sunday stills ~ flowers/floral

Lillies are one of my favorite flowers. They are low maintenance with endless varieties. Many are scented, which I consider a bonus. Two years ago, I began to transplant my long time favorite ones. They went from clay soil at our previous home, to our current sandy loam. I had my doubts. They all survived, and are coming into their own this year. They say it takes three years. So far wildlife is leaving them alone. It thrills me to see familiar blooms that I've grown to love over the decades.

I'll apologize in advance, as this post is a little more about the lillies and a little less about unique photography. Ready to walk down lily lane?!!

May May

A small butter yellow daylily, that blooms profusely. It has a slight scent & reblooms.

Alison

A beautiful soft peach daylily (not this orange) that blooms profusely.
It also happens to be my younger daughters name. 

Charles Johnston

I transplanted multiple of these fav red & yellow daylilies. It has a scent & reblooms.

Mary Todd

A very vibrant yellow daylily, that blooms profusely.

hot pink & yellow ruffled daylily (name updated later)

Interesting that it is much happier after transplanting.
It lived next to our pond and was on the struggle bus for years.

It is so pretty, I couldn't leave it behind.

red & yellow double daylily  (Dixie something...)

I almost didn't bring this oldie.
It is a double from back in the day, when doubles first came out.
 

Yellow Asiatic Lily

Tall, sturdy and covered in extended blooms!

Orange Asiatic Lily

A shorter, reliable bright orange bloomer.

I transplanted a few others lilies not pictured, and left some varieties I didn't love behind. My oriental lilies, and my favorite trumpet Black Dragon need more time to flourish. If you get into lilies, you will quickly learn you can't have just one!!

visit more Sunday Stills ~ and have a bloomin' good time

 

disappointing learning process

Cierra's breeding window has closed. We had one last related vet appointment to recheck her, just incase. She is confirmed, not pregnant. 

It was a long disappointing learning process. Brad is guaranteed a live foal, but we couldn't even get past the breeding stage. Much to my surprise, he has already decided to try to breed Cierra again next year. He will be reviewing his AI contract and contacting the standing facility to go over details etc.

Moving forward, our vet suggests having Cierra bred for an early foal. He said we are set up for it, and feels our odds will be better. He would like her "under lights" in December, so her cycle will be regulated earlier. The plan would be to breed her in February. I am not sure if Brad will decide to keep Cierra home. I sure hope so, and I know he wants to. If so, we may need to make some additional adjustments to our barn. Not sure. It needs to be figured out. Maybe leaving the barn lights on 24/7 is enough, or it might require adding a (heat?) lamp to her stall. 

The vet tech chimed in, saying Cierra wasn't the only mare they re-bred multiple times that did not get pregnant this season. It is nice to know we are not the only ones, but it didn't really make me feel a whole lot better.

It was question time: I asked about infertility testing. The vet said it can/can't be done. They can take a tiny forceps sample of her uterus to send off for testing. However, even if those results comes back favorable a mares fallopian tubes could still be blocked. There is no way of knowing or test/equipment that reveals blockage.

I felt stupid asking my next question, but it turned out to be a valid one. I asked if we are getting less quality semen, because the stud is in demand? I mean, if they are constantly collecting... He said potentially, yes. There was one time for sure, where the semen they sent us did not look good. It was very watery/diluted. You get what you get. He feels it is better to get on the collection schedule earlier.

Our vet added, sometimes a stud and mare just don't match up for whatever reason. They have had cases where the stud was switched, and then the mare got pregnant.

When our vet collects from studs, they do two vials for a second day of breeding. That increases chances of catching ovulation at the right time. Apparently this standing facility doesn't automatically send double doses. Brad will be asking about the possibility. The vet said there are two schools of thought, and vets are pretty much split down the middle. 50% think one dose is all you need and the mare either gets pregnant or not. The other half, thinks a second breeding increases your chances. The latter makes sense to me.

..........................

2021 breeding timeline:
Feb 3: Cierra moves to heated barn

April 6 Check productive heat

April 8: first breeding

April 9: Uterine Lavage. I didn't blog about this, and don't know much about it. They found excess fluid in Cierra's uterus at her first breeding. Fluid was removed the next day. They said it is unrelated to her ability to get pregnant. 

April 27: not pregnant and Cierra comes home

April 29: second breeding and pregnancy check. Cierra had ovulated early. 

May 18: third breeding and pregnancy check. Cierra had ovulated early, again.

June 5: fourth breeding

June 23: not pregnant

July 7: still not pregnant (this post)
..........................

I wanted to recap my related breeding blog posts in one place. Note; some pregnancy checks were combined in the linked blog post. The dates correspond with breeding, not actual recheck dates. I hope for everyones sake, breeding goes better in 2022!!

A lot of people ask if Brad will show her this year, since Cierra isn't bred. He will not. That would hardly be fair, as you can see she is not in show condition. Cierra will continue to enjoy being a horse, at home with her herd. Brad will start riding her again, so she stays fit. 

Nom Nomm
"I may or may not be eating these weeds"

Cierra
July 9, 2021

loud squawker's

Yesterday's hike-a-bout with the Labs was all kinds of interesting. You may recall it was cooler. So much, that I wore a flannel shirt and didn't get hot until the very end of my slow stroll. It lasted about 45 minutes, much to this guys dismay:

Tank waiting, again

I hauled my camera, altho I didn't expect to see anything interesting. I figured all the wild critters would be in hiding, sleeping in the fresh cool air. Mmmmm, it felt so good to not have thick air!! Birds were chirping away, but our trees are so full it is rare to actually see one.

Jameson & Tank did pretty good with my frequent ooh's and aah's, stopping to take photos with my camera and my phone.

??

smooth spiderwort, still blooming!

??

I've concluded I stink at identifying wild thangs. I checked the amazing wildflower resource Val shared with me, and searched google image for the two white flowers above. Many look similar, but foliage doesn't match up. My gardener brain said the top flower resembles baby's breath (it is not) and the second one looks like anemone foliage (it is not). No doubt they are common flowers. They could be flowering weeds, and not official WI wild flowers. We have a lot of white phlox blooming too.

Anywho, onto the rest of yesterday's walk - and - I am not even going to try to ID the rest of my finds!! You are welcome ~ ha haa!!

medium sized feather

a very large smashed egg

At first I thought perhaps the above was a smashed mushroom, but there are what looked like shattered shell edge pieces. No, I didn't touch it or spend too much time investigating. I didn't want to labs to slurp up whatever it is, or was. Bleh!!

only saw one winged wonder

We entered the pines and got the crap scared out of us (okay, just me) no less than three times. Enormous pterodactyl sized turkey BURST from the tops of the pines! I tried to get photos, but ~ ya, let's just say I wasn't holding my camera still. I was determined to fire away the third time, annnnd when they surprised me yet again my camera had fallen asleep. Sigh. It was a sizable flock, and all I could think of was I was glad I wasn't trail riding! The turkey are loud squawker's and fly overhead outta nowhere. They can be mean when they want to, but I had my trusty guard dogs with me. Tank would hide behind me, but I think Jameson would come to my rescue.

The rest of our hike was quieter entertainment. I found more 'shrooms:

ordinary small mushrooms popped up in many places 

I oooh'ed and ahhh'ed over these minuscule mushrooms

If you look closely, there are pink even tinier mushrooms growing to the left of the lowest white delicate mushroom. I didn't even see the pinky's, until I processed the photo. The white ones are very delicate looking. They have a thin single stem, with a cool design for an umbrella top. Apparently for stylish tiny woodland fairies to take cover from the rain.

I instantly thought of Val, when I saw this disgusting glob of who knows what?!! Ha ha, sorry but it's true. It looks like someone forgot their brains. I decided it was a glob of some kind of fungus, after all it was growing among mushrooms.

closeup with my iphone
caught an ant enjoying the weird delicacy

As I rounded the corner out of the main pine trail, there was Tank. Patiently waiting. Shown above. We continued with our hike, saw more of the wildflowers and ordinary mushrooms. These days, instead of crossing the tall hay fields we walk around the field borders on mowed paths (thanks Brad!) Tinkerbell hopped off the parked hay equipment and joined us on the last leg of our hike.

newer trail between the arena's
(Tank, Tinkerbell and Jameson)

We took the path towards the back of our indoor. It still looks the same. Piles of fines, dumpster and even a portapotty that no one uses. It continues to get cleaned regularly (what a waste of resources). Looks like it will remain until the builders finish up. We are now looking at end of July, maybe even August. I hope sooner than later. I am more than ready for Brad to be done endlessly working, and move on. I want to ride my horse!!

Tinkerbell was done walking with us.

She plopped down and hung out in the middle of our desert.

Our weather is suppose to continue to be pleasant through the weekend. I plan to enjoy more hikes among nature. However, before I completely bore you guys with my many observations ~ my next post will be more horse related. Y'all have a wonderful weekend!!

 

winged wonders

I took advantage of a break from Summers less than desirable weather offerings, and enjoyed getting reacquainted with the ever changing ecosystem we call our property. We had a string of wet weather, that produced interesting mushrooms. The very next day the labs & I hiked the property again, and they were all gone. So quickly.

I hauled my camera and didn't observe any changes. Nothing caught my eye. That is always a drag. Nothing like hauling a heavy camera around for nothing. It happens, to me.

It brightened my walk, when winged wonders started teasing me with their random flight patterns.Talk about challenging action!! If you ever want a good laugh, watch someone trying to take a photo of a butterfly. If it's me, you might want to cover your ears.

After moving and leaving my beloved pond behind, I thought my dragonfly photography days were over. They are not as colorful here, but we have a lot of these fluttering all over the place:

Widow Skimmer link

I couldn't figure out why my camera had such a hard time focusing on a different dragonfly that caught my attention. After taking a closer look, I know why. Much of the wings are transparent. Not the best photo, but I am keeping it after how hard I tried. The transparent wings are so cool! 

no luck identifying it

In addition to dragonflies, I tried to photograph orange butterflies over the span of several days. They are sassy! So much, that I swear I heard one say "ohhh - you want to get closer to me" as it tried to land on my face!! I never did get a photo of it.

I was thrilled to find another orange butterfly soaking up the sun just outside our front door:

look at that curl!!

hellooo!

Once again, not much luck identifying an orange butterfly with those large spots. What is it? Besides pretty. The closest I found was a Great Spangled Fritillary. I used this link and also a great WI Butterfly website that keeps track of them. People report sightings here who knew?

A faded Red-spotted Purple (?) butterfly that has seen better days

We have a lot of butterflies at the bottom of our property where I encourage leaving some thistles and milkweeds growing for them. It is a hard balance, when trying to maintain weed free hay fields & pastures.

 

The Monarchs and Viceroys continue to avoid my camera, flying fast and high. Randomly. The dogs don't help with their constant "watcha looking at" behavior. Every. Single. Time I get close...yep, cover your ears. I should just leave the dogs in the house, but that is hard for me. They love our walks as much or more than I do.

We were back to high temps for the long July 4th holiday weekend. Including very de-motivating humidity and general Summer way too hot yuckiness. Bleh. We got rain yesterday and today it is nice and cool! I am off for a hike with the labs, to see what we can see.

Have a great day!!