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 .

Friday 29 March 2013

Warming up, and catching up

Well the weather seems to finally be warming up. The calving is going along well, we are up to 8 now all doing well .For Once they are calving while Martin is  home and he is quite enjoying  checking  cows and seeing the new little ones , me? I will have my turn when he goes back, so I am  for the most part letting him  go to it , unless he asks me to check on them with him for concerns.The downside of that is I  have not taken many "baby pics" but I will .

As spring is finally coming to us here, I figured now was a good time to get Harley  gelded, while there was still a clean mud free area, and before the flies. It went well Angela(Dr Oakley)  popped over this morning and had a visit and hot cross buns with my sister Heather ,her hubby Marc, martin and I then we went out and ,turned this Harley , from a touring model to a sporty (LOL)
He is  a bit tipsy still here, but doing well. I stayed with him and walked him until he got his "sea legs " back . And when I caught him to put him in tonight he seemed to be doing  just fine. Albeit a bit low key for him.
Funny thing, we laid him down in front of the barn, in view of Phoenix, who was watching quietly until Haley went down, then ,Oh my!!! we had some theatrics! rearing and dashing about , and staring over the fence,looking for all the world like he was trying to be an Arab Halter horse. (must have been worried he was next!) I talked to him and he seemed to settle, and once Harley was on his feet again he was back to himself . I did  catch a couple shots of him though looking quite regal later in the day .
 My Blue eyed wonder
The rest of the day was  pretty  relaxed, just  puttering around and spending time with hubby. Winston  often digs a hole in the snow to make a bed and Martin decided to help him , digging him a snow fort in the  big  pile by the house.I think it was appreciated .
What a guy! 
Well that's it for now, Enjoy your weekend and Have a Happy and blessed Easter. 
and as always stay warm and safe my friends

10 comments:

Willow said...

Gorgeous pics of Phoenix! He looks quite regal indeed. Love the blue eyes. Our little black and white modern Shetland that we drive has those deep sky blue eyes, everyone that visits goes ga ga over them. Phoenix sure is a beautiful boy.
Wishing you a wonderful Easter and a beautiful weekend.

aurora said...

Glad to hear things are starting to warm up. Good thinking on timing, we seem to mirror a bit ahead of your weather - and it's a wet mudfest here. Great Phoenix photos & that last pic says it all - happy, happy, happy all the way around!

Ami said...

It cracks me up that all that snow is everywhere and you say, 'it's warming up'.

Um, have you actually LOOKED out there? :)

Love that your hubby is building snow forts for the dogs. Very sweet.

And as always, I love photos of Winston and all the horses. Makes me smile from my SNOW FREE home. :)

cdncowgirl said...

That blue sky sure made a nice back drop for Mr Blue Eyes :)

sally said...

Happy Easter ...glad the weather is proving to move into spring mode and the calving is going well. Hopefully you have a wonderful summer like the one we have just had. It has just gone and gone. This is the first wet day we have had in weeks. Good for the water tanks and the grass growth.

GoLightly said...

rofl at Phoenix!!
I wonder if it's finally dawned on him how lucky he's been:)

Glad Martin's been around for helping, looks like he's well-appreciated.
Have a wonderful Easter Sunday!

Hello, Harley minus 2:)

Anonymous said...

Glad Harley was successfully "tutored"!

Phoenix looks glorious - Red does the same thing about Pie - if anyone's messing with Pie - say going in his stall for a vet visit - Red becomes very worried and has to closely observe what's happening to be sure Pie is alright.

Cut-N-Jump said...

Funny how the older horses become so concerned about the youngsters. I had a gelding that flipped out when the mare and foal across from him were turned out the first time. He didn't settle down until they were back in the stall where he thought they belonged.

Glad you have Martin home for a bit to help with the calving.

Nicole said...

I love how Martin joined in to help Winston :) That's great! Boy you guys have a lot of snow!

Janice said...

Wow. I don't want to jinx it or anything but I'm feeling pretty special over here in my little nook.The snow is almost all gone and it is warm and sunny. We are hovering at just under 0 at night and it was 20 here today.Love the Phoenix shots what a handsome fellow.Poor little calves I always think it must be such a shock....to come from such a warm place and get dumped out into snow and cold.They must be tough cause they seem to survive it. Anyhow glad Martins around when you need him. The dogs look like they enjoy it too. Well you.. stay warm and stay home if you can.