"Tick, Tock" goes the clock

I survived the first week of school... Woot! One thing about being an educational interpreter is that it changes from one year to the next; you are "assigned to" the student and not the school. The good news being that if you don't like the particular school you're in, hang in there because you won't be there forever. Of course the bad news is if you love a school or its faculty, you just have to suck it up because you don't get to stay.
I struggle with the transience of my job from year to year and school to school; change is so NOT my thing. This year was another move from elementary to middle school, which meant all new surroundings, faculty, and rules (and the older I get, the harder all this "new" is for me to process ;o) So far though, I love it. Too often, interpreters and deaf students are the red-headed stepchildren at a school (nobody wants an extra grownup in their classroom, for one thing), but so far everyone has been extremely easy to work with (and talk about a load off... whew!). I even have a real chair and a little space to call my very own in the resource room (a rare occurrence). Don't I feel special? You'd better believe it! *grin*

I spent most of Saturday working on the new feed room, but got precious little done (although I was pretty darn productive with the epithets). Meh :o|  DH finally managed to finish out the old patio wall to make the underwriters happy, and the inspector was here last Friday (we're supposed to close Monday afternoon - Halleluiah!) One thing I wasted considerable time on was cleaning up DH's [counter] productive pig piles all over the place. I'm not sure if it's because he worked construction or simply because he's such a manly man, but he seems to feel obligated to alternately drop or toss stuff everywhere and just leave it. Sawdust, screws, wire casings, nails, wood scraps and heaps of old vinyl siding; you name it, he chucked it into a pile on the patio and went on his merry way. I alternately shoveled, swore and swept all manner of crappola to get at least some of it out of the doggone way. Probably a good thing he wasn't around, as I might have been tempted to take a swing at that great big block he calls a head with my trusty broom. Seems I'm still just a titch cranky about it, eh? Heh heh. Ooops.

Look who I found snuggled up underneath the gate latch on my way to the pasture the other day and starting to make his cocoon. Is that cool or what? You can even see where he's attached himself to the circle above the hook (coooool :o) I had quite a time trying to get a picture of him, as my camera kept focusing on the metal parts of the gate hook. He was only there for a couple of days, and in such an awkward place to shoot that this is the only photo I managed to get. Anybody know what he is? He's got Monarch coloring, but I remember them as fuzzy caterpillars (or does that come off before they do the chrysalis thing?) I have no idea, I just know it was awfully annoying trying to open and close the gate without bothering him. Any amateur entomologists out there? Inquiring minds want to know...

Still have an awful lot to do on the feed room, but I did take a few photos of what I've gotten done so far to share. In a stroke of genius (okay, maybe just good thinking but I'm counting it ;o) I got three of these heavy duty moving dollys from Harbor Freight (on sale for $9.99 each). I put the freezer on one, which will allow me to easily pull it out for sweeping and bug spraying. This one I will use for the feed bags; I put an old piece of screen underneath which will - I hope - keep the mice at bay. I made a quick trip to the Habitat for Humanity Restore and splurged (ha) on two rolls of .25c wallpaper in a mottled pattern to cover the foam board insulation. Somehow, I didn't see white as the optimal color in a perpetually dusty room (not to mention that styrofoam tends to come with its own static cling issues). Here's what I've done so far, bearing in mind that I have an awfully long way to go yet. There are double doors going into the feed room which will keep halters and lead ropes nice and handy. This is the [unfinished] one on the right for the Moo Crew:

and here's the one on the left, which I've started on:

The halters fit pretty well, I think:

After bonking my head half a dozen times, I moved the big shelf with the feed buckets up several slots. The ceiling isn't in yet, but hopefully DH will get that taken care of this week (WITHOUT making a phenomenal mess in my nice, clean feed room). It's pretty cramped in there, but hopefully with a little ruthless organization and creative contemplations I'll end up with a nice functional space. That's the plan, anyway ('course we know how the best laid of those go, don't we? ;o)

Have a blessed week everyone, and please say a prayer for those in the path of the hurricane. Thankfully, it shifted away from us but I sure do hate to see anyone hit by a storm. Horsey hugs!

Learn as you go (a guaranteeed Uh-Oh :o)

Splicing together my past and present, I will begin this week's post by saying: My off is all, y'all. *giggle* For some reason I found the blend of Pennsylvania Dutch and Southernese to be rather funny (well, except for the reality part. Translation: My vacation is over everyone; time has run out. This has been the best all around summer I have had in a very long time. No surgical procedures, hospital visits or major medical maladies. Hooray! I've actually felt human through most of it too, trumping last summer (an almost forgotten experience, that, as I felt meh on most days last year :oP So I'm not ready for it to end yet. Plus I'll really miss that time with the horses every morning. *sniffle* This is my favorite back to school shot of Bella with her backpack - from this post - so I thought I'd recycle it. Snarky Rider generously gave us a big surprise with some exposure on her famous (infamous? ;o) blog by posting some Bella pics (here). This was following a discussion on her post about Arabian heads and brainless breeding practices resulting in waaay too much of a nice trait (check out the horse in the middle here who looks like he ran into a brick wall - and eek).

Snarky has some great posts often with lots of food for thought and, as her name and logo suggest, she dishes them out with a generous side of sarcasm. And boy oh boy does she find some doozies. Like the woman on Craig's List who is offering two horses for trade to any licensed MD; one horse for liposuction and the other for - umm, well..... You know what? I think I'll just let you read that one for yourself; it's here. Who even thinks this way?!? *slaps hand over eyes*. Yeesh. I'll ask you to give Snarky a vote on Bloggers too, if you have a minute (that's here).
And that's probably enough of the click here stuff wouldn't you agree? Just say: "Here, here" Bwahahahaha *cough* Er, sorry.

We are, I hope, finally inching away from drought conditions. Literally. My rain gauge (#4) broke and I haven't bought another as yet, but according to my dad we've had about ten inches so far this week (and wow). It may not be the world's greatest shot, but I liked the big rainy kersplash on the left side of this picture. It kinda looks like a weird plastic leaf. Speaking of rainy weather, I have to say that while I am all about family and togetherness I like my personal space. The stalls for the girls are about 10 x 10, which is not very big but it is plenty of room for them as they are only in there periodically. Although we have five girls and five stalls (and I'm not a mathematician, but I'm mostly sure that equals one apiece), I come upon the same laughable scenario just about every single time we get a heavy rain. Can you say let's play sardines?

Yep, that's three horses all stuffed in the same stall. *rolls eyes* Maybe it's like it is with people; when there's a big scary storm, everybody goes and climbs into bed with mom (which would be Lady :o) Sarabear is in her stall to the right, and Bella (the non-conformist of the group) is standing outside in front of the stalls.
Seems Brains N' Brawn are back at it again; maybe next weekend I'll finally be able to post some "look at my pretty feed room" shots and wouldn't that be nice?!? (A girl's gotta dream, right? *sigh*)

They got the side door up for bringing the feed in - like a loading door, I suppose - and then went to work on the "front" doors to the feed room. I love the wrought iron hinges we used; I'll get a better photo for you next post. The best part? They didn't cost any more than the butt-ugly steel hinges (and let's hear it for beauty on a budget - Woot! :o) Look:

Oh, and like our ginormous puddle? I told you we got some serious rain ;o) Guess I'd better get back out there (clock's still ticking and tomorrow's D-day, don'tcha know). Have a blessed week everyone!

Filling holes and making poles

Well, it's [almost] done out there; the floor of the visitor area. My friend Lori came up and helped, as staining large areas of concrete is definitely a two man (er, woman ;o) job. I really liked the mottled, rustic look of the semi- transparent stain, and wanted the additional durability (I definitely don't want to have to do this annually). For anyone interested in tackling such a task on their own concreted area, and it can be indoors or out, here are the things we used:

1. Quikrete semi-transparent stain in Vaquero Brown (the 2 gallons I bought was not enough);

2. A 2 gallon sprayer (to mix both cans together for consistency);

3. Garden hose with an adjustable spray nozzle (the stain must be applied to a wet surface for proper absorption);

4. A push broom to eliminate any large areas of standing water;

5. Masking tape and a bunch of Walmart bags (or any other cheesy bag you have in large quantities) to put around the bottoms of each post (even though it's brown on brown, it still shows and you don't want your posts to be all messy looking if there are any splatters); 

6. A large kitchen garbage bag to cover the bottom half of the door; and,

7. A ginormous bowl of ice cream for when you're done, because it's a million and a half degrees out there and who cares if it's still breakfast time; it's dairy (so I can count it as milk - Ha).

One of the more important lessons I learned, is that we definitely should have done this in the early evening hours as opposed to early morning. Why? Because the sun would not have been so obnoxiously strong (a lot of unwanted speckling resulted because we just couldn't keep the concrete wet enough to absorb the stain properly). Mottled yes, spotted no. This means I'll have to go back over it again in those places; it'll have to be next paycheck though, as I've killed this one dead *grin*. If you look at the bottom of the wooden posts, you can see how much splattering there was; good thing we covered them:

Of course I'll also have to repair the damage from the rain too. Can you believe it? We are in the midst of a drought, there was NO chance of rain when we did it - zero, zilch, zippo, nada - and we get a sudden downpour out of the blue (not that I'm complaining because we needed the rain desperately). Where the patio roof joins the house, there is a small gap in two places. DH bought some flashing to put up there; unfortunately, it only made it as far as the "to do list" (nuts). Funny the way the water puddled up, ran off, then puddled up again, ran off again...Kinda looks like a pair of futuristic cat lady shades, doesn't it? It's like our own special slant on crop circles or something (well, maybe *laugh*). Huh. Weird.

Here's a photo of what it is [mostly] supposed to look like although there is some speckling in the upper left-hand corner:

Live and learn, right? Other than the speckles and freckles (which I'll fix later) I think it looks much better in a nice earthy brown than that super-sized slab of generic gray. Bear in mind that the concrete was still wet in the "before" photo, so it dried to a considerably lighter gray (that often hurt the eyes a lot more than the brown when the sun hit it). It was also evening in the before, so it was pretty much shaded. What do you think?

For some reason, Cinnamon was quite put out by my plans to "fix" those dotty spots *laugh*. He seemed to think it was absolutely perfect as is, and the speckled areas were the very best part (and I probably should have done the whole thing that way anyway). I can't imagine why he's so adamant about it, can you? Silly boy. If I had not taken the photo myself, I would have sworn it was Cinnamon's coat. That's actually the concrete below on the left; talk about bizarre. You know, I'm thinking that might be even weirder than the shades...

Want a sneak peek at next week? It's a *whispering* potty post. And you'll see what I'm doing with (to?) some rusty-musty-dusty old folding chairs that were donated to the farm. Tilly's [the tractor] former owners gave us a dozen of 'em - Woo! Color me amazed not only to have chosen the subject for the next post, but I've already started writing. Holy cow! I can't believe I'm actually getting ahead of the game on posting (and having said that out loud - like a ninny - I'll probably wind up behind again just because I couldn't keep my mouth shut). It's okay though, as long as I get there in the end, right?
Have a blessed week everyone!

This eventuality is now a reality - Hooray!!

 Well, DD won the graceless challenge on the outside step. She forgot all about it and went sprawling out the door the other day (unhurt and laughing like a loon). I am hopeful that I will miss my turn there, as that means I am to fall inward and I don't see that one ending quite so well. Methinks it's time for an idiot-friendly reminder; hopefully this will prevent future wipeouts (well, maybe). DD found some paint in "Handicap Blue" to put on the step (I wonder if that counts for us cranially challenged and/or oblivious folks too). Gosh I hope so. 
Actually, I managed to come up with something completely new in the graceless category. I have two over the fence saddle racks [bottom of photo inset] that have been parked next to the door for about two years now. We normally use them for cleaning the saddles outside. I, however, have found a new use for them. I learned that if you step down quickly and place your heel squarely on that little black cap, it is instantly transformed from saddle rack to bludgeon and will deliver quite the solid whomp to the back of your leg. Honestly...who DOES this stuff??? Oh wait, I do. *rolls eyes*. Concrete is still curing, so we're cleaning up around it, trying to level dirt as well as fill in all those fun little holes left by the frame supports along the outside.We have many bigger holes to fill in too, and we are trying to figure out how to get our hands on some affordable dirt (how stupid does that sound? Ha). Soooo, anybody out there digging a pool this summer??? What about a foundation? Getting rid of a hill? (hey, it was worth a try ;o)

Horses feet, like human hands [and nails] can become dry and brittle, particularly during drought conditions. It is so strange to watch all of the terrible flooding everywhere and be praying for all those folks yet praying here (rather desperately) for rain at the same time. I've been watering as much as I can manage (not our yard grass, but all of the grazing areas I can reach with the sprinkler) in an attempt to keep the grass from dying off completely. If you're a horse with dry hooves, RainMaker is fabulous for moisturizing those footies; the horses love it on their frogs, soles, yadda yadda. Kinda like a soothing massage with lotion would be for us if our hands were very dry. Lots of heavy sighs everywhere and Bella even moved forward when I'd finished her front feet and lifted her back foot in a not so subtle hint: Let's not forget these two, 'kay Mom? Sure thing chickie ;o)

Cavaletti (poles on the ground) are a great exercise for horses; they can help with carriage, balance, and gait among other things. The real deal (I have some wooden ones that were donated) are costly, not to mention quite heavy and/or unwieldy. This is when I trip over the muscle disease mess. Anyway, I've been percolating away on an inexpensive (and lots lighter) solution. After noodling around a bit with some PVC related ideas [bad pun - bahaha] I think I found a nifty AND thrifty little DIY solution. Woo! 

Skip to the next part if you're not into cavaletti, this part is about what I used to make some - I'm sharing in case anyone out there is interested. I should add, however, that you are all sworn to secrecy as to the exact whereabouts of two pieces of DH's [PVC] pipe I'd been eyeballing as I was brainstorming for a solution (he hasn't noticed they're missing yet, and doesn't read the blog so mum's the word *grin*). I used: some pilfered 1/2" PCV pipe cut to fit the noodles (free, but SSH); play sand we already had (for weight); end caps for the pipe (about .59c to keep the sand in and the noodle on); swimming pool noodles (to add color, softness and thickness for $1.88 each); and a chair to sit on and rest when I'd finished crawling around on the floor, which hurt a lot more than my feelings (sometimes your age just reaches right out and slaps you one, doesn't it?). I believe I slaved away for about 20 minutes before I finished all three. Ready? Ta-Daaaa:

Not bad, eh? I tossed two of them in the demonstration area and asked Rina to follow me over them a time or two before supper. I didn't have DD here to take a picture, so I tried to turn and get one myself as Rina walked along behind me over the posts. Of course it's a terrible shot (her head looks as big as the moon from that angle and her body's all dinky back there *giggle*) but at least you get the idea: Hooray, they worked!

The noodles aren't that big, but they worked just fine. You could probably splice two of them together on a longer piece of PVC if you wanted to. Hey; you could even cut the noodles up and use them in alternating colors to make it prettier. Hmmm...sounds like a good idea to me; I might need to add a few more to my collection *laugh*. 

Last, but never least, we have new volunteers (two and a quarter to be exact). I'm very excited to have Krystal helping us (she'd be the partial person on the left ;o) She's not only become a great friend, she's interested in the horses and happy to spend a chunk of her summer stamping and sorting for us with some outdoor manual labor thrown in for good measure (and what more could you ask for in a pal??) Jack has aspirations for the tractor - he thinks stamps and stuff are for girls and is holding out for some manly machinery. He was all eyes and happy feet bouncing enthusiastically up and down while watching DH run Tilly in preparation for the patio. Until I snapped his picture, that is. Geez, first its grownups, now it's a baby looking at me like I'm loopy (guess it shows *grin* ;o). I'm thinking a couple of growth spurts and a few more years and he'll be good to go; what do you think?

Our other new volunteer is Emily, and she will be spearheading the BellaButton fundraiser for us. Hopefully, it will be a rousing success ('cause I sure don't want to have made all those buttons for no apparent reason ;o) We will be splitting the proceeds from the buttons with the Twilight Pageant. I'm not normally into the whole pageant thing, but the Twilight Pageant raises money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (and for obvious reasons, I am into cancer causes ;o) You know, maybe we'd better keep this whole blog post hush-hush now that I think about it (I swiped Bella's tiara for Emily to use in the picture since Bella's wearing it on the button photo - SO DON'T TELL BELLA). Man, I'm turning into a regular kleptomaniac *grin*. Below is a photo of what the finished buttons look like; sorry about the copyright thing plastered across the picture, but I'm sure you all are aware how quick people are to snatch up stuff like this and use it themselves without a care in the world (or a penny for our pockets). This is what Ann was helping us with:

Guess that's it for now; got kind of long...sorry. Have an awesome week everyone!

It has definitely been a character building week, have you ever had one of those? Betcha have. The classroom teacher was out Thursday and Friday which meant two things: substitute and HEADACHE (ugh). Things were really looking brighter though, by the time I arrived home Friday afternoon. Why? Because we finally (finally, Finally, FINALLY! *and insert off-key aria of LAAAAA right about here*) have concrete, and wonders never cease. Ha. I would offer bets on whether or not Jen crashes and burns either going out or coming in with that step [photo inset] however, I'm not into gambling and that is what's known as a sucker bet anyway (it's definitely not if, it's when and will there be a trip to the ER?). 

There's also the possibility that DD and I split the difference with one wipe out each; you just never know when both of us were born without the Grace Gene *grin*. We're counting on DH to take care of things topside (he's 6'1" without his boots). Lifting the door may take a little bit more doing than originally thought, though, as they concreted the threshold... Ooops. 
The green uprights [photo below] were for the screen on our old patio long since converted to a tack and feed room (kinda messy in there *wince*). Actually, we were halfway finished with it when we got the horses so I never even painted the rest of the ceiling, just slapped some paneling up on the walls. Guess I'm going to have to add that to my project list now, as this will become an indoor Epic Farms area. Room? Office? Whatever ;o)

We did, however, encounter one large and one small problem. The large problem was that there was not enough dirt to build up one end to the height they needed (just one of those things that wasn't discernible until they started working). They ended up using considerably more concrete than originally planned; that's for sure. Our house is on a downward slope, so the patio had to be up high enough to keep the water from running into the house if we have heavy rains (that would be bad ;o) and also allow enough height to ensure patio sloping for water runoff (basically into the hill). Thankfully, DH was there to make that decision. That sure is an awful lot of concrete though (yikes). So much for the money we had set aside to do the rest of it right away. POOF! History. Toast. Gone. *sniffle*.

The small problem - thankfully - only affected the bottom part of the wheelchair ramp, although it took some doing to correct as the concrete had already begun to set. Seems the concrete truck (or the workers) knocked down our little "no dogs allowed" fence, and our neighbor's ankle biter popped over to investigate. Naughty girl!

Now we just have to let it cure for a minimum of 28 days before we can stain it. Oh goody, more waiting. So what do you think? Turned out pretty well, didn't it? The area that juts off on the right way in the back will be the tack and feed room. (and Boo-Yeah to that! ;o) It's longer than it appears in the photo. The patio itself is 16' by 40' not including the feed room. Sure doesn't look that big in the photo though, does it? The pipes sticking up on the right in the foreground will be a bathroom.  

You know, I wonder if I took my hairdryer on the high heat setting and...well, never mind. Guess I'll just wait. *tapping foot*. Is it ready yet? No. How about now? No. Ready? Not yet. Okay. Tap-Tap-Tap-Tap...*heavy sigh*...Tap-Tap-Tap. What about if I...

Have a wonderful and blessed week everyone!