All the Creatures

Living in the countyside and having a barn leads naturally to having livestock. I was never one to breed animals for food but having horses has been a passion for the last 25 years. In that time I have only bred 2 mares and each one of them only had one foal. The last foal born was over 7 years ago now and I was thankful that he was born in the afternoon.

I heard way too many horror stories of horses born during the night and either the foal died or the mother did while giving birth.  I toyed with the idea of putting a baby monitor with display in the foaling stall but wireless communications was not as good back then as it is now. I would have to run a wire to the barn for the video. Now they have wireless cams for barns made specifically for animals giving birth and/or needing medical attention.

I still get a kick out of seeing baby livestock but they are not mine. Our current barn does not have a foaling stall for a reason, we don’t breed anymore. I’ll leave that for others to do. They can handle the expenses and the worry about the dangers during birth.

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Providing enough water to livestock and large animals is a necessary daily chore. Stock tanks are the most common container used for containing drinking water for them. Stock tanks can be made from steel, UV protected plastic and even aluminum.  Plastic has its advantages in that it does not get rusty. Rust can cause problems for animals if ingested in water. Rust is in fact iron and iron if ingested in higher than recommended quantities is not healthy.

Other containers I have seen used for water tanks are stainless steel drums, cut in half and the edges protected so they will not cut the animal and old claw foot bath tubs. The bath tubs are often enameled and if cared for properly will not chip and expose the underlying steel, which will rust.

The photo at the top of this post shows what you can do with a stock tank……….make it into a water garden. It makes a great place to keep Koi or goldfish. You will need to provide some sort of filtration system if you have more than just a few fish. Koi and goldfish poop a lot and that needs to be removed from the tank to prevent a build up of gases in the water.

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I’m back!! After a long weekend of no electric power and internet access, I am ready to write again. A freak rain and windstorm went through my area around 3pm on Sunday afternoon. It was a nice warm afternoon (for a winter’s day) and had sun breaks in the clouds. It was the one of day of the week that I did not have to put a turnout blanket on my old gelding, it was just that nice of a day.

I needed to make a trip into town for dog food and look at maternity clothing as a gift for a friend. I had been in Walmart for only 15 minutes when the power went out. The store clerks ushered us to the checkouts and when we got outside the winds were whipping and the rain was coming down at an angle.

The trip home was also an adventure. First the entire town was without any power. This added to my concern since my little car needed gas and there was nowhere to buy any. So with only enough gas to get home and perhaps down to town one more time, I had to get home during this unusual storm. The outskirts of town was where my little white knuckled trip began. As I drove my little commuter car up into the foothills, I had to slow down to a crawl repeatedly for downed tree limbs. I dodged the larger limbs and crossed my fingers that I did not come across any downed trees. Some spots in the road were literally covered in tree branches.

Of course when I got home, the power was off there as well. So began our 2 day wait for the power to come back on. Dealing with a power outage is a major event when you live in a rural area and rely on electricity to power your well pump for water. That means getting water to livestock and pets when no water comes out of the tap. Thankfully we have a seasonal creek that runs through 2 of our pastures and a year round creek in another one. That meant that the horses had to be let out to pasture, no matter how bad the weather was, just so they could get something to drink.  I had also filled the water troughs in pasture just a day before the big storm.

The power finally came back on late Monday night and the first thing I did was check on the horses in their stalls to make sure the autowaterers were working, then I flushed all the toilets in the house and took a shower. Waking up the next morning and having a cup of hot chocolate was such a pleasure. That same morning (this morning) I heard the yips and yaps of a coyote as I put the horses out to pasture. Now I know why the cats have been hanging around the house more.

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