Critters – Page 3 – The Farmer's Blogger

Everyone Loves a Good Back Porch

Posted on April 29, 2022April 2, 2022 by Farmers Blogger

Hello friends!
Its officially work outside season, which is, of course, the best thing ever.
Not only is there actual outside work to be done (like redoing the gardens) there’s also just “work that can be done outside”. Luckily, I can usually swing a couple hours outside with my work laptop before the battery starts screaming. It’s a pretty solid little battery, I just usually put it through the ringer trying to develop for, and test against, large scale usage. Obviously, I can’t easily mimic hundreds of users on my local machine, but I can do enough and that’s hard on the battery, among other things.
I absolutely love being able to work outside, although admittedly the farther from the router I get the sketchier my slack notifications become. But I think my coworkers are fairly used to me at this point.
Our Wi-Fi very suddenly cut out this week and would not come back for anything. I was pretty annoyed because a few months ago the radio equipment our ISP provided failed unexpectedly and it took about a month and a half to get it all fixed. A very stressful month and a half when you work from home and are trying to use your phone as a hotspot. My phone has literally never been the same, and I am thinking I may need to upgrade soon because the battery now gets hot enough to fry eggs on.
I used to have a backup connection in town (I used to work entirely in town because we couldn’t get reliable internet access at the farm at all) but I had to cancel that recently as they tripled the price of the service and it was rivaling the cost of my entire electricity bill for the farm. Too much for something I hadn’t used in months.

Of course, about a week after I cancel, queue the farm internet suddenly going down. Like i said, I was beginning to get really frustrated and annoyed because I didn’t not want another six months of them being “sure it wasn’t their equipment”. But they got someone on the problem right away, because apparently it wasn’t just my farm that lost service, and the cause? A maintenance person accidentally slicing through a very important cord somewhere in the ecosystem. So only three days down for service, not six weeks. Thank goodness.
An update on Scooby now that he’s had some time to adjust to being a visually impaired pupper. He’s mastered most of his usual routes, and the four steps on the porch. He’s gotten weirdly comfortable with just walking over the top of, or through the legs of, Joe instead of going around. For Joe’s part, he’s gotten very good at standing or laying very, very still while Scooby goes about his travels. He’s pretty patient. He also goes out after Scoobs if he gets too far out in the yard or too close to the retaining wall.
Scooby does still struggle when things are out of place, sometimes he sees them, sometimes he doesn’t. He noticed the Easter eggs on the floor this morning and avoided them but didn’t see the work boots and stumbled over them. I tend to think it’s a depth perception and color thing. Both the carpet and boots are tan, the Easter eggs are decidedly not tan.
We are very lucky to have some very caring folks are part of our “pet raising village” too. Scooby has regular visits with our groomer (they all do) who I truly believe loves these critters like a crazy aunt loves her niblings. She takes special attention to Scoobs now that he has a hard time navigating new or rarely visited places. And our vet has been coming out to the farm for the yearly checkups/vaccinations but is now more accommodating than ever, letting Scoobs stay up on the porch, so he feels comfortable. They also have bumpers they put up in the rooms when he has to go into the clinic so he can’t get stuck under the furniture. We have some amazing people in our lives.
We have blocked up a few places for Scoobs too, although he still gets stuck under the dining table once in a while, he’s a lot better at working out where he is. He’s such a brave little trooper.

And a happy little guy too now that I can pop open the back door while I work, and they can hang out on the porch. They absolutely love being able to hang out outside and in the afternoon when the sun peeks in. Its covered and gated so the littles are protected from predators and Joe is theoretically protected from cars, tractors, the horses, or whatever else he’s decided to make friend with. Although he creates danger for himself because he likes to force his head in between the railing slats.
I occasionally joke about being a “boy mom” because when I describe the everyday chaos to my cousins with human children, our stories sound suspicious similar. It sounds like I just have three young toddlers waddling about. It also helps that anytime someone addresses one of my critters is sounds a lot like “hey Scoobs, where’s your mama?”
(Real talk though, as much as I love being a fur parent, I absolutely realize it is 4000x harder being a parent parent. I only make those jokes around those who unequivocally know I’m joking)
Welp, I’ve prattled on for a while, so I’ll leave this one here. Otherwise, I’ll write a whole book and the editing will be a nightmare haha.
Until we chat again my friends!

Hippity Hop

Posted on April 22, 2022 by Farmers Blogger

Hello friends!
Easter was fantastic at our house; I hope you had a lovely Easter too! (Or a lovely Passover or Ramadan).
We got incredibly lucky with the weather. It poured all day the day before, and it actually snowed and blew and rained and hailed, etc. etc., basically the entire week before. We got approximately two hours of clear skies on Friday to try to clean up the yard and we did our best.
But amazingly, it was beautiful and sunny on Easter! Cold, definitely large-jacket-weather, but so sunny and pretty. I got lots of family photos so hopefully with the lighting some of them turn out well.
We hid 350+ eggs and I am still convinced we haven’t found all of them. I think we got close though, the kids absolutely loved it. Each kiddo got a bucket and a little toy, either a stuffed bunny or a little set of pocket cars they could choose from (among the youngsters in my family stuffed animals and pocket cars are valuable riches, you see). After that it was off to the races.
This year there was enough youngsters that I had to send some grandparents and a grand uncle to the basement to supervise a Veggie Tales screening, because there’s too many bright sunny open windows upstairs to peek through, and the Easter Bunny is shy, you know.

(Most of my Easter pictures include family who would like their privacy respected so please enjoy these photos of some of the decor)

We had a lovely potluck dinner, I made ham and some chip dip, and lots of desserts. My extended family brought, in turn, turkey, some potato and pasta salads, some warm casseroles, and a couple more desserts. My mom tried her hand at deviled eggs and a little pasta salad kit, with supervision, and she did pretty well. A lot of the steps she remembers, it’s mostly just timing and remembering the safety rules, as well as reading the recipes. This is a huge improvement from even last year when she could hardly stand in the kitchen by herself without becoming overwhelmed. It’s easy to forget all the progress she’s made post strokes, and it served as a good Easter gift.
I also had set up an ice cream bar with lots of toppings, so the kiddos were very pleased. And very sugared up by the time they left. That’s my job as the fun cousin, although I think the parents were on similar sugar highs, we really did go dessert heavy this year. But we are a family of sweet tooths… sweet teeth?
Before we ate we had a nice reading of the bible story. This worked out well because, while I had made an Easter Bible Trivia set, everyone was so keen to be out in the sun we ended up forgetting about it entirely. I’m super glad we were able to get at least a little of the true reason for the holiday into our celebration. I think sometimes it’s really easy, I know I’m super guilty of this, to think about the Easter bunny for the kiddos and the food and the games and the yard and forgetting the whole Jesus thing. I’m guilty of that at Christmas too.
The kiddos also got to feed the horses some multicolored carrots, courtesy of our neighbors. The local research station rents land from my neighbors, and I’ve gotten to know some of the field workers. Since they are allowed to take home any harvests afterward (the research station is currently interested only in the seeds) I often get gifted some of the excess, this time, easily 15 pounds of various carrot varieties. I’m so grateful, not only that they think of me but also because its gorgeous, meticulously grown produce. I’ve been cooking with them lots, sharing with family, and feeding them to the girls, and even then, I don’t know if I will be able to use them all in time. Can you freeze carrots? Anyways….
The horses and kiddos had lots of fun, especially because purple carrots stain little fingers and horsey tongues, and little June was telling her little cousins about how she rides Ro and how “Manna” can give everyone lessons. I might be on the hook for a couple more tiny novice cowpokes this summer.
We got to try the new ladder golf setup, and everyone really seemed to enjoy it. I was a little worried about the tethered balls flying with the little ones around but for the most part they are pretty good about staying out of the game zone. My family tends to get a little competitive so the wee ones have learned pretty quickly to not get involved unless they really want to play.
I also bought a game called Throw Throw Burrito, but with the wind a little blowier than usual we didn’t think an outdoor card game would work exceedingly well. No worries, next get together we will throw three-foot inflatable burritos at each other, we have the whole summer after all.

I hope you guys had as magical a weekend as we had. I need to spend today cleaning up, my house looks like an Easter bunny exploded, so I’ll leave this here.
Until we chat again my friends!

It’s Blowin’

Posted on April 15, 2022April 11, 2022 by Farmers Blogger

Hello friends!
Winds blowing like crazy again. It does that this time of year, but it seems like it’s a little crazier this year. A little harder, a little colder, a little meaner.
The other day it was blowing hard from the west, just a mean, terribly biting wind. This was especially odd since we almost never get winds from the west. Northern winds sometimes, southern winds most often, but never western winds. Or at least, we don’t notice them because out hill often disrupts that pattern before it bothers us. (Eastern winds are a metric we can’t really gather because of the hill as well).
But today its blowing terribly hard, absolutely rattles the house when it hits, its brought some nasty storm clouds and driving rain too, although no thunder yet. I wouldn’t be surprised if that came along soon enough though.
I’ve tried to be a little less of a helicopter mom with the animals during rough weather days now. When my mares first came home, I would keep them in the corral area with food and stand near them supporting them if it even rained. Then I was reminded that all I was doing was teaching them that I found unpleasant weather scary, and they should too. Well, that’s not what I wanted because short of the severe winds like today, or hail, tornado warnings, etc., weather isn’t a big concerning thing. So, i started trying to just do the occasional check in but mostly let them ride it out. I still bring them into the corral when the wind gets really bad or the thunder starts really rolling, because they have to walk under a tree to get to the corral for water and shelter from the pasture and that gets exponentially more dangerous the deeper into the storm we go.

Here’s Joe, because I really don’t know how to capture “wind” effectively and don’t really want to soak my camera or phone in an attempt

But, it also means I get my steps by walking back and forth from the kitchen window to my desk about a million times, and out to the living room picture windows to monitor the weather. I’m still a nervous pet parent.
Weve been so unsettled this year that I think the girls are really getting used to the insane weather, yesterday it graupeled (I have no idea how to verb that noun) multiple times, and then would be sunny three minutes later. They didn’t so much as flinch. When it got pretty loud in the house, I stepped out just long enough to see if they needed to be under cover, and they ignored all attempts at attention getting in hopes of eating a little more grass before they were called in. Usually if they’re ready to go in the corral, whether for the evening meal and tuck in, or to come hangout while I clean the barn, or to escape the weather, they’ll come get me at the corner of the gate. They can go in by themselves, and they do regularly travel in and out, but if it’s a little spooky that day for some reason, they’ll wait for me to walk down to the barn, so they have someone friendly on the other side of the scary space.
The weather though, has been so exceptionally spastic this year, the girls have started to be much more brave about their daily activities, and pretty much only start to get worried if the wind picks up or I come put to usher them in.
It’s been a couple days since I wrote those earlier paragraphs, and we’ve had two major wind advisories since then. One, later in the evening, I was home alone and had luckily just taken the boys out to use the restroom and gotten the girls bedded down and fed for the night. No sooner had I grabbed my dinner and snuggled in with Project Runway (it’s taken me a while to catch up with the most recent season, don’t judge me), suddenly I was on the phone with family members letting them know that they needed to either stay where they were and settle in, or come home NOW because the winds were getting out of control and the dust was getting so thick I could hardly see across the pasture.

Here’s my dinner, because I really don’t know how to capture “wind” effectively and don’t really want to soak my camera or phone in an attempt

Luckily Christopher made it home (he’s been taking care of a friend’s house for a bit while they are off having a couple babies, so he had to secure their animals) and shortly after so did mom and dad, but not without crazy stories. By the time they got home the winds were sustained about 35-40 mph with gusts closer to 60 mph. It came up so fast.
Christopher’s car was hit by a bunch of debris and dad and mom watched with horror as the camper trailer in front of them on the highway lost its awning to the wind. Shattered and scattered debris across the highway. I’m so grateful they made it home safe and feel just awful for the camper trailer owner.
Even as I type, the wind is gusting 60+ mph and the freezing rain has me panicking about the animals getting too cold. I just spent the last hour with them and am soaked through. Ro has a blanket on, Nellie only recently decided blankets might not be scary so this storm has convinced me she’s getting one this week. Hopefully my local tack store carries Nellie sized blankets.
All in all though, I will forever be grateful that my “crazy” weather stories are so mild, and send all my love to those where the weather has cost them their homes, and in worst cases, their lives and the lives of their loved ones. It’s a terrifying weather year, that’s for sure.
Until we chat again my friends!

Basically I Wrote a Long Form Do-To List

Posted on April 1, 2022March 23, 2022 by Farmers Blogger

Hello friends!
I finally was able to get a dog grooming appointment and the boys are so much happier now with the shorter, more manageable cuts.
Scooby especially absolutely hates being too hot, so the extra hair is making him nutty. Joe just gets harder and harder to keep clean and Watson ends up with tangles in his ears because Joe continually uses him as a napkin.
Scooby and Watson always get a modified poodle look, fluffy ears and topknot, clean body, bottle brush tail. It’s usually our intent to do something similar with Joe, but he often is so messy we go shorter on his ears and topknot. Makes him look more like a curly haired Labrador retriever than a poodle but is better suited for his crazy dog lifestyle.
But they are looking cleaner and more content now. Of course, we managed to finally cut their hair the same week old man winter decided to blow one last time (I hope) but I think even with the chilly temperatures the boys appreciated the haircuts.

Kinda hard to see how soft and short he actually is, but we also leave him a touch longer for allergy reasons

The colder temps have set everyone on edge again. Especially when the snow falls. Luckily, we’ve not seen really any new accumulation but nearer our capital city it got pretty gross. There’s been some pretty crazy wrecks because of the snow flurries and sudden colder temperatures.
Generally speaking, my head has been terribly unhappy with the constant change in weather, which is in turn not fantastic when you have lots of fun mental tasks to complete at work and at home. I’ve been just a little under the weather for most of the winter season, and unfortunately, I think it makes the sinus pressure of rapidly changing weather much more noticeable during the day to day. Usually, I don’t have anything near the kind of headaches I’ve had lately, other than the occasional hereditary migraine, which I have many years of experience handling. Oh well, just another reason to be excited that spring is here.
I’m slowly getting things together for Easter, as that’s my holiday. I love Easter, I love the important story behind it, I love the timing, with warm weather and sunshine, I love that the flowers and critters and everything seem a little extra happy, and I love that the Easter bunny gives us a fun way to get the kids really involved in the holiday. I don’t talk about my faith outright a lot, because I am admittedly not a great Christian and I am a staunch protester of modern organized religion, but I am very excited that my little cousins are going to be able to grow up learning about Jesus like I did, and when they are old enough to make their own choices, at least they will be well informed about what the resurrection story is.

Lots of sleepy doggos in my office with me

I also go waaay overboard every year on eggs, you see, the Easter Bunny and I are tight, we work really well together, so I end up with a ton of eggs, and when parents show up Easter Sunday, I recruit them to help me hide all the eggs. My little cousins are already asking if the Easter bunny has texted me yet. I believe last year we hid something like 250 eggs? I’ll probably end up hiding a few more this year because we have some new family members who are of perfect egg hunting age.
Which reminds me, I need to buy candy! And eggs!
(I did already order the ham though, so that’s gotta count for something, thank goodness Costco started delivering some frozen foods)
I love putting together lots of the food and the eggs, although admittedly I usually bribe family members to stuff eggs while I’m at work, because there’s simply not enough hours in the day to accomplish everything. I’ve also started making every holiday a “bring a dish” holiday, sometimes potluck, sometimes we sign up for things, but there’s just too many of us now for my food budget to stretch. Just since I’ve been home the last few years the family has grown by 7 and is actively growing more!
For anyone worried, I actively plan for any “kiddo” under 18, and usually have enough eggs hidden that the adults (that didn’t hide them) can hunt some eggs too. I almost always grab an extra basket or two, just in case a friend or extended family member I don’t know of comes along too, I try to prepare for all possibilities. Then I bust out the camera and try to catch some of those fun Easter moments so later I can put them up for family in a Google drive folder. Theres also usually lots of lawn games and card games so that all ages and mobility levels have things to do. So, there’s a little Easter magic for everyone, hopefully.

All that being said, it takes a lot of prep work to pull it off, so while I’m excited, it’s also nervous season. I still have most of the decorations I handmade the first year I hosted (I had Martha Stewart dreams at one point) so generally I just add a few little banners or things I find and let my sweet mom go crazy, as decorating has totally become her thing. The food is always tricky because you can only pre-plan so much before it simply comes down to timing. The eggs can be stuffed ahead of time but need to be kept some place cool so the chocolate doesn’t melt. I need to take stock and refill the toy bins with age appropriate toys, and make sure there’s plenty to do for the little ones.
Oof, welp, I stressed myself out, so I’m going to grab my to-do list and brain dump all the Easter tasks.
Until we chat again my friends!

Brave Little Mares

Posted on March 25, 2022 by Farmers Blogger

Hello friends!
I’ve been absolutely loving the warm weather we’ve been having! Its officially spring and I am all sorts of here for it. I’ve been digging the warm days, the longer evenings, the little storms that pop up. I am a warm weather baby through and through.
Ro and Nel never cease to amaze me. We’ve been slowly getting back into our work patterns as the weather gets nicer and they are just so keen on it. We’ve had some stiffness and sore muscles, which really shouldn’t surprise anyone since this winter you couldn’t hardly walk around with everything as frozen as it was. But they’ve seemed almost excited to work and play, even when scary monsters are afoot, like the fire breathing dragons (the ditch guys burning the underbrush) and large horse eating goblins (the neighbors taking down a tree with a front loader). Ro yelled at them a lot, stomped about and got all huge, but she didn’t spook or run over me, she handled herself really well.

Nellie did too! She did try to stress eat my mounting block, but we all have our vices. To be honest, she regularly tries to eat the mounting block, and I cannot for the life of me figure out why. She was a cribber when she first arrived, but her anxiety has chilled out, especially lately, so that problem more or less solved itself. She doesn’t really crib on the mounting block, she sorta just makes a lot of noise, chews on it, drags her teeth across the ribbing (the texture-y non slip stuff so you don’t eat it off your mounting block) and does her best circus impression by trying to step up on the block. I try to correct where I can because I don’t want her hurt, but her sass during the whole process actually warms my heart a little because she’s gotten confident enough to be defiant.
She is learning that privileges come with listening ears. In the past she’s had to watch from outside the arena when I’d ride (don’t worry, she always has a turn to come out and work too, in her own unique way) because she likes to pick on her sister when Ro’s attention is focused on me and it would slowly turn into a big argument if I didn’t step in. She also loved to crowd the mounting block and rush in between Ro and I while I was tacking up. Then she’d be upset when I’d ask her to step out of the arena. To be honest it broke my heart a little too. But she’s starting to put it together now that if she waits patiently while I tack and mount up, she not only can hang out in the arena the whole time, but also gets invited to practice ponying and other skills.

The whole springing forward thing with daylight savings has really goofed but my sense of timing. Don’t get me wrong, I love the later evenings, and since I work pretty early in the morning the slightly longer dark mornings don’t really bother me, just gives me more of a chance to catch the sunrise. That being said, getting out of bed on time and not falling asleep on the couch early is still a work in progress. I definitely didn’t actually go to bed around 7 pm three nights this week. It seems like it’d be an easier adjustment, but I swear it actually gets harder every year. Falling back goofed me up too, but in the opposite direction.
I’ve heard they are discussing eliminating daylight savings time as a whole concept. I, personally, don’t mind the idea of never changing clocks again, as I find it to be mostly antiquated and not terribly useful for my particular lifestyle, but I’ve seen some arguments for those who still utilize it, so I won’t be upset either way. I’ll moan and complain twice a year and then not think about it at all any other time.
Either way, I love the later evenings and the fact that it marks the beginnings of those long summer days. We just had the first day of spring, the spring equinox, and it’s really starting to feel like it around here. I feel bad for those in the northeast with their winter weather warnings and those in the south with those crazy storms but feeling very blessed to have warm weather and sunny days and spring grasses popping up as the markers for our springtime. We’ve only had a couple of good sized storms, which is about average for us.
Speaking of that sweet spring grass, I have some inpatient mares waiting to be let loose into the daytime pasture, so I think I’d better scoot. They take grazing very seriously ya know.
Until we chat again my friends.

Sunshine Musings

Posted on March 18, 2022 by Farmers Blogger

Hello friends!

I have been basking in the sunshine! It’s been gloriously sunny and warm for a few days now and it’s just the absolute greatest thing! It’s been in the 50s!

It’s been so nice for melting the snow and drying things out and lifting spirits around here. Of course, everything is sunk now in the mud, which is going to continue to be a big old issue for things like driving to maneuver out of my driveway and getting deliveries, but it’s a temporary problem. I have been trying to look at getting a load of gravel hauled in this summer maybe, to help fortify the driveway and to maybe build a drainage system.

I’ve mentioned this a bunch, but work has been pretty crazy lately, and I’ve totally let it get that way. The thing about remote work, at least in tech, I guess I can’t speak to it across the board, is that even the kindest bosses are probably not keeping track of your time like you are and are possibly heaping work on. They don’t mean to, but it’s simply not as easy to notice when the little slack “online” icon has been green for 14-16 hours. And even further in his defense, I’ve said nothing because I figured it was a temporary thing. But I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ve accidentally trained my lovely team that I’m around and working all the time, and that’s never a good thing, but especially not good as it’s getting closer and closer to seasons of outside chores and I can only sit at a desk for so long before the sunshine and soft nickers win out.

Look at these muddy, happy ponies out basking in the sunshine! Such beauties!!

So, I’m trying to slowly work back into signing off after 8 hours, setting somewhat stricter “reachable” hours, and getting some of my free time back to be outdoors. It’s an ongoing cycle with me, seems like almost every 6 months I have to correct some sort of work/life balance issue, because when your work is always three steps from your bed, it can be hard to disconnect.

That said you couldn’t force me into an actual office role for anything anymore. I’m far, far too happy to not have a commute, to work on projects in sweatpants, and to be able to eat lunch whenever I feel like it. Remote work is definitely what I am built for, even more so when I can set my own hours (mostly) and work out on the porch. I’d be miserable in an actual office, I now officially can’t be away from my animals for more than an hour or two. Otherwise, I absolutely lose my mind.

Plus, it helps that, despite my complaining, I actually really like my job a lot. It’s not a case of “if you do something you love, you’ll never work a day in your life” because, frankly, I think that’s nonsense, but I think it’s about as close as you can get. I think the saying should be something like “find a good team, doing work you find mostly enjoyable, and work will be a manageable task each day of your life” …. but maybe catchier.

Because let’s be real, even when you love your job like I do, if you wouldn’t do it for free, you’re working.

Anyways, all that to say, I’m trying to arrange life around riding and farm chores again instead of work, and I’m so excited about it. I have had a few days now where it’s been heavy sweatshirt instead of a coat weather, and I am now thriving. When it gets to t-shirt weather, I’ll be unstoppable, and also never at my desk. Those are the days where I suddenly go “oh no, I was meant to finish the blog today!” And I quickly haul everything out to the porch, so I don’t have to go inside to publish it.

Such a model, always gotta find the best angles

It’s also the season of listening to the doves coo, which is such a warm and nostalgic sound for me. We did not have doves in the pacific northwest so each summer when school let out and I got to come over here to my lovely valley, that first morning waking up to dove coos was the sweetest day of summer. Doves cooing meant I was in my favorite place on earth, where I can read under ancient ash trees, go play with baby farm animals, take long walks with my camera, and write on the back porch to the sounds of running water and twittering birds.

Now as an adult I’ve been able to add “can fall asleep in my own bed, cuddle my own horses, and have halfway decent internet” to the equation and frankly, sometimes I have to pinch myself. To think I was annoyed when I first moved here, because it wasn’t the plan after college, I had to give up friends and, at the time I thought, the career I’d just worked so hard for as well. I don’t blame past Amanda for being scared about those things, while I’m so happy to be here, it’s not always been peaches and roses, and it won’t always be peaches and roses going forward. But I wish sometimes I could go back and tell her how good it works out, that her friends stay around, mostly online but they do come to visit, that she ends up purchasing two amazing mares, that she still gets to have her career.

I guess, in summation, take this small piece of advice my dad always reminds me of: “your plans and Gods plans may differ, but it’s only because you don’t know to dream any bigger”. Maybe you and I can both work on going with the flow more, it really seems to work itself out each time better than we can imagine.

Until we chat again my friends.

A Very Scooby Story

Posted on March 11, 2022 by Farmers Blogger

Hello friends,
Well, we need some extra good vibes (and prayers if you do that) for our little Scooby this week.
Little guy has been dealing with cataracts for a while, the vets have said with his age and allergies surgery wouldn’t be an option but assured us that many dogs live long happy lives with cataracts after they get used to it. I know this to be at least anecdotally true as my childhood pupper spend the last few years of his life a very happy, very blind little boy.
Scoobs’ cataracts have shifted and grown again, the vet thinks there’s also a sinus infection situation that is not helping in the slightest, and Scoobs really cannot see at all at night and no longer has any depth perception in lit areas. Poor little bean is suddenly needing to learn how to adapt.
He’s a happy boy for the most part, still comes and sees me in my office, goes and hollers at Christopher when he wants attention, still gets occasional zoomies. Good appetite, good digestion, the vet is certain he’s gonna adapt and it’ll be just fine.

Mom! Stop with the camera! Come on, you’re embarrassing me!

However, he is also getting so so so upset when we try to help or rescue, and he gets unbelievably annoyed at his brothers for helping. Granted his brothers need some lessons in being gentle and kind in their helping, but it’s meant with love.
Scooby used to help his older brother, my childhood pupper Winchester, when his cataracts got bad, so I’m hoping Watson and Joe eventually figure out how to appropriately “help” too. Scoobs used to direct him, and shake so Winchester could hear his collar, and would come get our attention is we hadn’t seen something he thought was important. He was a little star and seemed to really enjoy having a “job”. I don’t necessarily see Watty and Joe-Joe being that involved (which is totally fine, every personality is different, and they are not beholden to be their brothers’ eyes) but I hope they eventually get to the point where they realize, especially giant Joe, that Scoobs can’t see when he’s in the way or hogging the food, etc. Joe’s almost run over Scoobs a couple times because he got excited and expected Scooby to move. It’ll be a work in progress.
But if, in the course of your day, you feel like thinking good thoughts for Scooby and his new normal, I’m sure he’d appreciate it. Also, if you have any ideas on how to help him out more, lay them on me! I’ve put up some more night lights so any dark spots are more illuminated, and I’ve been researching soft corners and furniture gap covers (but most of our problems are with tall furniture, so I’m thinking decorative storage boxes might be more helpful for actually blocking that space). He’s in the phase right now where he gets so cranky if you help him out at all, so we are trying to give him his space, but also, I’m not going to let him get frustrated under the table where at every turn he’s just bumping his little head. Ever since he was a puppy, he gets so annoyed if you help him with something he perceives he can do, jumping into the car, arranging the blankets in his bed, etc. He’s a very independent little bean.

Joe and Watson are not having the best time sharing the spotlight. Scoobs has always been my chill boy, he’ll seek me out if he wants cuddles, and occasionally he will put up with my insistence about snuggle time for a few minutes, but much like a cat, generally he’s just happier to exist in the same space as you. Lately however, I’ve been a little more in his business and apparently Joe and Watson (who have already been battling it out for the title of attention hog) are simply feeling neglected.
Joe’s taken to just coming in and sitting on me. He’s tall enough he can just sorta pop his little rear end up on my lap and wait for pats. He also likes trying to find my feet to sit on. This is a little tougher because he’s all knees and elbows and thus it kinda hurts when he sits on your feet. But I’m certainly not going to teach him otherwise, if the boy needs love then he needs love, that’s all there is to it.
Watson is a little more intense about how he demands attention. He always wants to be the center so it’s a constant case of him yelling while following whoever he’s focused on (usually me) around. I can’t even call it whining, it’s this fun little squeaky grunt that just sounds like he’s one important announcement from full English speaking. He also has a habit of getting under foot due to his excitement and is perpetually being told to chill, that he needs to move out of my personal space while I’m walking. Not that I don’t love having him around, but especially if I’m carrying something (or someone, with Scoobs needing rescuing occasionally) and I can’t really see where I’m stepping, I’m always worried I’m going to squish him, or kick him, or fall over/on top of him.

Had to be sneaky here, because he was technically breaking some rules and was up on the couch without asking, but he was too cute so we ignored it

Although when you have three opinionated puppers the house, falling over excited dogs is just a state of being. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Until we chat again my friends

Spring Fever

Posted on March 4, 2022February 21, 2022 by Farmers Blogger

Hello friends!

We’ve seen some sunshine and temperatures above freezing, so yours truly is a happy girl!

The girls are happy too, not only is it warming up a little and the sun is out to play in, but yesterday they had a nice little spa day with the farrier coming out to trim up their feet. They love that.

They both had just a little bit of a hard time standing still, but I think it was mostly excitement, they love Jimmie, our farrier, and they both can develop a good case of happy taps when excited. Jimmie is just such a gem of a human, I’m so glad he was suggested to me as a farrier possibility because I now count him a friend. He’s pulled my tail out of the fire a couple times and I can always count on him to have a joke and some helpful advice.

The warm temps in the day time have creates a couple interesting scenarios here on the farm. First, due to the run off and refreeze each evening, there are parts of the farm, mostly the little concrete patches in the driveway, that are a couple inches of pure, slick ice. To the extent that it’s getting difficult to get the car out of the garage without sliding about a little. Not ideal.

With the runoff and refreeze, the other issue is that doors and equipment are freezing and completely stuck. The building we call “the dirt floor garage” which functions somewhere between an equipment shed and a catch-all, as well as Cordelia’s main home, has been completely frozen shut a couple times. Once it took three of us to work on it before it came loose, once we sorta just gave up and fed a Cordelia on the porch. I don’t think she minded. We also had to perform an early morning repair on my parents car as the ice buildup had managed to catch and pop loose the little air dam on the front. It looks pretty rough, it cracked the plastic and scraped the paint, it also broke the little clips and needed to be fixed up before it sat right, but I think it’s mostly going to be a cosmetic thing, unless it makes a habit of falling the front of the car or something.

The warmer temps have also meant that there are places where you’d lose a shoe to the mud if you aren’t wearing the right boots. Especially around our lower elevations, since were on a little bit of a slope, the corral and lower driveway are basically a lake. I’m looking around to find a gravel company so I can get quotes and start saving up to add some structure and drainage to our mud. It’s been a particularly wet year.

Nellie and Ro are still having just a bit of a power struggle, but something interesting has occurred. Nellie Belle has more or less set her boundaries and will enforce them with a quickness whether I’m around or not. Usually, she stays pretty chill when I’m around, but it appears shed had it with her sister

She’s run Ro out of the barn area a couple times during feeding, stares her down, and then let’s her in a moment after, which is very uncharacteristic for Miss Belle. She doesn’t try to hoard the food but doesn’t let her sister hoard it either.

I’ve also seen several instances now of them sharing their food piles with each other (willingly) which has never happened before. I usually feed in two piles a minimum of a couple horse lengths apart so if anyone wants to guard the food, they have to at least really work at it.

Joe has been having a hard time with the warm temperatures too, he wants so desperately to play outside and run and play fetch, but it’s still cold enough I worry about him getting soaked and then getting cold and ending up with a doggie cold. We’ve had some of those go through the house this year and convincing a dog with a cough to sit quietly and rest is darn near impossible. So, Joe has done a lot of small trips in the yard, taken a few extra warm baths, and does a lot of staring out the window.

I have a serious case of spring fever, and much like Joe am struggling with wanting to be outside but not wanting to get soaked and cold and eventually sick. I’ve definitely spent more time in the pasture, and the dogs outdoors times are creeping longer and longer. We’ve had some of the most beautiful sunsets lately, I’ve been trying to figure the best way to capture them for you, as I’m sure you all know, a simple phone snap usually doesn’t cut it with sunsets, but I haven’t had quite the time to get a true camera shot set up (been working longer hours at work, so the sunsets kinda sneak up on me). But I’ve got an extra day off coming up and I am already excited to use it to get all my camera gear set up for spring again (I tend to not get out with my camera much in the winter, a learned behavior from my time in Seattle when it would rain solidly from September to April and, at the time, I was a broke college student who couldn’t afford rain gear (and was not going to trust my camera to a plastic bag or something similar). I have to remind myself that its different here. Although this year it was so cold for so long, I had battery drain and cracking parts issues which are a whole new thing to contend with. Anyways, I’ll figure it out and hopefully you’ll get some sunset photos soon.

Until we chat again my friends!

You Ask A Mare

Posted on February 25, 2022February 12, 2022 by Farmers Blogger

Hello friends!

Spring planning is underway, if only in its most speculative sense. It’s a little too early to start actually prepping anything, but we can start researching our options.

We are currently deciding what we’d like to plant in the garden. We didn’t have much luck with the starts last year, but our seeds did okay. I tend to think it was already too hot for our little starts when they were sent through the mail, we had such an unusually warm summer. Since this winter, funnily enough, has been unusually cold, I have a sneaking suspicion we may be on the hook to deal with another crazy summer. But I could be wrong. Either way, I think we are going to stick with seeds.

I definitely miss mornings in the garden. My favorite work schedule is a couple hours in the morning, long break for a morning ride and walk around the farm, and then the rest of shift. Works fantastically well for my brain, is the correct amounts of physically being busy and mentally, but this time of year, it doesn’t quite work because I can’t trust I’ll thaw back out after my break. And it’s been so cold lately I’m honestly concerned about coming back in and needing to finish the work while feeling suddenly ill. I’ve already had a bit of a rough go of the winter cold season this year. But spending some time in the garden each morning is good for the soul. Better yet, spending each morning out with the horses is good for the soul.

Poor Nellie Belle is definitely over this weather. She’s absolutely had it with walking on the ice and snow. Makes sense, her little leg was not made for intense terrains. Luckily, we have a warm, dry covered area. Unluckily for her, it’s a little small so for exercise and in order to not be completely bored she’s got to head outside.

Yesterday she wanted to hang out in the barn, Ro wasn’t done being in the pasture, and Christopher walked out into the middle of a huge horse argument. Basically, Nellie having an absolute shout from the barn, and Ro was grumbling from the pasture while frantically trying to finish grazing. Generally speaking, I would say Ro makes the lion’s share of decisions, she’s declared herself lead mare, but every now and again Nellie throws her weight around a little and an argument breaks out. I’m not sure the exact timeline but by the time I got signed out of work and out the door, Ro was dejectedly standing by the corral fence and Nellie was happily watching the world go by from her warm barn.

Seems like about every six months there’s a small war about who calls the shots, and I think we’re fixing to step right back into the middle of one. As Nellie gets to be a calmer and more logical little mare, she wants more and more say in how she spends her days. She’s really done a lot of growing in the last few months especially, and I don’t think Ro quite knows what to do with it all. I’m so glad my reactive little fireball has a much longer fuse now, and I walk away from many more of our interactions without injuries. She’s such a little gem of a horse. They both are.

There’s been lots of signs they’re in a little bit of a tiff again, beyond just yelling about how much time they spend in the pasture. I’ve also seen teeth marks in hides and there’s an ongoing bullying situation with Ro trying to hoard her food and Nellie’s food, but lately Nellie isn’t putting up with it. To clarify, these bite Mark’s don’t break flesh, and they absolutely would if my mares intended to, so while I hate that they nip at each other when mad, there’s not a huge injury situation at hand at the moment.

The food situation is harder, I just generally feed far enough apart that Ro can’t easily guard both and I try to correct the bad behavior when i see it. Problem is that as soon as i turn my back Ro Is back at her antics. But i tend to think Nellie waits to school her sister until my back is turned too, because despite Ros attempts at hoarding, there’s no noticeable weight gain on her part or weight loss on Nellie’s. Ros a pretty easy keeper so I’m pretty sure she’d put on some pounds if she suddenly doubled her food intake.

But isn’t that just the way with owning horses, and especially being a mare mom. You really can’t convince a mare she’s wrong, she just has to love you enough to concede to your wishes. I’ve always loved working with mares because of their attitudes, it truly feels like a win when your mare wants to do what you want her to do. Don’t get me wrong, I love a sweet little gelding too! Geldings can be such little goofs with high spirits and big antics. But mare behavior is just one of life’s little joys.

You tell a gelding, you ask a mare. You don’t even get to have a conversation with a pony… you just take orders as they come. At least that’s my experience.

Until we chat again my friends!

Zoomies

Posted on February 11, 2022 by Farmers Blogger

Hello friends!

I just finished bathing the dogs. Let me tell you, that is a whole experience. Weve got it down to a science in the house, but it doesnt change the fact that it’s a big old deal to bathe the critters.

We always start with Joe. Joe has two moods when it comes to bathing. First mood is playful, he thinks its play time and wants to chase the water and blow bubbles in the soap, and he wants to paw at me and knock the shampoo bottles off the ledge of the tub. He is having a grand time and bath time is the best and isn’t everything delightful. His other mood is dejected, he goes boneless when I try to get him in the tub, lays down when I try to scrub his belly, leans on the wall to hide whatever side I’m cleaning, sighs repeatedly and loudly. Hes mad about the bath, this is the worst and hes definitely going to reach out to the ASPCA about this.

Today we were dejected. Hes still miffed about it, and is begging to go outside, I’d assume to roll in whatever he can find to remedy the problem. We simply smell too nice, you see.

Joe, working on his selfie skills, Don’t mind me, I’m just there to push the shutter button

Scooby rarely gets truly upset about bath time as long as he likes the tub, the water is warm, and you move with a quickness. If anything is off he starts to get fussy. He likes the big sink in my kitchen and the tub in my bathroom, but not the guest bathroom tub. I think its a little too dark for him. Plus he rarely goes to the guest spaces on his own because he is a little too blind for the steep basement stairs. Totally understandable.

Scooby also has special shampoo and a fancy procedure to his baths because of his skin condition. Hes always been an itchy dog and we learned that he is actually allergic to almost everything to some degree. We’ve tried a lot of options over the years but have mostly settled on, at least for now, a fancy shampoo and a glove with the nubbins on it for a cleansing, massaging effect. He sure loves that thing. The shampoo has lots of anti-itch and moisturizing ingredients so he walks away feeling so soft and good about himself. It’s pretty fantastic. Hes got some minor allergies to lots of things, including his own saliva, so anti-itch is a must.

Watson tends to always hate baths but that’s because hes so little it’s hard to warm up after hes cold. Hes so small it doesn’t take a terribly long time to get him all scrubbed up and clean, but he pouts and grimaces about it the whole time. He also tries to hide, or bail out of the bath, which means we’ve switched from bathing in the kitchen sink to my bathtub, because I was really worried he was going to escape my grasp and make a run for it on my kitchen counters. Less than ideal. Now he just gets all angry trying to climb the tub walls and eventually just starts yelling his little head off.

After bath time is his favorite part, he gets wrapped up in a big fluffy bath towel and then gets toted around for a while in his little bathrobe. Usually I end up cleaning the bathroom up and doing some minor cleaning and “puttering” around the house while hes along for the ride. I sit him down in his little towel occasionally when I need two hands and Christopher thinks he looks like little baby Yoda. All you can see is his little face popped out. Hes perfectly happy being babied, it’s just the actual bath part that ticks him off. Go figure.

Instead of bath photos please enjoy these of my boys actually cuddling with each other, a rare treat! Both are blurry because cuddle times last about 30 seconds and I usually make a mad dive for my phone to capture any proof

I wish I had gotten some pictures of the beans in their soaking wet state but two important things happen during and after baths. I hide my phone in my room and close off the whole space in an attempt to prevent water damage and general destruction and your usual mayhem. Joe especially thinks anything remotely soft is a towel, so bedding, office chairs, clean laundry, anything within reach will smell like wet dog. The other important thing is the two and a half sets of zoomies. Joe and Scooby start immediately, I get about a minute to dry as much off as possible and then those two have to be free to run around like crazies. I’ve started strategically leaving some of their bath towels in their day beds, and usually in their crazy, gotta-run-gotta-play state they play with the towels enough to help the drying process. Watson waits until he has soaked up every ounce of his post bath cuddles and then goes for his zoomies, which is great because he can mostly avoid being run over by Joe at that stage. Joe tries very hard to be mindful of his brothers but sometimes the play is just too fun to stop and pay attention. I usually get knocked over in those moments too.

But the beans are going in for some official haircuts and spa days soon, and I will get some glamour shots then hopefully.

Until we chat again my friends.