Daisy visits the vet...

Daisy had her first visit with our vet today. She needed a bunch of shots, boosters to the ones that she had at 8 weeks, lyme & rabies. She weighs 32.8 pounds. She also had a checkup and the vet pronounced her healthy and adorable. We were on our way out when the technician said "Not so fast! Daisy has roundworms!" YUCK!! Then, the really good news - they can be passed to humans. What?! YUCK!! YUCK!! So, we've got a call in to the doctor's office to try to determine how much risk there is here and whether or not we should be tested too. We are going to be giving all the pets some deworming medicine. They assume that the worms have gotten passed around. What fun...

This morning Daisy discovered that she likes to ride on the 4-wheeler! I rode it out to feed the horses their hay this morning and then when it was time for the boys to go down to the bus stop, I told them to hop on and I picked up Daisy to sit in my lap. She didn't seem too sure about that, but she was good about it. Then, after the boys left, I picked her up again for the ride back up the driveway. We stopped at the horse pen to pick up the grain buckets, and I put her down on the ground to run around and play. When I got back on to go put the 4-wheeler away, I thought she would just run after me, so I was very surprised when she jumped back up in my lap! She snuggled in and went for another ride!

Farrier woes...

This morning our new farrier came for the first time. She did a great job on the horses hooves. She's very quiet and all the horses were relaxed and calm with her. I was very pleased. I also learned that she agrees with me that the horses should be barefoot. She swears by the hoof boots that I want to get for Tillie. She assures me that will solve her ouchiness on the gravel roads and that I will be amazed by the fact that the boots will help so much and the money is well spent 'cause they will outlast Tillie! That is very good news and I'm anxious to get them and try them out.

The reason we are trying a new farrier is not because we were unhappy with our old farrier. On the contrary, he does a great job and he's also a friend. However, he cancelled our scheduled appointment over a month ago and then when I called him every week over the last month and left him a message to reschedule, he never contacted me. I figured he must be mad at me or fell off the face of the Earth! Either way, the horses needed their hooves trimmed, so I couldn't wait forever. Believe it or not, he called about an hour after the new farrier left!! Now I have to call him back and explain. I'm not looking forward to it....

Riding Stearns Hill and The Cornwall Nature Preserve

Yesterday my sister-in-law came up to ride with me! We had a great time!! She rode Kitch and he was very good for her. I rode Tillie and ponied Lily. Considering how many weeks it had been since Tillie had been ridden, that was an accident waiting to happen, but we survived. She was a total brat - spooking and running away and generally acting like a fool. But, it's my own fault. A 4-year old needs continuous schooling. Hey, she didn't throw me, so it's all good! We took the trail up the hill behind our house to Stearns Hill Road so that my sister-in-law could see the view up there. It was INCREDIBLE! The sky was crystal clear so you could see all the mountains in the distance and with the colorful foliage it was beautiful.

There is something living in our woods.....Yeah, probably lots of things, but something sure has the horses scared! There was a place on the trail that we had to fight to get them to go forward, even when we were returning to the farm(and that's usually a race!). They REALLY didn't want to go through that area - even Kitch held back - and Tillie was SHAKING!! It was WEIRD!! That's when we were wishing we weren't humans with our inferior senses. It would have been nice to know what the horses were smelling...

This morning my husband didn't have to go to work, so we loaded up Kitch & Tillie and headed for the Cornwall Nature Preserve, which is just on the other side of Paris Hill. After negotiating a construction site that was between here and there - they had dug a trench COMPLETELY across the road and were sending traffic up onto someone's lawn, in between 2 telephone poles - I was really glad that I wasn't driving the trailer, and a quick stop at the post office, we arrived. There is a nice large parking area with plenty of room to park a horse trailer.

I wanted to take a picture of the 2 of us, ON our horses, in front of the sign. Easier said than done! We found a lawn chair in the back of the truck (it must have gotten left there after the last penning) and set the camera on it. The new camera has a 10 second timer, at which point it can take either 1 or 3 photos. I decided 3 photos would actually give me 13 seconds to get on Tillie and get her into position. Technically that was true, but it still wasn't enough time! She couldn't understand why I was rushing and figured it meant that she had to get excited and not stand still for me to get on! Eventually I got a couple of acceptable shots, which just goes to prove I'm more stubborn than the horses! ;-) Tillie was much better behaved today, which I am very happy about. (Yes, his stirrups are too short - we forgot to adjust them from yesterday's ride.)

The Cornwall Nature Preserve has lots of wonderful trails. We were enjoying them, and then we found ourselves wandering off the Preserve and onto a snowmobile trail. We kept following the trail uphill, hoping for a view. And boy, did we get one! And, we found the Twitchell Observatory
http://web.archive.org/web/20060221115355/http://www.sad17.k12.me.us/observatory/intro.html. One of these days were are going to take the boys stargazing up there....


We arrived home to find that Lily must have spent the entire time that we were gone running and whinnying for Tillie. She was more sweat soaked than the riding horses! So, I brought her out of the pasture and hosed her off. True to form, she went right back out and rolled in the muckiest part of the pasture!!

Cookout at Grammie & Grampa's House

Saturday night, our older son, and his hamster, Ralph, stayed overnight with a friend. We asked our younger son what he would like to do with Mom & Dad. He decided to eat at Burger King and go to Wal-mart and find a toy to spend his birthday money on. Unfortunately there are so many to choose from that we thought we were going to lose our minds before he made up his mind! He's very happy with his final decision though, so that's all that matters.

On Sunday we drove down to Sanford to visit with my neices and their children. We had a great time! We got the grand tour of my older neice's new home and got to meet her boyfriend. The home is an improvement over her old place and the boyfriend seems very nice. I really hope that she can get the horrible situation with her ex-husband figured out soon!

After the party, we went to Lebanon to shop at my favorite tack shop - Double G Ranch. I sell lots of items on consignment down there and the money is always handy. I got 4 new grain buckets, (this time they are made of Fortex, which is virtually indestructible!) a cute horse cell phone cover and some horsey jewelry. I also sat in a barrel racing saddle. I think that is the type of saddle that I will buy next. I definitely need to upgrade and they are very comfortable. I love the high cantle that really seems to hold you in.

On the way home we stopped at my parent's house for a cookout. I got to ride Sasha for the first time since I gave her to them. She was very naughty! All the collection and control that we had worked so hard to acheive is just not there anymore. I spent most of the ride fighting with her and she bucked several times! Oh well. It was still fun and I hope that I was able to explain to Mom what I was trying to accomplish and that will help her with her riding. My 7-year old neice got on Sasha after me and Sasha was an angel! She seems to really like carrying the kids and she even trotted nice and slow. What a good girl! My parents let the horses roam loose on the lawn, so she decided to join us for the cookout and enjoyed some chips and carrots....


Daisy had a ball at her first cookout! She loved meeting the other dogs in the family and ran all over the place with the kiddos. She slept very well last night! Just look at this picture and all the dogs running around while I'm riding Sasha! Good thing she's used to them....

NEW CAMERA!!!!

I KNOW that I am spoiled, but for as long as I can remember, (Mom, was I 10 when I got my first camera?) barring the last couple of weeks, I haven't been without a camera. It was NOT fun. I have this incredible need to document everything that we do. I also think it is a great creative outlet for me when I am working to get just the right shot. It was soooo frustrating to have people approach me at the Farmington Fair and ask me why I wasn't taking pictures of them - and I sold a bunch of older photos that day too, so I was missing potential income as well. Yesterday my new camera arrived. YEAH!!!! It is the updated model of my old camera. I was very happy with the old one, ('til it broke, of course.) so it seemed like a good idea to go with a camera that I was familiar with. It is a Panasonic DMC-FZ8. If I continue to sell photos, then someday I can upgrade, but for now this should do the trick.

Here are some pics that I took, playing around with the new camera:


NOT flattering, but VERY funny! The line on his side is dirt - not an injury, although I had Daddy going when he first saw it from a distance! ;-)

I finally caught Daisy standing still! We can't decide which is the better portrait, so you guys will have to let me know which you prefer....

It's really funny how much AlyCat will tolerate before she gets upset with the puppy! Can you see how confused Daisy looks? She can't figure out what it is that she did to upset the cat....
The boys decided to climb the apple trees and harvest some apples for Apple Crisp. They look yummy, don't they?

Daisy visits the pond...

This afternoon, after her nap, I put Daisy outside with Haley. Something needed my attention indoors, so they were left unattended for a few minutes. When I went out to check on the dogs, I couldn't find them! I started panicking, and I started hollering for them. Then, here they came, tearing up the driveway, soaking, ringing WET! It is HOT and Haley took Daisy for a swim in the pond!! What a lucky puppy! She was just as happy as could be. Haley has really started taking an interest in her this week. They spend a lot of time playing and a couple of times I have seen Daisy napping with her head resting on Haley. We're lucky that Haley is an energetic 10 year old, although we're afraid that Daisy is going to get too big to play with her rather quickly. We weighed her again last night and she is 31 1/2 pounds!! That's ALOT of puppy! Believe me, she has almost knocked me over more than once when she's hit the back of my knees.

When we went down to get the boys off the bus, I took the camera so that I could get pictures of Daisy swimming. She even gave Daddy BIG kisses when he got home before we returned to the house!!

I tried a new recipe for supper tonight. It was REALLY yummy and used up some of the extra veggies that everyone has been giving us. It was the Tomato-Zucchini Tart from Southern Living Magazine, August 2007.

Last week...

I didn't have time to blog last week, so y'all have some catchin' up to do!! ;-)

Daisy is doing great. She is toooo cute!! She has had plenty of accidents, unfortunately, but we're working on the potty training. The crate works very well. She seems to love being in there. Yesterday we took her to the Farmington Fair. It was such a foreign environment for her and she was really nervous about all the big horses and steers, but she was so comfy in her crate that she knew was safe. She was an angel all day long and everyone loved visiting with her. She made friends with my father at the birthday party on Saturday.

Our younger son turned 7 last week! We held his party on Saturday. It was really fun!! I made 2 huge sandwiches, which were super yummy. I let my son decorate his own cake again this year. He loves to do it and always comes up with unique ideas.

After many, many years of being gray haired, (I started turning gray at 16!!) I finally decided to color my hair! I got tired of people suggesting that I was older than my husband, when in fact he is 3 years older than me. I love my new color!! It's very similar to what my haircolor was when I was a teenager. It makes me feel much younger....

My husband decided to spoil me last week when I reached a major milestone - I fit into size 6 jeans!! I never thought that day would come. He bought me this beautiful set of jewelry. I LOVE it!!

Yesterday we took Kitch to the Farmington Fair for team penning. He did GREAT!! We had soooo much FUN!! We came in third place in the Pro-Nov division!!!! YEAH!!!! We won $87. I actually had 2 callback rides in Pro-Nov. But, none in the Novice division. We learned alot though and did some awesome riding.

What a good puppy!

Daisy hasn't had any accidents in the house! Yeah!! AND she slept the entire night in her crate without fussing. She has never been in a crate before - she and her littermates had free run of the garage and her previous owners would leave the door ajar so that the puppies could go outside as they pleased to do their business. Daddy took her out a couple of times during the night, and each time she would go to the bathroom and then get right back into the crate and go to sleep. She walked down to the bus stop with us this morning. The boys were so excited to show her to their friends!

Meet the newest member of our family!

After much discussion, we decided to get our youngest a puppy for his birthday! We surprised him today by going to pick her up. He had NO clue. He was so excited to get to this horse farm and there was a puppy to play with. He was shocked when I asked him if he would like her for a birthday present. He started grinning from ear to ear! Then, the owner said that her name was "Daisy Duke" and he started laughing. He told me that he didn't think we should change her name 'cause that name was from "The Dukes of Hazzard"! That is one of his favorite shows!

Daisy is a registered Labrador Retriever. She was born on June 8th. Her mother is a beautiful, really rugged, compact yellow lab and her father is a HUGE, blockheaded, black lab. She rode really well in the car and while the boys and I went into Wal-mart to get puppy supplies, she fell asleep on Dad's lap. She seems very happy to have a couple of little boys to play with! She has a very friendly, laid back disposition. Right now she is lying at my feet while I type at the computer and the boys puppy-proof their bedroom...

She went happily into her crate for bedtime, until she realized that the door had closed behind her! Now, her boy is sleeping on the floor in front of the crate and she has settled right down. Too cute!