Let the pros handle it

So I decided to start a crochet project last night. A skullcap. I think it's ambitious.. but I can probably manage since I've got a total of 48 hours of practice under my belt. Things were going along okay even though I had to keep turning back a few pages in my instructions to remember how to make the double crochet stitch. No problemo I got it at last.

Then I caught a mistake


I need to pull out all the stitches from the marker on the left to the marker on the bottom right. Not such a big deal if you are one of those people who can crochet at the speed of light. I crochet at the speed of molasses. It's a lack of coordination but I'm used to it. By the way the instruction book is from the KLUTZ company. Thanks for adding to my self esteem people!

Is this amusing? Can you say schadenfreude beyotch?!!!
Yeah you too
You're the worst of the bunch!
Oh no... NOT the dog too. Sigh.

Fabulous!
Canine humiliation!

Creature feature

This is a two sided beastie I made for my husband for our anniversary. The creature itself has nothing to do with our anniversary per se, except for the fact that my husband often asks that I "make something" for him.. be it for birthdays, Christmas, wedding anniversaries, etc.

Not long ago he emailed me a small avatar of this brown creature that he saw on a forum and asked if I could make a similar one for him. Since I no longer have a copy of Maya or any 3D modeling software I didn't know how I'd go about doing this. Besides, the more I thought about this project the more I didn't like the fact that the present would only be seen when he was using his computer. I thought it would be much more fun to have a tangible item.. so that is how "Brown" (the creature) came to be.

Side A


Side B

Back

Hi there I'm back. Thanks to those few readers who return to my blog to read my mumbo jumbo over the many months.

I haven't felt like writing much since I put my sweet dog to sleep. He was struggling and very sick. It was time to say good bye. In 3 days it will be a month that he is gone. I still catch myself thinking that I need to get home from someplace so that I can let him out and feed him dinner, then I remember that there is no pup waiting for me by the back door.

I've been off work due to a repetitive motion injury. Its been nice being home so much. I have also been out to see the horse a lot more than when I was working. He isn't looking so hot these days.. I think it is a combination of shedding out the winter coat, and the poor hay that he has been getting that make him look so bad. Everyone is having trouble getting hay due to last summer's drought. When people finally do find hay they buy it- fingers crossed that it is still nutritious.

I'm giving my horse vitamins and supplementing the hay that the barn supplies with additional chopped forage that I'm picking up at the feed store. This should help. He also needs to exercise because he is loosing all muscle tone. Poor guy.

Wow, so this is really an upbeat post! I'm gimpy, my dog is in heaven, and my horse looks ragged.

Here is one of my visiting Chickadees.. he is enjoying the meal worm buffet :)

Curious and friendly

Whenever the cat comes over to me I will often pet him and brush him causing my horse to become curious. The horse will often come over to sniff us if I have picked up the cat, but the cat finds this attention and the large horse nostrils puffing warm air on his fur worrisome and will try to jump down. I have learned to cover his head and turn his back to the horse so that both parties are satisfied. Aristoitle is always very gentle and good natured about the kitty. I have seen one of Aristoitle's pasture-mates run the poor cat out of the pasture before.. "A" doesn't do that. The cat will often come into the stall while I am there grooming my horse and wait his turn to be brushed.


Coming closer for a greeting..

Icy weather

The icy weather has passed, and now we might get some snow.

Today: another day of work, another day of being understaffed, another day of having sore hands, wrists and arms. Not complaining just telling it like it is. I have low expectations of the place I work. Don't feel sorry for me this is my strategy for dealing with the b.s., this way when things go right it's a treat, see?

Meet some spanish mackerel.

Sleep...

.. the antitote for civilization.

As soon as I find an acorn cap to make as my house I'm going to shrink myself down and live here for awhile. I'll also shrink some extra clothes and sketchbooks and pencils. Yeah.

I see this older chap in my store from time to time. I found out he's a painter and works from life only...landscapes. It's been 27 degrees with winds gusting into 40 MPH range the past few days. Brrr!

I downloaded a Sudoku game for Nanette yesterday. I know, sad and geeky but I thought it might be a good way to unwind after work instead of being glued to my laptop till 4:00 AM. The graphics in the game are nice.. well the screen resolution on the nano is great, so no surprises there.

This was under the lid of the sour cream I bought last night.

Pup & Stuff

The pup is looking pretty good and has been fairly energetic the past two days. What a relief from earlier this week when I carried him outside and he could barely stand or walk around.




Here is the head of garlic that I am sprouting. The honey jar I am using had the most delicious honey in it.

Hoof comparison Part 3

Time for me to make another brief update on my barefoot horse. As you see there are side by side comparisons from 2006 (on the left side) and Jan 2008 on the right.

The first photo is of the hind feet. Both '06 and '08 pictures were taken after I trimmed the hoof, which in regards to the 2008 side consisted of rasping down the hoof wall and the beveling the edge. I bevel from the bottom when the foot is in the position as when photographed, then I place his hoof on my knee or on a stand and round off from the top as well. I didn't do anything to the sole except to make some investigating scrapes here and there..but no paring of the sole.

I'm afraid I can't tell you what I did in 2006 because I knew even less back then than I do now -and I certainly had less hoof wall to work with. I recall beveling the hoof all around especially at the quarters where the hoof wall was thin and looked like it could start to have separation problems. I used to cut at the frog but I don't do that anymore. I'll trim the frog only if there is some flap that is hanging on that is about to fall off anyway.

It's nice to see the difference in hoof wall thickness in the 2008 pictures. On the left front 2008 picture, the frog has a very narrow slit. I considered opening this up because just underneath the gap widens and is quite open at the heel. I decided to leave things alone since I can get dirt out.. besides I felt guilty taking away any calloused frog that helps him stay comfortable with heel first landings. I have started applying Tea Tree oil mixed with some grape seed oil in the central sulcus and collateral grooves of the frog in hopes of killing off thrush causing bacteria. The grape seed oil is only to dilute the tea tree oil in case I use some on his skin. Using full strength tea tree oil on his skin caused it to dry out and get scurfy.

On that same photo LF '08 one can see a small dark line on the right of the hoof wall. This is a separation that is starting to happen. What I did tonight when I trimmed him is beveled this area of the wall a little bit more, so that there would be less leveraging forces prying on this weak area. What caused this? I don't know.. maybe hygiene.. maybe there was a little opening there I didn't notice last time and dirt got in and started to breed a bacteria farm. I have licked this problem before.. this time I'm catching it sooner. For the record I trimmed him on January 1st '08, and then today.. so we are at 4 weeks exactly. I do think I will make sure I check the bevel on all feet at the two week mark, just so I can stay ahead of any damage.

I couldn't find my 2007 hoof pics.. although I'm sure I've got some around. If anyone is interested in seeing previous hoof comparison stories they can click here and here.

I'd like to hear from anyone with experience on barefoot natural trimming along the style and philosophy of Pete Ramey, please leave me a note in the comments section. Thank you!

Also, don't forget to look at the Safer grass web site, and Pete Ramey's page. And you lucky horse owners who can keep horses in YOUR OWN back yard.. get the book Paddock Paradise. Don't tell me "but I have no space to do this" because these guys made one on a steep hillside! Somewhere on their website they have a short movie showing their horses running all around. Okay here is the movie...Check it out! Do it for your horse! Do it for me because my horse lives in someone else's back yard! ☺

Gifts

To have free time is to have a gift. To have good health is to have a gift. I frequently squander my hard earned free time which makes me feel bad. I also feel bad waking up with swollen hands, sore wrists and forearms and not wanting to do anything with my day off except to go back to bed.

What a waste to lay there doing nothing except look out the window and watch the shadows wrap around the trees as the sun tracks across the sky. To doze off and wake up repeatedly and notice the changing light... sometimes it's cozy knowing I don't have to rush off anywhere, I don't have anything pressing to do and it is cold outside and I'm warm in bed with the dog near me on his own bed. He's a good sleeping companion, always up for a nap.

I tell myself I need to rest, catch up on sleep, to get well from the lingering cough I have from my last cold. But then I watch the day slip by, or wake up from a strange mishmash of dreams and wonder if it was worth it?

I'm no guitar hero

I got my Satriani cds out this morning and I've listened to all of them. I still like them as much as when I first got them. Yeah, this will inspire me to keep practicing my scales.. and then by the time I'm an old fart I'll be able to play okay. Right? Right?
And look at nanette since she's had her glossy makeover. Cute!
Complicate things much?
Time to get ready for another day at the factory. Shite! Today then tomorrow and I'll have a few days off. It wasn't supposed to be like this, I was supposed to have more time during the day to keep up with Aristoitle and do other things but so far that hasn't been happening. I'm slowly changing that though... I actually leave when I'm supposed to now instead of staying late and fixing my section. I finally learned the hard way that no one cares but me and that there is no point in knocking myself out to make things look good when it will get fuked up the next day.

Weds. 23rd

I've got some stories to tell, but right now it's time to get outside before the sun sets. In the mean time be happy knowing that if I were to be stranded on an island someplace I could crochet a fishing net from plant fibers and feed and clothe myself. That is all.

Tony vs. Paul - a stop motion film

Somewhere in my blog I have a link to this movie, and I found it again today while I was looking for something else. I think it is worth posting again.. so here it is.. I hope you like it. It took an enormous amount of physical work to make them look as though they are flying. Very clever!

Horsin' around

I made some new horse friends today. Here is a young colt I played with this afternoon. I had him follow me on the lead line, and moved him around with a gentle porcupine game, with lots of scratching and petting in between. He is quite sweet and very much a worrier, so I spent a lot of time kneeling down and letting him sniff my hair and my jacket. Having me down low like that really helped his confidence because each time I stood up and walked away he followed with less hesitation.



Here is his pasture-mate, a sweet filly who kept interrupting us by trying get in on the fun and games. Each time I would walk around the colt she would come up beside him and look over his back like this to see what I was doing. She would reach out and nuzzle my arm and head, smell my pockets and try to walk through the lead line her buddy was connected to. She is also the half sister to the little dude
Here you can see the mischievous one sticking her tongue out while the shy one looks on.
It was a beautiful day and I wish I had taken my camera with me.. luckily the cellphone camera saved the day with these few photos. I hope you had a good day too! :)