HoofsnHorns Farm Blog
life here is never dullHappy July!
Its July 1st, July always brings energy to me. I am one of those nuts that likes hot weather, tho its a bit humid around here now, its summer and I always love summer. Its my birthday month and I do like to celebrate all month so maybe thats part of it. I am looking forward to one of my best ever this year as I am in a very happy place both physically and mentally. It was a rough start to the year but major loss (my dear Pedro) was soon followed by major blessing (Jim). All the four leggers here are pretty healthy and that is always a blessing. Chester is having some knee issues so he isn’t as active as he used to be. He is staying in the front yard with the ducks and old Elvis the pig, so he has the run of that area and food all the time.. including an occasional sip of wine which he really enjoys. Also, speaking of farm work?.. I will post pics of my new “ride” soon too.. Jim got a quad to pull the hay cart and wow does it make feeding time fun! I hook up the bike to the cart, load up three bales and away I go. Makes me think we need more land…The lizards are out in full force and thank God we have only had one rattlesnake encounter so far. I was in the mood for some cool summer soap so I made three batches of goats milk soap today.. hoping now they cure out okay.. sometimes its hit or miss. I made a cool pale yellow scented with lemon and chamomile with crumbles of fresh chamomile added.. then a pale green in tea tree and mint. The third looks like it will be a light tan and is scented with apricot and peach tea fragrances. Makes me think of sitting on the porch swing in July! nothing better here in Arizona than an afternoon shower, no hot water necessary, so I’m looking forward to that with my cool new summer soaps.. We’ll have them available in the barn shop for sale as well.
so whats new
So its officially a hot summer already..this is ’swine lake’.. and the wind! We have had some crazy winds lately in Arizona. Never before do I remember being so covered in hay after feeding. Heck, I used to throw hay all dressed up in heels and go straight to work, maybe I had a bit of hay in my hair, but nothing like lately.. anyway we’ve also lost so many old structures and roofs, not to mention the ones that Scout the wood eating horse likes to nibble. My beautiful horse shade that friends helped me build last year looked like it was standing on four very sharp pencils! So, we are putting up new big vigas using railroad ties.. nine of them! so that cows on one side, horses on the one and “roamers” on the other side.. its going to be nice if we can just get the last of the holes dug and hoist those poles into the ground. Goats on the other hand have to rub on everything and jump on everything so nothing lasts long with those guys..its always something that is for sure..
My other handsome guy.. Smokey
moms yard.. the jungle
moms yard is another story, she has grass! you can’t see it here this was a photo from the fall, but see, we do have ’some’ trees in Arizona!
just pics..
here are just some misc. pics from around our place lately .. enjoy
these babies are always into some trouble..
Cameron here for a visit milking Skeeter
out for an evening ride
Wow we’ve just been busy!!!
I really hope to get organized and be more diligent about updating this blog. I appreciate all our herd friends who check in on us and have promised you updates and pictures.. I hope to be better soon! We have two new calves.. Ellie Mae (who Jim named.. ‘his’ first calf.. ha ha) is getting big and is a sweetie of a cow.. and just this Monday we have a tiny little bull calf who still has no name but is unofficially “jethro” of course.. so here he is.. 
he was really frisky his first day, activities normally reserved for two day old calves.. like meeting all the horses, his father (Tbone) and chasing goats.. but then he has settled down and seems to be lounging near mom most of the day. Its been about 100 degrees daily so everything hides out and then starts to play around sundown. Hes quite loud as well and seems to have a lot to talk about!
lots of goats / milk
Cocoa & Skinny Minnie
we are so slow in updating I hope to get better at that but am excited to say we have some new ladies retiring here now and are full of milk! we also had a few unexpected babies arrive and always enjoy them. This gives us a lot of extra milk to provide to our share holders who want goats milk. We are hoping we have another calf coming in the upcoming months as well.. its never dull around here. We are organizing our little farm shop and making all sorts of wonderful changes in fencing and big sturdy corrals (we got a great deal on some railroad ties) so we have been extra busy and loving every minute of it.
the book (Pedro’s story and more)
So I’m way behind on getting this page started. Pedro and I had been working on his “memoirs” for years, ha ha. and finally really felt such a sense of urgency to actually get things put together and things fell into place just before the holidays this year. The sad part and the neat thing is that our first copy arrived the day before Pedro passed 
The book starts with him telling his story, you can see all his darling little baby pictures and read all about him. Pedro then introduces us to some of his other friends, both past and present and many of those stories are very happy, inspirational for sure and may bring a tear. I wanted to put a section on the blog about the book so that some of our wonderful friends and family might leave their comments. We have had such amazing feedback on this tiny little book, a book which means so much more to us now..
packrat babies!
We went on our regular trip to the landfill this weekend. As usual, we were being rushed on by the huge rude machine.. no one seems to care it is very unsafe to push all those tons of trash, not to mention sometimes large parts of furniture or building materials, so close to people trying to unload.. I swear it bugs me so that they push all that stuff right up on you and then sit there and idle while they wait for you to even appear to be done so they can mow your things over.. It frustrates me to no end. I’d really hate to have some couch fall over on me or my mother! This time we were trying to get out of the way and pulled the trailer forward just a bit to close the back doors and just as we were coming around we notice two tiny bunny-looking creatures huddled tightly together. Of course it was our first instinct to snap them up and out of the way of the quickly approaching evil man/machine. We just happened to have a small cat sized carrier in the cab of the truck and it made for nice transport home. We found we had two baby Woodrats aka Packrats.. toooo cute. We assumed they were old enough to be on their own but wanted to make sure before we gave them a safe release. They appeared to not really be eating but maybe just afraid. The next morning they were very hypothermic. I assumed one was already gone and put him on top of the carrier and rushed the other into the house for my special premie/hypothermic mixture of a drop of black coffee, some good raw honey and warm goats milk.. which has brought even the most “dead” looking drown chicken back to life by the way.. This one came around rather quickly and once the body temp was up and I was getting a good response, I panicked and ran back out . I decided that if my old Paramedic mantra was true (nothing is dead until its warm and dead) then maybe I had given up prematurely on the other. I was right! Yikes. This one also came around but was not as vigorous and I did loose him later on in the day. The other seemed to be quite happy and was preparing to at least temporarily be a house rat as it (he/she?) seemed to try and nurse the blanket in the carrier I had moved them to. Of course I kick into gear and fed the little twerp throughout the day. By nite time, last nite, we thought we had success as the little bugger was quite frisky and seemed to be eating okay. Sad to say though that by early this morning I had lost this one too. At our 2 a.m. feeding there was not much energy (especially for a nocturnal creature) and by 3 we really had not much left. I burried them in their little hiding place (a toliet paper tube) and at least they sort of went together. It is sad to loose something so small and helpless but at least they did go out warm and fed and loved, far better than being mowed over by the landfill machinery I’d say.
gifts
Pedro was a gift from God. That I am sure of. He was a gift I treasured and was thankful for every single day. Those are facts. Pedro is now not with me in his furry little funny form, another fact. So, during this time of grief, I have been given gifts of memories, photos, a purple poppy that popped up in the middle of winter all alone in the desert that is my mothers yard, various stones that have caught my eye that seem to have sketches of his ears and horns on them, or his nose… words of comfort from family and friends, I will see him again, he is still here in spirit, etc.etc. and I realize that just like we are to thank God for the day he has given us, for better or worse, in our own human opinion.. I should also be thankful for all of these gifts.. how sad it would be if my baby were standing there in spirit next to me pressing his dear little horns against my leg, trying to let me know he is here..and I am instead, sitting here, head in hand, tears down my face, unhappy, that is “isnt’ good enough” because its not what I wanted. I want him here, in fuzzy warm cuddly form! Of course I do.. but then, if I instead choose, which I think I shall,to accept and be grateful for each of these gifts I have been given, look forward to the next and be happy and joyful in each of them, then that is a good thing. A good lesson to learn too. So, thats what I say.. from now on I will choose to be grateful in each of the gifts I am being given, even if its not exactly the one I wanted! maybe now I can better feel those little spirit horns pressing against me..
