The Campfire

After the birthday bash week, Larry rekindled his friendship with his ol' buddy ol' pal, Kathleen. They have spent the night together at her house, and now, they've had a campfire, with her little sister, Kyra in tow. It was a fun evening. They had burgers for dinner then played while I got Champ ready to give them pony rides. Larry was showing off his horsemanship by leading his pony for the girls to take a ride. Then, they headed up to cool off, and play in his room while I put Champ away, and then we got to have a campfire to roast some marshmallows & make some smores. They seemed to have a pretty good time, running around like little maniacs, screaming, throwing a hackey sack at each other, and falling into fits of giggles. They caught lightning bugs, and had races up and down the gravel road. Before it was all over, they didn't want to leave. Even Kyra wanted to stay. They played balloon volleyball, so to speak, and when it hit the ceiling fan, holy wow. You'd think there was never a funnier thing in the world.
Makes me remember being a looney kiddo myself, and doing the same things.
This is one of the best parts of summer ... well, that, and riding the horses, thunderstorms, fresh produce by the ton, and swimming in the lake. Yeah. That's about it.

The BIRTHDAY week.

I swear, I am going to start keeping this up regularly. I swear. Any day now, I will get my chit together and start writing daily ... well, maybe weekly to start. Or, when something cool happens. Eh, Guess I'll keep playing it by ear, but try to up date more often.

There is a week in July that is pure birthday extravaganza around here. It kicks off on the 25th when we celebrate my hubby's birthday - not anything huge usually, just a nice quiet dinner is usually in order, and a cake of course - this year it was peanut butter cup cheesecake.
Then I get a day off to wash the pans. Then it's my little boy's birthday - that I will write more about below. Another day off, and then Mom's birthday. She got a blueberry pie and potato sausage. Silly me didn't take pics of the process.
On with the kiddo party!

It's been about 2 weeks since Larry's 7th birthday. It was a BLAST. It went far better than I had anticipated. A dear friend and mentor offered to let me borrow a couple ponies to ease the Old Man's load, and bless her heart - she brought four. FOUR. There were a total of 5 ponies of various shapes and sizes all tacked up (except for Mr. Huggs) giving rides to nearly every kid there. And, there were about 14 kids. There was very little wait time. We had some games in mind, but the ponies proved to be so much fun that we skipped over some of that other stuff :D
He had a blast with his friends, and cousins, and my friends' kids too.
We did it old school - kids, and hot dogs, and ice cream cake. And pony rides. The pony riders got ribbons for participation. We all had a nice lunch together, of course, presents, and then, a nice water fight in the back yard. There was much merriment, and all the kids went away with some bubble gum & tootsie rolls too.

Thanks AGAIN and SO MUCH to Dona, Sarah, Piper and Riley for bringing the ponies, presents, and partying with us - (a big thanks to their ponies too - Mr. Huggs, Midnight, Dreamer, and Cookie). Thanks, also to all the kids that came - Reagan, Cooper, Lillian, Scotty, Joey, Kathleen, Kyra, Hannah, Kayleigh, Lex, & Josh. Parents, it was great to see you - love you like family Jeana, and Valerie. Love you cause you ARE family Jess, Jimmer and Steph!

And, of course, it goes without saying, but I'll say it anyhow : Thanks Mom & Dad for all the effort you put into making Larry's party a success. It was afterall what he REALLY wanted for his birthday. More than any presents, or cake or balloons. He wanted to enjoy some time with his friends and the people he loves. And that's just what he got.

4th of July

Another 4th of July has come and gone, without much fanfare around here. Our party hearty neighbors have all seemed to use the celebration of our country's inception as just another reason to get blind stinkin' drunk and act like jackasses. It's been like this since they moved in.
So, as I sat under the fireworks display in our local little berg, with my 6 year old son on my lap, with his ears plugged with his little fingers to block the sound, and his new green LED light sabre on his lap, I couldn't help but wonder what happened to the patriotic enthusiasm that so many people had when I was a kid his age. Even at the nice small town display I was unfortunate enough to sit next to a motor mouth, and a motor mouth kid that could do nothing but criticize the offerings of explosions that tiny town could offer. It seems that every year I hear more, or maybe I just notice more people bitching about the display, rather than just enjoying them.
I know it's basic, but if you aren't pleased with what they have to offer, they do hold fundraisers, and ask people to donate to make the display bigger and better.
The 4th was a holy holiday when I was growing up, due in no small part to my Grandpa Harry who LOVED the 4th. I won't get into his story now, but one of these days.....
That's probably why the more I live where I do, the more bitter I get about the 4th.
Every year, the 4th of July is celebrated (by our neighbors & near neighbors) the same way every long weekend is. It's an excuse to get blindly drunk, not just on the day, but for the entire weekend. The only difference is that they may even light themselves on fire - it has happened, and it's not as funny as you might think it would be.
Well, it was pretty funny. Kind of like - karma, with a side of HA HA HA!!!
But I digress.
Is it really necessary to be three sheets ALL weekend? I'm not kidding here. When they finally move in the early afternoon, the first thing all of them do (including the teenagers - what kind of parent encourages their kids to be BLASTED???) is to crack open a cold one. And, not of the good ol' Coke v. Pepsi variety. I don't believe they even grilled out this year - just liquid lunch all the way around. It's disheartening. But I will quit ranting now.
In fact, I just hope everyone had a fantastic 4th, with family, fireworks, and good friends. I also hope no one got lit on fire that didn't entirely deserve it, and that those that did, were promptly put out, without serious injury. Maybe just enough to give them enough of a scar to straighten them out a little.

Horsey entertainment

Well, it's been an interesting weekend so far. Yesterday marked Trixie's 3rd birthday. Good thing I'm working on her every free chance I get - which so far, is not too much.

Yep. She looks overworked, doesn't she?

Wheezy got the OK to go into a small pasture with a friend last time she saw the doc. Looks like she is mostly blind now in that eye. BUT, she is certainly doing fine. She ran into the little pasture like she had a firecracker up her ass yesterday. This morning, it was just a bouncy happy feelin' good trot. Good for her. She's hangin' with Rosie, they're buds. They eat together, walk together, shit together... you know how those tight horsey buds go.

For the first time since I've had her (has it really been 4 years already?) I FINALLY got a great picture of Velvet. Oh, not one, not two - but THREE. I am still in total shock and awe.

Here is my favorite.

You can even see the teeny tiny star on her head. Aww. How I love that horse.

Then, to make my morning complete, when I got back in the house, ALL of my boys were awake, and having a good morning too!!! Larry was snuggled up in my bed, Big Larry was playing with the baby, and the baby (when he wasn't playing with dad) was jumping like crazy in his little johnny jump up thingy. Then this:

How can anyone NOT like this??? And, my little boy took the picture of my littler boy. Good Morning. Wish the whole day could run this smooth and cheerful.

Wheezy

My mother has a mare with a very, erm. . . colorful personality. She is generally a good natured horse, though one of the most cantankerous old bitches you ever did see. She can be perfectly sedate one day, and then try to strike at you the next. We have gone around several times, and although she can be terribly pig headed, she always realizes that 'oh, yeah. . . this one doesn't back down.' Although we clash from time to time, she knows too, that I do have her best interests at heart. When she is ill, she is generally very very easy to handle for me. Even when she will try to buffalo my mom (her person, that is) she knows better than to pull that crap with me, and that I will take care of her no matter how ill she feels.
She also has an inate tendency to get herself into more trouble than any of the other horses combined (knock on wood). Some how, she is the one that breaks her halter, gets kicked, tangled in wire, breaks her feeder, bucket, or stall door... she is the one that gets cut in a foal proof stall, and finds a way to mangle her latch on the door. It is both irritating and endearing. You never can tell what the hell she's going to get into next. For instance...
She likes to chew wood. NOT crib, just chew. She will beaver through an 8x8 treated post like it's made of apple flavored horse treats. Over the winter, while I was pregnant, and hardly able to keep them fed & watered, Wheezy ate her stall down to the framework. I'm not saying the other horses didn't eat their stalls too, but none so completely and efficiently as she did.
It is understandable then, that when my mom found the time, and materials to finally go out & fix Wheezy's stall mom felt like Wheezy was safe from herself for the first time in months.
I thought so too.
We were WRONG.
Somehow the very first night that we had gone over that stall, and re-covered it, checked and double checked the feeder & bucket, salt block holder, walls, door, and even the ceiling & floor ...
Wheezy injured her eye. On what - no clue. I have combed her stall, the barn, anywhere she may have been able to reach - nothing.
When we saw she'd hurt herself (Larry saw it first, he fed that am.) I called the vet, it was of course, a Saturday. I explained what had happened, told him what I had available in the barn for treatment, and was told to use my antibiotic eye ointment, and if no improvement by Monday, to bring her in. Well, by Sunday afternoon, it was worse - not to mention getting ointment into the eye of a notoriously head shy horse is no picnic in and of itself.
We set out to bring her in that Monday AM. Somewhere between breakfast, and unloading her at the docs (didn't think to look at it when I loaded her) the cut on her eye was actually protruding. Eeew.
She punctured her iris. We left her at doc's he put her on the ground and stitched her 3rd lid shut. He kept her there to medicate her easier, and monitor her for himself. She came home, with her eye still shut to give her a chance to heal. She did great for doc, and for us, until she found a way to rip a few stitches - back to see doc. he sedated her, and removed the remaining stitches. We have brought her back twice now, just so doc can monitor her. She'll be going back again Thursday.
No word on if she will ever be able to see from that eye again. I'm hoping for the best case scenario - a blind spot rather than a blind eye. So far, Doc has been impressed with how well she's been healing.