MAY 2018 !!!

Happy May Day!!! It's a beautiful day here, too.

It is beautiful here today!!!! My tulips are very happy. The company who does my pier is working next door. I'm hoping they will do mine while they are so close.

Happy May everyone.  Finally some nice weather, it was 80 yesterday.  It's been a long winter, a friend told me that PA is no longer the state of four seasons, we are now a bipolar state...winter and summer. LOL

Things have been so busy here on the farm.  Working hard on handicapping the house for old age.  The ramp was finally finished on Saturday (yippee) and now the A/C heating unit guy is here putting in 2 more of the wonderful units.  NO more lugging around those huge window units.  Next project a chair lift to the upstairs and we should be ready for anything old age gives us.

My friend Dee (who grew up on our farm and is disabled and in a wheelchair) got to come inside the house yesterday and check it out after not being in here for about 40 years.  She was so excited to see all things we have done in her house that she loved, she cried.

I've been fighting with George's laptop for 5 days, not sure what he did to it, but finally got it back on line yesterday. Computers are not for old people. Many times I thought about tossing it out in the woods.

ELLEN:  What a wonderful trip for the Veterans.  How great was it that everyone met them at the airport on their return, visiting the monuments is such a sobering experience.  We took a bus full of Purple Hearters there a few years ago.  What a moving trip that was.  George's best friend is on the Wall, it was quite emotional touching Tom's name & making a pencil tracing.

CB:  So sorry about Harry's brother passing.  Sad you couldn't make the trip home with Harry.

ARK:  I also ride along with you as you enjoy your horses.  

Don't forget tomorrow is National Day of Prayer.  Pray for our veterans, family, churches, government, education, economy & media.

Our Ladies Tea Party is Saturday at church.  So excited.  We are doing a Raggedy Ann table this year.  It should be a lot of fun.  Everyone gets all dressed up and wears those lovely big summer hats.  So cool, we become fancy ladies for one afternoon.

Trudy, Neighbor Ron says that any vets should go on an Honor Flight. It's now a week later, and he is still excited about it. He's still opening the mail he received at mail call after they boarded the plane for the flight home.

I cleaned the doggie yard, filled in all the huge craters her dogs dug, they even gnawed the bark on the trees, broke off limbs, devoured some small ones, the are gone. Carried about 30 5 gallon buckets of rock and dirt...yayyyy....not. i hurt tonight.
Tge fiancee is not doing it....

hmmm CB, it sounds like the dogs weren't getting enough to eat or enough exercise.

Wow, CB, what a mess. You might want to say enough is enough. That's hard work for you!

NOMB but her dogs would be gone.

I'm going to my favorite Mexican restaurant today with the blah blahs..............
Arriba!

They are gone tommorrow according to a note she left me. I believe her dogs are being neglected, only out of their wire kennels 2 times a day, no water or food for up to 12 hours...one medium bowl for 3 dogs once a day....ive mentioned it, and i get they are my dogs, f off. They have to replace carpet and padding in the master bedroom, dogs peed in their kennels it ran onto carpet.
I just cleaned front porch, picked up beer bottles, trash, sticks out of the yard that we can mow quickly sun morning. Hope the folks like what they see that are coming to look.
Ill live, but i have a lot of cleaning inside to do also.
For a get even experience, quite funny one. She and her 2 friends have been blowing horns, tearing in and out of driveway
Late at night, locked my truck doors, luckily keys were inside camper, last night they came in at 1120, blew horn, talkung and laughing, probably drunk, my dang smoke alarm went off, my small resding lamp the plastic got hot...anyway that thing went off so loud made them scream and run into the house, but then a second later i had 2 bulldogs and 2 chi mixes in my lap! Was laughin so hard.

CB:
I am a little lost about what is going on where you are. Did these people rent your house that you are going to sell and trash it? Is that it? And they have time to do more damage before leaving? Yikes.... I hope Harry gets home soon. Be careful, drunks can be nasty.... I don't think I would be cut out to be a landlord.

It is 84 degrees here. Hot, hot! It's at least 15 degrees above normal for this time of year, but will be back to regular temps on Saturday...when it will be raining. We actually need the rain, it has gotten dry pretty quick. There was a forest fire a couple of counties over for a few days earlier this week. It burned along the Appalachian Trail.

Donnie trimmed Cactus Jack's front feet yesterday. Cactus is the easiest equine to trim here. He stands there patiently, unlike most of our other dear beasts. Back feet happen tonight and then we are caught up for a few weeks.

Ivan and Areion are out all day now with grazing muzzles. They are not thrilled, but it is saving hay and hopefully they will lose a little weight. Daisy is very good at slurping grass thru a straw, so she still gets too much grass on pasture despite a grazing muzzle. She is in the barnlot. Cactus isn't happy unless he is near Trinket, so they are in the barnlot, too. Trinket can wiggle out of grazing muzzles. We ended up not cutting the lower field for hay this week, it is perfect weather, but the grass just isn't quite long enough for a decent yield. Hopefully someone else will mow and I can buy a few bales.

Yes, and it was grandsons fiancee and her dogs and cats who tore it up. Try to be.nice, sometimes doesnt pay.
But she will be out soon....thanfully. i cleaned the.front dog yard, filled in holes, washed the porch down, picked up branches from a windstorm, and mowed, killed my mower unless harry can fix it. Now i have to clean the inside....showing it sunday.
She wont help do anything....she is a spoiled lazy biiiiatch.
Oh baby, are all kids like this now. I hope not..

It's amazing what a couple of warm days can do.  Yesterday, there were only buds on the trees.  This morning there are baby leaves all over the place, and the grass is bright green.  Love it.

NBCsports: The Kentucky Oaks races will start today at noon EST and continue until 3:00. Then, the main race will be on between 5:00 and 6:00.

Yes, ELLEN, and the big races tomorrow.
Check your e mail.

Monomoy Girl wins the Lillies for this year. All safe. Good race.

ELLEN ... I gotta admit to foopishness sometimes!!  You were talking about horse racing and mentioned Kentucky Oaks Race.  My foopishness read that as Kentucky OATS race and I wondered to myself..."Appropriate to have "oats" around horses, but why name a race after OATS??"

Have a great weekend FOOPS ... I'm just old and lazy but do take time to read here daily.

Love to all....Rick

Happy cinco de Mayo.................AND, happy Derby Day.

Woohoo............go boys. Rain, muddy track. good horses, it can't get better.

All those big fancy hats are getting a little wilted.


Later: Nice safe race. Justify looks really good. I wonder if he can do it again in two weeks?
Mike Smith only had one pair of goggles hanging around his neck at the end. No mud on his face.

What horse won?

Harry and randi are spending the night in the airport as there are no hotel rooms available, some convention....uso closed
At 9 but gave them food, drinks, blankets, pillows. The airline is at fault, plane had mechanical issues....they are not happy campers. But guess its better than veing under a bridge somewhere. Geesh.
Have 2 couples coming tommorrow to look at house....keep fingers crossed.
Hurt my back pulling carpet out of house...didnt want it in there smelling up the place. It was new in july, totally ruined in february...her dogs and cats....and neglecting them in my thoughts. I get tired taking my guys out so often, but i do it. They wait all night tho, til about 530 or 6. They must be afraid of the dark. They are in front of the fan now, it was 83 here today....still warm. Pampered pooches, the pups are on my bed of course.
They were my company this week for sure. All the old cronies have moved, or passed, or one is very sick, doesnt see anyone...so sad. Kind of boring....found a campground, need to call monday....free fishing lake, harry will like that. We can stay here until we rent or sell, but then find an rv park so he is close to his va appointments for now.

CB
Justify won the KY Derby. Gorgeous horse. I told Donnie he looked like Secretariat and then later found out he is descended from Secretariat on both sides. We actually watched the race today! We always miss it for one reason or another. What a sloppy mess of a track, I was so glad none of the horses fell in that muck. I voted for Audible to win, he got third. Donnie bet on the Irish horse, not sure where he came in. We had fun watching it. Except for Justify, most of the horses and jockeys were so covered in mud you could barely tell who was who. Justify was smart and didn't run behind any mudslingers.

ELLEN:
Those hats were drooping! Even funnier were the ladies wearing plastic ponchos over top of their hats. You couldn't see the hats or the ladies. I was impressed at how well those young horses did, for the most part, walking thru that crowd of weird looking people in the rain. It did look like everyone was having a good time, despite the weather....

We have a nice rain storm going on. It held off most of the day and started at dark. All creatures are tucked into bed and nice and dry. We got the pony lot and behind the barn mowed before the rain started. No rides for me today.

Today is going to be hot so Az is going to be uncomfortable for about 6 most now. So goes
it.

They said Justify is big and strong at 1268 lbs. And supposedly has a good disposition.

Mendellson got stuck in the back out of the gate and couldn't get a break. I thought it
was a bad decision to make him run in a different atmosphere than he's used to. He'd never run on a track like that before let alone in mud. He was 14th. I think the jockey just took good care of him
once he knew the horse got off to a bad start.

CB, hope your house sells.

Prayers for ALL. God bless.

It looks like Justify does have a good mind. He knew his job was done, and was walking around on a slack shank after the race, very relaxed and easy. He sure is good looking.

Yes, Ellen, he is beautiful and easily went to the gate and loaded, and at the end of the race
easily lead around on a loose shank.

So far, even if he doesn't win a triple crown, he's a good choice for breeding, based on my limited
exposure to him.

Both Friday and yesterday, I saw the gate crew doing something I'd not seen before. When a horse was reluctant to load or wanted to move sideways, a mounted crew member moved his horse in beside the horse and put his hand on the horse's fanny, and blocking him from trying to avoid it by swinging sideways. It was really slick and worked like a charm.
Considering my lack of experience at the track, they might have been doing that for years and I just never saw it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justify_(horse)#Pedigree

Here is a 4 generation pedigree for Justify.

Yes, ELLEN, they take stable horses to gate load at our races in PHX so I saw that, also.

I wonder if Todd Pletcher will go to Pimlico with Audible............He has a reputation for not going saving his horse for the Belmont.........it happened to California Chrome. That was their big complaint
that the triple crown wasn't an equal race as all horses hadn't competed in all three races.................

We shall see.

One thing I found really interesting was that he was completely unraced until this year.  He didn't race at all last year.  I've always thought that 2 was too young.  Maybe this is really bad logic, but when they race at 2, they have to spend some time recovering from the races, which isn't training time.  By waiting a year, they can take more time to do the conditioning and preparation, including things like gate training and manners.  
Again, only my opinion, but if they are taught better manners in the first three years, the jockeys would be able to get them to be more relaxed and not wash out before the race, and easier to rate in the race.


You know TV channel choices are bad when you find yourself watching a Cornhole Tournament.