Red Phase....

Was down at the barn on Saturday and happened to see on the floor a big pile of bird poo...a big bird it looked like. Also saw some feathers on the floor too. I have seen this before, without the feathers and have looked but never saw the poo producer! Well.....today I was in luck, I looked up and saw this puffed up pile of feathers overhead. (by the way, that's an old hay rail in the top of the barn)

These first two shots were all I could get of him or her because the light was low and it was very overcast outside. I sent the pictures to a friend, Julie, who knows birds and she said it was a Red Phase Screech Owl. How cool!!!
These last two pictures were taken today with the Canon Rebel and the 70-300 lens and I climbed up in the hay loft of the barn. (do click on the pictures to enlarge them so you can see the owl better) I love having this little critter in the barn, haven't seen a mouse in a long, long time! There have been several times that I didn't get the slide top on the feed bin closed and when I saw it the next day I thought sure there would be mice in it. But no, not a mouse in sight!

Here is Hootie looking very sleepy...."Why are you bothering me, woman? Can't you see I'm sleeping?" Love the little "horns" on his head, feathers.
Hootie was gone for a couple of days, the weather had warmed a bit. He might have gone down to Kim's barn; she has a nest of bunnies that are digging holes all over the place and mice too. I hate to see animals get killed but that's the nature of things and just life and the owl has to eat too.
Julie tells me that birds are very sensitive to weather changes and there is a cold snap coming so Hootie is conserving energy and resting in the barn where he is protected. Red Phase owls also have a high body temp so they get cold faster than the Grey Phase owls, interesting!
I just hope that Hootie decides that our barn is a nice place to live and stays with us, such a beautiful little owl! Would love it if he would fly down and get closer so I could see him better.

summer photos of Gilly

I got these pictures in the mail today, what a nice surprise! These were taken in July about a week and a half after the "Blue Heron Incident" (when I got thrown off when it scared Gilly). Anna and Derek Hendershot came by when I was riding Gilly. Anna had gotten a new little digital camera and was trying it out. So she snapped some pictures of me and Gil. Love the one above of him standing really nice.

He has his eyes shut here and was being a bugger and not wanting to stand still. Guess he wanted to keep moving.

Now he is all spraddle legged and mouth open, lovely Gilly! He has his front feet at the edge of the road and his hind feet down in a small ditch so we are a little lopsided.
I rode on up the road for about 10 more minutes then headed home. As I got back to the driveway another Blue Heron flew up in Gilly's face! This was the day that he did so well and didn't spook; scared me I can tell you! We walked on like nothing happened, I was so glad of that.
I am looking forward to summer weather again! Right now it's raining outside, ugh! That means mud, mud and more mud!

Wood

I have had this picture for quite some time and decided to post it. This is my neighbor's wood pile in his outside shed. He has a wood burning stove in his house and workshop in the garage. I was just fascinated by the texture of this photo; so neatly stacked! Interesting!!

More Lucy

Lucy picks some of the oddest places to take a nap! It looks like she has made a pillow out of the snow by the driveway. Mike had called me to the side door to take some pictures of her sleeping.

Stretching and appears to be waking up, but she stretched and laid back down for a bit.

Some thing caught her attention and she is looking toward the roadway.

"Oh, there you are with that camera again! Don't take my picture, I haven't combed my hair yet!"
After that she got up and came to the door looking for a cookie, sigh, Ok since you were a good model for me, you can have more cookies!

Lucy

OK, so where is my cookie??? I have been waiting and waiting, hand it over!
That's Lucy our Australian shepherd, we got her from the pound....yep she is a pound puppy who is now 10 or 11 we aren't sure. She is such a good girl! When we had cows she was the calf babysitter. She guarded the babies in the field and the moms didn't seem to mind her there at all! Her herding and protection instincts took over; if one calf got separated from the rest she would herd it to it's momma. I never taught her how to herd cattle, cause I don't know how to teach her and never could find anyone in the area either.
Lucy is a good varmit dog too. No ground hogs, raccoons, rats, mice squirrels anything that she thinks shouldn't be here they are gone! Lucy is also my companion when I ride Gilly, she tags along everywhere we go.
Ever after at the door begging for a cookie and she always gets one!!!

Morning Sunrise

As the sun was coming over the hills this morning I snapped this picture. Cold and winter weather is still here and we got more snow today....boy is it slick too! On the way to the barn to feed I had a couple of slips didn't go down but was skidding along! Those rubber barn boots can be slick at time.
I didn't take the camera with me this morning and I wished I had. Gilly had snowflakes all over his red coat and they were beautiful. I could have gotten some more snowflake pictures....maybe tomorrow!

Here comes MORE snow!

It started snowing again today, the BIG storm is coming! We are supposed to get 6 to 8 inches of snow but how knows how much we will get. When I get up tomorrow and look out then I'll know but it's supposed to snow until Friday evening. Here are the boys after it had been snowing about two hours this afternoon.

Gilly looks like a snow covered Yak!!!

He really looks funny here! Yawning and nodding his head. This was about feeding time so they were standing guard so they could see in the sliding glass door; the look of the first picture is what you see if you look out about the time they think they need fed! I usually don't feed until 4 or 5 in the evening but they start their watch about 3 or 3:30.

Blue Moon????

OK, since I couldn't get any shots of the blue moon on New Year's Eve......I made my own!!!! LOL
What do ya think????

Cold winter day

Picture of the boys altered by photo program, dot stippling...interesting. Big storm is supposed to hit here tonight, calling for 4 to 8 more inches of snow! Hope it's wrong, we will see in the morning light. (be sure to click on this one to enlarge so you can see the details)

and still... it snows........

Lucy this morning in our driveway, as the snow falls down on her. She seems to love the snow, will curl up and sleep in it and be completely covered! She does have a really nice dog house to sleep in, double walls and floor with insulation in-between with lots of cedar chips for a bed. She just likes to be out in the snow; not me!

This is looking up the creek to our neighbors, snow, snow and more snow!

Looking down the creek to the barn and out buildings. This is the way it has looked all day, with the snow only stopping for about an hour before it started up again. The weather forecast for the last two days has said 1 to 2 inches of snow......I think they miscalculated that one!!! We have 6 or 7 inches maybe more!!! It is pretty though, all stuck to the trees and fences.

"Will you stop taking pictures!!! Lets go do something!" Whinny dog!!! She always gives me this look when I lag to far behind, she wants to run a play. I kick snow up in the air and she will jump at it, silly dog! Another favorite thing for her to do is start up in the yard, our yard in very sloping to the road, on her back and wiggle her way down through the snow in the yard, almost to the road. Looks like a saucer sled went through the snow.....no, just Lucy on her back, funny dog!

(click on pictures to make them larger) I see two hungry boys waiting for me! They are always hungry, or so they say. Pokey had just let out a very loud "HEEEEE-HAAAWW" right before I snapped this picture; as he has gotten older his voice has become quite large for one so small.

I'm getting closer! Now Gilly is nickering for me to hurry up, he is on his last leg and may just fall over if I don't get there fast!

On the way back to the house, I got this picture, everything looks so dreary! I tried to lighten it up a bit but not much luck. Our house is up on a bit of a rise and I was down in the road so it appears to be at a funny angle. I would have to walk through the creek and up a steep hill to be level with the house. I can see that come spring the house is due for a power washing! Green stuff grows on the vinyl siding down here in the hollow.....uck!

The creek is partly frozen and the water is rushing under some icy overhangs. Oh, that looks COLD! Lucy will walk down into the creek to get a drink of water....akkkk...I just bought her a heated water bucket...she hardly drinks from it; prefers the ice cold water! She is one tuff dog!

Snowflakes on our wood steps! I am amazed at what beautiful things they are; each one a masterpiece in itself!
I leave you with that because it's time to feed the boys again; they have been patiently (or not) waiting since 3:30, it's now 4:15 for their supper. They always hang out at the gate where they can spy on the house for any movement, which when seen they will loudly announce they are starving!!!
I usually feed somewhere between 4 and 5 in the evenings and there have been times when they will come to the back of the house, the fence is only about 20 feet from the kitchen window. When they are back there they are peeping Tom's and any movement they see in the window will result in a lot of noise from them! They are trying to teach me to feed them when they speak.....sorry boys, your feeding schedule is on my time!!!

Monday Snow

I thought this picture was just too darned cute! Pokey's little bristly mane sticking up with snow flakes in the dark part. The boys had come into the barn to get their breakfast covered in snow so I got out the camera and got some pictures.

Can you see me in Gilly's eye? I have purple sweats on, see? LOL The brightness of his hair on his face is coming from the open barn door....making his wet hair look silver.

This picture is blurred but still I find it very interesting. Snow on Gilly's tail hair, taken in macro.

The icy creek with snow falling down leaving a pins and needles look to the picture. The water was rushing by but a leaf is stuck on a rock under the ice overhanging the creek. Wonder what else was lurking under there??

Yes, that's my big feet in my new Mountain Horse boots. They are very warm and because of all the insulation and furry foot bed you don't have to wear heavy socks in them. Great boots and waterproof too....Lisa they are very light weight! I really like them. I hope it warms up some so I can ride in them to see how my feet feel then. (Don't you just love the purple sweats?) LOL

About these boots.......

Remember these? Well, I got them, couldn't wait to try them on....when I did I couldn't zip them up!!! I was soooooo disappointed, my calves are wide and I thought that these boots would have some stretch in them but no! I guess you have to have skinny legs to wear them, I used to have skinny legs....way back when. Hum, just when was that anyway??? LOL
Oh, well, I had to send them back and decided to order another pair of boots. Paddock boots this time.

Here are the ones I have now, Mountain Horse Rimfrost paddock boots. They are nice, and WARM and waterproof, good! The only thing they are very stiff but I just got them yesterday, hopefully they will get broken in before long. I have worn them twice to the barn and my feet feel really toasty and they have good grippers on the bottom.

What kind of winter boots do you have???

More Horse books!

My husbands secretary got me these two horse books for Christmas! I am just now starting to read the first one, Horse as Teacher. This book goes along with the DVD "The Path of the Horse" that I had gotten and watched earlier. Ten stories by ten women writers; this is from the back of the book.
"The stories in this collection will move you to tears, make you laugh, remind you of your first brush with love (in the form of a horse), and most important, connect you with your soul; because that's what horses can do when you are willing to embrace what they so naturally and beautifully reveal to you.
The authors come from a variety of horse backgrounds, but there is a common thread - they all see the simple truth that these magnificent animals, through their presence and grace, can raise our consciousness, peel back the layers to uncover our true selves, and show us how to shine with brilliance."

Encyclopedia of Horses - this book has breeds I have never heard of before, loads of gorgeous pictures, tons of information about horses. I have flipped through it but not gotten to read it yet...
From the back of the book cover:
"The ultimate reference guide to the world of horses. Highly illustrated throughout with photographs and graphics, complementing incisive and informative text.
A comprehensive overview of the history and nature of the horse, and an accessible guide to all aspects of horse care.
In-depth coverage of all the main horse breeds, including information on origins, appearance, and uses.
Icons provide an at-a-glance overview of size, environment, blood type,a nd uses for each breed, and show the most common color variations.
The essential guide for horse-lovers and horse-owners."

I am H-A-P-P-Y!!!!!!! The more horse related things the better!
It's cold here and I can't ride so the next best thing, I guess is reading about horses. Me and the dogs are all snuggled on the couch, Mike is watching his Christmas present, PBS dvd's (11 of them) "The World at War"....documentary of WWII.....he is interested in military stuff...I am the horse person. :-)

One more thing...Katharine is having a book give away on her blog, she asking all entrants to write me an email about a horse that has touched your life in some way, doesn't have to be one you owned just a horse in your life. Sounds interesting, click on her name to go there to find out all the details!

later.....

Happy New Year....Blue Moon

Hope everyone has had a Happy New Year's day; with family and friends, good food and good times! We have just relaxed all day watching TV, Mike.....I have been playing on the computer all day! :-)

I tried to get a shot of the "Blue Moon" last night but it was not to be.....it was so overcast and foggy that the sky was just a sooty black/grey. The snow was visible but the cameras didn't want to be very co-operative. I got the above shot of our pine tree in the side yard and it has some ice crystals on the branches that sparkled in the night. I couldn't even coax Gil and Pokey Pie to come to the fence and try to get a picture of them. They were having nothing to do with me, they were busy out foraging for what they could find on the hillside.

Tonight it is still overcast and snowing here and still no moon. How sad, I really wanted to get some pictures of this rare event, won't happen again until 2028....will I be here to get shots of the moon then? What kind of cameras will we have then; interesting to think of where technology will be then.

Tracey at Mustang Diaries set up a group on Flickr called Blue Moon New Year's Eve you can go there and check out the pictures of the moon that others got....some are stunning!

To all of my readers, have a safe, healthy and prosperous new year!

Namaste,

One gift.....

I forgot to add this in with the Christmas gifts post. This gift was from my friend Sheri; this little doggie looks like our little Chihuahua, Beanie. Beanie has been gone now for 6 years....we still miss her a lot. She was a little queen and ruled the house and Mike was her human; she had him wrapped around her little white paw!