I can't ever go back...

I spent some formative years on a flat piece of cornfield that had been left with about 5 scraggly big trees in a fence row. My parents sculptured it to their liking--you can do that when you purchase earth-moving equipment for fun--and forced me into landscaping slave labor for eons, but it turned out really well. Then I went to college.

Then, like most people in this country, I moved into the city for a job. I had apartments, rental house and in-town neighborhood life. Where, when I washed my dishes in the sink, I could wave at my neighbor while she washed dishes in her sink. And where my oldest roller-bladed on my next door neighbor's paved driveway, RIGHT under my dining room window. The neighborliness was fun in some ways. Anyone who had Handyman for a neighbor was blessed.

Then one day, one of our kids' friends pulled too many needles off a pine tree when he was playing...and then Handyman's bike got stolen out of the garage while we were home and then there was the guy sleeping off his drunk in the BACK OF OUR CAR in the driveway. And the dogs couldn't even get their heart rates up going back and forth across the yard...

There is something so wonderful about opening your kitchen door and sending your 5 yr. old out with a baggie for chickens and two dogs to accompany and never having a worry. There's no neighbors to irritate, there's no roads to fret over, there's no pristine suburbia to damage...I don't know how others do it. We don't need no stinkin' curtains! ;)

We can dig big holes if we want and just leave 'em. We can pile leaves higher than our heads and then, leave 'em. We can fling manure over the paddock fence and pretend we're fertilizing the yard. We even sprinkle grass seed down the center of our driveway in the spring--to make Handyman's childhood fantasy come true.

We've already struggled through several years of removing the previous owner/tenants' piles of crapola, here and there and everywhere. We unloaded a lot of brightly-colored Little Tykes yardware this summer and now, we just don't really want to go anywhere very often.

We like to sit and watch our leaves, or our tomatoes, or our great blue herons, or the bats at night or those ridiculous chickens. We mow and shovel and rake and seed and sit and listen and see stars that our friends in town can't find on a good night.

Yeah, the manure is continuous, but it grows great tomatoes. The mowing is pretty constant, for a season, but frankly we fight over who gets meditation time to mow, now that #1 is heavy enough to keep the motor running when bouncing over the terrain. The driveway can be a pain in the winter, but that's why God invented 4WD--and my littlest buddy can climb real apple trees, with real apples and eat them and throw them and play outdoors without supervision for hours.



The only thing we're missing is some surf...

"Thanksgiving" a few excerpts by Dave Barry

"The only way to be sure you've killed all the bacteria in your Thanksgiving turkey is to cook it until a meat thermometer inserted into the breast melts, indicating that the turkey has attained the same internal temperature as the sun. 'Basically,' advises the surgeon general, 'you want to be serving your family a sixteen-pound charcoal briquette.' Even then you should keep a flamethrower handy."

**************************************

"Not everybody is comfortable with the idea of eating turkeys, which are, let's face it, living organisms, like dogs or celery. You may wonder: Is there a more humanitarian option that you can serve for Thanksgiving dinner? There certainly is: It's tofu, a semi-foodlike substance secreted by soybeans as a defense mechanism. Tofu can be used as a high-protein meat substitute, as well as a denture adhesive or tile grout. In its natural state, tofu is tasteless and odorless, but if you form it into a turkey-shaped lump, season it well, add gravy, and bake it for two hours in a shallow pan at 350 degrees, you can also use it for minor driveway repairs."

****************************************

"Thanksgiving is not merely a time of eating until we are big, fat, bloated carbohydrate balloons lying motionless on the sofa watching the Detroit Lions while actual gravy oozes from our pores. Thanksgiving is also a time of giving thanks--as the Pilgrims did so many centuries ago--for the fact that the malls are open on Friday. Otherwise we'd have to spend another day cooped up with our loved ones, not to mention toxic levels of leftovers, and the number of domestic drumstick assaults would be even higher than it is."

****************************************

"In closing, let's have a big group hug and join together in singing this traditional Thanksgiving song that we vaguely remember from childhood: "Over the river and through the woods, to Grandmother's house we go! The horse is reluctant, and we can relate, because Grandmother's house has that weird smell."

Tree House Update

Yeah, yeah, he's been working on it...we ordered the standing seam metal roof this week and it'll take about two weeks to come in. We considered the red that would match our barn roof, but opted instead for the sedate brown that is on the little box window on the front of the house.



It will be completely screened-in (can't remember if I already told you that), with porches on both front and back. There will be a "swinging" type bridge going out to it. And while you can't tell, it is set at a fun angle from the main house, which is giant personal growth for Handyman, who is all about square and straight-on and stuff.

Here's a picture of the finished place he is planning from--our friends' little abode known as "Wit's End":



Of course we'll never be able to sell this place and move away...every little thing is so filled with love and endearment...

Think I'm ready

Well, since I start chemo this week, I tried to get all the little things wrapped up for the animal/winter scene in advance. I got the heater in the paddock water tank. Both tanks are full-to-brimming from last week's rain. I got all the plexiglass put in the chicken house windows. Handyman and #1 carried in the saddles and brought up the medicine box from the barn. And, Handyman brought home some mouse traps for the hayloft. My mom has repaired the mouse damage in Reno's blanket, so it is ready to roll. And this week, while I'm "laying around", shedding--Handyman is going to get going on the stall mats and then the south outside wall. Yea!

I can't wait to have level flooring in the stalls, with no pee holes! Hoowhee! I know, it takes all kinds. Everybody has their dream--mine is a stall floor with cushy bedding and no pee holes.

The hens have finally caved and started laying again. We're getting 4-6 eggs per day--up from ZERO for a month! Yikes. It's not a henhouse, it's a "fowl" nursing home. #1 will be fashioning little walkers for them. Lemme tell you, they are SICK of apples. Now that they live in an orchard, it was fun in the beginning. They refuse to look down now. It's denial.

just a little brag...

Yesterday, for at least the second time, a gray cadillac pulled down our LOOOOOOOONG driveway and came to a stop outside. Handyman was out there and recognized this as the Jehovah Witnesses that we have sent away before. They are very nicely dressed folks, with younger folks in the backseat, who seem to be the ones "on the job". I remember last time we sent them away I remarked that we should've told those young women that they don't have to "do that". That Jesus died for them, and no amount of works is necessary to save them.

Anyway, I didn't see the car until it was driving away, but I recognized who it was immediately. Handyman came in with a big grin on his face and sparkling eyes and announced that he had told them before they even got out that we were Christians, saved by the grace and blood of Jesus and that works were not necessary or enough! I said, "you told them that?!" and his eyes were a little, teeny bit teary and he said proudly, "Yes!"

I was so proud of him!! What a soldier for the Cross! I have always wished I could/would say that sometime and that big bugger beat me to it! I'm so proud of my big Handyman. Better than anything he could build here on earth are the seeds he's planted in the hearts of those people. I pray someday they can break out of the lies and find true salvation. All because my guy was brave enough to speak TRUTH!

PTL.

Politics, again...

I am struggling along, trying to keep the boat afloat with dignity and respect undertowed by fear and loathing.

Here's an interesting blog, highlighting some of President-Elect Obama's future plans:

And of course, one of my favorites, although irreverant and bold--the irrepressible Ann Coulter:

For my birthday, my dad gave me Bill O'Reilly's newest book: A Bold, Fresh Piece of Humanity. We read it aloud all the way to and from the funeral on Wednesday and it is very entertaining. I wish I had the opportunity to see him more often, but perhaps knowing him from writing is better...

Well, I better start planning for my "community service hours"...Yah, Comrade.

Time marches on

My 93 yr.-old grandma passed away this week, in a nursing home, in Ohio. It had not been a good situation for quite awhile and we were all sort of relieved. The service, done by my uncle, was really great. He spoke specifically to each of his brothers and sisters about how their mother felt about them and then he allowed people to come up at will and speak about "Gammie" and what she meant to us. That was so joyous and bittersweet for everyone. My own fine mother got up with yellowed recipe cards that had been written for her by Gammy many moons ago. As my mom read off the titles on the recipe cards, people were oohing and aahing aloud.

I came away thinking that I pretty much suck as a mother...I know that's an exaggeration and I know that Gammie's kids probably drove her nuts, but her life was distilled down to its most important impacts and they were all about how she made everyone feel special and she loved everyone, all the time, from their high moments to their bottom-dragging choices, she was all about love and support and more love and good food.

I'm about nagging and being disappointed and mad and frustrated. I'm about being a drill sergeant because nothing seems to work. My kids sneak off during the day to avoid me, because they say all I want to do is work. Where's the balance? #1 wants to spend time with just me, but she complains that she doesn't want to do it while I'm doing laundry...

Meanwhile every room, including the hallways and the cars, are piled with stuff and clothes and I get frustrated everywhere I turn. How can I be about love and good food, when I have trouble finding a horizontal surface to set a dish on? Why can't these darn kids do one thing they've been told to do over 487 times?? Is this just me?

Maybe I just need to wait for grandkids...

McCain sighting

John McCain came to our city yesterday (and sounds like about 5 others as well.) I heard he travelled 3500 miles in one day this week--yikes. Anyway, some friends of mine headed out to the airport to see him and they ended up pretty near the front. She said they waited for an hour or so and the big McCain jet flew in right overtop of them.

Now this friend has three sweet daughters and one very handsome, busy son. This son is the wonderful boy who wore the pink breast cancer bracelet for weeks, for me, even to football practice (it was the football coach who gave out the bracelets to honor his wife.) This boy has climbed out my upstairs garage window onto the roof, just to see the view--he is ALL boy, and a nice one at that.

Anyway, my friend tells me that her son got to shake John McCain's hand!! She says to me, on the phone, "K. got to shake John McCain's hand and say hi to him! He shoved his way through to the front..."

From the background, I hear K say, "No Mom. I got on my hands and knees and crawled through peoples' legs until I got to the front."!!

I was not surprised at all! I can just see his smiling little face popping up in the front row, knees black with airport filth, hair tousled with static from peoples' pants legs, women shreiking as some unknown thing rifles across their calves--typical K. fashion. And he'll never forget that moment as long as he lives.

You go K! Your zest for life is inspiring--sometimes dangerous--but inspiring nonetheless!

WWW.JOHNMCCAIN.COM

Thoughts on Obama

Okay, so we are single-digit days from the presidential election and the citizenship of one of the candidates has not been confirmed??!?! And, his birth certificate is not available to be scrutinized??? And, that just conveniently happened the same day he flew to Hawaii to see his sick grandmother, for 6 whole hours, during which he was photographed jogging on the beach, and we haven't heard "boo" about the grandmother since??? What is going on in this country?

I guess I figured when you go turn in your notice to run for president, that someone checks your birth certificate/citizenship issue at that time--like two years ago...but since that didn't happen, now we just won't worry with it, until he is president and then we'll have a constitutional crisis?? or just hand everything over to Biden and.....oh yeah, Pelosi. No wonder she's all for him!

Yikes. Please, please, please vote Tuesday and don't vote for Obama. Here's a concise little editorial letter from our paper today. Explains it very succinctly.

Oh, I just remembered, I was supposed to be delivering iced tea to Handyman, who is slaving away on the "tree"house....

Update: Home Depot

Word is coming down that Home Depot will make the word Christmas more prominent in its holiday advertising. Duh, yeah.

Another one bites the dust!

Now Home Depot doesn't want to use that inflammatory phrase: "Merry Christmas" in any of its "holiday" decorating. Give me a break! Why don't we just become the land of Cream of Wheat--the country of blah-neutralism?? Our flag should be changed to a solid of beige--two-toned stripes being too divisive. No colors, no differences.

I can honestly say that if I were to ever visit India or China and I saw places or phrases celebrating their religious traditions, it would never cross my mind to be offended, in any way. I may not choose to participate in it; I may not agree with it; but it is THEIR way and THEIR country.

Does the left really think that we can create a world where there is never opposing opinions or views, really? Are there people who are OFFENDED by the words "Merry Christmas"? In what way does this phrase infringe in them? How can it? It's a statement.

I have never been offended by the words Happy Hannukah--wouldn't even cross my mind to be riled by that. Why should it? It's a phrase of celebration about something that I don't celebrate--sort of like Happy Halloween or Happy Kwanzaa. I don't celebrate either of those, but I'm happy to accomodate, in this tiny way, people who do.

It takes an expanse of consideration for others, not introspection and consideration only of one's self. We're losing the battle of putting others first in this country. It's been going for a long time. Parents, are unfortunately, on the frontlines of this battle and have been caving for far too long.

Politics, again...

Charles Krauthammer's column today warrants all our review:

Read here, "Why I'm voting for McCain" read now

For those of you unfamiliar with Mr. Krauthammer, and why we should care what he thinks (as I was until this past year or so), here is a brief summary from Wikipedia:

Krauthammer was born in New York City to parents of the Jewish religion whose citizenship was French. He was raised in Montreal, Canada where he attended McGill University and obtained an honors degree in political science and economics in 1970. From 1970 to 1971, he was a Commonwealth Scholar in politics at Balliol College, Oxford.

He later moved to the United States, where he attended Harvard Medical School. In his first year there in 1972, Krauthammer was paralyzed in a serious diving accident. Continuing medical studies during his year-long hospitalization, he graduated with his class, earning an M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1975, and then began working as a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital. In October 1984, he became board certified in psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.

From 1975-1978, Krauthammer was a Resident and then a Chief Resident in Psychiatry at the Massachusetts General Hospital. During this time he and a colleague identified a form of mania (a part of bipolar disorder) which they named "secondary mania" and published a second important paper on the epidemiology of manic illness. The standard textbook for bipolar disease (“Manic Depressive Illness” by Goodwin and Jamison)contains twelve references to his work.

In 1978, Krauthammer quit medical practice to direct planning in psychiatric research for the Jimmy Carter administration, and began contributing to The New Republic magazine. During the presidential campaign of 1980, Krauthammer served as a speech writer to Vice President Walter Mondale.

In 1981, following the defeat of the Carter/Mondale ticket, Krauthammer began his journalistic career, joining The New Republic as a writer and editor. His New Republic writings won the 1984 "National Magazine Award for Essays and Criticism." In 1983, he began writing essays for Time magazine. In 1985, he began a weekly column for the Washington Post for which he won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for commentary.

In 2006, the Financial Times named Krauthammer the most influential commentator in America,[10] saying “Krauthammer has influenced US foreign policy for more than two decades. He coined and developed `The Reagan Doctrine’ in 1985 and he defined the US role as sole superpower in his essay, `The Unipolar Moment’, published shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Krauthammer’s 2004 speech `Democratic Realism’ set out a framework for tackling the post 9/11 world, focusing on the promotion of democracy in the Middle East.”

And, if only my grandma would read this before she votes: "The Comprehensive Argument Against Barak Obama".

Beverly Hills Chihuahua

Yeah, yeah, I know. But #2 won movie passes at the library reading program this summer. And when she saw the previews for this, way back at Narnia or something, I knew this was in our future.

Can I say that I was pleasantly surprised? There was nothing objectionable, that I can remember, at all. There weren't any of those adult jokes meant to go over kids' heads. There wasn't innuendo or implication. I expected some drunkenness--NOPE. I expected some lasciviousness--nope. No bad words, nuttin.

Drew Barrymore had the perfect voice for Chloe and Andy Garcia was great as Delgado. But it was Poppy that I loved. The rat and the iguana were unnecessary and creeped me out, since we had that rat in the barn this summer.

But I let #3 go, as her first big-girl movie. I wasn't with her, but they said she did great and liked it a lot. Of course, it's not surprising, really, since we love dog movies--Good Boy is also one of our favorites.

PS-Bought a copy of Madison for hubby, on Ebay. If you haven't seen it, you should get it from the library. Handyman made the movie and it is really a great, true story. Especially a good boy movie.

Politics!

I am so bummed that McCain is not spending more media money in my state. If you want a little inspiration today, go to www.johnmccain.com and watch the video at the beginning, click through to the site and start watching the commercials. They run one after the other and it will give you a big lift.

Don't let our country slip away...

blog-o-versary

Yep! 100 posts. I hope you've read them all. Here's a doozy, and I didn't write it...

http://michellemalkin.com/2008/10/14/reason-9999988-to-homeschool-obama-fied-textbooks/



PEOPLE'S GLOSSARY:
Socialism: A progressive political system that takes the power away from wealth creators and gives it to wealth distributors. Wealth distributors are typically a class of highly trained government bureaucrats who are being watched by a class of political commissars, who, in turn, are being watched by a class of secret police, all of whom are banded together by shared progressive morals. Because progressive morals are relative by definition, a certain measure of absolute propaganda is necessary to encourage collectivism and discourage counter revolution. Since such propaganda is delivered through mass media, arts, and schools, a degree of ideological monopoly, uniformity, and censorship is also required in those fields. The resulting mass enthusiasm creates a vibrant state-subsidized culture, leading to great economic successes and technological breakthroughs, e.g., North Korea.

The above humor from The Peoples Cube

Celebrity Sighting

Usually it's Handyman who sees celebrities...and I mean lots of 'em. He's been there, done that with more than i can remember. We play "Six Degrees of Separation" with Handyman and usually get it done in 3. Debbie Reynolds, yep. Liam Neeson, yep. Faye Dunaway, you-have-no-idea. John Mellencamp, almost had coffee in his kitchen. Courtney Cox, yep. Cloris Leachman, yep. Jennifer Anniston, yep. Angelina Jolie, thank-the-heavens-resounding NO.

Anyway, this week it's my turn. We have tickets to see Sarah Palin on Friday, in our own county! Wooohooo! Somehow, I don't think it will be up close and personal like Handyman gets. But, it'll be a glimpse of history for #1 and me.

I just finished reading John McCain's biography. It was very interesting. I learned a lot of military history. I enjoyed reading it. I wish he were more conservative, but I am just glad he's not a socialist. I am frightened for our country now.

Do I think John McCain is a great candidate? No. But he's not a socialist. He understands the importance of military strength and Palin understands small business and how to stimulate growth in small-town America. They should be banging away harder at Obama's associations/influences and his complete lack of experience. But they're being "nice".

My concern is that we've become a nation of whiners who want the government to solve and manipulate everything to make life easy for us. I see many people who look no farther than Entertainment Tonight for their information and couldn't define socialism if they were asked. More people can name Angelina Jolie's kids than can name their congressman. What's up with that? Bigger government is not the answer, and never has been. Quit waiting for someone to come along and make your life better.

If you're that unhappy with how things are here, feel free to move elsewhere; France could use some more people and they have "great benefits".

BTW, check out my uncle's new political blog at http://itcanbefixed.blogspot.com . Leave him a comment--he'll love it!

Anyway, we'll be seeing the gal from Alaska on Friday. My kin-folk are rolling in this weekend to help with my exciting week next week. Thank God for kin-folk. I'll be kind of busy next week, but hope to post by the end of the week.

Horses are enjoying the cooler weather since Reno is already fuzzy-like-bear.

Found this lying around the house...

On my way to feed horses the other morning, I came across this in the breezeway:



Whew! There's a shocker--for a horse owner--fortunately, it ain't an equine.

Actually, I had some foreknowledge of this little specimen back in July. We were out by the trampoline, and the closer you got, the more vile the smell. It was oppressive. And, I have always considered my nose to be not-so-sensitive. I've always marked it up to smelling lots of horse manure over the years, and now of course, living with Handyman for almost two decades.

Anyway, it was just noxious. I had no idea at the time what it was, nor was I all that interested in finding out. At that time, Handyman was out of town frequently for jobs and I was not interested in coming across "something" when he wasn't home. I felt the strength of the odor was indicative of the size of the "something" and I recognize my gag limits.

Well, the smell lasted for a couple of weeks and then was done. Thank heavens! I forgot all about it actually. Then 6 weeks or so ago, Handyman and #2 came in saying there was a complete deer skeleton on our property, down by the creek. I wish I had photographed it then. It was laying out in perfect formation, the spine in beautiful alignment. The legs were spread out somewhat, and I believe the pelvis might be missing altogether. But it was clean as a whistle and pretty cool to look at. I am really amazed at the speed with which it was completely "cleaned" by all forms of decomposers.

So, a neighbor boy asked for the hooves for some boy-thing, which we allowed. And the rest have been reduced to this not-so-honorable storage for now. A great project for homeschoolers; Handyman wants to lay it all out on the driveway and draw a chalk line all around it--snicker, snicker.

Part of the cycle...

This is too funny:

Today's funny, from Clair over at The Zees Go West.
_______________________________________
If you had purchased $1,000 in shares in Delta Airlines one year ago,
you would have $49 today.
If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in AIG one year ago,
you would have $33 today.
If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Lehman Brothers one year ago,
you would have $0 today.
But if you had purchased $1,000 of beer one year ago,
drank all the beer, then turned in the aluminum cans for
a recycling refund, you would have received $214.
Based on the above, the best current investment plan is
to drink heavily and recycle. It is called the 401-Keg.

Today's housekeeping tip:

Are you tired of those eensy-weensy fruit flies that spontaneously generate from the pile of tomatoes on your counter (or is that just at my house?) Every day the compost tub is producing new generations of fruit flies that can never be swatted. Today, they met their match at Netherfield.

Try your sweeper hose--just don't forget to empty the bag when you're done. I'll never have to worry about them again!

Happy sweeping!

Horse Blankets hanging in the wind

When I was in high school, I was head of the prom decorating committee, my junior year. I have no idea how I got in that position, but it involved lots of fresh flowers and crepe paper. Anyway, there was a class vote on the prom theme and I only remember that it resulted in one of the largest acts of dishonesty in my entire life. I'm sort of proud of it really--the class voted for Kansas' "Dust in the Wind", which is a really cool song, even though I haven't actually heard it in 15 years or so. But, as head of the prom decorating committee, there was just no where to go with that as your theme, other than floor fans and sand. And I just couldn't go there.

So, we created a conspiracy and told everyone that the winner was "The Way We Were" by the Carpenters. It worked out fine.

This is what I think of as my two winter horse blankets are astride the fence, drying out from yesterday's welcome rain. This was my first year to store horse blankets all summer and I thought I was pretty smart hanging them over a rail in the loft all summer. I knew they were getting some surface dust, but I thought it would keep mice out of them.

When we got hay the other day, I dragged them down to put outside for a dusting and was shocked to find mud dobber nests inside both blankets. The nests were abandoned, but not that small! Also, found lots of lethargic big black flies--ick-o-rama!

I left the blankets laying in the grass overnight for the flies, hoping they'd freeze to death. Then hosed off both blankets and left them to dry. Then it rained on them all the next day and today they are dry again. Perhaps not the method I'll go for next year, but seems to be ending alright.

The blankets are both hunter green and make the horses look like big pieces of LL Bean luggage.

The only horse blanket washing service in my area is called The Soapy Pony. I think that is the cutest name. I was considering starting a blanket washing/repair business, forcing my mom to do the repairs, because she can. But not this year. I don't think my customers would go for the whole mud dobber thing.