I found a new horse blog that I like. Take a look at Linda's blog
http:blogs.chron.com/hoofbeats/

Oh to figure out how to keep the weight off of 4 horses when you don't have time to work with them. Star, my mustang pony, is the worst, like most women she can put on weight just looking at food, and of course she is the hardest to work with. Both the mares are just green broke. Which means with my newest health problems I am leary of doing much riding with them. The boys are better, but Sundance has developed a limp that is most likly arthritus. He is about 18 and was hard used before he came here. Now he just eats and keeps my 3 company. He isn't really mine as he belongs to a freind who moved to Phonix, Ariz. She keeps calling me, saying she is going to come get him but so far she hasn't. I tell her no need to worry, I'll take care of him.

Another Sign of Spring

The horses are shedding. That is a major sign of spring. I spend a lot of time brushing and grooming now. These arn't show horses but still I want them to look fairly nice. Of course as soon as I finish and turn them loose in the field the first thing they do is drop down and take a nice dust bath in the sand that is so all prevailing here. It isn't warm enough to bath them yet but when I do I have to keep them tied until they are dry so they don't have mud on them. The few drops of rain and snow last weekend caused them to roll vigeriously to coat themselves with dirt that then dryed giving them what looked and felt almost like a coat of armour. Took me hours to get it off and out of their manes and tail. Still haven't finished with Star as she doesn't seem to want me to brush her which is weird because she usually loves it. Nita loves it even more and will stand there and go to sleep while I am grooming her. On the other hand BlackJack barely tollerates it. And of course being Black he looks the most like he has a drying mud coat on all the time. It really lets me know just how hard the adobe bricks are that are so popular in New Mexico for building homes. The pueblo Indians were doing it before the white man, or should I say the Europeans got here.

Well we might have the Dodge running at long last. So proud of the Scout for being there and running when we needed it. Just hope it continues to run. For a little bit longer, anyway.

Old Trucks

Both of our old trucks broke down this week. Not sure what is wrong with them. My mechanic, (my husband, Lee) is trying to fix them. He is so mad at them I don't dare stick my head into the garage. We dug the old 1979 International Harverst Scout out of the back corner of our lot and it actually fired up the first time we tried it. You have to slam the door to shut it, and pry it open with a crow bar. There is a crack in the windsheld right in front of the drivers eyes and you have to stand on the brake to get it to stop. But it runs.
Thats more than I can say for the Ford and the Dodge.

Well it seems as if Spring has finally Sprung. Don't know if it will stay here, or not.
Still getting down to freezing at night so don't dare put the houseplants out yet. Some of the trees are starting to open a few of the first blossoms, and have 2 daffidils blooming

Broke Down

We have 3 trucks, and 2 cars sitting in our yard. They are all broke down. I limped the old Ford truck home today. I can't get it figured out. It don't matter if their new or old all our vehicles seem to be broke down. It doens't seem to matter that we change the oil regularly, give them tune ups, replace old hoses, tires, and other almost wore out parts. What ever we don't think about is the part that gives up and says it isn't going to let the car or truck continue to get us from point A to point B. Thats all we ask. Just to go from home to job and back. We don't have anything fancy and don't want it as it will just brake down.
Does everyone have this problem with their vehicles? It seems so. Which leads me to beleive that it might be a manufactoring problem. Another words poor quality control.

This!!!!!!!!!!!!can't be the first day of Spring! My daffidills and tulips are blowing away in this wind. As are the almost open blossoms on my trees.

March Wind

We had a nasty weekend. Wind. Snow. Hail. Sleet. Rain. But not enough of any of it to amount oanything. Even a bit of thunder. Don't know where the lightning was - I didn't see any. Not my kind of weather. But I guess every little drop of mositure helps when you are in a drought.
It came in like waves. First a bit of huge snowflakes that were really pretty. Then smaller ones. Then it slacked of and sun came out. An hour later it was dark again and had sleet and small bits of hail, with lots of wind. Then it was gone. Later we had rain, which changed to frozen rain. Not any fun at all.
I understand there may have been several inches of the white stuff in the mountains and higher elevations. That is good. As the snow there has been less than 50 percent of average. We can use all we can get. Even if it does make for cold, wet, and nasty weather.

cams

Web cams are the greatest. You can watch wildlife or visit an area you have never been to or even heard of. I am trying to find more of them.

Eagle Web Cam

I found a really cool web cam that show a pair of eagles on their nest.
www.nwf.org/wildlife/baldeagle/webcam.cfm
Give it a try. You can watch a pair of eagles as they await the birth - or is that hatching of their eaglets. I can't wait for the first chick.

Snow is all gone. Wind and dirt are back. Our yard has been rearranged. Have bare places that used to be sandy, and have small sand dunes where it used to be flat. Horse pens 1 and 2 are down to hard pan dirt that is like walking on cement. Pens 3 and 4 have triple the amount of sand in them they used to have, making it very hard to walk in or push the wheelbarrow through to clean the pen. Not fun. The turnout field is down to the roots of sage and cactus that were in the field when we first moved here, and ground is hard as a rock. Not good for ponie hooves. But at least I was able to get the horses out of their pens today. All weekend I left them in as blowing sand was so bad.

MOISTURE!!!!!

We had moisture as of early this morning! Anyway we did have about an inch of snow on the ground when I got up. Of course within a few hours it was gone. And the wind is still blowing, although it isn't blowing the sand with it today that has been the normal all week. Sometimes I feel like we have gone back in time to the dust bowl days of the 1920's and 1930's. (At least that is when I think the dust bowls were so bad in the west and mid west United States.) It is caused by all the construction to build houses on top of having an extream drough in our state of New Mexico and surrounding areas.
That bit of snow promted the dogs and horses to get out in it and romp and play, causing every one to have a coat full of muddy dirt. But they had fun. Me, on the other hand, did not have fun. I was out in the snow, and wind, and cold, feeding horses, and refilling water buckets after dumping out the awfull mix of water and dirt that was in them. Hopefully there will be a day or so before the sand gets to blowing again. Better yet the wind will go away. Or if it has to blow - it could bring in some more rain and snow.

Fishy, Fishy, Fishy

I gave away my fish! I have had a 10 gallon fish tank with a series of little fresh water fish in it for the past 22 years. I gave up on it this past weekend and gave the last 4 little fishys to my friend. She is setting up a new fish tank. Thank Goodness. For years there was the old question of -
Did you feed the fish today? It seemed to be so hard for either Lee or I to remember to feed the fish. Can remember to feed the horses, dogs, cats and ourselves but not the fish.
When my son was 5 he kept asking for a fish tank. He was so hyper I thought that maybe watching the fish might calm him down. As soon as the tank was up, filled, and had fish in it he could have cared less. So of course it feel to mom to take care of the fish. Of course they wouldn't all die at the same time. Of course when it would get down to 2 or 3 little fishy I would feel sorry for them and buy some more. Some of them did well and lived for many years, while others bit the dust in just a few months. We had one algae eater, (sucker) that lived for almost 20 years, and grew to be about 8 inches long.
For the past 3 years I kept trying to give the last 4 fishys away and no one wanted them. Or already had the kind of fish that would have eaten them. Finally a friend said she was getting another tank. I said "Take my Fish!" and she said "OK"

We can only hope that all men will be women in their next life. That they will remember that they were men, and learn to have more sympathy for us women when they have periods, cramps, babies, PMS, menopause, hot flashes, night sweats, and the hundred and one other complications that come with being a woman.