Knitting happy colors

Here is what I have been knitting of late. Dishcloths/washcloths. They are a very easy pattern and I can knit one up in about 3 hrs. I seem to like a project I can finish so I can move on to another. It gives me a sense on accomplishment. I have been knitting these in cotton yarn in both organic and inorganic. Organic yarn is quite expensive compared to the inorganic. I also have to either order it online which incurs a shipping charge, (which makes it even more expensive) or go an hour's drive to a store that carries it. I have also toyed with the idea of knitting a triangle shawl in the same pattern and maybe with the cotton yarn. Not sure how much it would take to do it but the shawl would be a bit on the heavy side I'm sure. The photos are organic first then inorganic. Aren't the colors pretty???

Moving Poop!

I adveritsed on my local freecycle that my horse manure was up for grabs. It is a u-load operation and I have had several takers on this project. The biggest pile of manure I had mounded up when a friend had come over with his big tractor last fall to do some leveling out for us. It is rich and dark black, a gardener's dream. I hope to get rid of it all by the end of the month. Not much on the homefront besides the usuals, rabbits to shear (again), horses to play with and I wish it would warm up so I won't be so cold when I go outside!!

It got Warm!!!

Well, finally I got a good warm week and you know I did nothing but brush the horses! Last week Amanda and I decided to see what Simi would do if we put some weight on him. Amanda being the lighter and having the most game got to lay over his back. I brushed him first and then we started out by jumping up and down next to him. It progressed to laying on him for a few seconds to a minute. We did both sides and he was quite cool about it and just turned his head to sniff Amanda as to say "how did you get over here??" I measured all the horses last Sat and Simi measured at 13 hh. He will be two in April and is quite a nice looking boy. Still got to get him gelded though. He is quite good natured but we also have no mares. Simi is quite the cuddle bug too. Sadarian measured at 14.2 hh and Seven measured at 15 hh. We think they are actually taller. (I don't really trust the measurement tape) I need to buy a measuring stick or make one so I can get an acurate height. I finally found the camera and want to get photos up stat!!

So much for photos!

Can't seem to find the camera! Oh well, Still have two more rabbits to clip but am having issues with this cold weather. I am also having problems with getting hay to the round bale feeder. I do have the help of a friend with a tractor but the sqaure bales we have to carry by hand. Across the backyard and thru the field to the barn. Good thing we only get 10 at a time. The horses are staying pretty clean with all the snow but when it melts then it's mud central and they are wallowing in it! Simi is still a bit dirty because he is white and dirt just seems to like him better. I can't wait for the snow to be gone and the mud too. That way the truck can get in the field and we can stock up on hay. It'll be summer before that happens!!

Clipping bunnies

Well at least I'm trying to anyway. I did get started on Tannis, my chestnut agouti German buck. I will post a photo of him when I get him done. Tannis is got a buck head. Nice big and ears well set. He produces a nice fleece with plenty of crimp and nice banding pattern. His mom was a 98.5% German, same color as him and his sire was 100% old line German. Haven't weighed him but I'll put an update in later when I get a photo. He's got a good temperment and does very well for shearing. I'm always picking on him for his one flaw... he gets a really dirty butt. So he is handled more than most. He's quite the gentleman about it though.

Back to blogging

Well I hope that to be true! I am going to try to blog at least once a week. Steve finally got a job and we are on the road to recovery of our finances. We were not that bad even though we need to play catch up on some things. I think I am going to showcase my angoras and post a photo of them and write a little paragraph about them. I only have eight. I will be getting Simi started, our Medicine Hat paint, and he is now for sale if anyone is interested. I will be posting his progress as I start him under saddle. He is going to be quite a jumper but I will not even think about that till he is much older. Once he has found his perfect partner and new home we are going to move the rabbits to his stall in the barn. We have decided that two horses are all we need and we are going to keep from getting anymore unless someone needs a horse started out or needs work put on one. The value with that is it goes back home!

Day to Day

Well as happy as I am to have Seven doing well I also have other things not so great to think about. Steve does not have a job and so we are living off of my income right now. I have been selling things I don't need to create some income to help out. It has at least been working pretty well. I finally sold a rabbit I need to move out, and I had hoped that I had another one sold but it turns out that isn't what happened. The people some of my friends were in contact with can't be reached. They maybe had something happen. I will advertise her on some of the groups and try to take her with me to SAFF the end of the month. Steve has a few ideas as of now to get some income flowing and we have to enlist the help of a friend to get started. They have both worked on building flatscreen boxes for Cowboy Church and we had the idea to build tack boxes and bit boxes and sell them. The local tack shop has agreed to showcase the items for us to help us get started. He is hoping to get together with Larry this weekend and maybe build one to get going and be able to buy some tools to be able to build them at home. Once they get one complete I will post a photo on here. If you are interested in the rabbit for sale she is a sable point pearl Giant/French cross angora. Her photo is the one you see at the top of my blog. Asking $85 with pedigree and $50 without pedigree. She is 10 months old but has never been bred. Her fiber output is good. Email me if you are interested in her and I can deliver her at SAFF.

Breakthrough

Well after reading some articles that were interviewing Harry I decided to experiment with the round pen technique. So back to the round pen we went. I left Seven's halter on and turned him loose and as usual he just stood at the gate. I decided to use my stick and tied a plastic bag on the end. Every time Seven would lose his interest and his attention was drawn elsewhere I made noise with the bag and stick. At first it took a bit to get his attention back to me. He just stood there looking at me and I left him alone. Then he decided to move and when he decided to leave I helped him. When he stopped he turned and faced me I was quiet. You could see his attention being drawn away with the flick of an ear and then his eye. He mostly just stood there but when he chose to leave I would help him leave quicker. Steve was watching and said by the end I shook the bag 45 times. This was about a 20 minute session. As it drew to a close you could see Seven wondering what the answer was. I could keep his attention longer and longer. Finally he walked up and stood by me. Yay!!! Good boy Seven!!!

New way of thinking

Well it might also be a new way of being. Steve had told me last week that my horse was a pansy and so was I. Great words of encouragement huh?? He said I was afraid of hurting Seven's feelings. So I would do things softly to get him to perform the tasks that I asked him. It worked but I soon found out that Steve was right! Harry's clinic helped get me to see this. Seven will do things for me with the outcome being he gets a cookie, this isn't wrong but it isn't good for respect or seeing me as a leader. He would be slow and sluggish and it would just be a trick for a treat. It looked like he was focused on me but really he was thinking about how he could get the cookie and not really thinking about me at all. So, into the round pen we went and got some new communication going. Now at Harry's clinic I so thought he was telling the people to be too rough. I mean kicking your horse isn't really what parelli teaches but it is the same principle. I saw Linda whack a horse in the nose pretty hard because he wasn't paying attention to her! Same thing with Harry's teaching. If you don't get the response you want when you ask for something softly the consequences are you will get bopped!! This actually got the horse's attention back to thinking about what you are asking. A "wake-up!!" Then he went back to being soft again. The horses caught on pretty quick!! Harry's students didn't really use a stick or lead rope to ride so all the have are their hands and legs to ask with. You could use a lead rope to help you but you just smacked yourself to cause a sound. It was always on your leg. Harry also was good at getting his life up. So that is my new way of thinking. Get my life up and I hope with some experimenting that this will work. Seven didn't know what to make of me yesterday as we started to communicate in this different way. Steve got in and helped and we eventually got Seven to chose to be with us. He also had me watch him with his horse and as that happened and Seven was in the field I must have been pretty interesting to him because he came over and stood with me. I figured he would have not wanted anything to do with me. Or was he thinking he would get a cookie???

Harry Whitney

Well I have a lot to put into words! Harry Whitney. What a nice guy!! Made me feel right at home and so did Ronnie Moyer! A great time of fellowship, meeting new people and sharing thoughts!! Ronnie did a great job of combining one's walk with the Lord to one's walk with the horse. Great analogies to how the horse thinks the way he does just not as extravagant as the human. The biggest thing I ended up with was the way we want our horses to be with us is the same way God wants us to be with him. I had a dream on Sunday morning about that and it changed my perspective. I was confused about it and God straightened it right out. Horses do not have bad motives about people, they either are thinking about you or they are not! You just have to figure out the way to keep them thinking more on you and less about other things. It doesn't mean that their minds can't wander but when it does do you know how to get it back?? God explained it to me as "a safe place". God is my safe place. So you should be your horse's safe place. He should look to you for wisdom and guidance just as you should look to God for those things. Now in either case it doesn't happen all the time does it?? You aren't always hooked up to God and your horse isn't always hooked up to you. Even though you can take God with you, do you make choices that he wants you to make?? Your horse is the same way. he makes choices that you either like or dislike. When you make a wrong chioce there are consequences to what you chose, especially if it isn't good. Same with the horse, he has to face the consequences of his choices. Soon both learn to make better choices. Since I was just there for Saturday I missed out on the beginnings but got to see the endings. Everybody turned out alright. Got to meet Eden and that was great!! Hi Eden!!!