Row 58

My granddaughter's hand knit baby blanket will be done in a matter of days.  I finally got the last skein I needed a couple days ago.  The post office had it but must have misplaced it or something.  They've had it since the 19th and I ordered it on the 13th.  Serenity Now!

Today we're going to our archaeological site steward class.

I ate toast and coffee and made meatloaf sandwiches for lunch and here we go!

Horse greetings

 

When horses greet one another they breathe into each others noses.  People can blow softly into a horse's nostrils to say hello too.  It's horse language!  The Little Brown Girl on the left is still too standoffish, but we exhale into Bella's nose and she likes it.  She will be still while we do it.  Her mama, Nike, will blow back to us.  If you think Bella has a big nose you should feel Nike exhale into your nose!  It smells of warm hay. I like it so much.  Their muzzles are so soft.

The other week-end we drove by the Rush Ranch on the way to our horses.  At Rush Ranch they raise thoroughbreds and have a very, as in very, nice layout.  As we drove by I saw a man with one single horse in the center of a large open area.  They were both very still and he was sitting on a big upside down bucket and the horse's head was hanging way down toward him as if he was having a conversation with it.  It appeared as though the horse was listening intently. My husband said, "Look, it's a horse whisperer!"  Is that what he was doing?  I think so.  I want to know more about what he was doing.

Today was duperly cold.  It began to snow on us while we were feeding the horses.  The photo above is from earlier in the week.  The two fillies were curious about my camera and were crowding me (in a nice way).  That's a change because at first they were shy of the camera and would look alarmed and would go away when my camera clicked.  Guess they got used to the clicking sound.

Our insurance and truck repair thus far has been a headache.  Our insurance sent out an estimator who says we can get the damage popped out for $600.00.  Puh-leeze.  Husband said he'll get three estimates and all three are twice as much as this insurance guy says and one of the places is one he recommended to us.  He's talking to his managers now.  Sheesh.  Yeah, he better talk to his managers or we want arbitration or something.  We'll contest it.  Six hundred dollars my eye.  It needs a new quarter panel.  People say to me that there's no way someone wouldn't know they hit the truck.  Even one of the estimators said the way she hit the axle would stop her so abruptly she would know she hit something.  Well, I told them, I'm taking her at her word.  I refuse to discuss it further because a lie is known by the person who's lying.  It doesn't matter what I think.  I just want to get truckie fixed.  We finally opted to go through our own insurance because she took two weeks to call her insurance and now we have to wait for her mum to call her insurance because she was driving her mother's car.  It's all very tiring, yes.  By going through our own insurance we can get the repair done now and not have to remind someone umpteen times to call their insurance.  Our insurance company will pursue them and get reimbursement.  Of course, six hundred dollars is a joke.  No one will fix us for that unless I take it to a high school auto shop.

Then I got a computer virus yesterday.  Luckily, Eset caught it and I did a system restore to the 21st and everything has been good.

Centrum tablets

(Bella says, "Tell me the joke so I can laugh too!"

The other day when I was gone somewhere my husband was vacuuming and something plugged up the hose.  He uses the big vacuum first then a little hand held one for the perimeter of the rooms.  He figured it must be clogged with dust and dirt but he got in it and out popped one of my Centrum scientifically-advanced complete multivitamin pills.  I use the term "pill" loosely.  It's a chewable tablet that I started taking a few years ago when I found out my aunt has osteoporosis.  It's ridiculously large.  It's not even a pill.  It's not oblong.  It's disc shaped.  I can't find a photo of it online because it's so big they don't want people to see how big it is.  It's so big that if Bella ate it I'd have to massage her neck to make it go down.

I have to chew one everyday.  It's sweet and kind of chalky.  Takes me like two minutes to consume the thing.  It comes in two colors: orange and purple.  The purple one is grape and I hate it.  I think they put in mostly grape flavored ones because people don't like grape.  When my husband hands me one, if it's purple I ask him if he's mad at me.  "What'd I do?"  I say.

Sometimes I don't eat the purple ones.  Sometimes I put them in my pocket and sometimes they get lost.  Sometimes I put it back in the bottle when my husband is gone if I'm feeling guilty about being wasteful.

Well I got busted when he found the one in the vacuum.  I didn't want to tell a lie or anything so I said all perplexed-like, "How did that get in there I wonder."  My husband wondered pretty loud.  He came up with several scenarios all of which show he knows me far too well.  I really don't know how it got in there though.  Maybe it fell out of my pants pocket somewhere.  Or maybe I was going to take it and I set it on the sofa beside me while I ate my toast then it fell on the floor by accident.  That sounds plausible.

If I get osteoporosis I'm going to sue Centrum for all the years of eating these stinky pills.  I ought to start saving our receipts as evidence.

My hair turned out quite silky after washing it today.  Hmmmm.  That makes it a good day in spite of the evil purple pill that got me in trouble.

Bella got her hooves trimmed and she was wormed yesterday.  There are four, count 'em, four horses out there now.  Oh my, it's a lot more manure.  Bella is doing well with her lead training and well with lifting her feet for us.

I almost got bopped in the head by a horse head and I screamed.  Good thing she missed me because between a swinging horse head and a standing still people head, I'm sure the horse head would win.  There is a new filly, older than Bella and Baby Brown, with us now and Nike is the oldest.  Nike is definitely the lead mare.  Nike nipped at the new filly and she swung her head away from Nike real fast.  I have to be aware of what's around me all the time.  She missed me and now I don't stand by those two any more.  Horses sure can move lightning fast when the want to.

I'm going to miss Jeremy's memorial on Saturday.  We have our archaeology site steward class that day and if we miss it it would be months before another is offered.  I'm disappointed.  But we are going to contribute a few dollars for Jeremy's funeral expenses.  If everyone who visited his Facebook page gave $10.00 each it would cover the cost of the funeral.

Today I cooked albondigas (Mexican meatball soup) for Leah and Cecilio because they were so nice to do Bella's hooves and to worm her.  I wrote on the note - To Leah and Cecilio from Bella - and left it on Leah's desk.  I hope they like it.

Pretty snow

We went to the ranch and there was snow.  Snow!  We saw the wind blowing snow across the road.  Blowing!  It was neato.  As we were driving, my husband commented about how Californians would be bumper to bumper to get a look at this view and sure enough.  At home he saw an article about bumper to bumper traffic backed up with people wanting to see the snow on Mount Baldy (that's in Southern California). 

I was excited to get some photos and reached for my camera . . . I left it at home on the sofa.  What a dope.

Lifted baby Bella's hooves yesterday and my shoulders are sore today, boy howdy.  I hurts good though. I did what Leah recommended which was to hold her front hoof lightly yet firmlly until she stops the pawing motion and stands still.  Holding the hoof of a 600 pound horsie is not that easy for a small woman.  I held it though.  Her back hooves are much easier to do.  Usually I'm a teeny bit afraid doing back hooves, but not with Bella.  So far she stands real well for the back ones.  I didn't get much picking done because first I need to get her used to lifting her feet so she knows what we want her to do.  Manny gave us two rasps today!  For free!  Rasps are like giant metal emery boards that you use to file down their hooves.  Hooves are just like fingernails only tougher.  After she gets her hooves trimmed we will be able to maintain them ourselves by filing them monthly.

Bird sightings.  We saw a bald eagle today.  We saw bright blue bluebirds too.

Windy

It was so windy today that we didn't do much with the ponies.  We got plenty of sand in our eyes.  We did empty and refill the water trough.  That took awhile and it really needed it.  The water was green and yucky.   The metal trough is so big and heavy and not easy to empty.  We ended up using buckets to take the water out then we dragged it to the concrete gutter and emptied the rest.

My church, this church in New Mexico, is amazing.  Here we are in the midst of a serious recession and our income for 2009 doubled.  Doubled!  At my church there are no rich people.  The ones who are able, give, and the ones who I think look unable to give; they give too.  Every week.  I didn't learn to tithe till we came here. 

We drove to Cruces and back and that took most of the day.

Siamese

At the dinner table I appeared deep in thought during dessert so my husband asked me what I was thinking.  I started singing from the Disney movie Lady and the Tramp.

We are Si-ya-meeze if you pleeze.  We are Si-ya-meeze if you don't pleeze.

 He said, "Well, that's what I get for asking."

We forgot to take our grooming tools to see the horses so that was a bust.  Nice thing is, picking up after two horses is faster than picking up for three.

It was extremely windy last night and some windy today.

We filled out applications for all three of us to be volunteer site stewards.  It's our son's first filling out of an application.  We go to a meeting later this month and we'll get a site assigned to us and we go out there to check and be sure there's been no illegal digging activity.  It's to preserve the archaeological sites in the area which evidently there are quite a few around here.  Should be interesting.  There are secret paleontological  sites in the area too.  We can't tell anyone where our site is because it's secret! Or rather, it'll be a secret after they assign us a site.  The reason why they're secret is to discourage the public from going out and digging things up to sell or to take home to keep.  The treasures belong to everyone for always and should be left alone.

I'm waiting for a skein of yarn to get here so I can finish my Christmas baby afghan.  I have about 77 rows to go, but I ran out of yarn.  It appears to be too late to be a Christmas afghan now unless it's Christmas 2010.  I will make it a Valentine's Day baby afghan.  I am flexible.

We're into chocolate chip cookies lately.  We thought we finished the second batch, but my husband looked in the cupboard and found two more baggies full!  He's taller than we are.  Wow, we were excited!

What can I say.  It's winter and things are kinda slow around here.

It's a night

A great night too.

Well, the day was okay.  Son didn't go with us so I got to brush Bella for a long time.  She likes it I think.  She never walked away.  Tomorrow I'm taking my whole grooming bucket in the pasture to use the rubber curry on her and hopefully spray her tail with some spray to make it shiny and easy to comb out.  She has some icky stuff on one back leg that I tried to brush out but it's going to need some water.  I wonder if I dare pour a bucket of water on it.  I might try.

She was fussy about lifting her hooves yesterday.  Today she was a bit better but I did it quickly so that I could have a successful finish.  I don't want her to learn to be difficult so I held it up for one second which is how long she's good!  Leah told son we must simply hold it till she stops the pawing motion.  We'll try that tomorrow.

Yesterday I fasted and prayed 24 hours.  It was the most effective fasting of my life.  I fasted for our eldest son and for other needs that came to my heart and mind.

This morning an email told me our friend in San Diego who went through chemo and umbilicord stem cell transplant one year ago has been told she needs a bone marrow biopsy because the doctors think the cancer has come back.  She's so young.  She's only 31.  Married with two young children.

The lady who hit our truck still hasn't contacted the insurance company still.  She's called them twice and left a message she says but it's very discouraging to us.  The insurance company calls us every day.  We sure want to get this over with and done.  My husband's going to just go and get it fixed if they don't hurry up.  If it were me I would go to whatever measure necessary to meet my obligation.  I would feel bad otherwise.  I know him.  He won't drive a crushed vehicle for long. 

That reminds me.  I forgot to post the picture of it.  I was going to post it with the title: While I was raking pooh. . .

A horse's dust bath

Nike was full of herself today.  She sniffed around and found a place she liked and started rolling.  It was awesome.  Then she ran!  She ran toward us, stopped, turned tail and raced the other way.  It was an exhilarating sight.  She's a happy horse!

Horses cannot roll all the way over, but I saw a video of one rolling completely over.  It's unusual.

 

 

Son got a lesson in lead training on Thursday.  We were stoked.  Today he helped load horses into a trailer.  He did get stepped on by Bella.  Cecilio says it's okay because bruises heal.  Cecilio has broken just about every bone in his body at one time or another.  He even broke his back once.  He's been a horseman for 47 years.  He doesn't break horses any more.  I'm guessing the breaking in of horses is difficult with the wild ones because Bella has been easy to work with.  She's an angel.

They transferred the baby brown horse so they can bring Joey The Horse here.  Joey is Bella's sire!  Imagine, I will be able to get a family portrait of the mum, the dad, and the baby!  Gymkhana is coming up in March and son wants to participate.  Gymkhana, I looked it up, means horse games.  The kids do things like barrel racing and other things (I don't yet know what other things).  A lot of the kids here participate.  Leah says son can try out Joey and Nike and choose which horse he wants to ride for barrel racing. She will teach our son how to do barrel racing.  Leah has blessed us tremendously.  We have to think of something special to do for her.  We offered to pay Cecilio for the lead training lesson and he waved his arm and said, "That's just life."  Well now, just life if you're a New Mexico rancher, but a spectacular life experience if you are us.

I'm looking for a new small camera.  The Canon I have in mind has no viewfinder though.  That's odd.  It only has an LCD.  I wonder if I would do okay with that or if it would feel strange.  My old one won't come back to life and it could take movies for me.

Church is tomorrow.  I think Pastor is going to be on fire.  I have a feeling he will be.

New phone

Got a new cell phone and they're taking forever to activate it.  I hate phones.  I hate cell phones.  I hate driving down the road and seeing people texting and talking on their cell phones.  But alas, I need one.  Occasionally I do talk on the tellyphone.

Sweet sleep

Tonight I will sleep the sleep of the righteous and I will float in a happy dream.  I put my trust in the Lord.

Content

We spent Sunday day at the ranch.  Son went horseback riding and I watched a movie called "Radio" that was very good.  It was so cold I did no grooming.

Church Sunday night was simply amazing.

The person who hit our truck is a friend of ours and she didn't know she hit anything.  That's why she drove off.  I'm so glad I never spoke an accusatory word.  Her Kia showed damage and they're good people, so their insurance will cover our damages.  Great relief though I feel really bad for the wife.  It was her birthday too.  Bummer!

Baby Bella is so good about putting on her harness.  Today she put her nose right into it.  Poor thing has to suffer me trying to buckle the thing closed though.  Our son had to come help me.  I'm seriously uncoordinated.

I went for a walkety walk jog.  Felt great.  Spring is coming.  Gotta get ready.  Today was 60 degrees and sunny.  Very nice for a change. 

Was so pumped up from church Sunday night that I couldn't sleep most of the night.  Church.  The body of Christ.  The Holy Spirit.

We finally have a new youth pastor and I have a good feeling about him.  He's already had a positive impact on our son.  I hope his reach will be far and wide in the community.  The youth here need desperately it.  I was thrilled to see a large group of teens at evening service and at the altar call.  It's rough being a teenager.  So many here appear directionless.

Doctor's office phoned and the biopsies show no skin cancer.  Well, I didn't expect any cancer, but it's nice to know for sure.

Hit

Someone hit our truck while it was parked and they drove off.  I feel bad all over.

Felt well

I petted Bella for the longest time ever today and combed her mane, and I think she liked it.  I need to be able to put my hands on her everywhere and I haven't done everywhere, but I'm getting there.  I felt well when we left the pasture.  I love the smell of horse. 

Son got his braces adjusted which took all of ten minutes.  We can see progress already in only three months.

I shopped.  I bought two cute tops.  I also saw a foxy mama walking in the mall and I was suddenly enveloped by this overwhelming sense of envy.  Completely green envy.  I hate that feeling.  Where did it come from?  I was wearing a polo shirt, jeans, tennis shoes, and hair in a tight bun looking quite frumpy.  That's where it came from.  Ergo, the attack of envy ensued.  I only wore tennis shoes because I knew I'd be shopping in the mall.  The polo shirt - I have no excuse for that part.  I've never been one to dress up to go to the mall, and I only saw her from a sideways glance, but that's all I need to recognize good lookin' when I see it.  She was curvy and casual and even pushing a baby stroller.  Seriously, I never looked like that when I was pushing a stroller. Okay, I concede, kudos to her for getting her cute on.  On the up side, I'm inspired.  I will wear my cute top soon.  I still hate those Ugg kind of boots though.  They're so urban.  So commercial.  So over with or at least, they should be.  I only wear mine at home.  I saw straight leg pants at the mall.  Not again!  Are we doing the '80s all over again?  (Which I guess was doing the '60s over again.)

Other than that, pretty plain day.  Headache came back in afternoon.  I don't know where these headaches are coming from.  I think the hormones are doing something.

Ow

Brutal headache.  Got it while I was making my calendar and it's been with me ever since.  I made brownies after dinner and just now ate one.  My husband said it will help.  Now we're going to watch an episode of Seinfeld which always makes me laugh, then I'm going to bed.

Tomorrow braces get adjusted.  I hope to go to the mall because I want some cute new tops.  I will happily settle for even one single cute top.

My library book came in.  I'm starting "Lyons On Horses."  Lyons is a well known horse trainer.  I need any horse info I can get.  Today I put Bella's harness on her correctly and I took it off.  She's real good about wearing it so the practice was strictly for me.  You stand on the horse's left side by her neck, facing forward and then you put it over her nose and buckle it.  What would I do without YouTube!

I told son no more keeping treats in his pocket because it was making the horses get mouthy and I've read in several places that bites are often preceded by snack feeding.  No more snacks, said I.  I don't wanna chance it.  A hand fed snack when we leave is okay, but not in your pocket while we're in the pasture.

We saw Bella lying down in the hay while her mama was eating.  It was neat!  We shoveled seven wheel barrows of manure.  We didn't go yesterday on account of I had to go to town to work on my calendar.

Calendar done

I finished our 2010 calendar last night.  We'll receive it by the 15th.  I bought two for my sister because she keeps one at home and one at work, one for my mom and one for my Aunt Gail.  Our upload speed has been so poor I had to go to the senior center to use their connection and upload my images. 

What will you do

It's 2010.  Will you say it's the year two thousand and ten or are you going to say it's twenty ten?  The grammar police never sleep you know.  They're going to be listening.  Maybe a think tank is working on it this very moment.

A glorious day

I made it.  It's the first day of 2010.  It's sunny and windless and cold.  Beautiful and perfect. 

We almost had an incident with our baby horse yesterday.  You're not supposed to leave tools or things on the ground because though it seems like they'll just step over them, horses don't always.  They spook easily and can injure themselves seriously. 

We bought a foal feeder to put a special grain in for Bella to eat.  It has a little grate so you can keep bigger horse mouths out of it - like Mama Nike's mouth for instance.  Nike eats everything.

The foal feeder was on the ground and Bella got her foot stuck in it.  My husband turned it so she could get her foot out and she was freed.  She did not spook or get upset and thank goodness my husband was there and he reacted instantly.  Could have been an incident, but wasn't!  Poor Bella has green owners and we have much to learn.  Bella has an amazing good disposition.  I am sure now the Leah knew what she was doing when she picked this baby to give to us.  The other filly who is one year old, yesterday I saw her run and her leg barely brushed a branch that was on the ground and she was prancing and dancing like a rattlesnake might be on the ground.  What a difference in personalities.  Whew.

I was looking at the horses across the street and their dirt looks so nice.  Nice dirt, I said to my husband.  They plow it and it looks very neat and there are no poohs.  Do they have a plow that also picks up manure or do they pick up and then plow? I don't know, but I know it looks nice.  Our field needs a lot of work.  In another week we will have all the manure picked up.  We have quite a pile of trash and manure and even an old sofa from the shelter that we will haul to the dump eventually.  I don't think the horses will be lying down on a sofa anytime soon.  I would like to transform our field if I can.  If we can.  A little at a time will make a difference.

Derm appointment went well.  I have a scab on my nose now.  The doc shaved off a little thing called a fibrous papule.  My husband never even noticed it and it wasn't too bad, but just being there was bad in my opinion.  I don't need extra bumps on my face thank you very much.  She also removed a terrible, huge blackhead I've had on my back shoulder since I was 18.  I finally figured I would go get it removed too.  I thought she'd have to cut it out, but she only, ugh, squeezed it and also said there was a small cyst.  It's true I could feel a slight bump and I just thought it was because it was so big.  So it's flat now and that's good.  I'm hoping it'll heal and I won't have to feel self-conscious when I wear off the shoulder tops next summer.  She used a numbing shot on it and boy, I could feel her pulling and prodding the skin.  I'm sure glad I didn't have to feel it.  It didn't hurt at all.  I had one last teensy, almost microscopic, dot by my inner eye.  It felt like a piece of sand and it appeared suddenly one morning.  I was worried it might be connected somehow to the bump on my nose and that's really why I made the appointment.  She looked at it and said it was only a clogged pore.  Yay!  But then she poked around at it with a sharp instrument and I stayed as still as possible (my eye being right there) and man, oh man, my eye started watering and my nose running.  It hurt!  But I wanted it gone and not to get bigger and I have to say, she fixed it.  It didn't bleed a bit.  How she managed that I don't know, and by evening it was gone.  It didn't even get red which surprised me because her picking at it hurt quite a bit.  I could tell she was going as fast as she could.  My hands started to sweat then she said, "That's it.  That's all I'm going to do because of where it's located, but this should take care of it."  She was right.  Lastly she looked at my back for me and said there was one spot that could be basal cell carcinoma and that since I can't see back there she removed it as a precaution.  I think it was just a little freckle.  They'll call me in a week.  I felt great afterward.  Gotta keep up with the body maintenance, moreso when it gets some age on it, just like a car.  I hope the hubcaps don't start falling off and rolling down the freeway next.

I'm reading a new book and enjoying it.  It reminds me a little of the Mitford series books because the story is peppered with biblical principles.  When I read a book like this I carry it in my mind and I get opportunities to apply what I'm reading to my own life.

I was talking with a lady, a friend in the Visitor's Center just the other day.  She made the statement that you create your own world.  She's into Buddhist philosophy.  Per my book, To A Distant Land, it says that we want to believe we can control our own lives, and that humans don't want to be reminded of their sin or that they need God.  It fit the verbal exchange I had with my friend to a tee. In Buddhism there is no forgiveness.  There is no saving grace.  There is no salvation.  They want to believe that you solely are in control of your universe.  Seems a little lonely to me.