Monday, June 29, 2009

Happ Anniversary

Last year, on this day, our youngest, James, married his long (and I do mean long!) time girlfriend, Solitare. We are so glad that he finally figured out what needed to be done, and did it.

James is really a great kid, but he moves to his own clock. We truly thought this would never happen, but it did!

And we are so glad. One of the things that I'd always wanted was six kids, but that didn't work out. I had Ed and Bekka, and gained James when I married Clyde. That put me half way there.

Then I had to wait for the kids to grow up and get married! Now I have six kids (and five grandchildren). I wonder how many grandkids I would like. At least three or four more.

I have expectations. Whenever you all are ready, now that I've gotten you all married off!.


Happy Anniversary, James and Solitare! We love you!

p.s. This isn't really a hint for more grandkids. LOL!!

Monday, June 22, 2009

Really??!! REALLY!!??!! REALLY!!!!!!!!

Really, this is what we did for Father's day. We went to the zoo to ultrasound a giraffe! Yes, our horse vet was asked to come ultrasound an expecting giraffe, and they said she could bring her staff. Grandpa Clyde was enthused. He looked forward to it all of Friday and Saturday, and Sunday, we were there 30 minutes before the appointed time! That's how enthused he was!!

When we got there, and inside the zoo, we went up to the hospital area, and guess what they had. A 4 week old baby rocky mountain goat. It's mother had missed a jump and fallen to her death. The baby has a bad leg, so she couldn't get around. No one knows how long she was out there by herself, but definitely not more that 2 days. Some hikers found her in Montana, and Dr. Mark, the zoo vet went up to get her. Now they are trying to see what can be done about her let.

Her name is Forest. She is very friendly. And her white wool isn't as soft as it looks. It's kind of coarse.


Grandpa couldn't wait to get a hold of her.



And Grandma was right after him to give her up!


Next, everyone loaded into the vet truck, or the zoo van and went down to the giraffes. There wasn't enough room for everyone in the area where they were going to work on the giraffe, so I went up to the giraffe display area and met up with Bekka and Brent and the kids. They gave us so many of the giraffe crackers to feed the giraffes. CJ had other ideas, he thought the cracker was for him!



Meanwhile, back down below, they put the giraffe in this really tall chute. Like a cattle chute, but obviously it had to be a LOT taller. Then they pulled out the ultrasound to see what the baby looked like in the giraffe. Unfortunately it was so crowded in there, and the space so small, that all Grandpa could get was pictures like this: Lise looking at the ultrasound screen next to the giraffe.



This is a bottoms up view of the giraffe. They are really very, very tall.



And here is a photo of a giraffe that was up with the visitors. Don't you just love the come hither look she is giving you over her shoulder?

Here is Dr. Mark, Dr. Lise, and Dr. Holly all looking at the ultrasound screen and discussing what they are seeing in the giraffe. Did you know that baby giraffes weigh about 175 pounds when they are born? And I thought the 100 pound baby horses were big!


After they were done with the giraffe, we all went back up to the hospital. And Forest was just crying to get out of her crate! Of course, some of us weren't totally enthralled with the goat, especially when she tried nibbling the chin! (Dr. Holly and S- who is almost 2 years old).



Then Dr. Lise had to hold Forest too.


Dr. Lise brought the x-ray machine, so that they could x-ray Forest's hurt leg. So Dr. Mark held Forest and the plate, and Lise took the x-rays. This was the next step to trying to fix the leg so that Forest could eventually go with the other mountain goats at the zoo. They live in a rocky, hilly area so she needs all 4 feet to get around.


After the xrays, poor Forest was really hungry, since she had missed her feeding. The kids got to try feeding her, and Miss M was really eager to feed the baby! Seems there's a little mama in all of us! (Kelly is a horse vet tech and volunteers at the zoo).



There was another orphan at the hospital. This one was very shy, and she wouldn't come out of her cage. She did finally get curious, and this is as far as I saw her come out. She is a coyote, and she is going to be used in educational programs when she gets acclimatized to humans.


Of course, after all of this, we had to do some looking around, and get lunch. You can see that we had a very busy day, and naps were in order!


Saturday, June 20, 2009

Rainy Saturday

What do you do on a rainy Saturday morning? If you're not me, you would sleep in. But of course, that's exactly what I did! I didn't get up until 8 a.m., which is totally unheard of for me.

Then, after feeding the animals, late of course, it started to sprinkle. So much for working in the yard, cleaning stalls, or moving manure.

Instead of making breakfast, we decided to go to Monument to the farmers' market. So off we went! And spent too much money. But we got some goodies. Like this fresh red bell pepper that we checked out against the watercolor I did last year of peppers. Looks pretty good to me.


These are what the vegetables we got look like, fresh grown down by Lamar or Rocky Ford...
We brought home a cucumber, a zuchini squash, some summer squash, the bell pepper and something they called "sweet", suppossedly like a zuchini squash.



Next we bought some more of this fresh sausage. We've bought some every time we've gone to the farmers' market this year. So now we have vegetables for dinner, and sausage for brunch today. The sausage is made locally in Castle Rock.



Then I found a place that grows wheat, and mills it into flour. So I bought some of their chocolate chip cookie dough, because, of course, I LOVE chocolate chip cookies. (sorry, the picture didn't turn out so great, the camera couldn't find a spot to focus on.)



We bought some plants, two tomato plants and a poppy plant. Unfortunately, my little garden space is getting crowded. I've already planted lots of sunflowers, johnny jump ups, poppies, garlic and marigolds in my little space, plus a lilac plant. It's popping up with all kinds of plants, and some weeds, but I have to wait for them to grow more so I know what to pull out.




And I found Barefoot Books being sold there. So, we know what I think of kids books, and you're right, I bought some. Four to be exact. Three are paperback books that come with the music and a cd that plays the songs. So, I had to have the Knick Knack Paddy Whack one, and got more.
So much that she threw in a reusable shopping bag! I know the kids will love these books, and they are simple enough that G can read them to M and CJ.





We left the farmers' market, and went to get some coffee and hot chocolate before going home. Guess what! We found another farmer's market across from the coffee shop, so we had to stop in. Here, there was a booth roasting chili peppers, so we got some of them too!



We stopped at the library because I had a book to pick up, then we came home and made brunch. Cranberry sausage and scrambled eggs with roasted peppers! MMMmmmm, good!
Now it's time for a nap!

We are going someplace tomorrow, but I'm not going to tell you where. When I got the call and we were invited, I just said "YES, We'd love to come!"

Then I told Clyde, and all he could say was "REALLY!!?!!".........."REALLY!!??!!"...."REALLY??!!"

So he is really excited! More tomorrow.......

Monday, June 15, 2009

Graduation and Anniversary

It's been a while since I've posted out here. We've been busy. We did have a party on Saturday. Clyde and I have been married for sixteen years, so we had a BBQ.

But first, we went to a graduation. Friday, Mitch and Susie graduated from National American University. We were racing around on Friday, trying to get ready for the party, so we were rushed getting to the graduation ceremony. Left to go grab something to eat on the way, and heard a "meow" in the truck. We'd brought one of the barn cats with us. Oh well, we kept going, until Clyde realized we had a new computer in a box in the back seat of the truck. So.....we turned around, took the cat and computer home, then went to the graduation. No dinner!

Came home, we were tired, so we went to bed. Besides it was late and we had to get up early on Saturday to go pick up the cakes by 8 a.m. And then we lost a cat! Cream the white cat wasn't inside. Looked all over for her, and finally, looking out the back windows, I see her up the broken tree. So we went out, and coaxed her down, whereupon I grabbed her and held on. She got taken into the house, and slept all day! (Or maybe that was Friday when we found her in the tree. Must have been because she slept all day, and we didn't see her at all on Saturday after James and Solitare got there with their dogs.)

Anyway, no breakfast on Saturday either! James and Solitare arrived, Clyde and James went to the liquor store, and immediately on their return we started making peach margaritas. They do make a great breakfast!

Here are Susie and Mitch with their cake (which I made them take home!).




I did get a picture of Bekka and her younger brother James at the party. We kept going until after 7 p.m.



After almost everyone had gone, everyone took a nap. Except me and M. We stayed up. But CJ was most interesting. Have you ever seen an almost two year old sleep standing up? CJ can! And here's the picture to prove it! And on one leg!



We played Dominion with James and Solitare, M fell asleep, and CJ was still going strong at 10 p.m. when I put him to bed.

Oh, and we got hail again on Saturday. My flowers that were shredded almost two weeks ago, and were just beginning to recover, got shredded again. Bummer. It's been cold and rainy for over a week.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Is this spring? or winter?

We got a lot of rain over the last few days. Rain on Saturday interrupted the horsebackriding, and we all had to run for cover into the trailer and wait the storm out. Then hurry down the hill, hoping all the while not to get stuck in the mud.

Sunday, I think was a little dryer. My grass that I planted is coming up really good. The flowers were looking good too. Emphasis on that last sentence is WERE.

Monday, I went to work, and on the way home, it started raining. By the time I hit the Walker and Shiloh intersection, the rain had turned into hail (but only pea size or smaller) and there was a lot of lightning. Continued driving, even tho I couldn't see very far, and the hail was really making a racket! Got to the drive, and the rope was up to keep the mares in. (Trying to be helpful Monday morning, I put the rope up so that Grandpa could let the mares out. He didn't, so didn't realize the rope was still up.) So, long story short, there was lots of hail coming down, lots of lightning strikes all around, and really close. Now I sometimes do some really not smart things, but getting out of the truck to untie the wet rope hooked to an ELECTRIC fence in a lightning storm wasn't one of the things I would do. I am really afraid of lightning. It's SO fatal!

I sat out in the truck, leaning away from the sides, being dripped on by water coming in thru the rubber weather stripping, and wishing I could fit under the seats! I kid you not, just looking north, I counted over 20 strikes in one minute!
And Grandpa called me and wanted to know if I saw where the lightning hit by the barn. Of course not, my eyes were closed by then, and my hands were over my ears.

I sat out there for an hour, until I could count onethousandone, onethousandtwo, all the way up to onethousandfive, before I would get out to undo the rope. Did you know that lightning can travel over 8 horizontal miles from cloud to ground? That's called a bolt out of the blue. And I wasn't taking a chance!

It rained all night, we got about 6 inches. And Tuesday was no better, still raining and foggy. Today, Wednesday, started out foggy and wet, but the SUN IS OUT now! It's going to be a great day!