Winter thoughts

|It is the end of February, and winter is starting to wear on the nerves.  So I thought I would post a few winter sleigh pictures because hopefully the snow will soon be gone, and we won't be gulping vitamin D pills, just to survive and feel better.  Absolutely no energy, feeling blahhh is all about waiting for winter to be over.  So here are a few of the pictures that show we did do something in this winter weather.  Here we go.

The above picture was taken on Christmas eve.  We had 30 people come and enjoy a good meal - mexican food - and sleigh rides. 

We sent Sahara and Savannah off to be trained to drive this winter, and here Ken Rawlings and Fred are hitching Savannah up with Ken's horse Musket, earlier in the winter.  They both did very well and are now waiting patiently to be hitched up again to show they remember what they have learned - we hope.

This is Sahara, aka Bobbie, being driven.  Bobbie, because Ken bobbed her tail - the brambles had done their thing in her tail - so this is how we can tell them apart.  I think Fred is driving here.

A front view of Bobbie and Musket with Ken driving.  Rose got off the sleigh to take this picture.

Fred and the great standardbred Haley in December with the new "old" sleigh, giving it a warm up run.  We are dreaming of sleigh rallies, but just haven't got one organized yet.  Ah well, maybe next year.

After her racing career, Haley spent a couple of years pulling the stage coach or delivery wagon in Barkerville before she came here to hangout with her buddies.  When Rose' horse Buckley came up with a swollen hock; with Fred's help, Rose pulled her out of the pasture last summer and hitched her up and competed in a combined driving event at 70 Mile. She hadn't been hitched in three or more years at that point.   She finished successfully, got third place in her division and did great.  So this mare can and has done it all.  Priceless.

We bought this old sleigh from the Edbergs last fall because it has a second small seat for the driver (folded down here) and can carry a couple as well as a driver.  It is original and well cared for, and is light for the horses, so we are pleased with it.

Just to show we hitched up Ted and June a couple of times to test the trail and then to haul people on sleigh rides.  The old stalwards who have done it all and more for us.  I hope they are waiting for winter to be over as much as we are.  Although they do seem to enjoy the sunny days, hanging out in the pasture, basking in the sun.  Not too many days until we hitch them up to the combined driving carriage and get them started conditioning for this summer. 

Our plan this summer though is to start a few younger teams going so we can share the wealth around and sell a few teams with experience.  We have Com and Pharoah, Kikki and Nron, and Jackson and Casino coming up, as well as the trotting machine for a single driving pony- Crackers.  And if you are into the big boys, you may see us out with Amber and Angel, or Ben and Major this year.  As you can see we are looking forward to spring.

Waiting for spring

Driving Training Update

It is about 5 below, and snowing, so it gives a good excuse to update the Carriage works blog - too early for gardening yet, so lets think about what has been happening around the place in the driving area.

First - we have a few more horses that have been hitched and are ready for a spring start.  Hoss took to driving like we knew he would and Ken Rawlings did a great job with him, hitching him up with his good horse Musket, so now we might hitch him up with his grandmother, Jill to start with, or Major.  He isn't a snappy horse, more a plodder, but that is just fine with me.   Ben and Major are a little snappier in their movement.

The second pair is Savannah and Sahara, or as Ken called them Bobbie and Magee.  Bobbie (Sahara) is the cutest little punch mare you ever saw, she is just plain round everywhere, and will get down and dig in the harness.  She is Jill's daughter by a Fjord stallion.  Savannah is more a riding horse type, not so drafty and round, and slightly taller, so they really aren't quite a matched pair, but they will drive together, and want to work.  We got Savannah from Ray Blatchford as a match for Sahara when Amber delivered a beautiful but stillborn colt in 2010.   We do have some pictures of the two of them hitched so I will find the pictures and get them up here. 

Here is a pioneer forecart that looks very interesting and would work well with this team.

http://www.jonnyowoodironwork.com/index.html
John Olsen is building some great wagons and forecarts in the North Cariboo area.  This one would work very well with the percheron teams.  That third wheel really smooths out the ride for the driver, and the height means you can see over the backs of the teams.  Hmmmm, four, unicorn, tandem, pair.  Now is the time to dream - the reality is we will start with one or two.



Building the master suite

All the beams are in and fit beautifully.  that is easy to type, but Fred did sweat a little over those beams fitting.  Most of the insulation is in so it isn't cold in there to do the work.
The ceilings are up, tongue and groove pine boards, just finished with a clear coat.  They look really good on the raised ceilings.  The ceilings are 14 feet at the peak, so it looks quite lofty, open and airy.  This week we were lining the closet area with cabinet grade birch, and getting ready to stain it.  Didn't want gyproc in the closets because it is difficult to construct closet fixtures with attachments to gyproc, and we like birch. This next week we should be working on the plumbing in the bathroom, to get that ready to finish.  The floors are now level and ready for tile after the bath tub is installed.  Haven't picked out the tile yet, but the counter tops are composite granite in a dark color that should show up the lighter wood, so either the tile will be lighter granite type in porcelain or maybe darker if we can find something that will work for us.  It is starting to come together, and does fit with what the vision for the suite was, so it is all good.

Taking a computer website development course with some friends from Farmed and really enjoying ourselves.  Learning web page development from the basics up including being able to write in html, or in this case xhtml.  Lots of and stuff, but could be an interesting skill even though we are probably a few years out of date with what we are doing.  Bill says we are learning Computer Science 11 lessons from a few years ago, but it is fun and keeps our brains working; as long as I can figure out how to get into the text editor from Wordpad etc.

Pioneer Skills

Last night we went to a soap making workshop at the church.  There were about twenty people there, which was great.  Debbie Newman, Gene Pontius, Janet Knopp and I made some soap using the recipe about a month ago, and really were pleased with the resulting soap, using coconut oil, olive oil and lard.  It made beautiful handsoap that lathered, cleaned and really lubricated your skin.  We made it without any scents because we wanted it to be as pure as possible and hypo-allergenic.  So last night we used the same methods, and it didn't quite trace while we were at the workshop, but it did overnight, and we were able to show that soap doesn't always do what you want, but it still will saponify and make good bars.  You don't have to give up on it, just keep whipping, resting, and maybe reheating it.  It still will turn out really nice.  So soap making is one of the pioneer skills we are trying to teach people so they can be a little closer to the earth.  It is possible to make batches of soap for very reasonable prices that is beautiful soap, and it really isn't difficult.  So we may make another batch at home and have enough soap for the whole year for about $40.00, and we know exactly what is in it.

We are using this soap at the pool when we go and it really lubricates your skin and stops the itch from the chlorine.



http://www.thesage.com/calcs/lyecalc2.php
Majestic Mountain Sage
this is a great soap making resource website that we have used in all our soap making experiments - has a good lye calculator.

Our next workshop is planned for the fall when the cabbages are being harvested, so we can learn how to make saurkraut and kim-chi.   Dr. Oz and others say that fermented vegetables are very good for your system, so this is another skill we can use, so we can use our beautiful cabbages.  We have had wonderful cabbages here that have ended up spoiling because we didn't really know if our methods were working in making saurkraut.so will let people know when we are doing that workshop. 

Combined driving, we love it.

Combined driving.  Often when you talk about the sport that you absolutely love, nobody knows what you are talking about.  We spent this last weekend in 70 Mile House, B.C. with 35 other competitors having a wonderful time, driving our horses and feeling the adrenaline rush.  That's combined driving, a real adrenaline rush.  Whether you drive a mini (vse), a mule, a donkey, a horse, or two or three or four, it is all a great rush just to do it.  
Combined driving also known as Horse Driving Trials is an equestrian sport involving carriage driving. In this discipline the driver sits on a vehicle drawn by a single horse, a pair or a team of four. The sport has three phases: Dressage, Cross-country Marathon and Obstacle Cone Driving and is most similar to the mounted equestrian sport of eventing. It is one of the ten international equestrian sport horse disciplines recognized by the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI). Driving became an FEI discipline in 1970.^[1]

We had a great time, and thought that we would share some of our pictures.  How we travel.  It takes two rigs to get us to our destination "in style".  This is our great old International that just gets better and better every trip.  Took awhile to blow the carbon out of it after we got it because it is an old Telus truck and had just idled alot down at the coast in its first life.  In order to put the carriages up there, we had to reinforce the box a little.  Don't do this at home ;-}.

Here are Ted and June after 10K of the marathon.  Fred on the lines and Bill as navigator.

Oh nnnnooooooo,  boss, last year these coyotes ate us, not again!!!!!!.   

Ted, protect me.  What do you mean, June, there's another one over here ttttttttooooooo!!!!!!

We're out of here!!!! What do you know, they completed the first obstacle successfully.  Yayyyyy.

OMG, we didn't have to do this one last year.   Atleast there aren't any moose here.

Round and round we go.

And again.

Let's get Bill's feet wet - to his knees!!!!

We'll take some of the water with us, so the mini's will atleast not drown, maybe.

Scary Huberville.   They look calm, but this hazard scared them more than any other.

Noooooooooo, that away!!!!!!!   The curse of navigators.  Drivers need eyes in the back of their heads.

A little tight, eh what.

Boring, didn't roll the dice this year.

Some of our friends.  Look closely, this is a four up.  Not much bigger than the coyotes.

This is why we tried to take some water out of the hazard.  The cut out is of Ray Cody, kicking water - long story from last year.

A unicorn hitch of even smaller vse's.

Charlie and the invincible fleas.

The team after 15 kilometers.


Thought you might enjoy the pictures.  Can you tell how much fun this is.  A real adrenaline rush, but at our level quite safe with lots of help from other competitors and officials.  Sorry no pictures yet of the dressage and cones day.  Will try to upload those later.

Spring is here

April 25th, Easter Monday

Spring is finally here, two days with weather above 10 C, the mud drying up and the horses in the barn getting their winter hair scraped off.  The stalls are clean, the pens are drying out, and almost time to scrape the winter accumulation of mud and manure out of them as well.

It has been quite a month.  We picked up our new Pacific Carriage, an Omega, two weeks ago, and we have been getting ready to hitch the horses up to it.  Unfortunately, it is so nice that I don't really want to use it - afraid it will get scratched, or some other horrendous thing will happen to it, but I must bite the bullet, hitch up and drive off with it.  Interestingly, Garret, who is two, loves to sit in it.  I am not sure that he knows that it is supposed to be hooked to horses, but for now he loves to sit in it and climb down using the proper steps.  He is quite proud of the fact he can get down using the steps.

We also picked up a lovely standardbred mare who is Artist's size and could be a mate for him in a pair.  Not sure he wants to be a pair, but time will tell.  She has made herself right at home, acting like the princess she is.  She is old for a racing standardbred, 13, but she is clean legged, sound and what a trot.  Too bad they have to pace on the track, she is definitely a fine harness trotter, which is fine with us. 

Winter, part two

The weather is starting to warm up here, so spring is not too far away. The horses are actually starting to shed. Gave them their spring lice treatment this week, and took the heavy blankets of the geriatrics.

Funny story. Somehow Buckley scraped the side of his left hock, so he had to come into the barn for treatment and some tenderloving care. He stayed in the barn for a few days. Buckley is in a field with five other standardbreds, two percheron geldings and Max, a paint gelding. The boss of the herd is Geraint Hannover (Gerry), a noble standardbred who won almost $100,000 on the track and knows it. He came to me from a wonderful trainer  who also had Pacing Artist. On day two of Buckley's tlc care, I went out to the barn in the morning and Gerry is standing at the gate by the waterer, and picking up his left hind foot and putting it back down. Every time I look at him he picks up his left hind foot. I went into the barn to get started with chorse (A sisters creek spelling), and when I came out to feed the other horses, there he is picking up the foot and putting it down. He actually got himself up against the fence and hopped a little on that leg, moving back towards the gate. All the time he is looking at me. Well, I thought I had better check that out, since I pride myself on how observant I am with the horses. Keep in mind that I hadn't taken Buckley out of the big pen and put him in the barn, and I usually don't do chorse when it is really cold because of my asthma, but he has me categorized as the carrot lady.

I went and got the halter, took it up towards the gate, Gerry is standing right at the gate, not letting anyone else close, and held up the halter for him. He threw his head into the halter, quietly came out of the gate, turned and waited for me - remember we have a foot of snow around, and in some places its quite rough; and off we marched to the barn.

In he went as happy as could be into a box stall with lots of hay and a serving of grain, and he was happy. Not a sign of a limp, no heat, nothing. He just figured out what he needed to do in order to get into that barn for some tlc. Never once called to the other pasture buddies. So he now is on a cycle of in the small pen, and back to his stall. This morning when I took him to the small pen, he looked out at the pasture as though to say "See what I've got". I am half expecting another standardbred to be at the gate in the pasture pen with a gimpy leg tomorrow morning, maybe Nron, or Zilch. They are very, very smart horses. Keep in mind that he used the same leg as Buckley had scraped, and looked directly at me as he raised his foot. Who's the boss here. You tell me.

Winter, winter, winter

Yes winter is still with us. Last week was the dogsled mail run. I thought it would be interesting for people to see some of this activity and also the snow!!!!!!!!!

One day a year, the dog sleds race from Quesnel to Barkerville, carrying Canada Post special envelopes. This year the weather was beautiful, and there was lots of snow, as you can see. It is quite the spectacle.

We, on the other hand, have been shovelling snow for two weeks now. Before Christmas there was very little snow, and all of a sudden in January, boom, the snow started to fall, over two feet of it. It is beautiful, but the roofs can't handle it sometimes, and as the news has said, there have been a number of roof failures. Most of the failures were on the east coast, because here houses are built to high standards of roof strength, but we still had some concerns, especially if it begins to rain (which it did last week) on top of the snow, so we took the snow off the house roof and the barn additions. Then in the warm weather, swoooooosssssshhhhhh, the snow flew off the metal barn roofs. Quite the noice, the horses were jumping around like crazy when that happened.

This is Tilly. For those of you who aren't interested in driving a big horse, this is more fun than a ferrari sports car. Tilly lives to drive, and will go as far and as fast as you will let her. They come in small packages, but they think they are really big horses, and they are so easy to travel with. So there is no excuse that you can't drive. Get yourself a sports car pony and have a great time.