Updates...

This is just a short post , no pics.I 'd just like to update on a couple of things that have impacted my life in the past weeks and thank everybody ( here and in the homeland ) for their well wishes.

First my old mare: she has fully recovered from what I'm sure of now was a snake bite.She has lost quite a bit of weight during the first 4-5 days because she didn't eat. It takes many pounds of feed a day to keep a horse looking good. If they don't eat for several days they loose weight fast. Sometimes a hundred pounds or more in a few days.(boy, wish i could do that !!!)

But, she is back to eating everything i put in front

of her and asking for more.

So, hopefully I'll have her a little while longer.

Next, my ankles.

They are almost good as new. Well, not really. Both are weak and i wear braces on both of them ,especially when I'm outside wandering in the yard. I'm very careful where and how i step.I've always had weak ankles and unfortunately always will, I'll just have to be careful.

On the knitting side : I finished another pair of ( black!!) socks for a customer in Washington state, must be getting cold there :)

Also still trying to figure out how to get those holes centered in those beautiful beads.Any help or suggestion is greatly appreciated. Just be reminded that they are lentil shaped and do not lay down flat.
I started on another pair of patchwork socks last night. They should be ready to go in the shop by about Sunday.
I will put a picture in here after all. It has nothing to do with above story's.
These are my mother in laws African Violets that i inherited from her.

She had them for many years and tended to them with lots of love. They bloomed all the time and every time we visited her i admired the pretty little flowers.
So when i brought them home i got all the info on how to keep them off the Internet( i remember my mom had one for years and remember that hers was very fickle especially about the light it got) . I re potted them with new soil and tried to find them a good spot by a window, but after a couple of weeks decided there wasn't enough light and moved them to another spot and that's when the miracle happened:Blooms!!!

This plant has been blooming for about 3 weeks now.

I have one more plant and four cuttings. I hope they will bloom too once matured.

I wish i could tell mom-in-law but due to her advanced stage of Alzheimer's she won't understand :(

Well, this was not that short of a post after all and pictures too !!

What a perfectly horrible day....

Talking about a bad day, yesterday was it !
First i found that my old mare Star , which I've been desperately coaxing along to hang around a little longer before galloping into the big pasture in the sky, had not ate her supper from the night before. Which is very unusual. I promised myself that as soon as she would stop eating i would do the humane thing.
She went of her feed a couple of times before in the last year but after a day or two she started again, i guess sometimes she's just not feeling good.I got days like that...
Well yesterday she just seemed different. I spend loads of time with my animals and watch them closely.So when they're behavior changes i notice right away.
After looking at her more closely i noticed a lump between her front legs on her chest, about as big as an egg.It was hard as a rock but didn't seem to be painful when i touched it. Well, that wasn't there the night before! So i decided that something bit or stung her during the night. I've never seen a bee or hornet sting look like that so i ruled that out.
Next thing :  snakebite!!
I haven't seen any snake around the house this year but that doesn't mean there not here.
Anyways, i dumped the uneaten feed out (since it had soured over night) and gave her a fresh ration of sweet feed.
 She took a little bite and i thought "Yes!!" but then she turned around and walked of.
Not Good!!!!
So i went down to the local Co-op and got a big bottle of penicillin and gave her the maximum dose.
I watched her close all morning and noticed that she was constantly drinking water. She also came back numerous times to check her feed but never ate any.
By noon i was afraid that this might be it.I'll not let her stand over a trough full of food and slowly starve to death. I could see that she wanted to eat but just couldn't.
By this time i was pretty upset. I know that she doesn't have much time left , she is about 28-30 old , that's quite ancient for a horse. I lost several pets during the years either of old age or sickness but it doesn't make it any easier.
Also I've got the problem what to do with her .This is not a little dog, this is a 8-900 pound animal.
It requires a little more than a shovel . Nobody in our neighborhood has a backhoe, also, we don't have enough room here to dig a huge hole.We can take her to the dump but i just can't handle having her buried in garbage! what to do, what to do ? Then my son called and i told him about the situation.
A couple of hours later my daughter-in-law  called me back. She apparently talked to her mom and she is willing , when the time comes ,to bury her in her pasture ( she has a backhoe !!) and since she is working for a vet and has put many horses to sleep over the years, to send Star, quietly and with dignity to the big pasture in the sky. The relief !!
Late in the afternoon i noticed her nibbling around on the sweet feed. She also looked a little more alert. YES !!! maybe, just maybe....
Well, stepping out of the house all excited , i tripped and , can you guess it ?,  sprained my ankle!!, this time the right one.This was one of the times where I'm grateful that we live in the country, far away from neighbors ( well, at least out of screaming distance), because the words coming out of my mouth!!! a sailor 's got nothing on me!!!
I laid there, on my back (talk about deja vu ), cussing and crying at the same time.Frustration, pain, worry all pouring out of me.
The pain!!Uhhhh
So now i got two bad ankles and i don't know if you ever seen what it looks like , someone limping both sides.It looks like a footsore duck.

Happily i can report that this morning Star is looking much better and is eating again, she still drinks a lot of water and the lump has gotten bigger, about the size of a small orange, but softer. If i could, I'd do the happy dance , but.....

If you look close you can see the lump between the legs.

I had calmed down enough by last night to start a new pair of socks to go in the shop.

It's a pretty easy lace pattern, only four rows repeat with every second row a straight knit row.I made several mistakes anyways, guess i was a little preoccupied, and had to frog several times.

oh, by the way , i also broke my glasses yesterday. Thank goodness i still got my old pair. They are not as good as the new ones but they'll do till i can get the other pair fixed. All in all, a horrible day!!!

Ugh, this heat!

Well, another weekend gone by, it was sooo hot and humid.

Summer is definitely on its way, yesterday it hit 93 degrees with at least 80% humidity, HOT !!

Apart from that we had a pretty good weekend, John's shoulder is getting better little by little. Now if i could just make him rest it more it would heal even faster.

I got to finish one sock that i started knitting on Friday. It's a pattern out of the new "Socks from the Toe up" book:

I love this pattern, and it's not complicated at all:

The yarn is a hand dyed with amethyst and then over dyed with blue that i did a few weeks ago. The colors came out in supple shades of Lavender, very pretty.Should be finished with them by the end of the week, they will be available on etsy( hint, hint, nudge, nudge, wink , wink ).

And last but not least here is a new pic from Jack:

He sure has grown into a beautiful little dog, still can't hear squat, but is very smart and is starting to pick up on hand signs.

So, all is well, so far....

another great ride..

We decided late yesterday afternoon to go horse back riding today at 'Seven Springs Lodge ' horse camp just a few miles down the road.

We haven't rode there in several years.They always had good trails but oh what a change!!!

We pasture our horses just about half a mile from the camp, so all we have to do is saddle up, ride down the road a little and we're there.

presently there are over 3000 acres of beautiful land with hills,bluffs,springs,streams,Indian shelters and waterfalls. 20.000 !!! more acres will be added soon.

we arrived very early (about 6:30) and everybody there(they had a big four day ride this weekend)was just getting up. so we decided to hit the trails alone(we like it better that way anyways).

We like all kinds of terrain but are really into rough, challenging trails with lots of climbing, down hill slides, etc.

We didn't have a map of the trails since the office was not open yet when we got there, so we just followed our nose., and apparently picked one of the more challenging and most beautiful trails they have.

After some challenging climbs up and down through gorgeous old timber woods we came to a huge ,very tall bluff. I guesstimate about 100-120 feet up (or down depending where you are.)

as a matter of fact the trail will lead you to the top next and you can see for miles once the leaves are off the trees right now they totally obscure the view.

we took a break there to give the horses a chance to get they're breathing under control. They have not had a decent workout since the middle of July and that wasn't near as exhausting as this.

soon we where off again.

Next stop:the waterfall. its not very high but it goes for about 50-60 feet in small steps. unfortunately no water right now since we had not had a decent rain in weeks.

After some more riding across small streams and by some impressive bluffs we arrived at another Indian shelter:

Fred the mule looks totally dejected:

By that time the horses where quite tired and we decided to find our way back to camp.

After a couple wrong turns we finally saw it in the distance, the horses saw it too and all of a sudden they weren't tired at all.
when we arrived we had a nice chat with the owner (after i got a map) and he directed us to the "Rattle Snake Saloon" that they just recently build under one of the many Indian shelters. Of course we had to check it out even though it was closed.

and what a neat place it is !!!:

build right under and into the overhang. and if you look close you can see the walk way above the saloon on the next ledge.
All in all we had a blast (probably our mounds not so much but they do have to earn they're keep once in a while.We sure will go there on a regular basis from now on and explore the rest of the trail of which there are many more.

spinning,doctors and such..

I managed to ply some of the singles
last night into this 14wpi two ply.



The colors are vibrant but on the muted side.


The Yarn felt a little stiff until i rinsed it in softener and whacked it against the bathtub a couple of times. This skein measures 246 yards with about that much more to spin.
well, i got the rest plied and got 223 more yards so there are 469 yards in all.

On another note:
I had one of my regular three month Dr.visits with my personal physician yesterday. Of course they took copious amounts of blood (like they do every time),at least they are excellent stickers and i hardly feel a thing.
They also did an annual EKG and an Chest x-ray.EKG is good, x-ray don't know yet but am not really worried.Then we discussed my arthritis problems (if that what it is..).
For several month now my joints, (especially my hands and feet) are really acting up. Very stiff fingers,to the point where i can't even close a fist, and the joints in my feet are stiff and painful especially after sitting for awhile(which i do a lot) and then getting up and trying to walk. Feels like I'm walking on hot knifes for the first five or six steps.but the rest of my joints are not far behind,i got a real problem with stairs getting up or sitting down etc.I've been taking meds for that but i might as well eat m+m's , they do that much good.(If it was possible i'd live on my horse , because that is really the only time i feel good, no pain,creakiness or weakness, just free!)
I was told that this might be the aftereffects of the chemo four years ago,shit! and my age,what does she mean my age? I'm 48 ,not 88!for crying out loud!! i ended up getting a steroid shot,Aow! and a six day steroid pack,which should get rid of the problem for awhile. I was told though that i might have to do this every six month or so,Shit! She also is running a autoimmune test making sure this is not something else. shit! but.. just a few hours after the shot i already felt a difference, a lot more limber.Yay! and this morning i wasn't groaning trying to get out of bed ,double yay!
So i better get cracking while the going is good.
Oh, something else ,I've talked to our only local brick and mortar yarn store(well, its not all yarn but a catalog merchandise return store).But the owner has turned a big part of her building over to quite an impressive amount of quality yarns(hobby lobby eat your heart out!!) and is expanding .Every time i go there there is more yarn.So, anyways she might be interested in putting some of my hand spun and hand dyed in her shop.Yay!!

A little sore but HAPPY...

FINALLY!!! After 5 years hiatus (since my introduction to 'The Cancer'), we finally got to go to an overnight trail ride.The occasion was our annual St.Jude Benefit Ride.Last time we attended that was 3 years ago for just a few hours in the morning, since i could not handle our usual July heat which brings me to the fortunate circumstance that we could actually go this year and stay.

At this time of year we usually boil with temps around the upper 90's or even triple digits with very high humidity which makes it feel even worse.This year we got a lucky break.forecast since last week was unseasonably cool temperatures,so we decided to risk it. It took us most of the week to load everything on the bus , get the tack sorted out and cleaned up .we didn't get to put shoes on our horses but that was OK, the trails are mainly in the woods or sandy.

At the last minute the bus had some kind of air conditioner trouble and we almost didn't get to go,but hubster fixed it.

Well, Thursday afternoon we had a line of thunderstorms run through and after that the temps really started to come down.We got out there early Friday morning and secured a very nice camp site.

After setting up camp i just could not wait any longer, my stepdaughter and i saddled up our horses and rode around the 60 acres campsite and adjacent farm grounds (trails didn't open till next morning).

(F)Red (the mule), Vandal, Charley

As soon as i slid my butt into the saddle i felt like a new person. My,do i miss my riding!!

Early saturday morning we saddled up our horses (hubster rides the mule) and off we went.

We ended up wayyyy on top of the mountain at Davis's Farm.When you get there they have hand squeezed lemonade( as much as you want) and home made cookies(as many as you want) and a view for miles around.

The trails where beautiful and the weather perfect:low 80's ,low humidity, light breeze,little white clouds here and there, just perfect.

Brandie on Charley and John on Fred

After a couple hours lunch break at the camp we where off again.

The trail we took was one of the most beautiful rides i had in a long ,long time. All in the woods , big old trees, along and partially in a super clear creek.Unfortunately the camera was sitting forgotten and lonely at the camp, bugger!!

If i could do this on a regular basis i would not need to take that stupid depression medication.

We got back late that afternoon, build a nice camp fire and cooked us some really good cowboy stew, sat by the fire for awhile and went to bed .

We decided next morning not to go out again but give our sore behinds and the horses a break. We cooked us up a nice breakfast,broke camp and went home.All in all it was a great weekend(the best time I've had in a looong time).We weren't as sore as we thought we would be and I made hubster promise that we'll do this again soon.

As soon as i get the bus unloaded, washed clothes,put everything back where it belongs I'll be getting back to spinning again.I've got some polwarth/merino-corriedale carded up that i need to dye.Probably first thing tomorrow morning, i'll post pics of the outcome.There are several 2 oz batts.I'll spin some and offer some in the shop.