Monday was a quiet day at the ranch, I have a head cold so my hubs was kind enough to do all the chores for me so I could keep my head on the pillow. I did A LOT of sleeping.
Tuesday was a pretty rough day at the ranch, we had to say goodbye to Michou and Molly as these two horses were not going to make the winter. Some horses either come to us too late or they have something going on medically or neurologically and they just can’t be saved. We were sad to see them go. We also brought in six little ducklings that were a surprise to their owner and as you can imagine, it’s pretty late for little ducklings to be born. We have them under a heat lamp and will watch them grow, inside until they are ready to head out. These six are muskovies, and we are told they will all look different from each other when they grow up, we are pretty excited to watch them grow. We also received a cheque from the Winnipeg Harley Riders Association, the proceeds from a ride they had at the end of September and chose us as their charity of choice, we are pretty honoured.
Wednesday we had a better day today. Tracey, Karen and Leah were out to help with chores and do some fixing on one of our shelters. Amika, one of our skinny horses we have been working so hard to put weight on went down. We called the vet to put her down but they weren’t able to make it out right away. I had to go into the house to do a job interview and when I came out SHE WAS UP!!!!! Yay, I put that girl in the corral and the big shelter so fast, gave her extra mash and hay. We are keeping our fingers crossed for her! Our female call duck, not sure if she was in the water all night or what but she was extremely cold. Tracey took her into the warm room in the garage and put her under the heat lamp with the baby ducks, she came back really well and also bonded with the babies. We brought the male and female in and they are currently playing parents to the baby muskovies, which is adorable. I also went and brought in a trio of Khaki Campbells that were in need of a new home, they are pretty darn cute too.
Thursday was another busy day at the ranch, of course chores. After that I went to pick up PJ and Stormy, PJ is a llama/alpaca cross and Stormy is a purebred Alpaca. They are absolutely adorable and Stormy even gives kisses. Jake gave Winter a training session, she did amazing! He also had a couple lessons. We also got a phone call from Buckeye’s former owner and she has decided she would like to keep him and board him here, we couldn’t me happier for both of them. Amika also seems to be doing great today after yesterday’s scare! Thank god the vet was too busy to come right away.
Friday was another busy day got up and did chores and had a couple visitors, Judith and Annaleise showed up. Judith helped me move a bunch of tools and stuff and get the spot ready for our shed which is finally coming today! Then Annaleise presented me with a lovely gift from the volunteers. They got me a plaque for the park bench with my Dad’s name, photo and Leroy, the horse’s name and photo, it is so beautiful. We then headed out to exchange the trailer for the shed. When we got back there was a package on the doorstep with the lovely green Greenhawk tape. It turns out is was a gift from Phoenix’s former owner. I was telling her the other day about Phoenix and Joey and how they have a special place in my heart. She ordered a matching horse blanket for Joey and some horse treats too. Then my daughter got the cricket out and made a matching name tag for Joey’s blanket too. Those boys are definitely going to enjoy their nice warm blankets and all the treats too! Although, they will have to share those. I want to thank Sean James for working with me on the Shed deal and Ken from Clay’s Towing for helping me get it here.
Saturday was a busy day, Jake and Tracey had the chores done before I even got out of bed. We stood around looking at the giant shed for awhile trying to figure out how to move it. Then Shelley showed up super pumped to start pounding posts so we got started on that right away. We got the posts needed for the two new pens and the fence between the small pasture all fixed up. When we were halfway done all that, Rod showed up with lunch for us all. After lunch Rod got to work on the goat pasture and getting all the packed in straw and stuff out of the pen before winter. After everything else was done, we moved the shed into place, it fit in the spot I wanted perfectly, you would have thought I had measured it.
Sunday was a busy day as well. I got up to do chores and when I was just about done, Natalia came by to help. She treated Q’s shoulder wound, which turned out to be a lot less of a wound once we started to clean it up. Then Jake, Shelley and Rod showed up and we got to work on the fencing. Shelley and I got the fence posts put in to cut the pig pen in half and Rod got the petting zoo completely cleaned out. Once that was all done we got the gate between the pony pasture and large pasture all made more solid. Jake and Robyn got 14 ponies trimmed up and ready for the winder, including the new three with aweful hooves.