Robins, Baby Robins and an Oriole

Our new house is pretty close to a tree outside and it doesnt touch but almost luckily the tree is really old so I doubt will get much bigger.  But in this tree a Robin made a nest, nothing new.  But from the first bedroom we can look right into the nest its pretty cool. Took her a long time to make the nest it seemed but maybe just cause I was waiting on her.  Then on May 23 she was sitting on eggs, finally.

And we waited and waited and finally on June 8th we noticed babies.  They must never get full they just made noise all the time and would fall asleep with mouths open and wake up and chirp more.  Sure are ugly little things good thing it doesn't take long to grow feathers

And by June 17th they were on the ground.  Not flying very good, I probly coulda picked them up but I didn't of course I know how wild animals are.

Kinda fun to see them around now copying their mothers eating worms, flying into windows whatever.  I read the bird book today and it said they can see the ground move where the worms are, kinda creepy but they sure like it here the last little while we been getting lots of rain so the worms are close to the surface.

And I saw a orange bird flying through he didn't stop much but finally found him hidden in the leaves, who knew orange could camo so well in green?  This is when I really like my zoom lens got couple good pics of him.  Never seen a Baltimore Oriole here before, wouldn't have even known that is what is was if Neil's friend hadn't said he saw a bunch at his place.

I don't even really like birds but I can see these from inside my air conditioning when its hot and humid out.  Missed getting pics of the hawk at the end of the driveway this year, only one and hes almost ready to leave the nest.

Yay a Garage

Well we asked around for a qoute on a garage and in Hanna we asked in Feb said we wanted it build in April, well we are still waiting on them, and we mentioned it a few weeks ago to the plumber and he said just about 6 miles south of us our neighbors are building a house (which we knew, but thought the carpenters were busy)  and they should do it a the same time.  Sure sounds great but we were into brandings so never did anything about it and then a 10 days ago we got a quote from them, looked it over and said OK and they came Monday to start.  All we did was sorta mark out where we wanted it.

They got the forms put in and the pad built for concrete

Then Tuesday the plumbers come and laid down the hose for in-floor heating and drainpipes and whatever else.

Then Wednesday they poured the concrete.  Bright and early at 8 the truck was here, they spent most of the day troweling and power floating and put a sealer on.  Somehow we were lucky and had 2 days with no rain.

Friday the truck from Lutes delivered the lumber and so we are all ready to build, not sure when the builders are coming but I suspect this week sometime.

Will be pretty cool, gonna have a bay for my truck, an office for Neil, a bathroom and some storage and the rest will be open so far.  Pad outside the truck bay and 8 feet of pad in front of the rest and then a sidewalk up the side, and all that will have in-floor heating as well so when it gets icy we just turn it on and it will melt, no more shoveling for me!

Can't wait till its done then we can finally clear the rest of the stuff out of the old house and get rid of it.

Stinky!

I headed off to a branding with Dee last Monday and all the sudden I get a text from Neil.  Haha he just saw a visitor drinking out of the puddle in our yard.  He said he woulda shot it but Ziggy was on his way over there so he called the cat and the skunk ran away.  I don't think the he woulda hurt the cat but I wasn't there to coach so now we have to flush him out gently and get rid of him.  I thought I spelled a skunk a couple times but was pretty faint thought it was my imagination since that's the first one we have had here since I been here in 12 years.

Branding Pictures

Finally got a few branding pics.  We were there all morning and he did his main bunch but had a few heifers at home to do and didn't need as many vaccinators so I got fired.  Yay haha more beer and picture taking time.  Been too busy at most brandings to take pics so this was a nice chance.

Theses are straight out of the camera, it was a bit chilly looked like a storm coming in but it never did.  Only have 4 more to go too and will try and get some more at them.

A Minute to Myself

Oh my so much going on and so little pictures.  I will have a few from our branding that my mom took but I gotta get them first, just a teaser shot she took off her cell phone and texted me of the branding stove.

We have been to 7 brandings and a cow moving in the last 8 days I am tired and my horses are tired.  I started out using Dee just cause she was in and she needs riding and I am kinda liking her, I can't always trust her to be where we need to be at the right time but it actually is good for me to watch and see whats going on ahead and head off the problem before we need to be in a rush.  Neil even rode her and was frustrated cause he's never rode a horse that doesn't neck rein haha but she couldn't have been that bad cause we went 2 days later and he asked if he could ride her again :)  I'm working on him riding her so we can sell his gelding to the neighbors cause they really want him and Neil rides like twice a year so no need to have his own horse.  I took Razz to a couple shes good but most aren't long enough or fast enough for her liking she gets frustrated with me when we lope to cut off a cow and then imagine I make her walk, oh I'm so awful.  Crazy horse haha.

And today took Jess to move cows to a smaller field and saddled her and it was hot and we got there and her saddle slipped so I tried to fix it in the trailer couldn't so unloaded her and as soon as she got on flat ground the saddle musta caught her in the flank and she leaped up and back and stepped on something and fell on her side.  We undid the saddle and she laid there for a minute and then got up.  I re saddled her and all was fine so we got on and moved cows.  They moved well and it was hot so we mostly walked and then a cow was heading out the wrong way so I trotted up to her and oh no shes sore at the trot :(  Too bad we are still a mile away from the trailer so I figured we would just stay at the back and walk and we did the cows moved really well and one cow took off and I was gonna leave her for someone else to get and Jess kept looking at her so OK we went that way and she decided we needed to lope (she does love chasing cows) and oh man that was awkward and all over the place but after maybe 15 steps the cow run back to the herd.  Not sure if it was cause of us or the weird loping but whatever works.  Got back and got off, no swelling anywhere, looks to be the muscle between the stifle and hock.  No heat but sore to touch.  I will give her a couple days and see how it goes. I think she did it when she fell over.  I put her in a smaller pasture with Trio so she has to walk around but not too far.  And maybe she can diet a bit there too after I was asked if she was gonna foal this year haha.

Day off tomorrow and I am gonna try and do noting, I'm not very good at it but we will see.  I really wanted to show this weekend but its not gonna happen, I rode Easy a couple times this week and hes kinda out of shape and boy he hates bugs so now hes got a fly sheet on and maybe I will have a bit more time to spend with him and Trio too, wanna get her going a bit at least, I may keep her for a bit get her started this fall and see how it goes even though I know shes gonna be way bigger than I want but so far shes pretty quiet so that always bodes well.