New Digs!

The house has taken shape, now for the great out of doors! Horse fence, barn rehab, mowing.... As you can see the horses are very happy in their temporary quarters. They have blown through the grass but they are content under their pine tree on their mats munching hay. Its really so peaceful and beautiful here. As the sign says: "Shelby, a pleasant place to live!"

We're doing it again.....

What do a narsty stomach flu, an impacted doggie anal gland,one lame horse,a gazillion spider bites and a uhaul have in common? They are all present on moving day at the Collins house hold. I have the flu....AGAIN and am sipping my ancient Chinese remedy of a boiled chicken thigh with a knob of ginger, while filling a box, laying down, running to the bathroom, sipping tea, laying down, filling a box.... You get the picture. After 5 hours of driving we delivered our first load....or is it our second load? Lets just call it the "extra" load that the movers we paid could not get on their truck. Strangely it seemed to be all horsey related items except for the motorcycle( sheepish grin) Amerika does not share a trailer and my round pen needed to be set up in temporary horse corrals for the Monday arrival of the horses. As Tim so succinctly put it" I think I only have one more of these moves in me." I do believe, I concur. While I'm not sure we are getting any better at it, we have gotten wiser and hired some nice guys at the other end to do most of the heavy work. Turns out, Adam and his nephew are neighbors living not to far from the new place. I posted on my favorite resource Craigs list and got over 20 calls in an hour! Needless to say times are tough and it makes me so, so, so grateful for our situation, employment and other wise! Tim's new job starts on the 8Th, therefore the rush- rush. Luckily the "big gun" is available from Fla. Nothing like a Moomsie to help whip things into shape and lend the much needed moral support.

Like last time, there is serous kismet at work here. Not only did the place fall into our lap after one day of rental ad perusal but I went to a horse show with a buddy of mine two weekends ago and drove through Shelby on our way up to Asheville. At the time I thought,"Wow, this is a cute little town, I wish we could live here...Its probably to far from Tim's work." As it turned out that's exactly where we get to live! The new place is 13 glorious, unfenced acres, covered for the most part in black berry bushes and tall grass. The home is at least 65 years old and by far the biggest place I have ever lived. We won't be using the upstairs of the house where there are 4 bedrooms and a bath that is non functioning. All my Christmas decorations and our extra stuff will enjoy that space. Down stairs is two bedrooms one bath and an office for Tim not to mention a huge kitchen and mudroom and laundry room. I'm looking forward to no more musty, dusty carpet as the whole house is wood floors! There is a barn that needs a little work and tons of out buildings. Some that need bull dozing! But Amerika gets to live at home, Tim's car and motorcycle have a garage and there is no, NO dirt road to the place. Its pavement baby! All the way to the front door!

We are having to suffer a return to Hughes net for Internet access. So Internet will be sketchy or at least to slow to be bothered with most of the time. Don't worry if you hear from of us infrequently until the weather breaks....You will all have our new phone numbers when we get them. Wish us luck. Big day tomorrow......

The new me.....

Have I mentioned lately its hot? Oh, and humid? You know, hot and humid like a south east summer should be? Complete with vacationing northerners? And lots of people at Food Lion in bathing suit cover ups who should have gotten dressed before going for groceries? Well, It is and they are and they should have...seriously, they should have. In the defense of all those on vacay, when I vacation I loose my mind too and am prone to decisions like wearing dayglo colors or thinking having my hair braided into corn rows is "IT". ( That last one might have been the margaritas talking.) In any case, its truly time to wear clothes that allow as much convection as possible. This is a struggle for me as I live and have lived and will always live in breeches. Horse breeches,that while cotton, are always black, snug and cover up all skin between belly button and ankle. This, while habit and once comfortable for me is not so much working in the buggy mug here. Not to mention, how "unacceptable and out of the ordinary" my clothing of choice seems to be to the average Hampsteadian.( see previous posting: horse pants blues) So I embarked on the dreaded shopping trip and forced my way through several changing rooms full of shorts, skorts and such. It was heinous as well as unproductive. In some mirrors I actually re-lived the Food Lion vacay cover up horrors that had so recently elicited such a visceral reaction from me. Disheartened,I scuffled off home, determined to ride out summer in the cool confines of my house. But first a quick bite at the local health food hang out. As I munched my curried seitan,and got ready to drown my sorrows in a Honest Tea, apple-jasmine kombucha, I noticed several of my dred locked, tattooed lunch compadres wearing sundresses. For 40 some odd years I have scrupulously avoided dresses unless it was for prom, wedding or my thrice yearly church forays. Then I counted the milliseconds until I could remove it and wear breeches. In fact the word "dress" is almost as hard for me to say as the words"I love you" are for many of the adult, male population. It usually comes out as sort of a stuttery, disdainful , snort. Something like "duh duh duh dress?!!" the last part rising in volume and pitch until it reaches the proper "are you freaking kidding me?" level. For some reason, maybe it was the seitan and mellow vibe of the place. I caught myself thinking "oooooh thats cute!" Shocked, I began a furious argument with me on all the reasons dresses are sooooo not us. "Dresses need cute shoes!" I blurted "Cute shoes are usually uncomfortable!" Me countered with " Look around , there are Birkies , flip flops and clogs...oh and over there some old keds decorated with marker." "Yeah but..." I stuttered "Dresses are for occasions." Me said "Summer is an occasion." "Dresses are so not us!" I whined. "Maybe they should be." reasoned Me. Who continued with " Look how , easy, breezy, cover girl that one over there is." Pouting, I looked. Girl friend had her dreds up in a cute head scarf, no make up, a floor length floral cotton shift and some rainbow flip flops. And all of a sudden it did make sense to me then. I love ease, I love comfort, I NEED cool, I hate outfits that need to be matched. What could be easier than one piece of clothing? I have flip flops for heavens sakes. I had been enlightened. So with this in mind and not ready or willing to face any more neon lit, multi mirrored changing rooms, I went home and ordered three sundresses from my favorite catalog( Athleta.com) I am giddy with my girlishness and I LOVE my new dresses. I even threw one on to buy celery the other day. Its a new me!

Scenes...

The heat has arrived already this year and with it, snakes, baby turtles, fresh tomatoes, and some kick ass roses! Under the water trough only a week ago was a beautiful coral snake, I admired him, then "helped" him to a new location with my buggy whip....I may not have been so gallant had I known how deadly they are, apparently full of a potent neuro toxin...greeeaaaaat! I hope he stays relocated! The pic above is of a corn snake I spied driving. He was pretty and NOT deadly! The roses are wild ones who, thanks to our regular doses of dog poop are splendid this year...We had no idea they where even there last year as not one bloom all season, but as we sling our puppy fertilizer over in that clump of weeds? Well now.... I am envisioning a cottage industry.wink wink. Bloom poo? Rose refuse? Shloses? Roshit? There is catchy name out there somewhere..grin! The deer has been a regular for a few months now and even samples chicken scratch that is exposed when I push the tractor to fresh grazing areas. I never found the pot of gold in my garden shed but thats ok, because with honeysuckle perfuming the air and firefly escorting me home on my walks I feel pretty darned lucky as it is.

Mommys Day

This is for my Moomsie. Its a rose in my garden. Roses aren't my moms favorite flower and yet I have gotten her countless rose bushes over the years, bouquets, silk roses, paper roses, even chocolate roses. Why, if they are not her favorites? Because roses, it is said signify love and I buy in to that. I love my Mommy! Tim and I have this half serious on going argument about who has the best Mommy. It usually starts with a story from our childhood and ends with "That's why I have the best Mommy in the world!" Then the remaining one of us pipes up with our fondest memory and we go on and on , back and forth until a concession is reached. Something like " Yeah, your Mommy is good too!" What is amazing about these "Mom wars" Is the fact that we have so much "ammo"...Poignant, funny,touching, silly,scary,wonderful memories of Mom. Its hard to believe that there is only one actual holiday on the calender set aside for all this remembering. I say if you have the best mommy in the world (and you don't 'cause mine holds that title) there should be little celebrations everyday in her honor. If chocolate reminds you of your Mom then have a piece and enjoy a memory. A big, fat, cinnamon, dulce latte? Java to you , Mom! A fifth of whiskey and a new tattoo? Cheers, Mom! Me, I'll keep trying to win at Mom wars and enjoy the roses. Happy Mothers Day Ma! I couldn't love you any more. xoxoxoxo Doobs

Eggsactly

What is the proper number of chickens for a family of two to have? A family of two egg eaters that is......I'm not sure I know. Math never was my strong point but I felt certain that the formula I had worked out was about perfect last time I ordered peeps =4 of the breed you really want plus 4 more of a breed that looks interesting and lays pretty eggs plus 4 more to fill the minimum order subtract the 6 that will most likely die during the growing up process and you should be left with two of each equaling 6 chickies which means 4 to 6 eggs a day which equals one fritatta and two omelets a week or 4 dozen Christmas cookies or several cakes and lots of egg salad or enough eggs for you to give away a dozen a week or so. As you can see this formula should have been full proof. So here we are almost 10 months later after driving chickens through intolerable heat, housing them in a horse trailer,then a chicken tractor, giving two away that where egg eaters and two more due to my guilt over the crowding and I still have two many chickens. Predation has been a non issue thanks to the every sturdy chicken tractor, the sheer cussedness of these three breeds have kept them healthier than any chickens Ive owned in the past. Don't get me wrong, I wish no harm on the little darlings, its just they are mucking with my formula! So I have decided that 4 more must go. I will do this two at a time just in case somewhere in the dwindling numbers perfection is reached! So the dilemma becomes, multi colored, multi sized eggs or favorite breed. Yesterday it was multi colored eggs until I noticed two of the favorelles plucking tail feathers from my dorkings( my favs!) So today, its favorite breed. The favorelles( interesting with pretty eggs) and the auracanas(fillers) must go. I take the favorelles to a client Sunday and the auracanas get a stay of execution as it where to see if 6 is the magic number. But one egg pecking, feather plucking, misstep and those hens are history baby!

kitty horse

So much has been going on to blog about and I say to myself, "ohh i gotta write that down.." then you know how it goes. We have been enjoying some great weather here lately so I can blame my lack of blogdates on that...that and reading other peoples blogs! grin. On to the recap! The best current event being that Tim was out in CA. visiting his family and packaging my new business venture, Amerika the riding simulator. She was shipped tuesday and should be here Monday, I cant wait for her to arrive! A huge thank you to clan Collins, who with out even a bribe, worked their hineys off to make it all happen. its good to have brothers and nephews!



Leelee, our rotten kitty has had some adventures of late, both involving neighboring kitties. Several weeks ago, one night, I heard a commotion on the porch. I see a grey blur, shooting up the sides of the screens, slamming into the glass door, and generally flying about like a pin ball. "What in THE world?" ( notice the southern emphasis on the word "the" pronounced"thee" not "thu") So out I went to investigate. The first thing I noticed was the God awful smell. Smell emanating from the streams of cat poop decorating the walls, screens , floor and yes, ceiling of our porch. She had suffered a bowel emptying fright that was for sure. I peered out into the darkness and heard some creature scamper into the weeds. Now unbeknownst to kitty head she is perfectly protected on the porch...locked in if you will. From where she sat in the portico I don't think she felt that way. It took her a good 10 minutes to come down, she hissed and spat and growled the whole time we mopped cat poopy off the walls. The next morning however she had undergone a change, she was happy to be petted on. Dare I say she was even a bit clingy. You know, like most grateful pets. Well, I really felt we turned a corner there in our cat/human relations. So flash forward a few weeks and I hear a cat fight out front. I look out to see two, big , strange cats in quite a tussle,then from the bottom of the pile of writhing fur pops leadens head. My neighbors got an earful , as I hit the stairs bellowing all kinds of cuss words in bare feet. The two big cats went left and Lee lee went right. I gave chase to the interlopers in hopes of imprinting on their feline brains that this yard was not a nice place to be. After I had sufficiently dispatched them into the weeds, I turned to locate Leaden. Scanning the yard, I see her, in the middle of the pond! She is paddling like a pro towards the far bank. "Hmmm, a water escape, very clever, young skywalker. Cats avoid water mostly, excellent plan. EXCEPT you too are a cat!". So I called to her,like she would come back. And she did! She swam an about face and headed to the shore by me. I tried to focus on the fact that she was doing quite well and ignore the "Jaws" music that had began to play in my head. Who knows what lurks in the depths of that pond...caymans, snapping turtles, nessy....one can only imagine! I did, oh, I did in those moments before her paws hit dry land. So I offered what any empathetic human would offer when faced with a pathetic, sodden, little body, I scooped her up thinking to comfort. Er, wrong move, she was mad! Mad about the fight, mad about the swim, mad about the soddenness of her little kitty self. She growled and grumbled and spat, and only let me get half way back to the house before it became very perilous for me to persist in the comforting. She continued to grumble as she did the step, paw shake, step, back to her porch and her bed. I tried again a bit later with a towel and received a puncture for my ministrations. But I did leave the towel for her in the sun and she continued her grooming on it at least. Again our relationship changed. She kept her distance all day, looking hooded and cautious. But by morning, the affection was double. You would have thought I was gone a week with the greeting I got. My ankles actually began to chafe from the exuberant twining of cat body. So we have settled into our new routine, that involves my morning tea with lee lee on her porch before i release her to the wilds of our yard. Its nice to have a cat again not the Tasmanian devil I thought we where stuck with for the next 14 or 15 years!