Saddles

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving! I know I did. ANY holiday centered around eating food is MY kind o' holiday.

The woman down the road does this fun thing on Thanksgiving and has done it since we've been here. At least 8 yrs? She goes on a Thanksgiving day walk at 9am. Everyone in the neighborhood is invited - people that used to live in the neighborhood are invited - friends of people in the neighborhood are invited .... you get the picture.

Some years there are one or two people who ride horses, one year there was a pygmy goat, another year someone brought alpacas and a llama.... and there are usually more dogs than people. One section of the walk is along a paved 2 lane road... anyone driving down the road during our walk looks really confused. "What is it?! Are they protesting? Is it a parade? Who are these people en masse with dogs?" Since we are in the country, around the block is 3 miles so it's a good way to start the day of feasting.

Today Jen from Happy Horse Tack Store in Ft. Collins came out to fit Sera for a "new" saddle. New to me anyway - I can't afford brand new - I'll get a used, consignment saddle.

Turns out the saddle I've been riding in doesn't fit Sera the best. I didn't really notice cuz Sera just goes, she isn't off, she isn't sore and my balance has been o.k. No one else noticed either. and then one day we did. Turns out it's a little bit wide for her... When I tried a different saddle... wow. BIG difference.

It makes sense.... it'd be like someone asking you to go on a hike with shoes that didn't fit you properly. You could do it, but you wouldn't do it as well as you COULD....

I put my saddle on consignment with Happy Horse - everyone keep your fingers crossed that it sells! At least I put it up for consignment before Christmas, so hopefully it will go. I brought home two saddles to "test drive". I have a homework list of saddles to go through. We'll see what works. Hopefully it will be one in my budget and near or less what the saddle I'm selling goes for.... sigh. Horses. Any money you might have? Kiss it goodbye!

Now I'm gonna git my butt up to Rex's to test drive saddles. It is 4:30, getting dark and there is a cold wind blowing in a storm... the sooner I go, the sooner I can come back to a hot shower, and a snuggly blanket on the couch.

I am thankful for many, many things in my life. Right now I am thankful for indoor arenas!!!

Gimme some pie!

I make pies. I make my own crust and all that. I'm a little bit scared of my crust each time I make it - that it will turn out like nasty, thin cardboard but so far it hasn't.

I started making pies back in 2002. I heard this book review on NPR for "American Pie - slices of life (and pie) from America's back roads" by Pascale Le Draoulec. It sounded interesting. This woman drove from one coast to the other and chose her route based on wherever there was good pie. There are recipies included and I was bound and determined to try each and every pie.

That hasn't happened yet but I DID try "Doris Kemp's Accidental Apple-Blueberry Pie from Mammy's Cupboard in Natchez, Mississippi". It is INCREDIBLE!

No one thinks to pair up apples and blueberries - it is unusual. Most people I make it for have never had it nor have they ever heard of it and so far everyone has RAVED over this pie recipie. Since it's so close to Thanksgiving and I have MY "Doris Kemp accidental apple-blueberry pie" in the oven baking right now, I thought I'd share.

2 unbaked pie crusts

2 C of blueberries - preferably fresh but frozen works
3 Granny Smith apples peeled, cored and sliced thin
1.5 C of sugar
1/2 C of flour
1 Tbl lemon juice
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbl butter

Combine all ingredients but butter. Mix gently with a wooden spoon. Pour mixture into 9-inch pie pan lined with your basic pie crust. Cut butter over the filling, cover with top crust and crimp edges to seal. Cut slits in top for steam, bake at 375 for about 45 minutes. This time I brushed the crust with milk and sprinkled it with sugar...

I ran out of flour for my crust and used wheat flour for the last 1/4 amt of flour. I am nervous that the crust will taste bland and cardboard-y so I added some more sugar. When in doubt cover it in sugar - right? Well, at least we'll get a little fiber in with our Thanksgiving pie!

You will not be disappointed if you try this pie. Doris Kemp is a genius. A BIG thanks to Pascale Le Draoulec for putting it out there!

I'm cold. Quick - add another cat!

See? There IS a method to my madness. We don't even NEED heat in our house. A blanket and some cats. Cuts WAY down on the heating bill....

I met Kylee on Saturday. Meeting her made it real and making it real made it a little scary! She is great and I'm sure it will be fine... but y'know I'm 38, don't have children and haven't really experienced commitment like that. And uh, there is no backing out now.

They know what I look like!

They have my phone number!

We made plans for next Saturday. Kylee is coming over and we will explore our farm, make some dinner and rent a movie. We talked about things she likes and I think I have ideas to keep us busy, busy busy! I'm thinking about joining 4-H with Kylee and helping her with a dairy goat project. I DO have plenty o' access to goats after all.

Furry Husband and I went to a FABULOUS wine dinner at Harry & Sally's house Saturday night. We reminisced about our trip to Napa/Sonoma and had a blast. Their friends K & D came too. D is from Germany and speaks 102 languages. I think that is so, so cool.

However, D is unaware of any direct translation for "camel toe" in German, but she's going to do some research and get back to us. It IS an international phenomenon - everyone at dinner was in agreement about that.

***Ok - why in the hell won't blogger save my spacing??? I hate how everything runs together and no matter how many times I change it, or how much space I add, the changes don't save.

Kylie

Remember how I joined Partners Mentoring Youth? It's sort of a Big Brother/Big Sister program in Larimer County.

Well I met my "case manager", Andrea, a couple weeks ago to discuss mentoring this little girl, Kylie. She sounded cute as a bug to me and I said yes.

Then Andrea had to talk to Kylie's parents to see if they liked the sound of ME...

I guess I didn't scare them off because Andrea just called to say it's a go!

It's Kylie's 10th birthday Saturday. Her mom thinks it'd be a great birthday present for her to meet me. I've never been a birthday present before. Yeah - no pressure there!!

I'm going to her house with Andrea to meet the family, answer questions, ask questions and set up future play dates for me and Kylie to get to know each other.

Here is what I know so far:

Kylie LOVES animals.
Her favorite food is sushi. (I happen to love sushi too)
She wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up.
Some of her wishes are: 1. no animals ever had to die 2. all her favorite fish could be her pets (I'm thinkin' you mean OTHER than the sushi on your plate?!?)

When asked what she does for fun at home, she says she plays tag with her family's two llamas.

O.k. Girl plays tag with llamas.

How could this not work out?

I play tag with my goats!

I'm excited to meet her. She sounds really cute and y'all know how much I can feed her love for animals! I'm already thinking of behind the scenes tours of the CSU Vet Teaching Hospital, ride-alongs with horse vets, taking her to National Western Stock Show in Denver, helping us bottle feed our goat kids in spring ....

Sweet Spot...

Nope, this post is not about Spot our goat. Although, Spot the goat just happens to be very sweet.

You hear the term sweet spot when a baseball player hits the ball in a perfect location on the bat... I guess my night last night was sorta like that.

We loaded Rosso into the trailer and I took him up to Rex's barn for a ride in her indoor arena. He pulled his, "Oh no. Uh-UH, I am NOT leaving home you pink, hairless, 2 legged monkeys!" Furry Husband kept up his tap, tap, tapping with the longe whip and after 20 minutes, Rosso submitted to the hairless monkeys by loading up.

Rex wasn't home yet when I arrived. I groomed Rosso, tacked him up and went to the indoor. It was freshly oiled and groomed with a harrow. Not a hoofprint or footstep anywhere. Pristine. I paused. Oh. Should I be the one to desecrate??

Aw heck, it IS a riding arena after all! I stepped boldly in. I longed Rosso and then Furry Husband showed up to "babysit" me. I don't ride alone because IF something were to happen... well, it's a long way to the phone in the tack room.

Rosso was a peach. He was nicely forward - he has a tendency to be stuck. Sorta moves but doesn't really GO anywhere. Guess it'd be like a child reluctant to go somewhere? Their feet move when you tell them to go, but they sure don't walk very fast to get there and it leaves a little something to be desired!

We practiced our up and down transitions from walk to trot and trot to walk asking him to stay forward and round like a small "n" vs. flinging his head up and inverting himself into a "u". He was fantastic. I asked him for leg yield and he complied. Nice - maybe the baby horse is growing up a little?

Rex came home. Her mom came by to ride her Trakehner, Highbrow. Rex's husband came out to help Rex doctor a couple horses (bandage change for a cut on a leg for one, soaking a hoof for a sole abscess on another). When Carol took Highbrow's blanket off and walked by the arena door, Rosso spooked and scooted forward - YAAAA LARGE MISSHAPEN GREEN BLOB MOVING!!

He's funny because he is always so dang surprised when someone appears in a doorway. His eyes are wide "WHA? WHERE DID THEY COME FROM?!" As if the doorway is an eternal portal to bring forth the unknown.

S'ok. It was a spook but it was also half-hearted from what I've seen him do when he is scared. I ignored it and went back to work.

After our ride, Rex offered me a beer - who turns down a beer? I groomed Rosso and chatted while Rex and Glen doctored. I chatted with Carol. I watched some of her ride. It was a beautiful night - warm, calm, clear. And of course Rosso loads into the trailer like a perfect gentleman to come home....

There is nothing better than standing around with your lovely, relaxed horse, after a nice ride, in a barn full of horses, on a beautiful Colorado night, talking with good friends.

THAT is my sweet spot.

Promote the Goat!

I realized something on the way to SouthFork dairy goats Sunday.

I have a "PROMOTE THE GOAT" bumper sticker from Caprine Supply on my car cuz I think it's funny. Promote the goat. *snicker*

Rosie, the doe kid, did not lay down for the hour long trip to Lyons, CO. She stood in the back of my Subaru station wagon, chewing her cud, watching the scenery.

Ya think I looked like one of the Beverly Hillbillies driving down I-25 with my "promote the goat" bumper sticker AND a goat in the back o' my car?

Shoot, all's I needed was Gramma tied to the luggage rack in a rocking chair strummin' a banjo.

Kit-tehs and butter

I feel a rant coming on.

I get why people have barn cats. I totally, absolutely understand their purpose. I don't think it's cruel or mean to have barn cats.

WHY DON'T PEOPLE VACCINATE AND SPAY/NEUTER THEIR BARN CATS?!?!

Remember when Furry Husband and I went to get hay? Well, you go into this shop area that has this mailbox to leave your payment. In this shop were a gazillion kittens of various ages. All of them were sick, eyes half closed with matted goo and riddled with worms cuz they had those big round, tennis ball shaped bellies.

If I could have caught them all I would have.

No, I would not have kept them all. There are places that help like Ft. Collins Cat Rescue or Every Creature Counts if we couldn't place them on our own.

I caught one.

I think I caught her cuz she was sleeping and either in a deep R.E.M. sleep or too sick. She was one of two smallest kittens. The rest scattered and were wild. When we went back the next day for the rest of our hay, I tried to catch the other small kitten but it was too wild, fully awake and even with an open can o' tuna, I couldn't coax it out from it's hiding space under the floor.

Kit-teh in solitary confinement in our heated "bunk-house". Wanted to get her checked out by a vet before bringing her into the house. You never know what she might have and I'd like to keep our house animals healthy and free o' disease.

sigh.

Yeah, I know y'all think I'm a crazy ass cat lady. But doesn't it say something about society when domestic animals in OUR care are thought of as "throw aways"? There are low cost spay/neuter/vaccination clinics.

How much effort and money would it take to make sure you have the healthiest mouse killin' machine in your barn? $35.00. The low cost place we use when we trap feral cats charges $35 for spay/vaccination.

I don't have any research to support this but it makes sense that a healthy cat will kill a hellava lot more mice than a sick, scrawny, wormy, pregnant cat will. And aren't you just calling the coyotes and other predators in to your barn for some easy pickin's? I wouldn't think you'd want predators showing up spreading rabies or plague or god knows what else all over the place while they decrease your barn cat population.

So I "saved" one.

We put the word out we had a kitten if anyone was looking - she tamed down really well and really fast. Amazing what warmth, food and clean water will do for trust in a kit-teh. No one's called about her yet and so I guess we are keeping her.

The other cats in the house have accepted the itty bitty, she isn't bothered by our dogs and she's pretty cute. We are calling her Opal, after the woman who owned the house before us and was a fellow cat lover looking out for the kit-tehs.

Itty bitty Opal kitty now.

Please, please, please. Be a responsible animal owner. Spay/neuter your pets. Vaccinate them. Give them a fighting chance. Please?

Onto something more cheerful - butter! My home cheesemaking group on Yahoo has been posting about making butter. I'm gonna give it a whirl!

If you store your milk in quart canning jars and leave it alone for 3-4 days, the cream will rise to the top. Not as much as cow milk, but some will seperate in goat milk. I'll skim it off the top and freeze it until I have enough for butter. It'll be my first experience making butter. Sounds like it is going to take a while to amass enough cream for any sizable amount but I'm excited to try!

Oh - our does are going into heat so our buck is happy! I'm taking his daughter up to SouthFork Dairy Goats for breeding today. No 2 headed, Deliverance, cross-eyed babies for us!

She is supposed to come into heat tomorrow. Now we wait. Does come into heat every 3 weeks this time of year so we mark our calendars and we watch. If they come back into heat in 3 weeks they are bred again. If not, we assume they are brewing up little goat-lets and in 5 months we'll have kids.

Hope everyone has a great weekend! Time for me to load Rosie, the doe kid, into the back of my station wagon (oh yeah, we get some funny looks heading down the highway) and head up to Lyons, CO for some goatie love!

The BIRDS!

O.k. everyone, it's time to mark your calendars for the Great Backyard Bird Count! Go to this website: http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/ to learn more.

Basically, between Feb. 13-16 you watch the birds coming to your feeders, or the birds in your yard for 15 minutes. Count what birds you see and submit them online at the above link.

Don't worry - they supply lists of birds found in your area and some bird identification pictures. It helps scientists record bird populations, migrations and all sorts of other helpful things.

It's fun and something the whole fam damily can do together!

Yeah, yeah. I'm a dork. A huge dork. Tell me sumthin' I don't know.

Go pencil those dates in your calendars right now and lets go count birds!

Ham

The Divine Ms. K gave Furry Husband and I a ham when she moved to Laramie to complete a PhD and her new place had a smaller freezer than her old place. The ham wouldn't fit and I am ALWAYS up for free food. Always. Never get between me and a Ritz cracker. Seriously.

I thought our house smelled cozy and warm and full of good food last night while it was cooking. You know that smell? You are outside and it's cold and you come in, the house is warm and something in the oven just smells GOOD. It makes you feel like a Campbell's soup commercial. We had au gratin potatoes I made from scratch and some asparagus to make our pee smell. MMMM - it was a really tasty dinner.

And then.... all night long I kept waking up smelling bacon. That is when the magic of the ham wore off. I'm sorta wondering how long our house might smell like bacon?

Putting in the picture of the ham above made me a little nauseated actually.

Please God. Don't let our house smell like bacon when I get home. Amen.

Teef and Trees

Wow - we had a really busy weekend. No rest for the wicked ... or something like that.

Saturday our friends Tom and Laurie came over with all of Tom's tree trimming equipment. He owns Kincaid Tree Surgery in Ft. Collins. We are watching their German Shepherd dog, Norman, over Christmas and in exchange, Tom agreed to come trim our trees.

He put on his harness and climbed into the trees like a friggin' monkey! Amazing. I can't climb higher than 2 rungs on a ladder and sometimes just climbing stairs makes me queasy.

Tom is waaaay up in the tree. Can you see him?

As he cut dead branches away, they would rest in the lower branches on the tree. There was this tool that had a hook on the end of a long pole and I'd pull the dead branches out of the tree onto the ground. Laurie, Furry Husband and I would drag all the branches to the front gate where either Laurie or Furry Husband ran the chipper.

Man - it was WORK and it took most of the day. There is still a big, ol', dead elm out in our pasture but we were all so tired we decided to save it for another day. Our ash tree has bark beetle and we'll have to spray it in the spring otherwise it will die a slow death -- and it still might! Tom told me to water, water, water over the winter to help the tree mount up it's defenses.

I think WE got the better end of that trade! Norman, is not so much trouble.

Tho' he does like to stick his head through our fence and since it's electric.... POW! He gets a shock that sends him screaming and running for his life. And yet he keeps doing it! He somehow has not figured out that sticking his head through the fence = 10,000 volts.

Poor Norman!

We'll keep the fence off while he's here.

We have a neighbor that hasn't quite figured out our fence yet either. (shaking my head) We asked all the neighbors before putting up our fence. Everyone agreed it was o.k. Once it was in, Bill was working in his yard and watering. (his yard is MUCH purty-ier than our yard) Well he brushed up against the fence while standing in water and the fence blew him backward! He was lying in his driveway and his wife came running over because she thought he had a heart attack!

Now. Fast forward to this summer.

Bill sees a big ol' weed on our side of the fence. He reaches through the fence, ever so carefully.... he is focused on watching his arm so it doesn't touch the fence wire. He grabs the offensive weed....

completely forgetting he is wearing a baseball hat with a metal grommet on the top!

Grommet touches fence.

Yes. Once again, Bill is blasted by our fence through his skull and knocked flat.

I am terrified of our fence. I keep telling Bill to quit getting shocked and to be more careful around our fence. I guess some dogs never do learn new tricks - Bill OR Norman.

Sunday Furry Husband built an H-brace for our fence near our hay shed. We are putting in a gate so no one ever has to throw another bale of hay OVER our fence. Furry Husband also put together a hellacious goat feeder! We had one and the goats were hard on it, it finally gave out. We built this one with directions from Premier Sheep and Goat Supply. That feeder is STOUT! No way will the goats ruin this one!

Monday the farrier came to trim all our horses' hooves and then I went to Longmont to see my girlfriend about labels for my lotions. I came away with a CD that has .pdf and vector files of my new label. The .pdf files can be e-mailed to printers for viewing and price quotes. The vector files are what they need in order to actually print the design. Now I go out and get bids... fun, fun!

Today Brandon got his "old horse tune-up" before winter. I trailered him to my vet's place, we put him in a set of stocks, she drugged him and floated his teeth. What is floating? It's dental work on horses. With cold weather moving in and Brandon being so old - he IS 30 after all-, I want to make sure he can eat and keep his weight up throughout the winter months.

Horse's teeth grow continually throughout thier lives and the top ones help to wear the bottom ones and vice versa. Most horses - maybe no horses? - have perfectly matched up teeth. This means that sharp points develop on either side of the tooth where it's not worn down. The sharp points jab into their tongue and cheek causing pain. The points also prevent the jaw from moving side to side as well as it should so they can't chew their food so well.

The vet has this drill with a tooth attachment. It's a circular file about the size of a quarter or fifty-cent piece. She files down the points so the horse can move their jaw fully from side to side as well as eat without those sharp points jabbing into their tongues and cheeks.

Brandon gets a special halter that holds his head up comfortably (the black halter with the soft plastic tube) and he's fitted with this mouthpiece that has plates for the top and bottom teeth (the metal thing in his mouth). The vet can open his mouth and he can't dislodge the speculum. Even tho' his tongue is trying the whole time! She puts her hands in to feel his teeth and uses her drill to file them down.

Here's the drill. The attachment is a long rod and the circular file is at the end.

Open wide!


Here you can see that the top teeth have been filed flat, the bottom teeth still have some points. The tooth side closest to the tongue curves up and into the tongue. She'll file them down so the teeth are level.

Anytime I go to the dentist, I think about horse tooth floating.

Under siege...

The last couple o' days we have been under siege... by the wind. We are 20 miles from the WY border - we get a lot of wind where we are.

Furry Husband is a weather nut. He got a weather station for Christmas last year so when we got up the first day of wind, he ran in to see the computer read out on the weather.

Yeah - 50+ mph gusts through the night. Nice.

I got home last night and the wind literally pushed me around on my way to the house. I am NO petite flower. I shook my head as I hunched down and forced my way forward to the house. It felt like I was living in a movie where there has been some sort of nuclear fall out and now the world was encompassed by wind, dust and tumbleweeds with only a few humans left to scrabble out a meager existence on the devastated Earth crust... The wind was literally shrieking and howling like some unseen, crazed, wild animal.

I never did get Rosso loaded up the other night. Figured that wasn't fair.

Today the wind was down to 12 mph. Tonight Rosso can head up the road in the trailer....

I was just happy that no one had any eye injuries! Last time we had wind like this, Sera endured an eye ulceration from debris flying around (debris as in pebble or hay stem not debris like broken glass or tin can) and before that in another crazy wind storm, I doctored Rosso's eye the same way for the same thing. This time the wind did NOT equal a vet bill and for that I am thankful.

I decided to milk the does once a day from here on out. I'd been thinking about it since production is decreasing.. The wind helped me make up my mind lickity split!

During wind storms, the goats hide in their quonset hut houses and stick their heads out to make sure we ARE coming to feed them. You can acutally hear their squallerin' over the shrieking wind if they think you are leaving before they get fed. I feel sorry for them and usually put hay inside their houses vs. in the feeder which is out in the wind.

I didn't fill bird feeders the last couple days. I just didn't want to be outside any longer than I had to be with all that wind. I filled them this morning and discovered that the squirrel chewed through the lid of the rubbermaid trashcan where I keep the black oil sunflower seeds! Guess he thought I shoulda been out there filling feeders and since I wasn't, he took matters into his own hands/teeth.

I don't usually mind the squirrel...

Lately he's been showing up with a buddy....

You can see the gnaw marks on the lid so I know it was him.

When I opened the trashcan, there was a big ol' pile of sunflower seed hulls. He musta hunkered down in there, out of the wind, with his little girlfriend and had a feast. Bastard!

Hmph....

At least he's not a skunk.

Hope

Last night was amazing. Historical. Wonderful. Amazing.

I have hope again for our country.

I loved seeing the crowds in Chicago - so many people from every sort of background.

I did think McCain's concession speech was excellent. I was disappointed that "his" crowed boo'd. I was proud that he called for everyone to work together and quelled the nay sayers. He gave a wonderful speech.

Obama's acceptance speech left both myself and Furry Husband with tears in our eyes. It was uplifting and hopeful and positive. It was honest - we have a lot of work ahead of us as a nation.

Trailerin'

Daylight savings time equals more horse trailer time. It's too dark to ride at home by the time I get home from work. We don't have any outside lights near my little railroad tie arena and it is as "dark as a the inside of a black cow at night" most nights out in the country.

I or Furry Husband will hook up our truck to the horse trailer, we load Rosso, Sera or both and I drive 2 miles up the road to Rex's place. She is extremely kind and lets me come up any time to ride in her indoor. Her only rule is that I can't ride alone. Fine by me. I don't want to end up a grease spot in the sand with no one around either! I'm lucky that Furry Husband will come with and keep an eye on me if Rex isn't home.

I'll take Rosso up tonight. He needs trailer time. He really, really hates leaving home. He puts up a big ol' stink about getting in the trailer to leave home.

Sure sucks to be him!

Furry Husband has learned tons about helping me with the horses on the ground. He patiently gets out the longe whip and tap, tap, taps Rosso's reluctant ass. Forward, forward, forward the taps tell Rosso. Furry Husband stays out of range if Rosso decides to kick and he keeps it up until Rosso decides, "aw hell, I'll GO in the damn trailer already!"

I'm at the front end ready to lead him on up and tie him. Once he's in, he trailers fine. Once he's at Rex's place, he'll load back up just fine. Guess this is one of my winter goals for him along with spending time in the saddle. Get him loading well from home and take him places... will call up some other barns and see if we can't come over for a visit.

Should be interesting to see what he thinks of new places. He is sort of a "fragile flower".
It's interesting that he is such a huge chicken and yet, he bosses Sera all over the place.

Sera is very confident and opinionated bordering on bossy when I'm riding. I wouldn't expect she'd put up with him but she is definitely low man on the totem pole at home. Brandon, our 30 yr old Cushing's horse with arthritis and ringbone is still top dog. He just has to look at either of the red heads and they scurry to comply.

This is our old man - Brandon. I've had him since I was 16... he's taught me a hell of a lot. He is still teaching them red heads a thing or two!
Here are the red-heads. Sera, 8 yrs old is on the left, Rosso, 6 yrs old on the right. Can you tell they are related? They have the same Mama. And both too slow for the races.... somehow I'm thinkin' they like their new "job" much better.

K - it's getting dark out already... time for me to git home and have some fun with Rosso!

VOTE!

Hello everyone - happy election day!

Now get your butts out there and VOTE!

'Specially all you women and people of color! Women weren't allowed to vote until 1920 and black people were thrown barrier after barrier to voting until 1965!! Get out there and use the rights people not so long ago fought really hard for us to have!!! I don't even care which side you vote for - just get out and VOTE dammit!

That's all I'm going to say 'bout that.

Furry Husband and I went out to get hay this weekend. Good gravy - think it about did us in. We borrowed Mrs. Kravitz's flatbed trailer and drove to Chamber's Ranch. The first load we stacked 116 bales, got home, unloaded 16 bales and cried "UNCLE"!

We went in for lunch, called our hay lady Ellie to see if her 15 yr old son would come help. She called us back that night and said he'd be out with a friend the next morning. We thought the bales were heavy at 75-80lbs but that boy knows hay and he said the bales were more like 100lbs. Yeah - no wonder it kicked our butts!

The two boys helped us unload hay and we went back for another 100 bales... came home, threw it off the trailer, stacked it and we are done for the year!!! I've said it before and I'll say it again, THANK GOD FOR 15 YR OLD FARM BOYS!!

Them boys got after that hay, dug right in and saved our tired old saggy asses. The work went so much faster with 4 of us vs. me and Furry Husband alone. Well worth the .50/bale they charge.

I HATE getting hay. Hard, dusty, sweaty work. I'm allergic to hay chaff/dust when I ain't never been 'lergic to nuthin' in all my borned days. Is this another sign o' my old age??? I even wear my little kerchief over my nose like when you played cowboys when you were a kid? My throat still gets all itchy and scratchy and I feel miserable.

My girlfriend Big M asked if I'd be going to the gym this weekend.

Riiigggghhhht.

I went to the gym alright - the Agricultural gym out at Chamber's Ranch.

I'd like to see one of those teensy, tiny, perky, petite, little twenty-sumthin' trainer girls throwing and stacking 100lb bales o' hay!