Less Is More

Update

2011-09-17T10:55:00.000-07:00

Wow,so much has happened since the last time I wrote here.

I got a new job, I received a promotion, Paul lost all of his jobs, he got a really good new job, he wrecked his car while going 5 mph (not his fault) which ended up being a really good thing,and we've lost and gained a number of animals.

That's the short version...

My new employer shall remain nameless but I get to use my degree working there. That's a nice change since I'm still paying off the loans. Not only that but my promotion came with better pay and paid time off which I haven't seen since reentering the work force a little over a year ago. I took some risks in originally accepting the position but the risks have more than paid off.

Paul went through a period of time where the 2-3 jobs he had laid him off. He was on unemployment for a few months but he has recently started a new job. Luckily he was in the right place at the right time and the job, while having long hours (12-14 hour days), is really good. The company is solid and seems to take care of it's employees.

We've lost 2 dogs, gained 2 dogs,and added 2 goats to the mix. The goats are fun and low maintenance. The kids are doing well. Lorna lost her riding job but continues to make custom tack and jewelry. Malachi is growing like a weed and continuing to mature.

Lorna and I are in the middle of transitioning to another chorus. We love to sing together so we decided to change choruses rather than just quit when we ran into obstacles within the chorus we were in.

I think that is all the major things. We are super busy but all doing well.

Flooding and Mud

2010-12-30T13:19:00.000-08:00

Many of you have heard of the flooding in California.

Our little valley is about an hour outside of a relatively large city. There are 4 ways into the valley. The main way is a canyon road that goes directly into the city, there is a small mountain road that is open intermittently in the winter, a road that goes through another valley and then hits a major highway, and the last route goes through a pass out into the desert. This last week has seen all ways in and out closed for short periods of time. The canyon road has been closed since the first storm hit. Many of the people in this valley rely on that road into the city to get to work. For the last week and a half many of these people have been driving hours out of their way to get to work. Today all roads were again closed. I keep wondering how much longer employers are going to be understanding. Will they give up and hire people who are having fewer troubles getting to work?

I was really lucky, although I missed 2 days of work I was able to make them up. Paul has been suffering in that he can't get into the city to sell anything. Since his salary was revoked as of last month he isn't making any money. This is the last straw, bankruptcy is looming.

The road into our property was washed out in the first storm. Once the flood waters receded we were able to walk across the creek. The creek used to flow under a bridge which allowed access to the properties in the area and the BLM road that goes into the forest. Now the creek flows about 50 feet in front of the bridge. A neighbor was able to get our truck across using his bulldozer to get it through the mud.

For the last week we have been walking a half mile to the truck which is parked across the creek. Last night the latest storm dumped enough water into the creek that it came up to our knees in some spots. During the day the crossing isn't too bad but in the dark it's daunting. Getting food and small supplies in has been relatively easy. Unfortunately we are just about out of hay so we will have to carry 100 lb hay bales in one at a time. A load of hay consists of 36 bales, it's going to be a huge workout for all of us!

Quick Update

2010-12-13T17:54:00.000-08:00

We've moved the animals and ourselves and are still working on our junk.

We are currently living in an RV and Fifth Wheel and only have solar power. We are still adjusting to our new way of life but the kids and I are certainly enjoying all the space to ride!

We've been blessed by an outpouring of offers of help from friends and acquaintances. It's amazing the support we've been offered!

Once we have the internet moved and the generator up and running I should be able to post more frequent updates.

Strugling

2010-11-07T07:26:00.001-08:00

Why is it that every time something seems to be going well we are thrown another curve ball?

We've been attending this wonderful church whenever possible but it's been frustrating because I'm scheduled to work almost every Sunday at the market. Last week the feed store offered me more hours, enough so I can quit the market! Since the feed store is closed on Sundays I was ecstatic. We've been making it on a severely reduced income, it hasn't been easy but it's been doable so everything seemed to be turning around for us.

Friday Paul got a call from his boss, it seems the company is doing away with his salary package and going to straight commission. Yes the commission and monthly residuals will be a lot better but there is now no guaranty of pay if he has a slow week or month. They gave the employees 1 week notice of the change. I'm optimistic that Paul can make this work but I'm terrified that we won't be able to make ends meet. I'm trusting that God has a plan because that's all I can do at this point. I'm praying for stronger faith to make it through this and I'm also throwing in that I'd really love to have a boring life in the near future :)

Offer

2010-10-22T09:42:00.000-07:00

We got an offer on our house.

I'm trying not to get too excited because it's really up to the bank whether or not to except it. Since we still aren't in foreclosure even though we should be I hope it is a sign that they would rather have a small offer than nothing at all.

We have been working on getting the generator in the RV working. Paul has replaced a few things and has a few more ideas but we know very little about them so it's difficult. I'm going to be optimistic and say that once we get it working we can move. I do have a back-up plan if we can't get it working, it involves buying a small portable one so we can charge the battery and keep the refrigerator running!

I'm hoping that getting the offer will be the impetus we need to get moving a little faster. The rainy season has begun so we really do need to get everything moved sooner rather than later.

I'm still working 2 jobs because I have a serious problem with saying no. Every time I'm convinced that it's time to get rid of one I hear a rumor that hours are going to be cut, it makes me leery to change anything because I just might need both jobs to keep 20 hours a week. I'm contemplating looking for a better job in the city near us and just getting rid of the local jobs. If I can find somewhere that I can work during the week for 2-3 days I can carpool with Paul and have more free time. Since we've found a new church home I really want at least 2 Sundays off a month which doesn't look feasible at the local market.

Holes

2010-10-12T22:49:00.000-07:00

Once in a while this is what I run across in the kids' education.

Last week the chorus had a coach come in from out of town. Lorna and I have a private voice lesson with her before rehearsal. During that lesson she asked Lorna to sing "You Are My Sunshine" which she didn't know. She then asked her to sing "Mary Had A Little Lamb" which was another thing Lorna didn't know. This happened a few months ago with "My Country Tis Of Thee". It seems I have forgotten to teach what I consider "cultural" songs. Things that everyone just seems to know.

Speaking of schooling I guess it's time I sit down and plan out our school year. I admit that I've really dropped the ball on formal schooling at the moment. The kids are still reading books and doing other school type things but no book work. This is yet another area that has suffered greatly since I started working. Not only has our diet rapidly deteriorated but time to do necessities like school planning and laundry has disappeared.

I told the feed store that I just couldn't work this week. I'm scheduled 5 days at the market and the little time I have off I need to keep my sanity. My working part time has morphed into full time, sometimes over 40 hours, because I have a problem saying, "No." When I work too many hours we don't actually see a monetary gain because we spend the money eating out due to not having enough time to cook. I'm still trying to strike a balance between working too much and not enough. Hopefully I'll get this straightened out soon.

On a really happy note we found a great church to attend! Right now we are averaging once a month because that seems to be how often I can get a Sunday off work but we are hoping to eventually make it twice a month. It's not as close as I could wish but it's a wonderfully solid church and the distance isn't so great that we can't manage it.

Too much!

2010-09-17T12:18:00.000-07:00

That is what my life is filled with right now, too much of everything. Too much work, too many activities, too many responsibilities, etc. Something has got to give but I'm not sure what right now.

We continue to work on our new property with the hopes of moving out there sometime in the next week or so. The weekends have filled up with catch up projects for Paul and work outside the home for me.

We've found a new church we desperately want to try but I've been unable to get time off from the market where I'm scheduled to work every Sunday. I asked for this Sunday off but they just "couldn't make it work." They were annoyed and surprised when I just "couldn't make it work" on Wednesday when they called me into work early. To be fair I was working at the feed store but I don't know that I would have went in even if I didn't have prior commitments. So far I'm still working 35-40 hours outside the home between my 2 jobs. The strain is getting more difficult to handle. It's especially hard when I only bring home $260 a week for all that work. Yes the money is nice but I do feel my time is worth more, especially with everything that is not getting done at home. I need to figure out a balance of working enough hours to get by but not so many that our family suffers.

I'm considering dropping one of my major activities. As much as I hate the idea, it would free up a tremendous amount of time and save me lots of frustration. I have no idea if I will go through with it but it's been entering my mind more and more. I use up most of my patience at the market where I have to watch the tax money I pay being spent on junk. Maybe our area is the exception but watching people use their food stamp cards on soda, candy, ice cream, cigarettes, and alcohol just makes me angry. For most of the people who come into our store this is just their normal way of life, this isn't temporary. They have learned how to work the system and so they live comfortably. Yes, I'm jaded and frustrated! All of this is to say that I just don't have any patience to waste on outside activities anymore.

Okay on to the positives going on. I'm excited about our upcoming move and I've been riding! I can't remember if I mentioned the horse that we got a number of months ago. She is an older retired show horse who has a "been there done that" kind of attitude. Very little seems to bother her so I've been building my confidence on her. We've gone out on a number of hour long trail rides and we will be doing our first gymkhana tomorrow. I'm really excited even though we will only be walking through the events. I know it's not all that impressive but I'm no longer terrified to get on her so I feel like I've achieved something huge :)

Out of control

2010-09-08T09:41:00.000-07:00

That's what has happened to our eating habits.

I knew that since I'm averaging 30-35 hours of work outside the home our food expenditures were getting a little out of hand but I didn't realize how bad it had become. As I was balancing the checkbook I found more receipts from eating out than I remembered. I also noticed that popping into the market for convenience foods becomes expensive really quickly. All of the money from my extra hours is being eaten up, literally.

I'm going to be making a better effort to plan out dinners so there is no question of what there is to cook. In the beginning, dinner was ready by the time I got home from work. The current tendency is to wait until after I get home and ask me what should be made. By that time, around 9 pm, I'm not in the mood to help people with dinner prep. All I want to do when I'm not working is to sleep or veg out so making sure dinner prep is done before I go to work is going to take some effort on my part.

Exhausted

2010-08-30T11:52:00.000-07:00

That's how I feel!

I've picked up a few shifts at the local feed store to make up for the fact that I wasn't getting many hours at the market. Of course as soon as I did that my hours at the market picked up. I'm thankful for the money but life at home is seriously suffering.

I've always maintained that when you work outside the home something suffers whether it's your work or your family. For me it's always my family because I want to do my best and I want to keep my job. You wouldn't think that working at a small market would be exhausting but it is. The work itself isn't bad but the environment is exhausting. For a small market there is enough drama going on behind the scene to fill 2 daytime soap operas with story lines forever. It's impossible to just go to work and do your job since all of the drama is brought into the workplace. People complain, gossip, and are just generally difficult to work with. Unlike a big market where you are tied to your register, we are expected to keep busy but stay in the front of the store. The summer season is winding down so business is slow making it difficult to keep busy. There are only so many times you can wipe down the same set of shelves during a shift. There is also a lot of interaction between the employees because we are so slow, this exacerbates problems that are brewing under the surface...

Lorna had a breakdown this past week, telling me that she feels like she has too much on her plate. When we talked about what was going on I found that it isn't her activities that are the problem but that she has too many responsibilities at home. She has picked up 95% of the jobs I can no longer do because I'm gone. She also tearfully told me that she misses me so much and just wants me to be home! How many mothers of teenagers hear that? After the pleasure of hearing that she wants me to be around I feel guilty because I have to work!

We are looking at solutions and I think we may have something worked out. If everything comes together in 2-3 weeks things will slow down for all of us.

Due to my busy schedule we haven't been able to work on our new property. We had planned to be moved out there by now but we still have some work to do before that can happen. Hopefully we can get things moving this week so that we can actually set a move date.

Catching up

2010-08-11T09:02:00.000-07:00

I seem to do a lot of "catching up" posts lately.

Paul's new job seems to be going well. The company has provided lots of training and help so far and he has even made a few sales. Given his previous jobs, I'm still a bit skeptical but they are paying him so I'm mostly happy.

My job is going, I can't say well or pleasantly but it's a job. Too much drama and favoritism for me to actually enjoy it anymore.

We continue to work on the new property but working has kept us so busy we aren't as far along as we hoped to be at this point. Unrelated and unexpected expenses means everything has been downsized. We hope to move into the RV sometime in the next few weeks.

Lorna and I just had our Ice Cream Social for the local Sweet Adelines Chorus. We were both asked to sing in the double quartet which made for some extra excitement. The evening was fun, made our chorus lots of money, and we had extended family actually come watch.

During the evening we also hold an auction. I always donate something I've made. This year the items didn't do so well.

I made these baskets and filled them with bath salts, a bandana, mini-wipes (for removing make up and such), a wetbag (for keeping wet items contained), and a cooling neck tie (one of those things filled with crystals that hydrate and keep you cool). Even though they didn't make much money for the chorus, it gave me time to perfect a few patterns.

We have had one showing on our house so far. It seemed promising but nothing has come of it. It's frustrating because the house is priced at less than half of what we paid for it 4 years ago and we have made many improvements in those 4 years. We would love to sell it so we can just move on but it's looking more and more like we are going to end up foreclosing. The only benefit of foreclosing is that we can leave our stuff here for a number of months and pack as we have time. Hopefully we will be able to save enough for a shipping container to be dropped on the new property so we won't have to rent a storage unit. There is also a lot we can take from the property that we would leave if we sell the house. On the whole it's just really stressful!

More adjustments

2010-07-21T09:21:00.000-07:00

I'm having a really difficult time getting myself motivated to do anything on my days off from work. I get the house stuff done, I get the errands done, but nothing else. I'm really behind in my sewing. I have stuff that's been hanging over my head for weeks and I really need to restock my stores!

I'm starting to have more adjustment problems at work as well. I know rationally that my morals and values do not coincide with everyone else. It's really difficult to keep that perspective when you are faced not only with customers but fellow employees who flaunt things that I would be ashamed off. I'm learning to keep my mouth shut and not comment when things are said. The last thing I need is to make trouble! I keep telling myself it's a learning opportunity :)

The house has finally been put back on the market as a short sale. The weather has been so hot (100+) that it's been difficult to get any work done on the new property. We have to move the dog run and two sheds and then we can move out there. The RV is as ready as it's going to get so my goal is to be out there within a month. We will leave the rest of our belongings here and pack and move them as time allows. The money we had saved for a container to store our stuff in has been used to live and pay bills so I'm hoping that we can save enough to get one before we have to get everything out of the house. If not, we may end up renting a storage unit short term.

Overall things have gotten better. Between Paul's 2 jobs and my job we are at the point where we can once again survive and even slowly pay off some bills. It's nice to have a little breathing room but it's difficult not to go out and spend everything we bring in replacing things that are wearing out. I'm relearning how to be extremely frugal and it's been interesting!

Adapting

2010-07-05T12:55:00.000-07:00

So I'm still adapting to working.

I'm a little frustrated, the schedule for this week (which started today) wasn't up until today. I asked for Saturday morning off and didn't get it even though no one else had a request in, I guess this is something I'll have to become accustom to.

I'm enjoying the actual work but I'm still coming home very sore. This could be because I've been working 8 hour shifts. Since I've been home for so long there have been some adjustments that have been difficult. Rules are not clearly laid out so there have been instances where I've broken a rule unknowingly. I find out about the rule because I broken it :( I'm a very black and white person so it's been difficult for me not to have things clearly spelled out. I'm looking at these experiences and difficulties as growth opportunities, I figure I'm becoming more flexible.

Overall things are going well just really, really busy!

I'm tired!

2010-06-25T09:28:00.000-07:00

I've forgotten how much it takes out of you to go to work outside the home.

I've worked two 4 hour shifts and I'm tired. On top of starting my new job I've also been running around like crazy doing other things. Paul was gone for most of the week for training with his new job so there have been extra errands for me to run.

As most of you know I hurt my back a year ago. I thought I was healed but standing on my feet for 4 straight hours is killing me! I bought insoles for my shoes which is helping but I can tell I really need to work on strengthening my back muscles so I can be more comfortable while I work.

Next week I'll be working double what I did this week and I have at least one 8 hour shift so it'll be interesting to see how many things are left undone around the house. Already I can see how easy it would be to slide into the habit of grabbing fast food when I need something to eat quickly, I admit I've already done it. I had Paul pick up bread so I don't have to make it this weekend (it's been close to 100 during the day so the last thing I want to do is turn on the oven) so I should be able to throw together sandwiches to curtail the eating out.

Paul's new job should go really well. He is really impressed with the training and support he has received so far. The few sales calls he has made have been very promising. We hope he will be more successful in this industry! He's very excited and that goes a long way toward being successful.

The kids are adjusting to having me work. I came home from my first day to find the living room and deck spotless! It was so nice not to have to navigate the obstacle course that those areas had become. I really appreciate the help they are giving during this transition period. Hopefully things will calm down a bit and I can get some sewing done!

New Life

2010-06-17T17:04:00.000-07:00

I know, 3 posts in just a couple of days is really unusual but I had to share.

We allowed one of our broody chickens to sit on 3 eggs and this was the sight that met me when I was checking under her.

I know I shouldn't be surprised that the whole hatching chick process works but I am. One of the other eggs has a few cracks so hopefully that one will hatch as well. I have no idea if the rooster gets around to all the hens daily so we weren't even sure that these eggs were really fertile.

More Good News

2010-06-17T08:40:00.000-07:00

I received a call back from the market yesterday, I start next week!

I'm really excited because the job is in the valley and I don't have to join the union like I would if I worked at the big chain market in town. By working close to home I can work part-time and make the same amount of money as if I was driving into the city and paying for all that gas.

Great News!

2010-06-16T08:59:00.001-07:00

Paul had a number of interviews last week and on Friday he was offered a job!

He will be working for a company selling payroll and payment solutions. The company has good ratings from it's employees and seems to have good training and compensation plans. The interesting thing is that Paul had no intention of even considering a job with this company but went to the interview because the company is rated the #1 place to work in the service industry. Paul was extremely impressed with the company and what they had to offer so that is why he decided that it would be a good fit for him.

Paul also received another offer of employment yesterday which he had to turn down. The manager wanted him enough that he said to please give him a call if the new position doesn't work out :)

I received a call from the market asking if I was still interested in employment. I went in to talk to the hiring manager as she requested but was told I would receive a call today to further discuss the opportunity. I'm a little frustrated with the hurry up and wait but it would be nice to get a job in town. I do have a position lined up as a back up driver for Meals On Wheels but that isn't something that is consistent.

I had an interview at Starbucks last week. During the interview the manager spent his time avoiding eye contact and then talking to his friends at the tables next to us in between questions. At the end of the interview he just stood up and walked over to their table. I was shocked at the lack of professionalism from this guy. Other than that I haven't received any other calls for interviews. I seem to be too educated for anything that doesn't require much experience and I don't have enough experience for jobs that require education. At this point I don't absolutely have to have a job but it would be nice to enough breathing room to start saving again.

Our land closed, we have had much of the sagebrush scraped off, and the RV has been moved onto it. We've been going out there and working on getting the RV in a livable condition and planning out where things will be going. I'm getting excited about the upcoming adventure and am looking forward to moving out there. The neighbors have all been really nice and helpful so I think it will be a great place for us. Things are progressing with our current mortgage company so hopefully the house will go on the market soon as a short sale. It's the perfect time to list the property since it's summer and this is the time of year people look for vacation homes. Overall most of our goings on have been really positive for a change!

Positive news

2010-05-28T11:42:00.000-07:00

Since I've been so negative I thought I'd post some positive news.

Paul has finally had some calls back on applications he sent out so there is at least one interview in the works.

I went to the county job agency yesterday and was actually pleasantly surprised with the results. They had me do up a few more resumes, tailoring them to a few different situations. I went back with those this morning and they found 3 jobs for me to apply for. The jobs sound way too good to be true, not in the compensation, but in the fit for my qualifications. The jobs just opened and will be filled within 2 weeks so I won't have to wait very long to find out if I am chosen to interview. If you are the type of person to pray, please pray for us. My immediate response is to pray that God would give me one of these jobs but I'm praying for His will to be done and the strength and faith to deal with whatever the outcome is.

More negativity

2010-05-26T15:51:00.000-07:00

I been avoiding updating my blog because I've been so very negative but I just couldn't help it, I had to blog about today's happenings.

I've spent countless hours applying for jobs over the past few weeks. I finally decided to try AppleOne, an employment service. In order to get an appointment you have to fill out lots of paperwork online. I spent about 2 hours filling out all their online stuff and was scheduled for an appointment tomorrow at 10:30. I just received a call from them to "verify" my appointment. They wanted to see why I had no recent job experience. I explained that I have been a homemaker for the past 9 years but that I have done some volunteer work during the last 2 years. The office canceled my appointment, according to them I'm not the kind of person they can help. You have to have a stable work history and I don't have it.

I asked the woman who called to please explain who could help, she suggested the county work agency. I explained that I had attempted to get a job working for minimum wage but that I was turned down due to being overqualified. She was surprised but said an education without any recent experience was pretty much useless. I'm still wondering how I'm supposed to get that experience if no one will even talk to me. I called the county agency but the person I spoke with was unsure how they could help. I'm going in tomorrow to fill out more paperwork in the hopes that they can help me find a job but the person didn't sound very hopeful.

So here I am with a BA in Math and no way to get a job. I looked into substitute teaching but the high school district isn't even accepting any more applications for next year, there are just too many teachers out of work. I could start being less than truthful on applications saying I have no education beyond high school but I highly doubt employers want a liar working for them. I am so out of ideas!

I'm trying to have faith that things will work out but I seem to be running into one stumbling block after another, I could really use a break and some good luck!

Regrets

2010-05-18T17:08:00.000-07:00

I have lots of them but I have to say at the moment that one of my biggest regrets was ever going to college.

I have another 10+ years left on my loan and I can't find a job.

It seems that having a degree is keeping the local employers from calling me back. I could lie and say I only finished high school but then I would have to lie about my work history. I'm sure employers don't want to hire liars but most won't even give me the time of day.

I had an interview yesterday at another local market. Once again I was told that I would hear back within a few days. I thought the interview went well but now I'm wondering if that's just wishful thinking. I know that if I haven't heard anything by tomorrow afternoon I didn't get the job since the hiring manager won't be in on Thursday and she is in a rush to hire 2 people.

The frustrating thing is that I've even been applying in the big city near us. I'm over-qualified for some things and under-qualified for everything else. I just don't fit in anywhere. I'm sure some of the companies have looked at where I live and just skipped my application but since there are a number of people in our area who drive into the city that can't be the only reason I'm not getting any calls back.

Paul hasn't had any calls back and he has probably sent off close to 50 resumes and applications. He's gotten a couple of emails from companies telling him that they are pursuing other candidates, at least that's something, but the vast majority of places don't bother giving you any information. It's really frustrating! He still has a job at the moment but what he's receiving isn't even paying for his gas to go back and forth to work, the only reason he is still going to work is for the medical insurance. I'm sure that something good will come out of all of this, I just hope it's soon!

Catching up again

2010-05-04T12:01:00.000-07:00

I wish I could say that time flies when I'm having fun but for me time just flies.

Paul's job has taken another turn for the worst. He's actively searching for something to fill in the gaps and I'm actively searching for anything. One thing I've learned is that a degree and no experience will get you nowhere. I had an interview at the local market, they were concerned about my degree and my advanced age (I never thought 35 was all that old). I guess you need to be young and uneducated to bag groceries... I've applied at numerous places but haven't received any calls back, contrary to promises made when I dropped off some of the applications. I've applied for jobs that require a degree and no experience but I have yet to hear back from any of those either. I'm feeling really useless right now.

We need to get out from under our mortgage so we are planning a move to a bare piece of land. It's flat, easily accessible, and the owners' are willing to carry. Of course you can't get electricity around here without an address or a well. You can't get phone service without an address, and you can't get an address without a permanent livable structure. So we are going to be doing without all of that once again. We purchased an old RV that will be towed to its new home once the land closes and we will be moving onto the property sometime in the next few months. The kids are ecstatic, their parents are just tired. From our last experience off-grid we have a pretty good idea of what to expect. We've made plans to buy water from someone local and we have a backup in case that falls through. There is a generator in the RV and we are looking at setting up a small solar system for power. We are building a composting toilet to handle waste and we have someone lined up to scrape the sage brush off of most of the land. The biggest hurdle we've run up against is the lack of phone service. There is no cell reception within 12 miles of this area. VOIP might be an option but since we are on satellite internet that's kind of iffy. We are looking into a satellite phone but the equipment is really pricey, I know we will come up with a solution eventually. I'm sure there will be other little bumps along the way but at least the basic are planned for.

So we are in the beginning stages of another adventure. Right now it's kind of difficult to get too excited but at least we have a plan...

April Gymkhana

2010-04-18T18:31:00.000-07:00

No pictures yet but I just had to share.

This was our club's first ever 3 day show. Although the kids didn't win any of the overall awards they received lots of medals for placing in the individual events. In order to have an idea of what I'm talking about I'm going to explain about divisions. There are a number of divisions in gymkhana. The FC riders are the slowest, you can go anywhere from a walk to a slow lope and be in this division. The next is A, then AA, then AAA, and finally AAA+. We had a number of fast riders this weekend from out of town and we still only had 2 AAA+ times total, so that gives you an idea how difficult it is to run those kind of times.

Malachi started out the season as an A rider. This show showed he has progressed and he is a solid AA rider at this point. He rode very cleanly and only had a few mistakes, mostly due to his horse. It's nice that he rode most of the events in AA, showing how consistent he can be.

Lorna was at a disadvantage because this was only her third show on her horse. Unbelievably she ran a number of AA times. Most surprising was the fact that she ran 3 AAA times! Her fastest time had her only 2 tenths of a second from AAA+. I couldn't help myself from jumping up and down. She was so excited I thought she was going to leap off her horse. Since there was room for improvement on her run it means that she has the potential to eventually run some AAA+ times. This weekend she not only had people cheering for her but she received many compliments on her riding.

Lorna's tack sales progressed nicely and she has orders to deliver next show. She also put one of her horses up for sale on Tuesday and ended up selling him on Friday.

The one low point to the weekend was that Lorna's cat died sometime last night. He was acting strangely the last 2 days so it wasn't a complete shock, but since he was only 7 and an indoor cat we weren't prepared to lose him so soon. With all the excitement over the weekend I don't think the loss has really sunk in yet. She really doesn't remember a time without her cat so I know she has to be grieving. In a way all the other stuff going on has been a good thing since it has taken her mind off of her loss.

New project

2010-03-31T13:12:00.000-07:00

Along with all of the other sewing projects I'm continually working on I've been working on more horse related items. The braided tack is going well enough that we have decided to add helmet covers and splint boot covers to our product line. I made Lorna a helmet cover for Christmas and have since perfected the pattern and made a helmet cover for Malachi.

I'm still perfecting my splint boot cover pattern but here was my first attempt. In case you are wondering, splint boots protect a horse's leg muscles. They come in all sorts of colors but can be pricey. The covers would not only protect the boots but would allow you to change their look relatively inexpensively. I want the covers to be easy to put on but also fit tight enough that they don't slide around. The ones you can buy through the catalogs have velcro down the side. There are two problems with that, one the price of velcro and two the velcro can easily snag the lycra. Also velcro becomes dirty really easily around horses making it a high maintenance kind of thing. As of right now I have thin elastic at the top and bottom of the cover, it should keep the cover from sliding up or down the boot. Unfortunately the weather is too bad for Lorna to try them out extensively today.

I found an online store that sells some really great patterned lycra. I haven't purchased from them yet but their prices seem really good. I need to sew through the stuff I bought at a local discount warehouse first then I can justify getting more :)

Socialization

2010-03-26T10:30:00.000-07:00

I rarely post anything about homeschooling because it's not just an educational choice but a way of life. Our life seems normal for us so I don't really think about it much.

A couple of weeks ago Lorna was out riding with a woman that pays her to ride one of her horses. Her employer had a guest riding along with them. This guest is someone we are slightly acquainted with through our gymkhana club, she has told us numerous times how wonderful our kids are. I guess this guest didn't know that we homeschool and when she found out decided to grill Lorna about our choices. This woman really doesn't like homeschooling, not because she has any experience with it or knows anyone personally who does it, but because of some stuff she's heard second or third hand. She said it was okay that I homeschooled because I was "qualified" but that most parents are not. I guess I'm qualified because I have a degree and spent 2 years in a classroom even though I've had no formal teacher's training. The arrogance of this woman to think she can say who is and isn't qualified to teach their own children was amazing.

Of course the discussion morphed into the socialization issue. Our kids are not around a lot of kids their own age. Those they are around are not really interested in making friends so the kids have filled their social circle with adults. I personally think that this is just fine since in the real world they will have to interact with people of all ages. Lorna, especially, has made friends based on common interests instead of age. This woman thought this was okay but insisted that Lorna needed to have friends her own age. Lorna tried to explain that she has tried but that since she isn't concerned with boys, clothes, and make-up this hasn't worked out. She also told the woman that she is happy with the friends she has, regardless of their age. Of course, all of Lorna's opinions fell of deaf ears.

Since this occurred while Lorna was out riding we didn't hear about it until later. I was proud of Lorna for attempting to engage this woman in discussion and not just agreeing with her to get out of the discussion. Lorna told me how she tried to steer the conversation away from these topics and how she tried to politely disagree with the woman. I'm so proud of her for sticking up for herself. A few years ago she wouldn't have done this but with all of her activities she has gained enough confidence to realize that her opinions matter. I can't say we were pleased to hear that she was attacked for her parents' choices, and there really is no other way to describe it. I couldn't believe the audacity of this woman! It's probably a good thing I haven't seen her since I found out about what she said. I'm still extremely angry and do not want to be put into a position where I will have to interact with this individual.

I watched Lorna talking with her fellow chorus members last night at rehearsal. I watched as the adults around her not only listened to what she had to say but asked her opinion on a few things. They don't treat her like an inferior child but as a fellow member with valuable ideas. She has made a couple of good friends within the chorus and they don't seem to value her any less because of her age.

Conflicts

2010-03-22T08:24:00.000-07:00

This was the first time we had conflicting activities and ended up splitting up for the weekend. Malachi had gymkhana, where he had an absolutely spectacular day, and Lorna and I had our annual regional contest for Sweet Adeline's.

Due to splitting up I don't have pictures of either event to share. Paul took the camera and videoed most of Malachi's runs so that we could see them when we got home. I was really glad since Malachi had such great runs which culminated with him winning high points in his division!

We had a great contest weekend. I know Lorna had been getting burned out with singing and was really unhappy with not being able to attend gymkhana, but this weekend helped her remember why she does Sweet Adeline's. Our chorus placed 3rd in our division and won the Audience Choice award again this year. We improved our score over last year so we met our goals. The best part of the weekend is always Saturday night after contest when we go around and listen to all the region quartets perform in the various hospitality rooms. There were a couple of quartets made up of young women that were spectacular, Lorna was really happy and inspired. It can be difficult for someone her age to feel like she fits in when most of the women that are a part of our region are her grandparents age.

Paul not only spent the day watching Malachi but he also had some of Lorna's braided tack for sale. We had 4 halters pre-ordered and were hoping to sell a few other things. He was swamped with interest from the people in our club and ended up selling a bunch of saddle crosses, halters, and 3 pairs of reins! Lorna is going to be a busy beaver this month making up the custom orders that were ordered and braiding a bunch more things for the big 2-day show next month. Lorna was exceedingly pleased with the interest especially since the tack store in town wants to talk to us about carrying a few of her items.

Costumes

2010-03-12T08:19:00.000-08:00

I finally got pictures of the costumes I did for our chorus.

I did the corsets, hip wraps, and head scarves. Obviously the corsets were the most time intensive thing. I made up my own pattern based on an Halloween costume and just kind of tweaked it until it worked. There are a few things I would have changed about the pattern if I hadn't been doing so many corsets for many different shapes and sizes. All of the trim had to put on by hand since the inside of the corsets are lined. Everyone is really pleased with how the costumes turned out, I just hope the judges like them next Saturday!

Of course I think Lorna looks the best in hers!

Nothing!

2010-03-05T09:04:00.000-08:00

That is what we have planned for this weekend.

No horse activities, no Sweet Adeline's commitments, nothing. It's a wonderful thing and I'm so excited. I'm thinking it's time to get a handle on the house, it needs to be cleaned. With 4 of us home and working on it we should be able to get everything done in a short amount of time.

There has been lots of stress around here so I think we all need some down time. Paul was on the way to a meeting last Saturday and hit a large rock in the canyon. It was hit the rock or go into the river so I think he chose the better option. That little incident cost us a $600 repair bill. Car repairs are a never ending thing for us. With his job going so very poorly this was not a welcome expense but I am glad we had the money from the tax return to pay for it. Commission sales and the bad economy do not go well together.

On a positive note, we are all healthy and we haven't had any more animal emergencies!

February Gymkhana

2010-02-26T10:13:00.000-08:00

We had a show last Saturday and it went well. Lorna succeeded in beating her brother in all but 1 event. This has given him the impetus to practice more in hopes of beating her in April.

Lorna is really bummed that she will be missing the March show while her brother will get to ride. Her and I will be in Bakersfield at the regional contest for Sweet Adeline's. Personally I'm hoping the gymkhana show gets rained out so that she won't miss anything :) She is very happy that she has 5 halters pre-ordered for next month though. Paul will deliver them at the show and collect the money and any more orders before our club's big 2 day show. Lorna will be busy braiding halters, reins, hobbles, saddle crosses, and neck collars in preparation for selling at that show.

Other than that we've been exceedingly busy. I've been sewing, the kids have been catching up on school, and Paul has been busy with work. We have plans to go away for a weekend at the end of April when my mom is visiting. Our plans have morphed from a romantic getaway to a little coastal town to a visit to Las Vegas. The rooms at the little town would have cost us more than the entire weekend in Vegas. Since we are night people it also makes more sense to go somewhere that has stuff to do at night. I'm really looking forward to getting away no matter where it is!

Update

2010-02-17T09:52:00.000-08:00

It's been a busy week.

The costume project seems never ending, every time I think I'm finished something else comes up. I had to make an extra top for someone who gained a good amount of weight since I measured and now I have to make another one for a member who hasn't been attending rehearsal. She won't be going to contest with the chorus but she will need a costume for other performances. If I do this again I will be more careful about stipulating things before I start.

Here is a couple of the tops (corsets).

Hopefully I can remember to take the camera to rehearsal on Thursday so I can post pictures of all the pieces together.

This last weekend was the annual Whiskey Flat Days festival that attracts 50,000+ people to our valley. We had absolutely beautiful weather so we ended up attending 3 full days. Saturday the kids rode in the parade and Sunday Malachi dressed Jasper up and won first place for the theme in the pet parade.

A little over a week ago Lorna's gymkhana horse tried to kill herself. She sliced open her neck. We have no idea what she hurt herself on but if the wound had been any further in either direction she wouldn't be with us anymore. We can take the stithes out on Friday just in time for the next gymkhana.

About a month ago Lorna took some of her Christmas money and purchased a tack braiding kit off of Craigslist. She's spent the last few weeks perfecting her braiding skills and finally finished a couple of pieces. I showed one of her halters to a couple of people in our gymkhana club and she already has a few orders. She will be spending the next few months braiding in preparation for the large 2 day show our club is holding in April. We are hoping she sells most of what she makes so we can buy more supplies and she can actually start recouping some of the start-up costs. This mixed with the jewelry designing she and I do together and the sewing I do will be the focus of the booth we plan on hosting at the various craft shows around our valley. Walking around and looking at all the items available this past weekend further strengthened our resolve to start selling more in person. It will be a great way for Lorna to earn a bit more money and to get us more exposure in the local community. Some things just sell better in person where the customer can handle the items and see the quality for themselves.

I just got a call that my serger is finally fixed. Is it a bad sign that they couldn't give me a total yet? I'm just hoping the cost comes in under the quote since it sounds like they didn't have to replace the board. I'll be glad to get my own machine back, the loaner seemed like it was really cheaply made and I miss all the bells and whistles my machine has!

Brocoflower revisited

2010-02-09T08:56:00.000-08:00

We finally got around to eating the weird looking veggie last Saturday. I really liked it. It had the consistency of cauliflower but a mild broccoli taste. The rest of the family didn't care for it, too much like cauliflower for their taste. I ended up broiling it with a mix of other veggies so we didn't do anything fancy with it. Broiling is my favorite way to cook most veggies. I can mix a bunch of different types with a little olive oil and garlic and then throw them in the oven until they are done. You get to actually taste the veggies and it's easy.

We received brussel sprouts about 2 weeks ago and at first everyone complained. Neither one of the kids had ever tasted one but they had heard all kinds of horrible things about them. I stir-fried them with some onion and garlic and added a little soy sauce when they were finished. Paul and Lorna fought over the leftovers they liked them so much. We have just enough for one more dinner and they keep asking when we can have them again!

Bad News

2010-02-05T13:31:00.000-08:00

My serger is dead :(

After talking with the repair place yesterday I expected Paul to be bringing home my machine today. Instead I was told that the machine has either a burned out motor or board or both. Estimates to repair it are high, not as high as buying a new one but still way more than I wanted to spend. The repairman thinks it's a manufacturer's defect. I don't have the receipt anymore since it's out of warranty but we contacted the place I purchased it from to see if they have any paperwork. Even if they do, there is no guarantee that the repairs will be covered.

I was just praising my machine to someone a few weeks ago. Knowing this isn't something I did makes me rethink whether this is such a great machine. The repair shop has sent home a loaner while they work on fixing my machine. Supposedly I'm going to love the loaner, but when I looked it up online I was not impressed with the machine's functions. At least I'll have something to work with while I wait. I have a whole bunch of stuff I need to get finished this weekend so I'm really happy they offered the loaner.

Hurray!

2010-02-03T09:55:00.001-08:00

I finished our taxes last night and e-filed them! If we didn't have a huge refund coming there is no way I would have started them the day we got our last tax document (Monday). Now we just have to wait a little over a week for the Federal refund. I already have most of it spent, refilling emergency funds and paying some bills. Unlike last year there is no way I can pay all of the bills off but I can get a huge chunk taken care of. Those darn medical bills from my fall last July just keep getting in the way.

I'm still waiting to hear about my serger but most of my work for the chorus is finished. We've started cleaning the house but got sidetracked by an emergency fix to the horse pen. Two of the horses got bored one night and ate one of the the wood posts that was holding up their shelter. By the time they were done it was the thickness of a pencil in one spot so we had to disassemble it. We bought metal posts this time but with Paul working so late, the kids and I are having to put it up ourselves. Hopefully we will get the rest of it up today. I need another 6 hours in the day to get everything finished that I need to get accomplished!

Weird Veggie

2010-01-31T17:30:00.000-08:00

Every once in awhile we get a really weird vegetable in our organic veggie delivery. This weekend it was a broccoflower. I had to post pictures because it looks so weird!

January Gymkhana and stuff

2010-01-25T09:20:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I last posted!

I'll start with the gymkhana show for this month.

Lorna picked up her new gymkhana horse a few days before the date of the December show but we were rained out. That gave her over a month to work with Sequoia before the next gymkhana. All that worked showed at this month's show. I haven't seen smiles this big since before her pinto mare died last year.

Lorna and Sequoia are still getting used to each other but they did very well in their first show. The rode some A times and even a AA time. Once Lorna keeps her from ducking into the obstacles they are going to be very fast together.

Malachi and Amigo are still doing great together. At this point Malachi needs to focus on keeping his riding clean as he goes faster. He has a bit more incentive now that Lorna and Sequoia are riding so well. They actually beat Malachi and Amigo in 2 events :)

At the beginning of December I took on a project making costumes for our Sweet Adeline's chorus. What should have taken me 3 weeks has taken 2 months. It's one of those projects where whatever could go wrong has gone wrong. The problems culminated in my serger breaking over the weekend, right before I finished the last 2 pieces. I'm so sick of these costumes right now. With the exception of these last 2 pieces, one of which is mine so it's really not the end of the world, I will have the main costumes done today. I still have head scarves left to do but I figure those can wait. The costumes turned out fantastic though, especially considering I made up the patterns to fit our needs.

Since all of my time has been taken up with sewing, the house is an absolute disaster. I kept expecting to finish this project so I put off all the cleaning. The rain and snow of last week haven't helped the house at all with the mud everyone has been tracking in and I'm really behind on laundry. At least I can't complain that I'm bored :)

Christmas Day

2009-12-26T09:58:00.001-08:00

We took the kids to the lake yesterday to ride. It was a beautiful day and the area we went to was mostly empty. We've lived in the valley for almost 4 years and this was the first time we've gone down to the lake shore.

Studly didn't care too much for the water.

Amigo loved it and spent lots of time playing in it. This is my favorite picture of the day. I love the reflection of Malachi and Amigo in the lake!

Wild Mustang Video

2009-12-23T09:07:00.000-08:00

I don't know how many of you know about the controversial stuff going on with the BLM and the roundups of mustangs. In short, the man in charge of the BLM has been doing a huge number of roundups in the last year or so. At the rate he's going there aren't going to be any free roaming bands left. The lands that supposedly can't support the mustangs are then being given to private cattle ranchers with grazing permits. Private groups are fighting this man with letter writing campaigns and lawsuits. Even when favorable rulings are given to delay the roundups, the BLM has gone ahead with their plans. Here is an entertaining video that one person put together about what's been going on.

Hottie

2009-12-19T20:17:00.000-08:00

We lost another horse this morning. As I was going through my pictures I realized I didn't have any recent ones of her. The last one I took was in early May and she had grown so much since then. It didn't seem important to snap pictures as Malachi rode her or as the kids ponied her with the other horses because she was young and I figured I'd have many years of picture opportunities.

I should have taken a picture of her when I went to the vet to say goodbye yesterday but I forgot my camera and was too upset. I was focused on getting those last few nuzzles and kisses that she offered. Hottie was our foster horse but I intended to pay for her early next year so that she would be officially ours. We picked her up right after Ginger, Lorna's paint horse, died earlier this year. She would have been 4 years old next month, she was way too young to die. She coliced late Thursday night but we thought we got her through it. Friday morning we saw she was distressed again so we took her to the vet. The news was a lot worse than we expected. The vet tried medicines and fluids but nothing could get through the impaction in her bowels. The vet did a necropsy this morning after putting her down and found that even if she would have made it through it probably would have happened again due to internal problems. It's been hardest for me because Hottie was supposed to be my horse. She would follow me around the pen when I went out to brush her or feed treats. She would come running as soon as she heard my voice hoping for a scratch or a carrot. She was really sweet and I'll miss her terribly.

Snow

2009-12-09T09:07:00.000-08:00

We got about 7 inches of snow on Monday.

For those of you in the Midwest that's not such a big deal but for our area that's huge. Paul left Monday late morning for work only to turn around and come home because the snow was piling up. By the time he got back up here we had 7 inches on the ground and he got his little car stuck right around the corner from our house. We took the truck and pulled out the car, barely. The truck's tires were spinning and it was fishtailing as we tried to get the car unstuck. I refused to drive the car around the corner so Paul put the truck in the driveway and then walked back for the car. He almost didn't make it home because the car got stuck again. There was nowhere to pull the car off of the one lane road so we couldn't safely leave it. He stayed home yesterday because the roads didn't start clearing until late. He almost didn't make it out of the driveway this morning because the roads are so icy.

The temps were in the teens this morning and my washer has been frozen since Monday. We were supposed to pick up Lorna's new horse yesterday but that has been postponed until Friday. As of right now we are supposed to have a gymkhana show this Saturday but there is rain in the forecast for the next 3 days so that may not happen. The snow is beautiful though and we very desperately need the precipitation.

Thanksgiving Traditions

2009-11-25T08:51:00.000-08:00

It's the time of the year I almost dread, the holiday season.

Most activities stop because everyone is soooo busy. I'm really not sure what they are busy doing because this is one of the slowest times of the year for our family. Very little happens :(

With that said I'm seeing all kinds of posts on other blogs about turkeys, casseroles, and pies. Hmmm. No turkey here. No pies, no ham, no casseroles, no big dinners. That's right, we have ruined our children's hopes of ever being normal by not cooking them a big Thanksgiving dinner. I think we went to a big family dinner once when Lorna was a baby but maybe not.

We will spend the day munching on various appetizer type things and just relax. Maybe I'll even be able to convince the rest of the family to help me clean the house since I've been ignoring it while I work on a huge sewing project for our chorus. Exciting day we have planned right? I think the best thing about the day is that we get to sleep in and there is no pressure to do anything out since everything is closed :)

Disappointment

2009-11-20T10:11:00.000-08:00

Lorna is going through some major disappointment right now.

Due to a misunderstanding between Paul's boss and corporate we won't have the money to pick up her new horse this weekend. His pay plan is a very complicated melding of commission, travel allowance, additional assistance, and bonuses. That means that until he gets off of the additional assistance he cannot earn more than a specific amount even though he is technically a straight commission rep. All of this means that she's going to have to wait until some time in January until she can pick up the new horse.

It doesn't sound like that big of a deal but because of the way the gymkhana season is scheduled this means that this season will be a complete wash. She won't have enough shows left to earn anything on the new horse and the horse she's currently ridding isn't capable of much yet. This will make 2 seasons with virtually no awards or progress. When you're 14 and driven that seems like forever.

Fourteen!

2009-11-17T01:00:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe but Lorna is turning 14 today!

It seems like just yesterday that we brought her home from the hospital. This past year has seen a lot of challenges for her and I'm proud of how she has handled everything. She's seen a number of disappointments and she has made a number of decisions that have made me proud. I can honestly say that she is a joy to be around! I know it's not normal for a teenager's parents to say such a thing but it's true.

Once again she has decided to skip dinner out in favor of tickets to a horse expo at the beginning of next year. She has chosen one of her favorite dinners for tonight, shrimp pasta. Of course being the weird person that she is there will be no cake because she hates it. The major excitement for her will come this weekend when she picks up her new horse!

Novemebr Gymkhana

2009-11-16T17:57:00.001-08:00

This past Saturday we had yet another gymkhana show.

Lorna has decided to pull Sierra from gymkhana for the foreseeable future because neither one was enjoying it. Lorna is going to give her some time off with the hope that Sierra will mature and end up making her a good endurance prospect.

Lorna rode Studmuffin and he did really well, he continues to progress with each show. Lorna originally planned to finish out the season on him but she's getting a new horse this weekend. This one is a patterned gymkhana horse that has lots of potential. We may end up pulling Studmuffin from the season as well so she can concentrate on the new horse. I've actually been riding Studmuffin the past few days. He seems content to just walk slowly around the neighborhood so he may just end up being my mount until I progress enough to ride the other mustang we have.

Malachi and Amigo blew me away this past weekend. It amazes me that they have only been doing this for a year. Malachi started the season as a solid "A" rider but he has started bumping up into "AA" times. They did amazingly this past show. At first Malachi wasn't too happy about bumping up but he's starting to become a bit competitive and has decided he wants to finish the season as a solid "AA" rider. Amigo still has lots more to give him so we shall see where they end up topping out.

The Good Life

2009-11-06T11:04:00.000-08:00

Years ago when we had cable we used to watch this show called "The Good Life". It was about people who had made some radical change in their life and found what they considered the "good life." Each episode was very different and we found it inspiring.

Last week I finished a book called No Impact Man. If you aren't familiar with it, it's about a man and his family who try to live a no impact lifestyle for one year in New York City. There are many things I don't agree with in the book like global warming being man-made and such but the book was enjoyable because it wasn't preachy. It was more about the journey the author and his family took. It really made me think.

On one of the last pages he wrote, "Who determines what the good life is?"

I've spent a lot of time working on conserving energy just because I think it's important and I like saving money :) We support local businesses whenever it's possible and it makes financial sense. We eat better than ever because I care about what we put in our bodies. The biggest obstacle I've come up against is how to cut back on our car usage. I think I've been going about this all wrong though. I don't want to do this because it makes sense in our lives but because I felt like it was the next logical step in conserving resources. It doesn't make sense for us, Paul makes his living by driving so I can't really do anything about the 5000 miles a month he drives. We can't walk, bike, or even ride the horses anywhere because of where we live. Driving is the only way to get around. Maybe I'm just rationalizing because I no longer want to feel guilty for how much fuel we consume, but our life is going to involve driving a lot and I'm not going to feel guilty anymore.

We haven't figured out what our "good life" is yet but I do know it's going to include a lot of driving!

Car Woes

2009-11-05T10:01:00.000-08:00

About a month ago Paul's little commuter car started giving us problems. It lost all power when going uphill. Our mechanic told us the engine needed to be rebuilt. We didn't have the $2000 to have a rebuilt engine put in so we decided to try it ourselves. After a month of frustration we got it running only to have a few other things go wrong. $500 later we still didn't have a running car and it was going to take more money to fix.

After much discussion and $1000 in gas spent while he was driving my truck to work, we decided to buy another car. Used cars are expensive! We found that newer used cars were only a little bit less than new cars. Not only that but it is really difficult to find vehicles that don't have lots of options which add to the overall price. We contemplated purchasing a new car but, just like with the used ones, it was impossible to find a stripped model and none of the others were within our price range. We have 2 small used car dealers here in our valley. After searching the lots in the big city and checking out the lots here in town we decided to buy something locally.

We financed the vehicle through our credit union and did all the paperwork in about 1 hour, most of that time was spent at the bank waiting for the paperwork to print. The transaction was the easiest and most pleasant car buying experience we've ever had. The car was priced about $1000 below what the dealers in the city were asking for a comparable vehicle, there was no haggling, and the money stayed in our valley. Paul got a 2008 Chevy Cobalt and I got a hug from the car dealer owner who sold us the car :) I can't say I'm thrilled with having a car payment again but the amount of money we will save in gas will more than pay for that payment and the extra insurance!

Procrastination and Motivation

2009-10-28T10:18:00.000-07:00

I should probably say lack of motivation!

I can't seem to make myself get anything done recently. I read books for fun, I cook when I have to, and school is getting done on a regular basis but that's about it. We have just reached a milestone, 3 years in one place. This the longest we have lived anywhere since we got married. I wonder if that has anything to do with my detachedness. I don't have a move to plan for or anything to really look forward to right now, so I've fallen into a rut.

One thing I'm hoping will help is redecorating each room. Nothing really fancy but maybe new paint and curtains. I want to start with our bedroom which is the only room we haven't done anything to since we moved in. Of course before I do that we really should get a new bed, the springs along the edge of the mattress have broken and are poking out the sides. Since it's obvious we aren't going to sell the house I really want to make it a home and not some place we detest so much. I really think our dislike for where we live affects our attitudes about everything. I'm hoping to change that!

Paul's new job is going spectacularly. His new company has been so helpful and actually called to ask if he was doing okay and needed anything! This wasn't his boss but corporate! The pay has been better than originally promised and the support has been wonderful. I'm really happy that things are going so well but I can't seem to get excited about anything.

I guess that's not completely true. I'm excited about the new puppy I got last week.

I rescued him from the shelter and I couldn't be happier with Jasper. He listens well, he's almost completely house trained, he's quiet, and he loves everyone.
All he really wants to do is lay next to me wherever I am. This has gone a long way toward improving my outlook, now I just need to get motivated!

October Gymkhana

2009-10-19T17:26:00.000-07:00

The kids had another good gymkhana show this past Saturday.

Malachi and Amigo continue to do well. They are running solid A times and Malachi has informed me he is happy with where he is at. He's not very competitive which totally baffles his sister. Amigo is capable of running consistent AA times and maybe even AAA times but Malachi just isn't very interested. I'm happy as long as they are running clean patterns and Malachi continues to enjoy himself.

Lorna's new horse, Studmuffin, did exceptionally well. He's running straighter and is still enjoying the work. Lorna enjoys riding him because he doesn't fight and tries to do everything she asks. I wouldn't be surprised if they speed up and start running consistent A times by the end of this season. It will take a bit more work to get him running the patterns a little more cleanly but he did really well considering this was only his second show.

Sierra is doing better. She threw a 3 year old tantrum during barrels, deciding halfway through the pattern that she was done. Other than that she bumped up into A times in 2 of the events which was a first. Lorna is pleases with her progress so she will continue taking her to shows this year.

Once the upcoming endurance ride is over we are going to be making a few decisions where Lorna's training is concerned. The gymkhana trainer she's been working with has made it very clear that she doesn't like Sierra, or any mustang for that matter. It makes for an impossible situation where lessons are concerned. We are looking at other instructors in the area in the hopes that they can help Lorna and Sierra get past their issues. Maybe a change of venue will help them both get past this road block they seem to have hit. Since Lorna is so competitive it has been difficult to watch all the other kids pass her by. Everyone seems to be getting better and faster while she seems to be standing still and even though she doesn't complain I've noticed she isn't happy. We looked at a number of horses before Lorna bought Studmuffin but it's difficult to choose a horse for 2 very different types of riding. She had the opportunity to purchase a patterned solid AA gymkhana horse but she passed it up to purchase Studmuffin. Although she doesn't regret the decision I wonder if we made a mistake, she would be enjoying gymkhana so much more if she wasn't stuck with two horses that are running FC times. I know that in a few years things will be better but when you are 13 a few years seems like forever.

Real Estate Buyer Etiquette

2009-10-01T17:36:00.000-07:00

I have no idea if there is such a thing but if not there should be a rule that you don't skip places that you make appointments at.

We got a call from a Century 21 agent in our valley who wanted to come show our place today. I'll be quite honest, I've really let the place go since putting it on the market. We haven't even had one showing so I just got to the point where I don't care. We told the agent that she could come anytime after 4 pm. Since I don't have a working vehicle at this time I took a camp chair and sat at the far end of the property with the horses. It was out of the way enough that unless someone came looking for me they wouldn't see that I was even home. I watched as the agent pulled up, stopped her car, and then proceeded to drive away.

3 hours of intensive cleaning and they didn't even get out of the car! It's quite a drive up here so it's not like it was just on their way to another listing. Why drive all the way up here and not even peek in the house? Then the agent had the nerve to call Paul and lie to him. She said they ran out of time and didn't make it up to our area. When Paul said that was strange because I had seen them drive by, she stammered a bit and said they just ran out of time. Why lie? If the people were put off by the drive or the house itself I would much rather hear that than be lied to!

I'm ready to just pull the house off the market. Our agent isn't even attempting to sell the house and I doubt anyone would be willing to even come close to the price that we owe on it.

On a happy note: Paul's first few days at his new job have gone well. He's very positive and upbeat. He got his first sale today and met a few people who are very interested in ordering stuff in a few weeks. Now if we could just get his car running life would be wonderful!

Job News

2009-09-28T12:07:00.000-07:00

3 months ago Paul was head hunted by a competitor of his current employer. After numerous interviews and negotiations we had written off the whole idea because the numbers just didn't make sense. Last week the company came back with a better offer so Paul has decided to take it.

Unlike many industries, you cannot give 2 weeks notice. When you decide to change employers you are terminated the day you give your resignation. Today is the day that he hands in that letter and he starts his new position tomorrow.

We are very excited but also a little apprehensive. The position has the means to put us in a much better financial position but there is no safety net, it's straight commission which is something we've never done before. If he didn't know the industry or hadn't been doing the same type of job for the last 3 years I don't think we would have even considered it. But he has had a very tough year with his current employer and was going to be losing his biggest accounts as of the first of next year. He had been looking for second job for a few months so we would be in a better position when that happened and wasn't having any luck. The new position will allow him to have only one job and I can continue to stay home! We prayed about it and made the decision to go forward, we have faith that God will provide so we are trying not to stress.

School time

2009-09-28T09:47:00.000-07:00

This is one of those hurray for homeschooling posts!

I actually buckled down and started school 2 weeks ago. I ordered the few books that we needed, high school stuff is expensive, and it arrived last week. I haven't had time to plan out our year yet but we had a number of things that I wanted to finish up before we started anything new.

Lorna is out riding this morning so I figure that she's doing PE and getting some socialization at the same time since she's working with the endurance trainer :) As I talked to a few of the girls that ride in our gymkhana club over the last few weeks I was saddened by how rarely they get to ride. They have to get up for school around 6am and they don't get home till after 3pm. They also have tons of homework so there really isn't any time for them to ride during the week. Even their weekends are spent catching up on homework and other things that just don't get done during the week. They don't have time for much of anything. That is in contrast to Lorna who rides every day (she usually has time to ride more than one horse), she gets to volunteer at the vet once a week, and she gets to go out to work with the endurance trainer once a week. She's having absolutely no problem keeping up with school, still has time to read for fun, participate in Sweet Adeline's, and has started sewing a crazy quilt. Oh, she also gets paid to ride someone else's horse once a week since it needs more exercise then they have time to give it. Sure there are some days that are busier than others but we have the flexibility to rearrange things if need be.

I'm not saying that homeschooling is perfect because it does have its drawbacks. With a little effort to find opportunities to supplement what I do at home with the kids, I think they are getting a well-rounded education with lots of free-time to explore their own interests.

September Gymkhana

2009-09-25T08:29:00.000-07:00

Our first show of the season was last Saturday and it well for our kids. Paul has been voted on to the board for the club and volunteered to help get the arena ready ahead of time, this along with the fact that I help run the booth where we take money and record times on show days, means we are starting to see some of the things that go on behind the scenes which isn't so fun. We are trying really hard not to let this affect our attitudes...

Malachi and Amigo have worked together most of the summer which was evident! Their times are still improving and the patterns were very clean for the most part. One of the things that Malachi learned this show was that when you are going faster and you need to stop in a certain area you need to let the horse know earlier. He blew through the back of the chalk keyhole because of this. Other than that they did great!

Lorna rode both of her horses. Lorna worked really hard with Sierra all summer and I could see a major difference. They seemed more comfortable with one another and the patterns went really well. Lorna is extremely hard on herself though so she is not thrilled with their times even though they improved most of them. They received high points in their division because they were consistent. Lorna's going to work on letting Sierra go a little more so they can get a bit more speed but stay controlled.

Lorna's new horse, Studmuffin, did remarkably well considering he had never done any of these pattern before and had never been in an arena to our knowledge. He listened well to what Lorna wanted and by the end was starting to anticipate what Lorna was going to ask of him. One thing Lorna has found is that he works better with spurs. She's able to get him to turn obstacles with very little pressure and the turns are better. Spurs aren't really used to kick the horse with, generally you use them to put pressure either with your right or left leg. When you use your right leg the horse understands you want to go to the left. Some people may use them to kick their horse hard but any tool can be abused. Lorna doesn't need them when she's out trail riding Studmuffin but will be using them for gymkhana so she doesn't have to pull on the reins and bit so much.

Horse Events

2009-09-12T21:55:00.000-07:00

I've held off posting about Lorna's adventure with the Jr Queen competition because of all the emotions involved.

Short story is, she didn't win. She is glad that she tried it but it isn't something she wants to ever go through again. She put a tremendous amount of time and energy into practicing and getting sponsors (although we drove her to the businesses it was her responsibility to do all the asking) and the day itself was really long. She took this very, very seriously and most of the other girls didn't so it was frustrating to watch her lose. I can't even say that she really enjoyed the day itself because of the way everything was handled. We are very proud of the way she handled herself throughout that day though. She was a very good sport and made sure to fulfill all the duties asked of her even though she knew she had lost long before the winner was announced. I can't say the same for most of the other girls. I am very glad the whole thing is over and we won't have to be hauling a horse out that direction every week.

That said Malachi had a very good evening at our gymkhana awards banquet tonight. He and Amigo placed 4th overall in the club!

He also received awards for 3 events, attendance, and participation.
Lorna and Sierra received awards for attendance, participation and one event.

In other horse news Lorna bought a new horse a few weeks ago.

She really wanted a horse that could be ridden everyday and one that she didn't have to be careful with since it is so young. The new horse is exactly that. Lorna is still riding Sierra 4-5 times a week and working on a number of tricks but she isn't pushing her very hard because she is only 3.

The new horse's registered name is Shaka Zulu Spirit (not our choice). We've been calling him Studmuffin because he was a stallion when we got him. We had him gelded 2 weeks ago and he has healed up nicely. He has a tremendous amount of energy and is really quick to learn. When Lorna first got him he would walk, trot, and stop. Now she has him loping, backing without any resistance, and side-passing in both directions. He's been ridden out with Amigo all over the neighborhood and they get along pretty well. Because they are of similar size they keep up with one another most of the time. Once he has some more weight and muscle on him he is going to make Lorna a really great endurance horse. We will find out pretty soon whether he enjoys gymkhana or not :)

Lorna's internship at the horse trainer's place has come to an end. Not through any fault of her own, the trainer just doesn't seem to have the time or inclination any longer. Although Lorna is a bit disappointed she has another opportunity that has kind of taken it's place. She's been training with another woman for an upcoming endurance ride. It's been a wonderful experience and she is learning a tremendous amount. I love it when Wednesdays come around because Lorna always comes home with a very large smile on her face. This has given her an opportunity to see a very different style of training and riding. This has led Lorna to alter a few things in what she's been doing with Sierra and she has seen some wonderful results!

Lorna continues to volunteer at the vet 1 day a week. The summer has been very slow so she hasn't had a tremendous amount to do there, we are hoping things pick up soon.

That's pretty much all the horse news. The new gymkhana season starts next Saturday so I'm sure I'll have more to post about then.

Another school year

2009-08-27T22:53:00.000-07:00

It's that time again.

I find that I have absolutely no motivation to even think about starting school this year. I haven't even ordered the books we need, although I do have them all saved to a wish list. I keep finding excuses not to order. I figure at this point I might as well wait a few more weeks because everyone has already placed their orders and the place I buy from is usually really backed up at this time of year.

Not wanting to start school seems to be a reoccurring thing for me. Maybe I just enjoy all the extra free time I have when we aren't actually doing school. When the kids were little and we first started doing this I really looked forward to the new school year. I wish I could find that same enthusiasm now!

Back update

2009-08-20T09:07:00.000-07:00

I had my first check up for my back since I left the hospital.

Unfortunately my fractures aren't healing as quickly as they would like so I have to wear the brace for another 6 weeks. The good news is that I can start weaning off of the brace at night. Last night was the first night without it and I slept so much better! I'm a bit sore this morning but nothing too bad so 2 nights from now I get to sleep without it again! I know it doesn't sound like that big of a deal but it is for me.

Paul has been looking for a second job since right before I got hurt. He's had 2 interviews at Target with a third one scheduled for tomorrow. We attribute much of his success at getting called back to the way he has dressed. The store is interviewing for all positions since it's a new store, so there are lots of people there having interviews. He was amazed to see people in t-shirts and shorts with most men dressed in jeans. We were taught that you show up to any interview, regardless of the type of job, in business clothes. Paul was the only one in a shirt and tie when he was there. Many of the women were dressed in slacks and nice blouses but most of the men showed up in less than professional attire. With the economy the way it is and the lack of jobs out there I would think you would want to give the best impression possible, jeans and shorts just don't do that.

Lower taxes?

2009-08-12T10:22:00.000-07:00

Most people would rejoice if they received the notice we received in the mail. Our county has lowered the value on our house by $52,000 for tax purposes. Wow! Lower taxes and we didn't even have to ask. But I wonder what this means for us as we are trying to sell our house. I don't think it's anything good.

In case anyone was wondering how the whole trying to sell in this market is going... it's not. We haven't had even one showing. I guess there were initially a few calls but nothing since. We've even tried lowering the price but to no avail. So I guess we will be living here indefinitely. This is a very depressing thought! At least we won't have to pay so much in taxes each year!

Wholesale and stuff

2009-08-08T10:13:00.000-07:00

I don't have a whole lot to report other than I received my first wholesale order!

I'm really excited, the order was for 60 items and they will be going to a UK store. Of course with my back it's taking me longer than I'd like to get things made up. I never realized all the things I use my back for like cutting, tracing, sewing. I can only sit for an hour or so at a time before I have to get up and do something else.

The heat wave broke so we are finally enjoying some cooler weather. Lorna has started practices for the Jr Queen competition that will take place the first weekend in September. She has sold all of the required tickets in order to compete and has continued to sell more in hopes that she will win the bit for the most ticket sales. Amigo did great at his first practice and he seemed to enjoy himself.

I can tell that summer is almost over since our calendar is starting to fill up with activities again. Gymkhana starts up again next month, which I'm sure the kids are happy about. There seems to be a lack of horse activities in the middle of summer because of the heat.

Malachi has discovered the joys of reading for pleasure. We are now having to take his books away in order for him to get anything done! I was wondering if this was ever going to happen. The rest of us all read voraciously but up until now Malachi couldn't care less whether he had a book to read or not. He enjoyed reading once in awhile but not like the rest of us. Now we can all be seen sitting around the dinner table engrossed in our books and we frequently have to remind Malachi to go to bed because he's so busy reading.

Generational

2009-08-04T07:50:00.000-07:00

I learned something last night, humor is generational.

The Sweet Adeline's chapter Lorna and I belong to does a yearly ice cream social. Last year was the first time I saw or was a part of the show. It was based around a larger show that was taking place later in the fall. The mini show was sort of corny but not too bad.

This year's show is downright slapstick. I just don't find it funny and my 13 year old finds it downright stupid. Think "I Love Lucy" kind of slapstick. Talking it over with Paul we've come to the conclusion that humor can be generational. I think it can also be regional. We don't find this stuff funny because we grew up with dark, dry humor.

If I had seen this type of show prior to joining this group I would have never attended my first rehearsal. I want to sing. I enjoy the performances where we get up in front of a group of people and focus on singing well and performing choreography that adds to the music not stuff that detracts. But as I was told last night, that's not entertaining enough and people don't want to come to hear us sing. I find that funny since we are supposed to be a chorus!

Chores

2009-07-24T15:36:00.001-07:00

If you are one of those mothers who does all the cleaning and laundry for the family I'm going to give you a bit of advice, teach your family how to help you now. I can't tell you how glad I am that I have made the kids do their own laundry since they were old enough to reach the washer.

Back injuries like mine mean you can't bend over or lift anything more than 5 pounds. If my family relied on me for clean clothes they would be in a world of hurt since I can't carry laundry anywhere and I certainly can't hang it on the line. Because the kids have been doing their own laundry for years they not only haven't had a disruption in their schedule but they have been able to help with my laundry. The same is true for cleaning the house. My mom has been here for the past 2 weeks helping out but at least I know we will be able to function when she leaves on Sunday. The kids are more than capable when it comes to cleaning because they have done every job imaginable around the house at one time or another. Sure they will have to pick up the slack over the next few months as I recuperate but at least they already know how to clean the bathroom and kitchen.

Update

2009-07-20T09:12:00.000-07:00

Things here are getting back to normal, sort of. I'm up and about a lot more. I've resumed going to Sweet Adeline's rehearsals and Lorna has had a few rides that I've sat through but I'm still sleeping a lot. Today I'm going to try to drive myself to a music meeting, we'll see how that goes since I'll have to forgo the pain meds until I get home.

Lorna's had a rough week where riding is concerned. It's been really hot (105+) so she hasn't been able to ride much, the trainer she interns with has been busy with breeding the last month or so we haven't been going over there much, and she tried out a horse on Friday where some hurtful things were said about her riding ability during the trial. She ended her week on a good note though, she was able to go out riding on Saturday. She rode a horse that she hadn't ridden before and did well. The best part of it was that I got a glimpse of the happy girl I know is in there but that I haven't seen much of lately. The big smiles and chatter afterward reminded me why we do this. She learned a tremendous amount and is looking forward to trying an endurance ride in October.

Ouch!

2009-07-08T22:00:00.000-07:00

I have to say that the ending to our July 4th weekend wasn't good.

The weekend started out great, we were able to visit with some friends down in the LA area. There was lots of food and conversation. It was really nice to get away from the stress in our lives for a day.

Sunday we went out for a pleasure ride. Well it was supposed to be a pleasure ride but Missy freaked out at the end and dumped me on the ground. Our day ended up at the emergency room. I spent one night in our little hospital up here and then was transferred via ambulance to the big city hospital 50 miles away where I spent another night. I have 2 fractured vertebrae and I am very sore all over.

At this point I'm home but there isn't too much I'm allowed to do. I have to wear a brace for 10 weeks 24/7 and then I'll be wearing it a little less each day. It's amazing to see how many friends we really have.

The trainer Lorna works with watched the kids for 2 days since they weren't allowed at the big city hospital. Since we've gotten home we've had food delivered for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. My friends are keeping us covered until my mom gets here in Friday. We've had numerous offers of help that we've had to turn away. I feel so loved and blessed! I couldn't ask for a better group of friends.

Gift

2009-07-02T23:39:00.000-07:00

Some children bring their mothers cards or flowers, my daughter brought me this.

I guess this is what happens when your daughter volunteers at the vet. She got an anatomy lesson and she and the vet dissected the other one. She very proudly came home to tell me how the various pieces and parts worked. I'm glad she's learning and retaining what she sees there but I think I would have preferred chocolate or flowers!

Jr Queen competition

2009-07-01T12:09:00.000-07:00

Lorna has decided to run for Jr Queen at the local team penning.

The riding and interview will be the easiest thing for her, the most difficult thing is the raffle ticket and sponsorship sales. She is required to sell 200 raffles tickets.

Willingly speaking to people and asking them for things is not something I thought I'd ever see her do. The last few months of interning and volunteering at various places has made a tremendous difference though. She has visited 3 businesses so far and received two maybes and one sponsorship. Not a bad start. The vet's office is tomorrow and they have already offered to take some tickets to sell to their customers when Lorna isn't there, Lorna will also be asking them for a sponsorship while she's there. We have a Sweet Adeline's mini-show tonight and the directors have agreed to allow Lorna a few minutes afterward to ask the audience for support. She has also spoken with a restaurant owner in the valley who is just waiting for the printed information to decide what level she will sponsor Lorna at, so I guess she really has 2 sponsorships!

I'm so proud of Lorna for stepping out of her comfort zone to pursue something she really wants! I'll be posting pictures of the practice sessions over the next few months, it should be fun to watch her try to pen a cow!

Name that stone fruit!

2009-06-23T10:14:00.000-07:00

I need help.

Does anyone know what kind of stone fruit this is?

We received a number of them in our weekly produce box but cannot figure out what they are. I'm not adventurous enough to eat them without knowing what they are and how to tell if they are ready to eat!

June Gymkhana

2009-06-22T17:19:00.000-07:00

Saturday was the last show for the season for our gymkhana district. I have to say that this was just not a very good season for Lorna. Sierra came down with a cough on Wednesday evening and it got worse on Thursday so we had to take her to the vet on Friday. The cough wasn't anything serious but the vet said she shouldn't be ridden for 3-4 days so her airways could have a chance to become less irritated. Of course this meant Lorna wasn't able to ride her on Saturday. She did have Missy to ride in schooling runs but she didn't receive any points towards year end awards.

Malachi had an off day, actually quite a few of our riders had an off day, but he still improved his best times on 4 events. Overall this has been a great first season for him, it's hard to believe he's only been riding for a year! Since most of his times have been in the A division (higher than the FC division he's actually in) he will be bumped up to the A division next year. His goal is to be running AA times by the middle of next season.

Missy continues to do really well. She's gained quite a bit of weight and is slowly building muscle. Lorna was able to lope her through a number of events and she was a really good girl. She's the type of horse that just really wants to please. I will be taking a few lessons on Missy over the summer so that she and I can build our confidence so we can do longer trail rides.

Lorna doesn't really have any goals for next season. I can tell that this year was really discouraging for her and I'm not sure what her plans are. Part of the problem is that it's difficult for her to watch everyone sailing through the events on these wonderfully trained horses (Malachi included) and getting these really great times while she continues to struggle with a green horse. When she rides her trainer's gymkhana horse in schooling runs she has a blast! I'm confident, if she can continue struggling through and working with Sierra, they will eventually be a really great team but it's going to take a few years to get there. I'm really hoping the next few months will see Sierra maturing so that they can progress a bit more. The most difficult thing for her right now is that she had to back off of training because Sierra was not mentally ready to go any further. I really miss seeing her smile when she rides and I haven't seen much of that over the past few months. She's considering running for Jr Queen in a small local rodeo in September. This particular competition is heavy on the riding with no modeling and only a short interview. She would be riding Amigo for the Queen run, pattern, and cow penning. If she decides to do this maybe it will give her something to focus on and look forward to.

Eggs!

2009-06-22T16:59:00.000-07:00

We finally found our first egg yesterday! I would have taken a picture of it but by the time we found it it was crushed.

I say we finally "found" our first egg because the egg was a pretty decent size which means we've probably missed some of the really small ones. Today Lorna found a really tiny egg in the run and a medium sized egg in one of the nest boxes.

The chickens will be 21 weeks old on Wednesday so it's about the right time to start seeing eggs. We have 2 chickens that will lay blue/green eggs so I know they haven't started laying yet. The silly chickens that are laying right now don't seem to realize they are supposed to be laying in the morning, we've only found eggs in the afternoon.

On a completely different topic, our house is finally showing on the MLS. I have a really hard time being patient so I'm sure I will get some practice over the next 6 months.

Organizing and Cleaning

2009-06-15T09:34:00.000-07:00

I've been very lax the last few months. I've cleaned the kitchen and bathroom but not much else. It's difficult to make myself do anything when the house goes back to looking dirty just an hour later. We've talked about putting the house on the market for the past few months. Where we live now is just not conducive to the way our life is going. I've mentioned before that we live up a one lane road that goes up about 2500 feet over 2 miles, towing a horse trailer down that road a couple times a week gets really old. We had talked to a real estate agent last month but gave up on the idea of putting the house on the market because we figured we owed too much.

We received a message last Thursday that the agent wanted to speak with us. It turns out he has someone looking for a home in the area we are in and the price range is right. From the description the buyer gave him it sounds like our home is exactly what he's looking for. We decided we didn't have anything to loose if we put the house on the market so we've spent the last 3 days cleaning. We aren't done yet...

I always forget how many books we have. Paul brought home boxes so we could pack them all up so there was more open space. He didn't bring home enough boxes so we just consolidated everything into 2 bookcase and took the other three out. We also moved everything around to let more light into the house. I don't know why we didn't do this sooner! The house is much more open and spacious with things moved around. Of course we had to pack up a bunch of stuff to do it so that's probably why it was so cluttered.

I still have to do some dusting and moping in the main areas of the house, but I really need to tackle my sewing area in the deck. Trying to sew, package, and store fabrics for my store have made quite a mess in that little area. Today I will be organizing and straightening it out so we can actually get to the dining room table. It's a daunting task so I'm blogging instead!

Even if we don't find a buyer I figure, at the least, I will have a clean house for a time!

Success I think...

2009-06-08T08:19:00.000-07:00

It looks like we found a church!

I've put off posting about it because the cynical part of me kept thinking we would find some practice that would send us running. It's not the best church or the most solid, but there isn't any practice that we can't live with. We still haven't communed yet but that is due to our discomfort with the individual cups that they offer. Because of the distance (1.5 hours away) we aren't attending every week but we are attending every Divine Service that offers communion (twice a month for the "traditional" service).

Yes the church has a "contemporary" service, but we figure as long as we aren't forced to attend we can ignore that part :) Amazingly enough twice as many people come to the liturgical service as attend the other one! It's just really nice to find some place that we can be fed on a regular basis!

March Gymkhana Part 2

2009-05-30T15:49:00.000-07:00

We had yet another gymkhana today. The day started out really hot but the clouds came in and the wind picked up so it ended up being a really nice day.

Malachi and Lorna both won High Points in their divisions. This was Malachi's first high points! Sierra was a good girl today, not throwing any fits in the arena. She did throw a fit at the trailer when Amigo went off without her. She was so angry she pulled my purse out of the trailer, dumped everything on the dirt and stomped all over it. I'm not thrilled with that but at least she didn't aim for the judges in the arena.

We also took my new horse Missy. Lorna rode her in 5 schooling runs and she did great. You could tell that she was feeling better than the first time Lorna rode her when we picked her up, her ears were perked up and she happily trotted all over the place. She seemed to really enjoy being doing the events so Lorna wants to take her next month as well.

Busy Weekend

2009-05-26T09:02:00.000-07:00

Our 3 day weekend consisted of exciting home related activities like going to the dump, butchering chickens, and getting wood for the winter. I think Paul needs to go to work just to relax!

Lorna was supposed to attend her first sleep over but it was canceled due to a major power outage at the end of last week. This opened up all kinds of possibilities for doing stuff around the house.

Hoof trimming was overdue so we started that, it's now a major undertaking with 5 horses. So major that we are finishing up the last 3 today, but that's more because I was lazy than anything else :)

We butchered 7 roosters on Saturday. They were getting to be too much for the hens so they had to go. Lorna was the one who did the most work, by the end it took her only about 20 minutes to skin and clean one after her dad chopped off the head.

The trash is done for another 6 weeks or so. It's not such a big job but I don't like to go to the dump during the week because I prefer to have Paul help with unloading the trash.

We spent over 4 hours at the horse trainer's place on Sunday. The kids worked a few of her horses and then we watched a breeding.

Yesterday we went into the forest for the first time this year to get a load of firewood. We found a great spot with lots of good downed trees. We are hoping no one else discovers our spot so we can go back for the rest on Sunday. While up there we discovered 2 letterboxes in a stump. We had fun reading the notebooks, one of the boxes came from New Hampshire!

I've decided to take the week off school since there was a holiday yesterday and Malachi's birthday is tomorrow (we always take the kids' birthdays off school). Maybe I'll be able to catch up on normal housework and sewing!

Vet observation

2009-05-23T11:20:00.000-07:00

Lorna has now finished 3 days of observation at the vet. After her first day they called to ask if she could start coming twice a week, I guess she did a good job!

She is really enjoying the work so far. It's nothing glamorous or necessarily fun but she is getting to see a lot of new things. Lorna starts her days off with cleaning stalls for all the horses that are staying at the facility. She then does whatever jobs they have for her. Some days that means she gets to go out on ranch calls where she is the fetch and carry person for the vet. She has watched dentistry work, bandaging, immunizations, and pregnancy checks. Yesterday she was able to see the scope of a mare who is pregnant, the baby is only a few days old so she said it was just a little dot.

Before starting this Lorna was considering being a vet, at this point she is more excited about the possibility. She has a long way to go but I think this is the perfect way for her to determine if this is something she really wants to do. Her initial reservations were due to seeing her own horse die, but I think she's now realizing that isn't all a vet does. There is so much good and uplifting stuff that balances out the sad parts of the job. If nothing else I love being able to give her the opportunity to interact with others outside of our little homeschool!

History Days

2009-05-17T19:49:00.000-07:00

I'm going to take a quick break from bloging about horses to blog about something else. This weekend one of the small towns in our valley holds a "History Days" weekend. The town has a little museum and invites different organizations to either perform or do demonstrations.

Our Sweet Adeline's chapter is different than many others in that we sing all year round at various community events. Because we are such a small chorus we have the ability to fit almost anywhere. Most of these little performances will feature only a small portion of our chorus because people can't attend for various reasons or they aren't cleared to sing particular songs yet (we have to qualify on each song we sing at a performance).

Since I got into this to sing, I attend every performance possible! Lorna is in the process of switching to the baritone part, the most difficult of all the parts, so she switched off between that and lead (the part she sang before switching). So she slid from one side of the risers to the other depending on the part she was singing. I have to admit that I miss having her sing lead with me, we have lots of fun standing next to each other. But the benefit of her switching parts is that we may one day be able to sing in a quartet together. I'm told it's funny to watch us sing together because our mannerisms are so similar.

If you are wondering why one person is holding music, it's because one of the directors had to sing bass this weekend because we only had 1 bass available. Of course Lorna's outfit is never complete without her gymkhana belt buckle and her ostrich boots, she's a cowgirl even when we are singing!

Insane!

2009-05-13T19:10:00.000-07:00

First, I just wanted to mention that we did eat the chicken I wrote about in my last post.

He was really tasty! Even though he was a bit on the small side he fed our whole family with a little rice and some carrots. We look forward to our next butchering attempt!

Now on to my insanity...

From the picture I'm sure you are thinking, "Another one!"

Yep, we picked up another horse today. She is a 7 year old Mustang (can you tell we absolutely love Mustangs?) that was sent to the trainer Lorna works with about a year ago. She had 30 days put on her and did great but has sat for the last year. Lorna rode her a little today to see how much she retained and she remembered everything! I even got up on her and walked her around the arena, she is exactly what I've been looking for in a horse. She walked a little and then stopped. I had to keep after her to keep her walking because she's pretty lazy. She needs to put on some weight and build up some muscle but Lorna's trainer thinks she will make an awesome trail horse for me.

Of course this means our plans with Hottie are now up in the air. She's a great horse and we haven't given up the idea of keeping her. She isn't progressing as quickly as we would like but she is still moving forward. I really don't want to take her back to the sanctuary because she has come a long way and I've grown quite fond of her. For now we will continue to foster her and see what happens. Luckily we just found a great place to purchase hay in bulk so even with adding another horse we will be saving a tremendous amount of money. More than enough so I don't have to make any kind of decision right now!

Lorna starts volunteering at the vet tomorrow so hopefully I will have lots of good things to post about soon!

May Gymkhana

2009-05-11T09:00:00.000-07:00

Saturday we had yet another show. I think I spend more time blogging about our horses than anything else. That could be because we spend so much time with them!

Lorna and Sierra won high points in their division again. They may not get the fastest times in each event but they are very consistent. It's a nice way to end the day for Lorna since she has to watch her brother consistently beat all her times because Sierra is still in training. Sierra only had one "toddler moment" when she decided to aim for the judges to try to run them over. This is her new thing whenever she is asked to lope to the left, she takes off to the right really quickly (even though her head is pointed in the opposite direction) and aims for whatever else is in the arena with her. Lorna has a few ideas to work on this week to see if she can redirect Sierra's attention before she starts her little tantrum.

Malachi and Amigo continue to do really well together. Amigo has lots of power behind him and Malachi hasn't even tapped into half of it. He says he's content to just have fun and not push for better times but they continue to improve their times anyway. In one event he bumped up to the AA division. This season they started out in the FC division and now they runs most events solidly in the A division. Their bump up to AA was quite a shock! The thing we try to stress with the kids is that they should strive for control and clean runs before speed. I'd much rather see them run things well than just fast. We've noticed that many of the faster riders in our club aren't controlled so they spend a lot of the time knocking things over.

Now for something not horse related...

We butchered our first chicken yesterday!

I won't share the pictures of Lorna skinning it or Malachi playing with the head because I don't want to shock you, but the whole process wasn't as bad as I expected. Maybe it's because we've said we were going to eat them from day one so I've always looked at them as food, but I wasn't as bothered by it as I thought I would be. We will be eating him either today or tomorrow and we will see if the meat tastes as good as everyone says! One thing I will do next time is butcher more than one at a time. We don't have a large freezer so we can't do them all at once, but we can fit a few of them in there at a time and it would be a lot less time consuming if we did this in batches.

Commitments

2009-05-08T08:18:00.000-07:00

You often hear people bemoan the lack of commitment in today's kids. I'm going to bemoan the lack of commitment by adults!

As I've posted before, Lorna and I joined our local Sweet Adeline's chorus. I have really enjoyed learning to sing barbershop and straight acapella music. It has been fun to share this with Lorna as well. The problem I have is that when I commit to something I give 110% and expect everyone else to do the same.

It took me 8 months before I figured out how many members were actually in our chorus. Now that would be no big deal if we were in one of those large choruses with over 100 members, but it turns out we have about 23 members. I don't have an inability to count to 23, the lack of regular attendance by many of the members made it difficult to figure out how many singers we actually have.

The last 4 rehearsals we have averaged between 12 and 14 singers, this number includes a couple of new people just trying us out. I understand that people get sick and have unexpected things arise, but it gets to the point that (in my opinion at least) it's ridiculous. How do you have a functioning chorus when over a third of the members don't show up regularly?

Lorna and I decided that we would just give up after last contest but when I explained our reasons for leaving we were asked to stay and wait out some upcoming changes. I was told by a few members that if didn't like the way things were progressing I should become more involved. So we did both things, I joined the team that makes decisions for the group and we stuck around. I have a better glimpse into what is going on behind the scenes and I've made some suggestions. Things aren't getting any better though and it all boils down to a lack of commitment by people who supposedly want to be part of this group. It's frustrating to myself and everyone else who show up every week, practice our music outside of rehearsal, and truly want to get better.

I still wonder whether I made the right decision to stay but since I made a commitment to be on the team I don't feel I have the luxury of quiting until my term is up. That's the thing about commitment, when you make one you have to follow through!

Sierra the Cowgirl?

2009-05-04T08:16:00.000-07:00

Success!

2009-05-04T07:51:00.001-07:00

I don't know if you can tell but in the above picture of Lorna on Hottie, Hottie has a bit in her mouth!

One of the perks of Lorna working with a trainer is that Lorna gets to take her horses down and get help working with them. Lorna not only gets help but she also learns a lot about fixing certain problems.

We had tried a number of things here at home but the trainer had a few tricks of her own. She ended up getting hay string off of a bale of hay, braided it together and got Hottie to accept it in her mouth. It wasn't easy the first time but she eventually got it in her mouth a few times. She left the string in the horse's mouth for about an hour while she and Lorna worked with Sierra who's new favorite thing is rearing. A little later the trainer went back, wrapped the bit in vet wrap to keep it from clanking on her teeth, and worked on getting the bit in. After just a few tries it worked! She again left Hottie in the bit and went off to work with a different horse.

I was afraid that we weren't going to be able to duplicate this at home but it wasn't a problem. One thing we found was that once we got past getting the bit in Hottie's mouth she hated having something put over her ears. We've been working on this whole process at home and she has finally stopped tossing her head around while we try to bridle her. She still needs to learn to keep her head dropped while we are putting everything on but she is progressing!

yurtcraft: May Day--Give Away

2009-05-02T11:36:00.000-07:00

yurtcraft: May Day--Give Away

I'm linking to this blog, not just because I really want to win the give away, but also to give a little advertisement for a fellow pad maker!

April Gymkhana

2009-04-19T13:37:00.000-07:00

We had lots of excitement at yesterday's show. Malachi continues to improve with Amigo and actually got good enough times to get first in the division above him in a few events. He is straddling the two divisions right now and he is hoping by the end of the season to be firmly in the higher one.

Lorna and Sierra had a great day as well. Sierra didn't balk at anything and loped most of the events. They even ended up with High Points for the day in their division!

Lorna also rode Malachi, the Halflinger she is helping the trainer with, in schooling runs. He did wonderfully as well. It's great to see how he is coming along and how much he wants to please his rider. Even though Lorna wasn't sure how he would do at Hurry Scurry (going over small 16 inch high jumps) he did great and only knocked one of them down.

Malachi

2009-04-15T10:49:00.000-07:00

Lorna isn't the only one who loves being around the horses. Malachi had a pony named after him at the trainer's place, here is a picture of the two Malachis together.

Lorna also spent time with a different horse yesterday. She started helping to saddle train a 12 year old pony. It is kind of unusual to start a horse this old but until now the pony has only been used as a broodmare. She's had people sit on her back a few times but this was the first time she's really been ridden. She is very sweet and calm and surprisingly quick to pick up on things. I didn't get pictures of Lorna learning to give the horses vaccines because I was too nervous! It amazes me how much confident Lorna has become with all of this.

Easter post

2009-04-15T09:53:00.000-07:00

I'm going to have somewhat of a different Easter post than others I have read. We didn't attend church, we didn't have a special meal, and we certainly didn't take family pictures (we would have looked really silly taking pictures in the clothes we used to work outside in).

I keep reading posts bemoaning the lack of church services the week after Holy Week. For those of you who are feeling so down, consider what it would be like to live in a place where this is what happens each Sunday. Consider what you would feel to have no options for a solid church, to not have even a glimmer of what you experienced all of last week. Pretty horrible thought, isn't it? So don't forget to thank your pastor next time you see him, thank him for offering you such great opportunities each week to receive God's gifts.

Progress

2009-04-13T16:12:00.000-07:00

Lorna was able to get on Hottie's back last week so this picture is from today, her 4th "ride".

We've had our training setbacks though, Hottie refuses to take a bit which is why Lorna is currently riding her in a halter. We're working with her to get better acclimated to having something in her mouth and also to the bridle going over her face toward her ears. She started out by throwing her head when the bridle would come anywhere near her. Now we can touch her with it and slip it over her ears as long as there is no bit attached. As of today I can slip my finger in her mouth from the side and massage her gums without Hottie tossing her head. I can touch her with a bit but she still tosses her head away when I try to put it in her mouth. We've tried rubbing molasses and honey on the bit but she still won't have anything to do with it. In fact she won't even let me put a finger in her mouth if it has either on it! So much for that "proven method" I've read all over the internet. Not knowing all her history makes it difficult to determine if she's just being stubborn or if she has had a bad experience in the past. We've had a bridle on her twice, but both times she wasn't happy about it either going on or coming off. Since I want this to be a hassle free experience we are trying to slowly get her past this until she's comfortable with the bridling process.

Overall I'm really pleased with how sweet she has become and how fast she picks up on things. She's easy to catch, coming right up to me every time I go out in the pen. Trailer loading is also going very smoothly, although the real test will be the first time we take her somewhere. We will see how she does with shots later this week since it's time for the horses' spring vaccines.

Spaz is also doing very well. Trailer loading has been smooth since the first time we've tried it. She's leading really well and will step on and over things without any problem. She spends more time in the big horses' pen now, although she still sleeps and eats in her own special pen. Because the large pen doesn't have the right kind of shelters to conform to BLM requirements she can't move in there permanently until we either rebuild them or she is titled, which won't be for a year. She seems to enjoy her time away from the others though so I'm not too concerned about moving her permanently.

Odds and Ends

2009-04-09T08:29:00.000-07:00

I'm holding a free shipping sale over at my store and the response has been better than I could have anticipated so I haven't had much time for blogging. This is a very good thing since we've had a number of unexpected car repairs and then we received our vehicle registration bills only to find the licensing fees have doubled since last year. I don't know what the state is thinking, people are struggling to pay for basic things and they raise registration amounts on the cars these people will need to work?!?

We won tickets to Walking With Dinosaurs so we drove to Bakersfield last night to see that. Malachi loved it, and the rest of us enjoyed it as well. It wasn't quite what I expected based on the few commercials I saw for it, but it was still enjoyable.

Training has really started with Hottie. The first time Lorna attempted to put weight in the stirrup while getting on two weeks ago ended with the horse bucking and the bolting. Lorna decided to go back to very basic groundwork which consisted of leading, stopping and backing. This week Lorna again attempted to get up in the stirrup and was successful. We've had rain for a couple of days so she has only been able to do this twice this week. She's hoping that by next week she will be able to sit in the saddle without Hottie getting upset.

As you can see we require the kids to wear helmets when riding. I know a lot of people don't think they are necessary but we've seen people hit their heads when coming off of their horse, it is not a pretty sight! There was a great article in the most recent issue of Equus about how a helmet saved a woman's life. If you are one of those people who think helmets are silly, I suggest you read the article.

Lorna had her first lesson on Sierra last week. Sierra started out not wanting to do what Lorna asked of her. It was amusing to watch Sierra swish her tail when she was frustrated with Lorna. She spent a lot of time swishing her tail!

It seems Sierra believed a lope meant buck. Lorna got that out of her pretty quickly but they still have a ways to go before she gets to lope her during gymkhana.

The trainer is convinced that Lorna and Sierra are going to make an awesome team, eventually competing in the faster divisions once Sierra is ready to really run. Lorna is really happy with the way things are going and she is content to go easy on Sierra until she's completely grown and ready for more strenuous activities.

Something seems to have clicked between Malachi and Amigo and they are doing better than we ever could have hoped for. Malachi is happy to keep things at a nice lope for now and Amigo seems to understand exactly what his rider wants. It's hard to believe we've had him less than a year and that Malachi hasn't been riding all that much longer. Amigo is a very laid back horse even though he's an Arab, which just goes to show that breed doesn't necessarily determine a horse's personality.

Spaz has graduated to walks outside her pen and has visits in the big horses' pen. Sierra and Spaz run all over the place when they are together. It's so fun to watch I've forgotten to get pictures every time it has happened.

I think I'm just about caught up with news around here. The chickens are fun to watch but aren't really all that exciting to talk about. They are getting big and we are eagerly anticipating the first egg and first chicken dinner but that's still a ways away!

Regional contest

2009-03-30T12:17:00.000-07:00

Lorna and I attended our Sweet Adeline's regional contest this weekend. It was an interesting experience. The best thing was getting to hear some absolutely astounding quartets! We have some really wonderful choruses in our region so it was a real treat to hear the other groups perform.

Our group won the Audience Choice award for the chorus competition. Of course with outfits like these we got lots of laughs.

At the brunch yesterday I won one of the door prizes.

This lovely set was made by this Etsy seller. If you are in the market for this kind of thing be sure to check this 13 year old seller.

Beginnings

2009-03-16T13:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we were able to finish the chicken run so today was the first day the chickens were able to go outside. They don't seem very impressed. In fact they aren't really going outside much, hopefully that will change.

Gideon, our wolf mix, thinks we are raising dinner for him. Every time he sees a chicken he whines and licks his chops!

We brought the new horse home (she doesn't have a name yet), got her in the pen, and prepared ourselves for a long drawn out process before we could really touch her.

Here is a picture about 15 minutes after unloading her.

She's real wild and fierce.

She loves to be scratched on the side of her muzzle and stood still while we groomed her.

I guess since she was born in a BLM facility she's used to people and has become quite friendly. I know we have a long way to go teaching her to lead and such but her friendliness is not what we expected.

Crazy Week

2009-03-14T20:07:00.000-07:00

We have an enormously busy week planned. I don't think we've ever been this busy and I'm just not sure whether to look forward to everything or not.

We start off the crazy week with a Sweet Adeline's performance tomorrow afternoon. This should be fun since there is no pressure.

Our Monday plans will just confirm my insanity since we are picking up this little cutie.

For once gaining a horse wasn't my idea. Paul picked this little filly out last weekend and we spent the week preparing for her arrival. She is a 7 month old mustang that we are adopting from the BLM. This will bring our horse total up to 4, but one is only a foster for the moment. Our foster horse, Hot Stuff (formerly known as Cricket), is doing really well. She's become very friendly and affectionate. We're still working on getting her "de-spooked" which is going to be a long process.

Tuesday's activity is no fun, our propane tank is getting switched out and refilled. We are switching companies because I'm very unhappy with the service we were receiving. The new company is bringing a much smaller tank which will at least keep the cost of filling down.

Wednesday is the one day with absolutely nothing planned! I may just have to stay in bed all day.

Thursday holds the most exciting event since my mom, step-father, and grandmother will be arriving for a visit. They will get here in time to hear Lorna and I sing that night. We have a regional competition for Sweet Adeline's at the end of the month and Thursday is our dress rehearsal where we invite the community to come hear us sing.

Friday we get to drive Sierra down to the vet to have her knees x-rayed. There isn't anything wrong with her, this will tell us how long until Lorna can start working her a bit harder. Right now she is being ridden at a walk for about 20 minutes 3 times a week. We really want to make sure not to push her beyond her physical abilities and the x-rays will make sure we keep her sound.

Saturday is a gymkhana show. Since we are running 9 events it's going to be a long day. The exciting thing is that this is the first show my family has been able to attend! The kids are very excited to show off what they can do.

Somewhere in there I need to get the chicken run finished. The chickens have started pecking at each other so I really think getting them outside will help. They will be 6 weeks old this week and have gotten really big.

Since the weather has been so nice I think they will be okay to get out from under the brooder lights.

March Gymkhana

2009-03-08T08:46:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the first gymkhana we've attended since last September. In fact it was only Malachi's second one. It wasn't held in our valley so it was a really long day, we were gone over 12 hours.

This was also Lorna's first show on Sierra, they did great! We've only had Sierra for 8 weeks and when we got her she hadn't been ridden before. I think all total Lorna only has about 15 rides on her, with those rides being 15-30 minutes. There was only 1 event where they got a no time. Even though Sierra backed through the timing poles just as they started their run, Lorna made her go through the entire pattern anyway. The biggest problem Lorna had with her was when she decided to bolt once she was finished with the pattern and was on the way back to the gate. Overall though she did better than we ever could have hoped for. Since this was Lorna's first gymkhana since Ginger passed away there were lots of tears. I think it really helped that there weren't any memories at this particular arena. Hopefully with this show under her belt, Lorna will enjoy the local show in two weeks.

Malachi did extremely well. He beat all his previous times and seemed to enjoy himself. Amigo has gotten so used to being around other horses and doing the events that he didn't give Malachi any problems.

Excitement

2009-03-02T19:40:00.000-08:00

Paul was greeted with this when he came home today.

Sierra loves everyone!

We picked up our foster horse today and had lots of excitement. This is Cricket, she is about a year older than Sierra. She is a mustang from the Black Mountain herd here in CA. She has been handled and walked into our trailer without any problem, but she is very spooky.

The other horses were very excited to see her.

Sierra was a little too excited to see her. Sierra broke the chain that holds the gate closed, ran between Lorna and Cricket, and spooked her. Since she ran between the two of them Lorna no longer had the lead rope. Paul went after Cricket in the truck while the kids and I caught Sierra who thought it was great fun to run in circles around us. Sierra decided to finally stop for a bite to eat so Lorna was able to get a halter on her and put her in our bottom pasture. Cricket was a little more difficult to catch. We finally found her a couple of blocks away eating weeds on someone's property. Paul walked her home and we decided that was enough excitement for one day!

High Sierra Wild Horse Sanctuary

2009-03-02T07:33:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking about getting a horse for me. The kids are very limited on where they can ride when I'm not with them so it would be nice to have a horse I can go out on. I love horses, I always have and riding is just another way I can get exercise (I'm not the kind of person who can exercise just for the sake or exercising, it has to have a purpose).

We get lots of horse magazines, the kids get subscriptions as gifts and pay for the rest themselves. One thing that is always talked about is the number of unwanted horses out there for adoption. So I decided that if I was going to get a horse I wanted to adopt.

You'd think it would be easy right? The first problem I ran into was organizations that have high adoption fees, like $1,000-2,000. Wow, we've never paid that much for a horse! We always go for the cheap models. The second problem I ran into was the lack of response when I called or emailed the organizations. They just never call back.

I hit upon a great organization yesterday, High Sierra Wild Horse Sanctuary and Gentling Center. The head of the center not only emailed me back but invited us out to take a look at the facilities. The great thing is, they are located in our valley! It broke my heart to see how many horses were there. They specialize in mustangs and work with the BLM. Right now they are pretty much full so there were lots of horses to look at. They are always looking for volunteers to groom and love the horses so I think we will be doing that a few times a month. Another thing we are going to be doing is fostering a horse, if she works out we will adopt her. I'm really excited about this opportunity.

As with all rescue organizations they are always in need of financial assistance. If you or anyone you know is looking for to donate to a non-profit please consider this organization!

The coop is done!

2009-02-26T15:48:00.000-08:00

We finally had nice enough weather that I was able to finish painting the chicken coop.

The chickens will be moving out there sometime in the next few days. It will be so nice to get them out of the living room! They will still have to have the brooder lamps on for a few more weeks but at least I won't have to listen to them cheeping all night long. Our next project will be finishing the attached run.

Need a laugh?

2009-02-25T23:15:00.000-08:00

I've been looking through ads of horses and came across this one.

Someone has a great sense of humor.

Ginger

2009-02-21T18:20:00.000-08:00

We've had a really terrible day.

We got up early this morning to get the horses loaded for gymkhana only to find Ginger, Lorna's older horse, was ill. We took her down to the vet in the big city but she didn't make the drive. The vet tried to resuscitate her but it didn't work. Lorna chose to watch the necropsy that was done to determine what was wrong with Ginger. We found out that she had had some major trauma to her neck when she was young, probably running into a fence, which caused her esophagus to become enlarged. Her food was no longer moving into her stomach as it should and everything was making it difficult for her to breathe. It was good to hear that nothing we did caused her death but that still hasn't made it any easier to accept. We spent the afternoon at the gymkhana show just helping out and watching, it was a balm to be around people who understand what we are going through. I'm sure that we will all shed tears frequently over the next few days, Ginger was a very large part of our life.

Church Matters

2009-02-16T11:05:00.000-08:00

I have found that it's easier to ignore things when I'm busy. The last few months have been filled with preparations for the chickens, Sweet Adeline stuff, and shuttling Lorna all over the place for horse related stuff. Even though all of our attempts to attend gymkhana shows over the past 4 months have failed we've filled our time with lots of stuff.

The rain and snow over the past 2+ weeks has made everything slow down tremendously. We had planned on having the kids ride in a parade last Saturday but we got 5 inches of snow on Friday making it impossible to get the horse trailer out of the driveway. This is just the way things have been working out.

Due to the slow down Paul and I have had more time to discuss our plans for the future. We have moved around a lot, the longest we have ever lived in one place has been 2.5 years. I think we have been searching for the allusive perfect place. One where Paul has a steady job, we have a great church home, and where we can afford enough land to do what we want. We know we aren't going to ever find such a place so we've been discussing staying here. Paul has the best job he has ever had, the company is wonderful and the opportunity for growth is good. Because this area is sort of rural there is the opportunity to purchase land, not as much as we want but still enough to do something with. The biggest problem we have come up against is the lack of a solid church. It has been easy to ignore the problem because we've filled our time with other things. But as we discuss the probability of actually settling here for a long while I become nervous about the lack of spiritual care. We've tried all the Lutheran churches in an 1.5 hour radius, I even called further out and have found nothing. In fact I've been told there isn't anything like what I'm looking for.

I finally convinced Paul to try the one here in town, after all it's only 15 minutes from our door. The only thing the experience did was make me even more depressed about our options. We knew the church had some quirks but we didn't realize how many. Women leading parts of the service, campfire type songs complete with guitar, open communion, and the children's sermon which was on how we need to try to do what the Bible says because it's all about obedience (no Gospel all Law). All of this really brought home how spoiled we've been in the other places we've lived. I still don't have any idea what we are supposed to do here. I'm not looking for an easy answer but at the same time I don't feel comfortable just ignoring the problem.

Not one of the churches we've visited has had a sermon that contains both Law and Gospel. All but one have women participating in the service and that one has a pastor who doesn't believe communion is important (his own words). When you are faced with driving 1.5 hours the last thing you want to do is settle for a church that has practices that you disagree with. At the same time how do you just give up going to church? Maybe we just aren't looking at things right, but all of our attempts to just go to a church and ignore the stuff we don't agree with have failed. It may be time to try again but I don't know that I can convince myself and the rest of the family to actually do it.

More Chick Pics

2009-02-10T09:15:00.000-08:00

The weather here has been so bad that we can't do anything so the only thing we've been doing is watching the chicks. The are growing really quickly so we will be setting up a bigger box for them today.

They love to pile up together when they are sleeping.

Chicks!

2009-02-05T07:56:00.000-08:00

We got a call at 6:30 this morning asking us to come pick up our chicks. They arrived in less than 24 hours from when they shipped and all the ones I ordered survived.

Along with the 10 chicks I ordered I also received 12 "packing peanuts". One didn't survive, it looks like it got squished by the others.

We ordered 2 Rhode Island Red, 2 New Hampshire Red, 2 Black Australorp, 2 Buff Orpington, and 2 Delaware. We received Ameraucanas as packing peanuts. I'm kinda hoping that at least one of the peanuts is a pullet since that breed lays green and blue eggs.

The chicks are settled in their temporary home. They are all eating, drinking and making lots of noise. It doesn't look like they will be able to stay in their current tub for more than a few days because of space. Paul brought home some really huge boxes for which I'm really thankful because we received more packing peanuts than I anticipated.

Catching Up

2009-02-04T09:18:00.000-08:00

The last few weeks have been filled with horses, horses, and more horses!

Last week we attended a horse expo in Pomona. It was incredible but very tiring. We looked at most of the 300 vendors that were there, attended a few presentations, and just enjoyed the beautiful weather. It was a very long day since it was 3.5 hours from home but well worth the drive.

The training with Sierra is continuing to progress. She is loading in the trailer better and better each time. She is walking and trotting without too many problems but she doesn't want to lope. She's still very young so she has great days and lots of stubborn days. But overall Lorna is very pleased with her progress.

Saturday we took all 3 horses down to the trainer's facilities. While there Lorna exercised 2 other horses since her trainer is recovering from surgery. One of the horses is a new halflinger pony. He's really cute and has been named Malachi in honor of our son.

Training with the pony Lorna's been helping out with has come to a standstill for now. There is some question about whether it will continue or not since he's just not taking to things well. He is really spooky and is not calming down at all. One way or another Lorna will continue working with her trainer helping out with the horses. It's amazing the differences I can see in her over the last month. She has become much more assertive and self-assured. She's thoroughly enjoying the challenges these horses are presenting and actively working towards learning more in order to become a better rider. Watching her interact with her trainer, listening and learning, has been a real joy. And of course my mommy heart just soars when the trainer tells me how great she's doing and how much she enjoys her company!

Besides horse stuff we've been working on the chicken coop. The only thing left on the coop itself is the roof. It will need to be painted soon but since we are expecting a storm to come in tomorrow it will have to wait till next week. The chicks are shipping today and should be arriving sometimes over the next 2 days. I'm really excited. I plan on keeping them in the house for the first few weeks and then they will be moved into the coop.

Training continues

2009-01-20T08:36:00.000-08:00

The last 2 days with the horses have been very stressful. Sunday we tried to trim Sierra's hooves, what a nightmare. After 2.5 hours of fighting I was able to get them rasped down a bit but I still want to round the edges off a bit so we can great rid of a few flares. Yesterday she decided she didn't want to load in the trailer. She trailered great last week but yesterday she acted like she had never seen the trailer before. Once we got her to the trainer's facility she did great under saddle so we are really pleased with that aspect of her training. Sierra now goes forward when asked to and stops pretty well. Since she is so young it's like dealing with a toddler, she has good days and not so good days. The amount of time Lorna spends on her back is really short because of her age. She spends most of her training time tied to a hitching post since she still doesn't like standing still. We had another fight getting Sierra back in the trailer to go home.

The pony Lorna is working with fell over on her yesterday after getting spooked. She would have been fine if he hadn't smashed her nose in the process of getting up. Lorna is alright but her nose is swollen and will probably be bruised in a few days. We are taking today off because everyone needs a break!

We upgraded the fencing in Sierra's pen over the weekend. We originally had barbless wire but I didn't like the way she was pushing at it so we upgraded to poly strapping made for equine fencing. It's not working, she pushes against it and tries to walk through it when she's mad so today we are adding wood in-between the strapping. I've even considered adding electric poly tape to the top of the fence but that will be a very last resort. Someday we will be able to afford pipe corrals and I won't have to worry about fencing quite so much.

Definitely Not Bored

2009-01-14T14:15:00.000-08:00

Remember when I wrote about being bored?

Well now that the holidays are over I'm completely pressed for time. This has been an unusual week so we've been out everyday since Saturday and will continue to go out everyday until Sunday. Lorna is spending every morning riding 2 horses at her instructor's facilities and then she comes home and rides Ginger. We are trading in our 2 horse trailer for a 3 horse trailer so this morning was spent at the bank signing paperwork. We are upgrading our horse fence in Sierra's pen while she is staying at the trainer's facilities so that has required lots of physical labor and some shopping at the feed store. Our Sweet Adeline's chorus has a retreat and coaching this weekend but we are only going on Friday because Saturday is taken up with a gymkhana show where Lorna will be riding 2 horses. Paul's car key is stuck in the iginition and won't come out. And I really need to finish the chicken coop. Somewhere in there I'm finding time to cook and do school although I haven't had enough time to make bread or clean. I no longer have time to be bored!

Training

2009-01-13T15:15:00.000-08:00

All work on the chicken coop has stopped until we get settled in our new routine. Lorna has worked the last 2 mornings with her riding instructor and we will be there at least the next 2 mornings. She was able to ride the pony she's helping with on a trail ride yesterday.

It amazes me how quickly this horse picking things up.

Today we took Sierra down with us. Since Lorna is helping out, her instructor has offered to help Lorna with the training on her new horse. I couldn't ask for a better person help Lorna, she really is wonderful. Today Lorna worked on a few things with Sierra and even got up on her for a few minutes.

Sierra

2009-01-11T16:24:00.000-08:00

We had a very surprising day, Lorna found the perfect horse. She has always dreamed of owning a mustang and now that dream has come true. Sierra is just over 2 years old and came from an awesome home. Her previous owners have given her a really great start and we look forward to seeing what she will do in the years to come.

More Coop Pictures

2009-01-10T16:48:00.001-08:00

The coop has been coming along quickly since the weather has been so nice. The trim is on so the remaining projects are the roof, people door, windows, and the pop door for the chickens. I haven't been able to get any mis-tint paints from the hardware store so we will probably end up using some left overs from previous projects.

Here is what it look like right now.

We have taken some time out from building to get the kids a riding lesson. Since the weather has been cooperating Lorna has been able to continue working with her instructor on gentling that pony. She was able to work with him on Thursday and Friday and will be going back on Monday. At this point she has started riding without being on a line attached to the instructor's horse. They went around the neighborhood on Friday and both the pony and Lorna did great.

We have decided that it's time to start looking for a more challenging mount for Lorna. Her skill has progressed to the point that her older mare just isn't challenging her anymore. Even though we have been told that now is a great time to buy a horse our initial search hasn't turned anything up. In fact a horse we were supposed to go look at today was sold last night. I guess it will be another lesson in patience!

Coop

2009-01-06T16:55:00.000-08:00

We finally decided to take the plunge and get chickens this year. I ordered day old chicks which should arrive the first week of February. For the first time ever we've started animal housing before we actually needed it.

This is how far we had gotten by the end of today.

I'm really pleased with how quickly this is going together. If we can get it finished by next week the weather is supposed to be warm enough that I can paint.

We are using the left over plywood we scavenged a few months ago. Unfortunately we had to buy 2x4s and a bunch of hardware. Since we are using scavenged wood I tried to make the walls and door fit the cuts that were already lying around. On the whole we are going to have a well built coop for less than half the cost it would have been without scavenging. I've had lots of fun searching through my new favorite site for coop ideas. Of course this project hasn't been without a few mistakes, the biggest one being a framing mistake. I accidentally made the walls 3.5 inches taller than the plywood. To fix it I'm going to have to install a trim piece along the bottom of each wall to cover the gap. Not the end of the world but still a little frustrating.

New Project

2009-01-05T08:19:00.000-08:00

I have a new project in the works. I'm an impatient sort of person so this one is difficult because the end result is dependent on a company. Even they are dependent on nature so I'm just having to learn to be patient. Here are a few pictures of the start we made this weekend. Can you guess what it's going to be?