Fleas!!! Flies!!!! Phooey!!!!

Home is where the horse is. Our little house is nestled in the rocks in the foothills near Chico and Oroville CA. The California rock is serpentine and we have lots of it. There is a lot of quartz, too. Someone told us we could find gold if we dug enough. Well, maybe when we have a few extra hours we'll try it.In the hot weather we can use 2500- yes two thousand five hundred- gallons of water a day. With 61 horses, a garden and every day household usage we have to manage water carefully. Also, since we are solar powered we try to use the wells , etc. during the daylight hours. During the Summer we check water often and fill tanks twice a day. We have two 5000 gallon tanks that Cal Fire can hook-up to and use if there is a fire. We have 4 wells, but currently use only 3 of them.
This is the tank at the lower well.

Julian and Banjoe are Jim's babies. He does not want them to be with the horses until they are big enough. They look big to me. He is concerned the mules will give them a bad time. The bear and mountain lion live behind us and we don't want the calves to be some one's dinner.
Can you guess who is behind the tractor?

Thank you, Cathy and Carolene, for the donations.
When Patches came he must have brought fleas with him because now all the cats have fleas and we didn't have them before. YUCK!! Flies were bad enough. I think the plague has descended upon us. Fortunately we didn't get the grasshoppers that were in the valley about a week ago.
Equines are sentient sensitive animals. They need a gentle kindness when handled. Helen has a wonderful understanding of how horses think and respond. She treats them so respectfully. Thank you, Helen, for training Amira. I rode her today!! It was great.