Wonkers next step

The Wonkers had his stitches out tonight. Or, I should say, his stitch out. I could not find the other one, and the bugs were driving me bats, so I will look again tomorrow. There was a touch of seepage, which kind of surprised me, but I am not that worried about. Plus, the regular doc will be here tomorrow anyway. I clearly failed at cutting out the spot that covers the bone, so it is raw--it is always something. I guess I just did not cut it big enough. Of well, it should heal up fine.
Now for some more growing to commence, so he can straighten up. I am not sure how long it will take.
Tomorrow morning, I will call the surgeon and get my next instructions. I am hoping the poor dude can get some turnout. This has to be making him crazy.

I have several other veterinary matters to tend to tomorrow as well--I am going to feel very efficient. I hope the breeding Gods are smiling on us.

New Slybaby on the way!~

We have found a new niche for Sly--more and more of his babies started going to barrel homes, so we are going with it. We have severely limited the mares who are being bred to him, and chose to breed no mares to him at all last year. This year, I decided there were a few that would suit, and I am so excited to announce that Red Dees Lassie checked in foal to him today. She is a top 10 producer of barrel point earners

Red Dees Lassie is the dam of Lassie Lender. I have listed her accomplishments below, but one of the highlights is that she has over 1200 AQHA points. Most barrel and pole stuff though happens way outside the AQHA arena, though, so many of her accomplishments are not tracked by AQHA. At one time (and may still), she was the Quarter Horse Congress record holding pole horse, and is a 3 time World Champion in barrels and poles. She once earned 75 AQHA points in one show. You can read a cute article about her and her owner here

Here is Lassie's AQHA record.

LASSIE LENDER 5254562 Bay Mare 06/17/1994 Genetic Typed; Horse Embryo Enrolled
Sire- LENDS A LOT X0315696
Show: 08/2007 Open- H- .0 P- 729.0 Amateur- H- .0 P- 489.0 Youth- H- .0 P- .0
Novice Amateur- P- .0 Novice Youth- P- .0 Eq w/ Disabilities- P- .0
AQHA World Championship Show: $ 6,628.20 Earned thru 11/31/2001
Barrel Futurities of America: $ 281.82 Earned thru 12/31/2004
Achievement: 2008 OPEN QUALIFIED SR BARREL RACING WORLD SHOW
Achievement: 2006 OPEN QUALIFIED SR POLE BENDING WORLD SHOW
Achievement: 2005 AMATEUR QUALIFIED BARREL RACING WORLD SHOW
Achievement: 2005 AMATEUR QUALIFIED POLE BENDING WORLD SHOW
Achievement: 2005 OPEN QUALIFIED SR BARREL RACING WORLD SHOW
Achievement: 2005 OPEN QUALIFIED SR POLE BENDING WORLD SHOW
Achievement: 2005 AMATEUR QUALIFIED BARREL RACING SEL WORLD SHOW
Achievement: 2005 AMATEUR QUALIFIED POLE BENDING SELECT WORLD SHOW
Achievement: 2004 AMATEUR HIGH POINT BARREL RACING 4th PLACE
Achievement: 2004 OPEN HIGH POINT BARREL RACING 9th PLACE
Achievement: 2004 OPEN HIGH POINT SR BARREL RACING 5th PLACE
Achievement: 2004 OPEN HIGH POINT POLE BENDING 8th PLACE
Achievement: 2004 OPEN HIGH POINT SR POLE BENDING 4th PLACE
Achievement: 2004 AMATEUR QUALIFIED BARREL RACING WORLD SHOW
Achievement: 2004 AMATEUR QUALIFIED POLE BENDING WORLD SHOW
Achievement: 2004 OPEN QUALIFIED SR BARREL RACING WORLD SHOW
Achievement: 2004 OPEN QUALIFIED SR POLE BENDING WORLD SHOW
Achievement: 2004 AMATEUR QUALIFIED BARREL RACING SEL WORLD SHOW
Achievement: 2004 AMATEUR QUALIFIED POLE BENDING SELECT WORLD SHOW
Achievement: 2003 AMATEUR QUALIFIED BARREL RACING WORLD SHOW
Achievement: 2003 OPEN QUALIFIED SR BARREL RACING WORLD SHOW
Achievement: 2003 OPEN QUALIFIED SR POLE BENDING WORLD SHOW
Achievement: 2002 AMATEUR HIGH POINT BARREL RACING 5th PLACE
Achievement: 2002 OPEN HIGH POINT BARREL RACING 3rd PLACE
Achievement: 2002 OPEN HIGH POINT BARREL RACING MARE
Achievement: 2002 OPEN HIGH POINT SR BARREL RACING
Achievement: 2002 OPEN HIGH POINT POLE BENDING 4th PLACE
Achievement: 2002 OPEN HIGH POINT POLE BENDING MARE
Achievement: 2002 OPEN HIGH POINT SR POLE BENDING
Achievement: 2002 AMATEUR QUALIFIED BARREL RACING WORLD SHOW
Achievement: 2002 AMATEUR QUALIFIED POLE BENDING WORLD SHOW
Achievement: 2002 OPEN QUALIFIED SR BARREL RACING WORLD SHOW
Achievement: 2002 OPEN QUALIFIED SR POLE BENDING WORLD SHOW
Achievement: 2001 AMATEUR HIGH POINT BARREL RACING
Achievement: 2001 AMATEUR HIGH POINT POLE BENDING 5th PLACE
Achievement: 2001 OPEN HIGH POINT BARREL RACING 3rd PLACE
Achievement: 2001 OPEN HIGH POINT BARREL RACING MARE
Achievement: 2001 OPEN HIGH POINT SR BARREL RACING
Achievement: 2001 OPEN HIGH POINT POLE BENDING 8th PLACE
Achievement: 2001 OPEN HIGH POINT SR POLE BENDING 3rd PLACE
Achievement: 2001 AMATEUR WORLD CHAMPION BARREL RACING
Achievement: 2001 AMATEUR WORLD CHAMPION POLE BENDING
Achievement: 2001 OPEN WORLD SHOW SR BARREL RACING 7th PLACE
Achievement: 2001 OPEN WORLD CHAMPION SR POLE BENDING
Achievement: 2000 AMATEUR HIGH POINT BARREL RACING 4th PLACE
Achievement: 2000 AMATEUR HIGH POINT POLE BENDING 4th PLACE
Achievement: 2000 OPEN HIGH POINT BARREL RACING 10th PLACE
Achievement: 2000 OPEN HIGH POINT SR BARREL RACING 7th PLACE
Achievement: 2000 OPEN HIGH POINT POLE BENDING 2nd PLACE
Achievement: 2000 OPEN HIGH POINT POLE BENDING MARE
Achievement: 2000 OPEN HIGH POINT SR POLE BENDING
Achievement: 2000 OPEN WORLD SHOW SR BARREL RACING 8th PLACE
Achievement: 2000 AMATEUR QUALIFIED BARREL RACING WORLD SHOW
Achievement: 2000 AMATEUR QUALIFIED POLE BENDING WORLD SHOW
Achievement: 2000 OPEN QUALIFIED SR POLE BENDING WORLD SHOW
Achievement: 2000 AMATEUR SUPERIOR POLE BENDING
Achievement: 1999 AMATEUR HIGH POINT POLE BENDING 10th PLACE
Achievement: 1999 OPEN HIGH POINT JR BARREL RACING 7th PLACE
Achievement: 1999 OPEN HIGH POINT POLE BENDING 8th PLACE
Achievement: 1999 OPEN HIGH POINT JR POLE BENDING 5th PLACE
Achievement: 1999 OPEN WORLD SHOW JR BARREL RACING 3rd PLACE
Achievement: 1999 AMATEUR QUALIFIED BARREL RACING WORLD SHOW
Achievement: 1999 AMATEUR QUALIFIED POLE BENDING WORLD SHOW
Achievement: 1999 OPEN QUALIFIED JR POLE BENDING WORLD SHOW
Achievement: 1999 OPEN SUPERIOR POLE BENDING
Achievement: 1998 AMATEUR HIGH POINT BARREL RACING 5th PLACE
Achievement: 1998 AMATEUR HIGH POINT POLE BENDING 8th PLACE
Achievement: 1998 OPEN HIGH POINT BARREL RACING 3rd PLACE
Achievement: 1998 OPEN HIGH POINT JR BARREL RACING 2nd PLACE
Achievement: 1998 OPEN HIGH POINT JR POLE BENDING 8th PLACE
Achievement: 1998 AMATEUR SUPERIOR BARREL RACING
Achievement: 1998 OPEN WORLD SHOW JR POLE BENDING 10th PLACE
Achievement: 1998 AMATEUR QUALIFIED BARREL RACING WORLD SHOW
Achievement: 1998 OPEN QUALIFIED JR BARREL RACING WORLD SHOW
Achievement: 1998 OPEN SUPERIOR BARREL RACING
Achievement: 1998 AMATEUR PERFORMANCE REGISTER OF MERIT
Achievement: 1997 OPEN HIGH POINT JR POLE BENDING 10th PLACE
Achievement: 1997 OPEN PERFORMANCE REGISTER OF MERIT

Needless to say, we are thrilled to have a mare of this caliber in Sly's court. We cannot wait to see what happens. Lassie herself is coming to visit as soon as she foals her first baby, which is due July 4.

Talk about making a splash in his first big foray into the speed events, huh?

How many times?

Go ahead, ask me how many times I went to see the vet today.

Not once. That would not even be noteworthy.

Not twice. That is not unheard of.

THREE TIMES.

Three times I drove the same freaking road today, starting at 7 something in the morning. I got within minutes of there, only to get a call that Aries' man in a can had been mis-directed and was not available on the vet's end of the route. Instead it was back in my town. At an unmanned Fed Ex joint.

Huh.

So I turned around, and headed back to get it. You have to love small towns though--I had a cell number to call a Fed Ex driver when I got close, and he would find the closest driver to meet me at the facility and fork over the semen. So all that happened. Do you have any idea how awkward it is to call work and tell them you will have to take some personal time because you cannot find your semen? well for me, it is really not that bad--this is not the first time this has happened.

Bottom line--instead of Aries being bred at 9 am and me getting to work at 10 am, she was bred at 11:15 and I got to work at 1 pm. We were very fortunate that she held on to her follicle and was getting ready to ovulate when we bred her.

I took Radar with me to this adventure so he could have his teeth done, his eye (from where he whacked it the other day waiting for his Troy visit) stained to see if he had scratched it (he had not), and have his package cleaned, as he is acting ouchy but does not want me to clean it.

I intended to bring them all home at once, but Aries was being super protective of baby Bambi, and without a full divider in the trailer, it was too dangerous to put them all in there. So I brought Radar home and went to work, and after work, I went back there again to get Aries and Bambi. By the time I got to that point, a big storm was kicking up--kind of a white knuckle sort of ride.

On the way home, I stopped to get dog food. I was proud of me. Except then I left it in the truck at the farm anyway and had to feed the dogs hot dogs for dinner. Good thing some of them survived the great freezer breakdown of 2010.

I fully intended to post a bunch of pics tonight, and be interesting, but I have spent most of the nite taking my new turquoise sandals away from Slater. I have a bunch of new sandals and clothes on the kitchen table because I do not have the strength to find a place to put them, and Slater keeps taking a shoe box and taking the same shoe and trying to sneak it in to the living room to chew on it. Defending my new shoes has worn me out, so I think I will lock both these dogs out of my house, and go to bed by myself with my new book.

I hope I can do that just one time, and it goes a little more smoothly than did my vet experience today

Radar's solution

Anyone who saw Radar act up at Ghost Hollow last month had to know there was something wrong with him--bad wrong. He has been developing some quirks since last fall, mostly about having the headstall put on him, and touching the top of his head, and I suspected something was not right--but that weekend made it super clear. It was more than a violent reaction to having his headstall put on--but that he was like a powder keg under me, just spoiling for a bucking fit, and that is not something that is in his repertoire. It was horrid-and scary. After I got over my mad, I was really worried about him.

As soon as we got back, I had the vet check his teeth. My vet is a teeth fanatic. His comment was that they were not bad enough to justify his behavior, so it had to be something else. We were busy with other things, and I knew in the back of my mind what I would need to do next, so I let it go.
That something was to call Troy Brandenburg, who I used when Twister set to consistently bucking for no apparent reason. Troy fixed him up in one visit. Saturday was the day that Troy could come over, so we assembled a group of horses from the surrounding 100 miles that maybe could use a treatment, and set in for the day.

Radar went last and as usual, I learned so much just watching Troy work and listening to his suggestions and thoughts of what was going on with each of the other horses. When he finally got to Radar, Troy already knew what was wrong with Radar just by watching him stand in his stall waiting his turn. It is in fact his teeth--which are not horrid, but they are bad enough for a horse as sensitive as Radar is. It is not just the teeth, but the problems they have caused--he has super tight muscles along his jaw, and that tightness ran all the way to his shoulder. This was caused by the accommodations he was making for his teeth--chewing to one side for a long time, then switching sides from pain. His back was out too, but I do not know if that was related--it could have been. Essentially, my baby Radar hurt from top to bottom, front to back, and just could not bear any more.

The more we talked about it, the more info I could come up with and it all just solidified his diagnosis--like how he is so demanding about having his bit EXACTLY right in his mouth--can't be the wrong one, can't be 1/4 inch off of perfectly placed, stuff like that--which is really encouraging to me, because it makes me more confident that we have really found the problem and can fix it.

I guess I never thought beyond the obvious problems teeth can cause-like soring the mouth where a hook pokes him, or something. We stay pretty on top of teeth issues here, but I guess we have been lucky--Radar just must have very little tolerance, as compared to most of my others.

Anyway, the first thing Troy did was fix his back--pop pop pop and ol boy was standing better already. Then he started to work on his jaw, his poll, his shoulder--everything that had gotten out of whack from his teeth being a tad off kilter. He put the magnet blanket on him for a while to relax him, then really dug in deep and got to work. At first, you could not even touch Radar's poll without him going batshit. By the time he had massaged him for a while, and used that accupressure thing on him, he was happily dropping his head and leaning into the massaging he was getting. Even the look on his face was markedly different, and he would sigh every once in a while, like he was saying "Finally, some relief!"

Sunday, I did his massages and then let him out of the stall to play with Cash in the bullshed. That will get him moving--and it did. It was so dang hot, I hated for him to be stuck inside like that. I will get his teeth done this week, and keep up on the exercises. Troy was pretty sure he would be back to normal within three or four days of having his teeth done--I would love to take him camping next weekend but that will probably be too fast for him. I will keep working on him every day to keep him from tightening up again before his teeth are fixed. It is so satisfying that he is letting me do it, when at first he would not let anyone touch his head. It's amazing.

Stay tuned for updates!

Wonkers is doing fine

He is not bothered in the least by his bandage. The surgery went well, they chose to only do one leg, as the other one was less than 5 degrees off and should continue correcting on its own. The right leg was between 10 and 13 degrees off of plumb, so he qualified for the periosteal stripping, instead of the more serious stapling procedure. What the stripping does is encourage the more slow growing side of the leg to pick it up until the leg is completely straight.
He is kind of cute, all wrapped up. He wears this bandage until tomorrow nite. He takes SMZs and only a hair of bute, which I do not think he needs, until tonight. After I change his bandage, the new one will stay on for a week. He is to be hand-walked 15 minutes a day until that bandage comes off, then we re-evaluate to determine what his turnout situation will be. I will also take out the only two outside stitches at that time too.
This is why Wonkers has to be hand-walked. He does not get the concept of restraint. He never has. We moved him to an indoor/outdoor pen today, about 15 x 20, so he is still contained, but can get some fresh air, and I can quit cleaning stalls like a crazy person. It is amazing how big of a mess a nursing mare and baby can make. It is too hot to keep that mess up.

If he keeps acting like a good boy, he can stay in that pen. If he acts up with the silliness, I will squash his pen down to half his size. That will teach his little butt.

Now lets all cross our fingers that he straightens up quickly and can be allowed to go out in the pasture like a real horse should be able to.

Lets also hope he has a little more luck than we have had this weekend. Besides him, everything else has gone a little off the rails. I am working an ear infection and cannot hear a damn thing--and obviously cannot have this last long since our dive trip is in five weeks. The flat bed trailer went berserk and the hitch wont lock down--how does that happen? The bushhog part that is bent is not available locally, so will be a big problem to fix---right when everything needs mowing. The big one is that the big deep freeze quit. I mean it all the way quit. We just threw away hundreds of dollars of food, especially meat. I almost cried. Instead, I yelled, because I cannot hear anything. The pool is coming along, but needs some new parts to make it all the way right. I have been in it anyway, where we have found sloughed snake skins---that is really icky.

Wonkers update

There really is not one so far, other than that his surgery was postponed this morning due to another emergency that came in. Also, the doc noticed that Wonkers sounded a little raspy when his head was down, so he ran a CBC to make sure he was okay. He is okay, his white cell count is normal, so they are going ahead with the surgery.

The good news is that the xrays show his left leg is only off about five degrees, so they are leaving that alone. They think it will come around on its own. His right leg has corrected itself to only being off by ten to thirteen degrees--so they are able to do the stripping instead of the stapling. That is a much more minor procedure that will not require a follow up visit, I do not think.

That does not leave me anything to do for the rest of the day, so I guess I will go shopping and meet Barry for lunch. Im kind of craving Cheesecake Factory.....mm mmm good

Stay tuned for updates

Drive by update

This week has been a whirlwind--this may be the first time I have actually sat down to relax all week.

I am at Barry's for the nite---I dropped baby Wonky off at the hospital for his leg surgery in the morning, then came here to spend the nite until it is over. We just had a fancy steak dinner at Soulard's on 7th Street---outstanding. I have not eaten like that in a LONG time--maybe since that nice dinner we had with Amy and the hot Venezuelan dive master in Bonaire last year. That was pretty damn good too.

Other than that, I have pretty much lived on rice krispie treats and Diet Red Bull this week. This morning, I took Aries to the sleep away breeding joint for an ultrasound, hoping she was ready to breed. Do you have any idea how hard it is to load a half-a-baby in the trailer in the rain? It ain't easy. Suffice it to say, she shit on my hand, which is no way to start a day. Anyway, she was not ready to breed, but I left their tails there anyway-- I need a break from daily vet visits for a while. Gypsy has been there since Tuesday, since I had to go to Chicago until late last nite. She was bred this morning to Playboy Boonsmal--cross your fingers it gets the job done. I brought her home.

What that means is that I have hauled every baby I own in the trailer today. Stressful stuff, especially in the rain. Thank God I bought new tires for this trailer is all I can say.

But it is a done deal--at least until next week, when hopefully Aries gets her ovaries together and gets bred to Dualin Boon. I will deal with that later.

So, I have been in Chicago at a meeting yesterday. It was a rush trip, in and out in less than than 20 hours. And because of construction, it took more than six hours to get there and almost that to get back. That is how I came to drink so many red bulls. I do not advise that, as it works to keep you awake, but then bad things happen to your stomach. Take my word for it.

Other than that, what has happened? I have taken back up with the Beast training and thank goodness for it. I had to cancel today as there were just not enough hours in the day--and I hate that. I miss it when I am on a roll.

Today, Dad had another catheterization--of his heart and his brain and everything in between. He is a disaster again--and the docs nixed his cystoscope scheduled for tomorrow, as they say he is not strong enough for the anasthesia (I think that is the issue). He has been trying to get this scope done for a while, to check up on his bladder cancer, but I guess it will wait some more. Now he will have some more stents put in on the right side of his neck in the carotid, in his heart, and in his right arm somewhere. He is a never ending rehab project.

Big doings are happening at the farm this weekend--Troy Brandenburg is coming to work on RAdar and get his cranky ass lined out--I know something is wrong with him. I'm sure Troy can fix it. We are functioning as sort of a clinic while he is there, and several others are hauling in to have horses worked on. He is so amazing to watch, I am really looking forward to it. I jsut hope the rain stops and it dries up a hair so I can mow again before it all starts. When, you ask? Hell if I know.

A fat white chic at Zumba class

Oh holy mother--you should have seen this foolishness. I have been waiting and waiting for Zumba to come to my town, and finally, the Y set up a special one time class to happen at 11 am today. You had to sign up in advance and the class was limited to thirty people.

I was SO excited. I am the clumsiest person walking around on a regular day, so I did not expect to be able to actually do any of this stuff. But I keep hearing how fun it is, you forget you are exercising.

My ass.

Five minutes into it, I wished I was dead. My heartrate was already over 80%. I will admit I am not in the shape I was in six months ago, but this was ridiculous. I was sweating so hard, I was getting dizzy. Even mom was doing way better than I was, even if she looked like a complete jackass doing it. Really, everyone did, except for about three or four skinny chics who clearly knew what they were doing.

The teacher was amazing. I could have watched her dance all day. Trying to copy her--not my strong suit. I would start laughing so hard, I could not even pretend I was actually doing the steps.

This was a special one time thing, and thank God--no way could I keep up with this chic ever. We will get real classes this summer though, and hopefully, they will start with remedial white girl moves so that I can learn it. It should be really fun

That is, if I have not actually broken a hip, like I feel like I have.

awwww.....spring makes me happy

Bambi, at 5 days old, or so. She is so tiny, that mini baby halter she is wearing has a knot tied in the leather crown piece--and it still hangs. She is a little oompa.

I love the mama and baby pics that can be caught and you do not know what you have until you download. This one makes me happy.

Prodigal Son returns!

The Baconator has returned! I do not know what he was up to, but he returned, snuffling around my window, complaining about everything.

I do not know what that was about, but I sure am glad he is home. He has not yet eaten everything that got spilled in the garage, but he has eaten enough that he is just laying around moaning and groaning like when he ate the sixty pound pumpkin. God forbid you touch him, he makes a quiet howling sound like when I have eaten at the Pizza Hut buffet.

He cannot be in that bad of shape as he ran like hell when he saw me get on the lawnmower about 7:45 tonight.

Potential trauma

I cannot find the pig.

I think I saw him this morning.

But not since I got home tonight.

I am about a 7 on the panic scale. He could be in the pasture. But normally he comes running when he sees me. Tonight though as soon as I got out of the car, I got on the mower. He is scared of the mower.

I am worried that he is not just hiding. He is not really a very good hider.

I am gonna go look again

Typical day--who did that?

First thing this morning, I find that there had been some havoc in the garage. The new bag of pig food had been thrown on the floor. As have two buckets of horse feed that are in the garage on a deep freeze for a reason unknown to me. Peeg was having a heyday. I assumed cats did it, since I am blaming everything on them this week. (speaking of which, I do not hear kitties in the ceiling tonight--this concerns me, as usually the TV gets them going)

I was wrong about the garage culprits. I got in the car, backed out and saw that Twister was standing in the yard. The back gate was standing open and Fonzie was standing near it, but in the pasture. That means Sly was unaccounted for. I almost had a stroke.

I should not have. That boy loves his mama big time. By the time I had the car door open, Sly was running across the yard to tell me what a fun day he was having. I guess we know who made the mess in the garage. That will teach me to leave the door open, I guess.

I fixed that situation, wondered what happened to the chain on the gate as it was totally missing--and went to work. It was a weird work day where I felt like I was in a circle jerk all day--nothing got accomplished, it seemed like. I hate days like that.

I had a doctor's appointment at 1:15, and I got there only to be told it was yesterday. The lady was a bit of a bitch. I knew she was wrong as I do not make Monday appointments, because usually I am at the vet or cannot be trusted to remember a Monday appointment, and I had put it in my handy dandy Droid calender. That is the best phone ever by the way. Some other dude came in with the same problem and he had his appointment card to prove it. She apologized to him, but took a tone with me. I am not a fan of that.

So I saw the doc--my thyroid levels are fine, I got steroids for the ridiculous annual poison ivy problem, and he upped my other meds that are to help me get off meth, stop having seizures, and some other things that do not apply. It is some super med that he says helps nerve pain and will let me actually get good sleep instead of just a lot of it. Lets hope we got the dosage right and I can be a normal person, and not a nocturnal wombat.

Back to work I went. More go in circles. Since I found out how fat I really am at the doc, I went to the gym and got on the treadmill. I swear it is like I never did it before. It was awful, but I did it. I know I will be glad someday. Hope it is soon.

Then I Went to the farm to get the new stall cleaner, Olivia, started. She is so cute I cannot stand it--her muck boots have packer heels and flowers on them for pete's sake, and she pulled her hair back with a hot pink sequined scarf. The wheel barrow is bigger than she is, but she got after it. I like her. I have to get a pic of her in that get-up.

While she was there, a mare owner showed up to get his mare. I wanted to hang out more with them, but also, my friend from work came to help me fix the bushhog that I did some damage to on Monday morning. It was a bust. Now I think they get why I always look like I have been hit by a truck when I get to work, not to mention why all my clothes are ruined.

It started to rain while I was out watering, and thank goodness-it is HUMID. It did not last though. I got home about 8 and my lawnmower was back from the dealer with new tires and blades--bout damn time. It was pretty much dark, but I had to try it out. I could tell that it is WAY better than it was--but who knows what I mowed out there. I know it is going to storm like hell for a few days, so this was my only chance.

I have been in the house since about nine and my efforts to not eat too much are going so so. I ate some teeny bit of cheese and crackers. Like four. not bad. Then the humongous like I have never seen in my life wild asparagus that crazy Darrell brought me--that was pretty tasty, I have to admit. It makes me happy to think of his crazy ass out in the wild picking asparagus for me because he knows I love it--and you know he was cussing me the whole time. I think that makes it taste better. Then I gave in and made some super lean taco meat and put it on low carb tortillas I discovered. I ate too much for sure. But at least it was all stuff that is okay--now I am gonna have diet yogurt and crash. I hope.

What did I not do? Catch Spike the pervert, who seems to have calmed down. Re-pack Echo's foot, which has finally spring a leak but she is still way off. She is at least putting some weight on it when she stands, and is up more than she is down now. I also did not remember to buy more of Simba's medicine, and I did not go to spinning before work like I was supposed to. I did no laundry. I did not deal with mail.

Maybe tomorrow

Half boy/half man

The baby Spikers is not a baby any more. He is a year old now, and sometime in the last week, he has figured out that he is a man. I think he figured it out Sunday morning, as that was when we caught him terrorizing the ladies in the pasture. And yes, that means his days in the pasture are numbered.
He is a handsome bugger though. I still really like him. I am not sure how he will feel about me when I pull him out of the pasture and make him live like a man. I will give him a friend or two of course, but he cannot be out sniffing around the girls now that he knows what he is supposed to do with that thing.
He cracks me up, because it seems like it happened overnite that he went from baby to a short grown-up. I am going to try to get some better shots of him, now that I know he is out of his ugly stage that they all go through.
These photos have nothing to do with anything. I just tend to take a lot of them when there is still grass out there to make for pretty pictures.
I could definitely focus better.

In other news around here--the strangest thing happening in my world is that there are kittens in the ceiling. I do not know if I have mentioned this yet, but this weekend, I heard some cheeping or chirping in the ceiling above the orange bedroom. After listening a while, I realized it was a pack of kittens. My best guess is that one of Charlie's ladies decided sneaking in the attic-ish area was the right choice for childbirth.

They talk all the time. Or at least all night. I can tell they are at least a couple of weeks old, since they are so loud, and because they are on the move---they have gone from one side of the room to the other side, and now I can hear them here in the living room. Unfortunately, that is a long ass way from the exit.

Also, I scheduled baby Wonky Legs surgery for Friday May 21. It will be nice to have it behind us. It is frustrating however, that the money I had set aside for it is now being taken up by our mortgage company who did not tell the truth about the closing costs on our refinance. It went from $0 out of pocket to $874. By Friday. How bout that for a shitty surprise?

I have lots more, but what if I do not have anything to say tomorrow? I better save some of it.

And keep the FAQ questions coming--I will probably do the post by the end of the week. There are some good ones in there already. Hope I can come up with some normal people answers.

FAQ

I am starting to feel like I am totally talking to myself around here.

Some blogs had a FAQ post every once in a while, and it is pretty interesting to me to see what kinds of questions people come up with.

So let's do that. Send me questions--in a comment or email, or whatever, and I will make a post answering them.

Now won't it be embarrassing if no one asks me anything!

Bambi

is darn near shorter than her mama's belly. When mama is upside down.

She is growing though and approaching cuteness. She will be a week old tomorrow--I will post more cute pics then

Cover cat

That is one sexy cat. And a very handsome pig at that.

I started out shooting these two fools while I was mowing the yard after work today--and I got a bunch of them, and was preparing a series of shots to post when I ran into this one.

I do not think I can top this. So I won't even bother to try.

I also do not know why I think it is extra funny just because all this happened right smack in the middle of the side yard--I had mowed that section first (although not well since my blades suck, and a number of other reasons). Maybe it was extra cushy--I do not know, but I can tell you that peeg spent a lot of time picking out just the right place to rest. Charlie on the other hand, was cool with wherever, as long as he could waller peeg.

I love these two fools

Medical updates--good and bad

Miss Vixen got her stitches out yesterday--day 11, I think. It is healed up really well. The bloody area is the spot that popped open, and that is fine. We wore it out scrubbing to make it bleed rather than letting it scab up. I am thrilled with it. No it is not pretty but I bet we will never even see it again, once it hairs back up. Now all I have to do is make sure scabs are picked all the time, so it can keep healing. Its a little puckered, but I am sure with time it will flatten out. Considering what a mess it was, I am good with this.
So after all this time, she got to go outside. First, she did not seem to know what to do with herself--she just stood at the gate and snorted at me. See you cannot even see her scar from here. She eventually realized she could play and she put on quite a show--I am saving those pics for a rainy day.
Meanwhile, poor Echo is really hurting. This abcess is kicking her ass. Last nite, after we confirmed it is just an abcess, I put on her epsom salt soaking boot, and wrapped her off leg for support. She waves her left foot around all the time and will not put it down for anything, so her off leg needed some additional support. She was not a fan of the soaking boot, and the wrap concerned her, so she had a real dilemma. She did not want to use either foot, but that made it hard to go anywhere--like to dinner at the front of her stall.

She solved that problem though--she rocked back on her hind legs, picked her front ones up about 18 inches, and shuffled across the stall. She looked like a Lippizaner. A short one, but one all the same. It wore her slap out but she got there, and did not seem to like me laughing at her.

This morning she had taken off the support wrap and the soaking boot had slipped down so it sloshed and flopped. I took it off. I felt sorry for her tonight, so I gave her hay where she was resting. Just a little, because I want her up and moving around. She had eaten her breakfast grain well, so I thought she deserved a little extra loving. Most of it I put in her rack so she would need to get up. She did get up to eat her grain tonight, but she was down again the next time I saw her.


She even stayed down so I could put her iccthammol packing on. I slapped that diaper and duct tape on and she never even offered to get up. That makes it easier on me, but sad that she hurts that bad.

I sure hope this thing pops soon. I have never seen one hurt this bad before, and it breaks my heart. Cross your fingers

Back to fun pics tomorrow--it was Aries' baby's first day out today, so there are some cute ones.

Serenity

That is so not a word anyone associates with me. I am a tornado on a quiet day--I may be doing, but mostly I am flittering. I am a busy chic, made more complicated by my clumsiness. I never do one thing at a time--more like ten. I will likely screw up five of them, but that means five get done. I have tried not being like that, but I can't take it--my brain needs the stimulation.

This was not an uncommon day, other than it starting at 6:30 am--a full three hours before I normally start--I worked on actual legal work with freakish efficiency all day long and got things done. I have needed that, as I have feel choked by brain clog and finally broke free of that. Meanwhile, while I was in the office, I had more fence built, I had the vet here, I worked way more, I had some funny things happen, and after all that, I went home to tend my ponies.

Some days, things are just nice. This picture is just nice. I did not shoot many today because the sun is not right as early as I was there or as late I was there after work, but I got a few. Some of them are way sweller than I could have made them if I had tried.

This picture looks like content to me. Knowing that is my old mare Playmate out there in the shot makes me even happier. Maybe I should call this photo "Retirement"

Echo's off

There has been some weirdness around here lately. Echo and Squiggy are on the fatten up program. Its working on both of them, although Echo here is taking longer because she is just less interested. Being out on lush grass helps keep her full, so she does not always finish her dinner. That is fine, as I am really pouring it to them, feeding 4 pounds or so every time I go to the farm. I know she will have that weight on before I know it though, so this does not concern me.....unless it is for a reason other than that she was just getting bullied off the round bales when she was still in the back pasture.

She has been up for a month or so and is doing well. I notice though that she is ALWAYS laying down. She takes her time getting up to come eat, but she comes and eats with Squiggy and Playmate. I mentioned to the doc about two weeks ago that she was just so lethargic--you should have seen her getting her feet trimmed. She just stood there and hung her head, like she just did not feel good. Since then, she has gotten two shots of B-vitamins, and definitely is acting better than that.

Yesterday though was a whole other deal. She was three legged lame. She acts like she has a bad abcess brewing, and I am sure that is what it is. We had to fetch her in the pasture, and push pull and drag her to a stall. We cannot get a reaction in her left front which is the one she is favoring, but she did get fussy when her forearm was palpated. I gave her a Bute yesterday in case it is not an abcess, but all three times I have been to the farm today, she has been laying down in her stall. She really did not want to use that leg to get up for dinner and from the looks of her bedding, she has been down there a good part of the day. Plus most of her hay was left and she had not been overloaded on it. The three steps to the food bucket took several minutes--that is how much she is not willing to use it.

So I guess it is an abcess. I hope so. I diapered her foot with iccthammol and taped it on as she ate. It occurs to me that she might not be drinking enough either, if it is that hard to move--the stall is so big it might not be worth it to her. Guess I will go back over there. Ugh.


The vet will be here tomorrow for some other stuff, so he will take a look at her. He already weighed in that its an abcess and he is always right---I just do not remember one ever hurting this bad with one. Its pathetic.

Cross your fingers she feels better soon

Baby Taz breaks out

He has really taken to the baby pasture---look at him celebrate out there all by himself. That is one of my favorite things about babies--they do funny things out of the blue, and even they do not seem to know why. Really he was trying to climb his mother who had enough of him and ran out from under him, but it still makes a funny picture.
Evidently, he will be my comedian. Almost every photo session gives me something silly to laugh at. He looks like a donkey mouthing off here. A cute donkey, but still a donkey.
He yelled for a while. At absolutely nothing. And no one seemed to think it was strange at all.
This however, did get some attention. When I pulled in to the farm the other day, I thought he was chewing her mane. That irritates me, and it seems a little early for that behavior. He was not chewing though. He was SNORING. Dead asleep like that, with his baby tongue sticking out, sleeping away. If Gypsy had moved, baby would have gone face first into the dirt. So cute. He was really pissed that I woke him up laughing
I love how light colored he is. I know he will be cherry red before it is all over, but he is so pale right now. Its interesting, especially compared with how dark Gypsy is.
And there he goes again---
I took this photo after breakfast on Sunday. I fed and went to do other stuff, and everyone came to breakfast except baby. No baby, and no concern from Gypsy about it either. While I first assumed he was asleep hiding in the tall grass, I could not find him anywhere. I tromped through the mud looking for him trying not to panic. It was very odd. I have no idea where I thought he might have gone, but I suppose coyotes could have stolen him as he is definitely the easiest pickings in the pasture.

Eventually, Gypsy realized he was not there, and stood around looking stupid while I paniced and hollered for him. This seemed to worry Gypsy who finally decided to help me, but even she acted like she did not know where she had left him. This went on or a while. Eventually, she found him asleep in the grass where she most certainly had let him. Thank God.

Once he was recovered, he posed for pictures. He did not seem to understand what all the drama was about. Typical.

Introducing Aristocatt (I think)

This is baby girl born yesterday morning. She is about 7.5 hours old here.
She was very sleepy. It is hard getting born.
Today it stopped raining, so we got her out in the slop long enough to get some pictures.
You do not see it as much in this picture as in some others, but she is all ears and joints so far.


She is bright red, with two hind white socks and a little bitty star. I am hoping she gets the frosting on her barrel like her daddy, Sophisticated Catt.

See more about him on his website at Brightstone Ranch.

I like all the extra details in my horses- so cross your fingers we get some roaning on both these babies by him

She will see the doc for her IgG test early this week, which will give the ground a chance to dry up. We must have had monsoons while I was gone, as everything is underwater and stinky. It's pretty gross, and no way for a baby to have her first turnout. Hopefully, maybe Tuesday they can go outside

Its a GIRL~!

You cannot know how long I have waited this season to say this!

We have a girl baby. For 41 minutes, Aries has been on day 340- and she came through about 17 hours ago.

I was in Springfield learning more proof of how you cannot shake a baby to death, and BS was in St Louis foolishly believing he could transform the 3G world into a 4G one in this weather--but both of us were watching on the foalcam. I was sure she would foal with us gone, as that is how it rolls around here, and damned if she did not. I woke up every hour to check the foal cam until about 5 am when I got serious about my nine--count 'em nine- feather pillows at the Hilton and slept until 8 am. nothing was happening

at 8:20, Barry called and said I had a baby, and I argued with him. I should have known that was how the day would go.

We both watched for a minute, then I locked myself out of the hotel room, had to address that...blah blah blah,......a bunch of Paige stuff. Made me 30 minutes late for the conference and jacked up my CLE hours. Oh well, I like learning, I can do more.

BS called Mad to go over and make sure it was good. We saw no sign she did, but evidently she eyeballed it and moved on

I called mom, told her baby was born and we did not need her.

Little did I know. I ended up calling her back and sending her away. I may not have been explicit enough. I am not a fruit about being there---but I am superstitious beyond belief and had reason to believe I perhaps should have told mom to haul ass, do not pass go, do not collect $200. I failed to do that

Ninety minutes later, nothing had happened. I mean nothing. No Madison, no mom, no baby to be seen (the camera cuts off a corner of the stall), and no activity from mom, other than ugly thrashing and pain from Aries.

I started freaking. I started channelling last year when Squeak foaled and we thought all was well, went off and behaved badly, and came home to a bad baby. It scared me

I called Barry and cussed his ass while he kept asking why about every direction I gave. WHY? Because I said so, and because my life revolves around every single part of foaling, so when I say DO IT, it is because I have thought it out. You need not question me, just assume this is my forte and I know what I am talking about. Everyone else does. My problem was that I was underground in a conference, and had a bad connection, and I needed a vet on standby before their office closed at 10 am, in case something went wrong with us gone, and we needed assistance--if you jack around, vets might get on with their regular lives like hanging with family etc and not be handy for when I get an emergency, unless they know I am brewing. I have great vets--if they know I have a situation brewing, they won't quit me, as they know I only call when need be. Yes, it would suck to call one because I am stuck 150 miles away with a shaken baby expert, but then again, that is why they bill me and don't do it for fun. Yet BS talked shit to me

Finally I got mom on the phone, and learned she was running errands. And why shouldnt she--no one told her it was an emergency, and while that is easy to see, it was not there. I was half ballistic. I was so scared

Okay fast forward two hours--BS came from St Louis, Mom had worn herself out trying to get short stuff to nurse, and had finally gone for Madison across the street. I am now recharging my phone, since I have refreshed my foalcam still photo 1000 times, and I still dont know what is happening. Foaling is one of the few times I have to do it myself to believe it is real. I do not think I knew that until today.

Finally, BS got here, swore baby nursed----blah blah blah---I cried half the way home and you cannot tell me why. I think it was adrenaline. And doubt. Had I watched this foaling, I never would have felt like this-- or woken up and found this baby----but seeing it from a distance and things not go right (what with Aries weird thrashing and running from baby so she could not nurse) made me feel so helpless. I do not do helpless. I have always sucked at that. I do not get "can't".

That does not mean it does not have me.

But, I am happy to report that I have a new girl who is catching up. According to mom, it is all thanks to Mad, who she went to collect from her house to ask for help. Mom said Mad was on top of it, down to picking up baby girl and putting her right on the ninny to eat. By the time she did it, it was likely a matter of life and death, so thank God she pulled through.

And as cranked up as this story is, all of us (mom, BS, and me) have all been caught up in a whole bunch of tragedy (different kinds but equally hard to deal with) this week that makes all this seem unimportant. That does not mean I did not lose my shit with my mom and BS on the phone today, completely lose my shit because I was underground with the shaken baby people and really needed to shake a baby myself, because I totally did. But now that it is okay, I am holding my breath til tomorrow to see what it feels like.

Being several people at a time ==breeder, lawyer, wife, daughter---is hard. I think I might suck at it. Most days all those roles fall in line, but when they do not, it is impossible to feel like I am good at any of them. And that sucks