you know you're doing something right...

... when your pony wants to go the long way back home!

To be able to get to the property of other neighbor horse owners sans road I puzzled out a way around the back of a couple houses that goes to a dirt track that crosses our road to a large hay field next to their lands... I only had to get permission from the one farm owner, which we did, and just doubled the amount of our rideable land! It even has more woods, with overgrown tractor trails, and a lot of overgrown pasture. I'll need to do some more trail clearing again :)

I already had the inkling Greni likes to go explore new territory, we've gone off trail a few times from our normal routine which gets him all happy and alert and very reactive to my riding queues, which is interesting as at the same time he's more alert to his surrounding and more alert to what I want (mostly to protect either my head from low hanging branches or my knees from short cuts around unmovable trunks, haha).

So today I decide to go the short way back, which is a left (my toes are frozen) and a few steps in Greni stops, looks at me, looks at the trail ahead, looks behind with ears all perked and again to me... and I ask, would you rather go the long way round on the new field? So he gently turns around, a bounce in his step, heads for the break in the tree line, and off we go, exploring :)

Greni and Susan perform as Icelandic Vikings!

Susan Verberg and Greni from Blasted Rock entered the Musical Movement Event at Carriage house Saddlery Sunday December 2nd dressed up as Icelandic Vikings! We did a basic dressage pattern on the song "Hounds of Winter" by Sting - and we won best music selection! Next year we'll elaborate on the pattern as he was very calm and cooperative (not so in the outdoor warm up arena with ripping winds from all directions...) but for now our goal was to participate, hopefully successful, which we did with flying colors and a lot of positive remarks!

I am wearing a period Viking female costume (with split skirt to accommodate riding) and I braided Greni an eight strand breast collar and a six strand headstall (from orange bailing twine - for one time use) to color coordinate with me. I did take a week to accustom Greni to the costume, especially the skirt (it was a no go on my hooded cape) but we tried the routine pattern only once as we do not have access to a marked and flat arena. Which was fine, as long as I knew where we were going - Greni like most Icelandics I think does not like to practice something done well enough more than once anyway. It was fun!

http://youtu.be/faSMgh-9c9M

Equine Holiday Musical Movements

presents 

Equine Holiday Musical Movements

December 2, 2012
Sign Up by November 25 • First Performance 11:15

Lead, Ride, Drive, Pairs, English Or Western…
as long as you have a horse, donkey or mule come out and perform!

AWARDS PRESENTED FOR:
1. Musical Interpretation
2. Audience Favorite
3. Best Costume
4. Most Creative
5. Creative Partnership between horse and rider
6. Judges’ Pick

Judges: Tori Srnka

80’x165’ area to perform your routine to the music of your choice.
Dressage markers will be in place

Bring Your Music, Your Sense of Humor and
Come Have Some Fun in our Indoor Arena

325 Waterburg Road, Trumansburg, NY 14847
607-387-3422
www.carriagehousesaddlery.com

animal medley

 This picture is just too funny, it's "three in a row"! Yes, we've been playing "Four in a Row" quite often recently with the four and a half year old... Here you see loaner buck Jamie on the left, herd queen Thirteen in the middle and cart goat trainee Spot at the end.

Two weeks after hatching and the ducklings are already half mommy's size! Just a little while and the box stall will be too small for all of them, I need to add litter several times a week to create a semi dry floor. When I clean out that stall whatever part of the garden gets it will be sooo happy...

what I learned at the Gudmar Clinic

from my posting to the Skutlaclub mailing list:

Let's see, even tho most of the stuff already jumbled all thruout my brain before the second session even started :)

Since Greni is my first (loan) horse, I had a list of things I wanted to double check just to make sure I / we are on the right track...

Greni was complaining about the saddle at home; turns out he lost so much weight the nice duett saddle is way to wide for him. Who would ever have guessed that could happen! So now I have to find a new saddle that fits him - and it took Stephanie quite a while to find this one. I also need a shorter girth, my legs are rubbing on the buckles when I give leg aids. Gudmar pointed out where the buckles ideally should be. Good thing I borrowed most of my equipment as he seems to have "outgrown" most of it!

As there was a conformation vet around at the clinic (taking pictures) I asked if she minded to check out Greni's roached back. She found he has developed no painful area's even tho he is now pretty much ridden daily and apart from finding a fitting saddle should have no problem jumping either. Yay!

Gudmar has never seen a back like his! He even took pictures of it...
Unfortunately that also meant he could not think of any saddle recommendations.

The kimberwick bit I use should not be necessary with Greni, even tho I have the reins at the most neutral spot it still has a leverage effect Gudmar is not happy with. He recommended to get a (double break) snaffle instead.

The things I learned in the arena:

The four months of bending exercises paid off and we could learn the one rein stop this time. Last time we tried Greni was so stiff he could not turn his neck adequately and definitely not relax/give into it (touching the stirrups will be our ultimate goal). Gudmar advised to do many more bending exercises.

I was also very relieved I had worked on staying straight, ai riding in a straight line, with him before hand. When I got him going straight was not well understood, and by breaking down the exercise and practicing the individual steps on our trail rides we got to where we are now. He still does not stay straight on his own but will with minimal reminders (little pull or half halt on the outside rein). Gudmar pointed out I anticipate to much with constant rein contact - have pressure on the rein just in case he veers off, and Greni appreciated when I truly released both reins. Initially he immediately veered off but over the four sessions he got much better quite fast.

Gudmar tested Greni for the tolt, which I had not asked for yet. He does not seem to have a true tolt, but does have a running walk, which I now know (sort off) how to ask for and how it feels. In true Scott fashion I'll break down the steps: speed up the walk with leg pressure while sitting a little back, using the reins to capture that speed without actually speeding up (the steps get more energized), then asking for more speed with a little restriction without breaking into trot - and stop while ahead, ai go back to walk before any trot steps happen (please correct if needed, my memory is a bit fuzzy). I will make sure to have my weight a bit forward while asking for trot, and back for running walk, to help Greni differentiate.

Apparently I am not sitting straight! My few years of riding hunt seat must have overwritten my dutch dressage training as I did not use to have that issue. Steve helped me feel what is straight and what is actually back. It did not help that the saddle was not sitting on Greni's back correctly as Gudmar pointed out that the higher than normal cantle was pushing me forwards. I added padding (first a towel then a blanket) to raise the pommel and suddenly sat straighter and low and behold, I could round out my lower back (it was hollow before). The first day my back injury was sore after the second session, the second day (with saddle raisers) it was not! wow!

What I would like to work on next time? speed control
In the last session I worked on running walk and trot cues and with all those other horses (and scott suddenly appearing speed tolting from behind several times - Greni hates things appearing from behind) Greni was quite hot and bothered and a handful for me. I've had a loss of speed control trauma in my riding past and have a hard time dealing with that feeling. Gudmar pointed out instead of using rein (he'll win anyway) to work with the speed, instead of asking for less speed ask for a circle, and have the direction slow him down. It seemed to work :)

But I still do not like the new stirrup length... I tried it on my ride today and felt all discombobulated again. I think I'll settle for short legs for now but pledge to lower again when my balance feels more adequate...

Andrea and Steve did an awesome job putting together this clinic, and Cordy did an awesome favor by picking up Hildi and Greni from Ithaca! Thank you all for making this weekend happen!

And even tho Greni poked a hole in his skin in the paddock saturday morning (I found him bleeding all over his leg when I went to tack him up for the first session and I sort of freaked out) I he loved being there - not only did he meet his new BFF (Shari's mare Hildi) the barn manager fed them hay twice a day! lucky semi-fat boy :)

A very tired Susan V.

Gudmar Peterson Icelandic Horse Clinic

Shari and I went to our first Icelandic Horse clinic together, with our Hildi and Greni in tow. We had initial hiccups in getting our transportation in order - it turned out to be easy to borrow a trailer, the truck was the hard part! The first truck I asked about had just given up the ghost permanently and they ended up borrowing my car... the second truck I asked about the owner had just ended up in the ER for the second time after a heart valve transplant (he has not given up the ghost!)... the third truck I asked about the owners had a trailer for sale and I got all distracted about that (it sold, not to me) and the forth one was only deemed safe enough for local trips, real local...  But with the generous help of Cordy (she drove from Pen Yann to pick us up in Ithaca to drop us off in Canandaigua, talk about a detour) we all made it safe and sound to the Finger Lakes Equestrian Center. And both horses loaded within 15 minutes each! Yay!

At the beginning of the session Gudmar do a general outline (the other guy is Steve, his helper). Here Greni and I are on the left, behind us is Shari on Hildi then Ruth on Molda and Chris on Sula (photo's by Ryan Chiappone of Finger Lakes Equestrian Center). There were three groups of four to five participants each in two classes each day - much more and I would have fallen off my horse at the beginning of the next day...

Here two of the clinic participants get a last word at the end of session from clinician Gudmar (Stan is filming it for his website Hestakaup.com - I did not realize it was that Stan until days after the clinic). 

 Even tho we paid for a stall Hildi and Greni ended up sharing a semi grassy paddock. And now I think they were the lucky ones! Greni really took to Hildi, she's definitely a type A personality and he pretty soon was following her like a doggie... The two days at the clinic both horses were always close by, even if there were other horses in the paddock. Greni even nickered at her from inside the arena during our last class and we all heard Hildi reply all the way from the front paddock! So now Greni has a girlfriend and when we go on a longer trip he can come for a sleep over. If only it was as easy to arrange regular play dates, like for my 4 year old!

Hildi is an extremely well trained horse, she 'laughs', shakes hands/hooves and even bows - it's impressive! I'm already happy with Greni touching (more like hitting) an object (piece of wood) with a front hoof of his choosing (have not gotten the one or the other difference in, I tap one, he chooses whatever). And boy, am I proud of that, hihi.

ducklings! in fall!

I don't know, maybe she thought is was spring or something, she is an African duck breed :)
About the end of September I realized I only saw Olivia, the female Muscovy duck, at dinner time but not grazing in pasture with Moe, her hubbie. So I looked and found a large nest under the half dog crate I use for small goat kids to sleep under. I hadn't removed it yet cause even tho they don't fit anymore they do like to sleep on top of it now. There is no sense in messing with a duck's nest, and these are big ducks, so I figured, with the temperatures dropping below zero regularly the nest would be a dud anyway, so just let her be. I did wonder why she kept at it, as Muscovies are known to remove bad eggs and abandon a bad nest...

Low and behold, mid October I walk down the barn for breakfast and there is a semi circle of quiet animals standing next to the fenceline... and there they are! A gaggle, or flock, or school, or whatever you call it, of 10 baby ducklings! TEN! They'd dropped thru the fence off a slightly raised concrete slap and stayed there as mommy couldn't get thru the fence and they couldn't get back up the concrete. It was so weird, all those quiet animals (goats? quiet?!), watching the tiny ducklings. So I got the mom, put her in the spare stall, herded the little flock in there with her and they've been growing like weeds. I did give them a heat lamp as within a day or two they outgrew mommy's cover surface :)

You know what I still can't believe? That these little ducklings navigated all those goat feet thru the side stall and Greni's cake plate hooves in the main stall without getting squashed, and that Casper the killer cat had not killed a single one of them! He did do a fake charge when I had just seen them, immediately yelled him off, he pretended he was not interested anyway, and has complete ignored them since. Almost as if he was asking "are these food? or family?" He's a good cat.

take a hike with friends

 Before Greni came over to live with us I went around to my neighbors to ask for permission to ride & hike on the land surrounding our property. Especially the land on the other side of the road, a dairy farm with 200 acres, held a lot of possibilities. Fortunately the owners retired and closed down the farm, but unfortunately it's now for sale. I have permission, for now, and I figured I would, most of our neighbors hike and walk their dogs there. But I'm keeping my fingers crossed the new owners are as nice and sharing as them... we've been in that position before, could hike the 30 acre lot right next to us for years, then I get a kid and really want to start using it, the land gets a new owner who's paranoid and won't let any neighbor anywhere near... Now I really appreciate all the other neighbors who are so nice and share and love to see their land enjoyed by others! Thank you!

 

Here my Dutch friend Erik is helping picking up sticks (a never ending task) and his fiancee Lesley-Anne is riding Greni. Lesley-Anne is an advanced dressage rider and she helped me deal with a couple of Greni's tricks (like crossing the open field).

The "farmer woods" already had paths, both narrow hiking paths and off road access for trucks & tractors. But the paths had not been maintained for years, and Greni and I are taller and wider than a hiker with a dog, so it took a bit to get the paths back into shape. Mostly a matter of removing downed wood (but what a lot of it!) and an occasional eye poking branch. I think I rediscovered most of the trails and now can ride a nice figure eight thru two pastures and some woods with a few jumps, four creek crossings, a few moderate ascents and descents (good for back muscle development) and a couple straight hard stretches for a nice canter. It has been great! And so much nicer than having to ride in a small arena in our own pasture - how boring would that be...

Even if I wanted to I could not remove most of the fallen over logs & trees. Some we walk over, it's a natural cavaletti and good back stretcher, and some I incorporated into small jumps.

Greni sure is a handsome man! Or would that be the wonderful light...

winterizing the gardens

 We're getting there! First removed the dried up tomato and squash plants for the bonfire - don't want to infect my compost - removed anything that died with the first frosts, like the sweet potato vines and tender leavy greens (next year pull them just before and feed to goats) - pulled the last weeds and self sown leafy greens for the goats, we had about five wheelbarrows of yummie treats - and harvesting the last produce like the Indian Corn... Then add veggie food!

 Making room in my veggie garden kick starts the cleaning spree in my livestock barns as well - clean the chicken coop and spread the litter all over the garden beds, clean the horse and goat stalls and spread the manure all over the garden beds (including the weekly wheelbarrow of poopies from the pasture as Greni poops only outdoors), clean the lawn of any leaves (mulch with mower then vacuum with mower) and add any woodstove ash leftovers to make room in the bin for this winter's supply. And not to forget: pick up any bagged up leaves in town I can find! This year I think I added about 4 car loads of leaves, and I squeeze 8 bags at a time in my poor Volvo :)

Here the garden is starting to get it's blanket of organic matter (and you can see the new fence, so much nicer than the pallets, hihi). I leave most of the leafy greens like chard and collard greens; I can slowly feed the leaves to the goats but also with a mild winter they'll survive (and go to seed).

 Right now the garden has two area's of greens, a patch of garlic & leeks and the rest is a 6 inch layer of stuff - I really hate to see exposed dirt in winter. And every year I contemplate sowing a cover crop but don't get to it, and every year I'll think: next year will be the year I'll have my act together! Right.

We have a buck!

And his name is Jamie... yes, he's the little kid all grown up which I blogged about two years ago, the one wearing a diaper and watching TV with my two year old! And boy, is he grown up... all hormone and no girls at home!

He came on my birthday early October and apparently two of the girls were in heat and he pretty much went bonkers, peeing all over everything, jumping the gates to get to them at night (I was still milking and thus separating the mom's) - generally being a typical teenage boy, haha. He got to worrying the girls so much that one evening when I came down to feed the herd was in their side stall, Greni was in his main stall and Jamie was at the door, outside... Greni had separated Jamie from the herd and was blocking him from going thru the main stall to the girls! He was giving them a rest! After that Jamie was a lot less intense. Thank goodness!

I'm hoping to get a nice girl from him next season and plan to keep her as a replacement milker, probably to upgrade Monica (eats more for less milk).

Hammond Hill State Forest

The boys are all dressed up and ready to go! Here we are at the Hammond Hills State Forest parking lot, one of two parking lots at the north end and the only one accessible by actual cars, let alone trailers, we found by trial and error! Good thing Cordy's trailer is a gooseneck (and thus can make a more than 90 degree corner) otherwise we would have been stuck in the middle of nowhere at the end of a partially washed out dirt road... And guess who we meet crossing the road - Angelika hiking with kids and parents! And now I know why she had such a puzzled expression when we rumbled past, she knew where it ended! Maybe I should visit our next new trail with a small car and make sure it is what the map says it is... there might be something to that, hihi.

We both liked Hammond Hills, tho as the name says, Hills, the trails are either up, or down - there does not seem to be much flat area! Which is good for the horses as they get a good exercise, and not good for the horses as they are quite tired and ready to go home fairly soon. At least we had great weather, windy but sunny, and perfect fall leaf colors. If only Greni had not decided to do his donkey impression and take an hour and a half to load! We ended up backing the trailer onto a bank, pull a rope around his butt and just hauling him in. The ass.

One thing, if you decide to hike or ride there, make sure you have the map with the trail blaze codes! The DEC map does not, and without the trail blaze info I don't think Cordy and I would have made it back out... The trails are like a maze up there and with the winding trails and dense tree cover we had no idea which direction we were going :)

More information about Hammond Hills, from the NYS DEC website:
http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/8204.html

Hammond Hill State Forest is located 3618 acres and is located in the towns of Caroline and Dryden in eastern Tompkins County.

The forest was established between 1935 and 1950 in an effort to reduce soil erosion problems, produce forest products, and provide recreational opportunities. Nearly half of the forest (1799 acres) was acquired by the State from the federal government. Most of the property was former pasture or tilled acreage that was suffering from poor agricultural practices. The DEC planted this land with 708,000 pine, spruce, larch, maple, cherry, ash and oak seedlings. The planting was accomplished between 1935 and 1940 using Civilian Conservation Corps labor. Today, almost 100% of the area is forested, the soil has been improved, and the harvesting of forest products supports all management activities, including recreation.

The Hammond Hill State Forest Multiple Use Trail System has been designed to offer family-based recreation for hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding, and cross-county skiing. A snowmobile trail and the Finger Lakes Hiking Trail also cross the forest. The 16 mile trail system is a cooperative effort between the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Division of Lands and Forests, the Cayuga Nordic Ski Club, the Cayuga Nature Center, the Friends of Hammond Hill and the town of Dryden.

The trails are marked with circular trail signs. All trails are designated by color and number. Most of the trails are above 1800 feet in elevation; therefore, these trails are well suited for cross-county skiing. Trailed parking is provided in a parking lot on Cayuga Nature Center property on Hammond Hill Road. The trails are classified by the user's ability. Beginner trails have very gentle slopes and are fairly short in length. Intermediate trails have gentle to somewhat steep slopes and are moderate in length. Advanced trails have gentle to steep slopes and are usually longer in length than intermediate trails.

A very good map, in color, and with the trail codes can be found at:
http://www.cycle-cny.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/hammondhill1.jpg

Also a map, and other information can be found here:
http://canaaninstitute.org/bikeskiblog/
http://canaaninstitute.org/bikeskiblog/?page_id=891

Our fall sure was beautiful!

Picture perfect breeding pair American Buff geese Emily (back) and Kristopher.

Something came up out of the lawn... cause it had finally rained!

A camper carport

 With the extra time off and real nice fall weather my husband decided to built a roof for our vintage Metzendorf camper. It was supposed to be a small freestanding carport of less than 144sqft (143 1/2 sqft to be exact, so no permit necessary) but will end up twice as big next spring as we had to apply for a building permit anyway. Thank you, friendly neighbor :)

The structure is made with locally harvested and milled Hemlock, bolted together and topped with a green steel roof. The camper just about fits - and the Volvo had a fit trying to get it backed in, slightly uphill, in reverse! - and the door still opens so we have easy access. With the big hedgerow it's also pretty private, so we might end up hosting overnight guests there instead of our messy, noisy (four year old...) house!

Fingerlakes Forest Backbone Trail

Greni and I off to explore the Finger Lakes National Forest with Cordy, her Icelandic Horse Lysingur and her fancy big rig! The Finger Lakes Forest has real nice horseback riding trails with lots of different type of terrain and elevations. The only downside (could be) is that the Backbone Trail takes about 3 hours and does not really have any short cuts, at least not official ones, we found :)

  

 From the http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/66666.html DEC website:
The Finger Lakes National Forest lies on a ridge-called the backbone-between Seneca and Cayuga Lakes in the Finger Lakes region. New York State's only national forest, this multi-use land is reminiscent of western national forests with a great deal of open land and free-ranging cattle. The forest has over 30 miles of interconnecting trails that traverse gorges, ravines, pastures and woodlands. The forest is managed to provide a diversity of native forestlands, shrublands and grasslands, including areas of native older forests, diverse wildlife habitats, quality recreation areas and forage for livestock (no maps).

From the http://www.cnyhiking.com/BackboneTrail.htm website:
The Backbone Trail begins at the Backbone Horse Campground, and travels in the forest through shrub lands, pastures, old roads and many old homestead sites. It intersects the Interloken and Burnt Hill Trails to the south and the No-Tan-Takto trail to the north. It is a horse trail, however hikers are always welcome to walk the wide path.

It is a relatively flat primitive trail with natural tread, gravel in wet places and mowed paths through fenced pastures.  Please close gates behind you. From the north the Backbone Trail can be accessed at the corner of Ball Diamond Road and Wardner Corner Road or at the Foster Pond parking lot. Follow the signs and blaze marks. Caution: Trails are closed to horse users from March 15th thru May 1st due to muddy conditions. (small map on website)

Also from the USDA Forest service:
http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/forests/greenmountain/htm/fingerlakes/links/recreation/seasonal.htm

With a GREAT map (pdf file):
www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MEDIA/stelprdb5318997.pdf

Plowing Day

An event to remember for next year!

Article from www.ithaca.com/news/ 
Photography by me.

Posted: Wednesday, September 19, 2012 1:43 pm

We’ve come a long way since the days of horse and plow, but this weekend, Interlaken will celebrate the rich history of agriculture during its Plowing Day, a throwback country fair, paying homage to field-tending tactics of yesteryear.

Brook Farm in Interlaken will come alive beginning at 10 a.m., Saturday, Sept. 22, with a full day’s itinerary for agriculturalists, craftsmen, history buffs and everyone in between. Lead by the Interlaken Historical Society, the event runs until 4 p.m. and is free to attend.

On the docket are a talk on grain farming at 10 a.m., given by the folks from Wide Awake Bakery, a parade at noon with tractors and farm animals, various exhibitors and vendors, and, of course, plowing demonstrations on the farm acreage. There will also be kids games, a gift-basket drawing and a grape-stomping demonstration, hosted by Lucas Vineyard and Winery, where fair goers are encouraged to roll up their pant legs and participate.

 John Hunt, one of the event’s organizers, showed off his family’s century-old barn at Brook Farm last week. Built in 1908, the big, red barn was owned by the Usher family until the 1950s. After a brief stint in the hands of the Cronk Dairy Company, the 40-by-100 feet barn was sold to the Hunts in the 1960s. Today, it’s recognized as one of 49 remaining Wells barns, named after the family of builders -- John Wells, Sr. and his three sons, who constructed barns throughout New York. The family’s calling card can be found on the trademark molding atop the highest windows, which feature a flattened or “lazy” W, Hunt said. Visitors will have a chance to peruse the barn as several demonstrations will be held there. “It’s great to see it alive out here with all the talking and enjoying,” Hunt said.

The nearby field yields a corn silage crop, and during Plowing Day the old farming machinery – horse-drawn plows, even a steam-powered tractor one particular year, tend to the land to both prepare it for next spring and provide a live history lesson.

This is the fourth such Plowing Day, which is funded through the Delavan Foundation and held every other year because, as Hunt said, it keeps the event fresh. Plus, it takes a lot of work to organize, he added. The last event drew a crowd of around 500 people.

In the past, the event has been themed around various aspects of agriculture. This year, organizers are concentrating on wheat, with an examination of grain, old and new mills and the changes in methods and equipment. Leading the day’s themed discussion is Liz Brown of Wide Awake Bakery, a Trumansburg-area bakery using locally grown grains and flour.

Brook Farm is located at 8228 Route 96 in Interlaken, just north of South Seneca Elementary School and Hipshot Products.

vacuuming leaves

 

A nice sunny winter day finds the goats in the back pasture, enjoying the crunchy leaves. Looks like they mostly hang out there in dry weather, which makes sense as there is mostly leaves to eat and they only like dry ones. It's pretty clear in both these pics which side of the fence the goats live permanently - it's like the ground is vacuumed!

Here Greni is saying hi to our regular visitor Murphy. Greni grew up with dogs, Murphy did not grow up with ponies and is still a bit in awe by this gigantic dog / goat / whatever...

pony in, goat out

Greni did not seem to be loosing all that much weight so at the end of the summer I made these two swinging gates. This way Greni is confined to a small rectangular space at the barn but the goats can wander in and out at will. It works great, except now Greni is hanging over the fence to try and reach the grass over there!

So, one morning I walk down to the barn to feed the critters and I see a pony in front of the barn... not behind it like normal. Low and behold, Greni is standing, quietly and a bit sheepish, on the grass yard in front cause he had fallen right thru the side fence! You could see two gouched hoofprints in the lawn where he'd landed (and I swear I saw a nose print :) and at least half a dozen poopy piles on the outside of the pasture where he'd quietly waiting for mommy to put him back where he belongs! So now I have another piece of fence I need to fix...

I was thinking to add a hot wire on top of the fence to prevent coyotes to jump it and devour my goats, now I'm thinking to add a hot wire on top to prevent my idiotic pony from destroying it :)

But, he did not run away, or even wander off, and I'm happy to know that! Maybe it's not that bad living with us...

This is sooo me... and not just because I'm an alien, haha!

Greni fra Blasted Rock

  

January 2011, my first visit to Blasted Rock Farm in Naples to meet Icelandics on US soil. Not much else to do in winter anyway so it was nice to take the family on a road trip and have lunch with breed ambassador Stephanie, a member of the Saint Skutla Icelandic Horse Club (and I'm pretty sure I saw a Skutla name tag on one of her stalls...). Guess who was the first to meet & greet? Greni... talk about serendipitous!

I did not realize he was the one I was contemplating leasing from Stephanie until months later when I happened to go thru some old pics. Life sure has a strange sense of humor - I was already pregnant again when a fellow artist and I were all sad together about miscarriages - and here I meet my future horse for the first time, while yearning with all my heart for the change to become a horse owner, some day :)

Here is Greni in full glory; fuzzy, hairy and covered in partially frozen snow and sleet... can life get any better for an Icelandic?!

gelling soap

I got a question a while back on what gelling of soap means. When I saw this batch I had to take it's picture as it is a perfect example of a well gelled batch! For the non soapers under us, when you make soap you can pour it and cool it (most small shapes are made like that) or you can pour it and gell it, as in heat it (but not to much) so it transforms into a better quality soap. Individual soap molds do not have the bulk to easily generate the heat needed to gel so I only gel my soap batches. Another thing is that gelling changes the color of the soap, and even tho I can make a nice bright yellow regular soap, when that same recipe gels it's more of a dull orange which is not as effective with my sunflower shape molds.

You know a soap batch is starting to gel when from the inside a dark translucent oval forms which will work it's way slowly to the outside. If cooled too soon it might only be gelled in the center and your soap might be colored unevenly, if heated too much it might overheat and separate - an overheated soap is not a loss, but it does need to be rebatched (noodled and reheated) which is a pain in the butt!

The way I have pretty consistent success with gelling batches of soap? I put the 31 bar batch on a seedling hatching mat for about an hour on top of a piece of pink foam insulation with another piece over the mold and horse blankets wrapped all around. Sometimes I heat it for 15 minutes, sometimes for 2 hours, kinda depends on how hot it went in (140F or 90F makes a difference, tho I aim for 120F it does not always work out that way) but I leave it wrapped until the next day (maybe with a peek just to make sure it didn't go too far). When you peek and a batch is gelled like the pic above take it out and let it cool down, it can't gel any more than that but it can overheat.

I find that properly gelled soap is easier to get out of my molds as well. My experience is that soap recipes without shea butter release well with a little oil rubbed inside the mold (I use a piece of paper towel, rub the inside of the container I measured my oils in and use that to oil the inside of the mold - that way the same oils go in the recipe) - recipes with shea butter only release if gelled nearly completely...

Something else, last time I ordered molds from Milky Way Molds they send me the sleeping cat (front) instead of the sleeping goat (middle)... since I do not make cat milk soap (har har) I did not quite know what to do with it, until I whipped up a batch with paprika powder and poured a bunch of Garfield cats! Customers really seem to like them, for some reason; then again, don't most cats like milk?!

finishing the back pasture

 It took two years, but finally the back pasture is done! The end of August we added the two gates and hinges and now the goats have free access to the woodsy pasture out back. The first couple days we could not see them back there but within a week the bottom shrubby vegetation was consumed and it opened up the view. With nice weather the girls like to hang out there and munch leaves (they like dry leaves, not wet ones, apparently) but not for too much longer - when winter really starts I'll close it off to prevent them from moving up to tree bark. Too many nice big trees back there!

Greni is not allowed back there, I used a one foot long piece of PVC pipe and a chain fed thru it to partially keep open the back fence of the main pasture. That way the goats can sneak in and out but Greni is locked out. This way the girls have a horse free area as especially at first Greni LOVED to chase them around, just like my four year old human! But also Icelandics are known for eating trees and that will not go over well with my hubbie... this whole back pasture idea already was way over his comfort zone! For some reason he enjoys trees more than happy goats, the weird guy :)

Greni "helped" us with both gates and loved to watch drilling holes in the fence posts, sticking his nose right up to the drill (also just like the four year old...). When we started to pack up he took a nice roll around - a job well done!

Casper the goat cat

Casper hugging Monica - no further explanation necessary!

how to render lard from pork fat

This fall my regular lard supplier did not have a butcher to render the lard for them, so they ended up giving me 400lbs of different types of pork fat. I figured, what the heck, it's free, I always wanted to buy a turkey fryer, let's do this! Little did I realize it would take me two weeks of four days a week of rendering to get thru the 400lbs :)

I did learn a couple things or two along the way: a major one being if the fat burns it smells and if you makes soap from smelly lard it will still smell burnt as a bar of soap as well... so, don't use burnt lard, use that to make birdseed cookies with instead... they don't seem to mind.

Needed to make lard:
- a turkey fryer with propane tank and large pot.
- a clean bucket with metal sieve to drain cracklings
- a metal pot with mesh sieve and cheese cloth to filter rendered lard
- a clean bucket with lid to store rendered lard
- a bucket or large box with bag for drained cracklings
- a cutting board and sharp knife to cut fat down
- large plastic gloves to protect hands and arms from fat splatter
- a large flat spoon to agitate rendering fat
- a spoon to scoop rendered lard from cooking pot
- a mesh spatula to remove cracklings from lard

A box of fat strips. I cut the fat up in two inch strips, size does not matter too much as long as they are mostly the same so the smaller fat pieces or cracklings don't start to burn before the larger fat pieces are done.

 The main thing to keep in mind is that to cook fat down to lard without burning the fat pieces you need a starting amount of lard. You might want to cook down some fat indoors on the stove (easier to control heat, smaller pot) and use that as starter lard in the turkey fryer. I would have about half a pot of lard and add about the same amount of fat (no higher than the ring indentation of the pot which is the maximum oil level) for a full load. I would be able to do about three full loads in about five hours.

Another thing is to keep an eye on the temp of the lard, to not let it get too hot. When the lard starts to smoke you're burning it! It's a fine balance between turning up the propane when adding cold fat and turning down the heat when the fat is hot and starts to melt / render to keep it simmering until it's all rendered.

I used a double layer of cheese cloth to sieve the lard I would scoop from the top of the turkey fryer. Do NOT pour hot lard into a plastic bucket, it will melt the bottom!

The sieved lard would go into a food grade plastic bucket. By this time the lard is cooled off enough it does not melt the plastic. When the bucket is full close with well fitting lid and store somewhere cool, like on a concrete floor in the basement (or in the freezer).

I used a metal colander (has larger openings than a sieve but I'm sure both work fine here) and a mesh frying spatula to scoop the cracklings from the turkey fryer pot. I waited for the cracklings to turn golden before removing, I could go longer but it becomes easier to burn the cracklings and so darken the color of the lard. The cracklings still have lard in them, by sitting in the colander and mashing and squeezing them for a bit most liquid lard is released. I add this back to the big pot (not to the bucket with cheese cloth) to keep rendering.

Collect all the cracklings in something. These make good winter bird food as well as winter chicken feed. I set the box in the chicken run and the dozen girls took about a month to eat the whole thing, and it never got moldy or buggy. Not all that healthy as chickens that are too fat don't lay well, but it did not seem to matter - this time :) If possible, bag it up in smaller portions and freeze to feed later when it's really freezing.

taking a hike with my new guy

 Meet Greni, an eight year old Icelandic on loan from a good friend from Naples. I decided to lease before buying, to see how I like having a horse around, how the goats like having a horse around, and how the horse likes it :) He's been here since July and we're having a blast! I do have training help from another local Icelandic owner, which took of a load of pressure since I've never owned a private horse, let alone trained a young one! But with a few hiccups and false starts we're doing great, we even attended an Icelandic Horse clinic with specialist Gudmar Peterson and have been on numerous trail rides with Cordy and her Lysingur.

The first two months or so I did not ride at all, all I did was ground work. Together with the books Joy and More Joy with Icelandics and Shari's training knowledge (she came to check Greni in the beginning to see what he needed help with) I came up with lots of exercises and games to establish a basic rapport. When Greni came he was about 1,030lbs (according to my weight tape) and very stiff, especially on the right side. So we did daily hikes when possible (I do have another "toddler" at home) interspersed with physical exercises to help loosen up (circles, backing up, circles while stepping under, backing up while stepping out, lots of cavaletti) and games to teach communication. I'm not going for mind numbing obedience, I don't mind my horse having an opinion and telling me, as long as when I decide my opinion matters he'll follow.

The first big hurdle was Greni's fear of passing cars, so I set up a lot of things to play with in the front yard to my husband's annoyance. Good thing we had a dry summer and he only had to mow there once! I learned that horse behavior in a group can be different from horse behavior alone, and Greni mimicked the herd's behavior for passing cars and was fine but needed to learn to look to me, trust me, when it was just the two of us. After five months most cars are mostly fine now (I used cookies and simple touching, not petting), tho we still do not ride/walk right next to the road but in a field with a fence and a ditch between us and the cars. Some days nothing will face him (three school busses in a row? with flashing lights? big whoop) other days a simple pick up truck with trailer sends him spinning... We'll just keep at it, and I'm sure with time, the good days will outweigh the funky ones!

It's funny, but having a young horse in my back yard showed me so many similarities between training a horse and raising a kid! Guess who put's his head under my arm pit and hides behind my back when another scary monster car comes by... or who does not want to be hugged in public, but suddenly asks for a reassurance hug when all those new impressions become to much... or who stands there, stomping his feet, because yesterday I got a cookie for this and now I demand another one... or who gets away with bad behavior and instead of being happy for not working becomes all grumpy and sour cause mama is not doing her job - and gets all happy again when I finally figure it out and call his bluff! Who knew there'd be sooo much character in such a fuzzy body :)

Our lean to green house

 Finally our greenhouse is finished! Tho these pics are from this spring and therefor not all that up to date :) The greenhouse is made with a locally harvested and milled hemlock frame, salvaged window sides and a greenhouse plastic sheeting roof.

I picked up insulated 4 foot square windows on craigslist right at the time we started construction, which meant I had saved up WAY to many little windows over the years! It took many, many listings on Freecycle to free up that space again! The double hung windows front and back can open and are instrumental in summer for a cooling breeze. There is also a one foot wide opening in the roof under the shed overhang that's open (screened) which helps with passive airflow. Initially I had installed bug screen but then found the plants were not fruiting (DUH!) so exchanged that with chicken wire (pollinators in, chickens out) and before I knew the plants were setting loads of fruit.

The rubbermade tub in front of the greenhouse is for the ducks and geese. There is a gutter spout right over it (from the shed overhang) so with enough rain it self fills and self cleans real nicely. About once a month I empty it out and dump all the water and mud in the greenhouse - with all the fowl poopies it's the perfect poopie tea!

 It was a joy having our tomatoes in it, and also, to have early and late greens like chard and mizuna. I ended up bricking the central path, don't want to weed that, but I also ended up removing most of the oregano as it grew right over the path and was too hard to navigate thru. This summer we grew mostly tomato with some pepper and basil. Next year the basil will go where the oregano was so they don't get as easily overgrown with the monster tomato plants.

I also added a flower garden in front of the greenhouse, initially to sow flowers - hence the fence, to keep the chickens out of the seeds. It morphed into a perennial herbal tea and soap garden with lots of bee balm and European stinging nettle for tea and chamomile & comfrey for soap making. Nice! I ended up running my solar dryer for most of the summer...