In Memory of my Mousey who loved the Spring.

Our beloved Pansy, watcher of the road, protector of all as
she made her rounds this morning making sure everyone was
where they should be and safe.

Tis a Good Friday

It is a Good Friday in the land of Squatamala in the middle of the magical forest near the lake. The Royal Grandchildren arrived last evening without incident and were very surprised that there were new puppies to see which were born of the Royal dog, Shea, on Monday. The Grand Princess was heard to exclaim 'OH! Now I am a Grandmother!' much to the delight of the Queen. The fairies were so very happy the children had come to the forest that they stayed up very late playing so slept in this morning nigh until eight.

The day has been beautiful with not much wind and only one loud unknown noise to break the peace of the whole land. My horse, Pretty Boy, and I have been out in the pasture eating the pretty green grass keeping an eye to the woods and the delightful squeals of the children playing.

Today was a good day.

Announcement Spring is Coming

Spring is coming tomorrow make ready quickly!!! The Royal Family offspring will be arriving to inspect the King's work later this week sometime and we want all the daffodils at attention please. You Paperwhite flowers please line up along the road so that your perfume may be smelled as they exit their carriages. And you White Iris please quit hiding over there by those bushes. Do not be shy you are beautiful open your pure white petals for all to see. Yes yes I know it is too early for the blackberries to be picked for a cobbler but they are sharing their blooms with us now so no talk about their berries for now please. You Peach blossoms are doing quite nicely over there and have you seen the sight the native apple trees are making over in the lower pasture? Why they are spectacular to look at in the evenings as the sun is getting low in the sky for sure. We are going to try to keep our Pretty Boy off of the wild onion plants as much as possible but since he thinks it's funny to step on them we may just have to pretend we don't smell him.

Now is everyone ready? Good good good. Now off to bed with you we will be needing to get an early start in the morning. Dream sweet my pets. Dream Sweet.

Ready for a stormy week

The human girl has been very busy around here this morning getting stuff done she usually takes all day to do. Even the Pretty Boy has already had his foot soaked. All the stuff that needed putting up has been put up and everything that needed to be tied down has been tied down. She has been going around here from one place to another so fast I gave up on following her to see what she was doing.

She had time to talk to me when my horse was getting his foot soaked. She said that it is going to start raining and rain for three days which was why she was digging that trench out a little bit that drains the road into the pond. She also told me that one of our little friends is having a birthday party tomorrow that she is going to go to. She said that Patty is not baking the birthday cake this year. Last year she had some trouble doing that. She cooked the cake and had almost all the icing on it when she realized the cake was not even really cooked all the way to the middle. She said it was one of those rectangular cakes in a big pan and Patty had started putting the icing on from the outside to the inside which was why she didn't know the cake wasn't done for real. Patty put that cake back in the oven with the icing on it to try to finish cooking it. We didn't get any of that cake. She said the children loved eating their cake with a spoon. That's funny because Patty is usually a very good cook. Maybe good cooks don't bake I don't know.

The wind is blowing hard out here and the sky is getting darker. I think the Pretty Boy and I better get ourselves sorted out as to where we are going to weather the storm.

Palm Sunday

And there I was standing by that fence that I so enjoy smashing but I was unable to step on it. I really don’t mind having that hard wire fence there but it is not nearly as much fun as the soft wire one was. I normally just keep my big hoof off of cattle panels. They don’t make any noise if I bang them and they don’t bend so no fun in that. All I can do now to wake that human girl up to the fact that I am ready to be fed is to go down the fence line to my Mudfoot’s yard and get her to barking.

Oh speaking of the dog ,Mudfoot, I don’t know if the human people know it or not but she climbs the fence. Yes she does. Just like I hear those children across the road do at their house. Her fence is also made of cattle panels and that soft wire fencing. She has destroyed the soft wire fencing, which is where I got the idea to do the same thing, so she could get to the hard wire panels. I am not sure how far up the fence she can climb but I think that human girl better keep the tree cut back so she can’t use it to pull herself on up and over that fence. She is silly silly little Labrador dog who could get in a lot of trouble if she was to get out her yard because she wouldn’t know what to do with herself. I am going to remember to tell the human girl about that fence climbing because I think she will want to put some chicken wire up inside there to discourage that behavior.

The human girl told me that later today we were going to have company. She said the people up the road where all those cars and trucks are this morning are going to bring the children down for horse back rides. OH BOY!!! I love to have babies come see me. I love to have all sizes of humans come to see me because I am so pretty.

**************

OK it is later in the day now and we had a WONDERFUL day today!!!!! Everyone looked almost as pretty as me and my horse, Pretty Boy. And everyone that wanted to ride got to. I do not ride the children I just let them sit on me. Even little bitty babies can sit on my back I will not move. And my back is wide enough that they will not fall off. The Pretty Boy gives what I call 'Pony Rides' because someone on the ground is always holding his lead rope. My Mousey horse did not have to have someone holding the rope. He would walk and if the child got wobbly he would stop. He was a good horse. My horse, Pretty Boy, I think can be that good. But not me. Nope I like to RODEO!! so I can not be trusted to 'pony ride' children anymore than the human girl or the house mouse can be trusted not to eat the cookies. Sorry house mouse but it is true.

Sooooo Anyway we had a fun day and everyone was laughing and smiling and no one cried so we think it was a successful day.

Bless Your Hearts and those of the people that Love You, and those of the people that Love Them. -Precious-

Medical update on the Pretty Boy

Just wanted to let everyone know that the Pretty Boy is doing GREAT! We have just about gotten all the infection out of his leg!!!!!!!!! Today he stood in his bucket of epsom salts for a very very long time just out there in his pasture. He was not alone the whole time. I was there and the human girl too for a very long time. Then she took the lead rope off of him and told him he could go if he wanted to anytime. I went on and started grazing. He just kept standing there. The human man came home with some cattle panels to reinforce the fence I have been working on taking down and still my Pretty Boy just stood there with that one foot in the bucket of water. They had just about finished putting up two panels when he decided he was done standing in the water. The house mouse went into my part of the barn to look at his foot while he was having his supper later and said that she is very happy for him not be all swelled up anymore.

We are all very grateful to everyone who kept him in their thoughts as he fought this infection. Thank You for your love. -Precious-

Precious ran in here to say...

A most beautiful day here on the farm! Even better than yesterday.

The human girl was out here going in circles on her machine for a few hours this morning so I kept the Pretty Boy over by the wildlife refuge so he wouldn’t worry about that girl on her machine. He was OK with that. He laid down and took a good long nap while she went round and round out in our pastures dragging that thing behind her machine. And then she went out in the front pasture and started playing around going pretty fast and just a whooping and a hollering she was having so much fun.

There were some small humans over to the East yesterday afternoon kicking a black and white ball around. I don’t know what that is called but I think I could do it if someone would get me a ball. I am pretty sure I could kick a ball since I have four legs and four feet and those kids that were playing yesterday only have two legs apiece. Well I would like to try to do it someday. You just never really know if you really can do something unless you really try. WoW! How many times did I just say ‘really’? That’s really pretty funny. Hahaha

The Queen was telling me the other day that the King made her a garden so she can grow vegetables. YUCK! Why can’t she grow hamburgers instead? Of course I don’t eat hamburger’s I’m a vegetarian but I do like to smell hamburgers cooking.

My horse, Pretty Boy, and I were talking the other day and we were wondering just how long it has been since there were Indians around these parts. We know that we live in an area called the Cherokee Trail but we do not know how many moons and winters it has been since there were Indians here hunting with bows and arrows. Our human girl says her telephone line was put in when there were still Indians living around here but I think she is making that up.

OK enough talking time to go back out and play in the sunshine!!!!!!

Too pretty to be in the barn

It is much too pretty a day to be in the barn! It was so foggy this morning we couldn't even see each other but when it cleared off WoW!!! And tomorrow is supposed to be even better so you won't be hearing from me too much. There is sun to soak up and tender green grass to eat.

The Pretty Boy is doing so much better today. I think he likes the nice weather also. He is getting his bad leg soaked on a regular basis and the swelling is really going down. I hope one day he will be able to have some of that tall hoof taken off so he can walk level but for now I am just happy the infection is going down. He likes to stand with his foot in a bucket. Me I don't know if I could be that patient. I can't even stand beside him not moving while he stands perfectly still with his foot in that bucket of water. Yesterday the human girl asked him if he would mind just standing there by himself for a minute while she ran over to the big house for something. He didn't mind he will stand there as long as she wants him too and then ten minutes more. He is funny that way. She tells him 'OK you can step out now.' and he says 'I don't think so not right now it feels too good.' so she just lets him stand there some more if he wants. He walks over to the place in the mornings after we have breakfast and waits for her to come with the bucket. He used to soak while he had his breakfast but ever since he kicked her leg off and she had to put it back on she doesn't do it then. She waits until he is done eating and then they just stand there sometimes for a whole hour. He is a very very patient boy. I am patient too but not that patient.

Has anyone seen that Squirrel that keeps chattering out here at the top of his lungs? What do you supposed he is chattering so loudly about?

Pink and Purple

For the Grand Little Princess.

A house made special for her by
'The Magical Fantasy Illusionist to the
Royal Family'

Precious here.......

I saw the human girl come out to my red barn and open the big doors so of course I had to see if she needed any help. She was rolling the little lawnmower out when I got there. I can help pretty good with that right up to the point where one of two things happen. One is that when she is pulling on that rope to start it sometimes I stick my nose too close and kapow there you go popped by her elbow. And then the other thing that happens is I am not real thrilled when it starts. Lucky for me she isn't real good at starting it so we can be there awhile before one of the two things happen to me. But this time she wasn't trying to start it. She just rolled it out there and we stood waiting for something. The human man came out and she pushed down on the handle of the mower so it's front wheels came off the ground. She asked the man 'Can you put that belt back on?'. He got down and looked and said he didn't see a belt. She told him that is because it came off. She thought that was some pretty funny words but he didn't. She let the mower down, went around to where the front wheels are and picked it up. I put my head down there to see if I could see the belt she said had come off and the man was down there looking also. She stuck her hand up under there and pointed at something I couldn't see because my eyes are pretty far from the end of my head where my nose it. But she told the man 'Do you see the shiny pulley wheel? That is where the belt goes that is right there.' The man finally saw what she was talking about. He told her 'I can fix that easy. Hold it up and I will go get a screw driver.' She didn't think that sounded like a thing she wanted to do so she said 'Or I could let it down and when you get back with the screw driver I could pick it back up because I am not going to stand here holding it up while you go look for a screw driver.' To which he replied 'How did it happen?' This time she did laugh out loud. She said 'I have no idea. It was working and then it wasn't working.' Such a silly man asking her that. He knows stuff just happens sometimes. I thought it was nice that she had put it back in the barn when it quit working because usually when she breaks stuff....I mean ....when things quit working she usually just leaves them where they quit. LOL!!! Humans are so funny.

Later they came out again but this time it was soak my Pretty Boy's leg in a bucket of epsom salts. I was going to squish the girl but she wouldn't let me. Here's how we were lined up. First the man, then the Pretty Boy, then the human girl then me, Precious. I wanted to see what the man was doing because I could see the human girl was just holding onto my horse but that man was doing something. The human girl said to him 'You are going to have to come back around here because I don't want to be a horse sandwich.' LOL!!! Horse sandwich that's pretty funny. The man came around and backed me, Precious, up but not before I stuck my head into the bucket of epsom salt and I remember now I do not like epsom salt water.

Beautiful day here on the farm

It is a beautiful day out here on the farm! Bright sunshine and not too much wind. Beautiful beautiful.

Precious says that she is not ignoring me she is just busy eating the pretty green grass and keeping an eye on her horse the, Pretty Boy. He has an infection in his leg so he isn’t getting around as fast as usual and she won’t get too far from him because of that. She will not leave him alone. Wants to be where she can see him and he can see her all the time. No rushing either. Dinner can wait.

The human girl comes out a couple of times a day with a big bucket of water she says no one should drink because it has Epsom Salts in it. She says it is to draw the infection out of the Pretty Boy’s leg. Looks like it is working. She was doing that last week up until that day that he kicked her leg off at the knee and she had to put it back on to get to the big house. Since then she has been putting other stuff on his leg. She said that salt in the wound must hurt. Well he doesn’t have a cut he just has oozy places. ‘Oozy’ is that a word? Well it should be it’s kind of a neat word.

Things are going well in the Mystical Magical Fantasy Land of Squatamala. The King and Queen are in the castle waiting of the birth of some puppies that they have already found homes for so don't you start thinking you might get one because you won't. They made a royal bed for the puppies in the special puppy room in the castle.

Must be time for that horse to get his leg soaked again because here comes that human girl with her white bucket.

The barn

When the King was sitting on his Thinking Stump thinking about
the barn he was going to build for the many animals he had not decided
he would aquire he thought of this barn. He did not say that he was going
to build this barn he only thought about this barn. He thought about this barn because he knows the Grand Little Princess dearly loves the color pink. Being a King he thought that Magenta seemed more Kingly than a Pink pink color. Now of course he thought to himself that he must first finish the Fort for he and the Queen of Squatamala to live in before ever starting to build a barn to house livestock. But that does not stop one from sitting on their Thinking Stump and thinking on a snowy day. For what else is one to do on such a day other than sit and watch the snow melt.

The wind was blowing strong before the snow this morning.

more house mouse stories

I am a house mouse who lives in the big red barn. House Mouse's don't have very large heads so there are is a limit to the number of words I can fit in there at a time. This being said I must make a correction. The 'Little Princess' is a little princess but her barn name is 'Grand Little Princess' not just 'Little Princess'. I felt I should make that right because as we all know it is very important that we use names when know names and possibly equally important to learn names we do not know.

We are getting snow out here in our pasture! Not so much now as before but it is still snowing. It started snowing between seven and seven thirty this morning. I didn't know it could snow for three hours but it can! Precious is going out in it some and it doesn't seem to bother her. The Pretty Boy went out and came right back in. I don't think he likes snow much.

I will get the human girl to post you some pictures of the snow later if she comes out of the big house.

The beginning of a Story by House Mouse

This is for the Little Prince and the Little Princess

There was a King that was sitting on the Thinking Stump in the mythical fantasy Land of Squatamala. He sat and thought so long that he came up with an idea. He thought it would be a good idea to build a fort out in the woods for he and the Queen to stay in and the Little Prince and Little Princess to come play in. And so he started building a fort.

Fort building is not a fast thing like if you were just building a house. And this fort is being built by the King and Queen themselves with some occasional help from the heir to the throne who lives many miles away which takes days to travel on horseback.


This news just in……..The mythical magical gnarly gnomes have moved to Oklahoma. There are now only forest creatures and lovely fairies left in the Land of Squatamala. A joyous noise was heard to be coming from the center of the Land as the celebrating got into full swing.

Inside the Land of Squatamala if you look closely and listen with your heart you may see fairies dancing in the fog of early morning. Some of them are yellow, some blue and some green and some the loveliest shades of brown you have ever seen. All of them have glittery wings and smiles as bright as the sun dancing on a pond at daybreak. In the woods live all your usual woodland creatures. There are deer and possums, skunks and cats. Armadillos guard the perimeter as mighty armored creatures with hairy noses are apt to do on a regular basis, when they are not crossing the road that is to get themselves a Lone Star Beer. There was once seen a unicorn although some may say these are mythological creatures we are sure we have seen at least one here in the fantasy mythological Land of Squatamala.

Here in the fantasy mythological Land of Squatamala anything is possible. We know this because the King told us so. He said ‘If we put our hearts and minds to it we can do it’, yes this is what was decreed in his speech before the squirrels just three days ago. We are pretty sure that means if we believe hard enough and use our imaginations to the full extent then we can see Unicorns and Armadillos wearing helmets crossing the road for a Lone Star Beer.

There are yellow butterflies in the Land of Squatamala and if one lands one you you are very lucky because they are Angels who have stopped by to give you a kiss. Most butterflies can give Angel kisses if you are able to hold still long enough for them to land on you but just by their sheer numbers you are more apt to have a yellow butterfly bestow this blessing on you than any other color butterfly in the Land of Squatamala.

If you happen to be sitting on the Thinking Stump at eleven o’clock in the morning you might smell the most wonder smells that you might think your nose is playing tricks on you but it is probably the Queen of Squatamala in her cooking area making something for the King and his dog ‘Scrappy’ to eat for dinner. The dog ‘Scrappy’ is not an imaginary dog. No he is a true to the heart Hound Dog who can talk. Yes he can. But it is in a long lost language that only the King and Queen can understand most of the time. The Little Prince and Little Princess sometimes know what the ‘Scrappy’ dog is saying when they listen hard enough and use their eyes to see.

The Queen of Squatamala sends word that the Fort is not finished so there will be no coffee drinking there yet....

#4

#3

#2

#1

picking pictures

The beginning of a Story by House Mouse


This news just in……..The mythical magical gnarly gnomes have moved to Oklahoma. There are now only forest creatures and lovely fairies left in the Land of Squatamala. A joyous noise was heard to be coming from the center of the Land as the celebrating got into full swing.

The King of Squatamala just reported that he is ready to put more outside stuff on the Fort. I am going to post several pictures of possible Fort finishes and we will vote for the one we want.

The Queen of Squatamala says this is not the finished Fort so there will be no coffee drinking there yet.

The 'Pretty Boy' Trouper

Precious at the fence waiting to be seen.

Three Llamas and two Guinea Fowl. Can you see the black Llama
behind the brown one?

This is the Fort being built by the King of Squatamala for the Queen of Squatamala. He hopes to have it ready for a royal visit by the Little Prince and Little Princess of Squatamala this coming summer. There is no word as yet as to whether or not the moat has been completed. There is a Flinging Machine in place to fling pomagranates at troublesome gnarly beasts of mythical nature that may approach.

...........UPDATE........UPDATE...........UPDATE.................UPDATE.....................

The troublesome gnarly beasts of mythical nature have decided to go live in Oklahoma! Good thing too since it is not pomagranates season and they were fixing to have to use dinosaur eggs. The awesome Flinging Machine has been converted into much more functional cooking contraption so the King of Squatamala can cook a feast for his Queen and all who visit.

Hey....HAY!!!!

They put us a big round bale of hay up here in my big red barn yesterday. I did not know why but I was ready to help if help was needed. The human girl told me that I needed to move back so the tractor could come in. I needed to see what the tractor was going to do once it got in there. Didn’t they want me to go in and make sure it was okay for that tractor to go in there? I guess not. That human girl put both her hands onto my chest and started pushing me backwards…UPHILL! And I did it too. Oh sure it wasn’t much of an uphill but it was uphill and I did back up it. YEA ME! So then she had me out of the way of the tractor and he went in my barn backwards. What’s going on is everything backwards today? I needed to go inside and see why he was going backwards. But that would have meant me going forwards and that was not going to be allowed so I stood there ready to help if they needed me. Somehow they got that roll of hay out and in place without my help. I went in to make sure it was good hay and it was. But then I realized my horse, The Pretty Boy, was not coming in to eat some with me so I went out to tell him we had fresh hay and he should come have some.

My Pretty Boy’s foot is still hurting him some so he is slow. I make sure to wait for him no matter how long it takes. I was going down to see the guinea hen in the old barn this morning and about halfway down there I realized my horse was not coming with me. Well I wasn’t going to leave him up there by himself so I went back up to him. Checking on that hen can wait I have to take care of my horse. He, Pretty Boy, is being real nice to the human girl too. He is picking his foot up and letting her hold it while she puts medicine on it. She got him some powdered stuff the other day. Told us she was not going to put his foot into a bucket of Epsom salts until it heals some. She said it would just burn too much and the powder stuff doesn’t burn him. That’s nice of her to do that for my horse. We both try to take good care of him and we know he appreciates it.

I got a really good brushing yesterday and so did the Pretty Boy. We looked real pretty afterwards so of course we went down to the pond and rolled in the mud. Oh boy what fun was that!!!

The human girl told me that tomorrow after the thunderstorms it is going to snow. I’m still waiting to see what my horse, the Pretty Boy thinks of snow. We don’t think it will snow in the land of Squatamala but we haven’t heard from the King of Squatamala or his Queen so we don’t know for sure.

Did I tell you that the King of Squatamala is building a new fort? I heard them talking about it the other day and it sounds like he might have almost finished the outside stuff. The Queen of Squatamala said she would send the humans a picture and if she does I will see if the house mouse will post it on here for you to see. I hear it is a very big castle set in the woods by a big lake. WoW! That's sounds neato doesn't it.

'Have you been talking to the humans about me?'

A grey Guinea adding an egg to the small clutch of only about 20 eggs.

One of four, that we know of, clutches of Guinea Hen eggs. From what we
have heard all the hens lay eggs in the same place then one or two or three
of them sit on the eggs. Keep in mind we started this with about 30 hens.

Guinea Hen eggs. Just one of three nests.

One of the Gray Guinea hens on her way to lay more eggs I presume

The Guinea Hen down at the old barn sitting on twenty or thirty or who knows how many eggs

More Guinea Hens?

Guinea Hen update……………This just in and it’s crazy wild news……..I have been hanging out with the human girl all day today so I heard what was being said when she was talking about those guinea hens. My human man had seen one of them run up under the trailer by the water well and she looked under there to see what was going on. WELL!! She came back up saying that hen ran under there to sit on some eggs and there is another pile of eggs under there with forty or fifty eggs in it!!!!! Yes. And the pile that hen is sitting on there are so many that they are not even all under her. This is on top of the hen they found yesterday down at my old barn that is sitting on twenty or thirty eggs. We are fixing to have a population explosion here on the farm I’ll tell you that for sure. Then they were talking to the man that actually owns the guinea hens and he tells us that all those birds came from just one Mother Bird. Yep. She laid about 30 eggs all by herself he says and that’s where all of them came from. Now I don’t have fingers to count on so that leaves me with just my four feet for counting but I’m thinking if one bird lays thirty eggs and there are thirty birds out there laying eggs then we are not going to have a population explosion we are going to have a population …. Well I do not know what it will be called but I’m pretty sure we will not be having any trouble with grasshoppers this year. Now if we could just get them to eat moles and gophers………….I wonder how much guinea hens sell for? And how would a horse go about catching one?

Hay and Eggs

You would think that human girl would learn to use a rope but she doesn’t seem to. And I told her that. But she told me that if we would stop doing stuff we shouldn’t be doing then she wouldn’t need to do what she needs to do to fix us therefore no need for a rope. AND, she said, Would you rather I leave you like you are and take the time to go get a rope or do you think you could just hold your whole self still while I deal with this then you can go do what you want to do and so can I! This was because she was trying to wash my neck after I had just seen her hanging on my horse’s leg. My horse the Pretty Boy. She was trying to put medicine on his hurt foot and he wanted to walk away. It wasn’t like the other day when I thought I might walk away from her nope she was already all bent over ready to doctor his foot when he started to leave and I saw her grab his leg. She said NO Stay here! And he did because he is a good boy. Handed his foot right up to her then so she could do what needed doing. So she finished with him and came at me. I know not to walk away from her but sometimes I feel I must. Today she didn’t even touch me just gave me that big ole speech about acting nice.

When she left us she wasn’t done with her healing I guess because next thing you know it that fuzzy little dog let out a yelp. We, Pretty Boy and me Precious, looked around to see what was wrong and that human girl had that little dog tucked up under her arm washing it’s face. Yes she was! Washing that dog’s face smooth off from what we could see. Don’t know what that dog got into but apparently it was wrong. So far the only thing safe around here today is Mudfoot the red lab dog………..but the day isn’t over yet.

No hay left to eat down at my old barn. The guinea hens have decided to use the leftovers to lay their eggs. One hen is ‘sitting’ on a clutch of eggs right now. I do not know how many eggs because they are small and there were a lot of them. Also it was dangerous for me to be down there with all those feathers and eggs. Guinea hen eggs are the size of a golf ball but a little bell shaped. I saw the human girl go down there with the camera earlier so maybe we will see a picture of something soon.

Good news! The hair on one side of my neck is starting to fill back in from where the rain rot got me. Boy am I glad about that. The human girl wasn’t taking my picture as much as she usually does and I thought it might be because I was bald. She said that wasn’t it that it has just been way too windy.

And now a word from the house mouse

House Mouse here. It has been a hard week here on the farm so Precious is laying low. The Pretty Boy has been having some leg trouble. That leg with the hoof injury got an infection in it so he was feverish one day maybe two. The human girl was soaking his leg in Epsom salts two or three times a day trying to draw the infection out. He is a real good horse but sometimes things happen even to a real good horse. Just as the human girl was putting his foot in a bucket of water he got spooked by something and things went flying. He wasn’t hurt and the human girl was walking okay just a couple of days later, slower but okay. Then Precious got some rainspot on her neck.

She is well behaved so she goes without a halter on most of the time. The human girl comes out a couple of times a day with a little bowl and a big red brush. She scrubs on that big ole paint horse like she is scrubbing on a saddle.

This morning the human girl was just going to use a squirt bottle and squirt something white on Precious. The bottle made a funny noise when it squirted the first time so Precious wanted no part of that. She started to walk away. Now that human girl doesn’t come very far up that big mares neck but I wouldn’t bet on the horse winning any contests against her. She told that horse to WHOA and she didn’t. So she put her hand out and said WHOA to her again. Precious sort of thought about not walking away but didn’t really want to stay either. The human girl put her arm out against that big ole horse’s chest and said ‘WHOA YOU that means STOP stop stop STOP!’ The human girl by this point had her heels dug into the ground leaning back so far I don’t know what was keeping her up but that horse finally did WHOA and didn’t try to walk away again. The girl told her Thank You, which is the polite thing to do you know and then she went about brushing the stuff on Precious.

The Pretty Boy had thought he might want in whatever it was that was going on till he saw that human girl digging her heels in then he decided to come back in the barn with me and watch from here.

None of us are a match to that human girl when she digs her heels in.

A habit that is good

I told you the other day that the little girl across the road got to come over and play with us well she got to come over again today! But she was in the main house not outside looking at me and petting on me and giving me baby kiss's on my nose. So I stood as close to the back fence as I could and made sure most of me was near to the pen where Mudfoot, the dog, lives. She barks for me to get the humans attention and she does a good job of it. Didn't take long before that baby girl came out in her pretty pink coat with the hood up. She started to run at me but the human girl said 'no' very quietly so she stopped running and just walked up to the fence.

Teach them young. Yes that is a good thing to do. You teach the children young how to act so you will have time for more important stuff when they get older.

The baby girl got picked up so she could pat my head and give me little baby kisses and smooth my mane down. Then they went inside. But it was ok because they came out the front and out to my pasture! Oh Yes! The baby was excited. I looked at her and made sure she knew to not run. Then she was right beside me with her arms up so the human girl could lift her up onto my back. She got a little bit of my mane in her little hand and sat there very still. She is such a tiny thing I forgot she was up there and put my head down to eat some pretty green grass. Ooops. I heard that baby girl say 'oh'. But the human girl had hold of her and snatched her right off my back before she could slide down my nose onto the ground. Which might have been fun to watch but not a very nice thing for me to do. So then they went to the Pretty Boy for a sit but he had seen me put my head down to eat something so he was more interested in what I was eating then giving the baby girl a horsey ride. She can get a ride on him first the next time she comes to visit. It was really a little chilly out today for that baby to be outside for long anyway. Not long after that her Mother came to get her. She always has that boxer dog, Jade, with her and today was no different. That dog is a very happy dog. Have you ever seen a boxer dog smile? Well Jade smiles, no she doesn't just smile she grins from ear to ear! Such a happy dog.

The Cat and Guinea hens

Hello! My barn name is Precious and my horse’s barn name is Pretty Boy. OK. Just checking to see if I had gone crazy but if I know our names I guess I’m okay.

You know how I have told you that we have guinea hens that come to visit us? Well they are not babies anymore. They are full grown guineas and there are a lot of them. Some of them are gray and some of them are pure white. Most of the flock just passes thru on their daily rounds of eating any bug they can find but there are maybe three to six of them that stay around here all day. I think they think of my farm as their second home. This morning what got me to thinking my thinker might be broken is that I saw one of those white guineas chasing the big gray cat. First time I ever saw that happen. You know most of the time it would be a cat after a bird but nooo not with guineas I guess. That cat was walking very low to the ground trying to make himself invisible I suppose but it didn’t work out for him. He was doing okay when he had places he could go from one cover to another but then he got out in the open and that’s when I could really see the show! For those of you who do not know guineas I will get the house mouse to tell the human girl to take a picture and post it on here for you. For now you will just have to imagine a very funny looking chicken with a long neck. Now imagine that chasing after a rather large cat. Very funny indeed. And the noise that guinea was making as he tried to tell that cat he must learn how to play nice was enough to wake up the Pretty Boy who was napping out in my pasture. That guinea hen chased the cat from the East to the West fussing at him the whole way till the cat finally made it to the feed shed and ran up under it where the guinea hen couldn’t follow. That was surely funny to see that big cat thinking ‘I do not need to run I am a big cat’ get run up on by a fussing guinea hen. Yes ma’am that surely was funny to see.

This news just in to the barn........

My friend the King of Squatamala Ranch says I, Precious, should start using my horse's name, Pretty Boy, instead of just saying 'my horse' all the time. So in the future I will try to remember that names are important to use. Names are an important part of who we are. The Pretty Boy is not just my horse so I should use his name when I am talking about him. Well that seems just like it is the right thing to do if I am going to be talking about him now doesn't it.

Betcha we, my horse Pretty Boy, and I just missed out on getting an extra cup of feed today. That human girl came out here and filled our water tank but she's gone back inside now.

Is it Grey/Gray enough for you?

My goodness but I miss the sun! I think rain is an alright thing to get but I do not like it to be gray skies day after day. And I know we have had a dry winter that we need to make up for but come ooooonnnnnn! There just has to be something other than way windy or gray. I heard my little friend across the road singing this morning so I know he is done with this too. He was singing the song 'Rain rain go away my sister and I want to play!'. You know how he does. He sings as loudly as he can because the clouds are pretty far away.

Oh and now the House Mouse is asking me if I am saying GREY or GRAY and how am I supposed to know since they both sound the same to me. I think we might just have to start saying some other word. I there a difference in the definition of those two words? How about I just say 'If it is not too much to ask I would like maybe just one day of sunshine without the wind blowing ninety to nothing.'

My horse is still favoring his healing front foot and the human girl has not stuck it in a bucket of water for him since yesterday morning when I heard that commotion in my barn and he came running out. He told me he might be in big trouble because he had on accident made a big mess and maybe hurt the human girl. He said he had not meant to do it that it just happened. He said she was putting his big ole foot into that big bucket and had sort of thought he might not want to do that right then so he moved his leg. That made his big ole hoof hit the bucket which made a noise which made him jump and that bucket went flying and that human girl went to yelling so he high tailed it outta there. He said he forgot he even had a sore foot he wanted out of there so much. I saw my human girl leaned over in there and stuff laying where it shouldn't be so I headed farther out in my pasture. That much of a bunch of mess surely meant that someone was going to get a talking to and I didn't want it to be me. I let my horse have my feed. The human girl made it out of the barn and headed for the main house. That was the last I saw of her till late in the day. She was favoring her leg even more than my horse favors his.

I guess she's better today, the human girl that is. She came out and fed us after the worst of the storms passed this morning and she wasn't even limping. That's a good thing. I don't mind it if the human man takes care of feeding me and my horse but I do not think it counts as really getting our feed. I think that just counts as 'treats' when he does it. You know us horse's, we are creatures of habit for sure.

A special day

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY TO YOU AND YOURS

FROM ME AND MINE!!

We had a storm last night

My horse and I 'rode out' a storm last night well it was mostly this morning. There was some wind and rain and thunder and lightening. We stayed inside till it was gone. Then not long after that before it turned wintertime again the human baby girl from across the road got to come over and sit on my back. She likes to do that. I hold very very still. She used to not want to sit on me since I am so very big but she is not scared anymore. She sits up on my back and if I turn my head around I can see her face smiling. I don't turn my head to far so she doesn't get off balance. I only turn it enough to see her. She is so little it's not easy to tell she is sitting on me. I let her sit on me as long as she wants to. Makes me no matter. If she is happy sitting up there I will stand there. My horse says he will be happy when she gets big enough for him to give her a real ride instead of a rocking horse ride. Well that is just funny since I am not rocking but when he gives the little ones a ride he does rock! So anyway that is our day so far. Storms, fun, winter winds. Just waiting for our early afternoon snack now.

This afternoon the baby girl's big brother got to come over for horsey ride. He is in pre-kindergarten now so we don't see much of him. Maybe once a day is all we see him now except on the weekends. But I was telling you he came over for a visit. He gets on my horse and hangs onto a hank of hair. He is strong enough and big enough now that he can sit up there all by himself. Of course my horse, Pretty Boy, does not walk fast with him and one of the humans always has a hold of the lead rope but that boy is becoming a real cowboy. Today he said 'yeeeehaw! ride 'em cowboy!' That boy needs a cowboy hat.

Early Spring Flowers

We have some flowers coming up out here on the farm. They are not the kind I like to eat. some of them have a very strong smell to them. I have told my horse he needs to make sure he doesn't bump up against them when he is grazing on the beautiful green grass. That is not a smell you want to get on your nose if you don't know how to stick your nose in the water and shake it around. Heard the humans talking about them the other day. One of them said they are called Paper White's and the other one said some fancy name that didn't sound like anything I have ever heard before. But it doesn't matter what they are called as long as you know those pretty little white flowers are to be given a wide berth. I was telling my horse the other day that sometimes those flowers will even poke their heads up out of snow. Not that we get a lot of snow out here East Texas. Told him also that the next flowers that come up will be the daffodils. We don't eat those either they are just for looking at. Sometimes there are a lot of them that come up but this winter has been pretty dry from the looks of my pond so there may not be that many come up this year.

Oh yes my pond is nearing the mud puddle stage of rolling in it readiness. I might not be doing that though if what I heard is true that it is going to be winter time again later this week. I think it is supposed to be real cold again in three moons. That's how I tell time. Sun, moon, sun, moon. When the sun comes up it's time to eat. When the sun goes down we, me and my horse, are on our own out here. We have a lot of fun sometimes at night when no one is around. Right before dawn and right after the sun goes down there are sometimes fairy's that come out and dance for us. They are quite beautiful with their yellow tiara's.

Our human girl played a trick on us today. I went to the front of the house and banged on the thing that makes noise to tell her that I wanted her to come out and give me something to eat. I made noise two different times. The second time she came out telling me 'backup back up back up'. I thought she meant it since she said it three times so I did back up. She started towards the barn telling me and my horse to just mind our p's and q's that that was no way to be acting. She said that there must be something wrong with our clocks because it was only a few minutes after four o'clock not four thirty. She told us to go out there in that pasture. The way she was pointing we decided it would be a good idea for us to do just that. She went around the barn so my horse thought she was going to come out that side door with him some food. That boy still has a lot to learn. She came out, but she came out with a brush and other stuff. We did not get feed. We got brushed and toes painted and then she went back in the house leaving us standing in our pasture to 'Think About IT'. That's what she said she said 'Think About IT'. I'm not completely sure what we were supposed to think about but I didn't go back over to the house and bang on that thing I'll tell you that. A few minutes later, which must have been four thirty whatever that means, she came back out and gave us our cup of feed.

Too late for Pre-Emergent weed killer

Pre emergent weed killer

Heard them talking about the weed crop growing. They said 'Too late to put out any pre-emergent weed killer this year'. And when I heard that I just had to snort out loud because it was so funny. I was thinking 'YOU THINK?!' there are weeds coming up everywhere since we had those days of summer weather back last month. There is some grass too. Beautiful green tender grass. HOORAY!!! In my yard I have weeds, grass, gophers and moles. Me being a horse and all I don't know for sure about the gophers and moles. What I mean to say is I don't know the difference between the two. There are trails of humped up dirt and there are mounds of dirt here and there all over the place so I know that there is something under the dirt I just don't know what to call it or them. But let's get back to growing grass. My horse and I have been trying to do our part by eating awhile here and then awhile there and we both seem to have our preferences as to what we will eat. Me I like young tender grass because it is so sweet. But my horse will eat anything and it doesn't even have to be green.

What we need is for the humans to get busy and put us some fertilizer out on our pasture. I wonder what kind they will use this year. They use three different kinds of fertilizer on different years. Sometimes it's liquid, then they will use chicken litter, and then sometimes some kind of dry white stuff. I think the dry stuff is powdered lime.

WHOA nelly!! That human girl came out to drag my pasture using her 4 wheeler and she just about made my horse nervous so I took him out to the front pasture. But then she was out there at the top end of my pasture which is close to that front pasture so I took my horse over there to the lower pasture. He is just going to have to get used to that human on that 4 wheeler because she is on it a lot. We both try to tell him that she is not going to run into us but he isn't quite sure about that just yet. We are up here getting us a drink of water while she is in the house getting herself some lunch.

My horse is sore

Well my horse has a sore foot today and it’s all my fault. You see I love to play in the pond so I was.

There isn’t a lot of water in it right now because it has been a rather dry winter but it’s still fun to get in there and splash. I pick my front foot out and hit it down on the water making a big splash over and over and over. When I tire of that I go to the shallow end and roll in the mud. I especially like to get covered in mud after the human girl has brushed me till I shine like a new penny.

Well this time when I was down there playing in the pond my horse decided he was well enough to join in. He said he thought it looked like it might be fun. He said he had never played in the water like that before. Now that is just a shame that some horse’s don’t get to play the way I do. Don’t those humans know that we work just as hard as they do and we like to have some free time and some free space to play ourselves.

Of course there are horse’s out there that do not like water but I have never understood that. My Mousey horse liked to get in the pond and get all wet but he would leave straight out of it when I started splashing around. So anyway there I was playing in the pond and my horse decided he wanted to come play too. The big boy just didn’t know that pond’s have muddy bottoms I guess. Or he did and the thought he could handle it, which he did but at a price. He walked all the way in very slowly then right out the other end. That was a pretty long walk for him. All that mud pulling on his feet made that hurt one sore. Heard the human girl talking to him saying he can do that again if he wants to but he should just go a little ways at a time not all the way in and all the way out. She told him he needed to work up to that but that for now he should stay in the shallow end or maybe just go crossways instead from end to end.
When we went up to my red barn for our dinner from way down at the old barn I did not go off and leave him. I waited for him to notice I was going and then I walked real slow so he could keep up. One time I just stopped and waited for him to catch up. That human girl didn’t rush us. She was just standing up there by the big red barn waiting for us to make it. She said I was a good girl for waiting for him and that she didn’t mind standing there. She said she would stand there as long as it took. That’s how I felt too. I would have done without eating if my horse wasn’t going to eat too. His foot is not hurt bad, it’s just sore. He can walk on it without limping he just isn’t going very fast today. Nothing to worry about he will be fine by morning I’m sure.

The day after the storms

Precious here. We were very lucky yesterday that the storms missed us. Oh it didn't look or feel like they were going to but they did. I really don't like to see those storms coming over the hill from the direction of Waco. Nope don't like that at all. But this time, this time all is well. When my horse and me saw those clouds and that wind changed direction we just found us some good cover and waited. I am very brave so I stood guard. We got a little wind and some rain. Some very hard thick rain but not for long and as I said we were under cover so we didn't even get wet.

And today it was chilly out but we have green grass to eat. Now isn't that just something. Green grass right here near the first of February. Don't that just beat all. We have us a big ole round bale of hay to eat AND green grass. Can't get much better than that no sir can't get much better than that.

Yesterday before the weather moved in we were looking down at the neighbor's place and saw something new down there. A big white llama. There was already a brown one and a black one but now there is a BIG white one. I don't know when it got there or how it got there but by golly there it is. I think it might be a boy because they are keeping it in a pen all by itself. It looks like it would like to come out and play. Could be they are just keeping it in there till if figures out it lives here. Anyway it sure was a surprise to see it. Might be those people's little goat has had a baby too. I'm not sure about that since it is little and it is pretty far away from here down there in the valley near a pond. Those people over there have two turkey also. Now that's some funny looking things. And they laugh funny too. We like for them to come over here and visit with us. They like to share with us what is going on in their barn. They say there are a lot of animals in there of all different kinds. My horse and I have only seen goats, and turkeys, cows, llamas and that crazy in the head pony who has never been taught any manners.

OH! LOOKY THERE!! Here comes that human girl. I sure hope she is coming to brush me nice not coming to put more of that funny smelling medicine on me. I better get out there see you later.

It's me again the 'Pretty Boy'!

..........That felt just wonderful that she was wanting to know where I was and she was walking all over the place trying to find me. She found the big paint horse and asked her ‘Where is that pretty boy?’ and that was what she was calling out as she walked around too. She kept calling out ‘Pretty Boy! Where are you Pretty Boy!’

She was very nice to me. She brushed me and rubbed on me and hugged me a lot telling me the whole time what a pretty boy I was.................

Yes. I repeat myself but that is a most wonderful part of my story. She said I was a Pretty Boy! I heard her call that out many times before I realized she was talking to me. You see I was not very pretty at that point in my life. I was better but I was sure I wasn’t pretty. I had not gained all my weight back. Since I got hurt I had not hardly walked at all. For maybe five months I mostly just stood in one place. And it was my front foot that was so badly injured so I stood with my two back legs sort of up under me to take some of the weight off my front leg. I could feel when people were rubbing on me that I had developed a hump on my back towards my back end from standing there with my feet up under me. The human lady knows what it is called but it doesn't matter really because that time has passed. Anyway I thought I looked funny not pretty but she said I was a Pretty Boy. Now I can stand proper, walk, trot and even run sometimes. I have been here on the farm since last March and it is February now so I am well accustomed to life here now.

And it is a wonderful life. There is fresh water, grass to graze on and hay to eat. Every morning we get a bucket of feed and every afternoon, twice, we each get a large cup of feed. I am very grateful to the pet of Precious. She really does keep very good care of me. She has decided it is time for me to get into shape so she takes me for walks or she wanders off then calls me to catch up with her. I am strong enough to carry big people now. At first I could have too but the human girl said NO don't do that to him he needs to heal. So I only give babies and small children rides. They are not afraid of me even though I am very very tall. I am taller than my big Paint horse even but those babies don't care. The big humans just throw them up on me, tell them to grab some hair and off we go. It is very exciting for those babies. I think that is pretty funny since we never go more than maybe ten steps then the human man says "That's enough for now". He is so funny. Such a worrier. The human girl not so much. She wants me to try to do things. She says I will not know if I can do it if I don't try. So I try to do something different or more everyday.

I am very happy to live here on the farm with the big red barn.

The Pretty Boy 'Trouper' March of 2007

Super Bowl Sunday

Precious here to tell you it is Super Bowl Sunday and no one wants to play with me! There are humans around but they are talking and looking and petting and patting on me and my horse but that is about it. When they come up I go to greet them and let them know I saw them coming in is howcome I get to get petted on. Of course my horse wanders up too so then everyone as to oooohhhh and aaaahhhhh over how pretty he is which makes me real proud since I have been working with him a little every day. I don't make him run anymore like I did a few times we just walk and sometimes trot. He seems to be gaining strength.

Just so you know I got my rain rot scrubbed already early this morning and the human girl said that it is looking much better. I don't stick my nose in that bowl of mouthwash anymore when she is scrubbing me. Just don't like the taste of that stuff at all.

Here comes another truck I better go see who it is................

My story continues....

When we last talked I had just arrived here on the farm and met my new friends. I was supposed to be put in a paddock so as to keep me from walking around too much. But I was brought here to be a pet to Precious. And the human girl didn't like the idea of me being couped up like that. I was rather happy she had that notion in her head because here there was grass to graze on. I had not really had any grass to graze on in a very long time. The human girl told me that I should be mindful of my injury and not over exert myself so I just just walked around slowly eating the wonderful grass. When it came feeding time she did put me in a pen, for my own good, she said. She would carry out a big bucket with warm water and epsom salts in it and set it on the ground. Then she would get my feed and put it into my feeding barrel. That is when she would pick my leg up and put my foot into the bucket. I didn't mind that at all. It made my foot feel a lot better. Seemed to take some of the heat out of it and throbbing. I would stand there with my foot in that big white bucket and eat my feed then just stand there with my foot in the bucket till she told me it was ok to take it out.

For the first few days she would leave me in the pen overnight and let me out in the mornings. That was ok with us. I would stand on one side of the gate and Precious would stand on the other. Then one afternoon the human lady left the farm. I was not real sure that was a good thing but Precious told me it happens sometimes and that she always comes back. And she did come back but something bad happened while she was gone and hour or two or a lifetime which is what it seemed like.

I had big spot of infection start to come out of my leg right above the injured foot and the human man was just about worried sick. He was trying to get me to go to my pen but my foot really really hurt so much that I didn't want to stand on it much less try to walk. So the man went into the house and came back out with the white bucket. He did not do the water like the human lady. The water was cold. I think that might have been a good thing thinking back on it. Anyway he put my foot into that bucket and had me standing there for some time then he said I could go if I could or just stand there till the lady got home if I couldn't.

It wasn't much later before she did come home and I was so happy to see her I forgot how my foot was hurting. She called me her Pretty Boy and told me to come on and she would help me. I could hear her muttering to herself as we walked ever so slowly towards that red barn. She was saying 'mercy me mercy me mercy me' over and over again. I know now she does that while she is thinking of what needs to be done first. Well she said ' Get me a bucket of warm water and a cup of epsom salts please we will be at the barn'. He did and we stood in that bucket of water till moon was up in the sky and the coyotes were singing to it. The whole time the human lady was telling me and Precious that it was going to be ok. Everything is going to be ok. Well we thought she must be right since she said it so many times. She gave both of us a final pat and a hug and told us she would see us in the morning at first light.