Caution: Don't Do This With Your Head!

I really wonder if these boys will ever make it to adulthood without killing themselves. This is just one more example of why parents pray for the safety of their children every day. Grandson Nate is demolishing his bedroom ceiling so we can replace it. His friend Roger was visiting and decided to help him. I really think using a hammer would be ever so much more effective - and safer. Perhaps we need a warning label on the ceiling "Caution: Don't demolish ceiling with your head!"

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Talon's Summer School Adventure

Talon, my 3 yr old Gypsy Cob (aka Gypsy Vanner) gelding is away for the summer being taught how to drive. He's being trained by Melody Madison of Shamel Arabians, who has loads more patience than I would have, but then, that's what trainers are for. He got a bit of a slow start as he seems to be very "sensitive", as she called it. It seems he's very timid of the other horses. When the trainer tried to integrate him into a paddock with two others he hid behind her. When she left he tried to hide behind a rock. Now here's another instance where the trainer is better than I am. I would have had a rolling-on-the-ground, peeing-my-pants laughing fit! Then one of the horses bit him - three times! "Sensitive" isn't the word that comes to my mind. "Wimp" is closer to what I'm thinking. And the other horses know one when they see one. Well, at home he lives with a goat so maybe he would feel safer with shorter horses. 

Then there was the matter of him being willing to work to the left, but not to the right. But one day the light turned on and he said "Oh! Is that what you want me to do? Well, I sort of knew that all along. (Clears throat.)" Notice the picture is taken while he's working to the right! Woo-Hoo!

A little girl at our church wanted to come over one Sunday to visit Talon. DH explained that he was away for the summer at school. When she got over her skepticism about horses going to school he then told her that Talon was learning to drive. She exclaimed "Horses can't drive cars!" Probably not, but he might be better at it than my grandson! (Click here for the story on that one). 

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A Pig Happy Family

Now that the piglets are getting bigger mama Chloe has let daddy Larry back into the family. All were snuggled together in their rain shelter for an afternoon siesta. Just after I took this picture one of the piglets squealed and Chloe jumped to her feet, sniffing all around. I think she was counting them because she put her nose under Larry's behind and shoved him over about 2' to see if one was stuck under him. Being a typical guy, he didn't even wake up. Then she saw one sleeping over by the edge of the tent and settled down to nurse.

I have to admit that piglets are cuter than cute. Pigs have always been DH's favorite farm animal, and my least favorite. But they've put their cuteness spell on me and I have to confess I'm actually starting to like them. But don't tell DH. (Honey, when you read this you will go into a d-e-e-p trance, completely relaxed, able to empty your mind of all thoughts, deeper and deeper into relaxation. You will not remember that I said I'm starting to like the pigs. When I count to 3 you will be wide awake, feeling relaxed, feeling refreshed, but will not remember any of this post. 1 - 2 - 3 - wide awake now.)

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9 New Additions

We have 9 new additions to our family. I found them sleeping under a tree this morning so I have no idea when they were born. But I did find Remi, our female Great Pyrenees LGD in that area a few days ago. She's never jumped the electric fence before and I thought it was strange that she was in that pasture. I thought perhaps a predator was threatening that area and she braved the fence. Maybe she just wanted to be the midwife. This morning I wisely waited till mama was off foraging before I crept in to take baby pics. 

Meanwhile, I found poor daddy banished to another area of the woods.

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I'm Cheap!

I admit it - I'm cheap. In some higher class circles folks call that "frugal". But I'm just a country bumpkin so I'm not really concerned about euphemisms. And I'm not embarrassed about being cheap either. "Waste not, want not" is the saying that comes to mind.  Just how cheap am I? Here's an example:

A friend of mine took out her dishwasher (because it was broken), leaving a hole where it had been removed that made the kitchen look like someone's smile with a front tooth missing. She installed a cabinet in that hole. I know what you're thinking, because it's the same thing I'm thinking - why didn't she just buy a new dishwasher? I asked her that same question. She told me she never used it anyway. OK, 2 things here - How did she know it was broken if she never used it? And not use a dishwasher? A dishwasher is almost as essential as a cook stove, or indoor plumbing, or a washing a machine, or - but I digress.

Now I'm getting to the cheap part. She had 4 large boxes of Cascade Complete dishwasher soap in her pantry that she was no longer going to use and asked me if I would like them. Well, of course! Because she never (or I'd have to say rarely) used her dishwasher, and because it had been broken for a long time, the soap was old - very old. It had, in fact, become a solid mass in the box. But because I'm cheap, and dishwasher soap is expensive, and I'm cheap, and I hated to just throw it out, and, did I mention I'm cheap - I figured I could still use the soap if I could turn it back to powder. Enter the all-purpose, handy dandy, one of the most useful inventions of all time, cheese grater. You get the picture.

So now I've told you how cheap I am, let me know some of the ways you're cheap, uh-mmmm frugal, by telling all in the comments section. (You don't have to have a blog to leave a comment, anyone can do it. Try it, it's fun!)

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Roxie Flunks!

We took Roxie, our 2 year old English Shepherd, to a herding clinic, which is a class to evaluate a herding dog and get pointers from a trainer, on Saturday. She flunked! She had no desire to move the sheep around, but she was very upset by a trained border collie that was there to keep the sheep from scattering while each dog attending took a turn to evaluate their herding instincts. The only thing Roxie herded was the herding dog! She placed herself between the border collie and the sheep and demonstrated some fantastic maneuvers to keep that dog from reaching the sheep, even to the point of running over its head. In just a few minutes she had figured out the nuances of the border collie's body language and was able to anticipate its every move. The border collie, to say the least, was not impressed and had a somewhat confused look on its face. I was very impressed that the dog was able to work with that kind of distraction and maintain its focus. The instructor commented that's the first time she's ever seen anything like that in all the years she's been working with herding training. And I was impressed that the instructor didn't just tell me to give up, but gave me lots of useful information to help my wonder dog understand that she's supposed to herd the sheep, not the other dog, and further impressed that she didn't roll on the ground laughing. Yup, Roxie's unique all right. Where was my video camera? In the truck 1/4 mile away, with my husband who was smart enough to stay out of the pouring rain.

Now here's something you don't see everyday - One of the other dogs attending was defending his owner from the sheep so the instructor had her put the dog up on one of them so he would see they weren't killer sheep. Now that's the first time I've ever seen THAT - and someone did get a picture.This is Palmer and her dog Shep, with Becky the instructor. Sorry, I don't know the name of the sheep, but she looks less than thrilled about the whole idea of training for a new circus act.

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