4th of July

Another 4th of July has come and gone, without much fanfare around here. Our party hearty neighbors have all seemed to use the celebration of our country's inception as just another reason to get blind stinkin' drunk and act like jackasses. It's been like this since they moved in.
So, as I sat under the fireworks display in our local little berg, with my 6 year old son on my lap, with his ears plugged with his little fingers to block the sound, and his new green LED light sabre on his lap, I couldn't help but wonder what happened to the patriotic enthusiasm that so many people had when I was a kid his age. Even at the nice small town display I was unfortunate enough to sit next to a motor mouth, and a motor mouth kid that could do nothing but criticize the offerings of explosions that tiny town could offer. It seems that every year I hear more, or maybe I just notice more people bitching about the display, rather than just enjoying them.
I know it's basic, but if you aren't pleased with what they have to offer, they do hold fundraisers, and ask people to donate to make the display bigger and better.
The 4th was a holy holiday when I was growing up, due in no small part to my Grandpa Harry who LOVED the 4th. I won't get into his story now, but one of these days.....
That's probably why the more I live where I do, the more bitter I get about the 4th.
Every year, the 4th of July is celebrated (by our neighbors & near neighbors) the same way every long weekend is. It's an excuse to get blindly drunk, not just on the day, but for the entire weekend. The only difference is that they may even light themselves on fire - it has happened, and it's not as funny as you might think it would be.
Well, it was pretty funny. Kind of like - karma, with a side of HA HA HA!!!
But I digress.
Is it really necessary to be three sheets ALL weekend? I'm not kidding here. When they finally move in the early afternoon, the first thing all of them do (including the teenagers - what kind of parent encourages their kids to be BLASTED???) is to crack open a cold one. And, not of the good ol' Coke v. Pepsi variety. I don't believe they even grilled out this year - just liquid lunch all the way around. It's disheartening. But I will quit ranting now.
In fact, I just hope everyone had a fantastic 4th, with family, fireworks, and good friends. I also hope no one got lit on fire that didn't entirely deserve it, and that those that did, were promptly put out, without serious injury. Maybe just enough to give them enough of a scar to straighten them out a little.

Horsey entertainment

Well, it's been an interesting weekend so far. Yesterday marked Trixie's 3rd birthday. Good thing I'm working on her every free chance I get - which so far, is not too much.

Yep. She looks overworked, doesn't she?

Wheezy got the OK to go into a small pasture with a friend last time she saw the doc. Looks like she is mostly blind now in that eye. BUT, she is certainly doing fine. She ran into the little pasture like she had a firecracker up her ass yesterday. This morning, it was just a bouncy happy feelin' good trot. Good for her. She's hangin' with Rosie, they're buds. They eat together, walk together, shit together... you know how those tight horsey buds go.

For the first time since I've had her (has it really been 4 years already?) I FINALLY got a great picture of Velvet. Oh, not one, not two - but THREE. I am still in total shock and awe.

Here is my favorite.

You can even see the teeny tiny star on her head. Aww. How I love that horse.

Then, to make my morning complete, when I got back in the house, ALL of my boys were awake, and having a good morning too!!! Larry was snuggled up in my bed, Big Larry was playing with the baby, and the baby (when he wasn't playing with dad) was jumping like crazy in his little johnny jump up thingy. Then this:

How can anyone NOT like this??? And, my little boy took the picture of my littler boy. Good Morning. Wish the whole day could run this smooth and cheerful.

Wheezy

My mother has a mare with a very, erm. . . colorful personality. She is generally a good natured horse, though one of the most cantankerous old bitches you ever did see. She can be perfectly sedate one day, and then try to strike at you the next. We have gone around several times, and although she can be terribly pig headed, she always realizes that 'oh, yeah. . . this one doesn't back down.' Although we clash from time to time, she knows too, that I do have her best interests at heart. When she is ill, she is generally very very easy to handle for me. Even when she will try to buffalo my mom (her person, that is) she knows better than to pull that crap with me, and that I will take care of her no matter how ill she feels.
She also has an inate tendency to get herself into more trouble than any of the other horses combined (knock on wood). Some how, she is the one that breaks her halter, gets kicked, tangled in wire, breaks her feeder, bucket, or stall door... she is the one that gets cut in a foal proof stall, and finds a way to mangle her latch on the door. It is both irritating and endearing. You never can tell what the hell she's going to get into next. For instance...
She likes to chew wood. NOT crib, just chew. She will beaver through an 8x8 treated post like it's made of apple flavored horse treats. Over the winter, while I was pregnant, and hardly able to keep them fed & watered, Wheezy ate her stall down to the framework. I'm not saying the other horses didn't eat their stalls too, but none so completely and efficiently as she did.
It is understandable then, that when my mom found the time, and materials to finally go out & fix Wheezy's stall mom felt like Wheezy was safe from herself for the first time in months.
I thought so too.
We were WRONG.
Somehow the very first night that we had gone over that stall, and re-covered it, checked and double checked the feeder & bucket, salt block holder, walls, door, and even the ceiling & floor ...
Wheezy injured her eye. On what - no clue. I have combed her stall, the barn, anywhere she may have been able to reach - nothing.
When we saw she'd hurt herself (Larry saw it first, he fed that am.) I called the vet, it was of course, a Saturday. I explained what had happened, told him what I had available in the barn for treatment, and was told to use my antibiotic eye ointment, and if no improvement by Monday, to bring her in. Well, by Sunday afternoon, it was worse - not to mention getting ointment into the eye of a notoriously head shy horse is no picnic in and of itself.
We set out to bring her in that Monday AM. Somewhere between breakfast, and unloading her at the docs (didn't think to look at it when I loaded her) the cut on her eye was actually protruding. Eeew.
She punctured her iris. We left her at doc's he put her on the ground and stitched her 3rd lid shut. He kept her there to medicate her easier, and monitor her for himself. She came home, with her eye still shut to give her a chance to heal. She did great for doc, and for us, until she found a way to rip a few stitches - back to see doc. he sedated her, and removed the remaining stitches. We have brought her back twice now, just so doc can monitor her. She'll be going back again Thursday.
No word on if she will ever be able to see from that eye again. I'm hoping for the best case scenario - a blind spot rather than a blind eye. So far, Doc has been impressed with how well she's been healing.

Damn damn damn...

God, you know you really must love your animals when you can spent 2 days without complaint working on their 'play' area. In my case, it's an electric fence that encompasses approximately 6 or 7 acres for my horses to run & graze in. It's quite nice, really. In that little space, there is a small patch of trees that they can get shade from, and a small pond that they can drink or swim in (and they do), and a patch of sand that they love to roll in, too. But I'm getting off task.
Every winter, I try to keep them in the small paddock as much as possible, for several reasons. One being to keep them from breaking loose - a big deal when you consider that I was pregnant all winter, and didn't really need to be chasing a half dozen horses across the tundra.
The other, and probably more important reason, is to keep them from destroying the grass trying to hibernate below the snow & slop. THAT is the same reason I try to keep them off that pasture in the spring when the ground is soft, and the grass is not growing strongly yet.
However, our well failed about a week ago, and it was quickly getting to the point that I could NOT satiate their thirst from the tanker that the well man had left behind. I HAD to fix the fence from it's winter with the deer, and I had to fix it fast.
SO, I spent 2 days fixing shorts, repairing broken spots, and flagging like a mad woman so that mom's arabs, and my son's geriatric pony could see where the boundaries are.
Fat lot of good that did.
Mom's senile loopy ass 16 year old paint ran through my electric wire gate. The one that's been there for 2 years. Nice. That would have been irritating enough had the weanling arab & the geriatric pony didn't follow her out the damn thing.
Larry was putting the horses up at the time, and he did manage to get my big girls, Rosie, Bub & Sparky in before seeing that Champ (see geriatric Pony) had headed down the trail, then heard the barn door open, and made a break for the barn - through the still pulsating electric fence ... which he got caught up in, and could not break free from the snapping fence.
Larry switched off the fence, and Champ promptly RAN (no, really... he did) down the trail and into the field to the north of us. He was (easily) caught, but still.... now I have fence, and gate, and flagging to do all over.
I think poor Champ is blind or partially blind, so he will need to be kept mostly seperate from here on out. Cant' risk the old feller getting injured or caught up in the wire again. Poor old man.

Moving faster now...

SOOOO.... Middle of Feb. the stud colts were de-studded, and they are right now, tucked in with the girls out in the BIG pasture.
On the home front, we've already had to take little David to the hospital a few times now, ended up he had RSV, and it wasn't over until he'd been admitted. That was a while ago though.
Now, everyone seems to be healthy & happy.
I will try to be better at this.....