Friday, April 11, 2014

Eureka!

After three days of morning, afternoon and evening foal patrols, we finally found her this evening. And believe me when I say the wait was worth it. She is an absolute cutie. She was born the later part of December, late by anyone’s timetable, into the marsh band we spent so much time observing last April. Her sire is an impressive Tobiano dark brown and white Pinto with my perception of what a “map of Georgia” might look like on his left side, 4 black leggings and a mixed mane and tail. Her dam is a solid chestnut with white socks although the thick marsh mud makes it difficult to tell for sure. The filly is a complete mixture, dark brown on her front quarter, chestnut on her rear with an irregular white band around her middle. Her mane will eventually be black and white while the stubby paddle which serves as her tail will be brown and black. Now, I just need to find out what her name is.

Most of our meals are fixed at the camper but we have gone out to eat twice. Without turning this into a food blog, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention both places. Last week we stopped at J & J’s Oven Fired Pizza on Rte 113 in Berlin, MD which was pretty good. I consider myself somewhat of a pizza aficionado and am fond of saying there is no such thing as bad pizza. I have been proven wrong from time to time but if you get a chance to eat at J & J’s, you wont be sorry. Today’s lunch was at the Decatur Diner on Rte 611 in Berlin, MD. I enjoyed a huge Chicken BLT served on a pretzel roll and home made potato chips while Carl enjoyed a Cheddar Bacon Burger with hand cut French Fries. We came away from the Diner completely filled for around $20.00 which included a soft drink.

It’s hard to believe we’ve been here for almost two weeks and are still finding new things to observe each day. Both Carl and I have noticed in those two weeks how quickly the grass is greening and every day there are new flowering shrubs erupting in color. A few days ago it was the forsythia and today these trees loaded with white blossoms are everywhere. I just don’t recognize the variety. Help, anyone?

We are consistently seeing 21 horses, many recognizable from the last time we were here. What is a bit surprising to me is the loose family structure currently defining the bands. Stallions are allowing their harem mares a much wider latitude, members of bands are mixing and grazing territories are not as clearly defined as they were in August. I did expect to find the two year old stallions who are too old to stay with their dams but not old enough to establish their own bands out roaming on their own. There are many horses we have yet to find reinforcing the apparent need for full waders or a 4 wheel drive over sand vehicle to reach most of the terrain. We are working on this.      

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