Friday, April 27, 2012

TGIF!!

What a week! Soo glad it's done.


Thursday when I was working the dogs were outside barking their fool heads off!
 Was really irritating me. I was on one call after another for about an hour and was afraid when I had to speak that the dogs would be heard - that's how loud and continuous they were.

Soon as I got off the phone I went out to see what the hell was going on.

They were over by the barn barking frantically at Scotch who was thrashing on the ground. Obviously in great distress with colic.
A horse owners worst nightmare.


Long story short, I got him up.

 Got Colton moving, he was home trying to enjoy a day off by sleeping in and had him stay with Scotch while I got the vet on the phone.

The vet was here within an hour and began treatment.
Since Scotch was thrashing so much he got a sedative first. The sedative went into the artery instead of the vein and straight to the brain causing immediate convulsion like acrobatics. Which was the worst thing I've ever seen in my whole entire life. Within about a minute or so he was over it and starting to calm down. Then came the bute and all the rest.

Poor guy.
 Thankfully he responded to treatment and is about back to his old self.

The vet said in his 30 years he's only seen that reaction three times. Scotch just thrashed at the wrong moment and shit went sideways - literally.

Still trying to figure out what caused him to colic. No change in feed. Wormed him last week. Got rode hard on Monday? vet didn't think so. No grain what so ever. No new weeds to eat that might have been poisonous.
No idea at all. Chalk it up to another equine mystery I guess.


Caden thinks this is his new perch. His big idea is to build a tree house on top of the stump.
Yeah, I don't think so toots.


Went on a walking field trip through town with his third grade class today and just had the best time. Even stopped by the library and saw my lovely librarian friends. Wish I'd have thought to get out my camera and take their pictures.

The ever gorgeous crab apple tree is blooming.


Love this color.

In other news:
Colton's car broke down. Something with leaf springs, trailing arms and other stuff needed to get down the road. Hope the Hubby can get him fixed up.

I asked Colton the other day how he was liking the new job and he says "It's ok. Like hucking wood all day." Which I might add, is one of his MOST UNFAVORITE things to do. He says it's a job and pays good so wont complain too much. I'm thinking this could be a good learning experience - GO TO COLLEGE AND GET A GOOD JOB THAT DOES NOT INVOLVE MANUAL LABOR.
He has registered for school this fall so we shall see what happens next.



Happy Birthday to my one of a kind favorite brother Jeff tomorrow!
Love you much!

Toodles :)

ps it was because of those pesky dogs barking and driving me nuts that got me outside so i could get Scotch the help he needed. good babies got pork chop bones that night.




Wednesday, April 25, 2012

not so Wordless Wednesday

Monday morning I looked out my office window and got the best surprise!

Saw this little black spot out in the front pasture and at first thought it was the neighbors black lab, but upon closer inspection realized Lily had given birth!



We didn't think she'd be having this little gal for another few weeks. She was hardly bagged up at all and was not noticeably springing. No new name for this little cutie yet. Some ideas are Cookie and Beauty.

Marble will probably be having her calf soon too.

Chyann and I had the best ride too!

We went all the way on that back ridge where they logged trees last winter.
I'm not sure how far it was in miles, but turned out to be about a 2 and a half hour ride. Some parts of the trail was very densely wooded, in which I worried about black bears. Other parts were open fields or fields that had just been plowed up for planting. We crossed two streams and one had a wooden bridge. Up almost vertical hills and down long winding ones.

THE BEST TIME! 


Little ol' Shasta Breeze came with us the whole way too!

Happy Hump Day :)


 

Sunday, April 22, 2012

The Elm came down and a milestone

Saturday dawned crisp, cool and beautiful.

The day had arrived to take down our Elm that had died from Dutch Elm disease two years ago.

When Krissy arrived with TJ we headed out to hit some thrift sales and let the guys get to work.


Four hours later they had made a lot of progress.

 The idea was to take down the branches individually instead of the whole thing at once. Hopefully eliminating the risk that the house or the two maple trees on either side of the Elm would be damaged.

Us gals helped clean up between branch downings.


The wedge being cut from the largest branch/section of the tree.

And down it came!



We had a pole saw that the Hubby modified from a 15' handle to a ginormously long handle to enable him to reach the higher branches without needing to get on a ladder.

 The last big chunk.


Afterwards we had a big feed for the hard workers.
Shark-melon too :)


Many many HUGE THANKS to all our friends that came over and put their time and energy into helping us get the Elm down!

All your help was greatly appreciated!


Couldn't cut a monster tree like the Elm down with out a bonfire to end the day either.
I forgot to take a picture of all the trimmings we planned on burning before we started, but trust me on this, it was at least a foot higher than Chyann's head in this picture.

 

This morning - all that is left of that huge pile.


What a difference one gorgeous old tree made to how our home looked.
I think I'll always miss it.

Originally the plan was to cut it all out and get it stumped and plant a new fast growing shade tree, but the Hubby threw me for a loop and asked if I'd like to have a horse head carved out of it?

A horse head? Hmm.. I don't know. I'll have to think on it.



As for the milestone?

Today marks the 10 year anniversary of our moving to Wisconsin.

10 years.

I've said it before and yes, I'm saying it again - Time it fly's.

We arrived in Eau Claire exhausted from traveling all night from Alaska checked into a hotel and slept for six hours. Woke up to 2 inches of snow and snow thunder!

Welcome to WI!

Moving here has been wonderful for our family.

Here's to another 10 GREAT years!




Friday, April 20, 2012

Old friends, Bugs, and more

Yes, it's true, we had some snow fly earlier this week.
It came down in sheets of heavy wet flakes, almost looked like a mini-blizzard at one point
and was gone before noon rolled around - YAY!

 

Saw my first June bug yesterday.
Never seen one outside the month of June. Must be all the unseasonable weather.

Had a great visit with Krissy and our friend Linda who was here for a weekend visit.
We all worked at the same airline years ago.
(I hadn't see here in maybe 15 years)

 

Linda is a horse buff and shared a lot of horse information with Chyann.
Her daughter goes to a college that specializes in horse type careers too.
Got Chyann all excited about possibly going there herself.


Tomorrow is a big day. Weather permitting, the Hubby and some friends are going to cut down the dead elm tree in front of the house. The place will look so naked, I can't imagine it not being there anymore.

Have a good one :)

  

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Sunday, April 15, 2012

The bloom is on

We had a few hard frost's earlier in the week.
The whole region was talking about the possibility of the new blossoms being damaged.

All my trees look pretty good though.

Lilacs

Lady apple tree on the right and our favorite eating apple tree on the left.
Un-tilled small garden behind them.



The bleeding heart took some hits and has some damaged foliage, maybe because it is at ground level, but still looks pretty good.

Gorgeous weather this weekend.

Took a 12 mile bike ride with the kids. HOLY my thighs are killing me!

Have a good week!


Saturday, April 14, 2012

Cause and effect

Long story short of how we ended up having a hot tub.

The Hubby is from ND where water is in short supply and expensive - you pay by the gallon. A ND philosophy is that if it's yellow let it mellow and if it's brown flush it down.  I'm good with that. The water tastes funky too, kind of sulfery and can occasionally be gritty. Most don't drink the water and buy it by the gallon or have a free standing water dispenser in their house.

Accordingly he is the original master water miser. Not that it is a bad thing to conserve water any time you can, but he can be a bit uptight about it - pounding on doors advising the kids "they've been in there long enough, turn the damn water off!" - that could probably be another post entirely, but I digress.

Since Chyann has had many operations and has achy loose joints that seem to be getting worse, at her last doctors appointment the doc's suggested along with the typical anti-inflammatory meds she take hot baths to ease her achy body. Sounds pretty reasonable right? The Hubby about shit. Course he is picturing full or overflowing HOT baths EVERY night!

His solution: A hot tub with messaging jets and the hunt was on to find one.

Only took a few weeks to find one. He originally wanted one that would fit in the basement, but since this is an old remodled farm house that was going to be hard to find.

Have you looked at the prices on those baby's lately? Holy cow! Talk about spendy! We ended up getting a used one that was a few years old at a very reasonable price. It will fit in the basement with some wall modification. Until that happens it is on the back porch, right off the slider door and to be honest I like it right there. Direct shot into the bathroom to change and close to the pool for summer use. So, we'll have to see if it makes it's way to the basement after summer is over.

I didn't think I'd like it outside in the winter, we got it the end of Feburary, but we had so much fun being out there when it was snowing. Going to have to make a terry cloth head wraps though, sometimes a cold wind kicked up and about froze our ears off so we'd wrap our heads in towels that kept falling off or into the water.

Anyhow this worked out to be a pretty good cause and effect.. Be married to a water miser - get a hot tub. Works for me.



New picture series - The view from my hot tub :)

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Her view of things

All pictures compliments of Chyann, taken while avoiding physical labor.

Plum tree in bloom


Most of our free time has been spent outside cleaning out the barns, gardens, picking up tree branches, wood cutting debris and the like.

(and annoying your brother)


Me telling Chyann to get to work.




The weather this week has been more typical for this time of year. Chilly, but not quite freezing nights and 50* days. The sunshine has been so nice. Makes me feel good.

3rd quarter report cards are in. Caden all A's and Chyann got her first B+ since fourth grade, missing an A- by .07% in math. Boy was she irritated. Apparently that wont knock her off the honor roll and she is already planning on what to do to ensure she'll have her A back by the end of 4th quarter.

Work is just absolutely crapola. I dream of it, waking up in a cold sweat and rolling gut. Then tossing and turning. Hate that. Hope it turns around soon or to hell with rising gas prices, I will be looking for a new job and driving where ever.

Anyhow..  

Hope you had a nice Holiday weekend.


Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Sunday, April 1, 2012

April Fool's day

I love that it is April already!

The days are getting longer.

Beautiful leaves and flowers are everywhere.





Caden signed up for Baseball and practice starts in a few weeks.
 He is very excited and spends an enormous amount of time outside with his bat, balls and mitt. He gets a bit frustrated when he doesn't hit the ball the first time/every time and we have to remind him that practice will increase his skills and confidence, not to worry about it so much, it's just a game.

Colton has taken on a second job working at a local hardware store full time. He is in the money making mode and is even thinking about going out to ND this summer to work. I hope he does. Also, his ankle has healed up very well. Only occasionally will he have some achy-ness in the joint when he has tweaked it or been up on it for more than 12 hours. All things considered, pretty great.

Chyann has been riding quite a bit with one of her friends from school. They go out on their own for hours at a time. It worries me, but I know they are both very competent riders. I do go with them occasionally, but not as often as I'd like.

Work for me has been a drag. I like the $$ and working from home, but that is about it. ugh.

I don't do a lot on the whole facebook thing. Mostly just monitor what my two eldest kids are up to. I've reconnected with some old "friends" from school and one recently posted a shit load of school pictures and newsletters that I got the biggest kick out of. Typical kid, when I  lived in Cold Bay I couldn't wait to get out and never appreciated what a unique place to grow up that it was. Course looking back, I can see that living there helped shape me into the person that I am now and wish I could go back one day.

Happy Spring :)