Liberty Haven Ranch

10/11/2024

The aurora borealis is visible here at the ranch tonight. Russell and Arthur got some vibrant photos. In the second photo, constellation Cassiopeia is visible above and slightly left of Arthur's head.

09/04/2024

I knew that this tree was not there when we bought this property in 2000. Russell found this photo of himself standing on the pool deck in 2011. In the past 13 years this tree has gone from barely a twig sapling to a gorgeous, towering 20' mesquite tree. Initially, CD wanted me to cut it down and remove it, afraid that it would overwhelm the pool light in that corner, but I convinced him that it needed to stay and that appropriate pruning and shaping of the branches would be enough to solve that future problem.

08/28/2024

See what the kids got up to while Mom and Dad were not home.......

08/23/2024

Duncan has reached his 6 month old milestone. Russell weighed him last night... 65 pounds!! and the size of his snowshoe feet! Oh my, he's going to be a BIG boy. It will be interesting to see where Duncan maxes out his growth. Right now, he has surpassed our old man Fergus who was 60lbs @ 6 months and carried 105lbs most of his life, 27" tall at the shoulder.

07/25/2024

I am so very proud of Duncan tonight. I was in the tub, taking a bath, where I could see his hindquarters only and could hear him grinding and chewing, but on what? the door frame? the wooden clothes tree? Never happened before, but there's always a first time, right? I asked him! "Duncan, what are you doing? are you chewing a bone? a toy? He approached the tub looking very serious and thoughtful (empty mouth). I asked him again... Do you have a bone? a toy? Can you show me? Go get it? Give it? He turned, went out of my sight. Stepped back with a piece of antler in his mouth to show me. OH GOOD BOY DUNCAN!!! You have a BONE! Good job! Good Give It!!! as he let me touch his bone and stroke his head. He's the best boy! Only 5 months old, but he listens carefully to what we say and is getting understanding of our language. He's shaping up to be a very special dog.

07/24/2024

Duncan has been here at the ranch with us for nearly 3 months now. When I picked him up to bring him home, in the photo of April 26th, he weighed 15lbs. Yesterday he weighed in at 52lbs, exactly 5 months old. Yep, he's going to be a BIG boy 😁He has been the very BEST puppy! We've had out share of potty accidents, but so far he has done NO mischief at all beyond relocating the bath mats from my vanity area. He seemed to immediately understand that there was an enormous number of dog toys and everything else was out of bounds. We collapsed and stored away the crate this week. 🥰 ❤️

06/06/2024

So cute..... You could just see from Nacho's body language that she was asking.... "Mom can I go over Annie's house to play?" Mama Churro not so sure she liked that idea, but she did consider it.

05/19/2024

We have been fighting a packrat war under my north side veranda for the past month or more. This rat was too smart for her own good and she managed to overcome our every attempt to have her gone. We started with the obvious by having a good clean up and removing all clutter and junk in the pool toy box, vacuumed and hosed everything down. Then we put in a large, fresh bait station. She ate the entire bait block, still evidence of her in residence. We placed a XL glue trap with a piece of peanut butter cookie in the middle.... caught bugs, no rat. Russell set up our rat zapper trap and snap traps. No rat, but he did catch her on video when she toppled the bait station into the basket and jumped in to see if we'd replenished another block of bait! Then yesterday morning when all was still and quiet, I started to hear scratching about again in the toy deck box. I went to look, removed a few of the large sq**rt guns and we made eye contact, her at the bottom with a baby rat in her mouth. OH HELL NO!! I managed to get the lid shut securely and dragged the entire box to poolside. When Russell was available to help me, we dumped the entire box into the pool. Result -- one dead mama rat and 3 babies. I just can't believe that this is what it took to be rid of this rodent. She was too damn smart and resilient... what if she had unleashed 3 more just like her on us?

04/27/2024

So what else did I do yesterday? I had an opportunity drop into my lap to get another golden/lab puppy. I wasn't looking for another dog, but here he is. Thinking his name might be Duncan?? trying that out to see if it feels right. He's 9 weeks old, male from both papered golden and lab parents. He has had a great first day at the ranch, slept through his first night with no fuss, and no accidents in the house today. Win/win!

04/27/2024

Nacho is just like having another giant puppy here at the ranch. She's very approachable and loves pets and scratches. Churro is never far behind, watches very closely, and has not yet gotten upset with our attentions toward Nacho, though we're aware to always share the love with Churro, too, so she doesn't feel left out.

04/21/2024

Introducing NACHO!!! Remember when Churro went out into the desert to run with the wild bunch last year? She was gone on Rumspringa from March until late July, keeping company with Bosco (chocolate colored jack) and his band. So this morning Russell went out to feed Churro and Burrito, but she was hiding. She had a big surprise for us! Her daughter will be called Nacho. So far Churro has been very accepting of having us all visiting with her and touching or patting Nacho, who is also very curious to meet us and get to know us. It looks like Burrito spent his day far away from them, hanging out alone in the corral.

08/04/2023

My donkeys are bonding again. Burrito REALLY missed having his girlfriend to schmooze with.

07/25/2023

Our donkey Churro came back home today after being out in the desert for 4 months, her rumspringa experience. She originally followed the FedEx truck out our gate on March 20th. She willingly came into our yard through the chainlink man gate, high stepping over the rabbit fencing so she could have a share of peppermint horse treats that my husband was feeding to Burrito, our other donkey. She looks BEAUTIFUL and no worse for her experience except that we're expecting that she has likely been bred. We'll find out early next year. She is a bit skittish, but has allowed each one of us to approach and touch her. We're SO GLAD to have her back here again.... especially Burrito. He was seriously missing his girlfriend. I always thought that if she decided to come home, it would be when the desert was super hot and everything dried up, before the monsoon rains started. I wasn't wrong! Our local temperatures have been 110° and over for the past ten days or so.

07/16/2023

How hot was it in Phoenix today?

07/15/2023

Our hen's great escape caper came to an end this morning. On Tuesday this week, we realized that the 5 chickens had gotten out of the coop when CD saw Annie dog chase and harass Buffy (Buff Orpington hen) across the driveway from the front door. I was able to quickly pick her up and return her to the coop. There was only one hen left in there. The other 4 birds are silver leghorns -- gray and black feathers. In the last light of evening, Russell spotted one hen roosting in a bush by the veggie garden and after a bunch of scuffling around, she was also recaptured and returned. On his last circuit around the house by flashlight, Russell also spotted and captured Mr. Roo under our northside veranda. We had to call it quits for that night.

On Wednesday late afternoon, I ran across the last hen under our carport. With CD, I and Russell in pursuit we played a crazy game of chicken for an hour before we lost her somewhere in the dense oleander hedge. No more sightings until this morning when our tenant sent a message that she was behind the Bunkhouse in the desert. I went down there and saw her, but she immediately spooked and dashed into a clump of dense brush. I went into the corral (behind the Bunkhouse) and started messing with the water in the trough... scooping away dead bees, getting floating clumps of algae out. I think the hen had been watching me and the sounds of water splashing encouraged a very, very thirsty hen to approach. She started to drink from a puddle at my feet and I was able to grab a handful of tail feathers. CAPTURED!! Success! Frankly, I think she had pretty much decided that her week of feral chicken was mostly a lonely failure and she was ready to be done with it. It was 9a.m. as all this was going down, already 98°, and in this heat the birds need a LOT of water to survive.

06/16/2023

We had a full house in the corral this morning of donkeys who came in for a drink of water and then got stuck until we opened the gate for them to get back out. We keep hoping to see Churro, but no luck so far. Today there 9 donkeys in the corral, one more adult skulking nearby, and a chocolate baby jenny.They all look healthy, sleek, well fed.

06/05/2023

This monster, today, in the utility sink in my barn. It's big enough to pay rent!!!!

05/05/2023

The Harris hawk decided to pose this morning right in front of our Ring camera on the gate. Pretty, pretty bird.

09/03/2022

We had an incredible thunderstorm that skirted past us last night, putting on a most awesome light show. Wickenburg was hard hit, but we were dry and unaffected. Russell Tavares took this amazing video and set it to music. Enjoy!! You'll have to click the blank screen below to see the video.

/DC you already know why. 😉

05/13/2022

Annie schmoozing with Burrito and Churro

05/06/2022

Annie had the zoomies late this afternoon so she took that outdoors and apparently invited Churro to join her in her run. Together, they ran at least 3 full laps around our 4 acre fenced property, at a full dead run. They're both still very young, about a year and a half old, and when they get full of themselves, it's good for them to blow off some excess energy. They were not chasing each other, no aggression there. They ran together, playing.

04/21/2022

Our yard asses, just hanging out in sight of our front gate, chilling out, taking life easy...

04/14/2022

Churro does not know CD at all. He never went down to the barn or corral to spend time with Churro. Today, while she and Burrito were near the house, he went outside to visit with her and brought his jug of equine treats. She was not enthusiastic about their peppermint smell but she seemed to be happy enough to be near him and visit. Burrito was being greedy about gobbling down cookies so she finally decided to try one, took it from his hands, ate it, but clearly wished it had been a carrot instead.

04/12/2022

A year ago, we decided that maybe Burrito was engineering escapes from the ranch because he was lonely, now that there are no longer horses here for him to buddy up with, and we trapped a girlfriend for him, Churro. For the past year, she has lived in the corral, while Burrito had privileges to be in the yard to graze as he wished. We worked at socializing her, allowing us to approach her, touch her, brush her... Attempts to put a halter on her have still failed. This past weekend, it was time to let Churro out of the corral to roam our 4 acre compound with Burrito. Hopefully, if she ever makes an escape out our gate, she will choose to come home, as Burrito always has. I will continue to offer them some daily rations at the barn and hopefully Churro will be pleased with her new living arrangement to become even more social. Her grazing options here will seem like 24 hours at the all-you-can-eat buffet!!

01/14/2022

We had a visitor who loudly announced her presence late this afternoon. Bosco came around, immediately outside our rear gate. It sounded like she was looking for the rest of her wild herd.