Elliott is in the house ......

And I don't mean, "Elliott is here at the ranch" .... he's been at the ranch for over a year now; I mean really in the house.  And as you can see, he has made himself at home.

He doesn't live in the house, preferring to be able to roam the creek and pastures and patrol the barn at will - I think he has a personal commitment to eliminate as many voles as possible ... I must say, I support that commitment!  The good news is he is not daily leaving a vole on the deck and/or sidewalk - about once a week he leaves them for us, the rest of the time I think he just "leaves" them - I find deceased rodents at random spots around the ranch ..... I actually okay with that too.

Make no mistake, Elliott has not replaced Zeke, in the house or in our hearts; Elliott is his own cat and finding his own place.  Zeke used to nap like it was his right, in fact his entitlement to nap and by jingo he was going to do/have the best nap ever .... Elliott is more of a focused and enthusiastic napper; I think or would imagine he relishes the luxury of being able to do a 3S nap - Safe, Secure, Spot sometimes sunny sometimes soft .....

Elliott curled up and sound asleep on the bedspread.  You could almost hear him as he drifted off to sleep ... "oooo this is soft - maybe if I fall asleep quick, I'll be too cute to disturb and I can sleep here for the rest of the afternoon ..."

In case you were wondering:  He was (too cute to disturb) and he did (sleep there the entire afternoon).

Not quite so upside down and still sound asleep - Seriously, how does he sleep all wrapped up like that?

Another day - another nap!

All stretched out in the sunshine ..... life IS good!

Nose to nose with a 'napping cat'.

He cracks me up, one eye open as if to say "You woke me up - What is it exactly that you want?  Can you not see that I'm sleeeeeeping here ....!!!"

Now this is a comfy comfy boy ......

Honestly, the only other critter I've seen sleep with all four in the air is Murphy.  I don't think I've ever seen a cat sleep in this position - until now.

When he sleeps all upside down and silly it makes for some great photo opps .....

He seems to be settling right in - to 'his' corner of the couch.

He and Murphy are getting along just fine, sharing couch space.

Elliott doesn't actually doesn't come regularly or often - some days it is in and out, other days not in at all and then some days he comes in finds a comfy spot and naps the day away. 

I think he kind of likes it here ....

The "Girls" and then some

Mama

one of the wise ones ...

Mama having a snack .... check out all the pollen in the air - those dots you see on Mama are NOT my camera lens needing cleaning, it is pollen. 

Mama just cracks me up ......

Shaking off after a dust bath ...

Shaking everything back into place after shaking all the dust off after her dust bath.

Couldn't you just scoop her up and give her a hug?!!

Miss

She's my girl alright and the girl is making me crazy- yesterday afternoon she was eating thistles

 First she paws the ground where the thistles are growing

 Then she has a bite

and another

and some more bites

then more pawing

 and another mouthful

she is so careful and delicate - using her nose, I guess, to find the tenderest pieces .... on the other hand, she is eating thistles and they are prickery how dainty and delicate does she need to be?

Nicker

When did she get so grown up??  How did I not notice?

Nicker at the stock tank - something caught her attention.

 She is getting big!

Heading towards being a full fledged grown up horse ..... well almost.

 She still gets sidetracked for treats - she thinks thistle blossoms are treats, not exactly my idea of a treat, she likes them just fine.

 Despite her appearance of calm maturity and looking like a mostly grown up horse .... check out those cheek bones in her reflection - nice!  That is a 'big girl' reflection she's got going on.....our girl totally serious - she still has time for horse play, or as we like to call it "Nicker playing around"!

She is still a girl who likes to play in the water!

 And at least she is 'self entertaining' ...!!

 She gets a kick out of herself and she seems to have such fun - she makes me laugh!

 Ohhh Nicker !!!

Oh my goodness she is growing up - much too fast for me.

Looking more like her Mama and sister every day ... her stockings just crack me up - she looks like she is trying out for a burlesque show or the Rockettes.

Rose

the old wise one ...

Rose has a scratching tree in every corner and every possible spot on the ranch and in the areas that don't have convenient trees, she fills in with whatever is available - could be a T-post or a vehicle bumper or a fence post or a telephone pole or part of the yard fence or a corral post, or as in this case a huge fallen tree (doubles as a condo unit and home to several bunny families).

 Getting her chest and shoulders a good scratch .....

Ahhhh ..... that's the spot - perfect height for her right shoulder and the side of her nose!

And then some .... The Herd

 Some days they are all clumped together ....

Seriously, in the middle of heaven knows how many 'lots of acres' - can six horses GET closer together?

And then some days they hang in groups

 The 'girls', Mama then Miss and Nicker and Rose, in the lead with Hank and Shadow walking shag.

I'm not sure if the girls slowed up or the boys started moving faster or ... some combination between the six of them of slowing down and speeding up.

There we go .... what a nice line they've fallen into - Mama, Miss, Nicker, Rose, Hank and Shadow.

They so crack me up....the cutest line of "goobers" you'd ever want to see.  ha!!

The part that cracks me up is that they wouldn't do this in a million years - if I wanted them to .... leave them on their own and they line up in the straightest prettiest line you'd ever want to see.

 Check out how the little ones have grown - Miss is next to Mama and noticeably taller; Nicker is third in line just in front of Rose and she is every bit as tall as Mama and within catching up height of Miss.  Hank at next to last is almost as tall as Rose and I'm not sure, could be Shadow at the shag end is every bit as tall as Rosie.

Interesting how they've naturally broken off into pairs .. well kind of into pairs.  And yes, that would be Hank looking at the camera .... maybe he knows I'm taking pictures and wants to make sure everyone knows which horse is him?  "Hi Mama!!! It's me Hank - Do you see me Mama?  I'm right here, second from the end ....I'm looking right at you; I see you, do you see me? Hi Mama!!"  That's my Hanky!!



The Bridge is Finished .... Yippeeeee!!!!

So I posted a day or two ago about my project to secure our bridge for horse traffic and by securing the bridge reclaim my round pen panels AND get the bridge back .... I am happy to say, last night I put the last plank in place, took down the barriers (round pen panels) and opened the newly secured and renovated bridge to traffic.  Thanks Dad for getting me started and helping cut the planks.  I must confess, that covering the bridge end to end and side to side on the bridge required more planks than we originally thought, which is okay - it is done, ready to be used and we are (as they say) open for business......Wooo hoooo!

Taaa daaaa - finished bridge, no barriers

Closer view of the finished bridge.  I like it!!

With the bridge finished - new planks in place and the barriers gone, one of the questions was, "how would the horses react?" Would they like it? Would they use it?  Would it freak them out?  Would they notice? 

In 2008 Mama and Miss regularly used the bridge - would they remember?  Would they remember that the bridge wasn't a big bad boogie man stretched across the creek?  Would they use the bridge again?  Would the new planks make a difference - would they be a deterrent?  Truth be told, it didn't really matter whether or not they used the bridge - bridge had a new solid floor and was going to stay that way, no matter what the horses thought.  Would they remember and would the change I made matter, was more something to be curious about .... This morning I got Miss' answer.

That is Miss, hanging out by the bridge. 

Shadow is up by the tree.

Miss heading on to the bridge.  So far so good.

 Ambling across the bridge - checking it out.

I knew it - new bridge floor is no problem for the girl.

Here is a question:  Why did Miss cross the bridge?  To see if there were any snacks growing in the new floor - as long as it had been closed off .... surely something good had been growing?!!

 All the way across ... no worries! That's my girl!!

Indeed - it seems the verdict is in, WE like the new floor on the bridge (or she doesn't care that there is a new floor on the bridge) - either way, it is all good!

Now all I have to do is convince the boys that the bridge is the way to go .....



Murphy and I saw 6 deer this morning

We'd slipped out for an early morning stroll .... Murphy is at the stage in his life where we stroll v. go for walks .... and as we came to the sand bank ridge overlooking the shooting range, boing sproing bounce - 6 deer (5 does and a buck) broke from the underbrush and headed across the pasture. 

It was one of those reality check moments for me - I could see them and knew for certain what I was seeing; yet other than the slight ruffle of leaves, which could have been the wind,  they didn't make a sound.

Unfortunately my boy missed them, he was too busy scooping up smells from the grass and reveling in the pure joy of being on a walk.  Murphy missing them is just as well, he was off leash and in his excitement of actually seeing deer, he would have gone straight over the edge of the sand bank and that would have been bad.

All in all a great start to the day - stroll with my boy, he's sniffed up enough new smells to get him into next week and is happy to have been on a stroll and I got to see 6 deer.  Yes indeed, a great start to the day!

Bridge

At the ranch, there is a mostly dry creek bed that runs east-west the length  of the property.  Corral and stock tanks are on the north side and house and Quonset hut/barn are on the south side.  There are a couple of dry weather no water crossings at different parts of the creek; however, the main crossing, which is convenient to house, barn, corral and is a 'flat crossing' of the creek is a bridge.  It is a good bridge .... and sturdy, I think I remember it is rated to hold 5,000 pounds or there abouts. 

The 'gotcha' for the horses is that it is a cattle guard style bridge, which means instead of a solid floor there are slats with space in between them as the floor which is what keeps the cattle off the bridge.  I don't think keeping cattle off the bridge was the initial purpose of this bridge at the ranch, cause the cattle could just cut through the creek, I think that was just the kind of bridge they had available and what they used. 

Anyway, with the horses - we weren't too comfortable having a bridge they could get their hooves through and get a leg stuck or worse, so the first year we covered the bridge with plywood.  With the plywood in place, Mama and Miss used the bridge rather than cut through the creek, so that was all good until the creek flooded in 2009.  Washed the plywood off the bridge and down the creek.  Put holes in some of the sheets of plywood.  Washed debris up on the bridge.  In summary - created a big ole honkin' mess.

High water in 2009 - bridge after the water receded (a.k.a. big ole honkin' mess).  You can see water off to the right.  To give you an idea of how high the water was/is - Creek bed runs about 4 feet below the bridge.

We patched the plywood covering back together best we could, while realizing that plywood covering was not the answer we needed for long term.  Worked fine in the short run; however, high water and/or extreme weather made crossing the bridge with plywood covering iffy at best.

To add to matters, my girl Miss got her nose into the mess .... what a girl!.  So here we have the bridge in place, the plywood safety covering washed away and my girl decides she needs to check things out.  I find her on the bridge on what remains of the plywood delicately sniffing through debris.  My heart immediately goes to my toes - this is not good - this has the potential to be really bad if she takes the wrong step.  I get Miss off the bridge, sink some T-posts and block both ends of the bridge.  I think, "that will work".  Yeah, NO.  Miss promptly finds her way around the end blockades and up over the sides.  I swear she was thinking that if I'd blocked the bridge off, there must be something really really good on the other side of the blockade and it was her duty to sniff it out and check it out.

I find Miss around the blockade and picking her way through the bridge and my patchwork security work.  I get her off the bridge and add panels to the sides of the bridge.  She is going to give me a heart attack. 

This is what the bridge looks like with end AND side barriers.

Now we've been without easy access to the bridge for a year and I'm kind of missing the convenience of driving over the creek v. driving through the creek.  We spent a fair amount of time trying to figure out how we could make the bridge horse-safe while at the same not not bankrupting our checkbook.

Finally .... a year and a half later a solution presents itself.  Our landlord had the deck replaced and of course, I scavenged all possible lumber from the original deck - no sense filling up the landfill with perfectly usable lumber and as I'm stacking the lumber in the barnyard, I got to wondering whether or not we could use that lumber to cover the slats in the bridge and create a solid horse-safe floor AND one that wouldn't be washed downstream ever time the creek ran high.

Yup - we can do this.  I think it will work. My Dad helped cut the floor boards to size.  I used the remaining plywood for a sub floor to give the planks some extra support.  The planks are cut short enough to slide into place and long enough that both ends tuck neatly under the support I-beams.

In this picture I have about one-quarter of the bridge re-done.  You can see the plywood for sub flooring, and the I-beams in the middle.  Same I-beams are the outside support, so the planks are long enough to have both ends secured and short enough to slide into place - no need for welding or bolting.

 Close up of the support beam and the cattle guard cross bars.

Starting to add plank flooring on both sides.

This is where I ended yesterday evening, with about 6 feet (over both sides of the bridge) left to go, I ran out of 'clean' wood.  Clean being the operative word, I have more planking; however, I need to pull nails and screws so that a) it fits together as well as possible and b) the planks create NO hazard to man, beast or vehicle.

This is what it will look like - planking isn't perfect; however, I think that use and weather will level out some of the warps in the planks.  It is, sturdy sound and fit for foot traffic, hoof traffic and tires.  I'm hoping / planning that it will be relatively easy to maintain and if/as required, replace planks.  Me - I'm glad to have it finished or, at least within sight of being finished; I think it is BEAUTIFUL and can't wait to pull down the barriers, let the horses explore AND ..... get the round pen set up and school (horse school) in session.  Woo hoooo!!!!