Two Girls In a Creek

ClaireAnna and her friend, Kirsten, spent a beautiful June morning splashing in the creek behind our house and picking blackberries!

Jack Frost

***UPDATE**** We have changed our minds. Jack is no longer for sale. He is such a sweetie that we just couldn't part with him.****UPDATE****

Jack Frost was a Christmas Present for ClaireAnna 2 years ago. He was left here by Santa, who asked Claire to take care of him. Anyway, Jack has been fun and is a sweat heart. He is very good with people and kids, is easy to catch and loves a treat or a scratch. Claireanna could lead him and bath him by herself when she was five as the pictures show. Jack gets along with cows and even bulls, horses and our Llama. Unfortunately, he is VERY territorial and does NOT get along with dogs or smaller stock. He will chase goats and sheep and he will attack calves and dogs. He is fine with cats and poultry.

Because of this, we are trying to find him a new home. We have so many different animals here and it is getting difficult to keep Jack away from the ones he may hurt. We love him very much, but playing pasture roulette is getting annoying. Jack has spent the last year living in the bull pen with 2 full grown Red Angus bulls and he has done just fine. He would be a GREAT companion animal for a bull, a horse or anything bigger then himself that won't run away from him. He would be a wonderful guard animal for a poultry flock. He will NOT let a dog or predator in the barnyard, PERIOD! Jack has been to several petting zoo events with our 4-H group and did very well. He is tiny and cute and makes a big to-do with his EEEEAWWWW when anyone visits the barnyard. We will be sad to see him go and are looking for just the right home for him where his sweat personality and protective instincts are both assets. ClaireAnna understands that Jack may be sold and why. She has so many other pets and a new pony foal that I don't think she will feel a void when he is gone. She also now knows that Santa is really Daddy, so she won't feel guilty about that! Jack Frost is a gelding. He is only 3 years old and could live well into his 30's. If we don't find just the right home for him, he will continue to be a companion for our Bull, JT.

You Can't Go Home

Well, It's been a couple of months since she left. She's been busy. I've been busy. The time has flown by. I'm outside so much now that I don't usually answer the phone when she calls. She probably thinks that I don't notice that she's not here. But she's wrong.

I was listening to the radio yesterday and heard the Bon Jovi song, "Who Says You Can't Go Home?" I thought about how much she wanted to go "home" and how happy she is there. I know it's the right thing for her. But......the down side for me is.......I don't live there anymore.

I am having a hard time accepting that our separation is so permanant. The other times she left me, I always knew she was coming back.....in a couple of months. But now I have to say, "She lives in Illinois." And I live in Arkansas. And.......I can't go home.....to be where she is.......Because home means something different to each of us now.....and that is hard for me to accept.

Jessie, I love you and I miss you more then I could ever say. Mom

Duckling Cuteness

APHA Solid Paint Bred 2007 Chestnut Filly

"Chigger" is an APHA Solid Paint Bred Chestnut Filly, D.O.B. 2/2007. She has two small white spots on her barrel that are not big enough to qualify for regular registry. She is a very lovely girl with a great personality and an excellent pedigree that includes Impressive (2X) and Te N Te. She is HYPP N/N.

These pictures just don't capture her beauty, she is a very pretty yearling. I will have video of her up soon to show her lovely floating movement.

Her front legs are very streight. She just moved this left hoof as I took the picture. Will try to get another one more squared up.
Pretty, pretty face!


She is a bit toed out in the back. But she has a really nice rear!

Chigger's sire is Prestigious, an APHA halter champion. You can see a picture and get info and his pedigree here:

http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/prestigious4

Chigger's Dam is Te Totally Mine. Her pedigree is here. "Te" is 19 years old, still producing and sound and healthy.

http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/te+totally+mine

This filly is easy to catch and loves grooming and attention. She will pick up her feet and is getting used to the farrier. She has been trimmed twice without too much fuss. She is current on vaccinations and worming. Chigger leads well and loads and backs out of a step up trailer. She has a great personality and will make someone an excellent riding horse some day. She will be between 15.2 and 16.1 hands. I think she will be particularly suited to English but could go any way.

Chigger was sold to Diana Evance who never paid for her in full.  I'm still owed $60.  Diana traded her off to someone else.  Hope she's okay.

Ducklings!

We had bought a trio of Bantam White Calls, a breed of small domestic duck for ClaireAnna for her 3rd birthday. Ted had them shipped all the way from New York State. Unfortunately, soon after they arrived, the male died. We have had no luck in acquiring a new male for the last 4 years. ( It just costs too much to ship a single bird ) This past fall, a 4-H friend heard we were looking for one. He called and said he was going to Louisiana to his grandpa's for Thanksgiving and he could bring us back a male. (Grandpa raises ducks) Ya! Finally, we had our trio again.

So, about a month ago we started collecting the Call eggs and when we had enough, we put them in this box.

Grandpa Harmon kept them sprayed with water once a day. 28 days later, we heard peeping!
Unfortunately, out of the 15 eggs in the box, only 3 hatched. (Ted had to help them get out of their shell ) Humidity in the incubator is apparently a very tricky factor.

ClaireAnna is raising her 3 new ducklings in her bedroom, at least until they are a little bit older. She decided she needed to get IN the box to bond with them.

They are so tiny - smaller then a tennis ball and weigh even less. The littlest ducklings we have ever seen.
This is an adult pair of White Calls. This is what our ducklings will look like when they grow up. Aren't they cute?! There is even more good news. Both White Call hens, our Chineese Mandarin hen and our Ancona hen are all sitting on thier own little nest full of eggs. In a couple of weeks we should have our first batch of home raised ducklings!

Alexandar All Grown Up

Well, he's not ALL grown up, but he sure has grown into a handsome yearling. Alex is 12 months old now and Kate got some nice pictures of him today.

Post Script: We sold Alex soon after these pictures were taken.  Big mistake.  He would be the perfect horse for me now.  Sure wish I kept this pretty boy.

32 Hours Old

Here is "The Grinch" at about 32 hours old.
Here's the link to Smart Stinger, The Grinch's Sire.
http://www.smartstinger.com/
This is the link to The Grinch's Grandpa, Color Me Smart. He is a VERY FAMOUS Paint stallion.
http://www.colormesmart.com/

2008 Spring Calves

Here are some of the cute calves we have this spring. Phantom is the youngest, just a week old now. We think he has a Phantom of the Opera mask on!
This is Spider Boy. He was born completely deformed. He could barely walk. With each step, his legs would fold over and almost collapse. I emailed video and pictures to the vet and he told us this was contracted tendons from his position in the womb. I didn't believe him. I thought Spider Boy was deformed in the bones and would need to be put down. Spider was in such misery, we did almost put him out of it. But after a week, we noticed that if Spider Boy was laying down and then got up, he looked a little less crippled. He would walk a few strides and then start to collapse again. Each time we saw him, he would walk a few more "normal" strides then the last time before crippling up. After about three weeks, Spider Boy had stretched out those tendons completely and now, you can't tell him from the others. I'm sure it was a painful process, but he struggled through it and now is a healthy happy calf. He'll never know how close he came......

"The Grinch" is Here!

Well, after getting up in the middle of the night for over a week to check on Cindy, I was finally too tired to wake up last night. By the time I did, it was 6:30 AM. I raced to the barn to find this little guy, born, dry and nursing. Figures! He is a bay tobiano, very minimally marked. By 7:00 AM, he was cantering circles around his Mama and leaping into the air. He is VERY spunky! He is just what ClaireAnna wanted. These pictures were all taken by noon today when he was less then 12 hours old.

Why "The Grinch" you ask? Well, Cindy's full name is "Cindy Lu Who" from How the Grinch Stole Christmas. For two years ClaireAnna has planned to name Cindy's foal, "The Grinch" if it was a boy. Well, she got her boy and can you believe he has a Grinch right on his face?! Look at the blaze. I'll be darned if it's not a Grinch with the hat flopped forward just like this picture from the book!

For those who can't see it!
A special and sincere thank you to Gary and Jolene Epperson, owners of Smart Singer, The Grinch's sire. Thank you so much for working with us and helping to make ClaireAnna's dream come true! She is thrilled!

4-H Spring Horse Show

Pope County 4-H Wrangler's Horse Club Spring Show , April 19th, 2008This is ClaireAnna's first show to ride in by herself. Last year, I lead her in. This year, she is in the driver's seat and Dad and Mom nervously watched from the bleachers. Here she is about to go into trail class, getting a confidence boost from Dad.ClaireAnna entered the goat tying class. The Cloverbuds only had to run to the end of the arena, dismount, catch the goat and grab a ribbon off of it's tail and hold it up in the air. Here she is climbing down after she trotted to the end of the arena. (There is a goat staked just off the picture.) We practiced this so she would be confident getting off this huge horse. She's just glad she didn't have to get back on by herself! We're so grateful to have Missy, who stands so patiently still for Claire. What a great horse! A quiet moment, waiting for the next class.ClaireAnna riding Missy in Walk/Trot, a class they took first place in. ClaireAnna told me, "Mom, I smiled at the judge a lot! Maybe that helped me win."



Video of the Poles class. ClaireAnna didn't place high in the speed events since she was only walking and trotting, but she had a blast, did all her patterns correctly and actually loped Missy home one time. Her first lope EVER! She was SO proud of herself!

Video of trail class. For some reason, (maybe Claire was cuing with the wrong leg?) Missy moved away from the mailbox instead of towards it. Claire got 4th place in this class.

Video of Walk/ Trot. Claire and Missy won first place.