log splitting

It was a nice sunny day today, only - 10 degrees. Our projects today were driving down to the sawmill and shove off logs of the trailer (I drove the tractor down to the mill), splitting wood, feeding cows and hauling cows. I got to split wood too :D I got a lesson on how to stand and how to split. It is not so easy like it looks... When my friends do it it looks so easy ! It needs lots of strength to hit the log and not only scratch on the surface... I hit one log in the middle and it split all the way :) I was really proud of myself :D In the late afternoon we jumped in the truck to haul cows. It was great to sit in the semi again ! I really missed that and I will miss all the road trips...

7 days

Another nice sunny morning, -12 degrees. The countdown is on... only 7 days to my big travel day ! :( Its a weird feeling after such a long time in Canada to go back to Switzerland. I will miss everyone and everything. And I know I always can come back ;D for more adventures in the beautiful country of the maple trees.

all started with a beautiful morning...

What a beautiful morning ! - 9 degrees and the sun is shining again... when it was time for feeding we went outside to do so. My friend made an awful discovery ! Magpie, the mare which was injured a couple weeks ago, died last night ! It was just terrible to see her laying there in the shelter ! What went wrong ? She did sooo good the last few days, even started to feeling better.... I still feel really guilty that I didn't go outside when I heard the dogs barking last night. But who knows... it could be wildlife (dangerous wildlife) they are barking at... or try to call us when something like that happens. We are all so endless sad about her death. Rest In Peace, Magpie !!

Already December

It's already December ! I can't believe how fast the time goes by. I only have 1 1/2 weeks left in the maple tree country :( It's snowing at the moment, big flakes by 1 degrees. Unfortunately, the wind is supposed to pick up again this afternoon... :( up to 30 km/h ! Not much fun to do stuff outside like that. The horses have a hard time to focus it you wanna work with them, there is the possibility that trees are coming down as well. We spent the last few days, always depending on the weather of course, trimming feet (stallions and geldings), playing around with the foal to get him used to wearing a halter, hang around, visit Kidd, my favourite Palomino,... it's good to enjoy a quiet time and not racing around all the time. Soon enough, this time will be over again...

howling ?! ...WOLF

When I was feeding today, suddenly there was this howling down in the bush. HOWLING !!! It sounded different then the howling from a coyote... which can only mean... WOLF !!! :D I asked my friend if she heard the howling too and if that would be a wolf. She was also standing and listening, and yes this is a wolf ! AWESOME ! This is the first time I ever heard a wolf howl. It stopped to howl after awhile and we finished feeding horses. I was already back in the house when my friend, who was still outside, came in the house and told me to come outside.... I thought 'oh they howl again' and raced outside. :) Sure enough, only this time it was the whole family. Yeeeeeessssssss !!!! It was so incredible. I decided to try to record the howling with my camera. Well, the only thing I recorded was the dripping of the melting snow and the dog's barking. It sounded like they are on the other side of the hill right after the texas gate. If I would go to the texas gate with the dogs I should be alright, right ?! So, that's what I did. I grabbed my camera and flashlight, called the dogs and walked toward the texas gate. The neighbour's dogs were at their drive way and were barking like crazy at us. I never met the male dog, not in the daylight or at night time, and so I didn't go closer. I stood in the middle of the road, in the dark with the dogs around me, listen to the howling. I really enjoyed it...

foggy morning

This morning, - 10 degrees and foggy. A nice view... The little boys, Smokey and Bright eyes and Mikey out in the field were pretty frosty :) I really liked Mikeys frosted eye lashes, he looks so handsome :D Maggie is doing good so far... She ate her breakfast with the drugs, drank all her water and looks pretty bright even her hind legs are pretty swollen and must be pretty sore. As soon as it's getting a bit warmer we will wash her butt and belly to get all the dried blood off of her.

Injured !

Two days ago one of the mares injured herself. Somehow she managed to poke a branch in the inside of her thigh. I didn't see it when it was in there, I was in the house. Maggie needed to get a treatment in the vet clinic. I stayed at the farm to feed everybody. A couple hours later my friend came back, Maggie had to stay at the clinic. The stick was long..., holy ! She lost a lot of blood ! Poor girl. The next morning we could pick her up again. She was quiet, just munching her hay, glad to go home again. Magpie loaded good in the trailer, I bet she knew we will bring her home. Back home, we put her in a shelter which is fenced off, so she can go out of the shelter little ways, still can't walking around too much. Here as well, no fussing at all. I guess she is still too sore ! She eats the food really good even there are antibiotics in there. Maggie is talking to her friends left and right from time to time... even has company at night. The dogs keep her company in the shelter. I took a night shift last night, checking on Maggie to see if she is fine. No signs of colic or more bleeding.

Tsktsk

Winter is here. The temperatures are between - 11 and -28 degrees at the moment. Sometimes with blue sky and sunshine and other times, like today, cloudy. It's only - 21 degrees today. We worried about one of the cats, Tsktsk. She wasn't around yesterday at all. :( Usually, she is around the house at 9 am when it's time to feed the horses. Not so yesterday ! I walked around calling her in the morning and evening, no Tsktsk. :( She is such a cool cat, and she likes to talk. It would be sooo sad if an owl would have her for breakfast... Today, I called her again this morning during feeding time... still no Tsktsk. I went back in the house after chores and put my shoes and gloves beside the fire to let them dry, look out of the window and there she is :) beside Maddie !!! We were so happy to see her. Poor girl, something must have chased her up a tree.

to Edson again

It was time to go back to Edson again. We met my friend in Entwistle, had lunch and picked up horse and chicken feed on our way home.

cow work

Thursday / Winfield, After 11 hours of sleep I felt pretty good. My friends and I were sitting in the living room and had breakfast. Over night we got a big load of snow :( (I looked out of the window and my first thought was REALLY ???) and so several clients cancelled their booking. So, my friend decided to separate his own calves from the cows and bring them to the auction. It was pretty chilly. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my ski pants :( Finally, the calves were loaded and we hit the road to drop them off at the Rimbey auction. Our next project was to pick up two loads of calves from a client. These guys also went to the auction in Rimbey.

Elk haul II

Tuesday/ Wednesday. Another elk haul was scheduled. This time, we picked up the first half of the load in Spirit River and the other half in Leduc. No snow on the roads, ditches and fields had a bit. We had a good time, good interesting talks, I really enjoy to travel in this semi truck with my friend. As soon as all the elks were on the trailer, we only stopped for bathroom breaks and to get food. This time I wasn't that tired. I slept for around 1 1/2 hours and had a nap around 1 am. We had to be in Fort Macleod at 6am. I really hoped that I don't have to help unload this time.... I was lucky there were at least two other persons there to help.... I stayed in the truck and entertained myself with music. After around an hour or so we were done and could hit the road again. Our next stop was A&W to have breakfast. The next thing on our list was sleeping. After 3 hours of sleep we decided to drive some more and have a nap again before we drove through Calgary. On our way home we detoured to Ponoka to pick up a load of cows at the auction mart. They had to go to a place close to Leduc. Now, it was time to go home and to bed.

4 weeks...

I just realized that I only have 4 more weeks left in Canada. :(:(:(:(:(:(:(  The time just flies when you're having fun. So far, it was a great experience, lots to learn, good and bad, lots to see... I am glad that I took all the chances to do things even it meant to be on the road almost everyday. I enjoyed every second of my stay !

tagging and give injection

Saturday, over night we got around 3 cm of snow :( My friend decided to give the calves an injection so they won't get sick after the long walk home and the weather change and also tag them. There wasn't enough of the drugs and so we had to make a trip to get more. While we were gone to buy drugs, three of my friends rounded up the cow and calves. So, everything was ready. My job was to assist with the tagging and make sure the syringes were filled up. I really enjoyed to help. I like that. We all were hungry and headed for the house. Soon, it was time to pack up all the stuff again, load the horse and head back to Edson.

cattle drive and snow

Friday, getting ready for the cattle drive. We had to be ready to roll at noon... saddle horses, put all the needed gear in the truck, get the truck ready as well :) Finally, everyone arrived and we could load horses and people and get going. Our next project was rounding up the cows which were all over the pasture. I rode Buddy, one of my friends horses. I rode him before so I shouldn't have problems with him... and he was used to cows. Well, after awhile we ran into some issues together and I had a hell of a time to keep him quiet. And I wasn't so sure if he is not starting to buck. Two of my friends and I managed to push two bulls and a few cows and calves in the direction they had to go. Buddy was doing good so far. Soon, I got more and more problems with him which was really annoying !! I looked forward to a nice cattle drive !!!! Our problems multiplied from minute to minute and I got more and more annoyed all the way to the point I decided to walk not to ride. I stopped Buddy to get off. He only started to move again as soon as I was on my way down... so I lost my balance and hit the ground ! I was sooo mad and so I grabbed the rope and made him walk as fast as I could to keep up with the cows. We caught up and stayed there for the whole 6 miles. We were so tired and I had a big bruise coming up on my thigh. After putting the horses away we went in the house to have something to eat. Soon it was time to hit the road toward Edson. My friend and I loaded everything and the horse in the truck and trailer and off we went. On our way I called my friend to tell her when I will be home again and she said that it's snowing like crazy in Edson. We decided not to take the chance to hit the ditch with the horse trailer, so we turned around and headed back to Winfield to spent the night there and try again the next day.

build a boardwalk and last cattle haul

My day started pretty slow... After deciding what we are doing today, everyone took off in different directions to start their projects. I didn't really have one, so I decided to go outside and give one of my friends a hand moving the motor home. Next project for me was to help build a boardwalk between the church and the outhouse. I still had a hard time breathing and so had to take it easy. I am so sick of these stupid bugs !!!! :( I really hope they will go away as fast as they moved in ! Around 2 pm a pasture haul was on the program. I took the chance to help 'cause it would be my last cattle haul :(:(:(:( I will miss to go haul cattle in the semi truck.... Well, maylbe I have the chance at the end of the month to go on an elk haul. We'll see... We were back home around 4 pm and after feeding us we headed back to the church to finish the boardwalk before the dark. Unfortunately, it's dark around 5.30 pm. We made it, got the boardwalk built before it was too dark. Another project is half finished. The part we did today was more important then the next part.

visit in Winfield

I am in Winfield until Friday again. On Friday is the cattle drive which I look forward to :) I got a ride with my friend to a spot outside of Entwistle and there, my other friends picked me up. We went to Stony Plain to buy pieces for a stove. After a stop at Arby`s we went home. I am still fighting with my bugs and so I wasn`t really in the mood to do something in the cold. I decided to put some parts for the fan together.

Feather at her new home

Yesterday, we delivered Feather to her new owner. She was a good girl when it came to go in the trailer :) Feather didn't have a lot of trailer loading practice. She also was good when we reached the new home and it was time to get out of the trailer. No hurry to get out of it at all... We were so proud of her. Neira, another of the Starmyri Horses, is at the same place like Feather. Both were happy to see each other again. The barn owner has a donkey stallion. He started to talk as soon as Feather was out of the trailer...  She wasn`t impressed with this unfamiliar sound ! You could see on her face `wow, what is THAT !?!?' But she was good and didn't try to run away. Feather and Neira were together across the donkey in a pen when we left the property. We still don`t have snow yet which is a record ! But I guess we will get snow sometime this week... :( I really don`t look forward to that.

lots to do and making mud

We are more or less busy everyday. Feeding in the morning and evening, work with horses,  go to town for groceries, split some more wood and other farm stuff. We always have a good time. The weather is more or less sunny and since today chilly. It was - 12 degrees this morning. A liiiiittle chilly. The ducks and chickens have to wait till it's a bit warmer before they can go out. I had to laugh at the duckies... They use their water bucket to make mud :D That's so funny !

back in Edson at the 'Funny Farm'

I am in Edson since yesterday again. The weather is still good, a bit of a wind. We took it easy today, fed animals, visited and split wood. I met Curly (mostly white) and Norman (brown-white), the two little goats. Curly has lots of interesting ideas where to put his nose in :) and he is a real talker. The wood splitting was a nice job and it was fun too. And I also met some old friends again. Maddie grew up to a nice dog. I also met the 2011 foal, Wildfire. He is such a handsome boy.

drive a semi

Lots to do at the moment, help hauling cows, hay and equipment. Lots on the road and see new areas... The weather is not too bad, yesterday grey clouds were hanging around the whole day and a bit spiting in the evening. And today the sky was blue and the sun was shining again. There were no cows to haul yesterday and so we decided to haul a load of round bales home. I got the job to drive the semi truck with trailer in the field so the bales could get loaded. I never drove a rig like that before. I wasn't nervous at all... only excited :) I was so excited that I forgot to push in the clutch and so the truck died :( I could start it again and off we went to pick up more bales. It was great and I really hope I have the chance to drive this rig a bit more.

ranch rodeo in Olds

Ranch rodeo...where real cowboys compete against each other. :) These guys are actually working every day with cows. Sounds interesting ! It was really interesting. Yesterday at 10 am the first class 'ranch horse' started. The pattern was to ride circles of different sizes, sliding stops and spins and then a calf came in the arena, which needed to be moved around. After a lunch break the rodeo started. First class was 'California branding', followed by 'doctoring', 'trailer loading', bronc riding and bull roping. Only the 4 ranches with the most points were entering in the bull roping competition. 3 of 4 bulls weren't happy with being roped :) As soon as they came out of the shoot they tried to attack the riders if they were to close to him. After the cowboys roped a white bull he was a bit mad i guess... he didn't really wanna leave the arena. It took several cows and cowboys to finally get him out of the arena. I really enjoyed the rodeo, it was totally different then the 'professional' ones.

swamper

I am on the road again, helping haul cattle for customers. We went yesterday and the day before. Yesterday we hauled for three different owners from the Buck Mountain Grazing reserve back to the their places. It was the last day to haul the cows and calves out of the reserve and so there were lots of trailer. I was watching when they try to load the cows and calves in the liners (trailers with two floors). The one group of calves was cute, they went in the trailer without any problems... only to come out after a few minutes again :D I had to smile when I saw that ! Most of the cows and calves came back out as fast as they could when no one was there to keep them in the trailer or piled up in front of the door. :) These liners are narrow and the cows have to go up a ramp to get in the top floor. Almost every time when a group of cows or calves went on it sounded like the group was falling down...  I really like our trailer, it's wide, open and not slippery.

projects...

We finished the outhouse building :) and already started the next project, putting shingles on the front part of the church. I was cutting shingles on the ground and went up on the roof afterwards... well, it didn't feel so good to be up there but the view was good ;D and I put a few nails in the roof :)

build an outhouse and do ground work

We are busy building an outhouse beside the church. It looks nice with all the logs and boards. Today we put the roof on it and build the door. The next thing to do is put the shingles up on the roof. I also worked with the draft horses again. This time I worked with both. Nellie and Duke are in a small pen now beside the house cause both, well especially Nellie, like to play the 'hard to catch-game'.  Today both came to me and I had no problems to put the halter on. We worked on leading, back up, move shoulders and hind end. Nellie is more laid back then Duke. He needs to calm down when he's around people.... He needs a little more work :) I really enjoy to work with them, I missed it !

ground work with a draft horse

I worked with the two draft horses out in the pasture a couple times over the last few days.  Both think they need to be hard to catch. :) Fine ! I can work with that and it's so much fun. I really enjoy that. I can practice my horse language skills some more ;D The one minus point for me is the bigness of the pasture. If they decide to take off I have no chance to catch up... So, I need to get them in an area where I also have a chance... I wanted to continue our little discussion from yesterday. Nellie let me come closer today but then Madame thought 'No, you can't catch me !' and took off. I didn't really want to work with her today anyway. Duke was standing beside me and let me pet him. He didn't mind that I put the rope over this neck and soon put the halter on. He was a bit nervous but didn't try to escape. We made it to the one little pen beside the house. I asked him to move his hind end, go forward and backup and move his shoulders. He did great ! I was surprised that he didn't fuss so much. People told me that he is pretty pushy ! I left him the pen for a while by himself. Poor guy, he was sooo sweaty ! He is a brat ! Duke reared up right at the gate and tried to escape... He learned that from Nellie...( She did that in winter when they were looked up in this pen. Her stunt is to rear up, push the gate down so the chain gets out of place and she can push the gate open. :) smart cookie !!)  I put the halter on Duke again and we walked nicely to another gate where I turned him loose. He showed me good manners, still nervous. I am so proud of Duke :)

thanksgiving day

Thanksgiving day started pretty lazy :) we just hung around till noon and had a brunch. After that and more hanging around I decided to grab the draft halters and head to the pasture to work some more with Duke and Nellie. Yeah, Nellie decided she doesn't really wanna be caught and so we had a little discussion about being not rude. I really enjoyed to work with Nellie :) I hope to have time for regular work with them. Everyone else left for a trail ride and so I decided to watch the round pen video I have. Education is always good ;D Our next project was shooting, this time with rifles. I never shot a rifle before. We set up targets. I didn't get the target :( but it was the first time I ever shot a rifle. Good thing the recoil wasn't that bad like the one from the shot gun... Soon, it was too dark to shoot and so we headed back to the house.

thanksgiving weekend 2011

Thanksgiving weekend in Winfield. A three day party with all kind of activities like trail riding, skeet shooting, lots of food, a service in church on Sunday, other entertainment things like log sawing contest or walk races... The weather is good, sunshine and blue sky. The log sawing contest was so much fun. It was Switzerland vs. Canada. :) Switzerland started and it took us 47 sec to saw the log. The second group had 48 sec ;) We did a good job for our country. :D The next event was a walking race which I won :) We had to walk from the barn to the jail, a piece of cake for me ;D And in the evening is the turkey supper.

fencing and cutting lumber

Another foggy day, damp more or less... I fixed a fence and helped cutting lumber till it was too dark to see. My job was to roll the logs in position so they can go on the cart to get cut. Not hard work... :) Wait for supper to be cooked, watch a movie and warm up beside the fire.

Fall is really here

I am enjoying my days off in Winfield. On time with the beginning of October the weather is totally like in the fall. Clouds, rain, sun and fog, thick fog at the moment. The leaves are falling down and all the trees wear nice yellow, red or green colours. I really enjoy to see a nice fall. Unfortunately, with the fall weather the air is getting colder again too. So, that means dig out the winter gear and wear more then just a t-shirt ;) I went on the truck again to haul cattle yesterday. The one road we drove along had on both sides of the road trees with all this beautiful colours... even the Tamaracks turned in a nice yellow. I really love this time of the year ;) It's my favorite beside spring.

Done ! a new chapter begins

My last day of work is over ! I am done, I can't believe it. Tomorrow it's already October... The time just flies like crazy. Now, my holidays start. I can do what I want, sleep in almost everyday ;D Just enjoy my life here. I know now that I am off work the time will fly faster then before. :( and soon it's time to go on a plane again.... I just put that all the way back in my head and just enjoy ;D

a long day

After a night of almost 10 hours of sleep and a fast breakfast, we left for an auction near Edmonton yesterday. The goal was to buy a tractor with a bale loader in the front. The drive was not too bad, the sun was fighting with the clouds and finally made it... Unfortunately, a chilly wind was blowing. The auction wasn't good organized and soon 2/3 of the visitors left the place... This auction was a bit boring and I am not sure if I would want to go to another one.... Anyway, finally the auction guys drove down the row where the tractor was located and soon the tractor was sold...- to us ! Mission accomplished ! It was time to go home, well first buy a part to fix the cow trailer and my groceries and of course have supper.... It was a loooong day.

trailer accident

Back to work and it's already 3 day over. The weather is nice sunny with a cold wind today. One of the Quarter horses (one of my favourite :(  ) had an accident in the trailer yesterday. He kicked and got his leg over the divider and couldn`t get it back again. The trainer took him to the vet. Now, the swelling has to go away first before the vet can figure out if the stifle (knee) is broken or not. So, the horse is on stall rest for a while.

trail rides in the mountain

The next two days we went for trail rides again. One was around 5 hours and the other one 3 hours. Unfortunately, some of the horses got cinch sores :( So, we had to choose trails where it`s not too much up and downs. I really enjoyed the landscape and the riding. It was so nice to see all the bush, little hills all the rivers and creeks... I wished my holidays would be longer then just a week... so much to see and explore... The weather was moody. The mornings started usually with clouds, hanging deep and around the mountains and also wind. Usually the wind died down till around 11 am and sometimes the sun came out... I have to say we were lucky that the weather was mostly good. I had a hard time to come back to the civilization :(

The next morning I was up first. Time for feeding horses and clean their spots. After a late breakfast, water the horses and visiting, we decided to go on a trail ride. Most of the trail rides start with crossing the creek. No problem for `my`horsey. Dusty is an old pro when it comes to mountain trips. ;D We managed all kind of landscape, up and down hill, (thick) bush, meadows,... even the one steep hill which we had to go down. I was too surprised to be afraid of it. All I thought was 'really ?' and down we went the hill...Dusty did a good job ! We rode for 4 hours ! Everyone, horse and rider were tired. After supper someone had the idea to enjoy the view from the rock behind our camp... And of course everybody wanted me to come too (and that after a T-bone steak for supper !!). I made it up the hill. I was totally not in shape for adventures like that. The `up`-part was not that bad but the `down`- part was ! Loose rocks everywhere and sometimes your foot was just sliding down hill :( With a little help and lots of laughing I made it down to the bottom again.

Mountain trip one week

Finally, the trip to the mountains began. We packed everything in the trailer, loaded the horses and left for the Hummingbird staging area in the Rocky Mountains. The view on the way to the campground was awesome ! Hills, bush, creeks, meadows,... and all the different colours, colours of the fall. Great ! The campground was at the foot of a mountain. No neighbours :) only sheep on the mountain. Across the road a big parking lot, the bathroom and the Hummingbird creek. We set up the tents, got the hi-line set up for tying the horses and enjoyed a nice evening with BBQ food.

one week in the mountains

After 3 days off, I worked 3 days and now I am off again, this time for one week ! Holidays !!! :D Our day was filled with packing all the stuff we need out in the wilderness, tents, sleeping bags, tack, hay bales, feed buckets,... the horses got shoes and we had to fix a fence at the cow pasture so these guys will stay in there while we are gone. The weather is hot and the sky is without a single cloud. It was around 30 degrees C today. Way too hot for me ! There was no breeze on the top of the hill when we were fixing the fence ! Good thing there were some trees which gave at least a bit shade. So, we will head out tomorrow as soon as we are all done in the morning. I look forward to that ;D

blue bird

Sunday means a day of rest and be a bit lazy ;D it was pretty humid today and every movement made you sweat. 10.30 am time for the Sunday service down in the little church. There was this cute, funny blue bird in the flower bed in front of the church. I just had to take a picture of it beside me. ;) It's potlock every first Sunday of the month, so it was potlock today. Everybody brings food. Its nice to have lunch with the people and have a little chat. Two of my friends and I were playing badminton. It was a good excercise for us. Unfortunately, we worked up a sweat, it was still pretty humid. We tried to figure out what to do in the afternoon. We decided to bring salt to the cows. The one herd didn't wanna move and so we left the salt in a tub and visited the other herd. Unfortunately, they were in the hay field where they had fun eating the baled hay. We ended up chasing them out of the field and fix the fence.

sale and a chase around the hay field

After breakfast we grabbed our things and got ready to go to an auction sale in Buck Creek. The weather was beautiful, sunny with no clouds but windy ! We arrived at the sale place around 10 am, we had enough time to park the truck and snoop around a little bit before the auction started. Our goal was to buy barrels and lumber... We reached our goal ;D In the afternoon we had enough from the sale, greasy doughnuts and stuff. I was in the mood for ice cream, a delicious treat on a warm day. In my opinion, there is always time for ice cream, year round :D Our next project was haying as soon as we made it home. My job was raking again. So, I took off on the tractor with the rake. Flipping two rows together...  The 'baler man' was chasing me around the field. The scoop is that I rake two rows together and he bales it. All the other hay was already baled and so there was just the hay I was working on left. And sense I have to do double the work then the baler person, he had to wait a few times till I was done with a row. Twice he was right behind me on the same row which was a bit unfair... I have only a small tractor and the one for baling is bigger :(  So I felt a bit chased... but it was fun, he never really got me :D

last month

My second day of work, people came to have a look at the property today. We had to clean and tidy up everything. One horse went home and one was delivered to his new owner. I will miss him :( Tomorrow, my last month of work will start. It feels a bit weird but also exciting. I work 4 days, 3 days off, 3 days on and then.... 8 days of holidays :D And the plan is to go to the mountains, finally ! ;D I can't wait ! And then back to my last 2 weeks of work....

tight schedule

A busy day waited for us today, Monday. We left the house at 8 am to pick up railroad ties near Stoney Plain. It took us around 2 hours to load all the pieces on the truck. There were around 200 ties and some were pretty heavy. I had to be careful not to wreck my wrist even more... good thing we didn't have to lift the up on the trailer, a guy was there with a bobcat. After loading ties, bring them home, unhook the trailer and hook up the cattle trailer, head over to help move heifers we had to pick up 2 loads of cow-calf-pairs. One went to a pasture and the other once to the auction. A little later tonight we have to pick up one more load of heifers and bring them to the auction too. And after this run it's my turn to head back to the barn where my work days start tomorrow again....

porcupine quills

Sunday and nice weather. 10.15 or so we headed down to the church for the service. I really enjoyed to have off on a Sunday again which means relax, visit and just do some light work... Unfortunately, two of the young horses had porcupine quills in their noses. Poor little guys. So after church we had to pull them out. Decker wasn't so happy about the pain in his nose when we pulled the quills out. Soon, he didn't wanted to be around us anymore. We had to move him and his friends down to the shoot and pull the quills out. Poor guy had around 9 quills in his nose ! It was pretty warm outside and you got sweaty when you only did light work. I don't like that. We had a nice visit with a friend of us and ate hot dogs in the evening. The day just flew by like crazy and soon bed time was it again...

finally, part of the weekend off

Saturday evening I was off again. I really needed it, my muscles are tense and my tendons ache again. I needed some time off ! After picking up a generator and supper (popcorn shrimp and french fries- yummy !) we arrived at the farm. The days are already shorter and it's dark around 9.30 pm :( Summer is almost done ! Some trees already have yellow leaves...

swim in the pond

I am off now for Monday and Tuesday, thank god ! I really need it. My evening off started with a swim in the pond. It was nice so just hang in the tube and relax. I didn't like the weeds at all. It was almost everywhere... There are two ponds, a small and a big one. The big one has one fish in it. After our little workout and another shower we had supper and ice cream for dessert. The next workout was coming, this time a volley ball game. It was almost dark but still we had a lot of fun playing. Tired from all the workouts we sat in front of the tv and watched a movie till it was bedtime.

hot days, summer is here

My days at work were long and sometimes it looked like we can work and work but the work is not getting less... I don't like days like that, the only thing you get accomplished is getting more and more frustrated. Yesterday and today was nice hot weather. No cloud in sight this morning when I walked over to the barn for breakfast. It promised to get a hot day ! It was 29 degrees outside and inside the barn 25 degrees. Way too warm for me !! I was glad when I was done and could have a nice shower to cool myself down.

raking or not ?!

The day started with nice weather at around 7 am, unfortunately clouds moved in again. :( And they stayed... So, no raking for me :( the hay wasn't dry enough. Instead of raking or baling we brought salt to the cows, fixed a gate which two fighting bulls took out, chased a few cows and calves out of a hay field, fixed more fence and picked up a tractor in the one hay field which had a transmission problem. We were pretty busy...

sunny day and moonshine walk

A nice sunrise this morning. Then some clouds came in again but got blown away soon. Sunshine and windy... a nice summer day - haying day. After checking the next hay field on the list I started raking a few rows in one field on the other side of the highway. I didn't think raking could be so much fun :) I even drove in the second gear ! Before, I only was brave enough for the first gear ;D When I was done raking all the rows we switched over to another field which was ready to get raked too. I enjoy to sit on the tractor and drive rounds after rounds and make nice big piles of hay. It looks so nice. I hope the weather stays nice during the night and so I will do some more raking tomorrow. Our next project was fixing the tractor with the cutter. It had water in the fuel tank. It was already 7 pm. One of our friends came over to have a look at a tractor which is for sale at the one neighbour's place. We met him on the road and went home to have a visit and a cup of coffee. It was still a nice evening and so we decided to eat our supper outside. Everybody moved down to the camp kitchen. The moon was really nice and bright. A few clouds around... I got the idea to go for a moonshine walk down to the saw mill. My friend joined me. I really enjoyed the quiet and all the sounds from the night. Horses, cows, wind, crickets, just awesome ! I really will miss that when I have to go back home !!