Damn that hurt

I was so going to post my big important post about my day yesterday, but I have had an interruption that has distracted me.

For the third day in a row, we are out of dog food--so I finally remembered to order feed from the elevator. The dogs don't care as they have been eating canned food I had stockpiled for Tequila--but we ran out so this was the day.

My elevator is awesome. Not only do they bill me monthly--but they will put feed out for me to pick up after hours, since they close before I get off of work. I just have to remember to call them, which I finally did today.

That does not mean that I remembered to go pick it up until I was already in my damn driveway. Typical. It was already after 7 pm, and I had done the farm chores, and worked out, after working late--so I was worn out. It was raining and gross, but because I am such a good mama, I went back to the elevator to get it.

Because of the rain, they had put the dog food under the roof where they load feed into feed trucks. Nice of them huh? I thought so.

I kept thinking so until I picked up the bag and threw it over my shoulder. It was a little icky from stray feed on the ground, and a little damp. Because this is the feed truck loading area, there is some scrap feed on the ground--and it was mushy from rain blowing in. So it was slick. Like snot.

Can you see where this story is going?

I took two steps with a 50 pound bag of feed on my shoulder and BAM! Down I went. Not just down in my regular way of falling down (I fell down in the dark at the farm Monday nite, and laughed my ass off about it)--but I went down in a twisty motion, since I had the feed on my left shoulder. I hit my head on a feed truck or the ground, I am not sure which, and really wrenched my neck--slammed my left ankle into the ground, and somehow managed to rip the top layer of skin off of my right foot.

It is amazing how much that can hurt. My foot stung like crazy, which is remarkable since normally I cannot feel it. I was covered in slime, and I smelled pretty much like pig shit, which is what feed smells like when it is wet.

I called Barry immediately, to cry, and he made fun of me. Imagine that. Then he told me to go to the ER. There is no need to get ridiculous about this--I am not about to go anywhere smelling like pig shit. Horse shit, yes, but not pig shit. He suggests I take a shower first, but by the time I did that, I was worn out. I do smell better though

My night is not off to its best start. I got home and realized I had to unload the feed in this condition. Great. I let the dogs in, and they were so excited they went to the only room in the house with carpet and put nasty muddy footprints all over it.

And NOW, what I really want is something fruity and sweet. I don't have anything that would really make me happy and I am trying so hard to be on the program, so I decided to have yogurt. But guess what? we are OUT. OUT of yogurt. And I am OUT at work too. This is not even funny. There is a strawberry Bacardi silver in there, and I have no idea where it came from, or how long it has been there, but I am giving it serious thought. That is the kind of day it has been.

Oy.

Day 3- Animals that are not mine

For as many animals as I have, I still seem to run across other animals during the course of the day. I will admit, I did not take these today, since I was out of town all day at a thing I so want to tell about but will take some thinking to do justice to it. So it has to wait and you get animals from the weekend


Check out this ol boy. This is truly the funniest bird I have ever run across. I first met him last week when I was looking for help to build fence at the farm...he lives down the road from me, at the home of my new help. When I got there, no one was home, and this ol boy thought it was his job to tell me who God loved--and it was not me. I never heard such a racket, I swear--he was one hot rooster.
Isn't he quite the bad ass? I have never run into a bird who looked like he was posing for a body builder magazine, but I am certain that is what he thinks.

These are two of the newest calves at the neighbor's house by my house. They keep a couple of cows occasionally, and then they disappear, and I do not want to think about where they go, but eventually they go away. Barry tries to tell me that they are going to the "trainer"--but I am pretty sure that is not true, as once they go away, they stay away. Then eventually, new babies are born. These are the most recent, and they are darling darling darling.

OK, this one is mine--but the only one of these animals that is mine. And it was at least taken on the same day as the other pics, so it counts as far as I am concerned. But really it is just funny to see an ass run. Far funnier in person, I promise.
OK, back to the characters at the Amish house. I swear, that place is like a playground for me--they always have great animals, and usually babies of some sort for me to hold. It is like going to Six Flags for me.
Ol Honky here is the second loudest resident at their house...next to that crazy roided up rooster. There are two of these geese--it is a goose, isn't it? I swear they sound like an alarm system when they realize you are there. Good thing no one was home on this visit, or someone might have shot me from a window if they relied on the racket he was making.
I love piggies. These piglets were precious--but being hassled by a goat who was insistent on aggravating them right outside their pen. I wanted to kiss their little snoots, but I was afraid one of those vicious birds would get me if I got near them.
There were three little goaties that all looked alike---but they go so fast, most of my pics were blurry. I wish I could have goaties, but Barry won't let me, an dI am sure he is right that it would all go terribly wrong if I had some. They look so cuddly though, I just want to hold some goat babies for a while.
Goat grownups are not nearly as cute. But still fun to watch them play--this was bossy goat that was harrassing the piggies.

I could play at their house all day long. I get to go back this weekend, if we are not all swept away by the monsoons.

I will get back on track with the photo challenge as soon as possible.....stay tuned

Day 2 of photo Challenge-- A Day at work

This was actually yesterday-- a day at work, but the computer would not work to let me post. I am supposed to take a morning picture--so that is my to-do list for the day. I got all but pool chemicals and Gator battery done...and two of the three work projects.
This is one of my favorite things at work--we have always had it. It is the scales of justice, but that rock on the right side says "State" on it. Cracks me up, because it is so true--the scales of justice are in no way balanced.
Back in the day, these books were what you had to rely on to find case law for authority. They still taught this when I was in law school, but now we do not even get books in our office. It is all online. Makes a cool pic though
This is part of a record I am working on. But only part of it. It is about 2500 pages in its entirety--this is just some of it lying in a paper box. High tech storage system huh?
This is a docket sheet--handwritten notes a judge or clerk makes during the court proceedings. Some rulings go in here, depending on the judge, and documents filed are noted in here. Depending on the county, there can be page after page of these--and you can imagine how that can hurt a girl's head to read them line by line by line. This one actually has really good handwriting to some of them. It is worth it though as sometimes you find a secret buried in there.
More books. Okay, I admit, I got them out just to take pics. I have gotten out of the habit of using books to find law--so these probably have not been touched in some time. It is just too easy to do electronic searches on Westlaw or Lexis, which are the legal databases we use.
This is just funny. This is in my supervisor's office---she is a bit of a smart ass. I particularly like the garage one. We are an irreverant bunch--and obviously a hair more liberal than most of the world.
This is what I see a lot--my supervisor editing something. She edits night and day, and thank God for it, as she makes my life much easier. She is a perfectionist, and we make a good team
This is the court house we practice in. Our offices are elsewhere, but this is where our docs are filed and where we go to appear in court. It is beautiful. Notice that I took this pic at nite. That is because I did not leave work until it was pretty much nite.

And as you know by now, that is only part of my day....I still had a passel of horses to feed, dogs to feed, pig to feed, secret kitties to feed, and the rest of my life to conduct.

This project is actually kind of fun. I will be gone to some business in the capital tomorrow, so I will have to schedule a post for then...and doing that really highlights how bizarre my life is. I go from hillbilly farmer to constitutional scholar in the space of five minutes....no wonder I trip over my own feet sometimes!

Blogger sucks

I just spent forever getting my photos ready to post and Blogger won't let me.

So screw it, I am going to bed

I have been challenged

Holly, from themares.blogspot.com , has challenged me to do this seven day thing, where I take pics every day and post nine of them. Or something like that. The idea is to show a day in the life of me, I guess. That is how I am taking it at least.

Taking the pics every day is NOT hard--at least not on the weekends--during the week it might get a little dicey since it will be almost dark when I get home. I will try though. Yesterday was my first day, and it was a perfect day for it.


I spent a lot of time in the truck, in the pasture, running errands to help my saviors who are building a new perimeter fence. Which is a whole other story I will tell when I am over it.


It is not a hardship being out there in the sun--the trees are gorgeous this year. It happened while I was gone on my trip.
These two put up over 700 feet of fence in one day. While I would not normally use field fence, this was very much an unplanned and un-budgeted for expense, and we had to do what we had to do. And since it is a perimeter fence, it will not be a situation where horses are likely to bicker over it and get caught in it---or so I am telling myself.

I finally learned the trick of tightening post settings. My guys told me that it was an added rustic touch to use a discarded branch as the twister stick--funny Amish, I have. They swear it adds value to my totally custom fence. Only I get comedians--but I will take it over crackhead employees all day long. I am pretty sure these guys won't be cooking meth on the property.

I really would not use barbed wire if I had any other choice. I have spent years removing it from the property, but hot wire on top of this fence is not an option due to the heavy woods it goes through. Without a suitable incentive to stay off of the fence, the horses might be tempted to lay over it to get to the bean fields on the other side--and like I said, that is a whole other story I don't have the energy to get into.


Tomorrow, they come back after their regular work day to start the next section of fence--it is around 1000 feet. Once that is done, I can relax and get back to real life. I am so grateful to these guys that have come through to help me like they have--they work so hard and get so much done, and do it right. It is a load off my shoulders to have it done (or in the process), so that I don't lose any more sleep or have to wait for Barry to come home to do it--he hardly has the time, or the inclination to take on a project this large.


It was kind of fun to take pics that were a little different than I usually take--it took a lot of thinking and trying to see things in a different way, and I had to try to not take pics of the workers, since they do not like to have their photos taken. That cut out a lot of my photo ops. These did end up demonstrating a day in my life pretty well too--now what I will come up with for six more days, I have no idea.

Barry goes to the Bahamas

I swear, he has the touch. He wins everything--or somehow reaps the benefits. Just after Barry started working in Chicago, his friend/roommate won two spots on the Bud Light Port Paradise cruise. Dave Matthews Band plays on a private island on Sunday.

They flew down early this morning, and already they had lost Barry's luggage. When I spoke to him, he was on a bus being shipped from airport to cruise port, and the Bud Light was clearly already flowing.

Somehow, I suspect that is the last we will hear from him for a few days. They are going to have a blast--two old goats on a boat full of hotties that think they are old perverts. And they totally are (well Clay is only about 32, but he has 4 kids, so that counts). That makes me feel better while I freeze my tail off up here dealing with horses who have clearly lost their minds, and try to manage a crew of fence builders of the Amish persuasion tomorrow, and also drag myself out of this funk I have been in.

I have to admit I am more than a little jealous, because I know how much fun these quick getaways are. Mine keep me sane, and I know how hard he has been working....he deserves it. And he better behave his dirty self

Entrepeneur

We laughed at first until we saw the wad of cash in his hand. This ol boy is making out just fine with his little business. He did have great jokes too---the best ones so filthy even I won't put them on here. But trust me, they were great. He was right outside Sloppy Joe's on the corner of Duval Street in Key West...some men kept giving us money to go get jokes, just to see if we would blush. They obviously did not know who they were dealing with.

Much more to come on Key West, once I get through this week

Day 2--retake

All right, after that insane dive with Jesus, we needed some recovery time. We took naps I think, then went to dinner at a local pub known for great churrasco steak. And it was good good good. And our waiter liked us so only charged us about half what we should have paid, and we are no fools, so we were happy to eat free key lime pie.

The next day we decided to dive with Horizon Divers, an operator right on the canal our hotel was on. It was a great decision. We went out with ab out 20 people--most from Germany, and some others who were tech divers.
This is Sharkey's...fun local place with good food. We had dinner there.
To say our trip out to open water was a pretty one would be a bit of an understatement. This is clearly not the place for po folks.
Look at that horsepower---THREE 275 horse power engines. Some ol boy wants to get somewhere in a hurry. I have to admit a girl can dream, seeing these things all around.
But the houses--that is what really gets to me. Aren't they gorgeous? I could not possibly even pick which one I would want if they were giving them away.

Maybe this one---although I am not much of a pink girl.
Finally we made our way out to open water, several miles out to dive the Speigel Grove. And because the one thing wrong with Key Largo is that they do not rent underwater cameras, we had to use cheapy underwater cameras with REAL film. Who knows where I can get that developed and how long it will take, so there are no underwater pics yet. I will save most of the info about the USS Spiegel Grove until I have those pics, other than to say that it is a 510 foot ship that was used as a landing ship dock. She is 65 to 135 feet underwater, which is perfect as it offers so much variety--but I will get into all of that later.
Obligatory dumb ass photo of me on dive boat. I do not know why Amy takes these things
So I take them of her. That will show her.
This is Bob. He was our captain, and I thought a really good one. When your captain tells you that today is a clusterf&*$ like every other day, you can imagine you are in for a treat with him. He was the prototypical captain--unlike the dude from the day before, but very much why I love the whole package of the dive experience so much.
And okay, I will admit it--quite often you get some nice scenery to go along for the ride. The guy on Amy's left was part of the crew, but he dove with the tech divers so we did not get to dive with him. The other dude is just a dude, but I think it is clear why I somehow ended up with about 14 pics of him. He was very funny. Not that I listened too good, you understand.

After our two dives on the Speigel Grove, we made a charge for Key West. And that is when the stories get really good. Stay tuned!

Jesus saved me

Yes he did. Today, we were diving at the site of Christ of the Deep, at Dry Rocks, off the coast of Key Largo. Let me first say that I normally believe that any day diving is better than almost anything else, but that is absolutely not true of today.

This was our first stop of our two tank dive, and I was excited that we would get to see the Christ statue, since it is so famous. But virtually everything went wrong with this dive. For some reason, guides do not dive with you here--so you are on your own for navigation and to find all the good stuff yourself. That just adds a little stress that is not necessary.

Second, visibility was not great. And as usual, my stupid mask had fogging problems---I am SO sick of that. But I think I have a plan to deal with that that does not require me to buy a new mask. Amy had leaking problems which is bad cuz she wears contacts. She also did not have enough weights, so fought buoyancy problems most of the time.

But I have to admit, the statue is pretty cool. It is 8.5 feet tall and weighs 2 tons. It is a copy of one that is sunk off the coast of Italy, and was given to the US in 1961. It is made out of bronze. It is in about 25 feet of water, which is really too shallow for my taste. It can lead to current problems if you are that shallow.

And it was the current problems that shot the whole dive to hell. We had an hour to explore, but honestly, there was not much to see. We saw some French angelfish, a decent sized trumpet fish and a barracuda, but not a lot. Amy decided to back to the boat about 45 minutes in, to get more weight. I tried to follow her, but by then, the current was vicious. I had a set to with a big honking jelly fish--probably a foot across. He was gross. I had to go on top of the water to see the boat, and I just could not cover any ground. Amy was supposed to come back to me, but something must have happened, because she did not.

Panic started to set in, as I was getting so tired, and she was not coming, and I could not get back to the boat. I was getting so angry, and scared that I was not thinking straight. Evidently, I was near another dive boat and did not even realize it. They told me to come to their boat and I did. I was taking off my fins to get on their boat when our divemaster, Drew, showed up. I was so addled that I did not even recognize him, and could not figure out why I should go with him like he said to do. It finally sunk in though.

I had to pull myself all the way back to the other boat, via tow rope. It was several hundred yards, and the waves were out of control. I finally got there though, and had to wait at the ladder for a while because I could not get my breath. My muscles were shaking for thirty minutes from over exertion, and the adrenaline and panic took its toll on me. I did not want to go on the second dive, but I had to because if I had stayed in the boat, I would have puked all over everyone else. That dive was better as we were able to work with the current rather than against it. We saw two things we had not seen before, a porcupine fish, and a hogfish of some sort that was really crazy looking, and several French angelfish and a little bitty queen angelfish that was so cute. Amy sprung an air leak though, and we got out around 35 minutes.

Right after we left, we went to the divers supply store and I bought my own fins to use with my booties, because the rental fins are not adjustable and I cannot get a pair that fits both feet. I have a raw spot on my left foot from today's dive, and it is hard to enjoy when you are hurting that bad.

All that effort took it out of us, so we are in for a nap before we go to dinner. Let's hope tomorrow is a little less dramatic!

Conquering my fears

This probably does not look like much to anyone else, but to me, it is a big deal. The first time I encountered this wooden bridge, I had already been pitched over my horse's head down the side of a cliff and then had him slip off the side of a path that scared the hell out of me. By the time I got to this bridge, I was wound like a top. I have not had the chance to go back since then.

Until this weekend. We had not been back in this area since then. I had no choice but to suck it up and handle it. I knew Madison would be fine on Gyro, as she is so solid, but you never know what a young colt will do when they get on a different footing for the first time. Sometimes just the noise will freak them out. And as you can see--there is no where to go should one have a come apart, and it is no place for schooling them.

The part Madison and Gyro is walking on is a solid board. The part Hammer and I are on is made up of narrow boards laid next to each other, but there are a lot of gaps. I still choose that part--for one, the horse has to concentrate. For two, it is in the middle! More room for self-correction should we need it. The gaps are big enough though that a little baby hoof could go through there if you hit it just right--especially when you wear pony shoes like the Hamlet. Look what a little concentrator he was though--he was perfectly calm, perfectly content and perfectly steady.

My little Ham Ham was perfect. This pic was actually taken the fourth time over it. The first time I had to talk my way through, breathe deep and force myself to stay calm. I probably freaked him out more with my celebration when we got done- not that you could tell. He is a stoic little bugger.

That accomplishment made all the property damage worth it. For real.

Thanks for sending the pics Linda!

Where did that tree come from?

Looking at this pic, taken Saturday in the sunshine, you are not immediately alarmed, are you? The only obvious damage I see here is a shattered light fixture between the second and third windows. And I just know to look for it.

This all started on Friday when a tree got all uppity and picked a fight with Mack Daddy.

What tree, you ask? So did I. I met it when it attacked the Mack Daddy trailer on Friday.

It is not like I have not met it before. Hell, I planted it when we first moved here. I made Barry trim it when we got this trailer--as it is way too big for our driveway, and the trees made a canopy over our driveway. I made him furrow them out so the trailer would be safe. We also had to have the driveway widened to make the turn to get on the property at all.

I must have forgotten all that.

When I was trying to leave to go camping Friday, I was being SO careful with the left side of the trailer so I did not get off the driveway and get stuck in the mud. It was not the first unfortunate episode I had with the trailer last week, trying to avoid mud interference. The first one was just a pain in the ass, but this one is going to cost.

Somehow, in all that being careful with the left side, the right side of the trailer went berserk. I was creeping around the turn of the drive, and straightening up--going very slowly---when I saw in the rear view mirror that the trailer seemed to be hanging a little wonky. Being all super careful, like I am--I stopped to see about it. Despite the raining, I stopped.

And that is when I saw that the trailer had slid off the right side of the drive and was buried in mud halfway up the tire. Much more damage was being done by the tree that had jumped out and assaulted the awning on the trailer. It ripped it right away from the trailer--the awning was still rolled up like it should be, but the rear arm was ripped off, a huge spring was sticking out-it was a hell of a mess. The front arm was folded forward so that it was parallel with the nose of the trailer--I still cannot figure out what that was about.

I could feel the panic attack coming on. I absolutely HATE that feeling. I know I have to let it come, then talk myself down from it, and it won't kill me, but I hate that spinning out of control feeling I get when I have really f'ed something up.

I called Barry in Chicago, who had very little to offer than asking me WTF I had done, as he could not comprehend the situation. That might have been due to me freaking right the hell out squealing and squeaking and trying not to hyperventilate, but I am pretty sure I failed at that.

Next, I called Head who was already gone. He made his regular sounds he makes when I pull a stunt, but had some suggestions on how to get the rest of the hardware off of the trailer so I could move it. But for that, I would still be there.



Miraculously, this appears to be the only significant dent--it is above the rear window in the stud stall. And you cannot see it in this pic, but that window is shattered. As is at least one more, maybe two more. To the right of that window, you can see the discolored part--that is a dirt track where the awning used to be attached. You can also see how the frame of the mid-tack door is jacked up. It could not be opened.

This is the following day. See the remnants of the awning? Those are there because the only thing holding the awning was the material, so I had to cut it off. Because I can never find anything that I need when I need it, I used a handy dandy steak knife to cut that bad boy off. That is the same knife I used to stab myself in the thumb all the way to the bone last week, but that is another story.

Anyway, since the awning was high up in the air, I had to drive the lawnmower over there and stand on it to hack away at that fool awning to get it to come away from the trailer. I thought the weight of most of it coming down would help me bend the other remaining wrong. I was wrong about that.

In the midst of it, Madison called and asked in the saddest voice if I was still coming to get her. I am telling you, had she not been looking so forward to this trip, I would have left it all in the drive and gone inside and gotten drunk and gone to bed. But she was, so I had to plug away. I asked her to have her mom bring me some bolt cutters and she did. And thank God--between my secret stash of wrenches that I bought for just me and hid from Barry so he did not lay them down and lose them somewhere, and the heavy duty bolt cutters, I chewed through that remaining arm and got that thing off of there. Still in the rain--and still freezing, of course.

Oh- did I mention it was raining? And cold? so by the time I got to that stage, my boots were soaked through and of course my workout pants were not much protection from the weather


So I got there. No more incidents. Even got the notorious questionable loaders--Hawk and Hammer--loaded in the trailer in the road (you don't think I was driving into another driveway do you?) in the rain with every jackass in the country side driving by at Mach 2. It was dark by the time we arrived. I got there, pulled up, put it in park, got out and walked away. Head took care of everything for me--he situated the trailer for me, already had the picket line up just waiting for my horses--he did it all. And thank God, because I was so relieved to be there I could have collapsed.

Saturday morning, he worked on the mid-tack door so it would open. The frame had to be beat around a bit, so he hammered and chiseled and made it better. He could open it then--me not so much, but I could not put a huge amount of oomph into it either as my elbow is still pretty weak. It just sets off sometimes. I just left that open, and used the screen door, and forgot all about it.
See the frame and the gouge in it? and how it is bent down at the top? Does not look like a big deal but made it completely inoperable. Since I had chucked a bunch of stuff in there to avoid standing in the rain, and planned to organize when I got there, it was a Godsend that he could get it open for me. Otherwise, I would have been dragging saddles through the bathroom or the stud stall--whose connector door is acting a little wonky too. The trailer dealer said that I could not have wacked it hard enough at less than ten miles an hour to have caused that problem, so I am putting that out of my mind for now. Let them deal with it later.

The rest of the weekend was nice. I have lots of pictures of the goings on, but am so busy trying to get ready to go on my trip Wednesday nite that I do not have time to play with them tonight. I worked an extra 3 hours to catch up on things today, so I am hours behind tonight. On a good note, after I got the insurance claim started--and man was it nice to remember I pay those big premiums for a reason--and the dealership contacted to make plans--I was able to put it out of my mind for a few hours. Until I came home and saw awning carcass littering the lane, that is

Bijou--this one is a challenge

so it is a good thing she is so stinking cute. This is Hammer's little sister, Bijou. Check out those crazy stripes that run down her sides....not quite brindle, but she sure is approaching it.

I do not know why this is, but Mel's babies that are dun show more dun characteristics than any of the others. Echo, the yearling sister, looks exactly like this--just bigger.


After we get this one named, you all get a break from naming for a while. Won't that be nice? Melodys full name is GDA Playboys Melody. She is by Playboys Guard (by Freckles Playboy), out of a daughter of Freckles Hustler. Sly is the daddy--as if you cannot see that right up front.

A lot of Mel's babies have musical names. One is Play me a High Note, there is one called Slydun to the Music. I would like to stay with that name theme if it is at all possible, but am open to other ideas as well.

And as the papers come in, I will update you all on which names each one ended up with...because my attention span is too dang short to remember them all by now!

I tried to set this to post while I am on the road to Columbus Day camping, but I see I screwed it up. A Shortened trip to be sure, and a first time to take Madison. Pray I don't crash the trailer, and that everything goes well! Specifically pray that we do not get flooded out or stuck anywhere!