June 2013....

Sounds like a pretty busy day Ellen ......  much accomplished though.

I am doing pretty good I think .... Whole thing scared me so bad that I am pretty paranoid ..... Just have to figure out how to stay good ....  the weather was for sure a huge part of the cause of it, but having no control over that .....  still need to get strength back but hopefully that will come along pretty quick.  Thanks for all your prayers and good thoughts.

Gene ..  always nice to have plenty of hay in the barn ....  our barn was down to 3 bales ....  did up around 200 beauties of grass yesterday so I am sure there was a lot a lip smacking going on last night in the barn .... LOL

Carol
I am sooooo glad to hear you are home!!  I bet Midge is even more glad.  It has certainly been a weird weather year that couldn't have been good for you.

Nancy Lee
Helllloooooo! It is wonderful to hear from you!  Your park sounds so beautiful. 
I hope your doctors have your meds all in order so you have a great summer!

CB
 I am sorry about Bubba.  That is one sad thing about the giant breeds of dogs, their shorter life spans....

Ol'Man
 Hurray that your hay is up!!! We sure know how that feels.  We've had so much rain lately that we may get an earlier than usual second cutting this year.  Farmer Donnie is out digging up weeds in oour upper field as I type this.  

Indyapp
We were locked out of our car's glove compartment all week after I slammed a baggie in the latch.  I just knew we would have a cop pull us over and ask for the car registration any minute every time we went somewhere.  Donnie finally got it open this morning without wrecking the whole door on it.  sheesh....

Rick
Yummy looking brownies! I am sure glad your new 'grandchild' is at your house! LOL.....Yep, we had the wind and rain storms you mentioned.  Our power stayed on, but folks in nearby counties weren't as lucky.  

This morning Annie and I ran/walked in a 5K race in Pulaski, Va.  It was my first one.  I might live.  Annie is already counting the days until the next one.

thanks everyone....I sure miss the ol' fart!

Trudy, that is sad on the buggy accident.....ya never know when or where....

We were spose to ride today, but too much rain!  Folks around here are in awe of all the moisture that is falling from the skies....and so am I....hope we can ride tomorrow.

Rick put something good to eat on the counter and put a few drops of peppermint oil or eucalyptus oil in it....and as soon as she eats it, put the doggie outside, cuz she will probably throw up....but it just may cure surfing the counters.     A lil bit of ammonia water in a squirt gun will do it to, but be careful of getting it in the eyes....or cayenne pepper in something good to eat....they learn things on the counters/ etc....can bite back.... but won't hurt them.
I''m a mean mommy....but with great danes they love to surf the counters, tables, etc....had to do it.

Carol, how ya doin?

ARK, walk...run....it wouldn't matter, if I did it that distance, I"d be dead!  Good for you and Annie.

Ellen, been swimmin' yet?

Ol man, hay in the barn is always nice.

Around here, most are just finishing up the first cutting, but with all the rain we've had it probably won't take too long until they are ready for second cut.

No, I haven't been swimming yet, but maybe tomorrow.  The water is warm enough now.  The water level is about 15 inches higher than normal.  Just about the time it starts dropping towards normal, it rains again and up it comes.  My dock isn't floating YET, but it sure won't take much more for that to happen.

Happy Fathers' Day to all Dads of two and four legged kids.  Hope you did something special today.  Jessi took us out to lunch yesterday and the grand daughters bakes us cookies!  I was sicko on Mothers Day,, so I got to celebrate today too!

This is the first morning that it feels like a summer morning.  The water is still at near flood stage, but warm.  All the doors and windows are open to bring in the sounds of the birds and squirrels.  I had tossed out some chunks of a stale bun.  A sparrow dropped in long enough to pick up a piece that was nearly as big as he was and flew off with it.

Not exactly horsey, but you animal lovers will really enjoy this one.  Turn up the sound and go widescreen if possible!!

GREAT VIDEO!!!

I had a good day today.  I went on a photo shoot out on some old ranches shooting for B & W's........


No big news right now.


God bless.  Prayers for ALL.

Oh my gosh!  Prayers for Atticus and his family that they will all be spared.



I was visiting my son last night when I asked if I could borrow a newspaper.
'This is the 21st century, he said.'I don't waste money on newspapers. Here, you can borrow my iPad.'
I can tell you this, that damn fly never knew what hit him.

Prayers and positive thoughts headed for Arizona Graymare!!!!  can't believe so many fires and so big.

prayers for all those in the area of the fires, colorado is on fire also and california, I thought they got enough snow and rain over the winter but I guess not, it's terrible all those fires so early in the season,

C.B.'s computer has gone ka-put again not sure how long she will be down but she wanted you to know
we have been having daily thunder showers late day into night and the most beautiful heat lightning show at night the bolts streak across the sky and branch out like trees they stay in the sky and they realy light up the night but are beautiful to watch,

I have an internet connection!!!!!

After 1 1/2 years of no internet connection, limping along with my Kindle or Donnie's cellphone to stay in touch on the internet, today we are officially online with a new internet provider!!! Hurray! And it is FASTER than FAST!  And cheaper than Verizon ever was.     I almost feel like a real person again....


GRAYMARE:
 I am hoping and praying that all those wildfires go away....today.  Other than tornadoes, I don't know of anything more scary than wildfires. 

SUNNY:
  Thanks for the CB update.  I hope she gets online again soon. 

ELLEN:
 Did you go swimming yet?  How wonderful to have a lake in your front yard! 

CAROL:
 Feeling better, I hope? 


We have had an incredible amount of rain this spring.  The gnats that we don't usually have are here in force.  But our grass is growing really well!  Donnie is looking forward to cutting the next batch of hay. 

Yesterday we had the tractor company come out to get our tractor, Donnie thinks there is something noisy in the PTO that shouldn't be.  The guy who picked it up made a little mistake before he got here, he went across our road and picked up some other person's tractor by mistake.  He didn't know he had the wrong one until he got it to the shop and the boss asked him where he got the bigger tractor, ours is smaller.  The guy was mortified and snuck the incorrect tractor back before the owner knew it was gone.  That is how easy it is to steal a tractor!

HOORAY for you new internet!  You'll have a ball now.  Glad to have you back so you can post easily and more often.

That's funny about the guy getting the wrong tractor. I hope he got it back in the same spot it was before he "stole" it. 

Our second cutting of hay has started.  With all the rain we've had the grass has been growing fast.  On the way home from work this afternoon, I saw several fields that were either cut or being cut. 

Sure hope that Graymare will have some good news to post today.  Or least better news.


Here is a video that is amazing to watch and very peaceful to hear.
http://www.flixxy.com/the-incredible-power-of-concentration-miyoko-shida-g.htm?utm_expid=1298512-20#.UYxQV8rlZ8F

Yes, nice video ELLEN.............

So far, and I say this gratefully, no homes or buildings have been touched by the fire.  I know Atticus is about 40 mi away now.  They hauled out right after the fire started not waiting for evac notices.  They have some other land and left right off with all their animals in two big stock trailers.  I don't know details as this was a quick message.  They are now waiting and ready to haul for others if needed.


ARK,  the tractor debacle is hysterical.............in our gang we have had friends go pick up horses for friends and haul the wrong horse.  It ends up a great laugh.  So, are you going to tell the neighbor?


God bless.  Prayers for ALL.

Graymare....so glad your friends and critters are out of the way of the fire.  Richard is from California but not so sure I could ever live out there.  Seems like there is always a big fire somewhere.  About 10 years ago he and his former wife lost everything they had to one of those fires.

ARK....so glad to hear you have internet again.  I'd go bananas trying to do everything on a cell phone.  Cracking up about the tractor!!!

CB... So sad to hear about Bubba.  It's so hard to say goodbye to them.

Ellen....I'm always jealous of you in the summer.  Makes me miss the family cottage in Michigan and on the lake that we spent many, many weekends enjoying.  With all of the grandkids there was never a dry towel or a clean kitchen. The floors always were covered with sandy footprints (magically cleaned up by some geni   Hours spent in the evening chasing lightening bugs (or fire flies to some of you).

Off tomorrow to go spend the day with a good horsie friend and then home Saturday sometime to go to another horsie friend's 40th birthday party.  Should be a fun weekend.  See y'all later!

Graymare, I'm sure glad to hear that Atticus and his family are safe!  That is, indeed, good news.

GRAYMARE:
  Nope, I won't be telling the guy his tractor took a tour of town without him LOL.  I suspect the tractor company will tell him since the hauling guy told me about it.  They must know word would get around....I can't wait to tell some of the other neighbors!
  I am really relieved to hear that Atticus is safe from the fire.

ELLEN:
  That was an incredible video!  What patience! I wonder if she won the contest?  I can see the videos now, but we haven't put a speaker on the computer yet, so can't hear them.  Soon. 

RICK:
  Your Africa video was great, too!  I can't get over having enough internet speed to watch videos!  That one would have taken me the better part of an hour to download with our old server.

TALLYPAM:
  Wow, what an awful thing to happen to Richard and his former wife. 
  How are your dressage lessons going? 


Donnie trimmed Ivan's feet this evening.  I am hoping to take him to a little trail ride on Saturday on the New River Trail, and next week we are signed up to go to an ACTHA ride in Ivanhoe, VA, also along the New River Trail, but in a different area.  We are going on Friday and camping out until Sunday morning.  We are such non-campers.  Should be interesting.  Ivan and I are going to do a mini-clinic on Friday afternoon before the Saturday morning competition.

Glad you finally got your internet set up Ark!!!  A long time for someone like you with lots of techie abilities .......  Enjoy it~~`

Hoping to hear all the fires are under control and all our folks are safe.

Very humid here .....  like southern summer weather.  ACKKKKK

Hi All,

I am still marveling at having a real internet connection!!  Nothing makes for more  gratitude than being without for a year and a half.

I rode Ivan with two other ladies and their
horses on the New River Trail.  Ivan did very well and behaved
himself, but did spook pretty big when a weird looking reclining
bicycle guy was trying to pass us.  He looked like a big white spider coming at us!   Ivan did a spin and bolt maneuver,
but I managed to hang on and stop him and didn't fall off.  Ivan was
sure that thing was going to eat him.  It was weird looking.



  Other than that we did really well.  You have to get off and cross
former railroad trestles and that got tiring, there were four, so that
meant eight dismounts and mounts.  Ivan is short, but I am, too, and
it is hard getting back on without a little stump or something.
Unfortunately, there were none.  I would happily donate plenty of
stumps for mounting blocks on either side of those trestles!  I did
have fun, though.  The weather is perfect.



  Donnie is off to his ham radio "Field Day" at a park in Dublin.  He
will probably be there all night.  It is an international contest and
he enjoys it usually.  His ham club are all there and they are having
a BBQ beside sitting in tents making radio contacts all night.  I will be enjoying not being in a tent all night.  Next weekend we will be camping out on another section of the New River Trail, in Ivanhoe, and I am sure I will get my fill of that then.

GRAYMARE:
  How are the fires doing?

Snoop spotted Ellen in something like this!!

Actually, I have something similar to that.  It's a plastic webbed lawn chair (chaise) that is surrounded by styrofoam.  Works great. 

Clara wanted me to tell you about her overnight camping with the family, they went to the state park near there home and rode the trails everything was fine until some longhorn cattle found there way into the park and were wondering around Clara said that there horses acted like arabs, there necks bent, snorting and dancing around ,but everyone survived, they saw deer walking right through there camp, then that night Clara and one of the grand children asked if she herd that noise she said yes but no one else herd it, later it happened again so they took a flashloght and went looking for the noise, it turned out to be a racoon in there horsetrailer, the restof the night was un eventful, a great time was had by all they left early the next day as it had already gotten humid so they cut the day short, there temps have been hovering around 100 so they only have a short time in the mornings to ride, Clara's newpuppies are doing fine and now her other doxie, Red whome she thought had a false pregency is just days from having puppies, right now she has a litter of 5 pups that are now 2 weeks, a litter due any time, so she is going to be kept busy for awhile

Ark ... a little trick we have learned that works a treat when there is something like that bike .....   or any time people look strange to them.  We just ask the people to talk to us so the horses can say .... oh, just a person.  It seems to help. That was an odd looking object for Ivan.  You did good.

Glub Gllub Glub ......  living in unbelievable humidity.....

What a nice Sunday.  Started with church, then kayaking with a couple of neighbor "girls" (my age and older), then watched the NASCAR race, went for a swim, visiting with Little Miss Scarlett's great-grandparents, took Little Miss Scarlett down to the water to put her feet in.  I truly love living where I do.

Some of you may have already heard this.  It was posted on the other forum today.

1.
 On AMMI -  a note from Dot - John Conrad's daughter, Kelle, overdosed yesterday morning, and Candace's friend Deb just sent me a message about it..........she just had too many demons........such a shame.

2.
Again, from Dot: 
I really don't know the details.  Yesterday afternoon when I checked facebook there were some posts from Kelle where she was obviously under the influence and angry, and clearly saying "goodbye cruel world" then another one on the same thread posted under her name, so, from her phone or computer, hours after the first ones, saying something like "I love you, Kelle, please let this be a nightmare."  Then this morning after I got the message from Deb, I checked Kelle's page to see of that thread was still there, or if it had been deleted.....and Margaret (HT's sister) had posted that Kelle was gone, leaving her best friend and partner and her two brothers brokenhearted.  Margaret's post was just an hour after that last post.  So, someone apparently found her, and (weirdly) posted on facebook using Kelle's profile.........I don't know who that was, but it's all so very sad and I feel like we all let her down.

Soooo much sadness for their family in such a short time.