Welcome to our ranch near Canada's west coast in Beautiful British Columbia's West Chilcotin mountain region. Where calling the vet means hollering back at the house to bring your kit, new friendships are formed from the back of a horse and true fun for a five year old is getting a machete for Christmas. Where 'cutting the dinks off' has a totally different meaning than what first comes to mind, Muck Boots are a household name, a hand shake still means something and the coffee is always on.

Thursday 26 March 2015

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Oh it's wet.  It's muddy.   It's milkshake thick and uphill treadmill at a run workout type muddy.  It's 'pull your boot off as you go" muddy and it's nothing to laugh about.  Ha.
And yes, someone (Dad) did walk out of his boot when attempting a quick move to block a cow the other morning.  Funny how when your socked foot hits the mud, getting the cow out of the pen suddenly become a low priority.  First priority becomes looking frantically around and to see who noticed!  Unfortunately, this time, none of us got to see it, but the mental image is always great.  

Snoozing in the sun.  

Eve had a good one the other day too.  We were slogging through the mud, grumbling and snarling at the slop, on our way to check the milk cows.  All of a sudden I hear a quiet and resigned 'oh no' and look back to see Eve sitting down right down in the mud.  She had slipped, crossed her legs up in front of herself and then actually ended up sitting on the rock she slipped on.  Because I'm such a nice person, it didn't even occur to me to take a photo before I helped her up.  Dang it, missed opportunity.
Speaking of the milk cows, we have a new arrangement.  My friend and fellow rancher lady picked us up our new addition in Williams Lake and of course we have named her Evie.  She is almost as patient with the calves as Black Velvet but really just seems confused with life in general.  I'm not sure if she has never seen sun or what, but she sure sunburned quickly.  Everywhere.  Really.  Ouch.  Eve was thinking we could make some sort of bra and undies for her, but nothing we could come up with brought less than laughter, so we are hoping for some cloud and working on making a pen with more shade.  There are 5 calves currently having a grand time with full time access to two Holsteins.... life is GOOD!  The cows are pretty happy too (I think...who can really tell?) with their own delicious bale, water tubs, nice shavings to lay on, lots of grain and wee babies to love/put up with.  


No more twins.  Yay!  I think we still need another milk cow.  

AND, I finally get to talk about something besides calving!!  Our good friend Ken has come up to make me a trade......he wants my Haflinger pony Percy Sunshine for his wagon team and we've done a swap for a gelding of his.  Eve and I went to catch Percy from the herd today and separated the brood mares out as well.  I didn't get many pictures as we were quite busy enough, but here are a few.  The horses are all look patchy as they start to loose their winter hair, but they are in great shape and feeling foxy!  Was so wonderful to get on the back of a horse for even a short time.

Ripper, Roan Guts, Jelly Bean and Porn Star.  On hindsight, I think I took a photo of all the worse names in the outfit.  

  
Ripper, Rocket, Tiny (Roan Guts, Kramer and Ducky behind)  

Take care all,
Punky



5 comments:

Loes said...

Punky, your blog is the best!! I do recognise a lot and it's so funny to read!
In my 'pool your boot off as you go' - mud experience in 2010 (it's allready been 5 years!! since I was in Anahim Lake) I ended up on 4 'legs', so Roger didn't do that bad ;)
Take care and keep the blogs coming!

Cheers from Holland,

Loes

Unknown said...

I've already packed some gum boots for my visit next week - lol!

hansku said...

Punkyyy! Is Roan Guts the same horse I rode a lot back in 2007? I think you'd just got her then. Canada has put up the age limit for the work&holiday visa so Canada and BC are on my travel list for the next 2-3 years..first I need to get that damn Aussie citizenship I've been chasing the last few years.. Then it'll be Canada's turn hahaha!! Your blog is lovely and I really enjoy reading it, brings back good and funny memories (I'm still slightly cautios of teeter totters :P )
Hanna Finlandia

Terra Hatch said...

Oh that's right Loes, I forgot about your '4 legs down' mud experience! lol :) Good to hear from you!!

Terra Hatch said...

FINLAND!! Good to hear from you! You actually rode another roan mare....I forget what name she came with, but we call her Bubbles now (due to drinking the dishwater in camp and blowing bubbles back out.....) I'm happy to hear you are keeping up with and enjoying the blog. A side effect that I hadn't really thought about when I started (but is delightful) is the re-connections it has made with old friends! Can't wait to see you back in Canada!