A quiet affair

Ruby

this one shows just how big the tumor has become

breezy, sunshine and spring-like

No balloons, no party, no hoopla.  No cake.  Dammit!  (to the cake part)  :)  

My birthday was a very quiet affair.  I spent the day working at the clinic.  Went home, built a fire, filled the wood box, lit some candles, fed the dogs and sat by my fire enjoying a glass of wine.  When the hubs got home, we went out to the barn to do the chores.  It had been a beautiful day filled with gentle breezes and sunshine, and the evening was just as lovely.  

The horses came in from pasture filthy.  I decided to let them enjoy their grubbiness and skip any grooming, if they want to be covered in mud, who am I to complain?  I shot a few pictures but nobody was really cooperating, and seemed only interested in chowing down their evening meal.  

There are times when you just have to remind yourself as to the extent of their expertise in covering every square inch of their bodies in mud, you know, in case we forget come summer time.  

pretty dirty for Harley

Missy (still in boots)

Eagle - grubmonster

Kadie - who wouldn't eat with the camera point her way

Now she's getting perturbed...

Aahh Ladde - what can I say?

This is his eye that had the pea-sized lump on the lower lid - all gone!!!

Filthy for Shad!  He absolutely would not look at me.  Alfalfa, you know...priorities

With the horses all fed and tucked in for the night, we headed inside to get some dinner.  Leftovers of spaghetti and hot bread.  It tasted good, and I was content with not having to cook.  After cleaning up the kitchen, I spent some time schmoozing with Annie, and not to be left out, Ruby too.  For my birthday memoirs, hubs took a few pictures of us doing what comes naturally after we're settled in for the evening.  I loved the idea.  My birthday pictures with my girls.  In the years to come, I will treasure them all the more.  

This one makes me laugh, look at Ruby's fat belly.  :)

I think this is my favorite.  My beautiful girl who never takes a bad picture.

My Annie.  How I love this dog...

As is his custom, my sweet guy gave me a mushy, lovey-dovey birthday card, and a giant Hershey's bar with almonds.  This man knows what makes me happy.  :)

All in all, I'd say it was a good day.  

Blessings, Lorie

Winter wonderland

Yes, we finally got a taste of winter.  Snow, that is.  We've had some cold, dry weather so far this season, but we had real snow.  Beautiful, white powder...about 12" of blinding whiteness.  *sigh*  We even had drifts that were between 2-3 feet deep.  Seriously cool.

The horses loved it, the dogs were crazy about it, and we enjoyed it immensely!  The cats?  Not so much.
I drove home last Thursday at noon to make sure my fire didn't go out, and while I was digging through the wood pile, I got a call from my boss.  He asks me if I'd like to have the afternoon off?  Would I!!??  Whooppee!!  A real snow day!!  I absolutely felt like a kid again.

Ruby - come on mom!

It was such a gift, totally unexpected and I thoroughly enjoyed my "stolen" afternoon of peace, serenity and domesticity with the house all to myself!!  :)  I baked a pie.  I kept the home fires burning.  I fed the birds.  I brought the horses inside and gave them a flake of hay.  I did some laundry, watched the menagerie of birds bicker over the seed, took the dogs for a walk and took lots of pictures.  It was wonderful!!

And it never stopped snowing until Saturday night.  I got to stay home Friday too.  An unexpected long, snowy weekend.  We were pretty much housebound all weekend long.  We got a little freezing rain Saturday night after the snow stopped, and that made the roads a bit treacherous.  Call me crazy, but I loved it!

Eagle's frosty lashes

Ladde

And now today, all the snow is gone except for some occasional piles here and there.  We're back to 40-something temps and rain...lots of rain last night, along with the moisture from the melted snow, makes for a soggy, wet, green mess.  It was fun while it lasted.  I now have a better (albeit tiny) understanding of just how much more work having snow makes winter chores.  If I had to endure weeks or even months of snow, I would seriously consider a different lifestyle.  We're just not set up for it.

Harley

Kadie and Shad

Missy

The living room project continues...slower than I'd like, but it's coming along.  Paint is finished, pellet stove is out and all the brick hearth has been removed.   Originally we weren't going to remove the hearth, but after reconsidering, hubby ripped it out too.  Out with the old - in with the new!!  We also painted the one end wall that is done in beaded board.  I've always liked it, but decided to paint it as well.  The wood was a light oak, maybe even maple color that just didn't seem to "go" with the rest of the room colors.  I'm still getting accustomed to it, I like it painted, just don't love it.  Funny how these projects always end up much more complicated and lengthy than one envisions at the beginning...

Frozen rain chain

So, that's about anything that's new in our neck of the woods.  What's going on with you?

The calendar says we have 5 more weeks of winter, and less than 4 weeks until daylight savings time begins.  That's always a reason to get excited - right?  Spring is just around the corner.  Better finish up with those inside projects so we can spend as much time as possible outside with the horses, in the garden and enjoying the warmer days soon to come.

Can I get an Amen to that?  :)    

Annie

Oh yeah!!

The goin's on these days...

Here we are at Friday afternoon again...thank heavens!  It's been a pretty good week overall, but I've had a few trials thrown my way, and I haven't been sleeping very well - so I'm looking forward to a little home time.

My car is giving me fits...we thought it was needing a new battery, but I'm not so sure about that now.  The battery guy put his charger on it and the car wouldn't turn over at all.  Presently, I'm stuck at the clinic until my hubby rescues me later.  I still have 2 hours before closing time, so I'm not really stranded at all.  And I guess I'm thankful that it happened here where I have heat, lights, a computer and my dogs.  Right?

Anyway, we have the weekend to try and get the old gal back on the road, and in the meantime I'll be driving the truck.  It'll be good to get Big Grey back on the road and blow a little carbon out of the engine - that's what my dad always said.  :)

Last Tuesday was my birthday.  Yep, I'm officially 54 years old now...and I'm perfectly content with my age. I had to go into DMV and get my license renewal; new picture and all.  Have you noticed how much bigger the picture is now?  It's huge by comparison!  It's just this big, old face and not much else now...oh goody.  But surprisingly, there's not much change in the last 8 years, or at least you can't really tell by the picture.  :)  Cuz, let me tell you this - there have been lots of changes in the past 8 years!

My dear hubby took me out for dinner - my choice.  I picked the local Pub.  We had cheeseburgers and nachos.  Perfect!  My dear friend Claudia sent me a beautiful bouquet of tulips...so pretty!  The orange ones actually smell like oranges.  Isn't that something?  Another dear friend took me out to lunch - we had Mexican and a wonderful visit.  And, I received lots of birthday wishes from friends and family.  A lovely birthday!  I didn't even have cake, aren't you proud of me?  I've been saving that for this weekend!  My hubby and I are going out for a seafood dinner with my sis and bro in law and this restaurant has wonderful deserts...I'm going to splurge just a wee bit.

As far as our living room makeover goes, dear hubby is making good progress.  Ceiling is finished and looks great!  All trim and curtain hardware has been removed, and putty repairs have been made.  We have one wall finished and I'm absolutely loving the new color!!  It looks so rich compared to the stark white.  I was a bit concerned that it might be a little dark for the room, but it is just perfect.  And...I've double-checked on the laminate flooring and it's still readily available.  We're going with the same flooring we chose for the kitchen.  It's fairly dark and has a rustic, farmhouse appearance.  I love it.  Highland Hickory.  We're going to replace all the trim boards with more period correct type trim, and that will be painted a warm off-white.  I'm thinking it will contrast nicely with the gorgeous, rich wall coloring and the dark wood floors.  Then - I'm going to put a large area rug down in the main seating area near the pellet stove and the entertainment area.  I've found the rug I want at Costco...just might go and buy it this weekend, or at least check them out more closely and then buy it online.  I discovered yesterday that the online price is $40 less than in-store.  Can't beat that, and shipping is included.  I'm so excited!!

And then...comes the bedroom re-do.  Ssshhh!!  Don't tell my hubby, he just might string me up!!  :)

As a thank-you to him for doing all this work, I'm planning on surprising him with a new tv.  I'm thinking one of those large - 72" or so, flat panel tv's that make everything look so much more colorful and realistic.  Hopefully we can mount it up on the wall and save even more space by not having the big entertainment center in this half of the room.  Then we can add another chair or two, creating a nice conversation area which will accommodate a few more people comfortably.   Did I mention that I'm excited!?

In other news, our weather has been just outstanding.  Really.  It's been dry and sunshiney for the most part, and grey and fogged in some of the time.  But the temps are brisk, but not freezing.  We're in a very unusually dry weather pattern, and since there's nothing we can do about the weather, might as well enjoy it.

The horses are all doing very well.  They're fat, hairy and pretty much sassy frasses.  Ladde has been doing his utmost best at creating his specialized look of being chocolate-dipped.  *sigh*  Do you realize just how long, and how much effort it takes to scrape thick, dried-on, grass-encrusted mud off of a 17 hand white horse????  Ha! - White - I'm using that term lightly here.  Oh well, whatcha gonna do?

And my old, precious girl, Kadie.  She will be 30 years old this coming May, and she's doing great!  She's holding her weight well, eats all her senior feed and vitamins, all of her alfalfa but the sticky parts, and eats some of her grass hay.  She eats the grass hay much better when it's served up outside for breakfast, as that's all she gets.  :)  The point is, her teeth are fine, and she can still eat forage.  She's even been laying down more, which is a good sign that her hocks aren't as stiff or painful as they once were.  The joints are probably fully fused now, and when she lopes (which isn't often), she has this short-strided little bunny-hop lope that's just too cute.  She's too cute!  She's as fuzzy as a bear, still has a twinkle in her eye, and is quite opinionated about most things.  She's just simply an angel, with a little attitude!  Love her so much...

In fact, all the horses are doing just great.  Harley hasn't had any injuries lately, and that's always a reason to be thankful.  My neighbor did tell me that just yesterday, he ran into the perimeter fence when all the horses, (including him) were running around and playing.  She checked him out, and determined that no harm had been done.  *sheesh*  All I can say is that, I am so very, very thankful that I do not know what transpires out in that pasture when we're not around.  I would be a nervous wreck!!  Further proof that my morning ritual of sending up prayers for their protection every single day - is working.  Uh-huh.  I know that.

Weather is supposed to be spectacular this weekend.  We're working on the painting, going out for dinner and maybe making a trip to Costco...other than that, who cares?  We're free birds and have no real agenda!

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods!!!

Lorie @ Cingspots

Decking the halls

Well, we're still cold and dry...but we're warming up.  My little thermometer on the deck read 30F this morning.  Whew, it's a heat wave!  :)  And the horse's water tubs inside their stalls were not frozen this morning.  I think we may have endured our Arctic Blast pretty much unscathed, again.  No frozen pipes in the house, or in the barn.  We kept our home warm and cozy with the wood stove and the pellet stove burning pretty much around the clock.  We haven't used our electric furnace in 4 years now...that's a blessing!  And the horses, llama, dogs, cats and us all seem to have weathered the storm quite well.

Last night we had vegetable soup that cooked on the wood stove.  It was so good!  Cabbage, celery, carrots and tomatoes with a little Italian seasoning, onion powder, garlic, salt, pepper and chicken broth.  Oh my - just what the doctor ordered!  We topped it off with grilled cheese on whole wheat bread.  :)

 Even Snip spent some time inside where it was warm!

 A glamorous pose from a cat that just doesn't care...

 He's really quite shameless.

 My 30" tall Amaryllis just bloomed, with 3 more buds to open!

 We're not doing an inside tree this year, so hubby decorated our stately little Pine...all decked out!

 Bejeweled...

 and all lit up.

 A little arrangement with the extra evergreen clippings for the porch.

 Our Merry Christmas wreath!!  Made with found, forest treasures and last year's bow.

 Cheery little snow family for the kitchen window sill.

 My favorite...ho ho ho!

 My stick Santas and an old plate from a garage sale.  That's one of our hand-dipped beeswax candles we made last winter.  

 My best girl, Annie

 Our granddaughter, Kaley on Missy...first ever horseback ride.  Her cheeks hurt afterwards (face cheeks!).  She even did some trotting!  Missy was so good.  Such a sweet little mare. 

 David, Justin and Jack in the background...waiting their turn.

 David's turn!!

 Jack wasn't so thrilled...not a horsey type, but he did alright too.

 Ruby warming herself by the fire.

 This is how Ruby stayed warm.  Annie thinks she's a wuss!

 Sunrise breakfast in the corral.

 Sad sacks waiting to come inside last night.  :) 

Hopefully I'll get some Christmas baking done yet, just haven't had the time or the inclination to get started just yet.  Another little project that I need to do is get our Christmas cards ready and mailed out.  I enjoy sending and receiving cards in the mail, but every year it seems like we get fewer and fewer cards.  It's a tradition that I hope to always continue.  Got my hubby a couple of little gifts today, and so far that's all I've done.  I'm not doing much shopping at all this year.  I refuse to get all caught up in the buy, spend, rush, rush that this beautiful holiday is turning into.  We are going to take a trip to downtown Portland one of these days very soon.  It's so festive and fun to walk around looking at all the pretty window displays, the quaint little shops and Saturday Market under the bridge...and then we always have lunch or dinner someplace special just to get warm, relax and enjoy each other's company.  It's becoming one of our favorite Christmas traditions.  And the lights downtown are not to be missed, the street musicians and whatever little surprises await us in the city.  It's about the only time of year that we really enjoy venturing into the city...this year we plan to hit the Grotto.  Take in the light display, walk through the gardens and listen to some of their concerts.  Portland is really quite famous for it, and even though I've lived here all my life, I've never been there.  So, this is the year to check it out!

What are some of your favorite Christmas traditions?  Are you sticking to them, or adding something new this year?  Please share, I'd love to hear all about your plans!  Just what is it that makes your Christmas season special, and how do you deck the halls?  Or do you?

Do tell...

Merry Christmas everyone!!!