I heard about a "Clydesdale Experience" fairly close to us.  As I love horses, and have a special spot in my heart for "big guys" I wanted to go. 

There are several different tours available and to get into the Holiday spirit I chose the nighttime tour. It added to the magic of the evening. 

I was in awe of the horses and the family that owns and operates Grandview Clydesdales. 

This is truly a family operation with family doing almost all of the day-to-day work.

The family farm was beautifully decorated. 

Karen and her husband, Shannon, led the tour.

They have compiled several videos to give visitors a better picture of what they do..

Grandview Clydesdales is one of the largest Clydesdale farms in the world.  The original farm was in Arkansas, and an additional farm is now located near Ocala, FL (The horse capital of the world)

Each room we entered had large displays of ribbons and trophies... oh, and they only display first place and championship ribbons!

(In Canada first place ribbons are red!)

After learning the history of Grandview Clydesdales, now in their 24th generation involved in raising and showing Clydesdales, we went out to one of the barns...the Champion's barn.

We were introduced to each horse and learned of his or her winnings. Shannon said the seven horses in this barn earn their right to be here and that it is akin to the Baseball Hall of Fame. We learned about each horse's personality, and details about their age, weight, height and more.

One of the youngest horses in the barn, 5 years old, is 19 hands tall (6' 4"), weighs 2300 lbs, and is expected to grow another 1 or 2 inches I. height and put on about 300 lbs!

One of the fun things we learned is that it takes 16 bottles of Clairol black hair dye to color one of their horses, who happens to be the bay color, like the Budweiser Clydesdales*. They dye this horse for horse shows so they have a stunning team of 6 or 8 black horses. 

* We were told the Grandview has a strong relationship with the Budweiser group. Quite a few horses born and raised at Grandview have gone on to 'work' for Budweiser, and Grandview has purchased some clydesdales from them. 

Grandview has an average of 40 clydesdales on their property, with 8-18 foals born each year. 

Karen is demonstrating how she braids the manes of horses for a show. She shows single horse classes and  is the 'groom' when Shannon drives the big hitches.  

This is "May", a championship mare, all dressed for a show. 

(She's the one that gets her hair dyed - although it's hard to tell with the backlighting. 

..and here is our Christmas card...we were told!

 

Thankful

We had a wonderfully quiet, stress-free Thanksgiving...just the two of us. We had planned to visit the Mister's sister and family but I began to feel sniffly a few days ago.  I took a Covid test, it was negative. But, The Mister's sister seems to come down with bronchitis or pneumonia often,  and I didn't want to bring that to her. 

It was all good!

The Mister's favorite dish: pearl onions in cream sauce

My favorite dish: stuffing 

Vickie & Kaitlyn's favorite taste: anything that fell on the floor!

Many Blessings

I have much to be thankful for...every day.

Blessings to you and your family. 

Thanksgiving - 1989

A few days ago we stopped by Ollie's (Good Stuff Cheap - according to their ads). I haven't been in an Ollie's for years. (Do you have an Ollie's anywhere near you?) As we wandered around the crowded displays of books, candy, towels, heaters, flooring, plastic storage bins (of every size), canned goods, Christmas decorations, small appliances...etc., etc., etc. I happened to see a huge "cage" of dog beds. 

We have several dog beds. One of our dogs "the Queen," loves a bed, and generally sleeps in one or another of them.  Our other pup, "the Clown," prefers a cool floor and generally sleeps next to a door, or on the tile floor in the bathroom.

One of the beds spoke to me, saying, "Vickie would LOVE me! She would ADORE me!" I didn't buy it. After all, we have several beds. 

But I kept thinking about 'that' bed...and knowing Vickie would LOVE it! The other day we stopped by Ollie's again.  I bought the bed ($14.99). We came home and this happened:

Why would I want to get in this thing?

This is more my style:

I think she likes it!

Another Mystery...

 A mystery quilt, that is!

Every year a quilter named Bonnie Hunter leads a number of sewists on a merry quest to complete a quilt. Bonnie posts the colors (using paint chips, so folks can raid the paint store and know exactly what color Bonnie is referring to, and the yardage requirements. Then, on Black Friday she releases the first clue, telling participants what to do with which colors and how many are required, step by step. (This year, because of her schedule, the first clue was released a week early.) Each week another clue is published and over a period time, sometime in December or January, the bits and pieces made each week come together to make a quilt.

I have completed two of Bonnie's mystery quilts:

Allietare - 2015

En Provence - 2016

I always enjoyed the mystery aspect, but when I participated in the mysteries previously I had not been quilting for very long and didn't have a ready stash of scraps for Bonnie's scrappy style of quilting. If I needed to buy fabric to make a quilt I preferred to pick the colors and pattern so I knew what I was getting in advance. 

Flash forward 10 years. I have built up a stash of fabric...and I've collected many, many scraps. Participating in this sort of mystery quit will give me the opportunity to use some of them - and make room for more 😂

When I moved into the remodeled garage I put up this great storage center. More recently, following my surgery, I worked to organize my stash - anything from a quarter yard and larger is neatly folded and stacked in the cubbies. Smaller pieces are in the drawers below the long arm, on the right, grouped by color, and somewhat by size.

Now that I have a ready source of fabric scraps I decided to participate and quilt along with my bff. I rounded up scraps that worked with the colors that Bonnie suggested: neutrals, lupine deep blue/purple, icy blue and pinks. 

This year's mystery is called "Lupine & Laughter" and is inspired by the colors of lupine and the ice blue lakes Bonnie enjoyed on a trip to Iceland. 

Let the fun begin!

Mallards; Mama Mia!

We went to the grand opening of Mallards Shooting Supply and Apparel, a 55,000 square foot facility with multiple indoor shooting ranges, a café, a bar 😳, gun repair and lots and lots of stuff for sale. 

 

We weren't the only folks who went! People were parking along the street several hundred yards away. It was quite the place, if this is your sort of thing - not mine, but The Mister enjoys shooting at a range. Here are some pics of the over-the-top place. The owners spared no expense (and the trophies were reported to have been animals he and his sons hunted around the world.)

Welcome in...

(Are stores around your place saying that as you enter?)

(Apologies for the poor quality of the pics - the lighting was not friendly to my phone camera)

I am not a fan of hunting for sport...can you tell?

This looks like a mural, but it is was a real elephant.

The vault for the priciest of guns...

And for your Christmas shopping...

One of the state-of-the-art ranges...

And should you care to relax while someone shops...

The upholstery is real hides from various animals

It's quite the place.

 

Laughter is Good Medicine

 ...but not this sort!

Last night, as I was trying to talk myself into falling asleep (it was one of those nights...you all know what I mean), I was vaguely listening to some music coming from the other room. The song ended with maniacal laughter. That was never part of the recording that I remembered. The laughter was getting louder and creepier. Then I realized it was coming from somewhere behind our house. 

Coyotes!

The Mister had heard them one other evening, months ago, but other than that we haven't been aware of them, although we know they are found in this area. We experienced coyotes in Colorado, and they sometimes sounded like they were below our bedrooms window. For the most part, those coyotes simply howled their mournful ululations. Before this I never heard what sounded like people chortling with glee and sinister cackling. 

Photo by Josh More

I wanted to record the sounds, but my phone wasn't handy and I was wrestling with the dogs who were trying to work themselves out through the crack in the door as I listened. (They were freaked out by the sound, and kept woofing periodically for about 20 minutes after the fact.)

There are a number of videos showing the variety of sounds coyotes can make on the Internet (of course there are!) if you care to search. A few on TikTok recorded the 'laughing' sound. However I prefer not to use TikTok, so wouldn't link to them. 

I'll keep my ear out for them tonight...or maybe I'll sleep!

Garage - Next Steps

Our garage construction has taken on a turtle pace. First the electricians needed to come in...two different crews; one for the solar batteries and solar panels (on the RV garage roof), and the other crew to wire the garage for outlets and lights, as well as to put in the electrical panel. Once they finished we could move on to have the building insulated. 

The garage will accommodate two vehicles. It is deep enough for our truck,

and it is wide enough so we can easily move around the vehicles. 

There is an area in the back of the garage for lawn equipment,

bicycles, and can also house a small workshop area.

Yesterday the insulation was blown in:

First, plastic was put down, and also taped around doors and windows.

This fellow was very adept at scaffold scooting, as he mover around 

the perimeter putting batting where the roof and concrete meet.

The nozzles of the spray guns had to be cleaned.

They  were ready to roll.

Both fellows worked and the insulating was completed within an hour. 

Most of their time was spent preparing the area and heating up the mix

that turns to foam and expands, sticking to the surface. 

All done.