October Winter

Well, it seems that we did get a bit of winter in October.  I sure do hope that we will get a small reprieve before full on winter comes.  As it is, we have to look at the white stuff for a minimum of 4 months.  If this is the start, combined with an "el Nina" we may have close to 6 months of the white stuff.  Sigh.

I did get a lot of winter prep work done, but, it seems there is always some thing left to do.

The horses find that going out in the rain to do their "business" is just too much, so much easier to do it inside.  Besides, more work for mom!  Yeah.

I need to run into town to drop my ballot in the mail.  Don't have a single nice thing to say about politics or politicians, but, to do nothing, to not vote, seems rather foolish.

I also need to get my hair cut.  It's odd, my hair dresser is a recent convert to a new political party and she has plastered her business with political signs.  That combined with her need to talk about it, seems rather foolish to me and truly disturbs me.  Yes, I disagree with her, but, that's only part of it.

My grandfather was both a business and community leader.  While he had no problem letting people know his political thoughts as a private citizen, he believed to use his business to promote politicians, even though they may have been good friends, was foolish.  His business was open to people of all persuasions and to force people to pass those political signs to come into his business was tantamount to flipping half of his customers the finger.  He refused.  May have pissed some of his friends off over the years, I don't know, but his customers were more important.

It's one of the few political ideas that I agreed with my grandfather about.  So, do I find a new hair dresser? All I want is a hair cut, not a political debate.  Yeah, I probably will find a new hairdresser.  Better do it soon, hairs starting to drive me crazy.

Getting Ready for Winter

They say we could have up to 14 inches of snow by weeks end.  Sigh.   They say the snow level will be 4,000 and I'm at 4,100, so, will likely see some of it.   A little bit early for the white stuff and I hope that it will melt quickly before the winter really hits.  El Nina.

I've been putting up walls on the horse motel, an open air set of stalls.  Every year I prepare for what happened the previous winter and every year the winter decides to do something just a bit different.  Still, I think we have a good chance of keeping the stalls of filling with drifting snow this year.  New plywood, new look, Hawk in particular just can't leave it alone.  Chew on it, paw at it.  Jo was so upset by the stall suddenly having walls that she wouldn't go in it for more than a few seconds.  My method of attachment and measurement are a bit amateurish, but it'll work and that's all I care about, especially with the snow about to fall.

Taro and Angel, Arabians, were a perfect weight for summer, but I wanted to put a bit of weight on them for winter, it does often go below zero, so I bought a popular Senior feed to supplement with.  I didn't know that my gelding was pre-cushings and it put him into a full on crisis.  I can't tell you how frightening it is to watch your beloved horse stand there, rocked back on his heals, refusing to move to eat or drink, pain screaming in his eyes.  It turns out that this rather large company had changed hands a few years ago and they reformulated the feed and not for the better.  It turns out that "senior" feeds are really bad news for Cushings and insulin resistant horses.  Thank you to Dr. Kellon and her internet group for helping us through this crisis. Fortunately one of the local feed stores carries Triple Crown and I am able to get their Low Carb feed, one of the best that's not special order.  His laminitis has subsided and he has started to put weight on and move freely around the paddock again and his eyes have that mischievous look in them again.  Whew.

Toni, the Amazon is holding weight, but she's not putting any on.  Her pancreas just isn't making use of her food.  I've been feeding lots of fresh foods, birdie bread and processed pellets.  She still gets her seed, but she seems to understand that her body isn't making use of them and prefers the pellets and birdie breads that I've been making her.  Toni is special, she was my first and I adore her.  I know that I'm watching her slowly die and it breaks my heart.  She doesn't appear to be in any pain, she still plays with the cockatoo and harasses the macaw at every chance but she's soooo thin.

Shoring up for a hard winter.

Taking Advantage

It's not as though I didn't have lots of things to do around the house this weekend, but when an old friend called and wanted to ride, well, heck, why not?  These nice snowless days will be gone soon enough, so, what the heck, let's take advantage of it!

Saturday we took Tassie and Jo to LaPine State Park.  Even though half of the park is open to hunting, we decided to do the Fall River loop, passing through the open hunting section, combined with the Deschutes River loop which is closed to hunting.  A total of about 10 miles.  At the end of the ride we took the horses into the Deschutes.  This time of year they hold back the water to fill up Wickiup Reservoir, so the river is pretty low.

There were a lot of people in the park, even ran into three horseback riders from Bend.

Not sure why the hunters would want to hunt in an area with that many people passing through, but we did run into 2 hunters.  I'd bet they didn't get their elk!

Sunday afternoon we took Son and Hawk over to a section of the upper Deschutes that is closed to motorized traffic.  I was a little worried since it is Elk season and there is a herd that makes the area home.  There were fisherpeople all along the river and the road stays close to the river and no way the elk are at the river that time of day, so we took a chance.  None the less, we did run into 3 groups of hunters.  I'm sorry, the hunters both days have got to be the laziest hunters on earth.  "Lets park here and walk a mile down the road and if we see anything we can shoot it."  Well, my neighbor down the road maybe a bit lazier, they feed the deer all year long, then when hunting season comes, they walk out the back door and bag their limit.  That's lazy!  Really, I don't have a problem with people hunting, but come on, lets make a sport of it.

Anyway, Hawk is green and a LOT of work to ride.  I'm just getting too old for the silliness of a youngster.  He's a truly beautiful horse, but I just don't enjoy the work any more.  Started a lot of horses over the year and mostly really enjoyed it.  The last one I started and enjoyed was Jo, the palomino in the picture above.  60 years on, I'm just not quick enough any more.  Sigh.  Hawk is the one on the right in the picture below.

So, if you have some good weather, better take advantage of it.

Hairy Woodpecker

This woodpecker and it's mate have been coming in for an occasional meal.  I think this is the female as the other one has a bit more red.  They had always managed to hang on the backside of the suet, keeping me from getting a picture, but today, I had moved the suet just a bit and this was the result.

Patience pays off!

Mostly Mountain Chickadees of late and an occasional Oregon Junco or Robin. Caught this Robin yesterday before I refilled the suet.  Suppose to rain Thursday.  Still tempted to get a cat to go after the ground squirrels, but I'd hate it if the birds left too.  Sigh.

River Otters

What a beautiful autumn day, mid 80's, sunny, light breeze.  Ran into town then drove out to LaPine State Park.  Lots of trails along the river.  I took my lunch and ate along the river.  A few people came and went but it was other wise devoid of people.  Oh, my goodness, the birds were in fine tune and ever so vocal in expressing their joy in the day.

A few years ago, along this same stretch of river I saw several River Otters playing under the ice.  They'd pop up through the ice, spy their buddy, then go back under only to pop up some where else.  They were having such fun.

I had never seen the Otter other than during the winter and was marveling at their ability to stay so hidden during the summer.  Not that I blame them, during the summer, the park is one busy place, but now, with autumn here and the quiet, I was wondering if I might see them.  Darn, I'd no more thought it and sure enough, I heard some splashing.  Ah, it can't be!  I was high up on a bank, looking down on the river.  I stayed quiet and looked and looked.  Finally, I spotted two Otters.  One swam up river past me, the other headed down river.  The river was just clear enough that I was able to watch the one for about 10 minutes.  Just lucky, for sure.  I sat there for another 30 minutes and didn't see another sign of them.

Would love to go back to get photo's, though I doubt I could get close enough to get a good photo. They blend so well with their background, you'd need to be close or have a professional level camera, a good SLR.  I have a good camera, a Sony, but it is an amateurs camera.  We'll see.