Helpful hint #4862

When getting ready to haul your dream horse home from several states away do NOT sit and read blogs about trailering accidents.


I'm serious. Don't do it!!!!


*passes out*

Proof that I have NO SHAME!!

The following image is proof of many things:

1.) I have no shame.

2.) I will go to extreme and ridiculous lengths in an attempt to hide the fact that I am going bald.

3.) My face lotion makes me look greasy until it soaks in.

4.) I can't let go of my late pony Jamie, emotionally. Look behind me, that is his halter and his bridle hanging by my side of the couch where I can touch them. The bridle may adjust big enough to fit Brego, for the first time in two and a half years the thought of his bridle on another horse doesn't make me cry. In fact it kind of makes me feel warm and fuzzy and I hope it DOES fit. But if not I will keep it close like I have for the last 2 years.

5.) My nose is still shaped like a ski slope.

6.) My forehead is bigger than my face.

7.) I still can't be arsed to put on makeup 99% of the time.

8.) I am so hyper and wired and out of my mind with giddy delight that posting this picture actually seems like a good idea right now.

9.) I also seem to think wearing smilie face belly button rings in my ears is a good idea.

10.) I still have those ridiculous looking bright yellow lines on my ceiling (and I still think they look stupid).

11.) 4 years of braces and 4 of wearing a retainer and my teeth are still crooked. But they are a whole lot better than when we started (Thank you dad!!!)


I'm sure this image is proof of other things as well but those are the big ones. lol. Are you ready?

OK, I am too excited about these....

... to wait to post the pictures.


So I guess if Mary and Marsha see them before they get them... oh well. Hehe. I'm just so delighted with how they turned out. Normally I am extremely patient and have all kinds of self control but my current state of mind has me wound tight and I'm not my usual self.

So Mary and Marsha, if you see this, these are my thank you gifts to you!


First, I took pictures of their stallions and made them into patterns. For Mary I took a picture I had taken of Ace when we were visiting her a while back, for Marsha I took a picture she had on her web page of her stallion Leo.

I've never used one of my scroll saw patterns for wood burning a design and it can be hard to transfer a detailed pattern onto a gourd because the pattern is flat and the gourd is round and lumpy. But I managed. Once I got the designs onto the gourds I wood burned them, then used leather dye and finished with paste wax. then I spent several hours adding the rim decorations, ripping them off in disgust, and doing them all over. I finally found a new treatment that I like, and this is what I ended up with:


A gourd bowl for Mary (the kind lady who has volunteered her time, driving skills, truck and horse trailer to drive me half way to Marsha's to pick up Brego) with her stallion Ace on the front:









And a Gourd Trinket Box for Marsha with her stallion Leo on the front:









The rim decoration is garden twine, dyed with leather dye, then unplyed with wood beads threaded randomly onto them before being wrapped on with artificial sinew.


I love the way they turned out. I'm going to make one for myself once I get Brego home and get a ton of pictures of him to make patterns out of. I hope they like them. It seems like such a small thing to do to thank them both.

Edit to add: WHOA! This is my 100th post!

Daily Musical Moment!

Don't forget every reply in april enters you in my give away!

April give away!!!

Yes, I am having an April give away! All you have to do to enter is comment on any post between now and the last day of the month. Remember, if you post anonymously I have no way to know who you are if you win. If you are not someone I know from elsewhere you will need to check back here to see if you won!

So what am I giving away this month? A random number of knit wash/dish clothes in assorted sizes and colours, and a pair of knit wrist warmers!

These are the wrist warmers:







The wash/dish clothes will be assorted styles and colours, some are already made but some will be made throughout the month. These will be included so you will get at least 3:



So comment away! And don't forget to check back after the 1st of May to see if you have won!

Less than a week now!!!

Our plans are set! We leave at 6 am on the 8th. Mary is putting a mattress in the gooseneck of her trailer so I can sleep in there the night we stay over in Illinois, hahaha! I hope it isn't too cold so I can use it. Otherwise I hope we get a hotel room with a view of the trailer. LOL! Mary is going to open up her 5 horse trailer into a big box stall so he can move around and relax over night before we head home. On the way there we are going to try and stop in and visit with another lady from the forum.

I'm making a gift for Marsha and Mary, will post pictures later. After I get back. So they can't sneak over here and see pictures before they get them.

By the end of next week expect some picture heavy posts, hehehehe.

EEEEE!!!!!!! *jumps for joy*

You know, I tend to be a little bitter and resentful of mankind in general. Having done animal rescue has brought me into contact with the dregs of humanity. And the rescuers I worked with or commiserated with had as well, and hearing THEIR horror stories combined with mine has given me a general disgust for a huge percentage of the human race. a number of relationships throughout my life with people who were selfish and self centered and controlling and manipulative have left me without a lot of trust of faith in humanity.

So the last few weeks have really been amazing for me, and a delight, to see the kindness and generosity of people in both good times and in bad.

First, the amount of emotional and informational help I have received this week through "Kitten Crisis '09!" *dramatic ominous music and flashy news style graphic* has been astounding. I've also had an offer to help cover the vet bills. How amazing is that?

I don't want to downplay the amazing response to my kitten issue, but I have seen people pull together to do amazing things in times of crisis large and small.So I am touched, amazed, impressed and humbled. But these people have always been there for me when things like this go on. What has amazed me just as much and given me a little more hope for mankind is the amount of support I have received for a GOOD thing... getting my horse.

Getting a new horse isn't a crisis. It isn't a dramatic event (unless it is a rescue, which this is absolutely NOT!!!) it is a happy decision you make. It's normal for folks to go, "Oh yay, good for you." What is not common is for people to respond with as much delight and joy as if they were getting the horse themselves. What is also not as common is for someone you have only met a few times and mostly have known online to, out of the goodness of her heart, offer to load you into her truck and head half way across the country with her horse trailer to meet the person you are buying the horse from half way free of charge.

Yes, folks, thanks to Mary of Mount Christie Gypsy Horses I am going on a road trip!! We will probably be leaving next tuesday afternoon to meet Marsha of Chinkapin Ranch somewhere half way between Michigan and Oklahoma. Now I have met Mary a couple of times before. A few years ago she was kind enough to invite my family and myself out to meet her horses since I'd never actually met a Gypsy Horse in the flesh before that.

It was this visit that really made me 100% sure these were the horses I'd been looking for.

This is me (pre weight loss) with Mary's good mare Cokie and her filly Capri, the first time I ever got my hands on a real live Gypsy Horse.



My husband and myself and his parents spent a couple of hours talking to Mary, and playing with the horses. My father in law was a hit with the horses, he must smell like carrots.

I am astounded, touched and humbled by these two ladies and by all of my friends at Harlequin Farms Gypsy Horses Forum. I've been hanging out with them for years now and their joy for my finally getting my horse has just been so touching to me. But more than that, their willingness for all these years to love and support and share their horses with me has been monumental. I've lived vicariously through their joys and sorrows and adventures and now I can see them taking joy in my finally getting my own. I just can't say enough about how wonderful and amazing this adventure, and the people I have met along the way, has turned out to be.

I'm tempted to make a list of all the folks who have helped and supported me both through getting my horse and through helping this cat and her kittens, but I am sure I would miss someone so I will just say... you know who you are, and I thank you.

And as a gesture of thanks I will share with you all... A KITTEN PICTURE!!!!

So much for being wild and vicious, eh?

She is home. Poor thing.

She is home. We nick named her "Schrodinger" when she first showed up (long story, really lame joke. The gist of which being that she was and was not our cat at the same time as long we didn't acknowledge her as our cat... because of the physics thingie about Schrodinger's cat where the cat is both dead and alive until you open the box to see... you know it's stupid, I'll stop explaining haha). So she has the weird call name of Schrody. At any rate, Schrody is home, sedated up the wazzoo. It took 10 shots of oxytocin. I'll spare you the gruesome details of the delivery, but the kitten had a spinal deformity and had been dead longer than just since she went in to labor. So even if I could have got her to a vet as soon as I noticed she was struggling it wouldn't have helped that baby. It's spine was "U" shaped, no way would it have ever fit through the birth canal without, ugh, being removed by the vet. Vet said it was huge, too.

Schrody was very good until they got to the torso of the dead kitten and then the pain got to be too much and she took a chunk out of the vet and they sedated her. Dr. W said they wanted to let her come out of it on her own because sometimes the wild ones panic when they are brought out of it. She didn't want it to stress her more and she wanted to give me time to get her home, into her bigger crate and give her some peace and quiet before she came all the way out of it.

Her kittens are all full tummy and tiny little legs and tails. The vet said she will probably be making massive amounts of milk for days because of all the oxytocin she had to give her. It was "only" $138 dollars. *rolls eyes*

She got a shot of powerful antibiotics but will still be having a nasty discharge for a day or two. I have to check on her every half hour to make sure she isn't laying on any kittens and that she hasn't vomited and dropped her nose in it. She is not entirely out of the woods yet, but at least she has a chance now and the kittens have lots of good mama's milk. She is a great mom, even sedated she is unable to do much more than shift her weight and she keeps sniffing towards them and trying to lick them clean even though she can't reach them.

I'll be glad when she actually wakes up enough to be able to clean herself and them. Right now my bathroom smells like infected cat uterus and kitten poo.

On a much brighter note....

I tried to crochet!




I had to stop there because something about how I have to hold my left hand makes it sore. So a little at a time until I buildup muscles.


And my most recent knit projects, wash cloths!!!:




And one of several egg gourds I decorated. This is a gift for my ex mother in law:






There might be a change in plan on getting Brego delivered but if it works out it may be a few days later but even more fun!!!


This stuff with the kittens and mama cat threw me for a loop for a few days but now that she is in the care of the vet I'm back to vibrating with excitement.

I was going to try and sleep out in the barn the night he got home but if I am bottle feeding kittens that might be a no-go. hehehe.

The Kitten Crisis of '09

Last night the wild grey cat that hangs around that I haven't been able to catch to get spayed since she popped out kittens last year decides to have a litter of kittens on the chair on our front porch. Right out in the open. I wonder if she knew she was going to be in trouble?

At any rate, I was up all night checking on her, made her a box to have the kittens in, etc. She let me pick her and the kittens up and move them twice. At 1am she had a 4th kitten and never even tried to clean it up. Just went limp. It was still attached by the umbilical an hour later. It was snowing and the poor thing was still wet! I managed to get the umbilical broken and put the kitten by mom's head and she cleaned it but made no move to clean herself. She had placenta half way out.

I left her alone until this morning hoping she would make some progress and afraid if I bothered her too much she would take off and leave the kittens. This morning she had made no progress, placenta still hanging out of her, but she was at least feeding the kittens really well. She was oozing fluids though. I made a call to the vets to get her in. I also put her into a crate and locked the crate in my bathroom. I guess if she makes it she will be living in my bathroom until the kittens are weaned. *rolls eyes*

The verdict? Most likely dead kitten in the birth canal. She is at the vets right now getting oxytocin injections to see if she can expel it on her own. If not she needs a c-section.

So this cat, that some jerk dumped off out here and that isn;t even actually mine, is going to cost me at least $100. And if she needs the c-section it is going to be $280 to $500.

My limit was $250. I can't see letting her die for a $30 difference but I told the vet, as I bawled my eyes out, that if she got in there and it looked like it was going to go over the $280 to just put her down and I'd bottle feed the kittens.


*sigh*


I'll know by tonight what the verdict is on cost and whether or not mama cat is going to live or die.

This makes me so mad. If people didn't just toss unwanted pets out of their car when they drove down the road assuming farm folk can always use more cats and dogs i wouldn't be stuck spending my hard earned money to take care of animals I never wanted in the first place but have too much compassion to just turn my back on. You know, I have my own animals to take care of.

GR.

Emergency trip to the vet...

...I have a feral cat and 4 kittens trapped in my bathroom in a crate, mom cat is in trouble (I think she has a kitten stuck), I leave to take her to the vet in a little over a half hour. Mama is going to need all kinds of prayers and good thoughts to make it through this. And if she doesn't I am going to need all kinds of prayers and good thoughts to bottle feed these newborn kitties until they can be weaned.


If I ever track down the folks who dump these animals on my land I may end up in jail.

But oh my gosh are the kittens adorable.

I REALLY wanted to catch this cat and get her spayed BEFORE this happened again but she is a smart sneaky one. And she tried to kill Tsu when he picked her up after she tried to dash into the house once so it wasn't just a matter of grabbing her and taking her to the vets.

Anywy, I have written it out several times already and am exhausted and stressed. I'll give the long version of the story after I get back from the vets.

An Ode To Eyelashes

It's just hair
Growing in a weird place
Really
If you think about it
Weird
Not as weird as eyebrows
But still weird
And yet around a big soft eye
Chocolate brown
Reflecting the blue of the sky
There isn't a much more beautiful thing in the world
Than long eyelashes




(My apologies, I am in a REALLY weird mood today and I am being goofy)



An Ode To Eyebrows


Why
What purpose do they serve
How did they decide to grow
Where they grow
They are illogical
And yet without them
We look very very
Stupid