March 19. Wolf !

On Saturday early morning we sat with coffee/ tea in our living room and all of a sudden noticed our Texas Longhorns running real fast from the far end of the pasture closer to the house. Although Longhorns can run real fast, they don't do it very often. At the same time, two horses drinking water in the corral, run away in high speed too. Another look and we saw a beautiful, big wolf running after the cattle. The cows bunched up and all looked at the wolf, their heads high up, their horns in the air. They don't have any new born calves yet, but kept the youngest ones, which are already two years old, in the back of the group. The wolf made a slow half circle, always stopping again and watching them, then he disappeared. He is no danger to an adult cow, especially not to a group like that, but he might have had a charge at a very small calf getting separated during the run. It was the first time we saw a wolf so close, him being by himself, he must have just left his pack to find another wolf to start a pack of his own. Maybe that's way he got a bit closer. Marty went right away to the ridge to see, if he is still on our pasture, but no trace of the wolf. If a coyote comes closer to the ranch buildings, he usually lingers around and no rush to disappear. But coyotes are mostly mice hunters, the cows don't mind them too much.

Photo: click on to enlarge, the wolf is just a bit left of the top of the high gate.

March 12. Lots of snow for March !

Wow, we never expected to get this much snow the first part past week ! Within two days and three nights, we got snowed in. The school buses weren't running around Rocky Mountain House for two days, and around Red Deer still weren't running on Wednesday. We got good experience clearing snow all day long ! Some with the snow blower, some by hand. Joe and Ben home from school were good helpers. Finally on Tuesday afternoon the sun came out and we were able to enjoy the very pretty winter wonderland. Since it will be quite a while here in Alberta for the spring to turn green, it is nice to have snow, the landscape is so lovely with a white layer.
It got a bit tricky though to feed the Longhorns and horses. Although we have chains on our feeding pick up truck, after feeding the ripped off, when we wanted to load the next hay bale and we had to shovel quite a bit of snow to get better traction. To feed the horses was the best way to drive along the plowed country road to the gate onto their pasture, but the rather short distance from road to gate was filled hip high with snow from the grader and wind. It took us over an hour shoveling to just clear that.
It was cute to see, how all animals followed one or two trails they made in the snow.
Luckily it wasn't very cold, so they all were fine.
And with the full moon the weather changed once again and every day some more snow melted. There is still quite a bit though and the farmers can rest at ease, that there will be enough moisture in the ground for spring, as well as the forest rangers to have the risk of forest fires in the spring season down.

March. 5. "From my kitchen window"

I love my kitchen windows ! While I bake or cook I can look onto onto our pastures, watch the Longhorns and horses, see the forest, might spots a couple of white tale deer, watch the bunnies in their outdoor run, see the weather and always changing sky.
Yesterday, while I was preparing a roast dinner, Marty and Ben went to feed the Longhorns. Once on the pasture with the feeding truck, Ben drives slowly along, while Marty spreads out the hay. The cows have a ranking order and best is, when there is lots of smaller piles of hay, so all cows can eat peacefully. After that was done, Marty drove to the next pasture, where they fed the horses, then back to the barn to unload some hay, so I can feed the calves tomorrow by hand, scooping hay over the fence.
It snowed all day yesterday and some more today. It hasn't been very cold and the snow was getting quite heavy, usually our snow is very fluffy, dry and light. Tomorrow will be sunny again !

Feb. 27. Kitty and Texas Longhorn calf !

What kind of secrets do you think they share? Flower, our barn kitty is talking to one of our last year's Texas Longhorn calves. The calves are very curious and like to check everything our. Flower is very careful with those bigger animals, although she loves to hunt for mice within the hay bales. It is always interesting to see how our animals interact. Cattle within their herd or with the horses across the fence. The horses with each other, or what they do, if the see an unknown animal. Years back, our neighbour got Alpacas, and our horses got very nervous and excited, only for a couple of hours, until they confirmed, that new animal specie is not a prey animal.

The temperatures dropped again to a winter normal cold here in Alberta. The animals, domestic and wild, can be glad to still have plenty of winter coat. Past night it dropped to - 25. With sun in the forecast, the day temperature will go up to -5 and feel even warmer in the direct sun.

Feb. 20. Running Horses !

Our horses on the pasture. A bit of fresh snow, just enough to make it look pretty, but not too much to make it hard for the animals. We drove our pick up truck onto the field and while one of us is driving, Marty scoops down hay. The horses were on the far end of the pasture, so they came to the sound of the truck. In the back ground is Ram mountain, this mountain is straight West of Rocky Mountain House.
Today is Family Day in Canada, so we all get another extra day off. Wishing you a great day and a good start to the new week !

Feb. 13. Kiowa !

Kiowa are the indigenous people of the great Plains. A fitting name for our painted girl.
Kiowa has been with us for 18 years now ! And she is a wonderful riding horse for us or for our guests. Kiowa is very reliable and experienced. She loves to do her work. Her personality makes her an agile, quick and responsive horse. Riding her, makes you think, she is still a six years old, she is so wonderful lively.
Although she has been such a trustworthy all around ranch horse for many years now, the start was interesting. We bought her as a nine months old and didn't realise, that she had no contact with people before that, being born and growing up on big pastures. So at first we couldn't even touch her, but after weeks of lots of visiting and sitting with her and her friend Dakota, she gained trust in us and we were able to halter her up. A year later, when we started to get her used to the saddle, she was already so relaxed with us, that it wasn't a big deal for her to get used to being saddled up and to cary a rider.

Feb. 6. Horseback riding in February !

Saturday was such a wonderful sunny and warm winter day. We enjoyed riding Kiowa and Cheyenne through winter scenery as well as early spring landscapes. The top photo was taken on a snow covered pasture, it felt like winter and the snow got deeper on some shaded spots. Later we rode on the Southwest facing big pasture, where all the snow was gone, it sure was an interesting combination. Lucky for us, that the pastures for our horses and cattle are almost snow free, it sure makes it easier to feed hay and they are not very eager to run to the hay, as they might do, if the weather is very cold with plenty of snow.