did manage to take. Enjoy the week everyone!

Mr. Lincoln getting a buzz cut, because his mane was getting so long!

My attempt to capture the wrinkles of Lincoln's muzzle

My favorite white butt in all the world, the lovely Rex

Grading eggs

Can Lincoln's head get any lower?

Dorky girl with a camera

May Pole

Wordless Wednesday:Speechless

2010-04-28T08:26:00.000-04:00

So, it's easy to be struck speechless when I wake up for farm chores this morning and look out my window to be greeted by this sight:

No wonder I'm so disoriented. It doesn't feel like I'll be graduated from college, engaged to a wonderful man, and working at Mackinac Island in a month when it feels like a week before Christmas, not two and a half weeks to graduation. Jeezum!

Three Weeks To Go

2010-04-27T19:06:00.000-04:00

I apologize in advance for how wordy and not picturey this post is. It was an amazing weekend, so amazing I forgot to take pictures...sigh, a habit I must begin is carrying my faithful Olympus everywhere with me!

So, this weekend was even more awesome than I could have hoped for. Friday night I drove up to Morgan, Vermont (3 miles from the Canadian border) to a cabin on Lake Seymour and had a slightly but not too crazy night with most of the rest of the senior class, just destressing with good food, good friends, dogs, and random card games.

The next morning I almost didn't want to leave, but I did and ended up in Burlington for Everything Equine. Vermont has a large horse community for it's size, but I couldn't find what I was looking for, namely either a bareback pad with stirrups or a longer girth to fit Bobby, so my mother can come riding comfortably with me when she comes out for graduation & the handfasting in three weeks. Ah well, hopefully she'll fit in the saddle and get along with Mr. Tucker....

I saw my old boss, Marcy, with her Dales stud and one of my favorite Fjord mares on the Breed Row, and had a good half hour of catching up with her. She wished me luck at Mackinac Island, and I learned that she's still having fun doing what she loves, competing with Duke. I walked out of the convention center and found those crystal mineral blocks the boys love so much, complete with a hole through the middle and a piece of rope, so Tristan hung them up in the standing stalls when I made it down to Vergennes later that day.

Tristan took his first day off after three weeks of work for Erik, and we went out on our first read adult date, with me dressed up as I ever get. We went to a very nice place in Middlebury where the steak was suburb.

We lazed around the next day, but went for a quick ride in the evening, both of us bareback on the boys in the best part of the evening. We met a neighbor who just moved in with her warm blood and her daughter's pony, and we discussed trails around the area for a few minutes. On our way back to the farm, we had one of those moments that makes this life, all the stress of caring for two large animals, of finishing up school and dealing with the constant separations, all worth it. We got the boys up to a canter and went side by side for a few minutes, pounding up the road. Life doesn't get any better than that.

It does, however, make returning to school for the last three weeks all the harder, especially when this is what the day turns in to:

But at least, with the help of farm chores this week, I am getting over my heavy dislike of chickens. I'm in charge of them, watering, feeding, and collecting & grading eggs.

At least the school's chickens are docile, and more afraid of me than I am of them.

Green chicken!

Well, tomorrow is a different day. I have a graduation to get all my work done for, to find a way to Michigan for the summer, packing to do, and a handfasting ceremony to keep on top of. But remember-it's all worth it, for those moments.

Another Full Thursday

2010-04-22T19:48:00.000-04:00

Wow. I am one tired puppy. Up at 6am to cook breakfast for the college (french toast, as always Thursday morning) and then straight into keeping horses and students alive, always easier in the morning when I'm fresh & awake.

Rexy

This morning we used the spring tooth harrow with three abreast, Rex, Lincoln, and Lady, and that went well...except Lincoln has opinions on the world, and he tends to be grumpy, so he snaps at Rex and Lady. Rex just kind of takes it, because he got used to the old Belgian that taught me how to be a teamster, Pete, doing it to him, but Lady tried to stay as far away from Lincoln as she could. Not a disaster, though.

Finally I got a picture of Lincoln with his tongue stuck out!!!

(this is how he usually works, btw)

In the afternoon we went over to Rick's new barn to work with Pete, who is 25 and pretty much retired, and his daughter's new mare, Iris. Iris is a great riding horse (so I've been told) who is really responsive to pressure from the saddle. RT is training her to be a driving horse, which is a long, difficult process, mainly because any pressure on her sides (such as lines, equipment, & harness) can make her move a bit funkilly in response. So today we took a nice, long walk all over East Craftsbury (my feet are reminding me just how long, got some nice blisters forming on my heels) but no death, which is always a good thing. We jumped at some thunder, but overall it went well. Then back to school for my Environmental Education class, to plan taking the local elementary school students to Pete's Greens, an organic veggie grower down the road.

Iris has a dot on her nose just like Tucker!

I spent a lot of time kissing it this afternoon

Deep breath...this weekend is jam packed, as always lately. Right after class all day Friday, the entire senior class is make the trip to a cabin up in Island Pond (really the Backbutt of Beyond, Vermont) for our senior trip. We rented a cabin up there, to just hang out in all weekend. Except me, I found a ride! So I can go to Everything Equine this weekend, Vermont's slightly smaller equivalent of Equine Affair.

The best thing is, my old boss, Marcy Baer, is going to be there!!!! Hopefully I can find her & catch up to her...sharing my experiences & light bulbs while working for Marcy & doing an internship at her farm was the reason I started this blog, back a few years ago. She taught me a ton of how to care for horses, how to manage them, how to train them. Mostly, she taught me to think for myself. Marcy is not a blind supplicant or believer in any one trainer's methods, she takes what she needs from everybody's, though she is rather fond of Linda Tellington Jones.

Marcy with her Dales Pony stud, Duke,

one of the most well behaved horses I've ever met

After that, I'm off to Burlington to shop for a dress for our handfasting (OMG less than a month away!) and khakis for work on Mackinac Island.

Deep breath....now to finish my Sarp paper!!!!

Macro Monday

2010-04-19T21:02:00.000-04:00

Lately I've been trying to focus less on the big picture landscape photos I'm used to taking, and looking at the small picture...for the most part, I've got the hang of it, but getting the right lighting still escapes me, especially trying to take up close pictures of horses in big old cow barns...sigh.

Tucker's dot, which I tell Tristan to kiss every time I talk to him over the phone or Skype at night....(needless to say, Tucker isn't so much a fan of this, but when he's tired like when I took this picture, he was too tired to argue with me!)

Bobby always gives me the very best close up eye pictures....but then there's Tucker....hard to choose:

I see you human...what are you doing with that camera down there?

Sunday Stills-Potluck

2010-04-18T11:59:00.000-04:00

Something fun & interesting today...how about a look at our recent crazy bipolar weather? Within the course of a week, we've gone from this:

to this:

and now we are slowly heading back to this:

Sigh. I wish the weather could just pick one thing to be.....warm, sunny, and 80 degrees! Graduation is in 27 days, handfasting in 30.....please please please some good weather would be appreciated!

I knew it!

2010-04-16T10:35:00.000-04:00

I knew it! Yesterday was pretty nice for this time of year, warmish & sunny, barely a cloud in the sky. While driving the team with the walking plow yesterday, I even took all my layers off & drove in just a shirt! This is what I worked in yesterday:

Beautiful, right? What you would hope for with mid-April weather?

Well, this is what I saw when my alarm went off early this morning & I looked out my dorm window:

I knew it! I knew Vermont wasn't done with winter yet! Just when I thought it was finally safe to start wearing my nice dresses and skirts instead of five layers of wool, silk, and cotton every day to stay warm....I wake up to this. I just knew it. Which sucks, cause it's these types of days that make getting going soooooo hard for me...all I want to do is stay curled up in bed with the Daily Show and a cup of tea. But alas, my Sarp presentation is tomorrow, so instead I'm awake and working....now comes the real worry...what am I going to wear that is both warm and pretty?

Stupid bipolar state!

Draft Horse Thursdays

2010-04-15T20:48:00.000-04:00

As I've mentioned before, every Thursday I spend all day making sure the students don't kill each other or the horses, and try to read Rick Thomas's mind. So far I've been quite successful at the former, but I'm miserably lacking in the latter (especially compared to Tristan....the man is psychic!). The past two weeks, we've used two kinds of plows (riding sulky and walking) and three types of harrows (chain, tooth, and spike) on various new fields around the College Property.

Today we tried a new combination of horses, putting Brandy and Rex together because their paces match fairly closely. Problem is, Brandy hasn't been in the furrow before, and she's Queen Alpha Bitch. But today went well, after a few snaps and kicks during harnessing Brandy decided it was too much work to get a rise out of utterly placid, very slow in the brain pan Rex and she settled down.

I was also able to visit with the various baby animals we have on our farm now that spring is here, and OMG they are all so insanely cute! I'm not usually prone to the cuteness gene, but when it jumps up & smacks me in the face with a barn full of it...I am susceptible. Currently we have baby goats....

baby sheep (lambs if you must)...

baby piglets....

and a whole ton of baby rabbits!!!!

Thus, the day passed wonderfully, driving the team with the walking plow for the morning, helping the students with harrowing in the afternoon...and then 430 rolled around. Cody & I rehearsed our Sarp presentations together at this time. This presentation, which if we fail we don't graduate, which we are both doing on Saturday. THIS Saturday. If my brain explodes, can I have a doctors note that excuses me from living through this Saturday? No? Damn. Okay...I guess it's time to talk at the wall some more. Here I go!

The New Place

2010-04-12T20:07:00.000-04:00

Boundbrook Farm

So, this weekend I was able, somehow, to scrounge up the money and the transport necessary to drive down to visit Tristan, & what a weekend! The farm is set in the beautiful Champlain Valley, just a mile from Vergennes, and the weather, though on the cold side for me, was sunny & breezy the whole time. The farm owners, Erik and Erica and their two kids, were quite welcoming, even allowing me to cook my second favorite meal of tomato mac (aka goulash, aka American Chop Suey) for dinner one night.

Tristan cleaning up the boys after a hard workout

On Saturday, I discovered how wet the fields and pastures are at the farm, when I marched out to bring the boys in and promptly got muddy up to my knees. The boys were in far worse shape, mud wise, splattered up to their bellies, legs totally covered in mud. So I put food in front of them and spent the next two hours of quality time with the shedding blade, curry comb, brush, and hoof pick, getting as much of their winter coat and the mud off as possible, getting covered myself in the process.

Bobby's lip when he was being groomed...I think he likes it!

Then Tristan & I put the boys to work, pulling out a disc harrow that had been sitting in pasture all winter & was very stuck in the mud, but the boys pulled it out almost easily...there are advantages to big horses! Then we proceeded to drive around a one acre field in big circles, disc harrowing the field to settle down the boys for their first season of field work. They were dripping with sweat and loose hair after an hour of pulling the disc harrow around, so we took pity on them and finished the next day.

Very sweaty boys

My man...harrowing shirtless, of course

I, on the other hand, prefer to keep all my clothes on to work

On Sunday we changed pasture, letting the seven horses out onto new green grass, which required marching out into the swamp (again getting muddy up to my knees) to check the fence line first. Lovely, but the horses were quite happy with grass to eat instead of hay.

Over the weekend, Tristan and I discussed our summer plans, and the last four weeks of my last semester. Namely, Sarp this weekend, senior trip the next weekend, a slight breather the first weekend of May, Game of Logging Certification the next weekend, & after that...graduation, handfasting, & starting a summer job!

Tomorrow I have an interview to be a tour carriage driver on Mackinac Island in Michigan, & I really, really, really!!! want that job, so fingers crossed!!!! It would be really great money, lots of overtime doing a job I love (driving horses all summer) & would give me steady employment, with minimal expenditures, all the way until the end of October. This would give Tristan time to find a place to be wherever, probably Shelburne (basically a suburb of Burlington) and me time to find a job near enough so I can live with him. That's as far as we've planned so far, and with my SARP presentation (OHHHH!!!!) this weekend, that is as far ahead as I can think right now.

Tucker giving me the stink eye

Speaking of Sarp...I should hop to it!

Life Catches Up

2010-04-04T22:07:00.000-04:00

Sorry, everybody, for having been absent so long! Returning to school for my last semester, & concentrating on passing all of my classes & getting all my work done, is sucking up a major amount of my time. 5 weeks left until graduation & our handfasting, the planning of which is also sucking up a bit of time for both Tristan & I. My parents are flying out and doing a two week vacation out East around my events, & I can't wait to show them around where I've been the past four years! http://sites.google.com/site/newenglandwanderings/

I still have two weeks left until I am done with that life sucker known as my Senior Project, but it is coming together well, finally-a full 25 pages to date!

In other news, Tristan moved himself and the Big Blonde Boys (who are shedding like crazy...last time I visited & took the shedding blade to them, they dropped enough hair on the barn floor to create another miniature horse!) to a farm down the road in Vergennes, Vermont, called Bound brook Farm/Good Companion Bakery.http://goodcompanionbakery.com/index.html

Tristan will be an intern there until October, raising grains for the bakery and various veggies and animals for market. The Big Blonde Boys will be working with his employer's horses, doing everything under the sun...plowing, cultivating, cutting hay, baling, hauling, maybe even a parade or two. Hopefully I'll get a chance to visit next weekend for pictures and to see how everyone is settling in, but for now I know they are stuffing their faces, as usual.

As for me, I'm now Game of Logging, Level One certified, which means I can cut down trees! I now spend most of my Saturday's cutting and limbing trees in the morning, and sometimes extraction in the afternoons. All day Thursdays are spent doing my job, Draft Horse Teaching Assistant, making sure nobody kills themselves or panics the horses. Now that spring has officially moved in (80 degrees & all around just perfect the last four day running!) this task has become quite a bit more pleasant. For spring break I flew back to Portland to visit my parents, and I went hiking the Oregon Coast with my Mom...I remembered why I really do miss Oregon so much...and when it rained, I remembered why I left!

Hope everyone is having a blast with mud season! (isn't grooming horses for hours so much fun, only to see them go roll in the mud again because they are itchy?)

Here are a few pictures of the last few months, enjoy!

Oregon Coast, Nehlem Bay

My mother Trisha, the mountain goat

Mom & I on the beach

Someone's kids out for a ride on the beach

Flying over the Cascade Mountains

Rick Thomas, Draft Horse Manager & one of the best teachers I've ever met

Cutting down my first tree, a beech, at the GOL training

A game of Sterling Baseball at Sunset on a gorgeous day!

Sunday Stills-Day of Love

2010-02-14T13:29:00.000-05:00

The Sunday Stills Challenge today was a bit vague, but creativity is required. Instead of a "normal" Valentines Day where most people would get gifts or go out to dinner, ours was a bit different. My gift was Tristan visiting me at school for the weekend! Tristan & I woke up early, fed the school's horses, & skidded logs down to the landing to be bucked up into firewood. This is what our Valentine's Day looked like....enjoy! And click here for the other Sunday stills: http://sundaystills.wordpress.com/2010/02/07/sunday-stills-the-next-challenge-valentines-day/

Wordless Wednesday

2010-02-10T18:00:00.000-05:00

Girls & Harness

2010-02-09T17:04:00.000-05:00

I've been buried in SARP & Independent Study work this past week, & I've had few opportunities to get out & work the girls more than actually handling their feet & getting them used to odd requests. We were able to skid a bunch of logs from the sugar bush, where the Advanced Chainsaw Course kids have been dropping trees like crazy all week (I shouldn't call them kids, most of them are my yearmates & older than me!) to the landing at the bottom of what used to be the horse pasture, but now looks like this:

Today the chainsaw instructor & our draft horse manager, RT, was out sick (which means he'll probably spend all day working on paperwork & eating healthful things, such as Dove Chocolate Ice Cream bars & organic chips) so Brandon & I amused ourselves by taking the girls on a quiet tour of the empty sugar bush, to get them familiarized with the paths for when sugaring season comes around!

In this picture, you can see how round their butts are...Lady's lost a lot of weight since she got here, but Brandy is a stubborn old mare (she's my age, all of 20) & clinging to her fat determinedly.

Other than that, they were fairly quiet, not spooky at all. Mostly we worked on getting Lady to slow down & Brandy to speed up, so the evener looks like this:

Most of the time with these girls it doesn't look like this, as Lady is so much younger & more willing than Brandy. Today Brandy would pin her ears back & nip at Lady every time there was a hard scramble up a hill (we have lots of hills), mad because we asked her to pull.

In other news, I said I would post explaining what makes the harness we use so important & a bit rare. We use a Yankee D-ring harness, which differs in that most harnesses the trace chains connect straight to the collar, which puts all of the weight of the implement onto the horses neck. With the Yankee harness, the trace chains connect with the back pad & belly band through the use of a D-ring, to put the weight onto the horse's back. This also prevents the pole from wearing down the horses's neck, as the movement of the pole is transfered through the D-ring to the back pad.

Thanks Tucker for being my model.

With all harness, the horse's push against their collar is turned into pull, as the hames & trace chains attach to the implement. This puts most of the weight & pressure onto the horses neck, as they push into the collar. With the D-ring, all the weight & bumpiness & waving of the pole is transfered onto the back pad, which is less wearing & painful for the horse.

The main reason this harness is known at the Yankee harness is because it is rarely seen outside of New England. Like I said, we have a ton of hills here, & the more conventional forms of draft horse harness used out in the flatter Midwest, where most draft horse communities are because of the Amish, wouldn't be too good here because of the hills. The constant up & down movement of the pole would quickly wear on the horse & leave him sore. This doesn't happen with the D-ring, as the back pad takes most of the pressure of the pole.

Anyway, that is the short & sweet way of why we use this kind of harness up here in New England. Most teamsters I've talked to, or learned from, are convinced the Yankee Harness is superior for any kind of heavy work, be it in the field or in the woods, regardless of where you are in the world because of the comfort it gives the horse. I know it's the harness I am most familiar & comfortable with for heavy draft work, & it tends to be on the lighter & more easily adjustable side of work harness.

Tristan is coming up to visit & meet the girls this weekend, so hopefully the weather holds mostly clear! Have a great rest of the week, everyone!

Why the long face, Lincoln? *snark* The weekend will come eventually!

Wordless Wednesday...Not

2010-02-03T16:24:00.000-05:00

I know, I know it's supposed to be Wordless, but Sydney over at Bitless Horse wants our painful horse stories to amuse herself with. My latest fall was recent, so at least I had somewhat soft snow to land in!

Bobby loves the cows

Tucker wishes there were no such things as cows

My painful story relates to the cows that share pasture space with the Big Blonde Boys. Where Tristan & I live, there are two cows, a milking heifer & her calf. Now, Bobby has no problem with the cows; he'll hang his huge head over the fence & converse with them for hours. Tucker, on the other hand, has major problems with cows. Can't stand being near them. Sometimes the calf will sneak under the one strand EquiBraid separating the cows & equines when the fence is off, & have a grand old time hanging out with Bobby & terrorizing Tucker. One day, Tristan & I were just heading out on a trail ride when we noticed the calf was outside of the fence, gallivanting around & panicking her mother, who was bellowing at the top of her not inconsiderable lungs & bucking around the pasture. Since the calf likes neither of us, we decided to try to corral her between the barn & the fence (a narrow corridor about 50 feet long) with the horses at both exits until someone else came & let her back in. Bright idea, right? Bobby & Tristan were at one exit, & Tucker & I were supposed to be at the other. Supposed to be. The calf was in high fine spirits & didn't want to be trapped. She saw Bobby at one end & went the other way, towards Tucker & I. Tucker was not having any of the terrifying, horse eating cow bearing down on him, & does one of those things only panicked horses can do-all four feet in the air, turn a 180 while in the air, & take off-horse teleportation. I was just on him bareback & totally wasn't ready for him to flip out quite so fast. Instead of landing neatly far away from him, I slipped off as he took off away from the charging calf, & ended up getting kicked by his rear hoofs as he passed me by. I had that bruise on my leg for weeks. Thankfully, this is one instant where the boy's herdboundness worked in our favor. The cow had jumped the fence back into the pasture, & was no longer a threat to Tucker. He cantered around the field for a few minutes, then came back to his buddy Bobby & was easily caught. Tristan was nice enough not to laugh at me, even though I should have known better than to ask Tucker to stand up to the cow.

Now that that is out of the way, meet Sterling College's newest team of drafts, Belgian mares Lady & Brandy.

Lady, the younger one

Brandy, the slightly grumpy older gal

Elizabeth driving

I'm sorry I didn't get any frontal pictures of them. Liz & I drove them around in a little black cart that came with them, with a pole lower than their hocks that we both agreed was an accident waiting to happen. Despite both of us having plenty of experience, we took a road that was very dangerous; a tiny bit of snow covering inches of slick ice. Neither girl is shod, so they slipped & slid all over the road. We both kept our heads, & managed to get off the road onto one of the many ski trails that riddle the fields around here, but it was a close call. The low pole kept pushing the mares over when the slipped, threatening to sweep their feet out from under them. Despite this, the ride was fairly nice, a good introduction to the team. Lady is younger, & far more forward; Brandy is older, & at that stage where she really doesn't think she needs to work, & needs a bit of reminding to pull her own weight.

One thing that really needs working on for this team, even more than their fitness level (they've just been hay burners & lawn ornaments for about three years, so they are a bit chubby) is their hooves. I no longer feel so bad about letting Bobby's feet go an extra week without trimming. Here's a picture of Brandy's left fore:

And Lady's front right:

Not good. I don't yet know RT's plan for fixing them, but I'm sure he's got one. He's teaching an all day advanced chainsaw course during intensive (too advanced for me) so I won't get a chance to ask him for at least two weeks. Two weeks during which, hopefully, I'll be driving this team everyday, so that when students start driving them, I'll know what behaviors to predict from them. Here's hoping another semester goes by where no one gets hurt!

Back at Sterling & review

2010-02-02T09:16:00.000-05:00

Somehow, someway, I am back at school for my last semester of college, of which there are three months, two weeks left in. Wow! 18 credits of work in three months. For the first two weeks, it's intensive, which means I'm finishing up my senior project (hopefully), beginning one of my independent studies (on the use of horses in outdoor/experiential education, I'll keep posting regularly about that), & work Sterling's new team of Belgian mares, Lady & Brandy.I'll be working them with my friend Elizabeth, who grew up in northern Vermont driving drafts in shows, at the farm, & in the woods with her dad. She knows so much about working drafts that I don't, & it's awesome to work with her, she is the friend that we can just talk about horses with forever & totally know what the other means...:)

Elizabeth & her Percheron mare, Missy

I have also recently discovered iTunes podcasts (I know, behind the times that I am...) but my favorite podcasts (besides NPR Wait,Wait, Don't Tell Me) is HorseGirlTV & Equinely Inclined. The host for HorseGirl is vaguely annoying & cliche, but she asks decent enough questions & I love the topics they cover-Winterizing your horse, Amish Modular Barns, & Training US Park Police. It's in video format, so it's awesome to watch & really see what they are talking about. There are a ton of horse related podcasts that I've found, from horse care tips to news on the horse show world, to natural horsemanship tips & book reviews. It's perfect for me to listen to while I'm working on papers or research, & I do learn things I didn't know, which is the point! If you have iTunes, I suggest you take a moment & look up at least HorseGirlTV.

In a few minutes I'll be headed down to the farm with Elizabeth to harness the new girls, & I promise to bring pictures of them! I'll also be doing a post either later today or tomorrow on the parts of a New England D-ring Harness. Even if you've driven horses or been on a carriage/sleigh ride in your life, you probably haven't seen the Yankee harness.

Moving forward, looking back

2010-01-28T18:19:00.000-05:00

So, next week Intensive starts back at school, & I am to be there & drive everybody nuts by doing so. The good thing about Sterling College is, at least they are working with me to keep me in classes, & they are not going to kick me out (yet)...it's not how the college works. That said, I've only got a few more days here in Lincoln, & the knowledge is bittersweet. As fun as it's been having the Big Blonde Boys & Tristan here where I can work them everyday :P, I'll be glad to be going back to school & finishing out my four years of college.

This requires quite a bit of reflecting, not only on what the last three & a half years have been like, but also...WHAT am I going to after I graduate???!!! This thought has been kicking around in my head since September, but as Tristan & I finalized the date for our handfasting (May 18th) & made invitations today, it really hit home...school is almost over. When did this happen? What will life be like after I'm out of college & a real actual adult personage? As always to contemplate life's messier questions, I've decided that if the weather isn't too cold tomorrow, I'm going to drag my three boys out on a trail ride...I'm sure they will all love this. At least there's no more deep snow for the boys to slog through, as it all melted in one day & what's fallen since is less than an inch. We pulled out the wagon for the first time since November yesterday, to pick up poops in the pasture & move them into one pile. I kinda miss the sleigh, though being above the boy's butts rather than below them to drive is a nice change!

Since I've been rather too busy to work the boys much these past few days (or be outside much at all) here are some pictures of the summer, when Tristan was here & I was off gallivanting around Vermont!

Remember when everything was green??

Tucker, the Belgian Dork

Bobby the Belgian Begger

Sleek & shiny...not fuzzy woolly mammoths!

Kids with the boys!

One of those days

2010-01-25T15:58:00.000-05:00

Bobby on a bridge...over running water...wow!

Occasionally, despite an infusion of hot chocolate & knowing that there's urgent work to be done...I am just not motivated to get a whole lot done. The only way to describe the weather we woke up to this morning would be "manky," in Tristan's Maineiac words. The wind gusts are up to (possibly even over) 50MPH up here just below Mt. Abe, & it's been raining waterwalls since around 1pm this afternoon. The high for today was 56 degrees-in January! Who knew that in a period of less than 6 hours, a winter's worth of snow could be all gone? Just for comparison, this is what it looked like this weekend:

This is what it looks like now:

Looking outside, it seems like I'm back in Oregon...grey, wet, rainy....did I mention how grey everything is? It's one of those days to curl up in front of the fire with a book, & not budge to do more than get some tea (a thing I have recently discovered & am making well guided forays into). Instead of following just such a path, I mucked stalls, with a wheelbarrow this time as the boys were far too wet to even consider putting harness on them. They were, in a word, pathetically grateful to come back inside after only 6 hours of being out. But now everyone is safely tucked inside nice clean stalls, which half a bale of nice dry hay & buckets full of water to stuff themselves with, & kittens, a new blue Jolly Ball, & barn construction to amuse themselves with. Now, to get me dry....

Busy days

2010-01-23T08:54:00.000-05:00

The last couple of days have been more than a bit busy here. I've been applying for private loans, & trying to figure out what I'm going to do if I don't go back to school this semester, & how that messes up the rest of my life plans I've been trying to make. On top of that, yesterday was Tristan's 26th birthday, & I managed to pull it all together & give him a great day. We went for a short trail ride in the morning, & it was just....amazingly beautiful. I've recently discovered trails throughout the forest, almost in our "backyard" that are well groomed & perfect for riding...when there are no snowmobiles around. So far we've been lucky not to encounter any. We only ride on the trails where the horses have room to get off the trail, because if we do, I don't think it'd be pretty. The boys can handle the sound & the sight of snowmobiles, but as Bonnie brought up at dinner last night, it's usually the smell that gets horses uncomfortable. We'll see. After bedding down the very sweaty horses in their stalls with hay & their coolers on for lunch, I proceeded to spend all afternoon in the kitchen, baking & cooking. I made Tristan an apple spice cake which everyone loved (& I of course forgot to take a picture of). I also made a whole ton of hand made tortillas, for cheese quasadillas. Tristan invited some of his friends from southern Vermont over, as well as Bill & Bonnie, the couple he bought the boys from. B & B are awesome people, who've been breeding & showing Belgians for longer than I've been alive, & they never hesitate to share their advice with us-or their opinions on how we handle the horses! It's going on a year Tristan has had the boys, & B & B absolutely have no problems with their new lives with us, & totally approve of how we treat them, & said last night at dinner that the boys couldn't have a better home. :) This greatly reassures me, since at least several times I day I worry if we're doing this whole horse ownership thing right, & worrying about what could go wrong, or how to do things better.

That said, this weekend is still busy. We're heading up to school to hopefully hang out with a few of my friends up there, & meet the new team of Belgian mares that was donated to the school this winter.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-01-20T15:17:00.000-05:00

Sunday Stills-Moods & Emotions

2010-01-17T17:27:00.000-05:00

I'm sorry I haven't updated for a week. My life has been thrown into chaos recently, the kind of upset that puts me going back to school this semester in serious doubt, for financial reasons. This has set me on a mad scramble to figure out my life, & what I could do if I don't go back to school, & dealing with the attendant emotions. That said, this weekend has greatly cleared my head & lightened my heart. We received a visit from Tristan's cousin Mikala, a horsewoman herself who attends Skidmore College, & she jumped right in & helped me haul a bunch of firewood into the landing with the boys. Today, we went on a trail ride up the Lincoln Gap road, & found a beautiful trail that I hadn't even known existed! It was a beautiful ride, 40 degrees & sunny for the past three days! It was mostly uphill & down for the boys, but they did wonderfully, willing as always to go where we point them. Alas, my camera battery was not charged, so I got no pictures, which is really a great pity, & I must devise some way to remind myself to charge my lone camera battery....

Tristan is kind enough to make me dinner tonight (probably French toast, mmmm) & then we shall collapse & watch a movie, the last restful bit before we dive into another week.

On a side note, all these pictures are from earlier...to remind me that winter will be over eventually!

Winter is beautiful

2010-01-08T10:46:00.000-05:00

For those who've known me the past three years, they know I hate winter. The cold, the snow & ice, the short days, & did I mention the cold? However, instead of going to my parents in Portland, Oregon which isn't nearly as cold as Vermont, I stayed in Lincoln. Where the hardcore winter is. It's all Tristan's fault. When we go on a trail ride & I see sunsets like this:

I remember winter can be beautiful. So really, the fact that I am finally acknowledging that winter isn't all horrible is Tristan's fault, a man who was born in Maine & never lived where it was warm. Silly Yankee boy.

In other news, we finally got the door to our yurt fixed. For the past few weeks we've had to tie it shut because the latch was, get this, too rusty. So, a new latch & now the door closes! Without tying! Wow, the simple things make me happy lately.

Simple, like finding out a way to water the boys without having to shovel a massive amount of snow for the truck to get through...like using the horses to haul their own water. This was my stroke of genius for the day, really.

Tristan really liked my idea, as did everyone else here at Metta Earth. They are all about sustainability & living lightly, so anytime we can use the horses for a job, versus the truck, they are thrilled. So far, we muck out stalls, haul water, firewood, people, & other random stuff. Last night at dinner, we had a real serious planning discussion on how we are going to sugar this spring, & how the horses will fit into that. IMHO, the sled was the best piece of equipment Tristan has bought...for more than half the year there's snow on the ground here, so the sled is useful for just as long as the wagon & forecart, & it's the perfect size...it can fit in the barn & the woods, can go on the road, & it's just so much fun to drive!

I also finally decided what to get with my Christmas money...it came in the mail yesterday & we had the opportunity to really put it to good use:

The mane & tail brush is the most useful...it's a lot stronger & sturdier than our $3 Rite aid brush, which is good because the boy's manes get horribly tangled & thick.

For now, there's lunch to eat & snow to shovel, so I better hop to it. First, a few more pictures of our trail ride & drive the past few days:

A ray of hope: The days are getting longer, which means it'll be sugaring season soon, which means spring, & summer & warmth follows that!...(someday)

Oh no Tucker!

2010-01-05T10:52:00.000-05:00

Innocent white faces, right?

Yesterday I had the boys standing untied in the aisle of the barn as I usually do when I'm brushing & harnessing them, & Bohdie the kitten was rolling around the floor being sniffed at by Tucker. I thought this was cute & took some pictures. Cute, right?

Bohdie & Tucker

Wrong. Bohdie swatted playfully at Tucker's muzzle, & this was evidently too much for him. Tucker proceeded to do something I'd never thought he'd do: He picked up Bohdie with his lips, hefting him into the air by the cat's ear, while I stood for a few seconds, probably looking vaguely stupid: eyes wide, jaw on the floor kind of look. After a few seconds I was able to calmly tell Tucker that the cat was not a toy, & Tucker gave me his favorite look after he dropped Bohdie & the cat hot tailed it out of the barn: "What, Mom? I didn't do anything. I'm just standing here, like you told me too. Lalalala." Galen, one of the women living here, managed to catch Bohdie before he got too far, & reported that he wasn't bleeding, just well slobbered on & scared out of his wits. Poor kitten, I had never thought Tucker would do that. It's a good thing their Christmas present (late, I know) is arriving tomorrow...something else to chew on besides kittens.

My drive after that was pretty low key, except I would burst out laughing at odd moments. Tristan arrived after the boys were harnessed & so didn't see Tucker's "trick", & kept looking at me oddly while we mucked out stalls.

Earlier in the week, I decided it had been more than long enough since my last ride, & had the boys tacked up & ready to go when Tristan got home. Not wanting to slip off of Tucker as I sometimes do when I ride bareback (we've only got one saddle) so I made a makeshift saddle out of a hardy Mexican blanket. It worked just fine, but now our yurt smells like horse...which it pretty much always does :) But the ride was wonderful, we pointed the boys at the deepest snow we could find & trotted through it, & a brief canter across the hay field. In fact, I think I may do the same thing today...have to see what my thighs say first!

Stylish Tucker

One of the things we've been paying close attention to is the weather. The boys don't have a shelter in their field, or heavyweight turnout blankets, just a good amount of healthy blubber & a nice thick coat to keep them warm. Most nights it's a debate between Tristan & I, to put the boys in the barn or not. We've managed to agree that more than 10mph wind, or freezing rain, or really cold-under -15, generally, we bring the boys in for the night. Sometimes during the day the boys let us know their opinion:

However, when I let them out this morning after a night in the barn, I could plainly see they were thrilled to no longer be cooped up:

My smile for the day: Big Blonde Rolling Action!

Snow & Ice Belgians

2010-01-03T11:14:00.000-05:00

Getting ready for a family sleigh ride

So, the past few days have been about family, as Tristan's older brother Galen & his wife hung around for a few days. We also used Galen's expertise on planning to seriously think about our eventual house, & start planning for our lives after our graduation & hand fasting in May-less than 5 months away! With Galen's help, we've decided (tentatively) to build a really tiny house first, so we can get out of living with Tristan's parents & being underfoot, & then build the bigger barn & house above that we have planned for "someday".

Christmas day was both a little hectic & very low key. All of Tristan's brothers & their "sweetums" were here together for only two hours, as Galen's & Lisa's plane from their home in Scotland was delayed three times, so they get in late Christmas Day, & Ogion & Sara had to leave before 10am to catch a flight to Italy to visit Sara's family.

L to R: Ogion, Sara, Tristan, me, Galen, Lisa

Definite goofiness...

Christmas was a low key event as presents went. From me, my family got Christmas cards with quality pictures taken of the boys throughout the year. I got a ton of chocolate (something I always beg for, mostly being too broke to buy any for myself) as well as a few books, one to make me laugh & one to make me think. From Tristan's globe trotting brothers, we got a really nice alpaca sweater & tea from China. Tristan even got a nice first aid kit from my mother :). The one present I haven't used yet is a gift card from amazon.com from my grandfather...I don't know what to get! There's a lot of horse items I could get, not what I want (Easy Boots for Bobby) but a few things like bell boots for Tucker or a new grooming kit. Or I could get some more Cherry Hill books or similar, since I am on of the opinion that one can never have enough horse books. In the midst of all the holidays, we managed to go for a few rides, give a few sleigh rides, & generally romp around with the horses.

"Alternative" energy...sun & horsepower!

Family & horses

On New Years, I wanted to take advantage of the full moon & go on a midnight ride, but the weather defeated me-overcast & cloudy, couldn't even tell there was a moon. This morning we woke up to find 5 new inches of snow (& more still falling), with Bobby & Tucker covered in a thin layer of ice. Poor boys, we brought them inside to thaw out, & as soon as they do, it's time to trim Tucker's feet.

Hope the New Year treats everyone warmly, with plenty of time for your favorite horsey activities :)

Lisa with Bohdie & Tucker