March Maddness

'Oh, 'tis love, 'tis love, that makes the world go round! '” “Somebody said,” Alice whispered, “that it's done by everybody minding their own business!” -Lewis Carroll; Alice in Wonderland.

Seems harsh Alice but in reality wouldn’t we all love that at some level or another? To mind one’s business just doesn’t seem to be a very human thing to do. I’ve found myself thinking of this quote lately after having had people call the humane society on me for “neglected” or “skinny and ill” equines. Obviously my animals are just fine, and the humane society has been out here plenty of times and been un-worried about the welfare of my critters, but occasionally I find myself wishing I didn’t have to throw my hay piles by the front of the pastures to appease the self-righteous passersby. The month of march was indeed mad and a scramble both mentally and in the literal, physical sense of the word. I talk about the idea of minding one’s own business because at the beginning of the month I received a notification from our local humane society informing me that my kill pen rescue “Gonzo”, from whom I may have developed some false idea of savior mentality and belief in my own importance and virtue, had wound up in their care because of my lack of appropriate vetting. Or perhaps my lack of willing myself to listen to my heart and operating more so on the fear of what might be ?

You see, I’d developed this almost OCD idea or feeling that I was unable to care for a number of horses over 4. That was where I drew the line and refused to go above that line, in fact if I ever did I would carefully choose an equine that I could do without and who might benefit from being in a new pasture and allow them to move on from me, which is never an easy chore for me because my horses are my life.

At the beginning of the winter I found myself with Archie and Dulce, (the ponies), Gonzo, Demonte, Rune, Rion and Impulse. I pretend for the most part that the ponies don’t count as horses, but that still left me with five! So I thought that it would be best for all involved if I let Gonzo find a retirement home and, after someone expressed interest in my Shetland stud, I allowed Gonzo to leave with the individual who bought Archie.

Well. The rest as they say “Is history”. It’s incredibly disheartening to learn that people have trashed your good name behind your back only to make a dollar, especially when the humane society tells you that they claimed that your farm was neglectful. Fortunately the big man is back in my barn safe and sound, despite making me feel a little like my purse strings have been tightened a bit, and I again have the five horses. Thanks to good people and a good amount of providence and maybe a pinch of luck on my part! I am at, however, a bit of an impasse because each equine in my pasture is now there for a reason and two of the five have come back to me never to leave again. So what now? I guess the choice must be to move on from my OCD idea of four and remember the bible verses from Mathew 6:26-34 in which Christ urges His followers to not seek after the necessities of life, which God understands we all have need of, and to simply seek toward righteousness and He will provide. If I believe in my heart that God has given me this passion for horses and it is my calling to teach through them then He will provide. This is certainly a difficult concept though to accept for a control freak like me!

While I know God doesn’t bring chaos and evil and hardship upon us, I do know that He is able to work through and use these things to His advantage and, while this month may have been a little bit like walking through the valley of the shadow of death for my anxiety riddled and troubled mind, I am comforted by the fact that “all things work together for good for those who love God.” Romans 8:28.

I have several blogs that I would like to post in my other topics, which I wrote at the end of February and have still to edit and publish, and they will hopefully be posted soon enough now that I have a moment to feel like I can breath, but with the rush of seedlings needing to go in, lessons to teach, horses to train and the weather changing I may likely be less active on my blog than I would like to be. I will do my best though dear reader to keep you posted and up to date with the goings on at the Bog. There is plenty of content! Just perhaps not plenty of time for this farm mother of two!

April is the last month before the cool season grass explodes. It’s a joy to my heart to see the jungle-like vegetative state that May brings but this also means I must set my mind to accomplishing some of the tasks that may be inhibited by waist high grass; tasks such as finishing the back pasture perimeter fences for rotational grazing and clearing up the hedge rows and downed trees that March left in it’s wake.

I am very proud to say that I have, for now, arrested the ability to keep weight on my Nubian goats and have officially weaned over half of my lamb crop so that ewes, who grew particularly thin this year (due in part to a wet summer of 2021 and higher parasite load than I would have liked), may go out and build their own body condition on the spring grass. This isn’t really the most ideal management design but I am finding it works better for me NOT to raise lambs on mommy and grass primarily at this stage of the game. I am hoping eventually to work toward a more regenerative grazing structure, but the acreage on our farm doesn’t really allow for this and to make ends meet I have to stock a few more animals than the grass acreage can support by itself . C’est La Vie. Perhaps, spoiler alert, on the new farm we will be able to really achieve those regenerative goals…

We are also cramming a little bit to get the birds in and covered up. Hpai has been found in our county and local wild birds, an extremely viral pathogenic avian influenza that is deadly to them, and it’s spread by infected droppings from migratory birds. Our strongest countermeasure against this issue is to coop up all of the birds and cover them so that wild birds above can’t poop into their pens. This brings it’s own disadvantage to it though with the rising feed costs and inability to free range the birds like we’ve done for years so we are having to supplement heavily with grain. To top that… I have an egg eater bird in the coop! Oh boy!

Welcome April!