This is the time of year that I get most frustrated with owning horses! The barn sits lower than the paddocks so rain water runs into the stalls, the paddocks need fresh gravel as it's getting a bit messy in some areas, the horses are filthy from laying in wet stalls and paddocks, the hours are shorter so there is no time/daylight to ride, and the horses are so bored from being cooped up, that they keep running through the divider fence!
Last night was no exception to all of the above.. It used to be Red/Oakley next to eachother, but Oakley kept busting through the fenceline so we put Dexter where Oakley was at. Derek came home to find Dexter in the barn isle and a busted fenceline, boards broken out of the stall wall and amped up horses! Derek was out there alone at first since I was not home yet and he walked up to a very nervous Dexter to feel his legs to be sure they were OK and Dexter bit him on the back. So I get home and Derek is about ready to shoot all the horses!
Here's what we assume happened: Dexter and Red were playing along the fenceline with eachother, sometimes Dexter rears up in play, he probably came down on the fence. So now they are together and Red (who can be a real asshole) probably chased Dexter around a bit, they both ended up in Red's stall. Red probably was trying to kick Dexter but instead kicked two 2x6 boards out of the wall and Dexter probably panicked for his life at this point, so he jumped through the feed window into the barn isle, bending one of our gates in the process as he probably came down partially on the gate. GRRR I think this all had happened within 30 minutes to an hour before Derek went out to feed, so Dexter was still worked up and probably afraid and with no halter on him to understand he is now under human control, he thought Derek was a threat. I know Dexter didnt do it maliciously, it was all just in the heat of the moment.
Those 2x6 boards are not flimsy weak boards that easily break, those were some very hard kicks that Red had to have done.. really pissed me off actually because had he connected to a leg, it would have been very ugly to come home to that. We moved Red to the other side of the barn, so now Oakley and Dexter are next to eachother and hopefully this will be a working combination! Although I am certain one of them will probably run through that darn fence, but atleast Oakley will not kill Dexter.
So last night I was frustrated, and the horses are so dirty and I just havent had much ambition to get out and brush them or do much with them lately. Hopefully after the holidays I get out of this horse funk because I do miss riding. I think after all that mess, I needed to just chill out so I spent the entire evening working on making a christmas vest for Derek to just relax and not have to think about anything. Derek went to bed early since he had to get up early for some OT at work and at one point, I was about 80% done and Derek came in to see if I was coming to bed anytime soon.. I said "what time is it anyways". Well it was 1:30!! I thought it was maybe 11.. holy moly. But I was so close, I couldnt walk away, so after another hour, I finally was finished and went to bed. I just have to put the buttons on it, but I want Derek to have it on before I do that so I know where to place them. I'm almost done otherwise with the holiday craft projects, just a little bit left of one and then I need to get to wrapping!
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Secrets revealed..
Christmas is a week away basically and I still have much to do to prepare for it all. I did finish one MAJOR project a couple days ago, I spent atleast 70 hours in a two week time frame making that one.. really glad it is done and I am super excited because I think it turned out amazing.
Our horse club Christmas party was this past weekend, I was in charge of organizing it. I made bird seed balls to give to each attendee, they turned out really cute and most members seemed to like them. :) The party was at Rhodes River Ranch.. a real nice horse facility in N Arlington, the restaurant overlooks the arena and stalls. It is a cool environment, quite fancy for being in a barn and the food was delicious. This year was a big turnout, with 43 members/guests! We always have some year-end awards and this year I received 2 of them. Our club has a "ride-hours" challenge, we keep track of every hour we have our butts in the saddle from Nov 1 - Oct 31 and the guy/girl with the most hours wins. There are certain criteria you must meet to qualify for the award, you have to be a member of course, you must attend a club work party and you have to volunteer in some capacity of the club atleast once during the year.
Well my ride-hours were pretty sad for 2011!! I turned in only 58.5 hours (last year I was more than double that). The guy with the most hours had 225 and then the girl with the most had 182, however the gal did not qualify since she did not do a work party this year, and since not many in our club take advantage of trying to win this award, I won by default!! Do you know how embarrassing it is to be a very active member of a horse club and win with so little time in the saddle.. ;) Next year will be better.
I also (by suprise) won a year-end silly award. I was recognized for all the work I do in the club, as I am the Treasurer, Secretary and run our website, as well as volunteer to help with our 2 major fundraisers, trailbossing and working to come up with new and fresh ideas for attracting new members etc. Well earlier this year for our Prize Ride, there was a lot of drama around the issue of who was going to get the gate key to open the tree farm for our event and it was decided that I would have the key. Well I received the key alright, but as we loaded up the horses and headed to Arlington to set up for the ride, damn if I didnt forget that key at home! So more finagelling had to be done to get someone else in the area to come open the gate and then have another friend stop by our house to bring us the key... I received the "Key Player" award! I was embarrassed of course, but it was pretty funny!
I got a few pics of the dogs "posed" in front of our stockings and the tree.. Cooper always looks so serious in pictures, his normal goofey self becomes a statue! lol Ellie is the only one with some character in her expression and Russell, heck he's just thinking "will you hurry up, this is long enough being forced to sit this close to Cooper, give me my blankey to crawl under and leave me the hell alone, bah humbug!"
So Derek & I have been together 20+ years now, amazing in all that time (which includes now too) that we have not been pregnant nor heard the tick tock of the baby clock. We've talked about adoption off/on for the past 10 years, always saying that if we felt the urge to have a child, we would most likely go that route as I dont have a real great desire to be pregnant, neither of us feels like its important to spread our own seed and we both know there are lots of children that need parents. We've discussed that we know we would be good parents and over the years have talked about the ways inwhich we would raise a child, but it has always been a matter of timing for me.
I have always felt that the best way to do things is: First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes a home and then comes the baby carriage! ;) I do not look down on people for not doing it in this order, but I could not consciously consider raising a child when I was living paycheck to paycheck and when I was not ready and willing to put my hobbies and interests behind those of a child. Derek & I both feel your life becomes all about your child and that you come 2nd, so we just needed to wait til we felt it was right to take that next step (for a long time we were not sure if it would ever feel right). Well the tick tock clock has been ticking lately and although that clock has not quite convinced me to get pregnant, we finally are feeling that we are missing out now by not having a child to raise! :)
Here's the ideal.. We would find a friend of a friend of an acquantance type thing that has a child they for whatever reason have decided not to raise, and would like to adopt it to us! We'd prefer a child 1-4 years old, young enough to still establish an early bond but not necessarily an infant. I would take an infant if the situation worked out that way, but it is not necessary. We are going to start looking into the process after the first of the year. We are not at all sure how it will end up, but we dont want to regret not moving forward. It would be close to free if we decided to adopt an older child (6+ years old) as the state pretty much funds that process, but since we want a young child, it will cost us upwards of $10,000+! That is the part that sucks, but it is the cost of what we want.
In all seriousness, we just want the word out there to our friends and family because you just never know who knows someone who might be considering adoption for their child but doesnt want to go through the state program etc. So the secrets out, the cat's outta the bag...
Our horse club Christmas party was this past weekend, I was in charge of organizing it. I made bird seed balls to give to each attendee, they turned out really cute and most members seemed to like them. :) The party was at Rhodes River Ranch.. a real nice horse facility in N Arlington, the restaurant overlooks the arena and stalls. It is a cool environment, quite fancy for being in a barn and the food was delicious. This year was a big turnout, with 43 members/guests! We always have some year-end awards and this year I received 2 of them. Our club has a "ride-hours" challenge, we keep track of every hour we have our butts in the saddle from Nov 1 - Oct 31 and the guy/girl with the most hours wins. There are certain criteria you must meet to qualify for the award, you have to be a member of course, you must attend a club work party and you have to volunteer in some capacity of the club atleast once during the year.Well my ride-hours were pretty sad for 2011!! I turned in only 58.5 hours (last year I was more than double that). The guy with the most hours had 225 and then the girl with the most had 182, however the gal did not qualify since she did not do a work party this year, and since not many in our club take advantage of trying to win this award, I won by default!! Do you know how embarrassing it is to be a very active member of a horse club and win with so little time in the saddle.. ;) Next year will be better.
I also (by suprise) won a year-end silly award. I was recognized for all the work I do in the club, as I am the Treasurer, Secretary and run our website, as well as volunteer to help with our 2 major fundraisers, trailbossing and working to come up with new and fresh ideas for attracting new members etc. Well earlier this year for our Prize Ride, there was a lot of drama around the issue of who was going to get the gate key to open the tree farm for our event and it was decided that I would have the key. Well I received the key alright, but as we loaded up the horses and headed to Arlington to set up for the ride, damn if I didnt forget that key at home! So more finagelling had to be done to get someone else in the area to come open the gate and then have another friend stop by our house to bring us the key... I received the "Key Player" award! I was embarrassed of course, but it was pretty funny!
I got a few pics of the dogs "posed" in front of our stockings and the tree.. Cooper always looks so serious in pictures, his normal goofey self becomes a statue! lol Ellie is the only one with some character in her expression and Russell, heck he's just thinking "will you hurry up, this is long enough being forced to sit this close to Cooper, give me my blankey to crawl under and leave me the hell alone, bah humbug!" So Derek & I have been together 20+ years now, amazing in all that time (which includes now too) that we have not been pregnant nor heard the tick tock of the baby clock. We've talked about adoption off/on for the past 10 years, always saying that if we felt the urge to have a child, we would most likely go that route as I dont have a real great desire to be pregnant, neither of us feels like its important to spread our own seed and we both know there are lots of children that need parents. We've discussed that we know we would be good parents and over the years have talked about the ways inwhich we would raise a child, but it has always been a matter of timing for me.I have always felt that the best way to do things is: First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes a home and then comes the baby carriage! ;) I do not look down on people for not doing it in this order, but I could not consciously consider raising a child when I was living paycheck to paycheck and when I was not ready and willing to put my hobbies and interests behind those of a child. Derek & I both feel your life becomes all about your child and that you come 2nd, so we just needed to wait til we felt it was right to take that next step (for a long time we were not sure if it would ever feel right). Well the tick tock clock has been ticking lately and although that clock has not quite convinced me to get pregnant, we finally are feeling that we are missing out now by not having a child to raise! :)
Here's the ideal.. We would find a friend of a friend of an acquantance type thing that has a child they for whatever reason have decided not to raise, and would like to adopt it to us! We'd prefer a child 1-4 years old, young enough to still establish an early bond but not necessarily an infant. I would take an infant if the situation worked out that way, but it is not necessary. We are going to start looking into the process after the first of the year. We are not at all sure how it will end up, but we dont want to regret not moving forward. It would be close to free if we decided to adopt an older child (6+ years old) as the state pretty much funds that process, but since we want a young child, it will cost us upwards of $10,000+! That is the part that sucks, but it is the cost of what we want.
In all seriousness, we just want the word out there to our friends and family because you just never know who knows someone who might be considering adoption for their child but doesnt want to go through the state program etc. So the secrets out, the cat's outta the bag...
Monday, December 5, 2011
Leave it to me..
to take on more projects this Christmas Season, than I am prepared to handle! :)
Andrea (my sister-in-law) suggested we could make homemade gifts for our exchange of presents this year. We had already planned to make one thing, and after a couple weeks of ignoring the issue, we quickly had to wrap our heads around the concept. With 1 visit to Ben Franklin, we were quite successful with a few new ideas. I'm also working on that super secret major project, the one that is going to require 100% perfection from the creative section of my brain. I just wish I would come up with these ideas a month or two before December instead of only giving myself a couple weeks to get them all done!
I even gave up riding this past weekend so we could run errands, start on projects, and get our christmas tree (although it is not in the house yet, it sits on the back porch where it scared the shit outta the dogs the first time they realized something "different" was on their porch!) lol My dogs are way too sensitive to change...
I had invited a friend to ride with me this past weekend, we were gonna go out on Sunday, but as the end of Saturday came around, I realized I had accomplished zero of what I needed to in order to be able to ride the next day and there was just not enough time and energy in me to get the horses, tack and trailer ready for a ride! The last time I opened my horse trailer tack door (a month ago), I saw green bridles hanging.. mildew/moisture has taken over some of my leather tack, so in order for me to ride, I have a lot of cleaning to do.
Andrea (my sister-in-law) suggested we could make homemade gifts for our exchange of presents this year. We had already planned to make one thing, and after a couple weeks of ignoring the issue, we quickly had to wrap our heads around the concept. With 1 visit to Ben Franklin, we were quite successful with a few new ideas. I'm also working on that super secret major project, the one that is going to require 100% perfection from the creative section of my brain. I just wish I would come up with these ideas a month or two before December instead of only giving myself a couple weeks to get them all done!
I even gave up riding this past weekend so we could run errands, start on projects, and get our christmas tree (although it is not in the house yet, it sits on the back porch where it scared the shit outta the dogs the first time they realized something "different" was on their porch!) lol My dogs are way too sensitive to change...
I had invited a friend to ride with me this past weekend, we were gonna go out on Sunday, but as the end of Saturday came around, I realized I had accomplished zero of what I needed to in order to be able to ride the next day and there was just not enough time and energy in me to get the horses, tack and trailer ready for a ride! The last time I opened my horse trailer tack door (a month ago), I saw green bridles hanging.. mildew/moisture has taken over some of my leather tack, so in order for me to ride, I have a lot of cleaning to do.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Turning a page..
So much time for me to update the blog and so little motivation to type these days. I feel bad that I have no pictures to share lately and it's not that I have zero to say. I just hope I am not boring anyone to tears..
November is always a tough month for the family, Carrie's birthday came and went as did the anniversary of her death. I was pretty upset and down that the girls didnt seem to want to have a get-together this year, our annual "remember Carrie" night! So I just dealt with it inside and toasted with myself. I know we are all busy, and I have to work at telling myself that just because it is important to me, doesnt mean it is as important to the other girls.. We all have such busy schedules but I do miss them girls!
Derek & I joined up with Jen/Johns bowling league on Wed nights. We LOVE it, but we are not real excited that there are 8 people on a 5-person league. So we are always rotating weeks off, which is the right way to do it for such a large team but its kinda tough because we both want to bowl every week. Dont get me wrong, we LOVE our team, Jen/John have some really great fun friends and we have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them, we all fit right in together with similar personalities. :) Now that I bowl somewhat regularly, I have finally started to pick up a rhythm on how to bowl best that works for me, and a couple weeks ago I bowled my highest game ever of 161.. WhooHoo!! Yep tootin my own horn. Especially considering my average was about 103 when I finally got my bowl on! lol I still have brain farts and throw an off-game, but anything over 100 is good for me..
I finally put my hunters safety education to work, and told Derek I was ready to go out hunting! I could not believe my own ears and that my brain was telling me I should go shoot some ducks.. :) This past weekend we headed out Saturday morning, bought my license and proceeded to drive all over N Snohomish County on a very windy blustery day, but do you think we saw any ducks flying or sitting or hiding or swimming? nope.. not a damn thing anywhere. We walked out to a couple duck blinds, it was obvious at one that some killin had happened earlier in the day, I guess getting out around noon is just too late! lol I had a good time though, got my first hunt under my belt. I didnt dress in the camo gear since I dont have it, but what I wore worked just fine. I was a little bummed to not get to shoot a duck, but it was good to see Cooper out there being a crazy kid. Poor dog, I kinda feel bad for him having to act so well behaved all day because nothing is being shot down for him to retrieve.
Thanksgiving came and went as well, we hosted at our house with about 15 family members over. A bit snug and cozy, but the food was good, company was great and I'm glad its over.. LOL My house is still actually semi clean after all that, the one good thing about parties at your own house, it gets cleaned pretty good and actually lasts for a while.
Derek started his new job this past Monday, so far so great. Still seems to be an excellent company to work for and he likes his job and his bosses, so thats a good start. He is home before me, has the animals fed (usually) by the time I get home. We've received no other letters from unemployment so we were able to get caught back up finally and moving forward.
I'm starting a new project (super secret) as a christmas gift to my family, it is one of those that I will spend a lot of time on with the pressure to get it done soon and my brain and eyes will be exhausted when I am done, but worth it. I was up til 2am last night working on it.. It is not a sewing project, but I did just today take my machine in for what I thought would be a service call to figure out why it was not working properly, turns out I was not operating it properly! :) Apparently although I was going through the motions of threading the top and bottom, I missed one little step on each which was to keep tension on the thread as I wound it around the little nooks and crannies.. amazing the difference that made! holy moly... I'm excited to sew things again, I have been struggling for a while with tension problems and rats nests in my sewn items, now I just need to go to Ben Franklin and find a project.. oh why do I wait til the last minute on these things and then rush to have to get it all done?
I'm also organizing our horse club christmas party in a week, not that I have to do a lot, but I'm just burnt out and ready for a break. Thank goodness we found a new Treasurer, I will help her as long as needed but I am SOOO looking forward to handing it off.. My brain has been tested too much this year and we have so many damn hobbies, I need less responsibility. :) But that never goes away, there will always be chores to do and bills to pay, the biggest headaches of all.
And last but not least, the animals updates. Well not much to say, other than the dogs drive us absolutely bonkers every night when a commercial or TV show has a doorbell in it! They all 3 tear off to the front door, bolt through barking like someone is trying to rob us, and then come back for round 2, 10 minutes later! The goats are pissed, they need their own sleepy house and they dont have that right now, they have to share a stall with Red. The dryest stall is Dexter's but he's an ass and doesnt let them just hang out in his stall so they scream and yell every morning and night, I'm sure telling us they expect better accomodations! and the horses, well as long as we are feeding them they are semi happy! They would prefer to have the pastures to run around in, but to avoid the muck, they are confined to their corrals. I've been turning them out about every 10 days to run around, but this past weekend as they were running about, Red was a little nastier than normal and kicked Oakley in the ass.. I wasnt real happy about it, and Oakley was okay, but I'm thinking seperate turnout is necessary to avoid disaster. I'm thinking I might try to get in a ride this weekend, I invited someone, so I'm in it whether I want to be or not at this point, if she says yes. Its damn cold right now, low low 30's at night so an early morning ride sound terrible at the moment! lol But I need to get my ass in the saddle, I miss riding.
Derek hasnt been motivated to ride much, we joked the other day that I know exactly why he doesnt want to ride! His saddle doesnt fit Oakley.. and I mean, it just doesnt work.. period! So he has lost the itch to ride because he's bummed his saddle doesnt work and he doesnt want to have to sit in mine.. LOL So maybe if I can find someone to ride Oakley and try my saddle on Oakley to see how it works on him, then we can find Derek his very own new saddle so he will be a happy camper again.. :)
November is always a tough month for the family, Carrie's birthday came and went as did the anniversary of her death. I was pretty upset and down that the girls didnt seem to want to have a get-together this year, our annual "remember Carrie" night! So I just dealt with it inside and toasted with myself. I know we are all busy, and I have to work at telling myself that just because it is important to me, doesnt mean it is as important to the other girls.. We all have such busy schedules but I do miss them girls!
Derek & I joined up with Jen/Johns bowling league on Wed nights. We LOVE it, but we are not real excited that there are 8 people on a 5-person league. So we are always rotating weeks off, which is the right way to do it for such a large team but its kinda tough because we both want to bowl every week. Dont get me wrong, we LOVE our team, Jen/John have some really great fun friends and we have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them, we all fit right in together with similar personalities. :) Now that I bowl somewhat regularly, I have finally started to pick up a rhythm on how to bowl best that works for me, and a couple weeks ago I bowled my highest game ever of 161.. WhooHoo!! Yep tootin my own horn. Especially considering my average was about 103 when I finally got my bowl on! lol I still have brain farts and throw an off-game, but anything over 100 is good for me..
I finally put my hunters safety education to work, and told Derek I was ready to go out hunting! I could not believe my own ears and that my brain was telling me I should go shoot some ducks.. :) This past weekend we headed out Saturday morning, bought my license and proceeded to drive all over N Snohomish County on a very windy blustery day, but do you think we saw any ducks flying or sitting or hiding or swimming? nope.. not a damn thing anywhere. We walked out to a couple duck blinds, it was obvious at one that some killin had happened earlier in the day, I guess getting out around noon is just too late! lol I had a good time though, got my first hunt under my belt. I didnt dress in the camo gear since I dont have it, but what I wore worked just fine. I was a little bummed to not get to shoot a duck, but it was good to see Cooper out there being a crazy kid. Poor dog, I kinda feel bad for him having to act so well behaved all day because nothing is being shot down for him to retrieve.
Thanksgiving came and went as well, we hosted at our house with about 15 family members over. A bit snug and cozy, but the food was good, company was great and I'm glad its over.. LOL My house is still actually semi clean after all that, the one good thing about parties at your own house, it gets cleaned pretty good and actually lasts for a while.
Derek started his new job this past Monday, so far so great. Still seems to be an excellent company to work for and he likes his job and his bosses, so thats a good start. He is home before me, has the animals fed (usually) by the time I get home. We've received no other letters from unemployment so we were able to get caught back up finally and moving forward.
I'm starting a new project (super secret) as a christmas gift to my family, it is one of those that I will spend a lot of time on with the pressure to get it done soon and my brain and eyes will be exhausted when I am done, but worth it. I was up til 2am last night working on it.. It is not a sewing project, but I did just today take my machine in for what I thought would be a service call to figure out why it was not working properly, turns out I was not operating it properly! :) Apparently although I was going through the motions of threading the top and bottom, I missed one little step on each which was to keep tension on the thread as I wound it around the little nooks and crannies.. amazing the difference that made! holy moly... I'm excited to sew things again, I have been struggling for a while with tension problems and rats nests in my sewn items, now I just need to go to Ben Franklin and find a project.. oh why do I wait til the last minute on these things and then rush to have to get it all done?
I'm also organizing our horse club christmas party in a week, not that I have to do a lot, but I'm just burnt out and ready for a break. Thank goodness we found a new Treasurer, I will help her as long as needed but I am SOOO looking forward to handing it off.. My brain has been tested too much this year and we have so many damn hobbies, I need less responsibility. :) But that never goes away, there will always be chores to do and bills to pay, the biggest headaches of all.
And last but not least, the animals updates. Well not much to say, other than the dogs drive us absolutely bonkers every night when a commercial or TV show has a doorbell in it! They all 3 tear off to the front door, bolt through barking like someone is trying to rob us, and then come back for round 2, 10 minutes later! The goats are pissed, they need their own sleepy house and they dont have that right now, they have to share a stall with Red. The dryest stall is Dexter's but he's an ass and doesnt let them just hang out in his stall so they scream and yell every morning and night, I'm sure telling us they expect better accomodations! and the horses, well as long as we are feeding them they are semi happy! They would prefer to have the pastures to run around in, but to avoid the muck, they are confined to their corrals. I've been turning them out about every 10 days to run around, but this past weekend as they were running about, Red was a little nastier than normal and kicked Oakley in the ass.. I wasnt real happy about it, and Oakley was okay, but I'm thinking seperate turnout is necessary to avoid disaster. I'm thinking I might try to get in a ride this weekend, I invited someone, so I'm in it whether I want to be or not at this point, if she says yes. Its damn cold right now, low low 30's at night so an early morning ride sound terrible at the moment! lol But I need to get my ass in the saddle, I miss riding.
Derek hasnt been motivated to ride much, we joked the other day that I know exactly why he doesnt want to ride! His saddle doesnt fit Oakley.. and I mean, it just doesnt work.. period! So he has lost the itch to ride because he's bummed his saddle doesnt work and he doesnt want to have to sit in mine.. LOL So maybe if I can find someone to ride Oakley and try my saddle on Oakley to see how it works on him, then we can find Derek his very own new saddle so he will be a happy camper again.. :)
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