Surprise

I had a nice surprise today. Went out to feed the horses this afternoon and someone was standing at my gate. It was an friend who used to live on our street and moved a couple of years ago. I was a wonderful surprise to talk to her and catch up on all the gossup even if we do email.

How's Star Doing?

How is Star Doing? some have asked. Well all I can say is she is about the same. She knows her own pen find and it is large enough (about a quarter of an acre that is mostly a rectangle with a weird little triangle at one end) that she has plenty of space to move around in. She has a good sized shelter that is open on one end so she can go in and out when she wants. I keep her feed container (half a 50 gallon plastic barrel) in there and only feed her in there so she will always know where her feed is. I keep her water container (also half a 50 gallon plastic barrel) full of fresh water and it the same spot all the time. She can visit with Nita, our other mare and Sunny, my old gelding through the fence between her pen and theirs. I would love to be able to let them together but she and the other two don't seem to want to get along well together. She and Nita will do find for a day or so and then get in an argument and the kicking and biting will start. The last time I tried it Star got kicked right above her right front knee. I don't think she could see or sense the kick coming and so couldn't try to get away. It was swollen for days but seems ok now. I won't take the chance on that again and don't let them together. Even Nita knows to stay away from Sunny. At about 22 he is the boss and gets everything his way. If Nita bugs him to much he lights into her with bits and kicks. Yes, I know all of them need more exercise but Sunny can't be ridden due to age (a bad back and hoof), and now Star can't. Plus I never was able to afford a professional to train Nita and I know I am not able to do it myself.
I do some round pen work with Sunny and Nita and with Star I am working with her to understand more voice commands as well as lead better and trying to teach her to lunge better on a lunge line.
It all takes time and for a person that is also handicapped there are many days where nothing but feeding and watering gets done.
That is except the love. We always give them lots of love.

New Link About Blind Horses

Today a friend sent me a link to someone else who has a blind horse. Like my mare, Star, her horse is an Appaloosa, too. She is able to explain to those of us that are Scientifically Blind how this problem occurs in the Appaloosa horse. Here is the link to her blog which I will also add to my links list. http://http://barndoortagz.blogspot.com/2010/11/walk-on-wild-side.html

Cold Weather

Getting ready for the cold weather that the weather man is predicting. It was at 38 this morning when we went to feed the horses and has been about 60 all afternoon. But the TV weatherman is saying that Thanksgiving will be super cold. A high of 40 degrees and a low that night of 20 degrees. I keep telling the horses they need to grow more hair for the winter and they are but it doens't seem as long as it needs to be for that kind of cold. They do have the three sided shelters to help keep the wind of of them and rain or snow. That is if we should ever be so lucky as to get some rain or snow. We did repair Star's shelter the other day as it had some holes in it where she or one of the other horses and kicked the sides sometime last spring.

Blog Problems

I keep trying and trying to put photos on my blogs but do to the fact that BlogSpot has 'improved' the way they do things, and I only have dial-up I can't get photos to load to my blogs. So from now on my blogs won't have photos.

Store Temps

What is with the stores that won't use an air conditioner in the summer so customers can shop without feeling as if they are going to pass out, and that don't use some kind of heat in the winter so the customers don't freeze. Don't they know we might buy more if we were more comfortable while shopping.

Fall Harvest

Fall Harvest? well sort of. We don't harvest anything here but we go out and buy lots of hay from the hay farmers harvest to try to tide us over the winter. If you don't buy and store lots of hay now you find you are paying higher prices for it when you run out and need it later this winter, before the farmers can start harvesting again in the spring.
For once I would like to have enough that we don't have to pay high winter prices.
We are also harvesting fire wood. We have to do that ourselves, but it means several trips to the mountains. We pay $20 for a permet to cut dead wood on the National Forest and haul it home to use for heating rather than the overly expensive propane for the furnace. It means lots of work but is a lot of saved money in the long run. The last load we went to get we took our new pup, Ziva. It was quite an experence for her.

Me & Dustin

While Dustin was here a few weeks ago I got Lee to take a photo of the two of us.

Living with a Blind Horse

Remember the horse that I had photos of a few weeks ago showing how Appaloosas change colors as they get older. Well that same horse, our Appaloosa, mustang cross horse Star has gone blind. The vets we had look at her weren't really sure why. Maybe she has a problem called uveitis or moon blindness, or maybe it is a genetic problem that seems to be common in Appaloosas. Even appys get moon blindness more that other breeds do. What ever the reason we now have a blind horse. She and I are both having to learn to live with this problem. She still has about 25 percent of her sight and that is just enough to cause her to spook at a lot of things she almost sees that otherwise she would ignore.
Thankfully I have always talked to my horses all the time when I am moving around them. That is the most important part of being safe around a blind horse as it is with all horses. If you talk to them then they know where you are. Star is learning to use her ears and nose more. She quickly learned the sound of the crackly paper that is around her favorite treat - peppermint candies. She is getting a lot more peppermints now as I work with her to earn her trust better and to keep her from being so unhappy.
Star is already showing signs of boredom with her new life. I wish I had more time to spend with her and I would if I could handle being on my feet out in our desert heat. And now I can't let Star be in the same area as our other horses. Some horses will except a blind horse and help them but they are more likely to bully the blind horse as they know there is something not quite right and in the wild a blind animal wouldn't survive very long. Of course all of our other horses are bullies to start with.
What really let me know that there was a problem was when Star ran into the fence and got tangled up. She fell, cutting her right foreleg just above the knee and breaking off a fence post. We were lucky that was all that happened. Just as the cut on her leg was getting well I tried to put her with my other mare, Nita, and Nita kicked her. Star couldn't see the kick coming and it landed right on the knee where the cut was. Her leg has been swollen some ever since then. We are using a water hose to run cool water over it everyday as well as some pain killers for Star as she is limping but it is taking time. But having to run water on her leg is a good part of her new training to help her learn to live with her blindness.
This isn't what I would call fun but I love her and will do what I have to for her.

Hold, Please

• Linda has left an excellent suggestion about how to get rid of unwanted callers. I will certainly give it a try. She says to ask them to hold, put down the phone and wait about 5 minutes or so. Usually by then they will have hung up. And we can hope they take your name off their list as they don't want that happening again.
• Thanks, Linda, and welcome to the Tumbleweed Crossing.

Unwanted Calls

Opinion time again. Is there any way to stop solicitation phone calls???

• The do-not-call list doesn't work. Those calling asking for money for a so-called charity or church don't have to go by the do-not-call list. Neither do those calling to do a so-called servery - which is usually a political ploy by a politician running for office in the next election.
• Yesterday I had 3 calls. One from a company asking me why I didn't renew my subscription to one of the magazines I have cancelled. Mine you it is the 3rd time in a week that they have called. She kept on and kept on about didn't I want to renew it even though I cussed her out and told her to shutup. Another was from Dish Satellite TV wanting me to get it even though I have a contract with Direct TV. I had been thinking about switching but after such a rude salesman that couldn't understand 'contract', I won't. The last was the political survey call that always comes right at supper time. And it is a recording so you can't even ask someone not to call you back.
• Isn't it time the politicians understand we don't want to be called for any reason and put a stop to these kind of calls.
• I would vote for the politician that did this. (As long as he didn't call me.)

Come! Zivy!

See more about Ziva or Zivy as we sometimes call her at

http://thepuppytale.blogspot.com/

Sunrise

Sunrise over the Sandia Mountains this morning. And some morning glories.

Ziva & Wiley

Our new puppy, Ziva, playing with our black cat, Wiley. Check out more about Ziva at my blog, http://thepuppytale.blogspot.com/

Hay Delivery

Gourd blossom

Purple and blue morning glories have climbed up the post on the porch.

These are the first white morning glories I have had in a long time. Notice the row of rain drops in the lower right corner.

These are wild purple asters.

This is a wild hollyhock that is growing by my

These are wild hollyhocks that are growing my my mailbox.

Cats on a Tree

Here are Wiley and Jade posing on their indoor cat tree. They like to sit on it and look out the window

A couple of weeks ago we went to the mountains to start cutting wood for winter heating. We took Tuffee with us and she loved it. While there we found several clumps of very tiny bluebell flowers. So small I had to lay on the ground to get a decent photo. But that was before we had the new puppy.  So today I sent the menfolks of to get more wood and the dogs and I stayed home.

Flowers in the garden right now.