I have goat in my throat..

That's what I said after eating a piece of cheese! I knew I should have listened to my better judgement when I was talked into trying a piece of this Feta Goat Cheese. I was at my parents for our day-after Christmas family gathering to exchange gifts with Eric/Andrea and my parents. They had this cheese from the lady that they bought their goats from and it didnt look funky, so my curiosity got to me, I caved and tried it. The initial flavor was not terrible, I was chewing along and it was okay, but I certainly wouldnt call it great, but then... I swallowed! That's when the overwhelming flavor of GOAT hit my throat and I honestly felt like I'd just licked a goats ass because the flavor in my throat was exactly the flavor of a stinky goat and I quickly chugged down some of Derek's soda then popped a cordial cherry in my mouth, meanwhile gasping that I had goat in my throat!!

My parents & Derek of course thought I was insane, they'd never heard such nonsense before and were probably plotting behind my back to have me institutionalized and we all had a great laugh! Well... 45 minutes later Eric & Andrea show up and I'm explaining this nasty experience to them and Andrea says "OMG I can taste the EXACT same thing when I eat goat cheese" HELLO>>> proof that I am not crazy! We all laughed, but I was very relieved to know I was not crazy.

Christmas was great this year. I made a few sewing projects and hope to do more gifts that way in the future. The table runner I made turned out really well, atleast I think it did. In the Schwartzenberger family gift exchange, Derek and I were victorious in getting the one gift above them all that I wanted which was one of gramma's paintings of a snow covered tree, matted & framed. It looks perfect on my wall and I'm really happy to have been successful in getting it because I just love it.

Derek had been bugging me for a week straight about my gift from him. He wanted to give it to me early and I was having none of that! He finally convinced me to open our gifts Christmas Eve.. he brings out this long skinny box and I said "What, did you get me a gun?" I was only teasing, but yep, it was a gun! An over-under actually, very nice and heavy. I have not shot this type of shotgun before and although it was not on my "list", I am happy to have my very own gun. :) The plan for the future was that I would hopefully eventually start grouse/pheasant hunting with Derek.. you dont have to sit miserably in the cold and wet like you do for duck/goose hunting. And we want to start going to the trap range on Friday nights to get Cooper accustomed to gunfire, no sense going unless we plan to shoot, right? :) So now I have my own shotgun for trap and maybe bird hunting in the future. Oh and I got some pink ear protection as well.

I think things might finally be headed in our direction atleast a tiny bit! We got a letter from the bank and we are FINALLY in the loan modification process.. It only took us 1 year exactly to get to this point, but it couldnt have happened at a better time. I had already had to skip my Dec mortgage pmt because we were falling behind and then just yesterday we get the letter stating our trial period payments start Feb 1st and if we make those 3 payments on time, then we should get moved into a permanent new loan. I am SOO relieved, although not 100% out of the woods yet on this loan, but many promising steps closer now. Things needed to move this direction in order for us to stay in our home, it was just getting too hard to make the payments every month.

It has been hard to get motivated to get out and ride the horses this fall/winter. Not sure if it's the weather, the money stress or simply no time. I think a combination of it all.. I am still not overly motivated but I have now made plans to ride on New Years Day with others, so there is no backing out now! It is going to be cold, high in the 30's for the day, but no rain!! I heard that Dec has only had 3 days without rain, it's been a bit depressing. I am actually relieved Christmas is over and it's time to move on. I took the tree down 2 days after Christmas, that is not normal for me but I was feeling so overwhelmed with clutter and stress, it had to go.

2011 will be our year to get organized!! We have talked lots about it and plan to clear out all the crap we dont need or that does not belong to us, get the shop set up, the garage organized, the shed finished.... We want to focus on so many things next year that in order to do so, we have to get things squared away at home first. We have no great plans to celebrate bringing in the new year, other than probably falling asleep before the ball drops! lol Who knows, we have 2 days before that happens, so maybe some last minute plans will come about.

Happy New Year

I'm no longer the ditsy blonde..

now I'm the ditsy auburn chick! lol Yep, you read it.. I went WAY outside my comfort box and died the blonde hair brown, ended up with auburn color.. Derek has stated over the years that he very highly (hates) my overly blonde hair.. I've not been a huge fan either when its soooo blonde, but after a few weeks, its get to the right color. My natural is just not very pretty, a dishwater (confirmed by hairdresser) color.. yuck! Derek asked me long ago, why not try brown.. so I've thought about it off/on, but never had big enough cahoonah's to try it.. well this time around Derek was with me when I bought the dye and he said "go brown!" Well OKAY! :) Should I have left the color in a little longer? Probably.. But oh well. I now have a very deep redish brown color and it's growing on me. I kinda like it darker, but I NEVER EVER imagined I would EVER have a red type color on my head.. that part still shocks me as I'm sure this change will shock many family members on Christmas Eve this year!


Derek thinks I should do some highlights, but that is a bit fancier than I can imagine with the do-it-yourself package and I cant see spending $50 to have a professional do it, I already spend $35 every six weeks keeping it short. So please dont laugh at me when you see me, I'm a bit self conscious about it, but I am starting to get used to it and kinda like it. I have found that I can get away (atleast I think so) with more colors of eye shadow etc with the darker look! So I may be doing more experimenting with my makeup now that I am not just bleached blonde..


Ellie and I finished our basic obedience Monday night and scored 100%! Yippy!! She is awesome. The other 3 dogs had taken their final test the week before and I could have as well, but Ellie was not 100% cooperative that night, so I wanted one more week to practice with her to ensure a perfect score... plus I knew none of the other dogs would be coming the following week and she would have less distractions, therefore allowing her to focus on me and she did exactly that, with zero faults! I was really excited and proud of her and myself. It was funny, the trainer said "okay now you can stop working with her 30 minutes a day, but definately still work her". Shit, I havent worked her 30 minutes a day in... well practically ever! She gets too bored, so in the beginning I did (2) 5-10 minute sessions per day and the last few weeks I've only worked her a couple times a week because she picks it up so quickly and once she got over her "testing me" phase, it was just cake walk to her.

I'm pretty much ready for Christmas, finished up wrapping presents today and finished my sewing projects. I made Derek & I new stockings! I already hung them up, so its no longer a suprise to Derek. His is hunting themed and mine is Christmas themed. They are pretty cute if you ask me! I think Derek really likes them and I cant wait for him to see the rest of the presents I got him, I did a good job this year on finding great gifts. :) I am completely perplexed though at what he has gotten me.. this is what I know:

1) he left the house on Saturday to go shopping at "stores" with $200 in his pocket.
2) many many hours later he called me telling me he needed another $160.
3) he spent $300 on my main gift which was via a private individual.
4) the item is over 30 years old, cost $350 new appx 30 years ago, today used would cost $800 and new would cost up to $2000.
5) he then had to drive to Bellingham on Monday to get something else he needed for this gift
6) he's been in the shop "working" on my gift.
7) he is completely jealous that I am getting one before him.
8) he found 2 rolls of pennies in my gift dating back to 1959.
9) he wanted to spoil my Christmas and give it to me this past weekend, but I refuse to let that happen.
10) I have N.F.I. what the hell this gift is!!!

I dont want to know, I hate ruining suprises, I am just so curious.... Cant wait to find out what it is! :)

Oh, so Derek had an emergency visit on Monday! He is JUST FINE now... He woke up to some sharp pain in his chest, like a muscle cramp under his ribs and at times felt like it was his lungs. It did not go away and at 8:30am he decided he was not sure if it was just a muscle issue and started to have some anxiety and near panic attack, worried he was having a heart attack or blood clot in his lungs. So I met him at Monroe Valley General and he was checked in. Over the next 3 hours with most of that "waiting", they ran a chest x-ray, tested his blood to ensure no clotting and ran a few other tests on him, they all came back just fine. Before they determined it was just a muscular issue, they shot him up with Morphine! never asking if he wanted drugs, just injected him. He was on fire, he was so pissed off about it. I dont blame him, there was absolutely NO reason for the Morphine!!! The pain was not so great that it required heavy drugs and if they had just waited an hour longer for the testing to come back to realize it was muscle spasms/pain, they could have given him a muscle relaxer instead.. But no, they sent us out the door with a Vicatin perscription (that they refused to let us refuse!) and instructions on heating/cooling the area. I'm glad he got checked out and all was okay, with the history of family and friends over the last few years dying, he was really worried something was seriously wrong and he still struggles with deep breathes, sneezing or coughing and its been 3 days now.

As we were checking into the hospital, the old hag taking his information without skipping a beat says to me "Are you his mother??" WTF old Bitch! I wanted to jump across and slap her.. wake up and take your nose off the computer screen to see that I CLEARLY am not old enough to be his mother.. dumb broad. She chapped my ass and had me in a tizzy the rest of the day. Maybe it's the new hairdo color.

Well Happy Winter everyone, welcome to longer days!!!

I know.. it's been a while!

:( sorry for the delay in getting a post out there... It's been a little hectic non-stop these days.

Where to start.. We flew Derek's parents into town for Thankgiving, we had wanted to get away but couldnt leave the animals. They came to town during the coldest Thanksgiving week Western WA has seen in over 40 years I think it was! We had a small Thankgiving gathering with some of Derek's family at our house, it was cozy and HOT! With the heat cranked up to 75+ while Bob & Nouna were in town, we all were sweating as we ate down our dinner. Dawn had to borrow a pair of Derek's shorts, she was so warm. We normally keep the heat at 62, so 75 was a pretty big adjustment for us.. BUT, it was worth it to have them with us for a week.

I got these great pics of Bob with all 3 kids!

Speaking of kids, Cooper is growing... rapidly!!! he has outgrown his small crate and has to curl up to sleep in it now, until we can get a larger one for him to sleep in. He's getting a tiny bit better at slowing down, but I do mean tiny! :) He sits on command, thats about it for now.. He has far too much energy and too short attention span to work on much else. We could force him to start listening but I think it's okay for him to be a puppy for a little while longer because in just over 3 months, he'll be sent off for some real hardcore training. We keep him on leash in the house now, a training technique we learned at my obedience siminar we went to. He still has the occassional poddy mistake (pee only) but he's now up to about 20 minutes between poddy breaks.. He also is now treated like a little man and gets to spend his days with Ellie and Russell in the front yard! He learned the doggy door in about 2 minutes and so far after 2 days of him having access to our entry way and the yard, he has not poddied in the entryway. :)

This method is also helping to mellow him out because now he has Ellie to play with and run around the yard, all-day-long.... So at the end of the day when we get home, he no longer has this built up energy. We are finally getting into a rhythm and schedule with him, makes it a bit easier to handle it all.

The horses still sit untouched for the most part.. drowning rats is all they are with the record rain we've been getting! We have our christmas tree up, although it's not 100% straight, we just cant seem to get it to not be crooked.. oh well, makes it more unique I guess. lol and its a big damn tree, it has quirkly lights with 2 colored light sections and 2 white sections... segregated tree apparently! And a small section of lights went out.. but ya know what, I dont care. I am not going to get worked up becase my lights are not perfect, I think I finally have realized little things like that are not so big a deal... there was a time when I would have been fanatic about having perfect lights on a perfect tree!

Ellie is really doing great too.. we are almost done with obedience, I think just 2 classes left, or maybe just 1.. hmm tonight might be graduation :( She did really well with her pre-test and scored 100%! Yeah!!

I am very excited for christmas, I got Derek some really cool gifts, I love to give presents, and always wish I could do more for my family and friends. I'm fairly certain my December mortgage is going to be late this month, well crap its the 13th and I havent paid it yet, so I guess it's late.. :(

My cousin Jesse just got engaged this past weekend as did his sister Jennifer 2 weeks before that! Very exciting and happy for them all, not to mention their mom, my aunt Dena has been engaged for over a year now.. sounds kinda funny when you type it out.. maybe they should plan a triple wedding.... haha

I know for having gone 3 weeks, it should be a more exciting post but other than taking care of Cooper and having the folks in town, its just been hustle and bustle to prepare for christmas.

We got a new camera so I've got some random pics of the kids..

This is Russell just hangin out in Derek's chair.. no he's not being grumpy, he just lays that way sometimes with a snarl.

Here are a couple of Ellie

Cooper running (his face looks kinda animated in this pic, like a cartoon puppy!)

Oh and then Derek and the kids all hangin out together.. Cooper is probably about 2 seconds from attempting to squirm his way out of being held.. :)

I love when Winter comes early!

Snow and frosty mornings.. I cant complain! Not a lot of snow, but enough to satisfy... for now. I am very much looking forward to the "colder and wetter" part of winter as long as the colder and wetter happen at the same time :)

I got some more pics of Cooper and Ellie and uploaded another video of Cooper with his first Duck! Derek went hunting and brought some birds home on Saturday, Cooper was all over that duck.. follow the link to see the video.

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

He's doing pretty good. Only 1 potty accident in the last 6 days and it was not our fault, the little turkey marched in the house after having spent 30 minutes outside and peed right away! :( He is starting to enjoy his crate time, last night when he was tired he wouldnt even come out.

He and Ellie just LOVE eachother and love to wrestle and explore the yard together. He is helping her to overcome some of her timidness in exploring new things. I put her up on the table the other day so I could trim her butt hair up a little and she was stiff as a board, panicky! Yes I trimmed her hair because it's long and poofy and occassionally her "business" gets caught in it! lol

I know these pics look like fighting, but it's all just playtime!

Russell.. well he still pretends Cooper doesnt exist. As long as Russell gets some occassional ball time and the puppy steers clear of him, he could care less what the other two are doing. I thought he might get jealous of the puppy playing with Ellie, but so far no... Russell and Ellie still play daily as well running wild and crazy all over the living room!

Ellie likes to babysit Cooper when he is in the crate.. she's such a good girl with him, very patient but not afraid to let him know when he bites down just a bit too hard.

I spent the weekend being a home-body, babysitting Cooper while Derek went hunting both days, cleaning house top to bottom in preperation for the in-laws coming, and finally learning how to use my slightly over-complicated sewing machine! I LOVE my new machine, dont get me wrong.. but it took me a bit just to figure out how to sew a straight stitch.. lol It's all computerized so it took some practice. I was able to get a project done, Derek's xmas present and it looks great. Now I just need to come up with more projects so I can sew sew sew..

More Cooper

Here is Cooper with his bird wing.. he was REFUSING to give it up! Once he had it in his mouth, he was not going to let go and as soon as he did, he was immediately scouting all over trying to find it again.. He is VERY birdy and I should start taking pictures of Derek when he looks at his pup because he just glows with excitement! Not to sound too corny or anything.

I took a video last night of Cooper in the kitchen with his wing and just how determined he is to hold onto it and then I edited in a bunch of short videos we took the first day we had Cooper home when we introduced him to the other 2 dogs and how quickly Ellie took to him.. She is pretty funny! She likes to take care of him and is always checking on him when he is in his crate.

I tried uploading the video to the blog, but after trying for HOURS, I finally just put it up on youtube.. here is the link:

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

We decided that we are not staying outside with Cooper long enough for him to finish his potty business. Even though he pees once, we have learned that doesnt mean he finished emptying his bladder, so we now stay outside until we've seen him pee 2-3 times and then we are able to bring him in and allow him to roam around the living room with the other kids.. Last night I watched him pee 6 times in less than 10 minutes!

After he was playing with the wing, the only toy he was really interested in was this soft un-stuffed weassel thing and he didnt want to let go of it, was treating it as if it were his wing.. not really chewing, just proudly carrying it around and laying with it and not letting Ellie have it back! :) We are so excited for him to grow up just a bit more and turn into a teenager when he can have free roam of the house and we are not so paranoid about what he is getting into.

We are so thankful for this opportunity to own such a great dog and to have been lucky enough in finding Jim and getting pick of the litter.. Clearly it was all meant to work out just like it has.

Cooper aka Tasmanian Devil

Cooper at the breeders house.. just after he had a bath.

Cooper and his momma Remi

Cute little shit! I wish it wasnt blurry, otherwise it would be a perfect pic

This little guy is Derek's pride & joy!

We picked up Cooper on Saturday and he reminds me of the Tasmanian Devil for a couple reasons.. 1) He spins around when he is excited, he'll be walking/bouncing along and then just do these circles out of excitement and when he is ready to poo, he does what the breeder calls the "Boykin Spin".. he runs around looking for the perfect place and when he's almost ready to do his poo business, he does about 5 or 6 360-spins! It is really funny..2) He is a little devil child! This dog does not know the meaning of "relax" unless he is in his crate. Outside his crate, he just is non-stop from one toy to another, then to your toes, your shoes, jeans, hands, face, furniture, cords.. His attention span on any one item is about 20 seconds max and then he's off and running to the next thing that grabs his attention. He spends a lot of time in his crate because this pup also is a constant pee'er.

We take him outside, he pees.. then we bring him in and he plays around for a few minutes and NO exaggeration, 5 minutes later he will spin around and run off out of reach and squat! GRRR.. that is frustrating, Cooper has already had more accidents in 1 day than Ellie had in 1 month! I dont think he is emptying his bladder when he goes outside, obviously! I am really hoping within a week he will start to act normal with his peeing, he really should be able to go 45 minutes at this point, heck he'll lay/sleep in his crate for well over an hour. I think it's just the change, the stress and excitement of his new life.

Ellie took to him immediately! It was amazing.. No screaming or fear whatsoever. I am sooo proud of our little girl, she is intrigued by him, wants to play and he tries, but he's still a bit wobbly. But I know within a couple weeks, all hell will break loose and we'll have dogs flying around the house! :) Ellie is a bit sensitive though and we have to be careful because when we say "NO" to Cooper, she hunkers down and comes over as if to say "I'm sorry, what did I do?" She's being very cute and we keep confirming to her and petting her tons telling her what a Good Girl she is!! Where is Russell you ask?? Well he's hanging out on a chair or attempting to play ball with us, basically just ignoring the fact that we now have a new pup in the house! He really could care less, shows no interest... Which is fine, in time he will bond and play with Cooper, but for now we are happy to just love him and let him know he's still a Good Boy too.

I planned a 2nd doggy play date at our house on Sunday, probably should have avoided less chaos with the new pup, but Ellie still needs the work. We kept Cooper in the crate while all the dogs ran around. Basically just Sarge, Skye and Jake came to visit and Ellie only screamed a couple times, she took to the dogs much quicker and really was interested but not quite ready to play with them. We are slowly creating a social dog.. did I mention SLOWLY! :)

Saturday night was terrible.. OMG! We went to bed around 11, Cooper is in his own crate at Derek's head level and Cooper woke up 6 times between 11pm and 8am.. Derek took him out 5 times and I did it once, the good thing is he did pee every time and then after only a few seconds of whining would go right back to sleep. We pulled his water at 6pm on Sunday, poor guy kept licking the porch steps after we took his water away from him, but it paid off because we were in bed at 10 Sunday night and he didnt wake up til 2:20!! and then he woke up again when Derek got up at about 5:45. What a relief... I dont know how long Derek would have handled 5 wake-ups per night if that had continued.. Since this is Dereks dog and he wants to create a very strong bond, Derek does 85% of the work. After just 1.5 days I can already see the bond developing. When Derek takes him out to potty and Cooper does his business, he immediately runs to Derek for praise. When I take him out, after he does his business I change my voice, tell him Good Boy in a sweat tone and he just ignores me, heads off to explore..

I feel bad that he spends so much time in a crate right now, but I keep telling myself its only short term until he learns to not potty every 5 minutes! It really makes me see how easy it was with Ellie, I am just amazed at the difference between them. She would potty outside, come in and play for a short while, lay down and sleep and wouldnt have to go back outside to potty for another 30-45 minutes.. Not Cooper.. I have YET to see him actually stop! He has not worn himself out and just laid down to sleep, he is cookoo crazy when he gets in the house. I suppose if we let him run around pissing all over for an hour, he might actually lay down and crash... for now we will be playing out on the deck a lot, us bundled up in warm clothes. That way he and Ellie can be pups, he cant destroy anything, he'll have his toys out there and if he potties on the deck.. who cares! :) During the day he is out in the garage in a big kennel where he will stay until he is really bonded to Derek and he is ready to hang with Russell & Ellie in the front yard.

I am convinced that 90% of the reason Derek wants him in the garage kennel is for bonding reasons and so Cooper does not escape or get into trouble in the yard while we are away, he is an explorer... but I think 10% of it is that he is afraid some eagle or hawk will come down and take his precious pride and joy! :) I laugh internally because I can see the contradiction between Ellie and Cooper.. Oh I see.. its okay for Ellie to explore and get into something and get taken by birds, but Cooper.. oh no! :) LOLOL

I know.. its all about dogs! But we do have other exciting news... We had wanted to "get away" for Thanksgiving this year and thought about flying to AZ to spend it with Bob/Nouna.. but we just could not figure out how to make that work with 2 horses, 1 spoiled rotten dog and 2 pups. So after some thinking and contemplating, we decided to fly them here instead! Yeah, we dont get to get-away but it is just not feasible at this time.. the sacrifices we make for our children! :) So we are super excited to have them with us for an entire week and some of Derek's family will actually be coming to our house for Thanksgiving this year.. We will be crowded but cozy in our home.. I think I need to borrow a table or two! lol We have never hosted an event/dinner with Derek's family.. ever. So this is exciting to be able to plan this, I just hope I can find time to get the house spotless, while trying to train Ellie (who is doing great by the way with our obedience training) and also dealing with Cooper.

Cooper

4 more days until we go pick up Cooper!! We are getting pretty excited. Jim sent me that picture of Cooper with his daddy Earl. He should look a lot like his daddy and has a lot of bird scent instinct. Elroy, the owner of Earl really likes our pup and says he should be a great fit for us.

Ellie and I continue to do pretty good with her obedience.. she really doesnt listen much to Derek though, I keep telling him he has to do leash work with her for her to respect him, I think she looks at him as low-man on the totem pole! :)

This past weekend was our annual Cousins Carrie Celebration, although this year it didnt have much Carrie vibe to it. Not sure why.. We went to a comedy show, it was pretty fun but I just was not feeling it so much this year. Yesterday was her 29th Birthday, I've been thinking tons of Carrie lately, thinking how unreal it sometimes all seems.

Who's killin the dog??

That's what my neighbors were probably wondering last night! Some of us thought it would be fun to get our dogs together for playdates and the first one was at our house.

Wendy and her dog Patch were the first to arrive and Ellie was TERRIFIED at first! She ran and ran and screamed bloody murder.. It was completely safe for her, she got chased a bit, more of a friendly chase really.. Patch just wanted to play with her and was probably curious as to the big noise coming from the little dog! It took her a while to warm up, she did not become 100% comfortable but it was a good start. It is a really frustrating situation, I want a dog that just loves other dogs, so I really hope this helps in the long run and she gets over being afraid and timid. It's definately going to take some weekly work on our end.

Wendy took a couple pics, of course the dogs hardly stood still for clear shots, it was a lot of effort to get this pic of them all! :)

Angela & Roxie, Barbara & Sky, Piper & Ellie & Russell, Mom & Sarge, Wendy & Patch

Okay, so it might not have been BEES!

Dr Bridges was out and saw the scabs on Edgar, she doesnt think it was bees because none of the bumps were anywhere that rain could not get to, such as under the belly or under his mane. She says it is a form of rainrot fungus.. ewwww! I've seen rainrot before and it didnt look like that, so I dont know what to think, she thinks he is lacking something in his diet and needs a supplement.. $$$$$ of course. I'll come back to WHY she was even out in the first place a little later. :(

This past weekend was the annual Winery Ride in Eastern WA. We went last year, which was in Benton City and that was the first time that Edgar Colicked on us. This year the ride was moved about an hour north to Zillah WA which was nice for us. The location was good, big open field as usual. Our horse club group of friends included Wendy & Jan, John & Barb Scherrer, and then Adam, Tracy, Josh & a friend of Tracy's. We were able to all park around eachother which was really great. We had an awesome potluck on Friday night, which turned out to be a much better dinner than the $25 catered one we paid for on Saturday night! Our catered dinner was cold, not very tastey at all AND the part that irritated me the most was that there was no drinks provided.. well if you drink coffee or tea, then there was something, but since I dont drink either, we were left having to drown down the dinner with our own saliva... I was pretty disappointed that they decided not to provide anything to drink..

The entertainment was okay.. when you were eating dinner and listening to him sing his karaoke (yes he had a computer with the lyrics) he sounded okay as the background music helped drown out the slightly off-key singing.. but once we left dinner and headed back down to camp, we could really hear his voice off in the distance and not so much of the background music.. OHH not so good! Was almost comical how "off" he really was, but I know those that went up and spent the evening dancing, didnt seem to care and had a really GREAT time!! So much so, that Wendy met a new "friend" who is a boy, who was sure to leave her with a few kisses to remember him by as she packed up and headed out Sunday.. He happens to be the owner of the vineyard that hosted the ride.. seemed like a nice guy and I hope it turns into something great for Wendy, she deserves it! :)

There were a couple other disappointments, one was the porta-potties.. the darn things were so crowded inside with the seat, mens urinal and hand washing station, that you had to sit sideways to reach the seat.. and not much room to do your business! And the stock water that was provided Friday night was taken away on Saturday night, so those that came unprepared had to walk a pretty good distance with their horses to get to water. I always bring my own water, with the troubles we've had with Edgar, I like to be prepared. The good thing with our horses is that they are not finicky water drinkers, if they are thirsty they will drink.. trouble is keeping Edgar healthy so he wants to drink!

Last year we had tried to rig up a highline pole, that was about 70% successful and 90% PITA! This year, Derek built us some trailer ties that stick out from our trailer, so it is like the boys are highlined to the trailer. It allows them room to move around, lay down safely and was a lot cheaper than the ones you can buy. They are pretty close to being a perfect little fix and will get lots of use in the future. :)

Now, on to the boys.. As soon as we pull the horses out of the trailer Friday afternoon, Red was amped up! He came out of the trailer snorting, head up and a bit prancy. He soon settled down, when he had food infront of him to eat. It was a 7+ hour ride for the horses, since we had to wait for our horse-poolers to show up in the morning and then had a few stops along the way. We had given Edgar a dose of UlcerGard prior to hauling him and that seemed successful as he was colic-free through the weekend. For the drive home, I opted not to give him another dose. The shoer had recommended that treatment to try, seemed to work well.

Saturday morning, Edgar was calm as usual. Red seemed calm as usual as well.. that is until I got on! Then it became a whole other story.. I could feel all this energy inside him, I really felt like I was on a ticking time bomb.. He reared up slightly when Edgar walked away from him, he was prancing, he was flighty and I only put about 5% leg into him before he would over-react. He was a plain 'ole SHIT who was afraid of his own shadow! Poor John, his horse was acting up as well when his horse's companion walked away, his horse reared up, his back legs gave out and he was almost sitting, about went over backwards, John bailed before any serious injury happened. John was okay, thank goodness, but when his horse went down, Red went sideways and spun around. Almost all of the horses were amped and being stupid at this point, people's nerves were twinging and we all just wanted to get moving. We finally did and I spent 80% of the ride, wondering when I was going to get dumped. It honestly was that bad with Red... I was really disappointed he was such a turd! He was jumping/spooking when I coughed, or when I raised my hand, for the entire ride. When we stopped at the first winery, I had to keep him walking cirlces around Edgar. Since many horses (not just those in our group) were full of extra energy and prancy, he was reacting to that a lot.. see he is the type of horse that if another horse even looks at him wrong, he jumps away from them, he's been like that since I got him. So when a horse prances by him or turns their butt towards him, he about jumps out of his skin and when you have over 300 horses going all different directions, some calm, many not.. well he just didnt know how to process it all and he was unable to relax for the entire ride.

I had to keep constant pressure on the bit to keep him walking calmly, I had to ride next to Edgar the entire time because he got really upset if Edgar was too far away from him. Normally I would not allow him to be so attached, I would force him to walk away from Edgar, but since his back was humped up for most of the ride and there was chaos everywhere, I decided it was safer to just give him something stable and solid to use as guidance. The bad part of this ride was that there was a lot of work going on in the apple fields that we were riding through, many workers out doing their thing, tractors and big trucks constantly going past us.. well he was NOT a fan of those tractors. More than once he freaked out and spun circles when a tractor came up by us. At one point, we were riding on the outside of the apple orchard in an isleway between the road and the trees, with about 20' drop down to the road.. a tractor came down an isle and he freaked, spun around to run the other direction and realized there was a cliff there, thank GOD he stopped, I saw my life flash. The tractor stopped, then the workers were moving the ladders right there was well, so he was way over stimulated and I thought it might be my day to come off the big red horse! But we managed to stay on the entire 5.5 hour ride. I was a lot frustrated overall, but it was probably the biggest ride he has ever been on, it was a long haul AND he's been cooped up in the sacrifice area at home, so the combo of all three things made for a crappy riding weekend..

Derek on the otherhand again, was on the steady rock solid Edgar and was able to enjoy his ride. The only part he did not enjoy was my very short nerves that day, I will admit I snapped a few times at him, not intentionally. His nerves were short as well and it was a challenge at times to not just resort to being mad at eachother, but we ended the ride positive and still talking to one another, so that was an accomplishment! lol

To add to the stress of the weekend, we decided to bring the children with us as well! Glutten for punishment.. But it was not that bad. Ellie actually was far more behaved than Russell, he has become such a bastard.. he doesnt listen for shit! Now that I am doing things the "right" way with Ellie, really makes us realize how much crap we let Russell get away with and what a spoiled monster we created!!! There were a lot of dogs there, we took the dogs for a walk on Friday night up to registration, she was doing a lot of barking! She did NOT like all the other dogs, they just pissed her off.. She did more barking on Friday than she has done the entire 3 months we have had her.. seriously. :) She slept fairly well with me in the bed, it was her first time ever not sleeping in the crate, Fri night we were up 2 or 3 times with her and Sat night she only got up once.. that was pretty darn good. While we rode, we put them in the horse trailer and as far as I could tell, I dont think she spent that time barking.

Fri night she was introduced to Moe, Adam's Aussie. She wanted nothing to do with Moe, she barked and snapped at him many times. Saturday night she hung out with us after dinner and was slightly interested in him, only snapped a couple times as he reached his paw out to scoot her little butt over to him.... he's a bit of a horny old man! :) By Sunday morning, she was ready to play with Moe. Unfortunately there was no safe off-leash area to turn them loose.. too many horses and moving trucks.

Whew, I'm still not done with this story! We loaded up Sunday and headed home. After the not-so-great weekend, we decided we would not come back the following year. We enjoyed camping, and spending time with friends for sure.. but I'd rather spend my money on going somewhere else that is not so chaotic.. much better riding that way.

We pulled the boys out of the trailer and put them away, Edgar immediately acted as though he wanted to roll.. I just assumed it was because he needed a good fresh roll, which is pretty typical after a weekend of not being able to. We went in the house, unpacked the camper, watched a little TV and 2 hours later went outside to feed the horses. Edgar jogged around the corner, buckled his legs and acted as though he was going to lay down.. now I realized this was NOT just him wanting to roll.. SONOFABITCH! Edgar was clearly colicking. I grabbed the banamine, gave him a dose and then we walked him for 45 minutes as he kept attempting to lay down. It was a pretty aggressive attempt, he would start to speed up, his body would cramp and twinge, his legs would buckle, he would walk like he was loosing function of himself, we'd keep him up then he'd continue to walk calmly for maybe another minute and start all over.

After 90 minutes of no-relief from the banamine, I called the vet. She was over an hour away, so we just continued to walk him. As we waited for the vet and walked him, he seemed to be getting better, he would lay down and not attempt to roll so we let him lay there. But then his cramps started to get bad again and he was almost violently attemping to lay down and would immediately go into a roll.. so we struggled but were able to keep him up and walking. The vet had phoned and asked if it would be easier to just meet at her clinic, I told her it was not at all safe to haul him the way he was acting. When she finally arrived, he was back to having smaller cramps and laying down calmly. She gave him a shot to help alleviate the cramping, took his vitals which were normal with only slightly elevated blood pressure. 30 minutes after the shot, he was still cramping so she tubed him and filled him up with water, electrolytes and some other stuff. He fought that pretty good, gave himself a bloody nose but by the time she was finished tubing him and watching him another 30 minutes, he was on the road to recovery.. By the time she left, his cramping appeared to have stopped and he was finally slightly interested in his grain. We watched him for another 30 minutes, then I allowed him to graze on the grass for an hour, watched him for another 20 minutes and then went in the house.. 2 hours w/o any cramps, yeah! At midnight I went back out to the barn, he was tired and not quite himself, but I gave him another round of banamine and felt secure in heading off to bed.

Woke up and called the vet, he was still not quite 100% but seemed out of the woods still, so he got one last round of banamine, his grain (which he wasnt too interested in) and then a tub full of really soaked hay. Monday evening he again snubbed up the grain and went straight to his hay (although he didnt initially eat his grain, he was eating it all up by the time the next feeding came around). This morning, he nickered finally at me, ate his grain first and had normal poop piles.. I think he is 100% now.

What a pisser this is! I was pretty upset that he had colicked this badly again. After a lot of internet searching yesterday, a lot of communication with the vet and others online about the situation, there are 4 things I am going to do different. 1) I am going to give him a dose of Tape Worm wormer incase he has them. He is given a wormer every 2 months, but tape worms require an additional dosing with a different type of wormer. 2) I am going to start him on either a daily general supplement and/or an ulcer supplement. The vet says ulcers would NOT cause him to cramp so badly, but I am not convinced that he doesnt have ulcers that may have contributed to the 2 smaller onsets of colic he showed over the summer. 3) I am going to continue to give the dose of UlcerGard paste prior to long hauls. 4) I am going to start hauling him with hay. It is VERY possible the major bouts of colic are because he was hauled such long distances w/o any feed. That is a big disruption in their digestive system. He is used to either grazing all day or having almost free choice hay, so to put him in a trailer for 6-8 hours w/o hay, could be the problem. I had previously thought hay could cause horses to choke while hauling, but the vet, my shoers and other reputable haulers, all provide hay.. so I guess that my idea of "better to be safe than sorry" may actually be "my safe has now become my sorry"! :(

So that is the weekend in one big nutshell. :) I am hopeful for Edgar, I have to stay positive because we MUST find a way to keep him healthy, he is the perfect fit for Derek and I dont want to have to sell him.

On a positive note, Ellie last night finally showed great progress with her obedience pals. She did not growl or snip at all!! and within a minute, she became submissive and rolled on her back when the other 2 dogs approached her.. a GREAT sign!!! Then all 3 girls were allowed to run loose around the room and she was so cute as she thought about playing, but was unsure.. she occassionally came to me and I had to walk away from her and encourage her to go play. This is all so great, but now that she realizes they are her friends, she is much more distracted in class which gives her more opportunity to learn to "leave it".. all in all, she is doing great and I love the time her and I spend together.

BEES!

I forgot to mention, a couple weeks ago when I brought the horses home, I noticed Edgar had hundreds of bumps all over his body.. they didnt seem sore to him, they were just everywhere from his neck to his tail, with the majority on his rump. I called my vet to get her opinion but she was out of town, I thought maybe he had some sort of reaction to mosquito bites, but even that didnt really make sense.

The bumps all started to scab over, it definately hurt him to pick at the scabs. The shoer came out this past weekend and he immediately said "Bees!" They start as bumps, then scab over, then the scabs come off and you are left with a little bald patch of hair. He said this time of year, the bees get pretty aggressive and irritated and may have been hunkered down in a tree he rubbed against or just passing through his pasture when they hit him. Poor guy, he has hundreds :( I can only imagine he must have been running around bucking, no wonder his leg is taking so long to heal up from being lame. I just feel bad that he had to endure that.

Lets Go, Heel, Stay, Come, Here, Down...

Yep, those are the things we are learning in our obedience classes so far. 2 classes down and I am really enjoying it.

I was so proud to not have to carry Ellie into our 2nd class, she walked in on her own, although she did an army belly crawl through the doorway! lol But she did it and she was not quite as timid, she didnt growl or attempt to bark at any other dogs, she did whine a lot as she was begging me to save her! She kept jumping up on my legs and looking up at me and when I'd kneel down, she would hide under me.. it was VERY cute.. but very wrong! Trainer says I should ignore her, make her stay off me and not allow her to hide, I need to show her there is no reason to hide. One of the other dogs "Lady" tried to play with her and she snapped at Lady, almost into fight mode, I pulled her off and said NO.. trainer says I need to get her exposed to LOTS more dogs!!!

So who's up for some doggy dates???? :) I'd like to get her exposed weekly to dog playdates, I was informed of some local dog parks, might check with the horse club too, see if others want to get their dogs together with me. She's not going to hurt anyone, she just doesnt know how to play with other dogs or that its okay. By the end of the night, she actually was trying to play with "Lady" and acting like a puppy. I think living with the old man Russell, although they run and play daily, she forgets how to be a puppy infront of other dogs.

She is doing really good though with her commands.. she's not perfect yet with them all, but the trainer says that the first 2 weeks, the dog typically does not pick up much on it.. well I have the smartest one so she's doing GREAT! Atleast I think she is. We are having to change up our ways just a bit to conform with these new techniques, but it makes it better for us and the dogs down the road.

So the horses got in with each other the other night, we've had some stronger winds the past few days and not sure who did what, but one of my t-posts was bent over and the wire all amuk! Last night we electrified and I hope to not have this issue again. It needed to be electrified anyways, as Edgar has been rubbing on my t-post caps and stretching my perfect pretty fence out!! :)

Friday was my 37th Birthday, had a nice day with Derek out to lunch, then to see the movie Secretariat (which we both loved) and then to my parents for a great home cooked meal and some games.. The rest of the weekend was just blah.. nothing overly exciting and come Monday we both are sick! :( scratchy throats, achy head.. Lets hope it goes away before this coming weekend.. cuz we have plans!!

The boys are back in town..

yep, we finally finished the sacrifice area and were able to bring Red & Edgar home!!! I am so happy to look out my window and see the boys. Ellie does not know what to think of them, she is pretty leary as she ventures off the back porch these days, that's if she even gets off the porch! :)

I was able to get out for a really nice ride on Sunday with a few friends, we met up at Victoria Tract of the tree farm in Arlington, I had not been there in many years. The trails are pretty nice, I am sure Derek would like them, although it is a lot of up/down and this time of year it gets a little slick so I was riding "Bambi on Ice" is what it felt like :) Red has these big clunky feet which are a little long right now, he tends to get a little lazy so he was a bit trippy at times and then on the slicker trails, his legs are just all over the place. It makes for a less than peaceful ride for myself, I keep thinking he will eventually figure out how to walk a trail, but I'm starting to really wonder. I'm not ready to give up yet, but I would say it is the main frustration I have with him as a trail horse.

Here we are with Hwy 9 & Lk McMurray down below us. Great view of the lake and area. I am always amazed and it puts into perspective the area we live in, that we literally live in the foothills of the mountains and just how much undeveloped beautiful land there is around us. We need some trails in them there trees!

I really like this picture of Barbara & Dune...

This is the monument you ride to at Victoria. Sometimes on a sunny day, you can see the sun reflecting off of this from I5 around Mt Vernon area.

So what direction is it ladies????

Overlooking Mt Vernon and the bay from the monument.

The good news is that I cannot see a limp or stiffness in Edgar, so I need to get on him for a minute so I can determine if I feel that he is "off" since I cant see it. Hunting season started this past Saturday for duck/goose, so Derek spent both days out while Edgar stayed home from trailriding to continue to recover. Saturday morning Derek took the boat out, went to the Snohomish River and I get a call around 10am asking if I would bring him a couple spark plugs and a wrench.. apparently the boat motor would not start and with the new spark plugs, it still did not start so Saturday was a waste for hunting. As we pulled the boat out of the water, a big flock of geese flew right over the top of us honking away.. it was comical! :)

Saturday night we hosted a horse club social "South of the Border Taco Night" and it was a great time.. we ate yummy tacos, chips/dips and I even made a cactus looking cake.. turned out pretty cute if you ask me! I think there were 12 of us, we decided to play a little mexican train as well.. I always forget how much I enjoy playing that game. Ellie & I started our obedience last night. I was so embarrased though, I had written in my calendar 7:15pm (in Snohomish) thinking that the class actually started at 7:30 and that I wrote it down as 15 minutes earlier so I would get there a little early/on time. I show up at 7:25, 10 minutes late! Whooops ;)

Ellie was GREAT!! She sat at my side in a chair as we listened for 20 minutes, meanwhile other dogs were barking or trying to wander etc. There are only 4 dogs total, but probably better that way as the room is not very big to work in. I can imagine the chaos of adding a few more dogs. The thing I like is that they do not use treat rewards, it is all verbal praise. Ellie did growl under her breath a bit, her timid behavior kicking in, but I was proud of her. Even after she warmed up a bit to the other dogs being around her, she did nip at one.. The environment is not designed to have the dogs getting to know one another, so not sure how that will help her overcome her timidness if she doesnt get to interact. My hope is that the more she just gets out and about, the better she will accept new dogs and situations.

We worked on a few things and I have my homework to do with her for atleast 30 minutes per day, the more distractions the better so we might just have to start really getting her out and about. The main thing she needs to build is confidence so that she will walk out front or beside me instead of behind me. I am really excited though, I think she is going to pick up on these things quickly and although my opinion might be biased, I think she was the best dog there! :) The other dogs are a german shephard, a cocker spaniel and a dachsund.. all girls. Next week I will be ontime!

I did finish my sewing project although I had to limp my machine along. Looking forward to getting a new one in the near future and as much as I'd love to wait til Chirstmas and maybe get one as a gift, I have christmas projects I want to make, so it seems I will have to buy one sooner than later.

Oh Sunday, what a crazy day that was! So I mentioned I went riding in Arlington, well on my way home I was a few minutes from home when Toni called me. She lives in Spokane and has a horse over in Arlington on lease. Long story short, the girl leasing him is done with him and wants Toni to take him back. The girl refuses to pay to ship the horse back to Spokane and tells Toni she has 15 days to come get him or he will be taken to auction! Toni calls me and asks if I will go pick up the horse and deliver him to another friend of Toni's who will keep him at her place for a couple days until he can be moved back to Spokane. So I pull in my driveway at 4pm, drop off Red real quick and then head back out to Arlington.

Earlier in the day at about 3pm, I get a call from Wendy (who I feed for) and she wanted to know how to get to Lords Hill, so I gave her directions. Well as I am driving home at 6pm from moving that horse for Toni, I send Wendy a text asking how her ride went (yeah I broke the law). At 6:30pm I am pulling in my driveway and Wendy calls me, she is bawling! Oh shit.... Well her draft horse that someone else was riding, fell off one of the bridges at Lords Hill and was stuck in the mud bog there. I dont know what time that had happened, I didnt get a lot of details while on the phone with her. Derek pulled in the drive about 15 minutes after me, from being gone hunting all day. We go in the house and I try to reach Wendy, we wanted to go up and help. I felt just sick and terrible about the whole thing. Wendy would text every now and then, told me they had plenty of help. Then they were needing an escavator to dig him out, fire dept was bringing tractors to help pull. She was pretty distraught, I dont blame her. We decided we wanted to go be there for her, so we drove up there, but the horse parking lot was empty and the main parking lot was closed/locked. I dont know where the vehicles were parked, I have no idea how the fire truck got in, but I didnt want to bother her and get details on where they were located since it was her first time ever at the park. She finally text me at about 9:30, indicating that they just got Thor out of the mud and he was in the trailer on his way to Pilchuck.

What a scary situation for Wendy, I told her when she is ready I would take her up to Lords Hill and show her just how nice the park can be. The bridges I am fairly certain she was crossing and got stuck at, is an area horses dont even need to go anymore, she didnt realize the path she was headed down was just going to lead her to another parking lot. Thor is okay though, he is back home as of yesterday and her other horse Jake is good too. Poor Wendy, I know she was up late with Thor Sunday night, he stayed at Pilchuck overnight and Wendy had a business trip planned for Monday morning, she was on a plane by 7:15am! She sent me a text as she loaded the plane, she had arranged transportation of her horses to get back home for Monday and needed me to start feeding yesterday afternoon. She was going to cancel her trip, but Thor was doing great and recovering just fine and she knew he was in good hands while she is out of town. I am feeding through Thursday morning this week. When I went out yesterday, Thor looks great! Not a speck of dirt on him and you'd never have known that 24 hours earlier he was stuck in a bog.

The adventures never end! Oh and I did get an email back from the trainer that came out a month ago and looked at Oakley. I was curious as to why they didnt like him when they seemed so eager to come out. I could go into long detail on the BS she said, but basically here's the rundown. They are barn snobs who cannot appreciate that a pastured horse sometimes has nicks on them from other horses and she's not a top of the line trainer like Shannon to fully understand the movement of a great horse! Shannon has major companies sending her free things, wanting to sponsor her on the professional barrel circuit. Shannon trains and sells horse worth more than my vehicles. She tried to get me to second guess my decision to have him with Shannon and boasted about her own abilities. I did not take it personally, I thanked her for her opinion, told her the thing about the horse world is we all have different oinions and that's okay. Told her I stand behind Shannon 100%, good luck to her client in finding the right horse. Since this lady is local and I am assuming trains and gives lessons to 4H kids, I didnt want to burn any bridges or be uncivil although she opened the door for me to go that direction for sure. I am better than that and the horse world is a small one.. speaking of that, another thing. So when I pull in the driveway of the place to pick up Toni's horse, I didnt know the girl leasing him but I did know her friend very well. Lisa from back in the 4H days with Carrie! Lisa and I had just become FB friends a few days earlier and then out of nowhere I run into her at random when picking up the horse.. Small Small World!!

Back on Track

Yep after a crappy Wednesday, things are looking up already and its only Friday. Still cannot get the computer to turn on, I am not sure if it is worth the money to pay someone to pull the internal card out and retrieve our files.. hmmmmmm

But the guys were able to fix all those top rail boards yesterday and it looks great!! I was really happy as that 6" made a huge difference in how my fence looked and I am now happy with it. I still feel bad about the extra expense this put on my parents and myself, but shit happens. The guys also got half of my sacrifice area finished with the wire, should be done today. I will still need to buy 3 more gates down the road, looks like I'll be hoping for a bonus soon!

I kinda got mad that the damn sewing machine was broken so while Derek was working in the shop last night, I tore the thing apart! It felt like it just needed some oil... so I stripped the outside and continued to oil every moving part that I could find until 15 minutes went bye and I FINALLY FOUND the right part that needed oiling!!! YEAH YEAH YEAH for ME! She's running rough and I dont think my fix will last long, but it is working enough to hopefully get my current project finished and maybe a couple more. This handywork just bought me some time until that bonus I spoke of earlier shows up and I can buy a new machine as well as some gates..

I know for a fact the horses will be home by Sunday at the latest, I am hopeful I can get them home tonight or tomorrow... But the house has to be priority #1 since we are having company, it must be spotless!! :)

Ellie update: She is turning into a naughty little girl.. If we are paying attention to her or in the living room she is just fine, but if we leave her loose and we go outside or into the sewing room, she finds things to drag out to the living room! She doesnt really chew on those things, YET! She just likes to SHOW us that she COULD be a really bad girl if we dont pay attention.. LOL This is the first time in 3 months now that she is being a bit defiant and bratty.. :) She's just keeping up the tradition that every female we've every owned has had some serious attitude issues when they are pissed.. hehe

I skipped last weekend.

Well before the shitty day of today happened, I did have a good productive weekend! Even in the rain..

I started my part time job last week, did I mention I had one?? I found a lady in Monroe (conveniently lives on the road I drive home on most days). She was looking for someone to feed her horses on the occassions when she is out of town traveling for work. So when she is gone, I feed mornings and afternoons, clean stalls in afternoon and just keep an eye on things in general. It is EXACTLY what I had wanted to find in a part time job.

Wendy is a very nice person and we hope to build on a friendship with her and her boyfriend, show them the trails in our area since they just moved here.

Derek has been super busy in the shop lately, working towards making money so he can send his dog off for training next year. It was a nice Friday afternoon last week, so I came home and started burning the remains of the Black Walnut tree. When Derek finished up in the shop he came out and helped me, took about 5 hours but we got it all done and had a nice time just chillin out by the fire, having some one on one talk time and relaxing. I think we both needed the downtime.

Saturday I spent about 4 hours cleaning the barn getting it ready for the horses. It is spick and span clean!! had to drive quite a few piles of old hay and such to the back of the pasture to dump so I got soaked in the rain.. George & Rachel came over for dinner which was really nice to just sit and visit with friends. I felt bad though because we were exhausted and hardly made it to 10pm. We hugged goodbye with half closed eyelids! ;)

Sunday was originally supposed to be a day of finishing up projects, but we decided to take the day off. I cant even really recall what we did other than oversmoke some chicken, oh wait.. we did spend a few hours spreading gravel in our sacrifice area and then down the fenceline.. okay, so much for thinking we took the day off! Monday was Columbus Day which I had off and I did finally take that day to relax and went riding. Me, Wendy K and Kathy. Had a nice ride at Lords Hill and really made me miss being in the saddle.

This week has been busy and we are hosting a social event on Saturday at our place, Taco Night! :) clean clean clean.. that's what I'll be singing on Friday and Saturday.. good thing my sewing machine is broken because otherwise I would be struggling with wanting to finish my project vs not wanting but having to clean my house!

Shitty Day

I am certain today is one of the shittiest days I've had in a very long time..

I woke to a good day, I was in the craft room early working on my project, I am 80% done! As I'm sewing along, my machine starts to slow down while I am steppin on that peddle and the needle comes to a complete stop.. shit! So I load it up and decide I'll take it in after work, see if I can get a quick fix done.

The guys have been workin on our fencing top rails this week, I had anticipated coming home and having my sacrifice area ready to go. Instead I get a text from my dad indicating that all the rails were set 6" lower than they were supposed to be.. meaning all the rails/nails have to be sawed off, clips have to be purchased and the guys will have to be paid to redo the entire thing. I was really upset, started crying at work and felt the onset of a meltdown... My dad made an error and I'm not mad at him at all, mistakes happen. I was just upset because I have been stressed about getting the fence done so I can get the horses home and this served as another delay and then the thought of spending another $500 or more to fix it, I just was overwhelmed with emotions. My perfect fence was f'd up and after spending thousands to get exactly what we wanted.. it just became a blow to me and I cracked.

After work I drove to the sewing machine store and as I sat in the parking lot talking to my dad about the options we had, I was crying. I feel really bad that he feels bad for messing up and he is offering to pay to fix it and although I know it wasnt my error, I cant just let him pay for it all, so I told him I would pay him back for half when I can. I felt bad for crying, I dont want my dad to feel bad.. I think I just had a minor meltdown.

So I'm sitting in the parking lot of the sewing machine place, eyes are red I'm sure... I gather my thoughts, wipe my eyes and head in to the store.. I just figured that I didnt care if the guy saw me crying, I had shit to do and places to be.. He looks at my machine and tells me I could spend $130 for him to possibly fix it, which probably only cost about that much brand new, or I can buy a refurbished much older but better quality machine for that same cost or I can buy brand new for $300.. I walked out even more bummed because now I have no sewing machine to finish my project and not sure when/how I will be able to replace it!

I get home and realize I need to go move Edgar from one pasture to another. So I drive over to Roger's place, pull in the driveway and see Edgar is already in the pasture I was going to move him to and I cant quite recall moving him.. I 'know' I moved him, I just dont really remember doing it the day before.. what a waste of time that was.

Came home to pay my mortgage (yep it's super late!) and realized the office computer will NOT turn on. S.O.A.B.!!!! I cannot get it to turn on at all, I think the harddrive died!! GRRRRRR!!! Thankfully I backed up our personal checking account info to our external drive a week ago, so I was able to restore the files to the program on our laptop.

So here I am at the end of a really shitty day! sewing machine died, fence is a mess and computer is dead.. But, us humans are all still alive, the dogs are good and the horses are fat! :) What more could I ask for....

Wave, smile, wave, smile...

Derek & I partcipated in the Granite Falls Railroad Days Parade! Our horse club had decided it would be fun to get out name out there and it was.. We met up a bit too early, okay a lot too early. Which was probably my fault.. I think I suggested the 7:30 am meetup to decorate, we were done by about 9am with 2 hours to spare until we had to line up in town. Well we will know better for next time. But none of us were grumpy morning ladies, we all decorated with laughs and good times.

After the float was done, Derek & I drove home quick and grabbed the dogs, decided it would be fun to have them along since Jenny had her dog and Renee brought hers. Plus I realized it would be nice to have something for kids to look at and focus on instead of just us adults sittin on hay bales! :)

All the dogs were a big hit! Jenny drove the truck with miss Chleo up front with her, Derek had Russell next to him, I had Ellie and Renee had Katie. Ellie was bit freaked out at first, this was all new to her, she screamed just a bit when she met Chleo (who is smaller than her!) and she tried to run away, she didnt like Katie at first either.. but after just a few minutes, she was hanging out right next to Katie who is an Aussie as well. I was so proud of her, she sat next to me the entire time and only tried to get off the hay bale a couple times.. but when I asked her to stay, she didnt argue she just sat or laid there with me. I'm sure she was a bit stressed and freaked out with all the commotion, but she did sooo good!! Russell was really good of course, he just sat and chilled out, Derek had him waving to the crowd.

Ellie before the parade started.. Katie in the background

Miss Chleo lookin cute as can be!

I think our float looked pretty good and Derek & I are excited to participate in future parades. We had a great time. When we left the parade we headed over to Kathy's to see if Tyler and her were home, they were. Ellie screamed and ran again when she first met Brownie! Took her a few minutes to warm up and stop clinging to my side, I really cant wait til we start our obedience classes which was supposed to be in 1 week, however class was moved back another week.

I wanted badly to just sit and be lazy all afternoon on Saturday when we got home, but after only 1.5 hours of TV watching I was itchin to get outside and get some things done. So I mowed and raked (the grass is out of control, I typically never rake the yard but its been growing like weeds lately and so thick, I had to rake so it didnt look like shit!) Derek worked on his boat for a while and I started raking the leaves and branches into piles from the walnut tree. I still have to pick those all up, but they are ready to go.

I really wanted to get a lot done on Sunday, but I was feeling lethargic and lazy and my stomach and head were not feeling well either. So we got minimal things accomplished. Oh well, gives me something to do this week.. right? :) Overall it was a great weekend and now I am motivated to continue the hard work and keep up on getting the place looking good and ready for horses!

Diiiiing Dooooong.. the Tree is GONE!

WooHoo!!

so Dave pulls in the driveway, I had not spoken with him prior, only his girlfriend Amber. They show up with a flatbed trailer, help from Milo, chainsaws, straps, wedges, climbing gear including harness and tree spurs, ropes, hardhats, goggles.. this guy knows WTF he's doing!

We immediately felt confident in his abilities to remove the tree safely, plus he's worked over the years logging in the woods. I got some pics of him taking out the tree, some branches were tied off to avoid hitting the fence or the shed and we soon realized he was not going to stop until the tree was finished! Which meant he was cutting some of it down in the dark.. well we had a spotlight and the big PUD pole light which was sufficient.

It was actually kinda fun watching him work, Amber & Dave were really funny and sociable, our age, our type of humor with all of us giving funny digs at each other.. made for a great time really! The very last piece to cut down was the main problem we were concerened about as it had the big branch that was hanging directly over the shed. Dave left it attached to another main trunk section and attempted to get it to fall in the pasture.. the tree had a mind of its own and twisted (even though the truck was pulling it the right direction) falling on our fence.. It was still a great fall, even though it took out one section but it avoided the posts, only damaging the top rail and bending the wire down. The fix will be really easy and even with the temporary fix done, it hardly looks like anything is wrong. We dont blame the guy at all, he felt bad but we knew with that branch, something could happen so we are 100% satisfied with the little damage we did suffer.

I would have taken more pics, but it was approaching sundown when he started so I could only get what I got... This first pic and top pic were taken months ago when we decided to eliminate said tree... It was a beauty but now that I look at that top picture and see how much it hovers, I am pretty happy with my decision to allow this day to have come and gone! :)

This is pretty much what was left of the tree after dipshit was told not to come back.. Dave had cut a branch or two down prior to this picture, I'd say DS got only about 20% of the tree and the rest went to Dave.

Starting the tree removal process.. look out down below!

he just cut the top and you can see it falling off..

This is Milo (the helper) who cut up what was dropped as it was dropped.. It was really nice that he and Amber helped drag the smaller branches to our pile so Derek & I were not stuck doing all that work.

Our sacrifice area seems much larger now too.. well once we rake up all these leaves it will look like the sacrifice area again... the stump there, Dave plans to come back within the next few days and take that as well.. He got that whole tree down, cut into manageable sizes and loaded up on the flatbed in about 3.5 hours!

Look at all that light that can now come into the yard! Oh and the dented roof, that is from the first dipshit we had out to cut down the tree.. thats where he fell off his ladder after the branch he just cut knocked him off and his ass did a plant right there on that roof.. we had intended to redo that roof anyways, so no harm done.. the neighbors did come over yesterday while the real guy was there and said they just watched the first dipshit in amazement and wondered how much longer Derek was going to allow him to continue to cut on the tree!

So this is all that remains of the tree branches.. Looks like a bonfire to me!!!!! :)

BTW.. have I ever mentioned how much I love fall!! Funny time to throw that in, but when I look at these "after" pics I took this morning, I love the crispness you can see in the air... :)

Pics of the Pooches

I took a few pics this morning before I left for work.. I love this one! Ellie is 4 months old now.
It is tuff leaving these cute little children behind every day..
We love this little girl... I hope she stays this size forever!
Chillin out in the "fasha's" chair!