Farewell Frostbite, Hello Flashflood
Well, the subzero temps seem to be over with but I couldn't resist one last bit of photographic evidence. Rickey had to break up the ice in the Moo Crew's water trough; would you believe it was almost 2" thick? Woo! I'm pretty sure most of the 48 contiguous have experienced a whacked out winter. How about it? What was your weirdest winter day this year? I'd have to say that ours was the morning I walked out to find the ropes on the Girls' doors sticking out in frozen curls. It had rained a bit, then the temperature plunged. Is that bizarre or what? Our week began with rain-rain-rain and:
While all of the horses got pretty darn dirty, I felt that Champ deserved some kind of recognition for going beyond the call of dirt duty. What I can't quite figure out, though, is how he managed to keep his tail completely clean...go figure (??)
Mid week, Rina showed up for supper with a rather impressive ding on her hip...I have absolutely no idea what happened, although I can speculate that she may have slid in the mud while running and clipped a tree. As leader and the unequivocal Queen of Mean, I am sure that none of her pasture mates would dare to nip at her hip :o) 
I kept it small in case any of you are squeamish, but it was a good two inches in diameter. I have to say that I was very proud of Rina for her cooperative behavior in letting me treat it; not only did she turn herself around and line her injury up right in front of me for the medicine, she stood stock still the whole time in an open area and without a halter - what a good girl! I'll do a shameless plug here for Skin Renovator for an awesome product. At $15.00 a tube it's expensive, but it is the best there is for healing wounds quickly. I even found a handy dandy way to recycle the empty container and solve the problem of the missing cap on our gate at the same time (ta-da! :o)
The week came to a melodramatic conclusion with one of Shadow's Blankie Moments...
If you would like to know more about Shadow's dramatic episodes, go to my Squidoo lens on Colic and scroll down to "Cranial Colic". A bit of love and some time with Blankie made for a miraculous recovery (he's such a silly boy!) Oh, and I forgot to squat while taking his picture so Shadow looks strangely disproportionate (oops :oP
How about your animals? Do they have a blankie or special toy that makes it all better? I'd love to hear about it, and so would Shadow. He's rather proud of his alliterated title of "Epic Farms' Eccentric Equine", (but he is secretly afraid of being referred to as "Whatta Weirdo" by certain hard-hearted bipeds). Do tell us please!
I just love the way you put your posts together. Those frozen ropes look pretty cool. I got a little worried though when I started to read that you forgot to squat...lol (note to self: never pause mid sentence when reading a blog post)
ReplyDeleteAnn: I'll just bet that "squat sentence" did sound mighty strange out of context. *Laugh* Thanks for the kind words; I try to make my blog as painless as possible for folks to read ;o)
ReplyDeleteWE, Smoke and Joe, the miniature donkeys, have a favorite toy which drives our Mom crazy. We love to pick up buckets and carry them around and I mean all around the whole place. One day it took Mom two days to find a bucket that we carried all the way to the end of the pasture. She is only ticked because she didn't get our picture while we were carrying it.
ReplyDeleteOh what crappy weather you're having! The ropes do look kind of neat though :)
ReplyDeleteI cannot believe how dirty Champ is! My jaw dropped and all I could think was that I'm glad I'm not bathing him any time soon - ick! Poor Rina, I hope she recovers quickly (and good job on filling the post with the empty container!).
Oh Shadow, my heart goes out to him, every time he has an episode, it reminds me how he must have been abused before you rescued him. I'm so thankful he has you to help him out with his...er...eccentricities :)
Hope this week is better!!
Meg
Marg: How funny! Shadow used to have a big shallow rubber bucket to eat out of, but he mistook it for a frisbee after every meal (and man could that thing fly!) so his mean ol' person got rid of it in favor of one that attached to the side of his stall ;o)
ReplyDeleteMeghann: The mud did not show up as well as I had hoped in Champ's picture; the big lug was positively filthy. Rina is on the mend, but I have to admit it cracks me up the way she still flattens her but out in preparation when I get near it with the medicine; she never moves away though. Shadow was way past due for a dramatic episode (I think he went a whole two months without one this time - a new record :o)
Hope Champ had fun getting that dirty cause I don't think the bath will be near as fun! Poor Rina! Hope she heals up soon! And glad the blanket helped Shadow!
ReplyDeleteYeah, your pic of the frozen tether is amazing. By the way, are there any flower and plant farms near you? I seem to recall you saying that you live fairly close to the Florida line, and I remember making a few pick-ups of plants and flowers straight east and slightly to the north of Mobile way back when. I imagine they are really hurting with how cold it has been down there.
ReplyDeleteBeadedTail: Would you believe Champ actually loves bathtime? The water hose is his favorite toy (weird, but true :o) Rina's ding is on the mend, thank you. Shadow's Blankie is a constant source of amusement around here; he adores that thing (which is, of course, utterly ridiculous but we love him anyway!).
ReplyDeleteFishHawk: The cold has been rough, most definitely. At least the newer heat pumps keep working (our old heat pump would cease to function if the temp dropped below 25). The farmers here have sustained quite a bit of damage. Not too sure about flower farms, but there are several tree farms. I don't think they are affected as much though. I would lay odds that the price of orange juice is going to go through the roof (yikes). Florida's strawberries are picked in February, but I haven't heard if there was damage there or not. The cold is gone, and now we're getting beaned with lots of rain *sigh*.
I really like the pictures with the blanket. He really looks like he's enjoying it. I never had an animal that liked things like that. My dog would get upset if I took her collar off though.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the follow. I'm now following your lovely blog.
ReplyDeleteRatty: Isn't it funny? We discovered his blanket fettish quite by accident; it was the same with Blankie's miraculous "healing powers" *laugh*. About 1 in 4 episodes is real colic, and the rest is because something upset him (e.g. Max got in a lucky kick one time which sent Shadow into a tizzy - I mean, can you believe the NERVE of that pipsqueak? Honestly! :o)
ReplyDeleteVeronica: You are most welcome; I liked your blog very much!
As tempting as that idea is, I think I'm happy with just a few ads here and there. I appreciate the thought though, Eric, and "ur" spammy comment (wellllll okay, not really :o)
ReplyDelete