Sweet Billie

The nice thing about having an obese horse is that when you ride them bareback, its such a nice, wide, cushy seat.  :)  Plus I look 10 lbs thinner when I stand by her

Just another weekend in the life of Aud

New things going on....Shooter and I attended the Puppies in the Pool fundraiser to benefit the local animal shelter last night.  It is his favorite day of the year and he played and swam and fetched for a solid two hours.  He had just enough energy to throw an absolute fit when I had to make him leave.  He's a very well behaved dog and I have never seen him throw such a tantrum.  Like a tired kid, he passed out halfway home and slept like a rock all evening.  It was a great time.

This weekend I will be attending a bean bag tourney...winning team wins a hundred bucks.  I won the bean bag championship at the Winter Games last year, so I may have had a few beers and talked up my skills a bit more than I should have.  Truth be told, I'm generally not good at things like this.  I'm afraid it will be like my pool shooting skills.  I'll have one perfect game out of 20, the other 19 games are like watching a drunken toddler try to climb a ladder.  Oh well, we'll have fun even if we lose.

Then I will visit my good friend Arin and we will all hang out at the campground for a while.  The weather sounds like it will be perfect.  I also will be hanging out with a very very nice guy I recently met.  In the spirit of not jinxing things, that is all I'll say about that for now. 

My apple tree limbs are hanging nearly to the ground.  It is a bumper year for my apple crop, so I'll be making a ton of apple crisp.  I like to make a bunch and hand them out to people who help me out at the farm during the year.  Do you wish I was making you apple crisp?  Well, let me know, I always need favors :)

I have finally secured enough hay to get the horses through winter.  It was hard to find with the weather being so dry.  Luckily, my fantastic hay guy came through for me in a pinch and even stacked it in the corn crib for me.  He'll be getting some apple crisp for sure. 

That's all I've got for now...Have a great weekend!

Sorry for my absence

I have been busy lately.  Not "bad busy" where there just aren't enough hours in the day.  More like "good busy" where you are just having fun enjoying life.  Things are looking up for ol' Aud.  Perhaps I will expand on that statement in a few days.....

There is something I love about this picture and I can't quite put my finger on it.  It has a kind of timeless quality to it.  I like how it appears I only have a stump for an arm.  Very Venus de Milo. 

I make fun of my Dad a lot, but he really truly is a great guy and a great dad.  He gave my dog a haircut last night and was nice enough to saddle up his mare, Molly for me to ride.  At first I resisted, since it was sunny and I was without sunscreen.  Then I decided we'd just get to the shady spots as fast as we could.  Molly is a great horse.  Though it kills me to admit it, she is a better horse than any I have.  Just a nice steady no frills horse that goes where you ask and does as she's told.  I so wish I had a horse that was this well broke. 

We rode down to what is locally known as Dead Man's.  A creek, some trails, nice trees.  Not a large area at all, but the trails criss and cross and go up and down and it is just lovely.  Molly and I took a couple laps, went out for a trot, went and made a couple more laps, and then cantered back to the farm.  I haven't cantered in years.  I can't remember the last time I did it.  I am normally happiest at a walk or trot.  I had forgotten the smoothness, the nice rhythm of a canter.  It felt great.  It really is the small joys of life that make it worth it.  Now if I can just figure out a way to talk him out of that horse....

Feeling a little blue today

I guess it's just one of those days today.  It's really a beautiful day.  I have no reason to feel blue, but I do.  I think sometimes when you know you have no good reason to feel the way you do, you end up feeling bad for feeling bad.  Which is kind of silly and completely self defeating.  It'll pass I suppose.  Tomorrow or the next day. 

It's times like these that I wish my horse was well broke enough that I could go home and hop up on there for a soul-soothing, leisurely ride.  Sadly, getting  Billie to ride away from the farm is like getting a kid to eat brusell sprouts.

Have I ever mentioned my extreme dislike of Wal Mart?  Well I can't stand the place.  Two minutes in there and I'm ready to run away screaming.  They do, however, have a fantastic pharmacy with very helpful employees.  So I get my insulin there, at half the price of every other pharmacy.  Still, I dread walking in that place.  The point being, I have to go there tonight to get a prescription filled. So by the time I leave, I will likely have a reason to be good and grumpy.  That is the best silver lining I can put on the situation.

Dad's keys

I come into work this morning and dad is mad at my bro.  Apparently they had some drinks last night, dad locked himself out of the house and keys for both his vehicles were in the house so he couldn't leave.  Rather than help, Al was enjoying giving him a hard time, asking why he even bothered to pull the keys out of his truck. (good point, Al)  Anyway, one of the grandkids had spare keys to the house and eventually showed up to save the day.  Dad gets his truck keys and goes to the farm to do chores, and says he knows he left the truck keys in the ignition after that.

 So this morning, dad gets in his truck and finds no keys.  Hence, him being mad at Al, assuming Al had taken them and hidden them somewhere in the truck to teach him a lesson.  (exactly the kind of thing Al would do).   So he searches through his many coffee cups, under all his junk (a LOT of junk) in his truck.  Sees a big sack of screws, and figures they are probably at the bottom.  He goes through the whole sack.  Can't find em anywhere.  He finally gives up and drives the tractor to work.  Al comes in this morning and dad jumps him, Al denies everything (a totally Al thing to do, that kid has a poker face like none other).  Dad is convinced.  I was still not sure, as Al started laughing pretty hard when dad told him the story.  I did too, trying to decide which would be funnier, if Al did steal them, or if Dad misplaced them and is throwing this fit for no reason. 

Finally later in the day when it is just Al and I in the office, I said, "you took them, didn't you?  Just admit it to me at least."  He swears he did not touch them and I believe him.  10 minutes later it's just Dad and I in the office and I tell him, "I asked Al and I really don't think he took them."  He sheepishly replies, "I know.  I found them. "  Where?  "In my pocket."  The pocket of the pants you are wearing right now?  "Yeah".   HAHAHAHAHA! Then in the weakest cover-up attempt ever dad says, "He must have slipped them in there when I wasn't looking."  Uh huh. 

And time marches on

I live on a farm.  I may be the only person who lives there, but I  never feel like I live alone.  I've got my animals and they are as close to kids as I'll probably ever have.  I love them and I care for them and they give me a reason to get out of bed when I don't want to.  People often ask me how I do it, all on my own.  I don't really know, except to say that I imagine it is similar with children.  You just do it.  No one else is going to do chores when its 20 below.  No one else is going to fill that water tank.  You just do it.  Much like parents "just do it" when their child is sick and crying at night.  You don't consider not getting up.  You just do it, you know?  Its part of your daily routine, right?  Getting the kids up and off to school.  Running them to swimming practice, etc.  Well it's the same with me.  I can't imagine not doing chores in the morning.  Can't imagine not filling the water tank every other day.  Can't imagine not having those smiling faces greet me when I come home from work.

There is a downside though.  And its when you lose one.  Hollywood is gone now.  The farm seems amiss.  Something is wrong.  The horses are edgy and discontent.  So am I.    Our natural order of things has been messed with, and its going to take some time to adjust to.  Billie keeps whinneying for Hollywood.  Keeps looking around corners for him in the pasture.  She will run to me every time I'm outside.  She'll lean on me, rub her face on my arm, then run to the fence to see the mini horses, then back to me, then look around, then take a run around the pasture, and back to me again.  Repeat.  Repeat.

They say horses are a mirror to your soul.  I have never realized this more than when watching  Billie.  The way she is acting is exactly how I am feeling.  Just lost.  Just...off.  I know it will pass.  Time truly does heal all wounds, for horses and people alike.  Billie will be fine too, one of these days we will get used to three horses instead of four.  But for now, I just feel....rattled.  Unsettled.  Sad.

I wonder if this is how parents feel when a child goes off to college.  There sits the empty chair where they ate breakfast everyday.  There's just a void.  Just silence and nothingness in their place.  Sure you have memories, sweet ones that you will cherish forever.  Framed photos of them on the wall.  But it's not the same as having them there.  And somehow you know, though you'll get used to it, life will never quite be the same as it once was.