Snow On the First Day of Winter

Today is the winter solstice, the first official day of Winter.  I think it is very fitting that we are having a good snowy day on this day!  (Today is also the day that some people think the world will end based on an old Mayan calendar, but I'm not even going there.  Maybe Y2K had some very credible voices, but a Mayan apocalypse?)  We had snow the end of October, but the next 7 weeks were fairly uneventful, weather-wise.  About half the nights have seen temperatures at the freezing mark but the first week of December was Spring-like with highs in the 60s.  Overall, a pretty calm ending to Fall.

And that brings us back to our snowy day today, the first day of Winter!

Dandelion still has not yet calved!  Chirstina, Simon, Timothy and I just got back from checking on her.  We gave her fresh hay and also put fresh hay down in the shelter for Gracie, Violet, and the two bull calves.  During the past week, Matthew, Christina and Simon have worked on putting up the outside walls of the shelter they roofed last month.  They got the walls up just in time for this bitter cold snowy wind today!  The children also took a few moments to enjoy the snow over there at that farm.

This is what the shelter looks like now!  Quite an improvement for the winter.  Before Matthew put the wood up, we had tarps up but I don't think we got any pictures of that phase.

Simon helped a lot getting the hay today.  Christina did also, but  she moved so fast that I did not get a picture of her carrying a bale.

Here's Dandelion warm and dry in the barn.  I tried to get pictures that showed how hard it was snowing, but it didn't work too well.

 

And here are the other cows enjoying the hay within their newly errected walls.

All that's left for the outside is the partial wall at the top of the front.  We are going to leave the rest of this wall open.  Matthew also plans on putting in a loft to store hay in the back half of the structure.  It's coming along beautifully!


Of course we had to take some time out for snow play!  I think the house has a majestic aura looking up at it from the road.

I think Timothy still likes his bike better than the sleds.

But he did go down a few times in the sleds.

Matthew and Simon finished today off by taking care of the pigs.  We still have the boar and gilt that survived from K & T Showpigs.  They are both still a mystery, so we have decided to keep them around awhile and see if they produce piglets that are any good.  They mated on December 13 which means we should see some piglets around April 9th.  We'll see.

The tarp had come loose that covers their feeder because of the severe wind we've had today, and their feeder was low enough for them to knock it over and spill feed into the snow/mud, so they definitely needed attention!  Matthew loaded 3 100 pound sacks of hog feed on his shoulders and poured them into the feeder.  I suggested that he put one sack on each shoulder and balance the other on his head, but I don't think he took my advice. 

The pictures they took did not come out too well in the dusky, snowy dimness, but I wanted to put them up anyway.

Here A Cow, There A Cow, Everywhere Cow, Cow (and a horse, of course)

We've been busy here at Pure Water Hollow with some brand new farm animal experiences, but I haven't yet recorded anything about it here on the blog.  On September 23rd we jumped head first into a grand bovine adventure! 

Lisa has always wanted a family milk cow, but we've never felt like we were ready.  I guess we still weren't ready in September, but the cows were, and the price was right!  We made the trek to near Mt. Sterling and brought home a 4 year old Jersey cow in milk with two bull calves and bred back to have another calf around June, as well as another 2 year old Jersey cow bred to calve in December!  We got them to Pure Water Hollow and introduced our horse Gracie to her 4 new room-mates.  We then hastily put up some new fence around our old barns and had to decide how to get a milking station ready.  Our "getting ready" process took several days.  The milk cows were patient and took to their new names as if they were born with them.  The 4 year old is named Violet and the the 2 year old is Dandelion.

We have been enjoying wonderful fresh milk and butter since October 1st!  None of us had ever milked a cow before, but we were quick learners!  We had a few rocky sessions at first, but soon things ironed out into a smooth routine and Violet seemed to forgive our inexperience.  We've been doing a system of once a day milking by keeping Violet up through the night, milking her in the morning, and then letting the calves have her milk throughout the day.  Most of the time Lisa and Christina have been the milk-maids, but Simon, Matthew and I have taken turns with the milking as well.  I mainly help on Saturdays and Sundays since I am home on those mornings.

Throughout October we worked on fencing in a good area of our pasture field down the road at our other property and also getting the barn in shape to house some animals.  There was much more work done there than I can do justice to with this writing, but suffice it to say, Pure Water Pastures has now been well christened!

We moved Gracie and Dandelion to the pasture some time ago, but kept Violet and the calves here, close to home, to keep the milking easier.  Today we decided to re-unite the entire gang and took Violet and the calves to the field.  Today I also finally took some pictures of the animals!  It was a cold, frosty, morning but things warmed up nicely with the sunny day.

Here is Violet with one of her calves in tow:

 The other calf is a twin, but a bit smaller:

Here's Gracie and Dandelion looking at the camera:

There they go!

Here is a closer picture of Violet.  She has a darker face than Dandelion and is a bigger cow:

All 5 animals in one picture:

I think Timothy is listening to Gracie's heartbeat:

Dandelion is wearing a red halter:

We also took a nice walk along the river below the pasture.  Here is a plant that we would like to identify:

A couple of good shots of Simon:

When we got finished with our little hike the sun was getting ready to set behind the mountains and we decided to put a bale of hay under our "in-progress" shelter.  Part of the field we fenced in is overgrown and this is where we are setting up the shelter.  So far, Matthew has been the carpenter on this project with Simon and Christina as helpers.

And now for the sunset.  Sunsets are a bit different here in eastern Kentucky compared to places where everything is flattened out too much.  I've seen some awesome sunsets on the Caribbean Sea, and hope to see some more, but I still like the way the sun sets here in the hills as well.  The sun goes down earlier here compared to at the ocean so these pictures were taken between 4:43pm and 4:46 pm in the afternoon!  Here is the sun saying farewell to us from behind the barn at Pure Water Pastures:

A different angle:

This one was taken from the house at 4:46 pm:

For some reason I hear a certain song in my head at the end of this post.  Maybe it's because of the horse and the sunset, but I'm hearing "Happy trails, to you, until we meet again...."

A Horse Is A Horse

We did not intend to own a horse at this time.

We are not really horse folks at all.

We have, however, held some fanciful, romantic notions about one day owning a horse or two to work with in the fields or to use as an alternative form of transportation. I think the children have often entertained a fantasy in the back of their minds of having a fine horse for scenic trail rides through the mountains and peaceful trots along country lanes.

But, we really know nothing about horses.

There are many other things to learn and do which are higher on our priority list. There is no way (so we thought) that the end of 2011 would see us owning a horse. That was probably the farthest thing from any of our minds. Maybe we would get back into hogs again, or goats. Perhaps even a milk cow could be imagined. Horse? No way.

But then, it happened. From out of the blue. On November 24th, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, Mr. Watts, our neighbor from over the mountain, pulled into our yard. Matthew had done some back-hoe work for him earlier this summer, but other than that we really have never had a chance to get to know the Watts very well. Jackson proceeded to ask Matthew if he would want a horse. If Matthew could catch her, then he could keep her! Matt ran down to the river garden, where the rest of us were, and asked what we thought.

After talking with Mr. Watts and discovering that he just could not take care of her, and that she kept getting away from him, and that there were people complaining about her being in their yards... well, I said OK. We would see what we could do.

About a half hour later Matthew came walking from down the road leading a white horse to Pure Water Hollow! She was dirty and had burrs in her coat. Her mane and tail were each matted and tangled. Her name was Gracie, but at that moment she looked anything but gracefull! Erica and I quickly went to town to get some feed and tack. She seemed hungry and the rope Matt was using was almost choking the poor horse!

The children got her up to the barn and when we got back home with some feed and supplies they fed and brushed her. In the days to come, Christina would have to cut off major parts of Gracie's long tail and mane to get the tangles and mess cleared up. Most of the dirt brushed out of her coat and soon she looked like a very pretty horse.

From the beginning we thought it unusual for this pretty, white horse to have such beautiful blue eyes! We have since found that the word for her is "cremello", and such horses are highy sought after in some circles.

In the ensuing weeks I discovered a bit of Gracie's history. She originally came from a horse farm in Magoffin County and was owned by a lawyer and a teacher whom I work with. Small world! According to him, Gracie is a full-bred, pedigreed, Kentucky Mountain Pleasure Horse! He said they actually paid probably too much for the stud fee to get the Goldfinger bloodline and he still owns Gracie's mother, a beautiful palimino Kentucky Mountain Pleasure Horse. He has told me that he would give me Gracie's papers if he can find them. He also said that Gracie had been broken and ridden some before she left them, which was about 5 years ago. She is about 6 years old now, and she has apparently not been ridden much at all during the past 5 years.

So, since I found out what kind of horse Gracie is, it was time to learn more. I had never heard of a "Kentucky Mountain Pleasure Horse" before! It turns out that Gracie is the perfect horse for Pure Water Hollow. If I had to pick a breed, I don't think I could have chosen a better one!

This is what the official Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horse Association has to say about this breed of horse:

An Authentic Kentucky Tradition:

For over 200 years, the saddle horse has lived in the hills and valleys of many parts of Kentucky. Originally bred by the mountain people for the demanding needs of farm life, the horse which had been secluded for many years became noticed and domesticated in the late 1980’s.

Over the last 20 some years these horses have become a highly sought after “pleasure horse” in all of Kentucky as well as around the world, for their easy going temperament, intelligence, versatility, willingness, and most notably, a smooth, natural 4-beat gait.

Many members of long-time Kentucky families remember well the stories of the many extraordinary feats that were told about these horses by their grandfathers and great grandfathers around the dinner table.

There is much on the web about this breed of horse. Here is what one website had to write about them:

The Mountain Pleasure Horse came out of the mountains in and around Kentucky. These beautiful animals with an incredible natural gait are a joy to ride and watch move across the fields.

The beauty of the Mountain Pleasure Horse is the disposition and gait. Who has time, today, to ride a horse every day? The Mountain Pleasure Horse is waiting, with its natural gait and willing disposition, whether you ride once a week or once a month.

They provide enjoyment to seniors who want a reliable mount, disabled who want a smooth gaited mount and people of all ages who enjoy the responsive mount of a Mountain Pleasure Horse, no matter how frequently or infrequently they ride.

The Mountain Pleasure Horse’s distinctive, easy riding gait is difficult to describe, but once you’ve experienced it, you’ll settle for no other. The horse does not trot. He is a naturally gaited horse that absorbs the bounce of a gait in his ankles, rather than passing that bounce along to the backside of the rider.

The breed’s definition of this gait is “an evenly spaced, four beat lateral gait with moderate forward speed and extension, without exaggerated knee and hock action.”

The gait is natural. It is bred into these horses and one of the joys of breeders of Mountain Pleasure Horses is to see a young foal “hitting a lick” as it keeps up with its mother’s longer strides.

As a rider gets to know his or her Mountain Pleasure Horse, they will find the horse can be ridden at varying speeds while maintaining the same smooth, comfortable gait, and there’s nothing quite like the “nickel,dime - nickel,dime” sound of the Mountain Pleasure Horse ticking off his gait down a blacktop road.

Of course there are many more sites that say similar things. I didn't have to look very far to discover what a potential gem we have with Gracie. I'll share one more, an excerpt from the Wikipedia article:

The Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horse has been developed as an all-around utility horse, used mainly for riding. People today use the Kentucky Mountain horse for both English and western riding. This horse is good for use in the show ring or just out on the trail.

These saddle horses were originally bred by the mountain people of the hills and valleys of eastern Kentucky for the demanding needs of farm life. It was an obscure breed until it became noticed in the late 1980s. Since then, these horse have become highly sought after as pleasure horses in Kentucky and the rest of the world. They are highly prized for their easy-going temperament, intelligence, versatility, willingness, and especially their smooth and natural 4-beat gait.

Well, today, after owning Gracie for exactly one month, I finally took some pictures and am posting about her. Today is also Christmas Eve, so I want to say "Merry Christmas to all!" Gracie does look like she would be a great Christmas horse, pulling a one horse open sleigh! Of course this Christmas is not even close to a white one. We were 50 degrees today and should be in the 50s again tomorrow! I am thankful for the nice weather this year, and it allowed for some nice pictures of Gracie!

Here she is watching our arrival with great expectency:




Christina has been doing a lot with taking care of Gracie. It has been mostly she who has gone up each morning at 8:00am and again in the afternoon at 3:00pm to walk, feed, water, brush, and clean out her stall.





Timothy has visited Gracie a few times. He seems to really love her! It is perhaps fitting that Timothy was the first one of us to actually sit on Gracie's back. We have not really tried until today, and she did not seem to mind Timothy being on her at all!








Simon was going to try to give it a go. If Gracie would have stood still long enough, perhaps Simon would have been able to get on. Maybe next time?





After Christina walked her, it was then Matthew's turn.






And here she is back in the barn after a nice afternoon of visiting with her new family.








Gracie is a pretty horse and perhaps a very valuable horse and she has all kinds of potential. Our dilema going into 2012 though, is ...

We did not intend to own a horse at this time.

We are not really horse folks at all.

We really know nothing about horses.

There are many other things to learn and do which are higher on our priority list than owning a horse.

So we have many decisions to make going forward. Many thoughts and emotions need to be evaluated. Not to mention the cost that needs to be counted up if we continue down this path. I may share some of these ideas and plans as they get formulated in the days to come. I really do not know what the future may hold.

All I know for sure right now, is that we own a nice Kentucky Mountain Pleasure Horse!