Sick

Paul and I have been sick for the last week but it finally looks like it's just about over. Usually when we take Lorna down for appointments with the specialists one or more of us come back with a cold. This time Paul and I came back with the flu. Most of the weekend was rainy and cold so I don't feel like I missed out on much. Yesterday was just beautiful with temps in the 60's. Since I was still feeling rotten I didn't get to enjoy it. I plan on making up for that today since I'm feeling better, the weather is still wonderful, and my seeds from Baker Creek came in the mail yesterday! For once I was ready before the seeds got here since I got the dirt ready last week before I got sick.

Surgery Scheduled

After months of fighting with insurance and doctors, Lorna's surgery is scheduled for March 14th. The surgeon said they expect her to be released on the Sunday following. Since we live 3+ hours away we decided to get a room as close to the hospital as possible. UCLA has a hotel for families of patients but they are booked, the school has a hotel and it's booked as well. We found a small hotel that offers little more than a bed and bathroom a few blocks away that had a room available, they don't provide parking. I think we have all the problems worked out, we plan on paying for hospital parking and then walking to the hotel. Maybe I'm just cheap but it seems a bit much to charge patients for parking. Since they charge $8 every time you enter the structure (even if it's the same day) we don't plan on moving the car until it's time to leave.

Whiskey Flat Days part 2

We went back today so the kids could participate in the pet parade. They entered the best theme category. Lorna dressed Buster up with a cowboy hat and bandanna and Malachi dressed Pookie up with a bonnet and bandanna.





Lorna took second place and Malachi won first. It was really amusing to see all the different dogs and costumes. Some of the people went all out dressing up to match their pets for the matched pair competition.



We spent the rest of the day walking around looking at all the booth and going down to sit by the river. Yesterday's attendance was figured at over 50,000 people, today was a much more relaxing day with about half that amount.

Whiskey Flat Days

Today was the second of 4 days that there is a large rodeo/western event in our valley. Lorna rode in the parade that was the official kick-off. This is a huge deal for the entire valley since the population of the town that holds the event can swell from 2000 regular residents to 20,000+ over the weekend.

The parade was great with a number of equestrian groups, wild west reenactors, and local groups participating.

Kern County Mounted Police

Tagged

Glenda tagged me with a book meme.

Here are the instructions:

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

The nearest book is The Harlequin by Laurell K Hamilton. It's the 15th book in a series about a vampire hunter named Anita Blake. As with most of these types of books it has were-animals as well vampires, that is what these sentences are talking about...

If I hadn't seen Chimera shift from one form to the other
like water spilling back and forth between hands, I'd have
said Micah was the best at shifting I'd ever seen.
Micah looked up at Richard. "Nathaniel would have been
trapped in leopard form for hours."

Exciting books but they can be graphic, luckily this particular section was really tame :) I'm gonna break the rules and forgo tagging anyone since most of the blogs I read have already done this particular meme.

More horse pics

We spent all day Saturday at yet another gymkhana show. There were a lot more kids than normal so it made for a long day. Lorna did well and got her best ever time in the speedball event, this event requires you run up to a cone and drop a golf ball in the top. Usually she has problems lining her horse up alongside the cone close enough to bend over and drop the ball, this time she got Ginger lined up perfectly on the first try. It was a fun day for Lorna since she got to try out her new tack and matching blanket. We have made plans to have Lorna ride in the Whiskey Flats Day parade next Saturday.

Malachi did his usual manure scooping and brought home more donations from his "fans". I completed the major task of finishing our taxes and having them accepted via e-file. It's a huge weight lifted off my shoulders and we are already making plans to spend the refund on some much needed home improvements.

Snow day

Monday we decided to take a snow day to enjoy the snow that was falling.

Malachi played and sledded down the driveway.


There are no pictures of Lorna because she said it was too cold to play for very long. I spent the afternoon sewing curtains for Malachi's area.

Reuse and Recycle

In an effort to reuse the stuff that we have, I spent the afternoon making canvas grocery bags out of old curtains. The curtains were made of heavy canvas material and were originally used as a bedroom door in the yurt. Each curtain made one bag with very little waste. Since the curtains were already hemmed I had to do very little sewing.



Instead of buying something new I wanted to recycle something old, I found this bean pot in a junk store down the road. I really wanted a soaker pot for the bathroom that looked nicer that the ice cream container I was currently using. It fits well on the shelf above the toilet and it looks quite nice.

Clouds, the Internet, and Laundry

I woke up to more rain. Because our well really needs rain I am rejoicing that we've had so much over the past few weeks. The only downsides to rain are laundry and clouds. The laundry I've learned to work around, the clouds create problems with our internet access. Since we have satellite internet we already have slower access than most others, when the clouds roll in we have little to no access. Since I just use the internet for email and fun stuff it's no big deal, it is a big deal for Paul though. He uses the connection for most of his paperwork. He has to fight with the connection on a good day because everything is done through a VPN, which doesn't play well with our satellite. On a bad day, like today, he can't get anything done because the VPN won't connect.

I am thankful all we have is rain, the snow and really low temps of the past few days have made it difficult for the washer. No matter how much I insulate the hoses and pipes I still have to wait for the ice to melt out of the machine before it will run. I think we will be building an insulated shed for the washer over the summer so we can avoid this problem next year. Maybe we will even be able to get the electric box fixed and add a 210v outlet for the dryer. It's nice to dream :)