Wordless Wednesday ~ Yeah, I so CAN'T do this!!

Sepia

Steph had mentioned on the Sunday Stills post that I should try sepia on the tree... little did she know I already had ;)
I wanted to post at least one pic in sepia and one in black & white.  Due to very uncooperative weather I didn't manage to get my camera out very much last week.  I much preferred the tractor shot in sepia so that left the tree for the b&w.
Can I just say that I love my camera?  I'd probably love it even more if I knew how to use it better! lol  I had used my Nikon D90 for the Sunday Stills, mostly because I knew that I could shoot in b&w and sepia whereas I'm not too sure if I can with my little Canon point and shoot.
And so here is the little lone tree, in sepia... let me know which you liked better :)

Sunday Stills ~ Black & White and Sepia

This week's Sunday Stills challenge was Black & White and/or Sepia:  "I know we have done this before but the possibilities are endless, and try not to use archives for this week ..:-)) "

a neighbour's tractor and an old dented up tank

in his field

one little old lone tree

Friday Funny ~ Grandpa babysits

Every Saturday morning Grandpa Walt found himself babysitting his three grandchildren

all boys.  

The kids always wanted to play "war" 

and Grandpa somehow always got coaxed into the game.

His daughter came to pick up the kids early one Saturday 

and witnessed Grandpa take a fake shot as Jason pointed a toy gun and yelled, "Bang!"

Grandpa slumped to the floor and stayed there motionless.  

The daughter rushed over to see if he was all right.

Grandpa opened one eye and whispered, 

"Shhhh, I always do this.  It's the only chance I get to rest."

And now for the answer!

Y'all are pretty darn clever, the answer was teeth. However I'm not sure why y'all were guessing all these other critters... sheep, goats, cows, a carnivore, squirrel, opossum... Seriously?  C'mon you know me, they're horse teeth!!
Really and truly they are.  The chew tin had mostly wolf teeth and bridle teeth.  Some were cut off and some had the roots, which would probably be why some appeared canine like.

Dale the horse dentist was out last week.  He is a pretty cool guy.  I love that he hand floats and takes his time to really check the horse out and make him/her comfortable.  I also love that he doesn't just reach for the drugs to 'help' the horse cooperate, he'll give them a chance without it first.
The stories this guy has, wow!  He's been involved in horses pretty much all his life (he's in his late 60's)  He's shown horses, been a farrier, bred & raised horses (actually he still does some of that)
Every time Dale is out I learn something new from him.  Sometimes its something practical, like a colt handling tip he demonstrated with Tavi.  Sometimes its something that comes out in a story, like horses can get addicted to pain killers (that was a pretty funny story actually)
Dale collects teeth and he pulled some of his collection out to show us.  There were those teeth in the tin and a bunch of others as well.  Some of them had a story, some didn't.  The one below came from a Welsh pony stallion:

That was a bridle tooth.  Normally Dale would have left it alone, or if he were to do anything he would have cut it down.  But in this case you can see the whole root came too.  Take a good look at it.  The "shiny-ish" small section on the left is the tooth.  About where it curves is where the root starts.  See those holes and all those grooves etched in the root?  Poor little stud had a very bad infection in that root, which is why the whole thing got pulled.
Teeth can cause all kinds of issues.  They can manifest in how your horse behaves under saddle, his ground manners, how he keeps weight on (or rather doesn't keep weight on)  Some horses are pretty stoic though and don't give you a lot of clues.  Also your horse can't tell you when he has a tooth ache so its a good idea to get them at least checked regularly.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Walk softly and carry a big stick

Anybody know...

What these are?

for point of reference

that's an old chew container 

(Skoal, Copenhagen...)

I'll fill ya in on the answer later in the week...

Ranch Girl

The much loved, long lost Pony Girl is back... except now she is Ranch Girl!!  She'll have lots of exciting news to fill us all in on and is throwing a contest as a "Wecome back to the blogosphere"!  Go on and check it out :)

Ranch Girl Diaries

My Birthday "On this day" This day in history

In 1974

Pierre Trudeau was elected Prime Minister

Gerald Ford became President

Hank Aaron beats Babe Ruth's record

Nixon resigns

Dungeons & Dragons is officially released

Blazing Saddles is the top grossing film

People magazine if published for the first time

The Godfather II wins the Oscar for Best Picture

June 20

West Virginia becomes the 35th US state

Asteroid Eureka is discovered

Jaws is released

Samuel Morse patents his telegraph

Test flight of 1st rocket plane using liquid propellants

 

And on June 20, 1974....

cdncowgirl was born :)

Sunday Stills ~ The Birds & the "Bees"

This week's Sunday Stills challenge: "This challenge is from WanderWoman who asked if we could do this challenge. It may be a bit difficult but I’m sure ya’ll can rise to this challenge and to help out a bit you can do any insect and not just bees..:-)) "

I didn't get the shots I was hoping to, we have eagles and hawks and some pretty songbirds.  Instead I got a fairly typical type of bird for the feathered part of the challenge, my friend Shann's hens:

While I was shooting the birds I could hear a couple bees buzzing around.  They were hovering around her heavenly smelling white lilacs... unfortunately every time I thought I had one it was gone before I could snap. 

I thought I'd have time to get more pics later in the week but the weather hasn't cooperated at all... which is okay because we  did need the rain.

The Sleepingest Dog

I posted this pic on Facebook the other day and one of the comments was "That is the sleepingest dog LOL"

please forgive the quality, its a cell pic

my blackberry is old 

and the camera on it isn't very good

I had to laugh... most of the pics of Tucker that I post ARE of him sleeping.  But trust me that little dog EARNS his naps! He plays, runs and explores as hard as he sleeps, if not harder.  

The reason there aren't more pics of Tuck awake is that if he's awake he's usually moving.  Makes it a bit difficult to get a good pic.  But here are a couple of the better ones, just to prove that he does more than sleep ;)

Your opinion please!

I'm in need of a little input... do any of y'all have experience with Adequan?  Pro or con, and if you're not comfortable commenting publicly zap me an e-mail (its cdncowgirl@gmail.com)

Here's the sitch... Kimfer's gelding Baron is having some issues and it seems quite likely he has arthritis, in his hip.  Kimfer is considering Adequan but is wondering how effective it is so she asked me to ask y'all.  Sooo,  have any of you used it?  Would you consider it effective?  How often do you have to give it?  How long does each treatment last?  Any other input?

Thanks :)

Friday Funny ~ Racehorse

A buyer was considering purchasing an aging thoroughbred but wanted a veterinarian's opinion of the horse before finalizing the deal.  When the vet had completed his examination the potential buyer asked, "Will I be able to race him?"

The veterinarian looked at the buyer, then at the horse.

"Sure," he replied, "And you'll probably beat him!"

Another sorting story

No, no fines... the road bans are off.  No instead I started the day with an instant adrenaline rush.  How?

Well it is really quite simple. 

Plan to get up around 7:30am

Plan to pick up your friend and her horse between 8 & 8:15, and then....

wake up at 8:41!!

I woke up to Tucker barking and running over me.  Pie woke and asked why he was barking and after listening for a moment I told him that Tuck was barking because Echo was barking down by the barn.  Then I looked over and saw the time.  And said a very bad word.

I grabbed my phone and raced around throwing on clothes and sunscreen.  I zapped a quick message to Shann (in response to her "YO!!!" message)  I ran to the barn, grabbed Voodoo's halter, ran to his pen, haltered him and (you guessed it) ran to the trailer with Voodoo long-trotting beside me.  Threw open the trailer doors and he jumped in (good pony!!)  I was SO grateful that I had loaded my tack and brushes the day before.

Another quick message was sent to Kimfer asking her to let them know we were coming to sorting so that they could draw the teams and we would pay when we got there.

Thankfully Shann lives less than 5 minutes from me!  Got to her place and helped her load horses and tack and we were off!

What time did we arrive you ask?

9:36

I had been awake a whole 55 minutes! lol

Shann is an awesome travelling partner.  Not once did she come down on me for the huge screwup and rush.  She didn't keep picking at it all day, she pretty much laughed it off.  She also brings munchies and drinks.  

Sorting went okay.  I didn't have as good a day as last sorting but it was still fun, which is really what I'm in it for :)

So what happened with my alarm?  Well I set it on my phone and shut off my phone just like I always do.  And it DID turn on and the alarm went off, without sound.  I had several e-mails, text messages, Facebook messages and bbm messages waiting on it when I looked... and not ONE time did it make a sound. When I got home I took the battery out, put it back in and set another alarm and it was working. Weird.

This Sunday is barrel racing, I'm hosting a jackpot at my place.  And the following Sunday is sorting.  And yes we have a game plan in place to make sure this doesn't happen again! lol

Wordless Wednesday ~ Learning the ropes

May 31, 2011

We're infested!

*this post is the continuation of There be fairies*

So there I was... wandering around the yard looking for something yellow besides my flowers to post for Sunday Stills.  I idly snapped a few pics of dandelions when something caught my eye.  Do you see it?

I carefully looked around the treeline some more and saw another one!

Two gnomes... wait, there was a third.

I was a bit wary, who knows if they're friendly?!  So I cautiously looked around.  I tried to appear nonchalant, as if I was just out snapping nature pics.
Then out of the corner of my eye I saw another one dash across the lawn and managed to get a pic as he disappeared into the lilac hedge.

I decided to call it quits and head inside.  I wanted to quickly get some pics of the yellow flowers in my hanging baskets between the house and garage before I lost my nerve, and as I passed under the arch between the two buildings I got a tingly feeling.  I raised my camera and snapped quickly then looked at the screen... crap I think they're on to me!

I spun around and quickly fired off another shot, pretending to shoot the vine that is growing over the arch.  He had repositioned to keep me in sight! :o

Dang it I sure hope they're friendly!  Friendly with people, my critters and the fairies... I don't want a "supernatural gang war"!!  Speaking of which, I'm glad that we seem to have just the one 'race' of gnomes, I've heard that red gnomes and blue gnomes don't tend to get along.

Sunday Stills ~ Yellow

This week's Sunday Stills challenge was a bit harder for me, yellow: "Time for another color challenge courtesy of Val over at Fantastic Voyager who mentioned to me that yellow was her favorite color…:-)) "
Unlike Val I am not a particular fan of yellow... for awhile I wandered around looking at dandelions.  Then I looked toward the driveway, ah-ha our Province's flag has yellow!

And I do have a few flowers (that aren't dandelions) that are yellow...

*stay tuned... later today I'll continue yesterday's post and let you know what I discovered*

There be fairies

When I posted about finding those deer antlers and partial skull in "Strange Find" Mrs Mom jokingly commented that she thought maybe we had Wood Elves or Garden Gnomes. Ummm, no, however we do have fairies...

Can you see her napping in that log?

I don't mind the fairies, these ones are peaceful and playful in a "non naughty" way, as opposed to those that have a somewhat malicious streak.

I thought that's all we had lurking around until I was wandering around searching for something to shoot for Sunday Stills TNC: Yellow. That's when I saw THEM...

*to be continued on Sunday*

Friday Funny ~ The Movies

For the first time in many years, an old man travelled from his rural town to the city to attend a movie.

After buying his ticket, he stopped at the concession stand to purchase some popcorn.  Handing the attendant $1.50 he couldn't help but comment "The last time I came to the movies, popcorn was only 15 cents."

"Well sir," the attendant replied with a grin, "You're really going to enjoy yourself.  We have sound now."

Back to barrels :)

pic has nothing to do with the post

I just like it :)

Sunday I hosted a double header barrel race at my place.  Time is ticking away to get the boys qualified for provincial finals so I decided to enter both of them.  The last time I had entered Voodoo was October 31st of last year, so he hadn't had any barrel work other than the Molly Powell clinic I had gone to this spring.  It was the first time running Applejack in ages, other than the few runs I took when LK was tuning him up for me this winter.

I have to admit, I was a pretty nervous about running Applejack... we're having saddle fit issues and I was worried he would buck.  I have a new saddle on order and have been borrowing Kimfer's Black Rhino for now.  He seems to be working in it pretty good and seems to fit so I may end up buying it yet.

However the Sunday before when we went to sorting he seemed to get humpy when I asked him to lope.  But as LK told me, I wasn't going to be loping the pattern lol

I made the decision to run Voodoo first, I wanted to get the jitters out of the way with the horse that didn't have me scared ;)  The runs weren't perfect but I have to say that I'm quite happy with how the boys worked.  Four runs and no barrels down!

Both horses entered the arena nicely, which was becoming a bit of an issue last year.  Voodoo went to the gate nicely, although with a bit more spring in his step than usual and rolled on when I let him go.  Applejack walked up so quietly that I was actually kinda worried that he wasn't feeling like it was "competition time" however both times he jumped into gear and ran as soon as I asked.  

But best of all in the first jackpot both boys placed! :D  Applejack won the 3D, although I almost bit the dirt when he stopped.  He was running home so hard that he kinda ran through the bit when I asked him to stop.  My arena fence is made of page wire and I don't think he saw it or realized how close it was until he saw the banner on the gate and S.T.O.P.P.E.D. like now with his nose touching it!  The gate man jumped back and I popped over his shoulder, thank goodness I managed to stay on (thank you saddle horn!)  In the second jackpot we slowed down a touch and ended up 2 spots out of the money, I guess I didn't run him home as hard as I could have lol.  Voodoo placed 3rd in the 3D and I managed to get a bit more speed to bump up to the bottom of 2D in the second jackpot.  Neither one of them have had a lot of riding yet this year so I'm hoping we'll do even better once they're in shape!

I just want to give a quick Thank You to my momma and my friends Kimfer, Melly and BK for helping set up/tear down, announce and rake at the jackpot (and to Melly for warming up Applejack)

Wordless Wednesday ~ Its tough being the boss

Fail?

I was out taking pics the other day, and like anyone there were some good shots and there were some fails.  These two below I would normally place in the fail category.  Yet for some reason I kinda like them.  What do y'all think?

Applejack in the pasture

One of the neighbours foals in full flight

he was racing back and forth, back and forth

This is how I feel about Tuesdays...

*lolcats*

Sunday Stills ~ Potluck

This week's Sunday Stills challenge was Potluck:  "Its a photography free for all this week, what ever you want to do just no archives. I’ll be busier than a one legged man in a butt kicking contest this week trying to get some miles in, have a great week and thanks for participating in Sunday Stills..:-)) "

Echo

Yes he has 4 legs lol

Applejack

Sunset at our place

looking into the barnyard & pens from the pasture

Friday Funny ~ Lecture

The man was in no shape to drive, so he wisely left his car parked and walked home.
As he was walking unsteadily along, he was stopped by a policeman.

"What are you doing out here at 2 a.m.?"
asked the officer.

"I'm going to a lecture."
The man said.

"And who is going to give a lecture at this hour?"
asked the cop.

"My wife." said the man.

Commenting on Comments

I'm not sure how many people look back in the comments to see if there was a response to questions/observations so I thought I'd do a quick post...

From 1 Year Ago Today BEC said: I can't believe it has been a year already! In a way it feels like you guys just got there, but yet...like you have always been there.
Funny, Pie & I say the same thing all the time...

There were a few theories regarding those antlers in Strange Find.  OS and gttyup suggested the culprit was a cougar.  While there are cougars in Saskatchewan, and in fact not too terribly far away, there are none in this area.  At least none that have been spotted in quite awhile.  We do have moose, antelope, deer, coyotes and fox.
Steph, Laura and BEC brought up the theory that I tend to agree with.  That somehow the poor guy got stuck in those trees all by himself.  Either by trying to force his way through the trees or rubbing his antlers.
The other theory I wonder about is if a bird was trying to make off with the head of a carcass and dropped it. And I got a pretty good chuckle from Mrs Mom's comments about wood elves and renegade garden gnomes.

Sunday Stills ~ In the Sky
From dibear: Love the kite picture. Who has to mow all that grass?? :)  
Where my brother was standing flying the kite is actually the edge of our hayfield, my neighbour Tony hays it for us.  As for the yard (the backyard was in one pic) Pie usually mows the lawn; back, front, side and ditches; however I do too occasionally.  For the curious it normally takes around 3 hours.


And lastly thanks for all your kind comments on the passing of Ethel and Mack.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Full Moon Over the Pasture