SPRING

Spring is finally here. I always dread the months of January and February. They seem so long, cold and dark. Then March comes and new life starts to emerge.  First to turn green are the weeds of course. Right now, the back yard is still pretty much brown but there is a patch of green and purple. Weeds yes, but at last some color to the landscape.  Gary actually put in a small garden this year. He planted tomatoes, corn, peppers, carrots, cantaloupe and watermelen. Now IF this all grows to the fullest potential, it will be lots more than we can eat. But, we love sharing, lol.  The horses and donks will always help us with the carrots, lol.  We might even add a few hens for eggs. I would love a couple of ducks but don't know if they could survive here for long. 

All the horses are starting to shed their winter coats. We turned the fab five up north. They are in heaven. It took all of them a few days to switch over the DLST.  Us too. I just can't seem to get up until the sun does lately. 

The new kitty turned out to be a boy. Whew.  Now to be able to catch him for his shots and possible neutering.  But, Spike seems to be a travelin man. Some days I see him, some days I don't. 

Belle's belly is getting very big.  She is not due until the first week in May.  Hope she gets along ok with the birth.  She loves having her huge belly rubbed.  Cruiser has decided that getting hugs and kisses is a good thing, especially when there is a treat attached. Little Roger thinks he can sit in mom's lap when she sits on an overturned bucket.  I had to convince him that just will not work. 

Well, there seems to be a small storm blowing in, we just got a tiny shower and something blew over on the front deck.  Better go check it out. 

All is well at Hawk's Acres. 

Happy Spring to all.

Update

Can't believe it's been over a month since I posted here.   Time slips by so fast anymore. We all survived the blizzard. Our lowest temp was -15 without the windchill.  The snow was pretty and I'm glad we got it. Then a few days ago we had wonderful rain, a good soaking rain. Now that we really needed. Yesterday, the temp was almost 80. Today however, it's 45. So ready for Spring to truly be here.

This morning, there was a new little being at Hawk's Acres. Her picture is on top. She "talks" a lot but so far, has kept her distance. I just wonder if she followed LIttle Man home last night.  He isn't over joyed at her presence but is tolerating her. It's like he doesn't know what to do with her, lol. Of course, Miss Kitty's nose is out-of-joint again. But, she will get over that in time.  Haven't decided on a name for the new wee one yet.

The second picture is of Ace, the neglected horse from Ks. He is a good boy most of the time. We have been able to cut him back on the amount of Thrive he eats. He still gets a good amount of chopped hay though and will until the grass is really green. I'm thinking about getting a small wood chipper to chop my own hay next winter. It would be less costly and we wouldn't have to lug those bags of already chopped hay home.  They are kinda pricey. We will see what happens with that idea.

All the other critters are doing well. Dogs getting fat due to not being outside much. 

Well, that's it for now. Hugs from Hawk's Acres.

Water...

Water. Every living thing needs it. Daily.

In Nevada, there is a new committe of "wild horse experts". They are to oversee the feral horses in the state. All are "welfare ranchers".  These men get to graze their cattle on federal lands for a very small fee per cow/calf pair. One man is a former mustanger, the others are wildlife hunters.....bobcats, coyotes etc. The chairman, Mr. Stremler is a mountain lion bounty hunter. He gets $1800 per cat. WTH!!!  These are "experts"?  I think not. They feel wild horses have no legal right to the water in the state.  They want to remove the wild horses and burros for "illegally" drinking Nevada's water.  Another bogus group just trying to kill off the wild horses so they can make more money.  Round up all the wild horses and just give them to the scum killbuyers to send to Canada or Mexico for slaughter.

They also want "2-horse ranches". Now, this is plainly just stupid. If I own land, no one is going to tell me how many horses/burros I can have. As long as I feed them well and make sure they have enough water.  They also want only 1000 wild horses in the whole state. 

Give me a break. I guess some people never have enough of anything and always want more. No matter what they have to do to get it. 

The big wigs in Washington are lucky I'm not the richest woman in the country. I would be digging up all the "dirt" I could on all of them and I would use it to stop horse slaughter and the round ups of all the wild ones.  Blackmail you say?  Sure is. 

And, don't forget the young state senator in Nebraska who wants to build a slaughter house there for horses.  He's a buddy of Slaughterhouse Sue.  The whole slaughterhouse gang is making me sick. 

I hope I'm dead long before the last wild horse. 

FIRST SNOW

Well, we got our first snowfall last night. Not a big deal as you can see. But, it was enought that hubby decided to burn brush piles. So, he drives down to the front of our property in his truck. He can sit in the truck and watch the fire. He stays warm and keeps a close eye on the fire.  Now, anything that is different immediately gets attention from Sonny and Hawk as you can see.

Now, the donkeys were too excited about the fire. They were more insterested in the hay. We also kept Tessa, Sandy and Ace in the barn last night. Today, they are out in the pens munching on nice hay.

Ace is on the west side of the barn. We have doors on that side to shut when the north winds blow and they were closed last night. It was really nice in there with the doors shut.  I don't like to keep them in the barn unless the weather is going to be bad. Fire scares we so very much.  Charlie Daniels' barn burned yesterday. I have read that 11 horses and a bull were lost. This is heartbreaking. Thinking of animals dieing in a fire.  Tonight, the temps are forcasted to be very cold with wind chills below zero. So, once again the doors will be shut and the 3 old ones will be inside.  I think they enjoy being spoiled, lol. 

RIP Munition.

For those of you who don't know, Munition was an OTTB.  That stands for off-track TB, a race horse that wasn't very good at running races. His trainer cared about him and worked at finding him a good home.  The  trainer placed Munition with a woman whom he thought was a good match, even made her ride him at the trainer's for a month before taking him. A few days after getting the horse, she learns she can't afford him and either gave/sold the horse to a kill buyer. Whether she knew this man was scum remains to be proven. Anyway, 22 days after this took place, she asked for help finding the horse.  Many people tried to find Munition, including the former trainer who was understandably upset at what happened. A $2000 reward was offered.  Guess where Munition is now......floating around in some sewer, or what is left of him.  Yep, he was slaughtered.  Now, there are  EU regulations on what meds slaughter horses can have in their system and Munition had those that were not allowed. Someone lied on Munition's paperwork. So who ate poison horsemeat????  I hope they die a horrible death like Munition probably did.  As for the witch who sold/gave him away, I hope he haunts her the rest of her life. I hope she never, ever  has a good night's sleep again.

Rest In Peace Munition

 

The Little Donkey Who Can't/Won't Bray

This is my sweet, little donkey boy. He is adopted and I love him to pieces. He likes being held and loved on. He can raise his little brown nose for kisses. He is 1 1/2 years old. He squeaks, snorts, says hee hee heeeee, haaaaa haaaaa haaaaaa and the other evening he giggled!  He makes all kinds of sounds but never really brays.  I never know what is going to come out of that cute, little body.  He likes to take my sleeve in his mouth and tug on my arm for attention. He also likes to drag things around. We never know where the feed pan is going to end up.  We need to nail it down but I don't think that would help. He would figure out a way to drag it off. We find chunks of trees that he has brought up to the house. He will carry off the buckets if he gets a chance.  He just never brays.  But he sure is loved.

View from the porch

Wow, didn't realize that it has been a whole month since I've posted anything. Time is flying by that's for sure.  Gary had some biopsies done and they were negative, yippee! 

Ace continues to do well. He's almost at 1000 lbs now.  We are now officially feeding hay. Three bales at a time so far.  Gary put up some hay racks in the barn for when Tessa, Sandy and Ace have to have access to it.  Using 10 ft panels to make 10 x 10 pens instead of building stalls was a good thing to do here. The other horses have a big run in but for some reason, don't like to share with the 3 older ones so they get the barn. Of course Pokey and Lil Bit have their own pasture with a run in so they have shelter too.  Makes a lot more work for us when we have to clean the barn before feeding but that's ok, work is good for the soul.  These cooler mornings really get the horses to running and playing. Especially Star. She is the youngest at 4 and really can put on a show. Of course, I never have the camera ready.

We did get to ride a couple of times this Fall. First time in 3 years. Boy it was so much fun. Hawk and Sonny did so well, one would never have believed it had been 3 years since they had  a saddle on their backs. 

We are ready for the really cold stuff from Mother Nature. All the hay is here and the heaters are in the water tanks.  The horses are growing their furry coats.

This is going to be a hard winter for horses though. Many don't have adequate food or shelter. It breaks my heart that I can't help/save every one of them.  Please be watchful and if you see a horse in need, please, please try to help it.

Remember to be thankful for all your blessings.