I'm going to have to shuffle horses again

I think since Lady has become such a fence crawler I'll just put her next to AJ by herself. Then Razz CJ and Sadie can have the bigger paddock and Shade and Grey can have the little one. I kind of hate to run an extra water tank heater but I need to separate Grey Moun from RazzMo so he can get enough calories with his slower eating but he frets too much by himself and won't put on weight. Shade doesn't seem to get too fat eating extra concentrates with him and I can increase her riding hours if she does. If Lady was not such a fence crawler I'd be tempted to put pushy Razz by himself instead but since Lady isn't staying where I put her she can be the one to go solo. I can put her in with Grey and Shade at some point if I decide being in a pen is not working for her but until she'll stay in the paddock I put her in she is the logical one to move. Sadie is easy keeper, fast eater enough to be in with the big stock horse geldings.

Today I rode RazzMo so Shade and Grey could eat their concentrate w/o interference. I used Sadie's new saddle on him. Seemed to fit fine, I am liking it and I'll try it on Shade when I get the smaller cinch. I don't think the saddle is bothering Sadie any but I have decided that I'll hold off on riding her until I have the horse chiro out to rule out problems. I WANT to use my new saddle to work through things if it is a training/ I'm going to see if being resistant will get me out of working situation because it feels so nice and secure, I don't like the OF because it raises the rider off the horses back quite a bit and while it is a deep seat, its still an english saddle.

Oh great -- AGW, new alias CC is still being embraced here

*seminar I could have attended yesterday*

Even as the science of climate change has grown stronger and more compelling, public
acceptance of the science has grown weaker and more partisan. This presentation will
discuss the range of causes for this dilemma. It will then focus on how we can improve
scientists' communication of climate change.
It will address both what we say and how we say it, dealing with framing, messaging,
psychological and cultural issues, the value of narrative, and questions involving
language. It will also include up-to-date information on what the American public thinks
about climate change and how that should be considered in scientists' communication
efforts.

Susan has worked for over 20 years to help communicate the science of climate
change to a wide variety of audiences. She has written and edited numerous high -level
reports, testified before Congress, written an HBO documentary, appeared on national
radio and television shows, and spoken widely to leaders in various fields about climate
change. She is currently focused on helping climate scientists improve their
communication and helping the media improve their coverage of climate change.

All staff are welcome to attend. This event is sponsored by [redacted]
************
No Susan the science has NOT become more compelling, it is unraveling. And while my blinders firmly on co-workers may be unaware the commie in chief is not much interested in funding science of any kind. If he wins he will pursue his global caliphate/commie utopia dreams by executive order and not be pushing any science funding to support it, he probably has an inkling that true science, not garbage focused on giving the result the funding agency expected would not back up the CO2 is evil meme.

Now If Romney gets in he would push for funding for "climate science" with a belief in it I guess --he is still defending mass-care. (not signing it as "well I tried my best to steer it to something that might be workable and even so it failed" but actually defending the failing system --so apparently he does not ever accept that he might have been wrong about something. Give me that *idiot, deer in the headlights* Rick Perry please. At least he will admit something was a mistake if reality slaps it down. Even Newt has backed off on some of his big statist crap and support of cap and tax. I don't trust the reptile but at least he would follow party opinion if the party demands repeal of the bill to completely ruin american health care and says no to a carbon scheme. But the commiecrat and probably 2 of the 3 most likely GOP nominees are going to be skeptical of so called science organization that *bitterly clings* to the disproven CO2/climate change scaremongering. I hope the top idiots here have big mortgages and will lose their houses if they keep this crap up. Like that saying "Stupid Should Hurt"

monday, cant trust that day

Song lyric thought again. Not such a bad day but wow is my mood dark and gloomy. Mainly saddle/young horse crud. Bad timing getting a new saddle at the same time the young horse decides to have a streak of resistant behavior. I suppose I should lay some groundwork with the saddle maker in case I have to have them change the fit. I think they do saddle fit analysis as well so I could have them check things out. What I get for posting this online, always someone who thinks that horses only ever have stubborn streaks when they have pain from saddle or possibly bridle. Of course if I were 100% confident that the horse was only being stubborn the comment would not bug me. I *think* she is just going through a phase of testing me, she sure moves nicely at times in the new saddle, but one always wonders since horses tend to be pretty cheerful workers most of the time.

Work is work. the MarxSpewMedia do not seem to be wavering much in their spewage of marxism, I think they may stay almost all in, being so close to destroying the biggest, richest republic in the world. Idiots seem to think that the country will be just as rich under a communist system, despite the evidence of history.

What with the European debt crisis, which I have not studied enough to know if it actually dwarves our own debt situation or their structure is just such that they can't ignore it as easily and then the commiecrats successful battles in their war on small(ish) businesses even if the stupid cap and tax was avoided I would not be surprised if there is a world-wide depression that will make the 1930's look tame in the nearish future. And I don't know if I just have too much negative information about all the GOP candidates or if the field really is so uninspiring but dang it just doesn't feel like we have a great candidate no matter who we nominate. I'm not sure where the Tea Party is, I should have gotten involved with them beyond getting on some email lists by making a few campaign contributions in 2010. What to do what to do.

waterPik annoyance

I have a waterPik at recommendation of dentist. Does seem to help if I start getting a loose gum pocket that collects food and then is irritated. Well I have knocked the waterpik off my countertop twice and that breaks the tips and it takes a needle nose pliers to get the end of the tip that is in the base removed but a stubborn redhead just finds the pliers.

Well the unit came with two tips so this time I had to get replacements, I didn't get it done before t-day; stopped at Walgreens and then Target today and neither one carries replacement tips. I'd blame the store but 0-2 seems like WaterPik discourages carrying them. Well I was not going to toss the whole thing in the garbage and just buy another waterPik. Even if the tips would cost almost as much as the whole unit I don't like to toss a functioning gadget in the trash, goes against my sensibilities.

I did find replacement tips online so I ordered 4 tips and some misc. stuff. Pbbbtttt on "small business saturday" I was not going to find what I wanted at a small business. I do the small business for car repairs and when I bought my p/u, don't need to forgo convenience today, besides doing things based on the internet meme of the week also goes against my sensibilities.

popcorn for t-day

Went for a little ride this afternoon too. It was good, Shade was less tense and spooky acting. I think I didn't notice it so much pre Sadie because I rode Shade fairly steadily once she was not what I considered a young greenie. Oh well, I can live with acting like there is a boogie man out there; as long as she doesn't ever get any bronco going after having time off.

I had waffles for breakfast. I am getting a good amount of use out of my $10 Target waffle iron. I'll mix a big batch of batter on a weekend so I just have to plug in the iron to heat up, pour out batter, and wait 6 minutes during the work week. I don't like crowds but am halfway toying with asking dad if he wants to go out for supper and then see if we can get a flat screen TV on *black friday* special. I had been thinking of buying a biggish LED or possibly going a bit cheaper with LCD TV for the living room and calling it anniversary gift for the parents but mom wants/ed to get a big TV for downstairs and just bring up that TV for the living room so I just gave them 150 for TV fund, of course she has been too sick now to actually go out and buy something.

I may spend some of the holiday fencing.

Grey Moun was not on board with my plan to have him clean up some hay AJ had left in his stall and eat soaked pellets w/o anyone to take some of his share. I think I may try to put Lady back in with him and Shade and Razz in with Sadie and CJ so chowhound Razz isn't eating part of the food that Grey should get. I think I also need to find an equine dentist to take a power tool and grind out where Grey has a gap that collects some food and slows him down. Dr Mike said that was an option, he has resisted getting power tools and just uses manual rasp tools to even up horses' teeth. In the short term I'll probably start pulling Grey out to do some extra eating when I ride or am just dinking around at home but just tie him next to the fence so he'll eat instead of worrying about being taken away from his buddy(s). Silly old boy.

Sadie was a bit pouty being ridden today, I kept wondering if the pad had picked up a sticker or if the saddle was pinching somewhere but I think its mostly just 4 year old testing of limits. I'll watch for pain and stuff but she'll have to live with going out for light work when I want to, not just when she is bored in the paddock. She would swing to acting happy and moving out really well so I don't think there was any saddle pinching. Possibly there was a sticker that she only felt when trotting, although I didn't find any when I got home and unsaddled.

I ordered some christmas photo cards, with the MaahDaahHey group pic from this summer. Now I really really better get in gear and send out cards and a holiday letter in early December instead of around valentines day like I did last year.

The saddle makes will cut down my fenders into a strap for no charge. Yay, if they were going to charge a huge amount I might have figured I should just buy some craft knives and do it myself, but the fenders have a bit of a curve so I couldn't just take a straight edge to mark where to cut. So happy they will do it, they at least have 100's of hours of practice cutting leather.

Grateful for - the saddle maker's above. My close mechanic says he can replace my transmission temperature sensor and can recommend some independent diesel mechanics if he thinks one of the cylinders isn't firing right or anything.

Ole was a good dog today. He especially adores going riding when L comes out to ride Lady. Today a neighborhood dog was hanging near the intersection so I had to convince Sadie that she could just wait around until Ole came past there. Ole did just stay on our road and keep on heading home and the other dog then had to go put his pee on the spot by that corner. I don't know if the dogs are all trying to claim that spot or if its just a doggy greeting thing.

Grateful that work is slow today and I'm able to just catch up on some data archiving that does not require intense thought

Grateful that the building is blissfully quiet today. When I was a student I could study in the food court area and just tune out all the talking, now it seems like I can't even deal with song lyrics sometimes. This was not an effect of aging I had expected.

tuesday grateful list

2 extra:

Grateful my visa/debit card was sitting on the coffee table. Wasn't in my wallet last night and I thought I had left it at work on friday after an internet payment. Was feeling a bit panicky when it was not on my desk.

Grateful that I have trained myself to drive my commute (esp home at night) like there is a cop watching me every yard and very grateful that the times tonight when my automatic p/u was cruising faster then I realized were a couple miles and a few corners before the cop car checking speeds.

I am grateful that I have a mechanic I trust just 3 miles from home and that my car is just in for routine oil change today

I am grateful that I realized before shipping that my first thought for my saddle fenders would not help things any. Duh, if I have them raise the fender on the leather piece with the holes I'll just have to lower the buckle to an even longer hole. I hope they will swap out the western style fender for just a strap without too much added expense.

I am grateful for digital cameras that allow one to use a picture to explain the problem via email

I am grateful I had many good years with Grey Moun (born 1988) at the same time that I am in mourning that he seems to be aging so very fast the last year or 2. Having owned a few 30 year horses before the one's I've had to say goodbye to in their 20's gave me a warped outlook; 5 or so years ago I thought that with modern worming, and vaccines that most horses that received good (not great/perfect but I think its been good) care would be able to make 30+ or at least very late 20s. Sadly that is not proving true, we just had some tough ND bred horses I guess.

I am grateful that I have been able to mount Sadie, she is still going "UnUh, no way" to standing in a low spot, but with the new saddle and not wearing pacs and heavy winter clothing complete with a bit snug jacket to get the blaze orange I don't need any boost to mount up and once she does a few circles she has been standing pretty decently. Hopefully with a couple no oopsie rides and then a couple days off she'll be mellow tomorrow riding with L.

1. I'm grateful for my cousins. All good people and willing to include the more redneck side of the family when we are around.

2. I'm grateful that my aunt held on to mineral shares and my oldest cousin J convinced her to sell them to us to pre-fund her funeral when she had cancer. I did not know at the time but aunt had wanted to leave her nieces and nephews the mineral shares but the state would have taken them because she'd been in assisted housing for x # of years. We effectively got an inheritance as the royalties have exceeded the fair market appraisal price that J got. The state is getting its 15% on the oil + a bit of state income tax so they aren't hurting any.

3. I am grateful I woke up to the media bias in 2008 and had the "OMG, what all history and political views have I held that have been based on lies and the MarxSpewMedia with-holding facts" slap of reality already. Although if folks have not woke up yet, perhaps they will go through life thinking there was a vast right wing conspiracy, rather than accepting the facts and that some of their views were formed based on deliberate mis-information.

4. I'm grateful that I found there are people out there who are putting facts on the web and showing some of the lies from our voluntary pravda media.

5. Grateful for my cat Boots. I selected him at the shelter and he is my ideal cat. He likes to sleep on my bed but not touching me and will ask for scritches for a few minutes and then call it good. Friendly without constantly pestering for affection.

another sleepy morning

I have to go take some pictures of my saddle to illustrate what I want the saddle maker to change, feed equines and get to work. I lost some sleep last night, waking up hot after 90 minutes and and tossing/turning and adjusting blankets before getting into a good deep sleep but not enough to make me so terribly tired. I'm just mentally lazy, I have to call and get some estimates on replacing my temperature sensor on the p/u and decide whether to use a dealer or if I think they are too spendy, as well as calling the saddle maker about my fenders, and a few other errands. I think I would love to have a personal secretary to deal with things if I won the lottery or something, although I am very resistant to yielding control in general, and I hardly ever buy lottery tickets even so I'll just have to muddle along.

Ugh, fell off Shade today.

So annoyed at myself. All she did was spook a bit. I should have been able to ride right through it if I was centered and its not like she lured me to sleep. So frustrating when I ride like crap.


Well 5 good things. Shade felt strong and was not terribly goofy ayrab for the lack of riding.

2. Boy do I appreciate Sadie and her calmer demeanor.

3. My late night redneck fence fix last night seems to have sealed the hole Lady was crawling out of. I went out to feed somewhat late and she was standing eating on the bale I was going to feed already. Looked at me like "what? It was my supper time" I decided I don't want to worry about her getting in the feed room if I forget to shut the door etc so I pulled the gate that dad bought but will probably not install until we do all the fence repairs over and tied it to the spot where I think Lady crawled through. It would not take much to fix that little section properly but I'd like to just get the new fenceline put up than put more than a few minutes into patching the existing mess.

4. I feel like I'm getting back into a groove for horse feeding and stuff after the trip.

5. I get along with my sibs and they are solid citizens.

I'm grateful today that I have less attachment to an old BB. Someone was posting about how she is temporarily working for a church and getting so many people in risk of losing homes etc and the county and state agencies don't/cant help until people are homeless drug addicts etc. and its so sad. I don't need to bother burning bridges by posting there; but they are reaping what they sowed by voting in marxists, first with a HOR D majority that would make Pelosi a speaker and then electing Barry himself to POTUS. I sure aint giving anymore to United Way, Inner City Health or other charities that I feel like worked to encourage election of Barry. My donations are limited to charities that help soldiers and veterans and just a bit to Salvation Army and LWR. Any liberal cheerleader charities that worked for Barry and Obamacare? They can scrape by on donations from the stingy leftists or go under.

My new saddle does seem to fit Sadie pretty well and I don't think it was slipping forward today. I think I will send the fenders back and ask them to adjust the fenders. I have to take some pics and make sure I describe what I what done properly, first I have to decide just what I want done, but I think I can have the fenders sewn in a different spot and probably also cut down a bit.

My pickup needs a new alternator but it did hang in and get me down I-70 before failing harder and we live next door to a good diesel mechanic who is very honest and wont hardly charge enough for his labor. Now I know that if my batteries get drained I need to charge them up before starting and running the pickup. Neighbor mechanic wants to see if the transmission temp sensor is just getting confused by bad voltage, says if the transmission runs hot the smell is unmistakable.

I remembered to call and make hotel reservations for my friends wedding the weekend after thanksgiving. I am grateful that she uses FB, posts some on BBs etc so I should be able to keep in touch with her via internet. She has (had now) been a driver that worked from 6pm to 3am-ish; it was convenient for calling her once a week or so on my way home from work when I wanted to talk instead of listening to radio. After work is about the only time I think about calling someone, and her time-zone is an hour ahead so I don't foresee having phone conversations now. I am happy for her, she is the sweetest person and seems to have found a real soul-mate in her fiance.

Lady crawled through the pasture fence today when I pulled Sadie out to ride with a different saddle but I am grateful she figures she can stay in otherwise and she ties well so I was able to just take my ride. Plus dad has been meaning to redo the fence and we just never got to it yet, I don't think it will freeze hard here, not enough to be a problem for the tractor post hole attachment anyway so I guess we will install some new fence some weekend before the new year and run another strand or 2 of wire on the dividing fence where my electric rope is all loose. I think we'll do this rather than get electric working to make the fence hot.

Nov 18, grateful for nice riding weather this am

I was almost too warm in a windbreaker over a LS tee, but had a nice ride with L on Lady and me on Sadie.

The company sent me an english girth but I got special 2-point western rigging on the saddle, we did have an old string cinch short enough to work so I'm grateful for having old tack around.

Sadie stood fairly still for me to mount and I didn't need to be uphill from her so I think the mounting bugaboo that started in Meeker will soon be a thing of the past.

I am grateful that L is interested in riding Lady almost year round. She wants to maybe do some odd jobs (mentioned trailer or pickup cleanup ) as she feels a bit cash poor. That could work for me if I give it some thought.

I'm grateful for my job. Sometimes it is a groaner being surrounded by liberals but most of my co-workers are good people, just misguided about how social/political incentives will affect behavior and the fact that there is not a pool of rich people who just aren't paying enough towards government. And I do love the flexible hours and good amount of PTO.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Now for the not all rose colored glasses part.

I have to decide what to do for a cinch for my new saddle. I may keep the english girth they sent if it fits on Shade's saddle, but I will need to get a short western cinch for Sadie. I might go for a neoprene one for winter, not sure. Have to *decide* now and I am feeling mentally tired and don't want to make any extra decisions.

I cannot use my supracor pad with this new saddle. Or I guess I can't use it on Sadie, she doesn't have a huge amount of withers. I'll find out soon if just using a wool fleece pad will work or if I'll need a crupper, well if I need a crupper than I could use the supracor pad. More decision, but I need to play with pads and decide if I need the crupper and if I need one, I'll have to decide what kind to get, it might be best to just use a crupper with this saddle and Sadie's conformation, but the trainer's saddles that I tried before ordering mine didn't seem to go too far forward so maybe I won't have to mess with it.

I think I'll have to cut down my new stirrup fenders if I don't just swap out for english leathers; I am quite bummed about where the blevins buckle hits with the stirrups lengthened to where I want them and it totally turns my stirrups 90 degrees from where I want them, I think turning the stirrups by soaking and broom handle treatment will only do so much if I leave the fenders as they are. Sigh, crystal ball failure again, I should have just ordered 2 inch leathers with no extra fender width or something but I can fix it, I'll just have to cowboy up and take a blade to the nice leather fenders or pay someone to cut them down for me.

Nov 17, 5 things list

I'm grateful my new saddle arrived and it seems to fit ms Sadie.

I'm grateful that owie on my foot from stepping on a Russian Olive branch does not look infected at all, if anything I may have a splinter that I'll need to have dug out at some point.

I'm grateful for the existence of microwave ovens. Saves so much time and money.

I'm grateful for coffee and also for chocolate. Thats two so I'm done with the gratitude list for today.

***********
Rush had a bit on today about some NYT article lamenting that young adults/college grads are not starting their own households and thus they are deepening the recession. The article sounded like mostly BS but it got me to musing. I think it used to be that only "the landed gentry" types had such large houses that adult offspring basically had apartments within and would tend to stay at home until the daughters were married or the sons had gotten rich themselves or whatever. Well, it got fairly common to have huge houses so is it much of a surprise that ie a teacher making 45K would feel like its better to live at home and save up for a big down payment on his own house later rather than moving into his own apartment? If parents are not inclined to shove their kids out of the nest are the super sized homes going to encourage kids to keep living at home when a former generation would move out into a small apartment because a modest house did not allow enough privacy for living with the parents to feel at all comfortable?

grateful for 5 things every day?

Not sure I can come up with 5 things every day, I've been feeling rather squeezed lately, but it is a cool theme for november.

ok, I'm grateful my pickup made it home, even if the batteries are still weak and dad only announced it to me tonight rather than putting a slow charger on one or the other of them after borrowing the p/u to go fetch their new mini.

I'm grateful dad shot a doe and we will have some tasty meat.

I'm grateful that V and L had an extra pair of binoculars and are more than happy with the price I offered them for purchase.

I'm grateful all 3 horses made it home safe and sound from the trip.

I'm grateful that Shade and Grey Moun are looking well fed.


Well I guess I'll save more for tomorrow. Past time to head for bed right now.

Finally home from the hunting trip ---darned Ford

We hung out on sunday and just did as much pre-packing as possible because it was snowing and we didn't want to fight bad roads + ski traffic on the way home. We would have been home quite early but my back passenger door got left ajar and drained my battery(s). And the darned FORD pickup wouldn't just keep running after we jumped it because it has some kind of safety to protect the alternator if a battery is bad or something. Plus my transmission temperature sensor got blown sometime during all the fun. Spent over 2 hours and 147 dollars at an auto place just to find out that the battery that we suspected was bad was OK once they charged it up and it was just the temperature sensor for the transmission that was bad --which I suspected but wanted to confirm before going on all the steep downhills on I-70 to get to Denver.

WooHoo the tax raise amendment failed

BWAAHAAHAAA, I guess I was not the only one completely underwhelmed by ominous "some kids even have to PAY to ride the school bus" and all the other bs in the vote yes on 103 ad. Now if we could get a right to work amendment on the 2012 ballot and "no automatic deductions for union dues" and this would be a biggie, something like the WI law that limits public sector union power, maybe the state could be set on a better path. Well we made some progress in 2010, its just that our state GOP leadership got snookered in a couple of cases that affected the governors race very strongly and the establishment GOP senate candidate fought dirty in the primary and handed extra ammo to the dems to use in the general. It makes me so furious when conservatives are constantly told they have to vote for RINOs or suffer the democrat and then the RINOs decide they would rather have a dem than a conservative.