Winter jammies

Arlo

Shaggy and Arlo

Steve holding Solly

Shaggy and Pepper behind Anjee and Arlo

Carly

Crickett, Carly and Topper

Carly and Topper in the Sipsey River

Topper, Crickett and Carly

December

It is a lovely winter day outside. So lovely I have opened all the doors and windows so the wind can blow through the house and the cats and dogs can come and go as they please. Of course, that means I need to check the batteries in my weather radio and run down to the shelter to stock it with drinks and chairs and to drill the dogs to the storm shelter routine in case we have to make a run for it in the night because when it is that warm in December we can have bad storms in Alabama. Old Carly is no longer with us, so I don't have her to worry about her this time. She is perhaps the biggest reason I waited too late when the tornado came through last winter, she was too decrepit to make a run through the storm to the shelter. I think I will also find a nice rum drink recipe ... Prichard's Coconut Rum, with a Fjordhorse on the label, makes excellent storm weather medicine.

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I miss Carly. She was one special Labrador. Imagine the Dolly Parton of dogs with a French accent and you have the essence of Carly. She was the loveliest color, a light yellow with the smallest hint of color, but without any washed out look in skin or fur. When she was a pup, she would get my attention at the computer by sitting up on her bottom, like a toy poodle, balancing with her tail and a with a paw on my leg, touching me ever so lightly, and making the most atrocious, loud, inhaling sound! People who heard this sound often asked me if she was asthmatic! I will try to find a photo of her to use in this post. She was an incurable chow hound. That and the fact that she was very self-centered were her only faults. Most female Labbies are very open-armed, always looking out for their human and canine family. Carly's only concern was that if her family was safe and all was well her food bowl would get filled morning and night! She had a way about her that was absolutely adorable. The darlingest toy dog had nothing on Carly for out-right C-U-T-E. She had these big round googly eyes, very untypical for a well bred Labby, with so much expression. She had a dished face much like a Pointer with a very deep stop. She had the most beautifully shaped, thick, soft ears. She was a lovely bitch I would have been proud to have shown.

Unfortunately, she developed a painful bone problem that Dr. Milton corrected surgically. When Carly was operated on at Auburn, Steve teased Dr. Milton and all his students and hospital workers about the Tennessee-Alabama college football feud. When she was brought out to us the next day Carly strutted out with a royal blue bandage on one leg and a bright orange bandage on the other ... Auburn colors! Of course, with us being from Tennessee, it was an obvious and hilarious jab at Steve's incessant ribbing of the Alabama folk the day before. Even though I was supposed to keep Carly quiet after the operation, she often got a crazy, Labrador look in her eyes and let loose with a butt-tucking spell the likes of which I have never seen before or since! She continued to butt-tuck upon occasion for several years after the operation. When she got going I would have to yell for everyone to hug a tree or run to the porch lest she plow into someone and knock their legs out from underneath them! But as the years passed Carly developed even more bone problems and was in pain again the last years of her life. She was with us for 14 years.

Carly managed to teach all my dogs after her to eat like someone is about to steal their food away at any moment. I would have to separate each new pup from the others and never let them see the others eat to break this behavior from my dogs. Even Crickett, who is as easy-going and accepting of others as they come, will now eat like a maniac because Carly and all the others have behaved that way. And with this behavior, a worry about food, comes counter-surfing ... another behavior I detest!

Carly was at her funniest when she saw something that worried her. Steve and I will forever chuckle at one particular incident when we were driving around exploring the Cumberlands. Carly rose up from the back of our SUV to see where we were when we pulled up to a stop at an intersection. She then noticed a motorcyclist pull up behind us and was certain this fellow was a dire threat! Her nose slowly rose above her eyes, she wrinkled her brow, opened those eyes as big as she could, pursed her lips and let out a series of woof, woofs that has us cracking up to this day whenever we remember her. You had to have been there to appreciate Carly at her finest. She did nothing half-way. She was all out hilarious even in the most simple mannerisms.
Carly was truly one of the most precious beings and we will always remember her knowing we were so lucky to have had her in our lives. RIP lovely lady.

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I had another dream a couple of weeks ago. It was a doozy. We were at a picnic at a park (it reminded me of a picnic we went to many years ago when we lived in San Jose when my Labby, Caper, went up to greet Yvette - she hates dogs and watched Caper come up to her and didn't even move ... $*%!# - and Caper stuck her nose right on Yvette's cigarette and burned the heck out of her muzzle). In the dream I was gazing at a nearby pond and decided to take a walk along the bank. A fellow in our group called out to me asking if his daughter could walk with me. I said, "Of course!" So I took her hand and we set off on our walk. A ways from the other people in our party, we stopped to skip rocks and watch the ducks when we noticed something huge rising out of the water across from us. It was the face of a monster - a big monster - about a quarter of it's head rose up, kind of tilted to one side, just enough that we could tell it was something very strange and frightening. Then it sunk back into the water. We watched in horror as it rose up again, this time it was moving towards us, slowly, and walking towards shallower water so we could see its awful form. At first we were petrified, then we got our wits about us and started running - fast. Then we remembered the folks at the picnic and yelled to each other to head their way to join them and warn them of the horrible monster ... then I woke up ... does this not sound remarkably much like my alligator dream from before?

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Sparrow, my one little hen, is still with us. The chicken run is nearly finished (gosh it's taking a long time to build). We have been doing something else almost every weekend this fall so we haven't been able to spend many days on it. It is so well built I have considered turning it into a horse shed! In the meantime, Sparrow has been sleeping under the dog ramp to the front porch in a pile of hay I made for her after I found her sleeping there on the ground. With no other chickens to cuddle up with in the tree branches, she decided that between the cold and the owls at night she would rather sleep there. I worry about possums getting her, but that would be a problem in the trees too. She is better protected with our dogs going in and out of the house at all hours in the spot she has chosen to sleep. Soon, she will have a house of her own and this spring she will have buddies to pal around with.

I am having trouble deciding what breeds of chickens I want to get. Looking at all the colorful breeds is like looking in the window of a candy shop, too many to choose from! My favorite breed is Blue Wheaten Ameraucanas. But the breed I am most interested in is Buff Plymouth Rocks. But the sweet, feather-legged Buff Brahmas and Salmon Favorelles absolutely endear me to them. And the gorgeous Golden Campines and Silver-Spangled Hamburgs catch my eye every time. And the colorful Blue-Laced Red Wyandottes and Vorwerks are intriguing as well. Do I get a couple of each for eye candy or do I concentrate on one or two breeds to help support a rare breed or two? I may as well put the breed names in a hat ...

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Solly continues to amaze me. I love that horse! How many times have I said that and I haven't even had her a year. A few weeks ago Steve and I took her to Shari's for a playday for Shari's students. We had a blast. Solly was good as gold and did everything I asked of her even with other students on their horses milling about in the paddock going by at various speeds. Then we all went on a trail ride. Solly, who much prefers to be first horse on a trail, was on her best behavior even when the horse coming up behind her was often a stranger to her. With Shari's help she is a great Dorina replacement, with a very similar personality to Dorina, but even better if that can be possible.

Last week we went on a trail ride. Shari was on her beautiful Palomino Quarab, Dancer, and Sara rode her bay Quarab who was Avery's mare, Firestar's, first foal, and I rode my Solly. The weather was awesome - slightly chilly with the bluest of blue skies. I missed Kimberly, she was in school ... trail rides don't seem complete without her little smirk and giggle. The leaves had already fallen so you could clearly see through the forest. We rode about 8 miles of the Pine Torch Trail. We turned around at the creek where we rode the horses into for a drink. The Quarabs made a bit of a big deal of having to go down the notorious jagged brick stepped creek bed while Solly and I patiently waited. Then Solly rode down to the bank with just a smidgeon of hesitation to get a drink and cool her feet. And for some reason, she didn't paw at the water. Usually she paws like a maniac splashing water all over me, her saddle, and everyone within 10 feet of us. She probably does it when she is hot. Anyways, I wasn't in the mood to deal with it so I was grateful she didn't start splashing. The pale, dry, Big-Leaf Magnolia leaves lay on the ground like patches of snow. The shiney, green needles of the hemlock's branches gave color to the brown forest. Every once in a while we came across bright magenta berries, holly trees or lichen covered rocks for a bit more color. Solly went first, last or middle horse with no problems at all in any position. Her bright spirit and fuzzy ears before me made the day that much more enjoyable. It was another wonderful horsey day that reminds us, after writing numerous $100+ checks to various people, why we have the silly beasties!

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Steve has bronchitis. Despite being sick we went out to buy gifts for our Christmas angels. We get different children every year. We only got one child this year, a little 7 year old girl. For many years we also got to buy presents for a lovely little lady who required special care. This year, Steve looked for her name on the list but it wasn't there. We feared something bad had happened to her, it broke our hearts because we had grown to love her over the years although we never got to meet her. Steve asked about her and the lady that collects for the angels looked into it for us. She found out that something good had happened ... she got adopted by the people who were fostering her and looking after her! We will miss her.

Merry Christmas angel, wherever you are!

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The pecans are dropping their last nuts in the winds today. I have filled my bucket and will be munching on them for months. Mmmm. Nom, nom, nom.

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My ponies are so fuzzy and cute this time of year. I have got to get my camera fixed. Maybe I can scout up a nice photo from last year. Someone on the Fjord-L wrote, "They are in their winter jammies." So descriptive, I love it!

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Merry Christmas everyone!!!
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Chickens, Books and Ponies

If you read my last post you know what a difficult couple of years I had with my chickens. I think I read too much. I have read so many horror stories about varmints getting into coops/runs and destroying every single bird inside. And my birds did so well roosting in the apple tree in my fenced yard in our mild clime with my Labbies on guard much of the evening that I didn't figure that cooped birds had it any better. And another thing, I only had a few bad runs with my chickens, I would go for months at a time with them running around free range without loosing any of them. I figured my losses were fairly low despite a couple bad spells. But the animals drawn to our place by the drought, devastating my flock in a short period of time, was the last straw that convinced us to try something new and fix them a proper coop and yard.
Our chicken run behind the garden shed is coming along well. The frame is all but done. Now all we need is the caging and to figure out how we will finish the bottom edge so that determined predators can't get in while we are sleeping, and to install a roofed roost, and doors and nesting boxes inside the shed. Then, we hope to get a new garden shed so I can use the old one for a chicken coop.

Our friend, Miguel, has been helping Steve build the frame and last weekend they poured a concrete step to rest the door on. It's very nice. I drew a little hen in the corner of the step in the wet concrete. (I can't see concrete mixed and formed without thinking of the Romans.)

My last, lonely little hen, Miss Sparrow, is still doing well and lays several large green eggs for us every week. If we don’t get any pullets this fall we will surely get some chicks this coming spring.

I bought some pansies and violas to take the place of the tomatoes and cucumbers in the garden this winter. I wonder if herbs will last all winter here in north Alabama. I would like to plant them too. I like to keep parsley, rosemary and chives. now we have added dill to the fresh plants we use in our cooking.

The farrier came out again for the second time. I don't think it's a fluke, I really like her work and her way with my ponies. Anjee was her typical spoiled self, testing her with every little trick she could think of. Humans, to Anjee, are nothing more than a source of entertainment. I tried to raise her properly, to respect us squishy, little humans, but somewhere along the way I missed the boat! But the farrier handled her most excellently and actually got her to stand quietly for a while.

I also got all the ponies properly groomed: beards and other shaggy places clippered, tails and manes combed out and neatened up, and bot eggs scraped or clippered off. They are so cute now! ~I must get photos~

I have been asked to draw a little design for name tags for a meeting for my ponies breed club. I have a few drawings finished that I like a lot. I hope they are happy with them when I send them in, and I hope the size of the drawings is usable.

I finished Bernard Coldwell's book "Sword Song". I love the series it belongs to, 'The Saxon Novels'. I also love his 'Grail Quest' series and 'Warlord Chronicles'. Coldwell could be my very favorite author. In between other novels I am slowly re-reading all of the Harry Potter series. I am enjoying them more this time than the first time I read them. And Steve and I are of an age that we figure the number of books we read the rest of our lifetime is so limited that we are usually loathe to reread anything ... but Harry is one exception I will make! (I sure hope he grows his shaggy hair back out for the last movie!) Waiting in the wings on my night stand is Ken Follett's "World Without End", the sequel to one of my all-time favorite books, "The Pillars of the Earth".

I am hoping to find someone to ride Bankhead with on a regular basis. I am not one to go out adventuring on my own on a horse. It looks to me like this fall is going to be long and lovely. It would be a crying shame to spend it cooped up in the house with fat, out of shape, pasture-potato ponies out my window!

That's about all that's happening around here lately. We are enjoying the change in the weather ... warmth and coolness at last, hopefully no more HotHotHot this year!

Late Summertime and Chickens

Tadpoles in the horses water trough. Having already eaten so many delicious homegrown tomatoes and cucumbers that you wrinkle your nose in anticipation of having to eat another. Wonderful, cooler evenings. Horses already shedding their summer coats and growing their winter coats although the days are still Southern summertime hot! Late season wildflowers blooming.

Steve and I have been busy getting the yard neatened up before the cold weather comes and getting a chicken coop built while chicken breeders still have cockerels and pullets for sale.

My history with chickens has not been pretty. My first batch was from McMurray's. I purchased light Brahmas, New Hampshires, buff Rocks and Easter Eggers. I raised them and loved them. I found a home for 15 of them. I found homes for my Brahmas. Although I enjoyed their looks and personalities, the red clay soil looked awful on their white feathers. Many of the other pullets went to another home. 25 chicks (one shipping order of day old chicks) is too many for me. All was well for many months. I knew I would loose some to free-ranging, and I did have some losses, but not many. Most of my chickens had names, even some of the ones I gave away: Chester, Angus, sweet Cuddles, Precious, Pearl, Sparrow, Sister, Lucy, Petula, Penelope, Rosey, Coco, Little Brown Hen, Tiki and beautiful Buffy. So it hurt whenever I lost one. I was lucky, all my chickens had wonderful personalities, some were downright affectionate. They make amazingly good pets. They are beautiful to see. They make endearing sounds that is music to my ears when they putter about the yard eating bugs and things. And they make wonderful, delicious eggs! It amazes me that a couple of sweet, pretty, quiet, egg laying hens aren't in everyone's back yard!

Of the 10 chickens I didn't send off to other homes 8 survived to adulthood and 6 made it to the next spring. When I lost dear little Tiki, my favorite little pet chicken, I decided to get some more. We went all the way to East Tennessee to get 12 chicks from an excellent breeders lovely flock of show-bred Ameraucanas. They were the most beautiful chicks I ever saw and they grew into birds that took my breath away they were so lovely! Most of them made it to adulthood despite the fact that the coop and run I had planned to build never materialized. My first batch stayed near home and spent most of the time in my fenced yard with my Labradors on guard. This second batch roamed more and were rowdier. They all roosted in the apple tree at night. I found a home for one of the roosters. I wanted to keep all the Ameraucana pullets, they were everything I had hoped they would be, and their eggs were a clear robins egg blue that were a joy to find in the nesting box. They were growing up and the boys had started fighting amongst each other. Then the drought hit and the predators started coming around for the water in my pond. I lost a few, but I still wasn't worried. For a while I was gathering dark brown, light brown, olive green, green, blue and pink eggs from their nests. Then we went away for a week and the devastation started. 6 were taken in that one week ... it was positively shocking. My pet sitters found two of them dead in the fenced yard with no feathers plucked or anything, just killed for sport or perhaps they got into something poisonous. And it continued when I got home. I was torn apart with grief and frustration when my most beautiful Ameraucana hen, Muffy, was killed by a juvenile red-tailed hawk that flew into my chickens feeding station to catch her. 6 more were killed that week when I found out that the neighbors dogs were contributing to my losses. I was down to 3 chickens from both years batches ... horrible, horrible. Longshanks, my stunning splash wheaten Ameraucana rooster; Sister, the prettiest of all my Easter Eggers; and Sparrow, my darkest Easter Egger, were all I had left. They stayed home and didn't create a lot of noise or commotion, so I thought they should be safe, and they were for several weeks. But the drought continued, the neighbors dogs still came around, and then all I had was Miss Sparrow.

Sparrow is a wise old girl and keeps a low profile. Her dark mottled color helps keep her from catching the eye of animals passing by. She also has a big bubble zone and never was one for trusting or cuddling, that part of her personality has probably helped keep her alive. I pray she survives to teach the next batch her wily ways. I plan to get young ones and only two or three at a time so they will learn from Sparrow before they take off on their own.

Anyhow, I am almost over the shock of the loss of my flock of chickens. Sparrow is lonely. So, Steve and I are building a large fenced and netted yard with coop to keep chickens in. Hopefully we can make it predator-proof. If I can keep them up all night and through the early morning when critters are most likely to come by looking for food or sport, maybe my next batch will be a successful flock. Unfortunately, I feel like I have already lost the best chickens ever. I can't even look at photos of them without it bringing a tear to my eye. That was definitely a lesson learned the hard way. No more chickens without proper housing. =(

Natural Trim and a Bad Dream

I think I have found a farrier for my horses, I am so-o-o happy! I have been very unhappy with my traditional blacksmith because he just won't even come close to the natural trim although I gave him a nice book on the subject. He did do better for a couple of trims. Now he charges me more money and has completely reverted back to the old way. A few weeks ago I was looking at the local want ads on the web and found an ad for a natural hoof trim lady. We made arrangements for her to come out to trim my horses and she came this morning. She was wonderful with my horses. She was very knowledgeable and did a superb job. We talked and talked. We even discovered we both know some of the same horse folk. And whats ever better is she might invite me out on trail rides to Bankhead National Forest with her and her riding buddies!

I woke up to a nightmare this morning. It went like this: Kyffin, my darling, young, dark yellow Lab, and I were walking through a fascinating jungle. I was oohing and aahing along the way, while she ran from one exciting smell to another. We came upon a small lake. On a bank beside the water was three large tortoises. I was so interested I made a beeline for them. Silly Kyffin ran beside me and when she saw the water, being a Labby, she dove right in. Only then did I see the three huge crocodiles in the water just a few feet away from her. One obviously showed interest in her, turned toward her and was on the move and sinking under the surface to catch her before I could scream for her to come ... then I woke up, terrified and nearly in tears. Then I popped out of bed to get ready for the farrier to arrive and all was well, my Kyffy hadn't been gobbled up by a crocodile after all!

Hazy Day

It is a hot, hazy, north Alabama day outside. It feels good piled up indoors in front of the computer in the air conditioning with a cup of coffee. The world was a strange enough place before computers and blogs, now it is positively nutty that you can post a daily diary, art, literature or thoughts for the whole, wide, world to see. So here is my first blog!

My name is Meredith, I am an artist. I work on commission. I have a husband, three Labradors, three cats, six horses and one sweet Easter Egger hen. My interests are art, trail riding and day hiking with dogs.

This drawing is a graphite of Caper "Hennings Mills Court Secret", my first show dog, when she was a year old. It hangs on the wall in my dining room. She is long gone, but to me she represents love, spirit, fun and joy in the world, so I chose her for my first post.

(Please, do not use my work for your public web pages, public photo storage sites, or to make money. The art and photographs on these pages are my works and I want to be able to control where my work goes. I would hate to have to put big, ol' watermarks across everything I wanted to share with you.)

My interests are art, Norwegian Fjordhorses, trail riding, Labradors, day hiking with our dogs, reading and movies. I hope to share with others with the same interests.