Hodgepodge Wednesday

The Gang of Seven staged another prison break this morning and this time they headed for the road. Thankfully there was a cop coming in the opposite direction so he turned on his flashing lights -- whereupon the Gang of Seven turned tail and thundered back toward our place. By standing in the middle of the street I was able to herd them into our driveway.

We need to replace a couple of gates it seems. Soon.


Now, on to the Wednesday Hodgepodge, hosted by Joyce!

1. How many times in your life have you moved house? I'd never thought of that before, but the total is nine. Wow!  This last move was truly the last move, though. We're here in this house to stay - we leave either feet first or by Rapture.

2. What subject would you study if you had a year to devote to it?  British history. I'm part Brit by birth and I've always had something of an affinity for their culture. Love to read the history, and if I had the time, I'd delve into the period of World War I and how the aftermath affected England.

3. What in this world breaks your heart?  Too many things, that's for sure. Some are personal to our family, others are broader. One broad thing that breaks my heart is the political climate in our country. The loudest mouths are at one extreme or the other, vilifying each other with every petty thing they can think of. Too much time and money is spent digging up dirt on the opponent. And the voice of the center is nowhere to be found.

4. What is one item that symbolizes the times in which we live? Why?  The cell phone. It rules us all, and I must admit that I am as much a willing subject as anyone else. The vacation that my family and I take at Wade Lake every year -- with no cell phone service or internet service -- proves it. Only in that time do we relax fully and deeply without the constant intrusion of the world.

5. Share a favorite bumper sticker or t-shirt slogan. Of all the things I've ever lost, I miss my mind the most.

6. How do you like your spaghetti? With meat sauce or meat balls -- preferably with my homemade sauce, thank you very much.

7. What is one piece of advice you would give a recent, or soon to be recent, graduate?  Assume that life is long and that seasons of life will come and go.  Don't make impulsive choices when it comes to the direction of your life. And do NOT get into any kind of substance abuse. EVER. Your abilities as an employee, as a functioning adult, as a parent, will be significantly diminished, and your quality of life will suffer.

8. Insert your own random thought here.  Randomly speaking, I really like the assisted living place where my aunt now lives, and I am consciously making an effort to connect with more of the residents each time I visit.

Happy Wednesday all! If you wish to join in the Hodgepodge, you can click on the "hosted by Joyce" link above and link your post with those of everyone else!

- Catherine
 

Friday Follies

We farm folk really know how to have a good time, let me tell you: cops at the door, dogs barking up a storm, flashing red and blue lights piercing the darkness. The whole works.

And you thought we lived a quiet life.

In a deeply sleep-befuddled state -- and my striped pyjamas (a much better word with the British spelling) -- I answered the doorbell at 2:00 a.m. to find a fresh-faced young cop of about, oh, 12 years old. They get younger every year, along with the doctors. Have you noticed that?

Where was I?

Oh, yes, definitely more than half asleep. Once I actually realized there was someone at the door and I successfully got the door unlocked and open while yanking on Hank's collar to keep him back, I vaguely expected to hear that there was a water-main break or some other community problem.  Instead the infant cop says "I think your horses are out." He points to his right and says "I saw them go in that direction."


The Equine Gang of Six had staged a prison break.

My incredibly classy response was to bend slightly at the waist so that my face was closer to the cop's (he was short), open my eyes as wide as possible and spit out the words, "HOLY CRAP!!" He grinned and we exchanged a few more niceties of I-know-not-what.

Shutting the door I yelled to the now awakened Tim, "Horses Out!" at the top of my lungs.

"What?" he responded incredulously (and perhaps he earned just a wee bit of scorn from my panic-stricken mind at that point).

"Horses. Out!" I repeated with more emphasis, meanwhile running for my jeans and boots.

Both dogs were now barking their fool heads off and Charley, in his excitement, peed on one of the rugs. I knew Charley needed a potty break but I had to leave them both inside because I didn't know what we would find outside. The cop had pointed in the direction that makes my heart sink -- traffic and noise and lights lie in that direction. Extremely traumatized horses would lie in that direction.

Quickly we pulled out our vehicles -- me to light the corral with my headlights, Tim to drive down the road. I called my nephew, who owns half the horses on our property, and invited him to come and help us. Well, "invited" probably isn't the right word.

Before actually exiting the driveway, thankfully, Tim looked around more closely to see if he could determine the sight of the jail break and to see if there were any remaining horses.  At that point, we discovered that no horses had actually left the property. They did go off in "that" direction as the cop indicated, but only around the side of the property and into the back area where the stack of one-ton bales of hay beckons to all livestock. By the time we gathered our wits, we realized that The Gang of Four (a subset of The Gang of Six) were quietly munching on the hay bales while their two remaining corral-mates waited patiently on the correct side of the fence.

First task - mend the fence. At that point, nephew arrived and quickly pitched in. I asked him, "Are we having fun yet."  With heavy sarcasm he replied, "No one should be allowed to have this much fun. Ever."

So true.

The upshot is that we successfully shored up the fence with twine and a lodge pole and then herded The Gang of Four back into the corral. At 3:00 a.m. we re-entered our house to find that Charley's excitement caused an even worse -- and foul-smelling -- accident on the kitchen floor while we were out.  I couldn't punish him. My own insides had done some churning from the adrenaline rush too!

Lessons learned: 1) The horses know where the stack of one-ton bales are and they like them. A lot. Enough to stage a prison break if they find a weak part of the fence. 2) Baling twine is the duct tape of farm life and can sturdily shore up just about anything that has fallen down or been pushed over -- and be horse-proof at that!

As I write this, The Gang of Six is peacefully residing once again inside the corral, eating their own supply of hay.

And here I will leave a shout-out to the unknown passing motorist who saw three horses in our front yard and knew that something was wrong. Thank you for calling the cops on us at 2:00 a.m.! (I may never say that again.)

- Catherine

The countdown begins

It's Monday, and just five days left for me to get ready for Christmas.

As I write this, the dogs are wrestling all over the house, moving from room to room, growling and chewing on each other. They've been at it since they got up this morning and I am wishing they had a little less energy, I must say! I thought six-year old Hank would be a bit more circumspect in his conduct, but nooooo . . . he enters into the fray with glee.

The weather continues gloomy, but that cannot deter this devoted wife, mother and friend from her appointed rounds as the countdown ticks on.

Said rounds will commence once hubby returns home with my car. In the meantime, I am working.

Update on the weekend: the dining room and the bedroom are discernible spaces now. Another ten boxes were unpacked and cleared away, so I don't have to go out and slit my wrists after all.  In fact, both rooms are completely box-free, although neither room is actually completely set up and straight yet.

We came home yesterday to discover that a mare we'd quarantined away from the other horses (because she's new to the herd) had been liberated by the Equine Gang of Six somehow. Must have been a real rodeo because the lodge poles were kicked down, the front of the feeding area was kicked in, and the electric fence was snapped in two places. This happened while we were at church, so we really are not sure which of the Gang of Six started it. Such is life on the farm.

Oh, and we had near record precipitation yesterday, mostly in the form of rain. So we now have record amounts of mud everywhere. A brown Christmas for sure!

And that's the beginning of the countdown week!

- Catherine

December randomness

Inspired by my cousin, Karen, who has a new camera and cannot stop taking pictures (God bless her, and she's so darn good at it!), I dug out my DSLR (which is nowhere near as fancy as Karen's) and took some shots. 

This is Charley-o at six weeks. In a calm moment on the kitchen floor. Not to be confused with the frenzy of first waking up in the morning and clinging to my pajama leg by his teeth as I walk across the kitchen floor. (I don't think I'm going to take a picture of that moment).

Here's another moment of calm.

The farm is so muddy that you could organize a mud-wrestling tournament in the pasture. The horses have certainly given it their best shot:

And finally, here are random shots of my Christmas Tree -- the one I scored at Home Depot early on Black Friday -- the one that cost me only $49 and came pre-lit and already decorated with berries and pinecones. I added the birds and the ornaments.

I love these cardinals. I dearly miss seeing cardinals in the fir trees during the winter -- we don't have cardinals in the Intermountain West.  But I found these little beauties at JoAnn's Fabric Store and I snapped up a dozen of them.
 

Hope your weekend is merry and bright!

- Catherine
PS -- yes, I know this is my second blog post for today, but the first was a lot of whining. So here I am again with something fun!