Groundwork 101

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We had a great clinic at the barn today.

A lot of people came and participated in it.

My grand-daughter, Ava is going to start her riding lessons in October so I invited her to the clinic to watch.

Here are a few pictures taken with my daughters iPhone.

(Well, this post is a little picture heavy!)

I participated today with Preacher.

Little Ava trying to be a pony.

There's so much to learn about horses.  You could take lessons and go to clinics your whole riding career and still not learn everything!  Especially if you got a late start like me!

We are at a wonderful teaching barn now.

Winfield Farm and Forge in Grafton, OH

The owner/teacher/trainer is Sarah Vas and her assistant teacher and trainer is Stephanie Brown. 

They are both highly educated and are wonderful teachers.

I just wish we had found them about 12 years ago!

Shirley

Is It Moulting or Molting?

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However you spell it . . . it's happening!

And that's only Martha that's started!!  (of course)

 Martha:  (I don't understand what's happening!

 She even lost the purple dot I put on her back with Blue-Kote so I could tell her apart from Molly!

 I hate to see Dottie's beautiful feathers start falling out!

Eggo hasn't started yet either.

Little Lily has.  You can see along her wing feathers.  Of course she always looks sort of scruffy so it's hard to tell!

Look at her dirty face!   I should've named her "Pigpen"!

(By the way, I think the British way of spelling it is "moult".)

Shirley

Hmmmm, what could I make out of all these feathers?

Apple Butter By Accident

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Well, here's how that happened!

I fully intended on making some crockpot apple sauce.

I got out my handy apple peeler and peeled a dozen apples from my own tree.

(I feel like such a homesteader!)

I put all the apples in my crockpot plus about 1/4 cup water and turned it on low.

I did stir it around a couple times during the day, but then I completely forgot about it!!

(Where is my brain?)

When I looked again, it wasn't apple sauce color.  It was apple butter color and it had been cooking about 11 hours!!!

I tasted it, added some sugar and cinnamon and then a little butter and brown sugar.

Then I blended it smooth with my hand held stick blender.

Aww, that's good!

 I spread it on some toast.  Very tasty!

I'm going to freeze those couple jars and name it "Accidental Apple Butter".

(And my mother thought I'd never be a cook!)

May all your cooking "accidents" turn out good  : ))

Shirley

New Chicken Coop Decor!

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Well, I did it.

I saw this on "Fresh Eggs Daily", my favorite chicken blog and I've been thinking of making these ever since.

I had this really cute red check material so I thought, what could be more perfect!!

Look, how cute!!!!

Surprisingly, Little Lily was the first brave girl to examine them!

And the first one to go in the curtained nesting box!

All the others came to gawk at her and the curtains.

                             

Have a happy day everyone.

Shirley

Happy Autumn

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I'm looking forward to a nice, pleasantly warm, beautiful, long fall season!

I got a beautiful, hand made card from my sister.

A perfect decoration for on my mantle.

The leaves around here are just barely starting to change.

 My apples are heavy on the tree.

I picked a dozen and brought them in to sweeten up in the fridge.

They are Jonathan apples and are slightly tart.  I don't spray my apples so they are what they are but there are plenty of good ones out there.

I'm going to make up some applesauce in my crockpot.

Shirley

Last Pinks of Summer

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The garden will be changing this next month.  Beautiful fall colors will be emerging.  But the pinks in the garden will become less and less till next year.

These are the colors of pink blooming like crazy right now in my gardens.

Shirley

I am linking up with 

"Pink Saturday"

at:

 How Sweet the Sound

http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/

No More Brooding

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The broody breaker cage did it's job again.

(I hope)

Martha has been in it for 2 days and nights with time out in the yard.

Today she was out acting very normal and when I put the girls back in the run, she didn't go racing to the nesting box.

See, it was empty most of the day except for my easter eggers who each gave me a pretty green egg.

And tonight she is on the roost with her sisters.

YEA!!

My girls egg laying is slowing down a lot.  

Have you noticed that with your hens yet?  I live in NE Ohio and the days are getting shorter.

Autumn starts in a couple days and that means only 12 hours of daylight.  Now, days will be getting shorter and shorter.  I think they lay best with 14 hours of light.

This winter I'm not going to put any artificial lighting in their coop.

I'm going let them have a rest which is more natural.  They've done so good their first season of laying.

They deserve it.

Shirley

Martha . . . . Really!!!!!!!!

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Yes, Martha has gone broody AGAIN!

This is the 3rd time this year since spring!

Poor frustrated Mama!

So I got out the Broody Breaker cage and started putting her in it this afternoon.

She wasn't happy.

It usually takes 2-3 days however, it was supposed to get really cold tonight so I covered up the nesting boxes in the coop and let her out of the cage to go into the coop.  She is not on the roost however, she's still nesting but on the floor of the coop in the shavings.

She'll go back in the cage tomorrow and stay there except for yard time.

I wish I could stick some baby chicks under her but cold weather is coming.  Maybe next spring if she keeps dong this.

Those darn hormones!  She just wants to be a mama hen.

(I guess I forgot to give her the sex talk about how babies are born!!)

Shirley

Preacher and the Kids

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We had some little visitors at the barn today.

My grandkids, Ava and Jack came with mom Linda to visit the horses.

Ava is 6 years old and is going to start taking riding lessons here in October.

First we groomed Echo and Preacher then I put a saddle on Preacher.   I intended on leading Ava around the arena on him but we didn't have a helmet to fit her so she got to just lead him around today.

Preacher was a 4-H horse before I got him 10 years ago and was used to kids.

It's funny how horses seem to know.  As soon as she took hold of the lead line, his head went down and he followed her wherever she walked.  So cute.

Afterwards, we took Preacher back to his barn.  Ava wanted to braid Echo's mane but she isn't tall enough even with my little stool so she braided Preacher's tail!

See how pretty!!

I can't wait till she starts her riding lessons.

Shirley

(Nanna)