Thursday, May 19, 2016

Farm Life

The Other Half brought this on himself.  He grabbed them a bag of apple ginger snaps at the store one day.

We're in our first spring at our little farm.  It is a beautiful property, and it the past couple weeks it has become even more beautiful with everything coming into full bloom.

Part of the trail that goes around our property.  Sooo pretty!

Another part of the trail.

Our place is also like watching Animal Planet live every day.  It's pretty awesome.  We have wild turkeys that we see daily.  Sometimes when I come out in the morning I hear them gobbling in the woods.  We also have a deer family that I see almost every single evening either in the arena, or by the muck pile.  We have a resident hawk that we actually saw flying around over one of the pastures with a snake in his talons the other day.  There's a possum that hangs out in the one pasture at night sometimes.  And now, just this week we have a new resident that has made an appearance every single night, a raccoon.


There are two other raccoons that have come to the yard with him but we haven't seen them since.  But this guy comes to visit every evening and in addition to putting cracked corn out for him, The Other Half throws him pretzels and bagels from the front window.  

I love all of our wildlife.  They don't bother anything.  We did have one big tom turkey that was attacking his reflection in one of the basement windows.  Stuff like that won't be tolerated but he hasn't done it since.  I really thought he might crack the window.  Not cool.

The Other Half recently put up a temporary paddock that is fenced with electro-braid.  They all know very well what electric fence is, and they respect it.  This paddock is also something they will only be in when we are home.  It just gives them another area to graze and gets The Other Half out of mowing for a few days.  He came up with this idea on his own and after getting the supplies had it up really quick one evening.  Klein and I were jumping and before we were done it was up and Mochs and Wes were in it.


 
 How awesome is it that I took this from sitting on our couch in the living room?

The ponies approve!  Especially Mochs since that gave her access to the BIRD feeder, which she promptly renamed the PONY feeder.  

 *face palm*

I KNEW that if any of them messed with the bird feeder, it would be her.  She got into the plat form feeder and tried to go for the suet cakes but couldn't get them out.  I watched her and despite me opening the window to yell at her she completely ignored me and went about helping herself.  We will just run the fence in front of the bird feeder so that doesn't happen again.  It was worth a try!

There is this dirt patch on the top of the small hill that they each take turns rolling in too.  

Klein rolling in their favorite spot.

Wes taking his turn.

I'm out of town for work until next week so The Other Half is holding down the fort and doing a great job like he always does.  He even has the ponies walking obediently from their temporary paddock into their stalls for dinner, which is surprising.  Normally Moch would take off like a wild thing but she's been a model citizen.  Her trot is looking better these days too.  I am going to take a really close look at her on the longe line after they are trimmed next week. 

The Other Half proving that Mochs is behaving!  The ponies have also Facetimed me while they ate dinner one evening this week too.

11 comments:

  1. What a lovely place. They all look so happy!

    Word of caution with raccoons. They brake into homes a lot around here and can tear up a house. They can also tear up your pets. I had unfortunate experience of taking a poor families deceased cat out of a bag to examine him before preparing him for the crematorium. A raccoon had got ahold of him on Christmas, and literally tore him in half 😞 the owners found him in the garage. It was horrifying.

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    1. I'm so sorry to hear about that. I know they can be mean little mofos. I've shot one myself before when I lived in CA because it was tearing stuff up and trying to get to the cacts that were outside. Manny is indoor only. The only other animals we have outside are the horses. Their feed is locked up too and our trash is never messed with. All of our windows in the house are also really high up so there's no way Manny would ever have a screen between him and a raccoon. But, if the raccoon does mess with anything, he'll have to move along.

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  2. How awesome that you can look out your windows and see your ponies right there!

    We have wildlife around my home too. They never bother anything and I love seeing them. My favorite is a gorgeous red fox that I have occasional sightings of.

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    1. I'm ready to see some Hummingbirds, they should be coming around next! We heard there's a grey fox in the area, but haven't seen him yet.

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  3. Love your place! It sounds like you guys are loving the farm life. I too will caution against encouraging racoon activity on the property. We shoot them on a regular basis here because they will get into everything, make a mess and attack our dog. But to each their own. If they don't bother you. I mean I completely understand the cute factor they have.

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    1. We don't have any dogs, and Manny is indoor only. We don't have anything outside that has ever been messed with. All the feed is locked up, the only thing they would be interested in is the trash, which hasn't been touched...yet. He can stay for now, but if he disturbs anything, he'll have to go.

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  4. It looks wonderful there! It looks like a dream come true. My husband and I are also enjoying are first-ever farm of our own and all its wildlife. I will have to post pictures too. :)

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  5. I am a bit jealous that you get to see your horse from your living room window! BOSS in small quantities can be a good source of fat and omegas for ponies, makes them shiney!

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    1. I've fed BOSS before, but mine all get their fats from oil so no BOSS needed anymore.

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  6. HAHA i really laughed at the pony eating out of the bird feeder

    they are resourceful little buggers, arent they??

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