He's of the colour of the nutmeg. And of the heat of the ginger.... he is pure air and fire; and the dull elements of earth and water never appear in him, but only in patient stillness while his rider mounts him; he is indeed a horse, and all other jades you may call beasts. ~William Shakespeare, Henry V

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

I am proud to say that I got the Christmas tree completely up yesterday. After making sure the lights were all staying lit, I let my girls put all the ornaments on it. I will have to take a picture and post it.

I have to work the Thanksgiving holiday and the weekend. Since the barn cannot shut down for the holidays because the animals still need to be cared for, we all take turns working the holidays.

We are supposed to get some heavy snow throughout the night. I hope that I can make it to work tomorrow.

That's pretty much my day. I wish all of you out there a very safe and happy Thanksgiving!

Monday, November 22, 2010

OH CHRISTMAS TREE

So....the whole happiness of putting up the Christmas tree is starting to fall short. After getting halfway through putting the branches on the artificial tree, I noticed that I missed a section and had to remove all the branches to get what I missed put on the tree. Once that chore was completed (for the second time) I was able to start on the lights. I got the first string of lights on the tree, and I was feeling optimistic that the rest was going to be a piece of cake, when the remaining strings of lights would only light-up halfway through the strand. I tried replacing the bulbs and changed fuses in the light cords, but nothing worked. I will have to forget about the lights right now and pick up a few new sets on my next trip into town. While I was fighting the Christmas tree last night, the song The Twelve Pains of Christmas was going through my head. I realized shortly that I had swiftly transformed into the man that hollers about the Christmas lights all the way through the song. One phrase in the song that stuck out in my mind while I was fighting with the lights was, "NOW WHY THE HELL ARE THEY BLINKING!" After laughing at myself for a few moments, I knew the time had come to just give up and continue again later. I haven't dared to start on it yet. I will let you all know how it goes when I get brave enough to face the tree again.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

A LITTLE RANTING

Here in good 'ol North Dakota our winter is finally setting in. We are getting snowfall and it's almost inhumanely cold outside. Watching the snow gathering on the ground, it has put me in the Christmas mood even though Thanksgiving hasn't come and gone yet. So, because of the snow (and my festive mood) my girls and I have decided to put up the Christmas tree. Because of my decision, ost of my friends and either called me a nerd or crazy, but I don't care.

Another thought crossed my mind after I decided to put up the Christmas tree. How come Christmas trees and cats cannot get along? I have two cats and while our short-haired calico cat never bothers the tree and sleeps under it upon the tree skirt, but our stupid Siamese mix with a severe learning disability; he cannot be in the living room alone with the tree for three minutes before he tries to climb up the steel base and rip every ornament off with wicked speed and precision. By the time this Christmas season is over with, I will only have two ornaments to pack and put away with the tree...that is if the tree makes it through the wrath of the Siamese cat.

Something that has started getting to me is how businesses dislike the use of the word "Christmas" and prefer Holiday. We need to be more accepting of national (and international) holidays and use the correct terms. If I cannot say "Merry Christmas" I do not want to hear words like Kwanzaa or Cinco de Mayo. It really pisses me off when I see the super markets with printed adds and banners inside the stors for international holidays that scream "LET US HELP FOR CINCO DE MAYO", yet when Christmas rolls around the banners days "HAPPY HOLIDAYS".

While I am at it, I also could go on about the law that past in Florida where it is now against the law to raise or kill horses for their meat. I am a horse owner and I love them. But Florida, do you realize what you have done? You killed your horse market and all those race horses and all the breeding stock that you fancy just depreciated vastly. I eat beef, chicken, pork, and deer. And who am I to tell someone what kind of meat they can eat. Just because France eats horse, doesn't mean I am going to judge them since I eat meat like no one's business. Now, this doesn't mean I am going to slaughter my horses and eat them. God No. I wouldn't dream of it. You have to keep in check of animal welfare. When animals get old and sickly and it has been determined that the horses life will not flourish, the appropriate thing is to put them down. If you put them down, why contribute it to a market? If there is no market for the animal, there will be no sales. If there is no sales for the animal, there is no value. Without value people will not want to even consider owning this animal. Without some profit people will not have the money or means to put a sick animal down because the meager price of the animal does not justify the cost of doing so. There will be a mass pandemic of mangy, sickly, malnourished animals that people cannot afford to take care of nor would some even have the money to give the horse the vet care it would need and it wouldn't surprise me if people started shooting them because they cannot sell or take care of the animal. People will stop purchasing horses because it will cost more to own and take care of the animal then the worth of the animal itself. PETA's solution is to try to rescue them or just set them free. Set them free? All the wild horses would take over the plains and prairie grasses and their populations would be worse then the hundreds of deer that are already a pain in the ass. I say if you want to eat it, go for it. But it doesn't mean that I am going to try it. I love my horses, but they have a purpose. And if it ever happens that one of my horses should become injured or sick, I will do the appropriate thing whatever it may be. I have already sold one horse last winter because the vet care it was going to take to make the horses life comfortable was something I definately couldn't afford so I was forced to find her a home that could provide good care. If I couldn't do that, and the horse became uncomfortable and started suffering my only choice would have been to put her down. Anyway, if other states follow through with what Florida has done, I worry about the welfare of the equine.

One last thought on the whole thing....how does PETA and all the other animal lovers out there
think the super markets get their meat? Without the processing of animals you wouldn't have hamburger, hams, steak, fried chicken, and even fish! You cannot get the meat without killing the animal. I'm just sayin.

Phew!! I feel better now that's all out. I don't mean to offend or make anyone upset. But all sides need to be viewed here. I don't want any hater comments or anything like that. I am not trying to get the world to look at it my way. It's just my personal opinion and only that. I'm an animal lover, but I do understand that all things have their place.

Friday, November 05, 2010

UPDATE

Sorry about such a delayed post. It's been well over a month since I posted anything. It's difficult to achieve since neither my laptop or home PC is working at the moment. On the plus side, it has kept me off Facebook and away from Farmville.

The girls had a wonderful Halloween. We starting trick-or-treating at 5:30 and finished around 8 pm. I was a little disappointed in the Halloween party at the community center. This year there were only 2 games, a setup to take a Halloween picture and a small supper. I think next year we are going to skip the community center and and just go out collecting candy.

Last week little Jessie got really sick. I took her to see a doctor on Monday who though Jessie just had a stomach bug and sent us home. Monday night was terrible, so I took Jessie back on Tuesday morning and made the doctor do lab tests. Jessie's test came back with a high white blood cell count of 38,200. The doctor suspected a UTI, but Jessie didn't have any symptoms of one. To help bring the WBC down, the doctor had Jessie do IV treatments for the next three days at the hospital. Our primary doctor heard what was going on and he knew neither my mother or I thought it was a UTI and agreed to see Jessie on Thursday morning. He examined Jessie and sent us up for an x-ray right away. Here poor little Jessie had pneumonia. He kept her on an extra day of IV and made sure we had enough antibiotic. It has been a week and Jessie is feeling much better now and is starting to act like herself.

Late afternoon on Wednesday, my father and I moved my horses from their pasture back to my place for the winter. I am looking forward to being able to ride at my leisure again. I wanted to go out this weekend, but decided not to since it's deer hunting opening this weekend. The last thing I want is for my horse to be shot out from underneath me.

Work has been going wonderful. I have been spending a lot more time in the barn doing hands-on work. One of the barn supervisors pulled the muscles in his back and cannot do a lot of the harder work in the barn, so he is doing my paperwork in the office while I work out in the barn. We had a meeting with the owner of the barn on Tuesday, and he told us we will all be getting Hexagon Farm jackets. The next time we go to the warehouse to pick up our paychecks, we are to stop in the office and get fitted for them. I cannot wait! I have never had ANY company clothing of any type and I think it's awesome we are getting our own jackets.
 


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