Thursday, December 29, 2011

Reflections



Hoping that you had a great 2011 and that 2012 is all that you hope for!

See ya in the New Year.....
C

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

In a bahumbug sort of mood

There are days and then there are DAYS.

Forgot I needed to run to the bank across the corner, at the end of the work day. No one else had anything else that needed running, so I grabbed my RED coat, and walked over to talk to Vicki and Sharon.

Sharon's off, so Vicki helped me. We talked eggs, chickens(typical topic) and baking. After I'm done in the bank, buttoned up my RED coat and went to the cross walk.

I waited, patiently, no jay walking this time of night/day. The intersection I have to walk across is one way going away from the down town, with the cross street two way. I was walking across the two way street, with the light in my favor, ie, the white walking dude telling me I can go.

So me and my RED coat, start walking. Traffic on the one way, can turn left on to the two way street.....and it did, as fast as the little white van could go and ALMOST HIT ME!!!!!!!!! And my RED coat.

I had been watching the van while it was waiting for the green light, out of the corner of my eye. I kept it in my limited view as I started walking. How in the world can you miss me and my RED coat???? Well he did and the gal who also was starting to walk across the street thought for sure that the van had clipped me. It did stop short of me, by an inch, and waited for me to move with my hands thrown up in the air and a loud-WHAT THE FFFFF???

You take your life in your own hands walking in the downtown area.

When I got back to the office, shaken through and through, I called the company who owned the van. Luck had it the owner's cartoon face and logo were all over the vehicle. I got an Oh My, we're so sorry. And that was it! Not even asking if I was okay, didn't ask my name or nothing. ustomer Service my foot! Not only did I about have a heart attack, but had witnesses and could have been seriously hurt. I was pissed, upset and really not in a good mood the rest of the evening.

Lesson learned---I need to wear reflective orange as my RED coat isn't visable. I won't be purchasing or using the service dept of that business and well, we were life long customers.

I have though kept a slight sense of humor about it all---I'm taking the skywalks from now on!

Later gators....
C

Fa fa fa la la la la

Update on the non-fluff monster! Thought I would share with you all Jeff Fa Fa's recent de-construction moment. Seems the telephone books at my house weren't enough, he now is into just about anything paper with his new family. Eeek! Sorry Ron and Nancy!


Later gators....
C

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Blessings to you and yours'!


The chaos crew at Foggy Bottom--Hubby, Me, Tall Kid and the Ms along with the furry four legged, featherd two footed and very hairy hooved beasts want to wish you and yours' a very Blessed Christmas and a Prosperous New Year!


Later gators....
C

Ears to you!

I love my dogs’ ears. The Hubby always commented about wanting a blanket that felt just like his labrador’s ears. I just love the shape and colors that come in…
Of course there are the “paint brush” ears, we have several of those....
Then there’s the super fuzzy ones….



















Non-fuzzy blue... Brindle in all shades...
Red that could be a tich bigger
Sable—wait, those are tipped.
How about hairy tipped ears?
We have also an identity crisis in our house-to tip or not to tip?
Where are her ears? Brother's ears....
Holiday ears...
And just some honkin’ big ears.

Later gators...
C

Eggxalted!

Okay, so here's what they really look like. And yes, that's about a day and half worth or what happens when you collect in the morning one day, the evening on the next. The color of the blue egg is just not justified with the photo.


Later gators...
C

Monday, December 19, 2011

Eggstrodinary!

So the egg saga continues......

I have 13 dozen eggs in the fridge at this moment. The Ms is collecting about a dozen a day. The dogs love to trip her up, 'cause that means cracked eggs and extra goodies for dinner. $2 dozen or $3 for an 18 count carton. .25 off for carton exchanges. Seriously folks, you gotta buy some eggs from her---I'm running out of room for all my Christmas goodies! The freezer is packed with baking projects. The crispers have all kinds of fruits and veggies stored. It's been too darn warm to use the "garage fridge" aka storage shelves. I'm thinking about freezing eggs, but no room!

I so need to get you guys photos. Right now it truly is easter egg heaven. She's got white, buff, cream, brown, speckled, blue and green eggs. Chicken and duck. What we can't figure out is this-thought we lost the cayuga hen this summer during the heat, but now getting jumbo khaki green eggs? In the duck hut too. Me thinkest we mis-sexed the black ducks. Think the Ancona chicken hen is now laying as the basket contains medium sized white eggs-should be the only white egged hen out there. The golden wyandottes are sitting fools-they get grumpy when you shoo them off the communal nest. Polly the buff braham is laying small buff colored eggs--with double yolks. And a surprise to us, she's got a blue Araucana hen who's laying the most beautiful blue eggs. Her other hen is a red/salmon Amercana, she's got green eggs.

The joke this weekend was that we needed paint and I want to use "eggshell", haha, not that "eggshell" this one, holding up one of the many odd ball colors from the carton.

Later gators...
C

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Horse of a different color

Ms is taking riding lessons at a local show barn. Her mount is an older, well seasoned leopard appaloosa named Rocky. He's big, he's clunky and he likes to pull stuff on all the students. Except for the Ms. Of the students, she's the only one that gets him to take his left lead, drop his head at the poll, do a nice pleasure jog, etc. And we get the joy of watching her lessons, which also include watching other's work their horses.


So here's my beef for the day. Horse people suck. Okay, not all horse people suck. Those with money, those who are in it only for the win and those who really don't care--suck.

I witnessed the following things over the last couple of lessons:

Girl riding a lovely pinto. Reiner from what I was told. Crippled. He only does reining because in any other event, he'd be dead last. Beyond being ring sour, the horse can not break at the knee, watching this animal perform circle after circle, spin after spin, it makes me wonder why winning at the expense of the future of the animal is so important to these people? Give that horse a couple more years of competition and it'll be on bute the rest of it's life.

Another paint comes in, gorgeous standing there all saddled up. Then it moves. I asked D what the hell was going on? It won't take a right lead because it's heavily favoring on the front left. It's got a lot of head bodding going on, seems cranky. Feel for the kid, sort of. Well, the horse was a futurity horse and was broken down by age 2. Has arthritis in all four legs now at age 6 and in order to show, it's started on twice a day bute two days before the shows and throughout the shows.

Walking the stalls after the lessons, pretty little walking horse with cushings, thing's like 22 or so, very handsome dude. And curly from the tip of his nose to the bottoms of his feet. And the owners are treating it, the horse is in good shape and he's retired. Enjoying life. The exception to the rule it seems.

Three stalls down, mare has her butt to the stall door, head in the corner and is swaying back and forth. Guess what, another former futurity horse and halter champion. 14 yrs old, front legs are totally buckled, broken down and you can see the pain in her eyes as she sways. Had been dumped in a pasture when her halter days were behind her, never able to get her bred, so she's now in a stall under lights to try to get her to come in and be bred. You can tell she hasn't seen a kind hand in years, unwilling to take treats, marks on her head where her halter sat too tightly on her nose. So if the breeding takes, this poor mare who can't carry her own weight will have to endure more pain as she gets heavier with foal. And if she can't be bred, she's going to the kill pen.

It ate me alive last night watching all this unfold. How can people be so inconsiderate of the future of these animals? The saddest part is that I see it just as much in the dog world.

How many times do we hear about a dog getting regular chiro treatments to keep it sound and moving correctly? How many times does a trainer talk about fattening up the dog to show as in a working realistic weight, it won't win? How many times do we see dogs get injured and still show when it should be on crate rest?

Now I have used chiro treatments on my dogs-1 dog, 1 treatment after an injury where she was on crate rest, leash walking for 4 months! To me if a dog is correct structurally, there's not need for dr's appts to fix things all the time. Fattening up a dog? My dogs better be able to go right from the conformation ring to the obedience ring without the beat of an eye, if the judge doesn't like it's weight, then tough-but feel that dog, it's solid and well muscled and can work.

What I think bothered me the most is that these people seem to think they are doing this for the well being of the animal, but is it that important to have the wins and the ribbons that we ruin the animal from having a decent long lived, fairly pain free life?

Hum, I must be doing something wrong. My last three horses lived to be 30 plus years and died of old age issues. Well the third one is 32+ strong now, looks like he's just 20, retired fully now and without a serious issue coming up, I bet he's around for another 4-5 years. And he's not on bute, no chiro adjustments or banned to a life of neglect. He's worn down his teeth so he gets special pelleted feed. He fell a couple of years ago on the ice so he goes in a stall when it's icy out and wears a blanket. Gosh darn it, where did I go wrong?

later gators...
C

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Crossing paws

Normally I wouldn't say a thing about an upcoming breeding until I know for sure it took. But I'm giddy about this one, so I have to tell someone, figured you'd be the best to start with!!

Dove as you know from the St Louis post, road tripped it down past the Arch and then cross country to Salina, KS for a romantic rendezvous with a lovely black and white boy named Monster. Crossing paws that I have a great excuse to stay home from the St Joe shows the first of February due to whelping puppies.

Hoping for black and whites with brindle points, brindles(agouti) and hum, how about a red or two? This line ties back to some really awesome dogs that I've always admired. And seems Dove is up to her mother's old tricks--some how she's managed to sucker Erik and found her spot in the bed!

Later gators...
C

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Gift wrapped

Okay, so now I'm all ready for the season, if you notice anything that just isn't right, let me know. I think I got all of the dodads in the right place.

Later gators.
C

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

bump in the road

Please pardon the construction---I'm hoping to be fully in the Christmas mood by the end of the day.


Later gators....
C

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Show dawg through and through



I think she was wondering why she wasn't up on the screen?
Gotta getta a closer look at the competition.....
And couldn't end the photo session with out a current photo of the grandmother of all, 11 1/2 yr old Pheobe...

Later gators...
C

St Louis here I come and then I left





All things considered, a success!


Road trip should be my middle name. This weekend wasn’t as bad as some but it was a turn and burn, that ended up not turning as fast as it should have. Saw too many people to talk too! Fun to get out of the truck and have to take your coat off it was so warm!


So Dove is now in Kansas, that’s not where we went, other side of MO, St Louis. Meet up with Kim and Kari, looked at some dogs, held dogs ringside(was so not dressed to go in). Talked to Marla who I haven’t seen in ages. Said hi to a few other people we normally don’t see in our area.


Trip wasn’t too bad, though the rain and the roads in MO are so bad compared to IA. Literally you crossed the river and Iowa had road signs, reflectors, lane dividers, flat and straight roads with nice big shoulders. Good thing I had Hubby along to drive. I am also proud to report that the dogs did a great job with an extra hour or so of having to cross their legs. We got hung up on road construction crossing the Mississippi going home. Though I do have some awesome photos of the Arch. And Pete, I was told, makes a great pillow. That was from the Ms who got to sleep all stretched out in the back. Yeap, Peterman is an awesome road trip dog.


Now we just wait for The Tall Kid to get home from his road trip to Savannah, via Pennsylvania. I’m hoping he’s not got anything extra coming back in the Big Tow-I’m finally downsizing on dogs, surprises in a crate might send me over the edge. Other than having a girl in season, the current chaos crew is all getting along surprisingly well.



Oh and along the way..... the world largest bottle of ketchup.

Later gators....
C