The Farm

noreply@blogger.com (Colin) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 13:22:00 +0000

Blogging is exhausting, which explains our 1-year hiatus. But now we're back and ready to go. Since blogs are self-indulgent and narcissistic by nature anyway, I might as well unabashedly grasp that particular brass ring without subterfuge. I am writing to tell you about me.

I entered my first horse show last weekend at Eventful Acres, an equestrian facility about an hour's drive away. It was a 2-Day Horse Trial, which is a form of eventing. I've been training for this for a couple of years so it was quite a thrill. I entered with Vegas, the Flying Tomato (so dubbed by our trainer because of his enthusiasm for the cross country phase of the contest).

Eventing consists of three disciplines: dressage, cross country, and stadium. At this competition, stadium came before cross country, but dressage remained first. I was nervous going in because dressage takes so much precision and is, in my opinion, the most difficult of the three. Here's my go. The video is a little jumpy and seems to be running a little fast, so I wasn't scooting quite as quickly as it looks. I also added the subtitles to describe the movements just before they happen. The discipline is judged (by the people in the box at C) and, generally speaking, you are judged on the regularity of the gait, smoothness of transitions between gaits, and the geometry of your riding (executing circles precisely, for example).

My division (Beginner Novice) had 59 entries broken down into 5 groups. Eventing is scored on penalty points (lowest score wins). My dressage score was 30, which was far far better than I expected. At the end of the dressage phase, I was in sixth place in my group of eleven.

Stadium was next. I was a little less nervous for stadium, but not by much. Unlike dressage, where you know weeks in advance what the course will look like (always 20x40m) and what the test is (the list of movements), you don't know exactly what the stadium course will look like until the day before the contest. Susan and I walked through it several times and we made a plan on how to ride it. The fences are numbered and the order you jump them is fixed, but the details of exactly how you get from fence to fence are up to you and very important. The Tomato is very good at jumping, but he has to have the fence "presented" to him properly. This term means riding him squarely to the jump instead of at an angle and he has to be going at the right pace: too fast and he'll jump through it and knock it down (4 penalty points), too slow and he won't have enough momentum to clear it cleanly and he'll knock it down or he'll stop and "refuse" (4 penalty points). My job is to make sure of the presentation. There is also a time limit which, if exceeded, also adds penalty points (1 per second). The goal is ride "double clear", that is, with 0 jumping penalties and 0 time penalties. Here I go. With a little luck and a lot of effort from the Tomato, I got through cleanly. My score remained 30 (30 dressage + 0 stadium) and that moved me up to 4th place in my group.

The next day was the last discipline: cross country. This is everybody's favorite because, well, it's fun as hell. The scoring is similar to stadium in concept: penalties for refusing a jump (the obstacles in cross country are generally fixed, and cannot be knocked over) and time penalties. The refusal cost goes up to 20 points, though, so the stakes are much higher. This cross country course was relatively short as they go: about 1200 meters or so. The first half winds through the woods on gently rolling terrain. There are some logs to jump, an upbank, a downbank, and a small pond (really a large puddle) to cross. The second half of the course is in an open field with some more logs and small wooden structures and another water. Due to geographic constraints, I have video of only the second half of the course (it's too hard to coerce my volunteer film crew to outrace a horse from one half to the other). The two halves are separated by a dry creek crossing, which amounts to puttering across a gully about 8 feet deep. The video starts just after the crossing.

Just like stadium, my job in cross country is to maintain an appropriate pace (too slow and you accrue penalty points and risk refusals, too fast and it can be very dangerous as the terrain is variable and the obstacles don't give. Cross country is the most exciting and the most dangerous of the eventing disciplines) and offer proper presentation. In order to achieve these goals, just like stadium, Susan and I walked through the course several times developing a plan: ride faster here, ride slower there, turn around this tree, etc. I should mention that, in addition to taking advantage of Susan's expertise and extensive experience, we also have a fantastic trainer, Jackie McCrae. She also, of course, walked through stadium and cross country with us and warmed me up for each discipline. Coaching during the efforts is not allowed in eventing: you're on your own.

Cross country was as much fun as I thought it would be and I got through with 0 penalty points. That means I finished "on my dressage score", which was my goal. I also finished second in my group of eleven and third out of 59. Much better than I hoped for!

Now the Tomato needs some time off as he has developed some soreness in his rear legs. But, with a little luck and care, we'll be back next spring for another season.

noreply@blogger.com (Colin) — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 16:32:00 +0000

Here's a tidbit from Alan Tonelson, a fellow at the United States Business and Industry Council:

"Wal-Mart certainly does lower the cost of living for American consumers by offering low prices, but it also lowers the standard of living, because as jobs leave the U.S., the country's wage level gets lowered, too. And so we're no better off than we were before."

Thought it was worth mentioning.

noreply@blogger.com (Colin) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 01:53:00 +0000

We're starting work on the last big construction project before winter. And the winner is...the barn! Here's the current southern wall of the barn. This is the side that gets the most sun and rain. I replaced the middle section two years ago (there should be one more slat, but it's a long story why it's not there - OK, not so long, here goes: the barn design calls for each of the three sections to be populated with 2"x6"x12' spruce tongue and groove boards. IMO, spruce is too soft to span that length, resulting in the severe twisting evident in the picture above in the first and third sections. The middle section was just as bad, so I replaced it with 2"x6"x12' douglas fir. T&G doug fir needs to be special-ordered and when I got the load, one of the boards was too twisted to use. I cut it to relive the twist and all was well. Still, I wasn't happy with just replacing the 12' sections with doug fir. So I also had the vertical h-channels made (visible in the middle section). This summer, I put up the h-channel in the middle, effectively shortening the span to 6'. Unfortunately, I was careless in cutting the twisted 2"x6"x12', so the two pieces were not 6' each, and unusable in the current configuration. So that's why there's a board missing.)

Aside from the buckling of the remaining sections, in the winter, the rain is driven by prevailing winds against the south side. Even under ideal conditions, i.e., all three sections replaced with doug fir, there's still a gap at the top of the wall of about 4 inches. This, as far as I can tell, is by design. The boards are supposed to be slipped in at the top of the edge h-channels and dropped into place. Accordingly, there would be no way to place the last board to fill the 4" gap. We tried ripping 2"x4" boards to precisely fill the gaps, but the resulting structure was still not water-tight. The next effort (which can be seen in the photo) was to lap a 1"x6" over the gap, but this proved to be ineffective as well. The underlying spruce walls continue to buckle away from the 1"x6" and the center section (now removed) was still not water-tight. I suspect that this barn is not oriented correctly and that one of the sides with an overhanging eave should be presented to the prevailing winds.

So, the plan was to affix an overhanging awning to the frame of the south wall. The overhang would protect the walls from the rain. A good plan: simple, inexpensive. Then, we got to thinking. If we're going to put an awning on that side, it might be nice to store some stuff under the awning: maybe some hay, feed, that sort of thing. Clearly, though, if we're going to put hay or other perishables under the awning, they would need to be protected from the rain that gets driven by the southern winds.

I guess we'll have to wall in the awning, then, and make a proper room out of it. So that's what we're doing. The tractor work is done, leveling out the 10' section we decided to enclose. So that's the haps, man.

noreply@blogger.com (Colin) — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 17:56:00 +0000

Things are going well with Vegas and me. DW was kind enough to come to my lesson this week and take photos. Whee. He's a good boy. I'm considering entering a show next month. Better get rolling on that if it's going to happen, though.

Look out, Monkey!

noreply@blogger.com (Colin) — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 02:10:00 +0000

Yar, it's been so long since we updated. Lots of new stuff to report. First, lineup changes:

Vegas, a 16.2 hand Trakehner/Thoroughbred gelding (ouch!). Our current crew of little girl sized horses were getting tired of lugging me around so we got a more substantial fellow. I'm really excited about him: my first horse :-O

Monkey, a 1.2 hand DMH Tuxedo. We've been interviewing for the position of Emergency Backup Kitten for a while and we do like our tuxedos.

Pretty cool, what? There's more stuff going on, but, for now, here are some more photos: Vegas, Vegas, Vegas, and Vegas.

noreply@blogger.com (Susan) — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 01:27:00 +0000

I got your back, darling...I'll take over for a day.

What can I tell you? Hmmmm... hmmmmm..... Oh yeah! We're fostering kittens again. Right now we have four semi-feral kittens in our upstairs bedroom. They are probably 5 weeks old and very hissy and scared. We hear them bombing around like a herd of elephants at various times during the day. We also go visit with them and try to socialize them to people, but they really aren't interested. At least they know how to use the cat box and we don't have to keep them in the bathroom and clean cat shit off walls of the bathtub twice a day. That was fun. Real fun.

My two riding horses are in various states of disrepair. Miles was diagnosed with pedal osteitis a couple months ago, so no more jumping for him. Sigh. We never did even get to a show...Colin holds that honor. He's got a fancy kind of shoe in front, but I don't really like them - or at least I don't like how they were applied. And his medial-lateral balance is off, too, but the farrier thought there wasn't enough hoof to work with so he's waiting for the hooves to grow out a bit. I'm going to have my (new) regular farrier work on them next week.

Paddy has the on-going crack saga in his left hind. It is driving me crazy and is one of the reasons I switched farriers - for two years my old farrier wasn't able to fix it - we'll see if the new guy can. I put pictures on a horsey-bulletin board and got some comments about the balance of his feet so at least I feel like I have a game plan. I'm also taking him to the vet clinic for x-rays on Saturday to check out the balance of the bones inside the foot. Cha-ching!

But I'm sure that's all boring for you. So let's see, some spicy news...Pico is sitting on the couch farting next to me and whoooo boy it is not pleasant.

We're still waiting for Barley to ...dare I say it...kick it - have you ever had a pet that you just didn't like? My conscience keeps me from giving her away or taking her to the pound, but that dog drives me nuts and I have to admit I will probably not be too sad when she's gone. I'm such a bad person, I can't believe I just shared that.

We've got a busy social season planned - dinner with neighbors last night, drinks tonight with the same people + two more, a progressive dinner party with 18 of us on Friday night, the following weekend a holiday party, the weekend after that another holiday party. I've never been so busy!

Work is sucking because it is the holidays and we're very busy. I miss my old holiday work schedule of the closed office between Thanksgiving and New Year's. Those were the days, indeed.

Peeee - eeeewwwwww! Pico!!!!

Gotta go!

noreply@blogger.com (Colin) — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 23:14:00 +0000

Rats, so, I blew it already. I was supposed to blog every day and I missed yesterday. No great honking surprise, I guess. Anyway, here's something for today. It's cold here, brrr. It's been dropping down into the 20's at night. Maybe not hugely cold for some of you, but that's about as cold as it gets here. It really makes me feel bad for Susan when she goes out to feed the horses in the morning. Worse, when she gets up, she lets in a draft of cold air under the covers.

Cold or not, one of the projects I'm working on now is a deck for the side of the house. It's a little more complicated than I can handle, so I've got the help of Phil, one of our neighbors, and a buddy of his, Mark. To place its location, let's first step briefly into the Wayback Machine.

In the beginning, there was this (no, not Kenya, nor even a little bit of snow, look into the background). This was the location of, as Vernon (Mr. Altman, to you, Sonny) so aptly named it, the "White Trash Pool", more formerly known as a Doughboy. We moved the pool to a neighbor with kids for the hard-driving bargain price of $0. This is on the east side of the house. In case it's not obvious from the photo, the grassy part where Kenya is sniffing drops off about five feet to a flat spot where lied the pool.

So, the plan was to build the World's Biggest and Most Expensive Deck Imaginable. Well, to be fair, that wasn't precisely the original plan in so many words, it's just kind of turned out that way. I'm not quite sure when we broke ground, but this picture was taken on 9/19. The viewpoint from this photo is almost the same as the one with Kenya above, so it should give you some idea of the positioning of the Monstrosity.

There are two things that make this deck:

cool

harder than I can do by myself

The first thing is an area designed to hold a hottub. Hottubs are not heavy, particularly. You'd get the same load on the deck as you would inviting over four of me (though why you'd want to, I can't imagine. You'd never get a word in edgewise). But hottubs on their own aren't really much fun: not, at least, until you put water in them. Then they get really heavy, like having 40 of me standing in the same place on the deck. Here's where we would stand.

The second bit that makes this deck too complicated for my little head and clumsy fingers is a walkway that runs around the perimeter. We did this to avoid an unsightly railing, which is necessary if the deck surface is more than three feet above grade. Well, just don't walk off this end in a drunken stupor. If you did, and then turned back around to look at the house, or, more likely, to curse at me and ask for a phone to call your lawyer, this is what you'd see.

Hopefully, we'll be able to finish it soon. A hottub would be just to thing to fight this non-California sub-freezing weather.

noreply@blogger.com (Colin) — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 23:14:00 +0000

cool

harder than I can do by myself

noreply@blogger.com (Colin) — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 23:14:00 +0000

cool

harder than I can do by myself

noreply@blogger.com (Colin) — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 17:53:00 +0000

OK, so I'm going to post every day now until we're caught up. There it is, written in pixels, unbreakable.

Last Sunday (well, a week ago yesterday, so two Sunday's ago), we went to the Infineon Raceway (Sears Point, by the old way of naming things) for a half-day driving school. They outfitted us with slick-o driving suits, helmets, and a little driving physics. Then, zoom zoom, off we go.

Our first track session involved getting in a line and following the pace car. The pace car, a white mustang, just visible here, drove around the track, picking the correct line through each turn and straight-away. Our job was to follow the pace car *exactly*. Since it was a little drizzly and misty that morning, we had to stay on the pace car's line or suffer the consequences. The consequences, as some of our classmates found out (just couldn't follow directions, could they?) were a "little thingy", so defined as a spin where you don't make contact with anything.

So the pace car chose the "line" and we followed like little zippy fast ducks. Since, as I mentioned, the track was wet, we started out on the "wet line", which is a little higher through the turns. The "dry line" right down low (here and here), which we got to follow later as the track dried up, is very slippery when wet due to deposited rubber and oil.

After our first track session, we piled into an SUV driven by one of the instructors. He took us around the track again showing us where to accelerate and where to brake and why to stay off the dry line when the track is wet. To show us that, he had us get out in one of the turns and just shuffle our feet along the track in the dry line. It was literally as slippery as ice.

After one more follow the pace car and one more short lecture, we were back in the cars for solo sessions (no pace car). We weren't allowed to pass each other, but, since they spaced us out at intervals of several hundred yars, the situation didn't present itself anyway. This was our fastest and funnest session yet.

The cars we drove were open-wheel formula cars. They had about 125 HP, which might not sound like much, but the car itself weighs about the same as a heavy motorcycle, so that works out to be plenty fast enough. We got going to about 100 MPH on the fastest part of the track, which seemed like plenty fast enough. It was kinda like sitting in a very very fast bathtub. It was a whole lot of fun and we learned a lot about driving bathtubs. I found it interesting how cerebral racecar driving really is. There's a lot of physics you have to keep in mind to avoid "thingies" and "demolition" (a thingy with an unhappy ending). I wonder if it'd be more interesting to watch racing on tv now?

noreply@blogger.com (Colin) — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 02:28:00 +0000

So, there I was, in my home office, working away. It was a pleasant summer morning, so I had the windows open. The normal sounds of the farm trickled in through the window: the dogs barking, the horses horsing, the wind blowing, the birds chirping, the sprinkler sprinkling. And, man, I was in the zone. I had my coding on and I was focused. While I was mildly aware of the afore mentioned buccolic auditory inputs, but only partially. As such, it took me a moment to realize that the itensity of dog barking exceeded the threshold above which I must pay attention and, more significantly, I hadn't turned any sprinklers on in the first place.

With a feeling that I was already late to the party, I jumped up and ran outside. Kenya was on the front porch barking her sweet brown head off. The offender, pictured here, was representing to the best of his ability. Which was pretty good, actually. Kenya was doing her guardian of the universe bit. I grabbed her and the two emergency backup dogs who soon arrived on the scene, making it a three alarm situation. Inside they went, thus avoiding a $150 vet bill for snakebite.

Back outside I go with my patented snake-catching device and, wait for it, yes, my video camera. Here's our star in action (sorry, it's big, about 1.2M). Anyway, the trap is sprung. This is as close as I can imagine getting to a rattlesnake and surviving. Very cool, though.

Free at last...

noreply@blogger.com (Susan) — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 00:08:00 +0000

My goodness, it has been since April that we last posted?!

You may think it is because our lives are boring, but quite the contrary mon frereeeee.

Let's see. In April we fostered a momma cat and her four kittens who were about four weeks old at the time. We named them right away: Meep ('cause that was the sound she made; cute black kitten with blue eyes), Bap ('cause that's what he did to you bap, bap, bap with his paws and claws; cute cream and brown tabby color), Ozzie (short for Ausberger's syndrome; regular grey tabby color), and Chicken ('cause she was a chicken and the last to come out of the cage; cute tuxedo). Then there was momma cat, who was mostly called Momma, as all momma cats are. The kittens were super cute and we had them for two weeks before we went to...

New Mexico! Two of our favorite people live in N.M., and we finally made arrangements to go see them. Their house was lovely and their hospitality was fabulous. We went to Santa Fe one day, which was a lovely drive and the town was very charming. While browsing through all the art galleries we decided that our next house needs to have some charm - creaky wood floors, plaster walls, cool architectural features, or something. Thing is, we've talked about building a place in the future and I don't know if we would purposely put in creaky wood floors.

I forgot to mention that I broke my hand in April. On the 20th, to be exact. Just as I was getting ready for the show season! I was having my first jumping lesson and I think we were all a little over-zealous about getting ready to show and did more than we should have. Paddy and I were approaching a jump and I pulled him up and through a small chain of bad-timing events, I heard my hand break. I actually heard it break! It sounded like knuckles cracking so I wasn't sure at first if it was broken. I tried to continue my lesson, but realized shortly that something was wrong. I got off and tried to wiggle my fingers and heard and felt a popping sound. So when I got home Colin took me to the urgent care place and the doctor confirmed the breaks. My 4th and 5th metacarpals were broken, the fourth being displaced. So I got a temporary cast on and off to the grocery we went for drugs. Before they put my cast on, thought, I realized I was wearing the wrong shirt, so Colin took his off and was shirtless as he went into Albertson's and asked the pharmacist for some narcotics. Klassy.

After two weeks I went to the orthopod and got my regular cast, which wasn't a regular cast at all. It was a mold-able, removable splint, which I wore for almost 12 weeks, as the x-rays indicated I wasn't healing well. The displaced bone was totally separated and the callous wasn't filling in as quickly or as well as the doc had hoped.

But it all worked out and I am now finally out of my cast and into physical therapy and riding regularly and about to start lessons again soon. Unfortunately I don't think I'll make it to any shows since I haven't done much this summer. Oh yeah, that and it is EFFING 105 degrees outside! Bloody hell!!!

After that short side-story, I should mention that we also went to Hawaii in May for my parents' 40th wedding anniversary. My brother and his girlfriend were there and we all had a lot of fun. We, as usual, did nothing much more than sit by the pool and take naps and go out to dinner and eat and drink. That's what vacations are for, though, right?!

Back to the future. Since our Little Man of Great Ferocitude (tm) was likely eaten by a coyote, we were one cat short. We discussed getting a replacement kitten, but it had to be a male and he had to be fierce enough to get along with the dogs and open a can of whoop ass on them if necessary.

It is kitten season at the shelter where we volunteer and so we had the pick of many litters. Coincidentally, by the time we decided we were ready to adopt, our little foster kittens were at the shelter ready to be adopted. So Colin chose Bap, whose new name is Little Monster, or Yokai as our N.M. friend translated into Japanese. Little Monster likes to fart and it stinks. Big time. He also likes to bap with his paws and claws, and bite with his sharp teeth. This is quite a juxtaposition with his sweet kitten moments when he lays on my stomach and purrs and sleeps, or sleeps through the night by my side. Thankfully he is a good sleeper.

True to his job description, Little Monster holds his own with the dogs. And he and Iggy actually seem to tolerate each other pretty well.

In between April and now we've had some fun times with neighbors and friends, drinking, swimming, drinking, eating, drinking. Ok, please don't think we're alcoholics. We just enjoy our beer and wine - and so do our friends!!!

Last weekend, for example, we went to "Starry Starry Night" which was a benefit for the local hospital foundation. It is held on the grounds of the Empire Mine, which is a lovely historical point of interest and state park. Everyone wears white, so of course we had to go shopping so that we'd fit in. We went with our neighbors (he's a doctor, she used to be a nurse but at the moment is a very pregnant lady who can't wait to pop!) and enjoyed the time out with them. Unfortunately the event itself sucked and I wouldn't pay the large price to go to it again. The wine mostly sucked (Nevada County wines pretty much all suck and I don't know who on earth thinks otherwise), the food was just okay (they didn't really have options and served pork ... who serves pork to a large crowd? That is what chicken is for! I just had a side of the orzo), and there was no dessert bar as promised by our neighbors. Never again! No dessert bar, no dice. Sadly the suckiness of the wine did not stop me from consuming it and so I was placated by that and the breadsticks I kept eating.

Our next trip is to Idaho to visit my brother and his girlfriend. We've actually been toying with the idea of buying property and building a place on it some day. So we might consider Idaho. Mostly we'll consider places in the west, with not too much rain, or too much heat. And we could certainly get a lot more for our money in Idaho than we could get in California. We'll see. We're going to drive there and listen to books on tape. Not about the Revolutionary War, though, because I might just jump out of the car if Colin puts that on.

Colin has some fun pictures to post - from Starry Starry Night to our rattlesnake friend who showed up again (he even got a video!). I'm signing out for now, as I have to go feed the boys.

Ciao!

noreply@blogger.com (Colin) — Sat, 08 Apr 2006 02:07:00 +0000

Sorry it's been so long since we added a new entry. I'd like to say it's not my fault. So I will. There.

Anyway, we've had some interesting weather here. And when I say, "interesting", I mean crappy. One day, it looked like this. But, like everything else, snow must be properly inspected before it's allowed on the property. Poor Kenya's just not built for snow, though.

But the snow goes away pretty quickly. Occasionally, about once a year or so, the sun comes out. With a schedule like that, though, it's bound to get a little confusing and so everything shows up at once and we get this.

We've had a new addition to our neighborhood; one or two coyotes have arrived and seem to have taken up residence. While this is interesting from a biodiversity standpoint, it has had tragic consequences. Before we could institute a "no cats outside" policy, the Little Man of Great Ferocitude became no more :-( Little Man had boundless cuteness. He was a terror to small rodents, though, so maybe it was just karma.

It's not all gloom and doom. Though, now that I think of it, it has been pretty gloomy and doomy. We've been having visits from a gorgeous great blue heron. He sits in a tree and waits for the dogs to notice. Then he leaves.

Lessee, it was Paddy's birthday in March. Naturally, as anyone would do, I baked him and his pals carrot cupcakes. Susie took some convincing; she normally doesn't like to fuss over the horses much. Paddy, it turns out, didn't much like frosting much, though. Luckily, the Old Man was there to pick up the slack. He got frosting all over his little horsey mouth.

By the way, if you're made out of paper and roughly two dimensional, don't sneak into our house when Susie's around.

noreply@blogger.com (Colin) — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 22:02:00 +0000

It's been forever since we wrote here, sorry about that. To update you between last time and now: it has rained, it has been raining, it is raining, it will rain. In fact, it will have been raining, it will have rained, and it was raining. It rains. It does rain. It rained.
I promised to post some pictures soon. Of the rain.

noreply@blogger.com (Susan) — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 03:31:00 +0000

My First Black Eye
By Susan Altman

Date: Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Time: 12 noon
Place: Gate to the large pasture
Victim: Susan Altman (picture)
Perpetrator: Miles (picture)

Haste makes waste, as they say. I was pulling into the driveway on my way home from work, and in a hurry to let the horses out into the neighbors' pasture for a quick lunch. Colin and I had a chiropractor appointment at 1:30, so I only had an hour to let them graze before I needed to put them back into the big pasture for their hay meal.

I had opened the gate to the big pasture and Paddy and Miles were standing there. I had two halters and leadropes in my hand and was trying to untangle them when I pulled on one and it was stuck on the gate, so caused the gate to swing in unexpectedly. Which caused Miles to startle and throw his head up. In. To. My. Face. jesusfuckingchristgoddamnitmotherfucker is I think what came out of my mouth when I felt the impact. Ouch!

Surprisingly, this is the first time I have been knocked in the face by Miles. Paddy and I, on the other hand, have collided a couple times. And also surprisingly, I have never been bruised by the incidents, although both times I thought my nose was broken, and my neck hurt from being snapped back so suddenly.

In case you don't know, the average horse head weighs...a lot! I've read numbers from 15 lbs to 40 lbs (of course that depends on the size of the horse). So let's say it weight 25 lbs ('cause I need more sympathy). Imagine someone VERY strong, like a weightlifter for whom 25 lbs requires no effort to work with. Let's say said weighlifter winds up and swings a 25 lb barbell at you at full force. I guess that's the best analogy I can come up with to explain the blow that I took to my orbital bone on my right eye. Ok, maybe that is a bit of an exxageration; I'm not sure, as I've never been hit in the face with a barbell.

I immediately could feel and see the swelling out of the corner of my eye. Oh, yipee!!! My first shiner!!! Colin suggested I ice it, but I'm a tough farm girl and wanted to see what it was going to look like. So I haven't iced it. Five hours after the initial blow, my eye looked like this (picture). Colin thinks it will get worse, so we'll take more pictures tomorrow and the day after. (Isn't life on the farm exciting?)

Shine on fans, shine on!

noreply@blogger.com (Susan) — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 02:28:00 +0000

It snowed here!!!! The weather report had been saying there would be snow down to 1000', and we're at about 1800', so we were waiting for it. My co-workers told me about a previous year when it had snowed at that elevation and suggested we stock up on water just in case. So we did. But we didn't need it; we didn't lose power or have any pipes burst or anything (knock wood for future cold snaps!).

Snow in our neighborhood isn't unheard of, but isn't a regular occurrence, and hasn't happened since we've lived here. I haven't seen snow fall since I don't know when, so I was excited on Friday when I was at work and looked out the window and it was snowing! It was so beautiful and quiet and peaceful...

When I got home from work, Colin said it had snowed a bit, but it didn't stick. Friday afternoon, though, it started snowing again! It was our neighbor's birthday and we had plans to go out to dinner; she was so happy to have snow on her birthday! (We had a wonderful sushi dinner, followed by a play during which we all fell asleep but it was fun anyways)

On Saturday mornings, Colin feeds the menagerie and I get to sleep in a bit. But when I opened my eyes at 7:30 and saw the snow in the trees, I couldn't sleep. I grabbed the camera and went out to take some pictures; hopefully Colin will post them. (Barn, trees, pasture, horses, back yard) The snow didn't last the day, and we didn't get anymore, despite lyingweather.com's forecast. So I'm glad I took pictures!

On the horsey-front, the boys are doing well. Miles blew a huge abscess out his heel - he was lame for a week before it blew and while he's much more comfortable now, he's still not rideable. I've been trying to figure out his attitude issues and have been wondering if it is a symptom of something else. I contacted an herbalist who recommended something because he tends to be "overly sexy" (her words!). I tried to give it to him and he refused his feed. And continued to do so over the next few days; I guess he likes being overly sexy! In the meantime, he had been grazing at the neighbors (insert picture, Putty!) and seemed to have a more agreeable personality, so perhaps the grazing has some benefit that helps his attitude issues. I took him off his beet pulp and put him back on his alfalfa pellets and he is now happily eating again, even his overly-sexy-reducing herbs! I'm wondering if he has an ulcer and the fresh grass that he was grazing on helped his tummy. Once the ground gets a bit harder again, I'll put him back on the neighbor's pasture and see how that goes. He certainly loves being out there (as do all the boys!).

Paddy is doing well. He is now back to work without his shoes on, and I'm really pleased with his progress! He is totally sound and rideable in the arena. He's a bit ouchy on the trails when it is rocky, but isn't refusing to move, so I'll keep taking him out. The weather is supposed to be nice all week so maybe we'll go to the mine on Thursday afternoon.

Colin was kind enough to come out and take pictures of me on Paddy yesterday (insert picture, please!). After I rode, Colin got on for a short lesson and I took a couple pictures of him, too (insert more pictures, please)! Paddy is such a nice horse - he is very careful and steady with Colin. I feel like Colin is safe on him and I think he enjoys riding Paddy.

I've got to go now; we're in high demand for social events this week and we're heading to our neighbors' house for dinner!

noreply@blogger.com (Colin) — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 04:58:00 +0000

Did you know there's a special kind of math for living in the country? S'true, here's how it goes: this + this = this. Yes, it was road repair day. This was the first set of sunny days in the last forty days and forty nights or something like that. Dumpy went and got us a pile of decomposed granite, which is really supercool stuff.

Hmm, this is starting to get boring. How about a funny picture of Susie instead?

noreply@blogger.com (Colin) — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 03:13:00 +0000

Well, hooray, I got something done today that's been coming for a while. Even though the outhouse isn't quite done yet (needs more paint, stairs, and a doorknob), I finally finished running a data line out to it from the house. This isn't something I've done a whole lot of, pulling wire through conduit, so I was surprised to learn there are new tricks o' the trade.

So, to begin with, you have some 1 1/2" PVC conduit buried under ground, in our case, about 100 feet of it or so. The way it used to be, you poke a slim strip of flexible steel called a fishing tape through the conduit. This sounds easy, or maybe it doesn't, but, either way, it isn't. It's like trying to jam a fishing pole through a crazy straw (for the purposes of this simile, please remember to increase the length of both the fishing pole and the crazy straw to 100 feet or so). In case this literary jem proves too weighty to be easily digestible, suffice it to say, it's hard.

But, thanks to Friendly Neighbor Martin (those of you in the Bay Area may not know what is this "Friendly Neighbor" of which I speak. Fear not, speak to me after class), I was better equipped for the battle. What were my weapons, you ask? Well, first, this, which is just a bucket of strong nylon line. In fact, 6500 feet of 210-lb test line. Should be enough. I briefly considered tying one end to the doorknob (not the outhouse doorknow, of course, since we've already established it doesn't exist) and running 1.23 miles down the road with the bucket in my hand and a really stupid look on my face. But after experiencing the tedium of jamming just a foot or so of the stuff back in the little hole in the lid of the bucket, I decided it wasn't worth it.

Next, you tie one of these to the end of the cord and stuff it in one end of the conduit. Fade to the other end of the conduit, in the attic of the house. Affix one end of this to the end of the conduit with this. Turn on the shop vac and wait for your little plastic line to merrily zip through the conduit to its greedy maw. And, more or less, plus or minus, give or take, that's pretty much kinda what happened.

Next, using this again, affix the end of the polyline to the end of the cable you want pulled through the conduit, and tape it up to within one slim baby's eyelash of permanent. Oh, yeah, turn off the shop vac. Run back down to the outhouse and start pulling. A neutral but mildly interested party is required on the uphill side to feed cable into the conduit as you pull it through from the other end (for your pleasure, the lovely and talented Susie Altman will be playing this role this evening). And stuff the line back in the bucket as you go. Which is really boring. Really.

And, again, more or less, give or take, plus or minus, that's what happened. Yes, I could include the part where I pulled the line hard enough when it got hung up that it came free from the cable and I had to repeat most of the process again. But that would just make me look stupid and probably bore you. And I'm just thinking of Aunt Marilyn, our most dedicated reader.

noreply@blogger.com (Susan) — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 02:02:00 +0000

Well, it is official. Winter is over!! Aren't you glad? We braved it out like the hearty farm folk that we are, and have been justly rewarded. Today was absolutely gorgeous! I think it was in the high 60s...maybe we even touched 70 for a moment or so, I'm not sure. I had to take a trail ride to celebrate! It was my first trail ride at the mine since before Xmas.

I think I posted this earlier this year, but I had Miles's hind shoes pulled on Xmas Eve. I did this for a couple reasons - one, I thought it would prevent him from sliding around so much when it is muddy; two, I thought it would decrease the likelyhood of him pulling shoes; three, I felt like his hind feet weren't balanced as I wanted them to be. I tried to pull his shoes (all four of them) when we first moved up here, but he just couldn't handle it, he was too sore. He's a little tender without his hind shoes, but not nearly as bad as the previous time I tried this.

Because of this tenderfootedness I was a little worried about how he'd handle the trail ride, since there are some rocky parts. There were areas where he was tentative, but overall I was really pleased! On the way home, he marched back on the trail like a champ...and of course it did help that we were headed back to the trailer. At least it worked to my advantage, for once!

Ok, so I lied. Winter is not over. In fact, it is supposed to start raining again on Friday. Which means no trail riding again for probably a week or so. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted!

Colin and I painted our bedroom over the weekend. Spiced Vinegar was the name of the paint, I think. I really like it! It compliments the two paintings that we have. I also ordered two small mirrors from Crate and Barrel to put above the table lamps on the wall behind our bed. I think our room finally looks pretty nice! Now we just need a plant, I think... Colin took a picture - maybe he'll share it here.

Work is good. I finally feel like I'm getting the hang of all the nuances and details that my job requires.

Little Man of Great Ferocitude is biting me right now, so I think it is time to go...

noreply@blogger.com (Colin) — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 02:33:00 +0000

I promised an update on outside stuff and we finally got a day off from the rain, so I snagged some photos while that bright scary light was still in the sky. I can't remember if we mentioned that we seeded two of our pastures.

the strip	before	after and after
the small pasture	before	after

And here's an update on the outhouse (it's not really an outhouse, it contains the pump for the irrigation system, but that's what a neighbor called it and it stuck, so to speak). My goal is to get it completed in less than a year after it started, sigh. Time is running out.

But I still have time for a little skiing now and then. Notice how the Almighty Itself seems to have cast Its blessing upon my outing. Woohoo!

noreply@blogger.com (Colin) — Sat, 07 Jan 2006 03:06:00 +0000

I know I've been awful about keeping the blog updated, but I have a good excuse: I'm really really lazy. Wow! That felt really good. Now, on to business.

I tried my poor hand at sushi on New Year's Eve. Susie was very polite about the outcome, but it's clear I need more practice. The champagne helped the sushi-like product go down a little easier.

Christmas was very nice and mellow. Presents were enjoyed by all. Of course, we always try to squeeze in a little family time.

We went to a neighbor's house for Christmas Eve dinner. Sometimes, as a Pisces, I get a little out of whack, but Susie, a Libra, is always there to provide balance. Our hosts, BT & ET, put out a great spread. Their daughter, Debbie (I think), was up from the Bay Area; she was very pleasant. Also attending were Boris and his friend Natasha (ok, her name wasn't really Natasha, but I don't remember what it was) were also present. Here we are, no doubt discussing politics, which was a fertile field for discouse that evening, to be sure. And, for whatever reason, here's a shot of Nikki's butt.

Our family has grown yet again. Please allow me to introduce Piccolo, or Pico, for short. We got him at the animal shelter where we foolishly volunteer our time. So far, we have brought home three cats and one dog. I'm sure we're not done yet.

Speaking of pound kittens, here's an update on our fierce little kitten. First, he likes praying mantises. And he also likes lizards. Sometimes, when I'm trying to work, he's a little distracting. But the rewards are immense :-)

I promise more updates on outside stuff this weekend.

noreply@blogger.com (Susan) — Sat, 31 Dec 2005 19:09:00 +0000

Rain sucks. I know we need it, but it sucks. I wouldn't mind so much if it would stop every once in awhile, but it doesn't...or hasn't. Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit, but it IS very wet here.

I think it has been raining every day - except one, Xmas Eve - for the past almost three weeks. I haven't ridden in that long, and doubt I will for another few weeks at least. I had Paddy's shoes pulled so that he could have the winter off and grow some nice foot and get rid of some contraction in his right front. He seems to be doing pretty well. I have trimmed him myself a bit to help his medial-lateral balance, and will continue to do so maybe once a week. I'm also putting hoof-hardener on his feet. Hopefully that will help keep them strong in all this soggy weather. He has some cracks in his hinds that I want to see grow out and I'm hoping if his m-l balance is better, they won't get bigger.

I had Miles's hind shoes pulled also. I figure hopefully that will help him slide around less in the mud. But without front shoes, he's very ouchy and pretty much doesn't want to move around, which isn't good. He's ouchier than Paddy - maybe he's just a baby, I don't know. His hind feet look pretty good. I try to walk them both on the gravel driveway to help them toughen up.

The weather last night was awful - heavy rain, STRONG wind. The horses didn't get out all day yesterday and I felt so bad for them. So this morning, there was a break in the rain - although the wind was still gusting - and I took the horses for a handwalk/graze. Then I figured "what the heck" and put them in the big pasture. And they ran around like banshees, bucking and rearing and squealing and having a grand old time. Then they settled down and are now grazing. I worry about them slipping in the mud, which is the main reason I had their shoes pulled off. They seemed to do fine.

I'm waiting for the results of a muscle biopsy I had on Miles. I'm having him tested for PSSM (Polysacharide Storage Myopathy), of which he has quite a few symptoms. "Pony" stride, bucking into the canter, kicking at flies which aren't there, a "tucked-up" look, super sensitive, poor performance...all are symptoms and and I actually hope for a positive result. PSSM is managed through diet and exercise - there's no medicine for it.

Today when I was out handwalking the horses, I saw a LOBSTER in our drainage ditch! Ok, maybe it wasn't a lobster but a crayfish. I took its picture while Colin was holding it and maybe he'll put the picture up here if I'm nice to him.

Today is New Year's Eve, and we're going to have a dinner full of yummy appetizers, a bottle of Champagne, then we'll probably pass out way before midnight.

We had a really nice, quiet Xmas at home. We went to our neighbor's house for a wonderful dinner on Xmas Eve, stayed home most of Xmas day, and went to my friend's house for Xmas day dessert. Colin surprised me with a lovely painting that we had seen on our last trip to Hawaii. I wasn't actually totally surprised, I kind of guessed that he would get it for me. I love it and it is hanging on the wall over our bed. We were of course spoiled by my parents and I got some wonderful LL Bean clothes, and some fun riding accessories for my saddle. At this point, though, I can't imagine that the weather will ever improve enough to ride!!!

I got a part-time job, which I started a couple weeks ago. I'm doing order entry for a home-based catalog company. I download the online orders and enter them into the system, then process them for the shipping department (all two of them - there are four employees total!). I'm also going to be doing updates to their website. It sounds quite simple, but is very complicated and detailed. It is nice to have a mental challenge again.

So I guess that's it for now.

Did I say I cut my hair agian? I think I did...

noreply@blogger.com (Susan) — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 05:22:00 +0000

I have two exciting announcements to make!

First, I cut my hair. It is short. As short as I've ever had it. Apparently short hair is not in style now, as I could find no pictures of models or actresses with short hair. The only photo I found in a magazine was of Melissa Etheridge with her short 'do, so I took that to my stylist and got my hair cut! I'm still getting used to it, but Colin thinks it is cute. We'll have to take a picture to post.

The second announcement is that we got a new dog! Colin and I were at the shelter on Friday, cuddling the cats, and in the small dog/puppy cages sat a small terrier mix. He was sitting very quietly and shaking. So I went into the cage and sat down and was able to coax him onto my lap. And I looked up at Colin and said "I think I found our next pet". That is the problem with volunteering at the shelter - this is the fourth animal we've brought home! "Pico", as we're calling him, was dropped off at the shelter because his owner died and there was no family to take him. I think a neighbor dropped him off. He looks like a schnauzer mix and is black with a scruffy coat that needs to be trimmed. He has his balls, which have got to go. We're taking him back tomorrow to get fixed, then he'll come home for good.

We did have a major snafu with him yesterday, though. He got out of the house and ran away! Colin followed him to the neighbor's yard, but they have 5 acres with lots of heavy manzanita and brush, so we weren't able to catch him there. We spent an hour and a half looking for him in the cold rain (along with our houseguests - very, very kind of them!), and stopped when it got dark. We put calls out to our neighbors but highly doubted that anyone would be able to catch him if they saw him. Finally at 9 p.m., he came to the back door, sopping wet and shivering with cold. He wanted to come in but was scared. I opened the door and he ran away, so I went to get a bowl of food to put out there and when I opened the door again I realized he was still on the back porch. I was able to coax him inside and we dried him off with a towel, and haven't let him out of our sight since. This morning we combed the burrs out of his hair and have just been trying to get him more comfortable and settled. Bless Barley, Kenya, and Little Man, as they have been very welcoming of him and not aggressive at all. He's very timid and submissive, but he seems to like our gentle attention and petting. I'm hoping once he gets snipped he'll be less likely to wander. We also have the invisible fence and need to get him a collar and train him.

We did get a couple pictures and hopefully Colin will be kind enough to post them here.

Gotta go to the barn and tuck the horses in. And I also have to take little Pico out because he is farting and it stinks!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Susan) — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 03:09:00 +0000

My goodness it has been a long time since I've posted an update.

Let's see. Colin and I had a secret date where I arranged for us to meet some friends at our favorite restaurant in Palo Alto, we then went to a Sharks' game, and spent the rest of the weekend meeting up with other friends. It was really fun to get away for a weekend.

I've been having a really sore back for quite a while. I think it is because of my barn chores and stall cleaning. Chiropractic didn't help, acupuncture mildly helped, and I was afraid that I would become addicted to pain killers that Colin has from previous surgeries. I only resorted to their use when the pain was so unbearable that I couldn't sleep. Just in the past couple weeks I started going to the gym with Colin and doing cardio and light weight training, and that has actually really seemed to help. I haven't had the back pain since starting that. Also, I'm sure it helped that Colin took over poo chores for a couple weeks and let me rest.

The ponies are doing well. Paddy has learned his lead-changes, which pleases me mightily! I'm letting him have a break from hard work for a couple months, so we've been doing mostly trail riding with a couple days of arena work for good measure. Miles has some sort of issue going on that I'm having the vet look into, but he's sound for trail riding so we've been doing a lot of that. Colin actually came with me today and he rode Paddy and I rode Miles. I decided I'd go bareback, and all was going well until we took a turn onto a trail and on the other side of the road there was some odd noise (like a loud scooter or chainsaw or something) that really got Miles going and he had a couple bucking fits! Not fun without a saddle on!

We spent Thanksgiving at home and had some Bay Area friends to come up and visit, which was a lot of fun. We got to go for a couple rides and mostly just relax and hang out. The boys did all the cooking and the girls did all the cleaning. We're gearing up for Christmas when we'll go to our neighbor's house for dinner on the 24th and then another friend's house for dessert on the 25th. I think this is the first year that I won't be with my parents on both Thanksgiving and Christmas!

I've been thinking of cutting my hair off again and going short. Actually, I've been thinking of shaving my head, but I don't know if I'm ready to make that big of a change at the moment. Maybe I'll save the head shaving for the summertime. ;-)

The outhouse is almost done. We spent last Saturday painting it and just need to do some finishing touches on the trim.

Oh! I almost forgot! Colin's Xmas present is....DUMPY! Dumpy the wonder dump-trailer has found his way into our home. I bought it before Xmas because it was the last one left on the lot and they aren't making that size anymore (they are only making bigger ones and I don't want a bigger one!). So Colin came home one day and dumpy was in the driveway and he was very happy with his present. (In case y'all don't know what a dump trailer is, it is a 5x8 trailer that can be pulled behind the truck or trailer on a 2 5/16 ball. It has a motor which lifts the bed and, well, DUMPS stuff!) We used dumpy on Saturday to go get some hay, and Colin is going to use it this weekend to go pick something else up. And we use it for manure (filling and holding) while it is raining, and just think of all the things we can fill and dump with it! Wooo hooo!

My tummy hurts because I just ate the rest of the chocolate buttercream squares that Colin made over the weekend. I mean, they were just sitting there - what was I supposed to do, leave just one or two in the box?!

noreply@blogger.com (Colin) — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 19:38:00 +0000

Lot's of things are going on here at the farm and I promise to update you soon. Right now, though, I'd like to add an installment in my series of Things That Don't Make Sense. This one is going to be about teaching Intelligent Design in science class.

Here is why it's a crap idea:

Science class should be about science. The study of science is based on the Scientific Method. To produce a theory, one starts with hypotheses, which are "tentative explanations for natural phenomena" and are produced by "observations and reasoning". So far so good. One could certainly argue that Intelligent Design qualifies as a "tentative explanation for a natural phenomenon". However, an hypothesis must also be falsifiable and here's where the train runs off the rails. In order to qualify as a hypothesis, it "must be at least in principle possible to make an observation that would show the proposition to be false, even if that observation had not been made." There is no way to construct an experiment that can disprove that an intelligent agent designed the universe. If Intelligent Design can't be an hypothesis, it can't be a theory. Too bad, so sad.

But, ok, so Intelligent Design does belong somewhere in school, like Comparative Religion or Philosophy. Maybe the same place that you might discuss astrology or the flat earth. But if you do get caught actually debating the merits of Intelligent Design (like the Bombadier Beetle), don't forget that, according to Intelligent Design, the great designer doesn't have to be the Christian God, but could just as well be the Flying Spaghetti Monster...or me.