Tuesday Talk

It's raining cats and dogs here today with more on tap for tomorrow. On tap. Did you catch that? Sometimes I crack myself up....ahem...anyway it's really wild here with the flood warnings up. I'm glad we live quite high on a hill as we are right beside the river and it does tend to flood the lowlands on occasion. The puddles in the roads are deep and water is streaming down them towards the drain offs. If this were snow we would be under three feet by now!

I enjoyed all the comments on my hair receivers . Not many of you had ever heard of them before but a few had seen them on their grandmother's dresser. Most of you thought the tradition was gross and I must agree with you on that one. Here's a few more that I have in my sewing room. I don't think they have been dusted since 1963 by the looks!

I finally finished my Reindeer wall hanging. Don't you love Rudolf's red nose? I think the colors are so festive for the holidays.

I also got word that the princess wall hanging arrived for Izabel and Emily the two little cuties who love purple and pink. Check it out at The Cracker Jacks, their blog. This Mom has done a FANTASTIC job creating this site to keep a journal about her two little girls including pictures, journaling and videos. How I wish this had been available when my son was a baby, we just had baby books to write things in and the older he got the less I wrote. Now with all of this technology you can have an absolutely beautiful way of chronicling their lives.

I have to show you this beautiful card that Needled Mom made for me for my birthday. It's incredible the detail that she put in this. To see how it is done she has an amazing tutorial on her site that walks you through each phase of the project. I keep meaning to ask her if she is Needled Mom because she was a nurse and gave a lot of shots or because she sews with needles all the time???????????

I had another wonderful surprise today from my Blogging Buddy Pea over at Pea's Corner. There was a box on my doorstep left by my mailman so I hurried in to open it and this is what I found inside!!!! This darling little bird, a trinket box which will look wonderful in my curio cabinet with my hair receivers and this picture frame that is unbelievable! I have a picture of Buddy and me that will be in there before the night is over. I hope you can see the details with the cowboy hat, rope and spurs! Thank you so much Miss Pea!! xoxox I love everything!

Sunday night was Parents Night at Awana and both Son and DIL work in the group so T invited me to come downstairs and be her guest. It's the next to last night of Awana with the closing program next week. There was pizza and punch for all and we enjoyed every bit of it!

Of course I had to sneak into Cubbies and see D too!! He has a rather short hair cut as he got bubble gum in his hair and Daddy had to get the clippers out.......

I was at my chiropractor's office today to get twisted like a pretzel and cracked. It's not as bad as it sounds, it really helps. He only has Chiropractor magazines in the waiting room, no People, Ladies Home Journal, Popular Mechanics or anything else entertaining but I do like the cartoons.

I hope you can see this one, I enlarged it as much as I could. The chiropractor is putting water out in front of his office in the wintertime to make ice so that people fall and need to come in for an adjustment. It's titled When Chiropractors Go Bad. My chiropractor is really nice and takes a lot of ribbing from me and my Dad as we go there regularly. Dad calls him his chirocracktor!

It's still raining, I'm wondering if I should start building an ark?

Sunday Afternoon Thoughts

Just got home from eating way too much at our favorite restaurant. (Don't ask me what this graphic has to do with it but I liked it.) Funsize and I always have the baked stuff shrimp with the seafood stuffing and it is to die for. Today we even had the baked brie with grilled pears and raspberry sauce as an appetizer, another fav. We invited our pastor to go with us as his wife is out of town helping with a new grandchild, their first. Roger, our pastor, is getting ready to leave with three others from our church to go on a short term missions trip to Africa on Thursday so we gave them all a big send off this morning. It's only for 11 days but the days are jam packed so they will hopefully have a lot of information for us when they get home.

Friday was vet day at the barn. Everyone except Buddy got their strangles shot, well it's not a shot it's kind of blown up in their nose which they hate. Buddy can't have it due to his age and the fact that he had strangles so badly two winters ago the vet feels that his immune system is probably compromised and it would do him more harm then good. They also got their rabies, East/West virus and something else, I can't think what it is. Duh!

Everyone got a good report and acted like gentlemen except poor little Skippy (my rescue pony) and he was scared to death when Stu tried to put that thing up his nose. He was good for his shots but that hose thing up the nose he wasn't hearing! We finally got the job done by doing it really quickly when he wasn't thinking about it.

Nick was a tiny bit colicky that morning so couldn't have any of his shots so I will have to take him in next week or Stu will stop by if he is going by the farm. He gave him a shot of banemine to settle his stomach and he was fine that night and ate his grain and was drinking his water. So $435.00 later we were all done for shots for the year. Yikes! They have gone up just like everything else.

Our vet is so overworked as there aren't that many large animal vets in our area. He's got a new one coming in July so hopefully she will work out and give him some relief. He has another part time vet that works in the practise but it's only two days a week and some weekend call.

He was telling us that he got kicked a few weeks ago which isn't totally uncommon but this time it was right above his knee and was really wide and deep. He finished pulling the foal out and then went back to his office and cleaned the cut out and stitched himself up!!!! He said he could have gone to the ER and waited for 4 or 5 hours or do it himself so he chose the later. We asked him if he gave himself a shot of pain killer before he did the stitching and he didn't! OUCH!

Poor Kipper has to go on a diet AGAIN. He and I are going to be on SlimFast for the summer. lol! I think once he is home I will take him when Dad and I go on our walks each day. We have started using the carriage trails out back as the snow is all gone so I won't have to carry a po*oper scooper with me like I do in the neighborhood. I do have my po*op problems don't I?????

I collect hair receivers and have for about 20 years. I have about 250 but most of them are packed away in boxes as I don't have room for them. When I had my beauty salon years ago I had several huge wall units with shelves and sliding glass doors that I displayed them in but now I just keep out a few of my favorites.

For you young chickies that don't know what they are here is the short version. Years ago ladies always brushed their hair 100 strokes a night before they went to bed. They kept the hair that came out in their brush and put it in one of these containers. I know it sounds gross but this is what they did. When they got enough saved them made it into what they called 'rats' and they used them to make their hair very bouffant. You've all seen the hair dos of the 1800's that were sky high. Well not everyone had nice thick hair so this was sort of like a hair piece or a wiglet only they made it out of their own hair.

Now the more well to do the lady was the better hair receiver set she would have. They often came with a tray, trinket jar, hat pin holder or powder jar along with the hair receiver itself. I like the sets but they are harder to find intact.

They are made out of different things. I like the porcelain the best but I also have clear glass, silver, celluloid and even a couple wooden ones. I really should weed out the ones that I have packed away and sell them but my aunt that was the antique dealer and helped me with them has long passed away so I wouldn't know the correct value. The best ones I have are Royal Bayreuth, rose tapestry and I have some Limoges. I rarely buy any now for several reasons, one is that I just don't have room and the other is that you can't find them much any more also what used to go for $40-50 now could be several hundred.

The two best in my collection are the two on the left hand side and they are the rose tapestry. I bet some of you out there have your grandmother's sitting somewhere. I have my maternal grandmother's, it is cracked and glued but it was hers so it is special! So that is Hair Receivers 101. How many of you have ever heard of them?

I hope you all are having a good weekend. We're expecting a lot of rain Monday and Tuesday so the grass should really get growing. I love seeing things nice and green after such a long winter. I see from the weather channel that some of you are still getting snow and you have my sympathy especially during calving season.

PS If you look closely at the picture of the man riding the horse near the beginning of this post it looks like Patrick Dempsey. Really it does. Well maybe. He IS from Maine you know. It could be. :o)

Midweek Musings

It's Wednesday already. I just can't make time slow down. I suppose if I was bored with nothing to do time would drag but I don't want to live that way. I like being busy although sometimes I get overbooked and have to say enough is enough and slow things down a bit.

Mom and I went out and did one of our favorite things today. Eat. We have a restaurant in the next town that has the B.E.S.T. lobster and crabmeat rolls. (I feel drool coming on, where's my bib) We call in the order and then go to a nice spot and watch the planes from the airport and the helicopters from the Guard Unit take off. Saw only one today but the food was sooooooo good we didn't care. (Jo-Lynne let's eat there again when you are in Maine this summer!!)

Jo-Lynne is my niece dcrmom who was in Florida last week at Dis*ney World on a Mom's Blogger Weekend. She was chosen along with some others to go and meet with Disney reps. Check it out at her site, Musings Of A Housewife and then click on her Reviewings button. (I don't know why Blogger won't let me link this so just go to my sidebar favorites and link on it there.) Dis*ney really put on a wonderful time for them and they saw the newest Dis*ney attraction that the media hasn't even seen yet!! Another great thing was that she got to meet some of the gals that she has been blogging with for some time. What fun to meet in person and at Dis*ney to boot! Congratulations Jo-Lynne!!

We are having some gorgeous weather. It was 77* when Dad and I went for our afternoon walk today! Just beautiful with a nice breeze. The sky was beautiful.

I tried to get a shot of our barn from the top of the hill where we walk. We are on the very back edge of our development. When you look out the front door you see houses and neighbors but when you go out back it's totally private with all our land behind the house and these houses that are in the picture. I feel we have the best of both worlds. I like having some neighbors but I also like the privacy, woods, pasture, carriage trails, snowmobile trails and all the woodsy creatures that come around every day.

Buddy and I went for a ride this morning and it was beautiful as well. Ann got called to grandmother duty, Funsize was working so I was on my own. After giving Buddy a good going over we went for a nice lazy ride. I was careful not to go on the Poopless Dirt Road this time.......ahem......

Justin came over to the fence to say hello. He's a good boy, I rode him last summer while Buddy was laid up. Two teenage gals own him but they are in sports and don't get out to ride him much.

We went down to the river as Buddy likes to get in there and play a bit. The current was strong and the water was high due to the heavy snow melt so we didn't go in very far. There were cormorants flying by and I tried to get some pictures, if you look and see the little black spot that's one of them. It's up to the right just almost to the top of the tree line. They are a big bird that hangs around the river.

I love it when a horses ears are right up and they are interested in what's going on around them. Not to the point that they are skittish, just alert.

This is looking up from the river. Those spots are horses and that's the indoor arena. I seem to be taking a lot of just 'spots' pictures today.

Nick is wondering why he didn't get to go! Nick needs a job. He is very well trained and was shown very successfully by a young lady in Massachusetts before we bought him but since he's been here he has mostly been on vacation and has gotten a bit UN-trained! When T is ready for him I will have to put him in training for a few months. Would like to find a young lady to use him this summer and show him but I'm VERY picky who I would let use him so the chances are slim that he will have a job this summer. I can hear him sighing with relief, he likes his life just the way it is just hanging out with Kipper and Skip who was over too far to get in this picture.

This is the busy secondary road that we have to ride on to get to the trails. Trucks like this zoom by us at 60 mph. Very scary sometimes. Most of them are good, they pull over to give us more room but sometimes they just go screaming by. Thankfully our horses are used to it and don't give it a thought but we do and try to get off the road as far as possible.

Someone sent me this picture today. This was taken in northern Maine this winter on the power line. Some one must use their snowmobile to put out the grain. Quite a sight but I'm glad I don't have that many to feed!

I like cartoons and found this one today and it still cracks me up even though it's old! I know, sometimes my sense of humor is a bit weird.......

This one made me laugh too. Poor woman!

Guess that's it for today. Hope you all are having beautiful weather like we finally are! I even have a few daffodils up! WooHoo!

Saturday Stuff

I have been tagged by my blogging buddy Susie over at Susie's Space for this meme.

Here are the rules:

1) Write your own six-word memoir about yourself.
2) Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you'd like.
3) Link to the person that tagged you in your post and to this original post if possible, so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere.
4) Tag five more blogs with links.
5) And don't forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!

I have been thinking about this and came up with what I thought personified me the best way:

Christian, wife, mom, grammie, sister, daughter, friend. Now I know that's 7 but I couldn't leave any of those out as they all are important to me.

Now for a funkier version:

Laughs a lot over foolish things!

From reading my blog you all know my sense of humor can be a bit crazy. (note recent redneck tank top and snorkeling in Maine blog content) For me laughter is a way of life and I find humor in so many things. There are too many things to feel sad about so I grab the funny things and have a good belly laugh. (the laughs are getting bigger all the time.....ahem.......oh wait, we aren't talking waist size here are we?)

So let's see who can I tag on this one.......hummmmm.......How about:

Jen over at Copenhagen Kisses

Tina at Palm Tree Fanatic

Tammy at Family Doins'

Callie at Midwest Horse

Dawn at Grandma Dawn's

Now it's time to head out to the airport to meet Son and DIL's plane. Must make sure my camera is ready as I can see some bloggy fodder in this occasion.

It was beautiful riding this (Saturday) morning. Funsize, Ann and I met at the stable and groomed the guys once more, trying to get all the old winter hair out as much as possible. Buddy is looking pretty good, I took the clippers to him again and buzzed off a lot of the old belly hair. We saddled up and headed out trying to stay as far off the road as possible as it's a very busy road with big trucks zipping by.

We went down a side dirt road and there is one person who lives there and he came out and said that we had left some horse poop on his road (which we don't do) and would we please not do that. I felt like telling him to get a life but that wouldn't have been very nice so we said we were sorry and turned around and went back to the busy road. We have lost almost all of our places off road to ride. People are building houses back on these dirt roads and putting no trespassing signs up. So we take our life in our hands and have to go on the road for the most part when we ride at the stable.

We have one very nice man that has a farm and enjoys us riding out back of his house on a dirt road. He always speaks to us and tells us to ride there anytime and don't worry about cleaning up any horse poop. He would rather we are safe then have to ride on a busy road. We appreciate his kindness and would clean up anything that need be even though he says not to bother. There are all kinds of people in this world and I and thankful for the kind and considerate ones.

I would like to thank all of you for the nice birthday greetings via e-mail, snail mail and bloggy mail. Several of you gave me nice shout outs for my birthday and sent people I had never met before over to say hi and that was fun meeting new folks! Funsize gave me a wonderful gift, the Willow Tree horse and owner called Quiet Strength. I had never seen that one before so it was even more of a nice surprise.

I am so blessed to have Funsize in my life. We have been close buddies since she was 10 years old and Hubby got Buddy for me for Christmas. We've always had that horse connection that all you horse people can relate to. We didn't tell her what we were going to see that day and drove to the farm where he was still with his former owners until I could get into the stable where I am now. In those days we didn't have our own barn.

The people that had owned Buddy told us we could come down on Christmas Day and see him and I thought that was very nice of them. We walked into the barn and there was Buddy and Funsize had the biggest eyes you've ever seen, she just couldn't believe that he was ours! Now she is an itty bitty little thing now and 15 years ago she was even smaller and we were commenting today on how big he is and how small she was and she was riding him. We didn't have Lil' Bud at that point.

We would load him up and take him to her lessons and they did just fine even though the instructor thought he was way too big for her. He was fit and only 12 or 13 years old at that time and would try to pull things on her but she was most always in charge. He never did anything bad, just was feeling good. Hence we have always called him our Gentle Giant.

It's hard seeing him age and have aches and pains that go along with the aging process. When we ride now we don't canter around the ring doing circles and figure eights. We pretty much just walk and trot as he stumbles quite a bit, has always been kind of a klutz, I don't know how they ever used him for cross country jumping and dressage but that's the life he led until he came to us and we turned him into a western pleasure horse.

Funsize has the horse gene right in her and although she wasn't around much when she was away at college I knew she would come back to it and she did. We sure have a great time whether it be riding or talking or eating or going to church or whatever. I'm just glad she is a big part of my life!

Friday Night Ramblings

It sure is quiet around the 'ole farm tonight. T and D went home with Mimi and Bampie, their other grandparents, for the weekend. I packed up their little suitcases with all their 'stuff' and had them ready. It was sad seeing them there on the kitchen table. Mimi picked them up at school so I didn't get to see them off but that was probably for the best as I would have been sniffling I'm sure. I guess you can tell I'm missing them. Son and DIL will be home this weekend and Mimi and Bampie will take T and D to the airport to meet the plane.

Mimi and Bampie live on a small quiet lake and it is a beautiful spot with everything a youngster could want. Bampie pulls them behind the boat on the knee board and has several different tube things to ride on. Of course there is still some ice in the lake so they won't be doing that this time around. T is getting quite adept at knee boarding and cousin K can even do spins on it! What fun! Wish I was still agile enough to do that kind of thing but I do well to stay on my horse so guess I won't try it! :o)

I was recently awarded this beautiful award by my dear friend Needled Mom. I guess I have mentioned before that we met by chance at a convention that our husbands attend every year. Not that I believe things happen 'by chance' mind you. Out of a group of probably 75 wives we were sitting at the same table at breakfast one morning while the hubs were in a class and someone asked us all what we like to do. She and I both piped up and said quilting and immediately made a connection and friendship that has gone on for the past 4 or 5 years and will continue as long as we are both around.

Now I am from the backwoods of Maine and she is from outside of Los Angeles, couldn't be much further away but we have so many common interests and enjoy each others company so much! Some day I want to take a trip to California and I want her to come to Maine and spend some time on the lake at our cottage and hopefully it will happen. If you want to see some of her beautiful flowers stop by her latest post. NeedledMom.blogspot.com

Anyhow this award is from her and I thank you NM so much!!

Now these are the rules for this award which I find hard because all of my blogging friends truly make me smile and make my days more beautiful so I hate just giving three but know that you all are deserving even though I can only pick three this time.

So... I pass this award onto Pea at Pea's Corner who has become a dear friend and cohort, Susie at Susies Space who I feel like I have known forever and some day will sit down with and chat up a storm and Barn Goddess at Ramblings From the Reservation who tickles my funny bone with the antics on the 'ole Res with her beautiful family and of course Freddie and Scooter!

Now you guys have the hard task of just picking three!! :O(

1. Give to 3 BEAUTIFUL Bloggettes.
2. Smile because you are making their day BEAUTIFUL.
3. On the day that you send out your 3 Awards commit one (or more) random acts of BEAUTY.

Someone, who shall remain nameless, sent me this picture when we were in the midst of all of our snow........I did take the liberty to add a bit to the picture so as to keep my G rating! It is titled Snorkeling In Maine! I figured if you all didn't drop me because of the Red Neck Tank Top you could handle this!

BTW, speaking of the Red Neck Tank Top I have been getting orders left and right for them!!! I think I have found my new niche!! (Not really but it made a good story......) heehee!


Dad and I have been walking twice every day since he got home from Florida. Today was beautiful out and we shed our jackets before halfway home. We are walking on the streets now until all the snow is gone in the woods, then we will walk the carriage trails. It's prettier in the woods plus Noodles likes to go with us and I don't want him in the street.

Hubby has had good news on his knee. It doesn't look like he will have to have a knee replacement right now. They are trying another procedure which includes big needles (YUCK)! He seems to be doing better, is off the crutches and cane, and hopeful that this will work.