HC Minis - new pics pg 172

[chandab]

Halfway through my yearly fabric inventory. Have at least my next two quilts planned, had hoped to start one today, but time got away from me and it didn't happen.

The girls all seem fine, can't tell yet if they are pregnant by looking, but I have my suspicions.

 

[paintponylvr]

Share?... your suspicions?

O, can't wait for the pics of the next quilt!

Do you quilt them by hand, machine or send them out to be done by machine? Have you done the single "strand" thru and tie it off?

 

[chandab]

Share?... your suspicions?

Strong feeling with Misty, on the fence with Tana and Bonny, and since she never has before, I'm thinking no with Showy. And, I thought so with Baybe earlier, now not so certain; but only got one hand breeding in with Che` before she was out.

Do you quilt them by hand, machine or send them out to be done by machine? Have you done the single "strand" thru and tie it off?

I've tied one or two quilts, and all, but one, of the rest I've done myself by machine (no patience for hand quilting), that one was done by a friend in quilt guild in exchange for some fabric (machine quilted - bigger than I could stuff through my machine).

 

[chandab]

A start, I have 4 blocks done. There are only 10 in the quilt, they are large blocks.



And, you can kind of see some of the other fabric under the blocks

 

[chandab]

The pattern calls for one of the black prints where I put red, the black was just too harsh.

 

[chandab]

And, the rest of the blocks, still need to sew them together and add the borders, but you get the idea.



I have plans to make another quilt with this fabric, different pattern.

I have plans for a quilt for my sister for her birthday, she turns 50 in 2016.

I have a small project to do for quilt guild, so far it's just 3 traditional log cabin blocks.

 

[paintponylvr]

WOW, I never would have come up w/ those colors/patterns. That looks great!

Can't wait to see your next projects...

 

[chandab]

WOW, I never would have come up w/ those colors/patterns. That looks great!

Can't wait to see your next projects...

Not too hard to come up with the fabric when you buy the fabric collection from the company.

Thank you.

Still quite a way to go with this one.

 

[chandab]

Top is done, I'll quilt it later, as I have another in my head that I want to start.

It's like 60" square. It's wider than the bed, so I turned it diagonally on the bed so you can see the borders.

 

[Kim P]

Gorgeous. Love how the black and red play. It reminds me of that one quilt I loved so much. Can't remember what you called it. Mediterranean?

 

[chandab]

Gorgeous. Love how the black and red play. It reminds me of that one quilt I loved so much. Can't remember what you called it. Mediterranean?

It was the Monterrey Medallion quilt that you liked so much.

 

[chandab]

Just thinking...

The girls are a tad thin on top, this is unusual, as usually the girls are a tad chubby. I've had reservations about our homegrown hay, but it's what I have. It's dryland grass/alfalfa mix. Most of the minis (2 are on specialty feeds, can't afford to feed to everyone) are on 15% protein, 6% fat pellet, mixed with a complete pellet (12% protein, 2% fat); I mix because I have to make a special trip for the 15% protein pellet (only so much room for storage), and the complete pellet isn't enough on it's own (too low in fat, I think). I have limited choices. Anyway, Shayne brought home a hay corer to sample straw for nitrates, so I sampled the horse hay and sent off for protein, sugar and starch levels. Still waiting on the results, but the lab has received the sample. will let you know how it goes. They also get some soaked beet pulp and alf/tim mix pellets every other day or so, not a bit meal, but enough to get some extra water into them and encourage them to drink.

The girls are getting nearly free choice hay, so it's not for lack of quantity. A couple are looking promising in the baby department, they should be 6-7 months along depending when they took during the 3-4 week time Topper was out with the mares. Baybe if she is bred is about 6 months along or a bit less. Topper was with mares late June into July; Che` is out with Baybe daily, but he was handbred late July.

Just thinking, so thought I'd share thoughts.

 

[Ryan Johnson]

Yes Keep us posted

I have my fingers (and toes) crossed for a HC mini baby (or two) this year

 

[paintponylvr]

Not too many folks seem to test hay, even though here it's free thru the cty AG office. In fact, I had one supplier get really peeved at me when he found out I'd had his hay tested. The protein level was lower than I'd hoped, but not too bad. What was bad was the "Acid" level they test (can't remember what it's called).

I'm looking forward to finding out what your hay tests at if you are willing to share.

OOOO, can't wait to see who in your group is actually pregnant and ready to foal!! So exciting!

 

[chandab]

No free testing around here, sending it to Equi-Analytical in NY, the lab is recommended by the Yahoo Cushing's group for testing, so that's why I chose them. Just testing protein, sugar and starch (I have a couple that should probably watch the sugar and starch levels on their feed, but I haven't been doing much of it). I'll share when I get it, just don't know how long it'll take.

Mares still have 4 months or so to go. If they keep to their maiden foaling pregnancy lengths, I'll have foals at 307 and 320 days (I think that's right). Plenty of time to get through calving first and have some warm weather hit the frigid north.

 

[chandab]

hay test results are back (via e-mail).

I tested some wheatgrass/alfalfa mix hay, dryland. It tests 10.4% protein, should be enough (at least for maintenance, but the preggar girls will need some extra protein), but doesn't seem to be, as the girls are a little light on top. [.36% lysine] 7.2% sugar, .4% starch.

 

[chandab]

Forgot to tell you guys the funny about hay testing. Shayne borrowed the hay corer to test our oat straw for nitrates to be certain it's safe for the cows; the sample was sent through the grain elevator to the lab. I called yesterday to special order some horse feed, and they tell me the sample is lost, the envelop showed up at the lab empty, no ziplock baggy full of straw in the envelope, the whole thing was missing, the lab just received an empty envelop. Today the office gal calls me and tells me the post office returned the ziplocks full of straw, fell out somewhere and they were able to return to the elevator, so they are reshipping to the lab. Maybe there is hope that my package I'm waiting on that went missing Dec 22, will still arrive; last tracking was on December 22nd, it was departing the state hub.

 

[chandab]

All this talk of foals and babies has me excited for spring and summer.

I'll try to post a few pictures when we start calving, but here are a couple of old calf pictures.

The talk of twins had me thinking of these two itty bitties (I'm pretty sure they were twins, but may have been an old cow's last hurrah, they are sometimes tiny, too, when the factory starts to shutdown). [We typically only leave one twin on the cow and either bottle feed the other or try to graft them onto a cow that lost her calf.]







Trimmed up a couple horses today, both have special needs, so sometimes take a bit longer and don't turn out quite as good as I had hoped, but today was a pretty good trim for both of them. [No pictures, it's winter, I rarely take woolie horse pictures.]

 

[Rocklone Miniature Horses]

Ooooh look how sweet they are.

 

[amysue]

I love the photos of your calves, they're soooo cute when they are small....then they grow up. Thanks for sharing those.