Ready for Spring

March 26, 2023

Howdy folks,

Well, another week has come and gone.  Not too much on the excitement scale to pass along, other than the boss's dog getting his teeth kicked in by the horses.  I only saw the aftermath when we got Buck back down here, but the big, all-white German Shepherd had his snout almost completely covered in blood.  It took you back at first, upon first seeing it, but once I got down on my hands and knees and looked a little closer, I could see that it wasn't as bad as it first looked.  He was drinking water and already trying to run back out to the edge of the yard to start barking at the horses again.  Apparently, the boss was out filling bird feeders and doing this and that around the house on a quiet Sunday afternoon.  After noticing not seeing the dogs for a few minutes, and hearing barking up towards the barns and main horse gate, the boss then encountered both of the dogs out in the pasture with the horses trying to scatter them.  All in all, it looked like he chomped down on the end of his tongue and bit it very hard.  I'm assuming that one of the horses faced him and with a front leg chopped down hard with their hoof.  At first, I envisioned a horse rearing up and kicking backwards, but I've seen them doing the front leg chop before, so it just makes sense.  They raise their front legs like they're prancing and then swiftly bring it back down with force.  When they're up against the fence, they hit their hoof against the bottom rail, making the metal ring out really loudly.  Actually, about a half-hour before this I was up in the hay barn, taking the dogs out for a little loop, when we saw the horses drinking at the water troughs.  Once they saw us they walked over and Willow almost instantly began licking noses.  Ela & Rui just stand there a couple of feet behind us and watch the whole thing, but Willow loves her horses just about as much as she loves her kitties!  So, I'm thinking that the horses were still milling about in the same spot a little bit later when the boss's dogs came running up.  They love the horses, too, but it's more about chasing them and barking at them, so the horses don't react quite as well to them as they do to our dogs.  In the end, Buck would eat but not drink for a day or so, but then quickly got back to normal.  Extra water was added to the food, so him not wanting to(or not able to) use his tongue didn't hinder things at all and within a day or two he was back to sprinting around the yard and barking at the horses and chasing any of our kittens that happen to wander over too far away from the casita and too close in to the boss's backyard.  Already, Buck got his nose scratched open, so he totally must be feeling better!

Erin's got a bunch of her seeds started in her makeshift tent and is excitedly watching everything begin to germinate.  She's been talking with some of the local ladies and garden-growers to see how far behind she is.  Actually, she always feels that she's way behind and it sounds like the overall view of things right now is that it's only time to start working on some of the early cold crops.  We've been out weedwhacking and mowing, trying to get everything ready for spring.  This is nothing at all like where we came from back on the East Coast, but more of a twice-yearly maintenance round of trimming.  I use the big, walk-behind brush hog to mow the big areas and anything with any kind of a bigger stalk to it.  Erin then uses the weedwhacker to detail all the big areas that I've done, getting in-between all the trees and around all of the boulders, etc.  I've been cleaning out the barn getting ready for our next big order of hay.  We have 400 bales ordered, half alfalfa and half grass.  We're down to about 40 bales or so, but still have roughly 200 bales of alfalfa forage.  These are wrapped and come on pallets that are double-wrapped, so I have been able to let them sit outside briefly while we await our delivery.  The cats have not been happy about this and haven't been hanging out in the hay barn very much in the last month.  At first, it was because I finally had to take the level of the hay down so that I could get to the final few dozen bales, thus destroying their big perch that they had.  Then, with the hay almost gone and the forage moved outside, there was literally nowhere for them to hide inside, so I'm very eager to get our hay here so that I can get all those cats back safe in the barn.  Lying on a single bale of hay at ground level is not very conducive for them to avoid a coyote or feral dog that suddenly appears, but they clearly are much happier when there's enough hay for them to be ten feet off the ground.  They'll really have fun once we get it all filled back up again!

OK, now I have a new batch of pictures ready for everyone again.  First up, a shot of the dogs waiting for me to let them out so that they can sprint up to the barn to check for cats!  Then, a shot of one of Erin's quick meals for dinner...this time tostadas.  Next, two shots of the sun setting over the prettiest garden in the Pecos River Valley.  Then, four shots of the horses out at the feeders at dawn: the first three are of Freedom; the last one is of Xena.  Next, three shots from feeding them at night, as they all mill about for a few minutes, playing musical chairs around the two feeders...first thing and last thing out here the sun is usually all but blinding!  Then, two shots of an early, chilly morning with fog spilling over the edge of the mesa...in the second shot you can see Erin and the boss out for their morning walk.  And, lastly, three amazing shots that show the beautiful colors that wash over us most nights right before dark.

Take care.