Monday Visual

And then there was sun for TWO DAYS...

I had fun!

GREAT Weekend!

OH how the sun was so bright this weekend!  While I normally feel the wind burn on my face it was the sun today, that made me stop; take a deep breath, and just stand there, such simple enjoyments have been rare in our reasonable but wet winter thus far.

My morning started with my daily grind.

Unplugging the boots, and pulling on clothes that no one else would possible want, or ever be caught dead in much less out in public as I do.  I know! I can be such an embarrassment to my dear love, and my family!   But... I'm working after all...

  Un-plugging the boots? you ask... YES ... While I allow electronics (dvd players, tivo?down to a food processor) to weight the boat of someone else I use and keep the things EVERYONE (who is out in real weather) should have.

I plug up my boots at any point they are not on my feet.   DRY STICKS... while there are several on the market now... I have had mine quite some time.  I love them and recommend them to anyone and everyone.  Here are mine... the DRY STIX  a life savor!  Try cabalas as a start! dry stix

While my boots are not wet EVERYday they are most days, and when not wet... you can bet they are still going to be cold.  I can't stand starting out my day with the only thing cold on my body are my toes...





While I have been void of pictures as of late... I made sure to get shots of my goals for the day. so here you go... after the norm... I made it to the truck!
Yesterday I unloaded and re-loaded the truck...
not a big deal... your right! but it was a good workout!

Today I started with the re-load of yesterday...

(You gotta love my NEW dent! ) a reference to previous post I didn't have a picture for!

Jan. 23rd, Truck story!

I got the truck UN-Loaded and slowly but surely got it RE-Loaded yet again...   After all I do have plenty of this stuff!    I do actually layer it as I put it down in my compost area.  An area... full of leaves (for dry) and twigs ( to make sure it gets air)  layer layer layer... but next year ALL this hard work will pay off as a wonderful garden!

So I finished the day with a larger deeper, fuller load to un-load ... when ever I get the chance OR the husband gets tired of the smell!   Although I do have to say... having it in the BLACK truck for the winter quickens the process UNLESS it's too wet like it is this year!   Normally I can leave it in there for winter and it's almost ready by spring.  HEY!  have you ever tried to drive mountain roads with no weight in the back of a long bed truck?   If not!  then you need to try to before knocking what ever FREE RESOURCE I have!

I do everything I can with as little as possible... it leaves me money for animals, travel, and other passions in life.

Dreams about our estate.

OK before I even scan any of my saved pictures... you have to understand I have dreamed of land, and a way of life sense I was a little girl.  Very little has changed over time... believe it or not the things that have changed are to be more simplistic instead of more show/ glamorous.

I collect articles, books, pictures or anything I can get my hands on that remotely inspires my dream.  When I can't sleep I rummage through my magazines, books and torn pages in file folders.

Here are just a few....   But I must give credit where credit is due.   2006 February... Architectural Digest
I saw this at a friends house and went out to purchase the magazine for my files.

Why... because this is the PERFECT art studio or guest house.    Can you imagine visiting the mountains and being nestled into the side of mountain like this picture.  The FAR west side of our estate only has the PERFECT site for such a cute little place.  Because of the grade it would require something on stilts...Thus the tree house or the Bora Bora style hut will be in the plans...   YES ONLY IN MY DREAMS!   I don't even have a house for me there YET.

The typical French Polynesian hut is only 20x 20 but so well organized you could live it!  So close to Japan I can only imagine they had the best of help setting them up.   Check it out!

Best Hotel in years past.   They have great pictures on their site it is a fun in office/home get away. And is a perfect example of a dream hut on property...  Oh yea! by the way this is MY picture, not from their site, you can tell by the trash in the trash can. ha ha ha... not to mention my lathe and toiletry bag hanging from the mirror!

Asheville NC and Fodor

Fodor  known worldwide for it's recommendations, I've trusted a few of my off the wall, out of the way vacations to this company so they normally know EXACTLY what they are talking about.

They hit (Asheville North Carolina) the nail on the head this time.

While the article gushes about the combinations of our vibrant destination with natural beauty.

It stresses the Unique mix of urban shopping and outdoor activities...

How Asheville is always listed as being in the top 20 city destinations in the U.S. but this time beat out places like Morocco and Nicaragua which are always contenders on a world wide scale.

How our city has been noticed by the New York Times, and the "other" Travel info company Frommers.

But as with ALL of my conversations about our little city... it ended the article quoting FORBES as naming Asheville as being among the WORST JOB MARKETS in the COUNTRY!

I had to post our little front page article...

While people love it here... if you are not bringing money into our town... don't stay! ha ha ha...

Just another day.

OK. so I am having problems with my fence.  Apparently Navarre has enough hair he could care less about my electric fence!

I am going to bring the unit home, trickle charge it through the night and see if this helps keep him in an area.

Mean while  I gave up... allowing the horses to eat my precious grass no matter how badly I wanted to save it for later in the winter.  It is what it is but... the horses are happy today, they may suffer later but they are not children to be taught lessons of cause and effect.  I will just have to figure out something else to keep him occupied

Navarre is one of the hardest horses to keep!   he will eat till he dies if you let him! And like a pig he is always into something!   At least cattle take time to chew their cud.   What to do with a kid that is ADD..... truly this is how I see my horse... he has to have a job or be eating!

Truck again.

truck died on me last night... hoping to make it into town to a dealer, after I walk ( I need the exercise) to pick it up ... down the road in the normal failing place.  just on the corner of Miller and 74.

Blanking  truck!

My guy has no idea what else it could be, so fresh eyes...
Truck is 1/2 Full of Manure... we shall see if they take it at the dealer ha ha ha...

reflections.

I'll try anything once... 

always make sure to take emergency food, but make sure it is something the locals will not beg for... Sardines  do the trick for me! 

Ok... Dogs in the grocery store just... crack me up! 

always have fun!

Make sure your are comfortable when traveling abroad... you may be there a while.

my fav. fruit

Playing in running lava... 

love is in the air... 

Life is good... sometimes you just have to reflect to bring the sun in on such a wet, cold, rainy ? sorry now snowing day... 

What great days have you created? 

horses?

Life is good today... only rain no snow yet!

Having said that the "kids" broke through the fence to get to the newly sewn pasture.  The green grass was just too much for Navarre to resist.

As I encouraged them back into their muddy lot this morning... Sweetpea JUMPED the fence so she didn't have to touch it.  Navarre, he has got to be the one destroying my electric fencing, he is after all the one driven more by his stomach than his brain.

So this afternoon in the rain... I shall be repairing the silly electric fence once again.

Life! It never stops! At least I have one heck of an outer fence... I've not seen them getting out of the five foot 12 steel cabled fencing YET!  But I would not put it past Sweetpea to jump it if she feels like it.  She is my little athlete after all.  He is my piglet.

Mondays are quickly paced days... so I thought I would try something new.

THUS.... my experiment. 

A visual of my past two weeks. 

So much so little time.

I have not blogged sense Tuesday.

It is late for me, but I quickly posted a status on Facebook as it takes only a moment, doesn't require any photos... and you never know who is reading this blog anyway.

I started the blog in order to stay close to my family, that lives hours away, and as my animal house/ no I meant house of animals grows; my time away is shorter and fewer than years past.

I did get the truck out of the shop!  Only to get it stuck within hours of getting it home.  I demolished a fence, dented up the entire drivers side of the truck from rear bumper to the front quarter panel.   Dear, dear... I shall never be able to sell it now!  Not that was ever in my mind, but... she will forever be a farm truck!
She sits in my drive way tonight, with a long bed FULL of horse manure!   It has already frozen the bed and will be there until I have at least a week above freezing AND the TIME to shovel it all out again!

I did have help before the weekend!  I got a few bails of hay to the barn, from the storage barn! got a bed load of manure taken down to the garden area, for composting, got several more mats leveled off and placed in the dry lot

Only to TRY to get the truck stuck later that same night.... having to ask for more help to get my helpers back home.

The next morning the ground was so frozen the truck easily drove out of its angled/ tilted/ leaning on my fence spot .... the ground has sense been frozen and I haven't been able to repair my poor fence, but its day will come.

PICTURES>  yes... the incredible person that I am... I grabbed the camera early to get the truck.  Took pictures of it stuck, took pictures of the SLIDE marks .... took pictures of EVERYTHING... only to look at the back of the camera... AFTER I was DONE... as it was flashing NO CARD/ NO CARD...

sometimes I just have to laugh at myself.

Silly me! life does happen.  And sometimes you just have to roll with it.