hqueen's collection of Far From the Usual stuff.

[SSDreamin]

Sounds like you're having one of those 'when it rains, it pours' weeks!

Having those issues with the electric would definitely drive me insane!

 

[hqueen13]

Yeahhhh its been a bit strange this week, SS...
Hopefully it will settle down soon! I am counting on the heat to keep the horses mellow for feeding tonight. I do not have the energy to deal with any goofy business!

The good news is that my staple piercing doesn't hurt at all today. I am surprised, but I think its the oils that I put on it right away, and then again when I came back inside from watering, and again before bed, plus again this morning. You can see the mark where it went through, but there is basically no pain. I love my essential oils!

 

[hqueen13]

Happy Happy!
Emailed our favorite winery and asked about them hosting the wedding, she said they can't handle more than 50, but that they could probably do our rehearsal dinner! I'd love it if we could do it there! It will all depend on which venue we choose, if we're close by to the winery, I think I'm sold (and I don't even know what she'd charge us, LOL, we'll just have to see)!

Also just got a call from Miss Utility, and they are marking the underground stuff so we can install our sign facing the southbound traffic so that they'll be able to see that they're coming up on the center! He said he thinks that the gas main is far enough away from the side of the road that we should be able to do that! We'll have our guy that drives the fence posts in for the new paddock (whenever he gets around to it) install those posts too!

Yay for good things!

 

[SSDreamin]

Yeahhhh its been a bit strange this week, SS...
Hopefully it will settle down soon! I am counting on the heat to keep the horses mellow for feeding tonight. I do not have the energy to deal with any goofy business!

The good news is that my staple piercing doesn't hurt at all today. I am surprised, but I think its the oils that I put on it right away, and then again when I came back inside from watering, and again before bed, plus again this morning. You can see the mark where it went through, but there is basically no pain. I love my essential oils!

What oils did you put on it? I saw, while researching peppermint oil, that it works to help heal up cuts, but I'd think it'd sting some

 

[hqueen13]

The oil I used is an oil called Helicrysum. Its not very common, and VERY expensive. But it is AMAZING on injuries. Lavender works well on injuries, too (I put it in my mouth all the time if I have a sore or bite my lip or something. Tastes funny but it works!) I only bought the Helicrysum a few months ago and hadn't really had a chance to use it. I was expecting the tip of my finger to be sore, and it is not AT ALL. I am really shocked, frankly! LOL. I know the stuff is good, but whoa!
This goes along with the caveat that I only use therapeautic grade essential oils because I frequently ingest them for various reasons.

Peppermint probably can heal wounds, but there are other oils that I would go to first. I don't know if it would really sting too much, I'll have to try it next time I get a nick somewhere just to see I use peppermint for reducing headaches, and also sometimes for muscle soreness if I don't have anything better handy. There is a blend that the company that I use makes called Panaway which is great on muscles. But then Marjoram is great for muscle soreness, too. I almost always put some on along with the Panaway when I am sore for some reason. Lemongrass is great for healing ligaments, too.

Whew, it is bloody HOT out there. Disgusting. The horses were mostly cooperative. If you count my boss's horse busting the gate open again cooperative. Thankfully they are usually fairly mellow, but it is irritating when they come hustling into the barn and I don't even have the feed tubs in their stalls yes. It was so hot and with the faucet leaking I hadn't been able to really get the water back into their stalls. They were begging to go back out again, and when they went straight to the trough and where I discovered there wasn't any water, I figured the stream must be pretty well dry, too. I hooked up the hose and drug it out and gave them a good tough full of water. Before I left two of the three were already down drinking out of it. The third horse I did manage to get a part bucket of water, so she probably wasn't as desperate. I gave her the water in her stall because she's always the thirstiest.

Got home and found the power half out again, so I fixed the second A/C unit that we had and got it into the window in our bedroom to get some air moving back there. The ceiling fan is nice, but with no cool air in the room it was pretty warm. Drug the box fan and stand fan out of our shed, and got the box fan set up to help move the cool air from the a/c unit in the kitchen into the living room. Not too long before the other half got home the power came back. We left the small a/c units running at least until we got back into the house to make sure it was on for good, and then cut the house unit back on. Never a dull moment.

Managed to get the horses fed. Everything felt like we were moving in slow motion. The bugs are HORRIBLE and everybody was just sweating. The couple drafts (including mine) had rivulets running down their legs they were sweating so bad. Poor guys. Nobody was very happy this evening, though, including myself. Heat like this makes one grumpy!

Finally got done, and I watered my poor plants that were transplanted last week. The ferns don't look so good. The perennial geraniums actually look pretty good, and a couple plants have blooms, which are lovely! I am so excited for them to really take hold. Some of the woodland poppys are struggling, I think. I hope they make it. We'll see anyway. I can always get more next year if I need to! I was going to transplant some things in my yard, but I think I'll wait until next weekend, its going to be too warm still this weekend, and that would be traumatic to the plants and me!

Now that it is 9:45 and I am just finishing dinner, its time to go to bed. Fun stuff...

 

[Denim Deb]

This heat is horrible! Our AC never shut off last night until late. And, it didn't really cool down last night. I hope we don't have many days like this. I think next week is supposed to be better.

 

[hqueen13]

Yeah, it was already 80 at 8:00 this morning when I got to work. Yuck! There are storms in the forecast for this afternoon, so we'll see what happens. It is supposed to cool off some this weekend, so I think this is a front rolling through. Hopefully it won't be too rowdy in the process. I won't complain about the rain for sure.

Gah. My mother is driving me nuts. And I am pretty sure its me, not her. Ugh. I LOVE my mother, don't get me wrong, she's great, an amazing woman (was a paramedic for 10 years, which she didn't become one until I was in middle school!), and I love her a lot. But this wedding planning is going to drive me crazy. I have NO idea why I am really adverse to anything she says, but for whatever reason, almost every idea she gives me, or response she has to something I mention, I am reacting negatively to. I don't like that, and I'm not happy with it, and I have no idea what the root cause of the reaction is. I am really trying to get some decisions under our belt before I go talk to her about too much stuff to help tone down this issue, but it is not working very well. She just suggested that I make a trip down to visit (they're in NC, and I'm in MD) some time this summer without the other half, and I had a really icky reaction to that (I didn't say anything to her of course). I am just not interested in traveling without him, mostly because I have a sneaking suspicion that things my get interesting with my grandparents (mostly my grandfather, but that is a WHOLE 'nother story). I am not interested in opening that can of worms until I feel more confident that I'm not going to get attacked about the situation. But I digress. So I have no idea where this icky energy is coming from with my mom, but I wish it would go away. It makes me feel very It has caught me by surprise, frankly, I've never expected to feel this way in dealing with her. I am wondering if it has something to do with the fact that almost every idea I've brought to her, or she's asked about, she's had some other piece of advice or some other thing to tell me about it. I really don't feel like in this whole process that she's truly liked an idea I've brought up. The closest thing to liking something may be the various choices of venues that we have on our list so far. They're all harmless and interesting (a country farm B&B, a youth camp with a really pretty Hacienda pool house that can be rented, plus two historic/park locations in the area), so there isn't much for her to voice an opinion or object to. We don't have much detail about any of them yet (other than some pricing and list of what they include) but not enough for her to voice an opinion about what we should or shouldn't do. But everything else she's given me her opinion on. I know she doesn't mean anything negative, what so ever. But for whatever reason I'm feeling it that way, and that has not been easy.

Bah. I'll live through it, and it will turn out exactly as it is supposed to. Regardless of what happens between she and I!

 

[Icu4dzs]

Yeah, it was already 80 at 8:00 this morning when I got to work. Yuck! There are storms in the forecast for this afternoon, so we'll see what happens. It is supposed to cool off some this weekend, so I think this is a front rolling through. Hopefully it won't be too rowdy in the process. I won't complain about the rain for sure.

Gah. My mother is driving me nuts. And I am pretty sure its me, not her. Ugh. I LOVE my mother, don't get me wrong, she's great, an amazing woman (was a paramedic for 10 years, which she didn't become one until I was in middle school!), and I love her a lot. But this wedding planning is going to drive me crazy. I have NO idea why I am really adverse to anything she says, but for whatever reason, almost every idea she gives me, or response she has to something I mention, I am reacting negatively to. I don't like that, and I'm not happy with it, and I have no idea what the root cause of the reaction is. I am really trying to get some decisions under our belt before I go talk to her about too much stuff to help tone down this issue, but it is not working very well. She just suggested that I make a trip down to visit (they're in NC, and I'm in MD) some time this summer without the other half, and I had a really icky reaction to that (I didn't say anything to her of course). I am just not interested in traveling without him, mostly because I have a sneaking suspicion that things my get interesting with my grandparents (mostly my grandfather, but that is a WHOLE 'nother story). I am not interested in opening that can of worms until I feel more confident that I'm not going to get attacked about the situation. But I digress. So I have no idea where this icky energy is coming from with my mom, but I wish it would go away. It makes me feel very It has caught me by surprise, frankly, I've never expected to feel this way in dealing with her. I am wondering if it has something to do with the fact that almost every idea I've brought to her, or she's asked about, she's had some other piece of advice or some other thing to tell me about it. I really don't feel like in this whole process that she's truly liked an idea I've brought up. The closest thing to liking something may be the various choices of venues that we have on our list so far. They're all harmless and interesting (a country farm B&B, a youth camp with a really pretty Hacienda pool house that can be rented, plus two historic/park locations in the area), so there isn't much for her to voice an opinion or object to. We don't have much detail about any of them yet (other than some pricing and list of what they include) but not enough for her to voice an opinion about what we should or shouldn't do. But everything else she's given me her opinion on. I know she doesn't mean anything negative, what so ever. But for whatever reason I'm feeling it that way, and that has not been easy.

Bah. I'll live through it, and it will turn out exactly as it is supposed to. Regardless of what happens between she and I!

This is a classic case of "Mother please! I'd rather do it myself!" if your girl friend suggested it, you'd do the same thing i.e. blow it off, but it wouldn't bother you. When it is your mom, it annoys you and that is what bothers you...that it gets to you!
Let her think you appreciate the advice, say that it is another option to consider, thank her profusely for the "great idea" and tell her you will give it "due consideration". Then just do what you want, anyway. After a while, she will stop. We all try to live vicariously through our children so she is just feeling her "mortality" because of the situation. Frankly, she is just frightened of her own mortality and perhaps HER mom never gave her ANY advice at all (which can hurt,too!)
Just a thought.
Saepe Expertus, Semper Fidelis, Fratres Aeterni
Trim sends
//BT//

 

[hqueen13]

Thanks Trim. I can certainly understand that. I think she's probably as much or more excited about this than I am. I've never done anything the "normal" way, or at least not the way that the family thinks of as normal, so its always been a struggle for me to fit in. I feel bad that all I feel like I am saying is no, no no no NO! I would hope it is not quite that bad, but in certain moments that's how it feels internally. And somehow I have to be nice and all that, and it sort of conflicts. Ahh, well, this too shall pass.

 

[hqueen13]

Managed to get up at a reasonable time this morning, headed over and got the horses fed and came back and much to my annoyance, I JUST missed the horses heading out through the chute to the back pasture. Got my stuff ready and begrudgingly headed out there to collect the horse. I had a discussion with him that I needed him calm and willing, and that he needed to leave all the other horses in the pasture and come with me through the chute. I told the horse he had been hanging out with (who happens to be number 2 in the pasture) to stay here and keep everyone else here so they wouldn't run up on us. Thankfully they cooperated, which is more than what Storm did. He was none too pleased that we were leaving and by the time we got about 40 or 50 feed from the chute he decided to object. I was REALLY pleased that I was able to hold him as he tried to sort of rear up and throw himself sideways in order to bolt away (that's what he was hoping, thankfully it didn't work!). I had the rope in my right hand, and had it in tight to my body and wrapped across my hips with my left hand set almost behind my back in a stance similar to repelling, and every time he went up I just dropped my weight down. If he was just being goofy and throwing his head around I would throw a loop into the rope and cause the clip at the bottom of the halter to swing up and smack him in the side of the face. I don't tolerate that crap. It scares me and puts me at risk for getting hurt. It took us a while but eventually he stood and started to lower his head again and lick and chew. I walked backwards so I could watch him and ask him to behave and make sure that the herd didn't decide to follow us at breakneck speed. He was buggy going through the chute but managed to contain himself. I chose the safest option and walked backwards all the way up to the gate. He was fine once we got into the barn and mostly behaved himself while we were tacking up.
I worked him, and it was just hot. He gave me a beautiful canter transition to the left. However, the right was NOT pretty. He gave me everything from a left lead going right to a 4 beat gait (and no, he's not gaited!). I am SO glad that the body worker will be here in 2 weeks, I hope she can straighten him out, and me, too! We rode for a little while, but it was hot and he was breathing a bit hard, so we didn't do much. I was really disappointed to find that it was dry under his shoulders at the front of the saddle, more on the left than the right, while the other areas were wet. He wasn't sweaty anywhere else, which was a bit surprising, given his breathing, but the lack of sweat didn't make me happy. I'll have to get the riding instructor to check that out next time she's here. I REALLY hope that he doesn't need a change because I DON'T have the cash for a new saddle!!
I finished up sponging him off and let him graze until he was back to normal again, and then turned him out. He immediately went and took a LONG drink out of the trough before moseying out again.
Since we had cancelled events, and my boss is out of town it meant that there were NO lessons this morning. It was REALLY nice to have a very quiet barn today!!