Operation Knock 'er up

Operation Knock up Lassie has finally hit the stopping point. I just had her ultrasounded because this foolishness has gone on long enough. She ovulated this morning, so we can stop this nonsense.

Sly will be relieved, she is wearing him out.

Since I had to have the vet out to deal with that, I had to take the afternoon off. I meant to take a nap before happy hour with Jenna but that has not happened and she will be calling soon.

See here, Lassie's baby boy, taking a turn around the parking area while his mother was ultrasounded---and the peanut gallery is supervising it all.

Since the busy body animals were standing around watching the Lassie show, I was able to fill the barn with horses in preparation for even more photo sessions this weekend. I think I have 12 in the barn right now. I started the deworming process that I have been doing along with this photo stuff. So far, I have done 14 of the horses, so if we can get these all done this weekend, that will be 26. Maybe things will go so well that I can bring in another shift, and maybe get this job done.

My method of horse collecting to fill the barn is about as wrong as it can get. I lock the front gates, then open the pasture gates and get out of the way. Sometimes, I swear to you, they stand right there and ignore me. Some days, like today, all hell breaks loose and I end up with horses all over the place. Before I could get the gate shut, I had about 15 of them running around all over the place. This is not a good way of doing things, and I would NEVER do it with someone else's horses--just mine. If I kill them, or they kill me--I have no one to blame but myself and I will be the one who has to fix them if they tear themselves up. So do not do this at home. It is just dumb. That I am lazy is no excuse for other people to do stupid things. I got lucky though that 12 of the 15 were horses that I still need to photograph and deworm---so I only had to throw three of them back in the pasture.

It would be great to get all these pics done, ads up, the website completely updated---Who am I kidding? Some of these horses have only baby pics on the website, and they may be 3 years old already. I'm proud of me for trying so hard though--even if it has taken me forever to get this far.

Barry is coming home tonight, and Lorna and Bree are coming over on Sunday I think. It is going to be a busy weekend getting all this done, but I am actually looking forward to it. I may be crippled by Monday after bathing and grooming all weekend, but that serves me right.

The lists are working

I hate to admit it, but the damn lists are working. Two days in a row, I have gotten up early before work so I can run errands, and I have gotten a lot done. Today was particularly tricky--I had an 8:30 appointment to have the chip in my windshield repaired, and while they were working on it, I walked to the DMV to get my truck license plate sticker, and back again. Then I had time to clean out my purse--all three things that were on my list of things to do and it was not even 9 am!

That is pretty impressive. At lunch, I got my hair and eyebrows did, found out my regular wormer has been discontinued and managed to find a replacement and get it ordered. After lunch, I got my project at work done. I was supposed to have an activity with Jenna after work, but it started raining so we delayed til tomorrow. I just fed and watered and nothing else--it was SWELL.

I was home in the big chair by 6:30, and I have not gotten up since. I have placed horse for sale ads, updated most of the fillies page on my website, posted some pics of Sly on our new FB fan page, and made a list of which horses still need to be photographed for updates. I flipped the laundry, talked to peeg, got Simba to take her meds without a fight, and gave thought to throwing away some junk in the kitchen. I don't want to push my luck though

I do not know who I think I am. Other than a person with a cramp in her ass from sitting here all night.

This cannot last though, I know it. Barry has to come home from St L to help me breed Lassie again tomorrow nite, since she takes a team to get the job done, and refuses to ovulate like a good girl, so I suspect tomorrow nite will be shot. I hope I can get in another set of 4 or 5 horses so we can take pics of them, and get them dewormed as I have been doing all along, but if it does not happen over the lunch hour, that won't happen. I keep calling him to tell him I don't want any lip about helping me do the pics, as I am working so hard to get it all up to date after all the time----and I hope he is taking me seriously.

Depending on how the murder trial is progressing in the morning, I might not be able to go to the farm at lunch anyway, as I will not be able to get dirty. It would not be cool to sit in court with sweat running off me, and dirt on my clothes, and hay in my hair, while I wonder who dresses some of these people that come to court. Today, I swear, some of these people must have thought they were going clubbing--I mean really--a gold sequin bra for a shirt in a court room? And another girl with purple satin capris--looked like a flamenco dancer threw up on her. Are you kidding me?

There was some big excitement too, with the judge locking down the courtroom so to speak, which is great for my interns to see, even if it is a little scary.

Well crap--all this thinking is making me tired again. I better quit while I am ahead

The lists are killing me

Everyone knows I make a list. I make a list of lists.

Mostly I lose the list.

I have found this thing on my phone, which I lose less than most things, that allows me to make lists. You would think this would be the best thing EVER--but really it is just causing me more stress.

Boy howdy, have I gone berserk today. I thought it would help if I made a list on the horn so I could quit worrying that I would continue to forget to send the hay man a check, so I put it on the list. Next thing I knew, I had 15 things on the list to do today. That just makes me crazy. I tried to do one of them--pick up feed that I had set out for me on Saturday and totally forgot about until I saw the elevator dude when I went to TSC--and when I got there, it was no longer out. I can hardly complain, since it is Monday and I had it set out on Saturday, but that is the story of my life. I would have been irritated had it been put out and been rained on too, I guess.

Everything on my list has multiple parts--like pay the house hold bills, and handle the paperwork. I started, but cannot find one bill that is bugging me. So I cannot mark it off the list. Now I feel like even my list is giving me the finger. Its awful.

I am trying to update my website, with my new pics etc, but got distracted by the fact that it is so out of date that it does not even have registered names for horses that are two years old. That is appalling. So now on my list is to talk myself out of feeling like a loser. I did get the registered names on there, update the mares page for who is bred to who, and some other random stuff, but the pics are not even started. Typical.

Also, I cooked dinner, so I could continue to get fatter and I think I may have poisoned myself. If I ate bad meat, how long would it take to make me sick? Is an hour or two too fast?

I should just go to bed. I really should. But I am not tired, and that never happens. I am always exhausted. If I went to bed, I could get a jump on things in the morning before I go to work--like feed the horses, go to elevator, run to vet for meds for Lassie and other vet for meds for Simba--then I would be a bad ass for knocking five things off my list. What do you bet, I end up tossing and turning until 3 in the morning and am unable to get out of bed until 10 am. That is what normally happens when I am all inspired to do things.

I need to be at work in a reasonable condition as well, since I have to take the interns to a murder trial. I cannot go there with hay in my hair and wearing my handy dandy new sweatband on my head.

I did not even put blogging on my list, and see me doing it in an effort to avoid doing anything else. And it is a completely useless post.

Ugh. Am I the only one who does this crap?

I did it again

Every once in a while--or sometimes every day, I do something embarrasing, and it is not on purpose.

Today, I busted my butt grooming horses and doing photos to update the website, and our new FB Farm page (you should go click"Like" so I do not feel like I am talking to myself). Mom came out at 6 to help do pics. It was still about 107 with the heat index. She brought a jug of water and that ever present stupid sweat band she wears on her head.

I do not know who I think I am to criticize how people go around. I have been bushhogging in the dark in my swimming suit for God's sake, and every day, I wear something stupid like my shirt inside out, or non-matching shoes. The fact is, I do not care. I would care if I had more time, but I do not, and it seems crazy to me to keep coming back to the house and changing from real clothes to farm clothes and back again.

Anyway, it was miserable hot out there. Mom gave me her stupid sweat band to hold my hair up as it fell out of my pony tail. We worked for an hour and a half or so, then it was clear we would die if we did not quit. I ran to TSC and bought more things like bolts and nuts, etc, then decided I needed something to eat from Kroger. I knew I smelled like a goat, and looked like I had peed myself from sweating, and God knows what else, but if I came home and showered and changed, I would waste an hour. And like I said--I just do not care.

In I went, and was not there thirty seconds when I saw parents of two friends from high school. I talked to them like normal people, embarrassed about looking absurd. Im sure they get it though, after all, they had to go outside to get to the store too, so they knew it was hot. They looked normal though.

Halfway through talking to them, I realized I had that stupid sweat band on my head.

Psychological Disorder?

Earlier this week, Rita gave me a hysterical quote she said I needed to put on my blog-- I carried it around ever since waiting to get a free second to post it and now I do not know where it was.

It was something about people who hate me must have some sort of psychological disorder. It was far funnier than that and made me laugh out loud

Then today, at lunch, Jenna told me she is pretty sure I have a psychological disorder, in that I second guess everything I think, say or do. I told her I did not disagree, but I think the disorder is that my reaction to everything is WAY over the top--and my coping mechanism is to dial it down with this second guessing thing.

Interesting theme of the week though--have I gotten so wacked out that I can no longer even recognize it?

Hmm. Discuss amongst yourselves. But if you have anything interesting to say, for God's sake, let me in on it. Apparently, my mental health and perhaps the safety of others depends on it!

Who do you call about this?

After work today, I drove most of the way to Indianapolis to pick up my Amish worker Menno. He took a bus, run by Mennonites and just full of Amish people, from Delaware to Indiana, and I was to pick him up at 6:30 p.m. Hard enough for me to remember what time it is in Indiana on any given day, since they cannot commit to this daylight savings time and whether they are on it--but I did it. And really--how many people even know there IS a Mennonite bus line that Amish take back and forth between Indiana and Delaware, twice a week? It was sure news to me. I like facts like that.

Anyway I went as fast as I could, and got there a little after 6. I was proud of me. I cleaned my car, got gas, etc. And I waited. I had a Sprite Zero and a Diet Red Bull. A big one. And I waited some more. I knew I was in the right place, as I dropped him off there to go on this trip last Friday. There was a scary looking fat man in a van in that same area that appeared to be there to fetch people, but I really did not want to talk to him. So I continued waiting, read my book, played on my Droid, and drank another Red Bull. And I waited some more.

I was really starting to worry. After all, who do you call to find out where your Amish is? No one, that is who.

What if I lost him somehow? How long was I supposed to wait before I turned around and went home? Or was I supposed to stay until he got there? It is about 160 miles from here, so it is not like I could zip home and come back when he called from the truck stop to ask me where in the hell I was. I told myself I would wait until 9:30 then give up.

Of course, about 7:30, the bus pulled in. No need for all the dramatics, but that is how I calm myself down from my ridiculous hysteria.

Now I am home, having made a big deal out of nothing, as I always do. I am really absurd.

But for real--Who DO you call in such a situation to find out what the deal is? Hell if I know

Quite a bit different than yesterday huh?

18 hour day

This never happens to me--but today, I had a long day full of just work. Everything about my day, except for the feeding and watering of hosses, which I did on my lunch hour from actual work (at 7 pm mind you), was work related

I woke up at a little after 4 am with a horrible dream about my house, except it was at my farm, being destroyed by something. I assumed it was the crackhead methmaker that used to work for me and lives across the street, but magically seems to stay out of prison, despite making meth in front of God and everybody and stealing from everyone in his vicinity.

It really shook me like nothing but a nightmare can. All my horses were gone, dogs were gone, everything I own pulverized...bad dream. Horrible dream

So I happened to be awake when the phone rang at 4:25 a.m. That ALWAYS means something bad for people who have livestock. And criminal defense lawyers. Although I have to admit that it rarely happens to me as a lawyer, since I do appeals and they are rarely rowdy early in the morning. Things were rolling along full steam ahead on the campaign to bring him down, and of course, then I was so wound, I could hardly go back to sleep. I did kind of doze for a while, but it was not worth the hassle.

Before the end of the morning, said crackhead had long since been taken into custody, a massive search had been carried out, his truck seized--all great things! Really great things!

Evidently, I am not the only person who has been pushing for this. Combine constant pressure with the really strong odor of anhydrous, and no other outcome was possible. It is just so hard to believe that after all this time, maybe we are safe now.

Meth heads are crazy. That is just how they are. They cannot be trusted, they are volatile, can be violent, are completely illogical and downright dangerous. I would rather be in a dark alley with a rabid tiger than a tweaker. Being alone at the farm has scared me since this thing heated up--especially at night, which is when I have had to feed and water to make it through the heat. That is also when the meth sales floor opens up across the street--around 10 pm most nites, he was open for business. You can imagine the only thing worse than a tweaker, is a pack of tweakers--especially when the head tweaker was fully aware that I have been campaigning for his forced retirement

But it is over now.

So to celebrate, I worked for more than twelve hours and just got home. And I do not even care really.

Bam Bam gets sleepy

There is something so wrong with me, that I love this so much. The resting juice that young mans get so they can be gelded makes me laugh every single time. Every single time. I really do not know what is wrong with me.

This is really about a minute post-resting juice shot.
WOAH----a little woozy. Poor feller. His world must have been spinning.
UH OH----he is going down!
But not in a straight line. Just when I thought he was going down sideways, he landed on his butt.

After that, my pics get a little gross, but I cannot help but take them. He was a good little trooper though, and moo-ed and made funny noises throughout the procedure like most of them do. He spent the evening after the gelding in a pen with his brother Tarzan, and when I got their the next morning, they had let themselves out and were snacking on the new fancy alfalfa in the back barn. I just left them there until after work, and turned them out. He is doing very well now.

I have a crazy week ahead of me---I have to make up some time at work (ALREADY and it is only the second day of the pay period tomorrow), go most of the way to Indianapolis on Tuesday after work, get a bunch of pics taken to provide Tracy, who is going to take over my marketing for me--I clearly suck at it, since I just do not do it. I am still arguing with the new automatic pool vacuuming robot, and the wasps that just will not die and come after us every time we get near the filter. I feel like I have been chasing something for months and I need to slow down. Everything does not have to happen today, even if I feel like it does.

Election drama

Tonight is sort of nerve wracking. And if I think it is for me, just observing, I cannot imagine what some other people are going through.

All week long, the trial challenging the election results from the 2008 State's Attorney race has been going. Tomorrow morning is closing argument. At the time the race was decided, the winner had won by only 69 votes, and a re-count was called. Ultimately, the whole thing blew up into this huge mess, where the State's Attorney and official in charge of supervising the elections, are on the defense.

Yes, it is almost time to start campaigning for the next election next year.

There are several interesting issues in this case. One interesting argument is that because there were some irregularities in one of the precincts (such as ballots being numbered by judges, to make sure they were all accounted for), every vote from that precinct should be thrown out.

Another challenge is that some people's reason for requesting an absentee ballot is not particularly good--and many of the votes cast that way were denied during this case. For example, a person might have requested an absentee ballot because she is 92, and attempting to go to a poll in November when weather is questionable could be dangerous. That ballot would have been provided to her, and she would have returned it, only to have the whole thing thrown out later because it was ruled (only due to this case) that was not a good enough reason to request an absentee ballot.

The challenger has attempted to show that some voters did not live (at the time they voted) at the address they listed on their voter registration, and thus, their votes should be thrown out. Many of these cases were simply a matter of not updating their registration and most, if not all, would still be called to vote in the same precinct, but it is a technical violation.

The appointment of election judges has also come under fire--as has the missing signature of one judge's signature on the final paperwork. The signatures from other judges, from both political parties, are there, but again another technical violation.

There are allegations that ballots were tampered with during the pendency of this lawsuit. ...well after the votes were counted.

I do not believe there has been any demonstration that any of the errors were made with malice. With the exception of that last one of course--its hard to see how that would happen innocently.

Then there is the small problem of the secrecy of ballots. No one is supposed to know how someone voted---but we do.

There are bigger implications here than are at first apparent. Most of the problems stemmed from a single precinct. It is a poor precinct made up mostly of African-Americans, who voted overwhelmingly in favor of the winner. That means there are racial and socioeconomic issues wrapped up in this too.

So tomorrow is the big day. I do not know for sure if the judge is going to rule from the bench or we will have to wait longer for a result. I hope not. I have observed some of the trial with my interns, who are required to get a certain number of observation hours to get their class credit, and it has been kind of fun. I like a reminder of what really happens in a court room, instead of just reading it in black and white like I have to do at work--there is a world of communication we miss just reading transcripts.

I have no idea what this has cost. I know we the tax payers have had to foot the bill for the county official defending the case--I am pretty sure of that, since it stems from her job. The Republican party has paid for the challenger's legal expenses, or so I hear. I believe the State's Attorney has handled his own bills, or at least most of them. In this time of financial strain, I am a little resentful that this is happening--most people are. But if there is truly a systemic problem, it needs to be uncovered. How much of this though is about ego, and pinning down a well-paying job where there are not many? I do not know all the motivations of course--and I like both the SA and his challenger, as people. I have a preference of course, based on my work and my personal politics, but I am trying to keep them out of my thoughts on this--that is easier said than done for sure.

Also, I cannot find the stinking remote control to the TV

amalgamation o crap

pretty good I can spell that word huh?

I have 14 things to tell, or so, but am tired. If I don't list it, I will lose it

Dr M was here today to geld BamBam and Tarzan. He did it for BamBam but Tarzan was not dropped yet so no go. That is just embarrassing. Poor Tarzan

Big News: Riot has a little vision on the right and perhaps a hair on the left. GO RIOT~ it won't last but buys her time to adjust. That does my heart good.

I finally gave up and bought the auto pool vacuum and probably this is what will cause me to jump off the roof. That is all I have to say about this. Until tomorrow, that is

Big story of the day is that the first Canadian Slybaby--Molson--has been stolen.

Stolen, you say? I hope you say that--cuz that is big news in my world. The saga of Molson is a long and absurd one. Molson is the first baby Sly sired via shipped semen and it was not easy, due to a hold up at customs, and the Canadian concept that they are due two grand for the work US vets due for a couple of hundred. In any event, his super nice mother (by Docs Adonis) foaled him and he was everything any of us wanted.

When I drove all the way to Alberta to see him (5, 000 miles round trip), I was thrilled to see that Sly had done the same good work he always does.

A few years passed, and Carrie, his owner, needed to sell him. She did that, and from minute one, we both knew there was something hinky with the deal. Over the next period of time, we heard he had been lamed in training, or had not gone to training, any number of pieces of garbage info, including other crap that caused everyone involved in the sale to get a headache, such as how to implement the agreed upon reserved breedings (which ultimately happened, but not without difficulty)

My FAVORITE part though was the use of my photos for her advertising. I know that does not sound like a big deal, but for a photog growing into the business, it is a very big deal. Especially since she used photos I would NEVER have put in public, for any number of reasons, mostly that they sucked. The new owner was asked to take them off the internet as they were unauthorized, and she laughed. You can imagine how well the laughing goes over with this bitch, can't you?

We emailed back and forth for a bit, and in general, she showed her ass and the top of my head blew off. I do not comprehend people who do not how to act. I so would have given her authority to use them, had she not acted like a stupid bitch and taken a tone--I had taken some great shots that I would have loved her to use, but she wreaked all kinds of havoc and acted like trash. I blogged about her stupid ass when it happened, her name is Rosemarie Ortman, formerly of Alberta, Canada

So here I am on a Wednesday, getting emails from all over Canada (the same way I learned she had stolen my photos and laughed when challenged on it) about how Molson is missing. My first thought was that my heart was in my throat---and then I remembered who I was dealing with. She has had Molson for sale for $5K--- a young stud who is not even started, who is a grandson of nice horses--that ain't gonna happen. It makes you wonder if maybe she has found another way to get paid.....I would not think it of anyone else, despite the fraud alarm going off in my head, but for the loads of bullshit this woman has spewed since I first got involved with her.

I hold my breath right now for word that Molson is found, but I have to admit, I am not convinced he is missing. What I am convinced about is that Rosemarie does not deserve him, is dirty and unethical, and I wait for someone to ask me to prove it. M

Bring it on!

And if you think I am not worried enough about this horse, it is because I do not believe he is missing, or if he is, that it is a bad thing. I have two reasons--I am not convinced being in her hands is good for him (based on info I dont have the energy to post) and more significantly, I do not believe he is stolen. Until someone with more integrity tells me they have reason to believe it, I do not believe it. I smell fraud--on the Edmonton Sun for reporting it, the "missing" poster that supposedly was created in minutes, but is way more well done than than Molson's stud ad with stolen photos--and all the reaction the public provides. I hate it that northernhorse.com, and any number of other Canadian outlets are dragged into this, with no way to know they are being played. That invalidates the true stories of misfortune

I will take it back publicly if I am wrong, but I do not believe for a second that Rosemarie Ortman is innocent in this mess. I do not believe this horse, or the other 8 that supposedly went with him, are truly missing, and if they are, I do not believe it is because someone stole them.

From cute to not so cute

Here is another one of my farm inhabitants--Jabba the Hog. This fat bastard and the rest of his ilk are destroying my property. He is so fat, when he runs, I am surprised the world does not shake like an earthquake. I cannot believe he can run at all, as fat at he is--he feeds himself stolen Strategy and various other special treats.

He is not even scared of me. Sometimes, I think he is giving me the finger. When I see him, I call him names and yell at him and he just stares at me and waits for me to quit yelling. He mostly lives in the back barn, and I see him several times a week. I have no idea how many there are really. I probably do not want to know. There is no trapping them either--they are too smart and too strong. They can tear apart a cage if you happen to get them in the trap.

The worst thing about this story is that this so-ugly-he-is-kind-of-cute groundhog is alive and well, while my fox baby is not. He passed about 7:15 Friday morning. Awww...sad little foxy. I am really wondering about what is going on at the farm with the foxes--remember a few months ago when I thought there was a dead goat in the back barn on a round bale? Barry thought it was a bobcat, but it turned out to be a grey fox--maybe it was short stuff's daddy. WTF is going on around here?

There is a WHAT in my car?

That is what Linda said when I called her at almost midnight--which I never do, cuz it is just wrong---but I did not know what else to do. I had this sweet baby gray fox in my car.
Yeah, I realize these pics show baby fox in the bed. But he is not still there--he was just there for photos cuz he is so pretty. Linda emailed me earlier this evening to tell me that the Alfalfa fairies who were unloading in the back barn last nite, noticed I had two gray fox babies hanging out there. That did not surprise me much, except gray foxes are not that common---red foxes are my standard back barn occupants. It did not occur to me that I would get to meet these babies so soon--when I got to the farm around 11 and started feeding, I saw this little sumpin moseying around. He was moving in a not fox like manner--meaning slowly. And stood still and looked at me for long enough that I felt bad and went to see if something was wrong. His little ear was hanging (and still is), and he was not sturdy on his feet---so I snatched him up and put him in the car.

I have no idea why that was a good idea. Linda told me to find a cat carrier and get a grip on myself.

I did all that and now I have a fox baby in the big tub in the master bath. He has his cat carrier, a blanket and a towel, cat food and water, and I hope he is okay, but I do not think he is a healthy little thing. For that matter, I do not even know if he is a boy fox. I did just check his little floppy ear and it is a hematoma that is making it droop--but I am afraid to mess with it considering how out of sorts he is. I am sure I could drain it, but then again--foxy baby must be ill or he would not allow me to handle him so easy. He has scraped me on accident, but never tried to hurt me and kind of cuddles me when I have to move him.

What a world I live in. I had just left some old friends who never let me forget that once when they were in my car, a frozen sausage breakfast rolled out from under the seat (no longer frozen of course, and quite stinky) and a jar of pickles almost knocked them unconscious. I bet they thought there was no topping that.

Shows what they know huh?

Color Quandry

q

This child started out a pale red....almost as pale red as a Slybaby even though he is not one. I knew he would darken up to a cherry red, although I admit I have not been paying attention to it very much. I have been focusing on the other two to see if their Cat stripes show up. They have not by the way, but Bambi seems to be thinking about it--her belly is silver.

But what is happening there on his face? WTF? I thought his blaze was shedding. It is not. Those white hairs are firmly attached to his head. And he would prefer I quit yanking on them, thanks.

Now this I cannot ignore. That is just some roan on his neck, right there. And it is not just a patch of roan--it is everywhere he has shed off so far. His neck is the most obvious, but his hip has it too

And his shoulders. Note how funny his lower legs look--they just are not shed off yet. They look like buckskin body color right now--but they are just baby fuzz still

In a distant shot, you have to know what you are looking for to see it. Especially when you take the pics at 8:30 pm. I am a busy girl people--plus it was about 100 today. Ugh
I just cannot come up with another answer though--this neck is just roan. You can even see where the long baby hairs still are, and the difference in color.

Now someone explain this to me. Mama is brown (although bleached to an ugly bay right now). Her daddy is dun (High Brow Hickory), and her mother was as close to black as you can get--her daddy was Peponita and she looked like him. Daddy is red. Solid red, but with pretty much those same white markings that are pretty prominent in his babies--the big wide blaze, the socks..... Now his daddy is a roan (Peptoboonsmal), and his mama was red but with a lot of roaning (but not really a roan).

There is no genetic way for this colt to be a roan. It just cannot happen. I know enough about genetics to know that much. So what we have here is a quandry. The stud manager is sure all is well (but obviously to confirm via DNA and if there was an error, we will just fix it), and I totally trust him, but it is possible there was an error in semen. She was bred one time for this baby, via shipped semen, and there are no roan colts on my property, so there could not have been an accident. Obviously, we will know when we DNA, but I cannot do that til I register him, and I cannot do that til he is shed all the way off so I know what or who in the hell he is.

Is it possible that this is just rabicano? Does that pass without a parent showing it? That I do not know. Pepto Taz has a little frostiness in his flanks, but not like this---

What in the world is going on here?

It is not a tragedy one way or the other, and he sure is handsome either way---but an interesting turn of events, isn't it?

Why I am a Bad ass

Today, on my lunch hour, I got all this done-----

Called the bank to ask them to fix it that I paid my July mortgage to the old account, not the new one

Called lots of people to get to my insurance people to see why I never got the check for tree on roof--they are sending a new one

Called Delta airlines to tell them how bad they suck, submitted several forms, and now await their response

Called vet to get update on Riot and her blindness

Bought gift certificates for Rita and Mom/Dad for doing all the work at the farm, since I am especially grateful they were on top of things, since not everyone was

Ordered new roof for blown up building--comes in on Thursday

.....and surely there was a lot more....I was very busy

And you can only imagine the pile of things in my work mailbox, but I did a decent job or working through those as well

This being in the real world kind of sucks

Shredded Shed

This is what we came home to--since we heard about it in advance, we went straight to the farm on Sunday when we got here--before we even went to the house. Evidently, there was a full-blown media gag on anyone telling me that this had happened until we got home so it did not ruin our vacation--and that is a good thing. Nothing I could do to fix it until we got here, and I would have blown it all out of proportion in my head. By the time I got here, I know everyone was okay and that is all that matters to me.

When someone finally cracked and told me about, I learned that early in the week, the neighbor called my mom (who was in St Louis with dad having heart surgery, but he is fine) to tell her there was a funnel cloud headed straight for the barns at the farm. Next thing he knew, there was metal and wood all over the place. ...in the ditch by the road, and evidently all over the pastures.

Rita told me she had been hauling metal out of the pastures all week to get it away from the horses, and called Headleys for advice for what to do about the few remaining pieces of roof that were left. Poor Rita--way more work that she signed on for this week.

It is true that this is an old bull shed--God only knows how old it is-- but it did have a roof on it when we left. And some gutters. And all the other sorts of things that a run-in shed should have.....like lights, etc. It worked for a run-in shelter, as ugly as it was.

It does not have any of those required things now. And is even uglier-if that is possible.

There were also some pieces of roofing missing from the front big barn as well--and some twisted but still partly attached. A skylight panel was missing from near the top, but most of the damage was on the edge closest to the bull shed--they are only separated by a driveway.

Since then, I have heard that a neighbor about a couple of blocks away at the end of the cul de sac across the road and down some from the farm had skylight parts in her yard. Even today, another piece fell out of a tree in her yard.

Ugh. Today, Barry was able to replace the missing pieces on the big barn, and Lowe's had the skylight in stock, so that one is taken care of. The bull shed is a whole other matter though. I have to order roofing tomorrow, and it should be in by the weekend. I can get the lumber to re-structure the roof frame at the lumber yard and have it all here for Barry when he gets home on Sunday. I hate it that this situation leaves the mares and babies with only some small trees for shade until the roof is rebuilt--but that is Mother Nature for you. Especially in southern Illinois. Fortunately, this is not supposed to be a brutal week.

How bout that for a welcome home?

I will keep working on vacation pics to post, so I can tell about our trip. My computer is acting up, so it is a bit slow going, but I will get there. I am actually looking forward to going to work tomorrow to see what has gone berserk on that front. I saw on the news that we have a signed state budget, so I am anxious to know how bad our agency is impacted. Cross your fingers

Here is what is wrong with Atlanta

DELTA AIRLINES

I may have mentioned this before, but I wanted to remind everyone why I hate Delta airlines.

Not only did they pull that stunt last week with cancelling our flight then essentially telling us to get over it--later I found out they gave other people hotel vouchers (that did not cover the cost of course) and food vouchers, while essentially telling me it was our problem--now they have a new trick.

We have been in this airport for three hours. They changed the gate the first time, but told no one. We figured it out on our own. Then we get to this gate many miles away, where we are in no danger of getting on this flight either. It has been delayed so many times that now it does not leave until well after we are supposed to be home. Cute trick huh? And scrolling on the TV thing is a message about how Delta is "enhancing the experience for SELECT customers".

I am pretty sure I am not that customer.

They are waiting on a plane from Alaska to land to take us to St Louis. Evidently it is the only plane that they have access to. I hear rumors that it is in Atlanta--just no where near the gate. That does not bode well for the delayed until 11:00pm flight---I bet I am still sitting in this airport until the Fourth of July.

These people have seen the last dime from me they will ever see.

And did I mention that they LOST our luggage on the way down? With all our dive equipment, etc, in it?

Yeah, they did that too.

No wonder airlines are going bankrupt. I think we might be better off if they did and someone with some decent skills at running an organization started some new ones.