Sunday, March 27, 2011

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Maybe A Little

The part of the garage (shed) were I park my truck has gravel floors. Fine little gravel stones get transferred from the floor to my truck via my shoes. Being the ever-thinking crazy person that I am, I spied a $.99 door mat at Menards. You know the kind - the bright kelly green fake plastic grass kind with the little plastic flower in the corner. Ding! - light bulb moment! I took my new door mat to my shop, found a piece of scrap plywood and sized it appropriately to match said mat. Just about the time I was applying the contact cement to the back of the mat, in walked Sara.

"Whutcha doin'?" she inquired.

"I'm gluing this mat to this board so I can wipe my feet on it before I get in my truck and track all the little stones inside and make a mess of things and if it works good I'm gonna make another one to set on the other side so you don't drag little stones into the truck on your side."

She just rolled her eyes and left.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Spring Update

Spring is finally here! The robins are back with their "Heeeere, heeeere, birdie birdie birdie birdie". The redwing blackbirds are making their ruckus way up in the maple trees. The prehistoric noise from the sandhill cranes can be heard floating down from high above. The steelhead and walleye are on the move, and the bald eagles are perched in the cottonwoods below the dam just waiting to pluck a nice fish dinner from the waters.

Mud is everywhere. The horses are in a perpetual state of crusty. We bring them in, curry them and brush them and comb them only to let them back out to roll in the mud again. Having Paints seems like a silly idea this time of the year. While Oliver and Mater are mostly brown, Hank is about 50% white. Which means he's about 100% mud color 100% of the time. He's going to spend some quality time with the brushes tonite.

As is normal in Wisconsin, with the beginning of spring comes another snow storm. Six to ten inches of heavy wet slop are predicted to make a mess for the next two days, followed by highs in the 20's and lows in the single digits. I have crocuses in bloom and tulips well on the way. I hope the snow and cold doesn't hurt them much. I got the urge to go thru my seeds for the vegetable garden yesterday, but I saw the forecast. It'll be two months before the soil is warm enough to plant, so why rush.

Can't complain too much about this past winter. We only had four decent snow storms, with this one in the forecast making number five. We never had the severely cold temps that we experienced over the previous two winters. I think the coldest morning I recorded was -19, and we never had a significant number of cold days in a row. I think we're still on our second propane tank for the winter.

Show season is still a few weeks off. Sara has decided not to push it so hard this year. She was gone to shows at least two full weekends per month last year from May thru October. We got Mater registered Pinto this year, so they'll hit those shows. They only have six shows all season, and they are held over three weekends. It's a nice schedule because you're not running to shows all the time, but they are expensive. Each show has six judges, so the out lay for the weekend is huge. So if you have a bad day, you just made a huge donation to the club. But if you have a good day, you can bring home 100 points in a weekend. Oliver may not be ready for the APHA shows this season. They seem to have hit a flat spot in their training progress. If he's not ready, we'll take him to open shows and see how he does there. We've got lots of trail rides planned, and he loves to ride in the woods.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Long Time, No Post

Yeah, I’ve been slacking. It’s tough to write about my boring life, especially after I read other’s great blogs that are heavily laden with great pictures. I’d like to promise to do better, but I hate promises.


Sara started this blog for me. I had an interest in blogging, but for reasons unlike most other bloggers. I’m a bit of a weather geek, and I really enjoy reading stuff like this. Yep, phenology: “The scientific study of cyclical biological events in relation to climatic conditions.” Good cheesy geeky stuff. I thought a blog would be a good way to chronicle my every-day observations on weather, the changing seasons, and my observations on wildlife.


But who was I kidding. I’m too non-committal.


So, I have a small clutch of friends that sends emails back and forth throughout the day. Sometimes I’d get carried away and write little anecdotes. More smart-assed than anything, my little stories are just a way to lighten the day. Sara said I should expand on those stories and put ‘em in the blog. So I did. Some were kinda funny. Some were reflective. Most were simple reports on what was going on around the farm.


But now I’ve petered out. As I mentioned, there are lots of interesting blogs to read out there, and that takes time. Then after taking the time to read many of them, my stories don’t seem very significant.


Looking back, I guess it was kinda fun to talk about the birth of Cedar View Paint
Horses. We’re proud of this place and what it took to put it all together. I’m proud of the horses we have and the successes Sara has with them in the show ring. It just seems to be repetitive and mundane for me to post what is relatively the same thing, day after day.


So I dunno. Do I continue to blather on with my drivel, or do I hang it up? Anyone?