Any South Carolina readers out there?

I know this is a long shot, but I'm doing what I can to find this horse a home. I do not know the owner of the horse personally. The horse is located near Dillon, SC. She's a 10yr Arabian, broke to ride and drive. The pictures came from a camera phone, so aren't the greatest. The story is that the owner is incredibly poor and can't afford to feed the horse. She's in a dry/mud lot with no shelter. The neighbors have been chipping in with feed and hay. Either she's your typical Arab air fern, or the neighbors are very generous because she's nowhere near being skinny! I have no idea how tall she is and the person that told me about her is a dog person, not a horse person.

The owner would like $600 for the horse because he needs the money so badly, however his priority is finding a good home for the mare. From what I've heard, I assume he may even give her away to the right home. He understands that he can't take care of her, but loves her dearly and just wants to make sure she's going some place where she'll be loved and cared for. Please contact me directly or leave a comment with your email if you're interested.

Recipe - Sorbet

I had to beg, plead, and promise more pineapple tomatillos before Anastasia finally gave me a few of the sorbet recipes. These are "rough" recipes since the ingredients don't need to be exact and, like me, she doesn't always write down what she's doing when experimenting. :)

My two favorite recipes are below with just the ingredients. The instructions for making the sorbets are the same:

Combine all ingredients and either use an ice cream maker or put in a shallow glass pan and stir frequently while it's freezing.


Elderberry and Honey Sorbet

2 cups unsweet iced tea
2 cups elderberry juice
3/4 cup raw honey
juice of one lemon


I'm guessing about amounts and instructions on this next one. Just play around with it and make it the way you like it. But at least these are the basics.

Lime Basil Sorbet

1 1/2 cup lightly packed macerated lime basil leaves
1 cup water
1 tbsp lime juice
1/2 cup sugar
1 can ginger ale

Combine the lime juice, sugar, water, and basil leaves and bring to boil for five minutes. Let cool, then combine with ginger ale and freeze.

The Best Laid Plans

Went very awry over the weekend. I had it all planned. Glenn had a side job this weekend so it was just going to be me, the garden and the horses. Saturday was going to be spent in the kitchen canning all the frozen tomatoes, more ginger and cherry tomato marinade, and drying pineapple tomatillos and herbs. Then out to the garden to prune the monster mater plants, pull a few weeds and yank out the spent corn stalks. Then I wanted to do some much needed weeding in the strawberry bed. Then I wanted to work Classy, Meg, and Jewel and take Kita for a short trail ride. Then off to town to get some groceries. On Sunday we were headed over to Anastasia's (previously known as Classy's potential adopter) with Classy and Kita for a trail ride on their incredible trails. Then a wonderful lamb dinner was in store for us once we returned from the ride. Monday was meant for more riding at our place, lawn mowing, weedeating, and flowerbed making.

Hardly any of that happened.

Saturday started out ok, except that as Glenn was leaving for the side job he noticed that one of the springs on the truck had busted and dented the bed of the truck. Great, worry about it later and take my motorcycle instead. We'll just have to skip taking the horses over to Anastasia's for trail riding on Sunday.

I harvested a basket full of tomatoes, strawberries, tomatillos, peppers, and a few raspberries, then hauled everything into the kitchen where my frozen maters were in the sink thawing. I got the little stuff cleaned and frozen (except the raspberries, which ended up being eaten right away), then got to work on the maters. I put the fresh ones in boiling water for 30 seconds then plopped them into an ice water bath so I could peel the skins off. I dunked the frozen ones in warm water for the same reason. I ended up with about 5 gallons of tomatoes. I was just going to can them up whole, but decided on tomato sauce with meat instead. We eat a lot pasta in the winter and I recently found a recipe that we absolutely love, and we currently only have 9 quarts of it. Must make more!

Around noon I put the pot on the stove to start cooking down, but then the phone rang. It was Glenn telling me that his buddy Flipit (there's a story behind that nickname!) had seen Glenn driving through town, flagged him down, and told him to come on over and they'd fix his truck. Rather than ride the bike the 12 miles home, get the truck, then drive the 14 miles to Flipit's place, he wanted me to bring the truck to him, then ride the bike home. Before going further with this tale, let me tell you a little about Flipit. Flipit collects Fords. Going to his place is like going to a Ford dealership, but without having to wait for them to order the right parts and without the hassle of having to pay for any of the parts. Flipit just happened to have the undercarriage of an F350 one ton truck sitting back in the woods behind his house. Glenn's truck is an F250 3/4 ton, but what the heck? Let's beef up those springs!

{insert Tim Allen man grunt here}

But before we could get started, Flipit's son called and needed help putting a roof on his house. And since one good turn deserves another, we went along to help with the roof. And let me clarify that "we" part. Glenn was on the roof with the other men, I sat in the shade with the women shooting the breeze and occasionally tossing roofing nails up the the guys. This was my job and I performed it well. Not once did I hit any of them in the head with flying nails. Once the roof was done we were just about out of daylight to work on the truck any more that day. By the time we got home and fed everyone, it was lights out in hopes of a good night's sleep.

All day Sunday was spent fixing the truck. Glenn begged me to go with him and claimed my extraordinary mechanical skills would be useful. How right he was! When the men couldn't find where they'd laid down a specific tool, I was right there to find it amongst the mess and hand it to them. I was also the gopher, sent back and forth between shop and truck for more tools. What would they have done without me?? Once the truck was finally fixed we ran home for quick showers and barely made it to Anastasia's in time for dinner at 7pm.

And what a dinner it was!!! Lamb steak with this cabbage/apple/bacon dish that was just to die for! Then we had sorbet tasting which is much like wine tasting, but without the hangover. Anastasia tells me that I am her garden idol, but she's definitely my kitchen idol! She makes so many different types of sorbet: melon, peach, pineapple tomatillo, lime basil, apple, elderberry and honey... I'm sure I forgot one or two in there! The tomatillos and lime basil came from my garden last week. She also dried some of the tomatillos, which is where I got the idea from. The lime basil sorbet was the BEST! I love the elderberry and honey sorbet as well, and it just might be a toss up between the two. She shared the recipes with me, but I'll post those under a different post (this one has grown long enough!).

Monday morning Glenn and I loaded Kita and Classy into the trailer and headed over to Anastasia's for trail riding. Once we got there we tied Classy to the trailer and Kita to the truck for grooming and tacking. Kita was mostly interested in grass and barely noticed her surroundings or the big Percheron stallion in the pasture calling for her attention. Classy on the other hand, was a nervous wreck, dancing, pawing, and wide-eyed at everything around her. Not once was she dangerous, but it's hard to groom and saddle a moving target. I decided to let Glenn get in the practice and I just took care of Kita. It was for his own good, really. Once everyone was tacked up, Anastasia took Classy down the driveway a bit just for a little test drive before her husband got on her for the trail ride. She was a pretty good girl, she just didn't want to stand still. But she listened fairly well in the five minutes that Anastasia was on her.

Once Scott was on her, we were off to the trails! For the first 15 minutes, Classy was great. She was a nervous greenie, but that was to be expected. There was no bucking, rearing, or running off, just a "hey, what are we doing here, why is that stallion eyeying me, and would someone please get that deerfly off my butt?" Scott has a natural seat, but has never taken a lesson in his life and is greener than what I expected. The two of them didn't click very well, and the confusing ques from Scott and the inexperience of Classy didn't mesh. I ended up ponying Classy just so she'd walk down the trail instead of doing circles and falling further behind. Once she was next to Kita she relaxed, stop chewing nervously on the bit and Scott was able to enjoy the ride.

But only for another 15 minutes.

Classy is a drama queen. While still attached to Kita by a lead rope, Classy decided to take a break and lay down for a quick roll. With Scott and saddle still on her. Once she was down she waited for Scott to step off, then she proceeded to roll. At first we all panicked thinking it was heat stroke, or a seizure, or colicking, whatever. The worst scenarios went through everyone's mind. I hopped off Kita and tried to get the saddle off while she was down, just laying there.. not rolling at all... and scaring the living crap out of all of us. Then she hopped up like nothing happened and grazed. I took the saddle off anyway, checked her nice pink gums, felt her pulse which was normal, and watched her graze like she was perfectly fine. Which she was. We gave everyone a 20 min break just to be sure, then resaddled Classy. This time Anastasia got on Classy for the ride home. I didn't pony her and the whole time she was a head down, relaxed, perky-eared little mare.

In the end it was decided that the mare just had an itch. And it seems the world not only revolves around my friend April, but it also has the time to revolve around Classy.

Once we got home it was decided that Classy was not a good match for Scott yet and that Scott's dream horse is really a paint anyway. But I don't consider the trail ride a loss at all, as both Classy and Kita got some experience off the farm, Glenn had a good ride on a strange horse (Anastasia's couch, Kiesha), and I learned to love Kita just a little bit more because she was so incredibly good.

The only regret I have about Monday is the lack of my camera and the still unprocessed maters sitting in my fridge.

Something to make you go HMMMMM

Thanks to that little widget down at the bottom I get to see what people search on to find my blog. Typically this results in search text like "wvfarmgirl" or "wv utopia" -- searches that are obviously done by someone who has already been here, but forgot the web address. Then about a week ago a Google search came across the widget that made me wonder: "turn me into a girl".

Huh?

First of all, if you put "turn me into a girl" into Google you get 118 results. I skimmed through the first 12 pages of circumcision nightmares, cross dressing stories, and adult dating sites, but didn't find my little blog (I hate to think I'm in such bad company!). If you then perform the search and include omitted pages you get 12,400 results! Now I neither have the time or energy to look through all of those results to see which page my blog shows up on, but it's probably on the last page or darned close.

So I asks ya, is it worth all of that time and effort just to make less money, torture yourself with high heels and panty hose, and get pinched on the butt by drunk and randy rednecks at bars?

By the way...

Brie came back minutes after I posted this morning. She was soaking wet, incredibly stinky, but seemed happy to be home. She dove into breakfast, but fell asleep before finishing it. She's been passed out by her dish all day. What a party animal. What do you want to bet she's found some young punk and was out all night drag racing, drinking, smoking, and egging the mailman's house?? Kids these days! What's a parent to do??

How did you do that??

Hey! You in CT! How did you find my other new blog before I even linked to it or announced it? I just set that blog up yesterday and haven't even finished the first post yet, but I see you got here from there yesterday. That's some wicked ESP skills you have! Can you bottle that and sell it? Or just teach me how to do it? Man, that would come in handy at work!


Anyhow, I'm doing a new blog just to chronicle the training of all the rescues. I figure a lot of you are here for the gardening stuff so I don't want to bore you with horse training. This doesn't mean horses will no longer play a part in this blog, I just won't be getting into specifics here about the training of each one. A separate, more "compact" blog seemed like the best idea to help me track everyone's training and to keep a journal on how things go with each one. Any potential adopters may also find the training information useful on the horse that they are interested in. You'll find a link to Training the Unwanted over there on the left if you're interested.

Classy's potential adopter came out in the pouring rain yesterday to check her out. She didn't ride, but will be coming out again either tonight or tomorrow to ride if she can. If not, she'll be riding her Sunday on a trail ride with Glenn and I as a trial. She seemed to like Classy, but she couldn't take her eyes off of Jewel! And Jewel couldn't keep her lips off Glenn. He had walked up to the pasture with us and was the only one to bring a pocket full of treats. Jewel spent the whole time lipping his pants pocket and tapping him in the back with her nose, and at one point she shoved her whole head between his legs from behind. Needless to say, he was a little shocked!

On a sadder note, Brie has been gone since yesterday morning. I'm trying to remain optimistic because she has disappeared overnight before, just not in a very long time. And rarely does she go anywhere in the rain. Usually, she's back and waiting by the door in the morning when I get up, but not this morning. The worry is starting to creep in and if she's not back by the time I get off work I'll take a horse out into the hills and see if I can find her. I've heard horror stories of dogs getting stuck in wild animal traps, but none of my neighbors within miles trap. She's always been smart about cars and isn't the type to come close to strangers, even if they have a raw t-bone in their lap. She's spayed of course, so she's not out trying to make puppies. So where the heck is she??

Rain, glorious rain!

I don't know if we're getting Faye leftovers or just some nice summer rain, but whatever the source I'm darned tickled about it. It's been weeks since we've had decent rain and of course I just watered the garden last night. The pastures are dry and cracked, the pond is so low we're starting to see things that the previous owner put in there (you really don't want to know. Ignorance is bliss in this case.), and I've been hauling water from town once a week for the garden and several times a week for the trough for the main herd. Fortunately the bachelors have a spring-fed tank that stays full and fresh on it's own. The main herd has been going through about 275 gallons every other day.

Jewel has finally gotten to the point where she can be caught easily so I've removed her halter. I kept talking about starting her on the lunge line before, but for some reason or another it just never happened. So last night was our first workout together, but I think I probably got more of a workout than she did. I've never bothered getting a lunge whip because my horses simply don't need one. Kita has been trained with voice commands since she was a munchkin, Junior has never needed extra incentive to move forward, and Semi has her own pace and I've never asked for more from the old girl. I now need a lunge whip. Seriously. Tossing the end of the lunge line or the lead rope at Jewel's butt did NOTHING to make her move forward. Want to talk lazy? This horse could kick my ex-husbands' butt in a laziness contest. And trust me, that is saying something!

Glenn was the guy behind the camera last night since Brie still hasn't gotten past the whole lack of opposable thumbs problem yet. Sometimes Glenn gets lucky with the camera. Last night was not one of those times. But granted, I was chasing Jewel around a pretty big area trying to get her to just move and it was difficult for him to keep up. Once the quarantine/nursery paddock and barn are finished a round pen is next up on the to do list!

Note the totally idiotic look on the BDD in the background. This is another reason we need a round pen. Heidi, Brie, and Thor decided that under my feet was the best place to be to get the action. The BDD thought maybe right in Jewel's path was the most exciting place to be. And he's so trusting that he just assumed Jewel would go around him. Why get up and move when you're hot and tired?

The odd thing about Jewel is that sometimes she would gait instead of trot. Huh? A gaited appaloosa? It's possible, just not something I see very often. And it may have just been a "fluke" last night. I'll know more as I work with her more. And another note, not once did this mare even lay back her ears while I was working her. She even got to the point where she'd welcome my touch if it meant killing the deer flies that were swarming all over her. And look at those perky little ears! She's going to be such an adorable little horse once she's broke to ride!

I hopped on Classy again last night... I haven't been able to ride her near as much as I'd like, but hopefully things will start slowing down a bit soon and I'll be able to get more saddle time in on her. The potential adopters are coming out tonight to try her out, but won't be able to take her home for awhile because they are fostering a Percheron stud and only have the one pasture. So until the Percheron goes home or gets gelded, I can't let Classy go home with them. But that's okay, as it will give me more training time with her before she leaves. She's a good girl for the most part, but is still nervous and a bit herd bound to her sisters.

Sleep is still coming in bits and pieces at night thanks to the allergies. Hopefully, this rain will wash a bunch of the pollen out of the air and give me a little bit of a reprieve. And for those of you who don't have allergies, allow me this moment of childish behavior.

As the world turns

I was just told by my friend April that the world revolves around her and she relies on me to produce a new blog post more often than I do. Apparently, she hasn't noticed the Friday then Tuesday post pattern I've fallen into and insisted on having one today. Doesn't she realize that my weekends are CRAZY and I need a day to recuperate before becoming organized enough to blog? So here goes a very unorganized post with a hodgepodge of everything (no change from normal, really).


I do have one thing to mention... I have potential adopters for at least two horses, Classy being one of the two! Wooohoo! One adopter is coming out on Wednesday to try out Classy. The other adopter is looking for a well-broke older horse just to mosey around the yard on. Megalia may fit this to a T, but I've been waiting for her to put on more weight before I evaluate her. She's gotten to the point where you can still barely see her ribs, but her butt, chest and shoulders have filled out nicely so I'll start working her tonight and see what we've got. They may also be interested in adopting Hunter for their little girl once he's broke next year. He looks a lot like the little mini that she rides now, but she'll outgrow him by next year. Both adopters currently have very fat, sleek, shiny, trimmed, HEALTHY horses. This is a big fat bonus when checking out potential adopters!


Guinea update: I realized that I left you guys hanging on the guineas. I believe I last told you that we had one left in the coop, the one that Thor dropped at my feet. The next day, one of the remaining five made it back to the coop and was trying desperately to get in with his buddy. They've been together since and are doing well and growing quickly. We're going to leave them in the coop until we either have more adult guineas to release with them, or until they've bred and raised some keats. This is going to be impossible if they are both the same sex, but I'm using the ignorance is bliss theory and continuing with my happily ever after scenario.


Glenn has been picking on me because my picture has not yet made it onto the blog, but his has. Especially the one of him in his boxers. Hey, that wasn't my fault, I warned him! And because I believe the camera can steal my soul, I hate HATE HATE having my picture taken.


Ok, so that soul part isn't true, I'm just camera shy. REALLY camera shy. I have no current pictures to share with you. So to make Glenn happy, and because I'm twisted this way, I thought I'd share a wedding picture taken back in 1995 when I married some other guy. This is one of the few wedding pictures I even kept, simply because Junior was in it. And I'm far enough way that it's hard to really see me. This alone makes it a keeper. :)











I leave you with a picture of the Jilly Bean (aka Jelly Belly) and a picture of Thor eating her brother, Jack. And a promise that someday soon the allergies will stop stuffing my head with boogers and I'll be a little more coherent.

Let's chat about insomnia

Because if I can't get any sleep, I'd certainly like to daydream about it. Besides, I was wide awake at 1AM this morning writing this post in my head and I'd hate to waste it.

I'm also a little curious about how many people actually read my blog on a regular basis. I'm guessing 9 or 10. And thanks to that little widget down at the bottom, I can seeeeee youuuu. How eery is that? So, Falls Church, Leesburg (by the way, that small town I grew up in? Lucketts!), Wallace, Caro, Bridgeport, Atlanta, Ft. Collins, Queensbury, Wilton, Winchester, and Summersville tell me if you have allergies and what time of year is the worst for you.






My worst time is NOW. Starting mid to late-August and ending with the first heavy frost. There's this little yellow daisy-like flower that blooms every where on the sides of the roads and in pastures that has set off my allergies around this time every year since I was a kid. Sometimes I'd even miss the first couple of days of school because I'd be so miserable. Kinda like now. But at least now there are things like Allegra and Afrin. I hate using Afrin, but unfortunately it is the only thing that keeps me breathing and sane this time of year. Allegra takes care of the other symptoms, like itchy watery eyes, scratchy throat, and sneezing. It also takes care of any sleeping that I think I might need. I haven't gotten more than three hours of sleep each night this week. I'm starting to feel a little on the slap-happy side.

You're supposed to take Allegra twice a day, in the morning and before bed. If I took one before bed, I could kiss those three precious hours of sleep goodbye! And yeah, over the years I've tried everything. So what works for you?



The plus side to being wide awake and miserable at 1AM is that I finally get tired of trying to breathe and sleep at the same time and get out of bed. The horses get fed earlier, which I'm sure they appreciate, the dogs get let out earlier, and I get to enjoy the sunrise from the comfort of the porch with a glass of juice instead missing it because I'm in the barn feeding.





I also got to witness the power of the pack firsthand this morning. I had let everyone out at 4:30 when I finally gave up on sleep. When I got back from the barn, Zeus and Brie were the only dogs that had made it back yet and they were passed out in the front yard. While sitting on the porch typing up this post I heard barking and yelping coming from the neighbor's place. Sure enough, Thor comes running down their drive into our field and followed closely by the neighbor's dogs. Thor isn't exactly a speed demon, so the one dog caught up to him and tackled him, rolling him a few times before getting to his feet. Zeus and Brie were off like rockets after those two dogs. Thor ran to them then turned around and followed behind to give chase. They chased the dogs back to their own yard, then turned around and came back to the house. Zeus and Brie are back in the yard asleep, and Thor is lying at my feet destroying one of Glenn's gloves.

I'm also enjoying the serenade of a 17yo Woogie cat stuck in a tree.

MEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

This is doing very little to help my allergy-induced mood. And the little bugger is too far up for me too reach even with a ladder. Oh well, the stupid little bugger hauled his old arse up there, I'm guessing he can get it down on his own too.

Heidi Ho

I was cleaning up and moving around all the pictures on my laptop today and found some really cute ones that I'd like to share. Plus, I'm a little tired of talking about the garden. Just as I'm tired of canning, freezing, and drying. But have no fear my fellow garden zealots, just like I'll be back to do more canning, freezing, and drying, I will also be back to talk more about the garden at a later date.

But this post I thought I'd dedicate to the Ho. She's my baby, and although I try not to play favorites, I sometimes fail miserably at it. In thinking of that, I realized that I've shown very few pictures of Heidi on my blog. So be prepared for a little Heidi picture overkill.

Let's start with adorable puppy pictures. Because who doesn't love an adorable puppy? Ho was 12 weeks old when we got her from a family who had adopted a puppy without realizing how much work a puppy could be, especially when living in a townhome.





This is her "I'm about to do something really silly... want to watch?" face.





This is her patented "I'm sorry I've been bad, but I'm really way too cute to punish, don't you agree?"




Heidi has always adored the cats and the feeling has been returned. Even the playful "eat the kitty" scenario goes over well.




After playing, it's always nice to nap with the one you love.





Even if your pillow chews on your ear.




Three is never a crowd. Whatever.



And sometimes it's nice to just be able to stretch out and have the whole couch to yourself.