June Update

 I am kinda bummed today so I thought I would blog to make myself feel better.  My truck would not start 2 days ago.  I had neighbors help with getting it going...did not work.  So they let me borrow their truck to get the things done I needed to.  Dave spent all day trying to figure out what was wrong.  $80 later and still no luck.  So we will try again another day.  :-(

Home Grown Flora 

The previous owner put a lot of work into landscaping this yard. Unfortunately it has not been up kept and there is going to be a lot of work to get it looking nice.  But here are a few things that have been planted. 

         

The flower on the left is in the flower bed, but I am not sure if that was planted or wild.

We will see what this one blooms out to be. 





    

                                                              


There are a lot of bushes here with many
colors. And many different types of blooming trees.



Nature Made Flora

All of these are natural flowers

 that are out here on the high plains. 



I missed these when they were in full
bloom.  There were so pretty.  3 different
colors on one plant.  Each flower bigger
than a silver dollar.  This one unfortunately
is whithering away.  :-(

 



Cactus starting to bloom.



And the river runs through it

And the river runs high.  This house used to have pastured, round pens etc where ever you see the water.  :-/

 The Barn

 It was so dark and hot in here.  So I asked Dave to come and cut some 'vents' in the wall.  It is amazing how much cooler and brighter it was.

 The Chickens would rather scratch and run around inside, than go outside....unless it is first thing in the morning. They love to spread their wings in the sun.

On the left I will put another stall.  Below is the stall I will move.  Then I will build a tack shed and put a concrete pad down for saddling, shoeing, bathing etc.  I unfortunately have to wait on the tack shed. I used all my 2x4's and plywood I bought for the shed and used it on the coop.

 On the left is where I store some of my tack and my hay.  I will pour a concrete pad all across the back here and use it for storage of about 10 ton of hay.  The tack will be moved to the shed of course.  :-)

 This is the coop David and I build.  We build it off of a stall that was already here.  I will not ever do that again.  None of it was plumb or level.  And to get it to look half way plumb and level was quite the task.  But as Dave says - We are not building a temple.

If you notice there is a concrete footing that was poured and a heavy gauge wire cloth was used to close it in instead of chicken wire....It had better be secure from those varmints.  It sure took a long time.

       

Above you can see the ramp for them to go to the nests and there are a couple of roosts for them.  We will put one more in there as soon as we move the younger chicks down.

 The food and water are on the left.  Below are the 6 nests.  They only use the 3 on the left.  I am guessing because of the ramp.  We will need to get another one of those built for the other 3.

 On the left you can see I have lifted up the door from the back of the nests.  This is where the kids gather the eggs from the outside.  You can see there one of the two below on the right.  And I love how I


 engineered the see through door.  :-)

Horse Haven

On the right is the round pen and the horse trailer I have borrowed.



 


On the right and below are pictures of the horses grazing on the acres we have right in front of the Watson's.  The pond in the background is on the property adjacent to ours and has many types of water fowl, baby ducks, geese etc.



The Black horse is Cimmaron. He is a registered
quarter horse I am training for a neighbor. 

This is my 2 yr old, Rio, I have started this year.

This is Joe, my yearling double bred to the Red Baron.  He will be 'cut' next week and I can't wait to train him next year and see the reining, AQHA performance horse breeding come out in him.

Mercury is on the left - My 5 yr old mare.  We are working on her vertical flexion and will start her on barrels this year.  We just got the flying lead changes started on Thursday.

Below is Yama Arashi my 6 tr old mustang.  We are working on softness(lateral flexion) in a lope, vertical flexion and walking slowly without a bounce and not wanting to break into a trot all the time. 
 

The Property Walk About

I am sad about my pond.  We let the neighbor boys play in it.  They brought their 4 wheelers over however and drove around the top wall of the pond and weakened it.  The picture on the left shows the slide that happened because the foundation was already compromised with the leakage of water...on the right it shows the weather rings of the water dropping.  I do not dare fill it up again until we get it lined.  Sam still loves to play in it. 

 

 

The picture on the left shows how the grass is green around the irrigation ditch....and below the side of the ditch has washed out....

 













Sam is playing in the ditch by one of the willows that has manages to stay alive.



The pasture behind the pasture is on the left.  the pasture the horses stayed in for a while while we fixed fences is starting to recover.  But the barn below looks like it needs a fix up.

  

Grassy Grass

Looks like the horses need to leave that lower acreage and get the areas above and below.  (I don't mow, they do...haha)