Welcome to Fern Valley

Here in central Alberta prime farm country,my husband Martin and I work together raising beef cattle and Appaloosa horses. Fern valley appaloosas have long been known for their quality of temperament conformation and color.I have recently rediscovered a love of writing and have published 2 collections of poetry. "Telling Tails" and Tails Trails and Campfire stories" . I look forward to a future spreading my wings as an author and as a horse woman .

Monday 24 October 2011

Mystery ,misery, Monday

Have you ever been a victim of "Nobody"? If you have , you know how frustrating it can be!

Nobody did it Nobody saw it
Nobody came or went
Nobody heard, or saw the event
But somehow the bumper got bent!
Nobody broke the fancy vase
Or put finger prints on the glass case
When the lights or the stove or

power, is left on
Nobody did it and nobody’s gone

I have known nobody a very long time

And when things go wrong
Often heard is the line
Nobody did it!  

Yeah right,is the thought
But at the end of the day
Nobody got caught
So , plans were to follow up on the work I was doing over the weekend and work with the "kids" . NOT went out to do chores and discovered that the electric waterer for Dandy and Annie was not working . Opened it up and found the water supply had been shut off! With the heat left on. Needless to say the valve had warped from the heat and it now was leaking .
Here is where I needed to be thinking.Went quickly back into the barn to get tools , when I came out Dandy had helped himself to a huge drink of that icy cold water!! Poor guy was shaking so hard his legs wouldn't hold him!(should have locked them out and packed some less icy water to them first!)
Lucky for me I raise smart "kids" ! I was going to try to grab him and start walking him, or give him a warm drink to settle things , before I  made that decision he started trotting up and down the alley , he would stop grab a bit of hay , shaking like a leaf then trot around some more ,15 min or so of this and he was just fine ! went back to eating like nothing was wrong!.

The mystery is ,who shut off the water? I know I  didn't , asked Marc , and everyone who was around , and they didn't (as Deb says ,she wouldn't know how) The last time it was opened for any reason I am aware of I opened it to flip the switch on for power , and just before that Cory  had it apart repairing the wiring . All of that was 12 to 14 days ago! There is no chance they went without water for lat long #1 because I may not go right in and stare into the bowl every day , but I am not blind or a complete fool I look in on it when doing chores , and I also notice when my horses look a little thirsty . After 14 days of no water , they would have looked a little dead!

Spent 2 hours trying to get the leak fixed this morning , with no success.Did every thing I could think of ,replaced all the washers and the bottom valve.Thinking that the top valve was OK. WRONG ! Finally went to town and got a new float valve .When I got the old one apart I found there is a tiny little washer  way up inside the float valve (sits  right up by the diaphragm  for those who have replaced these before )it was complete soup! I have never even seen that washer before , far less had to replace it ,so.I guess we learn something new every day.
Dandy seems fine  this evening , as does Annie so I guess we dodged a bullet there, but ???
My other Mystery is these darn cats! I now have 3 more who have arrived , they are uber cute poly dactyls with very long fluffy hair and huge blue eyes! A little shy so no pics yet but really??? Is there actually some signal only cats can hear that says "come to Fern Valley"?

15 comments:

Fantastyk Voyager said...

Yeah, I have a resident "Nobody" too. It drives me crazy!

Anonymous said...

Whew! I"m tired just reading that . . . Glad everybody is OK and that you're still attractive to (poly) kitties!

kden said...

Poor Dandy! I didn't realize what cold water could do to a horse. Around here we just blame my husband for everything, 'cause we're usually right ;-)

Ami said...

holy cow!! I have never been around horses so had no idea either. Wow. Glad he's a smart boy.

Shirley said...

Nobody must be related to I Dunno.
Good thing you are a handy kind of gal!
Kitty photos please!

Crystal said...

awww more kitties:) Nobody left a gate open here and there were cows in our yard today.

aurora said...

I didn't know cold water could do that to a horse, must be only if they are not used to it/his age? Ours drink really cold (auto) water all the time, young & old.

Glad you figured out the problem, and fixed it - you are so handy!

Can't blame the kitties for wanting to live at Fern Valley, but I get it - you didn't need more.

GoLightly said...

Thanks heavens for smart Fern Valley, and her appies are super smart too.

sighing with relief here, glad everything is okay.
WHEW!

Nicole said...

haha.... don't you just love when stuff like that happens! Although in our case of horse waterer, KG usually is the culprit of breaking it!

Janice said...

Hey I know that Nobody.Sheez your handy, sounds like you got lots done.If I were a cat I would want to live at your place.Hey be careful, we don't want to be hearin you've gotten maimed.

Sherry Sikstrom said...

I should mention, it is not such an issue of cold water, rather the fact that he was super thirsty and drank so much of the cold stuff.Kinda gotta imagine your reaction to a litre of ice water first thing in the morning on an empty tummy

Linda said...

We have a Nobody here too. I think you did admirably!!

Cut-N-Jump said...

Nobody has taken up a stake in the claim here as well. Maybe a boot to Nobody's head will help them remember who they are dealing with... I'm sure I Dunno doesn't have an alibi and will take the heat for it as always.

Sherry Sikstrom said...

Curiouser and curiouser , still no one seems to have been here and done this, and yet , somehow it did happen? Oh well, at the end of the day , all is well, and my scraped up knuckles will heal . How is it exactly the the wrench only comes off the nut when you are really pulling and in the groove?

Cut-N-Jump said...

Because you are and that is the absolute WORST time for it to slip. Don't ask me HOW it knows, but the wrench just does!