An update of sorts

I've been having a heck of a time getting myself motivated to write something here.  So this post will just serve as a bit of a photo dump and catch-up of sorts. 

I was very lucky to have a friend loan me his tractor for a week back in late May. I quickly got to work cleaning up my manure piles and scraping the problem spots in the paddock.   I love tractors AND clean paddocks, so I was pretty happy to get this major job done for this year.  I like to have a tractor in once a year, as our equine friends happily keep producing manure!

Not quite a between the ears view, but the next best thing!

It took me a bit to get the controls down for the bucket and the box scraper, but after a couple of hours I got more agile and quicker with my work.

Fred was very curious the whole time I was working outside. He is such a funny guy.  I was trying to get an "after" picture, but Fred kept sneaking in to the picture, so I just went with it.  I told him he couldn't poop in the new cleaned up area, but I don't think he quite got it. lol

So clean and smooth! 

With some help, I have both pastures all set up for grazing.  We fixed the fences and made sure all the fencelines have lots of juice, in case Fred decides to lean on the fence.   The horses sure seemed happy to have more room to wander and lots of grass.  Copper is in a grazing muzzle, since he can't handle that much grass. 

As is the case with a lot of my pictures, when Fred hears/sees me outside, he comes over to say hi. 

So cute...

Things are slowly opening up here in our province, so a friend asked me to go with her on a road trip to a neighbouring province.  She had sold a mare and bought a new filly and needed to deliver the mare.    The farm we visited is a well known AQHA and APHA breeder and I had met the owner a few years ago at a show, so I was interested to see his farm.



And yes, this is a pic of a horse butt.  lol  What can I say?  My friend asked me to take this picture, so I was just doing as asked.  This is a cute little double registered AQHA/APHA filly that my friend is hoping to show next year.

These people also breed corgis and border collies, so I spent a lot of time cuddling cute dogs and even a few puppies.  Luckily all were sold, so I didn't come home with a new creature.  ;-)

I snapped this from the side of the road on an early morning drive - this time of year in this part of the world is pretty amazing - I try and find time to appreciate that.  The long days of sunlight make up for the opposite that we get in the winter.

5:40am drive

On the other end of the spectrum, the sun doesn't set until around 9pm and the sky is still light until 9:30 or so.

9:25pm 

And finally, a picture of my peonies, just about to bloom.   I've been busy with the horses/barn/pastures, but have sort of neglected my flower beds.  Clearly gardening is not my favourite thing to do...!  This house has way too many flower beds for a place that has horses to take care of.  My goal before the end of the month is to get the outside of the house tidied up as well.

Hopefully this post will help me get back into the routine of posting...we'll see! lol