Monday, December 3, 2018

Changing Times...

Things change. Our circumstances have changed. Our location has changed. Funny how things you think will NEVER change manage to change, even without your permission!

We now live on a (low) mountainside in northeast Arkansas (my poor husband is a Texas fish out of water up here!). Two and a half acres of fenced, rolling land, in yet another doublewide--about the same age as the Texas one, is what we now call home.

I am down to four horses now: Buffi, Symphony, Mustang, and Dragon.
I simply couldn't haul all of them in my little 4-horse mini trailer, so Radar, Spirit and my precious Magic went on to new homes. (I miss them so much!)

Hope and Polly, ages 34 and 35, were supposed to come with us. I had made arrangements for them to be shipped up here, had their Coggins, health certificates, etc., etc., but it was not to be. A week before we moved, sweet little Hope began to suffer organ failure. Kidneys, mostly, but liver, digestive tract also. She would not survive a 375 mile trip. Because I promised my fried Virtus that I would never separate those two old ladies, they were euthanized together. Now, their halters hang beside the door between the barn & the workshop.

This place came with a trio of rotten chickens. I have named them in part due to the order they normally run:  Lady Red, (a Rhode Island Red) Lady Too (a gold-laced Wyandotte), and Caboose (also gold-laced Wyandotte). The Wyandottes lay eggs sometimes, and don't sometimes. The RIR lays eggs with NO shell and NO membrane. Basically, you get scrambled egg on the ground... They are fun to watch, as chickens usually are!

My barn cat, MomCat, came up here with us, with me intending her to be a barn cat here, too. Didn't take long to realize she would likely not survive long. Too many predators! Coyotes, wolves, owls, foxes, bobcats, even a bear or two (though I haven't seen any of those, thankfully!). She has become a housecat, just like her two surviving kittens, Bunny & Skyy. Still semi-feral around everyone but me, but she grows more comfortable every day. If she had been miserable and stressed to be indoors (outside of the expected level of relocating by way of an 8-hour car ride), I would have turned her outside and hoped she would survive the dangers outdoors. I'm glad I don't have to worry about her every time she doesn't show up to feedtime now. She's a love!

2018 is on its way out, and 2019 will be here in less than a month. Here's wishing everyone a joyful, prosperous, love-filled 2019!

Our new place:
 Back yard view

 Horse pasture
Pine tree--driveway sentinel