A Peek at my Week ~ 9-27-14 through 10-4-14...

Come on in & take a "Peek at my Week"...

 My little horse, "Little Ray" has learned a new trick...

If I don't feed him first, he sits in his corral and runs his teeth back and forth across the panel. It drives me "Bat-Shit Crazy!" It's like a little kid running their fingernails down the chalkboard.

He has always banged his hoof on the panel, but this new trick is the worst thing he's ever taught himself. 

One thing about it - it ensure's he gets fed first~!

The 'Man-Child' decided it was time to start on the new / old chicken coop. The old one had the "Accident" that you can read about if you click this link ~ but with winter coming, they really need a new coop. And, I have all the wonderful, new, Americana hens and the friendly hens and well, the new rooster Cornelius and when the horses and sheep move to the other pasture there will be nothing here at the barn to keep the chickens safe. So, they need a new coop and a run. There was no sense building a brand new one when at the end of the barn, there was an old fuel shed with fuel tanks in it that weren't in use anymore. 

There will be a whole blog post on this when the coop & run is finished, but for now - 

It looked like this to begin with ---

And after quite a bit of work, including tearing off the front to remove the fuel tanks and putting it back up, complete with new windows---

It looks like this~!

Actually, the 'Man-Child' has an old crooked stove pipe we'll put on the outside just for the humor.

It's my "Dr. Suess" coop - we'll call it, "Lay-More Estate" when its finished. Of course, the 'Man-Child' named it...

It's going to be an awesome coop when it's finished~

The 'Man-Child' was home until Tuesday and when we went to town to get some things for the coop,

we watched a big over-dimensional move come through town. It was a 23' wide load. 

It was pretty awesome to see...

When the 'Man-Child' went to leave in the truck, he discovered my poor little kitty "Oscar" had been run over in the road ='(

It made me so sad ---

It made his brother "Oliver" even sadder and Oliver has been with Mooch all week. 

I know Mooch is wondering why the little Oliver kitty has been his side-kick, but he hasn't been mean about it. In fact, there's something sweet about looking out the window and seeing a Great Pyrenees licking a little white cat. I think Mooch knows - he's taken pretty good care of little Oliver this week.

Poor little Oscar - I'm going to miss this little guy...

I really wish people would slow down ~ I walked out to get the mail and a pickup truck swerved and nearly hit me. They just don't watch what they're doing and they're all on a cell phone, or texting when they're not paying attention. Pretty sure whomever hit this little guy wasn't paying attention either - so sad...

Be careful when you're driving - God's creatures are all around you...

We had a freeze warning alert for Tuesday night, so I spent the whole day cleaning out my garden and getting all of the onions laying out to dry. 

I had so much stuff~!

Bushels and bushels of it on top of the bushels and bushels I've already bottled and froze.

I'm so incredibly thankful though~

This garden has been AMAZING this year and provided a summer full of veggies for a whole bunch of families and a lot of them really needed the helping hand... 

A few friends came and sifted through and took a lot home, but I got stuck with a lot + 2 big boxes of tomatoes out in the garage.I hate to see stuff go to waste, but my freezers and shelves and root cellar is full.

I found room though. It took me a couple days to make all the pickles and blanch and freeze the rest. I finally just chopped it all up into a big washtub; squashes, beans, onions, peppers and I blanched it and froze it in quart bags mixed. There was just so much~!

Then, the garden froze...

Sad...

And turned everything black...

=(

Fall is officially here in Central Utah~!

And, it snowed up above me on all of the mountains -

Which also ushered in the first fire of the season. It was so COLD~!

Down in the 20's here that following morning...

I went over to feed the animals this morning and I couldn't find Charlie -

Sometimes, he takes a minute going to the bathroom when he first gets up, so I didn't panic - I just fed the rest of the animals and Charlie still wasn't at the trough. I started calling for him, waiting for him to come out of the barn and he didn't. I hopped the fence and looked in and no Charlie - Oh No~!

My first inclination was that someone stole him. 

I hurried up around the shop to the top of the pasture yelling his name. I heard a funny noise like a baby crying. As I rounded the haystack, I could see him - down in the pasture.

I wasn't sure what was going on, but the noise he was making was terrifying.

I thought maybe a dog got in with my mob last night. My mind was playing tricks on me - from a distance, he looked like he was covered in blood and he was laying on his side. 

Oh Shit~!

I climbed the fence and my flipflop got stuck in the wire flinging me onto my face, cutting my chin. I was bleeding everywhere. I ran down the pasture and as I got close I seen that what looked like blood was just mud and Charlie was stuck on his back - stuck in a deep furrow. 

Oh No~!!!

Charlie is so heavy - how was I going to get him out of this hole?

It was obvious he had been there most of the night, stuck on his back. The dung pile behind him was huge.

Poor Charlie...

I tried rocking him -

I tried pulling him -

I could tell he was very weak and he was running out of time. The baby crying noise he was making had tears streaming down my face. I tried everything I could think of and he was just stuck. I could hardly see through my tears...

I tried calling anybody close and they were either out of town, or not answering the phone which made me cry harder. I finally got down on my hands and knees. I put both arms under the side of him and I pressed my face next to him and with all of my tiny might, I shoved and pushed and rocked and grunted and got him turned over onto his belly like a person lifting a car off a child.

He was now right side up, but he wouldn't lift up his head - he was just laying there with his head all skiddywompas to his side. It seemed like forever sitting there petting him, shaking him, pulling on him trying to get him to hold his head up.

I walked down and filled a bucket with water to see if he would hold up his head to take a drink. Then, for some reason, I just threw the bucket of cold water on his face - I had to get his attention - get him to "snap out of it"...He popped up like a strawberry pop tart!

He not only lifted his head, but he was standing up~ yay...

~Charlie hates water on his face~

He was mad at me most of the day for getting him wet, but throwing water on him worked. 

I went over to check on him nearly every hour and for the first 6 hours, he just pinned his ears back and hissed at me.

He pouted in the barn for most of the day and refused to look at me this afternoon.

I know he was tired too, from such a long night, stuck on his back...

He finally got up later this evening and ate some, took a drink and went and checked on his sheep and chickens.

I felt so bad that he was mad at me and yet, I was so happy he was up that I drove the 16 mile round trip to town to buy him a bag of his favorite treat - Grapes -

Now, we're friends again and he's following me around like usual.

I am so thankful he's ok - 

I haven't cried that hard in a long, long, time. 

That was so scary~!!!

I hope next week is "Calmer" in my world...