OUR OLD LADY

Thinking about our cat Winky.  She's approaching a ripe old age for a cat.  She turned 14 years old on April 23rd.  I know this because that was the first date Bob and I had and I got her 6 weeks later.  I'll never forget the look on his face when I brought her over to his house.  I had gotten her from a friend that needed to get rid of the family of kittens that she had and me, being a sucker for a cute face, took one.  I had two cats already and a dog.  Bob looked at me and asked, "Do you know that having another cat is for life, right?  That's like another 15 years or so that you'll have to take care of her."

This was his prelude to our future life.  Good thing he got over it.  I mean we have had as many as 75 animals at once on this farm.

Again, I am a SUCKER for a cute face and helping people out when they need a new home for their animals.  I've taken in goats, cats, dogs, chickens, horses and ducks.  And loved everyone of them!  I would not change a thing.

Winky's been around a long time and has copped an attitude. Mostly because of her first experience in life when i brought her home to my house in Crystal Lake, Illinois when she was a little squirt. I set her down next to our dog Nigel and he immediately attacked her! Chased her around the house and tried to eat her alive.  She was never the same after that…Can't blame her there!

She was always stand offish for the most part, staying only with Sam and hanging with her best bud Fuzzy.  But when we moved here, she basically became the barn cat.

 Never came near the house.  An after Fuzzy died, she wouldn't even talk to us anymore.  Until this winter.  She decided that the house was a little bit warmer than my 55 degree studio or the -10 degree barn.  We let her in and she's been hanging ever since.  She knows and we know.  She's feeling her age.

Except for the other day when I caught her playing!!! She was playing with the window shade string.  Cute.  it lasted about 30 seconds, but she played!
Way to go Winky!

And she took over Cashew's beddy-bye basket!

THE END IS NEAR

Yes, spring was spposed to be here on March 20th.  It's April and there seems to be no end in sight. Until yesterday!  It was a beautiful 45 degrees and the sun was shining!  I haven't been this happy in 6 months!

A few weeks ago I pulled into the driveway to find a new snowman in our yard.  I laughed hysterically for a moment after I read his sign:  "THE END IS NEAR!" Then I cried.  Because it was the end of March and there was still enough snow to build a snowman.  "Egads!  Will it ever end!" I sobbed.

Here is how it went:

then, I put this picture up on the Facebook page entitled, Meanwhile in Minnesota.  Next thing I know someone spent some Photoshop time with our snowman:

and enjoy the video:

Yesterday - it's felt like it was all over!  Well, until tomorrow when it snows again…. bah!  Humbug!

TIKI IS A GREAT POLE DANCER

Yes, this is Tiki.  Tiki came to us years ago after my beloved calico cat, Pip-squeak AKA Pippy, was killed.


One of the few nice things are neighbors have done for us is bring me Tiki a few days after the death.  They found her up north by their cabin when her mother went missing, all her kittens were following them around looking for a home.  So they thought that I would like a new cat since my kitty was killed by a car.  The neighbor said that she would keep her as a barn cat if I didn't want her, but of course, I can never refuse a cute face!  Only problem is I had just picked up two other kittens from down the road.

The ad said she had calicos, but all she had was orange tabbies.  So silly me, instead of just taking one tabby or none (I really wanted a calico again), I took two.

There is logic behind this.  When I was a little girl we had taken in a couple kittens that were litter mates, and all their lives they were the best of freinds, grooming each other and always playing together.  The love was so beautiful to watch!  So I always believe that when you get one cat you better get two and they better be siblings.

We've had a lot of cats over the years.

So I took Tiki home and I set her on the bed next to me that night.  She curled up into a ball and never moved, she was so grateful to have a bed and a home with love she just purred and purred all night long!

Now this was the thing about Tiki, she never was a very brave cat. She never would have made it as a barn cat. She never went outside and was just happy to be with you.  Then we got Happy.

Happy chased Tiki immediately accross the living room and Tiki ran downstairs never to appear on the main level ever again.  Maddie once said that the song, "Because of you"  is what Tiki is thinking to herself everyday down there. She hid in the basement for two years, until that fateful day when Happy was hit by a car and died.  I miss Happy, he was such an awesome dog!  He was sooo Happy all the time!  He had a reason to be: he was a in a cage for 9 months at the shelter. But that's a story for another day.

It took about three weeks before Tiki realized that Happy was no longer around, and she slowly started appearing at the top opf the stairs.  Then into the living room, then into the kitchen.

It took another year after that until she peeked her head out the doggie door.

Then about 6 months after that - I noticed her outside running around with the pig!  I also noticed that she would never venture out alone, she attached herself to the pig and the pig became her guardian. They've been friends for a long time.

Brave Tiki.  Now she is very brave and we tease her all the time about it.  Brave, brave Tiki! 

I'm not sure I like the brave Tiki.  She's kinda annoying sometimes.  I preferred the timid Tiki.

But how can you dislike inter-species love???

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...

THE SUN IS SHINING, THE SUN IS SHINING!!!

It's been about two weeks now since the sun was shining.  Or maybe it has been 6 months? At least thats what it feels like.

So when I spotted the large sunbeam laying across the office floor I got super excited and had a small moment of avarice take over me: I stole the sunbeam from the pig.  She wasn't too happy, there were a few grunts and snorts followed by a big sigh. But as resilient that that Vietnamese Pot-bellied pig is, she decided that making me her pillow was a better idea for her anyway. Ya gotta love a positive thinking pig!

And by the way - It's not very pleasant snuggling with a pig.  They have bristles.  Sharp bristles.  This is good information for everyone to know prior to having one as a pet.

But I felt bad for stealing her sunshine so I let her lay by me.

Come to think of it, pot-bellied pigs really shouldn't be living in Minnesota anyway.  They come from Vietnam!  Do you know what it's like weather wise in Vietnam?  Hot, and muggy, all the time.  I'm sure the pig wonders daily whose brilliant idea it was to bring them here to America?

Did you know there are only 18 days left until SPRING???

gotta love the Life is Good t-shirt!

THE FLOORS ARE DONE! HECK YEAH!

Did I mention that we moved here nearly 10 years ago?  Did I mention that when we moved in, the kitchen floor looked like this:

Did I mention that we've lived here nearly 10 years and our kitchen floor looks like this now:

Yes, 10 YEARS!  I guess all that work on the outbuildings was more important. This is how the previous owners left the floor and we just never did anything about it.  Covered it up with a rug.

I know.

But we finally took the plunge. It was time.  It was 10 years of the followup comment to anything Bob wanted to do on the barn. For example Bob would say,  "I'm thinking we should build a deck on the barn," and I would come back with "Perhaps we could have the floors done in the house."

10 YEARS, people!!

We asked our good friend Justin to do the install.  This is a good thing.  Bob believes he could've done a great job, I know he would try, but I just felt more comfortable having someone professional do it. And if you've ever seen Bob's handiwork, you would agree.  I love you honey but...Phew!!

When Justin and I went shopping at Home Depot I took my dear sweet time looking at every different flooring option available.  Thank goodness Justin is a very patient man, I think I took 5 hours to decide.  Ok, it was only about an hour.  But of course, when I settled on the color I liked, they had none in stock, so I took a sample piece home and ordered online.  Funny part is - the tile looked just about as close to the original wood on the floor!  I guess staring at it for 10 years, you get comfortable with it.

So Justin stopped by early one day a couple weeks ago and got started.  He was so fast that I didn't get a picture of the entryway floor and all the broken linoleum tile in there, but here is where he had it all pulled up:

I thought it looked pretty cool like that and my creative mind started getting all excited and wanted to put down some kind of heavy polyurethane on it, ya know like the do to bar tops?  Then I slapped myself hard in the face.

Next was the tile:

Then that night I came home to find it half done:

Oh so beautiful!!

and here's the finished product:

Yeehaaa!  Now my kitchen cabinets need to have something done to them.  I think they were made of plywood, not sure but they don't look too good and shabby sheik is not really in style anymore.  Hmmmm….

Focus!  Focus!

Next: the living room floor!

SUNDAY: EGGS AND BISCUITS

It was Sunday the other day.  Oh, you probably knew that!  Silly me!  But It's winter, it's time for comfort food and in spite of my cholesterol problem, I still wanted some biscuits and eggs.  So I made some.  There.  My bad.  I believe in eating well bit I also believe in doing things in moderation.  Moderation is the key to a healthy life.  The only thing you shouldn't eat in moderation is fruits and veggies.  And Chocolate.  And red wine.

Yes, it's true: red wine and chocolate, they say it's good for reducing cholesterol and I'm stickin' to this!

Plus if you use real, farm-raised eggs, not the factory farm eggs, they have:
 1/3 less cholesterol
• 1/4 less saturated fat
• 2/3 more vitamin A
• 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids
• 3 times more vitamin E
• 7 times more beta carotene

Read more at Mother Earth News.

So there.  Take that cholesterol!

THE ENERGIZER BUNNY STRIKES AGAIN!

I have been feeling so good lately!  So good that I have more energy then I have had in a long time.  I was depressed. It's winter. Its 0 outside and there's hardly any sun.  My vitamin D necessity was at an all time high. I miss my kids.  I miss the warmth of the sun on my face and a horse between my legs. I miss….

Oh well, I snapped out of it!  Or something came over me - or it's so boring being inside all the time that I just have to do something!

So I cleaned.

SHOCKING!  I know.  But I do this every winter it seems.  Like when I cleaned out the closet that winter.

So now I'm seeing a pattern.  I have patterns.  Wow.

The other day, I not only cleaned out the drawers in the kitchen that were, like, not done for what seemed like years, like the plastic container drawer, the junk drawer and the utensil drawer, I also cleaned out under the bathroom sink, my desk 'in-box', my hall closet again, the drawers in my dresser AND took a bunch of clothes to GoodWill!  Phew!  Now it's time for wine.

I didn't take before pics, that would be inappropriate for blogging.  But here's the 'after' shots:

The plastic container drawer now has room to add more.

This is what came out of the junk drawer

So it now looks like this

and I can find the utensils I need for cooking. Finally

CATS DO NOT LIKE TO SHARE - JUST SAYIN'

No, not when it's your beddy-bye basket.  And little ol' Cashew just wanted to stick up for his sister, Bear.

Winky was inside again.  I really can tell she's getting older now.  She is not comfortable with the cold air outside, even though she does have a great little place to hang out thats' heated; my old office!  It's still my workshop for food images and framing so it is comfortable, heated and has a couch.  But she has chosen to come inside, for now.

But back to the beddy-bye basket.  Winky saw the basket and couldn't help herself.  I mean, who could, right?  It's  a beddy-bye basket with a burlap blankie!

So there she was:  Winky - in the basket!

Then Cashew awoke from his deep slumber and noticed her:

It took him a moment to realize the intensity of this faux pas at beddy-bye basket etiquette, but once noticed he quickly responded with a strike to the head!

Winky retaliated with several power punches to the face!

and then it was over.  Statement made.