Grammys Corgi Country

I just came in from feeding the horses, and it is so beautiful out there!!! There is a full moon out tonight, and it is that special “perigee” moon… supposedly, the biggest of the year, because it is closer to the earth than usual. (See the following website for more info: http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20090109/sc_space/saturdaynightspecialbiggestfullmoonof2009 ) It is also very clear out here for a change. It has been so foggy for so long, that it seems even clearer than usual, I think. I didn’t even have to turn on the floodlight to be able to feed.

I would really love to be able to stay out there and just sit at the picnic table we have out in the back patio, but it is just TOO COLD!!! I know… many of you are in really cold areas of the country (or world) but, for this area, it is cold. Actually, its colder tonight BECAUSE it isn’t as foggy as it has been.

I had gone out earlier and set it up so that I just had to open a couple of the corrals to let the horses eat. I had fed them outside of the pens earlier, put their evening feed in the pens and then shut the gates so that they couldn’t reach it until I opened them. It made it a lot faster and easier tonight.

I got a new digital camera for Christmas, so have been taking pictures, and today I got a chance to download them and work on them so that I can use them when I post. It sure takes a lot of time to put 100 pictures in Photoshop, crop and resize them and adjust the brightness and contrast, but at least you should be able to see more of what’s going on out here now. Hope you’ve liked the pics I’ve been able to add the past week or so.

I want to thank all of you that have been praying for my daughter-in-law. She has double pneumonia, has had to be put back on the ventilator machine, and is being kept under heavy sedation so that she won’t keep waking up and fighting. The doctors feel that she needs total rest to have a chance to recuperate. Please continue to keep her and her family in prayer, as this is very traumatic for them.

It’s almost midnight here now, so I’d better close and get this online so I can get the pictures added to it and get it posted. Hope you are having a good weekend. May God continue to bless you…

Today, I had a doctor’s appointment in the late afternoon and we got home about an hour after dark… to a completely dark house… It turns out that somehow (the electric company didn’t say) the power lines were down and it would be several hours before they got them running again. No electricity, no computer… AND, since we don’t have gas out here, NO anything else either (like a way to cook, etc.)

Of course, we have backup plans, like an emergency, battery-powered light that is plugged in at all times and automatically comes on if the power goes off. It lasts about an hour, so we had time to run around and gather up the candles, flashlights and hurricane lamps that we also keep for emergencies.

I made a quick dinner of cold sandwiches and then went out and fed the horses. The flood lights for the back were off, so for a while, I had to juggle a flashlight and the hay, but at least I HAD a flashlight and hay to feed. While I was out there, my son started to come out to help, but he got his foot caught on something and took a pretty hard fall off the step from the washroom into the enclosed patio. He got bloodied up, even through his clothes, on his arm and knee, and pulled some muscles in his calf and the back of his knee, but did come out anyway and help me feed.

We came back in, hunted up the emergency First Aid kit, got him cleaned up and then settled in the recliner chair in the living room with an ice pack on his knee and some ibuprofen to, hopefully, help keep his knee from becoming to inflamed and swollen.

Even though it was only 9:30, I went in and went to bed (Hubby had done that just after we ate, so didn’t know any of this) I turned on the light switch so that when they finally got the electricity on, it would wake me up, and that happened a little after midnight, so here I am, finally getting to type this.

It is interesting, though, because I had planned, during the drive home, to write about light tonight. We had driven past a church, on the way home, that had a message board outside that said, “Dusty Bibles lead to dirty lives.” I had been thinking about that and what Psalms 119: 104 & 105 says: “I gain understanding from your Words, therefore I hate every wrong path. Your Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” Little did I know that I was going to get a real example of that about 45 minutes later when I got home.

It seemed to bring home to me that if God’s Word is “Light” and we don’t use it to light our life’s pathway, then we will end up falling and getting dirty and/or hurt, but if we do use it, we will have a lighted way before us and be able to go around most of the pitfalls that we come upon. One thing that I noticed though, is that a candle or lamp doesn’t light very far in front of you… just enough for a few safe steps at a time. I think I even remember a book about something like that by Stormie O’Martian called, “Just Enough Light for the Step I’m On.”

I read a blog about this very thing yesterday (See A Corgi in Southern California in my blogroll)… Do you think maybe God is trying to be sure He gets my attention on this subject? I already read my Bible daily, and have for many years, because my Mom had been an excellent example of someone who does that. One of my fondest memories is of laying in bed, listening to her read her Bible to my Dad one night. (He read, and was a brilliant man… they were just sharing this together).

Anyway, maybe I was just supposed to share these important insights with others or something, but I will definitely keep thinking about this, because God got my attention!!!

Note: You never know when an emergeny will crop up, so be prepared with flashlights (and batteries if needed… some of ours are windup), candles, First Aid Kit (kept up, not USED up already), etc.

Keep the light on in your life, so that you will walk in safe paths, and have a great day!

Getting old can be a pain … Literally… especially in the winter! Oh, that we had the wisdom, when we are young, to take care of our bodies and our health! The problem with wisdom, in most cases, is that it comes from making mistakes. There are some things that I would change if I could, and others that I know I wouldn’t have changed for anything, over the years.

I’ve ALWAYS been a big, solid female, but the sin of gluttony is one that I’ve always had trouble with. If it tastes good, then I don’t have a tendency to stop at a healthy amount. I’ve been working on that a lot more, the last several years, but that does seem to be my “prevailing” sin… at least that is what I think they call it. That might not be the right name for it, but what the word I’m looking for means, is that everyone has some kind of sin that keeps hounding them throughout their whole lives… something that they have to fight all the time to be living the way the Bible tells us that God wants us to live.

Because I’ve given in to that tendency, I now have to sow what I’ve reaped all these years in health problems (diabetes, sore feet, asthma, hip and back problems, etc.). As I’ve brought myself more and more under the health rules I should have been following, more and more of these things are clearing up, or at least improving a lot! As you can see, I’ve gotten wisdom the hard way…

One thing I wouldn’t have changed is working with horses for so many years. If you love horses and work with them for any length of time, you WILL get hurt every once in a while. Somewhere along the line, you will get stepped on, shoved down or into something, bucked off, a rope burn, etc. Even the most solid, gentle horse can get spooked by something, have another horse knock into it, get tripped, step in a hole, etc.

If you train horses, of course, it is even more likely that you will run into a problem that can cause an injury.
As you get older, some of those old injuries tend to turn into joint problems. Still, I wouldn’t trade my time with the horses I’ve known in my life (at least most of them) for anything.

A few young people talk with, and learn from, older people and they don’t have to make many of the mistakes that were made by those people who have gained wisdom with their age. Unfortunately, way to many young people now-a-days, don’t take the time, or don’t have the opportunity, to talk to the many wise older people out there. I was blessed with parents that taught me the wisdom of spending time with older people and, though I didn’t always take their advice (which is a typical young person’s way) I did learn a lot from them and didn’t have to make many of the mistakes my friends did.

Many of the friends I’ve had that are my age, look and feel much older than I do, because they “did their own thing…” and didn’t listen to their parents or other people. Many have even died for lack of wisdom. Getting old may be a pain, but it also has its joys, and the more wisdom you gain when young, the more joy you will have when you get older.

If you are a young person, find a wise older one (not ALL older people are wise…) and spend time talking to them, or, even more importantly, listening to them, about some of your questions. If you are older, make friends with a young person so that you are available IF they want to ask for advice, or so that you can model wisdom in your life for them to see… and remember, older people can sometimes learn from their young friends, too!

Well, Praise God… so far the news is pretty good for my Daughter-In-Law. She is doing much better than expected for what was going on. She is still in the Critical Care Unit, but things are starting to look up. She and their family will continue to be in the rest of the family’s prayers.

I spent quite a while on the phone keeping family members updated, because, though we live so far apart, when a problem comes up, we all pray together… Thank God for phones and email, because we’ve all been “Reaching out to touch each other…” as the old phone commercial said. This way, my oldest son can get the news and updates out without having to do it all himself when he has so much other stuff to take care of for his girls and his wife.

I don’t know about the rest of you out there, but I’ve let a lot of chores go over the holidays, and now it’s catch up time. At least now that the water is on again, I don’t have to take all the extra time to haul buckets of it to places it was needed… Take a minute and think about not having running water for a several days. It makes it very hard to do a lot of “simple”, everyday things like cleaning your hands, your body, and your dishes, not to mention flushing. You have to haul in water to do all that, and then heat the water you haul because you can’t use the water heater. It really is time consuming, if not very difficult. I am totally thankful for running water… especially HOT running water!!!

Feeding the horses and watering them also takes some time, because a couple of them are over 20 and when it is very cold, like it has been, I try to make sure they get a hot mash of wheat bran, sweet feed, carrots and alfalfa pellets everyday or two.

I give it to them with their late evening feed so it helps them to warm up a little more from the inside out, gives them the extra carbs they need to produce energy for heat, and helps keep them hydrated. Sometimes horses don’t want to drink very cold water, so the gallon or so of warm water they suck up with their mash helps with that, too.

They get about a quart of each ingredient mixed together, and then I add hot water and let it set for about ½ hour to soak the water into the grain and bran, and to cool down enough so that it is fairly warm to the touch, but not to hot when I put it into their feeders. They LOVE it!!! I just have to watch because the dogs like to sneak in a “taste test…”

Another thing that takes a lot of extra time is cutting wood for the wood stove to help keep it at least close to 60 in the house when it’s close to 30, give or take 5 degrees, outside. At least the Corgis and Sadie help with gathering up the cut pieces and bringing them in.

With all this AND getting things ready for Christmas, the chores have backed up as I mentioned before. One thing about Corgis and other dogs with heavy undercoats is that the dust bunnies breed around here like RABBITS… Wonder if that is why they are called “Dust Bunnies…” Sadie has been herding them and bringing them to me a lot lately… I wonder if she is hinting. I probably had better get out the vacuum before she starts getting hairballs again.

Well, hope that your life is getting back to normal. I’m just thankful that I have a good house, wood to cut, enough horse feed, running water, and a couple of dogs that like to earn a little extra jerky by helping me clean house.

Today was cold and wet. We got more rain and a lot of mist, which will be very good for the grain we had planted in the pasture last week. I hope that this will keep up, off and on, for the next month or two, and we should get a very nice harvest.

Unfortunately, for the Corgis, we weren’t able to take them out to the park as we had planned. Corgis are a bit on the short side (very little ground clearance) and running in wet grass leaves about half of their body wet, and, like I said, it was COLD out here today.

We ended up staying at home and watching the first season of “Eureka” DVD’s that I had gotten Hubby for Christmas. It’s a pretty interesting show, I think. We like Sci-Fi books, movies, and TV shows, and this one has all of the things we like in it… good character interaction, humor, new and interesting story concepts. That last is one thing that is often lacking in so many of today’s shows. Too many are sort of “reruns” of other shows with different people playing the same parts and having the same basic storyline.

That is also a BIG part of the problem with so many of the movies they make today. Half the time, the producers seem to think that making an old movie over and just making it bloodier, sexier, or scarier is a good thing. We don’t go to the show very often anymore, and THAT is one of the main reasons.

Another problem is that someone will decide that some book is good enough to make into a movie… often an old classic book that is really well loved, with a great storyline and message, but then they decide to “change” it until it hardly resembles the original story! THAT is very irritating! For instance, “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” was done very well and followed the storyline almost perfectly. We, and everyone else that I heard that saw it, were thrilled with it. THEN, they decided to make a sequel, and they DID NOT follow the storyline nearly as well, and made it more of a war story. The original storyline had a really good message to it, but that barely came through in the “Prince Caspian” movie.

At least it wasn’t as bad as the second Batman movie with the Penguin… I think there were a BUNCH of parents that were upset with that movie, as it had been advertised through McDonald’s and most thought it was supposed to be a family movie… I grabbed my kids and WALKED OUT about a quarter of the way through that trash!

We NEED more good family movies with storylines that are encouraging to people who go and pay good money to watch them… things like “Sea Biscuit,” “The Incredibles,” “Beverly Hills Chihuahua,” all of the Veggie Tales Movies, and “Cars.” Movies that older kids and families can watch like, “Ironman,” “Spiderman,” etc. are also great… They didn’t use a lot of blood and guts or foul language in them, but they had great action scenes and stories that weren’t far off the original mark.

That’s the main reason we get movies that we can rent on DVD. WE can pick and choose what WE want instead of having to listen to so much garbage that is on the TV or in so many movies. It’s another example, I guess, of making wise choices of what we put in our brains, as I mentioned a couple of blogs ago.

Have a great weekend…

It’s twenty minutes to midnight and I finally got a chance to sit down at the computer. Christmas is almost over. I just came in from feeding the horses and it is REALLY blowing out there… hard enough that I had to lean to walk against the wind while carrying the hay to Cory’s stall. At least once in the stall, it was nice and cozy, so his hay won’t blow away.

I put Dancer and Tuffy’s hay by some other outbuildings so that they can eat without their hay blowing away either. They do have a stall available, but I’ve only seen them in it when it is really hot and they want to stay out of the sun… I don’t think they like the creaking of the tin walls or something when it’s windy.

The stars shone so brightly that I could see the sweep of the Milky Way, which only happens when it is extra clear and dark. It made me think of a very interesting television show that I watched a few days ago. It talked about this lawyer that had a computer program that star researchers use, and how he had used it, along with all the references in the Bible about the star that the Wise Man followed, to pin-point what he thinks was the Star of Bethlehem. It was a fascinating program, and I plan to purchase it for our Church Library (I’m the librarian.) If you are interested in checking this out, his website is: http://www.bethlehemstar.net/.

It turned out to be quite a day. Last night, at about 1 a.m., I found that there had been a hole in my purse and my lower partial (which I had taken out because of a sore on my gums) had fallen out and the dog (probably Sadie) had chewed them up… This is NOT GOOD!!! I had recently had the dentist check to see how much it would cost to make a new set, and the part we would have to pay, even with the great insurance I have, is WAY more than we could handle. This partial is of the four lower, front teeth, so it is VERY noticeable. I guess I needed to be humbled a little or something. There is nothing I can do about it, so I guess I’ll just have to live with it until the Lord makes a way for me to get some new ones.

I finally got the last gift wrapped and went to bed, and when I got up this morning, my cowboy son called to ask if it was alright if he came by to bury one of their old dogs who had passed away. Cheyenne had been a rescue dog that they had found and befriended a little over 9 years ago. She acted as though she had been abused before they found her and was terrified of most people and just a bunch of skin and bones. My daughter-in-law finally got her trust and, like most abused or neglected rescue dogs, she won the COMPLETE love and devotion of the beautiful animal.

Cheyenne looked as though she was probably a cross between a Golden Lab, and a German shepherd. She looked like a Golden Lab, but with German Shepherd coloration. She was beautiful, and once she learned she could trust some people, she was very sweet, though still a bit wary around strangers. She was really good around my grandson from the time he was born. She was several years old when they took her in, and had been showing her age quite a bit lately. Cheyenne will be greatly missed by those that loved her. My son buried her out in the side pasture where several other doggy friends we’ve had over the years are buried.

The rest of the day went pretty well, though. There was tons of food, (tomorrow, I’ll give you the recipe to Nana’s Candied yams) lots of love, and fun opening, and watching the little kids open, presents. The Corgis helped clean up the wrapping paper, as usual, and enjoyed their jerky treats and the many handouts of food and leftovers during cleanup time.

It’s a good thing they don’t get to eat like that all the time or we’d be rolling them around from place to place. Corgi’s DON’T have very long legs, so if their bellies get to big, they tend to drag the ground… remember the picture of O.C. when she was pregnant with those eight pups?!

I hope your day was a full and satisfying one, and that you were able to give God your problems and count your blessings. .

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope your day was a special one filled with love and joy.

We always go into town to my sister’s house (used to be my mom’s before she left for Heaven), and join with the rest of our extended family for the whole day. There is always a ton of food, (not great for someone who is trying to change their lifestyle away from dwelling on food…) and the company of many friends, as well as family, as people drop by off and on during the day.

Three of my kids will be there this year, and four grandkids, as well as nieces, and grandnieces. The two of my sisters live next door to each other, so all of the dogs come over, too. That’s a minimum of 12 adults, 6 little kids between the ages of one and 8, and 8 dogs. Needless to say, it gets quite crowded at times.

One of my sister’s dogs is a one year old German Shorthair dog that is HUGE. Actually, she belongs to my BIL. She is all legs and energy, and, like most puppies, she’s not always careful about others when she is playing. You have to be careful that she doesn’t knock you “head over heels.” She’s such a silly girl, too, in the way that she drinks water. She puts her head way down to the bottom of the bowl to drink, so she sprays water all over the place when she’s done. She usually ends up having to go outside after a little while, though she has been able to stay longer as she’s grown older and gotten a bit more disciplined (like all pups…)

My sister, the kids call her Mimi, has two little Chihuahua mixes named Dolly and Kisses, and the other sister, the kids call her Naunie, has an older yellow lab named Daisy, and a black and white Shih Tzu named Mia. Our three corgis have all gone to Mimi’s since they were tiny pups whenever we go in, so they play quite well with Dolly and Kisses. None of them are too happy with the bouncing, careening, gigantic (as far as they are concerned) Molly, though.

One of our Christmas traditions is to all sit around the living room before opening presents, and talk with the children about the real reason for the season, and sing some songs, including Happy Birthday to Jesus. I’m writing this on Christmas Eve, so I will have to let you know how the day went in tomorrow’s blog. I’ve got some last minute wrapping to get done tonight.

May the knowledge and joy of what God did when He sent His Son so long ago, bloom like a beautiful rose in your life, and may you have a wonderful, joy filled day. Again, have a very Merry Christmas!

Psalms 19: 1 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands…” and this is exactly how I felt tonight when I went outside to feed the horses. We’ve had a lot of rain lately, so the air is cleaner than it has been in a long time. The moon was non-existent during the time I was out there, and since we live so far away from any town, there was no light to dim the effects of the stars out there tonight. It looked like someone had thrown a bunch of glittering diamonds out on a black velvet cloth.

The constellations (mainly Orion’s Belt from here) were so clear and beautiful, and reminded me of what the shepherds must have seen when they were out watching their sheep at night… Especially since we had seen several flocks of sheep today as we made the hour’s drive to the “big town” to get some shopping done for groceries, horse food, and a couple of frames for some pictures I’ve finished and plan to send as gifts to family.

I was very tired tonight by the time I finally got everything put away, and dinner was made. I finally drug my old body out to feed, looked up and got such a lift! Breathing the clear, clean, cold air, and being greeted by nickering horses really revitalized me. I just had to say a prayer of thanks for this wonderful life that I’ve been blessed with.

When I think that the God that made those glittering gems in the heavens, sent His Son to pay my ticket into heaven because He loved me so much, I am just totally astounded. It is so amazing to be blessed with a wonderful family, so many friends, and to be able to live out here where I feel so close to Him so often. It’s also wonderful to have the corgis and the horses… Yes, I am truly blessed !!!

I know that there are many problems going on in this world, and I’ve had my share of them over the years, but, with God’s help, I’ve always come through the storms of this life. I’ve learned to trust in His love and care.

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May you have a God blessed day, with stars and beauty in your life. If there is a storm raging around you, please keep your eyes on God and trust Him. If you are putting Him first in your life, then He promises to help you through it and bring you to peaceful waters.

Today was a beautiful day, if a little chilly. This afternoon, Honey Bear decided that he wanted to go out for a drive in his 4-wheel drive GMC Sierra pickup because it has rained most of the last several days and he would have a chance to do a little “Mud Bogging…” (Of course, he didn’t mention this to me until we were several miles from home.) For those of you NOT familiar with this redneck term, guys with 4 x 4 vehicles are drawn, as if by a magnet, to any kind of mud puddle, muddy creek bed, thick, oozy boggy area, etc. where they can proceed to try to get themselves stuck… (my point of view, not his… )

He wanted me to go along on this little excursion, and we decided to take the Corgis with us… You see, at the beginning point of this adventure, he said we were “just going to take a little drive, look at the beautiful greenness that is coming up, and find a nice quiet area for the Corgis to run in…” Yeah, RIGHT!!! I should have known better.

As I’ve mentioned a few times before, we live out in the boonies with miles and miles of oilfields and BLM land surrounding us… Lots of room for driving off road or at least on dirt roads, and there ARE some really beautiful little valleys, nooks and crannies that are fun to explore out there in the rolling hills of this area.

Of course, to get to them, on the dirt roads… that have been RAINED on a lot… you have to go through some rather LARGE mud puddles (small lakes filled with thick, sticky mud). We finally got to a beautiful little hidden valley we hadn’t seen before, with several large old oaks growing around in it. Some of the branches had died and broken off, so we also got some more wood for our wood stove. We were able to get out and let the Corgi Crew run their little hearts out.

They are so funny to watch. Dott is the ringleader and instigator, running wildly about sticking her curious little nose into every bush, squirrel hole, rabbit hole, etc. she can find, as fast as she can run. Her ears are rather big and the tips of them tend to flop up and down when she is running fast, and boy, can that little dog fly!!! She has out run Sadie (our Border Collie that is 5 times her size) when chasing a rabbit!!!

Big brother, B.G., tries to follow Dott AND mark everything that is at least 2 inches high in the area, so half the time he is running around on three legs. O.C., their old lady, mama, tries to keep up… for about 3-5 minutes… and then her wise little brain (and bad hips) tells her that it would probably be wiser to just waddle around slowly with Mama.

Of course, eventually Dott found a little runoff area that still had mud in the bottom of it and had to run through it, followed closely by Beeg. Guess they wanted to do some “mud bogging” of their own. Luckily, Hubby had an old towel in the truck to wipe off their little mud covered paws before they got back into the truck cab and onto me!!! O.C. sits beside me on her pillow in the middle. Beeg sits either on my lap or chest, or on Hubby’s lap, and Dottie sits on the back of the seat behind my head on these outings in the truck. She makes a good “headrest.”

After finding several more “little, slick, clay-filled mud puddles” on the way back to fishtail through, we finally got back onto a paved road. As we were leaving the back country, we came across some White Faced Hereford steer calves, so the dogs had fun barking wildly from the truck cab and seeing them run back to their moms. They all recognize the word “cow,” and when we say “There’s a cow,” they know they can “Tell those old cows…” (They really are well trained, and know they can have fun when they are told, but had better pay attention when it’s time to do that…)

It was a fun and relaxing day for my husband who is a wonderful man that works hard to provide for us. I guess I can spend some time every once in a while catering to his whims and joining him in his “version” of fun. What’s a “helpmate” for after all…

Spend some time with someone you love and take time to “smell the roses” (or the mud) today…

Yesterday, I told you about the Tarantula visitor that we found on the wall beside our back door, and mentioned that I’d had a close call with another poisonous spider. A few days ago, I decided to feed the horses a little earlier than normal for their evening feed, so it was still daylight when I opened the trash can that I keep the grain bag in. (It keeps out mice and squirrels.)

In the top of the bag of grain, a big old Black Widow had made a web and was sitting there, right in the middle of the opening. Thank GOD, it was still daylight because usually I go out at night and just stick my hand in with the scoop and get the grain. NOW I make sure that it is light, or I have a flashlight, before sticking my hand in there… It was a good reminder, because during the winter, they like to stay in warm, dark, dry places like that.

Other spiders that I don’t like because they are ugly and scary to me are Wolf spiders, which look like medium sized tarantulas, and attic spiders, whose bodies are about the size of a dime, but their legs are about 2 inches long and very hairy, which makes them very large spiders.

This area has a problem with the Brown Recluse Spider which is quite poisonous. Its bite can cause some major swelling, and ulcers in the area of the bite which leave major scars, as well as nausea, vomiting, and muscle pain. In severe cases, seizures, kidney problem, heart problems, and even death can occur.

We’ve had Black Widows for many years but about 2 or 3 years ago, the news came out with stories about the Brown Widow becoming more and more prevalent in this area. Some articles that I have read say that the Black Widow is more poisonous, while others claim that for the Brown Widow. Both can have serious complications to their bites, though the Black Widow is more aggressive and will protect their web, while the Brown Widow will run.

The problem with the Brown one is that they like to hide in warm, dry spots where you might put your fingers to lift a lid or something. The egg sacks of these two spiders are different as well, with the Black Widow’s sack looking like a smooth ball, while the Brown widow’s looks more like the old mines that they used in the water to blow up subs… sort of a ball with spikes.

If you’re a spider lover, I wish you good spider dreams, and if you aren’t, may the creepy crawlies stay FAR from YOUR door…