All the little peepers seem to be thriving. They are having all kinds of conversations around the water cooler.  If you look real close you can see one is up on the practice perch. He is playing ostrich and stretching his neck to drink water out of the water dish.  This is the pen of large peepers. 

        Over in the small peepers pen, we have two little ones on the practice perch. Only 45 more to get on the perches!  Until next time, Happy Trails To You! 

     The Keeper received a call about a deserted chicken.  So she went and got her. She is a pretty thing, colored very nicely.

      M. P. and the new hen spent the day together. She did just fine. The real test is if she will roost at night. That is the only way she can stay safe at night. 

      She disappeared for awhile and the Keeper found her safe and sound up in the rafters getting ready for the night. Yea!  We have a winner.  Until next time, Happy Trails To You! 

         We have a winner, winner, chicken.....well never mind on that.  This is our first peeper to pop up on a perch.  Now we just need 48 more to get the idea.  Until next time, Happy Trails To You! 

        Here is a short tutorial on what makes a 40 year old horse happy?  First....

     A full feed room. The Keeper goes and fills it up every month. She hauls in 1500 pounds of food. 

A trailer of hay. This is only part of the load. 

     Here's the rest of the hay. Stacked neatly in the hay barn. 

    Of course it is necessary to add some carrots to the mix. 

      Can't forget the sugar cubes! 

     Top it off with a nice friend to graze with on a warm day and you have one happy horse. Until next time, Happy Trails To You! 

      So the barn critters are not the only ones that the Keeper feeds. Seems she has hooked up with a little bossy squirrel we all call "Chatty".  She got that name because if you get to close to her tree, she will let you know about it.  The Keeper  puts food out for her everyday. Sometimes some veggies, sometimes corn, sometimes some suit.

       The dried corn cobs seem to be Chatty's favorite.  When she is out you can find the empty corn cobs all over the yard.  That is until today when the Keeper went out the front door.  Then it got kind of weird...

      When the Keeper went out, there on the front porch, right in front of the door was the empty corn cob. It seems that Chatty is returning them to the Keeper for a replacement.  Such a smart little squirrel. The Keeper didn't see anyone around when she replaced the empty one with the good stuff. 

          But we all know who was watching!  Happy Trails To You! 

          The ground is sill quite soggy after all of the rain, but the Keeper managed to find a high place in the pasture to put my hay today so I could spend some time out and stretch my legs. The ground is so saturated that the Keeper has had to use the 4 Wheel Drive on her truck to get in and out of our pasture. That's okay, do you know what soggy pastures make?  A fabulous place to roll and coat yourself in mud. Do you know what you do then?  

       You go in the barn and find a nice soft spot to take and afternoon snooze.   

        Cisco and friends are enjoying the day out also. 

       Doc had me post this picture of them in the pasture because he didn't think you could see him clear enough in the other one.   Until next time, Happy Trails To You! 

      I don't know if you remember or not, but in my book I told you about how the Keeper had to make steps so Goldie and her babies could go up and down to their nest in a horse feeder.  Clancy and Tux (the cats) and the other chickens can't wait to see what is going to happen with these little chickens. 

     So these little guys will have lessons on perching. This is a very important skill for free range chickens. It keeps them safe from predators. Now it seems some chickens don't naturally know it. So what is a Keeper to do? 

       This.  The Keeper went out and bought practice perches for the babies. I can't wait to see how this goes.  I will definitely keep you posted on it.  They are all asleep right now so it won't be until tomorrow when they get their first lesson in perching. I can't wait to see this.  Until then, Happy Trails To You! 

To top everything off, we have had yet another round of ridiculous rain. The runs to the stalls are gone, all you can see are fences in water. I don't have pics of the real thing, so I put the tsunami one up for you. I think you get the idea. So far the dirt dams and trenches are holding and we are nice and dry in our stalls, but is this keeps up, we will need snorkels to get through the spring! 

Until, next time. Happy Trails To You!  

 

         It turned into a gorgeous day today.  Little One came by to see me so we posed for some pictures. They turned out really great. I look fabulous and Little One was so happy to see me.  It was  a great day.  And the grass.... Out of this world.   Happy Trails To You! 

      We had a very close call today. This is Ben in the pasture with me. We have become quite close. He is a great pasture buddy.  He doesn't cause any trouble and and he leaves me alone and always gives me the best hay and treats. He really needs know to treat a buddy. Like I said we had a close call today. It involved Ben.
       It seems he decided to roll in his run and got both his hind legs under the fence. Not a good situation at all. The keeper and a friend just happened to find him after it happened. They tried to get his leg out of the fence but everytime he tried to get up, he would get his leg tangled again. 
        The friend went to get a board to help keep his leg out of the fence as he tried to get up and while he was gone, Ben struggled and got up. His whole leg up to his hip was through the fence. Then he tried to pull it out and he bent it backwards. The Keeper and the friend were about to keep his leg straight and get it out of the fence.  He spent a bit of time not putting any weight on his leg. As it turns out, he only suffered a slight pulling of the muscles and some scrapes on the inside of his leg. He of course is milking it for everything he can. ( I have taught him well).  What could have been a terrible and tragic accident turned out okay.  So everything is fine and i have my pasture mate back. Yea for me!
Happy Trails To You!