Tell Me it Ain't So!

Two Hearts are Better Than One

Congratulations, Mikki Jo! Your re-thought caption is just what I was looking for! Pop me an email with your addy, and I'll get the note cards right out to you.

And for the rest of you, your names will be entered into the drawing, along with all other Winsday caption entries, for the calendar! Remember, each Wednesday is Winsday!

I love these boots! (Haven't I said that before?)

I’m a self confessed boot tramp. I’ve admitted as much here. I love boots. My favorites by far are my Ariat boots. So comfy, so practical. I posted their pic in the boot tramp post. Darling took their picture just the other day when we traveled on the ferry. My love for those boots rivals my affection for my family. And when the family is being disagreeable, I prefer the boots.

I choose to wear my Ariats over anything else in the closet. The only place I wouldn’t wear them would be church…but come to think of it, I’ve worn them there as well. Which is proof positive of my boot trampiness, I suppose. I mean…who but a boot tramp would wear her barn boots to church? But they’re just so comfy!

Darling and I brought the sheep down to the neighbors yesterday, and I started out with my rubber boots. You know, the pair I discovered the hole in while taking that video of the creek for you? Well, walking in them wasn’t easy. My socks kept sliding down to my toes during the walk, so after our first trip I decided I’d change into my Ariats. Why I hadn’t selected them in the first place, I don’t know. I guess I preferred the thought of a wet foot to wearing my comfy leather boots through the long wet grass.

So home we came, and while Darling slipped into the house to grab a warmer sweatshirt, I snatched my boots from the shelf.

Or…what was left of my boots…

I couldn’t believe it. My heart sank down to the deepest depths of the earth’s core. One of my boots was only half a boot! The top half was gone…not there…where was it??? Which is when I noticed Tait standing there, looking quite full and satisfied with her recent kill. Tait ate my Ariat boot!

What's left of my beloved...I'm in mouring!

City Boy has long wanted Tait gone. She’s eaten countless headphones, speakers, and an array of computer parts. Hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars worth of his electronic goodies, videos and whatever else she’s been able to get her little mouth around. Or not so little mouth. No amount of toys has pacified this dog. She doesn’t care if you offer her ropes or pigs ears or peanut butter stuffed kong toys. No, she only wants to chew up things of great value. And now? Now she’s eaten my boot! And City Boy is laughing.

How could this sweet face be hiding so much evil?

To make matters worse? Tait just tossed up something out of the depths of her tummy. Something that looks like strips of leather from an Ariat boot…and I’m wondering…do I clean them off and try to stitch my boots back together again?

She's got spurs, they Jingle, Jangle, Jingle!

"I like the way they jingle when I walk", giggle giggle.

Darling discovered spurs today. I'd pulled out an old pair that's not been in service for years, thinking I'd stick them on the back of a boot and take a picture or two. That wasn't going to happen with my little Imelda around. The boots went onto her feet and the spurs onto the boots. And there they stayed throughout the day. She liked the way they jingled when she walked (giggle giggle.)

Darling and Rocket out in the rain...jingle jangle (giggle giggle.)

Did I mention it's been raining here a bit? You'd think we had a trout pond out in the driveway at the moment. Normally not a problem, this non-stop, round the clock winter of rain has the whole Pacific North WET under water. Thankfully, we're no where near as bad as other areas of the county. Still, a little reprieve would be nice.

Head of Homeland Security got a hair cut. He doesn't seem to mind being out in the rain without his coat. Just like a kid, eh? Darling also didn't mind being out in the rain today. Especially since she was jingling everywhere she went. One of our stops was at my trainer friend's, where I snapped this pic of the inside of that bull for you. If you missed that post, he drives the bull while his clients work their cutting horses. He can get this thing to whirling around pretty good, giving the horses a good workout (or easy one, if that's what they need.)

I slipped inside the tack room for a picture of the bridles hanging on the wall. I'm not totally thrilled with the photo, but it's late so I'm not going to fiddle with it right now. Each horse has his (or her) own bridle. If you take a close look, you'll see a whole slew of different bits (the mouth piece) in them. And way off to the left there is a hackamore, also called a bosal, that has no bit. Some horses work well with one kind of bit, others need something different. There's no one size fits all...kinda like shoes. We all need a different size or width, or feel comfortable with a different heel or sole.

Darling feels comfortable in spurs, evidently, attached to her boots. Here she is again, out playing in the rain with her new footwear. The spurs were still jingling, even when they got wet (giggle giggle.)

After driving down into the neighboring county, I didn't feel so bad about my driveway puddle. It could be worse. Look at this! A sure sign of spring is that yellow growing up in the swampy, roadside water. It's bright, yellow and visually attractive. That is, until you know what it is, or get close enough to smell it. The plant is known as skunk cabbage, and it smells like both!

You can actually see the white line of the road in this shot, and the water right up alongside it. There are several side roads underwater right now due to our heavy rains. I believe they've had some flooding up in Canada, eh, as well.

After leaving my friend's place, we headed to a shop where we picked up some pretty papers to make a scrap book. Yes, Darling jingled, jangled, jingled and giggle, giggled her way through the store. And despite her request, I managed to not bring the camera in and take pictures of the event. Although, I'm rather regretting that now...giggle, giggle!

Fashion Diva

InSPURation!

Congratulations, Rachel, on your winning entry! There were many terrific entries, but this one caught my eye.

With such a fashionable boot for inspuration, I just couldn't resist a little fashion diva expose here. Take a look at Darling, all dolled up along with our head of Homeland Security, Rufus. Darling reminds me of Little Orphan Annie with her red wig.

Unfortunately, her fashion sense really hasn't changed much over the past few years. She still makes, er, interesting choices. Coloring is one of her favorite activities, and if she's not drawing on walls (no clue who she may have inherited that gene from) or her hands, she's coloring on her clothing. Note the skirt. Typically, she'll have a pair of jeans on beneath it. And then she'll wear the whole outfit out in public.I'm not sure how she comes by this sense of fashion. Surely it couldn't be from my side of the family. I mean...it's not like she's got them on backwards or anything. I'm the height of fashion, starting promptly when I fall out of bed in the morning. The sheep love seeing me coming out to feed in my flannel sheepie pj's with my knee high rubber boots. The horses don't appear to mind, either. And that trucker that slid into the ditch as he was driving past? Well, obviously he was quite awestruck by my early morning fashion choices.

But back to Darling... She informed me she wants to color her hair. Blue.

I don't think so, dearie. It looks much better purple! But you're right about blonde; it's not your color.

I was flipping through some blogs earlier and came across a whole slew of them dedicated to, of all things, fashion! What a silly topic to spend your day on, I thought. Then I looked at the photos. Good golly, those high end fashion divas are dressed just like Darling!

So the next time you see my kid out there and wonder where the heck she learned to dress like that, well, I don't mean to brag or anything, but she inherited that gene from me. And if you think she's dressed a bit odd? Just remind yourself she's on the cutting edge of fashion!

Oh! What a Shame It Would Be...

...to live in a place such as this...

...where you were forced to see views such as these...

...day after day...

...after day....

It just doesn't seem right that someone should be forced to live like this, does it?

Yesterday was so lovely! In fact, I believe it hit just over 70 degrees here. And today? Rain and wind. Ah, well, such is the blessing of living here in the pacific north wet.

Taffy's udder was filled a bit more yesterday, but still only about 25% of what I'd expect it to be prior to lambing. I've had ewes that looked to have a full udder for a full month prior to lambing, but as this is Taffy's first there's no pattern to follow with her. Keep your dates coming in; let's keep them in March(except my April 1 & 2 guesses), and if she doesn't lamb by the latest day chosen, we can try again in April. But I really do think it will be this month.

With things so lovely yesterday, I decided to go work on the fence line down at the neighbor's place. She let me keep my sheep there last year, which was a real blessing as the extra pasture comes in quite handy. There are three acres there, however, and since I couldn't afford to put in a woven wire fence, I opted for something a wee bit less expensive; this orange stuff that you see in construction areas or out in fields blocking snow.

Now, anybody can tell you that this is not ideal fencing for sheep. Unfortunately, Anybody wasn't around when I purchased it. They did show up, however, a month after I put it up and informed my sheep that it wasn't too terribly tricky to push through. Hence, I had a few loose sheep last summer. Fortunately, sheep are terribly cute and the neighbors got a kick out of them wandering through their yards.

So this is what my orange fence ended up looking like. Not terribly effective, I fear. Which means that this year I'll be spending a bit more time and a bit more money on something a bit more reliable!

The beginnings of a 'hoop house', Tracey style! This shows two rebar meshes that I lashed together, then arched into the air. I have two more that will go alongside these to make the arch wider. They're pegged down with fence posts. Once I've got the 'frame' done, I'll cover it with a tarp for an inexpensive, temporarily shelter in the summer pasture.

For those of you who asked! I've now got the beginnings of the soap blog going. More than soap, of course...lotions, yarns and whatever else happens to be a by-product of my life here at any given moment. So come visit me at the Palace!

Have a great day, and don't forget to submit your lambing dates (you have until tomorrow evening) and your caption for the boot (I'll be taking a look at them all tonight!)

A Day with Miss Banana Head

Happy Birthday, Banana!

Driving the kids crazy, ain't it grand? I've gone and purchased a couple of Dwight Yokum CD's and had to have Darling help me figure out how to get it to work in my computer. When she heard the honkey tonk coming from the speakers she nearly melted like the Wicked Witch when Dorothy tossed a bucket of water on her. I'll have to remember this technique whenever I need to clear a room!

Taffy and Bessie enjoy breakfast

I'm still waiting on Taffy to lamb. Anyone care to offer up a date? I think I'll send a couple bars of sheep milk soap, and perhaps a sheep milk cream, out to whom ever can pick the correct date for lambing. Are you up for the challenge? I'm guessing it's in March, but heck, who knows for sure? So offer up your guess in the comments!

Yesterday I brought my niece out with me on my travels. Banana's birthday was last week, she's 9 now; but it snowed so I didn't go to her party. She was horribly disappointed, but I suspect we made up for that yesterday. We went south to pick up Pokey, the ram, from his visit with the ladies. While there, Banana got to visit with Sugar, the donkey.

Banana and Pacman

Upon leaving the sheep, we headed up the road a couple miles to my friend Linda's where we were lucky enough to catch Curt and a few of his customers working cutting horses. Curt's the one in the bull (normally, he's just full of it, not filling it...rofl...I crack myself up...)

The bull is used for several reasons, among them that you can work a horse in it's weak areas and you never have to worry about sour cattle (they get bad attitudes after being chased around by a horse, go figure!)

I love this boot, don't you? I'll bet it's owner was wondering what the heck I was so interested in it for, but don't you just dig the color? Okay, I brightened it up a bit. Do you like? I think it needs a name, however. So look, here I've got two little contests going and it's not even Winsday! But yeah, offer up a name, and if I pick your's you'll be getting a set of lovely notecards in the mail, plus something else and I don't know what that is at the moment, but I'm certain you'll love it =)