JUNE 2022

I follow a farmer's facebook page and he explained how all of those cows dying could be strictly from the heat. Short version is that these cows were beef cattle ready to go to market so were very mature and meaty/fat. Cows really need to be use to the weather, either hot or cold. In extreme conditions such as the super hot heat wave Kansas is experiencing the last couple of days, with the nights not cooling off all that much, their bodies couldn't handle it. The guy would explained it has a 500 head dairy herd and last year he lost 1 cow to this and he had fans and sprinklers and whatever else he could come up with to cool his cattle. If you have facebook, TDH Honest Farming is and interesting page to follow.

ARK my first though when you were telling how Ivan would touch your hanky was that if it were Tiberius he'd try to eat it. Tiberius has to put everything in him mouth.

Indy, that information about the cattle is what I heard too. It takes 5 or 6 hours of cool at night for their bodies to cool down after a day of heat. It was actually getting hotter at night and they just couldn't handle it.

After our week of heat, today is WONDERFUL. High 70s with a great breeze. Got the yard mowed and went for a little ride around the lake. Now, off to a garage sale.

Ashley....she started out a few years ago with a autoimmune disease...Lupus...then Lyme disease...then not able to digest food & stomach issues where they cut out a piece of her colon...then cancer...a few other things thrown in there too.  She is a medical mystery but she has become a guinea pig for the local hospital running every test know to man on her.  It's a miracle she is still standing.  Yesterday they transferred her to a rehab facility.  Praise God.

That is terrible about the fires and all the cattle dying...

It's a cool breezy morning here in AZ.......they predict rain but we'll see. My arthritic bones say
no so far...........

It's Saturday so we will see how the day unfolds.............

Everyonene have a great day..............

My next door neighbors are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary today. Their older son and his wife hosted a very nice party for them. They had a tent brought in and had it catered. Lots of people were invited. The food was good and so were the people. Today, the weather is perfect for an event like that. 70° with a nice breeze.
A very good way to spend part of an afternoon.

Big storm yesterday. Lots of high winds, lightning, but not as much rain here as in other places. Trees and power lines are down all over the region. Our power has been off for over 24 hours, probably caused by the power line laying on the ground in our upper hay field. With so many outages, it may be days before they get to us.
We are fine, just inconvenienced. The weather today was fabulous, 73, although still a bit breezy. Just enough to add a little spook to my ride on Ivan. We are now at 60 miles in our 100 mile challenge.

Here it is 44 degrees this morning in Danville...38 in a town a little further north.  It's June 20 almost summer but it's fall here.  LOL  Good old PA weather..I wore a sweater to church yesterday so did a lot of other people.

The tree trimmers showed up and cut down a bunch of old dead trees on Saturday.  They even cleaned out our horse graveyard.  Such nice guys..I gotta get out there and touch up the tombstones.  I didn't get out there last summer cause Ace was too old to walk that far and I couldn't carry him back if he fell down and weeds just overtook the graveyard.  

Ashley was moved to a rehab center on Weds.  Praise God.  I'm going over to visit her one day this week.

I'm off to my favorite place this morning THE DENTIST...they finally have my new crown.  Sure hope it fits.

Have a blessed week everyone..

Yesterday was a nice comfortable summer day. LOTS of people out on the lake. I'm not looking forward to the next three days. It's going to be 98°.

We've had beautiful weather this past weekend and I'm one of the lucky ones who got to participate in the new Federal holiday, Juneteenth. Nice long weekend for me. Elkhart had their annual Jazzfest and the weather couldn't have been better. I'm not a big Jazz music fan, but it was fun to wander around downtown and eat fair food for a change.

Just thought you wouldn't want to miss out on the northern Indiana weather report. 100° on my deck. Boo hiss.

Lucky you have air conditioning................

Absolutely! No AC would be awful. I would look like a prune from sitting in the water all day.

ELLEN:
 Yikes, that is way too hot.  We had a nice cool weekend and Monday, which was great since we had no power and air conditioning doesn't work too well without it.  We got our power back Monday afternoon.  Hurray!  

Donnie and I took Ivan to the New River Trail on Monday.  Donnie rode his bike with us.  Ivan was good about staying with the bike, but was a nervous wreck from being without a horse friend.  It was like riding a ticking bomb, but thankfully, the bomb never went off.   Hopefully he will get used to going with the bike and stop worrying about a lack of horse friends after a few rides.  He wore me out.  Donnie enjoyed his ride, but says he needs to strengthen his legs more.  The trail is a former railroad bed and doesn't have much of an incline anywhere, but Donnie could feel it.  To me it seems level, but then Ivan does all the work of hauling me uphill, even if it isn't very much of an incline.  It was a wonderful 70 degrees.  That changed today, we are back in the 80s.  

Today we hauled Areion and Daisy to Virginia Tech for their trims.  Daisy is still a little ouchy on the one rear foot, but the farrier thinks it may be joint problems.  Daisy is 19 years old.

Donnie fixed the tractor!! It had something to do with one part overlapping slightly onto another part. One tap with a wrench and it worked. He had to make a little adustment. He just saved us a few hundred bucks since the dealer didn't have to come get that poor tractor out of the field and haul it to the shop, then search for what was wrong with it. So we went out to eat.... .... It is still down in the lower field because that big wind storm knocked down some trees into the access road. Donnie and his chainsaw will work on that tomorrow.

Happy Summer Solstice!  (Not my favorite day,  the days start getting shorter now.)

It always amazes me how quickly the weather changes around here. We went from absolutely beautiful weather where all you want to be is outside to so oppressively hot that you can't bear to be outside literally overnight. I think our low temp last night was 82. It's going to be another scorcher today. The horses have the woods they can go into for shade so they are usually either there or standing around the water tank. I let them into the big pasture in the evening for a while and they don't even bother to wander out there to graze when it's this hot.

Good luck with Ivan getting use to being my himself. It will be good for him to be independent. It will be another tool in his toolbox of things he can do.

Humans are funny.  I've been watching a little bit of the Westminster Dog show.  A class will have a whole bunch of dogs that look just alike, but one will be judged to be better because of how thick the base of his tail is.  Or whether his ears are set too low or too high.  Or.....   None of which determine whether a dog is a good pet or not, or a good worker.  Who decided what was the ideal for each breed?  
I do understand that the working/hunting breeds do have certain characteristics that make them more suitable for their jobs.

A good friend just had to put down their nearly 20 year old Chihuahua.  He was a conformation nightmare.  Too skinny no matter how much he ate.  Humped in his back.  Front feet going north and south, with eyes to match.  He's been blind for the last several years, but he learned the words right and left along with other words that helped him get around.
He was loved just as much as the Best in Show.

You're right ELLEN..........that's why I have Nell E. Bell with a severe maloclusion............our society
is just too spoiled..............perfect hair cuts, no haircuts, perfect nails, perfect perfect perfect.
We, that grew up in the 40's - 60's were the luckiest and didn't know it........

Today we had 2 kids 13 & 14 tried to shoot and kill a policeman.........What is in kids' heads?

Then you see kids driving to feed the elderly.............

Good vs Evil is showing more and more..............

GRAYMARE:
wow. I sure hope those kids weren't following some weird internet challenge when they tried to kill the cop. I didn't hear about that, did they actually shoot the cop? Did they have a reason why they would try that? Soon we will have no teachers, cops, or election workers. Who will that make happy?


ELLEN:
We are back in the low 90s. Too hot for me.
I agree about the dog shows. They all look alike to me. I think the dogs should have to prove their skill in their breed type, herding for herders, that kind of thing.
One of my cousins had a cute purebred cat with the flat face. She loved that cat. It had a heart attack or something at two years old and died. It was having trouble breathing, possibly in the high heat, and lasted about two hours before it died. I don't like what they are doing to cats, like they have done to dogs. Flat faces, tiny legs, inbred and not healthy. Deformity seems to be the name of the game. It's kind of sad.

INDYAPP:
I didn't ride Ivan today in the heat. I walked him a mile, round and round the arena. The rules of the contest allows one to lead a horse and count the miles, just like they can do at the real Tevis Cup ride. Donnie rode his bike around the arena while Ivan and I walked it.

Ark, I agree that many people breed for some oddity that serves either no or bad functions. Quite a few years ago, I was talking with a vet who said that Golden Retriever breeders were going for big heavy coats. The only problem was that the coats were so heavy that when they got wet the dogs couldn't swim and would sink.
The same thing has happened with some breeds of horses too. Again, a lot of years ago Quarter Horse breeders wanted their halter horses to have little tiny feet combined with very straight and upright pasterns. Then, they put a big fat horse on top of them. It came as a big surprise that they went lame. Duh.

Yesterday turned out to be a really nice day. Mid 80s with low humidity and a nice breeze. I'm hoping today will be like that. I have windows to wash.

ELLEN:
 The farrier at Va Tech was just talking about QHs he trims with the tiniest of feet on huge bodies.  A strange thing to breed for.  

 
I rode Ivan in the arena today for a mile.  He was more mellow today.  I hope he stays that way for awhile. This makes 66 miles in our Virtual Tevis Cup challenge.... Donnie took pix...



We're in there somewhere.

Ark, the QH people wanted halter horses that were never expected to actually work. All they had to do was stand there and look pretty. I thought it was a really dumb idea. Form is supposed to follow function.

Lovely pic ARK!

I just got a text from my hay guy. He wants to bring about 140 bales tonight. He needs to empty the trailer so he can fill it up again. I guess I'll be stacking hay tonight.

Ohhhh Indy, that's gonna be some hot work!

ARK, I really got a kick out of your photo for the day...............I loved it.

I'm glad you're picking up some miles in spite of the heat.....you go girl!!!

I'm hot and tired........too many things today............

Oh, did I mention crabby............

I need a swim............

Everyone have a good evening.

Good Sunday Morning,

I have been MIA for a few weeks now, in kind of a funk lately! One of my very good friends had a stroke a couple of weeks ago, has been in hospital for almost all that time. It took three trips by ambulance (daily) for them to keep her when she saw a doc that realized she had a stroke, not mini strokes, and wanted her in for an MRI, echocardiogram, more CT scans, etc. She has a blocked carotid artery on one side and her right side is pretty disabled. I have been so worried about her and can't seem to get myself going. Of course can't visit because of Covid restrictions, family only. Had a doc appointment last Friday and she went over me with all the tests, I'm fine, it was just a very long time since I had any kind of a checkup. I don't bother my doc except for script refills or something major.

I am going to Truro next Sunday till the 7th for Grand Chapter (OES) then going to Antigonish which is about an hour away for a few days to be with Allison and family. Ava is a year old today, can't believe that the year has gone by so fast. She is a going concern, is a climber so poor Allison is always on her toes. They had a party for her yesterday, it is just too far for me to make two trips in a week so we will celebrate when I get there.

ARK, you asked if we ever get 90 degree weather, yes we do on rare occasions. Our normal summer temps are anywhere from 65 at night to the 70-80's in the daytime. Our temps are very moderate, hardly ever bitter in the winter and comfortable heat in the summer. We get humidity a lot in the summer which kills some people but I have fans for that, NO AC! I don't do AC well, even in the car, lol.

Heading to Church this a.m. We have service at ten in the summer so have to get my rear in gear. Lots to do before I head out.

All of you have been busy haying and I don't envy you one bit, that is hard work and always a big worry watching the weather. As I said we get humidity here so haying is tricky, always need a good stretch of hot dry days to get good hay. The prices are out of this world I guess so I'm happy to be horseless at this stage.

GREYMARE, I saw that Great Big Sea were coming to Halifax for a concert soon. I immediately thought of you.

You all have a good day. I'll be back soon, I hope. If not, I'm taking my laptop with me on my travels so will keep
up with your news.

It's been rainy and cooler here for the past couple of days. We actually needed the rain, that big windstorm we had that knocked down trees and powerlines all over didn't actually give us much rain.  Yesterday, we got over 2 inches in the afternoon.  The grass is thankful.  It turned foggy just before sunset, which is when I rode Ivan.  He was more mellow than usual, so we had a good ride.  Historically, he is spookier at sunset, but not yesterday.  Small blessings.... I am up to 68 miles in my 100 miles in 100 days Virtual Tevis Cup ride challenge.  We are still pretty much mid-pack in the standings, although I will be happy to just get it done on time.  July 16th is rolling around sooner than I am ready for it.  I am really working hard for a t-shirt and sticker....


DONNA:
 I am sorry about your friend's stroke.  Hopefully she will recover, and soon.  Have lots of fun with your great-granddaughter!!!  

GRAYMARE:
 Did you get that swim?  I haven't been swimming in years,  I kind of miss it.  It sure sounds good this June, it's been so hot.   I am glad you like that photo  .  Donnie has gotten a bit creative with his ride photos.  Dorian GrayCat tends to hang out with him in the arena, so Dorian gets to be the model.  Donnie did take a nice photo the other day:



INDYAPP:
Congrats on the hay! That's a lot to move, I hope you had help. We are nearly recovered from the last hay we put up and not exactly looking forward to the fall cuttings. I saw someone post on FaceBook "Just hire a teenager to move it for you." Ha! Try finding one! With so many jobs hiring, kids don't want to move hay much around here.

ELLEN:
Will you be having company for the Fourth? I bet the lake is busy then.

TRUDY:
How's it going? We never planted the first seed for a garden this year. Did you plant a garden?

A cousin and her family came up yesterday and spent the night. Husband did several little chores that I needed to have done. The jet ski got some exercise. I'm always glad when they come up.
Next weekend, another cousin and a friend of hers are coming to watch the fireworks here on the lake on Sunday night. Yes, there will be LOTS of people and boats.
We have a good new restaurant on a channel that is only about a mile away. Ever since it opened it has been BUSY. We'll eat there on Friday afternoon knowing that for the rest of the weekend it will be nearly impossible in to get in the place. As you sit there to eat overlooking the water, there is a parade of a variety of boats and pontoons going from one lake to another.
They also sell gas for boats to fill up. $7.50 per gallon. I'll buy mine at a local gas station and haul it to the jet ski. It's about $2 a gallon less. Jet skis are not very "fuel efficient". LOL

We got about 12 drops of rain yesterday. We could definitely use more. It's going to be a little cooler for the early part of this week with no rain in sight. I didn't even have to mow the grass this week.

Keep going, Ark. You'll get that 100th mile.