An Absolutely Lazy Saturday

Oh there were several things I planned on doing today, but I got zero accomplished...except a good long nap.

I love naps! I just wished I wouldn't get the urge to have one at two or three in the afternoon. It kinda disrupts my evening rest then. But sometimes I just don't care. Afternoon naps are the best. Studies say that people who take at least two or three naps a week, even if they are only 20 to 30 minute naps, have a significantly reduced chance of having a heart attack in their lifetime. Hey, that's a good enough reason for me to indulge myself.

Napping is a family affair. I can remember taking little naps with my dad when I was a wee one. My mom used to come home from work for her lunch hour and take a quick little cat-nap. I know my grandma and grandpa(on my dad's side) used to take regular little afternoon naps. And finally, my step-dad used to come in for his lunch time and almost always took a nap before heading back outside.

Since only one person in my family has ever suffered a heart attack, maybe there is something to what the studies say. Oddly, my brother, who seldom, if ever, naps is the one who had the heart attack...several years ago. I'm kinda leaning toward the other factors in his life at the time that helped contribute to that.

I'll have three very busy days ahead of me though, so I am just building up energy. I have a limited time to get my prairie dogs fed. The weather has not really cooperated for me to get them hooked on yummy, fat grains of oats before switching to poisoned oats, that will hopefully get rid of 99% of them. They are just taking over and ruining a couple of our pastures. I worry about the horses stepping in a prairie dog hole or getting rattlesnake bit. The towns draw tons of rattlesnakes. Since our house and yard are between the two PD towns, we get more than our fair share of those buggers passing through.

After the prairie dogs have been poisoned, I'll have to farm over the towns to knock the mounds down and fill in the holes. Then if any survive, it will be easy to spot new mounds and I can use rodent bombs on those. That's all gonna kind of ruin Chris' fun of coming and shooting prairie dogs, but the neighbor has plenty and he won't mind if we placate our "redneck" side on his property.

It's time to move some of the ponies around too. Little Shooter is going to have to go to live at mom's a bit earlier than I had originally planned. I wasn't going to bring the two bred mares into town until the end of March, but after looking everyone over, I think I will bring them in within the next couple of weeks. My mare, Chunk has an obvious baby belly on her and is in very good condition, the other mare, Cowgirl, not so obvious yet if she is bred. I think getting them in and handling them regularly again, well before they foal will be better earlier than later. Both are maiden mares. It is always questionable how well those mares take to being handled or to having their babies handled at foaling time. Last year, everyone in the family got to watch Shooter being born and then to stand around and oohhh and ahhh over him, because Woofer is just fine with people around her and her baby. We don't take that chance with maiden mares. Everyone will just have to settle for a phone call and a report for the first couple of days. I am getting very excited to see the new babies. Just two and a 1/2 months until my mare is due to foal.

Oh, and I did get Shooter's registration papers back with my first pick. He is officially named, Fast Draw Dandy. The AQHA papers have changed again. I wasn't going to send in a picture of Shooter, but since receiving the new papers, they look very strange without a photo. Once Shooter sheds out and looks "pretty", I will take his glamour 3/4 shot and resend the papers in to have the photo added.

I have to say, I am looking forward to the next few days. The temps are supposed to be in the high forty's to low fifty's with plenty of sun. I'm ready for that.