July 2014 ......

ARK: We live on a "shortcut" too, it is a pain in the butt, people think they should drive fast as possible on the short cut. There are times I wish I had a flame thrower as they fly by or a brick to throw thru their windshield. Luckily the township has "fixed" the road and made such a mess of it, the number of vehicles has slowed down, but it hasn't slowed down the local idiots who have to race up the hill. It's a wonder no one has gotten killed out here.

We put a huge hitching post on the corner of the house (where we always thought someone would end up in our living room). It may not stop them. but it will slow them down. It looks like a big L made out of the big round corner posts we used to put up the high tensile fence for the pastures. We have slow down signs but no one pays attention to them. It's sad people have no respect. George has almost gotten hit crossing the road on the ATV & the mower, he did get hit in the truck right in front of the house. So much for the slow life out in the country on a little country road.

ARK, methinks you need to go buy a bale of sage and cleanse your house and property and chase the goblins away!  Maybe CB can come out, wear her cow suit and help you.  Ellen can bring her scooter.  You can light the sage, CB can scare the goblins and Ellen can chase them off the property on her scooter!     

Pam. I want what u r drinking   haaappy birthday tp hoping its a good one!

TALLYPAM:
I think something like that would be in order! Would sagebrush work or is there a special kind of sage one needs? I am practically ready to dance nekkid in the moonlight if it would chase these bad vibes away  .

HAPPY Birthday, PAM!!!

   


Daisy, Donnie's TWH, has a potentially big problem. She is such a klutz and has hurt her rear left fetlock. She is already suffering with sore front feet and is wearing thick padded front boots. She is totally lame in the rear fetlock. We thought it was just a sprain, but it isn't getting better. She has been confined to a stall for a couple of days. I will call the vet in the morning to see if it is worse than a sprain. They will probably have to come here since I don't think she can stand a trailer ride on three feet. Poor Daisy will not make it if her front feet get worse, which having a lame rear foot is likely to cause. She doesn't have the stamina that Kazi has. We have the fetlock wrapped and she has had some Bute.

Other than that, it has been a nice, cool day.

TP, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!  Hope it's a great one.

I'm having way too much fun today……………."I'm a big boy now!"

Ark ... I am sorry to hear that. I don't remember you mentioning that Daisy had foot issues too, only Kazi. What a PIA ..... Hope the vet can give you some good news!!!!!

Cute horse Graymare. Just look at that mane lying down just like a big boy!!!!!

DOT had this on Facebook and I felt it appropriate here.

LOL, RICK……………….

I was hoping we'd hear some improvement with stall rest for Daisy……………….I didn't realize she had front end lameness……………we're all praying for the best ARK…..she's young, isn't she ARK?  Around 10?

Cute baby in a new flymask!  Green is a good color for Eli.

Thanks CAROL and GRAYMARE.
Daisy is eleven...a 2003 model.
 Daisy has been on again, off again ouchy for a bit over a year with her front feet.  She had a small abscess last year.  This spring it didn't take long for her to get tender again, so she is off grass and on a diet.  We had her in a grazing muzzle the other day so she could go with the other horses for awhile. She just cannot figure out how to use it.  She was trying to rub it off and tripped over herself, doing damage to that rear fetlock.  The poor mare is such a klutz.  After three days in a stall, she seems a tiny bit better and not in as much pain.  We decided to call the vet on Monday morning for x-rays.  Her swelling has gone down a little. We have her in Soft Ride boots, which she just got a couple of weeks ago.  Hopefully they will pad her front feet enough so they don't get worse while bearing more weight.  Her attitude and appetite are both good.  Donnie is really worried about her, though.  

Kazi is very clever and can use her grazing muzzle.  It took a long time to figure out how to keep it on her, she is a genius at getting it off without crippling herself.  I have to put a flymask over the grazing muzzle and watch her closely until she rolls twice to make sure it is still on.  She gives up and goes about nibbling grass thru the tiny hole.  Then after awhile she will come back to the barn and stare at me with concentration until I take it off and put her up.  She is good at guilt trips.

There is no keeping a muzzle on the ponies.  Their short little ears just won't hold them on.  Only Cactus Jack has ears long enough that I never worry about him getting the grazing muzzle off.  They all spend a lot of time in dry lots with slow feeders for hay.  No one lacks any fat.  

I'll let you know how Daisy does with the vet.

RICK:
 Okay, so how did they get that goat in the tube?  None of mine would ever have cooperated!  They didn't 'do' water.  
 Catchy goat song set to "Michael Row The Boat Ashore" tune:   "My Goat Knows the Bowling Score".....hallelujah! 

Ark sorry to hear about daisy and her feet....my cinnamon has bouts of lameness and we rnt going to spend anymore money trying to figure it out....if it gets bad again...sigh...but she is in her early to mid 20s...daisy has her youth....good luck and good hums to daisy.

When we were goat packing and we crossed creeks the goats would stand there and it sounded like they were screaming...when we walked away from them, they would fly across the creek so fast I swore they walked on top of the water! they didn't want to get left behind. we gave our two old goats away before we left idaho, they r both still alive and well enjoying life with an older couple. we have one here and we called him baby bo, he weighs in at 237 pounds...he follows us anywhere!

Humidity was 87% and temp was 79 degrees...I skipped the trail ride...I was sweatin' just getting ready and the air was so heavy, I stayed home under the ac.
Whewwwwwie.

SNOOP here....

When Rick's lawn mower tractor broke and wouldn't run, Carol kept hinting
to him that he should get it fixed. But, somehow he always
had something else to take care of first, the shed/shop, the barn,
drinking a beer, etc. ... it was always something more important to himself. Finally she thought of a clever way to make her point.


When he arrived home one day, he found her seated in the tall
grass, busily snipping away with a tiny pair of sewing
scissors. He watched silently for a short time and then went into
the house. He was gone only a minute, and when he came out again
he handed her a toothbrush and said, "When you finish cutting the
grass, you might as well sweep the driveway."


The doctors say Rick  will walk again, but he will always have a limp.

As usual, I stand by the UNVARNISHED TRUTH!!

Home again, home again, jiggety jog. I went to a 6D bootcamp for the weekend, otherwise known as a workshop about the sewing software program. It was a terrific weekend with a great instructor who kept things moving along, but had patience for those who made a mistake or got behind. We learned sooo much. Now, if I can just remember some of it.... It will help that she gave us all copies of the notes she used for all the exercises we did so that we can repeat them.
Two of us stayed with my cousin and his wife, rather than staying in an expensive hotel. It was all a big success... and I'm glad to be home.

ELLEN
Welcome back! That sounds like a fun weekend. Did you make something pretty that you can post pix of?


Well the vet and his herd of students came this morning. Of course Daisy's fetlock was no longer swelled even though she still wouldn't walk on that foot. They spent over two hours poking, prodding, x-raying, and ultrasounding her foot and leg. No breaks, no cracks, no tendon tears, nothing showed up to definitively give a reason for her lameness. They concluded she was having a laminitis attack in her rear hooves. That may be true now, but she did hurt herself and become lame as a result of it while trying to get that grazing muzzle off. Anyway, she is now on pain killers, deep bedding in her stall and Soft Ride boots on all four feet. She is on a strict diet and stall bound for the foreseeable future.

HMMMMMMMM. ARK, at least they didn't find anything so bad she might not heal………..let's hope, for sure. Does she appear any more comfy in her sneakers? Hugs for DONNIE.

GRAYMARE
after we got the boots on her rear feet this evening, she did seem considerably more comfortable. She is also wrapped on all four legs to help with support. Thanks......

Sorry to hear Daisy has sore foot. I have come to the conclusion that with horses, if it's not one thing it's another. Just when you thing you are caught up and things appear to be clicking along nicely, BAM. My current BAM is the storm we had a couple of weeks ago brought down a couple of trees and some really good size limbs. One of the limbs punched a hole in the roof of my barn. The good news is the company that built the barn 20 years ago is still in business and he came out and looked at the damage this morning and it isn't going to cost an arm or a leg to get it fixed.

Don't you just LOVE it when something doesn't cost as much as you expect? The AC on my car hadn't been working for quite a while because one garage told me it was going to cost nearly $1000 to fix it. Last week I took it to a different garage. He charged it up and said it didn't need anything else.    He also found and fixed a very annoying rattle. I happily paid him the $100. The AC seems to be working just fine.
Indy, I'm glad you can get your barn fixed affordably.

Ark, I hope you can figure out what Daisy's problem is and get that fixed too.

INDYAPP
YIKES! Trees hitting the barn is very scary! I am glad you have a reasonable fix for it.  

ELLEN
Well this morning Daisy is feeling great! The miracle of modern chemistry, I guess.... and four of those boots. The vet gave her some kind of new (to me) drug that is supposed to aid with laminitis. That and Bute seem to have removed her pain. She outran me to her stall this morning after I put her in the arena so I could clean her stall. I haven't seen her move that well in weeks! I had just filled her Nibble Net and she knew it. Daisy the mobile stomach  . I have to call the vet on Thursday to report how she is doing on this medicine.....so far, very good!


Our carpenter is here today  . He and Donnie are making some progress on the 10 foot opening in the wall. Buck is a great carpenter, the house repair is in good hands.  

Good luck with Daisy, Ark.

Ellen .. sounds like you had fun ...

Hope Indy gets her trees removed. Storms cause so much work!!!!

Hot in texas and no its not a porn movie it is a weather forecast! lol
I'm gonna start panting soon!

hubby is putting in a doggie door in the dining area...keeping busy...and taking lots of breaks to cool down and hydrate.....

I'm staying under the ac....

CB, crazy hot here right now, too…………….111 today and humid.  I'm outside by 5-5:15A while it's cool (85, LOL) and finished with horses and yard work by 8 A………………then in to do housework.  Horses are out early A M til about 10-10:30A, then in, then out at 5 P……………..big tank is full at all times……filled twice a day.……….hooves trimmed today.  The colt was so cute standing there tied acting like Mom.

Let's hear it for Daisey's vet!!!  WooHoo.  Hope it all stays well, ARK.

CB and GRAYMARE:
 I don't know how anyone lives in that kind of heat! Stay cool!


GRAYMARE:
 The vet called late this afternoon asking how Daisy was doing.  That's a nice vet.  He was happy to hear she is moving well and hope she continues to progress.  He thought there might be an abscess to rupture to make her feel that much better, but we didn't find any evidence when we checked her feet this evening.


Good News!  Work has begun on our Wrecked Wall!  Donnie and Buck knocked out the remaining bad concrete and poured good concrete over the bottom part going into the foundation.  It is all nice looking and after setting will be ready for the new wall.  It isn't going to be a concrete block wall, so hopefully no new trucks make their way into our yard again.  

Inside view with Buck as work begins

Outside view of work beginning with Buck and Donnie

----------------------------

On a different topic, Annie and I entered the photography contest at the New River Valley Fair this week.  We found out today that Annie won Best in Show with her photo of my peacock!! She gets a big purple ribbon and $25.  She is THRILLED!    She won 2nd place with her photo of our cat, Giles.     I won 3rd place with my photo of Donnie and Areion Smiling when Areion was a baby. (I get $2   ) There were about 80 entries in the adult division that we were in.
I am so glad she won, it is a boost to the ego for her.

SNOOP says, "It's a 'guy thing'."

Annie and Ark, CONGRATULATIONS!!! That's fantastic! Have you ever seen Photographydash.com? They have two photography lessons a month, teaching you how to do some special effect photos. I haven't done it yet, but I might start this fall.

A few weeks ago, I took a good look at my gas and electric bill and wondered why I was being charged $31 for gas delivery charges for 87 cents worth of gas, for the month. I called and got to talk to a very nice woman who kept asking if I had a business, if there were grain dryers, anything like that. I assured her this was only a small house with nothing that could be considered a business. So, she sent out a guy to check. Sure enough, my house was being billed at a commercial rate instead of a residential rate. I contacted one of their public affairs people who very promptly got back to me saying that she would have the situation investigated. AND SHE DID! I just got a call a little while ago saying that they went back through all my past bills and that I will be getting a check in the mail for about $850!!! Wow! I never expected to get anything back, even though I thought I should. What a nice Wednesday this has turned out to be.   

ELLEN, you're RICH!!!  What a great break………

ANNIE, great photos…………I'll bet you both had fun doing that.  Hee.  Hee.  You're in the $, too!

ARK, it looks like your house is going to take shape pretty well now that you have DONNIE & BUCK
construction co. at hand………We're all anxious to see the new window.  Holy cow, can't imagine a truck driving right in……………I will say, it looks like a lovely day.

We're having a monsoon windstorm right now……..dust, blowing branches, no rain……..some areas are supposed to get rain but not us right now……………..famous last words of the man that is paid to be wrong……………

Everyone have a good evening………..God bless.