JANUARY 2019

Welcome to January 2019!  

I am going to ride my little horsey at Pandapas Pond on New Year's Day.  It will be a bit muddy (of course), but the sun is going to shine and the temps will be around 50 degrees.  It will be a good way to set my intent to ride more this coming year.  

HAPPY NEW YEAR, to all my foop friends.
May 2019 be the best year ever.

Happy New Year!!! I just woke up..............I'm more than happy to be here at all...........Hugs to everyone.





Prayers for ALL. God bless.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We made it to another year.

Brrrrrrrr. 33 out there when I fed................fireworks woke me up last night and kept me awake for awhile............

Hope everyone is alright...............ARK, hope you have a good ride.............

I've been watching the Rose Parade on RFDTV. They do a good job of covering the parade instead of using it as a two hour ad for their channel, like some of the others do. They show all the horses, and don't leave any out.

Ark, did you have a good ride yesterday?

Hope all had a great new year celebration! We watched a movie, Batman Begins, and had a glass of wine. We are such winos, , one bottle will last most of the year.


I did ride Ivan on New Year's Day. For whatever reason, he was very nervous and agitated, he arrived at the park already sweaty despite the 50 degree weather. He didn't want to stand still for a second after I got on him and was generally a pill until we got on the trail. Then he was pretty good, as long as we were moving. We had to get out of the way of two sets of bike riders and Ivan didn't want to stand still then either. He wasn't afraid of the bikes, he just couldn't stand still. When I finally got out of the way of two bikers crossing the swollen stream, the bikes ran thru the water at full speed, causing a huge splash. Ivan just looked at them, didn't even react. The other horse just about had a heart attack. So I don't know what Ivan's problem was, he was just in a mood. I am going to have to work on his not wanting to stand issue. I never carry a crop, but may have to for awhile until Ivan figures out I am serious. Usually I just have to wave one to get his cooperation.

Other than that, it was a good ride. I didn't get thrown.

I guess Ivan just wanted to get going and work for his supper. I'm glad you had a good ride.

Today is a pretty day, but cold. The weekend is supposed to be a bit warmer, so I'll tackle the job of taking down the tree. Thankfully, it doesn't take as long to get it down as it does to get it up.

ELLEN:
I took down my tree today. We just used the little white one that is easy to take apart and is pre-lit, so I don't have to take off the lights. My sister has a pre-decorated tree that fits in a pizza box and collapses down in seconds. We are lazy...


More rain coming Friday. Mud is my life. Sunday is going to be nice, though, about 60 degrees with sunshine!!!!!

Undecorated my tree on Weds, the house is back to it normal blah looking self.  I think that's the worse part of the holidays putting everything away.  It gives me a chance to think about and pray for the friends who have given me the ornaments over the years as I put them away, so that is a good thing.  

Our contractors are here putting in steps to the ramp and fixing the roof that leaked months ago.  George has a bunch of projects for them.  Thank goodness he has stopped trying to do them by himself.

The weatherman says snow next week.  uuggghhhh hope he is wrong, I've been enjoying this snow free winter.

Yesterday 28 in the morning, today 31........a heat wave. LOL

I took the tree down on the 26th..............I put the rest away on the 27th.

Now I'm putting new bedding in stalls, I got a load of grindings last Friday.......

Our house guests got on their way yesterday after a dinner out the night before
with 17 people. We had a great time and the fun will last until we make it to the mountains in May.
In the mountains we gather for dinners every Friday night after game day, which we don't always
attend. We do go for dinner, tho..................LOL

The sun is up and warmer at 42 going to 55 today........really nice day.

That's it for here. God bless. Prayers for all.

Today is a very mild January day. A couple of people were out in a fishing boat. Other than the two geniuses I saw when we had ice, that's the first boat I've seen in a month.

I guess we all have our decorations down. I did much better about it this year, but I didn't put up many to start with.


It rained here today, of course. It rained just a little while ago, way after dark. It's been so fun dodging rain to get the barn cleaned up. Sunday, though, we are going to be at 58 degrees with actual sunshine!!! I may ride Ivan in the arena. I need to get in better physical shape, riding is more fun than most exercises.

Donnie met with his knee surgeon today and seems to like what he saw. The guy's schedule is pretty full for the next 3 to 4 months, and Donnie needs to lose a few pounds and do some special exercises before surgery. Surgery will be in April, I guess. They will work on his right knee first. Soooo, we are both going on a diet. It will be better if we are both on one. We may do the Keto diet. I am sure Ivan would appreciate it if I lost some poundage.... Every being on this place is either on a diet or needs to be. Daisy looks great, Ivan is okay, Areion is a pudgey pony. Cactus and Trinket are also on the 'fluffy' side. Even ThunderPuff needs to lose a pound or two, he weighs 17 pounds. The other kitties are all good and the dog weighs what he probably should. I haven't picked up the peacock lately....

An AZ heatwave today.........40 this morning at 6A..................it's humid & cloudy right now with rain expected this
afternoon. Horses don't seem to notice as long as they're fed & watered. I'm ready for rain.

I started cleaning out the "gift" closet which contains gobs of wrapping paper, old cards, ribbon rollers with 2 feet on them............
you know the mess. I haven't cleaned and organized it for years.................brother, I avoid it at all costs...........hence, the big toss.


Nothing new here. Matter of fact, everything is getting old..............

God bless. Prayers for ALL.

I sure know what you mean about the wrapping paper and ribbon mess. This year, I was fairly successful at using up several partial rolls of paper that had been around way too long, and threw away stuff that was simply too old. Next year, I will definitely have to buy new paper - that will probably hang around for years.

It was warm during the day yesterday and will be today, but it was colder overnight and there was no wind at all. The lake is trying to freeze over again.

We had sunshine and high winds today.  The wind is drying up some of the mud, but we chased stuff around that the wind was taking away.    Sunday it will be warmer and sunny with no wind!    

I need to get vicious and throw out old paper and ribbons, too.   Of course, then I will need it....  I saw an article saying we should all be using newspapers or plain paper to wrap gifts in to save the planet from ourselves....sigh...  

Straws are the latest ecological disaster causing agents, so we bought some steel ones that we try to carry to restaurants.  They have rubber tips so you don't have to clamp down on the metal.  So far, we haven't forgotten them and thrown them in the trash when we finished our meal.  


Happy Birthday,  Bonnie!  

Went out to feed this AM at 5:30 A in POURING rain........46 degrees. It's just part of it when you have horses.
I'm used to it fortunately. People ask me why at your age? I say "because" that's what I do. LOL

It's just now dawn here...................

Everyone have a good day.......and Happy Birthday to BONNIE. At our age, everyone counts!

My living room looks like a Christmas tree threw up all over it.  That will go away today.

There was no wind last night so the lake tried to freeze up again, UNTIL, some idiot decided that midnight was just a dandy time to go for a boat ride.  His boat had HUGE BRIGHT lights on it that probably woke up everybody on the lake.  I think he got stopped by the ice for a few minutes, then continued on to see how many more people he could wake up.  As he left the lake I could hear his boat plowing through the ice.
I wish I knew where he lived.  It would be fun to go shine some super bright lights in his window just before dawn.  Most people around the lakes are polite, but there are a few who are rude and inconsiderate.


It's several hours later. No more tree in the living room.

Little kids are SO cute...........tonight on America"s Funniest Videos a little girl had been to church. When asked
what they talked about she said "God and cheese-its". They asked "what?'. She said again, "I said God and
cheese-its............"

I just thought that was a riot...................

What little kids hear from daily language sometimes is quite different from what was actually said. It's always funny.

ELLEN:
"The tree threw up...."


GRAYMARE:
I think "Cheese-it" will be my new swear word.


Donnie trimmed Ivan's front feet yesterday. His knees are still smarting from the injections he got on Friday, so two feet were all he could do. The weather was too nice not to do some feet, though, about 60 degrees. It's cooler today, going to be 42, but we get one more day of 60 degrees on Tuesday, then Thursday winter will hit again, wind chills in the morning of 7 degrees. That's going to hurt. Poor Areion has such short hair, I may put her blanket on Wednesday evening. Everyone else has longer, fuzzy hair.

The wind brought much colder temperature and snow.  Not a lot of snow, but snow.  It will be a good day to sew together a sweater that I finished knitting a few weeks ago.  I don't like to do the finishing, but it has to be done.


Later in the day: It's still snowing very lightly. Not far from here is a property that has a nice white vinyl fence all along the road. It's a good thing it's vinyl and easily replaced. That poor fence has been hit at least 5 times that I can think of. It got it again today. The fence is a long ways from the house that is uphill from the fence, so it isn't in any danger. Just the fence.

ELLEN:
 I'd like to see a photo of your sweater when you get it done.  Finishing isn't nearly as fun as the knitting part....

Poor fence.   Hopefully whoever hit it will get it repaired.  Vinyl fence isn't the cheapest.  


No snow here yet, but the wind is HOWLING.  We've gone from 60 degrees on Tuesday to a windchill factor of about 7 degrees tonight.  My muddy horses are wearing their blankets for the first time this year.  The blankets will probably help scrape some of their mud off...I hope.     We are under a wind advisory with 50 mph gusts this evening.  The fun comes this weekend with 5 to 10 inches of snow forecast.  This winter isn't nearly as much fun as it could be.  

I have started doing some ground work with Areion.  While she isn't limping, I still don't have the vet's okay to ride her, so she and I have started learning to be mounted from fences by turning sideways and standing to let me on.  Ivan does this great, anywhere.  We've had one lesson and Areion is already picking up on turning and waiting on me to lean over her from on the fence.  She is very food motivated and smart.   Ivan was standing on the other side of the fence asking for his treat when she did it right.      

Here are my muddy horses yesterday: