Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Time to gab...

I have not felt very funny lately so I havent been posting!  I dont like my blogs to be boring, so when I go long periods of not writing, its because I cant find a way to spin anything funny into what's been going on around us.. :)

Just to clear the air, still no baby news/change..  Darn it..  I did go to my Dr and if I dont get pregnant this cycle, then I'll go in for a blood test to help determine my likely-hood of getting pregnant.  I tell you its not cuz we are being lazy about this whole process.  My friend said to wear this ring, it brings fertility..  well after 3 months and no go, the ring is back in the drawer.  She gave me a cross to place by my bed for good blessings.  I was told to buy the baby blanket we intend to bring little one home from the hospital in, well that's not working.  The blanket is hanging on my bed.. sigh.  I pee daily on sticks to determine when I might be ovulating, 3 months into that and no luck.  I now am taking my temperature, as that is supposed to tell me when I ovulate.. so we'll see.  I'm starting to finally get over the anxiety of it all and be a bit more relaxed about this process.  I had this imaginary clock looming over my head and was putting soooo much pressure on myself to hurry up and get it done already.. partially from depression of all that we went through and I actually really enjoyed the brief time I was pregnant.. not that I loved feeling crappy, but I loved that I was making a baby and my relationship with Derek took a new turn.

I have decided for now though, I'm going to start riding again.. when/if I ever find the time!  I had put it off, thinking I would get pregnant right away, plus to help relieve the financial burden we were full-leasing my horse to the neighbors.. but I need to ride as that helps me find peace and makes me happy.  So for now, I'll just ride and when things do move along, we'll decide from there how long I will ride for.  Must be happy!!

Derek was asked to judge a hunt test a few weeks ago over in Quilcene.  It was somewhat of a disaster of a weekend as far as the hunt test goes.. But we had a nice time camping with friends over there.  We only took Cooper, tented it, the weather was awesome and we had a fun time getting to know our Canadian hunt test friends and other hunt test peeps better.  Because the turn-out was low, we decided to run Cooper in a Seasoned test on Saturday.  Probably shouldnt have, but it was good practice I guess and gave us a better feel for exactly where he is at.  He failed of course!  lol  But he did much better than we thought.  His biggest issue is the birds still..  doesnt like to pick them up and refuses to deliver to hand.  Which means he drops them at your feet and will not pick it up..  Basically telling Derek "Hey I brought it back, reluctantly, what else you want from me??"  :)  At the Seasoned level, the dog has to deliver the bird to your hand, not the ground..  Oh well.    Derek's been taking him to the trainer Pat for weekly sessions.  And Pat has confirmed that the problem is not a discipline one with Cooper, it's still a major bird aversion/bad memory issue.  And it could take a year of working with birds to help him get over it..  Cooper will pick up Chukkar and Pheasant no problem, heck he wont let go of those birds, but Ducks are a big problem for him.

Not to dwell on the past, but we have heard from 2 sources in the past couple months, a story about our dog!  A very disturbing one at that...  We've learned that while Cooper was in training for the 3 months (which is the same training that darn near ruined our dog), apparently Cooper was so upset, that he bolted and disappeared for more than 24 hours!  And according to rumor, this happened twice!!  People have successfully kept this story from us for 3 years, but it has finally surfaced and although that is in the past, it still bothers me a great deal and at times, makes me pretty angry.  We paid this trainer $2000 for 3 months and we have a dog that 3 years later, still will not pick up a duck willingly.. and now find out our dog ran away...  phew that is a lot to process and accept!  So the solution, we now are spending min $30/week on birds, to help Cooper move forward.  We wont be able to afford that for long, so for now while we can, we are putting in as much training time as possible.   Because of all the work Derek has put in for Pat over the past 4 months, he is helping us out a great deal with Cooper and providing a lot of support.  Derek certainly didnt put in the work to get anything in return, he just enjoys being out on the property, farming with Pat and also working next to him and watching him train dogs, picking up on techniques etc.

Well Derek's unemployment ended exactly 4 weeks ago.. I was going into silent panic mode.. but that same day we got his last unemployment check, his previous employer called and wanted to hire him back.  They will only be open for another month (July 31st closing date), but for now, he has steady work with a pay increase to come back!  It helps, even if it only lasts for 2 months.  He did not get on with the Electrical Union, he was 29th out of 107.  Scored 98.8 however they only took in the top 18 and he is only down the list so far because the other guys have experience whereas he has none.  They will be re-interviewing the end of July, so there is still a chance he could get accepted then, but since he still will have no experience, chances seem slim.  He's been offered a position with Snohomish Electric, the company I used to work for LONG ago...  but the pay with them is only $10-$11/hr and I'm not sure we can swing that w/o loosing our house.

He keeps applying with Boeing, patience is the key I guess..  But not banking on them either.  He had an interview yesterday for a metal fabricator shop in Marysville.  I think they are looking for a working manager type position, he has a good chance of getting that job and with hopefully a decent pay offer.  It will be something for now and just play it by ear with the electrical.  I think neither of us anticipated this career change to be quite so challenging.  Every company out there wants experience, and those that will take him w/o, want to pay so low, it's just not feasible to make the transition.  So not sure what career path he will end up on, I just remind myself, either way.. we will be fine!!  Derek is not one to sit idly by, he works hard to ensure he's moving forward.



Edgar is off to his new home!  Since it didnt work out with Amber, I had to find a new home for him..  I think I found the perfect place.  He's over in Port Orchard with a gal named Sami.  She has 2 little girls and a husband.  She wanted a nice safe horse her kids could be around and her husband to ride occasionally.  She's a vet tech, so he has great care and a loving him.  I'm really happy about it and she seems to really love Edgar too..  I've even seen pictures of her husband riding him bareback with a halter.. perfect!!

I also spent a few weeks working on our garage.. It's been a thorn in my side for quite some time, years actually.  A project I've put off because I didnt know where to start.  Well one day I just started.  We had a path from the outside to the door into the house, everything else was covered with "stuff".  About 10 hours later I finished and can now park my car in the garage!!


 Oh and while I was at it, I cleaned/organized the shed too!!

This past weekend (Sunday) was our 18yr anniversary!  Woohoo..  2 more year until Hawaii..  right??  Not sure that we can make it happen, but in our "wealthy" life, the plan is to celebrate 20 years with a vacation to Hawaii.  :)  We didnt do anything special this year, we went to lunch, our friends came over to visit, we went to dinner, just another day..  exactly how we planned it.

On Friday night and Saturday day, I went with my friend Kim to watch a colt starting clinic out in Granite Falls.  4 horse trainers each are assigned one horse, a 2-5yr old, that has not previously been saddled or bridled.  They have (2) 1 hour sessions on Friday night.  Then (2) 45 minute sessions Saturday.  They then ride their horse through a minor obstacle course in the arena..  ground poles, ride over a tarp, weave through poles, rope a barrel, drag a log and then walk/trot/lope the arena and of course stop. 

There were 3 Quarter Horses and 1 Mustang.   The mustang was being worked with by a 70yr old man named Larry, who was working at a much slower pace than the other trainers.  His method was more along the lines of a "horse whisperer" type method, concentrating on trying to "connect" to his horse and bond with his horse, vs getting on, desensitizing and riding!  He actually had the horse that seemed to be the most care free about desensitizing.. his horse was fairly care-free about the obstacles in his round pen, the mare was moving everything she could with her mouth, she peed on the tarp!  lol  By the end of Friday, I thought although he was not quite as progressed with riding as the others, his horse might be the most level headed. 

He was in last place by end of night, so I was curious to see how Saturday was going to go.  As the sessions progressed on Saturday, Larry clearly was not progressing with riding his horse.  He spent very minimal time allowing his horse to get the kinks out and did not allow his horse to buck while saddled..  Good theory, poor execution. When he did finally get on, his horse walked calmly for a few minutes, then spooked and bucked him off.  He did eventually get back on and rode at the walk only, with no further incident.  But Larry had no control of his horse, you could see he had no brakes!  

The other 3 trainers by this time, were trotting and loping their horses no problem.  They could easily stop their horse and get control quick.  The old man, clearly was way behind and by the time it was time for the finale, I was quite concerned for him.  I knew he was going to get bucked off during the finale, his horse had not even trotted under saddle.  And for the finale, they utilize the entire arena, not just a small round pen.  That is a whole new story for a horse.  Larry was the first to go..  he got on his little mustang mare with no incident.  He started to walk her down the arena.  We were sitting up above the arena in the hay loft, with a very clear view of the entire arena.  He gets maybe 10 steps and this mare decides to let loose and took off at a buck down the arena wall.  At this point, she's not bucking super hard, but her head is down, he has both hands on the horn/saddle, not even trying to stop her and is hanging on for dear life.  I just saw a blank stare on his face as he passed by us.  And as he's headed down the wall, I'm thinking "bail, bail... come on dude, bail or its gonna be bad!!"

And bad it was.  His horse gets to the end of the arena, she realizes there is a wall there, takes a sharp 90 degree turn to avoid hitting it and Larry gets slammed against the wall, a very loud crash sound, he hits his head incredibly hard against the wall, falls to the ground and is not moving.  One of the guys sitting next to us, was on the ground in seconds, he jumped down to rush over and help.  Larry did not regain consciousness until the paramedics had him on a stretcher and I'm not sure he was even that conscious at that point.  He was out cold for probably a good 20 minutes or more.  The guy who jumped down, told us he had a very bad gash on his head.  

It was aweful....  I was shaking and upset, I started to tear up a bit when the paramedics showed up..  It was a bit of dejavu for me.. although they didnt ever have to make efforts to revive him, he was breathing on his own, but it was pretty traumatic.  After he was driven off by ambulance, they finished with the rest of the afternoon.  The trainers all placed in the order I thought they should have.

Kim and I drove home and texted a little later with each other.  She had to pull over driving home as she started crying.. and when I got home and was telling the story to Derek, I started crying.  It affected both of us more than we had fully realized and now realize just how terrible that felt to be there and witness that.  I feel bad for Larry, but I'm also angry at him.  I'm mad that he put himself in that position.  His horse was NOT ready to ride and he should have been a bigger person and realized the horses and his own limitations and opted out of the finale.  So either he is so naive that he didnt realize this was going to happen, or he was too proud to quit or he lacks the skills/knowledge to understand basic horsemanship.  Which he has a website, he seems to be a fairly respected trainer with his methods, he speaks and does clinics about his methods..  But the problem he neglected to see, is that his methods are geared towards long-term fixes.. not 3.5 hr horse-breaking fixes!!  I sincerely hope he is OK, it was quite possibly a career ending accident.. but I dont know.. maybe he'll walk out of the hospital and be just fine.  Either way, I really hope he learned something and will take a minute to look back and reflect on where he went wrong.  This truly was his fault, not the horses.. He did not prepare that horse for what was about to happen and had no way to control worst case scenario.  

Will I go back and watch something like this again?  Sure thing!  It was $15/day and I learned some things.  I dont think ANY horse is ready for the riding world after only 3.5hrs of training, they have a LONG ways to go from there.. but it is interesting and fun and worth the time and $.