Tara has wheels and signs for thought

Proud papa! He is so cute!




Tara, the chicken tractor has wheels!

brilliant marketing or???? (read both signs....)

I've heard of BABcock but????

uhhuh! Need I say more?

WOW! we must have just missed him...

yeah, yeah 12 hail marys.... grin

so pretty.....

No "h"orsing around today

It labor day, not that we remembered or anything. The days seem to fly by in no particular order when one is on "leave" from his or her work! grin. Its raining like the dickens, so we are all inside with our noses pressed to the windows, looking out in wonder at all the different ways rain can fall from the skies. I asked Tim how this would be any different from a hurricane and he reminded me it would be windier. Oh yeah, I forgot about wind.... grin!

Luckily yesterday I worked with cuervo for a bit. We had a great time. The new sidepull setting Ive got his rambo bridle on is great. He objects way less to the pressure than on the under the chin setting. I have owned this horse over three years, I have about a dozen rides on him. Two in a bit and the rest in some version of bitless. I'm soooo freaking dense!!! In all this time of starting and stopping with him, I've been thinking he will get past his reaction to different bridles when he becomes responsive( reaction to response remember that?) uh, big old DUH! on my part....freaking horse is responsive! But becomes reactive to the over the top cueing from the very thing I'm waiting for him to tell me hes OK with. What I should have been doing is wondering why he only ever told me how NOT OK it all was. I believe this is called not being able to see the forest for the trees....haha. In any case since this bitless thingy is an experiment I reckon I'll be learning quite a bit more as I go. I'm just really grateful that a horse like this has come my way to teach me about it.

Something slithery this way comes....

I haven't seen a snake this big since....well....EVER! He and I met at the doorway to my barn. I went screaming one way and he went screaming another...I'm sure it was quite the sight. Anyway after my heart managed to get back in my chest and out of my throat, I cautiously approached the barn again and gave a little peek inside. Despite his cheetah like speed, Mr snake felt hiding was his best bet, so he did...behind my pitch fork.....er.... funny he lived to be this big huh? Well barn chores successfully put on hold by slitherings out of my control, I decided to find out if he was a dangerous snake. Apparently he is not dangerous but is"aggressive" and nonvenomous. He eats toads and frogs and lives primarily in water. Well, no wonder hes cruising the barn, the place is toad party central at night. Uh well, WAS toad party central. I guess the disco ball and conga lines gave them away. I kept finding toad sized thong undies and tiny drug paraphernalia...no one needs that kind of element living around their horses. teehee In any case my slithery enforcer cleaned up the joint and moved on. I'm glad I didn't have to pay him protection money or something. Thanks Mr snake, but next time could ya call first?

odds and ends

This morning the weather is fabulous. Its chilly enough that the horses have their hairs fluffed up, 65 wonderful degrees with a breeze...fall is coming and I have some homemade chili and a cold beer waiting for it! woohoo!

We have had a couple of fun interactions that i keep meaning to blog about but...well you know how it goes, then something more fun happens that I book mark, then more fun and more...etc etc. You'd think we where on vacation or something! grin..

The gas station: I'm inside paying for gas, no pay at the pump for diesel...a whole 'nother story... and a black gentleman walks in the door and then dramatically falls back against it and says loudly looking right at me...
'"uh-oh...I'm in trouble now!"

I'm like "wha?" wishing old Wanda giving me my receipt would hurry the hell up...

"You are a BEEEEAAUUUUTIFUL woman and my wife is real jealous"

So, I'm smiling like you would at any crazy person and trying to see if I can slip past him to the door.
Wanda the slow, behind the counter is chuckling now, so I immediately think there is a plot afoot. and Mr. man is not letting me out. He is holding the door like he will open for me but not opening it....

I notice there is a emergency door behind the coffee and pork rind counter( nothing like pork rinds with your coffee I always say) So I give the guy one of my best smiles and try casually sliding that way....

"I love you and when I leave my wife , she's gonna hunt us down and kill us!"
This is where Wanda chimes in with " uh huh!" likes she knows this as fact.

So I say" You cant love me, I may be the most hateful woman in the world!" sidling toward the door( notice i used the word "hateful" grin, one of my fav southern sayings)

Wanda is actually guffawing at this point " oh Chester," she says between snorts" You really in trouble now!" and she winks at me.

"that's OK," he says to me and opens the door he has been guarding" it would all be worth it! you have a wonderful day now you hear!"

winning smile- winning smile- eye contact- eye contact-sidle- sidle- whew! outside! " why thank you , er, Chester, you have glorious day too!" with that I sprint for my truck, giggling.....nothing like a good old fashioned southern teasing to make your day. I have to learn to relax.......


Tim at the small engine repair with our broken weed whacker:

guy behind the counter "what can we do ya for?"
Tim "what?"
guy " whatcha got there"
Tim"do you fix weed whackers?"
guy "whats this run off of?"
Tim" what?"
guy "this isn't gas..."
Tim "no, no it uses propane"
guy backing away from our weed whacker like its a bomb"PROPANE?"

"naw naw, we only fix gas....wouldn't know where to start with propane!"
another guy from in back" PROPANE?"
Tim" uh, OK, thanks"
another voice from in back" the thing uses propane?"

Tim closing the door behind him, "PROPANE?" we giggle all the way home as Tim recreates with all the appropriate facial and body expressions! We really must learn to keep all our OUTRAGEOUS green contraptions at home! Tim came home ,down loaded a manual off the Internet, took the thing apart and fixed it himself! grin

Ain't the south great? We think so!

kudos

Check out that perfect corner!



Tara! The chicken tractor in progress.





Dog yard extraordinaire!

Wonderful hubby, aka Timster. the Timeroni, el Timateo, Timiny,Timstance, Timeroo, Timpani, well you get who i mean, has been the project king since our arrival here in NC. There have been dog fences erected, horse fence pounded in, water filtration systems rigged(not just here but at Diana's too), drains unclogged and chicken houses getting built..in the image of Tara no less. He has had his tools smoking since they came off the truck! I cant get over how much the man knows how to do...He might have wanted to keep it to himself actually, because now that I know the depth of talent I married....well ...there will be no end to the questions and crazy requests I can come up with!! teehee. He's a new man here in the south, I personally think it agrees with him.

Seriously though, I cant be happier with the wonderful things he is building and has built for our fur family. All that and he designed my business card. I figured he deserved some very public brags and thanks...so all together now: " Tim is great, Tim is good ,all hail King Tim! He the man!" yay! clap, clap, clap, whistle, whistle! wooowoooo.......thanks baba! xoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

theres exercize and then theres EXERCIZE

notice the sweat line down to the knees...


I am not sure why it is but i can actually notice the days getting shorter here. I don't think I noticed it in SD until , say November...... in any case the sun peaks out after 6:30 am and the sets around 8pm. This puts a bit of a damper on my walks. I took off at my regular pm walk and found myself walking the last quarter of it in some pretty dark dusk. Its only a little creepy out there especially if you blast some journey out of your ipod for company! In any case, last evening I was getting a late start again( I never learn) so I invited Tim to go too. This does two things, gives me more time with honey and keeps the"I don't want you walking in the dark" lectures to a minimum. So off we went. It took to the end of the drive to tell this was going to be a very different kind of walk than I usually take. Phrases like "lets get this over with" and "its not even exercise" where already flying around. Now mind you I don't stroll, I walk at a good pace for three miles ...twice a day. Now if a turtle needs rescuing or if there is a frog track that needs looking at, I take the time to do it. But not Tim, after about a third of a mile being towed down the road I mentioned the fact that we are out together having a nice bit of exercise and was snorted at. Yes, snorted at with much disdain.....sigh. It was "my heart rate" this and "not doing any good" that blah blah blah. Well! I never.......grin. I guess as usual the Venus / Mars continuum strikes again. Exercise being a relative term.



-Relative to the amount of sweat pouring off you. Tim: soaked Beth: damp



-the amount of pain your body is in. Tim: 3 to 6 Excedrin Beth: a good stretch



-the amount of recovery time it takes to do it all over again. Tim: several days Beth: morning to evening when you can do it again.







Maybe its not fair to call it a man/ woman thing maybe we should call it a modern/old fashioned thing or a Amish/English thing or a dog/cat thing...you get the picture. In any case, Ill move my little walkies earlier, turn up my ipod when a ting tings song comes on and enjoy the frogs, the pigs, the snakes and the pretty spider webs I spy along the way. Tim can lay in a puddle of sweat clutching his Excedrin and calling for a gatorade. To each his own!

sights and sounds

"I dont do yard work..." uh huh.....

Writesville beach on a saturday!

Hwy 76 ends in a culdesac!

where I considered a caftan.....

sign said road ends 850 ft......they werent kidding!

southern icon in Burgaw!