Methinks Somebunny Needs a Nap

Hay eddybuddy - member us? (I'm Taya, the purdy one onna left, and the grumpee one onna right is Lady). Mom sed that she wuz goin in Sane with Crazy Busy (I don't know who her friend Crazy is, but I think Sane is a store or somethin') an that she wood bee back soon. Maybe if me an' Lady does a good job wif our post she will bring us back a treat. Yum! U no what else? Mom forgot to 'splain about the spill check thing again so we still dont no what that is yet. Sillee mom, rite?

Mom did asked us to remind u guys about the Goodsearch and Goodshop place coz of doe nations an also too tell u that she is workin' hard on the Etsy shop an' that she only has a little bit of stuffs in their so far, but u should visit it 'cause she uses the monee to feed us. I know its green an stuff, but I don't think monee tastes very good. Maybe its like a veggable or somethin'.

She also sed that if u are shoppin' for presents and stuffs ('specially for furballs) pleas visit her friends at EFA on Etsy. They makes lotsa awesome stuffs for the good causes. Mom sed we are her favrit cause, but I think she did not finish her sentence since she didnt tell me cause why. My birfday is in March an I will be 7 yearz old so if you wanna buy me a present you can (I likes apples). I gots 'cited about the EFA 'cause I thought that EFA meaned Eat-Five-Apples, and I LOVES apples almost as much as watermellins :o) But Mom sed nope, it means Etsy-for-Animals and they gives monee to lotsa differnt chair-tees all the time. I guess thats prolly 'portant, but I'd rather havva apple.
I gotta go, 'cause Mom is callin us for breakstast, an' I'm hungry. Lady sed she's still not speakin' atall cause she's still mad about her pitcher makin' her look all ginormous big. Mom called her a Chunky Monkey, but I think Lady is a big fat partee pooper, but Mom sed thats knot nice so I was just a little bit sorry. Have a sooper day eddybuddy!

Epic Fail-yers (coffee and a donut post)

Soooo, how's it going? Good week? Yes? No? Jury still out on that one? How about the whacked out weather - fun for you? Obviously, I'm punchy; been that way all week (no idea why, really, but it happens). On Monday and Tuesday the temps were right at 80 are-you-kidding-me degrees (actually passed a woman in a strapless top on my way into Winn Dixie, which is just so wrong for January). The horses are shedding and the plants are completely confused. Of course that was before Wednesday's storms blew in a cold front and at the moment, it's 33 out. I think over the weekend it's supposed to be in the upper 20's. Hey I know! We can all get really sick; won't that be fun? Meh.

Between the weirdly warm weather and people burning almost constantly in the area (five out of seven days last week) I'm scared to go outside in the morning to check on Sara, but she's hanging in there. A happy thanks to Lori at Skoog Farm Journal for sponsoring my V-8 moment by mentioning beet pulp, which I had completely forgotten about (having initially gone a different direction for weight gain). I'm delighted to report that Sara loves it, although she will not eat it if I mix it in with her feed (so now we have a pan of beet pulp and a pan of feed three times a day). Whatever works, right? As happy as it makes me to see her chowing down, however, I have to tell you that stuff is superduper stinky (as in P.U. EWWW). My nose is hypersensitive, so I am not a fan of any kind of strong odor at all. Stuff's worse than sauerkraut. Blech.
Speaking of beet pulp, the kids are working on various types of poetry in Reading class right now. While composing poems isn't overly interesting to a deaf student (for obvious reasons) I'm having a lark:
Inky, stinky beet pulp.
  I fix you and I scowl,
  you are so very foul.
  You make me wanna barf,
  yet Sarabear will scarf.
Inky, stinky beet pulp.
Ha. See? Told you I was punchy. All seriousness aside, that stuff really does smell "offal". OH, GEEZ THAT WAS BAD! Bwahahahaha :o) *cough* Sorry.

Let's move on, shall we? One of the things I decided to splurge on with my Christmas money was the latest version of PrintShop. Trying to stay on that cutting edge can really get expensive, so I don't update stuff very often. Do you keep up with upgrades? I've been using PrintShop since the dot matrix days (around 1991), and have absolutely positively loved it. Since I use it all the time to edit photos and do lots of Epic Farms stuff, I thought it might be a good idea to upgrade to 3.0 since it's been several years. My biggest interest in the upgrade was the ability to edit vector images, use overlays, and make my own nifty watermark for photographs. Armed with a GoodShop coupon, I bought 3.0 Professional. I was SO excited to get that package; I could hardly wait to get it installed and start playing around. And har-dee-har-har was that joke ever on me. Imagine my surprise to find that my forever favorite user friendly program had bypassed unfriendly and gone straight to downright hostile. For reasons that completely escape me, Broderbund did away with many of the best features of PrintShop and somehow managed to turn it into one of the most user UNfriendly programs ever created. I mean, I totally hated it. Guess I should have read the reviews first, as they were terrible, but I never even gave it a thought until after I bought it.

Happily, Broderbund offered a 30 day money back guarantee (see Jen get RMA and make beeline to post office). As an aside, if you ever have to return something like software be sure to ask for a delivery confirmation. It costs a little bit more, but gives you proof your package arrived so you don't wind up in the "We didn't get it so sorry, too bad no refund for you." category. In chatting with my brother one afternoon, he mentioned using Photoshop which I had not thought about in a very long time. Once upon a time, I had Photoshop Elements 2.0, (which should tell you how long ago it was: think dial up). I bought it planning to restore some old family photographs, but it was SO ridiculously complicated that you just about had to take a college course to learn how to use it (although it did come with a handydandy clear-as-mud manual). Anyway, I'd avoided it like the plague ever since. What can I say? It scared me ;o) I started wondering what kind of changes - if any - might have come about since then. This is Cupcake, by the way. My friend Sandy's little Lionhead bunny; isn't she adorable?
I decided to investigate, and discovered that Adobe offers the full-blown version in a 30 day try-before-you-buy download (it's here if you're interested). A free full featured test drive? Really? Woo! I'm so there. I downloaded Photoshop Elements 11, and I have seen the light [insert choral "Ahhhh" here]. BOY have they changed that software; totally user/idiot friendly. Definitely my kind of program. Throw in a little AdobeTV with a boatload of step by step tutorials, and it is completely learnable (even for me). My old 2.0 was still good for the upgrade price, but I actually found it cheaper on Amazon (yay) so I'll be ordering it as soon as I get my Broderbund refund. *Bounce*Bounce*Bounce* :-D As you can see, I've already figured out the watermark thing. Guess that's all for now; next week we'll talk about how to make yourself feel seriously stupid in one simple step: it's SO me ;o)
Have a blessed weekend and week everyone!

Sick as a dog: Well, make that a frog

No, no, no, not YOURS yers (MINE yers). *sigh* After much internal debate (read wrestling), discussions with our vets (first one then the other one), debates with DH and a couple of our horse loving friends - not to mention a boatload of research - we have come to the inevitable (and crushing) conclusion: Sara's not going to get any better. Ever. For those of you new to the blog, our Sarabear was diagnosed with Heaves/COPD last year and in spite of everything, has gone from bad to worse to awful. So awful, in fact, that I keep expecting to see someone from the Sheriff's office appear on our doorstep to investigate a starving animal report (although the rest of the horses are pretty much on the tubby side of life). In a way, Sara's troubles seem an awful lot like my own health hiccups; the disease and its symptoms just didn't follow those "classic signs". Added to that were things like heavy smoke from people burning somewhere nearby, crazy winter weather (80 degrees in January? Seriously?) and a stubborn girl who just won't let us help. PHOTO:This is one of my favorite pictures of Sara taken last year. We had just put out a new roll of hay, and the rest of the girls had already gone thundering by. Sarabear has never been one to hurry, although she does look awfully cute prancing her way up the hill.

Heaves symptoms generally appear around age 8, although I have no idea if she exhibited any signs at that time. She came here at age 14, and had a very slight cough, but only once in a great while. Since this area does quite a number on the sinuses (I never had allergy issues until I moved here), and her cough followed the same pattern we didn't really think much of it as it never got worse. I had little knowledge of heaves, because it was generally an issue that effected stabled horses (ours are on 24/7 turnout with shelter available). Besides, surely her owner would have told us if she had a serious condition, right? Betting that one got a laugh or ten out of one of you out there. (insert eye roll here). Ignorance may be bliss, but it sure can cost you a pretty penny. Not to mention drag you heart first through the emotional wringer. Sara is eating more feed per day than all eight other horses combined; and she is still skin and bones. She will not eat more than what we're giving her now, although I've also been giving her treats in between feeding. PHOTO: This was also just last year. Funny how her coat looks so different; it was taken very early in the morning (her little white markings were a funky blue until I corrected the color cast).

The sad thing is, I can't even sit here and say it's been a long road because it really hasn't been long at all. Tough? Oh, most definitely so. Frustrating. Disappointing. Maddening. Infuriating even. And very, very, depressing. The past several months have been a roller coaster ride of high expectations, dead ends and false hope that something (anything) would change. Smack in the middle of it all was Sarabear who, if I am going to be honest, is her own worst enemy. She refuses to eat any of the medicines or herbal supplements no matter how I try to disguise them/hide them (although she has always been okay with eating worm paste in increments hidden in small handfuls of sweet feed). Anything else though? Nope, not having it; she just knocks it right out of my hand and walks off. Certainly she won't let me put anything in her mouth that comes in a tube or syringe. Nosiree Bob; that's not happenin' either, she'll rear straight up. Funny thing is, she's the only one we have that I can't schmooze into eating or even forcibly dose if I have to (not to mention the only one that rears up). How's that for irony? PHOTO: Sara catching a few zzz's by the stalls (I woke her up trying to get a shot of her snoozing; had to settle for a sleepy expression instead ;o)

The short version is this: Sara's appetite is extremely unpredictable, and as a result she is pretty much skin and bones. Sometimes she'll gobble her feed right up, sometimes she'll take a bite and won't eat any more and sometimes she'll dump it all out. Just yesterday she opted to flip her bucket over and waste all the feed instead of eating it (again). If I put the bucket "up" (which is better for her breathing than on the ground), she won't touch it at all. She is furious with me for separating her from her pasture pals, and has now taken to chewing up all of the wood in protest. Up until about 3 weeks ago, we thought she would make another rally. Appetite had stayed fairly consistent and she was starting to put on a little weight. It was probably when I started feeling a little too hopeful that she reversed direction and has been going downhill since. Because horses under stress (and heaves definitely qualifies as stress) can lose up to 50 pounds in one night, you can imagine what she looks like now. Wit's end here. I opted not to post a photo of her current condition for the simple reason that I am afraid someone will misinterpret it. I'm sure many of you will find this quite shocking, *tucks tongue in cheek*, but there are an alarming number of people out there that would take something like that and run with it; without bothering to get the whole story. Even though I can back up everything I've posted about Sara, I just don't want to go through all that. It's hard enough as it is, you know?

Another epic fail (almost) was the Etsy shop, which was supposed to have been closed for a "brief" period while I re-shot photos for my listings. Let me just throw in a ha-ha-HA. *cough* Umm...hmmm. It's been more months that I wish to count since I've even given it a passing thought (and that was a couple of months after I stuck it on vacation mode).  Yikes. It was only after I got a friendly reminder from the Etsy for Animals team about the membership rules (resulting in a holy cow *slap to the forehead* jumpstart) that I realized just how long it had been. Ruh-Roh. Bad Jen. Very bad Jen. *wince* After some frantic scrambling - and a few repentable words - I am happy to say that the shop is now back open. Of course I've only manage to retake about five photos, but I must say I really like the way they turned out. That was probably tacky of me to say out loud, wasn't it? Sorry. Anyhoo, it's another nod to irony the way that went, too, as the proceeds from the shop would have definitely come in handy towards Sara's expenses. *sigh* Oh well, going for better late than never yet again, eh?
So there you have it (or most of it, anyway - I actually skipped some of the Sarabear stuff as I was beginning to feel a tad maudlin). Meh ;o/ Since I hate to end on an icky note, how about something to give you a giggle? (although for me, it was more like a much needed gut-busting laugh). As most of you know, DD is deaf and there is a lot of misinformation out there when it comes to lipreading as a form of communication. Believe it or not, only 30% of the words we use are clearly visible on the lips; the rest is guesswork (and if you don't believe me, stand in front of the mirror and watch your lips as you say "bay, pay, may" ;o) This came through one of my interpreting lists the other day, and I thought I'd share it with you. It's from badlipreading.com and just boggles the mind how well the wrong words fit:
Have a blessed week everyone, and hug those furballs!

Fly Mask Fashionistas (picture happy post :o)

Remember my trip to the walk-in clinic for a shot and some antibiotics the weekend before last? Well, my "little" sinus infection just rolled right over that stuff (laughed at it actually). By Monday my voice was down to a croak and my temperature up to a bad joke. I wound up going to my regular doctor for stronger antibiotics and missing two days of work (he ordered me to stay home). Approximately ten days and 2,364 tissues later, I am finally starting to feel better. Yeesh. I suppose the blessing is I only managed to ruin my birthday and not Christmas (wouldn't that have been a bummer? ;o) Please accept my apologies for not responding to comments left on the last post (you all know that is not my standard M.O.). We're now out for the Christmas break (and anyone that thinks teachers and faculty are "lucky" to have such great vacations I can only say it is soooo earned). School dismissed early Friday, and after peeling a bajillion hyperactive elementarians off the ceiling to board the buses [or get in cars], we all went home to stare at the wall; too fried to do anything else. Hopefully, I can play some major catch up this week starting with a tree (and I'd better get a move on, don't you think? *rolls eyes*).

I did get a chance to catch up on some movies I wanted to watch; most of which I'd discovered in sale bins over the past few months. Since I was temporarily relegated to couch detail, it was as good a time as any to play catch up. I made one $15.49 splurge on the movie "Tangled", have you seen it? My interest was [big surprise] in the horse Maximus, who, in my opinion, totally made the movie. I had to turn it off a couple of times because I was laughing so hard it was causing me to cough like crazy. Although we have a Maximus (a.k.a. Mad Max) he was nothing like our boy at all. No, the Maximus in the movie was a dead ringer for none other than our Bella. Mad face and all. DD and I decided that this movie was a total case of art imitating life; and have our suspicions that Bella may have acted as an outside Hollywood consultant regarding Maximus's character.
Allow me to clarify via photographic evidence. First, Exhibit A:

And now, I offer you Exhibit B:

Need I say more?
As always, thanks for reading this far ;o) Have a blessed week everyone, and be sure to remember the real reason for the Christmas season: Jesus.

 

Don't forget the back to school giveaway!

If you haven't already entered, you can toss your name in the hat by adding our fundraising widget (top left) to your blog, page, or forehead (still kidding), follow us here and like us on Facebook (top right), or tweet your favorite post. Donations count for two entries ('cause we need 'em :o) Drawing will be on Friday, August 26 and the winner will be announced on that weekend's post. A special thank you to "The Old Geezer" <--not my choice of words) for getting us to 100 followers - Woo! Definitely worth checking out (love "The Green Thing" post). In case anyone is wondering, I did not finish my office before school started, but I did get a little closer. Meh :oP We still have to construct my ginormous craft table; it's going to [hopefully] be a masterpiece. I'll letcha know. *grin*

Sarabear has had some trouble recently with her eyes. They were kind of goopy, puffy,and very watery and even with the fly sprays the gnats were making her crazy. She started rubbing her eyes on the wood around the stalls which was, in turn, causing me to develop a nervous twitch in my own eye. I just knew she was going to poke her eye out, get a splinter, or something. Eeek. We decided to try a fly mask, although I admit I had some doubts as to whether or not she'd actually wear it. Sara had been sent to a very abusive trainer early in life - not by us - for the halter show ring; she's an Anglo-Arab. Whatever he did, and that's all I know is it was a male trainer, caused her to be extremely head shy and she is still very afraid of having her ears touched. We're working on it :o)
Instead of starting with the mask right away, I let her see it first and then just hung it on the stall and put her halter on because I wanted to start with success (above photo). Then I took the halter back off and asked Sara if we could try the fly mask (after we gave it a good snuffle or two of course):

This is where a real relationship is invaluable. You can see that we are "outside", so Sara is free to leave. This means there is absolutely no pressure on her, other than what she is willing to accept. The other girls are still in their stalls (this was right after supper) so there is no one to bother us. In addition to the greed factor [treats], the horses genuinely seem to want my attention and approval, which just blows me away with stuff like this. When I lifted the mask to put it on, Sara said she wasn't ready (Photo below L) by raising her head high [fear] and flicking her ears back and forth [uncertainty]. I dropped it back down so she could think about it a bit more (below R).

Right here is often the point where horses and humans part company (at least for me). The internal urge to just "show" her it's no big thing by putting it on is huge and I have to fight it every stinkin' time. We just want to go ahead and do it so they will see that it's not a bad thing at all. Horses don't work that way, though. It's a thousand times better in the long run to let them decide on their own when they are ready, and they really will tell you provided you have good communication going between you (you'll see it with Rina further down). In reality, it takes far less time to drop it down and give Sara another minute than it would to chase her head around anyway (or worse, cause her to stress to escalate to the point she leaves). That extra minute was all she needed - what a good girl Sarabear. You stylin' it now sistafriend! *laugh*
Since DD was available for a bit to shoot a few more pictures after Sara, I was curious to see how the other girls would react to the mask; they were still in their stalls. I asked Rina if she wanted to try it on...She gave it a good sniff (below L), then said "nuh-uh" by pulling her head back partway into her stall (R): 
I'll add that I am sure I could have gone into her stall and gotten her to put it on, but I opted to go with the flow and move on to Taya (you'll see why in a minute ;o) 

Taya was curious too, and happy to let me put it on her. Good job Taya!

Bella had about the same reaction as Taya - ummm...ok - What a good girl!

Now, here's the part that really fascinates me. After I let everyone out, guess who came marching back up to me and wanted to try on the fly mask? Yep, it was Rina. Is that cool or what? Horses are just too awesome for words sometimes (and yes, I was so tickled with her request and willingness to put the mask on that I let out a happy little whoop and clapped for her...forgot I wasn't at elementary school [work] just then. HaHa. Silly me, I know. ;oD

Miscreant Max and I have started our home school lessons; otherwise we couldn't have played around for the camera here - he would have broken my nose for sure. It took me two solid weeks before I was able to give him a reward. Not kidding. Sometimes you need a magnifying glass and an awful lot of time to find that one positive thing. He'd do something that mostly passed for "good" (Max has a sliding scale ;o) and then immediately do something completely obnoxious and render me unable to give him a reward. It was making me crazed.  
We have had several chats about broken stall boards (one of umpteen patches visible in the photos), picking fights, spatial relationships, (you can see in the photo above he's not much on that stuff) crawling under fences, climbing up the stall wall (literally), general obnoxiousness, attentiveness, and just trying to behave a little better overall. Max has come to the conclusion that being a good boy is not nearly as awful as he thought it was going to be, so he is going to try his very very bestest to do it more often and stay out of trouble...

Have a blessed week everyone, and a wonderful back to school experience this year! Kids too ;o)