2011 Ch 4 ~ The Project

After selling my truck I had some dough to play with. Being me, I couldn't just be responsible with ALL of it, so I decided we needed to knock out one of our lingering, much anticipated and dreamed about projects: the arena.

Of course, being February, the timing wasn't great, but we lucked out with a very nice dry break in the weather and we were able to get it done. And of course when I say "we" I mean mostly the boyfriend. I pretty much just wrote the checks and cheered him on. I did run the roller for an hour or so one day. That was an adventure.

We rented a big (to me, boyfriend wasn't real impressed) roller and dozer for the project. First we (he) leveled the pad off with the dozer and got it to slope the way he wanted for drainage.

After he had that right, he rolled it pretty good so it was solid.

When that was ready, we brought in a few truck and pup loads of gravel, leveled and rolled that. Because the weather was so nice for us we actually spent a lot of time watering the gravel so that we could get it compacted enough. Who'da thunk that it would be too dry in February in Washington?!

The boyfriend spread the gravel out with the tractor and the TR3 rake, to make it all even and nice before we rolled the crap out of it.

That was the part I got to run the roller on and since I was actually working, there are no pics. Those things are pretty weird! Needless to say, my passes across the pad were not all straight and perfectly lined up like his were. Mine looked a little drunk. Maybe a LOT drunk! lol

The whole time we were working on this project we were checking the weather reports constantly. Hoping that it wasn't going to freeze too bad or rain or snow. Like I said, we really lucked out. After the base was about as good as it was going to get we started getting sand in. The dump truck driver was really great to work with and realized that we needed to get the base covered up before a storm rolled in and made it happen. He was so considerate of how he pulled in the driveway and drove nicely across the base so he didn't mess anything up and left as little evidence of his being there as possible. The extra care he took was definitely appreciated!

We got the base mostly covered up just in time for a big storm to roll through and the rest of the sand was delivered in the snow.

Once the weather cleared up a bit, the boyfriend got the sand all spread out and drug it a few times and we were ready to go!

We don't plan to put rails around it. Right now all of our horses are broke enough that we don't need fence and we've got portable panels we can put up if we do end up needing them. Plus, this way we can expand it later when we get tired of loping little circles.

I got my first ride in the arena on March 2nd! So far it's been a fabulous arena! Even with the massive amounts of rain we've had this year there were only a couple days that it was too wet to ride in. It drains great and has been excellent all weather footing! And let me tell you, having an arena at home so we can just tack up and ride is the most fabulous thing EVER!!!

A Funny Story...

I just have to share this story because I think it's funny and hope you'll get a chuckle out of it too!

I decided that with all the pots I'm planting this year, the seeds that I started indoors and need to bring out to harden off and my bad luck with pots/plants and the dogs in previous years, it would be best to block off the porch area to the dogs. I figured it would be temporary and one side already had a gate that we could close so there was just the stairway to worry about. I was just going to see what kind of baby gates they have available and stick one on there, easy peasy. But after a day of running errands and no baby gate and really needing to get it blocked off so I could get to work, I decided to just scavenge stuff we have and see what I could do.

This is what I came up with...

A roll of fence that we took down in the back yard when we bought the house. I was too lazy to cut a hunk off, so I just brought the whole roll over. Yes, I realize that the effort "saved" in cutting the fence was negated by the effort expended in moving the entire roll. After wrestling with that thing for a while I was really wishing I had just taken the time to hunt down a pair of wire cutters!

So after getting the fence in position I fastened it in place with none other then....

Yep! Baling twine! Any horsey person knows that this stuff is almost as good as duct tape. And there is ALWAYS some around! But, I have to admit, it was maybe just a smidge ghetto looking. I reassured myself that it was free! And temporary! And easy to get the job done! And did I mention it was free? I figured I'd look a little harder for a baby gate later, but for now, I could get to work on what I needed to do.

That's when I heard the Boyfriend banging away in the garage so I went to see what he was working on. Apparently, he'd had a very bright idea for the gate issue. I thought he was busy with other things, so I'd just gone ahead and done the ghetto fence.

Well, 10 minutes later, he had this hung...

He had stuck two of the garden border panels together, one on top of the other, then used some hinges and a latch that I had gotten for another project that we hadn't used and voila! We have a nice swinging, latching wooden gate that coordinates with the garden border all the way around the front of the house and doesn't look completely ghetto. LOVE it! And the best part? It was also free, made with things we already had laying around the house.

And really, with all the time I wrestled with that darn roll of fence, it probably didn't take any longer to get done either.

I try. But I probably don't have to tell you that my ghetto fence was taken down shortly after that gate went in. lol

They Lived!

I actually had some sunflowers that came up this year! Wohoo! Last year I planted 3 packets of seeds and not one single one came up. I did start these inside first and then transplanted them to the flower bed. In late July or so. I was just slightly behind. Gardening and yard work isn't generally very high on my priority list.

I took this picture at the end of September. They didn't get very tall or big, and the dogs took a few out, but they bloomed so I'm happy! :)

Boot Camp, Shows and Mister

Midori and I have been working hard continuing with boot camp. Since the last post I have tried a few new things, one of them being switching bits to what I affectionately call my Miracle Bit. It's a gag bit and it's fabulous! Midori is almost soft in it! I'm not playing tug-o-war with her any more! She is way better and any time she thinks about hanging on the bit I can just bump her right off of it, though it does bother me wondering what made her so hard in the first place. I've always thought I had pretty soft/light hands. Regardless, it makes the lead changes so much easier! And of course as soon as we got her head under control other issues that were hindering our progress popped right out, which made it easier to understand why we were having so much trouble. Amazing how that works! Now that I know about those issues, we have been working on them and things are really coming along. Our lead changes still aren't pretty but atleast left to right they are consistant. Right to left, they are still a challenge, but she'll atleast DO them and even in a mostly collected manner (for us anyways).


So our lead changes are getting better. Still have a loooooong ways to go, but we are getting them. YAY! Our spins are looking more like very slow motion spins instead of watching and going, WTF are you trying to do?!? lol Our stops come and go, but I'm not sure that she'll ever slide. Our rating and circles are decent, we don't work on those much. She's spent the last 5 years rating and running in circles in drill, so that's not a concern for us at this point.

It's very exciting to feel that progress is being made! Unfortunately due to illnesses and scheduling conflicts we have ended up with a couple week break in lessons and riding for the most part. The ponies have all been a bit under the weather for the last week or so, recovering from a day or two of major runs, and with 2-3 shows coming up this month, I wanted to make sure they got a break and were 100% all better before we worked them too hard. Midori especially dropped a bunch of weight in a matter of days, but never got dehydrated or ran a fever and didn't look anything more then unhappy about her circumstances. I got them on Fasttrack and electrolytes to help their guts and make sure they didn't get dehydrated, but other then that I couldn't find much else that I could do for them. Sugar and Mister seem to have gotten over it just fine, but Midori is still not 100%. She was the only one that was ridden hard as she was getting sick and I wonder how much that has to do with it. I'm hoping she gets back to 100% this week! We've got our next show this coming weekend and I need to get a couple rides on her before then! We should still be able to take it pretty easy though, it's just one reining pattern and I don't think a lack of warm up time will be what hurts us. lol

There are two of the winter series shows this month and then we skip December. There is also another show at the arena that has a schooling reining pattern that we are thinking about going to. Practice is always good! They also have a trail class, which I really like so I might have to do that one too. Also happening this coming weekend is the awards/year end banquet for our cutting club. I'm looking forward to finding out if I get a buckle for my second place finish in that series!

In other news, I've gotten a few rides on Mister. We started with a new shoer who is aggressively correcting his club foot. The previous shoer was simply maintaining it and Mister had been pretty much chronically lame with abscess after abscess for most of the past 6-8 months. He's been mostly sound with this new shoer. Very exciting! From so much time off and so many issues though his shoulder was extremely atrophied so we spent a lot of time ponying him around or hand walking and light lunging to build his muscle back up. Other then some soreness, he's been just fine and in the last month or so I decided he looked ready to carry my butt around a bit. I've gotten 3 rides on him, even getting up to loping both directions. He is still, of course, very green, but seems much more confident packing a person around then he did last time I was riding him. He has been such a good boy! Last time I was on him the arena was pretty busy so I didn't want to push him with loping. He took everything going on around him in stride and stayed focused on what I was asking him to do, but instead of loping I decided to work on moving off my legs: sidepassing and pivoting on his haunches and forehand. He's very sticky with moving his shoulders or hips, though he seems to understand moving off my legs while I'm riding. He'll try to shape away from my leg or move over the direction I ask while he's going forward. It was a completely new concept for him when standing still, but after he got those wheels turning, he seemed to pick it up pretty quickly, I was pleased. I'm hoping to get some more time on him soon, but he was sick too and does still have some issues with lameness, so I don't want to push him too hard.

We had a wonderful day outside yesterday enjoying the sunshine and possibly the last of the nice weather. I only had one long sleeve thermal shirt on with my puffy vest! The ponies enjoyed some attention and a little TLC. I'm sure they appreciated having clean butts and tails, even though the water was cold. :) We got another paddock up for the boyfriends sister's horse that we are boarding and that freed up the arena-to-be area and got us motivated to have more sand brought in so we can atleast get the round pen up with some good footing. It would be really nice to have that available for turn out this winter and so that we have some where to atleast get the ponies some exercise on nice days, even if it's not great for getting any real work done with them.

Lots of work to be done, as always. And of course not enough hours in the day, but we'll get there! Atleast there is progress being made on many different fronts!

Hope you all are enjoying fall!

B&A - The Front Pasture!

We have pasture! Of course we don't have our fencing up yet, but we have pasture. So exciting!

This is our "Front Pasture". Hopefully one of two or three pastures that we'll get in eventually. We still have the jacked up fence along the perimeter that came with the house and it's just cross fenced with t-posts and one strand of tape that isn't hot, but the pasture is graded, seeded and growing grass beautifully!

For a little comparison, here is the before picture from when we first bought the house.

We didn't take out too many trees from this particular section, but we did remove lots and lots and lots of brush and blackberry bushes and the big pile of junk that I assume was from when they originally cleared it. There were 3 large piles of debris around the property that they never got to burning apparently. I know I've mentioned the panicked clearing of our property in 2 weekends time with less then a weeks notice before and I promise I'll tell you that story one day.

This is a picture of the pasture while we were clearing. We (and by we, I of course mean the boyfriend because I was pretty much just supervision/support) moved the original pile up, fluffed it and added TONS more to it. It pretty much burned for two weeks straight and we got rid of a lot of stuff. Luckily the boyfriend is an expert on heavy equipment and whipped the property into shape really quickly with just the rented dozer.

If you can focus on the pasture behind my shaggy horse in this picture, you'll see what it looked like after the clearing. We wanted the horses to still have turnout, but it was rocky and uneven and only a few small spots had grass and it just wasn't very pretty at all. There was still about 15 feet of blackberries along the bottom fenceline also so the pasture didn't go all the way down.



Here the boyfriend is on Holly in April cleaning it up, making sure it's all level, getting rid of most of the blackberries and rocks and clearing all the way down to the bottom fenceline. Quality Control (Cheyanne) is watching intently, making sure the job gets done right!

After he finished with all that he seeded it and counted on the spring rains. Well, we got one good drenching, like torrential down pour, where a lot of the seed was just washed away, and then not much else. He reseeded the upper portions where it had washed away and then set up some sprinklers since we weren't getting much more rain. It was hard to complain about no rain after the loooooong winter we had, but it would have been nice for the grass growing operation.

It all worked out though. There is plenty of beautiful, tall grass out there.

Since it's still baby grass the roots aren't strong enough to stay put with the ponies nibbling on it, but the boyfriend said too bad! They need turnout! They have been getting stalked (or is it stocked?) up standing in their little paddocks and bored out of their minds. They need the exercise and freedom. And the grass! Though hay prices have come down to around $11/bale here, from the $17+ it was, it's still nice when they get to graze. I think they were really loving it. We had some very content ponies.



I just love this shot....

It's a dream come true on so many levels: the horses, the pasture "done", owning the property, having a view of the mountain...it's still almost surreal to me. And seriously, how many people do you know that are lucky enough to have that view from their front porch? I could stare at it all day.

My Gray-ish GreenThumb

Well, I've said before that I don't really have a green thumb. I've called it my black thumb of death before because I can kill just about anything. I had a much longer record of killing things then keeping them alive. But this year, that is starting to change! YAY! So I'm considering my Black Thumb of Death more a Gray-ish Green Thumb. I'm still killing plenty of things, but I actually have just as many, if not more, things staying alive and thriving this year.

First up ~ the raspberries in the garden. They came with the house and are super duper low maintenance, they grew totally on their own last year, so they hardly count. I would like to think that all the weeding and rearranging and tlc I've given them this year is helping them produce more then they did last year though. They are really going to town so far this year so I'm thinking that may be the case. The first of the berries are allllllmost ready! Wohoo!

Next up ~ What is this I see? It's a little tomato starting to form! So cute!

Next ~ we have the Bachelor Buttons that I planted as seeds. They survived the last couple frosts (in May!) and are growing quickly. There is supposed to be a row of tall sunflowers behind them and shorter bushy sunflowers in front of them, but I don't see any of them coming up. I'm bummed about the sunflowers, but at least the Bachelor Buttons are coming up!



Here we have take #3 on the porch pot. Chey managed to get the purple leafy plant out of one of the pots and destroy it so I had to find something to replace it. Again. This is the same type of flower that was in there originally, just a different color. Next to it is a pretty vinca vine that I intended to use some where else, but ran out of room so I stuck it in there. So far so good on try #3. Hopefully they stick around, I kinda like these ones. Trying not to get too attached though, just in case.

The hanging baskets are still going strong, lookin' good and getting HUGE!

This whiskey barrel pot is in front of our garage and also up on a stump because Chey loves playing in it. I was passing my new fave nursery last weekend and decided to stop in to see if anything inspired me to try out in the whiskey barrel. I have been hesitating to plant anything in it because I didn't want to waste the time and money on it if Chey was just going to dig it up. She seemed to be leaving it alone up on the stump and there were some really pretty flowers that I was totally diggin' at the nursery so I decided to just bite the bullet and give it a try. Again, so far so good on it. Fingers crossed!



It's not the most color coordinated barrel ever, but it's colorful and pretty and I like it. I already had some bright red, white, purple and blue in there, but everything that caught my eye at the nursery was pink, orange and burgundy. It works! I can't wait til it fills in better and really gets going!

This is my favorite flower in there. Again, no clue what it's called, but it's very pretty. It's almost iridescent with oranges, yellows and pinks. I love it! The photo doesn't do it justice, of course. I want a room in my house those colors!

So my gardening skills are slowly improving. I'm not going to consider the curse of the Black Thumb of Death lifted quite yet though.

And of course we have Cheyanne. She was helping me take pictures of everything. I just love this picture! She looks like she's winking at me conspiratorially. Funny stuff! In reality, her eye was bothering her and she wouldn't open it.


Can you see all the sticky balls on her chest? It's ridiculous! They are like little velcro balls that stick every where on her! She's not so happy about me brushing them out all the time either. I hate the sticky balls!

Hope everyone had a wonderful week! I've got more updates to come, just need to find the time to get them all on here!

Catching Up

Whew! Man, what a busy couple weeks it's been! I'm pretty well wiped out and so happy it's Friday! Of course we have a horse show tomorrow so I don't get to sleep in as much as I would like, but a couple hours is better then nothin'!

Here's a few little tidbits about what I've been up to...

I've commenced the all out WAR on the weeds at my house. I'm DETERMINED to get them under control this year! I think this war may be the death of me though. Holy cow do we have weeds! And I think they are all super charged.

Wow. Just, wow.

I haven't gotten any real pictures of our jungle over here yet, I will have to do that one of these days. It's scary and they are EVERY WHERE!!! I took a little walk around the property tonight and pretty much couldn't go into the bottom half because the grass was up to my shoulders and intertwined with thistles and sticker bushes and nettles and all sorts of viney crap that I didn't feel like fighting with.

This is one of the weeds that is taking over our fenclines.




It was pretty for all of about 4 days while it had these cute little fuschia colored blooms on it. Now, it's just 2-4 foot long vines that have very strong roots and are rather difficult to pull up. They also seem to be rather invasive.

But then, everything seems to be invasive right now!

The war on weeds is going to take some time. We've already broken down and ended up having to spray the nice lush green areas that are supposed to be gravel. We're hoping if we're really on top of it this year, spray the hell out of everything and kill it all good and dead, then hopefully we can be a little more environmentally and critter friendly in the coming years and just maintain it. That's the plan anyways. I have a feeling the weeds didn't get the memo though.

That has pretty much been my life lately. Weed, weed, weed and weed some more. There is lots of cleaning up and just general maintenance and catching up to do around the yard too. Since we didn't do a whole lot with it last year and it had been empty for a while when we moved in, there is just lots and lots of catching up to do.

We'll get there eventually. I know it's not going to happen over night.

Anyways, on to happier subjects!

All of the hanging pots and planters that I did are alive and thriving! YAY! You don't even know what a relief this is to me! I spent some dough on getting those all put together and I was very afraid I was just wasting my time and money because I tend to have a not so green thumb. In fact, lately, I've taken to calling it my black thumb of death.

This is one of the pots that sit in the corners of the porch. It was dusk when I took this so the tall flowers in the back (no clue what they are called, sorry!) were closed for the evening, but they are still looking pretty snazzy, if I do say so myself!

Here we have one of the hanging baskets. Check out how big everything has gotten! Just in the last week or so the petunias have exploded and started to bloom. I have to smile every time I pull in my driveway and see the baskets because they are just so pretty! Which, of course, was the whole reason for doing them!


Next up we have one of my absolute favorite parts of this time of year...

Is there anything better then a cleaned up, ready to eat bowl of fresh off the farm local strawberries?!?

Ok, so maybe the raspberries from my garden are even better, but I do love me some strawberries!!! I'm lucky to have one of the best fruit stands around right by my work so it's super duper easy to swing in and get a box of berries. The stand finally opened this week and I was so happy to have a box riding shot gun on my way home tonight!

I love having fresh strawberries! I like eating them plain, and probably end up eating about a pint of them just while cleaning up the half flat. I love strawberry soup, it's so good over ice cream or pound cake or just with cream. I love strawberry daquiris and margaritas. I love freezing strawberries and having them on hand for later. My favorite pie EVER is fresh strawberry pie. Mmm MMM! My sister makes one of the best cakes I've ever had with fresh strawberry slices and bavarian cream in the middle of a white cake. Atleast I think that's what it is.

So strawberries are here, summer has begun! :)

Other then that I've been working, trying to ride my horse as much as I can, which is working out to be about twice a week: when I work buffalo and when I have drill practice. Three times a week if I have a cutting show. I've also been trying to kick this very time consuming habit I've been rather obsessive about lately. I can't stop reading. Like, really, I think I have a problem. I had been reading a book here and there last year, probably averaging like 1 every few months. And then I got sucked into Twilight, which lead to the rest of the series. Twice. Then the Host, then the 8 books of the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. With a few other random books thrown in in between. I just finished the latest BDB book last night and told myself I need to do some other stuff for a while. Just hold off on starting another book for a bit. But man, I'm jonesin'. It hasn't even been 24 hours and I feel lost not having a book to read! It's bad.

I'll take reading over watching tv any day of the week. I love reading. Trouble is, if a book is any good at all, I'm rather obsessive about finishing it as fast as I possibly can. Which means I'm picking it up any chance I have. Usually instead of doing something productive like weeding or dishes. It's been rather problematic lately since the days are long and the sun is out and the weeds are growing like...well, weeds. I have other things I need to be doing, but all I want to do is curl up with my book. It doesn't work so well. So I told myself that since I'm finished with the BDB series as far as it's gone so far that I'll just hold off on starting another book for a little while so I can get some stuff done around the house, maybe cook a meal or two, ride my horse a bit on my own, take some pictures, heck maybe even blog a bit and say hi to the boyfriend, see if he still remembers what I look like when I'm not buried behind a book.

I just didn't realize it would be quite this difficult. I wonder if I can quit cold turkey. Is there a support group for people like me? A 12 step plan?

Anywho, hopefully if I can stick to it I can actually get caught up on the blogs I read and blog a bit more often myself. We'll have to wait and see!

Hope you all are getting to enjoy some sun and summery stuff!

Not Enough Hours in the Day!

Whew! Do you ever just feel like there aren't enough hours in the day? Or enough energy in your body?

I think I usually feel like that. There is always a long "To Do" list for tomorrow that never gets all the way done and keeps getting rolled over to the next day. It just seems like it's been particularly bad lately.

This time last year we had just moved into our new home and were so busy getting it put together and then getting our land cleared in a panic (I swear I'll tell you that story someday!) and then with drill and my best friend's wedding, the whole summer just disappeared and the yard, with all of it's flower beds and overgrown gravel, was sorely neglected. We're paying for it this year. It's been a lot of work to get it back under control. We're still not there, but we're getting close.

Trouble is, we're also trying to get fencing done, pastures cleared, cleaned up, graded and seeded, arena-to-be's done, the barn fixed and stalls put in. We also need to get piping ran from the well house to the barn and various pastures for water. Most of the inside of the house still needs painting and we're planning to pressure wash and re-stain the exterior and the decks, after we fix a few boards. All while we're doing a cutting show series and practicing on buffalo once a week, along with my drill practice once a week, on top of full time jobs and all the other fun stuff that comes with being a responsible adult and home and animal owner.

Geez, no wonder I'm tired all the time. Just looking at that list makes me want to take a nap!

Problem is, I also like having atleast a little bit of a social life. And riding my horse in the arena. And going for trail rides. And spending the day at the lake. And laying out in the sun. And I love, love, love reading. And taking pictures. And blogging. And reading other blogs. I would also like to have barebeque's with friends and family and get togethers and do fun stuff like that. There just hasn't been much time for any of that stuff lately though. Yard work has been consuming my life!

Another "Someday" project is to rip up our entire front yard and redo it. It's not level, which drives the boyfriend insane. It's got lots of humps and bumps and a couple pretty good holes that I swear I hit and roll my ankle on every single time I pass them. I also want to get rid of about two-thirds of the insanely huge flower bed in the front, make it part of the lawn. I figure if we bring it in tighter to the house and just have a few azalea bushes or something it should be pretty low maintenance. And another hundred square feet or so of grass to mow will be nothing. I like low maintenance. Low Maintenance is my best friend when it comes to yard work!

Until we get to that Someday though, I have a crazy big flower bed to take care of. It's currently growing more grass then our pastures. And some black berry bushes. And clover. Have you ever tried to get rid of clover in a flower bed?!? We have the stuff that has the dark leaves and the root system on those suckers is freakin amazing! Drives me insane. And since I didn't weed much last year everything is reseeding itself like crazy this year. Grrr!

And then, silly us, we decided to plant a veggie garden this year. What were we thinking?!? It was fun to put it in! I'm sure it will be fun when it starts producing edible veggies (assuming it survives me and my "Black Thumb of Death"), but until then, can you say high maintenance?!

We also have raspberries that got completely out of control last year. Of course since it was the longest, grossest winter ever this year and still frosting in May (!!!) we didn't get anything done with them to get them back in order before they started their season. Oops! I'm currently chipping away at the very tall grass and weeds that is trying to completely over take them, but it's a lot of work and there are new shoots every where and I have to crawl around in between them to get everything cleared out. Did you know raspberry bushes have thorns? Not big ones like blackberries, but little needly ones. My arms were toast after Round 1. I looked like I had been in a fight with a bunch of cats. Seriously. It's been a lot of work to get them freed up. Almost done though.

I have tons of before pictures of projects we've been working on, but it seems like every time I really start making some progress on one, another more urgent one comes up and off I go! One of these days I'll get them finished up so I can do some after pics.

I'm also dying to read thru the Twilight series again. And I have a crafty projects that I owe people. And I have Lover Avenged to read. And, since I'm a dope on a rope, I started yet another series that I'm totally diggin'. And I have lots of DVR'd shows to catch up on. And lots of other things that I'd absolutely love to be doing.

But I know the satisfaction of having my yard under control will be worth it. If it ever gets there.

Someday.

3 Day Weekend!

Yeehaw! It's a three day weekend!

Of course I have a to do list that's a mile long, but I have three days to do it all and as of this post (10 am Saturday) I've already put a pretty good dent in it.

Sleep in Saturday morning: check
Laugh at my drill team who has already been at a drill competition for 2 hours this morning, not including the time on the road to get there by 8 am: check!

I know, I know, I'm not very nice. But I gotta say, while I have had the itch to go back to a full time riding member of my drill team, it has been kinda nice not having to go to all the day competitions we've already done! I really am getting a lot of stuff done around my house that I wouldn't be getting done if I wasn't just an associate member.

I get to go chase some buffalo later today which should be very fun! I might even get to ride both the girls on the buffs since the boyfriend may not be available. I've been dying to ride Sugar for a while now. We've got a bbq to go to at a friends house later tonight and then it is yard work, yard work, yard work! Oi!

I bought lots of sunscreen so hopefully I won't get fried again. My back is just now peeling so that is loads of fun. It's supposed to be sunny and low 70's all weekend, which is just perfect. I'm really looking forward to having a productive, fun and relaxing weekend!

Happy Memorial Day weekend to y'all! Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

Good Food, Good Friends and Hanging Baskets

I have a couple of good girlfriends that I get together with every so often. Sometimes it's just because Pioneer Woman posted a new recipe that we have to try, but we also get together to do crafty projects and figure out some tasty something or other to make for dinner.

About a month ago I had the brilliant idea of doing hanging baskets when the weather permitted. Well, the weather finally permitted yesterday and we had a blast. I grilled up some of my "Patchesburgers", my top secret recipe for the best burgers ever. Ok, totally kidding. It's super easy (bbq sauce, garlic powder, pepper, Johnnys) and they are tasty, but I'm not sure they are the best ever. I got a little creative this time around and tossed in some blue cheese (Mmmm...blue cheese!) and grilled some onions for the top. I also decided to give Pastor Ryan's Monkey Bread a try. Jrosie brought her now famous Stuffed 'Shrooms. Oh. My. Goodness. If you haven't tried them yet, go do it. NOW. Even if you don't like mushrooms. They are heaven in a baking dish. I stuffed myself on them. And then some more with my burgers and one of the super delicious 'Ritas that my bff Sarah brought over. I'll have to share that recipe with you guys some time. Hands down, best margaritas ever.

So after dinner, we rolled our stuffed selves out to the yard to play in the dirt for a bit. I had fun with two rounds at different stores picking out plants and I found some really cute, reasonably priced hanging pots at Home Depot. I ended up having way more of everything then I actually needed, but that's ok. I would always rather have too much stuff and have to return some then not have enough and not be able to finish. This is my mess...



Miss Sarah went to a nearby nursery and had a way better selection of plants and was Speedy Gonzales putting her hanging basket and box together. These are hers (minus the pink flower in the front, that's mine). See the box in the top left? Isn't it the cutest ever?! Both of her baskets turned out really nice!
On a side note: isn't that a cute shirt she has on?!? I love it. It has a bit of a yoke and snaps Henley style down the front. Very cute!

Jrosey was all ambitious and also made quick work of her FOUR baskets! She also was able to hit a nursery on the way over and got some very nice looking plants. She had a great variety and her baskets ended up really great! I can't wait to see them hanging around her house, I'm sure they'll look awesome!

Eventually I stopped taking pictures and got back to work. These are my pots hanging on my porch. I got some not so big and healthy, from the grocery store and Home Depot plants and am hoping they fill out quite a bit. There are a few trailing varieties in there that should grow and hang over the sides eventually, so hopefully it will look much more impressive before too long. I just have to remember to water them.

I only used about half of the plants that I purchased in those baskets so I decided to go find some big pots for the corners of the porch to plant the rest of them in. I have big, very fun plans for the porch, but it's another "Someday" project. It has nice lighting and a ceiling fan but I would like to get some nice patio furniture and an outdoor area rug and some more flowers and make it a great outdoor living space for summer. Someday. For now, I'll settle for a couple hanging baskets and pots in the corners.

I found pots tonight and put them together and I like the way they are looking so far, but I don't have pictures yet. I will get some of my much more homey looking porch when everything gets established and starts filling in and looking a bit better.

So it was a very fun night. The Monkey Bread was heavenly, everything else was super duper tasty. I love my hanging baskets and my perked up porch! It was a fabulous night with great friends! I can't wait to do it again.

What's next girls?!?

It Lives!!!

Yay! I didn't kill the cherry tree that I got for Christmas!

I was a little worried there for a while. We ended up taking our sweet time getting it in the ground. I swear, like, two months just disappeared.

I noticed some little green leaves starting to sprout the other day though and was so happy and relieved!

Now I can't wait to get some cherries from it!

Sun and Frisbee Dog!

Well, the sun stuck around yesterday! Wohoo!!! I was really happy when I got home and it was a beautiful day still! I wanted to play with all the kids and of course take some pictures. I'm always excited to grab the camera when the sun is out.

Cheyanne had been stuck inside all day so I played frisbee with her first.

Really Mom? Frisbee?!? Wohoo, frisbee!!! Frisbee, frisbee, frisbee, frisbee!

Please ignore the hole in the deck. It was a somewhat rotted board when we bought the house and Chey decided to make herself useful one day and help with the removal process. Another project for this summer.

Yahoo! She threw the frisbee! Frisbee, frisbee, frisbee, frisbee!

I can't seem to throw the frisbee and get the camera up in time to take pictures of her streaking across the lawn to retrieve the frisbee, but it's pretty funny to watch. She's about 6 inches off the ground and all you see is her hair blowing with every stride she takes and a blur where her legs should be. She is FAST!

She looks like she is going to be a good dog and bring the frisbee right back to me, then she does this...

You can't have the frisbee! You caaaan't haaaaaave it! Frisbee, frisbee, frisbee, frisbee! Oh, you almost got it, but not quite! You can't haaaaaaaaaave it! Hahahahaha! Frisbee!

She wants to be good and "Come" like she's supposed to, but she doesn't want to give the frisbee up either, so she "comes" but stays juuuuust out of my reach. I'm trying to teach her to come straight to me, sit facing me, put it in my hand and then wait until I throw it again. I'm working with treats but I can see the internal battle with her...I want the treat, but I love my frisbee...but it's cheese! But it's my frisbee! Cheese! Frisbee! It's annoying.

She eventually comes close enough for me to snag the frisbee, but I don't want to have to "snag" it. I want her to give it to me. I've tried getting her to trade for another toy, but then she gets A.D.D. and drops the frisbee 10 feet away from me in anticipation of chasing the other toy I have. Atleast with a treat I can get her close to me. Not really sure what to do. I really want to play with her, but when she doesn't want to give the toy up and 75% of play time is spent trying to get her to give it up, it's more frustrating then fun.

But then she does this...

Frisbee? Throw the frisbee! Throw it! Frisbee, frisbee, frisbee, frisbee!

And she is so stinking cute, how can you not throw it again!?!

I know part of why she doesn't want to give it up is because she thinks I'll take it away. That is a ligitimate fear because if I leave it where she can have it unsupervised, she will shred the thing, which is no fun, so I do take it away at the end of our play time. But I give her treats and try to find one of her outdoor toys to replace it with and try to make it a happy occasion, not like I'm the big, bad, toy stealing monster. I'm just not really sure how to improve this situation. She's a total toy whore, not as much of a treat whore, but it's close. Guess we'll have to work on some obedience stuff, like I've been saying since we brought her home, and see where that goes.

Now on to sun!

After playing with Chey for a while I wandered around the property with the camera. I love blue skies and fluffy white clouds so that is what most of my shots were.

That and the big maple tree that is finally coming back to life.

I noticed a buzzing sound while I was out bugging Midori and realized that the bee hive is back in business after the winter. And I think they've expanded. I don't remember it being that busy last year. Then I realized they were all over the ground in Midori's paddock and seemed to be sunning themselves on the rocks just outside of the fence. Yikes!

We tried spraying it a couple times last year, but those bastards just would not die! I got the boyfriend on a mission to kill it good and dead this weekend. I'm allergic to most bees, apparently there is one type around here that won't kill me, but I don't know which kind that is and I'm not willing to chance finding out if these guys are it. They aren't aggressive and never bothered us at all last year, but it doesn't take an aggressive bee to sting. It just takes me walking around outside barefoot (which I never do because I'm too scared) or falling and landing on one or something like that. The time I was stung and found out about the allergy I was drying my hands in a towel that the hornet happened to be wrapped up in. That was fun! My whole hand swelled up!

I do wish they weren't right there, so close to the house, the barn and the paddocks. If they were on the other side of the property or some where that wasn't so central I'd be inclined to leave them alone. I don't mind bees. It's the wasps and hornets that I really can't stand.

So that was my afternoon. When I was finally able to put the camera down for a while I got all the ponies out one at a time and pulled their blankets and gave them a little TLC and did some ground work with them. They were all about ready to crawl out of their skin from boredom and were VERY excited to get out on the long lead. I wasn't sure how the footing was going to be in the arena-to-be since it has rained around here so much this week. I didn't want to lunge them for fear of them slipping and sliding in the mud and wiping out so I just put them on the 15' lead and did a little ground work, getting them to listen to me, change directions, trot out a bit. Then I worked on showmanship type ground manners, moving away from me, not getting in my space. All three of them were snorty and jumpy as hell at first on the lead. It took me a little while to get them working in a circle and not taking off when I asked for a direction change. I know they knew what I wanted, but they just couldn't contain themselves. Poor bored ponies.

Hopefully this nice weather will stick around for a little while so they can get out and we can get some wet saddle blankets! They don't have any turnout at the moment because the pasture is "under construction" and the arena-to-be isn't fenced and the rest of the property is pretty much still a mess. Hopefully we'll get some B&A's of all that stuff coming soon!

Until then, here's hopin' the sun sticks around!!!