August 2020

Ark, Wednesday through Sunday there is horse racing from Saratoga on Fox Sports 2.  Sometimes it's on Fox Sports 1.  NBC Sports carries it too from several tracks around the country.

Last evening, we had a storm blow through. It wasn't all that bad here at my house, but not too far from there they identified the results of an F1 tornado with 90mph winds. Mostly downed trees, some power outages. The electricity here flickered a few times, but managed to stay on. TV and internet were off over night, but back this morning.
It was a very nice peaceful day here.

I saw something funny in an e mail from a friend............."if you think the US will return to normal soon, raise you hands.......
then smack yourself in the head with it"..............

Really nice picture ARK..............Ivan's bug jammies are great, I'm sure.................how far did you ride?

Let's see, we have earthquakes, hurricanes, fires, protests with huge damages, people starving,wars, covid 19, debt out the ying yang........
who in their right mind would ever want to be President of the U S?

This is SO serious.....................I look out at my horses munching grass and am glad they know nothing
about it..............who's better off?

GRAYMARE:
We rode 5.8 miles yesterday. After a month of no riding, I am VERY sore today! Usually the second day is the worst, so I probably won't be able to walk tomorrow. Ivan is fine, he is such an energizer bunny.

My sisters are about to be hit by a derecho wind event. They live about 10 miles south of Cincinnati which is going to be hit about 11 pm. I saw it on the news here and texted them asking if they were ready for it. They hadn't even heard about it! With 60 to 100 mph winds coming, you'd think the warnings would be out. I don't think derechos were on the 2020 Bingo Card. What a year. The derecho is supposed to split up and not hit us here. The one 8 years ago did a lot of damage.

The school system I used to work for a million years ago had cracking damage to the masonry walls of their schools from the earthquake yesterday. Supposedly the buildings are safe enough for school to start next week. Safe would not be the word I would use for anyone going into a school building this year.

With all the media we know more than we want and dont know who is correct.
Hot days...nice nights.
H has been working on leaks...think he has them all fixed...yay! More painting on our agenda.
Stay safe.

Finally got to see my dentist yesterday.  Yippeee and OUCH..it was a pain filled experience.  She injected antibiotics into that strange place on my upper gum that refuses to heal.   With all the stress going on around here I managed to chew a couple holes in my mouth guard.  She laughed and said good thing I wear a mouth guard or I wouldn't have any teeth left.

Weds we had baptism for my freind Karen.  Pastor Mike came to her house and we prayed and sang her favorite songs.  Time is getting short.  She is on 4 doses of morphine a day now and sleeps a lot.  Her beautician came over and cut and colored her hair and she is so excited, she has hair to cut and she is now a blonde again.  So sad.

We are picking corn and peppers this morning to give away later today.

ARK:  My son tore his bicep at work, trying to be superman and turning over a huge piece of steel.  His boss was too busy to send him a helper so he turned it himself.  MEN!!!!!  Our son in law Joel, just fell 14 feet off a ladder at work and fractured his shoulder.  Always some fun thing going on with the men in this family.

Stay safe and healthy everyone.

Kids un idaho had some action. Randi my oldest milks cows in the mornings...early. She went out to milk and abull was in her yard...had torn up her fence. It charged her i guess hitting her once...she was screaming bloody murder...my grdson kyle heard her went running out with a gun knowing something was wrong....shot the bull dead right before it connected with her. Good thing he shot expert.on the firing range in the military.. Took 3 shots to drop him....it was hard for him to realize he had to do it to save his mom. Last february a bull had gotten out and killed one of our neighbors at the house we sold. Scary....very scary. I guess randi kept on running to their house and kyle made sure it was dead....and just sat down on the ground.
Kyle and katrina are expecting their second baby in december...a little girl. Hes a good kid.

Oh WOW, CB................that had to be REALLY scary. Thank God everything turned out OK........

Holy cow, CB!!! Thank goodness for Kyle's shooting! That would have been a REALLY SCARY situation.

Holy cow CB, what a terrible situation for your grandson. Good thing he learned to shoot in the military and could save his mom from a deadly situation.

He had always hunted before military but i think he got fine tuned in the military. He did what he had to do...under duress...a good soldier\man. Quite proud of him. He kept his cool and stayed focused thankfully. Randi said he made sure bull was dead...made sure she was alright...and just sat down on the ground...told his mom...dont do that again ok? Randi said she bawled. The bull had her down...he was shooting right over his mom.

I don't know whose bull that was, but I hope Randi and Kyle get to make hamburger out of him. Kyle is definitely a hero.

It was a neighbors bull about half a mile away.
All of her cows are bred already...dont know what drew him in her driveway...except they have a miniature bull...not even a year old. He will weigh about 600 to 800 lbs full grown. All her cows 6 of them were bred when bought. Whatever drew him wasnt good for the bull. But probably good for the whole neighborhood.
I was wondering if kyle was breathing yet...it took a lot out of him..he said its different shooting at the other side
In warzone than it is saving your mom....
..

We had a dandy monsoon storm last night.............strong winds, lightening & thunder, rain etc.............we had no
damage here but right down the street two. big trees blew right over...............we keep our trees trimmed in order
to try to prevent blow over. It's expensive every other year but seems to work.............

Anyhow, everyone have a great day..........horses still peacefully munching grass.............

We are in the midst of some early fall days. 70s for the day, 50s and 60s for the night. Very pleasant, but I am not fond of the idea of winter approaching so soon.

Whew. Tired & hot, ready for a siesta.............started this morning feeding horses & chores, then trim a tree.
Then in for a break and food. Then back out to barn to receive a load of hay........I always dread the August
hay delivery. Anyhow, that's done and feel like I got a lot done. I washed the floor yesterday so I'm feeling
very good about myself.

Still breathing so I guess I'm fine. LOL

Graymare, I can't say that I have accomplished anything today, but I did have a really nice ride. Bright sunny sky, relatively smooth water and not too many boats.
My "pet" doesn't eat grass and doesn't care much about being loved on, but it has been a bright spot in an otherwise discouraging summer. It does like to go fast, which feels great.

Where is everybody???

CB:
That was a scary situation. I am glad your daughter is okay.


ELLEN:
Thanks for the racing info! I am happy you are getting some good rides in on the lake!

GRAYMARE:
Wow, I am glad you didn't have any storm damage!


I have been extremely busy. My sister, Vicki, is visiting us with her husband. I thought she would arrive on Friday afternoon. I got a text at almost midnight on Tuesday saying she would arrive Wednesday evening.... ..... We had just torn up the house putting down carpet, rearranging furniture from the living room to the tv room, moving out the totally unused treadmill that I just had to have about 10 years ago, and trying to de-clutter in general. The house looked like a bomb may have passed by closely. Donnie decided to put some trim around a window at the same time. So after a minor nerve attack, we got up early on Wednesday and finished the trimming around the window, finished the carpet, and cleaned house like it hadn't been cleaned since Donnie got his knee worked on. My sister arrived just when she said to a house that could have been better, but wasn't the embarrassing mess it was on Wednesday morning. They will be here until Sunday morning, then Donnie is cutting hay.

Today we played dominoes at a picnic table on the New River after eating a take-out Mexican meal. Fun!!

My friend Karen(who had the brain cancer) passed away on Friday.  So sad but so happy for her, she was in such pain the last week and was suffering so badly, we all had been praying for Jesus to call her home.  Monday she told Mandy (her daughter) there was a angel by her bed.  The whole week was turmoil for her, hospice came and put her on a morphine pump to help control her pain. 

The Weds before Pastor Mike came over and baptized her, we prayed and sang songs.  Friday at 8 AM I had just text Mandy and Karen was till hanging on at 9:30 Mandy called me and I knew she had passed.   Karen's service is Weds at our church at 1.  Keep us in your prayers, it's going to be rough.

Saturday my 85 year old neighbor called to tell me that her husband Burt had passed.  He was in a nursing home and had the virus.  Another blessing, he had been sick for a couple years.

Also on Saturday I received a call about our freind Charles, his service that is finally set up for Sept 19th.  He passed back in April from cancer after a rough year, but because of the virus we couldn't have his military funeral service until now.  

It was a rough weekend.

My condolences....and a big hug for you.
My thoughts will be with you and the families for sure.

Trudy, since you didn't post on Saturday like you usually do, I rather suspected that Karen had gone to her rewards. I'm so sorry for the loss of your friends and know that you will miss them.

Heavens TRUDY, so sad here for you and Karen's family.......that was a rough go........now those left
behind are mourning............(((((((((((((((((((Hugs all around)))))))))))))))))) You were a great friend.

More storms rolling in tonight........other than the heat they're nothing compared to the fires and hurricanes
around our country..............and the continued protesters all around the country. Our winds are fine.
Prayers for ALL.

Peace.

Thanks everyone. Karen's service is this afternoon at 2. Prayers please.

TRUDY:
I am so sorry about Karen. It is terrible she was taken before her time, but some comfort can be had that she knew she was loved by many. Not everyone gets to know that....
I am also terribly sorry about the others in your life that passed so close together. That must be so hard on all the friends and family....



We have been unbelievably busy for over a week. We had a really good time with my sister and her husband. We played Dominoes on the river three times! We had picnics from restaurant take-outs, and just had the best time. They left on Sunday and got back home Sunday evening.

I don't know what happened Monday, I think we zombied out.

Today we took Daisy and Areion to Virginia Tech to have their feet examined and trimmed. We have been less than thrilled with the job our farrier has been doing. Their feet have not been trimmed quite correctly for over a year and even I could tell they were wrong. So Daisy got x-rayed, then trimmed, and Areion just got trimmed. Both look great right now. Daisy still has to wear her soft-ride boots, she is tender on rocks. Areion seems fine.
The Vet called Daisy a saint for putting up with all the standing on blocks for the x-rays and all the hoopla of students being around her doing things. She is a sweet horse. Areion arrived dripping wet from sweat and nerves, but eventually calmed down and cooled off. Donnie and I weren't allowed to stay with them while they were worked on because of the virus.

Just before we got back home, the trailer rocked a bit, like one of the horses was moving around. We were close to home so didn't stop. When we parked, I opened up the trailer door and found Daisy on the floor! I just about had a heart attack. She apparently relieved herself, then slipped in it and fell down. She wasn't tied, thankfully, but her throat was over the breast bar and she could barely breathe and couldn't get up. We were able to take the breast bar down and she could breathe, but couldn't get up because she was partially under the center divider in Areion's space. She laid there calmly waiting on us to help her. Donnie dropped the ramp and I backed Areion out. Areion was so careful not to step on Daisy's back. Then Donnie was able to swing the divider into Areion's space and Daisy was able to get up. She had a couple of scratches on her legs, but that was all. She didn't seem to be in any pain and went right to work grazing. Later we gave both mares a bath after their sweaty, messy adventure. This is the first time we have ever had a horse fall down in a trailer. There were shavings on the floor, but the mats are not textured and the wetness made them slick. I think I will get better mats.

Ivan was thrilled his mares were home.

Wow ARK. Who knows how she lost her balance, but glad it's all well
now. I'm sure you were scared. Are you both recovered now?

Nothing new here. Same ole same ole.........Hot in the later afternoons. It is supposed to cool off some
next week. Oh man, the hurricanes in the SE are horrible and then the CA wildfires.
Pray for those involved.

GRAYMARE:

We checked Daisy out this morning and she is moving, and eating, just fine. She really got off easy. She could have broken her neck on that breast bar or Areion could have freaked out and hurt her. Thankfully that didn't happen and the interior parts of the trailer are removable, so we could get Daisy up and out. The lesson for us is to make sure we give Daisy time to relieve herself out in the grass and not just load her up after being worked on at the vet's for over an hour. And get new mats. If we ever get a new trailer, we will make sure all the parts on the inside are easily removable. It isn't something I ever thought much about and we were just lucky this trailer is like that.