Our new residence is roughly 40 miles south of our prior facility. 

You can find us at 6571 West Big Sky Drive, Post Falls, Idaho  83854.  Much closer to my office and kid's schools!

Here's some pictures of the new place:

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Not only are we getting another job creator here in Ponderay, but we're getting a great store!

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/dec/12/big-r-store-will-bring-jobs-to-ponderay-off-road/ 

Big R Farm and Ranch Supply Stores are located across the region and offer a wide selection of products, supplies and expertise for those of us that have a medium size ranch or farm, not quite big enough to go direct to a supplier and too big to pay retail prices and buy in small quantity. 

Personally, we've been shopping for an alfalfa pellet supplier since we located to the area about six years ago.  Sure we can buy individual 50# bags or we can order a 26 ton semi-load, but we want 3 tons+/- at a time … so far, no luck.  Maybe with a Big R in town, we'll have another outlet to find supplies!

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Great article in a recent Sandpoint Magazine on the equine culture up here in North Idaho …

http://www.sandpointonline.com/sandpointmag/sms10/saddleup.html

It's kind of surprising, but the horseback crowd has almost felt a little "underground" to us.  Especially when you compare the number of tack and feed stores, saddleshops, shows, clubs, magazines, etc. that we had in a close radius from our prior facility in Southern California.  Having said that it also seems like more and more equestrian related activities, events and associated vendors are headed in our direction!  YAHOO!

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Apparently de-worming horses is an often discussed, often heated topic around stables.  Some people insist on worming monthly, others insist on daily feed through, while others use a traditional bi-monthly schedule and a few even insist on NOT worming whatsoever unless a problem is discovered.

We have a hybrid opinion on the topic.  Based on where our horses are kept (pasture), the fact that the soil drains well and is sloping (limited moisture problem) and the fact that our horses are not exposed to horses from outside our herd, we tend to worm on a very limited schedule.  Often only a few times a year.

However, I've recently changed my mind a little for two reasons

1. We actually have a ton of visitors in the pastures including turkeys, white tail deer, elk, and potentially even a few predators from time to time including a cougar and some coyotes.  I don't know if there is a possibility of cross contamination from other species, but it would stand to reason that there could be.   In fact this year I had a problem with the dang turkeys pooping on the hay in the barn.  They apparently think it's a nice roosting place!
2. Second, I recently noticed a worm floating in one of our stock tanks.  Where the heck could a worm come from in the middle of winter, if not from a horse?  Upon further research, I found there are some varieties of parasites that apparently can be coughed up and then re-ingested causing intestinal infestation.  NOT GOOD!

So I decided this year we probably out to error on the side of caution and run our herd through a rotation, bi-monthly on the major anthelminics (sp?) and ensure that we have no residual infestation and everyone is safe, healthy and happy in 2011.  Additionally, I want to double ensure that our mares are strong and healthy should we opt to breed them next year.

Now onto the controversial topic, there are a ton of wormer's out there and it seems that someone has had a terrible experience with every brand!  So what I did was create a schedule of a heavier wormer followed by the safest, yet weakest wormer (Ivermetrin) in the following cycle. 

Interested in our schedule?  Here's the plan …

Here's a great link to a free chart from one of the major pharmaceutical firms (barn chart).

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I guess since the new year is here, it's about time to sit down and figure out which projects will get done this year!

We've whittled down our herd of animals from 7 horses, 4 dogs and 2 cats to 3 horses, 2 dogs and 1 cat.  With that big of a reduction we need to make some changes in the layout of our horse paddocks and get prepared to actually start riding horses once again.

As the snow begins to melt in the next month or so, our first project will be to rearrange our paddocks, water tanks and feeding locations.  Smoothie and Vido's paddocks will be combined and house the girls (Leyla and Maggie), while Vido will move up into the larger paddock closer to the house.  It should be a simple reconfiguration, but I will need to redo some of the hotcote wiring, move some gates and all of the corners need to be reinforced.  While we are at it, I plan to relocated their water tanks and bury them half way to provide for better insulation from the cold next year.

I'm still considering options for permenant hay and pellet feeders for the horses. We need something that will keep more of their hay up of the ground and restrict access for the herd of deer that seems to show up everyday when I break out new hay.  Hay prices are high enough just to feed the horses, so I really don't need to feed the wildlife too!  Check this design from Klenepipe, it's a fantastic concept.  It' won;t work for our hillside paddocks, but it's pretty damn cool!

Down in the barn we'll continue to get it organized, clean up and ready to start working horses once again.  This past year we cleaned out lots of items from the barn, we added windows adjacent to the tack room and the wash rack area, and I installed skylights in the center isle roof.  The difference is significant.  We also opened up two of the horse stalls to create more interior feed/hay storage.  Eventually we'd like to put up enough hay for 6 months or more and then not have to worry about getting in hay delivery in inclement weather or when the load limits are on the county roads.

I almost finished the install of the grain silo and grain auger, but winter came early.  That project will hopefully get finished this summer and HOPEFULLY we can find a supplier of hay pellets (3+/- tons at a time).

It's sad to see our herd of critters shrink but we found a great home for Scooter a few years ago, Charlie recently moved to a new home across town and is doing well and now it looks like Smoothie has a great family to join!  Of course we will miss them all, but they will be well cared for.

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