Saturday, July 31, 2010

Shire time


Our friends, who own/operate Axeholme Shires,
hosted a wonderfully fun Horsey Day yesterday.

We had great food (going to have to get some recipes!),
excellent company and
got to check out their gorgeous horses!

This is Dub.
He is their newest arrival.
Apparently he will be black as a mature horse.
This guy is so big already and he is only 2 1/2 months old!

Dub's dam Jodie.
She is just magnificent!

They don't looks so big from afar, but up close they are huge!


Chyann with Ellie, she liked to snuffle her and
our host Nan.


Talulla.
Isn't it amazing how huge her head is compared to Chyann?
She is also Ellie and Corva's dam.



Nan adjusting a fly mask for Corva,
who is just a yearling!
Behind Corva is Frank a retired Arabian.




This beauty is a retired Thoroughbred.


Chyann is excited that Nan may need some help showing her
Shires in the future.

We had a great time.





Friday, July 30, 2010

Mr Hot-Rod

Looks like another beautiful summer day here today.

I woke up this morning to an entryway full of dog vomit.
Very nice.
Not sure who the puker was, but they all went out, very quickly.

My Mother and Gerry had some stuff come up and will be arriving
on Monday instead of today.

Chyann and I are going to a friends place today for a horse party.
Not sure what all that will entail since we aren't bringing our
horses, but she is serving lunch and has herd of gorgeous
Shires so it should be fun.

After hanging in the pool last night Caden decided he had to ride
the three wheeler.

Riding it is his ABSOLUTE favorite thing to do right now.

It is a Honda 1983 200s
with all the original parts.

Runs good, but the breaks don't work well.
Great, right?

And Caden is a hot-rod on it.

He racks the engine up then will attempt to shift the gears.
Not the best sound, but he does real well using the gears to
down shift when he needs to slow down.



The seat needs to be recovered, but he doesn't care.
Nice shirt too.
One of Colton's buddies wore a shirt slit down the sides
and Caden thought it was very cool so he made
himself one.
He makes a loop starting at the back porch, up around the
garden, up and down the driveway, then the front yard
and starts it all over again.
One of these days he'll decide that his loop isn't fun any more
and will want to venture out into the fields next door.
cringe


And look who showed up during daylight hours.

Just coming home after work to change and then head over
to a friends house.


Thursday, July 29, 2010

Maybe NOT the best way to pick apples

This apple tree in the back pasture where the cows had been for the last few months has been eaten down to the nub. They love apples.
Caught Chyann using Casper as a ladder to reach the upper branches.
She was almost in a standing position when he decided enough of this crap and took off.
No injuries thankfully.


We did have some serious storms on Tuesday night!

Another inch and a half of rain with strong winds too.

Had an uninvited pool visitor also.

I just got done mowing and you can see all the grass bits that flew into the pool.


Out you go.




Colton and his buddies have collectively agreed not to swim in the area rivers.
Thank you son.
He was telling us that he met one of the gals that was swimming with the kid that recently drown in Lake Wissota and she, plus a bunch of others, were diving down to try and find him and she thinks she grabbed his arm and couldn't bring him up - maybe he was stuck on something she said - She had to let go of him to get air then couldn't find him again.
How terrible for her.

Two of his other friends were in a car accident too.
They will be alright, thankfully.

We had a good talk about how fragile life is.
I think he is getting the picture.

It's okay to have fun, but be aware that anything can happen, right?

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Hot and too close to home

Ok.
I love the heat and humidity, but today was
too hot for me!
It's 91* here and if you add in the heat index it feels like 105*!
Hot!
Strong storm forecast for tonight.
We are already in a tornado watch.

Jennifer showing her spunk.

Within the last 10 days four teen boys have drown.

Three in nearby rivers and one of Colton's classmates drown
in MO, where he was working just yesterday.

And a 34 year old woman and her 9 year old son almost drown in our local river that runs right through town last Thursday too. She and the boy were rescued by two folks that were alerted to the trouble by a young girl who ran into the express mart.

The Mother was quoted as saying "I was sure we both were going to die."

Our rivers are swollen with all the recent rains and currents are strong. Add in hidden debris and it is a recipe for trouble.

Colton and his friends swim frequently in these same rivers.

We have repeatedly warned him of the dangers of river swimming, but apparently it's the popular way to cool off and free too.

I hope all our talks and his classmate's fate will have an impact on where and how he and his buddies swim.

Personally I'd rather them all come to our house to swim and clean out my cupboards than risk him in any river again. Yes I realize accidents can happen anywhere any time, but what can I say ~~ I worry.

I'd like to see him crashed out on the couch for many years to come.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Our kind of walk

The kids and I have been taking walks almost every day.
We go about 4 miles round trip.
Caden rides his bike and Chyann rides Casper or
Cowboy while I just walk.
The kids going UP our long driveway.

A view of our house from the road.

They usually ride single file on the side of the road,
but for this picture so I could get them both in it
they spread out for a bit.

Checking the corn height and wow is it getting tall.



After the ride.
Caden has already buzzed inside for water, but Chyann
has to clean Caspers hooves and brush him down - again.





We had a nice weekend.

Got the cows moved down front so those rotten bull calves will
stay out of my garden.
Horses are back behind the barn again.
Both calves got their Cheerios put on for castration.
Dug a bunch of spuds.
And played in the pool, a lot.

Four days till my Mother and Gerry arrive.
The kids better get their rooms clean!






Sunday, July 25, 2010

The wedding I didn't go to.

I remembered I wrote this and never posted it back in March when my friend asked me to be the matron of honor in her wedding that took place yesterday.

Last night I wrote this whole post while laying in bed unable to sleep
(the eldest son wasn't home yet and there will be no sleep till he is).
My thoughts flowed and I had some amazing insights to relate, but today,
in the cold light of day nothing sounds just right.

I've got this friend up in Alaska and since she doesn't know I'm writing this, but rarely
checks my blog we'll call her Christy (as in Christy Brinkley cuz she kinda looks like her).
We were next door neighbors for a few years when we both either worked part-time
or not at all and our children were young. At the time we both only had two.

Picture it - Hot Alaskan summer (well hot for AK), our husbands both working long odd
hours that left us mostly to our own devices, four kids that liked to play together and us -two
young, ok mid-20 year old gals that were kind of bored and lonely. We hit it off like a
house fire! We hung out EVERY day and usually every night too.

The kids would run like the wild animals they were in her backyard while we did our thing.
Our thing turned out to be smoking cigarettes, drinking diet Pepsi and playing Scrabble.

Man, did we have fun and not only because we were playing the fantastically challenging
game of Scrabble either. The long in depth conversations about life in general, our problems,
kid stuff and everything in between formed a deep bond between us. We could talk about
anything that was on our minds without worrying the other would think we were dumb,
naive or whatever you worry about when you are young because if you'll remember we all
wanted to be liked and it killed us to think someone might think we were stupid.

And the summer flew by. We went to Goose Lake when the algae finally was cooked out of it, we got into scrapbooking, shopping for scrapbooking crap, making dinner together at night then drinking Corona Light on the back porch and before we were ready it was almost time for school to start.

Sometime during all this Christy and her hubby (we'll call him Cook after Christy's ex who was also a schmuck) decided to look for a home to buy and they found it. All the way across town, just down the street from my brother and his family.

It was lonely after they moved and school started again because we couldn't get together as often as before. Then that April 2002 my Hubby was able to transfer down here to WI and we moved.

Christy and I stayed in touch. We talked on the phone several times a week. I was kind of her life-line/cheering section/best sunshine up the ass blower when her marriage fell apart due to her husbands drug problem (lots more to that story, but this is a blog post not a novel). The hubby and I even offered for her and the kids to move down here and stay with us while she got her shit together, but she stuck it out in AK.

After some pretty rough years trying to hang on to her house and taking care of three kids 99% by herself she met a guy back in 2007. He has two young boys and was getting divorced when they started dating. She was happy and didn't need me as much so our phone conversations fell off to just birthday's and holidays or when something big happened in our lives.

I've never met him or even talked to him on the phone, but my brother and his wife know him well and say he really loves her and is good to her and her three boys.

Yesterday was her fairy tale wedding. It was an outside wedding at a ritzy type golf club. I guess it had been a dreary day, but when they did their vows the clouds parted and it was sunny for a bit. My brother said it was magical.

I hope she is happy.

Wish I could have been there.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Casper and good things

Aaaah!
Casper had to stop and smell the flowers.
Isn't that just the cutest picture of him?

I got some great pictures of the horses and Chyann riding Scotch last night.

Yesterday was just gorgeous!

The day was made even better with the news that I did get the full-time permanent job at the insurance company!

A good wage, HEALTH insurance (not that we don't already have it through the Hubby, but two is always better than one, right?) that will start on Sept 1st, 401K, 18 days PTO a year, 8 paid holidays off, TONS of OT avail in the busy times, opportunity to work from home in 6-9 months, room for advancement, and BONUS' twice a year!

What more can you ask for in this economy?

I start on Aug 9th.

The hours are from 930a to 6p

I'll be able to get the kids off for school and the hubby will be here when they get home.

AND

My Mother and Gerry are coming for a visit this Friday!

I can't wait!

Have a good weekend!

Thursday, July 22, 2010

The wet

Rained most of today.

We got another inch and a half.

My garden is getting really water logged.

Now the peppers are showing signs of fungi or something
yellowed leaves and they are falling off too.

Heard on the news that our area has received 10 inches
of rain this month.

Wow, that's a lot of rain.

In the eight years we've lived here in WI this is the
first year when we've had adequate rain.
(makes me wonder what winter will be like ~ tons of snow?)


Chyann's toe is better. Yippee!
Maybe tomorrow we can get out and do some riding.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

The builder and her tail, it does wag!

Yesterday was a pretty quiet day.
Caden building in the garage while his Daddy worked
on something.
He says he is making me a new coffee table.
Nice tool belt full of goodies.


Now Chyann, with her forced rest period is finding all this
quiet "terrible, horrible and no one should have to be made to
endure this during the summer when you are supposed
to be having fun!!!"

Really she is quite bored.

We took Casey out for some air and had some fun though.
That is Chuck Norris laying by her too.



Chyann decided this would be a good time for some
more practice standing.



Gotta get those legs in just the right position for her to
bear weight.


Then what do her eye's see?
Casey was wagging her tail!


Very slowly at first then
with some speed!!


We were amazed!!


Chyann was just over come with emotion.
Casey looks pretty pleased with herself, doesn't she.


BeeGee came over to see what all the ruckus was.





And She and Casey started playing!




Again Chyann was overcome.
Broke my heart to watch her.


I think she was just soo pleased to see
Casey doing doggy stuff after soo long.


Then Casey had to clean out BeeGee's ears.




After the ear cleaning BeeGee came over and laid
by me.
We tried to coax Casey into walking over on her own
and with a little help she hobbled over.


BeeGee watching Casey.


She's like, see I told you she could do it.






I got some better sleep last night so I hope this cycle of sleeplessness is over.

Happy Humpday!

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Doctor, doctor and other fun

We spent 3 hours yesterday at our local urgent care.

Big fun.

Chyann has a massive infection on the bottom of her right big toe.

Due to my having had chicken pox while pregnant
she has nerve damage in her right lower leg.
This means reduced to no feeling in that area.

Therefore unless you are looking at her toe and can see the
pus running out, swollen tissues and redness you'd never
know there was a problem.

We were unaware that the wound she received running around
barefooted (she should never do, but does occasionally)
about 3 weeks ago had not healed until Sunday evening.

She go a tetanus shot, is on antibiotics and has to
use crutches for at least three days.
Maybe more depending on how the healing is going

.
The doctor gave her the blunt - shock
her if you can talk about how he'd seen better looking
infections than what she has end up as amputations.

I think he may have gotten through to her as
she swears she'll wear shoes outside from now on and has
been using her crutches diligently to keep the weight off her foot.

And really it looks a LOT better today.

Ok, next...
Colton had a blast at Rock-Fest Sunday.
He wonders why we never took him before.
I'm like, well no that was our time to hang out with our friends.

He and his buddies in the band had
practice after getting home from Rock-Fest
and I'm sure they all were dreaming of making it big and
playing there themselves one day.

I'm just glad he made it there and back safely.
He didn't do anything dumb or have anything dumb happen to him.
Whew..


I for sure got the temp job at the insurance company.
That starts Aug 16th.

Have not heard anything about the perm position there.
So, today I called and left a message for the gal
who interviewed me asking what the scoop with that was.
Haven't heard back yet.
Shit...

I'm feeling some stress...
Playing the what if game way too much...
Tossing and turning till the wee hours...
Rotten headaches all day long from no sleep...

Casey update.
She is able to stand if you put her in that position for a bit.
She has more movement in her tail and legs.
Is able to hold her bowels (most of the time) until she is put
outside.

It's all good, really....

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Garden, fungi and shootin' fun

Much better.
The boys are hanging out in their pasture.
Probably only because I've spent the last two days
out in the garden though.

Krissy's squash is getting big.

Ate that tomato and another one tonight with dinner
and man were they yummy!


About a dozen of these guys.

Most of my tomato plants have Septoria leaf spot on
the bottom leaves of the plants.
Basically just the right combination of
humidity, heat and rain.

I trimmed them off and did a little pruning today.

I've also been seeing some funky fungi.
No idea what kind it is and
I spent a bit of time surfing on the Internet
looking for answers.

I'm guessing it isn't anything too bad, but
I plan on asking my garden guru friend what she
knows about it when she gets back from a weekend
of camping tomorrow.







My weeding companions today were
Tater and BeeGee.


If they weren't trying to get in my lap I was
tripping over them.


Cute, but annoying after a while.

My two youngest kids spent a few hours target practicing
with their Red Ryder B.B. Guns.
They go through phases where they practice a lot
then don't for six months, then they wonder
what happened to their accuracy.

He was telling me how he got the bulls eye.

Chyann getting a bead on the target.


The Hubby brought out some barrel rests for them.

This kept them occupied until it was pool time.
Colton is at Rock-Fest tonight with a few of his friends.
They got free tickets for going to the fest grounds
and cleaning yesterday morning.
Hope he stays out of trouble.