JUNE 2022

(DONNA posted! But in the wrong place, so I am copying her post and putting it into JUNE 2022. I don't want anyone missing her post!
Ark)





Thursday Morning

Good Morning All,

I haven't been in here for a few weeks but getting the house cleaning done was first thing on my to do list. FINALLY got the last of it done on Monday and now I can relax for a while and enjoy the warm weather (whenever it arrives).

ELLEN, I got a message from a Beth Bruegger, don't know if she is a friend of Susans or relative, saying that she had passed and how I happened. I had messaged Bryna the first of May to see how her Mom was as we hadn't had any emails from her for a long time. At that time she was going home the next day from rehab. Bryna said she would let me know how she was doing but I didn't hear anything from her and it was a shock to see the message from Beth. God love her, she has gone through the ringer for a very long time between Bryna as a teen and Mike with his health issues. I always think of her just as we met her, honey blonde hair coiffed in her french roll, makeup up and styling in her clothes. She was beautiful and funny and added a lot of humour to our reunion in KC. That was such a fun time, as you know,  and will always be one of the highlights in my lifetime. She is with the rest of the FOOPS that have passed and I'm sure they are all trading stories. HT is keeping them all in line, lol.

Raining and not a nice morning here. Supposed to clear up later today and then we will have a few days of sun. Yesterday was a year since I had Tommy Girl put down. I think of her every day and hope that Tracey is finally friends with her, she didn't like her here on earth, Smile When I see the price of hay, feed and all the rest that is going up and up, I'm glad that I don't have that expense any more BUT I miss the horse.

ARK, I would have been in the next county if I found a snake in the shed, never mind looking down at me from a shelf!!!! Not a fan of the things and we don't have any that bite!

I didn't watch any of the Jubilee, hockey was usually on tv and that is where I would be. Elizabeth has always been a favourite of mine since I was a little girl. She and Margaret would be in every news reel at the theatres with their ponies and of course that endeared me to them. I have followed her throughout her life and marvelled at her stamina and grace. I did watch The Crown and loved it. It certainly gave me a different view of the rest of the Royals, Philip and Charles especially. (I'm thinking she is going to die on the throne as she doesn't want to see Camilla be addressed by whatever title she will have, won't be Queen Camilla for sure.) Of course, I'm Canadian, she is the head of the Commonwealth which makes her my Queen.

Well, guess there is nothing more going on here. Must get my day going.

You all have a good one. ELLEN, don't fall off that seadoo.

DONNA

INDYAPP:
You amaze me with your machine moving work! I don't think I would have thought to jack up the trailer to get the brush hog onto it. Yep, WD40 will be your friend! A new tractor would be fun. I can't believe how much Donnie does with his and don't know how we survived so long without one. Have fun picking out a new one!


ELLEN:
I wanted to know what color she was getting, too! I wanted a blue one, but Donnie was more practical and got one that matched what he wanted to do with it and who is around to work on it if needed. So John Deere green. Oh, well.

GRAYMARE:
110 degrees???? How does anyone survive that? Humidity might be low, but 110 is 110! Stay cool...

DONNA:
So good to see you posting! You accidentally hit the wrong posting button. It is easy to do. I would get rid of that "New Topic" button if I could figure out how to do it. Anyway, use the "Reply" button for posting and we won't miss what you said! I moved your post to 'June 2022' so all could see it.
It is very sad about Susan, I was so sorry to see the news about her. She was a lot of fun at the foopfests....

Speaking of snakes, Donnie caught ANOTHER one in my tack/feed room the next day after the previous two. He has discovered that the old downspout pipes that were laying behind the shelves is a great snake trap. The third snake was also coiled up in it. He just picked up the pipe and put it into the lidded bucket, then hauled it off to where he released the previous two snakes. Now the downspount pipe has a permanent home behind that shelf to lure unsuspecting snakes looking for a snuggly place to sleep.

On Tuesday we got a call from our new neighbor, Kylie, who has the mares next door. Her husband is out west helping his dad, her mom is visiting someplace also out west, and she is pregnant and alone. Her 22 year old chestnut QH mare, Possum, was colicking badly. We went over to help her and got there just as the vet had arrived. Possum was in a very bad way and couldn't be loaded onto a trailer to take her to Va Tech veterinary hospital. Finally it was determined that there was no hope for her and Kylie had to let Possum be euthanized. It was very sad, she had had Possum since she was a foal. Donnie buried the mare for Kylie. So we spent the day getting that done, our tractor is a bit small for burying horses, although this is the fourth horse he has buried with it. One never knows how one's day will go. Kylie had been injured by her younger mare, Ritzy, a couple of months ago, so that mare was sent up to N. Va to be trained. They bought a little spotted mini gelding, named Freddie, to keep Possum company. Freddie is now alone. Unfortunately, Kylie says Freddy acts very 'studdy' and may not have been gelded completely right, so he can't come stay with our mini mare, Trinket. It would be a cute cross, but we don't want Trinket to get pregnant.

Today Donnie is mowing our lower field for hay. His work is cut out for him for the next five days or so.

Donna, I have had some contact with Susan's daughter, Bryna. That gal has been really overloaded for the last couple of years. Mike hasn't been well for a long time and requires a lot of attention and many trips to the VA hospital clinic. Susan has been fighting brain cancer for the last three years and Bryna has been trying to do the best she could for her. For most of the last year Susan was paralyzed on her left side. Bryna has had to take care of 4 horses and 3 dogs and 5 acres of farm. She is also teaching classes at UC Davis and working on her PhD. She got married just over a year ago. When I told her I recognized how much she has had to do, she got a bit emotional. It really has been overwhelming for her.

Horse racing day tomorrow.....from the Belmont.....................saddle up gang. It's riders up.

LOL

Everyone have a great evening and pray for the USA.........

Hayfield mowed, doing little anti-rain dances and hoping to get it in the barn dry.

And Donnie has caught the FIFTH snake in my barn!!! He has discovered that they like drain pipes, three of them have been caught snoozing inside a short piece of one behind a shelf. The other two were not so cooperative, it was a snake rodeo. All are now living down the road in a nice wooded area with a creek.

I will try to see the race!

Post time is just before 6:44 PM.  Fox Sports 2 will have racing all day.  At 5 PM NBC picks up the coverage.

They said that Rich Strike galloped 2 miles the other day and came out of it like he hadn't done anything at all.  He isn't the betting favorite, but everybody wants to see another run like he did in the Derby.

Ark, I'll bet you aren't finding many mice in the barn.

Those who bet on the favorite are happy. Money on Rich Strike, not so much.
It was a safe day of racing for everyone.

My horse Skippylongstocking was 3rd. I just love his name..............

Everyone have a great evening.........

I missed watching the race but from what I've read it sounds as if Rich Strike's trainer's strategy of keeping him towards the middle of the track instead of letting him run on the rail as he likes to back fired. Seems to me that you wouldn't try a new method when the old method worked so well in the past.

I got a load of hay in yesterday. It was baled on Memorial day, but not delivered until yesterday. Not to worry, it's been sitting in a barn. We climbed to the top of the wagon and started throwing the bales onto the hay mow and underneath the 2nd bale that we picked up was a litter of kittens! They were tiny little babies with their eyes barely open. They were put in a bucket and then into the cab of the truck to be taken back home to their mama. I was not going to bottle feed baby kittens. To make it even more funny, it was the second litter of kittens taken off of the wagon. He discovered a litter of kittens that didn't even have their eyes open when he was hooking up the wagon. He's got another load of hay ready to bring me but we're going to wait a bit as it's going to be really HOT the next couple of days.

Good luck with the making of your hay ARK.

Oh, and I bit the bullet and ordered my tractor. It's a Kubota L2501 so the color is an orangey red.

Indy, I saw the trainer regretting moving Rich Strike to the middle of the track.  His thinking was that he would stay closer to the leaders and not have as much to do at the end.  He also admitted it was a mistake.  The jockey said the horse kept trying to get to the rail through the whole race.
They'll all be going to Saratoga soon and he'll race again then.  It will be interesting to see what happens.

Awww.  Kittens are so cute.  Raising them by hand can be a big problem.  I hope the mothers took them back and cared for them.

Red-orange is a good tractor color.    Enjoy it.

Well I missed the race.  Any gray horses run?  Too bad about Rich Strike,  sounds like he knew how he wanted to run.  

We are baling and stacking and baling and stacking.  Our tractor, who has worked very hard lately,  got stuck in reverse.  It won't move except in reverse.  This happened after the first 20 bales were made.  Luckily,  a neighbor let Donnie borrow his John Deere and he has been baling with that.   Our new neighbors helped us bring in two loads of hay to the barn this morning while Donnie finished up baling.  There are 27 more bales down there  made.  I counted 110 new bales in the barn, so far.  We have dodged some big storms and the hay never got wet!    I have no idea how Donnie's going to fix our tractor.  It is stuck down in the lower field with poor access for non-4 wheel drive vehicles.  If it has to be trucked out of there, it is going to be a problem.   Anyway,  our hay building is full!!  The second cutting will hopefull fill the barn loft....but not until fall.     It is the best feeling to get that hay under shelter.  

INDYAPP:
 Red/orange sounds very pretty!  Can't wait to see pix!  BTW: how is Tiberious feeling after his treatment?


Gotta go get those 27 bales.... First cutting for upper and lower fields is 270 bales, total. Not bad.

Oh gads, ARK..........hope you can get your tractor to a flat working area so Donnie can get it fixed. I'm sure
you guys will finagle it somehow. Let us know.

INDY, yeehaw, a brand new tractor will be coming..........can't wait. I had a Kubota for 27 years and just sold it this year.
It was 50 years and still ran like a champ.......oil her up, pull the choke and off she went. I can't believe the work that
got done around here under her strength. I'll be anxious to hear your report.

Everyone have a great evening and prayers for the USA.........

We just had one of our typical summer storms. HIGH WINDS, hard rain, thunder and lightning. I heard a couple of limbs hit the roof so I'll check that out in the morning. I don't think they were big enough to hit hard enough to cause any damage.
We have storms like this once or twice a summer.
What did you get, Indy?

Sounds like I got about the same thing you did ELLEN with a little hail thrown in. Goshen got hit pretty hard. Lots of trees down and blocked roads. I didn't find any trees down this time and for me that's a big WIN! Today it's suppose to be 99 with a heat index of 110. At 6:00 this morning it was already miserable.

ARK, glad to hear you got your hay baled without getting rained on. I know you have little round bales. Have you ever figured out how may small square bales are in one of your little round bales? Good luck with getting your tractor fixed. I hate mechanical problems, fortunately Donnie can work on it. I'm at the mercy of the tractor doctor for anything more complex than changing oil and filters. I've never had a tractor that would only go in reverse, but I did have a car once that would only go in reverse if the car had been going forward first. No parking in spaces that had to be backed out of

I had a few small limbs down and the patio umbrella was thrown up onto the roof but still attached to its pole. I got off easy.
Today, it's HOT HOT HOT!!!

The moving experience is finally OVER.  We moved the last load after church on Sunday, built Dee's entertainment center for her (what a job that was, we are just not good at building furniture, a 10 minute job always turns into a 2 hour nightmare) but it's all DONE.  HOORAYYYY  Dee is living in her new place and things can go back to normal.  

Saturday the tree trimming guys are coming to take down some problem trees.  I won't be here to witness the fun, our church is putting on a Agatha Christie play, Murder on the Orient Express.  Can't wait...me and my girls are going together, we always have such fun at the church plays.  Our church has some talented people who put on the plays.  This is the first play since the big Covid nightmare started.

Here is some wonderful news about my freind Ashley who was dying the last time I went to visit her, all hooked up to machines and almost comatose.  Her dad sent me a text and said Ash wanted to see me.  I walked into her room at the hospital and she was walking with a walker to her bathroom.  WHAT??????  We took a stroll down the hallway and back to her room.  She ate real food, no feeding tube.  A real MIRACLE has taken place with her.  She has proven the doctors were wrong about when she was going to die.  She has been in the hospital for 100 days. Even the doctors said only Jesus could do this.  Praising God for His miracle in her life.  

Have a great week everyone.

Trudy, that is truly a miracle. Praise God!

TRUDY:
  Wow!  That really is a miracle!   I hope Ashley just keeps getting better and better.  100 days in the hospital is a long time.  I bet she looks forward to going home.   Remind us what made her so sick, please.  She is looking great!
 Congrats on getting the move done.  Yucko,  moving is the pits.  


ELLEN:
 Are  you living in the lake?  It is soooo hot.  It's 90 degrees here, something that used to be fairly rare.  I guess not anymore.  

GRAYMARE:
 Still 110 in the shade?  The only time I ever went to Phoenix, in 1970,  it was 110 degrees in the shade.  We had never seen such heat.  We were camping on a family vacation.  We burned up during the day and froze during the night.  I don't think we were as prepared to camp as we should have been, especially in June. One place we really liked was Flagstaff.  Have they contained their fires there?

DONNA:
 Does it ever get to 90 degrees in Nova Scotia?  I think of NS as being cool year round.  

INDYAPP:
 So when does your new tractor arrive?  It will have that new tractor smell,   .  That won't last long when you start moving around the horsey compost pile.    Is it a gas or a diesel engine?  Ours is diesel, as is our truck, and WOW!  The price of diesel right now is astounding.  Luckily, both of our vehicle get very good mileage.  Ten gallons cost over $50.    Hopefully this won't last long.


I finally got in a mile ride on Ivan last night.  The arena is in the sun until late afternoon, so that is when I ride him, after the shade arrives.   He can be so funny.  Yesterday he    reached down and touched my handkerchief that I had dropped.  So we had a fun lesson of touching it, then picking it up.  Now if I could just get him to turn his head where I could reach the hanky after he picks it up.  We'll work on it.   We are up to 58 miles in our 100 miles in 100 days challenge.  There's only a month left, we have to get busy.



You can see the handkerchief just about to fall off.  It is around my neck.

Ark, it will be fun to teach him to pick it up and hand it to you.
I haven't been in the water much. It's so hot (97°, heat index 100°) and the idea of instant sunburn is not too appealing. Heat and I don't play together nicely.

Great news for Ashley........and great photo......I wish her nothing but the best.

Great photo of you ARK.......wonderful picture of Ivan............

Unfortunately, ARK, Flagstaff is still burning, 22,000 acres. Brother, that's staggering. considering it burned
last year also.

Have you gotten your tractor out yet, ARK?

It's hot here at 108 today.......rain predicted for Friday. We'll see.

Everyone have a good evening and pray for the USA.

GRAYMARE:
No, the pet tractor is still in the lower field, all by itself. Donnie hasn't worked on it yet. He has researched a bunch on why it might be doing this stuck in reverse thing and apparently there are a few reasons it could happen. He is going to go to the John Deere dealer and look at their tractors that are like ours and see if he can see a difference. He has decided he really likes our tractor compared to the neighbor's whose tractor is a size or two larger. Donnie's tractor gets much better gas mileage, for one thing. So at least he appreciates the poor thing.

That is sad about Flagstaff. We really enjoyed the forest there. I hope they can stop the fire soon.

It was 92 degrees today with high humidity. The horses were drenched in sweat after spending the day out in the field. So instead of riding, all three horses got a good bath. Ivan thought he would die, of course, but he didn't. Areion and Daisy enjoyed their baths. Trinket was in the shade all day, so she wasn't sweaty. I might give her a bath tomorrow anyway. I may feed hay in the barn tomorrow instead of having the horses out in the field. There are trees along the edges, but apparently it didn't occur to them that shade might be cooler.

Stay cool!

Great news about Ashley. The power of a positive attitude along with faith is a powerful combination.

I too hosed the horses off yesterday. Can't say I gave them a 'bath' but did rinse the sweat of them. Sophie and Monster loved it. Tiberius and Lily both tolerated it. I think it was because Monster and Sophie are very dark in color while Tiberius and Lily have a lot of white so they weren't as hot. Monster has over slept two days in a row now. I've had to go look for him in the woods for him to have his breakfast. Both mornings he's been strolling out of the woods looking for the others only to realize they were already in the barn eating.

Don't really know when I'll get the new (diesel) tractor. Estimated time is 6 - 8 weeks. My expectations are it will take longer. I still have my little one to use until I get the new one.

ARK, there are 3 fires burning here in AZ. 1. 22000 acres. 2. 6600 acres. 3. 2400 acres.

A real sad mess...............Pray for winds to die down and for rain without flooding.............

OMG..............10000 cattle died of heat & humidity In Kansas...............they all died today. I wonder
if there was anything else involved........Did they have enough water?

Makes me sick................

I follow a farmer's facebook page and he explained how all of those cows dying could be strictly from the heat. Short version is that these cows were beef cattle ready to go to market so were very mature and meaty/fat. Cows really need to be use to the weather, either hot or cold. In extreme conditions such as the super hot heat wave Kansas is experiencing the last couple of days, with the nights not cooling off all that much, their bodies couldn't handle it. The guy would explained it has a 500 head dairy herd and last year he lost 1 cow to this and he had fans and sprinklers and whatever else he could come up with to cool his cattle. If you have facebook, TDH Honest Farming is and interesting page to follow.

ARK my first though when you were telling how Ivan would touch your hanky was that if it were Tiberius he'd try to eat it. Tiberius has to put everything in him mouth.