Wordless Wednesday ~ Apartment Dwellers

 

 

 

 

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)

Scenes from the New Mexico State Fair

 

Two weekends ago my kidlets and I joined our homeschool group on a field trip to the New Mexico State Fair. We spent the entire day there, ate lots of fattening and yummy fair food, spent way too much money, saw so many great things, and had so much fun.

Here are some of the photos we took while we were there.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now that the New Mexico State Fair has passed and the Albuquerque International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta has begun, it is officially Fall here in New Mexico. Fall won’t last long, though. Already we’ve had a hard frost and days with gusty cold winds, and mornings waking up to ice in the water buckets up at the barn.

 

My mare, Baby Doll is growing her winter beard and is already covered in a soft, thick fur coat and is fattening up like a Thanksgiving turkey. I hope I’m wrong, but I’m predicting a harsh, cold, snowy winter. 

I sure do miss summer…….

From the Tower of,

Swallowing my Barn

 

Last year two swallows moved into my barn and built their nest. This year, they returned, and two more (maybe their grown up chicks?) arrived and made my barn their home to raise their families.

The chicks always make me smile. They are so amusing to watch as they wait for their parents to show up with a tasty morsel.

I enjoy listening to the swallows sing and flutter in and out of my barn all day. And at night they settle in and roost together. They do a fantastic job keeping the insect population down, too. This year, the fly population is very low, and I know I have the swallows to thank for that.

    

Sometimes when I sit in the barn, they will fly close enough for me to feel the little breezes caused by their wings. And they will often sit within arm reach, as if they have no fear of me.

I am wondering if all barns have swallows and if they are common everywhere, or at least in the United States and Canada? Do you have barn swallows?

I’m curious to know what my reader's favorite birds are that live around your home or in your area.

From the Tower of,

Mare Watch Monday

 

Here we are going into the third week of Mare Watch Monday. Sure wish Annie would have her baby soon!

  

Her teats have really filled up and are quite firm, but Annie is still eating like she’s growing twins in there. It does seem that she’s finally getting a little of the feed for herself and her ribs are less visible.

She doesn’t seem to have grown larger around since last week. The tape is about the same place around her belly and not farther apart.

Annie doesn’t seem as impressed with all of the photos we take of her anymore.

 

Annie’s ligaments on either side of her tail seem to have sunk and relaxed quite a bit lately, too.

We’ve started camping out in Val’s barn to keep a closer watch on her development. The kids and I are having a great time in the tent and the horses don’t seem to mind at all. They ‘sing’ us to sleep with their heavy breathing, snorting, stamping, nickering, slurping water, munching hay, and deep relaxing sighs, especially from Annie.

We are awakened just a tad bit too early by a barn full of eager swallows waiting for the first rays of sunlight to shine into the barn.

I sure wish they could wait until the sun actually rises, though

At least the horses do. And then they come say Hello to us through the tent walls, sniffing and blowing, questioning whether we might have carrots inside.

 

Check out Val’s Blog to see more photos from our Mare Watch barn adventures, and to also enter her Mare Watch Contest: HERE.

From the Tower of,

Barn Swallows

The barn swallows have returned! I have loved spending time in my neighbor Valerie's barn. It is filled with the furious swooping and fluttering, ad beautiful music of barn swallows. She has so many it's difficult to keep count, but we guessed at least 30. Her barn has 20-30 foot ceilings and the barn swallows have built intricate mud/adobe nests on any horizontal surface up there. They like to use horse hair to build their nest and wet mud, of course, of which there is much of that in Valerie's barn.
But what I also love about barn swallows is that they eat insects, not grain. So they are very useful to have around in and around a barn and farm animals.

Here are a couple barn swallows in Valerie's barn.


I didn't hold out any hope that we'd get our own flock of barn swallows as our barn is smaller with lower ceilings, and with just one horse that only eats inside the barn. But we do have plenty of straw, llama and angora fiber, and wet mud to use for creating a nest.
So I hoped and wished.....and we finally have our first set of barn swallows laying claim to our barn now. Yay!!

Aren't they just beautiful?!