Big Red Ted

They called him Ami.

Ami...

That wouldn't do. Ted. Teddy. Big Red Ted. Teddums. Teddy Bear. Much better.
Invitation To Invest is his name when formalities require it.



This is Sara's latest project, a 3 yr old Paint that's got as much personality as cute. Nice solid boy who's gonna turn out to be a good size. He doesn't know much yet, but he's catching on real quick. He's no dummy, and don't let that goofy face tell ya otherwise. He's got real nice ground manners, minds your space, and stands tied nice and quiet. He had 30 days training last spring, then sat all summer being a pasture puff.



We found him in that far away land known as Minnesota. Southern Minnesota, if I must be specific.


Land of 10,000 lakes and a lot of corn. A Lot of corn. I think all the lakes moved north.


The trip was uneventful, aside from the construction and the 40 mph winds. Ever pull a big trailer through 11' wide lanes in a cross wind? Keeps ya on yer toes, it does. Those big concrete barriers look so much bigger when you're dragging a trailer.

Anyway, once you leave the scenic tree-covered hills and valleys of Wisconsin and cross the mighty Mississippi, a strange thing occurs: trees vanish.

I think the corn ate them.


Enough of my fear of wide open spaces.

Teddy's riding is coming along nicely. He's not going to have a trot like Mater or Oliver, but while his fronts may not be the sweepiest, his hind end lopes real nice and deep. Wunna those "oooh, looky that" lopes. He'll move much better once he builds up some toning and just figures it out. Here's a video from his first day home. I think you'll see why we bought him. Speshully at 5:27.



Did I mention he's quiet?

And here he is after three weeks.



He's far from being finished, but maybe you can see the improvement. Enough improvement that Sara decided it was time for his first show. That was yesterday. And here is where I'll leave you hanging.....

Follow Along If You Will

We've got a lot of "catching" up to do.

Remember this little guy? The lil' red-n-white horse that made me the best husband in the world? It's been some time since I've mentioned him. Lil' Kirby grew up and became quite the awesome horse. Quiet, cute and loveable. Fun to work with and never one to put up much of a fuss.


Sara got him going under saddle in the spring of his third year. She spent hours working with him to learn all the basics, then they spent more time working on getting him finished for the show ring. They did well at the local open shows, always placing in the ribbons. You may remember this memorable moment that they had at a show.

Later that summer Kirby got to tote Sara's mother around at the annual "Girlz Weekend", a three day camping trip in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. Sara's mom hadn't been on a horse in 25 years, and Kirby did his best to take care of her.



They experienced ATV's and river crossings and Kirby did his job without any unexpected happenings. All that walking maked him awfully tired though.




There's no explanation on the halter. That's just Kirburt.


During this time we had a mom and daughter combo that would stop by occasionally. We'd all be standing around visiting and Sara would tell the girl to go grab Kirby and saddle him up. She never hesitated, and Kirby couldn't have been better for her.



Before we knew it, that young lady was coming around more and more often. Sara had her hands full with taking Mater to the APHA shows, so she welcomed the time that this girl wanted to spend with Kirby. You can see where this is going: they offered to buy Kirby. That big lug that was once a lil' red-n-white anniversary present was sold to a young lady who adored him.

Since Kirby was trained for the show ring, they stepped right up to the challenge and got him ready for the shows.







As you can see, they've done well. That lil' red-n-white horse has made us proud, and that young girl is growing into a good horse hand.



Keep up the good work Kirbs!

Get Over It

Life is hard.

Go Pack Go!

Meet Rusty, Beater Truck

A man needs a truck. Once you have a truck, you'll wonder how you ever didn't have a truck. Once you are without a truck, you feel like you're missing something important. Like not wearing pants at the dinner table.

With Sara off to horse shows most weekends, the good truck was also gone to horse shows. I had "truck stuff" to do, like going to the dump (pardon me, recycle center), getting grain, going to the lumber yard. It's hard to strap big lengths of lumber to the top of my daily driver, the super-cool 1994 Mercury Tracer Trio wagon. And 150 lbs of grain made the wagon's ass sag. So, a decision was made and I was to find a beater truck.

Ironically, we found Rusty on the way to the lumber yard while riding in the good truck. One of those rare weekends when there wasn't a show and I was allowed to take the good truck for a spin. Rusty was sitting along the road with a for sale sign in the window. Low miles for it's age, a 300 c.i., 4.9L straight-six (the good'n), and a five speed manual transmission. Zactly what the doctor ordered. And good tires - bonus! The interior is in nice shape. The outside, not so much. It's seen it's fair share of heavily-salted winter roads, but a little rust wasn't gonna deter me. And the price was right.

It didn't come without it's fair share of quirks. Aside from the rust, there's the color. The color is a mix of many shades of brown: dirt brown, rust brown, grime brown. It's a '91 model, and my best guess is that it was last washed in '92, then left to dry downwind of a dusty field. The wiper control knob has been replaced with a 3" C-clamp. Necessity, the mother of invention. The driver's window goes down really well, but up requires persuasion. It has semi-cool air conditioning. It smells like old leaves and refrigerator-coil dust. But the heater works and the radio works and the dimmer switch is on the floor. Name your last vehicle with the dimmer switch on the floor! And we can't ignore the front-bumper-mounted spare tire. A Yooper trademark, for sure. That (along with the C-clamp) sold it.


After bringing it home, the proper thing to do was to change all it's juices and filters and douse the interior with Febreeze. The brown stuff and the green stuff came out clean, which led me to believe it's seen some maintenance, but the air filter made me question that thought. The bolts that hold the lid on the airbox were rusted right tight. Lotsa Blaster and some convincing finally got it open, only to find a heavily soiled air filter, a bunch of maple tree helicopters, and a family of moths. The air filter and it's accumulated collections weighed three pounds. That's alotta crud. New fluids and filters later, Rusty was ready to be put to work.

In the words of Canadia's most famous self-help guru, Red Green: "If ya can't be handsome, be handy". Rusty fits the bill. Aside from the normal run-around chores, he's been a great help on the farm. We used to move hay from the barn to the hay shed by hooking the trailer behind the tractor, pulling that into the barn, filling it full of hay, then hauling that over to the hay shed to be unloaded. Now Rusty does the job, and is much more nimble than backing that lousy trailer up to the hay shed. We've also been out collecting firewood and old concrete and other odd jobs around the place. I think he's gonna be a handy lil' truck to have around.

Veterans Day 11-11-11

Not what normally comes to mind when one says war hero, but a hero she was.