Tuesday, February 27, 2007

When One Door Shuts..

one invariably opens.

Sometimes it takes a little while for the process to happen, however, sometimes the process is swift and happens in the blink of an eye.

I finished work with Telstra Country Wide last week and while it has been a real eye opener and a job that has taught me lots of different skills, I am happy to finish.

I am happy to announce that I start my new job with Plaintree Farms in Toowoomba as their Office Manager this week. Iam just a little bit excited :-)

Plaintree Farms stands Platinum Scissors, Count Albrecht, Conatus and Sunday Knight. If you would like to have a look at their website,
please click here.

Helen

Sunday, February 25, 2007

I Love A Sunburnt Country..



Hard to imagine that Evan (pictured above), is standing in the middle of our big dam. Luckily, there is still plenty of water in the section that the dogs have chosen to swim in and it is still quite deep. We are very blessed to have a good bore that is still delivering plenty of good quality water to our residents. We are also blessed that our House tanks are standing up to the lack of rain that seems to be a major issue and threat all over the Darling Downs. We are not alone there.

All Massie Lodge residents are well with nice round bellies even through these difficult times. Adam visited last week and trimmed Max and Jimmy, Shorts and the Dirty Girl.

The Most difficult Horse to Trim Award has been awarded to both Jimmy and Shorts who both really didnt have any patience and wouldnt stand still! lol

Adam is back again next week to re-shoe Floss and have a look at Oscar.

You know, there is something about this land that draws you to it, that makes you want to keep hoping for a good downpour, that makes you want to stay even though the paddocks have turned to dirt. I cant put my finger on it, but it's a love, a passion to want to be part of it through the good times and the bad Its something that comes from deep down inside you and cant be taken away.

While we aren't quite at that stage yet, some people might call our choice madness. I just call it home.

Helen.




Matilda and Spikeyman having a swim, where there is still thank goodness, plenty of depth to the water.


Bessie Merle about to take the plunge

Friday, February 23, 2007

D Day for Dirtierre

Hang on a minute, it should be "T" day rather than D-Day!


Yesterday saw Monika out to Massie Lodge to scan the Dirty Girl's tendon. The Dirty Girl (whose real name is Dirtiere!) last ran at Doomben in September of last year when the sweet smell of victory turned to tragedy for her owners when she broke down after winning over 1010m.

With any recovery from Tendon injuries, the road to recovery is a long slow process sweetened with lots of carrots and cuddles.

Helen.





Preparing the Dirty Girl's legs for scanning


Two nicely clipped legs ready to be scanned.



Dr Monika Baffy scanning the Dirty Girl's tendon



You really have been a good Dirty Girl through all of this ... let me give you a little ..


peck on the nose :-)


Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Our Beautiful Girl...

Bessie Merle

The Dirty Girl..

A big cuddle for the Dirty Girl







The Dirty Girl and her Jakey boy .... (Lenny was busy!)

A Maxwell Moment....


Hey listen Evan... I got something to tell you...




... please dont tell my secret..

... thankyou


Miss Lucy ... A Work in Progress

Sweetie and Lucy ... sharing a rare moment


Hopefully Iam not like my mum Sweetie .... (lol)



The Family

Being the Very Cute Miss Isabell


I'm asleep.... cant you tell?

Do I need to get up?


I'm nearly awake... *yawn*



Ok, ok I'm awake now.... what do you want?




















Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Where There is Life


... there is hope.

How true is that saying? Evan and I have been flat out for the last few weeks (have you wondered if we had taken off with your horses and forgotten about you?) and seem to be fitting in our web commitments around all the other things that have to be done ... feeding, watering, fencing, feet trimming, worming, vet appointments, it seems that its never ending, yet a labour of love.



People never seem to stop amazing me, especially in this industry. This week we have come across a man that sent 10 mares away to be served. 7 came back in foal. So, he has plans to send the 3 dry mares to the knacker. Its not that they are old and decrepit. Two 6 year olds and 1 11 year old that was once named Victorian Horse of the Year (so he says).

How can people treat such lovely creatures as a throw-away commodity? This is something that really gets my back up (can you tell?) and Iam currently trying to find new homes for these mares, so that they can go on and live a full life with a new career.

I dont think Iam an over-the-top bleeding heart, possibly just an incredible softie!


Massie Lodge has had an influx of brown snakes appearing very close to the back, side and front doors (obviously looking for water and something to eat) over the past few weeks. We have managed to kill 2 of them so far, with a third brownie (we suspect) making appearances while we are asleep.

Naturally, the dogs all get stirred up and start barking and this in turn wakes us up, etc etc etc.

We know that he is somewhere around near the house water tanks and will just bide our time to get him!


The Residents.

All Massie Lodge residents are doing really well. Adam is due out this week to continue on trimming the mares and Monika is due out at the end of the week/first thing next week to scan the Dirty Girl's tendon.

The Dirty Girl has a "thing" going on with Leonard next door (our Kinjite 2yo Gelding) and as you will see from the photos below, they are very demonstrative with each other! Lenny was talking about taking her out for Valentines Day Dinner, however, we might let them share some hay tomorrow instead!

The ladies up the back are all well, with them all supporting nice round bellies. Joie is "Queen of all She Surveys" and Trousers runs a very distant second in that group, followed by Vera and poor Maddie last but not least.

Shorts and Floss continue to blossom with Floss becoming a real pain with her water bowl. We have had to move the bowl out of her yard and around to the back of her shed so that she cant get her feet near it. What she is doing is pulling off her front shoes as she feels that the blue bowl is a toy and when not full, needs to be flung as far as possible - usually to the other end of her yard!

Shorts would never ever do such silly things. She just chases Matilda and Spikey-man out of her yard when she spots them.

The young fillies continue to grow with Isabell graduating to her own feed bowl at feet time. Lucy is still too attached to mum's apron strings, even though we can see Sweetie trying to move her on. If it's one thing that Sweetie will not condone is sharing her feed! LOL Our aim is to get Lucy and Isabell feeding out of the third bowl together.

Maxwell and Jimmy are being very cute at this point in time and even though they are aware of the mares, really havent become too coltish. When Adam comes to trim their feets this week, this will be the telling time, as Evan has been getting them used to all this good stuff.

Apart from that, all is good and Evan and I are planning to attend the Sales on Sunday in Brisbane.

Life is Good - but it would be better if it rained!


Helen.



Lenny and Diry Girl ... "we're not a couple...." ..."we're only good friends"


Lucy with her mum, Sweetie at feed time



I am Max.



"Why the hell is this water bowl here?" I have no idea Floss!


The very lovely Shorts having her lunch ... with Matilda walking past..



Queen Joie



"Yeah so I have mud on my nose..... so?"
Trousers.


Is it feed time yet? No Vera.

Will This...



small insignificant cloud that was sitting right over the feed shed, turn into drought breaking rain that will fill 3 of our dams and cause that funny green stuff to grow? I dont think so. For some strange meteorological reason, all storms that get to Massie seem to do a quick left turn or right turn and go somewhere else.
Ok, we did get 7mls the other night and another 4 mls the next day, but that is hardly the rain that Townsville has endured over the last couple of weeks.


How sad is it to see on Sky News when they show footage of city streets with water just torrenting down the gutters into the drains ... going nowhere ... doing nothing ... or helping the people who actually need it?

I bit my tongue when I was half way through my blog the other day when my computer crashed because of the electrical activity and thought to myself "it's ok ... its ok that I have been sitting here for over 1 hour posting photos and writing because we are going to get some good rain, only to lose it all because Ergon Energy couldnt manage continuous supply!" Im not really that bitter and twisted about it. Hmmm. not really!

As you will see in the next photo, yes, the rain did come from that cloud, but not at Massie Lodge! We figure that the property around the corner copped this nice lot of rain. It looks really eerie, a bit like a mushroom cloud.


How frustrating is it to see this? So close but yet so far!


Anyway, all the Massie Lodge canines were looking after their delicate skin (???) and Bessie Merle was wearing Evan's hat to combat the sun.



The Spikey-man, under the shade of a Coolibah Tree. Well, not exactly a Coolibah Tree ... but a very nice tree that sits outside of Dirty Girl's yard (she is in the background).

All the Massie Lodge canines are taught basic obedience during their puppyhood, so that they are all well mannered and do as they are asked and it has taken a little bit longer with Spikey-man to get the "sit" command down pat. Reward and Repitition is the method that we use with the dogs and it certainly has held them all during their life in good stead. Spikey-man just takes a little while for the command to go inside one ear, and then round and round the brain till it hits command centre!