Halloween, Horsey Style!

Today was the annual Halloween party at the horse barn.  The kids dressed their horse and themselves in costumes.  It was a lot of fun and they really put a lot of time into their planning.  We learned a very important lesson though.... Where it will not harm a horse to use acrylic paint mixed with water on their coat, it is terrible to get off of them!  Next time, tempra paint...  Or actually, no paint at all.  That was no fun on the my end.  (The Queen could not bathe the horse and risk getting her costume dirty so her mom came to the rescue.)

Katzya and Mia went at Queen Elsa and Sven from the movie Frozen.  (Look closely to see the antlers...)  Also in attendance we had a pair of fairies, a little Indian girl, and Mickey and Minnie.  I was surprised the horses left their costumes on and none of them freaking out about the antlers, horns, mouse ears, etc.  

Goes to show the love between a horse and it's rider knows no boundaries.  I'm sure the peppermints  helped to sweeten up the deal....

Crashing news! Literally....

This morning I was going through our local McDonald's drive-thru, running late to work in a usual Monday morning fashion, when I happened to glance to my left and there peering out of the newspaper stand was an article titled: A New Library in Tipp.  It took my brain a millisecond to realize that the picture under the heading was of me!  Naturally, I had to back up and look again, just to make sure my eyes were not playing tricks on me in the early morning hours.  Unfortunately, I did not notice the small black car with it's headlights off behind me.....

Bump!

I get out of my car, assess the very minor damage to both cars, apologize to the woman I bumped into, and start rambling on about how sorry I was while I try to explain what I was doing.

"Oh my gosh!  I am so sorry!  I did not see you there.  I was just looking over at that news stand, backed up for a better look at myself and BAM!  There you were."

She looked at me as if she was already having a bad morning that had just gotten worse, and said:  "Were you trying to see yourself in the reflection of the glass?  Were you trying to fix your hair?"

"No, I wear my hair like this all the time!"  I exclaim.  "See there?," as I point to the news stand.  "That's me!  How cool is it that I'm in the newspaper this morning, and look that that font size!  It is HUGE!"

I can see she is not impressed.  Quietly I give her my insurance information, apologize once more and we part ways.

I knew my next call was going to be to the Reluctant Farmer.  I had to call her for two reasons.  First, I needed to have her drive to McDonald's to buy a copy of the newspaper because I had no cash on me.  (Priorities!)  Second, I needed to explain to her why our car insurance premiums were going to increase.  Sadly, she was not impressed with the latter half of the conversation, therefor she was really not impressed with the first half of the conversation either.

My good mood was not going to be derailed though, even when she later texted me a picture of the article with a message that read:  "Hooray for slow news days!"

I think someone is bitter about my font size.....

Stolen saddles, diarrhea and a broken toe....

Let me start off this blog post by saying I think I broke my toe.  And it hurts hella bad....

Recently there have been some issues at our horse barn with stolen tack.  The thieves have been targeting saddles, and where our saddles are nothing too special, it would be very inconvenient to replace them.  Because of this we have been toting our saddles back and forth to the barn, which is also inconvenient, but I flat out refuse to give a thief anything if I can help it.  

When the saddles are home they sit on a portable saddle rack in the living room just waiting for my unsuspecting little toe to find them when I make late night "pee-pee" runs and cut the corner too close.  

I must confess that every time I hit my toe on that rack of saddles, I loudly throw out to the universe that I wish eternal diarrhea upon that thief, and hope karma makes his belly hurt.  I hope it feels like a Skyline/Chipotle/Coldstone Creamery kind of night and he regrets ever being dishonest.  I also hope this moment hits him after someone else in his household has used the last roll of toilet paper.  And while he is sitting on that "white thunder box" I pray he reflects back on his less than stellar behavior and makes better choices for the future....

Give me back my testicles!

Two weeks ago we pulled a very scared, un-socialized Border Collie from our animal shelter.  As luck would have it we found a rescue for him and agreed we would keep him for two weeks until another foster home came available.  

He came to us a trembling mess of nerves hardly able to stand, and with his tail tucked so tightly underneath him, that it looked like hid tail had been docked.  He left a jolly sort, minus two testicles, whom had finally known love.  

Now I don't speak dog, but I think I completely understand what he was trying to tell me today:

Thanks for everything!  

The love, the kindness, the fun!  

But give me back my testicles....

Thank you Great Lakes Border Collie Rescue for giving this guy and the many other a chance at life.