Loving my Life

The Big Crash

Tricia — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 22:14:23 +0000

I’ve been wanting to get a harness and buggy of some sort for a while. John the Mule is trained to pull and although I’ve never driven before, how hard could it be, right?? I picked up a harness that while it’s pretty, not very sturdy. Black leather with little silver dots all over it, looks great on John. But it was a ‘bargain’ and I figured it would be ok for fooling around here in the pasture.

Chris and I went to Cracker barrel this morning for breakfast and stopped by his parents afterward to see if Clinton had a single tree or hames or a collar. We managed to get two single trees, one solid metal and the other wood and metal ( probably use that one for decoration ) and two sets of hames. One is WAY too large for anything on my property, but it’s so beautiful I couldn’t resist. No collar, but for now I wasn’t really worried, after all this bargain harness had a surcingle and chest piece for pulling.

We came home and after playing 5 minutes of catch me if you can, John finally consented to being caught. I spent the better part of an hour trying to figure out how the harness went together and making adjustments. Again, cheap harness – not an especially good fit. John didn’t like the blinders on the bridle, but I thought he would be ok for today. HA

The little garden wagon I have is made by Rubbermaid and created for pulling behind a 4 wheeler or something. Nothing heavy duty, but just something I THOUGHT we would play around with. I drug the wagon out of the shed, put the single tree on and hooked him up. I led him with the lead rope through the gate and he was fine. When I walked behind him to close the gate, he BOLTED. I was so shocked all I could do was stand there and watch and HOPE that he didn’t wreck. Ok, so let me paint this picture for you. ALL the cows were down behind the barn laying in the sun taking an afternoon nap. Here comes this white streak with a gray rattling and jumping hind end bearing down on them really fast. Cows were going every which way. John decided to take a right around a tree and SMASH! Caught the right front corner of the wagon and it exploded. John kept on trucking and made an entire lap around the pasture.

By the time I got down to the barn to catch him, he ran straight to me like the hounds of hell had been chasing him. LOL He was terrorized. Poor old boy. My bargain harness didn’t fare so well. Several buckles, straps and fittings were destroyed.

I brought John back up to the house and cobbled it back together using some extra buckles and leather straps that I had in the shed. (I never throw old tack away, you never know when you’ll need a strap or something!) Chris came out and helped me for a little while and we hooked him back up. John was still terrified of that wagon. So after walking him out for about 30 yards, I unhooked him and ended up just ground driving him for about 45 minutes. Practiced turns, backing, whoa, etc.

Next time I go out to catch him, I’ll bet you that he won’t let me touch him. LOL Poor old boy!

And by the way, the wagon has modular side boards and they all snapped right back in. Gotta love Rubbermaid!

Cornbread

Tricia — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 19:41:42 +0000

Any guess on the breed? Been looking around the net and she sort of looks like maybe some Black Mouth Cur in her parentage, but not sure. Will try to get some better photos later.

Tried this evening REALLY hard to get a decent photo of her. She seems to be perpetually in motion…. In this photo she’s at the corner of the building.

Sushi – What’s to love?

Tricia — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:02:15 +0000

This post is a little late, as this happened last Friday night, but I just can’t get it off my mind.

Our normal family ritual is to go out to eat on Friday night. Sort of an end of the week – ” Whew – we made it to the weekend” type of thing. Sometimes it’s just me and Chris, but more often lately, we get Kyle (son) and Sarah (GF) tagging along. Miss Sarah is the shy sort and doesn’t much speak her mind. I think maybe she’s finally warming up to us, because lately she has been talking more and voicing her opinion. Yaayy! Nice to have another female voice around the house.

Anyhoo – we were in the truck on our way out and debating the virtues of different eating establishments. I asked her what her favorite foods were to which she answered ” Chinese and Pizza “. Ok, so I am not a huge fan of pizza but do indulge on occasion if it is made with minimal sauce and tons of cheese – a cheese cracker if you will, and Chris absolutely does NOT do Chinese. Surprisingly enough, HE said, ok Chinese. I was dumbfounded.

So, we go to this little Chinese buffet in Boaz – you know the one in front of the WalMart. Chris is starving but probably only eats about 5 bites of some chicken before he quits. Just not his thing. I have a little sesame chicken, some ‘crab casserole’ which looks like imitation crab with cream cheese and cheddar on top, a crab leg, and a couple of crab angels. Mine was pretty good, not great or even a 1/4 as good as Asia Garden in Albertville, but I digress. Sarah had a plate with sushi and was busy chomping down on the stuff. Now this girl hardly ever eats much and I was amazed to see her going at it with such gusto. Made me believe that Hey maybe there IS something good about sushi.

OK, hit rewind here to several years ago when Amanda was still at home. We were at a Chinese buffet in RBC, and she made a deal with me that if I would try sushi, so would she. She went first, kept a straight face and raved about how good it was. Trap was set with bait and of course I jumped right in! OMG the most foul oily dead fishy taste EVAH!!!!!! Completely ruined my meal. All the while, Miss Amanda was laughing like a hyena. Not cool to pull that on Yo Mama!

Fast forward back to Friday night. Sarah is truly enjoying this sushi that this restaurant offers, so I start thinking, well maybe I got ahold of some BAD sushi in RBC that night and maybe I really might like it. So I pull up my big girl panties and go get two little wheels of the stuff. I couldn’t tell if it had any meat in it or not, it kind of looked like this and Sarah said it was vegetarian….

Like a dummy I ASSumed that because there was no fish = no fishy taste. Little did I know that the taste so foul comes from the SEAWEED. Took a bite and I almost gagged right there in front of God and everybody in the restaurant. UGH NEVER AGAIN!!! I truly wanted to spit there at that table SO bad. But I once again pulled up those panties and swallowed.

When we left the restaurant, I kept burping up rotten fish oily taste all night. GAG…..

So the next time I see that pretty sushi on a tray, I don’t care WHO is eating it and how much they are enjoying it, I’m going to just say HELL NO.

War Horse

Tricia — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 01:33:27 +0000

Went with Chris this afternoon to see it. Made sure to take tissues because I’m such a softie. There were a few things that I thought were strange,but overall it’s a good family friendly movie. Yes with it being a war movie, there is some death, but not a whole lot of blood and most of the war scenes are pretty tame. I was crying about 1/4 of the way through the movie when the horse went off to war. Chris was sitting by me snickering at me and my tears! (of course this is the man who cries over football stuff)
Anyhow, I would go see it again, may even buy the DVD when it comes out.

8 Ways to Eat Mindfully During the Holidays

Tricia — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 17:24:41 +0000

Reblogged from Daily Health Boost:

Today’s Inspiration: Psychologytoday.com “I find mindful eating so important, and thought that the holidays would be a great moment for a little reminder. There is nothing that why you wouldn’t start eating more mindfully. I think there are only benefits; you will enjoy your foods a lot more and you will not overeat. If I had to name 1 thing that has improved my eating habits the most in the last couple years it would be the decision to eat more mindfully.”
~Sophie 8 Ways to Eat …

Tackling image copyright theft in the real world

Tricia — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 15:55:31 +0000

Reblogged from Photosofedinburgh's Blog:

What do I mean by real world? Surely all avenues to deal with copyright theft is “real world”. The big difference is, do you have the financial means to back up any threatened legal recourse when dealing with those who would infringe your copyright? 99/100 of us don’t. If you can hire a lawyer to deal with on your behalf, go right ahead and you’ll probably do ok from it, but if you can’t you’ll have to use different tactics.

First things first though, how do you know when someone has been nicking your …

Some great info here for photographers about Copyright infringement and some suggestions on what you can actually do to stop it.

Overhead shot of the farm

Tricia — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 22:41:43 +0000

Pretty Cool

The Farrier came this evening

Tricia — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 22:35:28 +0000

and the big boys got shoes. John the Mule tried to escape when I went into the house while we were waiting. He *thought* that I was going to load them up and go somewhere. Silly old man. Wormy asked if I wanted to sell John because he’s got a fellow up in the Carolinas wanting a good mule. Of course I told him no, then I told him that if John WERE for sale, the guy couldn’t afford him.

Buck has some goopy stuff coming out of his left eye, I’ve got to hunt up some ointment for that. I’ll probably teach Casey how to treat him and let her handle it since she’s still feeding every day. I’ve got to hand it to her, she has been faithful about taking care of him! I think it’s good for her to have something to be responsible for.

The goat herd is doing good, we now have 7 babies, 4 boys and 3 girls. I’ve already picked out one of the girls to keep. LOL I sold 3 of the 4 meat goats left to a hispanic lady for the Christmas holiday. She’ll pick them up on the 22nd or 23rd. That will put me down to just one buck left that I’m selling from the last round of babies. We’ve come full circle, lol. I’m expecting 4 or 5 other nannies to kid within the next month or so, fun in the cold.

Saw something really strange flying over when I was out filling water troughs a little bit ago…

It flew right over my house – VERY noisy. By the time I quit gaping and got out the phone, it was almost out of shooting range. I *think* it was a plane refueling another, but I’m not sure. I’ll have to show it to Jim and see what he says.

In February

Tricia — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 03:46:45 +0000

I’m getting some chickens for the farm. After looking at all the different breeds out there, I’ve settled on the laced Wyandottes. Golden Laced Wyandottes, and Blue Laced Red Wyandottes, I wanted some of the Silver laced also, but the hatcheries aren’t even considering selling them yet. Evidently the entire Wyandotte breed as a whole was on the endangered list not so long ago and the stock is just now being replenished. Hopefully they will put some silver laced up in the summer for sale and I can round out my flock. (I like multi colored – just look at the cow and goat herds!) I can’t wait until the chicks get here. I’ll raise them at work along with Jim’s next batch of chicks and bring them home to reside in the goat pen once they are big enough to stay out there in that pen.

My surgery has changed some of my food tastes, and where just 1 month ago, you couldn’t hardly get me to eat an egg, I really do like them now. Strange, huh? So I’ve been eating lots of eggs since they are a very good source of protein and are just about the right size for a meal or snack for me these days.

And here are the Silver Laced – Hope I can get some of these chicks this summer. :)

It’s blanket time again

Tricia — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 03:00:21 +0000

and I have to say I was SHOCKED at the difference in the way the blanket fits Buck now. Last spring when I pulled it for the final time, it still sort of hung on him. Sort of like a little kid with his Dad’s suit jacket on. But yesterday when we blanketed him, he has filled the blanket out really good. To the point that I need to actually see him in daylight just to be sure that it’s not too small lengthwise for him now!

As Martha says – It’s a good thing.

Casey has been faithfully coming every night and feeding him for me since I can’t pick anything up. I think it’s good for her, she is learning some responsibility, and I’m grooming her for what he will need when they get a place with a pasture and he is at home with her. She was totally convinced after the buck off that he hated her. Just let her keep being the bearer of food every day and we’ll see how high she climbs in his esteem.

Somebody remind me to go to the feed store tomorrow, ’cause I am pretty sure it’s time to stock back up.