Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Merry Christmas

We hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful and safe holiday season.
Noah, Lily and Sammy. (Noah wins the Mr Photogenic contest this year)





Thursday, December 18, 2008

When I arrive

When I arrive, Lily usually notices my car pull up. I love the fact that she usually will drop what she's doing and come to greet me. She is doing such a good job keeping Sammy in line these days. His attitude has been adjusted and life is easier on the farm. Lily has seen my car.


So here she comes.
And Sammy is doing what Sammy does best.
Um, Sammy, Mom's here.
And Sammy just follows in her footsteps. Goliath will get out of the way pretty quickly.

Sammy is used to intimidating the bovine species on the farm.
I love seeing this face coming to greet me. What a wonderful mother she is.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

A Mother's Job

A mother's job is never done. Sammy and Vantage have decided that neither one is allowed to go through the gate ahead of the other and have been making it difficult to safely bring one in. Ok - Sammy has been a real pain in the patootie. So, it was time for his mother to explain things to him. Out he went with her and her friends. For 2 days they ran and played - ok Sammy ran her ragged and tormented her. Then today, she had enough. She must have explained the situation to him because he is sporting a couple of hoof prints on his chest and now, seems a little bit more respectful of her and of us. Thank you Lily.

If we had any doubts he has grown and would be a bit taller than Lily, all we had to do was look at them turned out together. Thank you Escapade for adding some height and legs to our boy.

See, He's all sweetness next to his momma....and Linda
And doesn't every mother recognize the look on Lily's face........would you PLEASE BEHAVE....we're getting our pictures taken here! Yes ma'am.

See, all it took was a mother's love. Good as gold. He may turn out ok after all.

And so another sun sets on learning day for Sammy. This is the Vilano bridge today on my way home. Some days the sun is rising over the ocean when I go to work, and sets over the intracoastal on my way home. There's something wrong with that I think. (Don't think you'll ever see the sunrise pictures here........I'm not that organized.)

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Not much new to report

Not much going on these days. This is Florida's version of Fall Foliage! The trees are absolutely loaded with fruit.....and Noah loves tangerines.
The ball that the boys are supposed to be having a great time with has been abandoned by them. Who knew that the cows were the ones it was really for. I think the girls are tired of waiting those last few weeks before their babies arrive. This is Beth, who thinks we aren't watching.


Who knew she has such a playful side? I suspect it's hard to pick up and throw the ball around if you don't have any top front teeth. But she does seem to enjoy it never the less.

Quinn gets a few hours a day out with the little boys. (Actually the little boys are much bigger than Quinn but don't tell him that.) They thought he would be a great playmate but he quickly made them think again. He can't go out on lush grass so he has to take advantage of the little grazing time he can get now that the grass has quit growing. He doesn't have any time to play with kids. And he does not hesitate to explain that to them very clearly.


This is a picture taken exactly 1 year ago. Look at how much smaller the boys were than Masquerade.
Now, they are the same size and approaching the same height as Lily. I thought I was pretty good at hiding and they were just running around playing so I thought I could get some good action shots. The moment my camera comes out, here's Sammy. (Christy - I left Lily in the picture just for you!) And please notice he has Lily's slick winter coat. Thank you.


Sunset this time of year can also be pretty dramatic. We don't get the leaves changing but the sky does what it can for us.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Work and play go together

The little boys have started to work.....just a bit. Vantage is a pro and this is his first excursion out of the round pen. He has been so amazingly easy to work with and nothing seems to bother him.

Then it was Sammy's turn. Just a little on the longe line before the long lines. He has no problem with it this way......

or that way........

And once their brief work period was over..............play time! They really aren't so interested in the jolly ball. But if one of them has it, of course the other one wants it. What was I thinking getting Vantage to take it while I was in the middle?
Of course Sammy wanted it if Vantage had it.





Oops - dropped ball.......now what?Sammy can't be bothered with the handle.........he can pick it up easily.


Oops.....Ball - you ok?


Who needs a silly old ball anyway?

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Pasture life

The little boys have a pasture that is separate from the bigger boys. The geldings are on one side and the mares on the other. The little boys like to hang out with the big boys and pretend they are part of the gelding herd. They also share their pasture right now with the pregnant black angus cows, Sarah, Beth and Anne. It's nice that they are learning about the diversity of their world.
Their hay and water is up by the barn so they have to leave their older friends to grab a bite.

They are very good at sharing with each other.

But Sarah and Beth want in on the goods. They are very pregnant and need the extra nutrition....or so they'd like us to believe.
Carefully they sneak up on the boys trying to eat around the edges without the boys noticing.
Please Sammy, share your hay with us?
Poor Sarah, she's got a pregnant sweet tooth. Now Malcolm tells us that cows don't like carrots. I don't think he took into consideration the cravings a pregnant little momma can get. So what if they don't have upper front teeth. She NEEDS a carrot.Ok, little momma....we'll give you the carrots. She must've eaten 3 or 4 before the boys realized she was scarfing down their treats.
And Vantage does the herding. Sammy has taught him well. No one can tell him that saddlebreds shouldn't herd cattle! And Sammy............
Well he's just proud of his friend.

And he's learned how to delegate. He's management material I tell you!
And it's always nice to see one of these going home at the end of the day.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Rio's Court Jester

By Rio Grande and out of Easter Lily. Our good friend Jinx lost him today. His life was way too short but he was loved. We met him very soon after he was born and he had us under his spell.



You were loved little man and you will be missed by many.