Something's Afoot

Hay, Pippin. I think something's afoot.

I don't see anything on my foot.

Wayne was here last week. He took off 

all the extra stuff on my hoof.

No, no - that means that I think
something is going on. 

Well, why didn't you say that?

Have you noticed that our Mrs. Owner
and the man that is always around her
have taken away some of our fence panels?

Thank Gawd... I thought I was gaining

a lot of weight and that's why 

the paddock seemed smaller.

Yeah, and they carried away a bunch
of our hay - how stupid is that?
First, they bring it to the barn on a trailer
and grunt and groan as they pile it up.
Now they take it off the pile and put 
it back on the trailer and drive it away.

Uh, oh. I hope they still plan to feed us -

Maybe  they are gonna let us eat all of 

the grass in the pasture - yummmmmm!

You don't suppose that our Mrs. Owner is

tired of having us around, do you? You haven't

done anything to make her mad, have you?

I've tried to be good...  Well, I did kinda bend the

gate. Oh, and I broke the weld on the hinge

of another gate. Oh, and I pooped in my stall

and walked around in it all night - she did 

one of those heavy kinda sighs about that.

Oh, and I bent the D ring on the hay net... again. 

Oh, and I wouldn't come in from the pasture 

last night without a fuss.  Oh, and I kinda 

shoved her around as I was trying to beat 

you out of the gate...

Oh, Pippin, I'm kinda worried....

To be continued... 

Tucker Talks: Bird Dog

Ya know, I'm an Australian Shepherd. But I've never been to Australian... or whatever that is! I'm supposed to herd things. But the lady who feeds me seems to get annoyed when I try to tell her where to go, and she won't get me a sheeps to herd.


What I love doing best is chasing birds! Maybe I'm not a shepherd... maybe I'm a bird dog. I bet I could learn to point if I had some lessons! Do you think not having a tail would be a problem in learning how to point? Whatever, I know I could be the bestest bird dog. When the lady that feeds me opens the door I run out as fast as I can to try to catch the silly flying things before they get out of reach. And I'm pretty darn good at it, too. Last year I got two Robins. Ok, so maybe the one that flew into the window and was stunned shouldn't really count. This year I've nabbed two pigeons - right out of the air! Ha! Try that!! They were in our new barn and were trying to fly out the door. The lady that feeds me made me drop them and they flew away. Well, the feathers are kinda hard to handle anyway! They stick to the roof of my mouth.

This morning ... 

There it goes... it's a bird... a very tiny bird.
Did you see it?

It's up there...
by the window!

Now it's over there... 

Got it!

Crunch!

What do you mean ... 
it wasn't a bird?
It flies...

The Project: Week 24 - Almost There

So, it's Sunday evening and I'm trying to figure out just what we did on the project house this week! It's really hard to remember!!

This week we:

• watched the siding guys strip off the old siding and install the new siding. They still have about a week's worth of work to finish.
• began to paint the doors. Oh, my... the deep red we chose looks so much better than what was there before!
• started to caulk the seams in the siding... then the painter showed up... we don't know who is responsible for caulking! We have to wait to talk to Mr. Siding Guy. (Oh, I am so hoping it is their job... I HATE the caulk they provided. It is very, very sticky and I find it very hard to work with.)
• installed more "Tucker" fencing and a gate. We are almost finished securing a 1/4-1/2 acre space for our pup. We can't wait to 'forget' to close the picket fence gate, and watch Tucker explore his yard - letting him think he has escaped!
• moved a few pieces of furniture that are just clutter at the existing house.
• put in a new toilet! How empowering for me to play the role of 'plumber' and get a toilet in all by myself! Woohoo - I feel like quite the woman!!
• did all kinds of odds and ends: touching up ceiling paint in the master bath, used spacers to move switches out from the tile backsplash in the kitchen, replaced the trim on a few ceiling lights, finished putting in all of the screws in the cement board in the entrance hall, replaced vents for the heating/AC unit, worked in the garden - sprayed for thistle and planted some annuals. 

We have been telling friends that we will move to our new place in 'about two weeks' for almost two months - like I said last week, we are finishing Egypt with the textbook! A few days ago we finally looked at each other and talked about just when we would move. Next weekend we have a few fun things to do that just happen to be near our new home. I commented that it would be great fun to go to those events, and not have to drive ALL the way from, or back to, our existing home. It also happens to be near my Birthday. Soooooo.... we are planning to be in the new house within 5 days!!!!! (We will have some furniture and some clothes and all the assorted odds 'n ends one needs to stay in a place... but most of our stuff will still be at the old house.)

Next week, if I do a post about our project house.... I hope to be able to say that, "This week...  we began sleeping at the new house!"

 Woohoo! I can hardly wait!

Why I Love My Haflingers - Reason #23

It's their feet. Yeah, I love their clunky, chunky size 2's. Feet that can easily bend the hinges of all gates so our gates are never ever level any more!

Who me? Step on the gate to get your attention?

Never!

Not no way... not no how!

We had a visit from our farrier yesterday. We haven't seen him since November!!! (That's one benefit of sandy soil!) He commented that the boys' feet are looking pretty good. In fact, he couldn't find much to take off! 

Pippin, will you move your nose so I can get a picture of your feet?

No, Pippin. The camera is not something good to eat!

Ah, finally. A picture - without a nose in it!

Pippin had serious foot issues when I got him two years ago. He had foundered and his feet were in terrible shape. This is his hoof today. (Oh, how I wish I had taken a 'before' shot!) When I got him he had a hole in the front of his hoof where the wall had blown out. Now, he has a crack up the center caused by the rotation of the coffin bone. Wayne carved a groove perpendicular to the crack on both front hooves to suggest that the crack not move further up the hoof. Since the foundered hoof tends to curve out like elf shoes, he did take a bit the toe off and flattened the front. That was the sum total of the work on Pippin.

Doc has wonderfully strong feet. He had a little bit of a bump on the inside of his front toes that made his foot less round. The farrier used his rasp for a few minutes to round out the front hoof.

We were done. $15.00 please. See you in a few months!

Now, that is nice!!

Week 13: Wednesday What's It?

What's It?

This is challenging. 

I'm not sure that I'd even recognize it out of context! 

Do you know what it is already? 

Do you own one of these?

Better question, do you use it if you own it?

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Need a hint? 

This is a gadget that is supposed to do whatever it does inside 

with the same end results as 

that which a bigger object does outside!

Now, wasn't that helpful?!!

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Although it looks like a wheel, it doesn't go 'round and 'round.

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The Surgeon General would approve of this.

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We bought it at a fair. 

It was being demonstrated.

No.... it isn't a spinning plate for a juggler!

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A source of heat is required.

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Some sort of liquid is required.

Nope... it's not a colander!

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It smells good - well, the end result smells good!

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Do you know what it is?

Are you tired of clues that haven't been all that helpful?

OK... here's the answer...

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(Photo courtesy of Google image results)

This is a smokeless indoor stove top grill!

Last year we went to a food festival in Denver. There were many booths from restaurants with yummy, tempting treats to sample. There were vendors selling everything from cream cheese spice mixes to trail hammocks. One vendor had a large crowd around his table. He was demonstrating the smokeless indoor grill. We stopped and watched. We tasted a piece of chicken. We debated about buying a grill... You know, it was one of those fair specials. The man was hawking his goods, "...  usually retails for $40, today, and today only, you can buy this marvelous grill for only $20. Step right up, pull out your cash..." We bought. I thought we might have "SUCKER" tattooed on our foreheads!


What a surprise. This was one of those purchases that we regretted, not because the grill is terrible, but, because  it's great and we didn't buy more for gifts!

We use the grill at least once a week. To use it you put a half-cup of liquid in the bottom tray's moat. We usually use water, but one could use juice, wine, beer, etc. Then, you preheat it over a medium burner on your stove. We've cooked beef, chicken, fish, barbecued pork, shrimp, and vege's on the grill. It does a great job with portabella mushrooms, too!

The top of the grill has a non-stick coating and the bottom is a fairly sturdy grade of stainless steel. (The grill pictured on this blog is not my grill... mine is at the other house). If you decide to purchase one, do be cautious as it appears that there are several manufacturers of these grills and some are not as sturdy or easy to clean as the one we lucked into.

We can't wait for the fair to come around again... guess what our family will find under their Christmas trees this year?!!

Do you have a smokeless indoor grill?
What is your favorite way of cooking?

Tucker Delivers

I didn't think it was possible, but I believe that Tucker may have had a puppy. A very fuzzy puppy! Well, at least the equivalent of a puppy!

This is the second night in a row that I have gotten a puppy's worth of fluff out of our dear boy. I think he has at least two more to come! Not to mention the piles that have been harvested over the past few weeks. How can one dog have so much fur?!

The Project: Week 23 - Finishing Egypt with the Textbook

This week we are finishing Egypt with the textbook. What? ... say you?! Whenever something seems to drag on forever with little progress seen,  I have adopted that phrase.  Why, you might ask? The statement evolved many years ago when I was teaching on a team with 3 other teachers in a technologically advanced Middle School. We were each given a new thing one fall.... a voice mail box! (That kinda tells you how long ago all of this occurred!) Instead of managing our own voice mail box, we pooled the numbers we were assigned and each number provided the parents and students with different types of information. One number gave daily homework assignments, one listed special events for the week, a third listed contests we were conducting and the last number provided an overview of what the students would be learning on any given week. Every Friday afternoon the teachers on my team would huddle around the phone and make our new message for the week. So, the message might go something like this: "In Math we will be working on multiplying decimals and there will be a test on Thursday. In Language Arts we will be reading several short stories and writing our own, so don't forget to bring your idea journals to school. In Science students will investigate population changes in predator and prey relationships and in Social Studies we will be finishing Egypt with the textbook. Our Social Studies teacher recorded this comment for two or three weeks. On the following week she was absent on Friday. We didn't know what she would be doing the following week, so we continued the pattern and recorded on the message that students would be, "Finishing Egypt with the textbook!" For some reason we repeated that message the following week. It became a joke to us, and we probably said that students would be finishing Egypt with the textbook for 3 months.
So, the project has been going on forever.... just like "finishing Egypt with the textbook"! But... as I mentioned previously, we are getting very close. We could actually move in any day! Woohoo! I can't believe it!

So, in addition to finishing Egypt with the textbook, this week we:

• watched Sebastian and Libre tear siding off the east and south side of the house. They wrapped the house in Tyvek and began putting up the cement board siding.
• moved tools down to the "workshop" area of the basement
• did some touch-up painting
• installed more of the dog fencing
• began to prime the doors