Reindeer dog and the beautiful necklace........

On Christmas Day we went to my niece's for dinner. Lots of great food, got to see her newly finished basement, very nice! Zek the dog was entertaining with his reindeer antlers on. Couldn't get the green pet eyes to be normal so here he is with green eyes. Actually they don't look bad; colors are fitting for Christmas, don't you think? He was in their church play and was supposed to be a wild cow running across the stage, from one side to the other. He did great, my niece was on the other side with a doggie treat so he raced across to get it almost loosing his antlers in the process!
Mike gave me this necklace Christmas Eve; I was blown away!!! First off we weren't supposed to get each other a gift, we stopped doing that years ago. Instead we always buy something we want for the house; besides he is way too hard to buy for anyway!
This beauty was made by an artist from Isreal named Ayala Bar (you can see it on the oval metal peice at the end of the chain) I must say she does gorgeous work and Mike out did himself with this purchase, just beautiful! I am sure you can find out more about Ayala Bar by typing her name into Google or another search engine.
I am still having a lot of trouble with my internet provider so tomorrow I am changing to another one and will have to change my email address and go to a gizillion sites to change things, oh, fun! I am hoping that by doing this I will be able to upload and download things much faster, what I have now isn't a lot better then slow dial up; very aggraviting to say the least! That is one thing about living out in the country, sometimes you don't have a lot of choices about your TV or internet connections. We have no cable, high speed phone lines, nor can we get cell phone service down in the hollow..........but then the advantages of living out far outweigh the negitives! It's quiet, hardly any traffic on our road, save the people that live out here and the mailman; so I'll take that any day! :-)
Have a Happy New Year!!

Merry Christmas!

I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!
I hope to be posting more after Christmas, satellite has been having a lot of problems and I need to have a service call on it, somehow it has gotten knocked out of alignment and it's SLOW as molasses! I am lucky that it uploaded my pictures just now (sigh) oh, well!!! Next Monday someone is suppose to be here to fix it, then it will be fast again, yippee!!!

If a Tree Falls in the Woods???

If a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to see it does it still make a sound when it hits the ground?
Damned right it does; especially if it's at 5:40 in the morning and you are fast asleep in your warm fleece sheets! The sound was so loud and the vibration from it hitting the ground shook the house! Then there was the big orange fire ball that lite the place up as the top branches hit the power lines causing the top one to hit the bottom one; the sound of the electrical appliences in the house screeching as the electric blinked off and on several times before dieing completely! Then everything went dark, thank goodness for the full moon outside! Just the day before I looked out the front upstairs window to a tree just on the edge of the creek wondering when it was going to fall. It is in the process of dieing and has some sort of fungus growing at it's base; but that's not the tree that fell and I'm glad for that. It would probably hit the front porch and take both power lines with it on the way to the ground! The tree that fell, must have been dead because there were no small top branches (see picture)

For some strange reason the pieces of the tree didn't cover the road? It looks like it bounced and rolled to the edges. We didn't see this until the sun was coming up, couldn't really see it in the moon light. I haven't gone out yet to see what is in the creek. The pictures of it were taken from the upstairs bathroom window.

I had to get up and find a flashlight and locate the old rotary phone, remember those???, for all the fancy technology having a rotary phone coming in handy when the electric is off! I called the electric company and finally after what seemed like 20 minutes got a LIVE person. Before getting her though the automated answering machine went through a list of three options, then said press 1, 2 or 3 on your phone....NO.....I can't use my push button phone because the electric is OFF!!!! So finally after it didn't get a response it said for those using a rotary phone speak the number one, two or three. OK, this is good, so I said "one", we are sorry we couldn't understand your response! GRRRRR, so I did this 4 times before they could hear me..........glad this wasn't an emergency!!!!! So finally when the "person" gets on the phone I was able to tell her our address and that a tree had fallen but didn't know if the lines were down. She would send the repair truck out. I thought OK it's gonna be awhile; but no! Within 45 minutes the truck was coming down our road, stopped for a minute then went on down the road to the sub station. A few minutes later the electric was back on and there was a knock at the door. A service man from the power company was there on the porch, thanking me or reporting the location of the downed tree, said it saved them hours of searching for it along the lines! Yippee for the power company!! You don't realize just how important to you power is until you don't have it.

I am sure it scared the heck out of Gilly and Pokey; but when I was taking the pictures out the window they were by the back of the house sunning themselves. They came to attention when I opened the window and thought surly it must be time to eat breakfast, right??? Not yet, boys, you will survive a few more hours....go back to sleep! I will be there shortly.

Baking Cookies

I have been out of commission for about a week, had a sick husband after Thanksgiving.....bronchitis. Then he was so kind and gave it to me! He went to the doctor and got antibiotics, I went a few days later and both of us ended up taking antibiotics; which neither of us has been on for years and years. No need to haven't been sick. Whatever this was it hasn't wanted to give up; finally though, tomorrow is my last dose of the stuff, it has let up. Thank goodness!!!!

While I was on the mend I decided to clean house???? What possessed me to do that I have no idea but anyway.......after working for two days many things have moved out of this house and went to live at Good Will............yippee! I also burned boxes, papers and other junk that would ignite........gone, all gone! Maybe all that work burned out the sick bug too.

After receiving a letter from a friend telling me how many cookies she had baked for Christmas gifts..........I thought, ahhh, yes it is time for Christmas baking and sugar cookies sounded just too good! YUM! So out came all the things needed to whip up a batch of home made sugar cookies, and yes with real butter too! So I get the butter, eggs, sugar and vanilla all beat up, start adding the flour and what do you know??? I don't have enough FLOUR!!!! To make matter worse neither of my two close neighbors are home; oh, bother, now what???? Well, I do have some oats
I though wonder what would happen if.................I put them in the Vita Mix and turned them into oat flour??? Good idea, right? Well, yes and no..........some of the oats didn't pulverize so there are some whole oats floating around and I didn't beat up enough so the cookie dough is so sticky I can't roll it out. So much for the sugar cookies last night.

Today was grocery shopping day so I got more flour beat another cup of flour into the dough; this dough has been in the refrig over night so it's good and cold. Try to stir in another cup of flour into that; I should have weight lifters arms by now!!! Somehow I think the recipe was a little off on the amount of flour. It said 3 3/4 cups of flour and I added another cup and a half before it would roll without sticking to the rolling pen.

So after supper I got the cookie cutters out and started on the sugar cookies! Rolled the dough out cut mostly crimped edged circles out but just had to do a few horse cookies............yes, I do have a horse head cookie cutter but then...............I got a little creative with it....
A Pokey cookie!!!
OK, you are probably right, I need to get a life...............I think it's the drugs or the illness I'm getting over!
P.S. the oat flour added a very different and good flavor to the cookies. No, not horse oats either!!!
That's my story and I'm sticking to it!! :-)

The Water Bowl

The Water Bowl

A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead. He remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years. He wondered where the road was leading them.
After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, it was broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight. When he was standing before it he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like mother-of-pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold. He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as he got closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side. When he was close enough, he called out, "Excuse me, where are we?"
"This is Heaven, sir," the man answered. "Wow! Would you happen to have some water?" the man asked. Of course, sir. Come right in, and I'll have some ice water brought right up." The man gestured, and the gate began to open. "Can my friend," gesturing toward his dog, "come in, too?" the traveler asked.
"I'm sorry, sir, but we don't accept pets." The man thought a moment and then turned back toward the road and continued the way he had been going with his dog.
After another long walk, and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road leading through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed. There was no fence. As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book. "Excuse me!" he called to the man. "Do you have any water?"
"Yeah, sure, there's a pump over there, come on in." "How about my friend here?" the traveler gestured to the dog. "There should be a bowl by the pump." They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old-fashioned hand pump with a bowl beside it. The traveler filled the water bowl and took a long drink himself, then he gave some to the dog. When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the tree. "What do you call this place?" the traveler asked."This is Heaven," he answered.
"Well, that's confusing," the traveler said. "The man down the road said that was Heaven, too." "Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates? Nope. That's hell." "Doesn't it make you mad for them to use your name like that?"
"No, we're just happy that they screen out the folks who would leave their best friends behind."


My brother sent this story to me and I thought it was wonderful and have kept it on the computer ever since. He was obviously thinking of his best friend, Bob the Beagle. Bob's real name is Champer but I started calling him Bob because of his bobbed off tail, he was born with a short tale and the name stuck. My brother thought it more humorous to call him, Backyard Bob the Bobbed-Tailed Beagle!
Bob now lived at my sisters hill top farm, he is now 11 years old. He didn't like coming to visit my farm, we live down in a hollow and Bob likes to see over the hills;besides my sister has more rabbits for him to chase!

Day BeforeThanksgiving

The day before turkey day was cold and wintery feeling here in Ohio. I took this picture from the patio looking down to the barn and out buildings. Didn't quite get the sun in just the spot I wanted it to be. Below is a picture I took in 2005 in February before I trimmed the bottom branches of the pine. This photo was entered in a photo contest, got an honorable mention in a book that was being published.
The sun looks like it had cut a hole right through the pine. My brother loved this picture. After he had passed away, Mike and I were cleaning out his house and I found a copy of this picture printed out and taped to his computer, it was also saved on his computer. It is a pretty neat pictures if I do say so myself! (smile)

Here are the two house peepers; they always are out by the summer kitchen in the mornings just waiting for someone to move inside the house. If they hear you, Gilly will whinny loudly and Pokey will hee-haw as loud as he can. "Oh, please, please come out and feed us! Can't you see that we are starving out here?"
When I do get outside they rush to the barn and stand impatiently waiting for their oats and hay. I love to stand in the barn and listen to them eat and hear their continted sighs. Nothing better in the world to my ears! Yes, I do love my babies!

Cold Sunday nap

Now doesn't Gilly look like a real handsome boy here? Looks like an old sway backed plow horse; really though he and Pokey, see his ears under Gilly?, were taking a morning snooze. Gilly is all fluffed out like a velvet pony, trapping warm air in his fur and soaking up the sun.
close up of the snoozing boy, see how relaxed he is? That lower lip is hanging way down and he is sleeping even though his eyes look to be opened. Hope he doesn't try to walk like that, he could trip on that hanging lip!
It was pretty cold out Sunday morning, see the steamy breath that Gilly is blowing out? I hoped that I could capture that on the picture. They were out on the hillside sleeping and waiting for me to come out of the warm house to do my morning feeding. I wasn't in a hurry to go out into the cold morning air.........so they had to wait a spell.
This picture was taken from the upstairs window, though double glass, so it looks pretty blurred but still interesting. I couldn't get a picture of them close up because they were laying up on the hill above the barn so the only way to shoot them was from the upstairs window. I couldn't open the window and the storm window because they would have heard me and then both would have gotten to their feet and spoiled the shot. So that's life on the farm on a cold Sunday morning, when there is nothing to do but wait for your breakfast..........sigh.

New Teacher............

Kim took this picture of me and Gilly walking across the arena a couple of weeks ago. She came over today and brought her camera card so I could upload the pictures she had taken. As a matter of fact she took all the pictures in this post. Thanks Kim!!!
I love this picture, looking at it I can't believe that the skinny little horse I brought home to the farm more than 4 years ago turned out to look this beautiful! And that he grew so tall, he is the tallest horse I have ever owned.
This is our new dressage teacher, Vicki. She was working Gilly around in the arena for the first time. Gilly hadn't had a lesson since last fall. Oh, I've ridden him but not like this. He did do pretty well, but he is not a forward horse so it takes a lot of pushing to get him moving. He will tire a person out just pushing him forward and then there is the way he moves. He is a very lofty horse and it's hard to sit him; well it is for me anyway. Vicki rode him really well. She studied dressage in Germany years ago and had some really good German teachers. Vicki also used to teach modern dance; next month she is going to start yoga/stretching classes and some of us horse women are going to take the class. Working to keep limber during the winter months so when spring gets here we won't be "rusty"...........well, that's the plan anyway!!!
Nice straight back and good leg position.........we are working on me, I think I need more work that Gilly. This is hard for me because one I have a green horse that I am trying to teach and I am not an English type of rider, I always rode western before. So both of us are learning, it's hard but we will work through it. I am do not want to show, just be a good rider and ride him the way he moves.
He remembers all the things we worked on last year...........sometimes I wish I had a place to ride that was covered so it didn't matter if it rained or snowed. A place that the footing was dry but that's not going to happen so we will just take what we get and work through it.
Here we are at the end of the lesson, Vicki, Gilly (who wouldn't pose for the picture) , me and another friend Beverly. Yes, it was pretty chilly that day.
Gilly is thinking, just take me home and feed me, I wanna play with Pokey.
Pokey wasn't allowed to come out because he would disrupt class!!!

Snow..............

Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening...................

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

by Robert Frost


I love that poem because of the snow and of course the horse and sleigh, "my little horse must think it queer to stop without a farmhouse near" then he shakes his harness bells to ask if there is a mistake....why are we stopping??? When I was in high school and read this poem I never thought that I would someday have a sleigh to be pulled by my horse. Well, it was my second horse Copper that got that honor.
Here is Copper in 1979 pulling my sleigh, a very small one but a sleigh; my two nieces, my daughter and a friend are in the sleigh. I was behind the camera lens. What fun we had then, we had built a huge fire farther away down the field that is out of sight; it was really cold that day.
Copper had sleigh bells on too, what a merry sound they made ringing through the crisp winter air!

I don't have that sleigh anymore, would Gilly pull it if I did? Not sure but I think he would and Pokey would be tagging along behind!

More pictures of my brother............

This is my brother and sister probably in 1937 at our grandparents farm. Love the little bib overalls my brother has on; look far into the background and look at the old truck my grandpa had then.
I LOVE this picture!!! (my sister doesn't like it though, says it looks like the family was poor....... well, we were and so what?) My dad is standing by my brother, my sister is next and the other girl is a neighbor. I don't know who she is though, I wasn't around yet, this was in 1940's? Not sure about the date, I also love the old car, know nothing about it either. But look at the windshield........it's popped out at the bottom.
This is my brother in a shooting squad, in Florida I believe in 2005. He was a trap shooter and a pretty good one too. Yes, my brother is tall, 6"5". The man to the far right is my brother's best friend; the traveled all over going to shooting matches.



I took this picture in September of 2006 at Marietta Gun Club, my brother was a member there for several years. He had a break in shooting and we had gotten some lunch at the club house.I love this picture, shotgun broken down over his shoulder checking a box of shells before reloading for another round.
A kind and gentle man who is missed by his family and friends.

Veteran's Day

November 11, Veteran's Day.......a time to remember those who have served our country so that we may be free. To those who have served in past wars and are serving now, I thank you all and God bless you!!!

This is for my brother who served his country in the Marine Corps in 1954 and my husband who served in the Marine Corps in 1968 in Vietnam.
My brother in his dress blues, I always loved this picture, he was my hero.............16 years older than me, my big brother.
On board a ship.
Yes, that's me in my little bare feet in our front yard, Rod was home on leave and I loved being with him.

This is me again, what a hairdo, huh? This is one of my favorite pictures of the two of us; he with his medals on his chest and me with my stuffed kitty. I took that cat everywhere with me!
Sadly I lost my big brother last year..........I miss you!
your little sister

Zonkey

This is for my friends at People's Bank at Frontier Shopping Center in Marietta. We were talking about Zonkey's the other day and so I said I would post some pictures here on my blog. So Brenda, Paula and Ashley, here are the Zonkey's!!! :-)

Someone sent me this picture in an email of a Zonkey, at first I wondered if it was real?? Well, they are and aren't they beautiful? I don't know where this picture was taken but the two below...........


These two pictures, love the markings on the face above, came from the "Spots N' Strips Ranch"!!! Gorgeous!!! Here is the link to the site, check it out.........
http://www.spotsnstripes.com/index.htm
This is the link to the photo albums gallery.........http://www.spotsnstripes.com/PhotoAlbum1.htm


A zonkey (also known as zebrass, zebronkey,zeasses, zeedonk, zedonk, zebadonk, zenkey, donbra, zebrinny, or deebra) is a cross between a zebra and a donkey. The generic name for crosses between zebras and horses or asses is zebroid or zebra mule. Donkeys are closely related to zebras and both animals belong to the horse family. Zonkeys are very rare.
(from Wikipedia)

A zorse is a cross between a zebra and a horse. The zorse takes the color or dominant color gene of the mare and the zebra sire gives it stripes Zorse Color Info . Photo Album A hebra is a cross between a zebra mare and a horse stallion – the rarest. Horse stallions as a general rule do not like to breed zebra mares. Zebra stallions usually must be raised in a special environment to breed horse mares.

A Zonkey is a cross between a zebra and a donkey. The zonkey takes the color or dominant color gene of the jennet and the zebra sire gives it stripes. The zonkey is generally more easily bred for than the zorse as the donkey and zebra both communicate behaviorally using very similar language, whereas the horse language is somewhat different than the zebra's. (Taken from the "Spots N' Stripes Ranch")

Now how interesting is that??? Beautiful colors for sure............I want one? Think Pokey and Gilly would like to have a Zonkey for a friend??? Don't know what Mike would say about it, probably, a firm, "NO"! LOL

More lessons and a ride in the woods

Run, run, run!!! When I take Gilly and Pokey to Kim's there is always an hour or so of play time! They are all so happy to see each other and have a grand time running from one end of the field to the other.
Gilly is really trotting out here, he is normally in the lead or at least thinks he is; sometimes the other two turn and go the other way. Pokey had to come back to the spot he is in now and have a roll in the dry dirt. That little guy LOVES to roll in dirt!
After a wild run through the field they had to stop and have a grooming session. I'll tell you looking at those teeth and hearing them snapping I am glad that's not my skin he is working out on!!! Ouch! They stood for 20 minutes chewing on each other. What did Pokey do, he just stood back and watched, then went off in search of another dusty spot to roll in.
"Oh, here we go again, they want me to get back inside that big white box! I don't know about that, maybe I'll only go in part way this time"
One foot in............
Oh, mom has a treat maybe if I stretch my neck out realllllly far.............

Lacy's turn! She didn't want to go in either and had several fits and smacked her head above the door....Ouch!!! Gave herself a pretty good goose egg on her forehead. This is not going as smoothly as we had hoped. So far Gilly is the only one that got all four feet in the trailer.
After the lessons Kim and I decided to go for a ride in the woods. A beautiful day to ride too. This is an old road up on the ridge about our houses; nothing goes up here but ATV's and horses.....Gilly and Lacy that is. Gonzo and Lucy are behind me and Gilly. I sure do hope we have several more days like this, no flies to bug us and 70 degrees............beautiful!!!!

Gilly and the Trailer

My neighbor and riding buddy, Kim, got a trailer so now we have wheels!!! Yippee!!! We can haul the horses to trail rides and anywhere we want to go. How fun. Gilly is not so sure about it though. Here he is at the beginning of his lessons.
Good boy, going into the trailer that far. See Gilly will get on a trailer but doesn't like to back off. We what we are doing it just going in with the front feet, leave the hind ones on the ground for now.
He is smelling the inside of the trailer and chewing on everything in sight; checking it out. He likes looking out the big windows in this one. I let him stay on as long as he wants to, then he will back off by himself. Then again, back on with the front feet. I don't want to make him get on, forcing him to get on will only make things worse. Each time he gets on by himself he builds confidence and it will be easier then next time.
He did great and this was about the end of the lesson yesterday. I am reaching out with the stick and string only to lightly tap him on the rump to encourage him to move up a bit more. When we are finished with his lessons on this I will have him going into the trailer with me standing beside it. I want him to load and unload just by my wiggling the lead rope.
Pokey will have to learn this also. But for now he is saying, "Nah, I don't think so". Pokey of course will not be going with us in the trailer but if he should ever need to make a trip to the vets office I want him to be able to get on the trailer too. He will be a tough nut to crack though, donkeys thinking pattern is much different than a horse's.
Maybe we can just roll him in, think????