My driveway and parts thereof. This is just so that I can prove to my grandchildren to be that something other than the weeds and dirt that their parents remember as my yard grew here.


The driveway rosesbush - has been here since I moved in. Just has gotten much bigger.

The wellhouse honeysuckle. This little baby has now made it 3 years under my tender touch.

The original rosebush and friends. This rosebush lived right next to my front door. After many years of the dogs digging it up to sleep under it and yet perservering I decided to transplant it last summer. Looks like it thinks the move was just dandy.

This is just cute. This kids' watering can under the trumpet vine.

Roses gone wild! When I lived in Washington I thought people that grew roses were of a special breed - not only green thumbs but green blood running through their veins. Now I have discovered that like always it is location location location. Here in SW Idaho they grow and grow and grow. Some seem to think they are going to take over. Which is fine by me since my yard seems to be either roses or weeds.

Little brother's are so sweet. A rose in appreciation of his big sister's performance.

Whoops - not so fast there. Off he goes giggling like mad..

Awww - now there's the sweet moment:

More ballet pics with friends...

Spring is in the air. School is almost out. Days are longer and warmer. Kids are running amuck here and there and have all of a sudden developed selective deafness and unexplainable memory lapses (homework?? chores?? where are those dang shoes??).

Parents are being driven crazy running here and there for all the final dance practices and recitals (clogging and ballet). No time to get anything done at home and lucky to get there by 9:30pm when the kids are supposed to be in bed by 9pm. So is it worth the hassle, the frazzled nerves, the dirty dishes .... hell yes!! Check out the beautiful ballerina in the production of "Neverland Dance" - she was one of the mermaids in Neverland.

A little white fog action:

A little pose with her rose afterwards:

2nd Mother's Day Gift. Li'l Miss Majik gave birth to a very scrunched up little filly at 6:30 am - feeding time.

I have been worried about this little mare because she got very run down this last Winter. My only horse that did. I was afraid to feed her up because the mares have been having such huge babies and if you can call any of my horses refined it is her. So I have been waiting with fingers crossed and she did fabulously. The filly has been nursing almost non stop since hitting the ground so I think making up for some lost time in utero. Mama mare is happily esconced in a large stall where she is eating to her heart's content and then a little extra just to make me happy (I am sure).

Of course, I will not be truly happy until both are about a month down the road and looking fabulous.

Mother's Day Art. Submitted by the inestimable Miss Sarita for her mama's lovely Mother's Day.

Mommy & Me & Montana and the Monkey (Nathan) -Gotta love the sisterly love in her description of her little brother. Sarita told me she drew herself sitting on a rock so she could be as tall as me in the picture.

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Night and Day - that's what it seems like. Two weeks ago I dealt with the birth and death of a lovely black filly that hit me hard. Well sometimes life gives you a little something to offset the bad things that happen. Yesterday a lovely big buckskin filly was added to the Farm. She is the light to banish the dark (of course, Freckles has been doing a very decent job of keeping me in smiles as well).

Bailey did an excellent job and is a wonderful mother.This filly is huge. Very active. Long long legs with plenty of bone. Has already figured out the whole duck my head and get up to the milk thing. Bailey gave no indications she was ready to foal although I have been watching her for the last week and a half. She ate like a, well, horse yesterday morning. No pacing. No sweating. Just one lovely filly.

Hiding under mom:

Still shy (notice the buckskin shading on shoulders and neck):



Freckles finally has a friend. Notice the size of the six week old vs the one day old:

Happy babies:

Nathaniel has again discovered why we have dogs. He was hanging in the bathroom going "poop, mom" which can take him some 20 minutes when he has toys as well. But all of a sudden he jumps off the toilet (not an easy feat for a child barely 36 inches high and using a stool to keep his feet on. However, he did have naked bottom so no pants to get in his way) and grabs Molly (blonde standard poodle love hound) and starts pulling her into the bathroom and closing the door. Being all mom and no slacker in the potty department I ask -

"all done?"

"No mom - going poop!"

Door closes.

Approximately 4 minutes later door opens.

"mom, mom all done poop- look".

Now thank god he was not actually telling me to look at his poop (although that has happened and he has rightfully been quite proud of some of his potty accomplishments) but to look at Molly. Again he is holding her neck and she peers out the door and something - hmmm, something looks a little different. What is it?Oh, yeah, the dog is wearing my reading glasses.

What have we learned from this little story? That apparently Nathaniel has ways of entertaining himself while going potty that we as adults have long forgotten? That I should not leave my glasses on the back of the toilet (hec if I know what they were doing there or if I would have ever found them myself anyway)?

No, I learned that the dang dog looks good in my glasses.

A boy and his horse slippers cannot be separated. Even tho they are twice the size of his feet. Even though he has to do the slipper shuffle instead of run. And the fun when mom holds both hands and he slides across the floor when we go to pick big sister up from dance class! Of course, a boy must maintain the right foot angle to keep said horse slippers on when being picked up or carried.

" Mold! Mama, mold! "

What the hec? Here comes Nathaniel running up to me with one of those little plastic tubs of chip dip in his hands. Uh, oh - I just bought that so there could not possibly be any mold in it. I open it up and see none. Without waiting for the mommy mold check Nathan sticks his finger(s) right in, scoops some up and sticks it in his mouth with a big smile. "Good mold mama".

Now I don't want anyone to think that this reflects on the, ummm, 'natural' state of the contents of my refrigerator but sometimes I do buy things for a specific purpose and ,well, if that purpose never comes to fruition or perhaps I purchased too much in my zeal to have enough then mold happens. Perhaps grandpa was visiting and pulled out some whip cream in a very similar plastic tub, opened it and discovered mold on the side. Perhaps he then let Nathaniel stick his finger in the non-moldy part and take a taste. Nathaniel loves whip cream (Of course, I guess all kids do). Then grandpa shows the moldy part to Nathan and says "Mold" and Nathan looks at it and thinks "yum, mold!".

I apparently now have a child who will proclaim to the world that not only does mommy grow mold, but she lets him eat it and he loves it.

Thanks grandpa.

48 hours - two days - Just a flash for most of us in our busy lives and yet for some a lifetime. At approximately 3pm Friday Little Girl Bear came into this world. She was huge, beautiful, and jet black with a big old star (almost a blaze) across her forehead. Bigger even than my colt that was 3 weeks old.

However, something was wrong. Her head bounced around on her neck and she could not stand. Her limbs awry and spastic. Totally out of her control and far beyond the normal for a newborn foal. Her mother stood in the corner watching her but making no moves toward her. I could tell she'd had a hard time with this birth - her first. She did not want anyone to touch her. Traumatic birth for her. I could not tell at first what had happen to Little Girl Bear - had she been kicked once on the ground; had mom kicked her when she went to nurse for the first time; had she had too much trauma in the birth canal (most likely)??

No real answers but what I could tell - this little one was a fighter. My thinking - if she wants to try her hardest then I would do my best for her. She could not stand on her own so I helped her. She could suck tho. My goodness this little one could suck. So I got out the foal formula and fed her through a syringe. She sucked so hard she actually pulled the plunger down on her own. I switched her to a bottle. I called the vet and ran up at 10pm that night and got the plasma to give to her the passive transfer of antibodies that she should have gotten from her dam's milk. During the next 48 hours there was feeding every 2-3 hours. I called the mare's owner - a friend from down the road. He came up to help. We got her up and standing on her own. By Saturday evening her dam, Bear, was trying to manueuver her into position to nurse on her. She was steadier and, dang, she ate!

For those of you that know horses you know that a foal that does not start life well generally does not make it. They are prey animals. They are born to get up, walk, and run within hours of birth. So we all knew there was a very good chance this little girl would not be with us long but she was so determined. So full of spunk. As soon as she heard voices she would roll up and start looking for us. She would struggle mightily to stand up on her own. So I knew when I went out to feed her Saturday night at midnight that there was something wrong. She rolled over and even ate quite a bit but she did not try to stand. It was like her short life had already tired her out immensely.

And that's how it went until Sunday afternoon. I would go out to feed her and she would want to eat but it was less and less each time and then she would close her eyes and rest again as if just that had taken so much out of her. Her final moments were between 4:20 and 4:40 pm on Sunday. I was with her until she took her last breath and her heart finally stopped beating. She was lying in the sun on a bed of sweet smelling hay and while she could no longer hear me I still spoke to her.

48 hours - truly a lifetime for Little Girl Bear. I do not know why this one has affected me so much. I have lost others both young and old for all sorts of reasons. Perhaps it is because she follows so closely on the heels of losing Smidge Midge (the poodle). Or maybe just the cumulation of so many "big" things happening in such a short span of time (for me 2-3 years not 2 days). I don't know . . . truly - I'm not that good at sorting emotions. But deep down her spirit and spunk and just plain will for living in even that short time has touched me and I feel her passing strongly.

My sincere hope is that she is now on her way to a grander adventure where she can run full out and enjoy the wind, the rain, and the sun as only a horse can do.

feeding time:

Nap in the sun - on top of mom's hay:

Easter Parade. Not really but we did actually have Easter this year. Last year we were all in China picking up Nathaniel so this was his first Easter and I almost forgot how to celebrate it. Fortunately, Sarita has it all figured out by now. If you want to do holiday stuff better not count on mom to remember. Baskets were courtesy of the kids. Hey, I did remember to get the candy and the coloring stuff for the eggs. And, oh yeah, the eggs!

Nathaniel loved the coloring part. Sarita got to try out new marbling type of colors which actually looked pretty good. They colored over 2 dozen eggs. Good thing everyone in my house loves hard boiled eggs and egg salad!

Nathaniel chooses just the right color:



Prepares the scientific dunk experiment:



Look ma, no dye on my hands :



So what do you do with these things once they are colored?:



Hmmm, so this is where eggs come from :

Hmmm what to do on a beautiful Spring day? Well, if grandpa is around and it is a beautiful sunny day you take the kids out front and teach them the "stump jump" and the "monkey drop". And I wonder why Nathan wants to climb on everything everywhere...

The "big boy" on the stump



Sarita lends a hand



The BIG jump into waiting arms


And the big drop into waiting arms.

trust issues - nah none here. Of course, we have to remember this is the same kid that climbed to the top of a 17 story pagoda and thought it was just dandy to hang off the edge when he was but a wee lad of 2.5.

This is why I love living on the farm. Cats are happy and content ....


and the dogs are happy and entertained.

Ok so the foal's name is ..... drum roll......

Tink's Chocolate Chip Lost Boy -we'll call him Freckles.

Wait -was that Boy?? Chip??? Whoops she did it again! No matter how many times I tell myself I should do a double check especially after divining gender in the dark after a night of no sleep I just never find the time to do it. Then when I am out there watching the little thing take a pee I am thinking "hmmm, that seems to be going the wrong direction" but it is a fleeting thought since we are standing in 50mph sustained winds. Then I come home from a business trip and my father breaks the news - Rebecca, there is something hanging down from that there little filly. I go running out and check out ,yes , a boy toy thing just hanging there as happy as can be. The thing with little horses is that when they first come out everything is pretty sucked up but about a week later everything is loose and hanging in the breeze and they cannot suck it up if you paid them. And, yes, my dad is cracking up at me - again. Did I not do this same thing 2 years ago??!! Yes I did.

Oh and this means that Grandpa (chocolate chip) and Shane (Freckles) win the candy bar.

Birds singing, Robins appearing on your lawn, calves and foals being born, the greening of lawns and pastures, trees bursting into flower - yes, all the telltale signs of Spring. However, the most prevalent and best sign that Spring has sprung - the first trip to the hospital for those "project" injuries. So I can say for sure that Spring has arrived in SW Idaho:





So, Marc (my brother) fearless yard worker that he is decided to trim the huge old Willow in his backyard, but that is not a job for the weak at heart. The old tree does not give up its limbs casually and generally inflicts damage on the doer of deeds. Of course, when one decides to JUMP off the ladder instead of climbing down it ....

So a broken arm and tweaked tendons in the knee. That's okay. The fearless yard warrior will be back at it again in 4-6 weeks.

NAME CONTEST

Name that filly contest - just add a name you would like for the filly to the comments section of the blog and then we will vote on the ones we like the best. The winner gets the candy bar/candy of their choice.

Please get the kids to add names as well!

Contest will run one week from today - so ends March 30th!

It's a girl for Tinkerbell. Mama did a wonderful job this morning and had a huge baby girl. Tinks is eating some good hay and baby is trying to fall asleep standing up when I left them. Tinks has some cramping (you did all notice the size of that baby right) and baby has pooped so all is well.

Pictures were taken just as it was getting light out thanks to the wonderful new daylight savings time crap. But I had to get kids to school and me off to work.



If this shows up twice blame google. They seem to have lost my original post.

Well hope everyone wants a poodle puppy. After weeks of taking Jake to work with me and keeping the two apart (Montana and Jake) looks like they figured out that 2:30 in the morning while mom is dealing with a little boy with a 103 degree temperature is a good time to uh hum - do the deed.

With my luck they will be born and then ready to go right when I need to take off for China. I just know they did this on purpose. Well, of course they did but still....

Oh and Sarita's reaction - mom, can we keep one of these puppies too? Cuz you know that 7 big poodles is just not enough for one household.