Log Cabin Life

What I Don't Want for Christmas - A Gift Certificate of Death

Advent 2009

A Teenager Delivering a Baby Horse

The year 2008 to 2009 here on Ranch Shekinah has been filled with exciting anticipation of two new additions to our Ranch.  Both Lady and Minnie were expecting within weeks of each other.  We built two special baby nurseries for them that would give them plenty of space to move around. I spent time reviewing my books on “Imprinting” – something I’d looked forward to for years.

It all started with one of our visits with our good friends, Gerald and Darla and their family, in the heart of Amish community, Shipshewana, Indiana.  They own a horse farm, and although we truly do love their horses, their just the pretext to visit this wonderful familyJ.

. 

On this particular visit, Rachel fell in love with one of their recently born foals.  She couldn’t quit thinking about him for months and months, and finally struck a deal with her dad in an arrangement that would allow her to earn/get this little colt.

“There’s only one condition,” Rachel’s dad said.  “We have to be able to move him soon to our farm.”  I think he said this so that the kids could enjoy this little guy while he was still little.

This wasn’t the easiest condition, though.  It was too early to wean Magic from his mom.  But Rachel’s deal with her had conditioned she had to be able to get him sooner rather than later.

We talked to Gerald and Darla and they came up with a solution – Minnie would come with Magic to our ranch until he could be weaned, and then they would bring Minnie back home.  This sounded like an excellent idea.  However, complications ensued – the first night that Minnie spent on our farm, I fell in love with her on a Midnight Ride. 

We made a proposal to buy Minnie; however, she was already in foal with another baby. The deal was struck – we could have Minnie, but the baby, when born, would be theirs.

We had two pregnant mares and by the technical due day, Minnie would come first, and then Lady.  Minnie’s pregnancy went past the expected 11 month. Week after week went by, and still no baby.  Darla informed me that Minnie often didn’t give birth until 12 months, but still, after that date arrived, no delivery followed. Every night we went to bed, we’d check our mares to see if “this” would be the night, as we had been told by everyone that mares usually gives birth at night.   

   A Week After Lady gave birth to HotShot….

It was a Wednesday night, around 9:00 p.m.  – we were travelling home from a visit to my husband’s parents – and Rachel called me.    She had gone out to the pasture to take care of the horses. She moved the geldings into another pasture, and when she came back to get Minnie, she saw something that looked odd.  It was dark, and she couldn’t see clearly, but as she got closer she could see that there was a baby horse within a type of cocoon-wrapping half way out.  Rachel had arrived just in time to see the unraveling of the wrap.  She was in her good church clothes as she'd just come home from a local church youth group meeting. To get involved in all of this would be to ruin her new clothes. But - there was no time to run back home and get changed, so she stayed and assisted Minnie and her baby, marveling at the awesome miracle of birth.

 As all of this was happening, each step of the way, Rachel was on the phone with me, telling me each and every movement that was being made.

This was the moment I had been waiting for – my love for Minnie had given me a greater anticipation of this baby then of Lady’s Hotshot.  And here I was – 45 minutes away, unable to see the birth of Minnie’s baby.  I did comfort myself knowing that at least Rachel was there, and that this was truly a unique experience for a young 17 year old girl. 

I wish I could have tape recorded that phone conversation – Rachel was so excited being present of the birth of this little filly.

By the time we got Willow into her baby nursury and settled in  for the night it was late.  Rachel and I stayed for hours just enjoying "the baby."

Rachel named the new baby, “Major’s Precious Willow,” (Major is the stallion, and this is the protocol in naming a new horse.)  Unlike Hotshot, she never moved when talked to within the womb.  And when she was born, she was smaller, and more delicate.  Hot Shot right from the start fit his name as he would strut and seek to be friendly towards us – but Willow was shy and sought to hide behind her mother.  Where Hot Shot had come running up to us, Willow took almost an hour to figure out how to stand up and walk.  Getting her and Minnie to their stable for the evening was difficult just because of Willow’s delicate nature.

 This was a summer our family will never forget. We let the mommies and their babies roam our front yard daily.

 I'd love to tell you that we kept Willow, but....she had to go back to Maple Grove Haflinger Farms in Shipshewana, Indiana.

 This is the hard part about having horses when one gets attached.....

Will the Real Sage Rats Please Stand Up?

My favorite picture. Look at those cute little cheeks!
Of course, this one looks like me.


Wisps of grass are in the way, but I think he's smiling!
This would be Bluejane.


This one was feeling a bit more brave.
Here's Kekoa.


Stand tall and proud little guy!
Finally Eyebright!

States I've Been To

visited 16 states (32%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

I have no idea if anyone is truly interested in why I've been to certain states but my children may want to know some day.

• Hawaii - Lived there for four years while Dear Man was in the Navy
• Washington - Living in Washington two separate times, once for the Navy and once after.
• Oregon - My home state.
  
• California - Lived in California while I was in the Navy.
• Idaho - Lived in Idaho for a whopping six months. My Papafather's family lives in Idaho.
• Nevada - Attended the Marine Corp Ball
• Arizona - Was unfortunate enough to "volunteer" for a couple of air dets to Yuma. 
• Utah - Spent one night at a KOA Kampground en route to Kentucky.
  
• Wyoming - I've not spent a single night in Wyoming. We wanted to, but all the campgrounds were full in the area we had meant to stay.
• Colorado - We met and visited some wonderful friends! Stayed for a few nights.
• Kansas - Spent the night in Dodge City and Independence
• Missouri - Another state I've been in but not actually spent the night in. We were too anxious to keep going to Kentucky.
• Kentucky - We currently live here.
• Tennessee - Went to A School in Millington.
• Virginia - Another state I've not spent the night in. Just went here to help a friend get a Christmas tree.
  
• Florida - Went to Boot Camp in Orlando

 

Bye Baby Bunting, Dear Man's Spotted Something

Life in Kentucky - The Game Played for Medical Care

The Story of Our Little Colt (and modern technology - AI)

It all began one day while I was on the internet.  Although I rarely do Impulsive Shopping, this time, within 24 hours I was the proud owner of a Modern Haflinger named Lady (this was in April of the year 2007.)   Actually, it wasn't that impulsive - I had been horse shopping for this special horse for over a year.  I had been looking for a mare that was 15.0 tall.  I found when shopping for this that a Modern Haflinger of this height was hard to come by as most of this breed is for the most part, peaks at 14.2.  I had this novel idea of breeding a 15.0 mare with  my favorite stallion, Major Commander of Maple Grove Farms, who is also 15.0 plus. 

Lady turned out to be a fine horse - she loves children and has always been our horse of choice when putting small children on our horses in the round pen.  She had no naughty habits, and was generally a great horse to ride.  After a year of riding her, I wanted to breed her as I had originally intended when I purchased her.

.

.

My favorite stallion happens to live 2 hours away, so I either needed to take Lady to Maple Grove, or to use AI (Artificial Insemination).  Not having access to a horse trailer at the time, I chose the latter.

.

AI is not my preferred method as I found it to be very expensive.  First, my vet had to make a farm visit to check if Lady was ovulating, at approximately a hundred dollars per visit ($60.00 just for the house call, the rest for the ovulating test.)  The first time she came, it was a negative test, so she had to make another hundred dollar visit to check again.  Thankfully, the second time she was ovulating.

I called Gerald and Darla and had them send me the specimen overnight.  A somewhat costly investment here I discovered when first investigating this option.  Have you ever looked for a horse for sale on the internet?  It's an interesting experience - you will look at a list of horses for sale, but some of these horses that they list for sale are really only in the form of insemination.  I was rather surprised when I first discovered this in the world of horse classifieds!

.

.

,

The speciman arrived in a small box that had been packaged in a way that would not be destroyed by heat.  My expensive vet arrived again to perform the A.I.  When she got all done, she pulled out her little microscope and told me the bad news.  Not a good specimen she told me - she doubted that my mare would be getting pregnant, and then had me look through the microscope. all the while talking and telling me what to look for and why this mare's chance of getting pregnant was slim to none.

.

 .

There was an extra vial included the package - there is usually only one my vet told me - so she said that she would come back the next day to try one more time, but again, “Don't get your hopes up."

~Lots of prayer was offered here!~

.

After the second AI, she said that she would be back in four weeks to perform an ultra sound to determine the pregnancy result. Did you know that horses have ultra sounds, just like we do? I sure didn't!

.

Four  Weeks Later:

.

The girls had just come in from riding and in time to await the results of the ultrasound.

.

.

We all circled around awaiting the results.

.

.

And needless I need to tell you, I was  standing there very nervous for the results!  I had bought this horse for the purpose of breeding, and I had spent significant amount of money for this. My vet had strongly instructed  me that the chances of there being a positive result was slim to none.

.

  (This is the ultra sound picture of Hot Shot.)

The Vet told me to look into the computer that was in her truck bed.  The results were positive!There he was - our future little colt.   

.

When I heard those words, "Congratulations", my feet lift off the ground as if I was a superstar basketball player.  Too bad I don't have a picture of that.  

 ~~~~

The Pregnancy

.

Did you know that a horse is pregnant for 11 months?  And even at that, they can go over that and be pregnant for 12. I've even read of horses that were pregnant for 13 months before giving birth.  That's a long time to be pregnant!  Lady went over her 11 month mark and week after week we waited.  Rachel and her friends would give Lady lots of hugs and talk to the "baby" inside.  They tried out different names, and remarkably, every time they talked to the foal in the womb and called him "Hot Shot", he kicked!  Every single time he kicked at being called Hot Shot and kept still whenever they called him by a different name.

.

.

    

It was in July - we had gone to bed and had been asleep for just an hour.  The phone rang.  It was our missionary neighbors that were living among us at the time.  "It's a boy!" were the words I heard when I groggily answered the phone.  It took me a moment to gain my senses to realize that Lady had given birth.  I ran and got Rachel, and out we ran to the pasture.  Although we had birthing stalls just for this purpose, we had decided for various reasons to let her give birth in the pasture.  When we came running into the fenced area, Rachel called the name, "Hot Shot!"   

 Now, if you've ever been around foals that have just been born, you’re going to find what I tell you next hard to believe, and if you've never been around a just birthed foal, you may not appreciate the full value of it.  Foals seem to be instinctively a little timid when they are just born, sticking right by their mom.  But when Rachel called, "Hotshot!"  the little guy ran to us!  We could not believe it.  He'd just been birthed and couldn't have had that many walking steps as of yet, and instead of sticking by his mommy, he ran to us, totally unafraid. It was as if Hot Shot recognized our voices calling, Hot Shot! when spoken to within the womb.

.

 .

As friendly as Hot Shot was, though, his mommy did not appreciate it!  Her usually kind disposition turned into a fierce lion-like protectiveness.  She was really scary!  The missionary and his son, two big-sized men, helped us lead Lady to the new nursery, prepared just for her and her baby.  Without these two brave men assisting us in this, we would have never accomplished taking Lady anywhere.

After Lady and her colt were safely secured into their newly prepared baby nursery, Rachel and I enjoyed thoroughly getting to know our new little addition to our ranch.  Lady seemed o.k. with us handling her baby in this secure environment, opposite of what she was like when we were in the wide-open pasture.

.

 All the children got out of bed and came out to the barn in their jammies to see our new little colt.  Our good friends, Margie and her girls, came over and brought some of their neighbors, too.  It was past midnight and we were having a Barn Gathering, enjoying this special event together.

.

 .

 .

.

 

 .

 .

     

"Imprint Training"

Have you ever heard of the word, “Imprinting”?   Imprinting is the science of handling a just born foal in order to condition it for future handling.  Many horses have “issues” with their ears being handled, especially when one puts the bit and bridle over its head; others get hyper when having their hooves handled by the scheduled six-week Ferrier visit.   

 

(This book is called, Imprint Training of the newborn foal.  I got this book before we ever started our horse ranch - the breeding part of horses and the birth process was a big part of my desire to have horses here.)

 

 

Rachel "Imprinting"

 

 There is more to tell....

coming soon....

stay tuned! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.

One State A Day

I've said this before - my oldest son, Chad, is a sponge for learning. He has always been a great reader and made it easy for me when it came to teaching geography, world/American history and just about anything else you can learn by reading. If you need to know where some place is in the world, ask Chad. If you have a history question, he probably knows the answer. Some kid, he is.

     However, my younger two kids are not as eager to read and absorb these subjects. So I decided we would study one state a day, beginning with the New England states. I had a good black line map that Carmen traced onto a large sheet of paper, outlining every state, and it hangs on the wall above our kitchen table. Every day, she colors in the state-of-the-day, and labels the name and capital city. I also had a Dover U.S. coloring book that she is coloring each day as well. She loves to draw and color so this is fun for her (which makes learning easier). We use our Worldbook Encyclopedias, our road atlas and whatever other resources I have, like Country magazine. The dictionary sometimes gives the source of the state name, which we find interesting. Alec just sits and listens but he likes to read what the encyclopedia says about each state's exports, manufacturing, etc. At dinner, I ask them questions to help them remember some of what we learned.

     This isn't in-depth study but it's fun to learn some of the state's history, economy, population, year of statehood, state flag, weather, geography, bird, tree, etc. Almost every day, one of them (or I) say, "I didn't know that!. And every day, I try to find more resources to add to our study. I'm saving our state for last and we'll spend more than just one day on it. It's what you call "homeschooling on a shoe string". No expensive program needed.

Biltmore Estate in Ashville, North Carolina

 I write you sitting comfortably in my home - although that may not sound surprising - I have been without use of my pc/internet access for what seems like forever.  But tonight, it is working again, and I am sitting on my couch with my laptop, watching The Sound of Music with my family at the same time.  I do hope to visit with all my friends, but before I go around and visit, I wanted to at least finish my post of Biltmore Estate.

Have you ever visited the Biltmore Estate in Ashville, North Carolina?  If not, it is worth the effort if ever given the chance to visit it.    The house covers 4 acres, totaling 175,000 square feet. It consists of 250 rooms and  includes 35 guest and family rooms, 43 bathrooms, 65 fireplaces, and three kitchens.  The old fashioned kitchens are my favorite rooms in the house.  In fact, I love everything in the basement - the 70,00 gallon indoor pool, the old fashioned laundry rooms, and the multiple pantrys.  I wish I had pictures to share of all this, but you are not allowed to take pictures once in the house.  Also in the basement is a gymnsasium and a bowling alley. 

.A favorite room of my children and husband is the two story library.  This is an amazing room filled with old books and beautiful woodwork.   

Upstairs on the third floor, in addition to more bedrooms, are areas where guests once
played parlor games and took afternoon tea, as well as rooms formerly occupied by ladies’
maidservants.

.

Fully electric and centrally heated, Biltmore House, at the time of its completion, was
considered one of the most technologically advanced structures ever built.  It used some of Thomas Edison’s first lightbulbs, elaborate indoor plumbing for all 34 bedrooms and even had several elevators (that still work today.)

So that's it - now I'm going to see if I can come by and visit and say hi!