Yay spring!

[altivo]

Tess got to go out for the first time today. The pasture is still squishy and muddy, but she loved it. It takes a firm paw on the lead rope the first couple of weeks, she is so excited about going. On the whole, though, she was good.

Unlike what she often does in early spring, she didn't take off at a gallop when I released her and make several circuits of the field. Instead she stayed close to me, prancing like a parade horse and picking her feet up so high that the feathers were flapping. It was cute and very endearing, from my point of view. She only gets 30 minutes a day for now, so I just stuck right there at the gate for most of it and she kept coming back to "check in" by nosing me. There's not a lot of new grass yet, which is fine. A little is ok, and if she has to hunt for it, so much the better. Lots of dried turf from last year, which can't be any worse than hay if she eats it, I think. It was funny watching her consider where to roll. I thought she was checking out the grass and rejecting it as she snuffled at spot after spot, but she found a dry place to roll and scratch her back. It was dry enough that she got up completely dry when most of the field is still muddy enough under the turf that it goes "squish" even when I step on it and I'm only about a fifth of her weight.

I should have planted strawberries today, as there are 52 dormant plants sitting and waiting. Tomorrow, I promise, if it isn't pouring rain. Trees are starting to shed pollen I think. I can't tell whether I have a nasty cold coming on or just an allergic reaction. Usually though, the trees haven't bothered me. It's the grasses in June that sometime get me badly.

Crocuses are blooming all over the place, but not where Gary planted them. I think the squirrels have moved them. Daffodils in bud, but so far the only ones open are the ones Gary cut and brought indoors. And the woodpeckers are having parties drumming away on anything that makes a noise. Definitely spring.

Comments

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

My housemate is busy considering what to plant in our newly rotavated strip law. I think we have some beans, carrots, and rhubarb.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yes, I saw the photos. Carrots may disappoint unless the soil is fine and loose. Rhubarb grows almost anywhere but will like it best if you give it lots of compost or other fertilizer. Beans and tomatoes are a good bet if you have sunlight. The squash and cucumber family usually has something to offer too.

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

I think we have a few beans as well, but I think the UK is too cold for tomato. The only place I have ever seen them growing is in glass houses. Though I could be wrong.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

There are "sub-arctic" varieties that the seed sellers claim will produce to well above your latitude. While you have fewer warm days in the year than, say, Italy, you have longer hours of sunlight in summer. It works out. There are tomato varieties that yield in as little as six weeks. Check your local seed or plant sources, they will know. The trick with tomatoes even here is to start the seeds indoors in a sunny window or under a fluorescent light, and set out the juvenile plants as soon as the night frosts have ended.

[goldenstallion.livejournal.com]

Whinnyhi, Rider.


A fifth of her weight? What, you on a serious diet or somethin'?

Ducks and plays hard to catch.

Imp

[altivo.livejournal.com]

*bites his tongue and says nothing about 747s*

I'm 240 on the scale and she's 1150 on the weight tape. Of course those tapes are pretty sloppy. The boys come in somewhere around 900-950 each, but Tess has a tendency to look pregnant even though she's not.

[soanos.livejournal.com]

Oooh. She must be a big lass.

Would love to get to meet the hooved family some day :D

I have always loved heavy horses. Am I weird? :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Not at all. Tess isn't really a heavy, though. She's only a heavy-boned Haflinger, who looks like a Belgian if you only have a photo on a blank background so you don't know how tall she actually is. The real Clydes and Suffolks come in at over 2000 pounds easily.

[soanos.livejournal.com]

Oooh... Heavy-boned... *melts* <3

I like robust horses. Especially with something to take a hold of. ^^

[goldenstallion.livejournal.com]

Derider.

My little five foot tall Indian doctor told me I am only 15 lubs overweight. Not bad for a flying horse but still she wants me to lose it. Carrying YOUR FAT RUMP would probably do the trick.

Grin.

Well... we are on a free, two-week trial on our Alltel cellphone company internet provider. Is slow and costs almost $100 per month with a two year contract so I told Bear NO WAY. So dunno what the future holds. I do know we originally had a basic slow dial-up for like $15/month and all I really want is my email and a slow browser so we are working on that.

Still we may be off line for a while and yet I do not really mind. Phone calls and surface mail worked all my life and we have tons of forever stamps now so...

Too bad I hate flying in cold weather.

Oh, and Bear really wants to attend MFF again so maybe just for one day or we could sleep on your floor (no problem) or something.

Hint. Winkwink, nudgenudge.

Imperator your flying mount

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Oh sure, we can make room for you if you want to stay here for MFF. I've pretty much decided not to go myself, because I'm just too disappointed in the direction the whole thing seems to be taking. I can see friends without dropping that kind of money for it. But yeah, you could stay here. The old MFF location was only about 40 minutes from here, but the new one is more than an hour, just so you're aware of that.

There are lots of dialup internet providers still, big and small. Service over cell phone or satellite is the most expensive of all and not the fastest even so. Most dialup services now give you up to 56Kbps with unlimited time and no counter on the number of megabytes transferred. Not bad for a flat rate service that costs less than basic phone line. As long as you still have your land line telephone there, it should be easy to get set up. Heck, if you have to you can even go with AOL. The trick is making sure that there's a number you can dial to that is just a local call, because the phone company will run up a big bill on you otherwise. Our service is 56Kb in theory, though we never get more than about 42 because the phone lines around here are so bad. Still, it works for e-mail and basic web stuff.

[soanos.livejournal.com]

I tihnk Tess wanted you to come play with her, too. :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I think you're right. Unfortunately, I can't run fast enough to play properly with her. With boys it's even worse, because they play really rough.

[soanos.livejournal.com]

Well, I am more into gentle playing, so I would probably not mix well with the boys. I wonder if you could teach Tess to play fetch? :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I'm sure I could. I threatened to do that years ago with Asher. Horses have no natural instinct to retrieve, so you have to teach them in steps, but click and reward training works really well on them. Tess is very smart and likes her food far too well to fail to learn a task where she gets to eat something as a reward.

[soanos.livejournal.com]

Hehe, sounds like a plan then. Maybe use a soft edged frisbee or something? :)

I already was in the impression Tess is quite smart.
And that she knows it too :P

[altivo.livejournal.com]

A frisbee would be difficult for a horse to pick up off the ground, at least sometimes. I thought probably a wooden training dumbbell, like we use with dogs, would work. Two square ends so it won't roll, with a heavy dowel between them and spaced wide enough so a horse could easily get his teeth onto the dowel to pick it up.

[soanos.livejournal.com]

Sounds good to me. Of course, could use rope as the thing in between the blocks. That would stop it rolling as well. :)

And maybe see if it could be painted or coloured in some colour she likes. :)

Do you know what colour she likes the most?

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Green, probably. ;p But then she'd want to eat it.

[soanos.livejournal.com]

Hmm... I wonder if a "girly" colour would work better? :)

Pink?

[rrwolf.livejournal.com]

mmmm strawberries. I miss being in Florida when they did strawberries as air around the fields and into town would just have the sweet smell of strawberries in the air as they were blooming. Feb was strawberry time down there then followed by the sweet smell of orange blossoms around April and May.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yep. And now it's snowing outside, so they won't get planted for a couple more days at the very least.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Squirrels have their own idea of where Crocuses should be.

Hehe, Tess sounds like a happy horsey.