Thursday 28 June 2012

R U interested in horses? WE are....time to make a few changes

Appaloosa horses are IT...I just LOVE THOSE SPOTS! I know a good horse has no color, and spots are not everyones "cup of tea", but I enjoy looking at spotted horses in the pasture.
 Isn't she pretty? We have owned this mare for a few years now, and look at all those spots! Leopard Appaloosa...she is one of our broodmares here on the farm. BUT...we have decided to let our big Appaloosa horses go, much as I love them all. Realistically...I have not ridden in a few  years - just no time to break a horse to ride - so....All the big horses are going to be sold. To appease my great love of horses...AND spots...we will replace them with several Appaloosa Miniature horses. That way we can all enjoy looking at them in the pasture, petting them, a couple of pretty foals every year...and less guilt about not getting them broke to ride.
The mare pictured is USA registered, and has a blanketed bay filly that will color out that is sired by a Canadian registered Appaloosa stallion we bred here, and this mare is rebred to the same stallion for next year. Her filly is pictured below.
 We also have the following mares for sale

 Yes, this bay half Arabian mare above has a solid sorrel filly, sired by same Appaloosa as the filly above, and is also rebred for next year.
 The above powerful mare is a direct daughter of World Champion Appaloosa "TAX MAN". Big, powerful, and the sweetest temperment. She is a great broodmare.
 And this powerful mare is also a "TAX MAN" daughter, with such a sweet nature, a real doll! Pictured with her colt 3 years ago, the day he was foaled. This colt is our current stallion, "PAYBACK".
 3 years can make a lot of difference in color on an Appaloosa, this is how he shed out this spring! He is Canadian registered, and will finish out about 14.2hh. He sired 3 foals this year, 2 born colored, and #3 the sorrel filly above.
 This 2 year old colt we call "KEY WEST KID"...his mother is the first big mare pictured above, "TAX MAN" daughter, and this colt is growing...still. A very good nature on this boy, wish we could keep him, but.....He is not gelded as he could be a fabulous stud. So he goes as he is...

AND "JUST BECAUSE" my husband took this fabulous action photo, AND CBC Saskatchewan chose it and requested it for their greeting cards....here you can see and enjoy it too!
 For some reason they DIDN'T want the photo below....
 Feel free to contact us if any of the horses above are of interest...we want to sell them all before we move, just to make life easier on everyone.

Wednesday 27 June 2012

OK, so we are MOVING....and our farm is FOR SALE

We are moving on...maybe we have gypsy blood I don't know, but moving we are! We have figured out WHERE we want to go, but before we can do that we must sell our current farm. So I invite all to have a look...
 So this is our front door step...NOW of course, all the perennials across the front are starting to bloom...columbine, Tree Peonies, red Yarrow, etc, with a red rose on the one side and a yellow on the other side of the deck.
 And from the road this is what you see...short driveway, raised perennial flower bed - blooming NOW of course, after the photos. Grain bin is a hopper bottom, behind the house, single car garage is to the right.
 And another view from the road, showing the old house on the left, that we use for storage and as a bit of a studio...metal clad hen house is in the center back, and part of the 32 X 60 steel clad quonset barn is also visible.
 Full length front view of our 2002 modular home, 3 bedrooms, 1 full bathroom, 1 ensuite bathroom with jacuzzi tub, modular is 16X80 feet, 1280 sq feet of open concept floorspace. We put a new light oak laminate floor in the living room in March.
 Another view of the grain bin...master bedroom is at this end of the house.
 And a view of the yardsite from the house, showing the quonset barn with the 16X40 foot lean to attached on the left. This is a nice big yardsite driveway, we have had grain stored in the bin, enough to fill a super B train transport to the brim, and turn around too.

Interested? 
Here are a few more details...this is basically a quarter section...160 acres, less 23 acres that the town owns (town is across the road), and a 40 acre lake in the middle that we have a 99 year lease on. Fenced all around with barbed wire. Several outbuildings with yards for small stock...sheep, goats, Llamas is what we use them for. North of the lake we have a good sized hay field, seeded with crested wheatgrass, brome, and alfalfa, and south of the lake is pasture. And we are one of the few places in the area with a good well.... 300gpm and endless water! And taxes...gotta love this part... in 2011 taxes on the property were a grand total of.... $167!
The small town of Ogema is across the road, making the location ideal. All the basic necessities are within walking distance.
WAY more I could write about the place, but enough for now. Feel free to contact me if you are interested in more details.

OH YEAH, and the price for this great place....  $289,900 and its yours!

After much frustation...lets give this a try now, shall we???

I want to thank the patient people who have tried to help me with this...THANK YOU ALL FOR ALL YOUR HELP, I appreciate it!

Wednesday 20 June 2012

And so it begins...first blog with all its frustrations!

After fighting the idea for some time, I have given in. I realized that people really DO read blogs, they really DO follow blogs, and blogs...work. So here we are.
So what do WE do here, on the prairies, on the farm?
We focus on our herd of Registered La Mancha and Registered Nubian Dairy goats. A lifetime of the goat business is what we have acquired here...milking goats from the get-go. I "used to" go to the shows, and win, I "used to" do DHIA milk testing, I "used to" spend a lot of time visiting various goat breeders, chatting about goats, the industry, breed improvements...but now I just have settled down to doing my own thing. No longer show because of the heavy politics in the show ring. No longer do DHIA as it is time consuming, costly, and never made any financial gain for me. No longer spend much time visiting other goat breeders due to distances and time (but have email, yeah, and that works just fine for "visiting"). I continue to breed for breed improvement, and dual purpose goats, with colors - I love colors, and enjoy looking at my goats, so a wildly colored goat is interesting to look at ANYTIME. We handmilk does twice daily, bottle raise our kids, disbudd EVERYTHING, make cheese, make yogurt, skim cream for my coffee (nothing beats fresh goat cream in a good coffee!), and use our goats in a practical way. We cull heavily and culls are sold for meat, as are surplus buck kids and those kids I feel just can't cut the mustard. I love my goats.
We also raise a few sheep, some Llamas, a few Alpacas (just because), horses, Araucana Chickens that lay blue and green eggs...Chinese Crested hairless dogs. I also breed plants, mostly perennials, a few houseplants. Never a boring day on the farm here!
As I figure this thing out, I will add pictures and information on things and stuff we have for sale...likely first on the list will be our farm...OUR FARM IS FOR SALE...we want to move to another farm, so this one has to sell - so now is your opportunity! Well, will get the details up here shortly for anyone who may be interested.
Guess that is it for now...mornings start early here! Have a great evening!