A "Garden Variety" of Happenings

We spent a nice, quiet weekend around home doing a variety of things, without really doing much of anything.    That's perfectly clear and understandable, right?  It makes sense to me.  :)  

Saturday afternoon, our dear friend Claudia delivered our very first Bountiful Basket order.  I was so happy to see a nice variety of fresh fruits and garden vegetables.  Just look at what we got!  Cabbage, cauliflower, spaghetti squash, comice pears, mandarine oranges, bananas, apples, spinach, sweet potatoes, an english cucumber, and some grape tomatoes!  It was like a Christmas package, and so much fun seeing what was inside the box.  And all for just $16.50...what a great deal.  Now to get creative and make sure we eat everything up!

 Last night, we ate the cauliflower.  I put some olive oil and some chopped garlic in a plastic bag, added the entire head of cauliflower florets and shook to coat.  Dumped the contents into an olive oiled baking pan and seasoned with sea salt and pepper.  Baked at 400 for about 15 minutes, then took out to stir.  Put back in the oven for about 10 more minutes, then removed and sprinkled with parmesan cheese...oh my, this is my favorite way to eat fresh cauliflower.  I call it roasted cauliflower with garlic.  Original huh?  So tasty!

 My boss and his family headed out of town for the weekend, and asked if we could watch their dog, Jackson for them.  He's no trouble, and we were happy to keep him.  I call this shot of the poor, abused saps..."muddy paws".  You'd think they'd all just endured a beating the way they look in this picture.  :)  They lead such rough lives...

 Sunday morning, Jules called to see if she could come over and have some farm girl time with the horses.  It's always a good excuse to head out to the barn and scrape some mud off of the ponies.  Since Ladde is the biggest chore and always such a sucker to come when he's called, he was first.  When he realized he wasn't being beckoned just to receive a treat, he was not a happy camper.  He didn't want to stand still and was being a bit of a pill, so big boy got to blow off some steam in the round pen while everyone else just relaxed and watched the show.  After 10-15 minutes of running, bucking, snorting and pitching a little hissy fit, he dropped his head, blew the cobwebs from his brain and came over to my hubby, ready to please...Ladde was back.  :)

Amazing what a little free choice time in the old round pen will accomplish.  He decided he would much rather stand quietly while tied, munch some hay and receive grooming and pets.  What a hard choice!  

He's a very good boy, standing respectfully and quietly for the little girl to brush (scrape) the mud from his coat.  It's a rough job, but somebody's gotta do it!  :)  Jules just turned 11 years old, and in such a short time has come from knowing nothing at all about horses, to fairly accomplished around them.  She's a very good student, and definitely has the bug.   :)

 I love  this picture of Ladde's expression!  He's looking down as if wondering what she's going to ask next of him.  Now, that's more like it!!

 I just love how children have no fear issues around horses, and because of that trust, the horses are generally quiet and very relaxed with them.

 Miss Kadie was next to get a good grooming.  She looks so innocent, doesn't she?  She was in a bit of a snit on this particular day herself.  Must be something in the air...

Shad ready for his dinner...we've been giving him and Kadie a small flake of alfalfa in the evenings with the rest of their rations, and it certainly has taken them no time at all to expect the special "mint on their pillow", as my hubby refers to it.

 The evil-eyed llama.  We've had Merlin for about 17 years now, and in all that time, he's never, ever liked being touched.  If he even thinks you're going to try and pet him, he moves away and gives you the old stink-eye.  He never spits, but he looks like he'd like to.  So anyway, last summer he gets an eye injury and we have to catch him daily and treat his eye.  What a picnic!  Turns out, it was much simpler than I'd ever have thought; certainly much easier than trying to doctor any of the horse's eyes.  My point here is, that after the eye-doctoring incident, now for whatever reason, Merlin's decided that we really don't aim to rip his head off and feed it to the dogs!  Now, more often than not, he's peering over my shoulder trying to see what I'm doing, and following me so closely that if I make a quick turn-around, I bump right into him.  I think I preferred when the smelly old coot was all weirded out, thinking we wanted to "get" him!  He lets me pet him, remove sticks and such from his wool and everything.  Go figure!

 I love this green stuff mom!!

 Just put the alfalfa down and move away from the pile...
My sweet, little old lady who thinks that just because she's retired, she really doesn't have to do anything.

 Spooky-eyed Ladde.  More than likely banging on his gate in that double-action way of his that gets twice the noise for his buck!!  I love that boy!!  His noise?  Not so much.  :)

The formerly "Mr. Clean"...I do believe he's been taking lessons from Ladde in how to get the most out of your rolls in the mud.  Eagle more often than not these days, sporting some mud of his own.  *sigh*

Who ME????

Jackson being a goofy dog.  Loudest, most obnoxious bark.  ever.

 Poor Harley.  :(  For about a week now, we've been treating his eye.  This time it's a corneal abrasion and is obviously very, very painful.  I even had to call out Heather, the doctor on call last weekend and have her come take a look at exactly what we were dealing with this time...there was so much swelling, and the eye was closed, so I couldn't get a good look at the eyeball itself.  Once sedated and numbed, we saw the tear in the cornea.  We're still giving him pain meds twice a day and putting the antibiotic ointment in the eye twice a day, a week later.  Hoping we won't have to have Rick out to debride the eye, but that's what I think may have to happen to achieve proper healing.  It should have been much better than it is by now.  He's our blind horse, and things like this are much more common than we'd like.  Keeping a fly mask on helps, but sometimes he rubs them off.  There's just no perfect solution...

 Proof that I can scratch and pet Merlin whenever and wherever I want to now...isn't  that special?  :)

 This is a pretty good shot of Harley's cloudy and very painful eye.  I still ask why it had to happen to this horse?  He's so sweet, and such a kindhearted, gentle spirit...why always the good horses????
Just sucks.

And lastly, my newly mud-loving Mustang...Eagle.  I love this horse so much!  Listen to me...I love them all.  They're each so special, so unique, and so very important to us.  I can't imagine life without each and every single one!

It was a mostly stay at home, quiet and laid back weekend.  Perfect for mid-winter, I guess.  Saturday night, I did fix a casserole and we drove about an hour away to our AHA riding club meeting.  It was good to spend some time visiting with our dear friends and make a few plans for outings with the horses when the days are warmer and longer.  It's not really that far away.  I sure hope that Eagle and I will be able to participate in a few of the rides we've got planned.  We need to create a lot more wonderful memories, my boy and I.  I had planned on ride #2 last weekend, but just ran out of time and it didn't happen.  It will soon. I'm really looking forward to it!!

We almost had another addition to our little equine family.  A client from work is moving to North Carolina, they're leaving one week from today, and she's had no luck at selling/re-homing her two horses.  One is older and hasn't been ridden in a few years, but the other one we agreed to take if she wasn't able to find an alternate home for her.  She's an 18 year old QH mare, 15 hh, sorrel, named Sugar..."Docs Windy Night", and she's been used for cattle sorting and trail riding mostly.  Nicely trained and so sweet, but an alpha mare.  I was actually beginning to get a little excited about getting her, but this morning Sheila called me and said that a friend of hers will take her.  I had told God that it was up to Him, if it was the right thing for us, we were willing, but if not, let someone else have her.  I guess we got our answer.  I'm a little disappointed though.  Not that we need another horse, I know...but my heart was willing.

Until next time, blessings dear friends!
Lorie @ Cingspots