She’s Doing Fine

 

No. This isn’t a post about Apache. But here’s a photo of her taken this morning. Can you see her through the blizzard?

No. This post is about another special horse (and another critter, too. More on that later)……….

It’s been a year since Baby Doll went to go live with her new owners.

You can read my heartfelt tribute, see her doting owners, and the last moments we spent together, by visiting this link:

Letting Go Of The Rope

Not more than a week has gone by, this past year, that I’ve not thought of my first horse. Sometimes I’m just remembering her scent, some of her endearing mannerisms, the good rides she gave me, or her beauty and spirit. Sometimes I remember the not so great things, too.

I wonder if her memory will fade someday?

I don’t think so.

Baby Doll will always have a special place in my heart.

At least I know that she is happy and doing well. Her new owners, who live in Eastern New Mexico, in Portales, adore her. They take good care of her, ride her often, and treat her like the princess she knows she is. The following photos were sent to me by her owners, so please excuse the photo quality. 

Baby Doll has some good neighbors and very nice living quarters.

 

She is ridden a lot, by her Dad, T. He takes her out on the trails, with his wife and her mare, and, during the summer, he works on a cattle ranch and takes Baby Doll with him, giving her a job herding cattle. I’m sure she loves it.  

 She might even get more love and attention from T, than she got from me.

 

I sure hope T’s wife, B, doesn’t mind sharing her husband with the other girl in his life.

I still miss her sometimes, but I know she is enjoying her new life and is doing just fine.

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On the same note, but a different species of animal, I’ve been wondering how my two sheep, Blanca and Svetlana, that I sold last May, are doing. You can read about that day by visiting this link:

Farewell Ba Ba's

And you can check out a very endearing, funny story that their new owners sent to me last summer:

Blanca and The Llama

 

Last week I received an email inviting me to attend some interesting classes taught by traditional Navajo Pueblo Indians on processing churro wool and mutton. So I forwarded it to Blanca’s and Svetlana’s new owners, because they are focused on the history of Navajo sheep and preserving the Navajo heritage. Of course, I was also hoping for an update on my two very sweet and special ewes.

That evening, I received an email back thanking me for the information along with a few photos and some exciting news about Blanca.   

That’s right! She’s a Mama!

She gave birth to a little female lamb on Dec. 6th. This was not only Blanca’s first lamb, but also the first lamb born to her new owners and their flock. They decided to name her T’aala, which is Navajo for first!

Is that not the most wonderful news?! Receiving the news right before Christmas, was like being given a very special surprise gift! Really made me happy. 

I was told that Blanca is a wonderful Mama and takes very good care of her pretty little baby. T’aala inherited her lovely and unique butterscotch markings from her Daddy, a 4-horned Navajo Churro Ram. He must be very handsome, because she’s beautiful and quite exotic looking!

They are hoping to find Svetlana her own handsome ram someday, but in the US, Karakul sheep are very rare. They did have Svetlana out with the Navajo Churro ram this summer, because Karakuls and Churros are both coarse wool sheep. But her owners don’t believe she was bred because the ram had too much difficulty maneuvering around her tail…….the trademark fatty tail of the Karakul sheep, which is where the sheep store fat to survive in the desert when food is scarce (think camel hump). 

I did a post about my sweet Svetlana and Karakul sheep, as well as my friendly Blanca and Navajo Churros, the day we brought both of them home, when they were still adorable little lambs. You can see photos of them, including Svetlana’s fat tail, by visiting this link:

Welcome Blanca and Svetlana

 

It’s a great feeling knowing your re-homed animals are being taken good care of.

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The snow is still falling hard here with wind gusts up to 55 mph. The weather folks said we should expect between 6-8”of the white stuff. I canceled a Dr. appt. I had this morning in Albuquerque, but I’m not sure they believed me that we had gotten about 3” of snow yesterday and we had a storm raging today. Albuquerque is only 20 minutes west of us, but while they are around 4,000’ elevation, we’re above 7,000’ elevation. Big difference when it comes to weather.

(The birds are well-fed and watered, with bird seed and leftover cornbread, and look pretty chipper, despite the blowing snow and freezing temperatures)

I really don’t like to drive in blizzard conditions with thickly falling snow that is blowing sideways, so I canceled about 2 hours before the appointment.

The receptionist was very nice, but she did give me a little speech about remembering to give a 24 hour notice. Well sometimes that’s just not possible, especially in regards to weather in New Mexico. It can change hourly and a common saying here is, “Don’t like the weather? Wait 15 minutes and it will change”

Then you get people from out of state who aren’t used to snow or the peculiarities of New Mexico and the elevation differences.

Reminds me of a story….

Ranchman John was in a Home Depot last winter buying some new snow shovels, and a know-it-all type, new transplant from California (It’s easy to tell, trust me), snickered at the snow shovels in my man’s arms, and told my hubby, “Well, those are a waste of money. You won’t need them here”.

I guess he doesn’t know that, in New Mexico, you can head up to the mountains to go skiing in the morning and head back down for a round of golf in the afternoon. And if you live in the mountains, you will need snow shovels.

Ironically, just about an hour ago, Ranchman John called me from his job in Albuquerque and said that they’re only getting a little rain, with some snow flurries in the foothills.

He called me a second time to tell me the sun was shining. And wouldn’t you know it, just 15 minutes later the sun was shining up here, too. But at the same time the snow was blowing!

Of course, the sun quickly vanished as the clouds, heavy with snow, commenced with their duty of making sure everything is covered in fluffy white.

Sheep Update

The gal and her husband who bought my beautiful hand-raised sheep, and gave them a great home, sent me an e-mail update that I want to share with you all. It made laugh and made me so happy, because she is obviously entertained and enthralled by my sheep and I’m so glad Svetlana and Blanca went to such a wonderful new home.

Here ya go:

“I have to tell you a funny story!  I bought a llama that looks like your white one with the brown rear.  He has never been around sheep.  I unloaded him from the trailer and Blanca thought it was her long lost friend (Catlinite). She was SOOOO happy, she and Svetlana chased the poor guy ALL around the pen!  She wouldn't give up!  He was so freaked out but she stayed by his side until this morning, and the two of them were drinking water together!  Love always conquers all!  I love them both but I gotta tell ya, Blanca has my heart completely!  She is amazing!  She lays by the horse pens where I have 4 mares and a stud horse(breeding time).  The mares were freaked out by the sheep at first but Blanca lays as close as she can get to the pens and the mares all groom her!  She is quite the character!  Watching the two of them chase that llama would have won me some money on America’s Funniest Home Videos though!  Thank you for them.  They bring me great joy and I love them both!
~Jo Beth”

Isn’t that the cutest story?

And here’s a photo of Catlinite, my white llama with the brown tushie. haha! This was taken the first time that Apache met the llamas close-up, back in March.

Farewell Ba Ba’s

 

After a year of hopping back and forth on the fence, and being wishy-washy about whether or not I should keep my 2 year old Navajo Churro Ewe and 2 year old Karakul Ewe, I finally sold them to a good home. I decided I didn’t much care for the coarseness, smell and greasiness of sheep wool and would rather focus on my angora goat mohair and llama fiber instead. I could have kept my sweet hand-raised sheep around as pets, but I wanted them to be useful and for someone to appreciate and enjoy them and their wool.

They left on Sunday for their new home out on the open grasslands near Tucumcari, New Mexico. Blanca and Svetlana will live with a flock of their own kind, instead of being bossed around by my grouchy angora goat, Luna. They will have over 400 acres to graze abundant gramma grass to their heart’s content. And their new owners are nice folks. The woman, J, is an anthropology major and is learning the age old art of Navajo Weaving and her husband, L, is a true cowboy through and through, raising cattle and horses out on their rangeland. They were even nice enough to invite me out to watch L compete in rodeo roping events and to bring my horse out to ride with them on their land. I told them to watch out or I just might show up on their doorstep with my horse and trailer ready to saddle up! haha!

J already e-mailed me this morning to let me know how easily my two ba ba’s settled in. Apparently their Navajo Churro ram made my girls feel right at home and they are already accepted into the new flock.

I will miss them, but I know they’ll have a great home. And when I drive out there to visit, I’ll be sure to bring with me their favorite treat of horse cookies. I’m glad I remembered to take one last photo of them before their new owners arrived to take them away. 

                                                 Farewell Svetlana and Blanca!

Sunday Stills ~ Barns

 

This week’s Sunday Stills Challenge is Barns.

We have a little barn. It’s not a typical barn in the fact that it’s only enclosed on 3 sides for the animals and hay storage. It’s more like a shelter in that regard.

But we do have a nice sized tack room, although now that our electric isn’t working due to some evil, destructive gophers, the tack room is difficult to navigate around in because it’s so dark. I have to feel around in there like Helen Keller to find anything. It’s too bad the people who built this barn didn’t put in a skylight, then there would be natural light in there all day.

We added onto our barn’s roofline after we moved in, because the barn builders didn’t take into account that the roofline didn’t adequately provide enough protection for any animals when it rained or snowed. The first winter we were here, we only had our two llamas and anytime it snowed, even though they were in the barn, they would be covered with snow. So, we added on another 8 feet to the roofline, and it has made a huge difference.

Also, if I had planned this property in the very beginning, I would have placed our house up at the top of the hill, and the barn somewhere in the middle and closer to the house, because as it is now the barn is at the top of the hill and the house is way down at the bottom.

This placement makes it very difficult when the ground is covered in ice, snow or mud. It was especially frustrating during the first winter after we moved in, and our pipe running to the barn froze and burst. We had to haul water up twice a day, up that long hill.

Not to mention the views at the top of the hill, from the barn, are beautiful! I can see way out, past the mountains, towards the Eastern Plains from up there. But I doubt that the llamas, goats, sheep and my horse appreciate that view as much I do.

Gee, this is turning into a gripe about my barn, isn’t it?

Really, I’m grateful to have my own barn, but you know how it is. There are always things we’d change given half the chance.

(This is a photo of our barn, taken from the upstairs of our house. Taken last month. Sorry about going into my archives)

 

(And this is a photo taken recently during a foggy morning. This is an old, dilapidated barn about 5 minutes from our house)

And Llamas Don’t Bother Her at All

 

I just want to tell all of you, who’ve left me such wonderful comments, a huge and grateful thank you for your well wishes, congratulations, opinions and advice on my two most recent posts about finally making Apache my own and interpreting and dealing with her licking. You guys are the best!!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Today was gorgeous with temps close to the 60’s! I would have loved to get out and ride, but I had other plans to do with Apache instead. She’s been in her smaller paddock for the past week and I wanted to get her into the larger paddock/pasture to give her some more exercise, and get her used to the llamas, goats and sheep, and to give her access to the barn and stall, if she so chooses.

As I told you all a few days ago, Baby Doll took several months to get used to the llamas and was very spooked for a long time even to look at them. She eventually did get used to them, but it took a while.

I expected similar reactions from Apache and had prepared myself to deal with them and to just be there to help give Apache courage, even though I was also worried about any potential blow-ups or freak-outs and me getting hurt by them.

But I was still hoping that Apache might act like ‘my’ noble, brave, handsome Rojo did when he first met my llamas, as I took them out for a walk past his pasture.

He was a friendly gentleman and I think he had a crush on my pretty little llama girl, too.

 

(Did you happen to notice that handsome Rojo also wore a heart on his left shoulder…..just like my Apache does, too? I just noticed this as I was posting his picture. wow. Coincidence?)

This is a very special, to me, photo showing how gentle Rojo was with my little girl. Sometimes he would lower his head and let Jenna hug his muzzle and give him a kiss. It was very sweet. Such a terrible loss……….I sure do miss that beautiful boy.

 

Anyway…I digress.

Ranchman John told me that he wouldn’t be surprised if she just took the llamas in stride and wouldn't be bothered by them at all. It’s so annoying when he’s right.

I went up to her paddock and got her haltered and then I spent some time grooming her a little and trimming her bridle path. Her mane is so thick and bushy, it’s impossible not to get it all tangled up in the halter and bridle. I was then prepared to take her for a walk around the larger pasture to show her the fenceline and where all the trees were located….and to introduce her to the llamas.

After walking around the entire fenceline, we came back around to the barn where all the llamas, goats and sheep were hanging out.

When we walked along the woolie’s fenceline, Apache just stood and stared, even when Catlinite was being rude and stared back in his aggressive stance.

I walked her past them a couple times, but was surprised that she was eager to walk up to the fence and meet them face to face. So we did. And she never batted an eyelash.

I could tell Catlinite was disappointed. His glare had no effect on Apache at all.

She was just curious and tried to make friends with everyone.

Cataleya was much more friendly as usual and she rubbed noses with Apache, which was very sweet.

(In llamas, ears laid back is actually a sign of submission, not aggression. But when ears are laid back AND their nose goes up in the air…watch out! Then they are preparing to spit!)

And, of course, the goats and sheep were all happy to make a new friend.

 

Apache kept looking at me, as if she wanted me to know that she was fine with everything, and I just couldn’t stop praising her for being so calm, confident and sweet.

I love her more each day!

So, she passed another test with flying colors. I removed her halter and let her explore the rest of the pasture on her own, with me walking along beside her.

To be continued………………

  

Sunday Stills ~ Valentines Day

 

This week’s Sunday Stills Challenge was rather vague. We were told to just post photos that remind us of Valentine’s Day, but be sure to use lots of creativity.

So the below photos are my interpretation of Valentine’s Day ~Laughing Orca Ranch style

Llama Love

  

 

Wooed by a Wooly

 

Amorous, affectionate Apes

 

Sexy Snowman

 

Head-Over-Heels Horses

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

 

Cabin Fever~ Tag! You’re It!

 

I can tell I’ve got cabin-fever because I usually never do these sorts of memos or tag thingies. But a new reader found me and tagged me, and it sounded like fun, so, maybe it’s time for this tag to make some rounds and get our minds off of this annoying winter weather most of us are experiencing (And yes, in case you’re wondering…..it’s snowing right now here in New Mexico….again. The positive thing is that the temperature is probably too warm, in the upper 30’s for the snow to stick.)

So here are the rules:

Answer the following questions with single word answers then pass this along to 5 other bloggers.

Make sure to link back to the person who tagged you (By the Becks tagged me), and be sure you let those you tagged know about it.

Have fun!

Your Cell Phone? Alltel
Your Hair? Bedhead
Your Mother? Gone
Your Father? Carolinas
Your Favorite Food? Runts
Your Dream Last Night? Intense
Your Favorite Drink? Margaritas
Your Dream/Goal? Trailrider
What Room Are You In? Bedroom
Your Hobby? Letterboxing
Your Fear? Falling
Where Do You See Yourself In Six Years? Comfortable
Where Were You Last Night? Home
Something That You Aren't? Mean
Muffins? Lemon
Wish List Item? Horse
Where Did You Grow Up? Texas
Last Thing You Did? Laundry
What Are You Wearing? Jammies
Your TV? Off
Your Pets? Many
Friends? Few
Your Life? Simple
Your Mood? Bored
Missing Someone? Sure
Vehicle? GMC
Something You Aren't Wearing? Bra
Your Favorite Store? Tack
Your Favorite Color? Orange
When Was The Last Time You Laughed? Morning
Last Time You Cried? Week
Your Best Friend? Aeri
One Place You Go To Over And Over Again? Bathroom 
Facebook? Yah
Twitter? Yah
Favorite Place To Eat? Tucanos

And I choose:

Thoughts from the Road

Small Farm Girl

Fern Valley Appaloosas

Jane Augenstein-My World in Pictures

From the Horse's Back

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And something else that I thought might be fun to share: A video of me visiting my woolies in the barn. I can never get used to hearing my voice in a video, though. Sounds like a stranger talking. How about you?

Wordless Wednesday ~ Double Trouble? or Monkey in the Middle? or?

 

Nine Inches

 

Interesting title, eh? Well, when the weather report came out on the night before New Year’s Eve, it said we could possibly receive between 2-3” of snow. (Our 8th snowfall of the season if anyone else is keeping track.) But when we woke up in the morning, this is what we ended up with instead.

I’d say this was a wee bit more than 3” wouldn't you?

My little Dobbie girl’s stubby legs are barely 6” long. She had to work hard to move through that snow.

My daughter loved that the snow was deep enough that she could wear her new snow pants and snow boots.

 

And so did I.

My twinling sons had fun trying to make a twin snow angel.

While I was easily amused with watching the big slab of snow slide slowly to the edge of the barn roof. I was secretly hoping it might fall on top of my mare, but no such luck. haha! Doesn't it look sort of like white fondant?

But when a big section finally fell, she did run out of the barn.

“Avalanche! Run for your life!”

 

The llamas, goats and sheep were more fascinated with watching our neighbor’s kids sledding down the hill beside our paddocks.

 

But they did come over for treats and attention later.

The chickens refused to come outside of their house unless I cleared an area for them and laid out some straw for their feet, and set up some wood panels to block the wind.

 

They still spent much of their day inside their house, but the less time they’re inside, the cleaner it will be in there. In the winter I have to clean out their coop more frequently than in the summer.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And here is my Project 365 photo for today.

The temperatures were down into the teens that night, and though Baby Doll has access to her barn stall at all times, she prefers to stand out in the snow with a small tree grove as shelter instead. And when I tucked my fingers underneath all of her frost and ice coated fur, I was amazed to find that the fur next to my mare’s skin was dry and her skin was toasty warm. A little bit later, she enjoyed a good roll in the snow and most of that ice and frost broke free leaving her back dry and fluffed up.

Snow and a Caption Contest

 

With this, our second snowfall of the season (we’ve actually had three, but the first one was just snow flurries), I decided I was curious about what is considered typical snowfall up here at 7,000ft in the Central Mountains of New Mexico.

So, I went back into my archives, and thank goodness for labels, because I was able to quickly locate all of my snow related posts going back to our first winter here in 2007.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

This is what I discovered………..

First Snow Fall of the Year:

1. October 22, 2007
2. October 14, 2008
3. October 28, 2009

Last Snow Fall of the Year:

1. May 23, 2007
2. April 12, 2009
3. TBA

Snow Posts in 2007/08~ 24

Snow Posts in 2008/09~ 14

Snow Posts in 2009/10~ 2 so far…..

~~~~~~~

 

So, this winter will be helpful in proving what is normal or typical regarding the snowfall in our area each year. I just hope that we don’t get one of those late Memorial Day weekend snowfalls or the chances of my fruit trees producing will be slim to none. And by the time the first day of summer rolls around, we can’t help but be fed up with snow, even though it’s beautiful during the holidays. And the snow does a great job at blanketing and softening all of our dead, brown grass around here.

But Sunday morning, the chickens weren’t as happy to see the white stuff and insisted on being fed inside their house.

I was relieved to see that the Mrs. Cotton and her chicks survived the cold night in their temporary coop, too.

(Underneath those angled board on the right is a little house filled with straw and shavings, and underneath the left board is their feeder and waterer)

I’ve been letting all 4 of them out into the main coop during the day, but Mrs. Cotton isn’t the top chicken with all of my hens.

And even though she tries her best to stand up to them and defend her chicks, she’s smaller and ends up flattened and defeated with a couple of them.

So, I don’t want to risk putting her and the chicks in at night with my entire flock just yet.

(Clockwise from far right: Barred Rock Betty, Cuckoo Marans Mandy, and Welsumer Wanda)

Besides, for now,  Mrs. Cotton seems much more comfortable herding her babies into the temporary coop at the first sign of trouble. It’s easier to defend them in that confined space, too.

After I was done feeding, watering and spreading straw for the chickens, it was time to head to the barn. Of course, Baby Doll starts whinnying and nickering to me as soon as I step foot out of the door. Actually the nickering is a new behavior from my mare. She’s only been doing that for about two months, and she does it whenever she sees me for the first time, even when it’s not time to be fed and even if she is already busy eating.

I’m not sure what has changed, considering I’ve owned her now for going on three years and can’t remember her nickering to me in this way, but I do think the nickering is rather sweet.

Of course, she seems to be the most eager and happy to see me in the morning because she knows she’s getting her carrots first thing, followed by a cupful of grain and then her hay. For dinner she just gets her hay, so breakfast is a special deal for her.

And the llamas, goats and sheep act like they are starving no matter how much or how often they are fed, or how wide their bellies.

More, please!

 

Jenna loves to go with me to the barn every time I head up there. She’s very helpful with refilling all the water buckets, too. And her favorite thing to do is slop around the mud.

(She has a few years before she grows into her old hand-me-down barn coat)

When I got back to the house and decided to check on my flock again, I noticed that my trio of fancy chickens, including Mr. Cotton, Phyllis Diller, and Sid Vicious hadn’t left the chicken house and seemed to be in some sort of important meeting.

 

What do you think they were up to? Shall we have a little Name-That-Caption contest?

Whoever’s caption makes me laugh the loudest wins a hat or scarf (your choice), hand-knit by me.

(PS: You’ll have to give me a couple weeks to knit your hat or scarf as I’m still behind in getting my Pay-It-Forward goodies made and sent out. I’m such a slacker! Don’t hate me. gah!) 

 

Ok, so go ahead. What do you think my Silkie Rooster,  Polish Rooster and my Polish Hen were up to?

Contest ends this Friday (11/20) at Midnight!