Saturday, March 28, 2015

Saturday AM coffee

Good Morning.
It's been a while since I've blogged it seems. 

Lots of crap going on around here, but we'll start with the weather report:
It warmed up nicely and all our snow melted.
Got a taste of warm weather in the 50's before it cooled down again.
Last week we got about three inches of snow.
It has since melted, but the temps haven't been too spectacular.
Today we might make 40*, which will be alright since the wind is not howling.

Check out this frozen sap from a broken branch on the Maple tree out front.
Pretty cool, eh?


Wrestling.
Wrestling is over - I think.
The Regional competition in River Falls was last Saturday.
Course we had to go by Colton's old dorm.
Felt weird to be in RF and him not be there.


The school we were at had 10 different matches going at the same time. 
Caden and one of his coaches on deck waiting for the current match to get over.


Caden signing in with the refs.
Unfortunately he didn't win any of his matches, but he sure gave those other boys a run for their money.


Being new to wrestling we had no idea what kids/parents/coaches would do to gain an advantage during regionals to advance to the state level.
For example the boy Caden wrestled above dropped over 10 pounds to wrestle in Cadens' weight range. Isn't that outrageous? Not to mention all of the boys Caden wrestled, in addition to their regular school wrestling program also attend a wrestling academy in the cities to enhance their skills. 
I looked into the academy just to see what it was all about and holy shit folks I was sure surprised.
The cheapest tuition was 2 grand for six months and the prices went up from there.
Yikes right?
Considering all that and this being Caden's first year in wresting the fact that he damn near won his matches says what a good wrestler he really is.

Anyhow, after the regional competition I thought we were done for the season, but I was wrong.
Tuesday we went up to Rice Lake for another school tourney.
Which totally gave Caden a HUGE confidence boost because he handily won all his matches!
YAY Caden!


Now thankfully we have two whole weeks of down time before baseball season starts IF weather permitting, the ball fields are dry.

In other news:

With the little bit of warm up we had at the beginning of March allergy season started for me and then last week morphed into a cold from which I now have a sinus infection. I'm about tired of feeling like shit already. I need some hot weather to help cook this ailment out (in addition to some antibiotics of course).

Casper is doing well at his new home, which I'm very thankful for. I sure miss seeing him everyday though.

Our traveling eldest son is done in Germany and has now traveled to Salzburg in Austria. 
He'll be there for a few days before moving on to Paris France.
A smidge more than a month until he comes home.


That's all I've got for now.
Have a good one :)




Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Well....

That was harder than I thought it would be.

Casper went to his new home today. 
 Chyann had him all groomed up and looking pretty, then waited patiently in the cold for them to get here. 


Casper was a champ too. 
Practically  jumping in her 3 horse slant with very little encouragement and he hadn't been in a trailer in over a year. 


The lady who bought him is very nice and says we can come visit him any time we like.
Which I'm sure we will - especially since I couldn't find his fly mask, spare halter and a few other odds and ends. 
I think they are up in the barn under a bunch of hay. 

I'm glad he is going to a good home. 
sigh. 
Time moves on and changes. 
later.

Sunday, March 15, 2015

Spring is in the air...


and of course spring around here smells a whole lot like shit.
Horse, cow, dog, cat. 
You name it we've got it.

In the space of a week we got rid of all our snow. It's still pretty mucky/muddy out, but drying up nicely.

This is our first weekend at home with no tournaments to attend, in I don't even know how long.  Sure feels good to have some down time.

Last week Caden did some amazing wrestling though. 
I couldn't be more proud of him. 
This week will be pretty low key, just attending practices and working on skills as the 21st is the Regional tournament.
I can't even tell you how exciting this is for him and us. 

Little video of a match he had in Cornell.
The boy he wrestled was talking trash to Caden before the match trying to psych him out I guess, but it didn't work - Caden cleaned his clock!

 


Played a lot of ball yesterday with Dodger and Dozer. 
Dozer doesn't really do much at this point other than chase Dodger since Dodger will not let Dozer come near his ball and Dozer just barks and barks at him.


Happy worn out pup.



The willow tree has a hint of green to it already.
With all the wind we had throughout the winter it sure lost a lot of branches. Picking up the branches is on my agenda for today.



I got all the horses groomed up too.
Today I'm going to try for a little ride as well.


And Casper.
He is for sure sold and will be picked up on Tuesday.
ugh.. 
All his tack is clean and packed.



Colton has traveled from Berlin to Prague in the Czech Republic.
They are leaving there tomorrow heading for Budapest in Hungary. 
Wow, right?

Have a good one :)





Sunday, March 8, 2015

Sunday AM coffee

Good Morning!

I think we may actually have a spring this year. 
40* yesterday that felt incredibly warm (when you were out of the wind of course). 
A weather forecast that includes 50's. 
We don't have a lot of snow so it will be gone fast with temps like that. 
I've no doubt that we will yet see some flurries or even some accumulating snow, but that's alright it's all downhill from here. 

Basketball season is finally done.
The boys had a great year.



Wrestling has really heated up!
We had a tourney at our school last week and Caden totally rocked it!
Winning his matches by stacking and a cradle.

I keep getting an error when I try to upload a video. I'm not sure what's up with that.
So a picture will have to do. It's a bit difficult to try running the camera with one hand and the video camera with the other, all the while shouting let me tell you.



Colton is now in Berlin.
He says it's an amazing place and is really enjoying learning about the history and government.
This is the first country they've been to where there has been a language barrier, but they are managing. His backpack was so full and heavy with items he has collected that he had to mail a box home. 


A lady came out yesterday and looked at Casper.
She rides dressage and has several horses, but is looking for a mini that her kids can learn with. She has three under the age of five. She was quite interested and says she'll let us know today. Guess we'll see what happens. 

No idea how Chyann did on the ACT, but whatever the score she already has another test scheduled for April. Apparently taking the test multiple times is the norm. How that can be at 50 bucks a pop is beyond me, but whatever. Fingers crossed for a good score the first go around. 

Have a good one :)