I am finally back to the farm! Whew what a whirlwind week last week was. I enjoyed both the user group seminar I attended in MD (and my presentation went amazingly great I was so nervous) and seeing my fellow coworkers again at the HQ office. And I got to see Sarah on Monday night for dinner. So great to see her in person again! Then on Thurdsay we (dad and me) set off for TN. We managed to make it back to Tennessee on Friday evening after fighting snow, ice, rain, wind etc. through the Virginia mountains on Thursday day/night. I don’t think Dad is that impressed with how remote we are! HA. He hasn’t even gone out to the barn yet to meet the horses either (he doesn’t get around as well as he used to so I will have to drive him down there sometime). And now it is supposed to drop temps tomorrow.
Remus and Tate managed to stay alive with Mark taking care of them. Dogs and cat and fish too all managed to stay alive (Thanks Mark for doing all this). He is already dreading when I have to go away again. I hope to find someone to help with the horses in the future. Even someone who checks in midday and does stalls and etc. would be helpful. We will look out for someone.
Remus and Tate were both pretty happy to see me again. (OHHHH LOOK THERE IS THAT LADY WHO LOVES TO FEED US! As I type this Remus and Tate are outside my office window playing wild stallions, rearing up in the mud) SMH. SO MUCH MUD.
Tennessee actually got a couple inches of snow last week while I was gone. Which has melted and become you guessed it become even MORE MUD. When I got home on Friday the weather on Saturday was going to be nice so I started Operation MUD CONTROL on Saturday.
On Saturday evening, Remus got all four legs hosed off completely and then he was put in a fresh stall overnight so his legs could actually DRY for the first time in months. Then Sunday night it was Tate’s turn. Both were very good about it. I know they are both muddy again but feel good they had a clean night with no mud on their hooves, fetlocks and on up to knees. SO MUCH MUD. What do you do to keep the mud down on their legs?
Otherwise we have new critters on the farm. Three geese blew in on the snow storm last week and pretty much have taken up shop. They bicker kind of like there must be two females and one male or vice versa but otherwise it is nice to see them on our pond. Oh and one lone duck. Which is one of these type. Common Goldeneye. I see nothing Common about him! Lovely duck.
I love ducks so don’t mind him being around. I hope he has a woman duck stashed somewhere but for now he just likes roaming around the pond with the three geese (it is like Three’s Company out there with a spare)!
You never know what is going to show up here! Anyway so GLAD to be back. I have more company arriving tomorrow ( a friend from DE) and trying to catch up on work (OMG a week away about killed me so buried in work) and still trying to take care of everything here. Happy Thanksgiving to all (except those that don’t celebrate Tgiving and just eat a lot on Thursday and join in with us crazy Americans!) in case I don’t get a post up till after then!! I have so much catching up on blogs too!! Hope everything is going well for all of you!! I missed being active in my blogging community!! Sad when you miss online friends (I was pretty busy all week unfortunately so could only post once in awhile). BUT I AM BACK NOW!
Fat Buckskin in a Little Suit 
Welcome home, but you don’t have mud… I won’t even send you a picture because it’s that awful…
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oh that photo is the DRY LOT. LOL the mud by the stalls i need to get a photo of. Remus and Tate literally stand there for minutes to figure out if they want to walk thru it or not to go into the stalls. The mud out of one stall comes up to Tate’s knees!!
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I have entire sections that are knee deep. Jiminy is drowning.
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Welcome home! That duck is gorgeous!!
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SO MUCH MUD. I hosed off May’s legs on Saturday just to make sure everything was still solid down there. I have no real advice. Keratex sells a mud shield powder? But I have never tried it.
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I found these have you seen these/ https://socksforhorses.com/ 🙂
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May would murder me…
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I hose their legs off every night when they come in, takes a few minutes really but keeps mud fever and thrush gone. Also, that duck is gorgeous. Can’t say the same for the Canadian Geese lol they are pests.
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Do you have hot water? I don’t so i feel bad hosing them every nite. I would love hot water out there. And I let them go in and out most nights (except when it is cold but remember TENN is not supposed to be this cold LOL).Yes the geese are pains but seem to just be in the pond most am and pm but not actually on the land much. They go elsewhere to feed. Whew 🙂 I feel sorry for the duck but when he goes under he is under forever so i assume lots of food under there for him 🙂
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No I use cold water! In the freezing cold even, its good for their legs. Keeps them nice and tight 🙂 My guys are also in over night, so once clean they stay clean.
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dang. Remus might file a complaint if I did that every night. You are hard core 😉 HA HA HA
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absolutely…I hate muddy legs lol
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yay for being home again after all that travel!! glad it all went relatively smoothly too. also i was kinda shocked at how chilly it was in TN last week compared to MD, i kept telling ppl i had to go back north where it was warmer!!
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Thanks let me know if you are in TN anytime again!! 🙂 Yes it is odd. But if i wait a few minutes it will change 🙂 HA!
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Ooh pretty duck!
For a helper, look at any local colleges and see if they have IHSA teams and contact them? College kids tend to have flexible schedules and love cash – a horse savvy girl might love that gig!
Glad you’re home! I hate driving in winter weather!
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thanks!
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The most annoying thing about mud is that you can’t fix it while it’s still actively being mud! We’ve also had horrible weather and my mud control is firmly in the okay department so far. I need to take some pictures. Other than some splashes onto hair there hasn’t been anything above their hooves. I do now see some areas I need to expand to for next year though…and I feel like they are slowly moving all my mud control into the barn via their feet…
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#jealousofyoutotally 🙂 LOL!
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Let’s think of it as I already had the mud torture last year. You will make changes come summer (probably improved on mine) and not have issues again. Plus I think in the end you get a shorter winter than me which I am very jealous of! 🙂
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hahahah true. 🙂 Thanks for making me feel better! HA
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Welcome home! Your new pond residents are great. Gorgeous duck. I hope they stick around. Mud sucks. It would be better if TN for a hard freeze to make it solid. Can you mix in some pea gravel to the most used sections like by the stalls? Or even just lay down some sand for now?
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yes if it truly dries up for even a week I have a plan but literally it has only been dry enough for me to scrape it once since we got our tractor in like August?? That is insane….right before I went away it was almost dry (like mud was still there but it was firmer) and guess what. Rain. Rain. Rain. I am seriously not sure if it will ever dry up to do anything with. Horrible….and it goes all the way out to the pasture (there is like a chute of pasture they go through that is covered by trees that is just as wet). The field while churned up is firm at least…! My thoughts are to scrape the mud down from the stalls and get some gravel then some sand down. We shall see. I don’t feed there so dont have to worry about them eating sand… Duck is out there this am. Geese werent around yesterday maybe they moved on??
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Yay for being home again! I just got back yesterday from vacay to see family so I feel you lol. It’s so strange, but I feel like every time I move, I bring the “coldest front” with me LOL. When I first when off to college? Biggest, coldest, longest snowstorm in Colorado in like 8 years. When I first moved to Texas? Biggest, coldest, iciest snowstorm in Texas/Oklahoma in like 10-15 years (black ice was prevalent with roads being shut down and we were stuck at a show an extra 2 days). When I moved back to Vegas in 2014? Colder winter than usual. I mean like…… I feel like it’s a trend haha!
Geese. They’re evil. Seriously. They’d attack us on campus in Colorado LOL. Glad the ponies are doing well tho!
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Glad you made it back! Sorry about the mud. My poor deprived horses only go out on sand, so though it gets a little wet sometimes, it’s not mud really.
That’s a really pretty duck! I hope his lady duck shows up, and maybe the geese can leave… They poop everywhere!
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