Goodbye JoJo

JoJo left to be a lesson pony for little children!

In the fall when she's done working for the season, I may buy her back.
'Cause, ya know, a 200 pound woman might need a tiny pony.

Gray Day Hodgepodge

Katie took the camera outside to get some farm pics.

JoJo obliged her for a portrait of a silly pony.

Laura's hens are laying now. Here is a photo by Laura of today's egg collection.

The calf and Tom are best friends.
Tom sleeps curled up on him at night in his hay stall on our front porch, but I can't photograph the adorableness of that because if I move or turn on a light, they jump up and run toward me.
I do have a nice collection of flash lit gray and tan blurs snuffling my lens.

I like Tom Kitten. He climbs trees and eats rodents. He also sleeps cutely on his own pillow next to Becky's head at night. Better yet, he sometimes clumsily falls into the crack between her bed and her wall. His meow for help is surprisingly quiet and feminine for such a hulking, manly kitten.

God Made Farmers

I snapped this Sunday night.
Becky and I were watching Superbowl commercials at the computer.
She'd just come up from milking and feeding.
My little agriculture major in her pink Carhartts is the reason I felt teary about Dodge Truck's Farmer ad.

Porch Pony

JoJo and her ilk were grazing in the yard overnight, and when Laura threw some stale Cheerios out the back door, along with the chickens, a pet pony came running.
The cat is not amused at the prospect of a pony invading his space.

Lame Winter

A beloved facebook friend called our winter lame. She chose her adjective well.
We've had lots of sunny and warm weather, and few frigid days.
When you combine good weather with a trip out west to visit a horse loving aunt and uncle, you get horse crazy kids.
All three girls are working with their own horse, plus helping their sisters out.
Laura has Mr. B all beefed up and feeling young again, so he's enjoying light riding.
Becky's perfecting her skills on Libby.
And Katie gets stuck breaking the baby pony, since she's the only one small enough to do so.
Here's a scene from today.
Unfortunately, the camera ran low on batteries before I could catch them all riding together.

Pony Power!

Happy Birthday, JoJo

Baby JoJo is growing into a fine young lady.
Today is her first birthday and she's already preparing herself to carry her young master and mistress.
Mr. B is her grazing companion here. He takes good care of her, shares his food with her, and never (hardly ever) loses his patience with her, no matter how badly she behaves toward him.

Today may also be the birthday of a much older human whom you know as Fat Suburbanite Dad.
http://fatsuburbanitedad.blogspot.com/

Horsin' Around

Yesterday, Laura got loads of entertaining footage of these four musketeers kicking up their heels. Unfortunately I'm putting up a short take since I don't edit and the other, better rears and spins are on long videos.

And... They're Off!

Cuteness, Personified

JoJo is the biggest joy on Providence Farm.

Except when she gets herself in trouble. Which she did last Friday by choking on pelleted feed.

The vet was called. The rush was on. He came, he cleared JoJo's throat of the clog, we fed her a slurry for the next few days while the tender tissue recovered. All was well again.

Here she is in all her Wild Mustang glory.

Jumpin' JoJo

JoJo's motto is, "Size isn't everything!"

She proves to us all that she can do anything Big Mare can do, and cuter.

Baby JoJo comes from the top of the hill and takes a jump, surprising everyone.

JoJo Again

JoJo Mugging Me

There's nothing like a curious baby pony! She weighs less than 50 pounds, so I'm not worried about her trampling me.

JoJo Playing

I wanted to send pony videos as an email, but can't. So now we'll have pony videos on the blog for all to see!

Here she is running with the pack. I couldn't tell in the little viewfinder which creature was pony and which were dogs.

Cute Farm Babies

And an adorable little farm mother too.
JoJo is more fun than a barrel of monkeys. Now that I've experienced a foal, I have the urge to breed mares. Of course I won't do this again on purpose, but wow, has a baby pony been a blast!
Milk Chocolate Chip also augments the farm experience for us. I've decided that he might stay brown after all. That would be exciting, since we've only had black so far.

Baa Ram Ewe

What are the foal and the ram talking about?