Frueling

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but I just haven't had much to say cuz we haven't accomplished much, due to freaking glorious weather, making it impossible to hammer our fenceposts into the rock-hard ground. Agh. A few raindrops teased us today, and the weatherman said it SHALL RAIN. hm. We'll see. Please God? We'd like to make our fence soon!?





This is a portion of the one side we did finish, with the step-in posts to make a little "grazing strip" for Baasha. He thinks it's not enough. He's right. We just need some rain and we'll make him another, bigger strip. Please?






OUR NEW HORSE BUSINESS

I was wondering if this would happen, and it did. I was stringing up electric wire on our new Tposts, near the street, and a lady stopped her very large warmblood to say hello. Actually, the first thing she said was, "Are you starting a horse business?" *lol* Yes, I was expecting to get that, with our superfence and geotiles that go on for days. I said, "No, we just have one horse!" and she said "Wow, cool!" and asked me to come riding with her sometime. Her horse lives across the street. I hope to! I mean, when I find the time to ride. Geez, this fence is kickin our butts. We're only about 1/3 finished fencing the perimeter of our 5 acre field, and it's been so sunny lately the ground is rock hard! We're exhausting ourselves on every post, and we take turns, my man and I.



And every 3 meters is a bit much, I'm discovering. But they're already here, so what are we gonna do with 200 posts? Just put 'em in, 3 meters apart, I guess: )









BAASHA CAME BACK!

We finally finished fencing off a strip of field for Baasha. I was scared to let him go, worried parent and all, and my man said "Don't you trust that fence we just built? And I said "well....hm" so I left the halter on and we left him. Baasha was dazzled by the deep green grass, and couldn't believe it that we just left him there. I thought, "Oh boy, we won't be seeing him for his dinner tonight. He's never gonna leave this field!" and besides, he is wary of our ponds, and he has to pass them to come back to the barn. So imagine my surprise when I went outside and Ta-Da, Baasha, fully haltered, was standing in his stall asking for carrots/dinner. "He came home!", I cried happily to my man.

He's slowly getting it. In the morning I call to him and start walking down to the ponds to open the gate. He follows hesitantly and then sees the blazing green grass beyond. He trots rudely by me and then canters up the hill. He loves his grass, and I'm afraid it was really dumb of us to order 30 bales of hay. He's just not eating much hay at all. I mean, look at that grass! It's been fertilized, sunned-upon, dew-watered in the morning, and now it's thriving. I do take Baasha for grazing walks around it, because there's just so much of it now.

COMPOSTING MANURE - YOU'RE DOING IT RIGHT!!

Hello, what's this? Why is it when I lift the tarp off my manure pile, STEAM comes off? In 22 degrees C? (22 degrees is like 70, really comfortable, tanktop weather.) STEAM?? Sure enough, I have microbial action goin' on. The stuff that makes poop into gold. I was so excited! I said to my man, "Come on, let's get gloves on and stick our hands in!" and he just couldn't share my enthusiasm. I went and got an exam glove and (sorry) Baasha's rectal thermometer. 108.8 degrees F. WOO! I stuck my gloved hand in and WOO that's hot! Almost too hot to stick your hand in! We seem to have a lot of beetles and something like fruit flies living on the manure pile, despite it being water tight below, and covered. HM! Now if I can only get my kitchen/garden waste compost boxes to heat up! I think they'll need a little infusion of horse waste...

LIKE SHEEP SHEARING DAY

Today my man took a shedding tool to Baasha (a grooma, those things rock!). Baasha was so grouchy, cuz we took turns attacking his winter coat with that thing that really grabs the hair. Baasha is not the type to relish a thorough grooming. We teased each other, "Did you brush this part? Cuz look how much is still coming off!" and kept bribing poor Baasha with carrots to just stand there and let us torture him. His flea-bitten flecks came out beautifully from under the fuzzy white. You can see the muscling in his butt now. His chest is silky smooth. He looks like a dream! And you should see the several persian cats' worth of hair, or, well, it looks like sheep shearing day out there. I filled a whole sack and Baasha kept trying to get his nose into the sack to see if there was anything good in there. No, just your hair. Geez!

I'm leaving his blanket off tonight for the first time cuz it's so freaking warm out there. I was in a tank top all day, sweating. I'm sunburned in weird scarily red stripes on my arms where I missed with the sunscreen.

GEOCACHING HORSEY TOWN

We spent our midday geocaching our new neighborhood and OMYGOODNESS we live in such a beautiful place. I'd never been to these other little corners of our town, and it's just horse farm, horse farm, horse farm, and get outta the way, a big black team of horses is pulling a carriage! Another lady rode a "Budweiser Clydesdale" by us and he must have been a baby cuz he was so nervous as we were suspicious-looking geocachers, snooping around in the woods!

We went by a Haflinger farm and they showed off their gorgeous hair. It's a blond horse paradise out there, they're on their summer turnout already, and diggin in. I saw three babies rearing up playing together. They have such a life! Later, two little girls rode their Haflingers by us as we snooped around off-trail. I just wanted to stare at their pretty horses.

Next time we'll bring Baasha along to carry our backpack. It's silly to leave him home when these horsetrails are nearby. Out here, almost all the trails are "horses allowed" trails. How about that!

TADPOLES

Here is a cup with a few of my tadpoles in it. I have an entire bucketfull of tadpoles I'm not sure what to do with. It turns out, they eat trout food readily. So, they're growing everyday, and look up to me as if I'm their tadpoleGod. Hm. What to do.







I took two and put them in one of our little decorative ponds. I took two more and put them in another decorative pond. There are about 100 more. What to do..






APRIL in RHEIN-BERGISCH KREIS

Look at the (please insert English name for this plant) Zierjohanissbeere growing out of our kitchen window! It has large bumblebees on it constantly. Making berries I hope??








If you know what a Felsenbirne is in English, I'd love to learn its name!










No idea what this one is, we have a couple of them. Hopefully something good to eat!











These yellow Talia Tulips remind me of desert flowers. They open up every day, and close to go to sleep at night.

I know it's only gonna get better, especially when the azalea, rhododendron and lilacs open up. I enjoy every day separately, and give thanks profusely! This is a version of heaven we've got right here! And my horse is thinking of me as one of his own kind, he's nickering at me even when it's not feeding time, and following me around. My man is teaching him carrot tricks, and I actually gave him a bath cuz it's been so warm. Now he's a bunny-soft white plushtoy! Life is good.