37 degrees this morning, and for the first time in weeks, I could see the moon when I headed up to the barn. Fall is well upon us and this weekend it's time to strip what remains in the garden...although what I am going to do with that much cabbage, I am not quite sure, haha We may need to invest in a crock for sauerkraut, which takes 25 pounds...the rest, will be canned plain I think.
The resident hony and his princess seem to have settled in just fine, and they handled the departure of Wingnut without too much fuss. Wingnut has left for good, to a new boarding situation which suits the owners' budget and her needs very well. I was rather sorry to see her go, as I do miss her antics and personality. She walked right into the trailer without hesitation and then promptly had "hot feet" once inside, lol Took a few minutes to get her calm and clipped and then they were off.....apparantly arrival and unloading went well even if she had not been backed off a trailer before. Smart girl, that one. And many thanks to the wonderful horse person who hauled-you are great!
The hony has had some sort of digestive thing going on for quite a while. I finally just dropped all grain, and increased the hay by quite a bunch and I think I am getting a handle on it after nearly two weeks of that. I'll want to do a little testing before I even think about deworming. The hony's appetite and attitude are just super though, which is reassuring. I sure love being welcomed when I arrive, a complete chorus from all residents-including the chickens ;)
Speaking of chickens, we are finally getting a few eggs. I have a hunch one bird is laying somewhere we can't find-but we are getting small blue and green eggs very regularly now-right, of course, on one bale of hay. Nevermind the box I have mounted to the stall wall, naturally. Three of them have decided to roost way up in the barn rafters so that means we will need to enclose them here pretty soon. Once they are up there, you can't dislodge them either, goofy birds.
Kicking around the idea of adding a cold roof down the length of the barn-which means we could move the stall walls themselves out from under the barn proper. This would free up a lot of space for storage, etc, which I desperately need. If there is some way to swing it, I hope to get it done before the snow flies. The metal roofing material is sure expensive! More stall mats are on the list to come up with a van of hay, that's about a month out or so. And of course we need more gravel which I hope to get in next week.
Old Chubs is doing very well....so well, in fact, that we have elected not to put him down. It seems all this exercise over the summer has been just what his crippled up knees needed-he runs, bucks, rears, and trots around without any overt signs of distress so what can you do? He is happy as a clam with a "herd" of his own mares-who keep him quite nicely in line too. Thankfully I am somewhat relieved as I was not looking forward to that. I am donating some extra fencing supplies so that a winter paddock can be erected next week. Lucky old boy, he is.
So as summer winds down into fall, we are all very busy getting the last minute stuff done. Of course, a lot more would actually be done if the weather would improve just a little bit-we are all tired of the rainy weather. Soon enough we will be complaining about snow and ice, right?
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