not so much fruit this year...

 This is what happened to one of our 10 year old apple trees last April's snow storm... Rolf is walking around with a big stick to shake the snow out of the trees, but it pretty much was already too late. We lost a lot of limbs, a few fruit tree tops, all the older wood of our 60+ year old lilac bush (the flat thing behind Rolf) and one of our larger dwarf trees completely toppled over. We tried to push it back - this is as far as it goes - and Rolf pruned most of the extra limbs off to give it a change. It still lives and go figure, it's the one with the most apples this year! I think next Spring we'll chainsaw it down and ent a couple of new shoots on it, the roots do seem to work fine and Rolf did do a pruning & enting workshop.

Our peaches didn't have much snow damage but the frost that came a little while after did take care of most of the blossoms. I think from the 8 or so trees we have only one fruited. Last week Rolf chopped our whole harvest (minus the ones the toddler ate) and it came to a whopping three quart bags total! And no pears at all. This would have been their first year and they were covered in blooms but the tiny fruit buds all blackened and then fell off... I was so disappointed.

Even our fruit shrubs are doing poorly, not from snow or frost but from lack of rain. The summer raspberries and blackberries only bore one crop quite some weeks (seems like months) ago and the blueberries are sooo tiny it's not quite worth picking them. Our fall bearing raspberries are only now starting to fruit a bit and they only grew to about 3-4 feet tall. Same for a lot of the weeds, our butterfly & hummingbird garden is normally taller than us this time of year and it never quite grew more than chest height. Not much of a maze if you can see the paths :)

Dutch Icelandic Get Away

This June when we went to the Netherlands for a family reunion I also planned a midweek trip to the small island of Vlieland where my mother's family is from. Both to visit my grandparents' burial site as they'd both died since our last trip two years ago and, more importantly, to revisit the Icelandic Horse stable who'd kickstarted my interest in the Icelandic breed.

When I rode with Stal Edda two years ago I had never ridden either Icelandic horses or the tolt before. From my first visit I especially remember the horses to be very, very short - much shorter than the ones I later met here, seemed like - and I was curious to see if they actually were. Everything seems bigger in the States, so why not their horses as well? But nope, it was just my first impression; my memory of my initial "you want me to get on that?" response!

It was nice visiting the stable again with some knowledge of the breed, to realize the way they are housed differently from mainstream barns (no stalls) and appreciate the perfect fit of the Icelandic breed on this rustic island. Vlieland is one of a row of small Islands at the northern end of the Netherlands with on the south side the Wadden Sea (with mudflats) and the north side the North Sea (with sand beaches). The Island is about 9,900 acres, half of which are beaches and sandbanks, with about 1,300 residents and over 130,000 visitors each season. Residents with a commercial need are allowed the use of a car and some of the tourist residences still use horse drawn wagons to haul luggage from and to the ferry. The island has about 3,000 hectares of dunes and 1,000 acres of forest and meadows (with only about 100 acres developed). The stable owns about 25 horses and in summer the ones chosen for rentals are housed in a (dune) sand drylot and work about four hours a day. But when the tourist season is over their vacation starts and they are released onto the property of the Forestry Commission where they are allowed to graze, unfenced, all winter long.

The founder of Stal Edda, Wim Gieles, was stationed on Vlieland thru the Air Force, fell in love with the place and did not want to leave. When in 1982 he opened Stal Edda it was love at first sight with the Icelandic breed and it's compatibility with the island and the stable has been Icelandic Horse exclusive ever since. As Wim is kept busy with other responsibilities (he's on City Council) he found assistance in the shape of Krista Nobel. Krista had just finished an HBO agricultural intership at an Icelancic barn in Groningen, and after a few years ended up taking over ownership of Stal Edda. She can't quite make ends meet from horse rental income alone - she works part time at Hotel Golfzang - and plans to expand the amount of seasonal trail rides and add Icelandic Horse and Tolt riding lessons. She also hopes to certify Stal Edda to be able to offer internships for Secondary Professional Education (MBO) agricultural and equine programs.

Which brings me back to my ride. I had scheduled a one hour trail ride (all that was available that day) and had six MBO students and their teacher as companions! Plus one quiet German, who had come to Vlieland especially for Stal Edda and went for a ride every day he was there. Which initially I thought as unusual - lucky him - but apparently he was not unique in that at all. People come from all over Europe - even all the way from North Sweden by plain, train and boat - for a week of Icelandic Horses at Stal Edda.

After all the kids, teacher, the German and I were paired up with a suitable horse we they were pulled from the dry lot to clean and tack up. The visitors helped every step of the way with expert tutelage and Icelandic Horse specific explanations from the couple of knowledgeable stable helpers. To encourage quality seasonal help the stable offers on island lodging.

 It was pretty clear from the start the girls (students) knew their way around horses, but also that the teacher was a bit in high water. I was pretty sure I'd signed up for the advanced beach ride and remembered my ride a couple years back, with some trepidation, the beach canter (barely in control, full out gallop to me) - but we were both assured this was a standard ride, not too fast, with definitely no dangerous all out gallop on the beach (mmm... not to sure how I felt about that as I had hoped to feel my seat improved after riding Icelandics for two years). After all were mounted, with stirrups the right length and girths properly tightened, on we went. First single file thru the dunes and later in semi file over the beach. The scenery was gorgeous, the weather perfect - not too hot, not too cold - and the hard packed low tide beach proved perfect to practice our tolt. And then the spot to turn around came. Lots of ears perked up. Quite some feet began to move around. It was harder and harder to ride a tolt. And then the tour guide gave the signal: it's time to RUN! And run they did! Flat out gallop over the beach, one horse racing the other, churned up sand flying everywhere! My heart starts racing again just writing about it! Boy, was that fun - just what I was hoping for and more than I expected!

  After what seemed like forever the guide steered us into the loose sand, we slowed down, collected all slower riders including the teacher who was looking a little pale around the edges, we had a nice walk in the loose sand near the dunes - and then we were off again. A little slower this second time around, but still pretty fast and energetic. By the time we reached the dune passage back over we all were wearing huge grins.

By the way, I never even saw a waiver...

by Susan Verberg
written for the St.Skutla Group Newsletter and NEIHC Newsletter.

Published in the December 2012 Issue 4 of the Icelandic Horse Quarterly - the official publication of the United States Icelandic Horse Congress and a member association of FEIF.

Stal Edda, Fortweg, Vlieland, the Netherlands
E17.50 for an hour to E155 for a ten hour subscription
www.staledda.nl (in Dutch, use google translate for English)


link to the complete picture album on Picasa
https://picasaweb.google.com/103334119482276223756/StalEdda?locked=true


I used two newspaper articles and vlieland-info.nl for background information.

goslings

Last week we sold our three goslings... which made me so happy! I really was not looking forward to move them onwards to the freezer - tho we love goose meat, of course, who doesn't - these three were our first home bred and home raised gosling fuzzies!

I bought three goslings from McMurray's three years ago, both for meat but also for parasite management (they eat slugs etc that host goat parasites). Unfortunately for the goats, the geese grew up to be a toddler menace, so for sake of keeping the toddler interested in interacting with the goats the geese moved in with the chicken instead. Which turned into a great move as the geese became the flocks bodyguards and have since kicked butt quite a few verifiable times (geese feathers all over yard, a strutting goose male, but no missing chicken). It's only too bad the chicken have not learned to stick close to the geese at all times yet :)

Pretty soon it was clear we had two girls and a boy and named them Josephine, Emily and Kristopher. Kris and Jo became a pair but it was Emily who made nice nests and turned broody. Fortunately for us, and Emily, Josephine committed suicide by drowning in a 5 gallon bucket (really, and they fit like a cork) which is why all our water buckets now have a diagonal piece of wood in the top. After a couple days moping Kristopher moved in with Emily and about three weeks later I let them brood. Maybe that was a little too soon as none of the eggs hatched (but did explode spectacularly). Plus I had moved them to the fenced in goat bachelor's pad, it seemed a nice secluded safe place to brood, except the foxes knew pretty fast the chicken diner had reopened...

The next year I kept the geese with the main flock and after one failed nest - right next to the coop's only entrance - Emily built one in our semi open lean to which I use for meat chickens in summer but is open to the main coop and run the rest of the year. She had a humongous amount of eggs (nine-ish) and ended up hatching three healthy goslings. I did check the nest after she left and found one egg completely developed but it had not hatched, another egg was partially developed, with the rest with no development at all.

We had experienced normal geese behavior, like Kris protecting his wife, which we adults pretty much ignore, we had experienced brooding female and protective male behavior, just don't get close - but two adult geese with goslings is a whole 'nother ball of beeswax!!! I think I still might have a bruise on the back of my leg... from June...

When the goslings had all feathered out and it was clearly time to find them new homes I listed them on craigslist without follow thru results. Luckily for them, I also mentioned I had them available to anyone who might have any interest and one of my milk soap customers at the Farmers Market turned out to be very interested for the same reason we got them in the first place: goat parasite management. So no freezer for them, they'll be pasture mates to four dairy and fiber goats - a prefect ending for my first flock. Thanks!

neutering the kid

And of course I mean the goat kid :)

I decided to keep Spot the real pretty spotted nubian mix and neuter him for smell free handling later on. It's easy to neuter with a bander early on, not so easy when they're older and it's an invasive surgery. Spot needed a tetanus booster, some pain meds and one elastic band around his nuts. The main thing to watch for is to double check both testicles are in, they can be slippery, otherwise he's still a buck, even with only one nut! Cornell Ambulatory was extremely nice to demonstrate and rent the equipment.

The left pic is spot intact and the right one with the band around his sack. He walked funnily for a day or so but did not seem in real pain (the pain meds worked I guess) and after that ignored the whole thing. Which slowly dried out, shriveled up and seems to have completely fallen off by now, two months later.

He's already in training to walk on a leash, tho lately it seems my human kid needs more instruction than the goat kid, and does great. We walked around the veggie yard, around the back and even out of view of the barn partly down the woods path. He's doing good!

monica is down...

I already thought it curious she did not try and steal Gazelle's food that morning and when I went to give them their evening meal she did not come into the barn... I looked around and found her down next to the little bachelor pad! I could get her back up, and she trembled her way back to the barn, but did not want to eat or drink, and pretty much collapsed again.

Something about this triggered my memory, something about new moms, milking and some sort of deficiency, so I contacted Cornell Ambulatory Services right away and they suspected hypocalcemia or milk fever. The vet was nice enough to let me pick up the meds (it was after hours) at Cornell and for a mere $20 she was all set! I gave her 80ml of calcium and thiamine plus vitamine B complex and within minutes of injection (under the skin) she tried to get up, ate some washing soda and started munching hay! wow.

It took about a day for her to get back to normal. I kept her in the kidding stall overnight to get a break from her kids and even tho the next day she was ambling along looking real tired, she did have milk for them and was able to let them drink without falling over :)

I sure am very grateful to have such a great resource as Cornell right around the corner...

more boys!

I know, I know, it's a little behind the fact - Monica delivered her two boys little over a week ago, but still, it's something to commemorate - healthy kids and an uneventful delivery!


She again delivered mid morning, which I'll remember for next year, and we again missed her delivery, this time by minutes! The orange one still had his birth sack wrapped around him, which completely grossed out my four year old - he did not want to get into the stall until 'that thing' was removed LOL

Simon went ahead and named these two boys; the orange one is now Pumpkin Pie (Pumpkin) and the mostly white one is White Guy (Guy) which is I think the first time he named animals and not called them 'Simon'... And yes, last year we had five girls and this year we have five boys! And a girl, who almost did not make it and now is the most affectionate of all. And jumps on my back... those little hooves do not feel all that good...

our one girl

Our doe Thirteen is a very easy milker, she has big teats which make milking easy for beginners - but very hard for goat kids! Last year we had a problem with the triplets not being able to suckle the first three days or so - I milked her out and helped the kids until they figured it out. This year she had twins and the buck's a big kid and could suckle on his own within a day - unfortunately his sister could not and after a 20 degree F night pretty much gave up... I went to check up on them early morning as I had not seen her suckle yet (she did not take direction well) and found her nearly dead...


I rushed her up to the house, where fortunately the woodstove was already going, had her on the hot tiles in front of the stove all day (I remembered the stories of farmers putting hypothermic lambs in warm ovens!) while force feeding her mothers milk with molasses and low and behold, by the end of the afternoon she started to perk up! I actually saved one!!

I kept her up at the house overnight, on a warming mat, just in case. By evening she was drinking from a bottle, with a good suckle, so at least that was looking good - now hoping the mom would recognize her and have her nurse again!

Fortunately, I needn't worry - the moment she heard Cookie Doe's tiny bleats she rushed out to meet her, lick her and seemed genuinely happy (and surprised!) her little kid was back safe and sound. Nursing was no issue, at least with a little help from me and the bottle for a few days, as she figured out how to get that enormous teat in her tiny little mouth. As my four year old would say: "good job!"