Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I'm sick, so it looks like I'm staying home today. Not a big loss. I don't particularly enjoy spending Thanksgiving at my father-in-law's house. It's mostly due to his wife, but I don't really want to get into it. If I wasn't sick, I would still go. As it is, I can't talk and would rather lay low under my heating blanket. I do have a little more energy then I did yesterday, so I'm working on cleaning the house and making a Thanksgiving dinner of our own. I need to get rolling though if we plan on eating some time today.

I'm not overly surprised that I'm a walking petri dish. This happens almost every time I travel, especially in winter when the climates are so different. Kansas City was very dry and I had a bloody nose all week. I also came home with chapped hands and lips. Then Monday the scratchy throat started. By Tuesday morning it hurt to talk and swallow. I suffered through a day of work, but ran by CVS for a strep test. Came back negative which I guess is a good thing. Down side is that it means I have to wait it out and can't just get antibiotics. It's starting to look like a monster of a sinus infection. I'm not sleeping well. I have a little cough syrup with codeine left from the last time I was sick. It seems to be helping, but I only have one dose left. I'll probably need to go to the doctor tomorrow if I don't feel any better.

Kansas City wasn't bad. The BBQ is awesome. I would have been happier if I was there as a civilian. Aside from the usual BS that associates the military, there was some contention between the military and the civilian emergency managers. I tried to network with the civilians as much as possible and I think I made a good impression. I didn't see many more of the military members making the same attempts. I did get a little annoyed that I was left playing babysitter for the week. The guy wanted to take every woman who gave him the time of day home with him. You could tell these girls were uncomfortable which he attempted to flirt with them. And then I get to hear about how he wants to take each one of them home with him. And what makes you think these girls would even want to go on a date with you? They were already regretting saying hello, which since they were there as sales people was kind of a requirement of their jobs. It's not like he was in any way charming or attractive. Then he tells me that it's my job to find a single woman to join the shop for him. Umm, yeah, I am not taking part in the sexual harassment suit that would likely follow. I was so glad to come home.

In other news, the law of threes is in effect again. You see, when it comes to my life, all things good and bad come in threes. This law holds especially true when it comes to my ex's. I haven't had it happen with my ex's in quite some time, but every time I hear from one out of the blue it is almost guaranteed that I will hear from two others. It comes as an even greater surprise when I have moved 1000 miles away and changed my e-mail, name, and phone number. Yet, somehow they go out of their ways to find me. It's not always bad. For one, it's good for me to see that I can have a civil conversation with them without getting all wrapped up in my emotions. And I can see all the reasons that my life is better now because I am no longer with them. There is only one ex in particular that I truly hate for the way he used and manipulated me when we were together. He was abusive, both mentally and physically, and I have tried very hard to forget he was ever a part of my life. Naturally, he's one of the ex's who is almost sure to contact me during the law of threes. He likes to see if he can still get to me. I am happy to say that this time he will not get so much as a reply.

He contacted me on myspace today to let me know that one of his friends killed himself. This is one of his friends who was the world's biggest ass when I was with him. He was also a severe alcoholic. It got to the point that I liked him better drunk then sober. Does it make me a bad person for considering the world a better place now that he's not in it? But that's not the ex who threw me for a loop. There was another who broke up with me after two years over an e-mail. I will admit that the break up was a long time coming, and I know how that it was for the best, but it hurt that he refused to talk it out or even see me afterwards. I fell into a deep depression and eventually made the decision to move to Florida to escape his memory. I see now that it was all for the best, but it still took a long time for me to get over it. Part of what helped me was the thought that he wanted to forget about me. Imagine my surprise when I get an e-mail out of no where apologizing for him being such a jerk when we broke up six years ago. He actually googled my name to get my current e-mail. It really surprised me. We e-mailed back and forth a couple times and then he dropped off the map again, as quickly as he appeared. I'm trying not to think about it too much. I really think it was the surprise of it all that threw me for such a loop.

It was about three weeks between the two contacts. That means it'll probably be three more weeks before I hear from someone else. It makes me wonder who will be the third to contact me. I've only had a few truly serious relationships, but it would probably be even more surprising to have one of those very short term relationships contact me. I know, I'm sure everyone thinks I'm crazy for believing in this stuff. I'm not some weird religion or anything, I'm a Christian, but I do believe in the power of numbers. Take a look at your own life and you may find patterns as well. All things good and bad comes in threes. 19 is my lucky number because significant events in my life happen on the 19th of the month. I also think that seven is the number of perfection. It's a little creepy if you think about it.

I rock the grill

Sometimes it's a good thing to be told that you suck after your husband finished his dinner. That would be because I made an awesome dinner tonight which included steak that kicked his steak grilling butt. Literally, he told me he's supposed to be king of the grill, not me. hahaha Dinner was very good though. I wish I could stay home more often. Maybe one of these days. I marinated the steaks in Tabasco sauce, A-1, sea salt and fresh ground pepper. Then I also steamed asparagus in the skillet with olive oil, crushed garlic, and sea salt and threw red potatoes in the oven with olive oil, rosemary, and sea salt. Yum. I was worried that the steak would be too spicy, but it was just right. I timed it on the grill so I wouldn't over cook it, six minutes on each side. Matt swears that the only reason the steak was that juicy was because I marinated it. Maybe, but I don't think that's the whole reason. I will say one thing though: from now on I'm getting all of my steaks from the butcher case. I love hand picking my steaks and they really do seem to be better quality and fresher. Plus I can better control my portion sizes that way.

Not much else to share. Like I said, I stayed home today. My stomach has really been acting up the last couple days. I don't think it liked the butter popcorn I had yesterday. I guess I can put that on my list of foods I can't eat since having surgery. It looked like a beautiful day for a ride, but I stayed inside. I did get a little housework done though. I wish I could have done more, but I guess something is better than nothing. And of course I had the opportunity to make a wonderful dinner that I usually don't have the time or energy to make. I was about to beat the dogs though. I didn't feel good and really wanted to sleep. They wanted to spend the whole morning barking. In fact, on at least one occasion I think they were barking at me because I was still in bed. I put the shock collar on Greta and that helped the problem tremendously. Greta knows better than to bark with it on and Woody doesn't bark nearly as much if he doesn't have another dog to bark with him. But now it's time to drag the hubby away from his study materials and have him come to bed. For having slept all day, I'm tired.

Daily Musings

Pizza Bites are the dinner of champions. I have all kinds of healthy food in the fridge. Really, black eyed pea soup would have been easier and faster to cook then Pizza Bites, but Pizza Bites are what we ate. And I wonder why I can't lose weight.

Well, around here Mondays are dog training night. Tonight we were building jumps, so the dogs stayed home. It was fun to just hang out and relax. I put my jump together, but quickly passed it off to hubby so he could glue it. Not sure if that was such a good idea. I swear the boy had a glue high the rest of the night. He was even more hyper and obnoxious than usual. Afterward we went to the grocery store. I was very good about staying with my grocery list, but I still spent more then I would have preferred. That's also how we ended up with the aforementioned Pizza Bites. They were buy one get one free. We got home and I swear our dogs were on crack. Greta was using me as a spring board while she went running and jumping around. I showed her the new jumps and she gave them a spin.

Well, I'm glad the temperatures are pretty nice right now, not too cold, not too hot, because I think our air compressor went out. Since it runs both the heat and air that means that we don't have either. It was a little chilly for a few nights there. Thankfully, the furry animals were more than happy to sleep on top of me to keep me warm. Plus we had the space heater and heating blanket. Yes, I was cold. Yes, I live in Florida. No, I don't care how cold it gets in Ohio. I'm afraid to have someone come out and look at the compressor. We can't afford another expensive fix right now. Home ownership is highly overrated.

Halloween

Halloween was fun. On Thursday, we went to a party at our dog trainer's place. Nothing like torturing dogs for the amusement of others. Naturally, we were late. We missed all the games, but it was still a lot of fun. Our friends Bonnie and Dave were there with two of their dogs. Their Dobbie, Akima, was so well behaved. She's not in training there, but everyone got a kick out of her. She makes me like Dobbies. Greta went dressed like a witch, but you can't tell in any of the pictures because it's as black as she is. Woody went dressed as a football ruf-fur-ee. He was adorable as always. The boy lives for attention. The only downside is that Matt was right about his cosutme: not made for a boy. He peed all over it. Oops. Matt went dressed in his cow costume. Surprisingly, the dogs did not growl at him. However, he ended up taking it off because he realized that you can't see what the dog's doing when you have the giant head on. I went in my fail-safe elf costume. It was a hit as always. Plus the cape was so warm now that the nights are getting cold.



Then Friday we went to Miss Kitty's dressed as Frankenstein's monster and his bride. We didn't win anything, but we still got a lot of compliments. Most of the night we hung out with our neighbors at the bar and learned all the Brooksville gossip. Plus we got to know our neighbors better. That was probably the best part. We then ended up hanging out at their house Saturday and today. Makes for a cheap weekend. But we did bring a couple horses by today for pony rides for the birthday party. They fed us cake, what more can you ask for?

Matt also took some time this weekend to learn how to drive a horse. It was an interesting process. Imagine my surprise when I looked outside today to see him walking Dolly around with the cart hooked to her. Guess I forgot to tell him that he should always have assistance when hooking a horse to a cart for the first time. Not first time for her, but it is for him. Plus it's been a while since she was worked. She was nice and stubborn because of it. It all went well and no one was injured in the taking of these pictures. Well, hate to make this brief, but it's way past my bed time.

Wow, I haven't posted in a while

You know, I think if I could post during the day that this blog would be much more interesting to read. As it is, by the time I can consider writing everything thought in my head has gone to sleep for the night. I always have the most wonderful things to write about during the day, mostly my opinions on things which of course I find wonderful and most other people find highly offensive. Oh well, can't please everyone.

Today is one of those days that's pretty boring really. We slept in because we were up so late last night with our Halloween party. I wish I would have spend less time cooking and decorating and more time cleaning. We only had three people come to the party, one of whom was a neighbor from across the street whose first time seeing the inside of our house was with a sink full of dirty dishes and junk piled on the counter tops. I made cookies, but never iced them. Never even started on the cupcakes. Made Carmel apples, but never refrigerated them. Then no one ate them anyway. But we still had fun. We stayed up late just chatting and hanging out. Matt and I dressed as Frankenstein's monster and his bride. I actually did get my hair to stand up on end (kind of). I'll update with pictures later. The bolts refused to stay on Matt's neck and then his green paint kept dripping from his sweat, so he wiped it off. He looked pretty funny with only half of his face green. Bonnie and Dave came dressed as pirates. I truly admire Bonnie's mom. She made her a fantastic pirate costume in only a week. I of course forgot to get pictures. Hopefully they'll wear them again next Friday and I can get pictures then.

The rest of today has been spend cleaning out the cupboard because I've discovered that our weevil infestation didn't go away as easily as I had hoped. I've thrown out a lot of food, most of which was expired anyway. I'm now repackaging everything in hard plastic and glass jars. It's a pain, but at least then everything should be safe, unless it already has bugs in it. Then I won't risk them spreading to the rest of the food. Plus it will probably keep a lot of food fresh for longer and be easier to organize since the jars can stack on each other. I just wish it wasn't taking so long. The weather is finally cooling off and suddenly I'm in the mood to clean the house. It's a beautiful day to go riding, but I know that if I don't clean now, it'll never get done after the mood passes.

Pippen is such a momma's boy. I'm sitting in here and all he wants me to do is pet him. He doesn't want anything to do with anyone else, but he wants me to pet him all day long. Go figure. My children are spoiled. He's also a spaz. He's taken to leaping as far up the door jam as possible and slidding back down. It's pretty funny because all you hear is a thump and you see him with his paws wrapped around the door jam and a wild look in his eyes. Ok, I better go now. I have a roast to get started and more organizing to do. Joy.

When Husbands Sing

Is mine the only husband that sings badly on purpose? Or at least I hope it is on purpose. I have to bite my lip to keep a straight face when we're riding in the car and he starts making up his own lyrics. And heaven forbid I actually pay enough attention to notice what the lyrics are. Let's just say they are usually PG-13. I can't believe some of the things he can come up with on a whim. Don't get me wrong, it's hillarious. But it's the kind of humor that makes you groan and roll your eyes at the same time. I'm really going to be in for it if we have boys. The last thing I need is someone for him to teach his humor to.

Where Does All the Money Go

Well, Rena is going to have to come home this weekend. Her training isn't finished, but I'm going to keep taking her over for lessons on Saturdays. I hope that I'll have the money again soon to put her back into training, but it just isn't in the cards right now. Maybe after my Shure Pets business takes off. It seems that going into the hospital took a greater toll on my budget than I anticipated. I still have medical bills that need paid, but a lot of my savings is gone. We're still above water, no worries there. Thankfully, hubby and I have good jobs. I just wish they were closer to home so that so much of our budget didn't get into gas. My car gets good gas mileage, but we are still spending about $150 a week on gasoline. That is insane. Figured I'd add a few photos, even if they are old. These are Christmas photos I took back in 2005. Check out those dapples! Such a pretty girl.

We have also started Western Pleasure lessons on Maverick and Lilly. I need to get some updated pictures of them. They are looking really good. I know, I am really slacking off on the pictures. I was doing so good too. Anywho, Matt has been riding Lilly and I've been riding Maverick. I guess I can't ignore Mavericks issues any more. He's coming along nicely though. I need to see about getting a lesson Sunday. We've been doing a lot of round pen work. He's moving really nicely at the walk and trot, but then the canter is like riding a run away freight train. Tuesday's ride was much better and he was even getting better about picking up the canter. Man, is that boy lazy. Plus he hasn't quite made the connection between canter and getting his butt underneath him, so his canter is pretty rough. I have to hold his head up in an attempt to shift his weight back. It's coming together, it's just a slow process. It would be great if it would stop raining for more than two days in a row so I could get some real riding time in on him.

I had my first Shure Pets party. I was actually the hostess, since I still haven't gotten any of my friends to do a party. It was fun. I made way too much food and then we only had half the people show who I was expecting. I was exhausted by the time everyone went home. Hubby was literally having to take my clothes off for me. I guess this is what a crash feels like after an adrenaline high. I did get a few bookings out of it though. And I found out that Brooksville is now doing Farmer's Markets every Saturday morning, so I am going to try to get a spot next weekend and start peddling my goods.

And now to wrap this up, just a few pictures of my fur-kids. Woody got his first peanut butter jar. As you can see, he was quite content with himself. I had to lock Greta in the bedroom to prevent any fights from breaking out. And Greta on her favorite spot in the house, curled up with her teddy bear. And last but not least, one of the amazing critters we have hanging around outside. Isn't he beautiful? It's just killing me that I still haven't started the process for getting my falconry license. I am determined to join the fraternity in January, I swear.

I suck and I know it

Really quick post while I'm thinking about it and in the five minutes I have left before dinner comes out of the oven. Yes, I know that it's after 9:30 pm and we haven't eaten dinner yet. Kind of a fact of life around here. Guess I should have realized the shoulder roast was in the fridge and not the freezer on Sunday when I had more time to cook it.

It's still raining. No, it hasn't been raining non-stop, just any time that I would like to do something outside. We did manage to squeeze in a trail ride with friends on the 4th, but we literally had to run back to the house to try to avoid another storm. Surprisingly, it didn't rain, but the risk of lightning was enough to get me back to shelter in a hurry. Something about spending your work week researching the hazards of natural disasters is enough to give you a new found respect for mother nature.

We didn't end up taking the dogs to the trainer's party on the 4th. With all the trees around us, our neighbors aren't ones for setting off fireworks, so the dogs didn't really need the distraction. Matt, however, really wanted to see fireworks. We actually got a bit of a fireworks show all the way down CR 41 to Dade City. We could even see another town's display from the top of one hill. Zephyrhills maybe? Dade City's show had already started when we got there, but there was still a good bit of it left. We pulled off the side of the road, being sure to position the car for an easy escape. It was a fun little outing. And we calculated our escape just right. It took the same amount of time to get home as it took us to get there. Pretty good considering I talked to one woman at Publix who spent two hours trying to get home from the Weeki Wachee fireworks.

Gosh, now that I'm writing, I'm thinking of so many other things to write about. Pretty good considering I started out not knowing what to write about. Oh yeah, dinner's already been served and eaten. Anyway, we actually had a really good 4th. I mentioned that we had friends over for a trail ride. Well, we got to a late start, partially because of an uncooperative pony who preferred to visit rather than have shoes nailed to her feet. So we opted to cook lunch before going on our ride. I had just gone to the farmer's market the weekend before and was looking for an excuse to cook up some green tomatoes, zucchini, and egg plant. I was quickly replaced as head chef when one of the girls asked why I was using flour instead of corn meal to coat the veggies. Now, for my grandmother's sake, I was taught to use corn meal; however, over the years I've gotten lazy and usually never had corn meal in the pantry, so I started using flour. Leave it to a southern cook to point out my mistake. I'm not mad at her in the slightest though. She can make some damn good veggies. We had a lot of fun cooking in the kitchen. I cut the veggies, Marcy cooked, and Theresa sprinkled with parmesan cheese. And we gabbed. The guys disappeared outside for most of the time. Three women in the kitchen probably scared the crap out of them. Men are safer with their power tools. Then, like I said, we went on our trail ride. Note to self: when the farrier tells you to take bug spray on the trail, take the bug spray. The deer flies were horrible. They were swarming all over my gelding's face. And Maverick, being the coward that he is, thinks that the solution to anything that he doesn't like is to run from it. My shoulders are still sore from holding him back. Not like I could keep him walking anyway. Marcy and Theresa were riding gaited horses and it was everything my quarter horses could do to keep up at the trot. Then our frantic race back home on out of shape horses, carrying out of shape riders, to quickly untack and race into the house before the onset of the impending storm....that never came. Ah, story of my life.

Rain rain go away

Just so you know, "The Sunshine State" is very close to being considered false advertising. They should call it the "If it's not raining, it's sunny state". They probably couldn't fit that on a license plate. But no joke, no sooner than I have the grain bins uncovered, the sky opens up and just completely soaks me. Then the two fat mares didn't want to get caught. And the Aussie wouldn't stay out of the paddock and kept barking at the horses. And it was muddy and I was wet and grrrrrr. Dolly's ears are scabby and bloody again. I'm pretty sure it's mites, but she makes matters worse by scratching her ears on the trees and causing scabs on the outsides of her ears. She's the only one of the horses with it and it just doesn't seem to go away. I've been putting Swat on it, but apparently not often enough. I need to get back to treating it daily. That and the scratch on Lilly's shoulder. I'm worried that's going to turn into a scar. It started growing proud flesh on me, but I got it caught early. I'm just worried that the hair won't grow back. I'll try to update this blog with pictures tomorrow. It's tough taking pictures in the rain.

So, as if my evening wasn't eventful enough, I had obedience class with the dogs. Notice how "I" is singular and "dogs" is plural? Yes, for the second night in a row now, Matt has been asked to work late. And I'm not talking an extra hour or two. Last night he didn't get home until midnight. Tonight will probably be more of the same. And we carpool so he doesn't have a car. See, the payback for me letting his boss keep him late is that his boss has to drive out here to BFE to bring him home. hehehe Anyway, lets just say that obedience class was amusing. I need to be extra nice to my trainer because I think she's starting to find me and my dogs annoying. The class started out with Woody in a crate and me working Greta. That lasted about five seconds until Woody started barking as loud as possible to get our attention. He's never been crated to my knowledge, so I shouldn't have been surprised. I ended up having to start with Woody and put Greta in the crate. Then the rest of the class was spent working with one dog and switching. Woody did get better about the crate as class went on. Overall, they did pretty good. One big problem is that my dogs like to snap at other dogs. Greta never had this problem before so it really frustrates me that she's doing it now. I knew that Woody could be that way. He has very little training and plus Aussies are known for being protective and territorial. Well, out of my frustration, I smacked Greta in the face when she did it...not once, but twice. I know better than that, especially in front of a trainer, but she really made me angry when she did it. So I got reprimanded and I need to work on punishing her correctly. My trainer is having a July 4th party tomorrow, so we'll see how the dogs do then.

So now I'm home with the realization that I have friends coming over at 8 am and my house is a mess. I'll be lucky if I get dishes done before I go to bed. We'll just have to entertain ourselves outside.

Life Happens

Well, June was certainly an interesting month. It started with me in the hospital. I've never had to stay in the hospital before and suddenly I found myself there for two weeks. I was losing my mind. I missed my house, my bed, my husband, and my animals. The thought of one more night in the hospital had me in tears. I wasn't sure if I'd ever get out of there. Then, to top things off, my laptop started going down the toilet. It finally crashed on me over the weekend. Just won't turn on. My husband is going to see if he can recover my information from my hard drive, then it's off to the shop to get fixed. I'm actually rather enjoying the computer in the office though. I feel more productive. It's even motivating me to write in my blogs. Hopefully I can keep this up. Considering the amount of actual business I've been doing on the computer, I've got high hopes for my blogging success.


So on to what's new in a good way. I've taken up a new business venture. Face it, the economy sucks and we all need to find ways to make more money. Plus I have a horse in training and I need to find a way to keep her there. More on that later. So I wanted to find a home based sales company to start with because of the variety of products with a limited need for start up capital. Bascially think Avon and Mary Kay. The problem is that I'm not much of a girly girl. I live on a farm. I don't wear make-up on a daily basis. I love Pampered Chef, but my kitchen is already overflowing with gadgets. So I'm looking on the work from home websites for ideas and I found one that had a listing of all of the various party planning and home based sales companies. I had to do some research because a few of the companies had gone out of business. Then I found a couple businesses that sold pet products. Now that is something I can sell. I certainly do buy enough of it. It was easy to pick between the two companies. Company #1 didn't have squat that I would actually buy for my pets. Company #2 had a whole catalog full of stuff that I wanted to buy. So I inquired a little further and I am now a Pet Consultant for Shure Pets. Check out my website for more info: http://shurelovemypets.shopshurepets.com/ I'm excited. I got my sample kit last night and have already started playing with stuff. The kids love the toys and treats. I love how good the shampoo makes them smell. I better be careful or I'll use up all my samples before my first show.


Now on to my poor pony who's being forced to become a productive member of society. A little background first. I started riding Poco Steppin Rena when I first moved to Florida in 2005. She's only 14.1h and the owner was afraid of her. I found out why. The little snot is cutting bred and is quick as a cat. For those who don't know horses: that means she dumped me on my butt the first time I rode her....TWICE. But I figured out her trick and went on to really enjoy her. It came to the point where I actually wanted to buy her, but the owner didn't want to sell. Then I tried to convince the owner to send her to a trainer for cutting or reining, but she didn't want to ride her western. Well, time went by, two of my horses from Ohio moved down to Florida, and soon I didn't have time to ride Rena anymore. By the time the owner actually decided to sell her, I knew that I couldn't take on a third horse. Instead, I agreed to help sell her. Let me preface this by saying that I hate selling horses. People send you a million questions via e-mail, waste your time, lie about their experience, and then never call you back. That's basically what happened with both of the people who came out to see Rena. By the time the second family came out to see her, she had been on the market for a few months and I was attached to her again. This is where my wonderful husband comes in. He bought her to be a "project horse." That was a year and a half ago. Guess what, I think she's here to stay.


The problem is that she's 10 years old and never really been "finished." Plus she is a very independant thinker. In front of a cow, that's great. Riding in an arena it means that she's going to try to get out of everything you ask her to do. I was making progress with her, but I still could not get her to canter on the right lead. It got to the point that she would have a temper tantrum every time I asked for the canter. I finally had to admit that I needed professional help. I was getting no where fast with her. Plus, she's too good of a horse to go to waste. I was trying to take reining lessons on her, but we couldn't get anything accomplished because of her problems at the canter. So I saved my pennies and sent her off the end of May. She's already made a lot of progress. I was able to ride her again on Saturday. We still didn't canter but that was in part because I was coming off surgery, in part because my balance needs work, and in part because she's still very hesitant to pick up her leads. I didn't want my balance issues to throw her off. Hopefully I can get back out there this weekend and I'll be able to report that I did canter her, but right now I'm just happy to report that I saw the trainer's assistant canter her. She picked up both leads with minimal temper tantrums.

McCain Gets My Vote

McCain Rejects Parsley Endorsement

I really try to avoid politics. McCain had my vote before this incident, but I will admit that I wasn't totally behind him. But I'm from Canal Winchester, Ohio where the esteemed Mr. Parsley leads his cult...I mean church. I have never been a fan. To see McCain turning Parsley away because of some of the rediculous things that he has said is just music to my ears.

The Gardenias are in Bloom

I really need to post more often. Part of the reason I even started this blog was to work on my writing. I guess I should also use it to work on my discipline. What's laughable is that I thought I could manage two blogs at one time. I am notorious for over stretching myself.

So the gardenias are in bloom. I've been waiting two months for them to finally bloom. I guess I got jealous seeing them in bloom at the nursery and not at my house. Yes, I know that those bushes are forced in a green house, but I never claimed to be realistic. Part of the reason that I love to see them in bloom is because of the way they smell. Gardenias and Peacock Orchids are two flowers that amaze me with how much fragrance can come from one flower. Even with the few gardenia blooms that we have right now, I can smell them as soon as I step from the car. Granted, by the time the whole bush is in bloom, I may find the smell sickening, but that's another story. See, my gardenia is more like a hedge than a bush. It's four bushes in fact. Or at least I think it's four bushes. They're planted close together so it's difficult to tell. The whole hedge is over five feet tall and it's easily ten feet long. And it is loaded with giant buds ready to bloom at any moment.

So, in an attempt to keep the hedge trimmed and my house smelling sweet, I've been taking cuttings every few days and putting them in a vase in the house. I love fresh cut flowers. Last week it was all roses. This week it's mostly gardenias. The way my garden is looking, there could soon be some lilies in the mix. I didn't expect lilies so early. It's been very dry here lately and lilies typically need an inch of water a week in order to bloom. I guess it goes to show that the soaker hose has been doing it's job. By the way, wonderful invention soaker hoses. Only about $10 for a 25 ft hose and it's much more effective at watering my garden than a sprinkler.

The gardenias blooming really have been the highlight of my week. My gall stones are back and eating anything with the tiniest bit of fat gives me more pain than even Vicodin can take away. I really don't see what all the hype is about regarding Vicodin. It takes two hours to kick in and then it still barely masks the pain. Then it only lasts for a couple hours after that before I need to take another one, but I digress. Needless to say, it's been a crappy week complete with a trip to the ER, a follow up with my doctor, missed days from work without pay, and the possibility of having my gall bladder removed. The pain tells me to get the dang thing out of me, but faith tells me that I shouldn't be so quick to take an organ out of my body that God put there for a reason. Even if the doctors think it's a useless organ.


I always like to end on a happy note, so I give you frolicking goats. I'm sorry that the picture is so blurry, but they always run up so quickly it's next to impossible to get a clear picture of them. Plus Bella kicking up her feet is just so cute. I guess it's good that the goats are always so happy to see people. Some people would call them trained, I just call them spoiled. And yes, that would be the male, Rusty, whose stomach that looks fat enough to be pregnant.

New Dog

We got a new dog. No, I definitely did not need a new dog, but how many of the things that we have do we actually need? Anyway, his name is Woody. I'm not totally sold on the name, but I guess I'll get used to it. I won't change it unless my hubby says that he wants to change it. He is a pure bred Australian Shepherd. The story as I know it is that his original owners got tired of him and set him loose hoping that he would run away. Someone found him, found the owners, was told to keep him and gave him to the girl I got him from. She had him for about a month before her 4 year old little boy stepped on him and he snapped at the toddler. That prompted her fiance to say the dog's got to go. A girl who rides with her found out about the dog's situation and posted a call for help on Flahorse, which is how I found out about Woody. The fiance pretty much agreed to keep him for a couple days so that they could find him a home. After that he was taking him to Animal Control.

So I took a rather reluctant husband out to Lakeland after work yesterday to go look at him. The girl was meeting us at an arena there where she was going to be barrel racing. We got there about an hour and a half early, so we went to Olive Garden for dinner. The arena was really in the most unlikely of locations. Probably a victim of development, the arena is in a fairly developed part of town with soccer and baseball fields next door. I'm sure those soccer moms loved the dust from the riders blowing their direction.

Woody was very sweet. He's only about 18 months old, so he still has that floppy puppy body. He wasn't as obedient as I was told, but he did stick close really well and came back when called. Nothing a little positive reinforcement training won't fix. He seems a little under weight. The hair hides his body pretty well, but he just feels like bones when you scratch him. He otherwise seems very healthy. His second eyelid doesn't completely retract on one eye, but it doesn't seem to bother him. Since I'm guessing that's something that would have to be fixed with surgery, I'm not in that much of a hurry to get it looked at. The girl didn't know any of his medical history or even if he's been vaccinated. Greta was due for shots anyway, so I figured I'd take them both in together. So with minimal arm twisting, hubby agreed to take him and Woody hopped in the back of the car.

Hubby said that Woody absolutely had to take a bath before he was allowed to stay in the house, so we did his and Greta's introductions outside, fed the horses, and then he was escorted promptly to the bathroom. Why I bothered wearing a white shirt is beyond me. The water coming off of him was almost black. And of course he has tons of hair, so we went through several rinses before the water finally started to run clear again. I'm just glad that my bathtub is semi-contained. Every time he shook, muddy water covered the walls and me. What I wasn't expecting were the fleas. The poor boy was infested. He shook and dead fleas stuck to the walls. The rinse water would run down his legs and leave dead fleas stuck in the white hair on his paws. I'm sure they were elsewhere, those were just the ones I could see. He was still scratching last night. I doubt the bath got all of them.

This morning was filled with obedience training, horse trims, and vaccinations. I don't have any doubts on his ability to learn obedience. Aussies are very smart dogs and Woody is very motivated by cheese. He followed me every time I went to get a horse and laid under the farrier's truck during the trims. He's a very content dog. Although, I was told that he herds and he was less than helpful when I was trying to catch the buckskin. We'll have to work on that after we get his basic commands down. Then off to PetLuv spay/neuter clinic for cheap vaccinations. Rabies, 5 way, bordatella, & heart worm test for two dogs plus a microchip for Woody for less than $90. Of course then there were the heart worm and flea preventatives for the dogs and flea preventative for the cats, but we won't go into that. Just suffice to say that it's just as cheap as the company I was ordering it from online. I was surprised to find that the girl who checked us in had no idea that collie breeds shouldn't get ivermectin. I got a pat on the back for being an informed pet owner. Yeah, you work in a vet clinic and sell heart worm preventative. That really should have been in the job training. She did manage to find one of their heart worm preventatives that doesn't have ivermectin in it and it just happens to include flea preventative (Advantage Multi). So much for giving Comfortis a try. Not that I'm complaining. I like Advantage and I've been using spot treatments for years. Comfortis is just the latest and greatest. It has a drug that kills adult fleas within the first 4 hours, then another drug that continues to break the flea life cycle for the next 30 days. So, given Woody's flea infestation, I got him a single dose of Capstar just in case. He got the Capstar today. He just had the bath yesterday, so I'll wait until this weekend to give him the Advantage. Gotta wait for those coat oils to build back up or else the spot treatments don't work.

So two lazy dogs are now napping and I am once again avoiding housework. Yep, life is pretty much back to normal.

Happy Cinco de Mayo

I will admit that I'm not usually one to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. I'm more a St. Patrick's Day kind of girl. But I do enjoy me some margaritas. So I suggested to hubby that we stop by this little hole in the wall Mexican restaurant for dinner. Now, while this little restaurant is truly a hole in the wall, it is one of only two restaurants in "downtown" San Antonio, Florida. The other is the deli next door. It is definitely a small town and usually gets mistaken as part of nearby Dade City. Most of the residents are actually migrant workers from the nearby farms and ranches. No wonder they have such a great food.

So we get to San Antonio. The first thing I noticed was a band setting up in the street and a lot of cars in the parking lot. Turns out Pancho's (the restaurant) was hosting a Cinco de Mayo street party. Among the festivities was a pinata and face painting for the kids. By the time we got out of dinner they had the street blocked off, the kids were on their second pinata, and folks were setting up lawn chairs in the street to watch the band. It was just a great atmosphere. I really enjoyed it. I love small towns. Plus Pancho's makes a great margarita.

Pippen

This post is long overdue; however, given that my kitten thinks that the camera is going to steal his soul, its tardiness is not unexpected. I present to you Pippen:

Apparently, naming him such is a bit of jinx. He is accident prone, has an apparent death wish, and is mildly psychotic. I'm telling you, the kitten is crazy. But he's just too cute and fluffy. Every time I see him, I just want to squeeze him, much to his dismay. He's like a little boy that doesn't want to be seen getting a hug from his mom. This is the same kitten who had a broken leg not all that long ago. He's great friends with the dog now. They nap together and Pip goes out of his way to terrorize the dog. Karma has not been Greta's friend.

Happy Saturday

It's funny how much more I enjoy weekends now that the wedding is behind me. I'm finally able to spend my weekends getting things done around the house and riding my horses. Not that I disliked planning my wedding and I certainly don't regret marrying my husband, but it's just nice to have my life back.

So far today, I spent my morning riding. It's really a beautiful day, but by 1 o'clock it was time to move things inside. I love Florida, but you really have to watch the heat. My poor pleasure mare, Lilly, was covered in sweat by the time we were done. I think she really enjoyed that cold water rinse afterwards. I put her out in the front paddock to enjoy the grass since she gave me such a nice ride. Today was the first day that she's truely slowed down at the lope. She kept her head down and her body collected on a loose rein. I'm so excited. She's still not as slow as she should be, but I love to see progress. It seems to come so slowly, but when it does it comes in leaps and bounds. Side passing is also much improved, btw. We've been working on it from the ground this past week and when I asked from the saddle today she did it easily both directions. I can't wait to get this mare into the show pen. She's going to blow everyone away.

Now I need to get cleaned up and run out to Davenport to look at a new cart for Dolly. Hopefully it'll work out.

Amusing Animal Antics

Well, I promised amusing animal antics and the goats just couldn't stand to disappoint.

Let me set the scene. Last night, hubby comes home and immediately starts working on the fence. It isn't all that unusual since that's been the routine for the last several months. He finally comes in around 8:30 pm to tell me that electric has been run on the 4th wire of one paddock and it is now hot. Don't worry about the gap in the fence of said paddock, he got some gate panels and tied them in place. That should have been the first red flag. I love hubby dearly, but the Boy Scouts apparently never taught him to tie knots. Plus I'm pretty sure goats can and will untie anything. That or they just stand on it until it gives way.

So I wake up this morning to Greta (my greyhound cross) whining and barking out the window. I'm thinking there's a cat because that's what she's usually whining and barking at out the window. Nope, it's goats standing on my front porch. Lovely. And all I can think about is all the new landscaping I just did in the front yard. Also remember my fear of having them eat my roses since I had been feeding them cut roses from the wedding. Well, good news, other than pulling a pot of ivy off the picnic table and knocking some leaves off the roses, everything else seems to be intact.

Anyway, so I throw on jeans and a t-shirt, grab my shoes, and run outside. One reason I like these goats is that they're easy to catch. Of course, that is because they're so damn spoiled. So they come right to me and I grab their collars. The front paddock, while not-electrified yet, seems to hold them pretty well, so I led them over there. I need to have a talk with hubby. He clips the gate chain as tight as he possibly can so that the gate won't move. But then it won't unclip. Especially when I'm trying to hold on to two goats. I ended up having to let go of both goats. Again, luckily, they're easy to catch. Once the gate was opened, I grabbed Bella's collar and called for Rusty. Once Rusty realized Bella was going with me, he trotted on through the gate and I once again had both goats contained. I needed them to eat some acorns in the front paddock for me anyway.

Meet the Goats

Meet my self-propelled weed whackers. Rusty is the red and white male and Bella is the blue female. They are great. I didn't expect to like goats. I was honestly looking for sheep to help clear the property. Then a friend offered free goats. On our budget, free is a very good thing. Especially since sheep were going to cost us around $100 a piece. And they are much more well behaved than other goats I've had the "pleasure" of meeting. They're like dogs with hooves, only less picky about what they'll eat. I can even lead them around by their collars. But boy are they strong.

They are always good for some comic relief. Rusty will climb on anything. We should really build him a tree house. We gave them a round bale that had molded. It only took about a week before Rusty learned how to climb up the side of it. After that, it became his permanent hang out. He's such a lazy little stinker. He would lay on the top of it and reach down to pull hay out of the side of the bale.

I did find a use for all of those left over wedding flowers. Rusty enjoyed my orchid blooms so much, it's only fitting that he would eat my roses. Now let's just hope he doesn't get loose any time soon and eat all of the roses out of my garden.

An Introduction

The purpose of this blog is to keep the world abreast of updates at our little ranch and share little bits of information.

We purchased our property in July 2007. It had a house on it, but was otherwise unfit for horses. All five acres were densely wooded and unfenced. We managed to get two goats to help clear out the weeds and vines. They did a great job. I recommend goats for anyone needing help clearing land. The only problem was that as they ate the vines I found dozens of down trees that now need cleared out as well.

In the month before we were able to move in, we had to repaint the walls, replace the carpet, and lay new tile. It was a lot of work and all of the credit goes to my wonderful husband. The old owners smoked in the house causing the walls to yellow and the entire house to smell like cigarettes. We took down the blinds, tore out the carpet, and primed the walls. That's when we discovered the horrible cat pee smell. The smoke smell was so bad that it actually covered the smell of cat pee. So along with priming the walls we ended up also priming the floors.

Painting was an interesting adventure. Don't be fooled into thinking that just anyone can paint your house. We had a combination of family and friends come help us paint and it probably took us longer as a result. Face it, no one is as committed to making your home look nice as you are. It took us as long to go back and fix the mistakes of others as it did to paint.

Part of the problem came from texture on the walls. The texture made it easier for paint to bleed under the painters tape. The easiest way to avoid the problem was to do two or three thin coats of paint rather than one thick coat. Of course, no one else wanted to listen when we explained that to them since they just wanted to get the painting over with and they weren't the ones fixing mistakes. My advice: just hire a professional.

The tile was another story. There was linoleum in both bathrooms and tile at the front entryway. I hate linoleum with a passion, so it had to go. Plus the toilet had leaked in the master bath, causing the linoleum to peel away from the floor. The tiles at the entryway were also popping away from the floor from moisture coming in the front door. We found out that was from a bad seal on the door that the old owners never replaced. The wood under the tile was rotten and carpenter ants were living in the insulation below. So, sprayed for ants, replaced the insulation, replaced the wood, and were ready to go on tile. Once again, my husband did it himself. He did a fantastic job. And it definitely looks better than the linoleum.

The front yard was nothing but dirt and weeds. It was the most cleared section of the property. The goal was to fence and cross fence the entire property as well as clear and improve the pastures. That has probably been the most difficult task since buying the property. One big problem is the down trees laying everywhere. We did buy a tractor with a front end loader which certainly helps to move them from point A to point B, but it doesn't help to cut them up and put them in the bucket of the tractor. Then there are the hundreds of small trees that still need to be cut down. I do enjoy having a lot of trees though. It keeps the property cool and our energy costs are much lower in the summer. It just makes it difficult to train horses when you have to worry about running into trees in the process.

It took us from September to February to get the fencing finished. We still plan to do more fence, but we at least have a good start. We put a perimeter fence around the five acres and cross fenced so that we have two acres of turn out in the back and about an acre in the front. So far only the front paddock has grass growing, but I'm planning to seed the back soon. We're going to section off the back first so that we can still turn out on part of it while the other part grows. Half of the back will not be seeded because it is going to be an arena at some point.

I'm finally getting some landscaping done in the front. We'll get this place looking presentable one of these days. The next big project is a barn, but we want to finish up a lot of these little projects first. Then we can refinance and hopefully come up with the money for a nice barn in the backyard. If you're gonna do it, might as well do it right.