I want to poke 2008 with a stick to make sure it's dead.

Here I am. I am sorry that I have been so neglectful of my blogging duties as of late. Not only have I not been updating my blog, but I haven't been reading the works of my fellow bloggers. It is winter, and frankly, I have been in a poopy mood, which needs to come abruptly to an end (winter and poopy mood). Right. Now. I will leave out all the details of the poopiness provoking events that have been happening, because I know that 2008 was less than stellar for most of us, soooo....

Okay, let's see....just to catch you up to date...it's been cold here. More specifically, cold, ice, snow, ice, freezing rain, snow, cold...and repeat...again.

This ice covered branch, which I thought looked like an ice covered skeletal hand reaching out from under the snow, is kind of representative of how I have been feeling this winter...ooops, there's that poopiness again. Okay, done and done.The horses never seem to be bothered by the cold weather, in fact, Morgan especially seems to relish the brisk temperatures.

As does Jasmine.

Wide load pony, Morgan, covered in snow.

Sheepy news~ The rams were introduced to the girls in their separate breeding groups in the beginning of November and spent a romantic month and a half frolicking about, spreading the love. The girls initially were quite pleased to have the attention of their handsome suitors, but after a few weeks, they were equally happy to have the boys removed from their pens and to be reunited with their girl friends.
I was just as thrilled to have everyone back in their rightful places.
This is what happens when love is in the air and there are girls on the other side of the fence that a rammy thinks he needs to meet. These are 2x8 inch boards that were securely screwed in, plus a hog panel for an added barrier....all I have to say is that I am glad we added the hog panel 'cause there were 4 girls on the other side that have no business reproducing.
Oh, something else fun I did on my winter 'vacation'....
I took a ram lamb in to the vet about a month ago to be castrated. It was a frigid day and when I arrived at the clinic they were finishing up with some cattle, so I waited outside in the cold for several minutes until they were ready for my little guy. The livestock surgery area at the clinic is a large room behind the main clinic with a concrete floor, because, well, they run livestock in there and it can get a bit messy. When the cattle were finished and loaded into their trailer, I brought my little rammy inside for his procedure.

As the vet and his assistant readied the table and equipment, they asked if I was cold, and kindly offered to kick on the big propane heater to thaw me out. We got rammy on the table, and after removing the offending body parts, we were having a bit of difficulty with one of the cords bleeding and it was taking a bit longer than usual to "tie things up", so to speak. While I stood there holding on to poor rammy, the heater that felt so toasty in the beginning was now making me feel rather overheated. I asked if anyone else was hot, and started to take off my coat. Suddenly, I started feeling a little woozy and my ears began to ring, so I stepped off to the side to get away from the heat. For a moment I thought about sitting down on the floor to try to regain my composure, but I looked down and saw that there was cow manure on the concrete from the previous clients, so I stupidly thought, boy I really don't want to sit in that! Stupidly, I say, because the next thing I remember was hearing a loud crack and opening my eyes to find that I had passed out and I was now face down in the very same cow manure that I didn't want to put my behind on. When I awoke from my beauty sleep, and took inventory of my ouchies, it took me a bit to convince the guys that I was alright. After they were sure that I was fine, one of the guys commented on the lovely 'natural makeup' that I was wearing...A.K.A. cow shtuff. I love it when people know me well enough to not take me too seriously.

Other than the bruises and the fact that I put my teeth nearly through my bottom lip (those of you who have seen my teeth understand this), oh, yes and being completely embarrassed, I really was fine.

So, the moral of the story is; if you feel like you are going to pass out, don't think that you are too good to sit in cow crap 'cause it's better to sit in it than eat it.

Here is the resulting prettiness (ignore the overgrowth of eyebrow, it hurts to pluck when your face is purple and green).