I don’t really know what else to call this blog this morning. I should be working on my weekly Spin Cycle, but I have other things to do this morning, like try to figure out where I am going to have this barrel race that is supposed to be Sunday. And now I’ve been asked to have two more NBHAs. So we’ll see how that goes.
There is still no sun. The sky is only sort of blue, but mostly it’s gray. I think we won’t be gathering or shipping cattle today or tomorrow, for Zach’s cousin Sharon. She’s the one that has the massive pasture that we rode a couple weeks ago.
It is suppose to be warmer today, so I will probably go to the barn and visit Bam Bam and see if his mama’s stifle (a joint in her leg) is any better. I don’t know if I mentioned it or not, but since about the last two months of her pregnancy, she has been on and off tender on that leg again, which scares me (if you’ll click the hyperlink you’ll know why). In the last two weeks it became inflamed on the inside of the joint, almost as if she had been kicked and has a massive hematoma there. She has been tender on it some days and some days she trots around like a sound horse. So who know? Only time will tell, and mother nature will do what it will do. After all the money I spent on her last year, I cannot afford to have another surgery or any more vet bills. I guess I will be reduced to leaving her in the broodmare band if nothing else. Which makes me really sad but I am not going to think about that right now.
Zach says I’m looking at the whole trip to Texas thing wrong. That I should be looking for reasons to go, instead of looking for reasons NOT to go. Jim had some good advice for me. But the bottom line is- it’s only fall. And in the last 4 days I’ve been out of the house approximately 15 minutes total- and that was to 1. go to a v-ball game for Kelsey (which they won btw), and 2. to take care of my chickens. If there is going to be an entire 6 months of this weather, I’ll go bananas. Plus, there are barrel races and more barrel races to go to, and I have old clients that are already wanting to send me horses to ride, some of which also want lessons. So I’m going to go. And I will have fun. I still haven’t asked mom if I can crash her house for 3 or 4 months. I can always come visit when I get homesick, or miss Zach so much I can’t stand it.
On a completely unrelated, yet sort of related note, I mentioned having baby fever to Zach again last night. He is of course fine with having more kids, as he loves kids, he says I’m the one that wavers. He’s right. He says:(paraphrased- sort of) if you have kids, the world will no longer revolve around you as it does now. It’ll be all topsy-turvy and will revolve around the little one. There won’t be any packing up and going to Texas because you can’t ride all winter here in South Dakota. Which then makes me think that maybe I should wait longer because I still have things I want to accomplish, and when I have a child, the chances of me reaching my goals are probably slim to none at best. Men totally don’t have this problem and it’s not fair!
I took photos of my new chairs yesterday. I still dig them. Do I dig them as much I’d dig some covered in a pretty brindle cowhide? No, but I’m not spending $2000/chair either. So the zebra print will have to do. When I pull them off the camera, I’ll share, I promise.
Why do home builders put heater vents right under windows? It’s a terribly bad place to put them, especially if you have drapes, which I’ve also added to the room and you’ll see in the photos. When I share. If you close the drapes, which I’m inclined to do when it’s extra cold or extra hot, the heat from the vent just goes right up the drapes, and into the window. Do I want to heat the window? No. I want to heat the room. Can someone please explain this to me?
I’m wondering, if I take that pretty stud horse, Nuke with me to TX where I’m going to put the bloody bastard. I’ll need to put him somewhere that he can’t beat the other horses up, and that will mean that my old horse, who is already in TX, will have to be separated from him, since he thoroughly believes, despite the fact that he’s lived about 25 years of his life with no testicles, that he too, is a wild stallion.
I just read this morning that the National Council of American Indians is lobbying Congress (where common sense is checked at the door) to let them open slaughter plants. Apparently in the northwest, the grazing lands are completely decimated due to feral horses- some of which have just simply been released because the slaughter facilities are shut down, and people can’t afford to euthanize them. This is very good news on the industry front, as the kill buyers set the floor on the market.
As a result of the ban, horse values have plummeted 30-80%. Owners who could once sell a horse for slaughter for 40-80 cents a pound now face paying about $600 to have the animal euthanized and removed. Processors in Mexico and Canada now only pay 6-10 cents a pound. Native Americans say herds of horses are trampling berries and roots– an important part of Native feasts–and damaging habittat for salmon and steelhead. An estimated 4,000 ownerless horses roam the 640,000-acre Warm Springs Reservation, for example, and 12,000 live on the 1.4 million-acre Yakama Reservation in Washington. The problem remains even though both tribes corral and sterilize wild stallions.
If you ask me all these anti slaughter people, for the most part, don’t really have any idea about agriculture, first off, and secondly, do they think a captive bolt to the head, is really more inhumane than shipping the horses to Mexico where they certainly don’t have the same standards we do? Or is letting the horse loose on national lands or in someone else’s pasture humane? Really don’t get me started. I’m going to get off my soapbox now before I get really pissed off.
Last night was fun- Zach’s cousin, Danial came up and we played guitars while he picked on his banjo. And then we had a fabulous supper- braised eye of round steak in a red-wine sauce with yummy roasted potatoes! I love to cook. Have I mentioned that?
I should really stop rambling and go enjoy this Thursday. I guess at some point I’ll have to get my photos together for tomorrow’s spin, so be looking for those!
Here’s hoping everyone has a great Thursday! I plan to!
Sounds like you have that Texas thing solved nicely. And you're right about the baby thing; once they're here your needs fall to the wayside for quite a while. Not that it won't be worth it. But why rush when you've got so many great things going on.
Interesting about the wild horses. Where I came from in suburban NJ, everyone was so anti hunting. Here on the island, people have to hunt. The herds would decimate everything (there's only so much room), and many families depend on that meat to see them thru the winter. Extra goes to the senior housing residents. Perspective is everything.
I agree with the heat and air vents. It makes so sense to me either, or that they put them next to a door. I mean, is there a reason for that?
And Zach is right about a baby. But you know, women do it all the time and still do the things you do. (Well, not while you are pregnant of course. I rode until I was three months pregnant then it started feeling like I could feel my uterus bouncing around!).
Can't wait to see the pictures! Everything you do looks good!