A Merry Christmas to All!

Sunrise at Moosters Meadows

 

It's nearly Christmas Eve here.  The calves have been up to some mischief  and Yodel is worried that they are all in trouble!

Scuba looks adorable wearing her Christmas lights! 

 

From all of us to all of you - have a very MERRY Christmas!!!

 

An Unexpected Visitor

See that bird hanging over the Dexters?  Can you guess what it might be?  We know they are around, but hadn't had one on the property before (that we've seen anyway).

Here's what he looks like using the telephoto lens.  We are so in awe.  This is just too cool.  His wingspan is huge.  The dog actually ducked when he flew over our heads. 

Sure hope he/she doesn't think that Gypsy and Queenie the calves look like dinner this week!

New new new

New donkey:

This is Yodel.  He arrived on  December 2nd.  He's a standard sized donkey.  Minis are fun-sized, but we want Yodel to be able to help protect the herd from the evil predators!  We also hope to learn to use him to help with halter training.  We'll let 'ya know how that goes.....

His arrival caused a great stir - and a few (probably all) of the corral heifers got schooled right away.

Apparently Yanni didn't understand donkey body language......

One slightly bloodied nose later, she definitely understood donkey and figured quickly that she was no longer queen of the corral.  The little prince had replaced her in the "I'm in charge" hierachy!  After a few days, they all get along just fine.  No more warning language needed!

And Christmas came early to Moosters - meet Lola!  She arrived last evening at the Denver airport - our Christmas gift to each other.  When our old German Shepherd, Zee, passed last year, we just weren't quite ready to get another one.  It's finally time again.  The best time for us to get a puppy is winter - she gets plenty of our time because, well, it's winter and we don't do much.....  We're already pleased with her calm ability to deal with all the new "stuff" coming her way.

 

 

She loved playtime in the fenced dog area tonight.  And she's already claimed her place at Chris' feet in front of the sofa.  We're going to love her!

Stay tuned as we train both the donkey and the puppy to walk on their respective leads and wait for the schnauzers to acknowledge that Lola exists (they are, except for Brewser, ignoring her).

It's that time of year.  Little birds that convince us that they are starving.  They empty that bag in about 3 days.  The chickadees that feed at the window feeder are a lot easier to take care of with some black sunflower seeds and a bit of suet.  This bag helps keep the hoards away so the chickadees can actually eat.

Love is still in the air.  Moosters Xinger arrived back here about two weeks ago.  She's been hanging out in the heifer corrals so that she could get used to us again.  'Dance let us know right away that she was in heat.  We let her out.  Five seconds later, she was bred.  They were pretty lovey dovey for the day, then they went their separate ways.  Fickle cow and bull!

Today's post is short because it's time to hang the Christmas lights.  Woo hoo.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Much to be thankful for ....  Wishing everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Baby Break



 

We're heavily in the middle of this:

 

So, it was really nice to get out of the house - where the furniture is everywhere but where it's supposed to be.....  Saying good-bye to the carpet and hello to new flooring has been a long time coming.  Now that we're in the midst of it (painting, getting the old out to make way for the new), I question my sanity.  I'm certain that Chris questions my sanity!  It will be wonderful when it's finished, but not so much right now....

Today's short but fun outing found the three fall calves together with no momma cows in sight.  The ATV became a source of adventure for them:

Look how far away we are from everything!

Gypsy came right over to give the ATV a taste test...

Queen was a little slower to explore and Surprise wasn't sure he wanted anything to do with me or the machine!

Eventually both of these cuties came to visit and do a taste test on nearly every part of the ATV.  They are truly curious.

Surprise contorted his body in a number of weird ways (how do they do that?!), but he never approached any closer than this!  Maybe his mom whispered in his ear to stay the heck away from green machines ----

and then it was time to get back to pulling staples from the living room sub-floor.  Ugh.  Just ugh.

Stalkers

Spent some quality time with the girls and 'Dance in the pasture today.  They were happy at the feeders, but wondered who was stalking them!  We counted 17 this time.  There were originally seven that camped (and ate) on our pastures.  Just this week the larger herd from down the road joined up with them.  Now we are completely overrun -- and the girls don't like it!

 

 



The big guy looks pretty well fed to us.  They really aren't that afraid of us either - these pictures were taken in mid-afternoon --  we watched them walk closer and closer to the hay bales .  Darn things.  We need to find hunters with mulie tags - ASAP!

 

 

The little gem below is Moosters DancenQueen.  She's going to be very special indeed!

 

 

 

 

 

The weather was perfect today - hovering just around 70 degrees.  Winter is due to return this weekend.  The high for Saturday looks like something near 32.  Yippee.

 

Thanksgiving is coming - soon or so it seems!  At Moosters, it means the end of the sales for the year.  The last of the "kids" will be leaving home over Thanksgiving weekend - our biggest bull, Winchester and our smallest heifer, Sky.  It's always a bittersweet time for us.  On the one hand, we can't keep them all.  On the other, we'd sure love to keep them all.

This year, we've said goodbye to some real favorites:  Stewie, our little rock star (we can't wait to see him next year at the AGM!), Carnival, our first Reserve Grand Champion and Winchester, simply because he's a big marshmallow (and he was born here three years ago and has already left once and just had to come back home).  We miss Belle, our horned pocket cow (not a good combination when most of our pocket cows are dehorned or polled).  Oh, and our sweet November who died in a truly tragic accident after she went to her new home.  Actually, I guess they are all favorites, but some are just special.

Thanksgiving weekend also means that our newest non-Dexter addition is going to be coming to live with us!  We got to meet him this weekend for the first time:

 

Check out those ears!

 

 

Meet Yodel, a six month old standard donkey.  He's going to help with guarding the herd when he gets a bit older.  For now, he's going to learn to be a Mooster and will continue to learn how to walk sweetly on his halter.  He's highly motivated by treats!  Yodel is truly going to be a new, but definitely fun experience.  We can't wait until he gets here! 

MDBA Show and Sale

Thanks go to everyone who put together this amazing show and sale.  We were truly impressed with both the number and the quality of the Dexters.  We were also in awe of the amount of work that went into this event.  It went smoothly the entire day of the show and sale.  No small feat considering the sheer number of people and animals that went through the ring.  If this is a preview of the AGM Show and Sale in Springfield next year, we can't wait!

We left on Thursday morning, planning to drive roughly halfway.  We'd found a lovely boarding facility in York, NE (the Diamond B - highly recommend it!) where both the Dexters and the humans could rest up for the night.  We're so glad that they were there because the best laid plans don't always pan out:

It's difficult to tell from the photo, but we drove through spots along the beginning of our travels where we could barely see through the blowing dust.  The high winds continued to get worse as we drove along.  By the time we approached Sidney, NE, the winds were really pushing us around.  Surprise!  I 80 was closed at Sidney and we could go no further on the interstate.  Thinking that it would only be for a while, we stopped at the local Perkins for a late breakfast and tried to get some news.  The only news was that the roads north and east were pretty well closed.

When the Wal Mart parking lot started to fill, so did Chris' ability to sit in one place and we headed for parts south.  We drove into Colorado, then traveled east on secondary roads.  Eventually we reached our resting place for the evening - about five hours later than we'd planned.  After a short, but great night's sleep, we were on the road again first thing on Friday morning. 

We did get to Marshfield and the fairgrounds with a bit of time to spare to get our "kids" washed and blown dry - it was a chilly afternoon and we wanted to ge that over with as quickly as possible.  Once the Dexters were washed, dried, fed, watered and bedded down, we had a chance to catch up with old friends and meet some new ones.  It was nice to finally get to our hotel and do the wash, dry, and sleep routine ourselves!

We sadly said good bye to Stewie, our little rock star (thanks, Danielle, for showing him for us.  You both did an amazing job in the show ring!).  He's gone to live in Ohio where he will be very much appreciated for all his special qualities. 

We also said goodbye to Lucky, who stayed in Missouri.  She looked beautiful, behaved nicely in both the show and sale ring and was shown by this young man in junior showmanship.  Lots of show time for her first time!  We know she'll do well in her new home.

Heading home on Sunday morning, our plan was to pick up some hitchhiking heifers along the way, spend the evening again at the Diamond B, then driving home today.  By the time we reached the near halfway point, we decided to push on home.  A quick call to Dianne at the Diamond B to cancel our stay (what a gracious lady...), another nine hours on the road and we finally arrived home.  There's nothing like sleeping in your own bed! 

Once again, HUGE kudos to the MDBA for such a terrific show and sale.

Introducing......

Our new Jazzy girl ----

She's got quite the personality!  This is High Pines Jasmine and we've been waiting for her for several years...  at least that's how long we've been admiring her and flat out asking for her to come to Moosters Meadows!  We're so glad she's finally arrived.  While we admit to having a slight weakness for polled red Dexters, we cannot resist this horned black traditional look.  Lovely udder.  Beautiful horns.  Great depth of body.  Love, love, love her!

Although she's been here since last summer, we've never properly introduced Meara.  She's a very shy girl, but just as sweet as they come.  She was cosmetically dehorned, so we suspect that's one of the reasons that she's so shy.  She's given us two red bulls from Belle Fourche Washington.  We can't wait to see a Dance and Meara calf next spring!

How can you not like this view? 

Family Photos

No, you won't be seeing one of the humans around here, but this one is hard to resist.  That's 'Dance and his daughter DancinQueen and her momma Seana.  It's almost as though they were begging to have the family portrait done!  Definitely one of those times that I'm glad we often carry the camera to the pasture when we go to visit......

And lest it appear that we only have Dexters for pets, here is our other little non-human family.  Brewster, Ripley and their son Johnny Ringo (having a nap on mom).  They are even more spoiled that the Dexters.

White Stuff

SNOW - COWS

SALT - CARS

We've been surrounded by white stuff - but this kind doesn't melt.  We've spent a few days away from home with our other favorite three letter word beginning with a "C" -- car!  Escaping the white stuff that does melt (snow already in Wyoming) and the other three letter word - cow - we headed to the Bonneville Salt Flats near the Utah/Nevada border to watch a bunch of guys (and a few gals) attempt to set land speed records at the World Finals.

If you've ever seen the World's Fastest Indian, starring Anthony Hopkins, then you have some idea of what happens out on the salt.  If you haven't ever seen this movie, watch for it!  It's absolutely inspiring and will give you a pretty good idea of what land speed racing is all about.....

And now - back to our Dexters - and winter (apparently).

 

Did you say Winter?

In and Outs

 

We are experiencing a real fall for a change!  It seems like we usually move directly from summer into winter.  We're taking advantage of these perfect days to start getting ready for winter - draining and putting away hoses, finding tank heaters, getting the chimney cleaned....  Soon enough it will be fireplace evenings season!

So it's been a lovely few days outside.  Today we finished gathering all the blood for preg testing and did our fall worming.  The girls were all easy to move into the corrals - a little hay spread out like crumbs through the forest worked like magic.  They followed the hay and the ATV right into the corrals:  into the chute, halter on the head, a few squirts of Safeguard, halter off the head, lift the tail, insert needle, pull blood, fill the pre-labeled tube, open the chute -  then NEXT!  The cooler weather made it seem like it went faster than usual.... and maybe it did!

Baby portraits for the fall kids were in order as well:

Moosters Dance'nQueen.  She is such a little beauty already.  Momma Seana is fat and sassy too!

Here's little Surprise; aka Glue (as in he stuck right in there!); aka Nemo (thanks for a "real" name for him Callie!).  He's adorable and still a surprise every time we see him.  He was definitely born wearing his winter coat.  He's going to need it!

And the oldest of our fall babies:  Moosters GypsyDance.  She's going to be a real looker.  She's already wearing her winter coat too.  Sure hope the winter coats mean a winter with lots of precipitation.  As you can see, even our meadow grass is pretty well dried up.  We'll be feeding hay pretty early this year.

And sweet goodbyes to two of our weanlings.  Eclipse left this week for her new home in Colorado with Tomi and Karen.  We know she'll be spoiled!  Moosters Bambi left yesterday for her new home at Silver Sage Dexters.  She's amazing...and it was hard to let her go.

There will be a few more "outs" when the Missouri Dexter Breeders Show and Sale takes place next month.  Crossing my fingers, I've promised that there will be no "ins" from the sale!  Really!

The Biggest Surprise - Ever!

This is Woblommy - and her new black bull calf born yesterday.  He'll need a name, but Surprise even seems to be an understatement. 

You see, we were certain that Woblommy was never going to deliver a live calf.  She'd been tested as pregnant for the last two years - at every season!  It appeared that she was afflicted with a "mummy calf" and her body always believed it was pregnant.  So sure were we (and the vet and the sonogram) that there was a mummy in there that she was given a shot of Lutalyse a few months ago in an attempt to expel the mummy.  No mummy - no heat.  We just gave up and decided to schedule her for a trip to the freezer.  Sadly so, because she was a very nice heifer.

 



She's always been slightly out of sync with her body condition.  Often she looked too round, so we didn't give it a second thought as she continued to get rounder.  In fact, so conditioned were WE to her odd look that when I noticed her getting a bit of an udder a few days ago, I even commented that she was getting a little "fake udder" to go with all of her other issues!  Just shaking my head and thinking Poor Thing.  Not Once did I even consider that she was carrying a live calf in there and that her udder wasn't just another permanently pregnant issue. 

What an amazing surprise!  He's just adorable and really IS our last calf for 2012!  Really.

Utah State Fair - One Week Later

One of the great things about going to a new show venue is meeting Dexter breeders that we haven't met before.  Utah State Fair was no exception and we're delighted to have made so many new Dexter friends. 

We were also thrilled by the sheer numbers of people who came through the cattle barn.  Traffic was non-stop and we had many opportunities to introduce our wonderful little breed to so many truly interested people!  Along with all those new folks came a whole new set of germs -- and I've been pretty well out of it all week with a massive head cold.  Since I'm rarely afflicted by the common cold (hurray for that!), I'm a total wuss baby when I do have one.  Thanks to Nyquil, Dayquil and Puffs Plus, I think I'm going to make it!

 Not many pictures were taken in the barn; seems like we were always busy!  There are actually five head of cattle in this photo.  Poor Stewie always seemed to be buried in the corner - no matter how many times we rearranged.  We continue to discuss how to make our display area look more inviting.  Ideas are always welcome.

We were very fortunate to have our helper and friend, Callie, along with us.  She is becoming quite the showman and is more help than we can ever say.  She won the Junior Showmanship class, then went on to show for us and for other friends as well.  We're really proud of her!

What a little professional!  She was competing with adults here; she and Stewie brought home the blue ribbon for bull calf in his class.  Stewie went on to win the Rosette for Champion Bull Calf.  We're really proud of them both.

Carnival also graced us with several Rosettes - she was Champion Junior Heifer and Reserve Grand Champion Female, despite her on again/off again bad behavior in the show ring.  We practiced earlier in the day so that she was comfortable with the ring.  When we were done, she was walking sweetly.  People, evening lighting, who knows?  She behaved well enough, but certainly wore me out!  We competed against some wonderful Dexters and breeders, so we felt really fortunate to have done so well in a few of our classes. 

And finally, we want to mention the activities and learning sessions that were sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Dexter Breeders Association.  This fledgling club (we are now members) is not a new association - we already have two of those nationally.  Rather, it's a group of folks dedicated to the breed.  You don't even have to be a Dexter owner to join.  It's a great way to meet and learn about how other breeders are doing things.  At the Fair, there were several classes that would benefit anyone.  Above is the class for the junior exhibtors on showmanship skills.  Lots of tips and practice.  A good time was had by all!

We can't wait to go back again next year!