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Ashton Anna

Ashton’s 23rd Birthday

Hi Guys,

Thanks to all you great friends who sent me “Happy Birthday” messages. It’s great to have so many good friends, even if many of you live states away.

Here’s a quick rundown of what we did for my birthday.

On Thursday (the 25th), we had a grub-club birthday party, where we ate good food, talked and watched Constantine. David made a great chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting, and Anna made cupcakes!

AshtonAnnas Cupcakes

Then, on my actual birthday (Saturday the 27th), we went to an authentic Montana estate auction! (Last year we got a truck-load of stuff for $36.) It was good fun. This was AshtonAnna’s second Auction; both of which were hosted by Roshon’s Auction Service. Here’s a picture of the “parking lot” for the estate auction:

Montana Parking Lot
Roshons Auction Service
It did get a little crazy… this saw for example. Guess how much it went for?
Roshons Auction Service
$80… Heck no, I didn’t bit on it.

They have two auctioneers, and they are both very entertaining. This guy’s our favorite (I don’t know his name.):
Roshons Auction Service

I won two “auctions.” My first auction was for a set of three tools: a Sledge Hammer, shovel and spud bar. All for $12. I bid on it for the spud bar, as I’ve been needing one for a month. If you’re not familiar with a spud bar, Here’s a picture of it after I used it to lever two (ginormous) rocks back into place:
Spud Bar

My second auction was for a pile of wrenches. I got this set for $20. It wasn’t a steal like my first win, but it will come in useful.
AshtonAnna's new wrenches
(We went to Ace Hardware to get some price comparison, and they had a huge wrench similar to mine for $19.49, and a full set of smaller wrenches for $27.99, so it definitely was a good deal:)
wrenches

Then we came to relax, and play with some horses. I played with my (ridiculous-looking) Maple pancake. Her baby fur was much much lighter than her new fur, which makes for hilarious shedding stages:
AshtonAnna's Pancake

Anna worked with Ossetteon the hill (which has become the latest AshtonAnna Header image.)

AshtonAnna's Ossette
AnnaAshton working with Ossette

Then we introduced them:
Ossette and Maple Pancake

After feeding and playing with the animals, we went to Carols for dinner and a movie (V’s Favorite Movie: The Count of Monte Cristo). The sunset over the lake was fabulous (as always):
Flathead lake sunset
So was dessert:
23rd birthday brownies

It was a great Birthday.
Thanks,
AshtonAnna

Categories
Animals Ashton Anna Horses

Baby Mustange Gets Pet

Update: Our baby mustang now has a name: Maple (or pancake for short).

So as I mentioned before, babies pick up a lot from their mother, and it just so happens that Aspen is scared to death of humans. So when momma freaks out and walks away from “those two-legged creatures” the baby follows. But today, 7 days after Maple’s birth, Anna got to show Maple the goodness of scratching:
Ashton Anna's Foal
Ashton Anna's Foal

As you can tell, Maple just loves getting scratched. Near the end of the video she even tries to jump on Anna cause she loves her so much… go figure. =]

On a similar note; earlier today, Maple had a huge burst of energy and did sprints around her pen. She ran all the way over to the hay shed, and back, and around her pen. I wasn’t fast enough with the camera =(

Enjoy!
-AshtonAnna

Categories
Ashton Anna Horses

Baby Mustang Running Around

Here is the baby mustang running around at two days old!

Enjoy!
AshtonAnna

Categories
Animals Ashton Anna Ducks

Duck Waddle

-AshtonAnna

Categories
Ashton Anna Horses

AshtonAnna Pet the Baby Mustang

AshtonAnna’s baby mustang is a female, but doesn’t have a name as of yet.

We realize that this baby mustang doesn’t know what to think about humans, except for what her mother teaches her… which is going to be “scared as beans.” So we’re trying to get the baby as used to us as possible. The hardest part about this is going to be trying to touch the baby since her mother is so protective.

This morning, Anna went out early to feed the horses, and try to the baby used to humans (at least a little bit). So Anna patiently sat in the middle of their paddock – “just being there.”

AshtonAnna's Mustang

After a while, the baby lied down and fell asleep. Aspen, the mom, got hungry, so she went into that little shelter (where her food is) to eat.

Anna sneaked over to the baby and pet it for at least five minutes. I snuck out with the camera to take some pictures. (Mocha even came out to meet the new baby.)

AshtonAnna's Mustang
AshtonAnna's Mustang

Unfortunately, my camera was too noisy, and Aspen remembered about her baby. She walked over to us snorting (in fear) to wake up the baby.

AshtonAnna's Mustang
(That right there is probably the closest Aspen has ever gotten to a human on her own volition.)

This time she didn’t forget to take the baby with her when she went back to eat.
AshtonAnna's Mustang

Overall a great experience for the baby and Anna!

AshtonAnna