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Bed and barn
Jun. 5th, 2006 12:53 pmThe new bed is comfy and I seem to not wake up as much during the night since it arrived on Friday. I also think I'm not sleeping in quite so many contorted positions either since I've been waking up fewer times with any neck or back discomfort. With the thicker mattress, the bed is a good 5" taller than the old one. That's taking some getting used to. Not only because it looks bigger but because when I sit on the edge of it, my feet don't touch the ground. I feel like a little kid or something. The height also means that I have to look down a little to see the clock radio instead of looking a bit upward. Nothin wrong with all that. It'll just take some getting used to.
Katie seems to not care about the furniture having changed in her territory. She didn't even come check the bed out once the delivery guys left. When I was lazing around on it shortly thereafter she jumped up and kinda landed on the very edge of the mattress, then immediately gave me a look. I think she's used to jumping a certain height and blamed me for her less than graceful hop up onto the taller bed.
Nugget's leg is looking okay. He's got stitches and it'll be a while before it's all healed. I took some pictures of his leg while he was in the stall, but basically all you see is a leg with a lot of biozide slathered on it. I knowingly broke the rule about flash photography in the barn to take 'em, but..eh..the horses really don't care about flashes. The only reaction from any of 'em was for nugget to turn his butt to the door the first time the flash went off even though the pictures were being taken under him.
Don wasn't at the barn when I arrived. He'd gone to pick up a new horse and arrived about 15 minutes after I did. The new guy is a 14 year old gelding named Cody from the University of Maryland's stables. He was both curious and nervous about the new environment and strange horses. He settled into his stall pretty quickly and was getting along with his neighbor Wizard. Lots of nose snuffling through the stall bars and such. Wizard did get grumpy toward Cody at feeding time, but Wizard was field boarded in the past and tends to be aggressive about protecting his food.
Summer, one of the boarded mares a couple stalls down took quite an interest in the new guy and even neighed and nickered to him. Poor girl, Cody is like the rest of the fella's there, with no interest in such things. It was cute to see Summer act like that, since she's a pretty grumpy thing most of the time.
We've had barn swallows nesting in the barn for a long time. This year, one pair of them decided to build a nest on the wall across from the stalls on the school side of the barn, right under where Cowboy's bridle usually hangs. Who knows what they were thinking building a nest 5 and a half feet off the ground in a moderately busy area, but they did it. Last week there were a bunch of little eggs in there. This week I brought a camera with me and took a couple pictures. Since I couldn't easily see into the nest, I just held the camera up, pointed it downward and took a couple shots. It's hard to make out any detail on the camera's lil screen, but you can see a bunch of pink and grey, recently hatched babies in there. I was surprised the parents weren't fussing about me and others being near their nest. I guess they were too busy going off to get food for the new kids.
Apparently there was a female snapping turtle by the parking lot for hours on Saturday. She'd dug a hole and was laying eggs, ignoring the humans who kept coming over to watch her. When she was done she covered the nest and went down to the creek in the woods across the street. Don showed me where she was and if I hadn't been told, I'd never have guessed it was a turtle nest. There's just a bit of turned up dirt where she laid the eggs. Those babies are going to have quite a trip when they hatch. They'll have to cross the parking lot, the chute to the outdoor ring, a lot of grass, the street, and then make it to the creek. Probably a good 150 yards or so where they'll have to contend with crows, humans, cars, and stuff.
Katie seems to not care about the furniture having changed in her territory. She didn't even come check the bed out once the delivery guys left. When I was lazing around on it shortly thereafter she jumped up and kinda landed on the very edge of the mattress, then immediately gave me a look. I think she's used to jumping a certain height and blamed me for her less than graceful hop up onto the taller bed.
Nugget's leg is looking okay. He's got stitches and it'll be a while before it's all healed. I took some pictures of his leg while he was in the stall, but basically all you see is a leg with a lot of biozide slathered on it. I knowingly broke the rule about flash photography in the barn to take 'em, but..eh..the horses really don't care about flashes. The only reaction from any of 'em was for nugget to turn his butt to the door the first time the flash went off even though the pictures were being taken under him.
Don wasn't at the barn when I arrived. He'd gone to pick up a new horse and arrived about 15 minutes after I did. The new guy is a 14 year old gelding named Cody from the University of Maryland's stables. He was both curious and nervous about the new environment and strange horses. He settled into his stall pretty quickly and was getting along with his neighbor Wizard. Lots of nose snuffling through the stall bars and such. Wizard did get grumpy toward Cody at feeding time, but Wizard was field boarded in the past and tends to be aggressive about protecting his food.
Summer, one of the boarded mares a couple stalls down took quite an interest in the new guy and even neighed and nickered to him. Poor girl, Cody is like the rest of the fella's there, with no interest in such things. It was cute to see Summer act like that, since she's a pretty grumpy thing most of the time.
We've had barn swallows nesting in the barn for a long time. This year, one pair of them decided to build a nest on the wall across from the stalls on the school side of the barn, right under where Cowboy's bridle usually hangs. Who knows what they were thinking building a nest 5 and a half feet off the ground in a moderately busy area, but they did it. Last week there were a bunch of little eggs in there. This week I brought a camera with me and took a couple pictures. Since I couldn't easily see into the nest, I just held the camera up, pointed it downward and took a couple shots. It's hard to make out any detail on the camera's lil screen, but you can see a bunch of pink and grey, recently hatched babies in there. I was surprised the parents weren't fussing about me and others being near their nest. I guess they were too busy going off to get food for the new kids.
Apparently there was a female snapping turtle by the parking lot for hours on Saturday. She'd dug a hole and was laying eggs, ignoring the humans who kept coming over to watch her. When she was done she covered the nest and went down to the creek in the woods across the street. Don showed me where she was and if I hadn't been told, I'd never have guessed it was a turtle nest. There's just a bit of turned up dirt where she laid the eggs. Those babies are going to have quite a trip when they hatch. They'll have to cross the parking lot, the chute to the outdoor ring, a lot of grass, the street, and then make it to the creek. Probably a good 150 yards or so where they'll have to contend with crows, humans, cars, and stuff.