Love my steel magnolia

I didn't even take my camera so I'll have to buy an official ride photo and she hasn't got them online yet so this is another picture-less entry. I'm not a great photographer anyway, but getting up at 4 am and leaving by 5:30 to get to the ride pretty much guaranteed I was not going to think about grabbing extra little things like a camera.

Shade did her 5th 50 of the season in about 6 hours 35 minutes ride time. It was a fast ride, we were about 12 of 18 for finish order but there were quite a few more serious riders at this one. Folks missed some turns early and it took quite a while for all the faster riders to actually pass us. Getting passed gives a boost to the pace for a while.

I had SO much fun that I'm torn about calling this a season or hauling several hours to Utah or New Mexico for a late fall ride. I'll have to see how much conditioning riding I want to do after a bit of recovery and just do some general mulling. But I'll be smiling about this ride for a while.

I forgot a few things, the biggest being sunscreen lotion. Had to leave my l/s shirt on over my tee all day, and thank goodness for my 5" cashel visor. I still got a bit of sunburned face but luckily the metrogel I use anyway is great for sunburns. It was 83 for the high and low humidity so I didn't feel bad. Hot enough for fuzzy Shade to be plenty warm. I went Pbttt to the philosophy that one should keep an even pace all day and let Shade cruise faster in the cool morning, then we took it easy the last half of the ride. It was still warm and my white and blue stripe l/s shirt was filthy so I took it off before heading to the ride supper, then in the shade of the indoor arena and after eating I felt cool so I took a long sleeved tee for my completion award and put it on right away. Found out that pizza is not the best ride meal for me. I loff it, but the tomato paste seemed too acidic, even though I helped myself to some of the salads, and a big piece of cinnamon crumb cake as well.

I had pulled in on the 1 lane road that rims a catch basin for spring run-off. It was plenty dry and solid, we've had dry fall weather but I was not sure of pulling down the bank. Figured I never leave that early so I'd be able to just pull all the way around later but that didn't work out. Other people had driven down the bank after I parked so I tied Shade to a fence JIC and cowboyed up and took the trailer down, then decided it would be easier over all to just pull back up on the road so I did that. Shade hesitated to load as usual and I did not have a stock whip, found that running the lead over a close support and just poking her with my finger was all I needed, really don't need to get extra long lead to go around a forward support or a stick, just need a wee aid to keep her head forward while I come to her mid-section.

I think Grey Moun was quite pleased as he got to eat his head off friday night with Shade, and then V had fed all the horses before I got home, with Grey still in the little pen so he got to eat eat eat again saturday with Shade. I gave the other group a small snack to make sure Sadie wasn't shorted with being in with the two pushy young geldings. Then went to bed early and slept like a rock.

TGIF

I had to retype that, been that kind of week and day. Thank goodness I hooked up my little trailer today. Its the first time I've done so since taking the camper off my pickup, and the trailer jack could not lift my hitch high enough with the truck not squatted down from the weight of the camper. I had to get a cinder block under my tongue, raise my jack a few inches and get a thicker block under it; then start the getting hooked up process over. That would not have been fun to realize in the morning darkness.

I guess its lucky I need daylight to hook up and turn my trailer around, otherwise I would have left it till tomorrow and been cussing the delay. Oh I hope the ride goes ok. I always get a few extra butterflies when I choose to trailer over in the morning. I'm not a morning person and have managed to mess up driving to the ride in the past. I better be able to recall from April and the many years I've been going to it this time!

I opened the gate so Sadie and Shade could play with the other 4 horses some this morning and I could get Shade in the small pen. Well she had other ideas this morning so I asked mom to just have V skip feeding them so they are more likely to go where I want tonight. I'll have to allow some extra time for Shade to run around in the morning regardless. Just the nature of my girl, she likes to tease me a bit, and especially when she senses the butterflies.

well shoot , I've been scooped.

There I was, dinking around a bit, and doing a bit of mental email wording to announce that the occulation count at work hit a high point. Its only the 2nd time its gone over 2500. And wouldn't you know it, Karl checks things from home and scoops me. I feel so blah. Not great job security vibes ya know. Like why are they paying me to be here if he's checking things for free almost every night?

Why we named him Sven

OK - first you have to know the Ole/Sven/Lena jokes. Do a search for Sven and Ole jokes if you need background.


Today I grabbed an old web halter next to where Shade was, rather than her usual halter and I chose the ratty soft lead over the stiff one. As I groomed her Sven had to come over and play with the lead.


I went to the house and grabbed my camera rather than grabbing a clean lead to protect the kitty from the "spooky AYrab." LOL, although she can start pretty good at times.



So Shade entertained 4 souls today. Ole looks pensive because he cant wait till we get started, Mia isn't in the pic but we did a short loop and she tagged along too and I made sure Shade and I didn't go over top of her. Then I left the dogs at home and rode Shade a bit more. The goofball had some spazz moments riding actually, but no harm to her or me.

okay I do NOT bake and I barely cook but ........

You know all those blogs that give great recipes -- well this is not one of them! But a couple approximations anyway.

1) Its still zuccinni season. This humble, over productive squash is actually perfect for me eating microwaved frozen entrees. Those tv dinners are usually light on the vegetables so slicing zuccinni in to fill up the trays works great.

2) single dieters microwave brownie bran muffin. -this is super easy, quick, tasty and satisfies for a good length of time. and has chocolate --its perfect for my world.

a) spread approx. 1/2 tsp of butter in a glass ramekin, or one of those little porcelain coffee cups --you know the ones you always pass by, because you want at least a small mug of coffee, not a 4-5 oz petite cupful.
b) take 2 tablespoons of brownie or cake mix and 2 tablespoons of bran and put in your greased dish.
c) stir in water.
d) add choc chips, fresh or dried fruit or a spoonful of jam. (I like dried, sweetened cranberries or bananas and love the chips)
e) if you LOVE chocolate stir in 1/2 to 1 tsp of cocoa --(just pretend you actually measure )
f) pop it in the microwave for about 1 minute. More if your microwave is ancient like mine or if you got the mix extra runny or added moist fruit like bananas. This is not fussy, if its still wet on top, just pop it back in for several seconds.
g) enjoy your low fat (VERY low fat if you didn't add chips) treat.
h) fill your dish with water to soak --don't skip this step or that bran and mix will get hard as cement.

just skip this bit of vetching

I really felt no need to spend anything on a gift for a wedding that I was not invited to attend, of two people who each earn more than I do and have both been married previously ....... just because they happen to be from 'my group' at work. .....BUT since the co-workers who did feel compelled to send something on behalf of all of us both have kids and less disposable income than me I didn't want to scrooge them. And I wont miss the equivalent of 3 lattes much either -its just the principal of the thing that has me whining at least in my web journal.

Maybe I just need more horse time this weekend. Its been lovely weather all week and I only had the one short ride on tuesday. I wanted to ride today and Shade was probably fine, but since RazzMo still seems to be feeling fairly punky and Shade was very quiet yesterday getting her feet done I decided I should let all the horses have another rest day.

rabies vaccine yesterday =extra quiet horses for farrier today

hmmm --maybe its too bad I don't vaccinate for every last thing. --None of the horses seemed sore or miserable today after getting their rabies shots yesterday but they were all extra quiet to be worked on. This means only Razz and CJ tugged feet, and Sadie only tried to chew on me but was not a squirmy mess. -- I gave Sadie some horse treats and she thought she should have more, oh well I'm a softy, she didn't actually bite me so I pretty much let it slide that she was tugging at my windbreaker trying to find extra treats.

But sniff sniff, I am going to have to find a new farrier before too long. R is going to move to South Carolina when her house sells. Her husband took a job there. They were on verge of divorce but reconciled but in meantime he had lost his job here and took one in South Carolina. I'm trying to be noble and be happy for her and did say "oh good" when she announced reconciliation. But its hard to find a really good farrier, and Shade needs someone who is pretty skilled. I don't put near the miles on her that some endurance horses get, but its enough that things have to be correct and Shade will grow more uneven if the farrier does not get her close to perfect.

Well I guess the car union is official ......

I got the DMV paperwork monday and put the plates on the Saturn after driving to mom's dr appointment and on to Boulder. Thankfully she felt ok to drive home. Today I stopped on the way to work and got the oil changed. They sold me the older-car blend and an air filter and it was only a bit of change shy of $75.00 Makes me miss my prius all over again. The oil changes at the dealership were under $40. They only billed $14 of the 74.xx as parts and 4.xx as tax so even if I bought the high end synthetic blend oil and filter myself I'd be saving quite a bit. Well I'll have to call around. I'm such a grease magnet that I really don't want to be dealing with DIY oil changes, but dang I AM mostly a frugal norwegian/swedish girl too.

I seized some fun time and rode Shade this morning though. She felt better, but I rode RazzMo sunday and he felt uneven to me also so I had decided it must be me that is uneven rather than the horse(s) before I started today. I put a Little Joe on Shade so I could have good feel. I'll still have Dr M look at her tomorrow if he has time. Dang I forgot to call and see if we could schedule some extra time. Hopefully everything else goes fast and we will be ok on the time front.

Heres a pic of RazzMo, doing his primary job, packing my dad around when he goes elk and deer hunting --its only a short term gig every year but its important.

willful ignorance abounds

aack -must vent a bit.

How does this country survive? We have so many people who just cannot think logically.

I'm sorry but a $1 price in fuel prices after a hurricane that hit coastal refineries is NOT a surprise, its not a conspiracy by the oil companies. Its JUST how things are.

Honestly Katrina was only 3 years ago. Prices rose by a $1 then in a steeper % increase. Ike took his sweet time coming through the caribbean and the gulf and while the predictions of where he would hit changed a lot that whole area is dotted with oil platforms and refineries. Folks who couldn't absorb a price increase had NO business not keeping their tanks topped up and doing everything possible to avoid having to make any extra trips from Sep 12-28 (roughly) and really they have no excuse for not knowing what would happen; although I don't think I heard ANY recommendations to do this from our HUGE media. I guess the daily lives of celebrity blondes and picking apart stupid campaign commercials were too engrossing so the media couldn't be bothered to compile and distribute information that would actually be valuable to folks PBTTTTTT to the whiners and the media.

saturn is still in Boulder

Did the money exchange thursday. Bit of a gulp at the credit union. Let me see if we have that amount, we usually make people call for over 3k. Well I would have just had a bank check for the balance but they gave me the whole bit in cash.

Friday went to DMV office which is thanfully just 10 miles away. I needed to get insurance before I could get plates, could have called to learn that but then I would not have known that the seller needed to sign her middle name and had not so I had to get her to sign another form. She was kind of evading me, downloaded the form and faxed it to me, I was unsure of that so I called the DMV office and they said I had to have the original form so then I called seller back and asked to meet her at her work and get her signature and she was ok with that.

Seller is getting a job with the U.S. government to do international social work. Visiting refugee camps, granting special visas etc. Kind of interesting, never would have crossed paths with her except for buying the car. I was a bit frustrated though, she was all concerned to get the car detailed, washed etc. Did not get needed oil change taken care of..... I guess I'm just completely an engineer I want form to FOLLOW function.


Today I lazed around, put my fly baits that I took down thursday so they wouldn't overflow in the rain back out and added a couple more so we hopefully wont get over run with flys after the 1.5 inches of needed rain. I took just an 8 mile ride on Shade down the road. Mabye I'll get my camera in later and post her picture that I did at least take, LOL --Oh my what a funky expression I caught her in.

The ride was kind of frustrating, she felt not 100% even, I cant decide if I'm being a 'hypochondriac' or if she still is a bit short striding on her RF. But I have the vet coming wednesday to give rabies shots so I'll have him check her out then. The first time I've done a rabies vaccination but I was hearing of exposures in neighboring states and seeing a lot of dead skunks on the road. The most excitement of the day was Mia -dumb blonde Great Pyrennese dog stopping right in front of Shade. Shade expects dogs to get out of the way and I forgot Mia freezes and didn't take us to the side before we got right up on top of Mia. Luckily Shade was able to just widen her stride and go over Mia without kicking her. Could have been a real wreck if Mia had gotten knocked down and tripped us, or gotten ribs stepped on and broken.

Here is a picture of the blonde dog standing behind AJ, mom's 16.2 hand TB

Tomorrow I take possession of my non-new car

A 2001 Saturn SL-2 sedan. Not this one actually -no ad pics for the one I'm buying and I've cleverly continued to forget my camera in my pickups glove box whilst borrowing mom's car; but the Saturn I'm buying is also silver, but has some maroon trim. I was having cold feet over plopping down the dollars for a used car, even though I just had it inspected by a mobile service and its basically fine; I had to remind myself I haul hundreds of miles to rides with my 1993 dodge and there are no guarantees of not getting burned even buying a brand new car. So now I'm ok.

I'll probably skip riding again tomorrow morning though. Thankfully I had a quick, but fun fast spin on Shade sunday evening and again tuesday morning.

Thankful for my Bayrab yearling

I don't get good pics of her, but I sure am happy with my Szybki girl

Yesterday morning I checked out a used car -liked it Yay, if it passes inpsection I will not have to force myself to car shop. Then I took the fencing spade and dug goatsheads from around the fenceline in a back paddock, and finally in the evening I caught Grey Moun and Sadie and we took a quip trip down to and along the ditch road. Sadie was full of herself, when I put Grey in the bottom of the ditch to get on, she jumped it to get the green grass and bucked when she landed and she jumped and bucked again when I was situated and took us back on the road to avoid possible broken glass cuts. But oh MY she has such a pretty trot, and she is so confident. She shows the arabian by scooting past stuff she is unsure of, but everytime she got to the end of the lead she just slowed or stopped with little pressure on the lead - I never had to brace. I loff Grey too, he just trucks along ponying the kid --he leaves all discipline to me, but I rather that than getting too gung ho. He's the one I trust for ponying Sadie. I need to get them both out more often.

The light grey horse in this picture is Lady. She is doing well up in Conifer at the Paso FIno Ranch. With luck she has found her permanent owners but they are using the lease to own option still. I think L wants to know if the girls will keep up with horse ownership as school activities get into full swing. At worst if they decide they cant handle horse ownership they will have put a lot of condition and training on Lady so the situation is ideal for me whatever happens.

finally friday --doesn't feel like it though

I'm coming back to Boulder tomorrow to test drive a car from a private seller. I should try to schedule it for today but I'm dragging my feet. Oh I hope I like it and it then passes an inspection. Otherwise I should probably suck it up and check out *shudder* used car dealers. I can't keep borrowing mom's car indefinitely and using the blue beast when she needs it though. Simply have got to get a replacement in the garage within a week or 2 at the most.

well I WAS feeling all proactive and good

But then I had a message when I got to work and I had scheduled my farrier for 1pm today. Why I do not know -- I guess I was sure I'd need to be at 7 weeks so I took the slot even though it works against my schedule. If I had written it on the calendar it would have been ok but I messed up. I had mom call her today, if only I had called her tuesday or yesterday. I feel bad for breaking up her day. The horses will be fine waiting 2 more weeks for their trims I think so I don't feel bad about that.

Oh I was feeling good because today was chiro care day for Shade and Grey Moun. Shade loves chiropractic care! When I had the lady vet/chiro this spring Shade was too nervous of her blocks, but she hadn't found any back issues and didn't need them, just adjusted Shades neck and shoulders which Shade thought felt really good. Even though its a different chiro, she was totally relaxed and good for him. She didn't actually chew and lick this time but she gave her floppy happy lips when he adjusted her neck and was fine with him using his little ladder to adjust her back. Grey was pretty good for him too, he didn't seem to love it, but he sure didn't dislike it.

Now I have to get cracking on car shopping. The one car I think I might really want, she wants to get detailed and that wont be done before sunday. I'll have to try to convince her to let me drive it saturday morning before she does the detailing, so I can hit some dealerships if I don't like it.

hmm, fall allergies?

I don't recall having any that kick up in the fall but no other cold symptoms than stuffiness and some sleepiness. I should be grateful I only get stuffy with allergies I guess.

yuck, feels like I'm getting a head cold

No sore throat yet, but I have the light headed and stuffy feeling big time. I hate when my ears feel like they've got goop in them.

I'm still not sure what to do for a replacement car. I need to try to do some research on repair costs. I feel like a corolla would be good because the model is in its 4th decade so parts should be easy to get, but there are other factors for repair costs that I have no clue about. I need to getRdone sooner rather than later though.

I mostly enjoyed my weekend. It was really fun visiting with Rosalie at the ride. I felt fairly extraneous a lot of the time though so next year I must come as an entrant or not at all. I think Rosalie wants to enter next year too so maybe we can push each other to condition and get there.

I punted on car-shopping on the holiday since I had no ride. I guess I should just start shopping and if I find a car I like and it passes inspection, see if I can't finagle them to follow me home in it. But yesterday I was feeling stuffy and light headed too + was tired so I mostly vegged out, watching closer re-runs that I missed the original episodes of.

I did pull some goatsheads in the morning and then fired up the tractor and worked up a bunch in the evening + scooped a bit on the pens. Now I should go out tomorrow morning and bag some of the loose stuff before the burrs all fall off. I so hate them. Also hate mom's prima dona attitude. When she isn't sick she will work like a rented mule planting crap that will need hours of continued care but she sure doesn't like to get after weeds, or do much permanent stuff like painting or fixing fences. LOL, I spend time on horse crap that has no permanent results but I just can't get into it with planting vegetation.