December 2012

SUNNY:
Great news! I am so glad things have finally worked your way. Merry Christmas!

CB:
Sorry about the delay for posting you have every month here. I don't have a clue why that is. I thought posting the link to the next month instead of just saying to go to the basket would get you here easier. Guess not.
Do you know your catscan results yet? BTW: Kumquat gives me a catscan every morning. I wake up to her standing on my chest and licking me on the nose .

RICK:
About time you came out of hiding! Sorry about the truck problems. Happy Birthday to Carol!

GRAYMARE:
Yep, you are a party girl . Sounds like a fun time. The pix are gorgeous!! I'd like to visit Sedona someday.
My energy seems to have returned. I was off for a couple of days, but rode Ivan yesterday in the arena with no problems. I think the parade wore me out. It is amazing how much time goes into doing one of those.

Speaking of the parade, Donnie went to work today and found about 10 pix posted around the building of us in the Radford parade last Saturday . One of the ladies at work found it online and spread the news. It shows us just after the harness strap broke, you can see it dangling. I fixed it about 30 seconds later than the photo was taken. Donnie is holding up the right shaft. I look a little grim, I was trying to figure out what to do at this point.

Anyway, here is the link:
http://blogs.roanoke.com/theburgs/files/2012/12/IMG_2989.jpg

You may recognize the red sweatshirt Donnie is wearing, GRAYMARE!

Here is a smaller version of it:

Well phooey, I had this nice long post all ready to go, then I got interrupted and I lost it.

ARK, I think grim is a bit strong, how about Deep in thought?

Here is the latest on HT.




Matthew Conrad


Another update. Dad decided to take a step to rear today. For some unknown reason, his lungs and kidneys are not doing so well. He was transferred back to the ICU. His ability to cominicate seems to be getting worse. Just part of the ride I guess. He is requiring to be on a C-PAP with 50% oxygen. He does follow commands. Still nothing with the left side. I pray the next update is one of good news.

He is in the Tennessee University Medical Center at Knoxville.

Sorry to hear of a backward step Indy ... will continue to send up prayers for him and his family.

oh Greymare those are beautiful photos of the area is that where you are it is beautiful Kent and I are going to travel to some of theese places to take in there beauty I am hoping for next year once we get caught up on bills we are also going to go back to Oregon and Washington but we are going to make lots of stops in between to sight- see while we can both enjoy it

prayers going out to HT and well wishes for a complete recovery

ARK, I had to log back in again today....don't know whats up, but I manage to get here! Glad you are alright, and things happen when you mess with horses of any kind, and you were able to pull it together literally, LOL...and enjoy the rest of the day! Good for you!

Sunny, I know what you mean about seeing things and places and friends while ya's still can....no sense waiting until we are in wheel chairs to try and have fun! Go for it...and enjoy.

Last night Larry (shortlady who use to post here, ((passed away this spring)) posted on another site that LYns horse Shorty was found dead in his stall area when he got home from work, he has had one helluva year and I sure hope 2013 is better to him, poor guy. He said there were no signs of thrashing like he had coliced, no signs of any struggle at all...so I'm thinking a heart attack. Shorty was in his 20's. Makes me worry about Jessi's mare Nikki, she is 27...will be 28 in the spring....but she still will run those barrels and poles, but now with lightweight kid riders on her....and she has to have a special built up gel pad she is so sway backed...but seems to be in good health. She doesnt even breathe hard when exercised...but I know one day...and I will never be prepared...

Am humming for HT and his family...not a nice thing to be going thru at xmas time...may they all find joy this year in HT's recovery.

Indy, I have a lil female doxie I'd like to say "get along lil doggie" far far away! Mama Red is trying our patience...but she is taking care of the 3 puppies, so can't get toooo serious about gettin her along!

Well, little Miss Midge is wearing her "naughty dog" collar today ... She has been doing pretty good and I thought if I just kept working with her she would get better about the other dogs .... all of a sudden, she decided to take control of the situation and just be a wild woman!!!!!! I DON'T tHINK SO!!!! So got to collar out and charged it up .... put it on her ... she didn't want it on so she knew what it was ... LOL Then, when the first dog was around and she started her snotty dog routine ... I said NO and then pushed the button for the warning noise ... that was all it took, but she was plenty ticked about it and is now in the corner of the couch pouting ..... Hope I don't have to keep it on her. She knows what it is and where the warning comes from. She is smart enough to figure out if it is off she is in control ... will see what happens.

Carol, is this when you have her on leash or just runnning? If on leash, I get a rolled nylon harness, I think PAWS makes it, at PetSmart...under 20 dollars, and its kind of a pain to put on, but the way it is designed one of the harness straps go right under the elbow where there is a nerve really close to the skin....you pull on it with two fingers and its like us hitting our crazy bones....its tingly to them and they get a buzz like the sound gives them...but its on that nerve....even my biggest great dane will behave very well using this harness. It has to be the rolled nylon or rounded nylon material...to work good, if its flat it doesn't work as well. They never pull on the leash again! and if they act up just a tug with two fingers and they will behave and not pull anymore. They work great!

Graymare, beautiful pics...reminds me of the rocks/formations in Moab...I love driving thru there, its so pretty. Thanks for sharing.

Well, my laundry is almost done and I can go home...Yay! I will be glad when I get the Beast down here with my washer and dryer!

Those photos are just gorgeous! It reminds me of when we were there about 20 years ago. Nature does provide us with some spectacular sights. Thanks for sharing those, Graymare.


Ark, Zippy and Trinket look great. Though it was a little nervous making for you at the time, it must make you proud to see Zippy performing perfectly under less than ideal circumstances.

I LO
VE the cookie rules.....just LOVE EM!

No CB ... she is fine walking on the leash .... her problem is her mouth ... she barks at everything not just when we are out and about but in the trailer here ..... she watches closely to see what is going on outside and if there is a dog she just goes off in a tangent ... totally unacceptable and that is why she has the bark collar on .....

something to chuckle about. The sound is NOT good, but the actions speak loudly. Enjoy!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTfZ8J-0gAk&feature=endscreen

One can only imagine how many hours, days, and years it took to train that horse to do all that with such precise timing. Thanks, Rick.

carol, does she like water? even if she does, you can get one of those high powered water guns...and let her have it when she barks! just a smidgeon of ammonia in the water .....dogs hate that...and I've used it with cats and dogs...seems to work....
Bood luck with the dog collar...my great dane couldn't even feel the charge of the bark collar....we didn't think it was working and had just bought it, so we let Jessi put it on her leg to see....said we would give her 20 bucks to test it...and she needed the money for something so she agree (she was 18) and Hubby hit it one time and she flung that thing at him and actually cussed at him! It was working, the danes just couldn't feel it turned all the way .....she still tells us that was child abuse! Poor misguided kid!

It works just fine CB ... Last Resort for a sassy little dog .... It is turned down low so as long as she takes the command, which she knows, nothing happens ... she gets the command, then the beep warning signal and if she doesn't mind, then she gets the little zap ... Two strikes and she is out!!!!

hmmm I got kicked off too .... BUT, I am back ... not much to say but a beautiful day here .... headed to the park in a minute to take Midge for her morning walk ... The highlight of her day .... LOLOL she loves to go down there. I take her with me a lot when it is cool enough, but lately it has been too warm to leave her in the truck. The sun here is very intense. Haven't decided what to do today ... so many choices!!!!!

today was spose to be a busy day for us too...cleanup at the saddle cflub so we can rent out the outdoor stalls for rodeo folks/horses coming up in February, decorate the float for tonights' xmas parade, and was going with the kids to get a tree, ya ride on a wagon, cut it and haul it back, and then dinner and decorate tree tonight after parade....but two of the GD's are sick with flu...so Hubby went to the cleanup and decorate float, I stayed home and did the chores and to get a nice hot bath....feeling a lil puny...and then we will go to dinner tonight, but not doing the parade. Seems like it all gets crammed into one busy day and the rest of the time, nuthin! But it is nice to be busy and HAVE things to do...so I'll quit gripin!
Our weather was cool this morning, with clouds....but its sose to get up to 77 today...so not tooooo shabby! Love it...in fact.

CAROL, I say it's the holidays....................give Midge more treats........LMAO. Tell neighbors she is singing hello. Meanwhile, hide.

CB, get some rest so you're O K for the holidays.......................

Later gators. God blessand have a great day!

LOL Graymare .... she is very close to the model little citizen at the moment. Only had to wear the naughty dog collar one time that it was used .... only one time that she didn't mind with the warning beep ...... put it on a couple more times to reinforce that I was serious about it .... she is not a stupid little dog ...... but she does have a big attitude in a little dog body ..... LOL so lots of cookies for good little dogs......

LOL Carol, sounds like she is a smart lil cookier herself!


My 3 lil puppies are almost five weeks now...eating cereal and puppy formula milk, tomorrow they will get softened puppy chow added to the mix...for a week, and then they will get a bowl of dry puppy chow for anytime snack and still get their softened food 3 times a day....by the time they are going to new homes they will be eating dry food....I do it in stages to get their lil systems use to it. The two girls beat up on the lil boy pup all the time, poor lil guy! I will hear him ki yi'ing and look in the box and a girl has him by the ear saying " take this, and that"...and is dragging him around the box....too funny....but he seems a lil out numbered...he's going to have to toughen up. He is the smallest of the 3 also. He gets extra lovin! he curls up on my chest and falls asleep....hubby plays with the girls to make up for my giving him special attention. Mom is trying to wean them already, she'll make a pass of about 2 minutes and let them latch on, and then she is outta of there! She spends a lot more time outside exploring, but never goes very far away. Pups will spend their first afternoon outside today in the playpen. They will spend nights inside, we have a fox around here....and it gets tooooo chilly for them to stay out anyway. Yeah, I pamper 'em.

CAROL:
Pooor Midge!! She is just wanting to say hi to all the dogs and cats and neighbors and birds and people and rocks and cacti and rocks .

I had a 140 pound Great Pyrenees guard dog, Dragon, to protect my goats that barked all night, every night. Loudly. Continuously. He would not shut up, it went on for as long as it was dark, then he slept all day. So finally we bought a battery powered anti-barking collar for him so we could get some sleep. It worked about two nights. Blissful sleep, then the barking began again. So we changed to a new battery and it lasted another night. So we cut his neck hair short so the shocking device had better skin contact. That lasted about half a night. So we shaved his hair off under the contacts and turned the thing on high against his bald neck. One night of sleep only. Dragon burned blisters on his neck, but the barking was more important to him. Donnie learned to sleep thru the barking pretty fast. I was sleep deprived. Since it was my bright idea to get this dog, it was my problem I couldn't sleep. Finally we locked the goats up in the barn at night that he was 'protecting' by barking away any nutcases who might decide to come into his territory at night, none were that dumb. Then we tied him at night into the darkest corner of the barn and HE SHUT UP! Sleep, wonderful sleep. That lasted until the first full moon when there was no dark place in that barn. So for the seven years we had him, I never slept during a full moon. Great collar.


Hey, a friend is going to be on Tom Seay's show, Best of America by Horseback! Some of you may remember him. He was on one of our forums for awhile as "Hoofdoc". The show will be on Friday, Dec. 28 at 12:30 pm EST on RFDtv. He is the tallish skinny guy who looks like Abraham Lincoln on horseback . I suspect he will be riding his buckskin horse and dressed in black. It was filmed at Foster Falls on the New River Trail where I ride Ivan now and then. It is one of those rails to trails projects and very pretty there along the river. He had a blast being in the show!

Speaking of Abraham Lincoln, we went to see the movie last night. What a fantastic movie! The average age of the audience was fairly high and they appreciated the show. When is the last time you were in a crowd that clapped at the end of the movie? We loved the movie.

Next movie we are going to: "The Hobbit". It is Christmas movie season and there are a bunch of good ones coming out or already in the theatres. We saw "Life of Pi" last week, which was incredibly beautiful and a very good story.

Oh, and I rode Ivan yesterday. Fun.

Well I packed up Midge's "Naughty Dog" collar this morning and put it away .... She sat all prim and perfect on the couch and watched me do it like she expected me to put it on her ... LOLOL must have been her conscience speaking to her. Hope it wasn't premature to put it away, but I can always get it out again ... LOLOL At the park this morning there was a guy with a great big Rotweiller and he was pulling to get closer to Midge ... She barked, but minded when I said NO, knock it off. That was a pretty big test for her .... I was scared of that big dog too .... hoping his harness didn't break and that is what he had on him was a harness, not a collar.

Here's a truly heartwarming story about the bond formed between a little 5-year-old girl and some construction workers that will make you believe that we all can make a difference when we give a child the gift of our time.


A young family moved into a house, next to a vacant lot. One day, a Construction crew turned up to start building a house on the empty lot.

The young family's 5-year-old daughter naturally took an interest in all the activity going on next door and spent much of each day observing the workers.

Eventually the construction crew, all of them "gems-in-the-rough," more or less, adopted her as a kind of project mascot. They chatted with her, let her sit with them while they had coffee and lunch breaks, and gave her little jobs to do here and there to make her feel important.

At the end of the first week, they even presented her with a pay envelope containing ten dollars. The little girl took this home to her mother who suggested that she take her ten dollars "pay" she'd received to the bank the next day to start a savings account.

When the girl and her mom got to the bank, the teller was equally impressed and asked the little girl how she had come by her very own pay check at such a young age.. The little girl proudly replied, "I worked last week with a real construction crew building the new house next door to us."

"Oh my goodness gracious," said the teller, "and will you be working on the house again this week, too?"

The little girl replied, "I will, if those assholes at Lowe's ever deliver the damn sheet rock..."


Kind of brings a tear to the eye - doesn't it?

Graymare, good one...hubby just spit his food out laughing!

Carol, that's all I wear on my great danes is a harness...even a flat harness will catch a larger dog under the arm pit area and touch that nerve that is close to the skin in that area....my danes never pull on their harness, the rolled rounded ones, they are perfect gentlemen and ladies. His rottie may be a bit more aggressive as to wanting to come and sniff tho....and you do have to use that leash for some leverage affectiveness! Believe me, my danes tested me...but when they realized I had the control..they started behaving quite nicely...and it takes two fingers to walk them now. It was funny on the trip, folks walking their smaller dogs would grab them up or walk the other way when they saw Bubba coming to the doggie area...and he wasn't doing anything wrong at all....walking by my side very calmly...but I think he enjoyed making folks run...his eyes were grinning...all crinkly at the forehead around the eyes like he was laughing....quietly, but still enjoying it! The big lug! I don't mind walking him at all. My old long gone Dane, Bruno was good on his harness and leash also...and he outweighed Bubba by 50 pounds....Jessis' Dane, Neo is taller than Bruno, weighs at 195..he is lankier than Bruno was. He is a tall Dane. But loves everyone, except some guy who got tooooo close to Jessi when she was out walking....she asked him to stay back and he was kind of lunging toward her to grab her and her Neo knocked the guy flat...he hit his head pretty good on the curb...Jessi called the cops and they took him away...evidently he had warrants out for arrest. Good Neo! But yet kids can crawl all over him, lay on him...her cats lay on him....they just have such a built in radar about them...I love it.

Isn't it wonderful how quickly little kids learn new vocabulary!

Hi guys...well, I quit my job yesterday...I'll still be working until 1/1/13, maybe. The new "boss" not Bonnie who actually works in the Post Office, thought he would be a smart ass and send me a email that said I need to be more flexible and available when ever he says I need to be or he would have to make some changes in staff. WHAT????? Well, here is a change for him. My resignation letter, in detail as to why I am leaving my job....I don't take being bullied or having idle threats thrown at me. I scheduled a day off last month and he decided that I need to work it anyway...needless to say I am NOT working that day no matter what happens. Today he gave up his supervisor job...guess he couldn't take the heat of someone standing up to him. What a jerk.....the Postal Service is full of them...I will miss my customers.

My working days are over with, I'm going to join the ranks of the retired people and sit and watch the grass grow.

I'm all ready for Christmas...all gifts are bought, cards are mailed, tree is up and decorated..all I have to do is make cookies later in the week.

awww...Trudy, I don't know whether to be happy or sad! I don't think you are cut out to watch the grass grow!...but neither would I have put up with his BS either....maybe you'll find something else part time you can do to keep busy....right now am thankful hubby can keep busy doing stuff outside....living in a 32 foot camper can get to be a bit tight sometimes....ahem....but am glad he doesn't have to work driving truck anymore. He may look for something part time, I don't know, he has a hard time NOT working....it's his decision....

any updates on HT?