Bone Chillin'

The weather forecast is nice for the next few days. These recent cold nights have been hard to adjust to. I am normally a polar bear. I really like cold weather, it may have something to do with hot flashes. Last winter we really saved on heating expenses but my poor DH nearly froze to death.

I got all of my green tomatoes picked before the freeze and I had to rush around to get my pool filter unhooked and drained. The wind was so strong and cold one day that my hot cup of coffee was just lukewarm by the time I got to the fire that my Husband had built to burn some stumps.

There I sat on a chunk of wood by the fire drinking a slightly warm cup of coffee. It just kind of ruined the whole affect. That wind not only ruined my coffee but it kept changing the direction of the sparks and smoke. My DH ended up having to set up two chunks of wood, one on each side of the fire for me to sit on and I kept having to get up and run to the other side. A very relaxing evening.

Some of my hens have stopped laying, I am only getting five eggs a day now. I also lost one of my Rhode Island Reds, we found her dead on the nest.

We sold Collette to a friend with good fence, so I will get to see her babies and still get to see her occasionally. My DH and I both sighed a big sigh of relief after we delivered her to her new home. Paris is still getting out once in awhile out of habit but I think that she will eventually stop.

Calico is still not liking her new living quarters inside the barn, she cries day and night. Her cries are sorrowful, mournful and loud, they are actually more of a wail than a cry. I thought that she would get over it eventually but I don't think she is going to. I tie Cooter up outside the goat lot and put her in with Paris when the weather is nice during the day, so it isn't like she is totally without companionship.

Naylor's eye still looks bad, the cloudiness is still there and he is still keeping it slightly closed but it isn't watering anymore. We have tapered off putting the medicines in it to once a day. He is still being such a good boy, most horses wouldn't let you get near them after what we have put him through. He always comes right to us and sometimes we don't even have to halter him.

Invalid CTF File

I have been having this problem and getting this error trying to update AVG Anti-Virus 8.

Invalid Update Control CTF File

To fix this:

1. Navigate to:
For WinXP: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Avg8\update\download

For Vista: C:\ProgramData\avg8\update\download

2. Delete avginfoavi.ctf and avginfowin.ctf

I did this a couple of times and the error just kept coming back the next day. So I took the next step of downloading and installing a fresh copy of AVG 8 after removing the original program. Guess what? After spending a grueling 6 hours downloading and installing the new AVG, I started getting the same error. So, I am back to square one and back to deleting the files again.

I have done many searches on Google and find these same fixes time after time. It seems to fix the problem for most people but I guess I am not most people.

**Update** After a few weeks this problem finally went away on it's own with no extra help from me or anyone else. So, if you are still having this come back time after time, there is hope, just keep on deleting.

**ANOTHER UPDATE** Here it is nearly two months later and after thinking that this problem was solved, I got the same error again today on Dec. 17, 2008. Please, if anyone knows of a permanent fix for this besides ditching AVG altogether, post your solution in a comment below.

Already Voted

We voted absentee yesterday at the Courthouse. We did it to avoid the long lines on Election Day. The trouble was that there was a long line at the Courthouse. They said that it has been like that every day. The workers can hardly get a lunch break of go to the restroom.

My DH also got a haircut yesterday and an angry debate broke out, with only one Democrat fighting for his life and the others questioning his sanity. It all worked out alright though we canceled his vote with ours.

When it comes down to it, Abortion is the main reason that I vote. The only person that I really voted for is Sarah Palin and I didn't even get to put a check by her name. There are other things about America, other issues that have been the backbone of this great country that are falling by the wayside and they are going away so quietly that we hardly notice. I don't want a leader who hates America, I want one that will love and protect her.

Wasted Time

I have spent a whole week working on my computer. It is very disturbing to have so much work to do and not being able to do anything because of having to tinker around with an old clunker.

I tried to weed out the problem by the process of elimination, occasionally finding a fix that worked for one day and then the same problem returned the next day. I was truly beating my head on the desk but that didn't help either.

As of this minute my computer is fixed but it may be a different story tomorrow. The poor thing is a dinosaur and should have been retired a long time ago but I keep putting band-aids and duct tape on it and feeding the squirrel that runs the gears vitamins and power drinks to keep him going but he has developed a bad cough and wheezes a lot.

I don't deal with change very well, I like things to just stay the same. I love new technology and gadgets, if they would just stop being obsolete by the time you figure out how to get them out of the clamshell plastic packaging.

Corneal Ulcer

While showing a horse to someone on Sunday afternoon, I noticed that several of the horses eyes were watering. One of them had quite a bit a pus in his eyes so I meandered down into the herd for a closer look. His eyes were fine but I started looking at other eyes and was shocked to find Naylor, our two year old, AQHA, solid bay gelding with a painful, runny and milky eye.

This looked very serious and we tried to get him in to see the Veterinarian on Monday but he wasn't available. On Tuesday morning we tried again to get him in to see our Vet and failed. So we called the new Vet who just opened a practice very close to where we live, she is just a young girl starting out and when we had called her once before her prices were too steep for us but we were desperate this time. She said that she could see him at 2:00.

She did a very thorough exam of his eye and diagnosed him with a corneal ulcer caused by an injury of some type, which she wanted to treat very aggressively. Very aggressively means that we have to keep him out of the sun or keep a fly mask on him and give him a shot every day plus put three different ointments in his eye twice per day and two of those ointments 4 to 6 times per day.

It wouldn't have been so hard if we could have put him in a stall and kept him here at the house but he had never been stalled and he wasn't having any part of it. He nearly tore the barn down. Naylor is a very quiet and gentle boy, my DH just got on him and rode off the very first time he was ridden but he didn't like being confined at all.

Since my Husband was going to be working all week, I didn't want to have to deal with him getting himself in trouble or hurt in the stall, so we stuck a fly mask on him and turned him back out with his herd. His herd doesn't want anything to do with him and treats him like he has cooties or worse.

They are savage, vicious and down right nasty to him. They bite him, kick him and chase him. He is totally confused and so pitiful, these were his best friends. We take the mask off of him at night and they are all happy to see him. Then the next day it's the same old battle.

This has been difficult for us, having to walk so far to get him in the dark and bring him back to the house. We have to twitch him to get him to hold his head still to put all that stuff in his eye. Tonight it was raining and cold, we drove to the top pasture and my DH had to walk out into the herd to find him, which isn't easy in the dark, he went right past him to another bay horse. Then he had to bring him back to me and the Blazer headlights to do the dirty deed.

What is shocking about the whole thing is that he never tries to get away from us when we come after him with a halter and lead rope. Sometimes he even sees us coming and walks to meet us. I don't understand why except that he loves to be petted and loved on, he doesn't exactly like having his eye messed with or getting a shot though. We have tried giving him some grain as a reward for his good behavior but he won't eat it, he just wants to get back to the herd after the loving and petting is over.

The Vet called to check on him yesterday evening and I didn't get her called back until this evening. I told her that we weren't seeing much improvement except that he doesn't act like it is hurting as much. She said that we wouldn't see much yet but that he should start keeping it open more, even if it does continue to water and look white. She said that it might even take a couple of months before all of the milkiness goes away.

I have to say that she impressed me, she is a very empathetic Doctor, her eye watered the whole time that she worked on Naylor's watery eye, plus she didn't charge us too much and that earns her a lot of points.

Ouch!

I had to go to the Doctor on Monday and that is like one of my least favorite things to do in the world. It ranks right up there with shopping or having to leave the farm for any reason.

I must have had some kind of mental lapse while I was there because I asked for a Tetanus shot. We give our horses tetanus shots every time they injure themselves and since I am always working on rusty barbwire and poking myself with the barbs, I thought that it might be a good idea. I think that I may have made a mistake.

While I am typing this, pain is shooting down my left arm in spasms. The nurse started to give me the shot in my right arm because I am left-handed and she said my arm would be sore for a few days. But being the deep thinker that I am, I told her that I wanted it in my left arm because my right arm is my mouse arm. I only do a few things with my left arm anyway and they are mostly unimportant things like writing and eating.

The shot itself didn't hurt but my arm keeps hurting worse each day. Now I did not ask for a Diphtheria vaccination but they slipped that one in on me. It wasn't until I read the little direction sheet that they gave me that I learned that I had been given both shots in one. I have had the symptoms of Diphtheria ever since because I am very impressionable. I have been having a hard time breathing, I am coughing and clearing my throat constantly.

Today is Wednesday and the muscle in my upper arm is hot, hard and swollen. It isn't red but that will probably happen tomorrow. She told me at the time that she gave me the shot that I should rub it vigorously all day and I did, so imagine how bad this would be if I hadn't.

Another thing that I have done that might have been foolish is stop taking all of my pain medicine. I really didn't think that it was helping my back that much and I was tired of the expense. I haven't taken any for a couple of weeks and I have been having trouble coping with the pain. I guess that it was helping me more than I thought. I don't feel like doing all of the things that I have been doing and I have to sit down and rest my back more often. If I am sitting a lot I have to get up and move around more often also.

I asked the Doctor about getting one of those tables that hang you upside down and he didn't actually recommend it but he told me that he has one himself. He also told me that if I do get one, to limit the time that I spend on it but since I do have perfect blood pressure he wouldn't say that I shouldn't use one. My problem is that I don't have room for one, but if there is a chance that it might help my pain, I will make room for it.

iGoogle Blogger Gadget

My home page on my computer just got better. I have been using Google for my home page with all of the neat gadgets for a long time now but they just made some really neat improvements.

I love the new way iGoogle is laid out and gmail just got so much easier for me. It was taking so long to access my gmail account that I hardly ever went there but I can get to it quickly and easily on my new personal iGoogle page.

And it gets even better! I can blog from my home page now too. I am writing this with the Blogger Gadget on my home page. The whole system is so much nicer and so much faster. This is not a commercial and I don't work for Google but I wish I did. Actually I am just testing this Google Gadget.

Oh, NOOO!!!

Frost! They said that it might happen but we didn't really believe them. But just in case, I did put a blanket over my tomatoes and a bucket over my little rose bush. All of my other flowers and plants have been destroyed by my wondering goat herd.

I took this picture of my poor little pine tree the other day as my goats were finishing it off. I didn't think that they could damage it any more than they already had but then they started peeling the bark off of it.

Owning goats is not for the faint of heart. They will disappoint and annoy you everyday and make you cry at least once per week. My little rose bush was a gift from a student of mine. He actually gave me three miniature rose bushes to start out but the other two met untimely deaths as bedding on a cool, sunny morning for our dearly departed pit bull, Holly.

The last remaining rose bush has soldiered on, fighting off attacks by these local thugs, who find rose and berry bushes so succulent. It has been trimmed back to only two leaves on several occasions this summer. I finally put a milk crate over the top of it and they figured out how to tip it over. They are very determined destroyers.

Zone Alarm

My slow dial-up connection is holding me prisoner tonight. I started a download of the Zone Alarm Firewall at 8:00 this evening and it is now 12:30. I am very sleepy but I cannot go to bed and leave the connection open all night. I thought about setting my alarm to get up and shut the computer down when the download is complete but I know that I would just keep hitting the snooze button.

My download is 79% done right now and I wouldn't have to even do this download if it weren't for either a Microsoft Update or an AVG Update that killed my internet connection. This same thing happened to me back in July with a Microsoft Update and I got it fixed somehow. This time I couldn't fix it without totally uninstalling Zone Alarm.

I may be wasting my time anyway because I may install this new Zone Alarm Firewall and lose my connection again. Microsoft or AVG is doing something that makes Zone Alarm have a nervous breakdown or something. I am going to shut off the Automatic Updates from Microsoft, but since I got an update from AVG at the same time, I can't say for sure who the culprit is. I don't have time to figure out how to fix their messes in either case.

Good Morning! I ended up going to bed and setting my alarm, I finally woke up enough to disconnect the connection after hitting the snooze button around five times. I am going to do some more research on my computer problem before reinstalling my new copy of Zone Alarm. I will try to find out if there is a fix or if the offending update has issued a patch for the problem.

Morning Workout

I do need to lose weight and had my DH mow me a path around the lower pasture, so that I can walk everyday. I have walked it twice since he mowed it several days ago. I have good intentions though.

This morning I got more workout than I bargained for. I was still in bed when I heard the sound of horse hooves running around the barn/house, with a groan I got up and got dressed. This only happens when my DH is at work. When I finally got outside there were five horses out, Seville, Buddy, Cougar, Naylor and Darth. They weren't too hard to put up but then I had to find the hole in the fence and fix it.

The fence was down in the upper pasture at the farthest end. I got all of the fence back up and then followed the electric wire all the way back around the top field. I figured that there would be a break in it and there was. So I fixed the break and started back to the house.

When I came past the goat lot, I decided to lower one corner of the wire. I had been working on electric fence all morning, so I didn't think about it being hot. I had unhooked the gate at the top of the hill so that fence would not be hot, but now I was in the valley and I just wasn't thinking. I grabbed the t-post and started trying to unhook the insulator, my memory was completely restored when the jolt came. I hate it when that happens, I feel so stupid.

I also gave in to convenience today. Right in the middle of the horses all running around in the yard, I noticed that Paris, my yearling doe had gone through two electric fences in order to get to Cooter. She was trying her best to scale his woven wire fence. A goat friend of mine kept asking me if I was afraid that Cooter would get loose and go to the does if they came in heat. I told her that I was more afraid that the does would go to him and I was right.

I gave it some thought, then made a quick decision that it would just be easier to put Cooter in the goat lot with Paris and Colette and put Calico in the barn stall. It would make milking so much easier for me and make feeding so much easier for me. But right now I am wondering if I made the right decision because Calico is right outside my living room door and she is screaming her head off. She doesn't want to be alone.

I tried putting Angel in with her and that helped but I can't leave Angel in there all of the time, she would go nuts. Hopefully Calico will adjust or lose her voice before long. This all means that my two does will be kidding in the middle of March while it is still cold and snowy. That should make some interesting blogs.

No Turning Back

Well I made a decision yesterday and there is no turning back. I wanted to wait until December to breed Collette and Paris but Collette was obviously ready yesterday and so we put her with Cooter. The timing was perfect because she stood for him and he got the job done. If she conceives, she will be kidding in mid-March. I would like to have Paris kidding in mid-April. So I will put her in with him next month.

I plan to milk Calico all winter then breed her in the Spring. Putting Collette in with Cooter has also solved my wondering goats issue. Paris and Calico have not gotten out of the fence since Collette has not been there to lead them.

Angel and Abby have finally become friends, they were just tolerating each other but they are finally starting to play together. Abby is just a little more playful than Angel, you would think that she was the youngest.

We enjoyed another nice night under the full moon last night. My DH built a fire under the big Maple tree where our Grandchildren love to play. It is right next to the goat lot. The Grandkids have gathered sticks there for a couple of years and they are always going to the stick pile to play. Their mean old Papaw burnt all of their sticks last night. I told him that he was going to be in some serious big trouble.

The reason that he was burning the kid's stick pile was that we had bought new fence and was going to enlarge the lot to include the big Maple. But while burning the pile and sitting there watching the fire. We decided that losing their favorite spot might give them issues later in life, so we are going to preserve the area and fence the tree outside the goat lot.

We are even going to add a concrete bench to the spot under the tree. The only problem that I see with our plan is that they can no longer call it "The Stick Pile". Unless they get busy and gather a bunch more sticks.

Moon Shadows

If you didn't go for a walk in the moonlight last night, then you just aren't living. I took two walks last night. For some reason, it may be a compulsion, I have to take a short tour of the grounds before I go to bed. My tour last night was just inspiring, that harvest moon was a thing of beauty.

I marveled at my shadow that was so clearly defined. Two of the goats were out and snoozing in the driveway along with their faithful companion, Angel. She was bright white, soft and cuddly in the moonlight when she ambled over to me for a rub and a hug. I enjoyed the scenery for a few minutes then went to bed.

I had a rough night, I couldn't get to sleep. I had a headache most of the day yesterday and it got worse when I laid down. When I did finally doze off, I kept waking up in pain, then my stomach started complaining about something I ate. I promised myself that I would quit eating spicy stuff right before bed, then later I promised myself not to eat anything before going to bed, still later I promised myself not to ever eat anything spicy at anytime of the day. I ended up promising myself never to eat again period!

As I flopped about the bed with all of these thoughts, pains and promises, Angel and Abby both started pitching a fit. They normally bark throughout the night to ward off predators but this was different, this was something serious that needed someone's attention and since nothing wakes my dear Husband, it fell my lot.

I walked out into the night with my tiny flashlight that wasn't needed because of the brightness of the moon. The dogs fell silent as soon as I walked out and no longer seemed concerned, they had done their job, they had alerted me to a problem that really didn't affect them.

I looked around and didn't see or hear anything, then I walked around the corner of the barn and saw something that most people would love to see in the moonlight. It was just the most beautiful sight. Although I didn't have time to stand around and marvel long at it, because I had to run into the house and wake up my Husband before this beautiful sight got ugly.

There, standing in the yard, in the moonlight on his hind feet pawing at the sky was our white stallion. It took my breath away for more than one reason, it was an awesome sight, he is very beautiful. But he was also challenging our Grullo Stud, who was only one tiny electric wire away from him and he was making some challenging moves himself. They had already broke one wire and the valley soon filled with violent screams and squeals.

It was really no big deal, I woke the man and he grabbed a halter and lead rope, I went back out and yelled at them. They were like a couple of kids who had been caught doing something wrong. Badger trotted off and Jazz started pacing the fence but stopped and stood still as quick as my DH said his name. He haltered him and put him in the corral for the night, then went back to bed. He is out fixing fence this morning. He had two days off in a row, that is just amazing.

As for me, I have still sworn off food. I did have a glass of goat's milk this morning and that seems to have settled things down for a little while. My head is still aching, so I am thinking that I have probably contracted the bout of flu that has been making the rounds.

Followers

I currently have four superior, intellectual people following my blog. I know that there are more of you out there who are ashamed to admit that you can't get through the day without reading about how many eggs I gather each day.

I would like to welcome Punky to my Follower's list, it was very brave of you to own up to reading my blog faithfully. If you don't know what I am talking about, you just need to scroll down a little ways in the right hand column of this page until you see the "Followers" area, then click on "Follow this blog" to add your name to the list. Don't be afraid, no one will know who you really are if you don't use your real name.

Also, just in case you are interested, we were away from home most of the day today. I went with my DH on one of those quick trips to pick up a fuel tank/tool box combo for the back of the new truck. Of course we actually came home with a fuel tank/tool box combo, another bigger fuel tank and a 6 ft. yard box. The only reason that we didn't make it home with a new rifle was because the man who had it for sale wasn't home.

These quick trips always last most of the day and my DH comforted me with the fact that I got to stop at one yard sale. The one yard sale that I got to visit was actually where we bought the fuel tank/tool box combo that we had gone after in the first place, so that was pretty painless for him.

I did buy three pairs of shoes, a purse, assorted ribbon and yarn and two teddy bears, so the day wasn't a total loss. Plus I got a Heath Blizzard from Dairy Queen.

The chickens were locked out of the barn/house today, which means that we don't know where they laid their eggs. We had a short egg hunt before it got dark and found only one out in the yard and a few in the goat/chicken shed but where the rest of them laid, we do not know. I added this last paragraph for those of you who love my egg reports. And by the way, I do have a couple of faithful egg buyers now, who are good for two to three dozen eggs each week.

I will also add this for those who need some goat news, Calico is giving one and one third quart of milk per day now. She would give more if I milked twice per day but I am not willing to put forth that effort, since we aren't using all that she is giving now.

Darth

He finally did it. My DH finally named a horse, he says it is his first. I usually do all of the naming around here and had been throwing several names at him for the new Tennessee Walker, who is totally black. Then my Husband took the horse for a ride out on the road and when he came back he had come up with the perfect name, Darth.

This horse is pretty awesome, we don't think that he has ever lived outside of a stall or been ridden outside an arena or round pen. He is just acting like he is seeing the world for the first time. My DH said that he did great out on the road, he wasn't flighty or spooky but he looked at everything with interest.

When we turned him out in the main pasture yesterday with the rest of the herd, he was more interested in sight-seeing than in the other horses. He just wondered around everywhere and looked at everything like he was seeing nature for the first time. He is a loner, he wasn't really interested in socializing.

We are very impressed with this gelding, he really seems to have the right stuff. We were told that he is a 3 yr. old but in comparing his teeth with one of our 2 yr. olds, we think that he probably just turned two this past Spring. He will probably be a tall boy when he stops growing. I have taken some pictures of him but haven't transferred them to the computer yet.

While The Cat's Away

My DH took yesterday off to get the new horse and Zircon gelded plus have the Vet sleeve two mares. The geldings went well and the sleevings went really well. When the Vet announced that both mares were empty, we breathed a sigh of relief. He thought that was funny because usually when he tells people that their mares aren't bred, they are disappointed.

These two mares are 3 and 4 yr. old riding horses and not broodmares. Jazz, our stallion, got out with them on Christmas day while we were away and they both looked bred. We hadn't seen them come into heat since then either. So, we were expecting Thanksgiving babies.

My dear Husband put the new horse in my goat lot after his traumatic event, he was moving slowly and he is a quiet horse anyway so we didn't think it would be a problem. We went to town for several hours and when we returned home, the fillies in the main pasture had broken a strand of the goat lot fencing trying to get to the new horse (haven't named him yet).

The strand that they broke was holding my gates, so all of my goats got out. Which was fine because they get out all of the time anyway. The problem was that Cooter had somehow gotten loose from his stake-out. So when we got home there was all of the goats together as one happy family. One of the does was breathing very hard and I assume that it was from running from Cooter.

I had planned on putting Cooter back in with the two does in December, so that they would kid in warmer weather. I wasn't going to breed my milking doe until Spring, so that we could have milk all winter. Now all I can do is write down the date that he got loose with them and hope for the best. My milk doe was clean, so I don't think that he got to her but the other two acted pretty receptive.

This type of thing always happens when you are away from home. I know that I shouldn't be this way but I would just prefer to stay home all of the time. I am fairly sure that Jazz planned his Christmas day surprise well before Christmas Eve, he knew that we would be gone all day.

This is the first time Cooter has gotten loose, I thought at first that he must have gotten his halter off but he didn't. Somehow he had released the bull snap, that takes some skill if you don't have fingers, but desperate times call for desperate action.

300th Post

With this post I am celebrating my 300th entry. I wasn't sure that I would have that much to say when I started this blog and some days are easier than others. Keeping a journal is very therapeutic for me. I enjoy having a record of dates when certain things happened and I have never been disciplined enough to write everything on a calendar or in a diary. But blogging works for me. I have already had to refer back to my blog archives to find out when certain things happened.

If I don't blog everyday, I get scolded. So it is actually a public diary. Of course, I don't write all of my secret thoughts in it but I get pretty close. Like today my secret thought is that I am glad that the NRA has decided to endorse McCain and Palin. I am sure that Palin made the decision much easier, as she is a member of the NRA. But these are my secret thoughts and not to be shared with anyone.

National Rifle Association endorses McCain - Yahoo! News

Speaking of the 2nd Amendment, my DH and I have both applied for our Lifetime Handgun Permits. I don't know how long it takes to get them back but I am anxious to be able to carry my little handgun if I choose to do so. If the economy keeps going down the tubes, then I may need to protect my Chickens and Goats from human predators and not just foxes and coyotes.

Our Pastor told us last night that we didn't need to worry about the economy, that the Lord would provide for all of us. Then he told the congregation that our neighbor, who also goes to Church with us, has cattle and that we would all have beef to eat and that we have chickens, so the whole Church would have eggs and chicken. Then someone spoke up and said that we also have goats, so he offered the whole congregation milk as well. He asked if anyone had hogs but no one did.

So, you see I am in a terrible fix, the good Lord is really going to have to bless my chickens and goats to provide, chicken, eggs and milk for close to 200 people, if we go into another depression. There are some other families that can chip in on the beef and maybe two other families that can help out with the chicken and eggs but my poor goats, plus two other pet goats are the only goats in the whole Church. He was, of course, kidding.

Replacement

We can't seem to get ahead for falling behind. We sold our last AQHA Palomino gelding and delivered him yesterday. He got a good home where he will be spoiled to death. This brought our number of horses down to around 32, when you have this many horses, you never know for sure how many you have at any given time.

On our way home with the horse trailer, my DH suggested that we run by a friend's place who had a 3 yr. old, Black Tennessee Walker Stallion for sale. I should have screamed and cried and refused to go, but I didn't. I also forgot to make him wear his light green sweatshirt that reads, "I do not need another horse" three times on it. Needless to say, we brought the horse home with us.

We are going to have Zircon, our leopard colt, gelded on Friday, so we are going to have this new guy gelded as well. He is a tall black horse without any white on him. He is green broke and very well behaved. You would never know that he was a stallion.

We don't know where he came from originally but he looks like he should probably be registered, he looks and carries himself like a full-blooded TWHBEA. With the value of horses being what it is right now, many people just aren't going to the extra expense of putting papers on their low valued younglings. This is a real shame for this horse, if that is what happened with him. Because he is nice looking, calm and well behaved.

We put him in the stall right outside our bedroom last night and he didn't make a sound all night. He has only nickered once since we loaded him. The man that we bought him from had never ridden a gaited horse before and said that he really enjoyed riding him. I am assuming that someone probably gave this colt to him, he had him broke, put some weight on him, then started trying to sell him.

We will have him gelded, try to put some more weight on him, give him some more training and try to find him a good home. I will post some pictures of him as soon as I get some taken.

My Quiet Day

This day started out normally with me waking up while still in bed. From there things went a little haywire, which is somewhat normal also. I am not upset or disturbed because for the most part I have enjoyed most of the day.

My morning was marred by my goats being out, I chased them around for a little while before finally catching them and putting the two yearling does in a dog kennel where they couldn't get out. Then turned around to the sound of a stallion screaming and kicks being administered. One of the broodmares and a two year old filly had knocked a gate off of it's hinges to get in with Badger our Grullo Stallion.

He was just trying to be friendly, after all they had come into his pen. They were kicking the daylights out of him. I managed to get him out of his pen and into the mare and foal pasture, then managed to get the mare, 3 weanlings and pony out of their pasture and into the dry holding lot. I left the offending mare and filly in Badger's pen. Then tied up the gate as well as I could. I felt like we were playing musical chairs.

I was scheduled to watch my three Granddaughters in the afternoon and as is always the case when they are here, my phone rings off the hook. The girls are very young and needy, they are especially needy when you are on an important call. There were a few times that I felt like jerking the phone line out of the wall and pitching the phone out the door, when the calls weren't important. It is odd to me that the older girls can be calling for my assistance over and over, the baby can be crying loud enough to wake the dead and the person on the other end of an unimportant call cannot tell that I am busy and don't have time to talk.

Two calls were important, one was letting me know that they had decided to buy a nice little AQHA Palomino gelding named Midas from us. They came to look at him yesterday.

The other important call was from a man who bought a horse from us several weeks ago. He has been riding his legs off, his daughter and Grandkids have been riding him as well. But after loading him in his trailer many, many times and even taking him away on a camping trip, the horse has decided not to get into the trailer anymore, not even for food. I gave him my suggestion, it involved pressure and a stick.

I chose today to try out a new recipe, since I didn't already have enough to do. My new recipe turned out well, but not worth the time invested. Somehow I managed to get my goat milked and my buck put up before dark, after the kids left. The DH and I even stole a couple of minutes to sit down outside and talk after he got all of the horses put back where they belong and got the gate repaired.

Double Yolk

I discovered my first double yolker yesterday. My Grandson had spent the night and I was fixing his breakfast, naturally I chose the biggest egg that I could find. I thought that it might be a double yolked egg but I had been disappointed before.

I took a picture of it just in case that it was. I cracked it and opened it into a cup and my Grandson said, "Whoa!" (a common expression used by adults to stop a runaway horse and by 9 yr. old boys seeing a double yolked egg for the very first time.)

It was quite exciting for us simple folks who aren't used to much excitement. I took pictures just in case this phenomenon never occurs again. If it does occur again, it won't be nearly as thrilling as it was the first time. You see, while it doesn't take much to thrill us, it also doesn't take much to bore us.

Here are the pictures, I hope you enjoy them. It was very hard on my Grandson to let me take them because he was hungry. Just so you know, it doesn't take a 9 yr. old boy any longer to eat a double yolked egg than it does to eat a single yolked egg. I had to fix him two more eggs after this one but I didn't take pictures of them.

Problem Persists

My two yearling does are continuing to escape their electric fenced pen. I had hoped that they were bred to kid this fall but I am now pretty sure that at least one of them is currently in heat. Since I stake Cooter out during the day, this could be a problem because she might try to go to him. There is a hot wire around the lot that I stake him out in but hot wires have lost their effect on these two girls.

I certainly don't want them bred now because that would give me February babies. I would like to breed them around the first of December, so that they would kid in warm weather.

I have done everything I know to do to fix the fence so that they can't get out but nothing has worked. They are both going under it now, Paris has stopped jumping it. The bottom strand is two inches off of the ground and it is hot. Angel has started getting out again as well, they all just put their noses under the bottom wire and push through.

I think that their hair is preventing them from being shocked. Shaving a bald patch on the top of their necks or shoulders might work but I hate to make them look so ridiculous. I have even considered making the bottom strand barbed wire. I can't afford to put up woven wire. I hate not being able to control them.

Cows and Calves

We don't have cattle anymore, we didn't have the greatest luck with raising calves though we have done it most of our lives. We lost our favorite cow and it was hard on both of us, so we sold all of our other cows. I do miss calving and I really miss going to check on the cows, even in the middle of a cold winter night.

I got to do a little calf handling yesterday morning and I enjoyed it. We have always helped our neighbor and close friend with his small cattle operation. He has a few black Angus cows and a gorgeous bull, he takes his calves to the Springville Feeder Auction that is just a few miles away.

We normally load and haul his calves for him, but someone else had volunteered to do it yesterday, which was perfect because my DH had to work, he is back to working six days a week again.

The person who was going to haul them came early yesterday morning and realized that there was just no way that he could do it. Our neighbor's farm is mostly hillside and very steep, getting a trailer to his holding pen usually takes a tractor but since we haven't had rain for weeks, it could be done with a 4x4 truck. The problem is that it is a small area and there is not any room for mistakes.

I was sleeping soundly and deeply when the phone rang. I didn't try to answer it because my back has to adjust slowly to achieving vertical status. I could hear the message that was left on the answering machine and recognized the voice. I was a little annoyed about the timing but I thought that it was nice that the neighbor was coming to haul off our trash. I got up, got dressed and gathered all of the trash and was just walking out the door with it when he arrived. I tried to hand it to him but he didn't seem anxious to take it.

He explained his problem to me and I groggily comprehended that he had said that he was coming to get the trailer and not the trash. So I sat the trash down without explaining it to him. As my bad luck would have it, our new shiny black Ford diesel 4x4 truck had the trailer hooked to it and it was pulled right up to the barn/house. It would have to be backed up and turned around. I am not a great trailer backer and my neighbor may be worse.

I got the keys, started the truck and he walked up to the window and asked me if I would do it with our truck instead of having to unhook it to do it with his truck. I told him that I would try if he would fix me a cup of coffee before we started. So I went back into my house, brushed my teeth, wiped the sleep from my eyes, turned the truck and trailer around and headed for their house. His wife had my coffee ready when I arrived.

I got the truck and trailer up the hill to the pen. I somehow managed to back right into perfect position on my second attempt. Everything went like clockwork, I worked the trailer door, my neighbor was in the pen pushing the calves from behind and his wife was reinforcing the gate on the other side of the trailer, so that the calves wouldn't see a hole to go through.

I remember when this neighbor first got cows and my Husband started helping him, it was hard to get across to him that he needed to be quiet and calm when working with cattle, he is a little excitable. Yesterday he was telling his wife that she needed to be completely quiet. To which I added, that she shouldn't move unless something tried to push through her gate. Then he gave her a club, so, I guess he finally gets it.

The calves loaded fairly easy and then I had to turn the thing around again to get it out of there. This is where I got nervous, it had to be done in inches because of the limited space. We were going down a steep and rough hill with the trailer loaded this time and those calves each weighed around 500 lbs.

I didn't hit the gate at the right angle and couldn't get the trailer past the gate post, there was no way to back up and try again, it was just too steep and my load was too heavy. I suggested that he might be able to pull me backwards with his tractor but his wife came up with a better solution. She told me to tell him to cut the gate post. But she also told me that it would have to be my idea or he wouldn't go for it. So I suggested it to him and he went for the chainsaw.

The real problem came when my DH got home and heard what happened. He was upset to say the least. He said that he would never have taken the new truck up there. He would have used the neighbor's tractor, because he wouldn't even take our tractor up there. I asked him finally if I would ever hear the end of it and he told me, no.

I am sure in 10 years when the truck develops some mechanical problem or he ever gets a flat tire, it will be my fault. But I am used to it, everything is always my fault anyways.