Meet Barb & Ki

This is my dear friend Barb and her horse Ki. Barb bought Ki in March and she came to live on the farm and keep Cowboy company.

Since then, we have had quite the adventures to include wee hour of the morning escapes, bucking bronc rodeos, etc. :-)

I think my favorite story about Ki was a few weeks ago. The dogs woke me up around 2 a.m. barking. I looked out my bedroom window and could barely make out the image of Cowboy pacing the fence.

I got up, put my shoes on and headed outside to see what was going on. As I was stooping trying to see through the trees, I could see Cowboy, but I couldn't see Ki.

All of the sudden I heard foot steps behind me. When I turned to see who it was, I was startled to see this big horse head right in my face. It was Ki. She had gone through the fence we had just put up the week prior. She was standing behind me looking as well as if to say "What are we looking at??"

I told her to stay right there (I was afraid if I showed her I was mad she would run off) and I ran to the barn to get her halter and lead.

When I came through the barn door, I almost fell on my butt as I was startled to open the door and find that Ki had followed me to the barn for a treat and was standing at the door waiting for me!

I got her halter on and put her back in the corral. Needless to say, I spent the next two hours putting up the temporary electric fence to keep the brats in!

It seems every time Barb comes out to see her horse, we end up working on the farm. One very hot day, we were sweating our butts off putting up yet more fence, and Barb asked me "What the hell are we doing???" I replied with a smile, "Living the dream, man!" :-)

And then there were none......

Over a month ago, I was piddling around the barn and noticed a few loose feathers. I didn't think anything of it until my roosters (Red and Goldie) weren't anywhere to be found. At first I thought perhaps they were out picking in the corn field just east of the farm. But they never came back...and I never saw them again.

HoHen continued her quest of sitting on a rotten egg in hopes that it would hatch. She spent weeks sitting on that egg until one day I heard her causing such a commotion in the hay loft. I went up to see what was wrong and she was frantically running around the loft squawking her head off. I'm thinking that she had finally realized her "boys" were gone.

Due to all the worrying I had done that she wasn't eating or drinking anything as a result of sitting on the rotten egg, I thought I would cease the moment and get rid of the rotten egg. That was definitely NOT a good idea. The second I got close to her prize egg, I swear everything on her extended to ten times its size! She came at me with such a vengeance, I ran screaming "Okay! Okay! I won't bother your rotten egg!"

From that point on, she started coming out of the loft more frequently. It was sad to see her by herself, but she wasn't alone for very long. Last week I went to the barn only to find a fury of feathers spread from one end of the barn to the other. HoHen was gone...for good.

Apparently, judging by the tracks I found around the barn and the mess inside the barn, there are a few coons that decided to prey upon my family of chickens.

It seems so silly that I could get so attached to some stupid chickens, but I did.

So I now have a new goal and wonder how fried coon will taste. :-)

Posted in loving memory of Big Red, HoHen, and Goldie.