No Video Yet

We've not done a video yet.. I had to send our camera back to Kodak for repair to the flash that quit working, apparently they are replacing the entire camera.. still waiting!

We did manage to get the horses home, it is nice to see them daily and spend time with them when I want to, now that I can just walk out my door to do so.. that doesnt mean I actually have been spending more time with them! :) Well just a little more I guess.. I worked with Dexter the other day, I havent handled him in a couple months since he went out to pasture, heck he was an old pro, remembered everything I worked with him on this past spring/early summer. He's still a little skittish every now/then, but he's come a very long ways. Every once in a while I try to tell Derek we really dont need to keep him as a 3rd horse, with money being tight and all, but he refuses to listen to reason and insists that we are keeping him. I know he is one I probably will not regret keeping, as long as he keeps growing!

My 38th birthday came and went pretty quietly this year.. I had lots of birthday wishes on Facebook though, that was nice. It was low-key, spent the day being lazy watchin a movie at home, dinner at the folks... It was a nice birthday though, my parents came over and installed a shelving unit in the closet of my craft room, something I've wanted for a long time. So I guess I better get to work and organize that room again! work, work, work..

We have spent the last few weekends getting a lot of things done around the farm. A couple dump runs, reorganizing crap from one area to another, pressure washing, gutter cleaning, etc. Feels good to get some of these things done, I feel like my place doesnt look so dumpy now that a lot of the garbage and crap and misc things are put away or thrown away. :)
Derek took Cooper out hunting twice now, and I am very excited for the progress being made. Sounds like Cooper is doing excellent, he is listening and happy to get out. He comes homes stinky as he still loves the water and no matter how stale the water is, he jumps in! Apparently he jumped into one ditchline and it was just yucky mud type bottom and he just kinda stood there looking at Derek as if to say "What the hell kind of water is this! and How do I get out?" LOL We are very proud though of him, Derek got him to land retrieve a bird that had been shot the other day, they practiced with the dead bird for a few retrieves. And then yesterday they shot about 6 birds over a pond, Cooper retrieved 2 of them. He spent more time swimming and gulping in water than retrieving, which was part of the problem. He still has a big reluctancy to pick up real birds, so when he brought back the 2, Derek knew that was good enough for the day. We think Cooper still has a slight negative vibe about picking up real birds from his training days and the use of the collar. Derek says its almost like he thinks to himself that he knows there is supposed to be a reason he doesnt like to pick up real birds, but he cant quite figure out why that is, so he reluctantly takes them. In time I think he will forget about all the negative of the birds and realize how fun it is and will not hesitate. He is a work in progress and he's come a long ways!
Derek can now get Cooper to sit on a whistle when he is out searching for his dummy. And if Derek says "over" or "back" with the proper hand signal, Cooper is really starting to pick that up and excel at knowing what those mean. He even did it in the water, Derek blew the whistle for him to stop and he turned towards Derek and stopped swimming, and then Derek directed him "over" to go find the bird and he swam where he was supposed to! I'm so proud of that kid.. wish I could see him work in the field, Derek says it is a lot of fun to watch him and it has changed his outlook on going hunting. No longer is it boring to just sit and wait for birds. Cooper sits with Derek and watches the flocks come in, he pays attention to what is going on and Derek is teaching Cooper to "creep" up slowly while walking next to him! :)

We eventually will need to spend a little money and work with the local trainer in Monroe to learn how to teach him to "sit to flush" because right now he gets so excited when he finds critters in the fields, he just gets to jumping and chasing! But when we take him upland bird hunting (grouse & pheasant), he'll need to learn to sniff out the birds and then sit, so we can catch up to then shoot the birds as they flush up out of the grass.

Now that Derek has taken Cooper out a couple times, Cooper is antsy every day.. wondering if he gets to go out with his fasha! The little buddy is a horn-dog right now though, poor Ellie is getting a little tired of it all.. some nights she is so grumpy at him he can hardly even look at her! Cooper is much better about not teasing Russell though, that is good, but he still loves to dominate Russell by hovering over him! :)

Derek's unemployment hearing is tomorrow.. fingers, toes, limbs, legs, arms, eyes, whatever we can cross is crossed, in hopes that things go our way. It has been a long week of anticipation, really draws on your stress level when you are in limbo like this. I know, regardless of the outcome, I will feel a lot better knowing the decision, even if the wrong one. We should have a very good chance of qualifying, my hope is that his previous employer does not call in and try to screw it all up for him. There has not been much luck on the job hunt these days, not a lot out there that is willing to pay a decent wage...

It took a full week to get over the itching from those damn bee stings! I was almost going crazy even still after 6-7 days with the itching on my thighs and under my arms.. maybe because it was the softer skin?

We busted behinds this past weekend, getting things ready to bring the horses back home. Tore out the old goat shelter and took it to the dump, finished one of the stalls off as the new hay room, realized last years hay was too moldy from getting wet, so we sold it as cow hay, stacked the last 2 tons of this years hay in the new stall, and spent a good 4 hours picking up all the sticks and branches in the pasture and burning them.. the one thing we did not actually accomplish was getting the horses home! It just got a bit too late to do that and we have one more section to clean out before we can bring them home, so the plan is to finish up this coming weekend.

While we worked in the barn, we locked the goats into the backyard to keep them out of trouble (which really means to keep them out from under our feet and being major pains-in-the-asses!) Monday night as we slept, we awoke to the cries of one of the goats.. Meenie seemed to be upset. I carried him down to the barn and could then see he was frothy in the mouth and he was grinding his teeth constantly! I didnt know what to do for him, my initial thought was that he was choking, but because he threw up, it couldnt be that. The next morning when I was texting with Andrea about it, she asked if the goats had been exposed to any Rhody bushes! I called Derek at home and he went and checked the rhody bush, sure enough it appeared to have been chewed on in spots... damn!! Rhody is very poisonous to goats.. I found an antidote recipe online, so Derek went to the store to buy the ingredients and gave the poor kid a couple doses yesterday. He also noticed that Eenie seemed a bit sick too, so he got a dose or two also.

They both seemed to be doing okay last night, Meenie was drinking and neither goat was frothy at the mouth. Derek is giving them both more doses today and we are hoping to reach Andrea again, as we might need to give them some fluids to keep them hydrated. I know the mixture is working though because there was puke all over the stall this morning! It is good that they are getting all that shit out of their bellies.. I am still very worried and although I hope we are out of the woods, I think we are still on the edge and it could go either way. :( I would be super sad to loose any of them, I just love these baby kids...

Tomorrow night Derek & I are hoping to get video of Cooper! That damn dog, his new favorite toy is a big horse ball that was out in the pasture. It has a handle on it and he thinks it is the best toy ever!!! He picks it up and spins out of control around the living room, sometimes throwing it but mostly just jerking that ball back/forth against his own body and spinning!! He got going so fast last night, I lost track of what end was what, he became one brown blurr. We were laughing so hard, I told Derek this was our ticket to $10,000 on AFV. :)

Bees!!

This was not the best week for me, health wise! No I'm not sick or anything like that..

Tuesday in the middle of the night, I had to let the dog out and as I walked back down the hallway to the bedroom, I hit a TV with my right foot, instant burning and pain in my toes, I got'r good! :( It was incredibly painful, Derek was trying to ask if I was okay, and all I could seem to mutter out was "Shut the F* up, I dont want to talk right now!!!" or something like that.. lol

The next day was our bowling night (we joined up with Jen/Johns bowling team) and it was my night to bowl, but was unable to since my toes hurt so badly I could barely get my shoes on. I blame Derek, he blames me! See.... the TV came out of our bedroom, a very heavy old fashioned type and since it was so heavy he just set it outside our bedroom door. It was in the way of the guest bathroom so when Tyler spent the night the night before, I moved the TV slightly so he could get in/out of the bathroom. So technically it was Derek's fault for leaving the TV in the hallway for so long.. I will admit I forgot the TV was there and that I had moved it more into "stub-toe" zone than it had been previously.. BUT if the TV had been put in the garage, this all would not have happened! :) One of my toes still hurts pretty good, not sure if I suffered from a minor crack/break in it or what.

2 days later on Friday afternoon, I was anxious to come home and start working on a project around the house. I decided to go out and knock down berry bushes for the goats. Derek asked me not to, he wanted to relax and watch some DVR shows, but my butt had been sitting all day at work, I needed to get out/about! Plus Cooper wanted some attention so I thought I'd play with him in the pasture too.

I was out beating on the sticker bushes, the goats were right there with me, eating them as I hit them closer to the ground. I knocked them down in a couple different places then decided it was time to play with Cooper. As I put my beating stick against a stump, I looked down at Cooper with the decoy in my hand and told him to "heel". I noticed he was acting really weird and about that same second, I also realized he and I were being attacked by bees. I immediately went into panic mode, tried to run but fell flat on my face, got up and started screaming to Derek "HELP.. I'm being stung by bees.. Derek HELP!!!" well something along those lines. I ran through the barn and towards the house, screaming the whole way as I could feel the little bastards stinging me as I ran. I noticed Derek was standing by the hose, I knew that was very smart quick thinking on his end! As I got to him, the water had not yet come through, he started to run away from me and I'm thinking.. where the fuck do you think you're going, help me!!

I think he had a momentary thought of bolting himself as he got stung in the face, but he knew he had to stay and help and as the water finally came on, he sprayed me down all over, I couldnt get wet fast enough. I also stripped my pants off as I could feel them inside and he said I had about 30 swarming me. I got nailed atleast 15 times, Cooper got hit a few times, I think Ellie got a sting or two and I'm not sure how Russell came out without a bite, I think he was just off in lala land while this was all happening.

Me, Derek and the dogs ended up okay. Of course we had NO benadryl in the house or any topical cream to use, Derek is allergic to them, his face swelled up pretty good and mine swelled up a bit too. I think neither of us wanted to drive to the store to get any medication, he was afraid he might pass out and I was not feeling well either at this point. I got stung in the head a couple times and those really hurt, I felt a bit light headed with a headache and overall just tired, weak and lethargic. That night was miserable for me, I was awake every hour from the burning and stinging and itching feeling all over me, plus when I ran I really tweeked my left foot and it was throbbing and hurting really bad.

An experience for sure, made me really appreciate my horse when we end up in a bee situation on the trail. Although I've not had that happen with Red (yet), he's so sensitive that I worry in a bee attack, he might just buck me off! I was never so afraid for myself, it really scared the crap out of me because as I ran, I had no idea how Derek was going to be able to help me or how I was going to get it all to stop. I think it took me a good 20 minutes to get my breathing under control, I was hyperventillating long after the bees were gone and even as I showered, I couldnt stop.

2 days later, I still have some bumps that itch pretty good every now/then but it is slowly getting better. We went out to the pasture today to find the bees, took a while as they were not where we originally expected them to be. Derek threw rocks at different areas we thought they might be until we saw movement. They are ground bees in this dirt/stump pile. Once we saw movement, we bolted into the truck and drove up to it, unable to really pinpoint where the nest part is, but decided to back off for a while, wait til dusk when they settle down and we'll get Derek all decked out in his thick hunting gear so he can go out and spray them, hoping to find the actual nest.

The plan for the day was to get the barn ready to bring our hay and horses home, but that is on hold until we can deal with these bees as they are very close to the barn. I'm hoping to have a better week!