All Hallow's Eve

We don't do much as far as anything celebratory for this holiday, except maybe eat a little more candy than normal.  In our nearly 18 years in our home, we have never received even a single trick-or-treater, but I usually buy some candy, just in case.  :)  My friend Claudia buys dilly bars and buster bars from Dairy Queen - maybe I should visit her this year...

Well, we've just returned from our trip to the beach.  The weather was absolutely glorious!  I couldn't possibly have wished for anything better.  The house was clean, open, bright, had amazing ocean views and the bed was comfortable.  We had a fire in the fireplace almost continuously and left the doors open to enjoy the fresh, coastal breeze.  I wore shorts and flip flops for walking on the beach.  Yep, the end of October in shorts and a sweatshirt.  There was just a trace of a breeze and we enjoyed every single minute of our time away.  The only fly in the ointment to an otherwise perfect holiday was, the hot tub.  It wasn't heating and I just tried it out briefly the first evening.  84 degrees is just not warm enough for a good soak.  This is the second time I've rented a vacation home with a non-working hot tub.  Just my luck.  I made up for it with long, hot showers...even took Ruby in with me once, and I think she enjoyed it.  Well, she felt much better after the showering part was finished anyway.  She was a sandy, ocean-smelling mess.  The dogs had a blast, of course.  Long walks on the beach, running through the surf, chasing seagulls and wayward bunny rabbits - what could be better?

I must have been in need of some rest because I went to bed early each evening and slept in every morning.  We ate all our meals in, except for one night out for fish and chips.  We even baked chocolate chip cookies.  Why is it that I never mind cooking while I'm on holiday?  I read a book, browsed magazines, watched movies and had several long, enjoyable and relaxing walks on the beach.  And of course, I took lots and lots of pictures.  Very low-key and exactly what we needed.  What a wonderful way to end a perfectly beautiful October.  I can hardly believe that tomorrow begins November.  Wow, where does the time go?  Before you know it, Thanksgiving will be here and then Christmas...good grief!  I don't want to even think about Christmas yet.  It's depressing for me to think about how very commercialized it's become.  I always feel like Christmas is force fed to us all by being crammed down our throats...buy, buy, buy.  Hurry, hurry, hurry...don't let the holidays sneak up on you!  Bah-humbug!  Not this gal, I'll enjoy my Christmas slowly and without going into debt.  Thank you very much.  But I digress...

Apparently, we had some very cold nights and mornings in our valley while we were away.  My Nasturtiums which had completely overtaken the front porch, except a tiny entry spot near the front door, are shriveled up and dying.  Hopefully the plants underneath them were protected from the freeze and will survive.  And the horses!  In just a few days time, they have really gotten woolly.  And fat.  Our caretakers did not spare the groceries, and they like it just fine.  I've always said that I'd rather they be overfed, than underfed while we're gone.  Keep them happy and satisfied and they're less likely to look for mischief.  That's how we like to believe anyway.  So far it's always worked in our favor.

 

We'll see you next year October!  It's been grand!!

Stay safe everyone...Happy Halloween!!  

Indian summer activities

Our park tree in full color

beautiful fall colors

Ruby

Annie

This may be the first real, true Indian Summer in the past several years, that I can remember anyway.  We've had a couple of frosts and now the most beautiful sunshine.  Many mornings have started out shrouded in mist, only to burn off and be beautiful and warm later in the day.  This is the kind of fall weather I absolutely adore!  Bring on the outdoor activities!!  Bonfires, roasting marshmallows, picking apples, chopping firewood, riding horses, taking hikes in the woods, capturing all those gorgeous Autumn colors that abound...aaaahhhh, just splendid!

Hello October and all your glory!

Walking in the woods

My beautiful (and round) Eagle

Lovebirds...Ladde and Missy

Sweet Harley

happy horses

sometimes he makes her soooo mad!

This past weekend we bathed the dogs, trimmed their nails, had a bonfire and burned our huge pile of tree trimmings that we've collected throughout the summer, cut some firewood, went out for breakfast, made homemade cabbage and tomato soup and I baked a marion berry pie.  I'm needing to make some room in the freezer for our quarter of a beef that we're expecting by the end of the month.  We haven't bought a quantity of beef in many years, so it will be nice to have this on hand.  Grass fed, grain finished, Black Angus and raised by friends of ours...it will be so nice knowing that the beef we're eating is humanely and organically raised locally.  The meat in the stores just doesn't taste good these days, so I buy very little of it.

Since we missed our horse camping trip last month due to bad weather, we're hoping to take a few days the end of this month and go to the beach.  All the campgrounds are closed for the winter now, so no horse camping...but, who doesn't love time spent at the beach?  I'm hoping to find an inexpensive beach house, and if I'm lucky, it will be beach front, have a wood stove or a fireplace, a full kitchen and a hot tub.  Sounds delicious doesn't it?  I envision long walks on a solitary beach, and then coming back for a nice, long soak in the hot tub, followed by a good book by the fire...or a movie, or maybe even a nap.  *sigh*  Mentally, I'm already there.  :)

I've still got to do the usual groundwork in preparation of a short trip though, like finding someone to cover for me at the clinic and a caretaker for the horses and the cats.  The dogs always travel with us.  They'd plot some heinous revenge if we left them at home...

happy dogs!

Missy's eye (Sugar)

our 2013 grape harvest - a good year

I'm hoping this beautiful weather sticks around for a while...through the end of October anyway, after that I've always said, come November and all bets are off.  Haha!  Winter is then upon us, as the monsoon season hits.  But fingers crossed for sunshine, brisk mornings, clear skies and frosty pumpkins for a little while longer...

How's the weather in your neck of the woods?  Do you have traditional activities that you enjoy this time of year???  I'd love to hear about them.  :)

Happy October everyone, and blessings from
Lorie @ Cingspots

As the worm turns

and other fun stuff.

Not.

I am cranky today.  I was cranky yesterday too.  Work at the clinic's been slow, people have been more than a little irritating and the weather's beautiful...and here I sit, in my cage.  And I've come to the conclusion that there is, nor will there ever be; a cure for stupid.  :(

I would like nothing better than to be somewhere warm and sunny, lying on a sandy beach, cocktail in hand, reading a really good book...far, far away from people and civilization.  Yes, it really is that bad.

*sigh*

Did I mention that people can be really, really insensitive and really, really stupid?  Oh, okay.  But in my defense, it does bear repeating.  Take our federal government for an example...now, if you want to talk stupid, that subject is a deep well my friends.  Very deep.

Just a couple of weeks ago, these fields were brown, dry and parched...now they're green and soggy.  What a difference a little lot of rain can make...the weatherman says this September was the wettest on record - ever.  Well, at least since they've been keeping records of such things anyway.  Since the late 1800's.  Yes, it's been that wet.  We had our first frost this morning.  Yesterday and now today have been beautiful.  I've been at work.  We don't have plans to go anywhere this weekend.  Oh joy...

It's too muddy to go riding anywhere.  It's too wet to go hiking anywhere.  It's too early to go Christmas shopping.  *sigh*  Normally, I love fall.  It's my favorite time of year, but if things don't improve, let's just say it feels like we're taking a major shortcut to winter.  You know what winters are like in the Pacific Northwest, right?  That's right.  Rain.  And then some more rain.  Some wind and yes, more rain.  Mud up to your eyebrows.  I am so. not. ready. for. this. crap!!!!  Sorry, I'll post another pretty cloud picture so you don't all get bummed like me...

Do you have any plans for this weekend?  What's the weather been like where you live lately?  Does anybody else out there feel like Mother Nature is all f*&^#d up????

On an unrelated topic, I got an amazing sweater and a beautiful neck scarf yesterday at the New To You consignment shop.  Oh my, the sweater is gorgeous, and long and cream-colored (my favorite) and hopefully will look half as good on me, as my imagination thinks it will look. :)   I envision black leggings or skinny jeans with boots...warm, cozy and chic, oh my!

Stay warm and dry my friends,
Blessings from C-ingspots...............................Lorie

Never a dull moment

This is the view from about halfway up the hill.  They could have run for miles down the other side

Well, we had plans to go on our last of the season horse camping trip this weekend.  I'd gotten a replacement to cover me at the clinic (4 day weekend), had a caretaker lined up for the horses at home, bought new and very warm sleeping bags (mountain temps in the lower 30's), done the grocery shopping, and was really looking forward to going.  But the planets weren't lining up or something...

Firstly, hubby realized we had no working brakes on the horse trailer.  Huh?  They had been working when we'd used it recently.  So, he stayed home from work to get them working again.  He calls me late afternoon, saying he'd tried everything and it wasn't working.  Apparently we need to replace the actual squeezing mechanism on the trailer itself, our old trailer is a 1995 model and we've never done that.  Guess we got our money out of those brakes.  Anyway, we have to order the parts and we weren't prepared for that.  So, no go over the mountain pass without working trailer brakes.

Alright, plan B...we decided that although it's been raining a fair amount the past couple of weeks, we would still go camping, just stick closer to home and bring tarps and such.  The weather forecast had been predicting a nice weekend with temps possibly reaching 70, with no rain in sight.  That's alright.

Yesterday, everything changed.  There was this little typhoon near Japan that's affecting our jetstream and now we're to expect monsoon type rainfall this weekend.  No sunshine in sight.  Winds.  Rain.  A real doozy of an early fall storm.  Batten down the hatches and all that.  *sigh*  Guess who's not going camping now...

So, I made the phone calls.  Cancelled the caretaker.  Cancelled the relief clinic worker.  Told my boss I'd see him Friday morning.

Fast forward to this morning...I'm almost ready to walk out the door and head to work.  Just putting a little finishing touch on my make-up and hair when I hear Harley call from the pasture.  I stop and listen...I heard him call out again, this time a more distressed calling.  I drop everything and run out the door...

to see the entire herd (sans Harley) out in the neighboring and newly planted hazlenut orchard.  Heads up.  Tails up.  Looking alert.  I try to walk quickly, but serenely to the barn to grab a bucket of grain.  They're suckers for grain.  Uh huh.  Not today momma.  Off they flew, tails up over their backs clear to the twin oaks at the top of the hill in the field beyond the orchard.  Oh no, not good.  I run back inside to remove my clogs.  Clogs are not an appropriate shoe for chasing horses through a bumpy farm field.  I grab my phone, change my shoes and offer up a quick prayer for some help, and sensible horses to stay away from the highway.

About a minute later, my angel in camo shows up in my driveway.  Do you need some help he asks?  A huge wave of relief washes over me, I offer a thank you to my Caretaker :) and off we go.  He flanked them from the off side of the hill and I approached from the front.  Ladde and Sugar trot right to me (always easy where grain is concerned) and I get the halter on Ladde.  Thank you God.  Off we go, at first I thought the entire herd was going to follow, but they had other notions.  Ladde was a real handful walking all the way back to the barn with the rest of the herd galloping back over the other side of the hill.  *sheesh*  I swear he grows about a foot or two even bigger when he gets all amped up, adrenaline pumping through his veins and all.  At one point, he was air-hoofing and his front leg was higher than my head.  Bad horse.  I scold him and keep moving, like I could do anything if he didn't want to comply.  Good horse.  Got him locked in his stall alongside the frantic Harley in his stall.  Closed the big sliding door on my way out and proceeded my trek back out to the north 40.  Again.  I'm already hot, wet from the knee down (tall grass) and my hair is all wet and sweaty.  Oh good.  Angel in camo (apparently his name was Brian) had managed to herd the horses back as far as the creek.  I kept calling Shad and Kadie's names while holding up the grain bucket...there's always hope that they'll come to me.  And they did!  Slowly, but they started heading towards me.  I dumped a couple of little grain piles to keep Eagle and Sugar occupied while I quietly approached Shad.  The big red horse let me put the halter on him.  I offered a little grain and off we went...Kadie in tow.  That was what I had hoped would happen.  :)

Before we'd gotten too far up the orchard, Eagle and Sugar decide they don't want to be left alone in the big, scary field all alone, and here they come a running!!  Big smile on my face.  I knew we had the battle won!!  Got all the horses safely locked in their stalls, with Merlin in the alley for the day.  I saw where someone (Sugar) had most likely been naughty to Harley and spooked him through the 3-rail wooden fence.  He took the post out and 2 sections of fence leaving a 16 foot gaping hole where the horses strolled through.  *sigh*  Back to the barn to do a once-over of Harley.  Sure enough.  A 5-6" long scarf down the bridge of his nose, but nothing else that I could see.  Again, thank you God, it could have been much worse.  A little ointment on his wound, a flake of hay for everyone and into the house to change my clothes so I could head to work.  I was an hour and 15 minutes late, my hair was soaked and I looked like something the cat dragged in, BUT I made it and all is well.

Despite everything.  I am feeling overwhelmingly BLESSED and thankful today that everybody is safe and sound.  Happy that I was home and able to get everybody back in, and absolutely, reassured that God listens to and answers our prayers.  And sometimes He sends angels named Brian dressed in full camo, driving big, Ford trucks.  :)

How's your Friday going?

p.s.  For a brief moment, when I saw all the horses standing proudly at the top of the hill, partially cloaked in the morning mist, I stood in amazement at their beauty, their speed and their grace...and wished I had my camera.  But then I came to my senses and started running.  It was going to take me a lot longer to reach that hilltop...

Blessings everyone!!

Thankfulness through adversity

Did you notice that beautiful full, harvest moon last evening?  Just incredible!  My camera really doesn't do it justice, but I wanted to remember how truly spectacular it was.  Another sign of fall...

Those crazy nasturtiums threatening to overtake house and hearth again this year!  If you're ever wondering where to plant these hardy flowers, I'd suggest the Western facing and hot side of your garden.  As you can see, they thrive there.

I've been doing more thinking about evolving lately, seems to be my theme of this past week.  None of us enjoy adversity, right?  But we're told to be thankful for all things, even those times in life that cause us to feel pain.  I try to see adversity (growing pains) as a chance to learn from the experience, be grateful that we're probably going to become a stronger, possibly even a better person because of having survived the situation. There's probably a good reason for that old saying that, "whatever doesn't kill you, makes you stronger".  I believe it's true.

Suffering through adversity, trials in life, emotional pain, whatever you choose to call them, undoubtedly molds us into more emphatic people as well.  It allows us to feel other people's pain, and we're better able to offer comfort, advice, understanding, when we've experienced similar experiences in our own lives.  We learn compassion by feeling the pain firsthand.  We evolve into a more wise and well-rounded person with more tolerance of pain when we recognize it in others.

I also believe that by contrast, the sweetness in life becomes all the sweeter because we've been down in the valleys.  If all our days were filled with nothing but good, that would become rather mundane, and human nature would have us take everything for granted.  If we were in a perfect world, I don't believe we would take anything for granted, we'd live in a continual state of gratitude...but, we don't live in a perfect world.  Our world is full of emotional pain, physical pain, stress, sin, anger and so many other descriptions of unhappiness that we have plenty of opportunities to learn from our trials.

These adversities also give us need of a comforter.  We all need to have comfort, guidance, understanding and love to survive this merry-go-round we call life.  *sigh*

Sometimes it can feel overwhelming...sometimes we offer help and understanding to others when our days are going alright.  We all grow stronger by reaching out and comforting one another.

Sometimes we just need to be still and know that everything's gonna work out in time...learn to ride out the storms of life and be thankful each and every day for so many blessings that we tend to overlook and take for granted.  All those little things that make life so special...and good.

Have a great weekend everybody!

It's supposed to be a wet one around here, so we're battening down the hatches, hubby got the grass mowed and the pool boxed up for the season (how sad!), and we'll take things as they come.  Just maybe, I'll get to see my rain chain in action.  :)

Blessings,
Lorie @ Cingspots

Filling the storehouse

One day just seems to flow into the next.  Nothing much has been happening lately, just keep putting one foot in front of the other and preparing...I guess I'm preparing for winter.  That's what it feels like, filling the storehouse, filling the wood shed, filling the barns...storing, storing, storing.  I am a squirrel.  

I like this one.  An old wood stove for a belly.

 On the way back from picking apples last weekend, we happened upon a small town festival.  The Dayton Harvest Festival.  So, we stopped by for a little peak...first thing we noticed was the scarecrow contest.  Perfectly appropriate for a harvest festival, don't you think?

From that show on cable, Duck something ??

Cute, but he's no Johnny Depp

 The horseshoer was out yesterday. The horses were due for their pedi's.  I was at work, but my hubby took care of business and said that all the horses were perfect gentlemen and ladies.  Doesn't surprise me in the least.  :)  Kadie got skipped because Troy said her feet were perfect and in light of her arthritic hocks, we could skip this time and trim her next time.  He also skipped Sugar.  Now that surprises me.  Last appointment was 8 weeks ago, and Troy wanted to fit her with new front shoes because the aluminum toes were so thin he was afraid they would break.  Since they'd only been on for 8 weeks and I'd only ridden her lightly, I balked and asked that he re-fit her with the same shoes to save money.  They have been fine.  Apparently he forgot what he'd said about the shoes last time, because he chose to leave them in place for another 8 weeks.  Hmmmm....that doesn't settle real well with me, but we'll go with it.  This is the last time I'd planned on putting shoes on Sugar for this season.  After that, I'm going to leave her barefoot through fall, winter and probably put the shoes back on in mid to late spring next year.  That will give her heels a chance to expand, nail holes to grow out and just let her hoof relax.  My other theory is this:  despite what most vets and shoers say to expect, I don't necessarily agree that navicular has to always result in continuing bone degeneration.  If her shoes are pulled, she's allowed to go barefoot and we add some pea gravel or sand to promote good circulation in the hoof, why can't bone degeneration be abated, or even possibly re-generated?  With all the research I've done and the many, many articles I've been reading on this subject, it just makes sense to me, to try and increase blood flow to her hoof by increasing the frogs' contact with the ground.  It will be vital to keep her hoof angles aligned, proper balancing of the hoof and to provide a good medium for the horse to regularly walk on to promote ground contact and get that frog pumping like it was intended to do.  I believe it's worth a try.  I understand the argument in favor of wedge shoeing and placing the shoe back to increase breakover, reduce the pull on the ligaments and tendons that attach to the bones in the hoof and all that for cases of founder.  But this is bone degeneration of the navicular bone.  Completely different ailment.  It was also brought up that we were thinking of putting in some pea gravel in the muddy zones leading to the shelter and around the water trough.  Many hoof care specialists recommend this as a good choice for promoting circulation in the hoof...no sharp edges, doesn't pack like some rocks and good drainage too.  Troy didn't like our choice, he said that pea gravel will crack and then get stuck in the hooves.  He recommended sand or larger round river rock instead.  *sigh*  Guess I'll have to keep doing some  research, but if pea gravel would crack, why wouldn't larger round rock?  Just doesn't sound logical to me.  I've got no problems with sand, but the main theory is to use something that will help toughen up the sole and provide good contact with the frog.  I'm not sure if sand will do the job as well.  Any ideas or experience with this anyone?  I'd appreciate your insight...

 This was our dinner last night.  I found a recipe online and wanted to give it a try.  I didn't follow the recipe completely, but as is common for me, it gave me a good general idea and I did my own thing.  It's called pasta with pesto cream sauce.  I used spaghetti because that's what I had on hand, bottled pesto because I had no fresh basil, half and half because it's less fattening than heavy cream, and half the recommended butter.  I also added 3 fresh tomatoes from the garden because it sounded good.  It was.  Delicious, in fact.  The sauce was initially a little runny, probably from those juicy tomatoes.  We'll eat the leftovers tonight along with andouille/beer sausages cooking in the crock pot.  I took a peak and overnight the pasta soaked up all that wonderful sauce.  Should be even better tonight.  Yum!

 After dinner, this is what happened...Ruby was a total snuggle bunny.  My hubby had worked hard cleaning out our wood shed and reorganizing it for winter.  He and Ruby promptly fell asleep.

 She caught me taking pictures, and gave me one of her famous "looks".  Pretty much says, "go away mom".

And as is usual, Annie was quite content to have her end of the couch.  These dogs lead a rough life.  *snort*

Comcast guys just showed up to give us new telephone/broadband service, so I gotta go.

Blessings all,
Lorie