Sum sum summertime

...and the livin' is easy...NOT!!!!  Wow, have we been busy.  I always dream of more downtime, less "to-do's" and more socializing, soaking and sipping.  But - whatever - that's my life!  I'm not complaining, well maybe a little.  :)  It's been almost a month since my last blog post, and there's more to update than I can possibly remember.  I'll give it my best shot though...

My sis had eye surgery for the 3rd time and she's finally doing somewhat better.  They say she may always have blurry vision in that eye, but will try corrective lenses and see if that helps.  I'm just happy that she's not looking at more surgeries anytime soon. 

Ruby got spayed on June 16th and all is back to normal.  Big sigh of relief...I was quite worried about the surgery for some reason, and am thankful and relieved that she did well and is totally healed up.  I took a day off work and spent the day in Salem.  Just me and Annie puttering around, it was fun.  We went (I went) shopping for a few new summer clothes, went to Costco and stocked up on some groceries, went to a huge park and had a very long walk and even went through the massive rose garden they had there.  It was a beautiful day and I really luxuriated in having a day off work mid-week.  Felt like a stolen day...loved it!!  It would have been positively perfect had I not been worried about poor, little Ruby.  But, I said my prayers for her protection and left it in God's hands.  Always helps!!

My hubby and I took a week off from work the last week of June and over the 4th of July weekend.  10 days off in a row.  Sounds like a long time, but it sure did go fast.  We had our grandson, David the entire time.  We are definitely not accustomed to having a child around for that length of time.  Parts were enjoyable and parts were intolerable, but all-in-all, it went fairly well.  I'm very glad that grandpa got to spend some quality time with his grandson.  David loves being around the horses!  He's an animal lover at heart, and that's wonderful and quite helpful being at our place.  We have cats, dogs, horses and the llama.  Dave got to ride Siri a few times, brush her and he loved that, so did Siri.  We spent a day at the beach, went out for seafood dinner, had a long walk on the beach and gathered seashells.  We spent another day at the lake, swimming and hiking.  It was fun, but I found myself wishing we'd had a boat.  There were soooo many people there and I missed the solitude that I remember from years past.  So many more people moving to our part of the state.  I don't blame them, it's a beautiful part of Oregon, but I prefer less crowds and less rules everywhere.  *sigh*  Guess I'm showing my age again...  I bought 15 lbs of sliced, fresh strawberries and made a double batch of jam.  YUM!!  I put the rest in freezer containers for using later.  $30.00 for washed, sliced berries is quite reasonable compared to the cost at the farm stands.  Everything has gotten so expensive.  But, we'll sure enjoy those berries come winter time. 

We also bought some Windsor Cottage stones and built a 14' long x 30" wide raised flower bed in the front of our house.  We made it about 16" tall, so it would be comfortable for sitting.  It turned out really nice.  I just bought a bunch of flowers for planting at the local garden store today.  I just need to pick up a load of planting soil and I'll be all set for mass plantings.  We still have enough stones to build a v-shaped raised garden bed on the other side of the house by the front door.  That one should be a quicker, easier version compared to the big one.  It's really going to add some pizazz to the landscape, and I can't wait to see the end results.  My next idea is to put up some planter window boxes under some of the windows, but that's for another time. 

We have our winter's supply of hay all neatly stored in the barn too.  Our hay was delivered last week and it took us and 2 paid helpers, 2 evenings working to finish the job.  We got about 12 tons total of new hay, and have about 2 tons left from last year.  That's considerably less than the 20 tons we put into the barns last summer, but money was a bit tighter this year so we'll just feed as long as it lasts and worry about buying more later, if and when we run short.  We more than likely will have to buy a few more tons, but I'm not going to worry about that now.  Next big project will have to be the firewood for the winter...the work just never ends, does it??  Sometimes I envy those people who live in little homes in the suburbs...they just don't realize how easy they have it, but then again, I love living on our little farm in the country with all its' privacy and peaceful surroundings.  Nothing in life is ever perfect...but it's our life and I really do love it, even if it is filled with work.  I don't have to pay for a membership in a fancy athletic club to get exercise and that's a fact! 

We had plans to go watch fireworks on the 4th of July and were in the car ready to go when our neighbors started shooting off big, loud roman candles and such...Harley freaked, started running and that was that.  We parked the car in the middle of our very long driveway and watched the illegals going off all around us and felt a measure of relief at being able to keep a watch over our little herd as well as the neighbor's 30ish head of horses as well.  What a gorgeous sight to see all the horses running together in one big herd...much more spectacular in my humble opinion than the greatest of the fireworks!!  It's all about perspective, right?  I just wish I'd have had my camera because I could have caught some fantastic shots.  I'll try and remember that for next year. 

I'm still riding Ladde and he's doing wonderfully.  I'm feeling more and more comfortable on him with each and every ride.  Lately, however our consistency's been off because of all the other projects we've had to deal with.  The weather has cooled this week and it's lovely riding weather, so I'll probably have a nice evening ride tonight.  I'm looking forward to it. 

Harley had a flare-up of his uveitis lately.  It was bi-lateral, but worse in his right (good) eye.  I managed to quiet it down very quickly, but the damage was done.  He now has cloudiness in about 1/3 to almost 1/2 of his right eye.  Prior to this outbreak, the damage to his eye had been in the anterior, or back portion of his eyes; meaning that nothing was unusual looking about his eyes.  Somehow the fact that he didn't look any different from a sighted horse was something I was thankful for, but now his eyes are starting to look more typical of a blind horse.  It breaks my heart to think that he has so little vision left.  I still cry over his situation, but bless his heart, he seems to be adjusting to his lot in life much better than I am.  I just keep praying that God will watch over him and keep him safe.  So far, so good.  I'm a firm believer in the power of prayer and am so thankful for our many blessings in life.  God is good.

Well, I've run on a lot longer than I'd meant to.  I really should try to post more often so that I'm not trying to catch up on a whole month's worth of activities.  I've got a bunch of pictures that I've taken, but never seem to take the time to download them onto a disk so that I can transfer them to this computer.  Someday, maybe I'll advance to the 21st century!  Ya think?  One can always hope...

I hope you're all enjoying our wonderful summer...it was a long time coming.  May we all savor and enjoy it while it's here!

Blessings and good-bye for now...
Cingspots aka Lorie