Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, Everybody!

Boomer made

this

nifty

Snow Angel!

My brother Tom and sister-in-law Pat are visiting from North Carolina.  I wanted them to see how beautiful Colorado in the winter can be.  But alas, our temperature is in the teens, and it's hard to tell where the snow-covered ground ends and the milky sky begins.  Our skys will return to deep blue soon, hopefully before they head back home.

I Don't Want to Think About It

I don't want to think about the blizzard we're having.  I don't want to think about the temperature (14 degree high, 5 degree low), the wind (25 mph, gusting to 40) or the snow.  I especially don't want to think about the temperature steadily falling in the barn.  The horses are locked in, snug as bugs in their rugs, but I worry.

We are distracting ourselves by baking and decorating the house for Christmas.  First on the tree? 

Why, it's Bouvier Angel, a tribute to Lloyd, the best dog that ever lived (no offense to Mickey, Clifford and Peppy, all best dogs too!).

Next we put up ornaments made by our talented blog friend Kate at The Adventures of Lucy.

Reggie, Paj

Boomer, Ben

Reggie never looked better!

Thank you, Kate.

All that decorating and cookie taste testing is exhausting.

Tomorrow we bounce back to a balmy 40 degrees, and yes, the sun will come out tomorrow. 

Tomorrow! Tomorrow!

I love ya, tomorrow!

You're always

A day

Away!

My apologies for imprinting that in your brain.  Snicker snicker.

Christmas Carriage Parade

David, Bob and Diana took Boomer to the Christmas Carriage Parade this weekend.  Bob and Diana are our friends, and Boomer's humans.  I have a minor case of the sniffles, so I opted to stay home and horse sit.  David took pictures for me.

Boomer relaxed on the trailer in the staging area.  He grabs a chunk of hay, dunks it in his water bucket, chews a while, repeats.  His water bucket is a huge trash can.  Hey, he's a big boy!

While Boomer played, Diana worked on the surrey.

There were big horses,

little horses,

and everything in between.

This horse has awfully long ears, lol!

At last it was time to drive down Main Street!

Was Boomer tired after his big day?

He beat Ben by a length in the nightly dinner race.

To visit Fundy Blue's blog and see the great parade photos she posted, click here. 

Dreaming volunteered at the parade and hosted an open house afterward.  Brave woman.  To see her photos, click here



Back in the Traces

Boomer's vacation is over.  David started riding him last week, and today we took him for a drive.

Hey, is that my cart?

The neighbors were agog.

What long legs.

Boomer didn't blink an eye when the big dump truck

passed him.

Such a good boy.

Another Spectacular Sunset

We have been enjoying spectacular sunsets this week!

looking east towards neighbor Chuck and Elisa's ranch

southeast, the Ranch of the Floating Trees

(that's my name for this ranch)

southwest, Pike's Peak

west, neighbors Kate and Mike's alpaca ranch

The video's a bit shaky, I need to pan slower, and there's a break where I had to move around the house, but the sky in beautiful.

Reunited

I was a fool to ever leave your side
Me minus you is such a lonely ride
The breakup we had has made me
Lonesome and sad
I realize I love you
'Cause I want you bad, hey, hey, hay, hay

 











Reunited and it feels so good
Reunited 'cause we understood
There's one perfect fit
And sugar, this one is it
We both are so excited
'Cause we're reunited, hay, hay

That Time of the Year

It's that special time of the year.  It's the time of beautiful sunsets, and days that are still warm enough to enjoy them.

Paj couldn't quite believe I was taking pictures of something other than his pretty self, so of course I had to include him.  The sunset photos are SOOC (Straight Out Of the Camera).  Paj was partially in shadow, so I tweaked that one.



Boomer Update

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!  One of the many things we are grateful for is that Boomer is doing very well.  His temperature is normal, he never developed a cough or phlegm, and he had his last dose of antibiotics today.

How high can you reach, David?

Yuck!  That stuff tastes terrible!

In more good horsey news, none of the other horses have the crud, and the infectious period will be over soon.  Then Boomer and Ben will be reunited.  Yay!

Sick Pony

Boomer has bronchitis.  We caught it very early (before the coughing and phlegm stage), so we are hoping that he will have a speedy recovery.  Here's what happened -

Yesterday I made my first outing after being laid low by a nasty stomach bug for two crappy weeks.  Two weeks!  I went hear our old friend and fellow horseman, Adwyn, play with the Colorado Chamber Music Society.

Adwyn's on the right

The concert was full of diversity, and I enjoyed it very much.  It was held in a historic building dating from 1913.  The building has tapestry bricks, terra cotta trim, and a tile roof.  Cool.

David stayed home to take care of the horses, and Boomer was fine all day.  But when I got home around 5 and stopped in to say Hi, he looked depressed and not his usual Alpha self at all.  I took his temperature, and it was 104.  Yikes!  Dr. Gary came right out on a Saturday night, in spite of the fact that it's a l-o-n-g drive here, and Dr. Gary lives a l-o-n-g way in the opposite direction.  The man is a Saint.

*Dr. Gary's house

      30 minutes

                      *Dr. Gary's clinic

                                                                           

                                                                        *Moondance

                                                                  1 hour, 30 minutes

That's 3 hours, 30 minutes on the road just to take care of us.  Furthermore, he told us to call him today (Sunday!!!) and let him know Boomer's temperature, because if it hadn't gone down, he'd come back and give him another shot.  The man is a Saint.  Did I say that before?  Well, I don't think I can say it enough.  We are so grateful. 

Yesterday's shots

Me - "that's a big shot, Dr. Gary"

Dr. Gary - "that's a big horse, Terry"

Today Boomer's temperature is coming down (102, still high, but a big improvement) and he's eating like a horse, so no long drive for Dr. Gary.  We are dosing him with SMZs (the antibiotic Sulfamethoxazole), and he is currently standing out in the pasture, soaking up a little sun for a few hours.  The only wrinkle in his life is that his BFF Ben is in a separate pasture to keep them from sharing cooties over the waterer.  They can see each other, and they both seem content. 

Boomer left, Ben right

Of course we are wondering why.  Maybe it's the beautiful weather.  We had some 11 degree lows, and we had a couple of days where we never got above freezing.  The horses have full winter coats (except for Paj, geez), and now we're back in the 60s.  I've always worried about colic with these temperature swings, and now I'm adding bronchitis to the list.

We are doing everything we can to keep it from spreading.  Big-hearted neighbors Kate and Mike have 6 new rescues that we are eager to meet, but we'll restrain ourselves until the infectious period is over.  Then we'll visit and blog all about it.

Get better soon, dear Boomer.  We love you.



Missing Out

The weather has been glorious.  I've had a nasty bug, so I've been missing out on enjoying our unseasonably warm weather.  David has been doing my chores, and he's also been enjoying the Clydes.  He's been riding Big Ben and trail riding and driving Boomer.  We had a special treat this weekend when Bob's 93 year old mother came out for a drive.  I missed out on that too.

David

Big Ben

(time for a mane trim, I'm thinking!)

Jean, Diana and Bob

Jean's father and David's father both delivered milk by horse-drawn vehicles.

I've been missing out on blogs too.  I plan to start checking in on everybody this evening.  I've got a lot of catching up to do!  Hope all is well, and nobody has a nasty bug!

Ben asks . . .

Does this saddle make my butt look big?

We are thinking of all the folks and animals on the east coast and wishing them well.



Plugged In

In Mickey's mind, he's the youthful Ranch Manager, responsible for all things Moondance.  In reality, he's an older dog who should stay in the nice warm house on these cold mornings.  We've reached a compromise.  He's coming to the barn to supervise chores, but he's wearing his blanket just like the horses do.  And he's learned "mat", which means get-on-your-mat-and-warm-up.

He's plugged in.

But Mickey, I'm telling you, when it gets really cold this winter,

 you're staying in the house.

"Yeah, right."

Odds and Ends

It's cold and snowing.  Wawawa.  I haven't taken any snow pics yet, so I thought I'd post a couple of little odds and ends.

Odds

We live on the plains.  There's precious little water here, and consequently precious little waterfowl.  A Great Blue Heron visited back when we had torrential rains that filled the pond, and once we saw a few misguided Canadian Geese fly by.  That's it.  So imagine our surprise last week when we saw thousands of waterfowl in V formations, very high in the sky.  I only caught the last of them on camera, and it's not the best footage, but if you crank the volume up, you might be able to tell that it's...

Sandhill Cranes

For more information on Sandhill Cranes, and a much better look at them, click here for a youtube clip by National Geographic.

*************************************************************

Remember this? 

 

Ron Stone left a comment identifying this as a hammermill.  He uses one to grind barley into flour.  Thanks, Ron.

The End



50 Shades of Hay

Stolen from Ted and Bunny - 
     (with permission, of course!)

Leaves for Leontien

Leontien,

so many friends are thinking of you

and sending good wishes your way.



Our aspens are covered

with leaves changing to gold.

With every leaf,

I am sending a wish

your way.

If you would like to send your own best wishes to Leontien in her fight against melanoma, please visit "A Rural Journal" to see how to participate in "Leaves for Leontien".

Pretty Boy

What's that on your nose, Ben?

Brown sugar.  And dirt.

Oh Ben, let's get that cleaned up.

There.  That's better.

But look at those whiskers!  Let's take care of those too.

Good boy, Ben.  Now you look handsome.
Thanks.  Can I have some brown sugar?