Well It Started with Sarabear,

Not too far from here is a marvelous place chock full of junk trash treasures waiting to be discovered. I LOVE going to the Flea Market! Funny thing is, I haven't been there in a really long time (time being the very reason of my absence). When DD and I decided to go, I could hardly wait. I'll admit it was awfully hot, but I wouldn't have missed that for anything. We had a fine time poking through all of things for sale; some of which were quite interesting (and some, utterly bizarre ;o) Like this chair that looks like something from a Hollyweird movie set from 1929. Who needs a Barcalounger when you can park this heinous monstrosity in front of your flat screen? Although I'm sure it's a definite conversation piece, I can't quite fathom the context of that particular conversation (though I can hazard a guess at the general direction of it *giggle*).

What really blew my mind, was the astronomical price tag hanging from the top. Of course now I'll have to go back, if for no other reason than to find out if someone is ridiculous enough to actually cough up 700 Simoleans for it. Can you imagine? Not even if you moved that decimal point three places to the left, buddy. Although, if that's an offer of payment to take it off your hands...

Well, this is as far as I got for this week's post. Not doing too well, am I? We've had quite a bit going on; the details of which I hope to be able to share with you next week. One thing I DID take the time to do for you was to make a ('nother-other ;o) slideshow. I went to a privately owned zoo (McClellands) with my friend Carolyn and her two girls (who I'll call big J and little j for privacy purposes). I mentioned my friend Carolyn a long time ago (this post), when Lori and I had a decorative field day in her guest bedroom. She had made the monumental decision to become a foster parent and had asked us to help her set it up for children. Embarrassingly, I realized just this morning that I spelled her name wrong in the old post. I couldn't remember if she was an "i" or a "y", so I guessed; quite wrongly it seems. Profound apologies, Carolyn! :o/ She's cared for numerous children since that time and endured all manner of criticism for opening her heart and home as a foster parent. As for me? Well, I happen to think it's the most awesomest thing ever :o) I've been blessed to watch her grow even stronger in her faith through it all. Carolyn made the decision to officially adopt the two little girls (you'll see them in the slideshow) awhile back; they had long been the daughters of her heart. I've been equally blessed to watch those two little girls bloom and grow under her loving care. I put descriptions (found top center) on most the slides, though I didn't know what every single animal was. Feel free to enlighten me, if you know for sure ;o) Click on the Reindeer eye in the top left to open it in Lightbox (I hope - had some trouble with this). Email friends can click here. Enjoy!

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Have a blessed week everyone - Hugs!

Methinks Somebunny Needs a Nap

and went downhill from there...
As most of you figured out, the correct answer from last week's post was *V8 Whap* J. All of the Above - and golly what a non-shock, right? With me being me and all. Ha. I guess I'll begin at the beginning and bring you up to speed a little at a time over the next several posts. 
Some of you may remember that Miss Sarabear was diagnosed with heaves (COPD) a few years ago (here, here, here and here). Although we did everything we could to make her comfortable, it was pretty much a train wreck from the get go between the dry, dusty drought conditions and a sudden seemingly endless barrage of neighbors burning fires; all of which drifted straight through the pasture (where else?) In any case, these things combined to make poor Sara's life here a misery. Since the biggest help for a horse with heaves is to get them out of a dusty barn (which we don't have) on to a 24/7 turnout schedule (which we already had), we were not starting from a good place. The treatment options available to us were no longer helping, and we found ourselves standing at an unhappy crossroads...

Sometimes it just comes down to the tough choices; the kind you hope you never have to make. Sarabear's health had deteriorated to the point where she was really starting to suffer, and we had exhausted all of our options. After prayerful consideration we made the difficult decision to donate her to Auburn University (which has an awesome equine veterinary program). As much as I would have loved to be able to send her up there for treatment, financially it just wasn't an option for us (treatment costs can run up into the thousands). We had 8 other horses to consider, not to mention my own medical misadventures and we just couldn't take on a [potentially huge] financial burden for a giant question mark.  I knew Auburn had much more advanced options available there than we did here, and they would either be able to help ease her symptoms which would in turn alleviate her suffering (heaves is incurable) or put her down humanely and maybe be able to discover something that would help someone else's horse in the future. So, with lots of prayer and heavy hearts we bid a tearful farewell to our Sarabear in early spring of last year. I miss you very much sweet pea...

- Stay tuned for the letter B -

Since I hate to sign off on such a sad note, won't you please visit Sara's lens on Squidoo to read the silly story about her arrival? Hopefully, you'll find your smile while you're there (Disclaimer: this is a multitasking moment for me, since I'm supposed to be promoting Epic Farms's lenses - yet one more thing that has fallen by the wayside *sigh*). 

I hope you will enjoy: 

"The Sarabear Chronicles"

Have a blessed week everyone. Horsey hugs!!

 

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!

On my nerves [literally]

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!

I'm not quite sure how I ended up with doctor's visits two weeks in a row, but I did. For those of you who missed last week's medical misadventure - and its corresponding wardrobe malfunction - you'll find it here. This week's visit was to the Neurologist for my annual nerve conduction study and muscle test (and yippee, right? ;o) Color me picky, but I think I'd much rather go for the yearly trip to the beach or something that didn't involve sudden shocks and sharp needles (wouldn't you?) Unlike last week's doc, who said it wasn't "his area", my neuro was a bit concerned about the "soft spots" that have appeared on my skull. He is sending me to have my head examined- ha, ha - via CT scan and bone window next week. Oh goody, a hospital test. Meh. Of course those of you who have been here for awhile are probably considering this particular test long overdue (and are already well aware that I am "soft in the head". *laugh*
I found this video clip quite by accident last week, and have watched it umpteen times between fits of hysterical laughter. Initially I thought "Denver" was blind because his eyes stayed closed for so long, but he isn't. What he is, is totally guilty. I found the clip on this lens on Squidoo.

For my email friends (you just gotta go watch ;o) click here to see it. This poor guy has definitely taken a guilty conscience to the next level. Oh my!

Still plugging away at the feed room, which is progressing ever so slowly (good thing I'm such a patient soul, and all - HAH!).

DH still has to put the ceiling in - which will probably be in about 50 years - so I figure I have plenty of time to get my stuff done in the meantime. I wish everything didn't have to take so doggone long; it seems by the time I get everything together to work on it I end up with about 30 minutes left in my time slot to do any actual work. Most annoying. I went to a church meeting Saturday afternoon still wearing my "stupid Saturday hair" because I decided to work an extra 5 minutes (which turned into 35) so I didn't have time to do much beyond a basic wardrobe change. Yeesh. The photos are rather dark and have a yellowish cast to them. Reason being; the light bulbs are "bug lights", which are yellow but do not attract insects. I don't know about your area, but when I go outside after the end of daylight savings time hitting the light switch usually results in a mass moth-ing (pass).

I ran out of cove molding for the Moo Crew's door, so I switched to tucking shelves in between the wall studs using leftover brackets and wood scraps from past projects (excuse me for swearing). I put the deeper shelves and the grooming totes on the back wall, where I would (hopefully) not bang into them on a regular basis. The drawers that came with Sarabear's SmartPak medicine fit perfectly over the feed dolly.

  It's really surprising how many of the product bottles and little tubs will fit into these skinny spaces (and color me grateful that they do!)

 I paid $5 for the big wire basket at a local dollar store which went out of business. I planned to go back to buy more of these handy fixtures, but by the time I scrounged up a few more dollars my next payday they had already closed their doors. Rats. Oh well, at least we have one nifty place to stash horse toys, right?

I've LOTS left to do - but as you can see I am getting there (even if it is at the speed of turtle ;o) Have a blessed week everyone, and thanks so much for reading this far!