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Sunday, October 14, 2012

Busy Weekend ...

Saturday morning, I got up and went out back and started chopping away.  I initially started that project to trim the dead branches that are hanging into Kahlua's stall (the old pig pen), but that part is still not done.  Lots of other stuff got done, though.

Started chopping away with the recip saw and made a huge mess.


I wanted to get a jump on the wind ... it blows in and knocks down all the dead branches.  So I sort of did it for it.


Besides, I needed the firewood for next weekend.


Lots to chop up.


See the dying, diseased peach tree?


I sawed away at this for a long time ... and couldn't believe I couldn't get it to fall.  Finally threw a rope around it (ok, it was a longline leash) and yanked it down.


Done!  If you can tell, it forms a "V".  I cut the other end of the "V" down last year, and it grew back like gangbusters ... so if any part of this tree comes back next year, I might keep it around.  If not, I'll chop the rest of this up when I get a chainsaw ... or a guy with one. 


A bit of the "after" photo ... but not quite done yet.  Will finish it during the week.


Got a great deal on a full set of shipping boots!  She will ride in comfort this weekend.  These are so fuzzy and padded, I almost wanted to wear them myself!


Busted tail on the trailer today.  Needed to figure out how to hand that door organizer.  My wall on the door is a single wall, so I can't just stick a screw through it, so I had to screw through the double thick support bar up top there.  This was nothing short of a pain in the ass.  Anytime a screw is involved, you can count on me to screw that up.  There's about six holes instead of just 4.


More screwing.  But I bought one of these 25 gal. water things ... I cannot believe how well they fit and how they fill up that dead little space right there!  I love this thing already and I haven't even put water in it yet!  This will come in real handy this weekend.  The water at the campground comes out at a trickle.  It's nice that they have it there, but it takes forever to get even just a couple of buckets of water out of it.


Got the trailer cleaned out, organized and ready to go.

And here is the handsome ram lamb ... who is not so little anymore.  And those horns suck.  But he's a very sweet guy (for now) and I love his build.


Here's where I'm keeping Kahlua.  This is my old pig pen. 


I closed off access to the structure itself because the floor is not able to support her weight, and
besides, I don't think it's tall enough anyway.  I might have someone build an extension on it, though, to give her some cover.



And here is my favorite tree around here.  It belongs to my next door neighbor.  At one point they were talking about chopping it down.  I really hope they don't.  It's an amazing tree.

So I am now down 23 lbs. total!  I'm pretty excited about it since I am completely just changing the way I eat, and not considering this a temporary "diet."  What's really scary is I've been going on the websites of the various fast food "restaurants" and checking out the nutrition labels for each of their sandwiches and things.  Holy smokes!  No wonder why most of America is obese or more.  There are so many people out there who are feeding that crap to their children on a continual basis to where those children do not choose to eat anything healthy, i.e. vegetables, when offered an option.  It's very sad.  I'm not much of a fast food eater, and can take it or leave it, so it wasn't a big deal for me to give that up.  What was a much bigger deal for me to give up was the homemade bread.  That was nothing short of an addiction for me (in hindsight).  But ... alas, I haven't had a soda or made a loaf of bread since the end of August, and I think I've only had a Subway sandwich twice because of the craving for bread.   I think I'm past it.  I think.

I am trying to be of the mindset that there is no turning back now, and looking forward to being a normal size one day.  I'd love to be able to walk into any old clothing store and find something that fits ... and looks halfway decent.

And I don't want to look like any of the enormous people I've been seeing lately.  THAT much I do know.

Friday, October 12, 2012

Nothing, really.

I haven't been blogging, and really don't have anything to blog about.  My son has my camera, so the only photos I'm taking are with my lousy phone, or Jaenne's little point and shoot when I remember to take it with me.  I really need to buy a nice little point and shoot. 

Believe it or not, I've been working dogs a bit.  Put Cruz on stock a few times, and he's proven to be quite a bit of dog ... on sheep.  Cows?  Different story.  Apparently, those things are very scary!  I'm going to continue working him on sheep and getting a hold of him ... cause for now, he's not concerned about anyone else in there with him.  We need to change that.  I don't want to be stitching sheep.

Work is kicking my butt.  Especially now since it's getting dark much earlier.  I come home from work, and get as much stuff done as possible while it's light out.  I love fall ... really ... it's my favorite season ... I just hate losing daylight.  Oh, and the weather is gorgeous!  Perfect riding weather, but I'm stuck at work. 

Last weekend, Colleen was down.  We hiked out at Rabbit Creek.  What a nice area!




Then Karen and I took the horses to Wilson Creek.  It was packed.  The staging area was full of horse trailers, and the lower one was full of ATV trailers.  And there was no shortage of hunters in the area.  I was wearing red, but no one had anything bright orange, so we were pretty conscious about where we were going.  Also ran across a very cute, little, although very mad, rattlesnake.  He was old enough to rattle, so wasn't as dangerous as the "strike-first-ask-questions-later" babies, but his rattle was pretty small.  Didn't think to get a picture of it, probably just because my camera phone sucks.

Here's Karen.


She was a ton of fun to ride with!  Can't wait to go again.

 Oh, we are!  We're going to go ride way back into Rabbit Creek this weekend.  There are several trails back there that are not designated for motorized vehicles, so hopefully we can get away from the ATV's a bit.

And here's Kahlua after our last ride .... after I rinsed her off.  She was a sweaty dirty mess.


We're getting ready for our camping trip to Idaho City next weekend.  Can't wait to explore the mountains behind there!  Hopefully the weather stays clear. 

J

Friday, September 28, 2012

One month in ...

... and 19 lbs. down!  Plenty more to go.  But what better way to celebrate than sushi for dinner with my gorgeous son (who lost about 80 lbs. himself), and a drink with a drop-dead gorgeous firefighter/cowboy?

Looking forward to a great day!  ;-)


Saturday, September 22, 2012

Thursday, September 20, 2012

I love you, Jeff.

And I SO wish I could tell you that.  Even though that's the last thing I said to you, I would literally give my left arm for one more day with you.  It's been a year, and it's hard to believe.  The pain is as raw as if it was yesterday. 

I want you back.  I just plain want you back.  That's all.


Sunday, September 16, 2012

Cowboy Campground!

Colleen came down this weekend, and Emily and I took her horseback riding up in Idaho City.  We camped out at the Cowboy Campground ... what a cool place!  It has corrals, water for the horses, an arena to work the horses in, a round pen, etc.  Loved it!  We will definitely be going back soon.


I didn't have a camera on me, so I just snapped a couple of lousy photos with my phone.  I'll spare you those. 

In the meantime, I sold my other saddle, and got myself a killer deal on a Circle Y trail saddle, which I love!  Seems to be fitting Kahlua really well also.


The job is keeping me busy, and I'm doing pretty well with changing my eating habits.  Feels good to be down a few pounds and fit into some jeans that haven't fit me in months!  Very encouraging. 

More later.

J

Thursday, September 13, 2012

KIVA ... Again ...

Hey Kiva, look!  You get to have yet another litter, even though you suck on stock! 

YOUR NEW LITTER

Why is that?  I'm not sure.  Probably because there are people out there breeding Border Collies for everything under the sun except working ability.

Sad.

Again, I'm so sorry, Kiva.  I wish I had it to do all over again.  How different things would be.