hqueen's collection of Far From the Usual stuff.

[hqueen13]

Probably will move eventually, Deb. Don't know how quickly I'll end up out of MD, but I do want to get out of the state and further south still. That's "HOME" to me if you know what I mean. In the interim I might end up staying around Balto for a little while, though eventually we'll have to move out of where we are. Its a complicated situation and better to just break ties than to hang around and deal with everyone talking...

 

[Denim Deb]

Can't say I blame you. If hubby and I were to split up, I'd want to head out of this area as soon as I could. Quite truthfully, if that were to happen, there's only 1 thing that would hold me here-my parents. My dad is in his early 80s, and my mom is in her upper 70s. And, while they seem to be in good health, at that age, you just never know. I don't see them as much as I should, but I wouldn't want to be too far away if something happened. I saw them today, but only because they stopped by the farm. It was cold, so we sat around in my shed w/the heater going and talked! Good thing I have a couple of fold up chairs in there as well as the cot.

 

[hqueen13]

Yeah, I don't have much of a reason to stay here, either. But at the same time I don't want to be TOO close to my family, LOL. That would take some getting used to again
Who knows what will happen. Lots of things to get organized before anything can happen.

 

[Denim Deb]

I hear ya on that! Am I a bad parent for hoping my kids never need to move back home? And, I've often told my hubby that we need a duplex-he can live in one side, and I can live in the other.

 

[hqueen13]

Hahaha, that would be hilarious Deb!! The other half (I'll probably always call him that here just for simplicity sake, LOL) and I are great friends.... just not in a romantic relationship. I hope we end up living close together for a while because I don't really want to be away, but at the same time, we need independent lives.
Ahh, well, time marches on. We'll see what happens.

Got my crown and now I can haz a full set of teefs!!! First time in almost 12 years I've had a tooth there, and first time EVER I've had a really secure tooth there. Took an hour for them to get it just right, they had to shave it down, and shave down my lower tooth, which gave me the heebie jeebies!!!! That drill thing is just AWFUL!!!!!!!! It feels super strange, and I'm going to really have to work on mentally reorganizing so that I use that side of the front of my mouth to bite things. I can't wait for my body worker to come back in May to straighten my face out again and hopefully this will dramatically reduce my jaw problems as well. Here's to healing!

Picked up a weather/safety solar/crank powered radio yesterday at REI with my dividends and 20% off coupon. Paid only $38.00 for it, regularly $60.00! Glad to have that to keep handy, plus it can charge phones and things like that, though I'm sure it would take forever to hand crank a smart phone charged

Weekend's gonna be good!! I'm going to work on teaching E more about riding and how to long rein one of the school horses this afternoon. Poor horse is old and has rolled shoulders and SO much muscle atrophie (SP?!) on his back that its terrible. E wants to learn to ride more, so I told him that he's also got to learn how to heal the horse's body because I won't have him riding and breaking down the horse further. The horse is old already, and not had the kindest life, and is now a lesson horse getting over used because he's so "safe." He's SO safe because he is so uncomfortable he couldn't think about moving any faster! The barn manager gets it, though, so she's all for it, and will probably also be giving him lessons as well. Once I teach him how to long rein I told him he should do it as often as he can, he really can't over do it. I plan to take pictures in the hope that if we get some dramatic changes I'll be able to actually have a record of it.

Since E will be getting another ride today (only like his 4th official ride, LOL), tomorrow is the joust and he's going to ride in that. I'm not riding, even though I'm dying to do so (I think Storm's actually in the right frame of mind...) but the vet is here today and I don't ride after he's been vaccinated. So he gets the day off, and I'll just hang with E and help him work on riding, and give him assistance if he needs it. I might ride Fulton around a little bit, but we'll see how he's doing. I'll probably have E get off between runs (he won't be running, but I don't know what else you call it when you go down the jousting lane catching rings!), just to save Fulton's back.

Since its also supposed to be so beautiful tomorrow, I'll give the dog another bath, this time adding a little extra stuff to the bath, and then Sunday he gets CLIPPED. Hopefully we can get his skin condition under control once and for all. I got the jackets that I ordered for him in the mail yesterday, and it fits well. I think he thinks its a bit strange, but oh well. It will keep him toasty when he has no hair! I should take pictures just for the hilarity of it...

Sunday will be a flexible day. Since Storm will have Saturday off, he's definitely getting ridden on Sunday. I may drag E out and teach him some more working with Storm about what its supposed to feel like so he knows the goal he's working toward. We'll see how things go. E is also supposed to cook Sour Beef and Dumplings per his mother's recipe, and that takes time. I want to get more cleaning done, clip the dog, and who knows what else will happen...

Also found out that my friend that does the Epona clinics had to cancel the two week workshop she had scheduled. I'm really disappointed, but I'm a little happy because it frees up the weekend in September that the Mother Earth News Fair happens in PA. I'm excited and I hope I can go now that I've got the weekend free! She's also teaching a workshop in Ohio now instead, and I think I'm going to go with her to that, it'll be all paid, and I'll get paid for helping her, so that will be really nice. Its a great opportunity to get out and explore more and see what its like with other horses that aren't Storm

 

[snapshot]

I started soaking quick oats in water and putting that on Buddy after his shampoo (we use baby shampoo) and before his final rinse. It has really helped his itching. We switched both -shampoo and rinse- at the same time. Now if I could get rid of hiws brown beard he would look like a schnauzer is supposed to.

 

[hqueen13]

Thanks for the suggestions, snapshot! I've been doing a couple different rinses on him, I may switch to oatmeal and see what happens.
The poor guy is shivery cold half the time now, even in his little jacket, silly dog. I feel bad for him, but hopefully his skin will improve and he'll grow his coat back very soon. At least the jacket keeps him from itching AS much...

This weekend was lovely! Got to spend some time hanging out with the horses, watched the jousting clinic a little bit, and then went up to the drag strip to watch E's friend race. That was a new experience, and fun.
Sunday we ran around like crazy trying to find clipper guards so that I didn't bic the dog completely, and finally found them at Sally Beauty Supply, right around the corner, after running all the way up to the petsmart and feed store north of us. Got home and clipped the dog, poor thing has a pretty bad hack job. No wonder professional groomers get paid big bucks The horse was easier to clip than the dog, and the dog weighs less than the horse's head!! He looks silly, but he's at least clipped now, so hopefully his skin can begin healing. We're spraying some stuff on him daily, so keep your fingers crossed that we can get him balanced again.
Finished that up and did some work in the house for a little while and then headed outside with the horses since lessons were finished for the day. E got out Fulton, and I got out Storm and we did a little riding. It was a nice calm quiet ride, which was a great way to get back into the swing of things so to speak.

This week is full of gorgeous weather, so I'm hoping I can get the horse out some this week, even if it is to groom him more and try to get MORE hair off of him. He's shedding like crazy, but is beginning to sweat so that is the good news! I need to get the hair off of him though to try to keep him as cool as possible. I think I need to do a couple marathon grooming sessions with him to try to get that hair off. I hope to possibly ride on Thursday again, and then again this weekend. It would be awesome if I could ride both Saturday and Sunday, but we'll see what happens.

Trying to get some spring cleaning done, sort of in prep that eventually we'll be moving. Better to do some cleaning now and not have to clean quite so hard later than to save it all up and really have to clean hard to get rid of the dirt. We've let quite a bit of the house fall behind, which isn't good. This weekend will probably be another good time to work on that.

So many things to do, so little time... it kills me that I'm stuck in an office with such good weather and not able to accomplish anything that I REALLY need to get done!

 

[hqueen13]

Why does it always take so long to get to the weekend again? The weather is setting up to be gorgeous again! I'm very excited!!

Going to try to get more things done this weekend... The horse will be worked at least one day, if not both Saturday and Sunday if I can help it! I'm also planning on clipping him down the throat and across his chest to help him stay cool. I found him in the pasture yesterday sweaty and cool, which made me really happy. I'm going to be a little overly cautious until I know that he's sweating good this year. I don't want to go through what we went through last year again!
I also need to work more on getting things cleaned out and cleaned up around the house. We're considering getting a storage unit to make it easier once the move comes, and that will allow us to get some things that we won't need at all out of the house to make a little more room for other things to ease the transition. It'll also give us a place to store items until we're ready to move so that we can pick up things as we see them, like furniture or other things.
I know I need to go through some of the drawers in the bedroom and reorganize those things. I also have a couple boxes of stuff sitting around that need to either be posted online somewhere to sell, or need to be freecycled. I need to get proactive on those and get them out of the house. I'm tired of the clutter and junk sitting around taking up space.

Spring has been gorgeous thus far. I'm waiting for the pollen to hit me, but so far so good. I don't expect I'll be that lucky by next week, but we'll see. I have been discovering that when the kids "weeded" the yard last year and pulled up lots of stuff, they did manage to leave some things, so I do have some plants actually coming up. I've found Woodland Poppys, Iris, a Geranium, and the Clementine vine coming back despite the efforts of the kids weeding everything. I need to check for the ferns and see if they are coming up, and check for the other geraniums to see if they survived or not. The yard could use a good weeding, anyway, and there are other plants I could split, but I'm not sure when the best time to do that is. Hopefully I'll get some time to get out in the yard this weekend as well. I need to stock up on more vinegar to use on the weeds and keep up with that. The bench on the deck also needs to be cleaned out because there is too much stuff in it to be able to store anything else, or even get things in and out.

Keep plugging away...

 

[hqueen13]

And here I am, waiting for the weekend again.
Last weekend was (mostly) a bust. I didn't get much done that I wanted to. I did get some things done, but nothing impressive. I just felt blah all weekend, which was a bummer since the weather was reasonably nice.
I did manage to get the stove grates cleaned with ammonia. Took a while, and I technically didn't finish them until Monday, but I got them done. I didn't work with the horse, which was a little depressing, but it is what it is. I attempted to weed for a little while, and ended up pooping out before I got very far or pulled very many weeds, and didn't get very far at all.
I need to figure out how to manage my azaleas a little better. The lower parts of the bushes look really choked, the leaves are also a bit rust colored. They aren't leafing out bright green like I would expect. I'm used to working with the Crepe Myrtles and pruning them very open towards the bottom. My azaleas seem to have lots of suckers, lots of small branches growing thick around the bottom. I'm not sure if I should prune this or what. I'll have to do a little more research (and repost this question in the garden topic).
The dang ramps are overrunning parts of the yard, which is so depressing. Almost all of the plants that I planted last year that I thought the kids ripped up are coming up again. I'm thrilled, and quite amazed. Now I just need to make sure that they don't get over taken by the weeds so they can flourish. I did lose all but one fern, so I'll have to get more of those transplanted. I'm considering that I might try to do a work day and get the kids crew to help me, since it was a kids crew that pulled them up in the first place...
Otherwise I did sort some things out and moved a few things around. I realized I'm going to need to go through the files and clean out any old bills and things that are still there and sort out our bills so that they are separate. I'll have to see what happens with everything, but its going to take a while to get all of that sorted.
Yesterday I had to be home for the dentist, and I was pleased that Storm tolerated it pretty well, he didn't get so fussy that he needed to be sedated, which was a good thing. I love the dentist that we have, he's really gentle and takes his time and makes sure that the horse is comfortable. He quickly figured out what Storm preferred (standing in the front corner, with his head to one side or the other depending on which teeth he was working on) and did whatever he could to make the experience easier on the horse. It was nice to see someone so gentle and taking his time.
This weekend is a lesson weekend, which is good. Now I just have to find time to work the horse...

 

[Denim Deb]

I love the guy I have as well. I know he travels. It would be funny if we used the same guy.