Our temporary home away from home – Welcome to The New Public House and Hotel located in historic Blowing Rock. The 1921 building, the former Sunshine Inn and Crippens Country Inn, has been renovated and modernized by the team behind Gideon Ridge Inn and Bistro Roca.The Dinning Room – nobody there – choose any table that you want – Well it was not really that way for dinner – many people came – but for breakfast which came with the room – we pretty much had it to ourselves — we could order from the menu any thing we wanted – we wanted a lot – let me tell you – the scales told me we ate a lot – or was it the iceream I had at the local cream shop every night?Grandma is learning from a Master PotterI am learning from a Master musician!I did not buy a song – but I stole it and hummed it all day long – but Grandma bought this bowl from the Master, to hold fruit on our counter at home on Drummond.Oh, say you – “What is it” The Morel is America’s mushroom – they are coveted by mushroom hunters all over America. In every state and even in New York City, I am told? But never follow the information you get from a Mushroom Hunter. — “No, I did not find any Morels around here – i heard that old Mushroom joes is finding a lot of them in the next county over – I suggest you travel over there and ask for Mushrom joe – he will help you locate buckets full of them!” – “Oh, I hear he also has a bridge for sale – I think it is caLLED THE LONDON BRIDGE – AT A REAL GOOD PRICE TOO”As I took it – A barn with a quilt pattern on the end. Seeing that Grandma is an Artist – we must photo all forms of art work!As I cropped and HDR’ed it. Some say do you post process your photos – Say I – YES. Say they BAD. Why – photos are to represent reality. – You kid me Unless you are Near Sited – a photo shot at 1.2f is not real. But it looks more pleasing to us humans – less background distractionBackground blurred and only flower included in the shot – Really not as I saw it – but as the camera saw it with the setting I gave the camera – see no post processing! BUT NOT REALLY REAL – Think about that!I am allowed to paint what I feel – not like a photographer who must photo what is real -Ha Ha!!
Just getting up of course!Every time I take the saddle pad off and brush her down – out of the barn she goes and rolls. So, I went to the web and ask why? Dear Dr. McDonnell, Almost every time I let my horses out of the stalls after feeding them, they roll in the dirt, dust, or mud. Why? Here is what I got: Rolling associated with turnout after feeding is a slight variation on the more usual question of rolling immediately after a good grooming or a bath. Owners often ask why their horse “hates to be clean,” or tries to “ruin his coat,” and seems to deliberately roll to “spite you for grooming him.” The short answer to rolling when turned out is that it’s normal horse grooming and social behavior to roll whenever turned out from the stall to an open area. But since rolling is one of the most interesting equine behaviors, I’ll take the opportunity of your question to explain in greater detail how and why rolling is normal. In horses living outdoors all of the time, especially those living under natural herd conditions, rolling behavior is one of the most conspicuously frequent social and grooming behaviors. While we don’t know precisely what stimulates rolling and what it means in all circumstances, it likely serves several purposes. These would include: Speed drying and refluffing of a wet or matted coat to restore maximum insulative properties. Covering the coat with dust that reflects the sun and possibly helps repel biting insects. Aiding in shedding. Increasing comfort by scratching.On our way to the Soo to pick up my truck from the service garage – we took the 7:10 and just down the road here is what we saw through the windshield. Beautiful it was! but cool – never made it to 50 degrees all day! that is about 20 degrees below normal.What is this bird? — photo across the bay – used the 1000 mm zoom on my point and shoot camera. I think it is an immature eagle — What do you think?Do you see the well hidden eggs of the Killdeer? Their name comes from their frequently heard call. These birds will frequently use a distraction display (“broken-wing act”) to distract predators from their nests. This involves the bird walking away from its nesting area holding its wing in a position that simulates an injury and then flapping around on the ground emitting a distress call. The predators then think they have easy prey and are attracted to this seemingly injured bird and away from the nest. If the parent sees that a potential predator is not following them, they will move closer and get louder until they get the attention of the predator. This is repeated until the predator is far from the nest, and the killdeer suddenly “heals” and flies away.[Now that I am back on the Island, I will try to update my story to the grandkids mor often – and anyone else who may chance upon the site!
Who woke me up? Compared to people, horses seem to require very little actual sleeping time. While we consider a healthy night’s sleep of eight hours to be about right for us, how much sleep do our horses actually need? Generally occurring during the night time hours, the average horse spends any where from a few minutes to as much as 3 or 4 hours per day actually sleeping, with another 2 t0 3 hours per day relaxing in a standing drowsy state.HITTING THE HAY! “Horses have sleep patterns typical for prey species that evolved on open plains,” says Sue McDonnell, PhD, head of the Equine Behavior Lab at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine. All horses can sleep standing up. Your horse has a sort of internal hammock-a system of tendons and ligaments called the stay apparatus. This system lets him lock his legs in position so (unlike you) he can relax his muscles and doze off without keeling over. Even when he’s not sleeping, he uses the stay apparatus to rest muscles and reduce fatigue. Being able to sleep standing up is a great advantage for a prey animal. If a mountain lion comes creeping through the underbrush, the horse can be off and running without wasting precious seconds struggling to his feet. Horses plan for a quick getaway in choosing resting places, too. Out in the open, they go for sheltered areas but position themselves to get out fast–butts to the windbreak, heads pointing toward a likely escape route. “They’re like volunteer firemen who back their cars into parking spaces so they can pull out fast,” Even though they’re able to snooze standing, horses apparently need to lie down for rest and sleep at least some of the time. In fact, scientists think horses must lie down to go into deep stages of sleep. Like humans and many other animals, horses experience both slow-wave sleep (SWS) and rapid-eye-movement (REM) deep sleep.I am a Pony – so why does my shadow look like the head of a camel? Don’t you know, Camel is a brand of cigarettes that was introduced by American company R.J. Reynolds Tobacco in the summer of 1913. Most current Camel cigarettes contain a blend of Turkish tobacco and Virginia tobacco. In 1913, R.J. Reynolds developed an innovation: the packaged cigarette. Most tobacco users who smoked cigarettes preferred to roll their own, and there was thought to be no national market for pre-packaged cigarettes. So named because it used Turkish paper, in imitation of then-fashionable Egyptian cigarettes. Reynolds undercut competitors on the cost of the cigarettes, and within a year, he had sold 425 million packs of Camels. Blame many bad health events on R.J. Reynolds – just suppose he smoked many cigarettes before he invented Camels and suffered the consequences – would the world be better?
Stay with me – this is a budding piece of art work — Having an artist wife puts me in a very special place – I get to study pieces of art work at shows, I get to listen to in-depth analysis of of pieces she is developing, and I get to — well, in simple terms, it seems my life in immersed in art – — So say I, maybe I will try some myself and keep showing you as I move these projects forward.Very difficult doing art one digit at a time. ByeThis is more like it! Bye
Living in the Shadow of a very famous Man and His Horse!Thru the magic of PhotoShop I revealed a little hiding red squirrel “Why am I hiding? Because you pint that little black box at me, and you are big and ugly – You are tall, have grey hair (under a big hat) – you have no tail, you smell like a horse barn — You scare me – so, go away – I do not want to hide anymore”Love my new orthopedic boots! – I am the horse that ate too much rich grass — my feet are dangerously harmed – I look pretty good now that I well dressed in my boots and have had my medicine laced with molasses – I love the man that dreamed up that way to take medicine – Sort of like using using brown sugar to cover -up the bad taste of oatmeal – and I am sure that the medicine is a lot better for me then the oatmeal is for humans of the Island.This is your leader speaking – “wing man # 8 (Right most goose) why are you falling behind? do you have trouble? are you just goosing off?”I like looking for “LIFE FORMS” OF AN ISLAND” Bye for now!
So I wanted to see if I could take a shadow selfie with my head shadow at the deer’s nose – Why? – just to see if I could do it. Not quite – this time!Why are they all watching my truck? – or – are they watching me? They are fun to see anyway.Hay in – a lot of manure out – clean it up 2 or 3 times per day and stack it in these piles – my friend does it every day of the year – I only help clean up once a day for 4 to 6 months!
Spring flowers are great to see, but the grass is a little to rich in some chemical for some horses. The effected horse will say “I am tired and my feet hurt”. Laminitis is a painful inflammatory condition of the tissues that bond the hoof wall to the bone in the horses hoof. It can be caused by eating rich green grass of spring
Forage is one of the most important components of your horse’s diet. Hay provides most of a domesticated horse’s forage intake. The amount of hay your horse needs every day will depend on the size of your horse and how active he is. The amount of nutrition that is in the hay also has a crucial role in how much is needed to sustain a healthy animal. How Much Hay Does Your Horse Need Louisiana State University and the Humane Society of the United States agree that a horse needs to eat 1 to 2 percent of his body weight in roughage every day. If your horse has free access to plenty of grass, then grass can serve as his forage. If your horse has limited grass then you must make sure his diet is supplemented with hay. The average 1000 pound horse should eat at least 20 pounds of hay every day according to LSUIn Iceland – grass is often in limited supply – So, the Icelandic learns early in life to munch every blade of grass. One blade at a time – hour after hour! I have watch Perla do just that!!!But ,then we put out hey for them – We scatter the piles all around – Sometimes, I think the Icelandics do not share well – “Get out of here this is my plile” – re-enforced with laid back ears, a threat made with the turning of the head and a look with the eyes, or a bite, or a kick. I mean business – “Get out of here”Hay in – Poop out!!! —– According to the internet questions.com The average horse produces 9 tonsof manure every year. A 1,000 pound horse will deposit approximately 35 pounds of manure daily plus 6-10 gallons of urine.A horse produces about 9 tons of manure per year and 3.5 tons of urine. How often does a horse poop? It’s actually a relevant question, so responses such as ‘as often as it needs to’ is a tad silly! As a general rule of thumb a healthy, relaxed horse on a balanced diet will defecate every two hours. Responsible horse owners will need to know this so they can understand how their horses are (health wise). A stressed horse will defecate so they’re ready to run away, it’s a natural instinct! If you’re feeding poor quality feeds / forage again they’ll do a significant amount more / less. Urination is important but difficult to detect, this isn’t something they do when stressed, but either when they need to or if they are sick, generally they urinate 4/5 times in a 24hr period, the liquid will be pale and wont smell too strong of ammonia. Good question, try looking at some horsey websites such as Horse & Hound, they have a vets corner 🙂 Source: Yard Manager, experienced owner and instructorShare – No way! My friend in Iceland sent me a digital envelope of hay – It is all mine!!!
While hunting in the evening – I looked up and found this shot – Oh, when I hunt these days I do it with my camera only.You thought the previous shot was of the sun-set – Nope, it was of this duck in the foreground!!!Here on Drummond one can find things like Sea-Horses – made of wood.Here on Drummond one can find things like scary faces – made of wood.Another shot of the summer poop pile – Oh, it is really a shadow selfie.Just to prove to you that I do have a heart – – In fact a pudding stone heart – OOPS, did I just say that I have a heart of stone? – Not good – I will go hunting later to try to fix that problem – maybe tomorrow i will show you!I been hunting my Mink – I love to see him/her – often do but not with my camera. It lives under my dock – I sit and wait with my camera – but no photo yet – This Animation is really a weasel – but kind of looks like a mink — Bye!
Breakfast with the horses – – a selfie via an early morning shadowI really love this shot – so I will show it to you again – just for fun!The winter poop pile – steam on the early morning sun – But while removing the pile yesterday there was still large areas for snow and ice in the center of the pile – good insulator – that is why manure is often used, even today yet, as an insulator.If you are a gardner – it is good to have a friend with horses – see the trucks lined up waiting for their load?The operator with an arm sling – still operates the front-end loader – see the men keeping the area clean so that when the last tractor load is in the trucks the ground is clean and waiting for the new grass to appear where the winter manure pile was!Biking is what I do in Florida – These photos show what I do on Dummond instead. Even though I been kicked and my friend was thrown this week, I know of more bike accidents then I do horse accidents! So be careful, what ever you do but enjoy it!
The big yawn – this warm weather – 50 degrees makes me sleepyCold dreary morning as seen from my dock – note the lake foam being washed up by the constant 20 mph north wind at 38 degrees!See the big winter poop pile. Allen tried to load some load some into a truck — found the center filed with ice and snow – had to wait a week or so for the thaw.Last year’s poop make for fine lawn over-seeding base!Deer in garden waiting for me to plant it!Bye – lots of birds came north for summer and found it to be about a month late!!!
Allen has taught me so much about horsemanship – Perla in the background is not dead – she is just relaxed even with us humans around and the other Icelandic lays still while Allen sits on her – Allwn’s quiet consistent style of always communicating with the horses creates some very polite animals to be around!He showed me how to approach Perla and sit upon her – I didThen i asked her to stand up – and stand by me – She did as I ask – but of course she had to yawn several time – got me to yawning – so we stood side by side yawning!!!Today ,again, we had snow showers – but not enough to make a snow man!
