Duck wrangler/Horse Whisperer?

We spent some time down doing chores this morning and I got a couple nice pictures of Austin with the duck and horses. The duck has another broken leg so he wasn't really up to running from us.

Austin petting the duck, while Mokie sniffs his hair.

Austin sitting next to the duck while Mokie and JuneBug look on. It appears he is right in with the horses, but he is between their 2 enclosures.

Austin and Pumpkin (the duck).

Best Friends....err....duck with a broken leg so he can't run from the toddler!

Mokie grubbing on Pumpkins food.

"Hey kid! What you got there? Can you give us some?"

(Austin is trying to feed the duck, while Gypsy, JuneBug and Echo look on.)

Duck, duck, goose?

This duck is very attached to its horses and came as a package deal with whomever bought Mokie. He hangs out with the horses, bedding in their hay or even curling up next to Mokie when he lays down. I guess he has had his leg broken about 2-3 times so he walks with a bit of a limp...hasn't made him stay clear of the horses. They seem to tolerate him pretty well and even look out for him.

Another picture of Echo - momma horse.

We got our new horses and duck on Sunday....here they are.

This is Mokie, the stallion. He has his own pen since we don't care to have babies. He has been trying REAL hard to Brandy's attention but she appears to careless about him. I thought for sure she would go into heat, but I think maybe Arabians just aren't her thing.

This is Junebug, the 3 yr old filly. Her dad is Mokie and her mom is Echo. She is doing great under saddle. We are thinking she will be Autumns horse.

The grey horse is Gypsy, a 2 yr old filly. Next to her is Echo (white horse), 14 yr old Mare, the momma to Gypsy and Junebug. Gypsy had a saddle and a person on her back for the first time on Sunday and did AWESOME. She is just so laid back and calm. I think she will make a great horse too.

This old guy is Clue. He is the 24 yr old Morgan that came along in the package. He is a great calm riding horse, but we will take it real easy on him since he is an elder.

Here is Brandy, my Quarter horse. She has been looking for a herd since we got rid of Cisco, but I don't think she was too happy that we dumped 4 on her at once. She quickly started asserting her dominance to let them know they were in her territory. It will be between her and Echo here soon. They are all getting along nicely now for the most part though.

Checking in and updates!

Its been a while and I am tired of seeing my picture up everytime I go to my blog.

I had a good Mother's Day. I told Dave ahead of time what I wanted to do and that is what we did. There was a Parade of Stallions going on that day at the fairgrounds and there was to be horses for sale there too. Since we are in the market for a horse or 2, I thought that would be a fun way to spend some time. Plus I was really looking forward to seeing some flashy stallions. It was a good time but there were only 3 horses for sale and none that were in our price range or league.

I told Dave I didn't want any gifts for mothers day, just to spend time with the kids and him. So he didn't get me anything, but Kristen had to work all day so she got me some roses the day before. There are so pretty still. Autumn wrote me a poem that was very nice:

Nanabug (Joanna)

Thanks for being the best you can be.

Thanks for being the mom that I need.

Thanks for taking care of me.

Thanks for looking out for me.

Thanks for understanding me.

Thanks for taking time off from what you're doing just for me.

Thanks for being there when I need you.

But most of all thanks for loving me.

I love you.

Oh and thanks for feeding me. :)

~Autumn~

Those are the types of things that make me believe that I am doing alright by my step-daughters.

Brandon got me a nice card, sunglasses (which I desperately needed!) and a pack of gum. After the Parade of Stallions we went and had lunch and then headed over to Home Depot to finish up designing our kitchen and picking out our countertop and then headed over to Target to get a few things. Overall it was a nice relaxing, enjoyable day.

We are winding up our school year here. Brandon needs to be done by May 21st and I will have to hand in grades on the 22nd. Autumn is done on the 21st after her 8th grade graduation ceremony. I think Kristen is the only one who will have to go to school on the 22nd, which is the official last day of school.

Brandon and Autumn are both in baseball and softball. The both enjoy it a lot and have had lots of practices (everyday!!!). I think Brandon's first game is on the 17th and Autumn's is on the 21st. Her team this year is a combined Jrs and Srs team, since they didn't have enough 13-14 yr olds or enough 15-16 yr olds to make the 2 separate teams. So they will be playing both Jr. teams and Sr. teams. It should be interesting. I am not very fond of her coach up to this point. I think he must have a terrible case of jock itch or something cause he is CONSTANTLY scratching at his butt and crotch. Its to the point where everyone notices and he doesn't even care who sees him. Its pretty disgusting. I wonder if the other parent's have notices or not??!

Our Baby Bean is doing great. We let Dozer and Bean out of their pasture just about everyday to just graze our lawn and they just love it. Baby Bean will tear off running doing crazy 8's all over the lawn and then Dozer will get all worked up and take chase. Its quite comical. If you lay down on the lawn, Baby Bean will come up and nibble on you and check you out. She is very curious. She is teething though right now, currently has 4 teeth that have come in. They are doing great. Brandy is also such a good horse. We have been riding her frequently and she does great. I had to give her a tiny tune-up after that long winter of not riding, but she is doing great now. I am teaching Brandon how to ride and he is very excited about learning.

There is a friend of the family who just recently gave birth to twin girls. It was a miracle that she was even able to have children. She is currently in remission from cancer and just recently had a scan that revealed something. Her name is Yvonne Ortiz and if you could all keep her in your prayers right now, she could really use them. Her babies were just born at 34-35 weeks last weekend and around 4 lbs each, so they are still in the hospital for a few weeks and Yvonne is very tired and feeling kinda sickly right now. Please send positive thoughts and prayers for her and her babies!

Winter is here....has been for 2 weeks now, blah!

Its Alaska I guess. Winter is inevitable. I just wish we could skip over it once or twice. We got the pastures up and got Dozers shelter up....we still have to get the shelter up for the big ones. I hate winter.

Looking down our driveway.
Dozer's butt and her shelter we were working on.
Dozer

I am so glad we got Dozer, she is just a good horse for the kids. She is very tolerant of them being all around her and doesn't mind if they walk up and pat her on the butt. She loves them even more if they happen to have a carrot or 10 to feed her. We are taking her to the Vet on November 1st for her ultrasound to check for a foal. I know horses have had babies for years without the interferance of vets or technology like ultrasounds, but we are making it a fun fieldtrip for the kids. They will certainly enjoy seeing it and experiencing this with their horsey. Would suck though if there was no foal in there!!

Chaos Update!

I have been busy. As if keeping up with 5 kids wasn't enough, I had to add 3 horses. What was I thinking??

Well, our Quarter horse mare, Brandy arrived about a week after Dozer (the mini) and they became fast buddies. Each would get upset if the other was taken out of pasture for any amount of time. They rarely went more than about 15 feet from each other as they grazed in pasture.

Then we added Cisco, our Morgan/Quarter gelding, to the mix and it quickly put Brandy into heat. She was acting all wierd towards Cisco....rubbing on him and nibbling his back. It got quite nauseating! Cisco was more annoyed then enamoured too. We woke up the next morning to Dozer being on the other side of the fence, so either she had enough of those two or she was bumped out by one of them. We had decided to separate her anyway, since she is "with child" and Cisco was being slightly agressive with her. She will get her own mini pasture and can visit with Brandy when we go riding.

So yeah....I have been busy. Brandy has turned out to be a great horse. She will do whatever you want her too. Dave enjoys riding her around and Autumn is pretty good at it too. Brandon needs more time on her and a few lessons before he can ride by himself, but he is showing a lot of interest so I am going to try and keep him in it. Logan and Austin enjoy riding Dozer too.

And now I not only have appts for the kids, I have appts for the horses. The farrier is coming out on Monday to trim their feet, then the vet comes out on the 15th to give a look over and shots to the 2 big ones. Then we head into the vet office on November 1st with Dozer. She will get her shots and an ultrasound to check gestation.

So....I am busy, but I have always said I would like to have horses again and now I do and love it. I just wish Cisco was trained to ride so 2 of us could go out riding together. We will be sending him this spring to get trained and hopefully he takes to it well so we can ride him.

As for the kids, they are all doing well. Austin is picking up more and more words everyday and trying to copy what we say. He is growing like a weed. He was 27 lbs and 33 inches tall at his last appt at 16 months old. Logan is fast approaching 3 yrs old in December and talks about his birthday coming up. He sees others get birthday parties and he wants his. He is enjoying having his cousins here to play with and also enjoying his "baby" horse. Brandon is doing ok in homeschool. We got off track last week and its been slow getting back on track. I did have a meeting with his advisor to just go over what we have been doing and she finally looked up his test scores from last year and said he scored advanced in math, reading and writing. She was impressed with Brandon's scores and also my organization of our school stuff. Never thought I would get compliments on organization!!! NEVER! Autumn's birthday is this Sunday and she is having a party with her friends at the bowling alley. They have neon bowling in the evenings, so we will reserve 3 lanes - 2 for her friends and 1 for the rest of us grown-ups to bowl. Dave's aunt Jeanne and her husband Jim are coming up to our house to babysit Logan, Austin, Hannah and Callie so that we can all go bowling without having to chase little kids. Should be a fun time. Kristen is doing well too. She currently has a job at a local farm helping them harvest catnip and potatoes. Fun stuff....she gets cold picking the catnip leaves, and then sweats her butt off lifting 60 lb bags of potatoes. They are paying her $9 bucks an hour though and as a teen that is pretty good wages. She doesn't get to complain too much around me. I thought about doing it just to get out of the house and get some exercise. It will only last for a couple weeks and then she will look for something else.
Dave is foreman at his job now and I think he likes running the show. The good news is he will stay on for winter instead of opting for a lay off and hopefully they can keep him just busy enough to support us through the winter so he doesn't have to go to Nome again and maybe afford him some time with his photography too. As for me, I think you get that I have been one busy beaver! I plug along, day by day, trying to keep up with it all and not lose my sanity. Some days that is harder than others. I have started working with a personal trainer. I feel better about and am getting more exercise. I didn't do well with Weight Watchers, I guess I needed someone to tell me what to do and help guide me more. I suppose I should cancel my WW plan. Procrastination is one of my hard parts.

Otherwise things are going good, winter is fast approaching and I am NOT looking forward to watering the horses when it freezes! In the mornings it has been in the 30's, this morning shows 25 degrees. We have had nice days with the sun shining, but I also see the termination dust on the mountains and the snow slowing making its way down and I know it will be here soon.

Our new horsey!

As you can see from the picture below, we got another new horse. This is NOT the Quarter Horse Mare that we got a few weeks ago. This one is a Mini-mare that I just found on Saturday evening. She is only about 32 inches tall. I called up Dave all excited and asked if I could just go look, well by Saturday night we were driving back out to pay for her. Dave and Autumn picked her up Sunday morning in my mini-van. Mini-mare in a mini-van. How appropriate...or not?! She is awesome with the kids. Logan is stoked to have his own little horsey, just his size that he can ride. She is also "knocked up" so come summer sometime, we will hopefully have a new little one. (Darin - you get to be the midwife!)

We went in half with my Sister-in-law and her husband on the mini-mare so both our families will share her for the younger kids. Since Ruthie and Darin are moving here this week from Ketchikan, it is totally convenient!

Her name WAS Teeny Turner (Tina Turner - if you see her mane you will know why!), but we have decided she needs a new name, so when Hannah and Callie get here, we will put it up for a vote. Or us parents will just decide and let the kids know!

Time for a post or two again....but what do I have to say?

Nothing, really. Or a lot, I just can't think of it. Can't pluck it out of my over-tired, over-worked brain right now.

We bought a horse. Did I tell ya all that yet? Well we did. Her name is Brandy and she is a Quarter horse. We are in the process of putting up our fence....still! We have most of the wood posts in and a few of the t-posts in. We are hoping that the excavator will be available this weekend to finish clearing the area for the back fence line and to clean out all the dang trees that remain. Now we have 2 horses. The other horse we own is Cisco, an 8 yr old Morgan/Quarter horse....untrained. Someday we plan on getting him trained. For now Brandy is totally rideable, even for the kids. Dave's aunt Chris gave us Cisco last summer. She was hoping someone would do something with him cause she believes he has a lot of potential. We shall see I guess. I am nervous about spending money to train a horse, not knowing if it will take $1000, $2000 or $6000 to train him enough to ride him. I could go out and spend one of those dollar amounts on a trained already horse. Oh well....we will find out next fall I guess.

I think its my brothers birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY CALEB! (Bnkstckguy) How old are you now....43? Just kidding. I probably should have called you today and sent you a moose for your big day, but I didn't. Fresh outta moose right now and Dave is just too darn busy working to spend any time hunting. We had Sarah over for dinner the other night though and I put in a good word for you and she is going to casually mention your name in her next appearance. I told her about your midget obsession. So pretty much she is going to use you to gain votes from that demographic.

K, I have said enough. Dave has the boys in the bathtub, so I probably should go supervise, or I am sure to have one heck of a mess to clean up afterwards.