I was grazing......

There I was a happy happy horse just walking around grazing on the beautiful tender young green grass when it started getting dark at the wrong time of the day or had I been asleep and dreaming about grazing? No it was getting darker but it wasn't because the sun was going down. And then the dark clouds spilled rain on me and my horse with hardly a warning drop falling first. We were over by the feed shed. There is a lean-to there at the end of it where the humans park the truck and the cool jeep. I do not know the reason why by one was parked where the other one usually is which made the other one parked where that one usually is and that meant there was only room for one of us to get under cover. My horse was closest so guess who that left standing out in the rain. Yes that is correct if you guessed it was me, Precious the beautiful Paint horse. I didn't mind just a whole lot at first because I like water even if it is falling on me instead of me standing in it playing. But this rain was getting thick. Does rain get thick? Yes it does. It got so thick I could hardly see my horse over there in the lean-to next to the jeep. The heavier that rain fell the more I backed up until I couldn't back up any more so there was nothing for me to do but hang my head and wait it out. See I couldn't back up anymore because I had backed all the way up into a clump of China Berry trees. Now those of you that don't know it China Berry trees are so thick with leaves that it is almost like standing under regular roof.....most of the time. This rain that was coming down even made it thru the China Berry tree leaves! I was very happy it didn't last very long and then I was over looking into my pond to see if it was deep enough to swim in yet. It wasn't but it was getting close to enough.

The house mouse told me that we got very lucky with that rain when I was telling my story about standing under the tree. House mouse told me that the rain clouds had zipped on past us and stopped over in Shreveport Louisiana where it stopped. They got more almost seven inches of rain in three hours over there. Boy howdy I think that much rain would make my pond deep enough for me to swim in for many days. I sure hope everyone over there in Shreveport Louisiana get dried out soon like I did.

I was just standing there thinking

I was just standing there by the water tank thinking and not being a bother when she came by me on her four wheeler. Now I have been trying to train my horse not to be afraid of her when she is on that four wheeler because although she sounds crazy and maybe even looks a little crazy she will not run into us. So when she came by and she was only a few feet from me and she had that drag harrow thing behind her and it hit the rocks which sent up such a noise that I flinched. I'm not much of a flincher. I'm not scared of nuthin' as a rule and I'm not saying I was scared of that drag harrow either it just startled me a little. My horse, the Pretty Boy, has been coming right along in his training but when I flinched that poor boy got spooked and jumped straight up in the air! Funniest thing I have seen in a few days that was. He went straight up in the air and straight down too. And he gave some serious thought to bolting, which means running away. But he didn't he held his ground. I hope that silly girl gives us some warning next time she is going to make a racket like that sneaking up on me and all.

The human man is not impressed with the progress the Pretty Boy has made in his training not to jump and run when things move around him. Nope he is not impressed at all. When he tries to leave the land sometimes my horse will be standing where he wants to drive and he isn't going to move because we taught him not to be afraid. The human man says a little fear is healthy. Says he just sometimes has to back up and drive around my horse. Sometimes he says he just drives right by him. I think that is pretty funny. I supposed we should explain to my horse that there are certain places that the truck drives that he should not pick for a nap.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day always starts at least a week before the actual day out here in the country. The children of the humans in the area come and spend several days enjoying the country before having to go back to their city folks. The grand children and great grand children are a joy for me and my horse, The Pretty Boy. Not because we give them horseback rides but just because they like to see us and we like being seen. They come by the fence to pet us and talk to us telling us how very big and very pretty we are. So of course we stay pretty much up in the top end of our horse pasture or out in the middle of the front pasture so they can see us real good and we can get over to the fence pretty fast if they want to see us up close. We have to get to the fence real fast if it is the great grand children because they are small enough to get through the fence and then the bigger humans get all excited about that. Me and my horse would not hurt a baby. We like small children and we hold very still when we see them coming. At first we didn't know it was ok and we might think we should run away but my horse told me that if we just hold real still nothing will happen to make anyone scared. He thinks he is a very smart horse. Sometimes he is. He was trained as a cutting horse you know so he knows some stuff that I don't know but I know stuff he doesn't know so it all evens out.

It is the quiet time of year

Right now is a very quiet time of year. Only an occasional tractor is heard running and that is not a bad sound to hear. Most of the time there is just nothing but maybe a baby bird to be heard. Me and my horse even try to chew quietly which is not hard to do since it is such young tender grass we are grazing on.

Oh we do hear the children across the road playing on their swing set and other toys laughing out loud at the top of their lungs it seems a lot more now that the weather is better. The boy has a whistle. Not a real whistle but a broken recorder. A recorder is a flute sort of musical instrument that children learn how to play when they are in school. He has three of them, all different colors, but he likes that red broken one the best it seems. Our human girl was whistling back at him the other day when he was being especially happy with his toy. We heard his Daddy say to him 'Did you hear that? Blow on it again I think someone answered your whistle.' We thought it was very funny so we, my horse and I, ran around kicking up our heels. The little boy would blow as loud as he could on his broken recorder and our human girl would just use her lips to whistle back loudly. We do not know if they knew it was her but it sure was fun to listen to them.

Oh I said a minute ago that our weather is better but what I mean is that is nicer when it is nice. A lot of the time the wind is blowing from one direction or another and today we are having some thunderstorms but nothing so bad yet. Last week we had some serious weather come thru but we did not get hurt and only a little bit scared. The bad weather doesn't last too long and then the sun comes out and that is wonderful. It is wonderful because it is like God is shining a spotlight on all the beautiful glimmering shimmering spring colors. One of my favorite trees to stand under in the summer time is the last one to get leaves on it each year and the color of those leaves are spectacular after a rain!!!!

Well I a going to go back out in the pasture and eat me some more grass now. See you when I see you!!!!!!!!!!

Today's lesson 'Go That Way'

May 3, 2008

Our lesson today is ‘Go that way’.

For some reason all of a sudden the human girl thinks we should go where she wants us to go without following her to get there. My horse, The Pretty Boy ‘Trouper’, can do that already. I think since he already does it then that means that I am going to be the one learning. This should be pretty easy for me to pick up since I follow my horse where he goes anyway. Oh she means I should follow right behind him not follow her and then go to where he went. Well this is going to be harder for me to do because I will be thinking she is going to go get something that I want but if I go where he is going I might not get whatever it is she is going to get. Yes this is going to be hard for me to do.

Also my Pretty Boy is learning how to stand still when he gets fly spray sprayed on him. I do that. I stand very still. I don’t even backup like I usually do because ‘HEY! My head is up here don’t you want to rub on it?’! Nope when I am getting fly spray sprayed on me I hold still so she can get me covered real good because fly’s bother me. He is getting very good at not walking away from her when she comes up to him with that fly spray bottle but as soon as she starts spraying him he wants to leave the area. He thinks he can turn his tail end towards her and she will shy away but she doesn’t scare easy so she just keeps walking right there beside him never letting him get all the way turned around. She tells him ‘You are not going to win’ and he doesn’t. One time she walked all over the pasture with him and when he finally stopped and she was able to get a hand on him she just patted him and told him he was a good boy then she walked away.

She does things like that to me too. I used to not come to her when she whistled for me so she would come to get me. She would say ‘Didn’t you hear me whistle for you?’ and I would pretend that I didn’t so she would just pat on me and lead me to where ever it was that she had been calling me from and then she would just walk away and leave me standing there never to know what I must have missed by not coming when I was called. Now when I hear her whistle I come look and then I run to where she is so I don’t miss out. My horse, the Pretty Boy, is starting to understand that whistle means shake a leg horse!

VIVA! el Cinco de Mayo!!!!

May 5, 2008

Cinco de Mayo loosely translates to The Fifth of May.


Today is Cinco de Mayo! I am not completely sure what this holiday is so the House Mouse is going to look on the internet and tell us, that would be me and my horse, what it is. All we know now is that the boy in the next town requested cheese and his sister wanted a flower. Seems sort of funny to us so we will wait to hear from the House Mouse as to why the human girl worked so hard around here today making everything look so nice. She even combed our hair and she put a blue halter on me. Blue!!!!!! I’m a girl horse but she put a blue halter on me. My horse thinks it might have something to do with the holiday.

OK here’s what the House Mouse found at a web site originating in San Marcos Texas who’s address is http://www.vivacincodemayo.org/history.htm She says to tell you that this is just part of what is on the web site that this is the part that makes Cinco de Mayo important to us horse’s. She also said that she is putting all this on here for us to read without getting permission from the people in San Marcos so if you go to their web site you give them a big ole Texas Thank YOU!…..

………………….(that means that there were words that came before this but house mouse isn’t going to type them)…….The French Army left the port of Vera Cruz to attack Mexico City to the west, as the French assumed that the Mexicans would give up should their capital fall to the enemy -- as European countries traditionally did.
Under the command of Texas-born General Zaragosa, (and the cavalry under the command of Colonel Porfirio Diaz, later to be Mexico's president and dictator), the Mexicans awaited. Brightly dressed French Dragoons led the enemy columns. The Mexican Army was less stylish.
General Zaragosa ordered Colonel Diaz to take his cavalry, the best in the world, out to the French flanks. In response, the French did a most stupid thing; they sent their cavalry off to chase Diaz and his men, who proceeded to butcher them. The remaining French infantrymen charged the Mexican defenders through sloppy mud from a thunderstorm and through hundreds of head of stampeding cattle stirred up by Indians armed only with machetes.
When the battle was over, many French were killed or wounded and their cavalry was being chased by Diaz' superb horsemen miles away. The Mexicans had won a great victory that kept Napoleon III from supplying the confederate rebels for another year, allowing the United States to build the greatest army the world had ever seen. This grand army smashed the Confederates at Gettysburg just 14 months after the battle of Puebla, essentially ending the Civil War.
Union forces were then rushed to the Texas/Mexican border under General Phil Sheridan, who made sure that the Mexicans got all the weapons and ammunition they needed to expel the French. American soldiers were discharged with their uniforms and rifles if they promised to join the Mexican Army to fight the French. The American Legion of Honor marched in the Victory Parade in Mexico, City.
It might be a historical stretch to credit the survival of the United States to those brave 4,000 Mexicans who faced an army twice as large in 1862. But who knows?
In gratitude, thousands of Mexicans crossed the border after Pearl Harbor to join the U.S. Armed Forces. As recently as the Persian Gulf War, Mexicans flooded American consulates with phone calls, trying to join up and fight another war for America.
Mexicans, you see, never forget who their friends are, and neither do Americans. That's why Cinco de Mayo is such a party -- A party that celebrates freedom and liberty. There are two ideals which Mexicans and Americans have fought shoulder to shoulder to protect, ever since the 5th of May, 1862. VIVA! el CINCO DE MAYO!!
.

Go That Way

May 3, 2008

Our lesson today is ‘Go that way’.

For some reason all of a sudden the human girl thinks we should go where she wants us to go without following her to get there. My horse, The Pretty Boy ‘Trouper’, can do that already. I think since he already does it then that means that I am going to be the one learning. This should be pretty easy for me to pick up since I follow my horse where he goes anyway. Oh she means I should follow right behind him not follow her and then go to where he went. Well this is going to be harder for me to do because I will be thinking she is going to go get something that I want but if I go where he is going I might not get whatever it is she is going to get. Yes this is going to be hard for me to do.

Also my Pretty Boy is learning how to stand still when he gets fly spray sprayed on him. I do that. I stand very still. I don’t even backup like I usually do because ‘HEY! My head is up here don’t you want to rub on it?’! Nope when I am getting fly spray sprayed on me I hold still so she can get me covered real good because fly’s bother me. He is getting very good at not walking away from her when she comes up to him with that fly spray bottle but as soon as she starts spraying him he wants to leave the area. He thinks he can turn his tail end towards her and she will shy away but she doesn’t scare easy so she just keeps walking right there beside him never letting him get all the way turned around. She tells him ‘You are not going to win’ and he doesn’t. One time she walked all over the pasture with him and when he finally stopped and she was able to get a hand on him she just patted him and told him he was a good boy then she walked away.

She does things like that to me too. I used to not come to her when she whistled for me so she would come to get me. She would say ‘Didn’t you hear me whistle for you?’ and I would pretend that I didn’t so she would just pat on me and lead me to where ever it was that she had been calling me from and then she would just walk away and leave me standing there never to know what I must have missed by not coming when I was called. Now when I hear her whistle I come look and then I run to where she is so I don’t miss out. My horse, the Pretty Boy, is starting to understand that whistle means shake a leg horse!

Spring Training as begun

May 2, 2008

I am going to start a new series today. I am going to tell you how that human girl is training my horse, the Pretty Boy. I would tell you how she trained me but she gave up on that years ago so now I just do what she asks me to do or I don’t. Most of the time I do what I am told when I am told so I don’t have to wear a halter. When Randal comes to put shoes on us he puts a halter on me and ties me to a tree so I don’t eat all the stuff in the back of his truck or pick stuff up and carry it off. He says he can’t keep an eye on me and work on my horse, the Pretty Boy, at the same time. He calls it ‘Horsey Day Car’. I don’t mind just standing there but I really like going thru all the stuff he has in the back of his truck so I guess it’s a good idea he ties me up.

Today’s lesson is called ‘Pick YOUR FOOT UP!’

Everyday, twice a day, the Pretty Boy gets his right front foot soaked in a five gallon bucket of warm Epsom salts. Some times there is not a problem. Sometimes there is a problem. One time he kicked the human girls leg off right at the knee and she had to put it back on before she could come feed me. I couldn’t get to her to help her because my horse was in the way so I just waited till she got her self put back together. (Her leg didn't really get knocked off. She just got kicked and it dislocated her leg at the knee just a little bit so she had to lay there an catch her breath and figure out if her leg was going to carry her. This can take awhile because she says you don't want to rush off because it is a long way to go so you have to make sure you can make it before setting out.) A couple of days ago he caught her right on her knee cap. So apparently today she decided that play time was over and we were going to get to see who was the boss once and for all or till next week.

The lesson started like this….’Pick your foot up and put it in the bucket’. He just stood there. She leaned a little farther over an grabbed his leg in a different place. ‘Pick your foot up and put it in the bucket’ . Still he just stood there. She moved the bucket. She moved the bucket again. ‘Pick your foot up and put it in the bucket’. Nope. She stood up, turned around and looked him square in his eye that is on that side of his head. You could tell he was looking at her and could hear what she was saying but just not being very nice. Anyway she stood up, turned around and told him very gently ‘You are going to let me pick your foot up and put it in that bucket and you are going to do it now.’ She sounded nice but serious. She turned back around, leaned over and grabbed hold of his leg ‘Pick up your foot’. Nothing. She stood up and turned to him again and said ‘You will not win.’ She turned around for a second time leaned over and right when she grabbed his leg to pick it up she leaned her shoulder into him nearly knocking him over. That leg came up alright no trouble. She put it into the bucket and told him. ‘And you will be leaving it there please.’ He snorted at her but he did not take his foot out of that bucket.

Score one for the human girl! Pretty Boy didn't know even after living here for one whole year that that human girl could do what she just did to him. Most of the time she is very nice to my Pretty Boy. Most of the time when she wants him to do something she just tells him "Come on it'll be fun!"

I was talking to the house mouse

I was talking to the house mouse when a little cotton tailed bunny went hop hop hop right by us. It sure was a tiny thing. Little ears couldn't have been a whole inch long. I did not know that bunny rabbits lived in my barn and the house mouse said the same thing. Well now we know there is at least on of them in there and that it is very cute.

House mouse's computer went dark. Nothing on the screen but blackness and the mouse pointer. That doesn't sound like much fun and house mouse said I was right it is not much fun. Now the house mouse has to listen to me, then run tell cousin what I said and you know that house mouse mouse doesn't have a very big head for remembering a lot of letters that go to words so I am going to talk real slow and not very much.

Human girl said more rain coming this way for the afternoon so if we want to eat grass we better get out of the barn and do it now so I'll be seeing you when I see you next!

Big Storms the other day....

Big storms day before yesterday. Pretty Red Bud tree down in the little backyard of the big house. Whew what a mess glad I don’t have to clean it up. Nope that human man has the chain saw out so I stay way far away from that kind of work. I only help him if he has the hood up on a truck or the tractor. I’m not going to help him when he uses that chain saw. Then I saw the human girl coming with a big red ladder. She was saying it was a shame she couldn’t find the normal size ladder and kept on having to carry that big tall ladder around when she needed to reach something. The human man told her that ladder she was looking for was upstairs in the barn and he would get it for her if she wanted it. She said yes she wanted it on ground level please. Then she got him to carry the big ladder back out to the barn when she was finished with it. She had used it and a rake to get the tree limbs off the porch roof. They have it all cleaned up like nothing happened now and then he went to town and she came out with her doctoring stuff. My horse, Pretty Boy, is starting look pretty good. She says most of his infection is gone now. Says maybe one day next week Randall will come out and trim on that one hoof of his so he can maybe walk proper. Walks like he is using a cane right now with that high hoof. The human girl thinks there is enough good hoof there now that it can be trimmed to a more normal size. The human man says to leave that up to the professional. And she said hurumph.

Got us some sacks of fresh feed delivered today and put in my big red barn. I like that. Can’t have it as much as I would like to have it because it would be too rich for my tummy but two or three times a day is enough for a horse I suppose.

Temperature out here is going down and we are just about out of our winter coats so we are just going to stay in here in the barn and take a nap till lunch time.

How the Tail began

The first post was Titled 'And so the Tail Begins.....' and I like it so much I am going to post it again. I may even make it a regular thing that tell the house mouse to do for me. OK I will not 'tell' her to do it I will 'ask' her to do it for me. Asking is so much nicer. And when done properly will be more likely to get you what you want or at least what you need even if you didn't know you needed it. So here goes a repeat of the first post....


He was kind enough to adopt her a horse of her own.........

Fun fun day

Now THAT was Fun!

My horse, Pretty Boy, and I had big fun with our human girl this afternoon. You see when she brought the bucket out to soak his foot this morning he went over to her thinking she was bringing him some more feed so when she went back in the big house we made a plan for the next time she came out with that white bucket. And by golly it worked like a charm. We had FUN FUN FUN!!!

She got my Pretty Boy and put a lead rope on him. Then she lead him over to a fence post where she had her white bucket of water. As she started tying him to the fence post I made noise on the pipe fence with my hoof which got our dog, Mudfoot, to barking. She told me to ‘stop that’ and finished tying up my horse. Then she bent over to pick his big ole foot up and put it in that bucket so I banged my foot on the big gate. Yes you know it that dog went to howling again and the human girl said again ‘stop that Precious’. So I just stood over there by the gate looking like I didn’t know what she was talking about while my horse pulled his foot out of the bucket! Mercy me it was funny. She said 'Put your foot back in that bucket boy! Pick it up pick it up pick it up bend your leg bend your leg bend your leg Thank You now leave it in there.' It looked like he might be going to do what she said so I had to step in. I walked over there and asked her to please pet me. I needed her to scratch my nose. So of course she did because I am a nice horse. This time the boy pulled his foot out but didn't pick it up far enough and over the bucket went. She just threw her hands up in the air and said 'I give up but I will be back!!'

Red Bud Tree

Original photos by Ginger, artwork by Pam. Click to enlarge. Prices vary; bids open

Here it is Friday again all day

Today there has been a lot of human traffic all over the farm. First one and then another one here there and everywhere doing all kinds of thing. The human man, my owner, was out early this morning cutting Wisteria. Wisteria smells good this time of year but it can get away from you in a big hurry if you don’t keep it clipped back is what he told me. Then later the human girl came out but she was just clipping wisteria flowers. She takes them into the big house since they smell so good. I don’t have to have any cut and put into my barn because I can smell them anyway.

There is some rain sprinkling down out of the sky and that makes those guinea hens act funny. I guess they get excited thinking it is food falling on them but it is just water. Water doesn’t bother me. I like water. I stand out in the rain to get wet because I like to it so much. My horse, The Pretty Boy, doesn’t stand out in it like I do. He goes into our big red barn and watches it rain or just sometimes even turns his back so he can’t even see it.

Oh! I see the humans have put the hummingbird feeders out. Well not all of them just one but that must mean the hummingbirds are back. Those are pretty interesting birds but they are hard for me to see since they are so tiny and move so fast. Sometimes we have so many of them here on the farm you can hear them buzzing like the honey bee’s on the fruit trees in the springtime.

My human friend, Abigail, might be coming to see me this weekend. She is a pretty human girl. Her grandma said maybe she will be coming down to get horsey rides. I know how to be nice to her because she does not run at me and is not scared of me. She is a friend of the human boy across the street that sings to me. They are nice human children. My horse is going to let them ride him too he told me so. He said he may not be able take them very far but he will let them ride him some if we play out in the pasture not on the rocky road. It is fun to play with the human children. I love to hear them giggle and laugh.

Ok the rain might be getting thicker so I am going to run out and graze some more see you later……….

Pony Rides by house mouse

Hard to find anyone who remembers the little pony that used to come around in town years ago offering to let the little children sit on the pony and get their picture made. Boy was that a lot of fun. All the little cowboys and cowgirls would put on the little red hat. The boys would put on the little chaps and the girls too maybe. They were the cutest little pictures. Of course you might be asking yourself how a house mouse who lives in a big red barn would know anything about such things and you would right in wondering about that. I know I have never been to town and long ago was a very long time ago but I do know about that pony and the pictures. I know because I found one of those pictures yesterday and looked at it before I ate it.

-house mouse-

And now a word from Precious..........
I WANT FEED AND I WANT IT NOW!!!!! Seems that human girl has put us on a diet. She says there is green grass and hay for us to eat and if we don't cut down on our feed then we are going to be Elephants instead of horse's. Well I for one have been an elephant before and do not have a problem being an elephant again. I did not have elephant ears of course in case you were wondering. But I did hear many exclaim 'My goodness she is as big as an elephant!' and they were all smiling and happy when they said that so it must not really be such a bad thing to be the way I see it. But the human girl says that elephant it only OK if I am going to have a baby horse and I am not so I do not get to be an elephant this spring. Oh well maybe if it keeps raining I can be a hippopotomoose!!

So much going on today....

So much going on today we don’t know where to look so we are just running all over the place. Holiday weekend and everyone on the road is out playing. There are four wheelers going up and down the road with boys yelling like cowboys. And cowboys in wagon’s and on horseback being as happy as the boys. My horse and I are just running running running so we do not miss any of the fun.

I am really proud of my horse. The Pretty Boy is keeping up with me when I am running. Not when I am running as fast as I can he can’t yet but when I am just running not tail up running he can keep up with me! Yes we are very proud of that boy today.

And we heard from the Queen of Squatamala that the Grand Prince and Princess were behaving like Indians and it was a good thing. She said that the King of Squatamala has made them their own Bows so they can shoot arrows like real Indians. That sounds like good fun doesn't it. I wonder if they are doing a rain dance?

OK I have to get back out there I hear what sounds like a baseball game over to the East!!!

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.