A wandering herd

Every few days a herd of horses comes to visit.  They live down the road from us and seem to just wander around.  Last year there were seven, this year there are nine.

Some days they wander the country road and wind up here.

Where the green pastures grow.

An April weekend in January

I hope your weekend was as beautiful as ours!  The weather was unseasonably warm so we puttered around outside some.  Not much, just a little.

Daryl had gotten a good deal on some pansies so we planted them outside the front door.  The only problem with planting flowers is Shiloh tends to think of flower beds as dog beds.  She thanks us profusely, digs a little hole in the soft dirt, does about three turns, and then plops down on the fresh plants.  We have found some thin, green bamboo garden stakes that we usually put out among the plants  That works pretty good at keeping her out.  We're all out of those right now, though, so Daryl built a fence.  Don't you love it?

Don't worry, I'll be headed to Lowe's soon to find some more bamboo.

Saturday was The Girls' Day Out.  They love to peck around in the yard, and I feel like a better mom if I let them out to be free every once in a while.  Everyone was in a friendly mood and we had some up close and personal time together.

When we came home from church yesterday, the horse posse had returned.

I went out to have a little chat with them and made a new friend.  I think I'll call her Rose.

She was even closer than this picture makes it seem like she was.  Really.  We snuggled a little and had a good talk, and by nightfall, they were all gone again.  Are they running away from home or just visiting with some new friends?  I wish I knew.

Beautiful visitors

Look who came to visit yesterday!

I don't know where they live, but they seemed happy to be here.

They went home some time after lunch.  Their mom must have called them for dinner.

Overgrown

There comes a time every year when there is a decision to make.  Either the weeds take out the garden or I take out the weeds.  The decision is never as easy as it should be to me because I find it so easy to start something and so difficult to finish it well.

With my garden there is always something to blame for its being out of control.  Everything from droughts to floods, vacations to laziness.  Today I decided to get out there and kick a few weeds out.  This is the area I started in.

Before

I have a hard time pulling up plants that have a purpose, but are either too old or in the wrong place.  Sort of like they are alive and I am killing them.  Wait, that is what I'm doing.  No wonder it is hard for me!  After some hoeing, raking, and hand pulling of weeds and basil, this is what it looked like.

After

Not very good, but much better than before.  And in case you don't realize exactly how much better it is, here is my wheelbarrow full of what I pulled out of there!  I usually set little goals for myself.  Things like, "I'll work out here for one hour".  Or, "I'll pull weeds until the wheelbarrow is full".  Or, "When it gets hot enough that I almost pass out when I stand up, I will go in the house."  Today was the full wheelbarrow goal.  And here is a little tip for you in case you want to use that goal, but not work too long - put lots of large basil plants in the bottom of it.  You will get done quickly and feel really good about yourself!

I have a little fig tree that has died a couple of times and then come back from the roots.  I hope that this year it will survive the winter.  It has some cute little figs on it, but I have to say that fig trees stink.  Cute, but stinky.

The tomatoes and squash are almost finished for this year.  And I tell you, if you miss a day gathering the squash you will go back out there and find giant yellow gourds as big as watermelons!

When I got one of those this morning I cut it up and tried it out on Midnight.  Surprisingly, he ate it!

I really wish I had been able to get of picture of Daisy trying the squash.  She took a bite, then put her head in the air and showed her teeth really big.  Kind of like a big grin, but I think it was a grimace.  Seems like David used to do something like that when he ate squash. :)

Bath time for Midnight

I don't know what is going on around here, but this has been a spring of invasions.  First, we had carpenter bees, then there were the cicadas.  Now, the horse flies have moved to town.

They are a nuisance to us, but to the horses those guys are pure torture.  You can always tell when they are back because the horses just can't keep still.  They stomp their feet, bite at the ones they can reach, and swish their tails at the others.  Constantly.

Yesterday was our day to give Daisy and Midnight some relief.  There are chemicals you can put on them to ward off the pests and in the past we have sprayed it on the horses.  They get jumpy, though, and don't like to be sprayed.

We decided to try a new way this year.  And it involved giving these sensitive family members a bath, then sponging on the bug spray.  Don't know why, but we have never bathed our horses.  We weren't sure how they would like it.

Daryl is wearing the classic 'give-a-horse-a-bath' attire.

They seemed to love it!

Of course, it helped that it was around 95 degrees yesterday.

And that there was a sweet feed bucket right under their noses!

Bangs

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I haven't been very good at keeping my horses groomed lately.  Midnight needs his face washed - at the least.  He grows the furriest winter coat and starts to lose it in the spring so he really is a mess right now.  When Daryl saddled him up this evening, I took one look at Midnight and went back in for my scissors.

Every boy has probably had a time when their mother gives them a really bad haircut and today was just Midnight's turn.  That hair was hanging down almost into his eyes and I chopped it off!  It looks a little like a bowl cut and he is not happy about it.  While giving Jonathan a ride around the yard, he thought about bucking him off, but Daryl had the lead and stopped that little bit of monkey business.

Sorry, Midnight!