Memorial Day

It was a great day today!  It was warm, the sun was shining and finally no rain!  Oscar celebrated Memorial day pool side.  So refreshing!!  (Looks like I should have gotten the bigger pool...)

Come on in!  The water's fine!

While Oscar was lounging in the pool, I was planting our flower pots.  The perennials look pretty good right now.  Look now because as soon as they get hailed on, everything will look shredded for the rest of the year, just like every other year....  And I get sick because I worked so hard on those dumb plants....

When the planting was all done, I decided to vaccinate the dogs..  Unfortunately with the wind, I think I ended up vaccinating myself as well.  When I was pushing the air out of the syringe, I shot some vaccine in the air.  With all the wind, everything I shot in the air hit me right in the face...  So I'm pretty sure I won't be catching Parvo or Distemper this summer.  No big deal..  My vet shot kennel cough vaccination in my face a couple years ago...  I never did catch kennel cough that year.  That's a good deal.  ;-)  Oscar didn't mind his shot...  Neither did Molly...  Dora was a crank though.

Pumpernickel, Kelsey's cat, brought her kittens downstairs from the hay loft today.  We hadn't seen the kittens for a month or so.  They sure are cute little buttons but quite the hissers! 

We also brought Polly and a couple other horses off the dry lot and let them graze in the barn yard.  Polly is almost 25 years old now....  That's 100 years in people years.  Every winter I say "She's not going to make it this winter..."  But she keeps surprising me.  She made it through another winter and is still looking fairly good.  She is failing like anyone who is 100 would fail, but we try to make her life as enjoyable as possible.  She had some very nice babies for us and has earned her retirement.  I brushed sheets of hair off of her today.  She's shedding like crazy..  And as always, when you consider the direction of the wind, I ended up with a lot of the hair in my mouth...  (Note to self, in the future, breath through nose only when brushing Polly....)

Next we headed out to the pasture to put up the electric fence to divide up the pasture.  The pasture has really taken off and the horses are just about done with their last bale of hay so they are almost ready to be turned loose.  I think they are ready to get out there.  I imagine the dry lot can be a bit boring...

Harley, Dyna, and Rasmus catching some shade

Mike also had to climb up on the barn to check out a couple sky lights and the dry lot yard light.  With the wind, we AGAIN lost some sky lights..  Such a pain.  The sky lights have gotten old and the fiberglass is soft so they get ripped out fairly easily and Mike ends up replacing them as they get torn out by the wind and snow.  Then, our yard light was hailed on and damaged so now the light sensor is broken and the light doesn't turn off automatically when the sun comes up.  Mike proceeded to crawl on the roof and dig right into the light with his hands and managed to shock himself.  Whatever he did, the electrical surge turned the light off so not sure what happened there.  Mike's lucky he didn't take a header off the barn....
We ended up back at the house watching Oscar play in his new pool again.  He played for a good 30 minutes before I put him away..  And that was my Memorial Day.  Hope yours was good and you avoided all the storms in the evening...

I know you are wondering....

I know you are wondering...  Yes, I am the next American Master Chef...  No further elaboration necessary....

Pilgrimage to the Holy land...... PetSmart

With not much for plans for Memorial Weekend, Mike promised me we could take my Oscar out for some socialization.  Actually I pouted until I got my way...  So, we jumped into the car and headed for the Holy land....  A quick trip to Sioux City.

The Holy Land

I can see it!  I can see it!

This was Oscar's first trip to PetSmart so he was a little dumbfounded at everything there was to look at.

Wow!  It goes as far as the eye can see!

 And one woman even made us stop so she could take his picture.... three times!!!!  He was quite a hit there.  So Oscar got a new wire kennel that will fit him, a brush, and a hammock to ride in the back seat of the car!  Everyone had to stop and pet Oscar and tell him how handsome he is.  Oscar said, "I know..."  We also heard a lot of "Look how big his feet are!!"  Oscar said, "I know..."

It's like dog heaven!

Did you say there were treats on special one aisle over???

What to choose, what to choose....

This!!  I want this!!

 And when we were done looking at toys, we toured the other animals there at PetSmart.

I don't see a chinchilla...  What is a chinchilla??

And then it was time for lunch...  Oscar and I split a #2.  :-)

Super Size Me

And then, it was back home again.  It was a fun trip but tiring that's for sure!  Naptime!

zzzzzzzzzz

Oscar and I did pay the price though for going to PetSmart.  Mike told me I owed him a chocolate cake.  Now that might seem like a pretty small price but in actuality, it's quite a challenge.  At one time in my life, I was a good cook, now.....  not so much.  I have a bad habit of burning things simply because I get distracted and forget I'm cooking.  Happens all the time.  Everyone laughs at me...
So I got out a red box that said "Deluxe" on it and got the ingredients mixed together with the beater.  Mike yelled from the front room...  "What's that noise?"  I said "It's the beater!"  Mike said "I thought you burnt that up too!"  Ha ha...  everyone thinks they are a comedian or something.  But, being the mature adult that I am, I continued on...  Now, cake is in the oven...  I still have a chance of pulling this thing off if I don't get distracted by doing something...  Like, working on my blog...  Hey wait!!  What time is it?  Gotta go!  I don't think I set the timer!!  I'm not really sure how that timer works anyway.  I think it's broken...

It's a sad day.... :-(

It's a sad day.  The puppies went to their new homes.  Kota left this morning and Lola left this afternoon.  Since Kota left early, Oscar had the opportunity to do a little babysitting.  It didn't take long until he figured out who the real boss was...  and it wasn't him.  He soon lost all his "Stuff".

Yea this USED to be yours...

Lola didn't take a whole lot of abuse from Oscar.  She showed him who the queen of everything is...

My teddy!

smooch...

I think I'll just lay ON you...

It's hard to believe there's only 3 months in age difference between Oscar and little Lola.  But now both girls have gone to their new homes so it's WAY too quiet around here.  Well, maybe...   Or maybe it's nice and quiet and relaxing.  ha ha...  Have a great week... 

Yay it's raining! Yay it's not raining!

This started out as a perfect rainy Saturday.  I love rainy weekends because I can stay in and work on laundry all day (my relaxation for the week).  So I started my normal Saturday today with bringing Oscar in for a bath and then hanging out doing laundry and messing with him...  Oscar decided he wanted to help me do laundry.

Hey lady, do you have any CLEAN towels in the place?

So Oscar wandered around in the house this morning while the rain was falling. 

Wish I could go out and play...

What's in there?

Then the rain stopped and the sun came out.  It got warmer and dried up a bit so I went and got the ponies and brought them out of the dry lot to enjoy some green grass....  Charlie and Ginger got a belly full today!  They think it's better than mowing.  ha ha...  Mowing is a waste!

mmmmm.....  grass.......

Oscar even enjoyed some of the green grass but not in the same way as the ponies...

Soft!

It really turned into a nice afternoon and evening.  It was nice enough to bring the babies out to get some sunshine.  They even enjoyed the green grass too!

Lola and Kota

Then we ended the evening with some practicing in the front drive.  Lot's of people staring while we practiced a little dog show action in the front yard.

Look at how handsome I am!  :-)

Here's our pretend victory pose for when Oscar wins everything :-)  ha ha...

I am the winner!!

So everybody went to bed, I sat down and decided to work on the blog and it started raining again.  It was a great day!  Nothing like a rainy Saturday.  Later!

A little off the toenails please...

Rick the farrier was here for the first time this spring.  Everyone is still dirty, snarly, and scraggly looking from the winter but hey, we are getting there. I'm sure I probably look the same way!  ha ha....  So everybody got shortened an inch or so including Charlie who really can't afford to lose any height.  :-)

Charlie

Everybody actually stood pretty good today.  Usually the crowd is pretty wild their first day with the farrier so I'm sure Rick appreciated everybody being a little laid back.  Even the 2 year old Max was pretty calm.  Max's full name is Maximus Pain.  I thought it was fitting.  :-)  If you've ever ridden a two year old, you would understand.   Max is headed to the trainer in June.  Kenny Noll from Royal Iowa will be riding him.  Kenny did a fantastic job breaking in Rev.  I'm sure he'll to a great job on Max as well.  Max is the last foal born on my place so I suppose I'll have to keep him. 

Lucy and Max

Here you can see Max and Lucy both left me a pile of love.  :-)  It means they love you when they poop in the barn doesn't it?  Well, that's what I'm going to believe anyway.  Rev hasn't lost any weight over the winter.  He's looking rather tankish...  He's not getting any shorter either.  I prefer my stubby legged Lucy.  That way I have less distance to go before I hit the ground.  ha ha.

Rev

Everybody got their shots and got their spring worming, hooves are all cleaned up, now I guess I need to break out the saddle and then see if I can break an arm this summer.  I'm due.  I haven't been bucked off for probably 5 or 6 years now so I guess I'm saving up for a good one.  I don't bounce like I did when I was young.  That's for sure.  Now when I hit the ground I just make a groaning, cracking sound..  ha ha!  Must be I'm old. 

Gotta run!  It's 7:30 p.m.  Only 1 hour til bed.  :-)  God that's so pathetic!!

Chew with your mouth closed....

Is it that dogs are physically unable to chew with their mouth closed or is it just my three slobs??  I swear I sweep the floor 5 times a day and it still looks like I need to sweep....  Problem, Dora and Apple can't keep their food in their mouth.  At least Oscar picks up his toys.  :-)  ha ha...

We had a super busy day today.  2 visits to the clinic...  I took the girls in this morning for their 6 wk check ups and shots.  They both weighed in at a whopping 17 pounds.  With only two of them, there's plenty for everyone to eat so they have faired very very well.  :-)  Here's a picture of them outside this week.

Then Oscar jumped in the car just for the heck of it.  We ran back to the clinic to weigh in.  He's topping the scale right now at 70 lbs.  Yep, the days of me picking him up are gone now.  Then, when we got home, Oscar decided he needed the bath so he jumped in the tub.  Oscar loves the tub and taking a bath, so I agreed, he did kind of smell like the barn so he got a good scrubbing.  Little did we know when this bathroom was getting remodeled, the work was being done for Oscar's convenience.  :-)

Where's the bubble bath?

This last week, Oscar discovered the joys of running around out in the pasture.  We had a lot of fun...  With the two warm days this week, the grass is finally starting to come up thank goodness.  The horses would like to get off the dry lot and out into the green stuff!

Out in our pasture we have a small grove....  We burnt off some dead grass and branches last fall...  This is what happens with a controlled burn at our house.  Believe it or not, this is a huge tree that is still standing.  Not sure how!  This is the second time we've caught this tree on fire and it still lives!  I don't think Smoky the Bear would approve.

Oscar found our cat Black Jack out in the tall grass.  Black Jack was trying to sneak up on us.

Snake in the grass

This cat in on it's 12th life I swear.  I've nursed this guy back to health so many times...  This cat owes me, yet he's still a typical A-Hole cat who lets me know I am not worthy of his presence.  Every once in awhile he will let me pet him but rarely.  This cat has had a broken shoulder blade and now walks with a permanent limp, had his nose broken, broke his jaw and lost some teeth, and now this spring he's starting early...  Looks like he lost part of his ear in a fight...  yes, he gets around... But I keep nursing the jerk back to health and he keeps not appreciating my efforts... like normal.  :-)

We had a nice surprise this week...  Rosie and Jimmy Dean are now parents.  Little T-Bone entered the world on a beautiful day in May!  He sure is a cutie.  I'm sure he'll make a great hamburger some day.  ha ha!  Does having three head of Longhorns make you a wealthy Cattle Baron?  I hope so!  :-)  I always knew someday I would be somebody.  ha ha!

T-Bone and Rosie

Welcome little T-Bone!

That's about all going on right now.  I better get rolling to get my normal Saturday laundry chores done.  I'm running a bit behind with all the activities today.  The puppies go to their new homes next weekend so it will be a sad day!  Later!

Prom 2011

Things have changed a little bit since I went to Prom like 25 years ago.  Here's Karley and her date Brian.  Looks like Karley has finally discovered her calling in life.  To be a spy.  Make your Mom proud Karley!

A Beautiful Day!

There hasn't been a better day to discover the whole outdoors so today was the opportune day for Kota and Lola.  They weren't too sure if they liked it at first but eventually explored a little and then laid down to take a nap in the shade.  So I spent my time doing laundry and checking on babies napping outside.  What a beautiful day!  And very little wind.  Doesn't get much better than this in Iowa, that's for sure!

This is crazy out here!!

For some reason the puppies liked the fire pit so they spent most of their time in the wild sniffing around the pit and getting dirty...

I like the fire pit!  :-)

Baby Lola

Baby Kota

Oscar wanted to invite the girls out to play but I don't think so.  He's a little too rough for the babies right now.

Can you come out and play??  Mom says no...

And of course I have to include a recent pic of Oscar.  Here he is 4 1/2 months old.

Pretty boy!