Wednesday, March 30, 2011

famous again (almost)

So, we get a call yesterday morning from our neighbor Dusty, who is a professional photographer. She is often asked by magazines and the like to take pictures of horses and other animals to go along with their articles. Dusty knows we love to model for her, and often our animals "fit the bill" for the shoot she needs to create. Today, it's Duke turn. Dusty needs to have "a food aggressive horse" to go with an article on clicker training and good manners. Now, actually Duke is very good around his food... he has to be, because he's too big to have bad manners...so truthfully, it took us a little while to get the shot that Dusty needed.... here she goes over how it "needs to look" and after a few takes, we finally convinced Duke that we wanted him to behave this way... he couldn't believe his luck when we allowed him to drag Sadie over to the bucket which had carrots and grain in it. But Dusty got her shot!!!!
She also needed a "sick" horse, so Ol' Silver got picked for that one... Dusty even created "snots" for his nose!!! Which was kind of "icky", but really fun...











After our modeling session, we got to work on the chores. Abbie came up to the barn to supervise. She loves the chickens (and can make a great chicken sound when you ask her to). I think she likes them because they are small and will run when she goes towards them. But she did want Sadie to hold one for her so she could pet it.








Then, she wanted to help with chores. So, we gave her a little fork and let her spread the shavings. She thought this was a great idea, and so do I.... might as well get her started on chores early... I might end up with a barn fairy afterall....








Guineas!!!! well, there's a story all to itself. Sunday I opened the coop to water and feed the birds, and they had plotted against me... and made a great escape. Now, I don't blame them for wanting out..it's been a long winter, so I thought - fine, go out. Well, Mr. G. had other ideas and when the rooster stepped outside of the coop, we had a massive bird fight. Now, I know how to handle dogs.. and I have even broken up a few horse squabble... but birds... they are serious!!!! I had to use the rake between them and did manage to get the rooster back into the coop... Mr. G was having a complete fit!!!! Course, getting the rooster in, meant the guineas were out, and I can't get the guinea in without opening the coop, and then worried about the rooster. So, for the past couple of days, the guineas have been out. Now, they are talking about a storm coming in on Friday, so somehow, between now and then, we have to come up with a game plan to get the guineas back inside..... drama on the farm for sure....




"What do you think Abbie.... can we wrestle those guineas?????"

weekend in review

All winter long - actually - ever since we have had our house "weather tight"... this one big heater in the basement has been our source of heat. The wood finance heats the hot water, sends it into the house and then this heater makes "hot air" from the hot water. Our basement has remained around 78 and the warmth from below has come up thru the basement door and the floors. Except for bitterly cold days this heater has done all the work and the house has been more than warm. On the very cold days, the "little stove" assisted, but over all that has not happened that often. Our builder told us that this would be an easy house to heat, because we have the "latest" in insulation factors.. and he was right.

However, the real game plan for heating the house has been radiant heating. We have all the tubing in place in the floor of the basement. We still need to do the tubing that will heat the floors on the main floor of the house, and that will be in plans to do over the summer. This past week, we finally got the last of the hook up supplies, and have switched from the one big heater to using the radiant heating in the cellar floor. Personally I think all the exchange values on this wall look like something out of a space ship, but Ed seems to know how each one works!!! All I can tell you is the cellar floor is nice and warm and the basement is staying as toasty as it has been all winter. I can't wait to get the rest of the work done knowing that the main floor floors will feel as warm as the cellar ones do.




Ed was away this weekend, and though I missed not having him around, there was plenty going on to keep me busy. Saturday night, Abbie, Sadie and I went to Kelli's and Rick's. Next week, I will be seeing Chester again, and meeting his new owner.. so , as a gift for them, I wanted to scrap book the blog that I kept while Chester was with us.








I don't know much about scrap booking, but Kelli does, and she offered to help me put Chester's book together. Kelli sure has an eye on how to do this, and basically, I did the cutting and told Kelli how I wanted it to look, and she took it from there. I'm glad we started when we did, because one evening wasn't enough time to finish it. So, we'll get together again this week and have it done for me to take. I can't wait to give them this gift... I can't wait to see Chester again!!!!




While Kelli, Sadie and I were working on the book... Abbie entertained herself with the Boxers. She loves dogs, and I think the Boxers were quite intrigued by her. Abbie kept taking their dog kibble and transferring it one bowl to another. Mya kept checking to see if it might be more "interesting" after Abbie handled it.











All of the boxers -- Mindy, Gus and Mya were so good with Abbie. They don't have many little kids around, and it's wonderful to see how gentle they are with her.











Abbie just loves all the animals in her life. And she's big into "helping out" just now. She loves to help feed the dogs, and knows just how to do it. Though sometimes during the day... the dogs end up with a little extra kibble now that Ab can get the cover off the dog food container.....









I'd like to tell you that Ginger and Abbie wore each other out in this photo.. but actually they were just laying on the floor. It's been nice having the "service puppies" in our home, because Abbie has learned that dogs do come in all different sizes.....










It was really cold this past weekend..... I had hoped we might have the last of this really cold weather behind us.. but not yet. So, we kept the little stove chugging all weekend... again, Abbie wanted to "help". She does understand hot, and the stove sits high on the hearth.. but, this was a little too much "helping" for me... after the picture was taken, I made her back off.....








Hunter and Trev.. all cuddled together on the couch.....













and I am looking forward to my morning coffee on the front porch........