The Little Gang and Guardian Guineas (written with Wyatt)

Mid-September of 2013, we got one Rhode Island Red, two (Plymouth) Barred Rocks, one Pearl Grey Guinea, and one Lavendar Guinea, all chicks from Orscheln Farm and Home.  The Rhode Island Red is named Pippi.  The Barred Rocks were named Rudy and Litter Box.  The Lavendar Guinea is named Laverne, and the Pearl Grey Guinea is Shirley (shemezel, shimzel, hasenfeffer incorporated).

This is Pippi, our Rhode Island Red.

This is Rudy, one of the Barred Rocks (or Plymouth Barred Rock).

This is Litter Box, who was supposed to be the Dark Knght, but was the name Litter Box stuck, after this one found his way into the cat's litter box in the garage multiple times. 

This is Laverne. She is a Lavendar Guinea Fowl.

This is Shirley ( of Laverne and Shirley, Wyatt wanted a special name for the Guineas and Misty suggested).  Shirley is a Pearl Gray Guinea.

When they were little babies, they lived in the garage.  When they got bigger, we moved them into the A-frame chicken coop.  When the weather got cold, we introduced them to the big coop with the rest of our chickens.  We called them "the little gang", because they were always running around together.  You never saw one without the others nearby.  They were SO cute!

This is the Guinea Girls holding claws. See the two claws on top are intertwined.

The Barred Rocks grew fast and large.  We began to suspect that one, if not both of them, were roosters.  Once they started crowing (and they sounded like a wolf howling compared to our little bantam rooster!), we knew they were both roosters, and they couldn't stick around the homestead.  They were chasing hens, and upsetting Rotisserie (our resident rooster). Which was making Rotisserie aggressive, and he had been pretty tame.

This is Rudy.  Mr. Homesteader behind him.  And to the far, back, left is Toy Pony.

Here you can see Rudy, Laverne, Pippi, and Litter Box is behind Laverne and Pippi.

This is how they were usually seen, if not closer in a group.  Litter Box is in front of Rudy.  The Guineas are right next to each other, and Pippi to the far left.  The chicken farmer is up on the stairs to the back garage door.

The Guineas were loud as everyone said they would be.  We tried to take the roosters somewhere to be butchered (like we did with some of our meat birds, and the two previous accidental red roosters), but no one was butchering chickens around us anymore.  So, Thomas called on his friend, and they were going to butcher the roosters, and we (Thomas and Misty) decided the Guineas had been a long enough experiment, so they were going to be meat birds, too.  Only, the week that we were going to butcher them, the Guineas earned a pardon.  They alerted the kids and I to a coyote in our back acreage.  We had to scare the coyote off multiple times, and keep watch the rest of the day until the chickens went into the coop for the night.  The Guineas squawk was different than normal and alerted Wyatt.  When he looked outside, he thought it was a fox, or a dog.  Ellie thought it looked more like a wolf, or coyote.  I recognized the animal as a coyote.  The kids didn't want the Guineas to die anyway, but now I had a reason to like them, too.  I promised the kids, I would petition their Dad for the Guineas to live.  He didn't have much problem with that idea, when I told him how they saved our flock.

Here are our feathered watch dogs, Laverne on the left, Shirley on the right.

Wyatt is currently reading a book called Guinea Fowl that we purchased at Cackle Hatchery.  He is always researching and learning about his birds.  Guinea Fowl are called the feathered watch dogs of the barnyard.  We certainly agree with that!  They make a sound like "buck-wheat, buck-wheat", but the girls also make the "chi-chi-chi" sound that the male guineas make.  The males only make the "chi" sound. The "buck-wheat" sound is unique to the female guinea fowl.  If you are a brave homesteader, the meat of the guinea is supposed to be superior to any barnyard fowl or game bird (excluding the Royal Purple Guinea).  You could easily raise them for meat.  They don't require much feeding.  They love bugs!  Our chickens love bugs, too. We have had the least amount of bugs ever since having chickens and guineas.  Besides having a plethora of fresh eggs, the best part of having chickens (for Misty) is the lack of bugs!

Pippi, Shirley and Laverne; all that is left of the Little Gang.

Thomas and his friend, Michael, ended up butchering the Barred Rock Roosters.  The Guineas and Pippi were adopted by Rotisserie (our Black Cochin Bantam Rooster).  Rotisserie and the Guineas remind Thomas of Darth Vader and the Storm Troopers from Star Wars, because the Guineas look like the helmeted storm troopers and are frequently "guarding" the black clad Darth Rooster.

Chickens in the Classroom

Last year, we participated in Chickens in the Classroom, through our local 4-H office.  We went to the office and picked up a dozen eggs that had already been candled (back-lit to make sure there was a growing baby chicken inside).

We had to set up the homemade incubator, fill the pan under the shelf with water....

make sure the "thermostat" was adjusted to keep the eggs warm.

Wyatt took care of them.  He sprayed them with water to keep them moist, and turned them over multiple times, everyday.  We put X marks on the eggs, so he could tell when he turned them over.  You can see when the little chicks started making peck marks as they began to make their way out of the eggs.

Hatching chicks was pretty fun, especially seeing the little chicks make their way out of the shell... then going from wet, weak, scrawny birds to cute, fluffy, little chicks.

The part and both liked and didn't like about this project is that the birds are all Cornish Cross Chickens, which means they are meat birds. They grow very big, very fast.  If you don't butcher them in a timely manner, their legs can break.  They get scary big!  And I don't enjoy the butchering and packaging.  They are good eating.  I very much enjoy eating chickens that I know how they've been raised.  Ellie refuses to eat them, because she fell in love with them when they looked like this:

Chickens and the Chicken McMasion

We have a silly song at our house now.  It goes:  Baby Batam Chicken McMasion, Chicken McMansion, bok, bok, bok, bok, bok.   Back in the early spring of this year (when it was still snowing... might have even been winter), my hubby had already decided that we were going to try chicken farming.  We signed up with the local Extension/4H office for chickens in the classroom.  Hubby had a plan for a chicken coop based on our little white shed in the back of the house & a bunch of coops we've looked at the past couple of years.  He told his design idea to his friend, John G., and they got to building.  This is a mobile coop, currently being moved by our neighbor, who has a small tractor (but could be moved by our pick up).  You can see the door for people to go in on this end.  The dark door-looking space is actually for a window & there is an identical space on the other side.  This is before windows and painting.  You can't see in this picture, but there are three "doors" on the outsides to collect eggs from nesting boxes on the inside.  The whole thing was so fancy to me, and I would like a little shed like that for my own, that I dubbed the coop the "Chicken McMansion."

Not long after the coop was complete, the boys couldn't stand it any longer... they went to Tractor Supply Company and picked up some baby chicks.  We also got given some meat birds, from someone else hatching chickens in the classroom.  These are Cornish Crosses, and they grow very big, very fast.

These are white pullets.  All turned out to be girls, as they were supposed to be.  Pullets are full size birds (as opposed to bantams), and sexed, so that you know you are getting laying hens.  It was cold, and they still had their baby down, so they had to have heat lamps on almost all the time.

This batch got picked up the next day... at a different Tractor Supply store.  Over in the corner, you can see a couple of black birds.  They are our bantams, which are not sexed.  One turned out to be Wyatt's rooster, whose name is Rotisserie (just in case Daddy made him kill the rooster).  The other has a little bit of white and blackish gray.  That one is Ellie's bantam, her name is Tris (after the character in the book Divergent... because she was a little daredevil when she started flying.  The littlest chicken, and she was flying the highest!).  The other birds are red pullets, mixes with Rhode Island Reds (high production layers).

Here is the completed coop, with the chicken run and windows in the backyard.  The red glow is from the heat lamps for the little ones inside.  They got really stinky in the garage, so we were all ready to have some go out to the coop.  We wound up bringing them in and out because of the weather.

You can see the nesting boxes here with the nice plastic mats, that would be so great... in theory, because you can rinse them off when they get poopy.  Only, when our chickens started laying, they did not like the mats.  The boxes are now filled with hay from our land.

You can see the view from this side of the people door to get into the run. The kids and I painted the run. The coop was built with a lot of scrap wood from our old deck, so it was a lot cheaper to make than it would have been, had we used all brand new wood.

The little white pullets were the oldest.  We had to keep them separate, because they wanted to pick on the littler chickens.

You can see the hanging food and water.  We have larger food and water holders in the coop now.  These are in our second coop (a smaller A-frame style)... yes, we now have TWO chicken coops!

I got this last picture from my Hubby's phone, taken May 19th.  The chickens are about the same age as our new "babies" are now (yes, the kids got 3 more chickens and 2 guineas September 10th).  You can see the extra layer of wire that had to be added to the chicken run.  The little ones could fit through the chicken wire, so that is rabbit wire added to the bottom, to keep them safe.  We mostly kept them in the coop until they got to be full sized.  Once they got their adult feathers, they could keep themselves warm enough outside.  But we wanted to make sure they were safe from predators.  Now that they are grown, they get to free range all day long, from sun-up till sun-down.  

On the right, you can see Wyatt's black bantam rooster, Rotisserie.  Wyatt is thee Chicken Farmer now.  He researches them every day, cares for them diligently, and collects eggs.  He has figured out that Rotisserie is a Black Cochin Bantam.  Being a bantam to a chicken is like being a pony to a horse (it's all about size).  We weren't necessarily going to have a rooster, but our neighbors didn't mind, and we all fell in love with Rotisserie.  He is so unique and a handsome rooster.  The next one from the right is Tris, who Wyatt has determined is a Columbian Wyandotte Bantam (acutally with more research, we have decided she is a Light Brahma).  Tris is a champion layer!  Though her eggs are about half the size of a regular ones; once she layed 9 days in a row.  Then, you can see two reds...Wyatt might know who they are, but I can't tell you for sure (he says Fried Chicken is the one standing on the wood).  Wyatt has a red named Fried Chicken, and a white named Fried Rotisserie. Fried Rotisserie is the littlest of the whites, and she lays eggs almost as small as Tris does.  Wyatt has handled Tris and Rotisserie so much that they are very tame.

In total, we have 20 laying hens, including Tris, and one rooster.  That doesn't include the new chickens and guineas.  We have lost one meat bird to an animal that ate it's head off, a white chicken to a heart attack (?... not sure), and another white that a neighbor's dog killed, and a red bird that ran off with a flock of turkeys.

I teased my husband that my cousin knew she was marrying a pig farmer, but I didn't know I was marrying a chicken farmer.  Wyatt corrected me though... Wyatt is the chicken farmer.  The chickens have been a great experience in responsibility for Wyatt.  He knows so much about chickens now, and I am so proud of how he takes care of them.

Harley Horse and Stitches

I really didn't want to see the vet again so soon....

Wyatt was riding the go-cart.  I was trying to plant potatoes.  I only had about one row of potatoes in when Wyatt comes hollering, "Mom, Mom, Harley's hurt!!!"

I didn't think he was going to be hurt bad.  I was thinking a scratch, or something.  So I asked calmly, "What's wrong?  Where is he hurt?  Is he bleeding?"

Wyatt was almost in tears, practically hyperventilating.  "He's bleeding!  You can see it from here!"

I looked, and I couldn't tell how bad it was, but I could see blood, and I was not near the horse at all.

I told Wyatt to go get his Dad and I would try to get Harley.

I think I had my phone, because I had double checked with my Dad how deep I was supposed to plant the potatoes.  Thomas came out and I got Harley's lead rope.  We got him to the barn.  Thomas sent Wyatt to the house to to get a towel full of ice.  I got to hold the ice on Harley, after we closed him in his stall.  Thomas called the vet.  Wyatt kept me company.

Wyatt felt so bad.  The kids had ridden the go-cart out in the pasture with horse and pony before with no trouble.  This time, Wyatt wanted to be with the animals.  He rode the go cart back and forth with them, as they ran up and down the fence.  Harley nearly ran into the pony when they were turning one time.  Wyatt thinks that was when Harley caught his side on the fence.

I sent pictures and called a friend who has horses.  She didn't think the cut was too bad... but that was tiny pictures on a phone.  Thomas called our "new" vet's office, and the vet was there in record time, especially considering he had other stops that he was supposed to be making before us.  We got to meet the only other vet at that office that makes house calls.

The wound was so deep, that it took the vet three layers of stitches to close the wound up.  The time was evening, and there wasn't much light left.  We had to lead Harley up to the front of the house, where the vet's truck was parked.  Thomas held a light for the vet.  I held Harley's head.  The vet gave him a shot to make him sleepy.  Part way through the stitching, I nearly passed out. Wyatt was hanging around, doing whatever we asked.  I had to tell him to get me a chair quickly!  Hurry!  I was feeling so light headed... a combination of a long day, heat, and probably just a little stress.  Wyatt made it just in time with the chair.  Ellie came out of the house and went right back in.  She couldn't look at Harley like that.

 
So, here is the wound, all stitched up and healing.  I had many mornings of going out to put antibiotic cream on Harley, and fly spray.

And here is the wound, stitches removed, and healing nicely.

I took this picture to show the size difference between Harley and Toy Pony, but I took the picture right after the one above. 

Hopefully there won't be any more vet calls in the near future.

Toy Pony and Colic

In February, I was at the annual Homeschool Mom's Retreat.  One of the rare things I do just for me.  I don't like being away from my family, but this is just a Saturday thing.  We have chocolates, water, and soda pops all day long.  There are yummy homemade muffins for as long as they last.  We are also served a catered lunch!  Every year, and this was my 6th year going, there is an amazing speaker that just speaks God's love and encouragement to the heart of a weary homeschool mom.  I know that the experience is different for everyone there, but we all leave refreshed.

My family usually doesn't call, or even text much, when I go to the retreat, but this year was different.  I got a text to pray for Toy Pony because "she is sick, sick, sick."  My husband is a joker, so I wasn't sure if he was serious, but I soon found out that she was indeed sick.

The night before was one of those rare nights that we left the pony out in the pasture, instead of locking her up in her barn stall (to keep her from getting foundered).  We had a snowy winter this year, though, so we figured she couldn't dig up enough green grass to make her sick.  When Thomas went out that morning (after I left) to give the animals food, Toy Pony did not come to the barn.  He made all kids of noise and called her.   He looked all over for her to come running, she is usually beats the human to the barn, and she always beats the horse.  He considered getting on the 4-wheeler to go look for her, until he thought he saw her head pop up in the snow in the treed area of the pasture.  She still did not come, so he went to her.

When Thomas went out to the pony, she was laying in the snow.  She was wet, cold, shaking and have enough strength get up on her own.  He went back to the barn for her lead rope, and brought her back to the barn.  The going was extremely slow at first, but he didn't have to pull her as much when they got half-way across the pasture.

We he got the pony back to the barn, she would not eat, which is not normal for her.  Then she collapsed, and began shaking again.  Thomas went into the house and woke up Wyatt. He sent Wyatt out to warm the pony up with a blanket, and stay with her while he called the vet.

Thomas called one of large animal vets in our town.  They wanted pre-payment since we were new customers and could not commit to any certain that they could be at our house.  The secretary would not make any commitments for that day.  So, he called our neighbor's daughter who is finishing vet school and interned with a vet clinic in the area.  The vet clinic she interned with is in the town north of us, so Thomas put a call in to them. The second clinic put him through to the actual vet right away so that they could figure out how urgent the call was.  They diagnosed it as colic over the phone, but would be out to see her in person asap.  What confused Thomas was the additional shaking she had, but later found out that was due to Toy being wet and cold from laying in the snow.

Wyatt and Toy Pony are the best of friends.  Having the pony has been a great experience in responsibility for Wyatt.  He happily mucks out the barn and feeds the pony and horse.  He enjoys training the pony and learning about the animals.  He has even studied the Shetland Isles, because Toy Pony is a Shetland Pony.

So, Wyatt went out to the barn and put the blanket on the pony and prayed for her to be able to breath easier.  Thomas saw her take a deep breath right away, and the boys were sure she would be okay. We still needed the vet though.

Colic was the confirmed, which the vet said lots of horses had gotten this winter.  When they don't drink enough water, they get constipation which can be deadly.  We had also changed her diet, because of the weather, which did not help things.  The vet had to give her a shot to relax her, pump some stuff out of her stomach, fill her stomach with water and mineral oil.

We all prayed hard.  I knew that Wyatt was be devastated if the pony died.  I would be pretty upset myself. Prayer and the work of the vet gave us a healthy pony.  We never so thankful for pony poop!

Here's are a couple of pictures from this last winter, before and after colic:

This is our  muddy, furry pony before colic.

This is Wyatt out in even deeper snow feeding the pony in the garden area after colic.

Our Continuing Equine Adventures

We got a horse!  Actually, we got a horse back in October of 2012! I never dreamed that we would own anything beyond a dog and a cat.

After my Uncle gave us the pony, Thomas told stories and showed pictures of our little pony at his work.  He ended up having a couple of people wanting to know if he was interested in housing another equine.  I really didn't want another animal, but Thomas finally convinced me to go see Harley.

He was a rescue horse (who we were led to believe was a pony).  His last owner was the daughter of  Thomas's co-worker.  The daughter has now graduated college and doesn't live at home.  Which left Harley the horse needing someone to care for and love him.  He was whipped as a young horse.  You can still see the scars up close.  He is a sweet gentle horse, a bit more skittish than even a horse should be.

The last owner (aforementioned daughter) explained to us that he a half of a hand more than a pony, which means he is a horse.  He was quite a bit larger than what we were expecting.  The owner was concerned about how Harley would react to Thomas, because he is afraid of most men.  Harley thought Thomas was just fine.  Wyatt went for a ride on Harley bareback that night.  He was so excited, because Toy Pony is a lot of work to train.

You can see how much bigger Harley is than Toy.

Ellie with Harley.  Ellie is 12 years old now!

I told my mother that I was a sucker for brown eyes. Thomas, the kids, and Harley Horse all have brown eyes (mine are green).

Wyatt with Harley.  Wyatt is 10 years old now.

Harley Horse is over 20 years old (actually they thought he was about 25 years old).  I think he has filled out a bit since we got him.  The property he lived on before was mostly trees and a stream, not a lot of grass.  You can see his ribs in this picture.

Ellie likes to talk to Harley.  Wyatt likes to ride him, when we are able to get him all saddled up.  Wyatt does not like that Harley stands up for himself to Toy sometimes.  Toy is his little Princess Pony.

We had no idea that Toy Pony would be the dominate herd animal.  You should see her bossing Harley around!  The sight is pretty funny.  Harley sometimes gets fed up and will kick at her though.  We enjoy watching them out the patio door when we are eating, or cleaning up.  I like to watch them out the window over my kitchen sink.  

I see Toy running across the yard a full gallop and then she will slow down and wait for Harley to begin to catch up.  Harley stays close to the barn when Toy is locked up at night (we have to watch the little pony's diet carefully, so that she does not get foundered).  They remind me of a brother and a sister.

They make me smile, they make me laugh, and sometimes they make me cry.  Crying is a story for another post.

P.S.-I'm glad to be blogging again.  I have SO missed this.  And my family has been complaining that I didn't have a post on Harley yet.  So, I'm back in the saddle, so to speak.  :)

Our "new" Pony

This post is only 3 months overdue. On St. Patrick's Day this year, we got a pony.  My Uncle (one of my Mom's brothers) called my Mom to see if we would be interested his youngest pony (he couldn't find our phone number).  I really didn't think my husband would be at all interested, but I told him anyway.  I figured he would say "not happening", without another thought.  But he didn't.  He was concerned about cost, but my Uncle told us she really wouldn't cost  us much.  He was also concerned about our daughter, because we had previously thought she was allergic to horses.  Well, she is not allergic to this one.  Ellie had ridden on this little one's Mother at my grandparents farm and had an allergic reaction twice.  We have two theories... one is the allergies were actually seasonal; the other is that all the fermented cod liver oil she's been taking is helping her allergies.

The pony was born on my Mom's birthday, three years ago (she turned three the month, after we got her).  My uncle had told my Mom that she looked like the Shetland pony that she had when they were kids.  My Mom's pony was named Toy.  So, my Mom asked if he would name the new pony Toy... and he did.  What a good big brother. 

So, this is Toy when we first got her.  The big horses behind her are our neighbor's horses.  She is smaller than both her mother and father.  She had a thick winter coat and looked very shaggy, not very cute.  Until my son and I got on the internet for information on Shetland ponies, I did not realize they were from the Shetland Isle in Scotland, in a cold area, where they grow a thick winter coat.  The kids wanted her, especially Wyatt.  So, we brought her home in my Uncle's stock trailer.

This is the day that she "escaped" under the portion of electric fence which is around our field.  Thomas thought he had the fence at just the right height for Toy.  The rest of us were concerned that the line of wire was a bit too high.  She was grazing away and walked right under the fence! Luckily, Wyatt and I were home eating lunch and he saw her out the patio door.  I took this picture while he was getting the lead rope for me.  Thanks to some leftover fence and gate from the previous owners, I cornered her between that and the neighbor's fence.  We got the rope on and led her back to the barn, so that Thomas could fix the fence.  He put a lower line of fence wire, so she cannot just walk under the fence.

You can see in this picture, with Wyatt, how shaggy she was.  Everyone thought the pony was going to be for Ellie.  Well, a Shetland pony is supposed to be able to ride 130 lb person.  Ellie has made it to 5 ft 1 inch and 100 lbs.  I think she and I are both nervous about putting that much weight on our little pony. She may be able to handle it, but she is the smallest Shetland pony we have ever encountered.  Even the man who cuts her hooves for us said that he had only ever encountered one pony as small as Toy.  Wyatt, on the hand, is 67 lbs, and he was hoping to ride her from day one.  No one had ever ridden her though.

So, here is our pony about a month later.  This is a lot of brushing later!  We had some families from church over, shortly after we got her.  Then we had one of them over after we had brushed much of her winter coat away.  The Dad thought we had shaved her!  Funny, funny.

I wanted a better picture to show how little Toy looks next to a full size horse.

Poor baby, the flies really like her.  I was trying to get a picture that showed her pretty blue eyes.  I just realized her mane is in a mo-hawk in the front.  I sometimes do that to her when I comb out her mane.

This picture is from last month when my friend and her kids visited.  Wyatt had gotten on Toy a couple of times.  I don't remember if I led her one of the times, or not.  I believe the kids would  have liked to go for a ride on her, but she really wasn't ready yet.  You can see the winter coat is gone and her boy is with her.  She's so pretty when she runs through the field!  Wyatt was, and sometimes is, a bit afraid of her when she runs.  He is learning to stand still and not run behind the cattle gates that close up our pole barn so that she doesn't get into something and hurt herself.

Wyatt and I have done really good lately being consistent about him riding her and me leading her with a rope every night. Toy seemed to be doing really good.  We would say how friendly and playful she is.  And she didn't seem to mind taking Wyatt for a ride.  Lately though, she has been as stubborn as the first couple times that someone tried to lead her with a rider (not me, but someone from church and the guy who clips her hooves... though the hoof clipper guy did better with her).  She definitely has personality and I was calling her a "turkey" (my affectionate term for generally being a stinker).  She was breathing hard and even purposely collapsed two different nights.  At first I thought she was dehydrated and we had worked her too hard.  But when Wyatt got off, she got right up and was ready to go to the barn for Pony Chow (feed, but that's what we've taken to calling it).  Miraculous recovery...my little actress pony!  The heavy breathing ends, too, when she realizes we're headed for her stall and the Pony Chow.  She'll even break into a trot when we are near the barn!

We had lots of people tell us how tough you have to be with horses (and ponies, because they are basically little horses).  So, we tried to be.  Then, last night I stopped trying to keep Toy's head straight and make her keep walking and let her stop and rub her face against my leg (I knew she should keep her head straight ahead while we were leading her, and I was afraid she might be trying to nip at me (a warning from another friend about horses).  But Toy just nuzzled me.  So, I rubbed her face and neck and talked to her.  Then, she was ready to go again, no heavy breathing, or collapsing, or pitching any sort of mule fit (she would stop and not want to go, and even tried to buck once or twice... thankfully, I am pretty strong and can handle her).  We stopped a couple more times to love on each other.  Then I realized, when we first got her, and no one was riding her (the temperature was not so hot then either), we would go out to the field and visit her, brush her and pet and talk to her multiple times a day.  The horses next door are obviously her friends.  They run together and graze near each other, we have seen them nuzzle her face leaning over the fence.  But we think she is lonely for us. Wyatt and I spent, and now spend, the most time with her.  I am sure she misses the attention.  We are going to do better with just giving her attention.

Some things I learned about horses and ponies:
They only sleep about 4 hours a day.
When they are not sleeping, they are eating... unless you are riding or working them.
Ponies are especially easy to founder (heard that from at least four people, including my Uncle).  Thomas compares foundering to gout in a human.  Ponies get it from eating too much fresh (green) grass and clover.  So, we put Toy in her stall each night, so that she doesn't eat all night and get sick.  Her neck muscles would tighten up and her hooves would get soft and yucky.
They are animals of prey.  That confused me, I was thinking that meant they hunt other things... but for me, I guess it is like some other confusing terminology.  Horses and ponies do not hunt!  They are the hunted.  So, an animal of prey is not one that prey's on others, but one that is prey to others.  Anyway, that means they are scared of things.  You don't want make a snake sound (unless you want her to buck and try to run off), or make sudden movements.  Poor Toy, like many horses (I've heard) is also afraid of the sound of a spray bottle.  Which makes putting on her fly or tick spray a harder job.  I have to wear rubber gloves, and use a rag or sponge.  The first time I put the spray on with a rag, I got the liquid all over the stall... even in her water bucket.  I had to get things away from her so I could clean them off, because the fly spray would have made her sick if she swallowed the liquid.
I learned not to go to the vet for a $12 tetanus shot for a pony.  Tetanus shots for animals are only $6 at Tractor Supply Company!  I know this because our Pony caught the skin above her hoof (and got her hoof stuck) in fencing the first month we had her... which is why we waited to ride her for so long.
Dogs and ponies do not get along the best, but cats and ponies are okay together.  I learned from others that goats are good with ponies, too.  My Grandpa told my Dad, when he was growing up, that cows and horses don't mix well together.  I'm not sure about that one though.  I have seen many fields with cows and horses together.
Hooves on big horses need to be trimmed every three months... little ponies hooves need to be trimmed between three to six months.
If you have horse that nips, you have to break them of nipping.  Otherwise, they can take a chuck out of a person!  Our pony cannot eat an apple unless the apple is cut into pieces.  Her mouth is so small.  I still don't want her to nip though.
We put up electric fence around the garden to keep Toy out.  Wyatt called her with Pony Chow one day, and we didn't have the yellow flags on the electric fence wire yet.  Toy will do most anything for Pony Chow.    She didn't notice the fence and busted right through!  She picked the shortest path to Pony Chow, and she did not slow down.
Shetland ponies can live up to 25 years!
This has been quite a learning experience.  I'm sure there will be more in the days ahead.

Crayon Art

Ellie and I both liked the idea of Crayon Art that we found on Pinterest.  Then Ellie watched some youtube videos of Crayon Art.  After we showed Wyatt, he decided he would do a project, too.

So, here's how you do it:

We started by clearing out our crayon container.  All the broken crayons got pulled out and unwrapped. (We now all need manicures!)  Next we sorted the crayons into color piles. We could have used new crayons and left them wrapped for some of the art ideas, but we wanted to do something different.. and recycle!

These are actually our leftovers.  We do not need any crayons when I buy school supplies for this year.

Most of the tutorials will tell you to use a canvas.  I know that would be the most beautiful, artistic look, but I am cheap.  Ellie said that someone else who didn't want to spend a lot of money used card stock.  I had the idea to use some leftover poster size foam board and cut the foam board into two pieces with a utility knife; worked great!

This is our leftover "canvas".

Next, you use a hot glue gun to glue the crayons to foam board, or canvas, or card stock.

Here is Wyatt, crayons glued and starting to melt them with my hair dryer (which will never be the same!).

Last, you take a hair dryer, or heat gun, to the crayons and melt them until you have the look you are going for. Here are our before and afters:

This is the kind of stuff that I love to do!
I hope that we find the time to do much more like this in the years to come, Lord willing, of our homeschooling.

Mine is "Sun on the Water".

My art loving girl.

Her's is "Daisies in a Field".

My creative boy.

He calls his "Mask".

Tuesday was "Backwards Day" for our Homeschool Spirit Week.  We decided dressing backwards was uncomfortable... and we went all out for Crazy Hair Day.  Backwards talk and meals eat decided we.  Yoda like sounds us made that decided also we.