He seems like a nice kid. It's a good thing, cuz I'm not sure Stable Boy lived up to his D.A.D.D. (Dads Against Daughters Dating) membership.
Stable Boy was at the kitchen table Saturday night when Kid 1 arrived home with her date. As expected, the inquisition began immediately. The poor boy was so clearly nervous, Stable Boy quickly took pity on him. The questions continued, but the tenor turned to trying to put the boy at ease and help him relax. Apparently it worked, cuz that boy is currently downstairs in my kitchen, surrounded by all of my children with everyone talking a mile a minute.
He seems like a nice kid. It's a good thing, cuz I'm not sure Stable Boy lived up to his D.A.D.D. (Dads Against Daughters Dating) membership.
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Last summer at her house, Aspen got a bad cut on her back foot right where the hoof joins with the leg. She's never been lame on it, but when it finally healed, the tissue was damaged so that she has a largish lump in that spot, about half of which is "hoofy".
On Tuesday of this week, she stepped on her "lump" and ripped open the top, so Wednesday I ended up taking her to the vet. The vet performed surgery to try to reduce the size of the lump, so she now has a fat bandage over the site and I get to give her 5 penicillin shots over a 10 day period. He said that she could be kept in training, but to take it easy for a bit, so we are just continuing on with her groundwork and trying to get her to relax more with the Jefferies Method. We have triplets! One girl and two boys. I guess this would be announcement #3 for the week!
They were (of course) born yesterday afternoon during the rain/hail storm with the wind roaring insanely. Instead of going into the shelter, the mamma just had them right out in the open. Kid 4 saw them first and called everyone else to action. They all seem to be healthy. They have been dubbed Katniss, Gayle, and Peeta. About an hour after they were named, I started to laugh as I remembered the mamma's full name is Cornucopia (we usually call her Corna for short.) It just struck me as kind of funny. If you've read or seen The Hunger Games, you'll probably get why. I haven't run for few days. I was out jogging with Lexi the other morning. She saw a killdeer and lunged forward. The leash snapped tight. I looked at the dog and totally missed the deep tire rut right in front of me. I rolled my ankle pretty good but was able to run home after gimping around for a few minutes. It doesn't really hurt, but it's still a bit stiff so I'm trying to take it easy. We have a rule that our kids can't date until they are sixteen. Kid 1 has hit that milestone and is now out on her first date as I write this. It's probably a good thing that Stable Boy was at a meeting when the boy arrived to pick her up, cuz who knows what might have happened! So BIG, EXCITING announcement #2 is that we have two new horses on site for riding lessons this summer. I can't wait to start playing with them both. I spent some time petting and making friends with them this afternoon. They are both so sweet--in fact, the black and white one is named Sweetheart. The plain black one is called Raven.
Some of you knew Ella, the old black Tennessee Walking Horse that lived here and was such a good babysitter for kids and so tolerant of beginning riders. Age and arthritis finally caught up to Ella last fall. She had started to trip and fall with a rider on board. She was no longer safe to ride, so after a discussion with her owner, the decision was made to have her put down. I was really sad to say goodbye to Ella, but I also wasn't sure how I would continue my riding lesson program without her. About that time I traveled to Boise for a gaited horse clinic with two other ladies from this side of the state. I had ridden a couple times with the one, but hadn't met the other until the day we left for Boise. We quickly became friends on the long drive. I shared my sad story with them. My new friend ended up offering to send up two calm, beginner-type horses for me to use for lessons. She said she just wanted them to be used. I contacted her in February and asked if she was serious. She was! Raven is a 10 year old registered Mountain Pleasure horse with impeccable bloodlines. Sweetheart is 8 years old and not registered, but is eligible to be registered as a Spotted Saddle horse. Her sire was double registered as a TWH and a Spotted Saddle Horse. Her dam was a Foxtrotter/Shetland pony cross. I can't say enough about how excited I am for this opportunity. I plan to spend the next while making sure both horses are tuned up and ready for kids and beginners. Then we can go full speed ahead with the summer riding program! We still have Valentine, so I will have three good, solid horses for lessons. Who's up for a ride!?! Guess what?! I got a neewww...engine! Well, it's actually a rebuilt engine in my truck, but they tell me it should be good for between 100,000 to 150,000 miles. That's like new, isn't it?
The most important part about this announcement is that I've finally got my truck back. Yea! We've lived without our truck for almost exactly 6 months. I started having trouble with it overheating about a year ago. I took it into the shop 2-3 times. They messed with the radiator, did some other stuff, and sent me on my way each time just telling me to keep checking the coolant. The reservoir was filled with coolant, but the radiator was bone dry, the day the truck finally gave up the ghost. Numerous people informed us after the fact that the trouble we were having was a blown head gasket. Why the shop couldn't diagnose that before Stable Boy was stranded last October an hour from home with 3 horses and my neighbor's four-horse trailer, is one of life's little mysteries. Rather than taking out a $20K loan to replace the truck, we decided instead to let the BYUI Automotive Program take a crack at it. They offer a semester-long engine rebuild class. The professor was really excited about giving his students the opportunity to work on a big, heavy duty F250 engine. The fall semester was already in full swing, so we had to wait for the winter semester to start in January before they could start working on the truck. Not being able to go anywhere with the horses all winter was kind of a bummer, but what was really a pain was when we were trying to finish up stuff with the barn last fall. We had to rent a pickup every time we needed to haul equipment or supplies. Not having a truck all this time was a hassle, but it was smarter financially. We saved a lot of money on gas (since I couldn't take the horses anywhere!) and the final repair bill, including a total engine rebuild, replacing the radiator and numerous hoses, etc. plus labor, came to less than $2100. Lots better than $20,000! Another bonus? Remember how I started trying to patch a leak in the roof of my horse trailer last fall and ended up painting the whole thing? That paint had a lot of time to fully cure before being subjected to critter abuse! The funniest part of all this? We haul our own trash to the transfer station dump. Stable Boy absolutely refused to put trash into our "nice" van, so every Saturday, he piled a week's worth of garbage into White Lightning and off he went. Sometimes, if things were really busy, he'd miss a week. Then he'd have double the fun! White Lightning=Dumpstermobile I hope everyone had a joyous Easter yesterday. Kid 2's birthday was last week, so we had a big combo Easter/birthday dinner yesterday. I need to go run a couple extra miles today! Some of you know that Stable Boy drives an "antique" car--a little white 1991 Chevy Metro. We used to be a one car, one motorcycle family, but when we arrived in Denver in 2002, we realized we needed a second vehicle. After paying off our moving expenses, we only had enough cash left to buy a used Metro. Stable Boy was kind of bummed at the time--he had set his heart on getting a small pick-up like we had B.C. (Before Children). Over the years, though, that Metro has been great. It's kind of beat up--it's got some dings and it's missing the passenger side mirror from when Stable Boy parked to close to a wood privacy fence. Various interior plastic pieces are starting to fail (the handle mechanism for the front passenger door literally fell apart in Kid 2's hand a few years ago), but, for a variety of reasons, we've just hung on to it. It's cost us next to nothing in repairs and when gas prices started to skyrocket, at 40 miles to the gallon, we hardly noticed. (Don't ask me how much I spend on gas hauling my horses around, though!) Stable Boy just doubled it's value by replacing all four tires on it two weeks ago. I'm not sure how it got christened White Lightning, but the name has stuck. Back when Stable Boy was coaching college wrestling, his team members used to regularly threaten to paint lightning bolts on the sides. I've got a whole bunch of White Lightning stories. For now, I'll just share the most recent. (Clarification--Rexburg hosted a Figure 8 car race on Saturday.) Stable Boy was with Kid 4 Friday night at a wrestling tournament. An acquaintance came up and, out of the blue, asked, "Are you ever going to race your Metro?" Stable Boy (confused): How do you know what kind of car I drive? Acquaintance: I've been watching you drive that piece of s--- for years! The guy then proceeded to tell Stable Boy how he would need to replace the side mirror before he raced it. Later, at home, Stable Boy said to me, "I don't think I can ever get rid of that car. Everybody knows it's mine!" |
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