Simple joys of my life

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Turtle? What turtle?

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Ducks? What ducks?

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Horse Trailer's and summer like weather

The days have gotten much nicer and with that it's outside work. We moved the ponies fence so they could graze and mowed some lawn. The Killdeer now has 4 eggs in her nest and is pretty much used to us walking around.

I trimmed some small hedges and cleaned out more flower beds. We went to see Cody and Aubrey and the barn owner has a really nice trailer so we practiced loading Aubrey who is really stubborn. He did okay, the first time was a little bit of a battle but the second time he did it much faster. The in part is easy, it's the backing out that is more difficult. He will get the hang of it.

There's a tiny little girl puppy that is a terrier that lives next door, she is Cooper's new playmate as they chase each other wildly around the yard like little blurs.

Panting Puppies

With the warmer weather and the rise in humidity, last night in my room it sounded like a group therapy session for a bunch of obscene phone callers... okay maybe even a convention of them. I opened the windows but still all I could hear was the dogs panting.

This weekend I'll be shaving some thick coats, as much as I hate to take away their beautiful fur, they feel and act so much better. Otherwise, they suffer sometimes even with the air conditioning. Really it is just the two Goldens, I give them a lion cut where they keep everything till shoulders and I take the rest off except for a little on their tummies and leave most of their tales.

Dusti has some really bad allergies and with taking his coat off and a good bath he suffers much less. His fur always grows back just as soft and full as ever. Daniel is just plain hot, he will grow everything back nice and soft since this is the third time I've shaved him for the hotter months.

Micah is never hot thank goodness, Cooper is a big cloud of fur but he is never hot, it isn't as thick and it doesn't lay so flat on his skin. He'll get a trim but on a much smaller scale, since they are my dogs I will trim first then bathe them and dry them, blowing out whatever loose hair is left.

For Dusti, I will make an aloe vera rinse which will give him relief from the itching he experience more around this time of the year.

The fact is that I need to sleep without all the noise and restless dogs that are not happy and totally don't want to snuggle because they are too hot. 

Hoof trims

Today was blacksmith day at the barn, we went down late this afternoon and I met Ely the Amish blacksmith who trimmed Cody and Aubrey last time. This is the second time he has done Cody's hooves and for years Cody has had cracks in both front hooves, one crack is now completely gone and a tiny little sliver of one is left on the other hoof.

Best of all Ely is a super nice person and is gentle with the horses and is very interested in body language and communicating non verbally with the horses he works on, he also floats teeth with out sedation. He did several horses as I watched and did a great job. Turns out he is good friends with our next door neighbors too and when he drives by in his buggy next time he is going to do the little horses hooves.

Ely charges a small fee for what he does and really has done the best trim I've ever seen, the teeth is an added bonus. Another great thing about today is the small group of people who board at out barn are so about horses and not all the fluff. They are nice to each other, no drama, and it's like a little family. There are girls Kylie's age there and the parents are really nice.

So we all stood around talking and joking while our horses were trimmed, everyone helped each other out and it was fun. Aubrey who has not been trimmed more than maybe twice stood quietly for Ely and was just grand. Both horses are trimmed up and are ready to go, Ely doesn't hot shoe either, he trims and measures and shapes the feet and the shoe without heating it up. All of the gaited horses get shoes and sometimes special ones, there's never a problem with the shoeing.

I'm frozen now because the sun started going down and the barn got cold, I am tired too but it is a good tired.

Spring break

Kylie had a friend stay over last night and they stayed up most of the night. Both girls had fun but I am pretty tired. Lots of giggling and being loud makes it tough to sleep.  They decided to watch The Holy Grail of Monty Python fame and so the entire day today has been quips from the movie in silly British accents.

One thing I like about my work is it seems the week flies by. I am getting excited with the nicer weather and have things to do on the weekend I am looking forward to.

I can say I will sleep well tonight, Nana and the dogs were up and down all night with the noise and excitement going through the house. Junk food prevailed too of course and Nana got her share of it. Personally, coffee and sugar were my life line today.

Now the house is quieter again, Kylie is tired and happy. I look forward to going to bed soon and enjoying blissful silence.