A New Year

Yep, it’s a new year.  I rang in the new year standing in the pasture with Joop keeping the horses calm from the cacophony of rockets and whistles that were thundering all around us.  It was very noisy and luckily the horses seemed much more settled this year.  We only had a couple bouts of running but I was able to placate them with a handful of peppermints.  That Lucy… she’s gotta nose for peppermints… she figured out they were in my pocket and then did her I’m-so-cute-watch-me-turn-my-head-sideways-and-bat-my-lashes-at-you beg that I just can’t resist.  I love that mare… even with her blown out ankles… she’s just awesome.

And Baxter.  Big giant goober.  He got his feelings in a twit over the whole firecracker thing and tried to convince me to hold him.  Yep. Hold him.  At last measuring he was 17.2hh and weighed about 1500lbs.  Hold him.  Not going to happen.  Big chicken.  But he, like Lucy, did his I’m-so-scared-mommy face and ended up eating more than his fair share of peppermints.  I may have been played… but who can resist his big brown eyes?

Anyway.  Joop first footed us.  I tossed him in the house followed by a backpack containing vodka and cookies.  I hope it counts.  Can’t be worst than last year right?  We’ll see.

I’ve reopened the 365 blog, the link is to the left under the Facebook link.  I’m going to do my best to get a pic a day in this year plus my friend Liz is doing it as well so it will be fun (and I’ll have somebody to remind me before midnight that I need to take a pic).  It was fun in 2010 when I did it, so I’m sure it’ll be fun once again… just hope I make it thru the whole year.

I’m not really one for resolutions.  If anything I would resolve to ride more, argue less, and try to actually live each day instead of often just existing.  That’s pretty vague, so I can’t fail right?  Mostly I just hope that 2012 is a better year than 2011.  And for the record… house guests that I’m not related to are limited to 3 days.  Sorry to go all Ben Frank on people but he had it right… 3 days and that’s it.

I also hope to blog more this year.  I was woefully short on entries this year but seriously 2011 kicked us in the tail and left us scrabbling much of the time.  The Ranger is still broken.  The fencelines are still in need of repair.  Horses are still recovering.  I still can’t feel my toes.  The Christmas fiasco is still haunting around the peripherals of my memories… so I was rarely in the mood to blog… and when I was, it was mostly to complain, and that’s not really what I want to read back over in a few years.

So here’s to a new year full of promise!!

Neat thing….

Just letting my loyals know that I can also be found at Tumblr… check it out… it’s super cool!!

http://tapsalteerie.tumblr.com/

Up to speed

Razen at the Fence Pace

-the second farm apprentice didn’t work out either.  We’re taking this as an omen to just do our own work ourselves

-Sadly we lost Sugar Crane to a freakishly rare disorder called Vaccinal Hepatic Failure.  We had taken her to the vet to have a gash in her near hind leg stitched and she was given (as is normal) a tetanus booster.  A short time later she went into liver failure and initially we thought we had nursed her through… only to have her suddenly and spectacularly die a few days later.  It was unpleasant and we are all devastated by her loss.

-Jim, Julie and I went to the FENCE pace and surprisingly came in 2nd in the trail division.

-Unfortunately Baxter had a brilliantly (not) spectacular spook at the very beginning of the pace… I was NOT unseated but it was a jolting 5 step spook downhill sideways.  Anyway… it aggravated my back and just after Thanksgiving I pinched a nerve and have been unable to do much except sit or lay down ever since.

-I went to the chiropractor yesterday and learned that my L2, L3 and L4 are swollen and evidently misaligned.  He did x-rays and an exam and I get to go back Monday to see if he can adjust me back to “normal”

-it’s going to be a fun weekend…

-be sure to check out the December special for the chiropractor… it’s a sweet deal for a really good cause!

-I’m pretty much caught up on all the Holiday specials currently airing on the Hallmark Channel.

-they are cheesy, but strangely addicting.

let’s see… what else??

-I finished playing Dark Souls a while back now.  I heard that they patched a couple of the cheats so I may play again… but until they make it easier to play with friends it’s replay value is pretty much non-existent for me.

-I just started playing Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood… jury is out on whether I like it or not…. I find the controls to be a bit skitzy, but otherwise I think it’s ok.  I may play the series from the beginning and see how that goes.

-Skyrim and Diablo III look interesting, but nothing is hooking my interest like Demon Souls once did.

-I really really really miss riding.

-Baxter is going to forget who I am by the time I’m able to get out there to see him.

-Jim fixed the Ranger (again).

-It needs it’s tires realigned but otherwise runs well.

-Our new cow Mavis is turning out to be a bit of a disappointment.  She has wonderful milk… makes wonderful butter and delicious cheese, but she has been exceptionally inconsistent with her volume.  And she’s exceedingly difficult about her feed.  She only likes super sweet dairy feed and what we like to feed isn’t so sugary.  We’re a bit at odds with her right now and her production has dropped dismally.

-Maisie and Mary are off in Elberton GA, hopefully being bred by a pb Jersey bull.  I sooooo hope that Maisie takes as she’s such an awesome milk cow!

-but in the mean time we may have to start eyeballing a new milk cow as seriously I don’t think Mavis is going to work out for us.

Day Two of Update

-I woke up this morning DETERMINED to be more productive (ie, be able to stand for more than 2 mins without collapsing in a ball of misery from my leg cramping).

-It didn’t really work.

-Until I watched this and had a most BRILLIANT idea (btw Santa? I would like those in red, size 10 please!)

-So I’m currently sporting one of Lucy’s BRIGHT GREEN standing wraps on my cramped up leg and guess what? I can walk and stand without dying!! It’s so awesome!

-I was able to go feeding with Jim this morning.

-I’m out of commission for a week and the feeding method is all messed up… Jim’s not as OCD about setting up the feed as I am evidently.

-I’m so excited that I am able to actually stand up relatively pain-free that I’m going to go clean the kitchen!!!

Reopening the blog

Sorry for the little hiatus there… be looking for a new blog post soon!!

Closing the Blog

I’m choosing to close down the blog for a while… I may crop up again at some future date, but I realized as I sat down to blog that I was blogging for all the wrong reasons.