Busy couple of weeks

Since my friend got hurt, I've been taking care of her horses as well as my own, plus I've got another friends horse here for the trainer to work with. So at the moment there are 8 horses here plus all the other critters. I also have three hens setting on eggs along with one duck and a goose. The goose hatched out at least one gosling on Saturday or Sunday while I was at the ACTHA ride. 

Dream and I went on the ACTHA ride in Estancia and we placed 5th on the Sunday ride.  We have three more rides before the ride season ends and we will be off to San Acacia this weekend for one of those rides. As soon as I get them I'll post photos of the ACTHA ride and the gosling if I can get a close up of it without getting goosed by momma and daddy goose.

My garden is starting out well and I'm going to have to start planting the rest of the garden really soon. The Pear trees are blooming and look like they actually might survive to produce some pears.  the apple and cherry trees haven't bloomed yet and I'm hoping that the spring will be kind and no freeze them or the pears this year.   I've already harvested enough Asparagus for the first good meal of the spring. Kale and spinach are also going well. The Sun chokes are starting to grow next to the rhubarb and garlic starts. It's already looking like a good garden year.

Updates on Sprouting

Well I had planned to make this update a bit sooner, but things got crazy with my friend getting hurt.  First off I haven't been able to get a hold of whole wheat or whole barley to try sprouting those. I tried my two year old home grown Indian corn and whole oats.  The Indian corn did well and sprouted nicely, The oats did a big fat NOTHING.  Then I tried whole corn from the feed store. The whole corn DID sprout, but not anywhere near as well as the Indian Corn.  It also fermented and molded much faster and truly stunk. 

The feed store owner told me today that she can't get any whole barley at all, but the whole wheat will be in at the end of the week. I'm going to try the whole wheat and see how it compares to the corn and oats.

So the sprouting experiments are on temporary hold until I can get new seeds to sprout.

Growing sprouts to feed the critters.

I've been doing some research on feeding the horses and the poultry (especially the ducks and geese) sprouted grains. The websites are calling it "fodder" but it is really just different grains sprouted into grasses. You can use barley, wheat, oats, and many other grains or a combination of some or all of them. I'm starting my experiment on a small scale to make some sprouted grasses for the ducks and geese. I've purchased some sprouting trays. As soon as those come in I'm going to start growing some fodder for the poultry and I'll report back on how that's going.  If you want to read more about growing your own "sprouts" for your critters, you might be interested in some of the following web links.

Green Feed for your horses

Livestock Fodder Shed

There is even this neat youtube video from a poultry farmer working with a system for his chickens.  The system he's using is one that I'm thinking about purchasing if my cheapo experimental system works out for me. 

Poultry Farmer Video

I'd still have to buy some of my hay for the horses, but the chickens and other poultry could live exclusively on the fodder as they don't require long stem dry matter to aid in digestion. It appears that the fodder systems have been in use in other parts of the world for a while now. Australia and the middle east each have documented use of this type of feed system for 2 to 3 years now. The benefits of the system is that you can provide fresh feed to your animals all year round. the downside is you need a place that is warm enough to grow the fodder all year round. I'm currently working on getting a green house so hopefully I'll be able to make this whole thing work.

I is FREEEEEEEEEE!

I'm sure that's what Miss Shy Ann thought this morning after her latest break out was discovered. If you haven't yet heard about the adventures of this Houdini mule, you should read up on some of her other stories such as:

Houdini Monster

Monster and Fences

Where is my mule

The New Adventures of the Shy Monster

Today's adventure is nothing unusually new for this hard working escape artist. I'm sure she enjoys herself greatly when she's hard at work figuring out new escape tactics.

I go out to feed and see this

That's right the mule has worked hard to pull out three of the 4 drop pins in the corral panels in order to plop that panel over and escape. Now to find everyone.

Yep that is certainly NOT where the critters are supposed to be! Rounding them up was pretty easy as all we had to do was shake an empty feed sack and almost everyone runs back into their designated pasture. Notice I say ALMOST everyone. That's because miss mule monster has decided that she's just not following the crowd today. 

First she decided to run down and chase the neighbors dog ( the black one in front of her)

Then she just needed a really GOOD roll!

Now she just had to say Hello to the neighbors!

Hey dude's How's it going? Oops gotta go Mom's after me!

Oh my I think I spy a bucket full of food. Get out of the way dog I'm coming through!

UMMM I think Dad's trying to trick me, but man that food smells good!

OK I guess my adventure is over for the moment, can we have breakfast now?

So that ends this chapter in the life and times of Houdini mule. More whenever the next escape attempt happens. 

Trailer Training

I spent this weekend working on trailer training for Booger Butt, Topper and Baby Girl. Booger Butt and Baby Girl have been loaded and transported a few times but not on a regular basis. Topper has been on  regular rides in the trailer (usually to the vet every time she gets hurt), but she had developed some resistance to loading. So we decided to work on trailer comfort skills which is basically getting the three comfortable with loading and standing still in the trailer. Some people don't believe that feeding a horse in a trailer is a good thing, but in my opinion, a horse must feel comfortable enough in the space to feel safe enough to eat.  My trailer training for the weekend consisted of loading all three up in the individual stall spaces of the three horse trailer and then feeding them. After they were finished eating, I unloaded them and tied them to the outside of the trailer for a few minutes before putting them back in the pastures. I feel that they need to feel as safe in the trailer as they do in their own pasture.  The first day there was a bit of hesitation from all three at loading. Baby Girl I think is the most nervous about the enclosed space.  Baby girl also didn't feel comfortable enough to back out of the trailer on the first day. Luckily she was in a slot that gave her enough room to turn around. On the second day whoever, I put her in the space that basically required that she back out. Finally with a bit of encouragement, she backed out very well. Booger Butt didn't have any problems either day except that the trailer floor was pretty high the first day so we had to encourage him to step up high enough to get his foot on the floor. The second day, I back up the trailer to a different location so he wouldn't have to step up as high. Ladybug didn't have any trailer loading training, because she's already well used to loading and unloading.