Avalon1984-Chicken, horses, pigs, oh my!

[Avalon1984]

im forever drooling over your horses, just gotta figure out how to rig the lottery so i can buy one and get it transported to me! i LOVE shires!!!

You can always move up here. We have on heck of a time finding good barn hands!

 

[Avalon1984]

love your boy! missed you while you were gone.

we sold all but our blind pony this fall.

Aw Thank you I wish I wouldn't have been gone so long but things got pretty busy. I still have my herd of 6 but my old lady who is now half blind is just not handling stuff as well anymore. We'll see how she does. After all, for a Clydesdale that is 25 she isn't doing too bad at all. She'll get a nice big stall of her own once we have the new barn up.

 

[the funny farm6]

how does she do with memorising things? freckles memorises the yard and only if we move something does he run into things. he wasnt in the yard for over 4 months, and when i let him out he did fine till he got to where i moved the firewood pile, then he tripped and walked around it touching it with hid nose, and didnt trip on it again. i swear he has a better memory than me! we sold the big horses and got him a mini donkey as a companion. which is a good thing cause hay is almost non-existant here now.

 

[Avalon1984]

how does she do with memorising things? freckles memorises the yard and only if we move something does he run into things. he wasnt in the yard for over 4 months, and when i let him out he did fine till he got to where i moved the firewood pile, then he tripped and walked around it touching it with hid nose, and didnt trip on it again. i swear he has a better memory than me! we sold the big horses and got him a mini donkey as a companion. which is a good thing cause hay is almost non-existant here now.

She does ok since she has another mare in with her being the "seeing eye" horse, plus she has one ok eye. I am not sensing that she is necessarily remembering, I think she is just solely relying on the other mare. She is also starting to get a bit "funny" mentally so I am keeping an eye on her. I will see how things change once we have the barn up. As long as she can get around I will leave her be, but if I feel that her quality of life goes downhill I will put her down.

 

[the funny farm6]

how does she do with memorising things? freckles memorises the yard and only if we move something does he run into things. he wasnt in the yard for over 4 months, and when i let him out he did fine till he got to where i moved the firewood pile, then he tripped and walked around it touching it with hid nose, and didnt trip on it again. i swear he has a better memory than me! we sold the big horses and got him a mini donkey as a companion. which is a good thing cause hay is almost non-existant here now.

She does ok since she has another mare in with her being the "seeing eye" horse, plus she has one ok eye. I am not sensing that she is necessarily remembering, I think she is just solely relying on the other mare. She is also starting to get a bit "funny" mentally so I am keeping an eye on her. I will see how things change once we have the barn up. As long as she can get around I will leave her be, but if I feel that her quality of life goes downhill I will put her down.

freckles is fine as long as you show him any changes, we moved pens around and we walked him in his new pen and let him touch his nose to the fence all the way around and let him go. he bumped into it a couple times, but then he had his boundries. it might make a difference that he has been this way for most of his life (according to our vet) and he has had to learn to do this from a younger age. my aunt had a gelding (appy) that went blind when he was @12 yrs old. he was a good riding horse in his day, but when he lost his sight, he became spooky and unpredictable.

i have also heard of putting gravel @ 2 feet around anything in their pasture, fences, trees, ect. they learn that when thay feel the gravel- there is something there.

we sold the big horses before we found a companion for freckles. he has never gotten loose, but for the few days he was alone- he got out about everyday! so we found a mini donkey to keep him company. and he hasnt been out sence. i wouldnt mind maybe getting a couple mini horses (but dont tell my dh ) lol

 

[Avalon1984]

how does she do with memorising things? freckles memorises the yard and only if we move something does he run into things. he wasnt in the yard for over 4 months, and when i let him out he did fine till he got to where i moved the firewood pile, then he tripped and walked around it touching it with hid nose, and didnt trip on it again. i swear he has a better memory than me! we sold the big horses and got him a mini donkey as a companion. which is a good thing cause hay is almost non-existant here now.

She does ok since she has another mare in with her being the "seeing eye" horse, plus she has one ok eye. I am not sensing that she is necessarily remembering, I think she is just solely relying on the other mare. She is also starting to get a bit "funny" mentally so I am keeping an eye on her. I will see how things change once we have the barn up. As long as she can get around I will leave her be, but if I feel that her quality of life goes downhill I will put her down.

freckles is fine as long as you show him any changes, we moved pens around and we walked him in his new pen and let him touch his nose to the fence all the way around and let him go. he bumped into it a couple times, but then he had his boundries. it might make a difference that he has been this way for most of his life (according to our vet) and he has had to learn to do this from a younger age. my aunt had a gelding (appy) that went blind when he was @12 yrs old. he was a good riding horse in his day, but when he lost his sight, he became spooky and unpredictable.

i have also heard of putting gravel @ 2 feet around anything in their pasture, fences, trees, ect. they learn that when thay feel the gravel- there is something there.

we sold the big horses before we found a companion for freckles. he has never gotten loose, but for the few days he was alone- he got out about everyday! so we found a mini donkey to keep him company. and he hasnt been out sence. i wouldnt mind maybe getting a couple mini horses (but dont tell my dh ) lol

Great idea with the gravel! Yes, I think my lady is just not getting used to it very well. She did great for a few weeks this summer and I actually took her out on some trail rides and as long as she could swing her head around to see with her good eye she was fine. But lately she has been acting strange and my farrier things she is either going whacko or her back is going out, either of those are not going to be good. For a clyde she is ancient so right now all I am doing is letting her live out her life in peace with her pal. Considering the hay prices, she is getting a good deal there

 

[Avalon1984]

So today we staked out the area where the new barn will be. Quite a big area. I will lose half of one of my better pastures so I will have to make a better effort this year and de-weeding the 2 back pastures which would more than make up for the difference. Plus there is a little area by our woods that I had been planning to clear for a couple of years now. Will either use that as pasture or add a phesant run and get me some pheasants. As of tonight my incubator will be full of 48 eggs. Most of them will be from standardbred chickens bred with a turken and/or polish rooster. That sure should make some pretty chicks. I will sell those off to pay for my chick orders. Sold 3 of my silver laced wyandottes yesterday and my black copper marans earlier so I already made enough money to pay for the first batch of 25 brown egg layers (plus a free exotic chick). Then I will have 35 coming the end of March.

I once again, for about the 4th time now, broke my little toe. Somebody in the universe hates my little toe. Already got broke a couple of years ago when a horse stepped on it, then my stallion broke it at the show in October and he stepped on it with shoes on, plus I was standing on concrete, so it got really messed up, then I ran it into a wooden trunk 2 months later and now I just redid the job and ran into that trunk again. Poor little fella is all out of proportion and I don't look forward to doing chores

Has anybody ever seen that PBS show about that guy who went up to Alaska and built his own log cabin? I bought the book for christmas and boy what a wonderful story! What bravery and respect for nature. Makes me want to do that myself someday but I can't quite get myself to think that I could live off sourdough bread and old goat stew for months on end.

 

[the funny farm6]

name of book and auther?

 

[Avalon1984]

name of book and auther?

"One Mans Wilderness" and Richard Proennike

 

[Avalon1984]

Seriously? How many times can I possibly break my little toe in less than a year? That sad thing looks like a battering ram and feels rather crunchy when trying to limp on it. Somebody care to adopt it? It is clearly not safe near me. I had to shae this picture we took last weekend. This is one of our manure piles. We have 3 that we rotate and that our customers love us for. This is our fresh one. We nursed it all of last year from February when we closed #2 down so it could decompose for my gardening customers this spring. In 6 months, this pile will be half its size. I water it once a week and love watching it steam. It is also butted up to my tomato garden so I always have access to fresh manure to add to my soil.

I also just received this picture of our 2011 stud colt we sold to Arizona. He looks fantastic!