Can I just shoot him? PLEASE!?!

This is the pile of tape hanger I removed and have to replace. There are 18 of them.
I'm off to the feed store. For hangers and bullets...

*sigh*

FURBABIES AND MUD-MONKEYS

Tis The Season...

Sing to the tune of "Jingle Bells"

Trudging through the snow, a wheelbarrow full feed
With hay and grain I go, to horses full of need

Blankets covered in poo, Fleece mittens I now don
The filly pooped in the water tub and the chores go on and on

OH! Jingle bells, the barn now smells, hay is running low
I freeze and sweat, supplies I get, the hose is froze I know!

OH! The horses munch, my shoes do crunch, o'er newly fallen snow
Soft nickers, prickly whiskers, it's a perfect life "fo sho!"


Have a VERY Merry Christmas!

Love, Karen and The Gang
(Mike, Kali, Matt, Jasper, Rylee, Fidget, Kiko, Spaz, Lucy, Mya, Foxy, Chili, Angel, Bullwinkle, Jazzy, Kaci, and Millie)

Gramma and Grampa - Together at last

Rayford and Yonnie Stafek


My Dad called yesterday morning and told me that my Gramma had taken a turn for the worse and would probably not live through the weekend. She'd quit eating and drinking four days ago and for the last 24 hours, she'd only laid there and slept. I told Mike and my kids and planned to go over this morning after breakfast and say goodbye and Godspeed, hoping that she could hear me.

My plan failed because I had waited too long. I should have gone right away.

Just before going to bed last night, Dad called and said Gramma had passed. The coroner had been called but hadn't arrived yet, and if I wanted to come say goodbye, I'd better hurry.

I drove through tears to the place she spent her final hours, a lovely, well kept hospice home, freshly decorated for Christmas, that smelled of fresh pine boughs and Cinnamon.

I met my parents in the front room and after hugs and crying, I went into Gramma's room. They had put her teeth in and crossed her hands on her chest. She looked to be sleeping. I was able to spend about 20 minutes with her before they came to take her away. We left immediately, not wanting to watch.

My brothers, sister, and I, and one cousin, were VERY close to our grand-parents. Family, with all it's chaos and dysfunction, was the center of our lives.

Looking back through the years, and at my memories of Gramma, she was always cooking. Dinner, meats, gravy, homemade bread, jams, and pies. Always in the kitchen!

When we were kids in our early teens, we'd make the four hour trip to Salem, OR, for the weekend. In late summer, Gramma would give us all a little bucket, and Grampa would give us each a small piece of plywood, and we'd head down the pasture to the blackberry bush to pick berries for jam and cobbler.

Now, the blakberry bush was huge. As big as a house! It grew along the road and cover the fence. The fence was 15 feet below the level of the road. Standing on the road, the top of the bush was 20 feet higher than the road. The bush itself, was at least 80 feet in diameter. It had been there for as long as we could remember. We'd start at the road, and work our way out onto the bush, picking blackberries and fighting bees as we went, careful not to crest the top of the bush, because that would mean a 40 foot drop to the pasture below.

We'd spend hours picking berries, running up to the house to empty our buckets, then return to the bush to refill. The house would smell like cooking blackberries! We would bring home a box filled with "Gramma Jam".

The picture above is how I remember them always: Gramma smiling and open, Grampa almost embarrassed to be having his picture taken. They are together again at last.

Death

There are no words...

Things that make you say GRRRR!!!

I ordered some alfalfa on Tuesday. "Bring me two ton."

Yesterday, I got a confirmation call saying "We'll be there at 10 am. Will that work for you?" "Of course!" I say.

This morning, I got up, fed horses, cleaned stalls, pretty much puttered around. I came in for breakfast and another cup of coffee. I went back out, moved some hay around and found one bale of alfalfa, and three bales of alfalfa /grass mix that I didn't remember having. It didn't matter anyway, because the stack was on top of it.

So I tossed the kids some alfalfa as a mid-morning snack and waited. And waited. And waited. Finally, I went to the house and it was now 11:15 am. So I called. "Um, I was told yesterday that you'd be delivering my hay at 10:00 am and it's now 11:15. Are you coming? I'm sort of waiting." The gal says "Let me call and see where they are and I'll call you right back."

She called back, "They're in Benton City. They'll be 45 minutes to an hour."

At 12:30 they FINALLY show up. The hay is wet from road spray and rain. AND... (get this) It's the WRONG FRICKIN' (*(*^ &^$%$^% ^*&( HAY!!! They brought me GRASS hay!! W! T! F! Really?

It was pretty hay, but I would have refused it because it was wet. Not putting wet hay in the barn. BUT - I ORDERED ALFALFA!!!

So off the guy went and I came in and called the office. I said, "1) They brought the wrong hay. They're on the way back to get the right hay. 2) If they don't tarp it, I'm going to refuse it. I won't take wet hay. 3) Adjust the invoice to take the pallet deposit off. I'm going to re-stack the bales and send the pallets back with the driver. I figure since I've waited two and half hours, he can wait while I re-stack it.

So I'm still waiting. I figure it's going to be 1:30 before he returns. Hopefully this time, it'll be tarped alfalfa. If not, it's going back and I'll call someone else.

Thanks for reading my vent and please ignore the smoke coming out of my ears!

AT LAST!!! WARM LEGS!!!

A week ago, maybe less, it was brutal cold and I was whining about the need for some fleece leg warmers. The neck socks (actually that's a neck tube I'm modeling above) I bought from Jodi last winter are WONDERFUL in the cold and I thought perhaps some fleece leg warmers would help my lower legs stay a little warmer.

So, handy-dandy talented Jodi whipped out her machine and made me some! Just sitting around the house, I can feel how much warmer my legs are and I can't wait to wear them out to feed in the morning!

THANK YOU JODI!



If you want to order some, I bet Jodi could cook you up some...