February 2014

Graymare, she looks FANTASTIC! The time has to be getting close now.

It looks like our weather is slowly improving. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's good, but better. I've been feeding the squirrels since their natural food is buried so deep under the snow. Yesterday, I bought them a mixture of corn, sunflower seeds, and peanuts. The one I think is the mama squirrel found it and chowed down. She even chased off another squirrel that thought he'd like some too. They are entertaining to watch.

Let's see.... I wonder if Cooks.com has any recipes for groundhog.   

This is titled "Wishful Thinking"

cute picture Ellen ...... glad you are feeding the squirrels. the animals have a hard time when snow is so deep.

Carol, I don't usually want to feed the little critters enough that they depend on me, just enough to keep them coming because I enjoy watching them. But we've had soooo much snow that it would be pretty hard for them to find their buried treasures. Of course, now that I've been feeding them for the last several weeks, I guess I've pretty well messed that up. We're supposed to get some warmer weather starting Monday, so I hope they'll be able to feed themselves soon.

Well, I thought I'd post two snow pics, but don't seem to have succeeded. Nobody probably needs any more images of that stuff anyway!

Snowing a bit now, and supposed to continue all night, but word is that we are to be spared the huge accumulations expected down east, on top of what came two days ago. Here, that was a lot! on the morning when the snow finally stopped, my neighbor with the backhoe arrived at my mailbox just as I was stepping out the door to go feed the horse. I guess he took pity on me when he saw me step off my front steps and siink in almost to my waste, because he promptly plowed the front lawn, saving me the job of doing so with my snowblower. And what a huge help, because that stuff was/is wet and heavy, heavy, heavy!

And yesterday a wonderful friend came and helped me muck out, so all is once again well!

GRAYMARE, I love the chairs, am admiring of your industry and skill at reseating them, and am mystified by how you attach the fabric. Do you have to hand-stitch it? -- And what's not to love about images of a place in the sun with no snow and palm trees in the distance? ???

BEECH, I do the sewing w my Walmart $80 machine……then thread a small stem poly  rod in the top and bottom………………then the hard part is threading into the chair frame……….I cut the stem poly pipe long so I can tie a thick nylon to it and pull it…………..when in, cut the ends off.  I have to put both in at the same time as they have to be pulled together…….as I said, there are 6 of them………..the sewing is done.  The pull throughs will take some more time.
Anyhow it all works…..just time.  Sure am glad your snow got managed.

CB, any new puppies yet?

Graymare, Sassy got into trouble last night early this morning, I walked her, rubbed her...trying to get that puppy repositioned, but no go, it was to the vets first thing for c section/spay. She only had two puppies on the xray and vet said they were too big, but one was stuck ad we lost him. The other pup and mom are doing fine. A lil black and tan male....but he's tiny...vet tech said the other pup was about the same size but she wasn't built tohave puppies at all....this was her first litter. She will be 3 in March. ahhhh well...we will get thru and see better times, but my pocketbook may never recover! OUCH!
The other 4 pups are getting cuter by the day! Their personalities are coming out now, lil devils! They bark ad growl at each other and bounce around their whelping box ad play pen. I love those fence playpens....lifesaver.

We went to Mr. Gattis pizza for Brennas birthday and the girls played games and did the bumper cars and then we went to the house and had cake that was decorated as a minionThat part of the day was great.

Sweet dreams and sorry to hear about the snow and more snow....

Oh NUTS, CB…………………… the survivor will be the real sweet pea…..so sorry for the whole thing…………..up the price on the almost ready to go other litter and hopefully, that can help.
So glad the birthday party was a good one and a good diversion from a rough previous day.
I'll bet the girls were darling.

LOL Graymare, those 3 girls never stay still long enuf to be darling....they got their tokens for the game/ride area which is a very large area, and all 3 went in different directions, so we split up, with the birthday girl going with Dad, the middle girl became mine to stalk, and Hubby and Jessi took the youngest! They had fun and were safe I wouldn't let kids out of sight at a place like that...can't trust anyone nowadays.
We get a hug and then they are gone! Can't keep kids still anymore! Its a go go go world..
Momma Sassy is doing good, eating and drinking fine, and the lil one is always at the faucet and has his choice!
Girls are coming out to ride and play with horses so better get off of here and get with the show.

I forgot to tell y'all about a funny last night. Hubby left the inside doggies out before we went to bed and Otto and White Dog took off to the topside of property in the trees. They wouldn't come back when we called them, so hubby walked up the driveway and he said Otto came flyin out of the trees digging at his eyes and rollin in the dirt and right behind him White Dog came right to Hubby....with a live skunk in her mouth. Harry was trying to get her to get away, but she came right up to him and the skunk let loose! OH MANNNN! Hubby put the dogs in the pen to spend the night outside, and he came in the house cussin the dogs, and made my eyes water, I pointed to the door and said OUTSIDE! Made him strip down before he came inside and he ran the hot water tank out he stayed in the shower so long! LOL
The dogs got their bath today. White Dog has a penchant for the smelly things. I don't want her to eat them, which she doesn't, but just having the things in her mouth, YUK! She has a soft mouth tho. We found 3 dead skunks by the hay stack this morning. She just lined them up. No bites, she must just maul them and break their necks. Dang dog. White Dog can jump a five foot high fence so she just goes in and out at will. I think it may be time for some hot wire around the top.
Girls rode today and were galloping around and havin' fun. We made some ribbons for the tails and manes today for the parade next Saturday. There are about 8 of us riding in it. I don't do parades anymore, too hard to get up and down off of horse if I have to, and I usually need a potty break before the end of parade, its hard to tie your horse to a storefront or gas pump to use the bathroom. Parade goes right thru town here. It is an all horse parade for the big rodeo this month. Its just fun to decorate the horses, we paint stars on them, put ribbons on them, and the riders wear a white shirt, with red white and blue scarves. It's just fun...not really trying to win anything, altho last year our little group got second place which surprised us a bunch.
Well, another day comes to an end.....sweet dreams y'all.

  CB.  White dog gets a prize for funniest irritating loyal dog.  HARRY   .  So how much soap did it take to bathe/clean HARRY?

We don't have skunks right here, but we have them in the mtns.  Sometimes a dog or two gets it, but so far (note I say so far) we haven't gotten sprayed.

Your kids/family will all sure have fun in the parade.  How is Sweet Pea?  It sounds like he is sure making up for lost time.

TRUDY, during the snow  we will just hope you can bake another pie w fruit or berries from the summer.  Check your jars, you prob canned the summer sunshine right in the jar.  Close  your eyes and picture summer, it will be right there.

Trudy, I was telling a friend about your desire to do in the groundhog. He suggested BBQing long and slow for an old one. The younger ones are more tender.   
Have CB send White Dog up to you to get the groundhog for you.    At least groundhogs don't smell quite as bad as skunks.

Hey, overseeding time around here, any last minute suggestions??? I hayed my pasture one time last year and really lucked out . I first thought do a lot of the mowing ----get tired fast doing that.

Graymare has any one ever told you those ariz arabs are just a little big but run good and are super good keepers.!!!

Hi OLMAN!

Oh yes…………..we have thousands of good horses here in AZ!  Our ranches here like the big Arabs crossed on quarter horses, they can work all day 5 days in a row.

It's good to hear your hay fields are still strong!!!

Welllllllllllll more #&$%*&^%$ snow this morning. It is wearing us down this winter. Shovel shovel and shovel. The stupid groundhog has gone back underground so we can't even kill him. You look out the window in the morning and just go aaauuugggghhhhhhhh SERIOUSLY NOT MORE SNOW...

It's supposed to go up to 40 degrees on Friday and I am going to Harrisburg to the Flower Show with Barb and Andi Sue. That should cheer us up a little bit.

CB: EEWWWWWW poor Harry. Not much that smells worse than a skunk. Did you use the baking soda peroxide mixture to dilute the smell..Our old dog Lucky love to kill groundhogs and once he got a skunk, he killed before it got him and he only had a little smell on his face. My crazy horse Cedar used to chase our black and white Tuffy Cat all around the pastures, one day he thought he was chasing Tuffy and got a BIG surprise when the skunk sprayed him in the face. He NEVER chased Tuffy again, in fact, he would go the other way when he saw Tuffy in the pasture. Tuffy was king of the pastures.

Love & prayers for all.

Trudy, I sure agree with you! This has been one long cold snowy winter. We got more snow last night too, but only a couple of inches which is better than the 4 or 5 they were predicting. It's supposed to be above freezing for the next 5 days, starting tomorrow. Then, it's back to the basement again. I've had to use 4WD to get in and out since mid-December.

yep, we used the baking soda, peroxide and dawn dish deterget, over and over, and over....pu.....man that lil skunk was strong! Otto has had to spend the nights out in the pen with White Dog hoping he will air out some more before he comes back inside. WE had skunks in Idaho, but they never got sprayed but one time one of GD pups fell into a hole and Kyle went I after her and they both got...poor Kyle, he was throwing up, his eyes were watering...took him several showers and baths, and even then the kids teased him at school cuz he smelled skunky! But they are all over down here...you always see dead ones along the roads...ugh...

Pups are all doing fine! The older ones are getting very playful now and bark and growl and chortle....so dang cute.

I went in to have what I though was one spot of skin cancer taken off, and ended up being six....OUCH! ears, nose, cheek and arms....baby....I have to remember the suntan lotion....I go back in a few weeks for the one....he didn't like the looks of the biggest. So now I can't wear my glasses, cuz my ears and nose are too dang sore.

Hoping the snow backs off for those in need of some spring weather...I'm worried there may be flooding tho, so y'all be careful.

Ol Man, wish we had a nice pasture to put the critters in...

Graymare, Sweet Pea is doing great, growing every day, course he is the whole soda fountain to hisself! He eats and sleeps 24/7 lol

We snowblew (is that a verb?) lots of paths and now we have snow with mud paths.    We are walking in snow to avoid the mud. The nice temps have melted about half our 14 inches of snow and should be in the low 50s the rest of the week. That part is good.

CB:
Sorry about the pup and having to spay the mama. I am glad the only pup is doing so well. I bet the other litter is cute as can be!
Skunks!   Donnie watched two playing in our yard not long ago. Today I went to feed the horses and found a very large possum looking at me from behind the feed barrels. We set the live trap and hope to catch him tonight. I could have reached down and picked him up....if I was really being dumb. I hope he makes it into the trap. I knew something was eating the barncat's food, but didn't know it was a possum. I thought we had a rat or mice...which we probably do.

GRAYMARE:
Faith is sure looking great! She looks so sleek and shiny. My horses are all fuzzy wonders right now. I love your chair! I have never seen one like that. Good find! We got our t.v. room couch at a yardsale in Denver back in 1977 for $15 and have carried it all over the country. It needs upholstering, again. I need to get on that job. I have done it twice before.

OL'MAN:
We are getting ready to reseed our hayfields, too. Donnie found a nice horse pasture mix at Tractor Supply he is going to use. We need to get it onto the snow before it melts, but I don't know if we will have time or not.

INDYAPP and ELLEN and BEECH:
I am really sorry for your terrible snowy situation! That really gets old fast, doesn't it? I got out today for the first time in a week with the car. Our driveway is free of snow now, but needs gravel. The mud is taking over. The car got out, though, and I went to have lunch with my local riding friend in Blacksburg. It was nice to get out. Donnie has been driving the truck to work this week. He was off last Thursday and Friday due to snow. The whole state closed down, I think.

ELLEN:
Love the wishful thinking photo of the cat and squirrel! Is that your neighbor's cat visiting inside your house? Our newest barn cat, Giles, has taken to killing birds at every opportunity. I don't encourage that, he has just discovered the birds are easy to get with all the snow on the ground. They get into the peacock/chicken dome and Giles goes in and grabs one now and then when he can slip in while I am feeding the fowl. I end up chasing him while he is chasing birds. I don't mind him doing in mice, wish he would do in rats, but hate it when he gets a bird. He is a cat.


I consider this a bucket list year since I will be turning 60 soon. I have made a commitment to take Ivan to an endurance ride on Saturday, April 12, a 25 mile ride, not the 'real' endurance ride of 50 or 100 miles. I figure if I endure 25 miles, I will have done well. We have a stall and campsite reserved at the Sand Hills Forest, SC, ride for the weekend. Ivan will get a room, we will be sleeping in a tent. Donnie is in charge of camping, I will be in charge of Ivan's needs. Our 40th wedding anniversary is the next day after the ride.   

Now if the snow and mud would just go away so we could get in shape!

Trudy, that was funny about the horse and skunk! LOL

ARK, find a nice dry hill and practice riding up it at a trot....it will get Ivan in shape.....we use to ride on the beach or sandy trails as much as we could, that is also good for conditioning. The quickest I ever did the 25 mile race was 3 hours and 9 minutes.....wear pants without seams on the inside of your legs....those inside seams will just about kill your legs and rub raw....I found out the hard way....I had to wear a skirt for a week....Make sure you have drinks with you, and blow in Ivans noise at P and R checks...this will lower his pulse and respirations believe it or not....it calms the horse. Some of the riders use primrose oil or lavender oil on the horses nose also. I know we jokingly said someone needed to take our P & R rates cuz about halfway thru we were just dying slowly....LOL....main thing is to just have fun, stay relaxed and it will help Ivan stay relaxed. I remember one of our rides, Randi my oldest daughter was on a big Quarter horse gelding and I was riding a part Friesan and we raced to the finish line...both horses were 16.3 and big ol' boys....folks cleared out of our way cuz we were flying....got yelled at too for that...but we were having fun....we raced the last two miles....those horses could really MOVE! Those long legs covered the dang ground....we were laughing when we crossed the finish neck and neck....I know folks thought we were nutty, but I went for fun and to see if these horses could do it. Jaemi was on my lil Quarter horse Bitty Bit and Harry was on his AngloArab Andy, and they placed 3 and 5. we decided that day that we liked the IMO rides and NACMO and Competitive rides much better than the endurance. Randi and I place 12 and 13th. We were pleased

Sweet dreams y'all...

Today was the first day in about two months for the temperature to get above freezing. The snow has thought about melting, but hasn't acted on it yet. We still have 12-15 inches on the ground. We get 4 more melting days, then it's back to the deep freeze.

Yes, the cat is my neighbor's cat. He's become very friendly to me and really enjoys being petted and rubbed.

That is admirable that you are going after the endurance ride. That's going to take some real effort and dedication. I hope you do really well. You have the horse to help you, for sure.

ELLEN:
If I can get Ivan past his emotions, I think he will do just fine. He is a dynamo, but an emotional dynamo. For our first ride, I plan on doing a relatively slow one. We have 6 hours to do 25 miles, with an hour or so of that in vet checks and holds. So if we can go 5 to 6 mph, we should finish on time. That isn't terribly fast, a good trot. He can probably do it, Sandhills Forest is not too hilly, but it does have sand, occasionally deep. We don't have sand around here, so that is hard to train for. I do know of one arena that has somewhat deep sand in it that I may start taking him to train. We did do 19 miles at a NATRC ride a couple of years ago, the distance wasn't a problem. His nerves were. I hope all the training we've done with Lori will have helped that. At least I have more control options with him now.

CB:
That is a great idea about the hill trotting! I have just the hill to do it, if the ground ever dries up. That has been a problem all winter. We didn't get much snow until last week, but we have had rain constantly, so the slick mud is a problem. I figured out that 14 trips around my arena is one mile. If we can do that in 12 minutes, we will be doing the right ride speed.
I always ride in English riding pants without that seam you had such problems with. Ouch! I bet that hurt! I almost never ride in jeans because I have heard tales like that. Cowboys must be tough....or they are wearing pantyhose underneath those jeans   I heard an interview of William Shatner (Capt. Kirk), who is a really good rider. He said he always wears pantyhose under his jeans while riding to keep from chaffing. Boy, I'd love to see how he gets them on!  

ARK, the pantyhose is an option for a lot of guys who don't want to wear English pants, or stretch pants.....I went and bought leggings for me to wear, ahhhhhhhhh....so much better, Harry did wear pantyhose tho...the seams also made him sore. Are you doing endurance or a CTR? If you are doing CTR don't trot uphill! they mark you down...in practice is fine tho. We walked a mile is 12-15 minutes, trotted a mile in 4-6 minutes and didn't really canter or gallop much at all unless we got behind our time. Endurance back then, you could do it as fast as you can, but we had a time limit to be back, CTR you can't come in early than the time given from your starting time....it was all about pacing your horse over distance. I hope to get back into doing some of the CTR rides....I really liked them. ahhhhh those were the fun days. Have fun whatever....it is the important thing and that you and your horse comes in in good shape. Go for it and enjoy! Let us know asap as we are all living thru you! LOL

CB:
What I am aiming for is an endurance ride, not a CTR. I did do a novice NATRC ride a couple of years ago, but this one is AERC. I rode with a mentor at the NATRC ride who didn't manage our time very well . We wasted a lot of time waiting out in the woods, then had to rush the last two miles to get there in time. We made it on the dot, but that last mile was downhill on rocks and at a trot was sort of dangerous. We slipped and slid a lot and Ivan almost fell on his knees in a dry creek bed. That wasn't fun. I didn't know you couldn't trot uphills at those rides, but we didn't. The first two miles was straight uphill and Ivan fought me like mad, he would rather trot than walk up a hill and would probably have settled down if I could have trotted him those two miles. He was a ball of nervous energy the entire ride.
The ride we are going to in April doesn't have all the rules and regs that the NATRC ride has, so other than having to get the ride done in 6 hours, it can be the speed I want to go. No waiting in the woods for the clock to tick by, then rushing like mad. A nice steady trot should suit Ivan pretty well. We sure have practiced trotting at different speeds for quite awhile.


It was 57 degrees today!   The snow should melt off completely except for deep shade or drifts by tomorrow afternoon. My arena is a big puddle, but is draining. Lori is coming for lessons tomorrow afternoon and Jane the endurance rider may come if she can get her trailer out of her yard. If she comes, I sincerely hope she can get her trailer out of our driveway! It is mushy. Lori wants to work on trailer loading, mostly with Areion, but since the ground is saturated, we can't get the trailer down to the arena and I don't want horse hoof print holes all over my yard where the trailer is parked. So I am going to try to simulate a trailer in the arena using tarps and round pen panels. Should be interesting.