SHOW SEASON IS ABOUT TO BEGIN!

I can't believe it but it's been two years since we showed our horses! that is waaaay too long!  I miss it dearly but sometimes you have to be gone to be missed.  I miss it!  Now that my daughter Madison is living in L.A. I'll have the chance to show her horse this summer, which I am really excited about!  Max is an awesome horse and totally lives up to his registered name: User-Friendly Max!

Maddie and Max - isn't he just stunning!

And I will be showing my Arabian Khrome at a few Class A Arab shows.  Thanks to my daughter Samantha who will be training him and getting him ready to be the star I know he can be!

I've mostly used Khrome for trail riding, which is my utmost favorite thing to so with horses, and was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to break him a few years back.  I showed him a few times after I first broke him in walk/trot classes but this year Sam will take the reins and finish him to be a great show horse.  She's super good at training horses, both my girls are.  They trained all their horses and they succeeded well. I'm super excited!  He's just a beauty and no I am not biased!  He's a cute mover, cleans up well and is a great ride.

isn't he handsome??!!

Ok, sorry, all this horse terminology can get confusing.  So here's the easy explanation:

Class A shows:  there are different types of shows that you can show your horse in, one is open shows, meaning they are open to anyone, no registered horses required and beginner riders can enter, and then there are Class B shows which are a little higher up and then Class A shows for purebred horses.

Registered horses:  this is a horse that has 'papers' meaning registered through their breed affiliations.

Break a horse: means taking a horse at age of 2-3 and teaching it to be ridden.

Finishing a horse:  training a horse to be show quality, ie learning many different gaits (walk/trot/lope/canter), slowing him down (collecting), etc.

Cute/great mover: looks good trotting.

So today Sam and I moved our horses, Honor & Glory (barn name Honor) and Khrome by Khemo (barn name Khrome) from our barn down to our neighbor's farm.

Sam and Honor at the Badger Show in Milwaukee. Honor is just a beaut!!!

Barn name:  the name you call your horse on a regular basis - not his registered name.

Our neighbors  have an indoor arena to ride in and since we are expecting a good foot of snow or more in the next few days, we needed a place to ride and train because the first show is in three weeks!  Khrome won't be ready by then but Honor will be.

So because it is still so icy out I walked the horses the half mile down the road to our neighbors.  All the while Sam followed in the Durango. I needed the exercise. And the sunshine.  She suggested holding their lead ropes out the window while we drove and lead them that way but I knew better. That was just a wreck waiting to happen!

Wreck:  when a horse gets spooked (scared) at something and does something silly like take off, you fall off, you get hurt, the horse gets hurt or the horse rears up.

And of course Sam had to post this to Facebook.

What bothers me most is that my ass is almost as big as the horses!!

Geez, I need more exercise...

MERRY CHRISTMAS DAY 2012

Ha!  It was a wonderful day, in spite of not having my baby girl, Madison here.  She's living in L.A. now and had no money to come back home for Christmas.  Waaahhhhh!  But lucky for me, Sam came over for Bob's birthday on Christmas eve and stayed the night, so she was here in the morning, just like the old days!  That made me very happy! : )

This was the start of Christmas morning:  an asiago bagel with artichoke and spinach cream cheese ( a new find) onions and cucumbers. Nummy!  and a real treat for me since I don't eat much bread anymore.

NO!  I do not have too many cats!!!

So all the animals got their special treat:  the pig - a whole apple

the cats - cans of cat food

The horses:  extra hay

 Edy got one of those smart toys that you put treats into and they have to move the little nobs around to find the treats.  She figured it out right away, of course!
Percy and Louie got a bone that they immediately unwrapped.  Edy got one too.

This was my pile, which included this really cool coffee mug:

it's even purple too!  (I now it looks black here but trust me it's purple)

and my new awesomest Carhardt Jacket!  Now I'll really look cool riding the tractor!

Here's Sam's pile!

and here's Bob's!  See that Life Is Good shirt?  It has Bob on it, with a dog and a cup of coffee and a barcolounger.  Which is Bob.

Then Edy had a moment of selfishness and rage:

 Louie got too close to her bone.  Although Louie denied the whole thing!  Look at that innocent face!

I'm warning you!

I'll eat you alive!

So Louie went and hid by grandpa.

 Cashew's first Christmas!  Not quite sure what's going on.

 We offered Edy some food and water because guarding your bone from the evil Louie can be tiresome.

The carnage!

And then it was over.

IT'S A SAD DAY

Yes, the time has come.  Ezzy is slowing down in her milk production and I feel it is time to stop milking her and dry her off.  So sad!  I'm not sure I will breed again, as I am a really bad farmer and refuse to get rid of any of my kids so I do have too many. My goat milk customer is not gonna be happy! And I think for now, the break will be nice.  Not having to milk twice a day will afford us some time away from the farm too.  Most helpers don't mind the tossing of hay out for the animals, but the milking thing gets them a little freaked out sometimes.  I don't know why, it's just a little teat.

I will miss my goat milk, but I was smart this time and planned ahead, knowing the inevitable.  I froze a whole bunch!  This way when I get a craving for some chevre - I'll just whip out a bag of frozen and make it!

Sometimes my mind works….sometimes it don't.

This here is Ezzy when we first got her:

 

This here is Ezzy when we had her horns removed, (I'm sure the vet thought we were nuts, but we wanted to show her at the fair and you can't show a goat with horns and besides he probably knew better: you don't mess with a 4H mom!).  She had to wear this babooshka looking bandage for a week. And read the paper on the latest events in town (she's a socialite, what can I say?)

This here is Ezzy when we took her with us in the parade with the horses:

This here is Ezzy lounging with me in the hammock, I love my goat!

This here is Ezzy and me after she gave birth to her first set of kids:

And here is Ezzy and me after her second set of kids:

This is Maddie with Hermes and Athena

and this here is Percy enjoying milk - straight from the teat.

DARK DAYS CHALLENGE

More info here.

Work has been plentiful this month and I am really enjoying it! So needless to say, bloggin' gets put on the back burner.  Honestly - I think I could post 4 times a day with all the things that happen here, but I'm lazy sometimes. Ha!

So here's the Dark Days challenge I missed a couple weeks ago.  Since I was gone to Illinois that week and the challenge of the month was Valentines Day Treats (and if any one knows me - I shy away from cookies, cakes, pies, etc as much as possible - my thighs jiggle enough)  - I passed on that challenge.

We had a couple of good friends over for dinner that night, Kari & Ryan, and in exchange for me taking an image for my Ryan's next play poster, he made me dinner! Ryan is a very talented writer and actor and I am always willing to help out a friend, and yes, ya know I am a sucker for food, you can pay me in food anytime!

This is what we produced out in the studio!
 of course with some help from a great graphic artist.

We made a fine dinner of grilled local pork chops, with a sweet potato mash made by Kari with local carrots and raisins, and served with a colorful salad of spinach, local tomatoes and cucumbers.  Nummy, nummy!

The pork chops were from Hidden Stream Farms - Elgin, MN.

Sweet potato mash made from local sweet potatoes from Whitewater Gardens and included local apples from Seekap Orchards, Rochester.

Spinach salad with cucumbers and tomatoes from Whitewater Gardens as well.

We had a fine Chilian Carmenere, although not locally made - locally bought and from an organic winery.  Does that count?

We were having a good time with locally grown, excellent food and fun, wonderful friends, what more could anyone ask for?

She loves him, really she does!

LOST IN SPACE

Had to send in my Mac for repairs this weekend and now I really feel lost; no computer, no pictures, no way I can get stuff done.  Like the 365 project I am working on or the Dark Days Challenge or this blug.  How is one to keep up?  Use the gash darn PC and Picasa???? No!  I will just have to wait until the fixed Mac comes back. WWWWAAAAHHHHHH!

So here's an old one for good times sake. It's of Madison (age 9). Percy and Louie on our first Halloween here.  I scanned it from (gulp!) a print from film!  Yikes!  How old school. : )

Gosh!  Look at those ugly kitchen colors we had!

THE END OF THE YEAR 2011 IN PICTURES

It's been picture perfect! Just another day in paradise.  : )

and to recap the year…. in no particular order:

Percy still thinks she's funny

Louie is still always beggin' for meat

Edie is forever wondering….

My birthday with friends

the hell of the well and pipes going out

me teaching Jen Koski  (local writer, editor)
how to make cheese for Rochester Magazine

Pig, happy by the fire

We lost our dear friend Aphrodite this year

me, I got in the paper (again)

Maddie got a full page monthly article to write in the local paper, Exposed

Bob and the boys called BE performing
 at the open mic night at the Rochester Civic Theatre

KSMQ TV came out and interviewed the characters
 from Barn Bar for a special show called Off 90

We always went to the Americana nights at the Civic Theatre

Dana Cooper (who performed last year in the Barn Bar)
and our friend Brandon Sampson

Sam competed with Honor at Sahara Sands

always a lot of peace, love and sleeping done

Sally Barris came back to perform in the Barn Bar, yay!

and for the first time we had the whole Six Mile Grove band play too

Bob painted the out buildings

I helped paint the mural in the skyway downtown for the Farmer's Market

We took the old camper out to Milwaukee and
Sam & Honor won big at the Badger Arabian Horse Show

While in Milwaukee we got to see our good friend's brand new baby Hadley

we were at it at Farmers Market again, peddling the wares of the farm

With the help of Michelle Fimon, we created a wonderful
series of images based on her poems for an art exhibit

the great, fun duo called Patchouli played in the Barn Bar in June

Louie suffers from gravity

more open mic nights

Maddie turned assistant photographer a couple times for me

BE had their album release party in the Barn Bar

the tomatoes in the raised bed
grew to high and broke my strings

our band Blue Monk played at the county fair

BE at the downtown weekly art & music fest Thursdays on First

our band at Thursdays on First

Dex and I competed at a local benefit show
 in the Egg & Spoon class

Bob performed with Kevin & Dianna, aka 12 Strings at ArtiGras

our band at the open mic night

Maddie's hair randomly changed colors

Whiskey tasting at Irish Fest

the view from our front porch still looks good

the camper died

BE opened for Patchouli when they came back in October

Madison performed performed in the play Aria de Capo this summer with our friend Ethan Savage

I took a trip to the Boundary Waters for a little rest and relaxation

hard to believe Maddie turned 17 this summer and
will be graduating with her associates degree next summer

we had our notorious Halloween party in the Barn Bar again this ear

yes, this is how i work

another view from the front porch - it never disappoints us

from the back pasture

these were works displayed at a large art show I helped put on in November

opossum break in in the barn caused a ruckus

the work is never done!

but it sure looks good when it is!

we visited granddaughter Riley, Bob's
daughter Kristi and her husband Wes in March

Tiki is still not too brave to go outside, unless the pig is with her

in the spring, the garden was bloomin'

my office, ever so changing,
hard to believe it was once a rabbit breeding room

some new raided beds in the garden - I seem to never stop adding on

we had a good harvest of strawberries this year

and tons of veggies

we got a couple new chicks for the flock

the job is never done

pig got a field trip out to the apple trees

Bob, Kevin and Dianna opening for Pat DiNizio from the Smithereens

I got the pleasure of having my image on the cover of our
local magazine Rochester Women

Maddie was on the cover of Exposed, twice

and I now have the privilege of being the
food photographer for Rochester Women mag. YEAH!