Pippen

This post is long overdue; however, given that my kitten thinks that the camera is going to steal his soul, its tardiness is not unexpected. I present to you Pippen:

Apparently, naming him such is a bit of jinx. He is accident prone, has an apparent death wish, and is mildly psychotic. I'm telling you, the kitten is crazy. But he's just too cute and fluffy. Every time I see him, I just want to squeeze him, much to his dismay. He's like a little boy that doesn't want to be seen getting a hug from his mom. This is the same kitten who had a broken leg not all that long ago. He's great friends with the dog now. They nap together and Pip goes out of his way to terrorize the dog. Karma has not been Greta's friend.

Happy Saturday

It's funny how much more I enjoy weekends now that the wedding is behind me. I'm finally able to spend my weekends getting things done around the house and riding my horses. Not that I disliked planning my wedding and I certainly don't regret marrying my husband, but it's just nice to have my life back.

So far today, I spent my morning riding. It's really a beautiful day, but by 1 o'clock it was time to move things inside. I love Florida, but you really have to watch the heat. My poor pleasure mare, Lilly, was covered in sweat by the time we were done. I think she really enjoyed that cold water rinse afterwards. I put her out in the front paddock to enjoy the grass since she gave me such a nice ride. Today was the first day that she's truely slowed down at the lope. She kept her head down and her body collected on a loose rein. I'm so excited. She's still not as slow as she should be, but I love to see progress. It seems to come so slowly, but when it does it comes in leaps and bounds. Side passing is also much improved, btw. We've been working on it from the ground this past week and when I asked from the saddle today she did it easily both directions. I can't wait to get this mare into the show pen. She's going to blow everyone away.

Now I need to get cleaned up and run out to Davenport to look at a new cart for Dolly. Hopefully it'll work out.

Amusing Animal Antics

Well, I promised amusing animal antics and the goats just couldn't stand to disappoint.

Let me set the scene. Last night, hubby comes home and immediately starts working on the fence. It isn't all that unusual since that's been the routine for the last several months. He finally comes in around 8:30 pm to tell me that electric has been run on the 4th wire of one paddock and it is now hot. Don't worry about the gap in the fence of said paddock, he got some gate panels and tied them in place. That should have been the first red flag. I love hubby dearly, but the Boy Scouts apparently never taught him to tie knots. Plus I'm pretty sure goats can and will untie anything. That or they just stand on it until it gives way.

So I wake up this morning to Greta (my greyhound cross) whining and barking out the window. I'm thinking there's a cat because that's what she's usually whining and barking at out the window. Nope, it's goats standing on my front porch. Lovely. And all I can think about is all the new landscaping I just did in the front yard. Also remember my fear of having them eat my roses since I had been feeding them cut roses from the wedding. Well, good news, other than pulling a pot of ivy off the picnic table and knocking some leaves off the roses, everything else seems to be intact.

Anyway, so I throw on jeans and a t-shirt, grab my shoes, and run outside. One reason I like these goats is that they're easy to catch. Of course, that is because they're so damn spoiled. So they come right to me and I grab their collars. The front paddock, while not-electrified yet, seems to hold them pretty well, so I led them over there. I need to have a talk with hubby. He clips the gate chain as tight as he possibly can so that the gate won't move. But then it won't unclip. Especially when I'm trying to hold on to two goats. I ended up having to let go of both goats. Again, luckily, they're easy to catch. Once the gate was opened, I grabbed Bella's collar and called for Rusty. Once Rusty realized Bella was going with me, he trotted on through the gate and I once again had both goats contained. I needed them to eat some acorns in the front paddock for me anyway.

Meet the Goats

Meet my self-propelled weed whackers. Rusty is the red and white male and Bella is the blue female. They are great. I didn't expect to like goats. I was honestly looking for sheep to help clear the property. Then a friend offered free goats. On our budget, free is a very good thing. Especially since sheep were going to cost us around $100 a piece. And they are much more well behaved than other goats I've had the "pleasure" of meeting. They're like dogs with hooves, only less picky about what they'll eat. I can even lead them around by their collars. But boy are they strong.

They are always good for some comic relief. Rusty will climb on anything. We should really build him a tree house. We gave them a round bale that had molded. It only took about a week before Rusty learned how to climb up the side of it. After that, it became his permanent hang out. He's such a lazy little stinker. He would lay on the top of it and reach down to pull hay out of the side of the bale.

I did find a use for all of those left over wedding flowers. Rusty enjoyed my orchid blooms so much, it's only fitting that he would eat my roses. Now let's just hope he doesn't get loose any time soon and eat all of the roses out of my garden.