Hot days! Hot dog!!

That's about the only way to describe our weather this past weekend, and again today.  Just gorgeous perfection!  Totally weird too, we normally get a lot, a lot of rain in March and April, and this March, rain was almost non-existent save for a few little showers here and there.  On Saturday we hit 78 degrees at our house.  Easter Sunday was 77 degrees.  Since I was pretty much sick all day Saturday, lounging in the sun on the deck, I actually have red legs and rosy cheeks today.  :)  That was the fly in the ointment in my otherwise, perfect weekend.  What a drag to feel lousy on such an amazing weekend.  I had so many plans and hopes for the beautiful days, but by Sunday I was feeling tentatively better, so thought it wise to lay low and take things slow and easy.  My new meds and I are having some difficulties, I think.  I skipped the new stuff yesterday and again this morning...wouldn't you know it?  Monday morning and I'm in fine form.  Good as new.  Suspicious huh?  Sure hope we can figure things out and make this work, because the best part of this new med is that it almost entirely squelches my appetite.  There's pretty much no way I wouldn't lose significant weight when I'm eating only enough to keep a bird alive.  :)  Anyway, we'll see how everything goes.

My wonderful husband on the other hand, was all energy and gung-ho both days.  He took care of all the horse chores and even did some laundry.  He mowed our lawn.  That was a huge feat in itself because this is the first mow job of the spring and we could bale that stuff.  Seriously, it was about a foot tall and lush.  The smell was wonderful!  He also spent some time working on his camper project, and that's coming along nicely.  We had to put the fly masks on the horses for the first time.  Yep, along with the glorious sunshine, we also had an immediate insurgence of flies.  Nasty flies!  The poor horses were covered in them.  And since the horses are all shedding like crazy, they were sweaty and itchy...snoozing, lethargic horses all over the place.  They were much more comfortable with their masks.  They almost put them on themselves.  :)

I'm trying to keep my excitement at bay, but I'll mention casually that we may have sold our horse trailer as well.  An offer was made, we shook hands and everyone seems to be in agreement...but it's slightly more complicated than that.  Suffice it to say, if everything works out, we will be pleased beyond measure and ever so thankful for such an unanticipated blessing.  :)

The dogs and I took a lovely walk around the park trail this day at noon.  I had forgotten just how long their tongues really are!  It was wonderful!  I got sweaty, and my hair was totally damp from the uncustomary warmth this early in spring.  How cool is that!?

I know, I must really be weird.  I'm super excited to be sweaty!!

Hope everyone had a wonderful and relaxing Easter weekend.

Waiting with bated breath...
Lorie @ Cingspots

For everything there is a season

A season for sunshine...aahh glorious sunshine!!  Since the onset of May, we've been experiencing heavenly weather.  Warm sunshine by day, clear skies and brisk temps by night.  In fact, until Sunday we were having a record-setting dry spell.  *gasp*  Could it be!?  Oh yes, it was glorious!!  But, this too must end my friends.  For as the bible says, for everything there is a season, and apparently we've entered yet another season of rain. Big, fat, ugly drops of rain...by the bucketloads in fact.  *sigh*  For this too, we shall be thankful...I guess.

Anyway, on one of those delicious, warm and sunny days my hubby happened to capture a few shots of our little herd doing some of the things they do best.

Eating, of course...lush, green, oh-so-yummy grass.  Look at that belly Shad has put on recently.

And Ladde, never one to be in a size small himself.  Eagle in the background has packed on a few pounds also.  We really must get to riding these pasture potatoes.  Soon, very soon.

And, then there's sleeping.  Aahh, just makes me sleepy looking at them.  

I don't know about you, but I'd say Eagle's relaxed right into the herd.  Flanked by Harley on the left and Shad on their right, no worries a'tall...

Patch, doing what he does best.  Preening and basking...he's all male, that one.

And Annie...er, I mean "Baboosk"  - that's Annie's alter-ego.  She believes herself to be a reincarnated Russian peasant woman.  Really, the dog is so dramatic.  

And sweet, little Ruby.  At this moment in time, she's sweet Ruby.  But don't let her fool you, most often we call her Rotten Ruby.  She's come by that title honestly.  Just ask Annie.

 And this is one of our little raised garden beds...before the hard frost wiped out the green beans and the cucumbers.  Guess we'll be starting over - it's very late in the spring to be experiencing hard frosts, but it is what it is.  And, right now this is just a sweet memory.  The reality right now is that it's raining.
Raining a lot.

Oh well, guess I won't need to worry about the watering.  A season for thankfulness.  Always the right time for that.  Amen?

Blessings from our little corner of the world...
Cingspots

In the Garden of Eden...

it seems to me anyway; these past several days or so have been simply divine,  (swoons dramatically) and dare I say, absolutely beyond perfection.  If you could dream up a breathtakingly perfect spring day, that's what we've been experiencing lately.  *sigh*  It feels sooooo good!  Absolutely delicious!  I'm so thrilled that winter truly seems to be gone, and spring has finally arrived, in all her scrumptious splendor!!!

This picture was taken a couple of weeks ago on a day trip to the beach, and a more lovely day couldn't have been hoped for.

But, on the homefront, things couldn't be busier.  We've been working like gangbusters trying to beautify our yard.  We're having to mow the lawn every single weekend, and the grass is growing so fast, you can almost see it grow!  We got our veggie garden planted last weekend, and got the flower beds all cleaned up and added new composted matter (thank you ponies) and pretty, new flowers planted.  I hope to get a few pics to share real soon.  This year I'm going to buy a couple of wine barrels from one of the local wineries and cut them in half.  My tomatoes will be planted in those.  They'll look nice, and my tomato plants won't be so crowded in the garden boxes.  My berries are doing really well too.  I'll bet this year's harvest is gonna be a good one.  Yum!!  We're contemplating whether or not to build another raised garden bed...maybe yes, maybe no.  Time will tell.  Most of my fruit trees are doing well, but over the winter one of the cherries and both of the peaches bit the dust.  So, I got another Rainier cherry to plant.  I still want peaches, but they are fussy little buggers to grow!  Not sure if I want to try again, if so I'll replant this fall so I don't have to water them.

Eagle's abscess is all healed up now.  He was amazingly good at letting us doctor his foot, and he stands in the soaking tub better than any horse we've ever had.  Will wonders never cease?  I don't know why I'm so surprised though, he is just so sensible and level-headed.  Marvelous Mustang Eagle!!!  Now, I need to get back to working with him on a regular basis.  The foot ailment/doctoring episode seems to have cemented our relationship really well.  I feel a deeper sense of trust from him, and because he's more relaxed; so am I.  Just a little silver lining to an otherwise bum deal, I guess.  :)  Don't you just love it when that happens?

All the horses are doing really well.  Shedding like mad and fat as ticks.  One little fly in the ointment was a tiny (pencil eraser sized) scab on Ladde's sheath that refused to go away.  I'd been keeping an eye on it for maybe a year, but it never seemed to change, but it didn't go away either.  So...I suspected skin cancer and had it looked at.  Rick thinks it's cancer as well and advised me to put 5U on it and see what happens.  Whoodoggie, did it ever get pissed off!!!  It's now about 10X the size it was and it's red and angry looking...but, it's looking loose, like it's maybe going to fall off soon.  Hope, hope, hope!!!  Now, I'm questioning what the heck have I done to my horse!? So, I'm hopeful that very soon the nasty thing just falls off and is gone for good.  Ladde eyeballs me speculatively and tries to move his hind leg up in an effort to protect his winky area from mean old me...I hate that!  But, I certainly can't blame him!  Poor guy...
Once it's gone, he's getting super duper sunscreen lathered all over his tender, pink skin whether he likes it or not!

We've decided to sell our big gooseneck horse trailer.  If we get what we're hoping for, we can pay off a couple of bills, refinance our home, commit to staying there for another year and give us a little cash for flooring upgrades that we'd like to do.  Then, probably next spring, if we still want to move to central Oregon, we'll put our house on the market then.  But, if we change our minds about moving, we'll be in a better interest rate, shave off 6 years from our mortgage and our payments will get more bang for our bucks.  I will miss the big, cushy trailer.  It's really nice to tow and very comfortable to camp out of.  But, there's always other trailers if we want to get another one someday.  Right now, it seems silly to have so much cash value just sitting there so much of the time.  If I could only win that lottery...

Here's a few pics taken over the last month or so...most of them before spring made her dramatic (if a tad late) and most welcome entrance.

See that beautiful shade of bluish/green in the water above?  That's the color I'd like to try and duplicate for our bedroom...sooo cool and tranquil.  I love it!!  Maybe just a tad lighter with off-white lace curtains and creamy trim.  Sounds lovely doesn't it?  I'm always so full of ideas, just never enough time, energy, money or hubby to get everything done.  *sigh*

Whatever's a girl to do?  :)

Blessings everyone...and enjoy our beautiful spring weather while it's here.

Lesson tonight - me and my studmuffin

Ooh, I'm sooo excited!!!  Bill's coming over tonight and me and the Laddmonster are having our first real lesson with the new trainer.....can't wait!!  How I love having orders barked at me whilst I'm riding horseback.  Any other time, I'm quite likely to tell you to "bite me" and just mind your own beeswax!!  But, when I have respect and/or admiration at someone's abilities and am in the learning frame of mind...by all means - bark away!!

Lad's got his shoes on now, and I'm looking forward to riding some trails again.  Haven't been trailriding since last fall, and that's just too long.  My hubby had shoes put on his horse, Shad.  First time in several years that he's planning on using Shad as his main rider...and guess what?  Wouldn't you know that the big, red goosebury has a swollen knee?  Dang nabbit all!  It figures!!  Good thing is, he's not lame on it.  He's still thundering around the pasture, bucking and bossing everybody in his path.  That's good.  Then again, maybe he just doesn't have enough sense to realize he's got a bum leg.  Who knows?  I palpated his leg the other night, and he's got a little sensitivity to the pressure, there's a little heat and we've definitely got firm inflammation all around, but especially in the front.  A few weeks back, I'd picked off a little (maybe an inch long) scrab from the front of his knee and there was a little pus.  We cleaned it up, put some antibiotic ointment on it and it seemed fine.  Maybe somebody got a well-placed hoof and that's the cause of the little cut and now this swelling?  It's my best possible guess - either that, or he strained the ligaments during one of his dramatic acrobatic bucking/playing sessions he's so famous for!  That's more like it!!  Anyway, long story-short...the swelling's not going away.  My boss is going to come out and put the U/S on it, and see what we can see.  If nothing shows up, we'll have to shoot a couple of rads and see what that turns up.  I'm pretty sure it's nothing serious, because the fact remains that the horse is not lame.  If I watch him really, really closely; I can pick up on a slight favoring of the leg, and that's it.  It's probably just going to need a little more time, but keeping him quiet is a real challange. 

It's a gorgeous spring day here and I'm loving it!! Mid 70's and a nice, cool breeze.  Supposed to be like this for the upcoming 5-7 more days.  I like it.  The dogs and I have been walking the 1-3/4 mile trail around the park at lunch time for a few weeks now.  It feels so good to be outside in the fresh air again, and not get rained on.  The mud's drying up nicely, and that's always a good thing.  Will keep all of you in the eastern half of the country in our prayers.  I can't even imagine extreme heat and humidity like what you're experiencing. 

Blessings to all,
Cingspots