Rosasharn Ch Uproar

Since Mocha does not have the bloodlines we are looking to move forward with in the future we decided to add a different buck to our line up.  His name is Rosasharn Ch Uproar!

He's still in rut so he's not too glamorous looking, but we think he's still plenty handsome looking!  Mocha is currently with him till Mocha's new owner comes to get him.

Uproar comes to us from MA, at Phoenix Rising Farm.  We went all that way ourselves to pick him.  It was a pretty uneventful trip.  We went through Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut before making it to Massachusetts.  We got to see the New York City skyline and even took a quick tour of the Bronx. It was really pretty up north but too cold for my taste!  It was 11 degrees in MA the morning we left.  A far cry from the 30 degree mornings we have here in Maryland.  And having done almost all my "road trips" down south it was interesting to see how different things are up farther north.  It's nice to be back in MD where it slightly warmer. Lol

Christmas 2013

 Merry Christmas!!

We've had a very nice Christmas here at the Wheeles house!  Dad got a Kindle, Mom got clothes and her favorite chocolates, and I got a brand new Nikon camera.  I went out and took quite a few pictures with it. 

I'm still figuring out how to use it, but so far I like this Nikon Better than my current Canon Powershot Sx10IS.  The Nikon definitely focuses faster and the shutter feature has been very handy.  Taking pictures of all the animals was always hard with the Canon due to it's inability to focus rapidly. It also had a hard time working in low light situations, which this camera so far seems to handle well.  I'm looking forward to having more pictures to share! This'll be perfect for capturing all the action taking place at Strike's Retreat/ Doodle Acres!

Just Checking In

I haven't had too much to post in a while.  Preparing for Christmas is keeping us busy!

All goats the are doing well.  The first three girls to kid are getting bigger and bigger, and so far we already have folks in line for the kids. I'm very excited for kidding season to just get underway so we can meet all the kids!


The horse's stalls are all decorated for Christmas and I guess they're all ready for Santa to visit them!  Our family is all ready for Christmas too.  The tree is up, and the house is decorated.

We're looking forward to enjoying the holiday and having a good week!

Snow and Stuff

Today we started to get the first snow of the year.  It sure looks pretty but now it's icing making everything dangerous.

This week we replaced some of the gates.  We're slowly moving from the tubed gates to the woven mesh gates to prevent the goats from getting out.  Replacing the gates was definitely easier said than done! Each hinge had to be taken out and re done.  I've got 3/5 of the farm yard gates done. Ugh

I also got some cute photos of Smarty yesterday.  She must have decided she wanted to sleep in Isabella and Ferdinand's crate because last night this is how we found her,  She was happy as a lark sleeping there.  I don't know how she managed to fit in there!

Bull Run Ride 2013

Last year in 2012 we went on on a trail ride with our local club at Bull Run & Manassas Battlefield in VA.  Back then we weren't ready to take the walkers out in a group and go on a long ride so we were very excited to be able to take them this year!

Nunya getting ready to go at the trailer

Because of the weather and an emergency the ride coordinator had to deal with my mom and a family friend we gave a ride to down there, ended up being the only three people on the ride. Despite that still managed to have a nice ride.

We went around the entire park, crossed countless creeks and a couple roads.  The horses were all very well behaved.  It was 36 degrees when we first started our ride, but by the time we made it back to the trailers it was 41. All in all we covered anywhere from 9-10 miles in the course of three hours.  The ride was beautiful and will hopefully have some time to try the ride out again on our won in the spring.

Nunya back at the trailer after the ride, wearing mud from the trails

More Pregnant Does!

One of our last two does to be bred, Pauline and Allie, seem to have taken on their breedings! Both girls did not come back into heat this week, so so far so good.  The only doe who's breeding we're unsure about now is Karamel. 

We also on Monday got our last goat for the year!  I have pictures of him to upload but haven't had time to put them up quite yet! Private is joining us from Indiana and has a great Pedigree behind him. We're looking forward to using him in the program next year!

PFC Private

I'm finally going to give Private his intro.  Better late than never, I guess.

Private came in last Monday after traveling all day.  Poor guy had a rough trip.  His second flight got delayed and rather than coming in at 5:30 as planned he ended up reaching MD at 7:00! He comes from Helmstead Minis in Indiana.  His mom and dad are listed on our website.  The pic to the right is of his mother and the one below is of his father. 

Construction

About 3 weeks ago we finally took steps to having one of the old outbuildings made over.  The carpenter did a good job and now it's almost done.  I sadly don't have a picture of old shed, or haven't found one yet at least, but I've got plenty of the new structure.

Dad goofing off and doing an "action shot"

 We've started painting the inside and outside and just yesterday brought in a trencher to run electricity to the new shed and the hay shed.  So now we'll have power in all the barns! The new barn is going to be used for kidding and milking. 

We're very happy to have one less thing to look at and worry about.  We're also happy that this shed will no longer be a huge eyesore!

Another Sad Day

2 years ago we painfully said goodbye to our first horse Strike.  To this day we still miss him dearly.  He was an amazing part of this family and has had the biggest impact on my life of any horse I have owned yet.  He was a truly special horse, and there will never be another horse like him. I am eternally grateful to him for everything I was able to learn with him about horses, and he started us on the path to having gaited horses. It's because of him we have this farm and we will always keep Tennessee Walking Horses.


"God saw you getting tired,

And a cure was not to be.
So he put his arms around you,
And whispered, “Come to Me.”

With tearful eyes we watched you,
And saw you pass away.
Although we loved you dearly,
We could not make you stay.

A golden heart stopped beating,
Hard working hands put to rest.
God broke our hearts
To prove to us,

He only takes the best." - Anonymous 

New Goats

Today we also got two new goats in for Georgia.  They came in via plane and had an easy ride in. Both of them are very well bred and more info can be found on our website on their breeding and pedigree.  They came from Little Tots Estate and we're excited to be adding them to the program.

 Getting them here was the easy part!  Once they got home it was late so we tried to feed them.  They wanted no part in being fed their bottles.  And to make matters worse we had little to no idea of how to bottle feed so it was hard. After a little annoying them with the bottle they finally took it.  After eating they decided they couldn't bare to be in the stall so we let them out. 

 They followed us around the farm as we finished all the chores and were happy as little larks. They hopped to the hay shed and skipped and ran while we cleaned the stalls.  The only hard part was they had a thing for getting right in front of our feet while we were walking!  Lulu tried to play with them but they wanted no part of that so they kept trying to but her to go away.

 We decided to Name them Isabella and Ferdinand.  To our dismay Ferdinand decided that he liked Isabella enough to try and start mounting her.  Boy will be boys *Eye roll*.  We ended up having to put them in separate cages at night till they can join their respective groups of bucks and does.  We know Ferd isn't fertile but Bella definitely didn't like the way he was trying to play! And we don't want her getting stressed out and getting sick.  Both of them will be showing next year.  Isabella will be showing as a dry yearling.