Saturday, March 26, 2011

Guess what? Ponies.

I've been laying off the ponies for a little while, but I finally made it back out to the barn this weekend. It's been a combination of being busy, and being bummed out. On the one hand I enjoy being around the horses, but on the other it brings up all these conflicting emotions about keeping a horse of my own.

Today the horses were very much interested in soaking up and snoozing in the sun.

Seriously, Gobie. Could you BE any cuter?


Everyone was enjoying their hay as well.





Our main chores were spreading out the hay so everyone could get to a heap without fighting about it, and checking water troughs. Part of the work involved going in where the goats stay. They were feeling pretty cheeky, and I had fun messing with them and deflecting their headbutts.

nerd.

The rest of the gang was working on the fencing to the pasture across the street. They're going to move the geldings over there next weekend. I'm not really looking forward to that.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Dammit Spring

Once again, I'm impatiently waiting for the arrival of Spring. This year I decided I would start trying to grow things INSIDE because it's not yet warm enough to grow them outside yet.

I decided to get started with pet grass, also known as pet grass. Locksley really enjoys nomming on grass, and I hear parakeets are supposed to like it too (although Dorsia hates practically everything novel--so we'll see).

So, I planted a bunch of oat grass in a big pot for Locksley, and a bunch of oat grass in a small container for Dorsia.

Locksley's pot was quiet for several days until BOOM! explosion!

Dorsia's pot grew nothing. I thought maybe they were late bloomers or something. So I waited.

Meanwhile, Locksley's pot continued to grow like crazy mad men.


Dorsia's pot, still nothing. I gave up on it until...


One peasey blade of grass. Growing, smashed into the corner, mocking me. Jerk! I guess I'll give this pot a little longer to produce something substantial.

You might have noticed there's something ELSE in Locksley's pot. A mushroom!



It's not real of course -- I think it's ceramic or something. Anyway, I thought it was adorable. Who doesn't need a friend in a grass forest?

At the same time I planted purple basil and sage. I got these already started from Behnke's, our local garden store. I also decided I would grow some regular old basil in this pot as well. They took forever to sprout (at least in comparison to the grass) and seem to be pretty slow growers. Though it may be because the pot is already pretty active.


I was also inspired by Chris and Sandy to grow an Avocado plant. They have a HUGE avocado plant in their dinning room that they grew from a grocery store avocado pit. They didn't start it in water or anything -- just chucked it in some dirt and watered it. I'm trying that same route, though I'm not expecting to be as successful in this endeavor as they were.


I've got several other seeds to start, but I'm trying to pace myself. This whole process so far is only confirming a sneaking suspicion I've had for a while: I need a backyard.