February

Grandma Horse

Last month turned out to be a lot of emotional ups and downs and next thing I know January is gone, February is blowing her way in and I'm sitting flat on my butt wondering "wha' happened?"  Time to get on my feet again and quit letting stuff like that kick my butt.

Oh, in case you haven't heard, the Packers are in the Superbowl today.  Stop the world!  Yes, I admit, I am a Packer fan.  You almost cannot be a lifer in Wisconsin and not be.  So I will be sorta' watching (probably painting a model horse or putzing on the internet) while my husband and I sit on the bed to watch the only tv in the house (a rinky dink 19") and I'll pray to God he doesn't launch me off or yell so loud I drop something.

It has been above zero the past two days so I have been out by the horses.  My grandma horse is shedding like there is no tomorrow.  Rolls and rolls of hair coming off her. Unbelieveable.  She is the only one.  They don't make curry combs that can rake her hard enough.  And my fingers get tired and sore but I keep going because just the ecstasy on her face is worth the stiffness later.

Gah

I certainly am failing at keeping a blog.  I want to try and keep it upbeat and posititve but life just seems to make me want to slap it sometimes, ha!  Life, not the blog :).

Tuesday

Monday I worked and it was a 12 hour day.  Leave in the dark, get home in the dark, leaves me really cranky.  Since the Christmas rush is done now the plant is dumping all the catalogs and stuff they could hold out and it is just arm breaking and my hands hurt from handling wads of mail that require two hands to put in a mailbox for fear of dropping it on the ground.  Add to it icy roads and inconsiderate patrons who do not shovel their boxes out and it is a recipe for disaster.

Also got the good news that husband is laid off.  Great.

Kitty of the Day

Today was a much nicer day than yesterday which brought in cold and wind that went right through a person.  Today the sun was out and no air movement though still cold.  But I was able to get out and about in just a hoodie and vest which is what I prefer.

Every day I try and take photos and this is the one I liked the most for today.  It is one of the three kittens we had this past year.  They all look the same, two girls and a boy, or is it two boys and a girl.  Gosh suddenly I don't remember.  They are fairly wild although I am working on taming them.  They run but if I get them around the food bowl they let me pet them and pick them up.

I filled both the horse tanks and cleaned my car off as I have to run the mail route tomorrow.  Doors were frozen from the rain we had on Friday.

Now I am watching one of my favorite television shows, "Heartland".  

Ringing In 2011

Greetings!  And welcome to my blog, new as of 2011.  What I plan to do with it is just document my horse activity, share photos, stories old and new, perhaps my artwork and hobbies.  Just a little of everything I guess.  The exercise is to work on the blog this year and see what comes of it.

Let me give you a little intro. My name is Chris and I am 49.  I am married to Jim and we have two sons ages 19 and 20.  I am on the backside of a huge midlife crisis thought still not sure where I am going with the rest of my life.

Horses have been the one consistant thing in my life.  I remember crawling on the floor and literally feeling my hands turning into hooves.  I thought I was going to grow up to be a horse.  45 years later it hasn't happened yet!  I got my first horse when I was 21, a black tobiano Paint mare named Nita.  I will tell you more about her in the future. 

Before that though I started working at a local riding stable at age 10.  Yes, you read right, 10.  The stable would have kids do all the work and at the end of the day grant us a free hour ride.  We thought it was a great deal and really, it was!  But it had a lot of down moments too as they treated their horses more as a commodity but us girls took the best care of them all that we could and loved them as we figured they deserved. I did that until I was graduated from high school at age 17 and went on to tech. college for Equine Management.

Anyway, I am also a lifelong model horse hobbiest and dabbler in the arts.  I enjoy writing, have penpals...yes, the kind you actually send paper letters to, ha ha!

I work as a rural mail carrier sub when I am not on the farm.

So there is a little about me.  Feel free to click on the "follow" button and let's share our stories!

Here's to 2011!