Kitten has a name!

After being called 'the kitten' for the past week or two, we have decided to call her Sheryl. Very tongue in cheek name... a true westie name and she is a real westie kitten. Plus now we have Sunny and Sher(yl) as our two cats, haha. The two of them have been getting along really well and Sunny has been great with her, letting her bounce around him and I think he secretly wants to join in some of her antics. So we have a huuuuge load of pics of the two of them and a few of Sheryl bouncing around on her own:

Sheryl's rearing horse impersonation

Sheryl spots her own shadow...

Am I cute when I do this? (Obviously not based on Sunny's reaction, lol)

What about this?

Wake up Sunny! I want to play!!

Did that work? No? Hmmm...

What if I pretend I'm a big scary grizzly bear?

Grrrooowwwwwwwwlllll!! Wake up Sunny!

Sheryl loves Sunny xxx

Such a time waster! She is so full of beans, I think Sunny gets pooped just watching her sometimes.

Oscar was a bit pooped yesterday too, we went to the forest with Ellie and Spyke and did the 'up and over' track, which involves a lot of hills and some quite steep bits at that too. Was good fun, haven't ridden on terrain like that for a while, and Oscar did really well I thought. He hardly stumbled so I think the new farrier is doing wonders for his feet. He used to be very stumbly, even in the paddock which made me a bit wary about cantering in the forest with the odd tree root lurking.

We met a couple of deer yesterday, just as we had started to go for a canter. They went running straight across the path about 40-50m ahead of us. Oscar stop and froze, and I could feel his butt shaking, meanwhile Spyke decided to go cross country and bounded off through the trees (this is the horse that had a mini tantrum about going through a puddle and walking over a broken branch in recent times, haha). Was quite funny to see him disappear off (with Ellie still on board) into the trees. They both settled fine afterwards although Oscar did keep a sharper look out - literally looking left and right a few times while trotting. Funny boy.

He is a bit fitter than I thought though, he was tired after the ride but not exhausted, which was good.

The hay is going okay, and we should probably be cutting in two weeks or so. We have had some good weather for it, a bit of rain and then sunny days which will give it a bit of a boost.

The pigs should be heading off soon too hopefully, will be nice to have some real bacon again. And soon we should be adding to the mob too which some more weaners in a few weeks time. I have no idea what prices are doing now although suspect that with the rain they won't have dropped as much as they did last year when we were already heading into drought by this time.

Cantering, kittens and Christmas

Been a busy couple of weeks!!

Oscar has been going great guns, and the lesson we had on the Monday after the dressage day pretty much cemented in my mind that he is the right horse for me. We did some jumping, which is not really my thing at all - or so I thought... we started off doing some trot poles and while I was trit trotting around my trainer, Laura, started fiddling around with the poles and next thing you know they were getting higher and higher. We got to the dizzying heights of about 35-40cm but the best thing was that Oscar just cruised around really happily. He was as forward as I asked him to be, if I dropped back then he did too but when I rode him forward we had a lovely bounce through a couple of grids followed by (get ready for it) left canter at the end of the grids!! Yahooooo!!

Then we got a left canter again on Wednesday night at adult ride. Asked for canter over a pole and he leaped over the pole which I wasn't expecting at all but then cantered left for a good 10-12 strides. Clever pony :-)

And to top off a great week me and Ellie went to the forest on Saturday and we had two lovely canters through the forest. I forgot how much fun that was. Bowling along happy as larry and when we stopped cantering he just cruised along again, wasn't all razzed up about it. Only time he did get a bit full of beans was on the second canter when we ended up in front - but still completely controllable and nothing to worry about at all.

He is really coming along well with all the work we've been doing on schooling him to what the different rein aids are as well and we can now move his shoulders over really easily. Love my pony!

We also have a new addition to the family - a wee black and white kitten who is only about 7 weeks old. She is very cute and full of energy, bounces around all over the place. She and Sunny are still not too sure about each other and she got a smack from him the other night when she was playing with his tail a bit too vigorously... Anyway here are (lots) of pics of her:

The day she arrived home - pooped after exploring

Snoozing on the computer desk

Watching Sunny
Rrrooooaaawwwww

Little poser! Watching birdies outside

And a cute one of Sunny, all curled up in a platter - the perfect size for a cat as it turns out!

The garden is coming on really well and we have had our first harvest of peas, yummmmm. Also had the first lot of carrots, and the zucchinis are days away from being ready. The tomatoes are coming along slowly, not sure what is going on there. Ben put some more manure around them the other day so hopefully that gives them a boost. The capsicums are doing well and one plant has a little capsicum growing quite nicely on it.

The first lot of peas with the day's eggs

And tomorrow is Christmas day so it will be all go around here. We have 13 adults and 3 kids coming over, so it'll be a very full house. Not sure how the wee kitten is going to handle it so may have to shut her in her room when everyone is here if it's all a bit much for her. My niece is very excited about seeing her (she is animal mad) so she will have lots of cuddles tomorrow I suspect.

Oscar wants to be a dressage pony

We had our second dressage outing today, and went to the third spring dressage day run by the Waitemata Riding Club. It was pretty quiet at this one, not sure why, perhaps because it was on a Saturday - they are usually held on Sundays.

I entered Oscar in two training tests, which meant - eek - attempting to canter in the arena. We have been working on our canter but just can't get the left canter lead. Driving me nuts. Had a ride at Ellie's on Wednesday night as adult ride was cancelled, and we just about did a 20m circle (ok it was v egg shaped but still...) so it gave me some hope! Only on the right rein of course...

Anyway today Sarah came along with her old boy Em and did the same two tests as us. He was great as usual, although Oscar was very clingy and spent all our warm up calling out to him. We did have some nice moments in the warm up so he was definitely better than last time where our warm up involved tanking trot, jig jogging and not much else.

Second test warm up was marginally better and we even had some really really good (for him) trot-canter transitions. Steering was a bit crap but that's not unusual. He is quite funny though - he can be a complete twit outside the arena but as soon as we go in he settles right down and in his second test particularly he did some really nice trot work and I was very pleased with his free walk. Bit bummed that his right canter flopped a bit - he did the transition but then went back to trot. I think a big part of it was me not giving him enough rein but ah well that is what training tests are for I guess.

So this leds me to believe (and was suggested by Ellie) that Oscar does in fact have a burning desire to be a dressage pony, given his love of the arena. Fine by me :-) Although we are going to attempt an ODE at the end of the season. Gulp.

We have had some good growing weather here in the past week or so, with a bit of rain and then sunshine. The tanks are full and the hay and garden are growing well. We even have some peas ready!! Stoked about that. Had my first couple of pods straight off the vine the other day, was lovely. Lots of flowers on the tomatoes too and the zuchini and cucumber plants are also doing well. Have a few zuchinis coming along nicely.

With our tank now pretty much full we have discovered that our tank stand needs reinforcing. There is quite a bit of bowing in the wood which is a bit of a bugger. There is no way we will empty it at this time of year so hopefully it will last until the end of summer and we can sort it out then.

I thought the whole thing was about to come crashing down the other night when I heard a cracking and popping noise. Ran outside but the stand was still there, and couldn't see anything else. It sounded like gunshots so I thought maybe the neighbour was off shooting possums again. But no - it's a rather large branch from one of the trees by the driveway. It has split off the tree and is currently resting on a tree on the opposite side of the drive, about 15 metres above the ground. Don't think it is going to come down of it's own accord so will have to get someone in to chop it - it's waaaay too high for Ben to get up there. Just don't have the gear really.

The piggies are doing well, and are pretty happy now that we have got loads of veges for them. We can get 4-5 big bags of vege scraps each day from the fruit and veg shop up the road, which is almost a bit much for them to get through! Although they really don't like raw onions so there are a few of them lying about in the pen.

Hopefully they will be ready for killing in a month, they are still growing well but to me just need to get bigger butts (don't quite look roast size to me just yet....)

Big week!

Well it's been a huuuuge week for Oscar. Monday we had a lesson (in the pouring rain - discovered that my favourite jods chafe when wet, ouch), and we had our first proper bash at some canter work. We have had a few canters in the paddock, but our steering is not great. Anyway we had a play on Monday and got some hilarious leaping forward transitions into the canter to start with and then had a few lovely ones. Left canter is a bit rubbish but right canter is great.

Tuesday was a day off then Wednesday night was adult ride night and we cantered in a group of horses for the first time, and it was Oscar's best adult ride ever. He has been a bit clingy with his paddock mate who also goes to adult ride but last week he was so much better. Called out heaps (Bert the paddock mate was on the other side of the grounds in a different group) but was just fab otherwise. Had some lovely trot work and good canter. No left canter though, argh. Think part of it is me, I am quite asymmetrical with my hips (from being dragged a few years ago) and find left canter a bit tricky on a well schooled horse, so on a green horse like Oscar it's even harder. Have asked Ellie and Sarah to have a go with him (they seemed really keen for some reason... ) so hopefully they will help cement it into his brain a bit.

Thursday we headed up to Whangarei with Shelley and her mare (renamed Bitch Lips as she was in season, out of work for a couple of weeks, and on spring grass), and it was Oscar's first long trip on a truck. He travelled great and was quite impressed with the flash accomodation we had lined up for that night. A client of Shelley's lives just outside Whangarei and has a lovely property with stables etc so the ponies stayed in luxury accomodation that night. Then went to the A&P show on Friday, which to be honest was a bit crap as it was raining, then really muggy but Oscar behaved so well. I was really pleased with him.

Drove back on Friday afternoon, and he was pretty pooped when we got home. Had Saturday off then this morning we went to Muriwai and went for a forest ride with 8 others. It was a bit exciting to start with but all we had was jig jogging, apart from that he was a star. He loves to be in front which is a bit hilarious as he was the greenest horse there! Had a cruisy ride and he does seem to be getting fitter which is good to see. Although he did come home and have a big lie down and snooze - I have never met horse that loves sleeping so much...

After the ride this morning me and Ben did some fencing down on the creek boundary. We put a fence up there a few months back but then all the rain and flooding stuffed a bit of it up so we had to reset some of it. All good now so hopefully when the creek goes really low in summer the cows won't wander into the neighbour's place.

The garden is going great guns, and we should have some peas very soon! Have been eating the lettuce for a couple of weeks, very yummy! Some pics of our bounty:

Tomatoes - three batches worth, newest ones in front

Peas - one older row and two new rows from about 3 weeks ago. There are pods on the older row that should be ready in about a week, yay!

Lettuce - bit of a random variety with weeds in amongst them all for, er, variety.

Sunny checking out the carrots. The bigger ones are the ones that the chooks ate most of the seeds from, the others are much newer and were the ones we chook-proofed.

Courgette and cucumber plants - newer courgettes and some gherkins on the left

And then to top off a great day we have just been nibbling on some cheese and crackers and champagne. It's a lovely sunny early summer evening, we have some scotch fillet steak for dinner courtesy of one of the cows, and I can see the horses grazing in the paddock, pretty nice really!

Lame :-(

Well Oscar is officially lame. Poo. Had a lesson on Tuesday that fizzled a bit as he was lame at the trot. Ok at the walk but a lame duck trotting. Anyway we persevered a bit and ended up getting some nice turns on the hindquarters which we had been struggling for a bit (this is where the horse moves its front end around and the hind feet theoretically stay pretty still). Anyway we got that going nicely so we did achieve something at least!

Had the farrier out this morning and it looks just like a stone bruise, but have poulticed and booted it just in case. He also has a scabby head (charming!) which seems to be clearing up although he is not impressed with daily vetadine washes.

I am doing his teeth on Tuesday, along with Spyke's. They are both going to be sedated so am going to get Oscar's mane pulled after I've done his teeth so he'll hopefully be a bit happier about it being done what with the drugs on board. We are heading up north on Thursday to the Whangarei A&P show with my mate Shelley and her new mare - just to do inhand although I think I'll take my saddle and maybe have a little ride around. See how we go. Our classes are first thing Friday morning so we're staying overnight on Thursday, and Oscar will even have flash accommodation - Shelley has sorted out stabling for the night for them at a friend's place. Lucky ponies :-)

The hay paddock is finally showing decent growth, we've had rain and warm weather which has been all good for grass growing. You can even see it waving in the wind from a distance which is kind of nice. Not sure we'll be cutting it as early as we did last year (second week in Jan), no point in doing it if it's not ready.

Speaking of not ready, the piggies have a stay of execution too as they are not ready for slaughter yet. So no home grown ham for Christmas :-( Never mind just means more bacon in the new year!

Exciting day!

Lots of great things today! Firstly as I type it is raining, yay yay yay yay!!! You can hear the tank filling (albeit a bit slowly) which is just fantastic :-) And secondly Oscar had his first outing at the forest, and his first truck ride with me - although the way he loaded I suspect he's been on a truck before!

He was just great on the ride, couldn't have asked for better. He really seemed to enjoy getting out too and was very brave and led the way to begin with and even managed to get past a few really scary things (a bushy branch halfway across the track is apparently a horse-eating branch). But pretty bloody good for a baby really, think I have got myself quite a cool wee horse.

Anyway as exciting as the rain is (which is pretty exciting when your tanks are empty and you need to have a wash) it's not very exciting having pics of the rain so here are pics at the forest:

The boys ready to go

This is before we rode - and see how wild and crazy this 5yo green thoroughbred is, resting his nose on the rail and half asleep lol

Action shots - taken on the move courtesy of Ellie

Ellie and spunky Spyke

He was pretty pooped afterwards, and fair enough it's all sand and some of it quite deep in parts. Will be great for his fitness though. Already thinking about when we can go next! Have to say that is the best forest ride I've had in a while, thanks to my mate Ellie for trucking us there. He is all tucked up in a rug and has had a nice dinner now so can take it easy - for a while at least. We have a lesson tomorrow morning so I think he'll need a day off after that. Then adult ride on Wednesday night, should be all recovered for then.

And to finish of a great day, got home to Ben starting dinner, and cracking open a bottle of Champagne. Pretty good life huh!

How does that rain dance go again?

Well we are officially out of water. The big tank was empty as of Monday and today the last of the small tank went into the horses' trough in the driveway paddock. There is about 100 litres in one of the 200l barrels I use to collect water from the guttering on the side of the house that doesn't feed into the tank but it's all a bit grim really. Can't believe we are out of water already. This is just nuts!

Just as well the new tank is heaps bigger (5250l, the old one was about 2500l) but the problem is that it's still not full! There is about an inch of water in there, not even enough to reach the outlet. There is rain forecast for the weekend so I hope it absolutely pours down (although not on Sunday afternoon as I have horsey stuff planned!) and fills up the lovely new tank and waters the garden. In the meantime it might be time to start making a list of friends to stop by and visit - who just happen to be on town supply water!

The water tank is finally set up!

Today was a landmark day - the large cylindrical green garden feature that has been sitting on the lawn for the past month or so metamorphasised into a functional water tank on a stand. Although it has to be said the tank stand is possibly the world's shortest tank stand. Because of the height of the tank and the corresponding height of the gutters we couldn't have the tank as high as we'd have liked, unless water somehow manages to go uphill and I just don't know about it?

Anyway it's all set up ready to collect water and I can't wait to see it full and stop using the water from the old skody tank!

So here's a pictorial essay (I know, it's almost as exciting as udder watch!!)

The tiny old tank complete with rust holes and saggy stand - almost makes the house look flash

Ready to box up the posts for the platform

The tank stand all boxed up

Some sexy guy nailing the slats on (I was in a supervisory role for this, although was in charge of making holes in the tank, a very important responsibility I think)

All the slats on

A hol(e)y tank

The first drops of water going into the tank!

Finished! Just need to hook up the outlet pipe to the tap at the bottom and connect up the overflow (the random white downpipe sticking out like a sticky out thing) and Bob's your uncle

We were forecast some rain for today but I think it's pretty much gone. Meant to be more coming this weekend - bring it on!

We sold the four steers and a heifer on Saturday, prices were not as good as we hoped but it's a bit late in the year to be selling them really. Anyway we still made a great profit which will go towards getting some more weaners in a month or two.

Had a great lesson with Oscar this morning too, we are having weekly lessons for now and it's going really well. We have a plan to ride at least three times a week, four if we can manage it and it's going great. Finished off with our first solo road ride (still led him up the busy hill part) along our road and he was really good. Even when a truck and trailer came past, he was fine. A bit jig joggy but certainly nothing to get me worried. Little star!

The chooks discover the door

"Oi Beryl what do you reckon this is? Hmmm I was hoping to get in there and see if there was any of those meaty treats left in that bowl that belongs to the furry grey thing we have to chase every so often."

"Crikey I dunno Henny, never seen anything like it. Hang on and I'll go get the others and see what they think. Back in a jiffy!"



"Well Martha what do you think?"

"Oooooh Henny it's a tricky one. I have heard of these things before. Hmmm what did they call them?? Beryl was right to come and get us. I think it might take a bit of brain work to sort this one out."



"Gosh, careful there Martha it could be booby trapped! It might make you stop laying if you touch it!!"

"It's ok Beryl I'm sure I've seen one of these before. Just can't for the life of me think what they are called and how you use them. It was so much easier when they just had that silly flapping tape here. Hehe, they thought that would scare us away, silly featherless things they are."


"Henny I think you might be pushing eggs uphill to try and fit through that gap. You're no stranger to the feed bin remember."

"Yes dear well just wondering if i could beak my way in, but it seems there is some kind of safety device on this. Righto girls, this needs more discussion. Meeting in the coop on the back perch, 8.30pm sharp!"

More chook-proofing

Picked up the screen door I got on TradeMe last night and we fitted it this morning. It's one of the security type ones but like most of them on TM, it doesn't have keys. The mesh also needs replacing so will do that to help keep out flies. But mostly it's to stop the chooks from making themselves at home in the kitchen.

We discovered that a really good way to clear your windowsill is to put a chicken on it.

Anyway, the new door is up and working, albeit a bit of a no-8 wire type job! But that kind of suits the house anyway...




It is just a stunning day today, and am working from home which is great but it's so nice out there I just want to be outside! Will have to make do with gazing at the view right in front of me. Not bad huh?

If it wasn't quite so hazy you could see the top of Coromandel peninsula pretty much halfway along the horizon line. Rangitoto is to the right just out of shot.

Sent the last of the big cattle off to sale today. There is a sharemilker up the road who goes to the sales every Saturday at Pukekohe, we bought our last mob of weaner heifers from him and he's great to deal with, accurate with prices etc and just a nice guy really. Bit sad having the last of our first mob of cattle going off, but we bought them to make money out of so hopefully tomorrow we'll get a good price for them.

Will probably get some more weaners once the hay has been cut, or maybe just before its cut, depending on what prices are doing. I suspect it's going to be dry this summer again which is good for us in terms of buying weaners as prices will come down.

Got the report from the MRI of my shoulder today and I think it's good news... bit hard to tell as I am not so familiar with the muscles etc around the shoulder joint but the key things I picked were that there is no evidence of a tear in the supraspinatus tendon which is what the doc was worried about.

This means (I hope) that it is non-surgical and we just need to work on getting it stronger. Sounds like just tendinosis although there is mention of some bony irregularity. Anyway have an appointment in 2 weeks with the specialist so I guess all will be revealed then!

Summer lurches in

It has been roasting hot for the past two days, and already I seem to have started trying to be careful with water. I suspect it's going to be a dry summer again.

We have started on the tank stand finally, we kind of need to get the tank operational in time for a big rain to fill the thing up. So we have bought some wood to make a platform on the posts we had rammed in. Have laid them all out and put the tank on top, will be great once it's done.

Also been busy in the garden, with Ben planting more seeds etc the other day and today I have just put up some baling twine for the peas to climb and made some bamboo teepees for the zucchinis to grow up.

Zucchini teepees - not sure if the two on the right are going to make it so will wait for a bit before building them a teepee each.

Peas fighting through the weeds...

What's left of the carrots on the right after the chooks ate most of the seeds, and on the left, the second batch of carrot seeds planted and chook-proofed:

Speaking of chook-proofing... another use for baling twine is chook-proofing the tomato seedlings:

It has been warm enough to take the horse's covers off and they have been having lots of grooming sessions with each other.

Meanwhile others just laze about and sleep....


Hard life huh?

Oscar's first outing

Just home from our first dressage day with the Waitemata Riding Club, and Oscar's official first outing. We went to adult ride on Wednesday which was our practice run and he was good there, quite jig joggy to start off with but settled nicely. Much the same today, very tense to start off with so lots of trotting to help him chill out. Almost overdid the warm up as he started to get pooped at the very end of the test. Had half an hour warm up, probably 20 mins next time would be good. But I guess he wasted a lot of nervous energy too!

We just did one test, with no canter as our steering is still not great and in canter it is just a disaster! So it was nice and straightforward for both of us, plus because it's a WRC event you don't have to dress up, hurrah! Some pics, courtesy of team photographer Sarah (who's pony Bert once again disgraced himself by refusing to load, and so missed out on the dressage, silly boy):

All ready to go

Tanking off in our warm up

Meant to be medium walk, lol

Free walk - not his best but at least he walked and didn't jig jog

Nicer trot

Halt (perfectly square, yay!), salute

Well done :-)

Relief....

We ended up with 63% which I was pretty happy with for our first effort. I am hoping when he is heaps more relaxed next time we can get some nicer softness going on. Had good comments on the score sheet, including "shows promise just needs more experience". Too right...

In other news.... Harry and his mum left us yesterday to go back to Alana's place. She's also taken another of the heifers so there are just two of hers left here, which she is going to get home killed. And we're selling the last of our 2yo steers and heifers next weekend so it'll just be the little dudes for a while until we buy more weaners, probably in January.

The hay paddock is all locked up now, just watching it grow. And the pigs are still growing too, with huuuge appetites still. Ben planted some more veges in the garden the other day so we've got more peas, lettuce, plus tomatoes, zucchini, and gherkins. And then just need to plant more peas and tomatoes and also some capsicum and that should do us.