Bump

Last night my husband asked me if I was 10 years old or 50 years old.

He bought me a small Haagen-Dazs chocolate ice cream and I ate the whole thing after dinner.  Not one quarter of it or a third of it or half of it.  All of it.  Then I complained about a stomach ache.

The cream puff

I made a cream puff!  From scratch.

Today I fed the horses and pigs by myself.  The bales of hay seemed heavier than last time.  I'm tired tonight.

At 3:00pm when I went it was windy here, but there it was not windy.  I thought I'd be cold but in only ten minutes I had to take off my jacket.  I forgot it there.  Hope it'll be okay over night.  I'm sure it will be.  What could happen.  It's not like there's anyone out there to steal it.

It took me 45 minutes to feed: four horses in the pasture, three bales and some grain; mean Dancer in her paddock, one bale and some grain in a bucket; Baby Bella in her paddock, half a bale and bucket of grain; Pig and Pig, one flake of hay and a bucket full of combined grain and hog food.  They like the grain but the hog food is pellets from Wal-Mart and they don't like that.  I don't blame them.  We're going to try not to buy the Wal-Mart hog food anymore.  Leah gave us money to buy it and we didn't know the hog food is dreary old pellets.  Then grain though, it looks good enough to put in a bowl and eat for breakfast myself.  Then 15 minutes to water everyone.

I've been neatly coiling up the hose every day when I'm done.  Man, I should call my Dad and tell him I'm rolling up the hose.  I think he might be impressed.  Go me! Coiling up hoses.  I don't know.  It's kind of hard.  This non-kink hose gets kinks all over the place.  Sometimes I unwind it 50 feet and have to run back and unkink it somewhere because the water's plugged up.  Then the nozzle flops out of the bucket and I have to run back so it doesn't spray all over the paddock.  The inventor of this kinking non-kink hose should be taken out and shot.  That might be too strong of language.  Okay, hang him by his toes.  That will suffice.

We had porterhouse steak and baked potato with butter, sour cream and chives for dinner.  Yum!  The steaks were very good.  My husband made corn too but why do I want to eat corn when I have steak and potatoes on my plate?  I don't want no stinkin' corn.  I can have corn anytime.

On one of my first dates with an older man, I was 19 and he was 39, I ordered a glass of milk with my steak dinner.  I didn't give it a second thought.  The waiter asked me if I wanted a drink and without skipping a beat I said very daintily and mustering as much class as I could find, "Yes, please. One milk."  Hahaha!  I never was much of a drinker of alcoholic beverages.  I think I saw my date get one of those thought bubbles by his head that said, "What am I doing here!"  I found out he died in 2000.  I saw his obituary online.  I was shocked.  It didn't say how he died though.

After I finished feeding and watering the animals I groomed little Bella while she ate.  It's hard to believe one day her back will be a tall reach for me.  Suddenly the wind came up really big!  Directly next to Leah's property the owner has been plowing so all the dust and dirt came up with the wind and it was like I was in the movie The Wizard of Oz.  The sun went behind the cloudsand all this sand was blowing up high.  I wondered if it might rain.  But it didn't.  The sand settled down but the wind blew the rest of the time I was out there.

Bluebirds

 Mountain Bluebirds (Sialia currucoides)

I cracked the door open and tried out my new Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35 (on automatic) today. That phrase is really a mouth full.  Can't believe bluebirds were right here drinking water.  That's a first as far as I know.  I called everyone to the kitchen window (that would be all three of us) and we watched about half a dozen of them all round the water dish.  They're sure flighty little things though.  And so blue! We've seen a flock of 25 or so around here occasionally.  One day a long time ago I tried to follow them with my telephoto, but they were not very still and all I got were blurry shots. I was surprised that the whole time I was concentrating on shooting the bluebirds the Northern Flicker was at my feet.  Unbelievable.  I didn't notice him till he flapped his big wings and flew away.  Shucks.  The cashier guy in automotive at Wal-Mart calls Northern Flickers "woodpeckers on steroids" because they're so big.  Sometimes I'm surprised at the people who know about birds.  I used to laugh at birdwatchers.  I thought birdwatching was completely doofus and felt sorry for the poor people who were reduced to watching birds for recreation.  Little did I know I was the doofus for not knowing how much fun and how rewarding bird watching and identification is.

Son finished 7th grade grammar today.  He got an 84% on the semester final.  He's pretty pleased that he finished way before June.  Now we can double up on history. 

We have a mean horse next door to our baby Bella and she has nipped Bella two times; once on the neck and once on the rump.  Now she has two spots with fur missing.  Her coat is long enough to cover it, but I'm buying some salve to hopefully help the hair grow back well.  The other horse is Dancer and she's gonna have a foal in March.  She reaches her neck over the fence to bite and is quite a mean horse.  I hope she'll be moved soon.  She's mean to all the other horses, not only Bella.

The new babies

This is the white faced baby and her mom.  The mom has blue eyes and the baby is going to have blue eyes too.  They're striking.  I love their white faces.  At first when I saw a photo of a white faced horse I thought it looked weird!  Seeing it in person I liked it though.

  

They're so leggy when they're born. The placenta is on the ground still.  The chickens are good to have around horses because it gets the horses used to having little creatures squawking and walking around their legs.  This way they don't kick so easily or get scared of something around their legs.  Horses cannot look down and see their own front feet you know.

  

It's hard to imagine less than 12 hours ago the baby's body was inside the mother. They were born in the morning and we saw them at about 1:00pm.  Boy would I like to brush that mane out!  It even looks like the mother horse has eyeliner around her eyes.  Nice markings.

  

This is the other baby.  Both babies were sleeping exactly like this, laid out on the ground, when we arrived.  Cecilio had to wake them up.  They were tired from getting born!  He has been watching them to ensure they drink and walk.  Their bodies are downy soft.  The mother of baby below was very friendly and didn't mind our son getting in and petting the baby. These horses are well loved.  They don't have Kentucky green pastures, but they are sweet tempered and that comes from being around good people.  They're dirty but I read that a dirty horse is a happy horse!  When they are in a show they get a full bath and get all prettied up.

 

What do baby horses dream of?

Lunch

 

Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) aka Chicken Hawk

It's a Cooper's Hawk.  A young bird.  I honestly think he thought he was super power invisible.  He sat on the top bale of hay and continued eating while my husband walked in and out twice and pulled out two bales of hay.  I was able to stand within four feet of him.  I'd take a photo then look down at the floor and take a real slow step toward him, then take another shot hoping he wouldn't fly off.  I could have tried getting a little closer, but my shot was good enough and I hated to shoo him away.

I thought he was eating a mouse, but when I came back and took the last photos (when I got closest to him) I realized from the feathers it was a bird he had caught and eaten.

The day to come

Went to church. Pastor had a good Word as usual. Now we're off to feed and care for Bella and meet two new foals born this morning at Cecilio's!

Materialistic me

I had an overwhelmingly happy day all day. Well, at first I was tired and that was not the happy part. I have to stay up till midnight to download extra large files and my stupid Canon camera software stopped working when we got Windows 7. I thought it would be a little glitch I'd fix later (when is "later?") and finally since I have this new Panasonic camera coming I thought I better fix the Canon software so there is some order on my desktop and my life. I emailed Canon and they recommended three updates amounting to 240 megabytes. We only have a 350 megabyte allowance per day. If we go over it our esteemed internet service provider penalizes us by giving us no access for 24 hours. So I stayed up till midnight to do the downloading because from midnight to 4:00am we have unlimited downloading.

Now my software works again so I am happy, but I was tired in the morning.

After my 'waking too early' tummy ache went away we went to Cruces. I bought yarn at Hobby Lobby. Oh boy. Always like spending my cash at Hobby Lobby what with it being a Christian owned business. They didn't have the size or style knitting needles I needed so I ordered them tonight. I like the Addi Turbo circular needles and I bought a set of US 19, 40 inches. I am full of anticipation to start my next baby blanket afghan. It will be pastel and I'm weaving three yarns, holding them together at once, so it should be quite plush.

Went to Old Navy and got three summer tops and two pants; one for comfy around the house and one khaki brownish jeans pair.

Son got a new laptop with the Intel iCore7. Pretty nice. And he's been shining it up all night. I think, I hope, he will care for it well.

We got fuel, big whoop; lunch at Habaneros; and stuff at Wal-Mart like one gallon fluoridated water and Thomas' English Muffins that our Wal-Mart has had out of stock.

We fed and watered the horses and piggies on our way home. I have a funny peculiar kink in my neck today from hauling three bales of hay to the feeder yesterday and clipping the baling wire off of them. I'm such a weakling and it's good physical exercise for me. I'm all looking around because I'm afraid a horse will bite my head or me. I believe I way over react with that anxiety, but I can't help it. I hope time will make me more at ease. When I put the hay in the feeder all five horses want it and I just get idget widget. My husband says they won't bite. He's always had this saying about me; that I'm nervous as a you-know-what in church. If you don't know the word that fills it in, you're not missing much! I'm naturally a Nervous Nellie.

I am filled with the joy of the Lord. My prayer time has been edifying. I love my husband so much. I made cream puffs for him from scratch and he liked them a lot. I even put a cherry on top and made real whipped cream with (what else) cream and sugar and vanilla. Bella was laying down today and let us be right next to her while she lazed in the sun. I love the smell of horse. (How many times will I say that?)

Now I have to go to bed. Our son came down with a sore throat at bedtime. Took some Tylenol and he's making funny sleeping noises. I hope he doesn't wake up sick tomorrow morn. We didn't do school today and I don't want to skip two days of school. He might be under the weather though.

Today is beginning of Lent

I have to decide what to give up. Son is giving up bacon and pork chops and that's gonna hurt. He has bacon in his egg sandwich every morning. He says he likes the piggies so much and feels bad for them.

Me. Maybe chocolate. I will help save the poor cocoa bean. Or maybe I will purpose myself to do one good, nice thing each day.

That's it. Every day I will do a good deed of some sort. It's non-traditional as a choice because it's not fasting or alms giving, but it is a sacrifice. I'll be giving up some selfishness to be more Christ-like. I think this would be pleasing to the Lord.

"So let it be written. So let it be done."

Too bad it's Pharaoh Ramses the II who said that! Well, actually it was Yul Brynner in the Cecil B. DeMille's epic film from 1956 called The Ten Commandments.

Tinkerbell effect

It's a new cursor!

The marina in winter

View of the marina at dusk, about 5:45pm, yesterday.

We joined 4-H yesterday.  Our son signed up for equine and swine projects.  My husband said, "Swine!"  How dare they call our piggies swine.  Haha!  

I will be the 4-H photographer.  Leah's president and she works so hard, and I offered to help her and she asked if I'd take pictures.  Actually, I commented to my husband I would be interested in helping Leah and he told Leah I want to help and Leah told him she'd like me to take pictures.  Leah has such a heart for kids.  I will put together a web page for them.  Blogger will be perfect for their needs. I suggested it, then I got selected to do it.

I will be careful about suggestions from now on.

New camera coming

I ordered a new semi-compact megazoom camera.  I love my husband sooo much.  I have to be a better wife.  I always say that and I'm always the same.  I really need to do something about myself.

I really, really wanted to stick with Canon, but their comparable camera has no zoom capability with video capture.  That was a deal breaker for me.  If I'm taking video I want to be able to zoom in and out. 

Excited! I bought the Panasonic Lumiz DMC-FZ35K.  It has 18X optical zoom.  Oooooh.  And it records movies in HD with 1280 x 720-pixel resolution and I don't understand it yet, but it records in MPEG instead of motion JPEGs so it's higher quality and stores less data.  Oooooh!

Tomorrow we're going to Leah's to help her get work done around her ranch.  I made egg salad tonight for sandwiches tomorrow.

Bella loped next to our son today and she was so purty.  She holds her head up nicely and lifts her legs so pretty.  I wished I could take a short video and that's what pushed me to order the camera finally.  It might be real handy to use with the 4-H kids too.

I am thankful.

Knitted diagonal baby blanket

Finally mailed it.  I'm gonna wait till the baby gets it and I hear about her reaction (hope she has one!) and then write a review at Lion Brand.  I'll write a complete review that will include my bad yarn experience.

I'm deciding what yarn and pattern to use for the next one.  Part of the fun is the fun of thinking and planning and shopping before you begin anew.

 

  

  

 

Noodling

I've been noodling around the internet.  My mom says "noodling" so that's where I got it.  I like to eat noodles too.  I like all shapes and sizes of noodles, especially in chicken soup.

I'm getting a good idea of how to create a podcast from a CD.  I gather making a podcast from an MP3 would be better, but I don't have an MP3 player.

My husband wanted the soundtrack from The Big Lebowski so I bought it for him, but it was missing the song he wanted called "Viva Las Vegas" by Shawn Colvin.  Why do they sell film soundtracks missing the exact song everyone wants?  This is where I noodled.  I looked high and low for a converter and finally it paid off.  I found a free online converter so I didn't have to spend a cent and the quality is great.  It's the cat's meow.  What I did was I found the song on YouTube but that's video and I want only audio.  I downloaded it in WMV format and converted it to AAC for the iPod which I will burn to CD so he can listen to it in the truck. I wondered if it was legal and I've read that as long as it's strictly for personal use it's okay based on the Betamax case.  I like the Cohen brothers style such as in O Brother, Where Art Thou, but I don't care for the Lebowski movie.  I like the part John Goodman plays so the only section I watch is where he throws the ashes of his friend into the air and it all blows back in their faces.  That's pretty hilarious.  And John goes off on a tangent talking about the Vietnam war because he's a vet, but the guy who died was never in the military.

Aunt Helen passed on.  Eighty-five years.  She was such a neat person.  Traveled around the world till she was 80.  She was in Egypt the day before the kidnapping and murder of some tourists.  She wore magnets in her shoes.  She's not having a memorial or anything and she donated her body for medical research. I think it's very cool that she's not having a funeral.  Funerals are for the living.  I should think it would be very unpleasant going to a funeral.  I've been to one or two and I don't like them.  At my Grama's I cried like a blithering idiot and I don't need to do that in public.  I wouldn't particularly want to go to a homegoing service either although I do like the Irish wake concept.  When I go I instructed my husband and son to drop my cremated remains from a plane over the plateau of nearby Kettle Top Butte.  Just dump me out of a Maxwell House coffee can.  Don't even buy a fancy urn or I'll be mad!  Mmm hmmm, oh yeah.  I'm serious.  Course, Ted Turner owns that land.  I hope he doesn't mine old Liliana ashes and bones on his fancy dan property. 

I've been having really good thinking thoughts lately.  My mind is a swirl.

Bella is doing better at her new home.  She has room to walk about and we like that.  She's still a wee bit anxious and not 100% her old self.  I'd say she's 85% her old self.  I was a little nervous to brush her so our son did most of it.  She was a little mouthy, I think, because she's a baby.  My husband flicked her because she put her tongue out toward him.  You can't let the baby do that because she won't always be a baby.  We saw a flock of sandhill cranes across the street in the chile field and more in the sky.  The area is famous for its hot chile crops.

February is going by so fast.

Mud in your eye

I like horse's eyes. They are beautiful even with mud on the eyelashes.  

My baby afghan after three months of effort turned disastrous.  I made knots to attach the skeins and I guess that's not the way to do it.  I read instructions that said knot or hold the two yarns together and knit and I decided to knot because I didn't think the other way would hold.  Evidently, as in apparently, I picked the bad way to connect skeins.  

I washed it before I gave it just to be sure it would hang together.  I was so sad when I took it out of the washer and saw it didn't hold together.  There were so many ends sticking out.  I reknotted three or four places because I have no other choice.  I guess I'll still send it and explain that it might not make it through another wash.  Great.  A no wash baby blanket.  I was real blue today because it took so long make.  I'm gonna break out singing MacArthur Park "Someone left my cake out in the rain" any minute now.

I am never, ever using Lion Brand Homespun again.  One skein I had to cut because it had a blob three inches long of a completely different color right in the middle of it.  And one place had the string from the center of the yarn showing.  I don't know why.  I didn't do it.  It was like that already.  When I laid it flat for photo time it was wobbly looking. I cursed my blanket out loud and my husband didn't blink an eyelash.  Couldn't he have at least looked shocked?  Then I read my pattern is the same as a dish cloth pattern, so that means I made a giant dishcloth baby blanket.  Spose I'll quit thinking about it because it doesn't do me any good to think about it.  I'm gonna try laying it on the sofa for a photo or folding it for a photo.  Something, anything, to make it appear half way good.  Three months.  All those hours.  What for.

This little piggy

We went to Leah's property yesterday to see what it looks like.  She's out in the country! There are two pigs where Bella is going to live.  They're very friendly pigs too.

Today we three bought rubber boots at Wal-Mart so we can walk through the muck and not have to wash our shoes every day.  We'll keep them in the tool box in back of the truck so we don't have to stink up the inside of the truck or leave our regular shoes outside when we get home.

Pig noses look soft, but they're very strong!  They root around with 'em.

People situation

My husband astutely made the observation that it's not a horse situation we have.  It's a people situation.  Yep, I guess that's true.

Bella will be going to Leah's house tomorrow and that's an hour from here.  We're bummed.  We called about a house we saw for sale near here with a couple acres and found out the house is 2400 square feet.  Crossed it off our list.  Bummer.  I knew having a horse would pose some challenges, but I wasn't expecting one after only five weeks of ownership.  I'm going to just wander around the campground loop in my cowgirl boots.

Our friend in San Diego is back in the hospital for chemotherapy and another stem cell transplant.  The leukemia returned after a year almost to the day.  She can't see her kids at all while in the hospital and she's pretty tore up about it.  They took 12 vials of blood today.  Her posts are heartrending.  She went in yesterday and will be there up to three or four months and her physician told her she has a 30% survival chance. She has lots of wonderful people around her standing the gap with prayer and taking meals to her family and taking care of her mini horses.  She's a wonderful talkative girl. 

Finished my baby blanket.  Tomorrow I want to wash it and dry it to ensure it hangs together before I give it and make it smell clean and nice.  It took a long time to weave in the ends.  I forgot about that.  One of the ends wove in better than the other.  I made sort of a bloop on the edge with my first end.  Hopefully it won't be too noticeable.

A horse situation

Hmmm.  Life sent us a curve ball.  The landowner phoned Leah and said move all your horses.  She asked why and he gave no exact answer but said his water bill is $500.00.  Leah phoned Cecilio and Cecilio said, "We'll do it now."  Cecilio does not procrastinate.  He told her take off work and they'll move all four horses today.  And they did. Leah phoned us and we met them at the stable area.  We fed and watered Nike and Bella and talked over what to do.  Upshot is, we don't know what to do.

Baby Bella has a place to be until the 10th, but it is a tiny stall.  We're going to go see her twice a day instead of once. We feel bad her being in there cooped up.

We have to find a place for a horse to live. 

Today we drove by a place where we think we can board her, but it's not a pretty place.  It's not like Rush Rancho where the horse whisperer lives.  It does have a feeder so the hay we buy won't get wasted.  That's a point because at the pasture 25% - 40% of the hay was getting wasted when the horses used it as a toilet.  I'd look at that old rotten pooey hay and see dollar bills lying there.  It has a cover so she could stand under it from sun and rain.  The enclosure is large, maybe 16'x20'.  But it's not a pasture.  It's a paddock.  On the other hand, it's minutes away and there's a great open area next door where we can walk her.

I would like a pretty place for her though.  We want a pretty place for her to live.

We went to Cruces today and with finding out about Bella's situation we left at 9:30am and got home at 6:00pm.  

Small town life.  Hanging around talking about our Bella and what to do, someone mentioned the landowner got red tagged today by the utilities company.  Unpaid bills apparently.  For $500 bucks it's gotta be more than one month and there's gotta be a leak somewhere.  Doesn't make sense and I've learned when things don't make sense it's because sumthins missin'. Anyway, I told our son not to repeat it which could shame the property owner.  I feel bad for them.  It kind of turned out badly all the way around.  It happens.

But I know God knows of a good place for Bella.  I have to find it.  

Leah has a ranch and so kindly offered for Bella to live there, but it's an hour from here; too far for a daily visit.  Another friend has land close by, but it's got barbed wire all the way around.  I've read up and down and keep finding the same thing.  Barbed wire is one of the worst types of fencing, if not the worst, for horses.  As of right now, the unpretty place is my lone option.

There must be something else.

Twenty rows to go on the baby blankie.

Deer

I pulled out of our site last night at dusk and saw eight deer crossing the road.  Eight!  I've never seen so many together at one time in the park.

Caltrate

Whoops.  I don't take my pills out every day.  My husband does.  Apparently I'm not taking Centrum.  I had to double check because if they came in chocolate, I'm getting chocolate.  But I'm taking Caltrate Calcium & Vitamin D.  Who knew!  I get my names of things mixed up sometimes.  The flavors are cherry, orange, and fruit punch.  They're still not pulling the wool over my eyes though.  Cherry can't be purple.  Orange can't be purple.  Fruit punch is supposed to be red.  Grape is purple.  They're sneaking grape flavored tablets and calling them fruit punch.  I should send them some mail.

Pastor was preaching up a storm today.  He said he's preachin' himself happy!  He preaches us all happy.  I recorded church today and finally got it on my iPod tonight so I can listen to it again when I go to bed.  The .wav format has to be changed to .aac for iPod to play it.  I was using free software to cut out parts I don't want and it wanted me to upgrade to a paid version to change it to .aac.  I thought I remembered doing it with iTunes and sure enough.  I googled it and you don't need to buy software to convert an audio from MP3 to iTunes.  Why I oughta.  Buyer beware!  I haven't done it for so long I have to re-remember how to do everything.

Son went sledding with friends and about half a dozen people at church asked where he was.

Seemingly good news on the insurance.  The woman who hit us, her father found out his wife's car is damaged (their daughter was driving it when she hit us) and that our truck is damaged.  He wants to cover it with cash and not involve insurance.  That would work fine for us.  Apparently the daughter was afraid to tell her folks.  She's a full grown woman and I don't pretend to know what dynamics are going on in their family, but is a shame she didn't deal with it in a timely manner on the 15th  8th of January, immediately after it happened. Oh what a tangled web we weave.  I am not feeling much sympathy anymore.  She should have been honest with her folks and taken her lumps from the git-go.

I'm buying cowgirl boots.  They look like this.  I hope they will fit.

 

The toe is called a snip toe.  It's not exactly pointy and it's not round either.  I wanted a more square toe initially, but I like this pair.  If they don't fit I'll be sore disappointed.  I wanna be a cowgirl!

Leah said I can show one of her horses at the fair this year.  I told her I'll think about it.  I don't like getting nervous and I know I'll get nervous.  She was surprised that I didn't say yes.  I should say yes.  No guts, no glory, my husband says.  I'd be showing a small horse so I wouldn't win, but it would be a neat experience.  And, I do wanna be a cowgirl.  (I already said that.)

Bella walked toward us and whinnied when we got to the pasture this afternoon.  A whinny greeting.  It's very amazing to be greeted with a whinny.  Merriam Webster's says a whinny is : to neigh especially in a low or gentle way.  Wow.  That does describe what she did.  I tried to mimick the sound at dinner tonight but I sounded like I was choking.  When I get my cowgirl boots (and don't the clothes make the cowgirl?) I suppose I should try not to look around in wonderment and awe when our horse whinnies.  Hey, hey, didja hear that?  Didja hear that?  She whinnied!