Friday, May 28, 2010

Keeping Up With Karen



Karen over at Restoring Joy posted some pictures recently of a thunder/rainstorm at her house.  I liked them!   We have been getting a lot of rain here recently, especially for this time of year.  Usually we see this more in April, but this year May has really been rainy. 


The clouds opened up again and I decided to "copy" her and post a snip of my weather.


Over all I know that we need it, but my horses' robust figures could really use less rain during the afternoons!  I admit that when I was 16 I would ride no matter what the weather as long as my parents weren't holding me up.  But that was nearly 20 years ago and I now don't ride in the rain on purpose.  ( :


So here I set, watching the puddles grow!

P.S.  Those logs in the 3rd picture were once the tree that crushed the Land Lords horse trailer.  Because the tree is a Bull Pine, its not ideal for firewood.  He decided that they would however make good "natural" jumps for him to go over while training his horses.  So he took the tractor and drug them out into the pasture.  Not something I would have done, but then much of what he does falls into that category!

Making Babies Is Hard Work!

So my Tari mare went to Dr. Peter's for her 14 day visit after her DTF cover on Monday the 24th, and no baby!  Worse yet, she was in another heat cycle.  We know for sure that she ovulated on the 8th of this month.  Lovely. 

Dr. Peters said not too uncommon, yet not too common either.  He went on to explain the heat cycle curve and all the science behind the bell curve that we track horses heat cycles with.  Wish I could remember more to share with you, but I was sorely disappointed that she wasn't packing Mindy's NFR barrel horse in her cute little (chubby) horse belly, and lost a lot of info to the wind!

Dr. Peters said, he could see a follicle on her left ovary and the mare needed to stay at his place.  He called Dr. Swyers and order up another 'round of semen to be shipped out Wednesday the 26.  On Tuesday the 25th while I was mowing the lawn Dr. Peters called to say that he had just ultra sounded Tari and the follicle was still there so if we had any luck at all it would hold on until the semen arrived on Wednesday.  I told him I would cross my fingers and sacrifice a chicken in hoped all would work out.  There are no chickens on this place and the geese run when they see me and the dogs coming, so crossing my fingers was all I really had to offer.  Maybe I should have crossed my fingers right away rather than finishing the lawn...hmmmm.

I was out on the floor working and had left my cell phone on my desk so I missed Dr. Peters call Wednesday morning.  The news he had to relay really wouldn't have been good rather I talked to him in person or not.  Follicle had dropped....semen order cancelled.

I called Dr. Peters' office to request he call me back with an idea on how I can make this baby happen.  True to any doctor he called me back 5 hours after I called him.  He had a game plan though.

He had decided to take the hormones into his own hands and bring her into heat with meds.  Perfect!  ( :  He wanted to start with some hormone therapy on Thursday the 3rd of June....  Uh, oh!  I won't be here...more on that later.  I asked Chad if he thought he could give a shot to Tari.  He said he'd try.  I told Dr. Peters I'd have a plan for handling his plan when I picked the mare up at 4:30 that afternoon.

Chad was on board so the next step was finding out what my sister wanted to do, after all it was her money, foal to be, and schedule to get the horse "going" once it was of age...and who wants to wait a couple of extra weeks? 

Mindy decided that dropping Tari off at the vets office before we left on our grand journey and then picking her up after we returned would be the best bet.  That way she would not loose anymore time on her grand plan.  She also didn't want to put Chad out anymore that she already feels shes done by "taking" me with her next week.  She said she wants him to still like her in a month.  LOL!  I tried to tell her that it would take a lot more than that to make him not like her, but she is set on this plan so that is what we will do!

So as it is right now, Tari will be dropped off at the vets office on Wednesday June 3rd and picked up the following Wednesday.  This time with a fertilized egg floating around in her belly. I hope! 


Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Cheaters Never Prosper

I honestly believe that saying, I also believe that anything worth having is worth working for.

But, I saw a commercial and and thought to my self I'll give that a try!  I'm over my ideal weight by more than I would really like, and this can't hurt....right?

So I went out and purchased said item and decided to use them at work as I am on my feet for 6-8 hours a day.  A perfect time and place to use them.  Initially all went well, then while my back started bugging me.  Nothing new, I don't always use correct lifting form and I have had a few pretty good horse wrecks.  So off to the chiropractor I went.  Turned out it was my left hip that was the root of the cause of my trouble.  This is the hip that I was drug by when I was 16.  It bothers me from time to time, but this was the first time it caused back pain.  Adjust and move on, that's what I did.

Then a week ago, my back started hurting again.  What??!!??  This time it was far worse.  Off I went back to the chiropractor.  As he is popping and cracking he says to me, what has changed over the last few months that could be causing this.  I told him nothing in particular.  Then he says what about these shoes?  Oh, yeah...the shoes.

So I was adjusted 4 our of 5 days last week, couldn't ride, and was crabby.  I did however ditch the shoes and get some that aren't all crazy, just good well made shoe with arch support.  Its still to early to tell for sure, but I am thinking...  If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.  Firm and tone while you walk, maybe.  Cripple me, definitely!  ( : 

One of our employees has some, and she doesn't have a bit of trouble with them and the same with my sister.  So it could just be me and my past injuries...but I am tossing them none the less.


Rest In Piece Sketchers!  Been not so nice knowing ya!

Thursday, May 20, 2010

I Know Its A Wild Flower, But...


Does anybody out there know what its called?  My Grandma Jo calls them lady slippers...


They don't grow in large groups and seem to be found more so in heavily forested areas.  If you can find wild mushrooms around, you can usually find them...at least 'round these parts!  ( :



A little bit closer view!



This fungus was about 4 feet away.  It is a Morell...kinda like the shoes, and probably spelled wrong.  Its a wee bit past harvesting and was infested with ants when I plucked it from the ground.  Deer hadn't even gotten around to nibbling on it.  ( :  Chad LOVES these nasty things, me not so much.  But the dogs and I enjoy wandering hunting around  for them, so really its a win win situation during mushroom season!

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

If You Have Nothing Better To Do....

Then watch this crazy person!  There are a few other videos of him, but this one is the introduction I guess...

Enjoy!  ( :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gn8EQ0azXpQ

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Oh, Sweet Lil' Lucifer!













Please disregard the thermometer...it wasn't nearly this warm.  Its broken and I need to remove it and send it to the broken thermometer grave yard.  It was more like 60 or so.












WOW!  What a day for such a sweet little kitty!  ( :
Hahaa!  I just called Lucifer sweet!  LMAO!  He's a brat!

Sunday, May 16, 2010

This Sunday We Did This....







We started with a little of this...


Then we moved on to this...


....and this!


Kage found this to do.


Then he and Abbi did some of this.


Much to my chagrin, my Eagle friend hasn't bumped off all of the goslings yet!


M-Kitty offered some assistance in the goose issue.


Tony got riled up for no good reason.  Tari even told him so!


Her less than impressed face...or maybe her begging face.


And a little closer.


Horse Girl wasn't impressed that we interrupted her nap.


....But she managed to get up for a little lovin'!

And that's what we did today!  Oh, I rode too, but Chad didn't manage to get a picture of that.... Darn it!  ( :

Friday, May 14, 2010

Leo Buscaglia Said....


Not really he didn't say that...but it makes me laugh every time I read/see it...so I HAD to post it!!  Giggling right now as I type.  He did say the following however :




The greatest risk is to risk nothing at all.

Just thought I'd share...as today, I am sure I am risking my sanity yet again.

Being self employed rocks....

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Some Of The Current Happenings 'Round Here...

Well its been fairly busy, but not the kind of buys that you get to take fun pictures of!  Bummer!

So here's the rundown...my first two weeks of May:

Monday I made an appointment for Tari to go to the vet...or was it Tuesday?  Oh, which ever it was I got Tari's palpation scheduled.  Somewhere in there we had a home inspection for our prospective new home...  The home inspectors came in and said....oh, we need to have the radiant heat turned on and charged for this.  She gave us a place to call to get that handled...  Well the radiant heating system wasn't emptied when the former owners vacated the place, so it froze and we have damage at the valve from the boiler to the lines.  So it was a no can do.  That sucks.

We rescheduled the home inspection for Friday the 7th of the same week and let them know that it was impossible at this time to get the radiant heat up and running.  She said that they'd go a head with out it.  Our inspection was finished by Noon on Friday. 

Our appraisal was finished on Saturday.  We got every ones paperwork back and sent it on to the lending agent.  The mold remediation company finally made it out to the house to do our quote for that this morning.  We will have their quote tomorrow morning...
Yes, I said mold.  We made an offer on the house, and the next day...the power was turned on and the house proceeded to be flooded.  Being bank owned, nothing happened to get the house dried.  So nature took its course, but its really not as bad as it could have been...we have the cold weather to thank for that!!   Its been a long and crappy road with this.  I am sure that in the end it will all be worth it.  Just getting to the end seems painful right now!  ( :  Crossing our fingers that the lenders just say, what the hell!  LOL!! 

I am not sure how long it will take with the lenders, I know that everything with or without the remediation quote is headed to the underwriters tomorrow.  There is always a chance that the lenders will expect the other bank to make some sort of efforts for repair before they lend...and there is always the chance that the owning bank will say kiss off....  They had better not though...I am soooo ready to get a move on!

Thursday the 6th was Tari's appointment.  We have a pasture full of mares...so watching for signs of a heat cycle is fun!  Not!!  Especially when the Alfa Mare controls so much of that and how its acted out...  The Alfa Mare being Mave of course.  I figured Tari should be entering heat around the 10th.  Well I was a bit off...but not too much thank goodness!  Tari was just beginning her heat when we saw Dr. Peters.  So she stayed there. 

Dr. Peters had to do a counter to counter pick up of the semen rather than being able to order and schedule the insemination because of my miss calculation.  Ooops!  My bad.  This is the first time I've have a mare bred this way and am certainly learning as I go!  ( :  Tari was allowed to come home on Monday after noon.  Dr. Peters offered to take the colt at weaning time for services rendered if Mindy wanted.  I told him I'd pass it on....  Mindy said if its a colt, she'd consider selling it to him, I'll share that with him the next time I see him.

Thank goodness Dr. Peters is tolerant of me and my spasticness (God only knows what I'll nearly or totally mess up next! ).  I enjoy the lessons/information that he offers freely and often.  We will have a few more exchanges in the next couple of months before we get to just let the gestation progress.  We will see him again on the 24th for our 14 day check.  We had better see a little bean in there!  ( :  After the bean spotting, we will then have another appointment at the 45 day mark.  There we will be looking for a heart beat!  Then we will expect smooth sailing from there!

Oh, I am soooo excited for my sister!!  Of course I love the babies, but its being part of her dream to raise her own big time barrel horse that's pretty cool!!

The Land Lord has decided NOT to buy another horse trailer, rather he is going to borrow mine and the neighbors.  He announced he would use mine for short hauls and Dicks for long hauls.  Lucky for me, he runs around on the short distances far more than long distances.  Yippppeeeee for me, NOT!  I told him OK. with me, but honestly, I am not loving it.  It seems to be one of those things being stuck between a rock and a hard place.

But when I get a new house...I won't have to share anymore!!!  Except with Chad!  LOL!!

Sunday, May 9, 2010

They're Not Dock Dogs....

They are POND dogs!  Hahaa!!






















I know that I have freely mentioned all the things that I won't miss when we don't live here anymore...so here is one of the things we will really miss!  The dogs love the pond and will spend hours playing in it if you let them!

To All The Moms...

              Happy Mothers Day!!



Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Class Is In!

I had this great adventure's blog planned out in my head for about two weeks prior to our departure.

 Mindy, Wyatt, and Mindy's good friend Stacie showed up at our house Friday afternoon.  We unloaded the horses and headed out to what could be Chad and I's house some day...(another  long, long, long, and painful storey...) then hit our favorite Mexican Restaurant.  And that is where the planned adventure ended!  ( :



Long storey short, I didn't get a single picture or our trip or the horses in their new digs.  The best layed plans of mice and men I suppose!



We had the worst weather ever imagined.  Saw lots of snow, plenty of rain, and got blown around like a tumble weed.  We miss judged our time and drive and got to Mario's in the dark... ugh!



Oh, well.  The baby was great.  What a fantastic baby, glad he's going to be around at all the family gatherings!  ( :  When Mindy and I head out doing this kind of thing...well we are just in it for the adventure...good, bad, or indifferent we just want to have a good time!  And we did!!



So the few pictures I took over the weekend are scattered around this blog!!  Hope you enjoyed at least one of them!!  ( :





Oh...and Tari has an appointment with Dr. Peters for a palpation tomorrow!!  The girls are starting to cycle and we REALLY want to catch her on this heat!  collection days for our stallion are odd days this month and even days next month!!  ( :  In case you cared!!