Up date Monday

R.I.P. sickly twin calf

The poor calf died the day after we found her. We tried our best to save her but she was born with something wrong with her. I wanted her to learn to suck instead of being stomach tubed but she just couldn't seem to be able to do it. At one point last Monday, even though I knew she wasn't going to make it, I was going to take her to the vets just for my peace of mind and also maybe to find out what was wrong with her. Trouble was she was so big I couldn't lift her to get her out of the house or into the jeep. She must have weighed 85 to 95 pounds. Big for a twin, although her sister is very tiny and doing great. I've been feeling really bad about the calf. I told Brad I felt bad and he said he knew she wasn't going to make it soon as he saw how she was trying to get up. Then I recalled that I felt the same way when I saw her hopelessly struggle to get up. But I just hoped.

Tommy Two Tone changes his tune.

It was supposed to be our kittens Tommy Two Tone's, big day on Saturday. We thought he was going to get neutered. It turned out that the vets in Moses Lake doesn't do neutering on a Saturday because they want the animals to stay overnight. I have an issue with this because they will do spaying and neutering at their mobile clinic that comes to Odessa once or twice a month. They give the cat or dog a shot to put them to sleep (I always worry they gave them the 'big sleep' shot by mistake) and tell you to come back in an hour. An hour later you have a very dopey but fixed pet to take home. Brad started to remind them about how they let you take them home immediately from their mobile clinic but I shoved my elbow in his belly to mute him. I knew it would be pointless to argue logic because they seemed determined not to do it.

We also had our Manx cat, Maxwell, with us because he has a big lump growing on his side. We left both cats there and I have to pick them up tomorrow (Tuesday). The house seems so quiet without T2T thundering across the tiles and wood floors. He jumps on the other cats or the dogs to wrestle and can be quiet a pest. He also bounces off the walls and off our bodies when he has a mad half hour. I wonder if he'll come home a different lad. I hope not.

The Horses.

I didn't do much with the horse for the last week because I have been planting about 40 bare root trees and shrubs.
Wildairo is looking forward to being turned out in the big pasture. He'll need more attention before I can do that. I'm pleased the way he lets me have complete control of his head. He's always been eager to please.
Echo is more confident around me, almost cheeky. I'm looking forward to this coming weekend when I plan to get him in the small pen again for some more 'hands on'.

Sunday it was raining pretty steady so we went for a drive. I took some pictures of Crab Creek where it goes through our property. One day I'd like to turn the mustangs out here.





I used to ride a horse that needed a lot of schooling across the creek here and up the hill to a great big flat spot that I used as my school. It was the only place he behaved really. He used to like to canter sideways on the trails. He wasn't scared of anything, including things he should have been scared of like rattlesnakes. He was a show horse who's been shown successfully a great deal and he only understood arenas. I think that's why he did so well in our hill top 'arena'.


I believe the trees to be White Willow. We also have a few Poplar trees by the flume.




Here's some info about Crab Creek;

Crab Creek is one of the few perennial streams in the Columbia Basin of central Washington, flowing from the northeastern Columbia River Plateau, roughly 5 km (3 miles) east of Reardan, west-southwest to empty into the Columbia River near the small town of Beverly. Its course exhibits many examples of the erosive powers of extremely large glacial Missoula Floods of the late Pleistocene, which scoured the region. In addition, Crab Creek and its region have been transformed by the large-scale irrigation of the Bureau of Reclamation's Columbia Basin Project (CBP), which has raised water table levels, significantly extending the length of Crab Creek and created new lakes and streams.

Crab Creek is 163 miles (262 km) long and drains a watershed in eastern Washington of 5,097 square miles (13,200 km2). It is sometimes referred to as the longest ephemeral stream in North America.

When we got back to the house the sun came out.