Sunday the Door Nut and I loaded Jade and Foo Foo into the big trailer and
went up Route 5 to Morrison/Rockwood State Park.  The Cat Ranchers live
near us and loaded their horses and kids too.  Seemed like lots of folks
we know had the same idea.  About half of the Red Boots group was also
at Morrison for a trail ride.  It was a cool coincidence!

Just in case you didn't get outside...IT WAS FABULOUS WEATHER! 
We rode for a couple hours and then had what might be the last picnic of
2010.  Wonderful 13 bean soup, wild rice with root vegetables and quail soup
and Amish sourdough pumpkin challah.
And yes, I know that you cannot have Amish sourdough pumpkin challah.  But I made it and that IS
what it was.

If I could find my other purse, I would have taken pictures.  When I find the
damn thing, I will.

Long time...  good to be back online. 

We are now without a Livestock Guardian dog.  Our old male, Fred passed away in August.  Of course, almost immediately
we began to lose chickens, guineas and peafowl to predators.  Rather than raise a puppy and wait nearly 2 years for it to grow
up, I contacted a couple rescues.  Seemed to be the right thing to do.  
The rescue folks don't seem to know much about the dogs they "save".
These folks are convinced that many of the dogs need to be "house or companion" dogs.  I have seen what Anatolian Shepherd dogs
become when they do not have work.  THEY ARE SCARY DOGS.  They protect, to the death, whatever they deem to be their charges. 
I truly hope that they are aware of the liability they are taking.  Jeeze.

Another thought - Our greyhound, Albert, is doing his skinny best to fill the big doggy shoes Fred left.  The only time we have losses
is when Albert is at doggy day care and we are out of town.  Apparently Albert is a pretty good LGD, in spite of himself.  According to
the prints, we've had a big cat, bobcat or cougar as well as the raccoons, opossums, cats, dogs and coyotes.  I hope we find a dog
soon.

The weather today was stunning!  The Door guy and I took Foo Foo and Jade out for a spin this pm.  The world North of Orion is a
study in earth tones.  I am amazed at how fulsome the tall grass prairie looks.  Tomorrow we're gonna check out Morrison/Rockwood
State Park.

In closing, I am fully aware of why people buy canned pumpkin.  I roasted an old fashion cooking pumpkin.  2 loaves of pumpkin challah
in the oven as I type.  3 - 2 cup bags of cooked pumpkin in the freezer.  Pumpkin pancakes for breakfast tomorrow.  With all this, the
pumpkin is a pain in the ass to roast and clean.  Yuck.  If it all tastes superb, maybe I will try it again, otherwise, not so much.

Later-

Ok, I know, I know...the customer is always right.  Yeah bullshit.  If the
customer was always right, they wouldn't need experts. 

You know, we are the ones with the dirty hands.  We keep the world
working.  Lemme see - there is the fellow who keeps your car running
correctly, the guy who installed your cable/dish, whatever makes your
TV work, the folks who make sure that your roof doesn't leak, (<-----this
is REALLY hard dirty work), the guys who build/repair your house, the
plumbers, electricians and HVAC guys who make the house livable. 

So here is my question - Do you want the cheapest expert?  Really?
The cheapest?  When you call the business, do you tell them that
you are calling to find the cheapest worker?  If so, I hope you get the
cheapest.  

They are probably grifters.

And I hope you get just exactly what you pay for. 

I'll probably step in sh*t here, but after you have told me that you want
the cheapest possible product, be sure to tell me how important you
are, what your title is and just how many hoops I have to jump through
in order to sell you the cheapest possible product.  Be sure to insist
on personal care and perfect matches.

And by all means, when I come to your house to measure, and see
that you have never made a purchase from my company and in fact
have bought cheap shit before, then tell me that you were a big buddy
of my deceased parent.  

ARGGGGG!  I know that in some cultures bartering and bargaining is
normal, but you really make me feel like hanging up on you when you
continually repeat how expensive my prices are.  Please do understand
that this tactic only makes me want to charge MORE!

I wish I knew the answer here...  Oh well.  Have a fine weekend all!

I listen to the TV as I exercise in the morning.  This particular
Monday morning my head nearly exploded as I listened.  The
news announcer asks the sports announcer, "Where's it at?"
and the sports guy segues into a commercial in which the
car salesman says, "We ain't got none of that."  All this in the
morning when there is a large audience, many viewers and
listeners. 

MY DEAR HEAVENS, I'll bet every teacher I had from kindergarten
through college would spin and spew.  Then again, maybe they
are spinning and spewing.  Is the English language degrading
this quickly?  I'm not sure I can stand it.  Am I all alone?  I know
that my grammar is not perfect, but at least I try.

OK, I'm done now. 

This morning my horses were restless.  I heard them at 4 am
and again at 4:30.  At 5 am they were whinnying and sounded
different.  So I climbed out of bed, put the bathrobe on and
stumbled outside to see what was happening.

What to my wondering eyes should appear - but this -



standing in my pasture.  I had 4 horses when I went to bed
on June 30th.  When I stumbled outside on July 1st, I still
had 4 horses but there was a new mule baby!



The little feller was still wet when I first saw him.  He was
just getting his sea legs under him and was pretty wobbly.
His mom, Jenna, decided that she didn't need a bouncing,
mumbling, swearing, berobed audience and left with the
baby for a quieter part of the pasture.  I went galloping
back into the house to wake Mike.  This was just too cool
for him to miss.



What a handsome little buckskin man he is!  His markings
are just perfect.  I named him July.  Yeah, I know, no
imagination whatsoever.  Get over it.  Now his name is
July Fisher.  So says his owner, John Ritchey.

When rain falls for days on end, mildew and mold ensue.  The queen
does not like it.  Natures rules suck sometimes.

Forgetting that you have an appointment is a function of getting
older and we should appreciate our good fortune.  Natures rules
suck sometimes.

Party planning at a riverfront cottage, following weeks of rain, is
fruitless and foolish.  Natures rules suck sometimes.

Beavers are AMAZINGLY persistent in their attempts to build damn
dams.  Natures rules suck sometimes.

When puppies, kittens, bunnies, etc. behave in completely abberant
ways, they are reprimanded IMMEDIATELY by their parents or pack
mates.  Sometimes, if the infraction is serious enough, parents
even kill their young.  Natures rules suck sometimes; the queen
understands.

Behave and enjoy life; the queen decrees.

I got a wonderful email from my friend Carole.  After I read it I laughed
out loud, all by myself.  I hope this gives you the same belly laugh.

Two 90-year-old women, Rose and Barb had been friends all of their
lives.

When it was clear that Rose was dying, Barb visited her every day.

One day Barb said, 'Rose, we both loved playing women's softball all
our lives, and we played all through High School. Please do me one
favor: when you get to Heaven, somehow you must let me know if
there's women's softball there.'
   
Rose looked up at Barb from her deathbed and said, 'Barb, you've
been my best friend for many years. If it's at all possible, I'll do this
favor for you.'

Shortly after that, Rose passed on.

A few nights later, Barb was awakened from a sound sleep by a
blinding flash of white light and a voice calling out to her, 'Barb, Barb.'
 
'Who is it?', asked Barb, sitting up suddenly. 'Who is it?'
   
'Barb -- it's me, Rose.'
   
'You're not Rose. Rose just died.'

'I'm telling you, it's me, Rose,' insisted the voice.
 
'Rose! Where are you?'
   
'In Heaven,' replied Rose. 'I have some really good news and a little
bad news.'
 
'Tell me the good news first,' said Barb.
 
'The good news,' Rose said, 'is that there's softball in Heaven. Better
yet all of our old buddies who died before us are here, too. Better
than that, we're all young again. Better still, it's always springtime,
and it never rains or snows.  And best of all, we can play softball all
we want, and we never get tired.'
 
'That's fantastic,' said Barb. 'It's beyond my wildest dreams! So what's
the bad news?'

'You're pitching Tuesday.'

Life is uncertain - eat dessert first.

Many times, when we are playing, vacations, weekends, etc. it appears to some
folks that we are working. 

A couple weekends ago, it was time to clean the coturnix quail that the DG has
been raising.  He started out with fewer than a dozen birds and now has a gross
or so at full size.  We lined up himself and 3 other victims guys to help with the
butchering.  I was nominated to cook afterwards and accepted happily. 

If you have a minute, you can pop over to Dan Goranson's photos on FB.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=222708&id=639830672

He was the only helper who actually showed up for the work...  And we do bless
him, too.  His wife, Kimberly and I cooked up a storm with the first of these
wonderful quail.  The fellows spatchcocked the birds.  Did I get ya?  It means
cut out the backbone and flatten.  After we cooled the little devils, they hit a
grand simple marinade of equal parts single malt scotch and grated vidalia
onion for an hour.  Then grill over hot coals for about 3 minutes per side.

I am pretty convinced that this was the best tasting work done that weekend.
Oh man did we eat well.  I LOVE quail!

I also bought some fresh beets at the farmer's market.  After boiling a mess
of quail eggs and cooling and peeling them, I made some pickled beets and
eggs.  They rested for a few days and oh my God are they good.  Whew!

The queen decrees that sunny pleasant days should always
occur on the weekend when the queen is NOT stuck in an
office.

The queen has read about the GOP representative from
Texas, Joe Barton, who apologized to the BP CEO for
the scolding he took from the US CEO.  Did Texas elect
another moron?  Has he seen the pictures?  Does he not
think that given hurricane season that Texas might just
get some of that disgusting shit washed up on their shores?
The queen would like a days worth of that dirty stuff
dumped on Joe Barton's property and possessions.  He
may not be quite so friendly with the BP execs afterward.
Altho - the oil industry did give him 1.5 mil for his campaign.
I guess that would buy something. 

The queen also doesn't understand why diesel vehicles have
to cost SO DAMN much.

May your week and weekend be full of joy!

I have continued to torture exercise my old body with the
WII Fit Plus game.  Admittedly, I creak and moan as though
I've been on the medieval rack.  That said, I must say that
I am still addicted to the darn thing.  When we are out of
town and without the machine, I miss it.  I miss it a lot. 

I do 45 minutes of yoga and strength work each day. 
Every week the work gets easier and I add another
exercise every few weeks.

Now, about the results - I am proud.  My trousers still fit! 
I have lost somewhere around 4 or 5 pounds.  MY TROUSERS
STILL FIT! I have not been on a diet and btw - my trousers
still fit.  I am somewhat food obsessed anyway; I DO pay
attention to what I eat.  The DG and I eat pretty darned
healthy food.  I am eating smaller amounts of sweets and
I am stopping when I'm full instead of when the food is gone. 
After many years of - "Clean your plate!"- it seems strange. 
We are also practicing portion control.

I am eating lots of fruit and raw vegetables.  We are drinking
organic milk.  It does taste richer than the regular stuff.  I
read about the testing of milk to determine the actual nutrients
of commodity vs organic and yep, yep, yep the organic is better
for ya.  Apparently now somebody has figured out that the milk
from different types of dairy cows has different properties.  Stay
tuned cause it seems that the milk from red or brown cows is
good for you and the milk from black and white cows is not!

I don't make this stuff up!  Google it!

My siblings and I got our mother a WII Fit Plus for her birthday
and she is up to 15 minutes each day on hers.  She and I do a
bit of yoga and a bit of strength work every morning during the
week.  Is that awesome or what?  She is 84ish and a wonderful
woman!  I'm SO proud of her!

So...I am obsessed with a computer/TV exercise game.  With
any luck at all, I'll stay that way and continue to fit into my
trousers!