Archive for April, 2009

Sorry for the delay on the update. Lot’s of new things happening, but my Internet connect at the house is really spotty right now. Sometimes it works great, sometimes, I have nothing. I am posting this from Joe’s choir practice where they have a great connection.

I put out Annie and Checkers in the arena yesterday and today. They seem to get along really well and you might remember they were together before they foaled, so I figured it would work out and the filly really needed to run around, so what better way than to have her out with another foal. The funny thing was that for about the first five minutes Annie’s colt followed Checkers around like she was his mother. Suddenly it looked like Checkers had two foals. Checkers did not seem to mind at all, but Annie was a little confused, wondering where her foal was. Finally Annie figured it out and they all ran a couple of laps around the indoor before each foal nursed on thier proper mother.

Meanwhile outside, I moved Fanny over by Spice and Luke in the big pasture as Fanny was knocking down all the fence she could find in the back yard pasture. She is really big and when she pushes against a board, before long she pops it off. The big pasture has boards that are higher and so she can not get over them to start reaching and pushing. That left Roxy by herself and since she had spent most of her time over the fence with Angel, I thought I should try the three of them together. It seemed to work out fine yesterday and this morning, but when I can back this afternoon, Frosty had two small cuts and a big bruise on one of her legs. They both looked calm again, but obviously there had been some kicking going on and Roxy was the winner. I have never really seen Roxy behave like this, so I am still a little confused, but I can not put them together again, if there are going to be issues. I guess we will have to move her over to one of the other pastures instead.

I also got to finally talk to Kevin McRitchie today. He is the guy with the horse that does the buffalso. He told me all about his rides. He told me about the big Buffalo round up at Custer State park. It sounds great. Maybe we should take the RV.

September 26-27, 2009 (Saturday and Sunday) / Buffalo Round-Up and Arts Festival

Enjoy three days of South Dakota’s finest artists and craftsmen at the 15th Annual Buffalo Roundup Arts Festival. Start your morning with a pancake feed, enjoy on-going Western and Native American entertainment or browse the many exhibits and craft booths located on site. It’s a South Dakota experience you won’t want to miss. The first 2 festival days are held on the festival grounds adjacent the Peter Norbeck Visitor Center. On the 3rd and final day the festival is held on the festival grounds located at the buffalo corrals complex on Buffalo Roundup Day.

 

September 28, 2009 (Monday) / Buffalo Round-Up

Feel the thunder and join the herd at the 43rd Annual Custer State Park Buffalo Roundup. Watch cowboys and cowgirls as they roundup and drive the herd of 1,500 buffalo into the buffalo corrals. Following the actual roundup stay and watch as park staff sort, brand, and vaccinate the herd in preparation for the fall Buffalo Sale.

 

The other excitement for today was that our LambCam I told you about a couple weeks ago was feature on the Weather Channel. Here is the link to the story.

 

Thanks for kind of watching,

S/B

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Surprise Surprise. We woke up this morning to the Easter Bunny and a call from Nicole that Annie had just foaled. (We are out of town for a couple days so Nicole is holding down the fort).  Yes, Annie, can you believe it? Checkers is close now, but Annie beat her to it. Annie had a nice colored colt that almost looks like her, only a little darker. At first maiden mare Annie was not too keen on the young colt nursing. After a little while however Nicole helped Annie figure it out and now Nicole says things are going very well.  Nicole has also put down straw for Checkers as she says that all of a sudden Checkers looks like she might go soon.  We will be watching tonight along with Nicole.  It’s great to have such skilled help at the farm, but we can’t help but feel guilty pangs and the desire to be there. 

We are with family out of town for a short Easter holiday and shared a wonderful dinner today, and farm chores on Aunt Cindy and Uncle John’s ranch in Colorado.  We forgot to tell you that after working like mad to load the new used RV Thursday evening, get the farm set up so that Nicole woudl not have to do extra work beyond what she was already doing for us, and bringing along work, games, food, and both warma nd old weather clothes…..we realized haf-way to CO that we forgot Mom and Dad’s suitcase!  Lucky it wasn’t the kids’ stuff, and so a quick hit on Walmart gave bill some jumbo sweatpants and a $3 shirt, and Susan some $6 slacks and a t-shirt.  We have scavenged our relatives for other things we”ve needed….except for Bill as no one has pants long enough for him.  So let’s just say we are stylin’. 

In the RV finally at about 11:00 p.m. and hitting the road, we first stopped at the gas station just a few minutes down the road from Saddlebrook.  The kids were in their PJs and settling in for the night as Susan was about to drive the first tankful.  After four hours we pulled over and slept a few, then at dawn Bill pullled out as the driver and I stayed in the RV with the kids….Drew began to wake up and saw we were gettign gas at the gas station a state away, and said loudly, “What?!?  Why are we STILL at the gas station?!?”  We laughed so hard – he’d slept for 8 hours and did not realize we were hauling down the road that whole time. 

We will be watching Checkers tonight and will be in contact regularly with Nicole.  Come on, Checkers – colored filly!

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