Saturday our friends Tom and Laurie came over with all of Tom's tree trimming equipment. He owns Kincaid Tree Surgery in Ft. Collins. We are watching their German Shepherd dog, Norman, over Christmas and in exchange, Tom agreed to come trim our trees.
He put on his harness and climbed into the trees like a friggin' monkey! Amazing. I can't climb higher than 2 rungs on a ladder and sometimes just climbing stairs makes me queasy.
Tom is waaaay up in the tree. Can you see him?As he cut dead branches away, they would rest in the lower branches on the tree. There was this tool that had a hook on the end of a long pole and I'd pull the dead branches out of the tree onto the ground. Laurie, Furry Husband and I would drag all the branches to the front gate where either Laurie or Furry Husband ran the chipper.
Man - it was WORK and it took most of the day. There is still a big, ol', dead elm out in our pasture but we were all so tired we decided to save it for another day. Our ash tree has bark beetle and we'll have to spray it in the spring otherwise it will die a slow death -- and it still might! Tom told me to water, water, water over the winter to help the tree mount up it's defenses.
I think WE got the better end of that trade! Norman, is not so much trouble.
Tho' he does like to stick his head through our fence and since it's electric.... POW! He gets a shock that sends him screaming and running for his life. And yet he keeps doing it! He somehow has not figured out that sticking his head through the fence = 10,000 volts.
Poor Norman!
We'll keep the fence off while he's here.
We have a neighbor that hasn't quite figured out our fence yet either. (shaking my head) We asked all the neighbors before putting up our fence. Everyone agreed it was o.k. Once it was in, Bill was working in his yard and watering. (his yard is MUCH purty-ier than our yard) Well he brushed up against the fence while standing in water and the fence blew him backward! He was lying in his driveway and his wife came running over because she thought he had a heart attack!
Now. Fast forward to this summer.
Bill sees a big ol' weed on our side of the fence. He reaches through the fence, ever so carefully.... he is focused on watching his arm so it doesn't touch the fence wire. He grabs the offensive weed....
completely forgetting he is wearing a baseball hat with a metal grommet on the top!
Grommet touches fence.
Yes. Once again, Bill is blasted by our fence through his skull and knocked flat.
I am terrified of our fence. I keep telling Bill to quit getting shocked and to be more careful around our fence. I guess some dogs never do learn new tricks - Bill OR Norman.
Sunday Furry Husband built an H-brace for our fence near our hay shed. We are putting in a gate so no one ever has to throw another bale of hay OVER our fence. Furry Husband also put together a hellacious goat feeder! We had one and the goats were hard on it, it finally gave out. We built this one with directions from Premier Sheep and Goat Supply. That feeder is STOUT! No way will the goats ruin this one!
Monday the farrier came to trim all our horses' hooves and then I went to Longmont to see my girlfriend about labels for my lotions. I came away with a CD that has .pdf and vector files of my new label. The .pdf files can be e-mailed to printers for viewing and price quotes. The vector files are what they need in order to actually print the design. Now I go out and get bids... fun, fun!
Today Brandon got his "old horse tune-up" before winter. I trailered him to my vet's place, we put him in a set of stocks, she drugged him and floated his teeth. What is floating? It's dental work on horses. With cold weather moving in and Brandon being so old - he IS 30 after all-, I want to make sure he can eat and keep his weight up throughout the winter months.
Horse's teeth grow continually throughout thier lives and the top ones help to wear the bottom ones and vice versa. Most horses - maybe no horses? - have perfectly matched up teeth. This means that sharp points develop on either side of the tooth where it's not worn down. The sharp points jab into their tongue and cheek causing pain. The points also prevent the jaw from moving side to side as well as it should so they can't chew their food so well.
The vet has this drill with a tooth attachment. It's a circular file about the size of a quarter or fifty-cent piece. She files down the points so the horse can move their jaw fully from side to side as well as eat without those sharp points jabbing into their tongues and cheeks.
Brandon gets a special halter that holds his head up comfortably (the black halter with the soft plastic tube) and he's fitted with this mouthpiece that has plates for the top and bottom teeth (the metal thing in his mouth). The vet can open his mouth and he can't dislodge the speculum. Even tho' his tongue is trying the whole time! She puts her hands in to feel his teeth and uses her drill to file them down.
Here's the drill. The attachment is a long rod and the circular file is at the end.
Open wide!
Here you can see that the top teeth have been filed flat, the bottom teeth still have some points. The tooth side closest to the tongue curves up and into the tongue. She'll file them down so the teeth are level.
Anytime I go to the dentist, I think about horse tooth floating.
1 comment:
GREAT Photos Shannon!!!!
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