June 2016

June 2016


 Rose's new foal!

Welcome to June!  Summer is sneaking up on us!


Happy Birthday, RICK!   Hope you have had a great one!  We haven't heard about your trip.  Sooooo.....What happened, where did you go, what did you see?  Inquiring minds wanna know!


INDYAPP:
 How are your horses doing?  How is the cart work?  I am going to sell Zippy's cart, he is living a life of leisure these days.


I had an interesting day today.  This morning I wondered why Cactus Jack was standing and staring at something in Daisy's stall when I went in to clean it.  I was looking at him and walked right up on a 2 foot black snake.  I probably let out a little "eeek", then wondered what I was going to do about it.  We have baby birds in the barn and don't want the snakes in there now.  So I ran and grabbed a small bucket with a lid...shuddered awhile....then scooped the snake up and slammed the lid.  I carried it as far as I could go in the barn lot and turned it loose in a pile of logs.  Whew.  I am sure that made my blood pressure rise a little.  I finished the barn, fed the horses, took a bath, then ran to Blacksburg for lunch with Donnie before going to the doctor.  Sure enough, my blood pressure was about 8 points higher than it has been.  The doctor took x-rays and said my hip bones didn't look too bad.  I have bursitis, but not much arthritis shows.  That dratted thigh muscle that has been tight for two years is the bigger problem, so it is back to physical therapy I go.  The doctor is sending the x-rays to be checked by an expert and will let me know if anything is worse than he thinks.  

So I went home, took a small nap with ThunderPuff, then went down to take care of the horses before an oncoming thunderstorm arrived.  I had noticed one of our baby birds on the ground this morning, so went to check on him.  A  couple of feet from the little bird was A FOUR FOOT BLACK SNAKE!!    My EEEKKK was a little louder this time.    I was going to need a bigger bucket.  I ran back to the barn, grabbed up a bigger bucket with a lid that I held like a shield and ran back to where the snake lay sneering at my cowardice.   I was close enough to pick it up by the tail and drop it into the bucket.  I kept debating how best to get it into the bucket and visualizing it wrapping itself around my arm like a python.  The snake slithered away in one direction, I slithered away in the opposite direction.  I grabbed the baby bird and put it up on a high board in the barn.  I am glad I wasn't getting another blood pressure test done....

I wonder if snakes like Febreeze.
Glad to hear it looks like some PT will help your hips.

CB, take care of yourself. Don't take any chances for a while.

Rick, I hope you've had a wonderful birthday. We're waiting to hear about your trip.

Oh ARK, wow, I'm so proud of you, facing down, 2 SNAKES!     I have a 4 ft black snake in the back yard.  Bobby barking his "help me there is a monster out here" head off, so I went out to see what his problem was and met Ms Snake, who appears to be preggo!  Stirred her with a stick to slither off, straight into the igloo dog house, then had to disassemble the dog house.  Finally got her to leave the immediate area Haven't seen her in the last day or two but I'm mowing the back yard some more today so will likely disturb her.
Has anyone heard how our great traveler is, are they home?
INDY, so good to have you back home!  How are you doing, what's going on?  We missed you.
That picture up top is of my sweet Inky the day we got his foal halter on him.
He seemed to think that sitting on his haunches was the way to accept the halter but as long as James was rubbing on him it was acceptable.  He is 3 weeks old and terrorizing the Gypsy filly (2 months old) in the pasture with him.  We call her Gypsy and she is so solid and big boned, Inky is like a fly pestering her and she's so sweet to let him be a little pia!
NOAH finished grammar school Tuesday and had the 6th grade graduation Mass at Saint John Neuman's church, quite impressive and I'm so proud of him.  Although, him being as tall as Robin and turning 12 on July 31 just doesn't seem possible...........

Omgosh, I would have broken every bone tryi g to escape those snakes. They say lime or moth balls may help dwter them. Saw doc, exrays, and if anyone of you laff, I will sic my bulldogs on you, seems i have a blockage and I'm full of it! Some meds to break it up and clean it out......argh.....,I said no laffin, cut it out. Ouchy.... My ribs hurt.
Rose, luv the baby.
Guess y'all know who is laffin his arse off at my situation.......

Ohhhh, CB. I would never laugh at you. I might snicker a little. Actually, I'm glad that it is something simple to fix.

Oh CB, blockages are absolutely nothing to fool around with and the pain is intolerable. Take the meds and get well quickly! I am not laughing one bit................ It is storming here and has been since about 6. Supposed to continue for the next 3 days, but I'm grateful to the man upstairs that we are not suffering like Texas or how we were in October. Thunder and lightening like crazy though! Several of my pups are really anxious over thunder and glued to me throughout any storms. Got most of my mowing done today, still have some push mowing and weedeating to do but will have to see if the sun comes out for awhile. I'd really like to spend that ntime at the barn with Inky, but chores first I reckon!

Happy June everyone. Can ya believe it is June already? Our weather has been more like August, in the 90's every dang day. No chance to work into the heat slowly this year.

It looks like I may have solved my computer nightmare. Keeping my fingers and toes crossed. It wasn't the Windows 10 but instead it was good old AOL.

CB: I was laughing but not at your blockage. I was remembering your snake story of long ago and thinking how you would have reacted to seeing those snakes in Arks barn. You get that taken care of right away. Rose is right it's nothing to fool around with.

ARK: You are too brave with those snakes. I would have turned tail and ran away.

Have a great day everyone. Not going to push my luck with this email stuff just yet anyway. Don't need stress at 4:30 AM.

Whew! It's about to rain, and the humidity is HIGH. Just mowed the yard and I'm almost as wet as if I'd gone for a swim. We need the rain. The grass isn't growing much and some of it is already brown. It's great swimming weather though.

Hi Gang. In the mtns now. It's slow or no go internet. Gorgeous weather, good friends, and GOOD food. Rex is having fun with his friends, too. Horses down home are in under roof in the afternoons due to heat. They just enjoy the fans. The fans aren't for the heat, they keep the flies gone.

Love that Inky ROSE. Gads, can't believe Noah is going into Jr High. Does he still love horses or is he now into sports?

Enjoy your swimming & jet skiing ELLEN.

Hi INDY!!! Glad you found us.........catch us up.

BEECH, send us some NE news. You're prob busy scootering.

TRUDY, glad you're well. Sorry you skipped spring.

ARK, hmmmmmm. Scary snakes. Hope they're gone for good.

CB, are you better now?

Later gators.

Rose, does Pocono have lights?  I don't think they will get the race in before dark because of the rain.

It's an hour later. It looks like Pocono is in the middle of a big rain that is going to last a while and there is another band coming along behind it. I guess we'll watch the race tomorrow.

Inky is a cute little guy! Did you do the imprinting routine with him, ROSE?

TRUDY
We have wimped out on the garden, again. It is about all we can do to keep up with mowing. Between rain showers, the grass is running amok. After today's rain, we are supposed to have a full week of sunshine. We will be making hay in our lower field.

GRAYMARE
Are you camping or are there cabins where you spend the summer? Rex must be having a good time! We haven't seen 90° here yet, but may next Saturday. It will encourage us to get our heat pump' s installation done so we can have air conditioning!

CB
How are you doing? I was sorry to see your brother is back in the hospital again. How are you doing?

ELLEN
Have fun at the races! What is your current crafty project?


Gotta get busy. We are between rain storms and the barn awaits.....

I don't know that I'd call it a crafty project, but I just re-stained my mahogany front door. After more than 7 years of facing the sun, it was getting a little faded and speckled. I sanded it lightly, then used a folded up paper towel to put on the poly-stain. It looks better, but I'll probably give it another round tomorrow.
Then, I have three screen door frames that need the same treatment.
After that, I will replace 5 boards on the dock that were damaged when the tree fell on it last fall. All the pier sections were stacked for the winter. The tree managed to find a corner of it to land on. Actually, I'm considering myself very lucky that it wasn't more than 4 boards. It should be a fairly quick fix.
The next mission will be to power wash the deck and the house. When the cottonwood trees are done "snowing" my screens will need to be vacuumed.
All that should take a couple of days, but I'll probably managed to string it out over a month.

Rose, I guess we'll be watching the race at noon on Monday. I'd been watching the weather and was pretty sure they wouldn't get it in today.

ARK, no cabins.........just trailers illegally (we have been told) camped on some private property..........by attrition if anyone leaves, no one can come in.
Just a bunch of old foggy friends that have been together for years.

Speaking of old cogers. Today I decided to go to a gen store of sorts to get a newspaper. Two ways to go............reg road about 30 min or logging road about 15 min. I always take the logging road. Along the way there's a fishing hole the locals sometimes go to and today there were two old guys together fishing. They were 91 & 93 (I think they said) and were born in "this country". They had an old wagon with a big motor on it and a bench to sit on & fish, wide tires and 4 WD..........they said they couldn't remember
when they built it but knew it was after the war............they looked like two old pieces of leather. I asked if they lived near by and they said yes, "about 30 miles"..........they were wearing bib over-alls about my age. They weren't too crazy about me bugging them but they loved Rex.............he played it up for them..............I took the hint and left. I wanted to stay and get some local history out of them but I could tell they wanted me gone. Maybe another time.

That would have been a very neat encounter. I hope you see them again and that they are willing to talk a little more. They probably have some great stories.

Here's my guess ELLEN. They were born & raised in these mtns and I'm a city slicker outsider.............and, in their generation a woman was never out alone with a big dog unless running away or being wanted by the law. Hence, I was a pain in the neck. Who knows.

Anyhow, it's another pretty day today and the mtns emptied out as it's Monday.

Everyone have a good day.

Yes, I did imprint with Inky! Birth day, in stall! Geez, found a snake skin in my shed when moving the 2 small AC's out yesterday. Lent the 2 AC's to a friend whose central air had gone wonky. Rain, rain, and more rain here and more to come it seems with TS Collin.
ARK, if you don't mind, would you just keep any more snakes up your way? Please! Have a question for you or anyone who has an opinion, I want Inky to start getting a bite of grain in a couple weeks, suggestions for grain? It's been forever since I raised a foal!
ELLEN, I am watching Pocono right now, like you after an hour yesterday, I knew they weren't going to race. One advantage of being retired, I can watch it whenever. And I do!
I'm back to petsitting the 11 dogs in the next county, fortunately they all remember me and love me, all but 2 are big pups.
I'm debating stepping into the kitchen and put some muffins together and into the oven.
TRUDY, hope your puter continues to do better!
GM, you make me so jealous, in the mountains while the wicked heat is in the valley. Btw, what did you feed when your boy was a foal?
Sweet tooth calling, bbl, (((((hugs all around)))))

Rose, I'm watching the race too.  The Elliot kid is doing well so far.  The restarts are crazy, going 7 wide.  
Uh-oh.  Big crash just happened while I was typing.  I hate to see Tony taken out; nothing either he or Danica could have done.

End of the race: Well, drat. I thought maybe Jr. would take it. I don't like it when they are racing fuel instead of one another. I think Chase could have done it if he wasn't trying to save fuel.

ELLEN, Chase is/will be an awesome driver!  I think he would have taken it too.  I don't like fuel racing either.  I sure didn't want Tony to wreck out, he's not having any luck at all!  Now I want Junior to hurry up and win a race or 2!

ROSE, I used Nutrena Mare & Foal.................part of their safe choice feeds..........I'm sure your local feed store has something comparable.........Purina makes a mare & foal and so does Triumph. Prob some there in your part of the country that are the same thing...........glad you're back to strong enough to do your dog program.

CB, you've been quiet for a while. What's going on?

GRAYMARE
Those old guys must have been really interesting! Were they brothers? I would have liked to heard their history, too. My maternal grandfather always wore overalls and a railroad cap.

ELLEN
Sounds pretty crafty to me! We haven't done much of anything to our house in months. We need to get Buck, the carpenter, back and finish the heat pump stuff. Donnie's dissertation is still chugging along and not much else will happen until it's done. He expects to defend it in late summer or early fall and graduate in the fall term in December. I hope! He is on the last 10 pages of it....

ROSE
Honestly, I can't remember which foal feed we gave Areion, but I suspect it was the same as GRAYMARE gave her foals. It's sold here, too. Whatever it was, it sure worked! Areion turned into a big girl!

Speaking of Areion, I rode her after her lesson today with Lori. She was so good, which I appreciated after seeing some of the dirty looks she shot at Ivan earlier today. Lori is going to enter her in a training level dressage test on June 25th! It will just be walk/trot since Areion is still having issues with her right lead at the canter. The horse show is in Salem, VA at Green Hill Park. I hope she is as good as she was today!

I also rode Ivan for his entire lesson, the first time I have been on him in 3 weeks. He was very mellow and sweet. My thigh muscle screamed when I got on both horses, but relaxed a bit and I could ride. My hip joints are feeling better after their 3 week non-riding vacation. I took it easy today.

Donnie has the lower hayfield and the barnlot hay mowed. It's going to be a lot of hay to put up.....

I can't get in a lot, once in a while. Still alive, still clocked up, go in for scans to see what's what. Ugh....

CB
I hope you get things figured out, and fixed up, very soon! We have all missed you here.

RICK
Got your email. I am passing along word that your computer has a glitch and that you will be posting here again soon. We are all waiting on your travel log!! I am glad you are home safe after a great trip.


Donnie is out toiling in the fields. The weather is great for putting up hay. He thinks we will get more than last year. Thankfully, that little hurricane, Colin, didn't come this way! I bet TALLYPAM got a drenching.