My trip to the barn tonight.

The babies are all still alive!! Can you find them all? They are so little!

 Some things I love. My roany pony. (her left shoulder) She hasnt lightened up a whole lot more this year, still shedding though!!

 Apple butt! LOL The side that doesnt have manure stains! LOL She is pouting here because I forgot to shut off the flash, she hates the flash! She jumps every time.

 Trying to get a good eye shot, she doesnt hold still! She kept circling in the stall because she was waiting for the flash. I dont know if she thinks its lightening or what. She has pretty Appy eyes, lots of eyeliner!

 The sky was pretty tonight.

 The Tulip tree is in full bloom.

 So are the Apple trees.

Spring has sprung! Finally! It may be wet still, but it is still sweatshirt weather, if I put on any more I sweat to death when I do chores!

On this last day of April 2012!

Empty nest!

Well all three of the fluff balls are out and running around!!

The nest is empty! (Lisa, there were no shells left!)

I didnt think I would be able to see all three of them together.

There are two in this pic.

 There are all three!! I could hear their little chirps, like mini mom and dad sounds!! LOL

 One of the parents trying to lure them away. They werent very obedient! lol driving the parents crazy!

 They are so cute!

Fun to find them and then see them hatch!  I will try to catch them in the field as they get older!

Baby update! I found all three of them in the field tonight!!(Sat.) Moma and Daddy are doing a good job!
Watched one of the parents attacking Starlings that were to close to the babies! LOL

Thursday, 8:30am, baby update!

There are now 3 little Killdeer babies!!! Cute little fluffballs!! 

I hope they do OK, it is raining and we are supposed to get hail today.

Like chickens, they are probably born with the yolk sac still in their tummies, so they dont really feed the first few days.

 Mama was not happy about my being there!

The first baby!!!

Meghan looked at the nest when she came over this afternoon and found fuzzy egg!!! LOL LOL I had noticed that mommy and daddy were a little more noisy than usual today!

 Isnt it cute! The first born chick!

 Mama wasnt very happy with me!

 I got a lot of dancing today!!

 More views of the chick, it was hard to zoom in and hold still enough to get a clear pic. It was getting dark so I had to change the setting on my camera!

 It still has two siblings to hatch!!

 Dont worry, mama came right back to the nest when we walked away.

 Oh and the flying jewels are busy busy busy!! Our resident Anna's Hummingbird is very busy defending its territory!

 It would turn one way and be bright red and the other way and be black.

 And who is behind the Hummingbird!

 The Hummer and the ponies through the heart!

 And my Dahlias are coming up!!! Spring is here!!! Finally!!!

Interesting sky painting last night....

A different view in every direction! To the North. We have wonderful power lines running on that side.

 To the West.

 To the South.

 To the East. The Tulip tree is in bloom! The Apple trees are coming on too!

 To the South East. With the well house and the barn.

There were thunderstorms moving through to the South.
Scenery from my day. Walking in from feeding I was admiring the beautiful sky!

Snoopy dance!!!!

Rode my pony today! She was such a good girl!!
Just shy of 80*F today!! To warm all of a sudden LOL LOL But dry and the ground in the rideing area was dry and, I rode my pony today!! yippee!!

Pictures next time, I wanted to concentrate on her and not taking photos :o)

Sunday stills, In honor of Ed's birthday!!!

Happy Birthday Ed!!
I may not be posting regularly, but I sure enjoy everyones photos!!!

This is probably one of the best photos I have ever taken, according to me! LOL So I am going to post it again.

Fort Vancouver, Clark County, Washington state.

 Awe and I can just hear the waves in this one.

So I guess I chose landscapes!!!
Have a great day Ed!
For more Sunday Stills Go here!

Tears :o(::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

It is with great sorrow that I post this. My sister in-law has lost her 4 year old Friesian stud. Do to unknown reasons, somehow, he broke his shoulder. The decision was made to put him down.

This come to her at a very bad time. Recently she was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and polymyalgia. She cant even saddle a horse by herself right now. Amid trying to figure out her health, Aarmoni has been there she has been training him, teaching him to lie down and he has been a great horse. He has been a dream for her, sadly gone now. My horse friends will know the deep sorrow I feel for her. The loss of dreams, companion, friend, and goals.

These pictures I took of him last Summer.

This was her short and I am sure, very painful email this morning.

"Today I lost my friend

At the young age of 4 years old my friend and my buddy Aarmoni was laid to rest.  He had broken his left shoulder  and how it happened will never be known he had only been in the arena and his stall and after many x-rays and phone calls to equine surgeons and spiciest the final diagnosis was to be put down."

Tears I shed for her.

Not doing much, except waiting for the weather to break!

Someday we will get some dry weather. It is supposed to be over 70*F this weekend!! I am going to ride!!!
Meanwhile, this big blue guy(?) was visiting next door a week or so ago. He is hunting mice in the field, or probably, as noisy as they have been, frogs. No wonder he looks so fat.
(It is a Great Blue Heron, by the way.) Very big! I bet he is close to 3 or so feet tall!

I am getting anxious to ride! Emma's feet are trimmed so I have no excuse! Other than mud! I hope this weekend heralds a drying trend! Please!!

Everyone here is doing great. Horses are shedding and shedding some more! making my arms tired, brushing three of them! Still fighting a little rain rot on Easy, she is very prone to it. When they start shedding and the hair dropping it seems to get worse. Treating it with betadine and brushing almost every day.
Hubby is working graveyard shift, so is a zombie most days. Dogs are great, except when unexpected, or expected people come to the door and Max barks and barks, waking Hubby up. Poor guy. (this happened this morning.)

I had a swelling and extreme pain in my left arm at the point of the screws in my plate, where my arm was broken. Went to see the doc, got referred back to the original orthopedist to check it out. He isnt worried about it, said to let it settle down and if it it still bugging me in a few weeks, let him know. Darn arm has not bothered my in darn near 10 years. I think I strained it dumping the wheel barrow, while cleaning stalls. It is now settling down, I am not taking Ibuprofen for it any more so much better!
(this is the arm that got broken in a car wreck in 2002, when I got hit head on by a drunk driver.)

So thats what I have been up to, no a whole heck of a lot! Same old same old, get up, take the dogs out, feed them, have a cup of Chai or two, feed horses at 9am, take dogs out and repeat! LOL Oh and in there feed the Hubby, LOL, cant forget him! I have been painting a little. But things are quiet and nothing exciting.  Oh yeah, somewhere in there, this month I turned 45! I am darn proud now of every year I put under my belt! My MRI in March came back good!! No regrowth of tumor, so thats good!! Even though I had to call the oncologist and ask for the results.

So I guess I have been up to some things! LOL Our youngest daughter, Meghan turned 21 too! Where does time go!! None of them have made me a Grandma yet though!!! LOL So much for being a young Grandparent, they are going to make me wait, all three of them!!

Will take pics when I ride!!! finally! The whole country is complaining about how warm is has been. But not here in the NorthWest!! It has been cold and wet, our first 70 day should come this weekend! Our snow pack,I believe,is above normal, so no fear of drought here. No flooding either, no tornadoes, no extreme weather. You still couldnt make me move to the South!! LOL so I guess I will put up with the rain!
Until next time!

On baby watch!!

I was mowing the yard the other day and I almost ran over a nest!! We always have a pair or two of Killdeer, on the property. They are very noisy at times. She is on the nest in this pic between the 1st and 2nd cones.

 As I got closer she ran out into the pasture. Can you find her?
She is in the lower left corner.

 Here are her precious little eggs! This is the first time they have nested in the yard. I am so glad I seen her while I was mowing, I was within 6-8 feet of mowing over the nest. But I just happened to see her run off the nest and somehow knew that it was close. So I parked the mower, found the nest, and walked to the garage and got these cones and some spikes to hold them down. Marked the nest, and now am checking on her every day. She doesnt get off the nest unless I get pretty close. Arent they pretty eggs. They seem quite big, for such a small bird.

 I remember seeing the little tiny babies in past years.

I was hoping to catch her doing her wounded wing dance. She must be getting used to me because she wouldnt dance for me! I hope to get a picture of the babies when they hatch. She is up in the upper right corner in this one. So thats my baby watch!!

Horse Expo! 2012, Post #5

One last saddle! LOL  There was a group of Cival war reinactors and this was one of theirs.

They look sooooo uncomfortable! LOL But, I have never sat in one.

 The Frisian/Andalusian, Featherdance group! We seen them up at Clark County Expo, and last year here at Albany, Oregon.

Videos of the group.

After the entertainment, they had the All Breed Trail Challange.

 There were quite a few judges and about 12 entries. This one we watched was a semi-finals. The finals were on Sunday. I havnt heard who won overall, I will have to ask them on Facebook.

 It was quite a long course.
1. Run a lap showing of your horses breed.
2. Jump three jumps
3. go across the bridge, which has a step up in the middle and is in an L shape.
4. Back through cones in a half figure 8
5. pick up a bag of cans and drop them inside a hula hoop
6. do the wagon wheel at your best gait
7. put the horse ball through the two uprights
8. do a reining pattern, one large fast, one small slow, then do a turn around or spin
9. go through the car wash wall and run clear around the arena again, for time, to the end, by the jumps.
I think I got them all!

 Still havnt figured out action photography!

This little mule was really good, a younger girl riding her. She was another crowd pleaser!!

 This guy was so funny on his Appy, he has only been riding this horse for a year, he said!

 The ball looks easier than it is! The horses seem to knock it one way or the other, instead of straight.

 Steve Rother, on the light Palomino, was a good commentator! He was pretty amusing! The girl he is talking to here, did the whole course bareback, on her Halflinger! She brought the house down!!!

 I think 4 out of the group went on to the finals.

 And goodbye and goodnight, for another year!

These were my purchases for the day. This wonderful embroidered t-shirt.

 A dark grey hoodie, that is really comfy! The printing is sparkely too! LOL

 Something for the Hubby!

And these earings, I love the stars. And they are leverback!! so I wont loose them!!

That will be my last post about the Horse Expo!! LOL until next year!!