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

Sunday Stills Challenge - In The Sky

This week's Sunday Stills Challenge was In The Sky: planes, clouds, birds or anything you can come up with.

The Boyfriend is rather obsessed with his hummingbird feeder and they have really come out like crazy this year for it so I couldn't wait to see if I could catch them with my camera.

Happy Sunday to you all, hope you had a great weekend!

SSC ~ Rust!

I wouldn't be my mother's daughter if I didn't do this Sunday Stills Challenge!

First we have a rusty old horse shoe from a few different angles.

And the Boyfriend's rusty old Ford

All pics are SOOC, no editing done.

I can't believe I haven't blogged since January 3rd. Bad Blogger! I'm hoping to start blogging again soon. I have so much to write about!

Happy 2011

I can't believe it's really here already!

I hope 2011 is a fabulous, prosperous and HAPPY year for each and every one of you!

Going Through The Motions

It's that time of year again. Time to drag out all the boxes of lights and decorations. Time to see family and friends and buy gifts and bake and be jolly. And eat. Lots and lots of eating.

Do you ever just feel like you're going through the motions of Christmastime?

My Christmas cheer seems to be coming and going this year. Right after Thanksgiving I had a few days of "Yay, it's almost CHRISTMAS!!", dragged all my decos down from the loft, started making lists for shopping and baking, all while listening to Christmas music and smelling my "Holiday Cheer" candles burning.

Then it just disappeared.

Most of December I seemed to be just going through the motions. I put up the decorations, got a tree, did some shopping, got my cards sent out. But I just wasn't feelin' it. I was feeling pretty darn Grinch-y. I just wanted Christmas to be over. I wasn't inspired to bake or wrap gifts or even finish up my shopping. But I needed to, so I just got 'er done.

I was really just ready for this year to be done and just kind of "over" Christmas.

I usually love Christmas time. I love the traditions and seeing family and giving gifts and decorating and seeing others' decorations. I love the whole spirit of this time of year.

But for whatever reason, I just wasn't feeling that spirit.

Some how, this past weekend, I got over it.

I think it was when I was wrapping every one's gifts and sticking them under the tree. For some reason, it just doesn't seem like Christmas to me until there are lots of pretty wrapped gifts patiently waiting to be given under my tree. When I finished wrapping and got them all arranged under the tree, I smiled, turned on some Christmas music, lit my "Holiday Cheer" candles and all was right with the world once again.

The pic above is our tree this year, pre-present wrapping extravaganza. Doesn't it just look naked without gifts under it?

Besides being so bright you could probably see it from space... I some how managed to get like 900 lights on it. Maybe 850 since half of one strand went out and I'm not about to try replacing it.

So what about you? What get's you in the holiday spirit?

Merry Christmas!

My New Buffardoo

As I may have mentioned before I have been some what passively looking for a new pony. I knew Midori didn't have the natural talent to take me places with the new direction we wanted to head (reining and reined cowhorse). She is great to tool around on and, while she is doing better now then I ever thought she would, she still has her issues. I've been keeping my eyes open and basically if the right horse came along, something that I clicked with for the right price and couldn't pass up, I'd get it.

My trainer was helping me look, but nothing felt right. I wasn't bummed about it, I still had Midori. Another local trainer in the area had a couple young horses come home from getting started and one of them was small. He had consigned her to the auction in Reno during the futurities, but was afraid with how small she was and the economy the way it was that it wouldn't even be worth taking her down there. He wanted someone small for her that would show her and knew that I was kinda sorta looking. He wanted me to have her and was prepared to make me a deal that got me interested.

I fell in love with her pretty much the moment I saw her. She is an absolute doll, so sweet and pretty darn chill for a baby.

Meet Buffy the Buffalo Slayer.

It's the name she came with and unfortunately, it stuck. I tried to change it, but every one already knew her as Buffy and I'd been calling her Buffy for about a month by the time I actually picked her up. It was a lost cause. I usually call her by some variation of Buffy...B, Buffardoo, Buffardoodle, Doodle...anything but Buffy. lol

She is a 2 year old out of a Shine Like Hail mare by Laredo Blue. My trainer has a gelding also by Laredo Blue and apparently he puts that head on a lot of his babies. It's not the cutest head, but it grows on ya. I just hope she grows into it! lol

She is a really strange color and it changes almost weekly. She looks really gray now, but not too long ago it was going to be bay roan on her papers. I'm not really sure what to put at this point! I'm pretty sure she'll end up gray, but she's not quite there right now.

Check out that ass though!

Love those nice Quarter Horse asses!

She's got quite a chest on her too for how small she is. She was 13:2 at the wither and 13:3 1/2 at the hip when I got her. I meant to measure her today, but forgot. She is probably just over 14HH at the hip right now and in the middle of a not so flattering growth spurt.

Her mom was short, a little over 14HH, but stout and super athletic looking. She was shown as a 3 year old in cow horse and did well. I think she's pretty much just been a broodmare since. B's sire, Laredo Blue, is apparently not to shabby of a cutting horse. I don't know much about bloodlines and such so I won't pretend like I do.

Doodle is a very curious pony. Of course, she's 2. She was in my face the whole time I was out there taking pics today.

Like, reeeeally in my face!

Despite her small stature, she doesn't ride like a little horse at all. She has a big stride and since I am only 5'2" we make a good pair. People are always surprised when we walk up to them after watching us go. They don't expect us to be so short.

These last two pics are from the first time I saw and rode her. The last picture is the one that sold me on her. Check out that smile! I LOVED her from the very beginning.

My goal with her is to do the NWRCHA futurity on her next year. I'm hoping she starts growing because I don't want to be looking those cows straight in the eye while I'm chasing them down the fence! If she doesn't grow and I don't feel like she's ready to go down the fence, I'll do one of the local reining futurities with her. She's already got a sweet little lead change, decent turn arounds and plants her butt when I say whoa. She is super talented and a total natural. I just need to get my stuff together and learn to stay out of her way!

If futurities don't work out I still have her derby year. I'm not going to push her faster then she's ready to go. My first priority with her, above all else, is to raise a good, solid horse.

Sunday Stills Challenge - Halloween

Wow, it's been a loooooong time since I did a Sunday Stills Challenge! Way too long!

I've got a bit of Halloween paraphernalia around my house and I was finally able to take a little time with my camera to get some pics of it for this challenge. Mostly just because I was procrastinating doing other things.

BOO!

These last ones are some candle holders that I have.

Happy Halloween!

To see more Halloween pics go through the comments here.