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.