Itchy spots, tiny snakes, and winter returns

The horses are shedding, and three of them are doing it normally.  Rufus, however, has several spots where he's losing his winter coat but doesn't have new coat underneath???  The spots don't seem to be particularly itchy or swollen.  Aren't cracked, scaly, red, bumpy, weepy or otherwise irritated.  He's just sort of... bald here and there.  A couple hand-sized patches on his chest, smaller spots on his back legs, around his sheath, and over his cheek bones.  I don't remember him shedding out like this previously, so something's definitely weird.  

Checked the vet books with thoughts of mange, worms, allergies, etc., thinking he might have picked something up from the cows or eaten something, but it doesn't really look like anything in there.  The closest possibility is ringworm, but he doesn't have the red circle or the itchies.  So.... I wormed them yesterday on schedule which should take care of it if it's worms.  Smeared the patches with povidine ointment, which can't hurt, and once it warms up I'm thinking a bath with tea tree shampoo and some betadine solution on those spots...

Didn't think to take pictures until I'd already smeared him with goop, unfortunately.

Yesterday was also baby snake day.  This little guy was parked right in front of the front door.  I almost stepped on him, and might have had it not been for the bright orange ring catching my eye.

As you can see, not very big.  And he wasn't very healthy, either.  I'm pretty sure after looking him up that he's a baby ringneck snake of the southern variety.

Orange spotted belly, so go with his ring neck band....  I scooped him up carefully on a stick since I wasn't sure at that point if he was the venomous type or not, and deposited him off in the grass.  But given how lethargic and unresponsive he was, I'm guessing he didn't make it.

The second baby snake was way down at the end of the driveway when I walked out to get the mail. 

The same size as snake no. 1, only 5-6" long, but no ring neck on this one and not round like a garter snake, either.  I couldn't see a rattle button, the eyes were roundish, but the head was sort of shovel-shaped... Unlike the poor little guy by the front door, this one was very lively, and I wasn't getting my hands anywhere near him just in case he was actually a rattlesnake.  Since I'd already brought the horses home, wasn't going to be driving anywhere, and he wasn't close to the house I gave him the benefit of the the doubt and left him alone, and by the time I got back with the mail he was gone. 

So the spring babies have started arriving, but they could have picked a better time for it.  It's 41' and dropping fast.  We have grey heavy clouds and a stiff north wind, and it's damp.  The ponies are staying at home today, much to their chagrin.  But it's supposed to get colder and stormier the later the day gets, so... they'll have to make do with the creekbed pasture and hay until spring comes back, or at least until the wind stops trying to take the tops out of the trees.  Weather guy says tonight it snows.

In other news from yesterday, my interview went okay.  I'm pretty sure I can handle the duties as described and the learning curve, and the atmosphere was positive and friendly.  The position has some growing room and seems like it would be interesting and challenging.  I think I have a decent shot, but you never know.  I should find out one way or the other by the end of the week.

Weekend Update

Cookie Jar Ginger Snaps

Holiday baking has commenced.  Two Swedish Tea Rings dropped off, and the and second round of Cookie Jar Ginger Snaps are ready to go.  I love the smell of the house during the holidays.

Rolled in sugar

Hot out of the oven

We had about 1/2 an inch of rain the other night - the horses were all proper mudballs in the morning, but the ground and all the vegetation is surely happier for it.  I wouldn't have minded if it had kept up for all of the next day, too.  Unfortunately it didn't.  The horses weren't entirely pleased to be kept penned up in the corral with hay until afternoon to give the orchard pasture a chance to dry some.  Every time the house door swung open Sunny would whinny notifying us that, "Hey, you've forgotten us down here!  We want out!"


It was still damp even yesterday when I went down to snip off some more spindly trees along the orchard fenceline.  I'm making progress - I've done most of the way to the barn now, although there's still work for T to do with the chainsaw.

Cat 1 joined me to supervise, yammering away the whole time.  He's nothing if not vocal.  He's still a youngster, definitely a tom, and was likely someone's pet at some point.  He worked his way closer and closer and finally got up the courage...

Once he'd had his ears rubbed I couldn't keep him out from underfoot - I almost dropped a tree on him a couple times.  Finally the horses came over to check out what I was up to and after Sunny snuffled him over and got slobber on him and Thunder almost flattened him, he retreated under the pear tree to complain at the lot of us.

Cat 2 is still running off whenever he spots us getting closer than 20 feet or so, and there's an even shyer, big fluffy grey cat that showed up briefly over the weekend.  Finding some outside cats is not going to be a problem.... keeping track of them all, however....

I have the majority of the tub surround tiled, along with the sink backsplash.  Hopefully we'll have a working shower before company arrives for the holidays, but it still has to be grouted, so we'll see.

Last night when we went down to bring the horses in, only Amyra and Rufus appeared.  T called, I called... finally a crashing and thudding, and the errant pair trotted up over the edge of the creekbed both with grass still hanging out of their mouths.  So at least a couple of them have figured out there's edible stuff down there. 

This morning all of them but Amyra were standing in the barn when I went down to let them out, so they've figured that out, too. 

T pulled the cover off one of the old well pits yesterday so we could see how deep it is.  Fairly deep, with a bit of water in the bottom from the rain.  And it also had snakes.  T says just corn snakes. 

They eat mice and bugs and aren't poisonous.  But I still wouldn't want to run across one unexpectedly, and I sure won't be picking them up. 

They look a bit too much like rattlers at first glance.  And I'm not sure what the green one is.

And that's the news from here for the last couple of days.

Lazy afternoon

We had a slithery visitor this morning. T was cleaning up a pile of limbs we've been wanting to take out to the farm, and turned up this little guy. Just a garter snake, and M was thrilled.
We let him wind his way across our hands for a bit, and then turned him loose to eat bugs in the tomatoes.
He (the snake) was remarkably calm about the whole experience - I can't imagine being picked up and handled by giants! But he didn't hiss or struggle, and was seemingly content to rest suspended across our palms without wriggling off. He did disappear quickly enough once he was back in the greenery, however.

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I spent the afternoon out communing with the 4-feets. They were enjoying a typical lazy day. The first feel of fall was in the air. Oh, the leaves aren't turning or anything, but the sky was perfectly high & blue, and it just smelled like the first days of autumn always do.

I brushed out wind tangles, fly-sprayed, and just hung out for a while. Pennie, Lace & Foxy, the three older mares, all have the same habit. When they spot me coming toward them with a brush, they pause where they are, cock a hip, and let their eyes glaze over while I groom. They just enjoy every moment of the attention, pure and simple. It's sweet. Especially when I hit those itchy spots and their lips start wiggling.

I wish Sunny had the same reaction, but he's not particularly interested in being brushed. Itching his belly - now that, he likes.

The younger ones entertained themselves trying to see what was in the fly-spray bottle (it doesn't have quite the same shape it did when they started) and stood around in an interested circle while I brushed Lace, waiting their turns. When I left they'd almost all decided it was nap time, and were dozing contentedly.

Riding tomorrow, I think.