It's our anniversary!

Happy anniversary, Bob! 

I'm so blessed to be able to share my life with such a wonderful husband.

4-27-1973

Ahhh, green grass

We have been trying to rotate our pastures now that we have reduced the horse herd.

Sunday afternoon we allowed them into the fresh pasture for a couple of hours. They can't have all the green grass they want or we would have lots of tummy aches.

This is Fancy, our buckskin yearling QH. That's her mom, Goldie, in the back-ground.

And this is Locket's little mini filly.

She was having a lot of fun playing in the new area.  

She was really interested in the miniature mares who took the opportunity to roll and scratch off the loose, shedding hair. Here she is watching Satin Patches enjoy a good rub.

The llamas are starting to fit in

Bob turned the mom and daughter out with the sheep and they were just fine with the arrangement. 

Spot and the boy will later go with the miniature horse herd. They weren't as pleased...

Last lamb of the season, again

Our Tunis ewe "Grannie" was bred later than the others so we have one lamb that is quite a bit younger than the rest of the flock.

She had a nice big ram lamb, we though she was going to have triplets as big as she was. She has a huge udder now if he will just nurse a little longer at times. I worry about him.

Town Hall for Hope - Be There!

Its time for our nation to band together to rise above the fear! Town Hall For Hope isnt just a one-time event; its a nationwide movement to bring hope back to all Americans. 

April 23rd - Check the website www.townhallforhope.com or www.daveramsey.com for locations near you. 

What's new on the farm? Llamas!

We have been looking for a guardian for the flock of Tunis sheep. Even though Bob's coyote deterrent has been working well, we felt the lambs could still be in danger.

We did a lot of research on guard animals... dogs like Great Pyrenees, Anatolian Shepherds are popular around here. Donkeys are another common protector of livestock. We wanted something that ate the same thing as the sheep if possible. So we settled on a LLAMA!

Our search for a suitable llama led us to a nearby town where a lady had four she wanted to sell together. So they now live at Unicorner Farm! Here is a photo of them while they were still in the trailer this evening.

We have them penned next door to the sheep so they can get used to each other. We are thrilled with the  quality of the four.  We hope they will take their jobs as coyote patrols seriously.

We did have a llama before, named Chipper, he lived with our miniature horses. Unfortuately, he had a heat stroke the year after we moved to the new farm. Llamas are llovely animals, very calm and they walk so gently. They make a neat humming noise and are very curious.

Now we need names for our four new acquisitions. Any suggestions?

The older female on the left is white with tan on her face, a 2 year old female black and white, the mama llama is dark brown and the yearling male is solid white.

Avery loves music

My grand-niece, Avery really enjoys upbeat Christian music...  I caught this little video of her yesterday in church doing a little happy dance... should we tell her Baptists don't dance?  ;-)

A filly for Locket

Golden Locket, our beautiful palomino miniature mare had her foal during the night. The sire is our friend's bay stallion, Dragon.  We are so happy that the little bay filly is healthy and nursing.

Locket is the "model" we used on the our website in discussing proper conformation. You can check out the link http://www.unicornerfarm.com/faq-conformation.htm.

Sheep shearing is done

I had a pleasant surprise when I came home from work to find that Bob had sheared the last two ewes for me. Now all the grown Tunis are naked.

And our ram, Ralphie, has company again. We put Lilly, who missed getting pregnant last fall and the two yearling ewes, Sienna and Sassy in with him. Hopefully we will have some fall lambs.  

It does look like we may have one more pregnant ewe, Grannie. 

Busy week on the farm

Bob and I have been steadily working on getting the flock sheared. Two more to go and they'll all be naked! All the sheep got their annual shots and were wormed a couple of weeks ago. We still lack getting their hooves trimmed. I meant to do that when I sheared them, but got half way through the flock and realized I hadn't done any.

All of the miniature horses had their hooves trimmed (by a friend of ours who is a farrier). They also received a tetanus booster after our tragic loss of Trooper to tetanus.

Even Bob went in for a check-up yesterday and got a booster. I'll get one next time I go to the doc, I wish Bob could just give me one of the horse vaccines. ;-)

We've had pleasant weather and with the longer days it is nice to be able to get some chores done outside.

What little time I've had on the computer I've been playing on Facebook. They have a cute little game called Hatchlings where you search for eggs and they hatch into little critters. Mindless and time-consuming but a nice break. Lots of my cat show friends are on it and we have lots of fun sharing photos and stories. If you haven't joined Facebook already, I recommend it as a great social network.

To sign up for Facebook, follow the link below:http://www.facebook.com/r.php

Be sure to invite me to be your friend at my yahoo email (texastunis).

Belated Blessings

I hope that everyone had a glorious Easter Sunday!

Surprise visitors at church

We were honored to welcome past President George W and Laura Bush to our church today. Jenna and her new husband were also there. We have a tiny little country church close to his ranch and this is the third time he has visited since he bought the ranch. At least this time there was no metal detectors and press, only a couple of secret service guys.

It was a little unnerving when we were first told he was coming (I sing (not very well) in our small choir). But honestly, they are so warm and genuine that everyone just relaxed and enjoyed the worship service and our pastor Dub Oliver's sermon.

My cousin's granddaughter, Kenzie and Bro. Dub's daughter Callie are much braver than me, they sang a duet. Here's a little clip of them singing the great hymn, Holy, Holy, Holy.

One of the best parts of the service was my other cousin's son, Anthony, going forward to accept Christ today. It would have been a memorable day for him even without being congratulated by George W. He will be baptized next Sunday.

After the service, the Bush family took their time leaving so that they could shake hands with everyone.

Loving the green grass

I even got home from New Braunfels while the sun was still up. The sheep were loving grazing on the fresh new grass.
The lambs are growing fast, this is Ruse's little boy, Tricky. He is very curious and was checking to see what I was doing.

Annual Mission City Cat Show

I judged for one of my favorite clubs in New Braunfels, Texas on Saturday. It was there 26th annual show and I think I have been to everyone of them.

The entries were down this year, but the quality of the cats was fantastic. There were lots of new and rarer breeds there this year too.
I found two neat "wooly" cats that I had to get my camera out for. The one above is a Selkirk Rex - Longhair, gorgeous color too.

This is the shorthair variety, look at that neat wooly coat. Just like a lamb!

I had so much fun judging the cats because we had plenty of time with the lower entry.

One cool Norwegian Forest Cat decided he wanted to perch on top of the scratching post next to my judging table. He was pretty high up and I had to coax him down with a toy.

Below is one of the hairless breeds, a Peterbald. They originated in Russia.








Another of the newer breeds is the Toyger, I LOVE the stripes on these guys.

Happy Birthday, Star!

Trooper's "horse" dad, is our very special stallion, Lone Star Rowdy. Star is 25 years old TODAY!


You can see more pictures of him on the website at:

http://www.unicornerfarm.com/star.htm


Happy Birthday, Ol' Man!


Star has competed in everything from halter to obstacle, jumping and costume and has never let us down.

We miss him

We miss our little guy, thanks to everyone for the kind words!

This is one of our last photos of Trooper, he sure loved to get the hugs and scratches from his human "daddy" Bob.

The final chapter has been written

At 1:05 p.m. Doc and Bob had to make the decision for our dear little Trooper, he still would never quit.

A long night for Trooper (and Bob)

Trooper is having a really tough time. We are really starting to worry. Doc prescribed muscle relaxers for his spasms and it really knocks poor Tooper out. There was a time last night that Bob was really worried he wasn't going to wake back up. And when the Ace does start wearing off Trooper's heart rate goes up and his breathing gets too fast again. It is hard to find a happy medium.

Trooper had his second big tetanus anti-toxin shot this morning. So we pray that he will start to improve. His jaw totally locked during the night so getting him to eat is difficult, Bob milked Jasmine and is giving him a little at a time. Bob took another day of vacation to stay home and do what he can to keep Trooper comfortable.

We appreciate everyone keeping Bob and Trooper in your thoughts and prayers!