Mia~

On the way home yesterday from buying Heidi's Cap stone, I decided to go to the shelter we got Nari from. Wasn't planning too but I thought.. 3 cats were much better than two. And offering a kitten a good home in the process.
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No cat can ever replace Heidi but we do have room in our hearts for another.
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This is Mia.... a spayed shelter kitten that DS picked out. She loves people,, never seems to stop purring and as roudy as Sadie. Am hoping the other two will help keep this one busy!


All cats love DH slippers.... ya gott'a wonder what goes through a kittens mind?
As you can see was very hard to get a photo of her cute face. As soon as I snap a good face shot..will post it.

Heidi's Cap stone

This is Heidi's 110lb slate cap stone for her Grave. I know many would think us silly for going these lengths for a family pet.

Yet,, just because of that, being a much loved long time Family member, we pay our respects in this manner.

Next week I will put small blue stones around the Cap stone, so it will looks clean and finished. We also bought a very nice flowering bush to plant near here...will attract the birds. Heidi really enjoyed watching the birds from DS bedroom window..when she was able.

Only thing left to do after that is to get her Grave stone marker done.

The Passing of Heidi ~

We went to our large animal Vet at 3:30 today.. let them see Heidi and told the New Vet, all her history...and she agreed it was Heidi's time. Heidi was calm.. like she knew it was her time.

New Vet took her out of the room for the shot but brought her back in, so we could be with her. Itched her,, talked to her...until she fell asleep. The Vet stayed with us, she was sooo kind and understanding. That helped a lot.

(She also knew who I was talking about with out me saying the name, not all Vets are good or caring Vets as per the other post.)

It was a peaceful passing and the right thing to do.. no matter how hard it was for us.

Let my son make the choice.. to bring her home or let them...

We brought her home, made a comfy box for her to be in and DS burried her.

I managed to hold it together for a bit, did not want to cry in front of my son..but can't seem to stop crying. It never is easy letting an family member go.

DS is doing about the same I am... he had Heidi since he was a wee nipper and has always had her in his life.. He doesn't remember a time when she wasn't there. Will be a hard adjustment.

It will be a long time before we can think of Heidi without crying, she has been with this family for a long, long time.

Our two other cats.. no longer really kittens, help. They can never replace Heidi...but they in time will soften it a bit.

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My DS wants to be alone and I have to stay busy...so I was folding towels.. and of course they had to help...and let me know I wasn't folding them right. Being right in the middle of everything, they knew...Cats always know. Just had to hug them.

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To our Beloved Heidi, forever part of our family and within our hearts always. Be at peace and free of pain Dear friend. We shall always miss you.

Heidi is not doing well

Photo is of the first month we moved to the new farm..just before Heidi's down slide.

We have this old cat Heidi and we have had her a longggg time...she is my Son's beloved cat and he has had her most of his life.

We love her dearly but she hasn't been doing well for a couple of years. Done all the testing over and over again through this on Vet..nothing changes. She is skinny, can't keep on weight..she is on special spendy food..on meds.....we have always taken the best care possible of her. Not the money so much, as this Vet thinks we are stupid....

Can't possibly know anything about animals. How very wrong she is.

Last couple of days.. Heidi is still purring but can hardly walk....almost no motor control with the last half of her body. She is my son's cat and he carries her everywhere now..because she can't on her own... this is sooo very hard on him. This family is so torn up to see her like this. I know it is time..there is nothing that can be done. She is old,worn out and in a lot of pain...even though we give her pain meds twice a day.

So I call the Vet this morning and I get.. the Vet doesn't condone putting any animal down. So what... make her suffer longer?

I have a knack for making animals well...but even I can't do anything about old age and worn out body parts... and I know it.

I let Hubby know...at his new job..he doesn't need to deal with this right now..we are both in tears on the phone... he is going to try to come home so we can take her to the Vet. I don't think I could hold it together enough..to handle both an stupid uncaring Vet and Heidi. He is also going to call said Vet and have some words with her.

G** I hate it when they get old. And I hate it when a Vet doesn't listen, doesn't look and doesn't think.

There are other issues with this Vet I will not go into now but I have had good caring Vets... and everyonce in awhile.. Vets like this one..that shouldn't be practicing.

Should of listen when even the local animal shelter will not deal with this Vet.

Cats and the Beans....

I wasn't able to get photos of Nari helping me shell peas but this time I had my son's help in getting a couple of the shots with the cats helping me with wax and green beans. I also took a couple of the photos.
Nari was the first one to see what I was up too,, Looking at me with a question in her eyes... like why are you messing about with those weird looking "toys?".. again? So she had to hop onto the Sofa to get a Cat's eye view.
Sadie couldn't be left out this time, so she jumped onto the sofa to join Nari. As they sat there looking at what I was doing, it seemed like Nari and her were haivng a discussion about what I was doing and how they could help?
Double sets of paws had to bat the beans,, wet noses have to sniff the unusual looking items. Nari takes to licking one of them and Sadie looks at her as if to say... "You can't possibly like that....Yuk!!".

The first look into the colander where the beans we being tossed. Think they are trying to figure out the purpose of this.

Little closer look and a bit of a sniff. Sure doesn't smell like a treat..they seem to be saying.
The questioning look... what could that be and would it make a good toy?
Sure Nari is thinking that it would make a great additon to the collection of odds and ends behind my DS bedroom door. Or could it be the "Bean stare down"?.. You decide.
I have to admit I like their Cat version of help and love their curiosity.

Walking the Alpaca's

Have been spending some time with the Alpaca's. They do lead pretty well.. but will take some time to tame them down to be able to catch them easily. For right now..only place I can do that is in the shed.
Side note... no,, I did not name them!

This is Beaufort, he is the most shy of the Alpaca's but leads very politely.

This is Caribou..he was coming along nicely until he was gelded..now I am having to start all over again.
Snowball,, the most sure of himself and seems to enjoy walks.
DH took the photos with our old camera.

Sunset before the Lightning Storm

Aren't these clouds wild?! Look more like a painting than real life. These clouds were there just before the Sunset started.
All these photos are from the same evening..just different times.
Bright golden yellow Sun rays here.
Almost looks like small Northern Lights above the golden glow in the clouds.
Look closely and you can see both rays of light and long shadows coming from the Sun.

Incredible Storm last night!

What a massive and impressive Thunder Storm last night!!! Started at 1am and lasted till 3:30 and Agressive enough to rattle our windows for a good hour right in the middle of that time. Sheet and impressive ground lighting, Thunder that would of made a drummer proud! Hits were coming so fast and so bright it hurt the eyes. No,, wasn't out in it... I remember NE Thunder storms all too well. Horses were running around like mad but stayed in their night pasture Thank goodness, as many of the strikes were hitting on our property and all too close to the house.
At 3 am I get a call from one of the neighbors up the road saying our horses were running on the Road. Don't care how panic-ed my animals get.. they can't get out of all the fencing and gates we have unless someone lets them out. So hubby does a flash light check from the house, as there is no way he is going out in that. Horse were there.. could see them but didn't need the flash light because of all the lightning making night into day. Hope who's ever horses were running loose are now home safe and sound.
That neighbor is a fire fighter and had to be out in that storm, as the lighting had cause numerious fires. Said a Prayer for him because it was a scary night to be out.
Animal chores are running a little late this morning.. having only had 4 hours of sleep ..2 hours before the storm and 2 hours after. Thought I left NH...and the kind of storms they get over there.
Will out I go to check on the animals and see if there is any damage.

The Kitchen Garden and the great things that come from it!

Lets see... Spring Peas are all but done.. have a lot stored now..though not quite as much as I was hoping for. So planted some more pea seeds.
Carrots, beans, corn and broccoli doing very well. Pumpkin is taking over the garden. Tomatos, peppers and egg plant are growing but nothing ripe yet. Still waiting on the potato plants to flower. Need to replant spinach, lettuce and such for the fall garden.

Wax beans and Green beans underneth.

Broccoli
Peas
Pumpkin plant taking over this bed. Corn is taller than it looks and you can see the carrot tops peeking out from under the Vines.
Tomato plants setting fruit and a row of carrots on the side.

All grown Organically.

Alpaca's arrived!

The Alpaca's arrived, three in total. They will need some taming but at least they are some what halter trained. The white one is already gelded,, the other two will be this coming Tuesday. Just hope I can catch them for the Vet.
For being in a new place, they are being very calm. Horse's however are running around like crazy.
After the two are gelded, they will be put into what we call the "Miniature horse" pasture for a couple of weeks, so everyone can get used to each other safely. Right now they are in the round pen,,so hopefully we can catch them.

Old Farm Tractor the sequel~

( The ground clamp for my hot wire being used as a Battery bolt...sigh)

`This little tractor has been surprisingly easy to maintain.... in the three years I have had it here at my farm, it has only every failed to start a couple of times, had the steering break a couple of times, and overheated once.
Each time I make an incremental repair/upgrade, it sticks..... the amount of effort to keep it running seems to be going down, rather than up.
It really does feel like I am in a conversation with my Dad, every time I work with the thing. There's so much of him wrapped up in the quirks and solutions.......
In the form of an update on both the Tractor, and the employment status.....Turns out there's more wrong than a flat battery with the tractor. I was mowing stuff so tall and thick the motor was bogging down. With all the crud in the radiator, and the bad fan belt, I would not have been able to do that. Adding the new belt and mowing for 4 hours straight was not enough to put a charge on the battery.... as soon as I turned it off, the battery was completely flat again. The tractor ran nice and cool, throughout, tho... that's a big improvement.
That made me break out my fluke multimeter, to get a reading on the battery, then to get one on the running tractor to see if the alternator is generating 14+ volts.... Only, it's been over 6 years since I last put a new battery in the Fluke, so needless to say it doesn't work. Dug around for a 9 V battery, only to find out all the ones we have at the house are waaaayyyyy old. Cases have swollen up and they are completely lifeless.
I think my wife would notice, if I stole one out of one of the smoke detectors, especially since my son is baking me a birthday cake at the moment. :)
Turns out the electrical connection between the cable, and the battery terminal was the problem. Jump starting the tractor with my car allowed juice to get to the glow plugs, and to the starter, but bypassed the battery all together.
I know this, because I could measure the voltage on the jumper cable clamps @ 14.8 VDC, with them clamped onto the cables from the tractor to the battery terminals. Poking the terminal end itself, measured only 12.5 VDC. No juice through the connection.
Taking the cable off the terminal, and sanding the terminal allowed shiny metal to show.... a much better conductor. Sanding the inside of the cable clamp also produced shiny metal.... but the bolt had rotted away, to the point that it would not apply mechanical force to the clamping surface.
I needed a new bolt. Did I mention I live 10 miles from the nearest source?
Now that I have good, direct contact, the Tractor starts right up. :)
Yes, I have bought a new cable, anti corrosion compound, and plan on replacing my 'artwork' at first opportunity. I had to use the bolt to tap the holes on the cable clamp.... I don't know what the metal alloy is in the clamp, but it was soft enough that I could cut threads with the steel bolt. Got pretty hot, but that was allowable. :) I've got a complete circuit. The bronze clamp/tear drop thingy, I could have cut off, and just used the threaded end.... since I planned on buying another cable with new termination, I left it 'normal' so I could use the rod clamp as designed...... I still have one more ground rod I can drive in.
Fence gives you a pretty good whack as it is; I don't really want to increase the effect if I don't need to. :)
So I managed to stop at a local hardware store and bought myself a replacement battery cable for the tractor... along with those felt pads for under the terminals, and a can of spray on preservative to reduce corrosion in the future.
A few days later (yesterday) I managed to get the time to actually pull the old positive cable off the tractor and bolt in my replacement. Dressed it up quite nicely, with the little felt pad, and the purple spray on stuff......
Which made me look at the negative battery cable with some distaste........
"Well, I'll just loosen that up, clean up the connection, add the felt pad, and bolt it back down". Did I mention I live 10 miles from the nearest place I can get replacement parts? Put the wrench on the nut of the bolt clamping that cable on the terminal, and twisted.
Snap! The cable clamp broke right in half. Broke both legs off the 'wishbone' so to speak. No way to bodge that one together..... and there's no way I am going to use my old kludge on the other side of the battery! Now I need to talk the wife into me making a trip to the hardware store to buy the Negative cable.......

Enjoying Riding again~

Have been riding my Grey Icelandic mare for Hippotherapy and really enjoying it. Mostly bareback to get my balance back but sometimes I go out onto the main part of the Farm.

The trails in our woods need to be cleaned up but have plenty of places to ride until then.

DS took these photos of me about a month ago. We are both a bit over weight but loved the ride.

The top photo is us in the hay field with the daisys and wildflowers, bottom photo is near the round pen in the 2 acre night pasture.