Three Pines Farm

I've gotten tired of the way the 'What's New' page was formatted (took almost half an hour to load on my home pc, lol) so I've been working on switching it all over to blog form.  That's why all the dates are basically the same on all the posts before this one; this will right itself with newer posts after this one.  If there was something on the old page that you don't see on this one, just scroll to the bottom of the page and click where it says 'Previous'...that will take you to the older stuff.  This way there's less on a page so I can load it faster.  Enjoy!

 I tell ya', I am really getting downright sick of winter.  Decided to ride John a little after it stopped snowing Saturday; he's doing fine other than being a little stubborn about wanting to put his head down.  His bridle arrived from eBay but turns out the bit is too narrow; back to eBay we go.  :)  Look for more pics on John's page.

Mason and Bubba were both afflicted with FeLV (feline leukemia) brought into our fold by some dumped strays.  They remained in good health until very recently and were humanely euthanized this afternoon.  It will be hard to walk around the farm without Mason tangling in your legs, or without Buzz asking you to pick him up.  Many thanks to Dr. Mehringer and the staff at Animal Medical Center of Dubois for their gentle care for our boys. 

If you haven't heard of FeLV and FIV, please ask your vet.  We had never heard of it either until it happened to us, but we now know it is very prevalent in our area.  A simple test and a cost-effective vaccine will help prevent losing your precious furry babies to this awful disease.

Skye, the cockatiel that came to us a few weeks ago, has found a wonderful new home with a family in Huntingburg that has other 'tiels for him to pal with.  He was a sweet little bird and we'll miss him but I thought it best to find him a new home as I've been too busy with John to allot Skye the time he deserved; and he seemed very lonely, so we found him a home with friends.  I'm sure he'll be much happier.  Congratulations, K and D!  Enjoy your new guy!

On the last day of January, we welcomed into the herd a 5-yr old Belgian gelding called Big John.  John's a behemoth but seems to be rather sweet-natured, and an absolute 'cookie monster'!  I measured him at roughly 18 hands.  And how fitting is this...turns out he's registered, and his name is 'Whistling Pine Valentine', born on Valentine's Day!  So 'Whistling Pine Valentine' turns up at Three Pines Farm just in time to celebrate his 6th birthday.  We are told he's pretty well broke; I've got to have some work done on his feet (and let all the dang ice melt) before I try to crawl on, though.  The others seem to be taking it well; we had to remove John's halter as Drifter was yanking on it like he normally does.  Shiloh is a bit perturbed and I'm sure when the feet are done and we let them all out together, there's going to be one thundering race going on.  I'll be sure to try and catch it on video.  From now on, we're going to add John to Ollie's page.  Be sure to check back later for more on this big boy!

**John Update...see the "Long Ears, Big Feet" page***

We've been getting quite a bit of ice and snow in the last 48 hours; hope to have some good pictures later today or tomorrow.  A lot of the surrounding counties are being declared as SOE's; we haven't yet, but I'm sure it's coming.  At the moment I'm debating whether or not to go to work.  We've still got electric (obviously, lol) but a lot of people aren't so lucky.  Heck, if we weren't right across from the station, I don't think we would have power either; it looks like the rest of the street might be out.  Supposedly it will all be moving out within the next couple of hours; we'll see!  Take care out there, and smile/wave at the phone and power guys you see out there. 

  This cute little guy comes to us courtesy of a coworker who took him in when his original owners couldn't keep him anymore.  He's spending the day with me in the office and will accompany me home this afternoon.  I've been told he's a male and his name is Skye.  He's not been very vocal yet, although he will occasionally 'wolf-whistle' or chirp.  He seems nervous and I can't wait to get him home and settled in.  What a cutie! 

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Monday morning (Jan 19) we finally got a measurable snow.  It being Ollie's first, I wanted to get some pics to commemorate the occasion.  Nate's work was shut down for the day and we had ridden to Jasper together, so instead of having him go home and nap all day and come back to pick me up, I just went back home with him.  There were tracks showing Ollie had covered every inch of the corral, dragging his nose in in it...lol!  It looked like everyone had had a good time and they were resting in their 'windbreak' spot, soking up the sun when I got there.  Of course, they all still had snow covering their noses. 

Look how cute this little booger is!  He's so fuzzy, his hair parts between his eyes!

The dogs had a blast, too.  There's only two things Bailey loves more than eating, and those are snow and jumping.  When you can combine those two it's pure bliss.  If the snow is deep enough, he'll run across the yard with his mouth open like a snowplow and chow down.  And when you toss him a snowball, it's ON!  Shelby will jump for a snowball too but she's no dummy; she doesn't care to catch it, she just wants to jump. 

Introducing...Ollie!

Ollie is a 4-month old mule and just as cute as a button.  He's supposed to grow to around 15 hands.  He's been a bit skittish since we got him a couple days ago but I imagine that's to be expected, since he just had his whole world turned upside-down with the move.  I can't believe how much different mules are than horses; I've been doing a lot of reading on the subject and quite frankly, I'm a little scared that I'm going to mess something up!  But we'll just keep learning all we can and seeing where things take us.  Meanwhile, here are some more pictures given to me by his former mama:

This past weekend was our trip to Jana's; we had a wonderful time.  Did a little shopping, had some good eats, played with a multitude of tiny doggies; a good time was had by all.  TSO was great; it wasn't the same 'band' (TSO has two 'entities', so they can cover more venues) as last year, but still good.  And the lights at the Opry hotel were awesome.  Some pics from our trip:

And some pics of Jana's adorable kids:

And then there was Bosley....

While we were gone, the M-I-L was staying with the dogs.  She let them out Sunday afternoon and Bosley didn't return.  My stupid cell phone didn't give me the voice mail about it until after we were already home Monday afternoon and were looking for him.  I have reason to believe his former 'owners' took him.  Anyway, I spent the next two days putting ads in 3 papers along with letters to the editor, etc., ads on the radio, called the state and county police, called 3 humane shelters, printed 250 flyers and commenced to placing them in all the local businesses and stuffing mailboxes in our area with them, placed several online ads...I don't remember what else.  Then on Christmas Eve I just couldn't concentrate on work so I came home early and decided to go driving around once again when I found him!  He was so happy to see me, hopped in the car and I'm telling you it's seriously hard to drive with a huge, wet, muddy dog on your lap smothering you with kisses, lol!  We went home where he spent the next 3 hours or so playing with Bailey (who missed him fiercely) and then they crashed on the floor together.  The very next day, they all had new collars and tags ordered on Ebay.  I never want that to happen again.  Just in case, Bos now goes on the cable when we go out for potty breaks.