Yard Progress

I have been making slow progress in the yard this summer - the first bed of hastas is growing, one more bed of hastas is put in and two of the new plants even sent up flower shoots!

My asiatic lilies finished blooming about 10 days ago and now (finally!) my beautiful stargazer lilies are blooming!

The morning glories are sending up their long shoots and a few deep purple blossoms have ventured out. I transplanted some of the stems to the other side of the porch steps so we'll eventually we'll have railings covered with green vines and delicate flowers.

I love how the garden changes from month to month. The picture on the left is in late June, with the astilbe and asiatics. The picture on the right was today, with the morning glories and oriental Stargazers.

Luke's parents are visiting right now and have been helping in the yard as well (yay! :)). Luke and his dad cut down one of the huge pine trees on the side and are thinning out the others - now we just have to get the old red shed torn down and we'll have a lovely little picnic spot!

Luke's mom has been tearing out the weeds next to the porch and has cleared a large area which I plan to use as an herb garden. So far she has found several large pieces of slate and one old brown glass bottle, still completely intact, in her digging.

The next steps are to add some small flowers to the hasta beds, start planting the herb garden and mulch all the beds to cut down on the weeds. By fall I'm hoping to have cleared out the red shed, put in one more hasta bed, made a good start on the herb garden and lined as many beds as possible with stones (gathered from the paddocks at the barn!). We'll see how far we get... :)

Summertime

Yesterday was not the hottest day we've had this year, but it was buggy and muggy and just not much fun. Neither the horses nor I had much motivation to do anything, so I just rode a couple of them and then organized... cleaning out the trailer from the show on Sunday (which was a lot of fun!), updating feed and turnout charts, administering the bi-monthly dose of wormer to all the horses (it comes in a tube you stick in their mouths and squirt into the back of their throats but it tastes horrible so it can be a little bit of a "catch me if you can" game), etc. Even with less riding than usual, I was hot and sticky by the end of the day and was grateful and excited to get a phone call from Luke suggesting a dip in the nearby Battenkill River. He ran by the house and picked up my swimsuit, and off we went. Although the water was a little colder than he had thought it would be, it felt delicious. Those of you who know me to be a cautious cold-water-enterer should be very impressed that I was the first one to jump all the way in underwater! The public-access spot we stopped at was not very deep, so we didn't really "swim," but it still felt wonderful just to be in the cool water.

After a short detour back to the barn to check on a horse, we came home to a lovely light dinner of toasted pita bread, raisins, feta cheese and homemade tabouleh from a dear Iranian friend.

Yummy! I haven't had good tabouleh in awhile, and this was wonderful - it even included dried mint from our friend's sister in Lebanon! A perfect ending to a hot summer day. Thank you Wassim :)

A Summer Surprise

At 7:30 yesterday morning, as I was about to jump in the shower, my phone rang:

"Hello?"

Luke: "Hey, Jasmine had her foal last night, and Judy found it in the ditch this morning!"

"Oh no..."

"No, no, it's alive!"
"Really???"

"Yeah, it's a little colt. Judy carried it up to Jamie's house, and then they took it back down to Jasmine, I'm on my way to Rite Aid to get a couple things for them."

"Okay, I'll be there shortly!"

Sure enough, upon arriving at the barn, this is what I saw:

We knew Jasmine, the mom, was pregnant but didn't think she was due until Sept. or Oct. because she and the father are both wild and can't be handled. But she tricked us!

"Beamer" is an athletic little bugger, standing and walking much easier than Bailey did, probably because he's about 1/3 of the size Bailey was! Judy, one of the women who does morning chores at the barn, found him outside the pasture in the ditch by the driveway and at first thought he was a baby deer! We're guessing he stood shortly after birth, fell, rolled under the fence, tried to stand again and then toppled down into the ditch. He was shivering and mama was franticly calling for him, both were MUCH happier when reunited! However, Jasmine was nervous and kept moving, not letting him nurse for quite some time. Luke and Eric came and moved their shed, cleaned it, put rubber mats and shavings down, and then we carried Beamer in and Jasmine followed. They were both more relaxed in their "palace," with shade and fewer flies to bother them.

I stayed through the afternoon and ended up going in and standing on one side of the shed to block Jasmine so she had to stand still and let Beamer nurse. After doing that a couple of times she settled right in, and by late afternoon was nursing well all by himself. Yay!!! He's already quite the character - he took a 10 min. nap standing up yesterday, which is how adult horses sleep most often but I've never seen a foal able to do that at only 12 hrs. old! I was cleaning the stall out all around him and he didn't once flinch or even bat an eyelid.

He eventually woke up enough to nurse a little more and then lie down for a real nap. He loves to sleep with his knees tucked up under his chin, and I told Jamie he's practicing to be a jumper when he grows up. We'll see!

Jamie has always wanted a BMW and there's a (very nice) used one for sale in Hoosick Falls that she really wanted for her birthday (in mid-July) but knows she can't afford. So, she got a surprise equine Beamer for her birthday instead! Our lives are certainly never boring. :)