This And That

It's been raining cats and dogs here today in Maine. We aren't complaining as it is very dry and the fire danger is high. For me personally I am glad as we had some hydro seeding done in the back pasture and I have been trying to keep it watered with a sprinkler which is very time consuming changing the location every hour. I think I walked more then what I do each morning with my Dad when we go on our walk.

We moved two more of our horses home today. We got soaked but it was worth it to get them home. Hubby is out in the barn checking on them before we close up the barn for the night.

Just watched a news story about Patrick Dempsey. He is here in Maine setting up a unit in the Lewiston Hospital called The Patrick Dempsey Cancer Center For Hope And Healing. His Mom has had three bouts of ovarian cancer and has been treated at this hospital which is in his hometown. What a wonderful addition to this hospital that will serve women with all different kinds of cancer. It's wonderful when people use their celebrity for causes such as this that impact so many lives rather then just being fodder for the tabloids with their escapades.

I didn't get to ride today due to the heavy rain. I try to ride every day, it's been a goal that I have set for myself this summer. I don't normally like to ride alone but have used this time to work on things with Buddy and to just reflect and think about things. It's very relaxing to be out in the woods on the dirt roads with just trees and wildlife around and I have been really enjoying it. After the horrendous summer we put in with Buddy last year with his laminitis this has been pure joy to just go out to the barn, throw the saddle on and take off for a nice ride every evening. Sometimes I ride over to Son's house and say goodnight to T and D or they hop on with me for a little ride around the yard. Last night I rode over but all was quiet so I think they had already gone to bed. Usually by 7:30 they have hit the hay.

Thanks to all of you that left such nice comments about my Dad marching in the parade with the other vets. Sometimes we tend to take so much for granted in this wonderful country with all of our freedoms that so many aren't privileged to have. We need to remember to stop and think of those that gave of themselves and sometimes gave the ultimate sacrifice so that we can enjoy freedom.

I missed out on a great picture the other day. The local fire department was out putting up flags all along the main road of our little town. They had one of the ladder trucks and a firemen was up on the ladder putting up a flag. It was such a heartwarming sight and I wish I had turned around and gone back and taken a picture. Now we have flags on every other telephone pole for several miles going into town and through the downtown area. It's a beautiful sight!

Someone asked me to put in my recipe for the rhubarb pie that T made last week.

Fresh Rhubarb Pie

4 cups fresh cut up rhubarb (1/2 inch pieces)

1 and 1/3 cups sugar

1/3 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon grated orange peel (if desired)

2 Tablespoons butter

Heat oven 450*

Prepare pastry

Combine ingredients and mix with rhubarb

Pour into pastry lined pie plate

Dot with the butter

Cover with top crust and make slits

Flute edges and cover with 2-3inch tin foil strips to prevent excessive browning

Bake 40-50 minutes till juice begins to bubble through slits in crust

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream

Now I will give you my tutorial on making pie crust.

1. Get in your car.
2. Drive to the grocery store.
3. Go to the refrigerated section.
4. Pick up a box of rolled up pie crust.
5. Bring it home.
6. Open box, roll out pie crust.
7. Slap it in the pie dish.
8. Add your filling.
9. Slap the top crust on.
10. Cook

Works every time for me but don't tell anyone, they think I make it from scratch!

We had our dock put in at the lake on Sunday. We drove down after church and they had it all in and were picking up getting ready to leave. It looks really good and much sturdier then the old one. Son and T were with us so T wanted to go swimming. Now you know that the water this time of year was probably only about 50*! Grampie was brave and went in with her, I did the looking on, safe on the dock, nice and dry!

I can't imagine jumping in that cold water! Nice to be young!

Poor Grampie knows that he is going to be splashed with that freezing water!

I think she was cold by the looks!

This is the view to the left. We are in the narrows and the big lake is out towards the left.

This is the other direction towards the little end of the lake with the mountains in the background. We get some spectacular sunsets!

This is just looking directly out from the lawn. Hubby's brother and family are next door to the right.

Now if this isn't the ultimate in resort wear?! Hubby's camp shirt and notice the clogs with the socks, nice touch, next thing I know the Fashion Police will be knocking on my door!

This is one of my foolish campy wall hangings.

We got T dried off and warmed up (D was at a birthday party with DIL) and then headed for home. Next weekend we will get the boat in and the camp cleaned and we will be ready to roll for the summer!! :o)

Memorial Weekend Revisited

It has been so gorgeous out I just haven't had much time to get to the computer. Plus with the three hour finale of Lost on last night I had to pay attention and not type and listen at the same time. That has to be the most confusing show that I have ever got addicted to. The writers must be on a sugar high or something but they keep coming up with twists and turns that is like something I have never seen. I almost jumped right off the sofa when they showed that it was Locke in the casket. Oh brother, I need to get a life!

Anyhow, back to Memorial Weekend. We were pleased that Hubby's two sisters came to visit along with niece L. I have posted pictures of her before in her riding lessons and on Nick. This time she rode Lil' Bud and Buddy. She did a good job, it's not always easy being on a horse that you've never ridden before.

Here are some more pictures of the beautiful scenery down on the coast.

It has been a tradition ever since Son was a little boy to go out on the point and hunt for sea critters while the tide is out. My grand kids enjoy the same thing, it is the first thing they want to do when they arrive at The Lobster Pound.

Poor little D. dropped his digital camera in the water when he slipped on a rock. I hope it was waterproof! This picture was taken before the water incident......ahem......

First time I've seen Son in a bib in a long time.

This is on the way down, it's rock that they had to blast through to make the road wider.

I LOVE the coast. I think it started when I went away to boarding school and our campus was right on the ocean. It was an amazing spot and the girls dorm, library, kitchen, dining room and some of the class rooms were in what used to be a mansion owned by the Smith Brother's cough drop heirs. The rooms were spacious with bathrooms that were different colors of granite, something I had never seen before, growing up in the country that once had an outhouse!

I liked having a room on what was called The Wing. It was the rooms for the servants back in the day and there were only two students per room rather then some of the big rooms that might have six in them. We all shared a bathroom but it was worth it as it was much quieter on the wing.

My two sisters had gone to this school before me and my younger sister and brother went after me. My parents decided to send us there because at the time the high school that we would have attended was quite unruly and had a bad reputation. This was a christian school that we went to so we also had Bible classes and chapel every day.

It was a huge financial cost for my parents but they felt it was worth the sacrifice to have us in such a good environment. I'm sure it was as hard for them to have us away from home so much as it was for us to be away from home but the pluses outweighed the minuses immensely. We made friends with kids from all over the US and Canada, a lot of kids were missionaries children and their parents were on the field. Even after all these years I still am in touch with numerous kids that I went to school with. I don't see them ever as they live so far from me but we write at Christmastime and stay updated on what's going with each other. When you live together for four years you get to be really close.

Back to Memorial Weekend. Dad always marches in the parade with the other veterans. He has done this for many years. He served in WW2 for three years. He doesn't talk much about it but saw some pretty gruesome sights. My Dad is a very patriotic person and served our country well. It is because of men and women like my Dad that we have the freedoms that we all enjoy today!

Had a great ride on Buddy tonight after dinner. We worked on transitions and he is doing very well. For an old boy who was on sick leave for almost a year he is picking right up where he left off. I don't work him hard but we do enough so that he gets some exercise and a tune up. He's doing better every day! :o)

Pea over at Pea's Corner is having a nice give away. She has adorable candles that she is going to be having a drawing for next week. Hop on over and throw your hat in the ring! Like she said, the more the merrier!

Bats In The Bellfry or Raccoons In The Hayloft

I have got to stop being so nice. There, I've said it. Maybe I should explain.

We have a little sparrow that nests in our barn up over one of the beams in the main part of the barn each year. She raises two clutches of babies and we really enjoy watching them grow and finally fly off. This year she didn't seem to know to use the open window to come and go so I started leaving the back barn door open about 4 inches so she could come and go that way.

Big mistake. Hubby was up in the hay loft getting down some hay when he noticed a raccoon up in the rafters. It is a very small female and she scooted down between the bales very quickly. He called me to come take a looksy and we could hear baby sounds coming from deep within the recesses of the bales.........very young baby sounds. Soooooooo we have a family living up there, not the best thing to have but now we have to wait until the babies get old enough and Mom raccoon can move them. I hope I can get some pictures but I'm sure not sticking my hand in there to try to find out where they are!

T came over after school yesterday. She likes to cook so I asked her if she would like to make a rhubarb pie as I had just gone out and picked some. I cut it up for her and she did the rest.

The finished product! The funny thing is she wouldn't eat any of it! I'm wondering just what she put in it???????

We went to the coast for lunch this weekend. It is our all time most favorite place to eat as the seafood is to die for and it sits right on the ocean. Grampie and D were deciding what they wanted and D said he wanted a 5 pound lobster! Yikes! We got him a 1 pound and just let him think it was a 5 pounder!!

This is what grandmothers are noted for. We always have a tissue in our pocket or tucked in our sleeve like our grandmother's did.

Mom and T on the beach.


Funsize with the beautiful Atlantic ocean in the background.


This was a strange thing we found on the beach. I think someone had some fun sitting this up on the rock with the seaweed around it.

D thought it was a hoot!

On the way down Funsize, Hubby and I stopped and took some pictures. This is Fort Knox, no not THE Fort Knox but our fort with the same name.

This is the new bridge that was built to replace the old one. It cost many millions of dollars and took several years to build. You can go up in the tower if you want to see the view. I'll pass on that thankyouverymuch!!!!

I have lots more to write about but I think I will break this up into two posts as we had a lot going on over the Memorial Weekend. Dad marched in the parade with the other veterans and I want to put some of those pictures in plus more beautiful ocean scenes that we enjoyed. Continued in a couple of days......

Saturday Horse Stuff

We have had an exciting day today. We have been looking forward to visiting a friends big horse farm all week with our kids and grand kids. Hubby's sister and niece are in town and they are horse lovers as well so we were delighted that they could go along too.

These people raise Standardbred horses that they race. They have about 150 of them at several different locations in different states. They take a lot of them south for the winter so that they can race down there. They love their horses. Their facility was immaculate and each and every horse looked wonderfully well cared for. They also had a collection of other animals that they adopted such as sheep, a llama, peacocks, hens, roosters, geese, ducks, dogs and cats.

They rescued the rooster who lost his feet due to frostbite and nursed him back to health and he is doing great even though he walks on stumps. He has a lady friend and they have their own digs as poultry is notorious for picking on any of the flock that has injuries. He is fat and sassy and crows each morning at 3:30 a.m.

Their welsh corgi dogs, Annie and Andrew greeted us with kisses and wags and just loved the grand kids. We were quite smitten with Andrew who has a disability but thrives with his little cart to help him get about.

The foals were just gorgeous with their long wobbly legs that will someday turn them into powerful trotters. Some of them were born in February and some were only a couple weeks old and one is due any moment. Here are pictures of a few of them.

To say that we were enchanted with them would be an understatement. There's just something about those soft little muzzles and short fluffy tails that are just adorable. They also have a couple of champion Morgans that the wife rides. She has a whole room just loaded with ribbons, trophies, coolers, and other winnings from her showing days.

This lady is remarkable, she didn't even start riding until she was 56 years old and has gone on to win everything on the east coast with these two horses! She is a wee bit of a thing at only 5 feet tall but handles these big horses with ease. She is also the one that nursed the footless rooster back to good health where most people would have just put him in the stew pot! :o(

The farm consists of about 300 acres so we got around in these Polarises. The kids loved it and sat in the back on a blanket. We use ours to haul poo so they don't ride in ours........ahem.....

It was just a great day, we all had such a good time and the owners were so gracious taking their Saturday afternoon to show us around. The grand kids won't forget it, especially little Andrew who stole their hearts. :o)