New pup!

Introducing: Miss Macy Gray!


Macy is our new foster pup. She arrived from Daytona two Saturdays ago, and has settled into the routine of house life incredibly quickly. She never raced, so perhaps she was simply destined to be a pet, rather than an athlete. ;)



Macy has the cutest waggly eyebrows. For the first several days, we thought that they were permanently crooked. Now I think she was just worried and watchful. She also has a hilarious almost-helicopter tail. It zooms around in circles when she's happy, but she doesn't seem to have full control of it..

She's really a darling. I think she'll even be totally cat safe - yesterday Tucker climbed up the side of her crate, crisscrossed all over the top, tried to share her dinner, and even chewed on her ear.. and she pretty much fell asleep. (Maybe now we know why she didn't race?)

I'm not sure how much longer I can do the foster mom thing. We keep getting such wonderful dogs, and it gets harder and harder to part with them. Poor R had to put up with me begging to adopt Mimi for at least 6 weeks. And we only had her for 1 week!

Anyway. In other news:



Innit gorgeous?! What better to cheer up those nasty damp days? Sunshiney tweedy cabley bobbley mittens designed by the immensely talented Jared Flood. Yay! Now if I can just find the time to finish the pair...

Woohoo!

I am so excited for our country!

Happy Halloween!

Well.. a few days late, but then, that's right on time for me! ;) (Yes, he has a little foil hat on. Paranoid, that pumpkin is!)

I hope everyone had a safe, fun, Halloween!

Ladybug, ladybug...

In the gardens of Monticello.

Turns out that my old camera didn't in fact die - just the rechargeable batteries (every set of them). Of course, I only figured this out after I bought myself a shiny new camera. Not that I'm complaining..

My mom has been in town, so we've been all over the place, and have eaten more than our fair share of really yummy food. Then Addy was sick.. then I was sick.. and now some friends are in town. Hopefully I'll get around to playing with my camera, taking some FO shots, and updating this for real someday!

No, I haven't died...

..but my camera did!

This is the last shot it took, courtesy of Ryan:



Evidence that the kitties are actually finally tolerating each other! (And yeah, I've cleaned the windows since then!)

My dear little camera was a graduation present from my mom. Maybe it wasn't the fastest, and maybe it wasn't the bestest.. but it braved mud, rain, fog, and cold to capture 'on pixel' memories that I'm glad I have. (Since my memory is an utter failure, I rely heavily on pictures, haha!)

Squirrel and her sweet, mischievous, darling Sampson.

The cobbie who stole my heart, Dragon's Lair Spring Edition.

Miss Squirrel, and my little Gainesville cottage.

Mom driving Piwi (DL Prince William).

Summer camps with the kiddos.

Tie dying with Glabra, Ken, and Trevor.


The sudden, happy arrival of Little Man.

My first vacation with Ryan.


Nights in St. Augustine...

And so very much more. Thank you, little camera! You served me well.

Life, as usual, has been chugging right along. I can't even remember everything that's happened since the last post (big surprise!) - but most notably, we had a little vacation.



Ryan, my brother, and I went to play and gorge ourselves in Chicago for 5 days. Neither of the boys had been to Chicago before, and they both loved it. We ate, and ate, and ate. And then went to see:


Wait.. Wait.. Don't Tell Me! Very exciting. (Yeah, so I'm a dork. But you knew that!) I've listened to this show for years, and have gotten Ryan addicted as well. The show was even better live.

Anyway. The point of this post was actually to write about Miss Adventure. I'd been struggling to get out to see her regularly, and worried about both her crappy feet and her weight. Being an air plant, she doesn't need much food.. yet she's out on grass 24/7. She looks like a tick about to pop. I figured I could keep her weight under control by exercise, but that hasn't been happening much, because of her crappy feet. So I haven't been going out.

However, I think I've finally found a farrier in this area that I'm comfortable with. Addy's feet look better already, and the farrier suggested that I purchase some boots so that Addy can more comfortably deal with the rocky trails. I hate to do just ring work, especially with an out of shape horse.

Yesterday we ventured partway down the least rocky of the trails, scouting for fairly level, open areas for trot work. We found several that work immediately, and a few more that will work once Adventure has her boots. Even better, some are hilly, forcing Addy to rock back on her haunches and balance herself for the downhills, and use that big ol' butt to power up the uphills.

So now my plan is to get us both back into shape. My goal is to ride 4 times per week, starting mainly with loose, open trot work. Bareback a few days (mostly to help me get balanced again), in the pastures, on the trails.. and then slowly begin introducing ring work, with lots of transitions, circles, and lateral work. At some point, I'd like to get an instructor out, as well.

We'll get to 2nd level someday!

Puppy Love

Monell has moved to his new home. I miss my big ol' boy.. he was just about the perfect dog. Never mind the dog aggression (who could blame him?), the resource guarding (he is getting so much better!), and the fecal obsession. He is my ideal dog - big, quiet, friendly (but not overbearingly so), gorgeous, a gentleman on his walks, and generally well-behaved. Perfect.

So when we got the call less than a week later that an emergency foster sitter was needed, I was a bit reluctant to volunteer. Mo is a hard act to follow. But I had no reason to say no, and thought it might be nice to have another dog for awhile. Along comes Mimi....

Now really, who could resist those eyes?

Mimi is another return, so she is well aware of what houses are all about. She's very much a lady, most of the time. She tolerates the kitten, even allowing him to sleep on top of her crate at night, and chew on her tail during the day. And she roaches. In the middle of the hard floor.



She is also a very patient model.


I'm very surprised she hasn't found a new home yet. She's just as wonderful as Monell!



In the above picture, she's modeling what I have so far of a dog coat that I started back when we first got Abba. It's not perfect, and I'm not a huge fan of the yarn (Dark Horse Yarns "Fantasy").. so it's taking me longer than usual. Perhaps it will get it's own post someday.