Give 'Em The Boot

So I'm Frugal. Miserly. Fiscally Responsible.

Let's face it: I'm Cheap. I have rusty hinges on my wallet. I will be buried with my first dollar I ever earned and if you try to pry it from my cold dead rigored fingers I'll haunt you forever!

Why do I tell you this? Because I have boot envy.

I wants:

But they are a hunnert bucks! Or more even. A hunnert bucks for some neoprene and rubber? No way even. Not this guy.

I've resigned myself to the realization that I'll never own a pair and slog on thru the mud in my uninsulated mud boots that I scored at TSC for $10.99. They're good boots. Their pliable rubber keeps the mud and wet away from my feet, but don't do shit for the cold. And it gets cold as shit here.

Just before Christmas I was at the Man's Mall and noticed that they were blowing out all the winter gear. You know how stores are - they get the Halloween stuff out in August and the swim trunks out in January. Anyway, what did I spy on the clearance shelf?




Ta-Daaaaah!

And $24.95! And in my size! You didn't have to ask me twice. Into the cart they went. Christmas was coming home with me.

So why did I need these when I have a perfectly good pair of Rocky Mountain 1200 gram Thinsulate ice-grabbin cold-stompin boots in the basement? Why? It's all about efficiency. I like pull-on boots. Quick and easy, just shloomp and your foot is in. My Rocky's have fourteen feet of shoe laces on each boot. I don't have the time (or patience) to sit down and lace up boots at 4:30 in the morning when I can just shloomp a pair and go. And I don't have the time (or patience) to sit down and unlace when I get back in and my glasses are fogged up and the dogs are trying to help me and I have to pee. Relate?

So I'm all happy with my new Columbia Drylights. Or am I? This post wouldn't be interesting without some twist. Give me a minute while I hobble over to the coffee pot....

Hobble? Yes, hobble. Seems my new besties are a bit lacking. Plenty of heart, but no sole.

(Badum-chsss!)

Damned near like moccasins. I've got a big ol' bruise right in the middle of mine foot. It hurts, but only when I move, so most of the time I'm ok. How'd I do it? Well, lemme tell ya: I was cleaning the drylot with my Lil' Blue Tractor last weekend. I've got a handy-dandy landscape rake, and it works great for cleaning up all the manure and scraps of uneaten hay. The lil' frozen poopturds follow along in an orderly fashion while I drag them to the corner to be piled up and become future garden soil. I had to stop and move somethin or the other, so I hopped of the tractor and landed just perfectly on one of those lil' frozen poopturds and my clearance-rack boots with their moccasin bottoms offered no support and I got a big ol' bruise on the bottom of my foot.

Cold as shit, I tell you.

Makes Me Proud

Wow. It's like she was inside my head.

Horsepower

I had to take a run into town the other day and came across this:

A small group of fellas and their old Allis Chalmers tractors were turning a field. It was cool. Just a put-put-puttin along, turning the soil over two rows at a time.


After I had enough of that I headed home to see this:

Them'r the real deal. I have no idea of the specs, but that's some horsepower. And bucks. I'd hate to guess a value, but I'm sure the green ones cost a bit more than the orange ones.

In The Shadow Of Lambeau Field

Sara and her dad went to the Packers playoff game against the New York Giants on Sunday. While the results were less than stellar, the experience was incredible.




Lambeau Field is impressive. We live here, we see it all the time, and we don't think much of it, but really, it's cool. The stadium got a facelift a few years back and it sure makes an impact.



But what really makes it unique are the fans. Here are some of their "rides":








And of course, the people:








There were cocktails:





And Crazy Fans:




The flyover (B-1 Bomber):




Then finally, the kickoff:




As we all know, it was downhill from there. But it was great year in the land of Green and Gold. Go Pack Go!

Seeing Double

Mater and Teddy shared some lunch.

This is from back in October.

When it was still nice out.

Life on the Farm

So, as I sit here guzzling coffee and trying to think of something to write about, I'll offer you some random pics of the happenings around here.



The little garden shed got painted. With the house and barn all tan, we thought we'd mix things up a bit and go with green on the shed.



I likey.



And the big shed got a new steel roof. The old shingled roof was so bad that the insurance company wouldn't even cover it. The fella we hired did a nice job, considering this old shed was built by two farmers in the 50's that didn't own a square and a tape measure between them. The roof peak snakes like, well, a snake, and the tamarack timbers used for roof beams made for a very uneven roof deck. Lines were run over the low spots and shims were nailed to the existing roof to try as best to level the surface before the steel was fastened down. It looks good and matches the barn now. Next summer we'll put steel on the front. Or paint it. I dunno yet.



And that car? The cool white one? The SHGN WGN? That's my daily driver. Finally, after five years of freezing my tookus, we got the heater fixed. I can now drive in relative comfort and not have to scrape the inside of the window to see.

Tucker In Tow

Tucker has to learn how to pony along, so Sara hopped on Teddy and gave the lil' boy a lesson. I don't know if I should be more proud of the student or the teacher!

Special Delivery

These showed up in the mail yesterday.

This is just a tease of how well Mater did showing on the Pinto circuit this year.

It's True

I'm the Best Husband In The World!!!



Or the dumbest....

See, we went on a little trip yesterday, and I bought Sara a horse for Christmas.

He's a baby yet.




And a ham...


And a goober...


And a lover...


And I think I did a good job...



Meet "What About A Zippo", aka Tucker.
He's The Scotchman and Zippo Pine Bar bred. And the next Cedar View Paint Horses superstar.

Happy 2012!

Sitting in the house this morning watching our first measurable snow of the season, and I came across this blast from the past:

March, 2008.



As of midnite last nite, our ground was bare and brown. There's about an inch of heavy wet snow out there now, with another inch expected, then lots of wind and plummeting temps. This snow may just stick around. Last year we had over a foot of the white stuff on the ground at this time. I'm not complaining, just observing. Snow has its pros and cons, and I've been ok without it so far. This storm blew in apparently "under the radar" of the weatherclowns. I checked the weather on NOAA on Friday evening, and it said that today was supposed to be full sun and unseasonably warm. I'm so glad we did our traveling yesterday.

Traveling? Where did we go? Stay tuned.

Until then, have a great 2012, enjoy the day however you may, and go hug your critters.