cat owners?

Jo left a comment "I have found it to be true that you can never own a cat...they own you." And this is so very, very true. Here is a photo of Murphy, on the left and Jade, on the right. It is a rare sight to see them together but they do it once in a while. Right now Jade is in my lap helping me type.

Black Cats

Our other two cats are solid black. Jade is about 10 years old and Murphy is about 6. For some reason we seen to have black or black and white cats more than any other color. Out of the 18 cats we have had since 1970 when we got married we have had 5 all black cats, 5 black with white feet, 4 Siamese, 2 dark tabbies, 1 gray and white (K.C mentioned in last posting) and 1 white cat. Plus as a child I really remember 1 black and white, and 1 solid gray. But as I am always the first to say to anyone that questions why I get a certain color or what is the best color animal "color doesn't matter - it's the personality, attitude, and trainablity that are the big considerations" . When we get a new pet color seems to be simply the 'luck of the draw'.
So back to Jade and Murphy. Both being black they look a lot a like. Sometimes I have to look twice or even 3 times to see which cat is which. Jade is a female and is slightly shorter than Murphy, and has a shorter tail by about an inch. Murphy has more of a Siamese shape to his head and Jade has more of a round head. Both have yellow eyes.
With her age Jade had become an indoor cat. She is the boss cat, telling the others what to do, and she sleeps with me at night. She can always hear when I get a bowl of cereal and will wait nearby while I eat it and then she expects to have the last little bit of milk.
Murphy seems to want to go out first thing each morning, and loves to bring me a mouse when he can catch one. As much as Murphy seems like a big, strong, outgoing tom cat, when it is cool or at night when he is confined to the house, as all the cats are. (We have coyotes that live around here.) you will find him under the covers on one of the beds. Or if we have the woodstove going he will be laying in front of it. Or if I am sitting in my chair watching TV or reading he will sit on the arm of the chair, look at me, meow, and tap at my arm with a foot. He wants me to get one of the throw blankets to put over him while he lays in my lap. Talk about a spoiled cat! At this time I can't seem to get the photo part of blogspot to work so photos of Jade and Murphy will have to wait for another time.

Cats

I was posting a photo and a little info on each of my 6 horses, 3 dogs, and -opppps - I didn't do the 3 cats. (I think I got sidetracked by the eclipse and the shipwrecks.) We do have 3 cats. Only 3 at this time. The number of cats has varried over the years. We went as high as 7 at one time, but that is way to many for one house. Now we are back to 3 which is a much more managable number to have. I think the first pet I ever had was a dog. A rough coat Collie named Sport. I know there are photos of me with him when I less than a year old. He had been my granddad's dog but when he died just before I was born my parents took him. He wasn't a young dog even then.

After that there were a string of cats. I don't remember them but there were a few photos. I don't know why, but I really love cats. I have done without cats, dogs, and horses, for years on end in my life (and managed to live over it) but I don't think I could ever do without a cat again. I love my horses and dogs dearly but cats are really special. I don't think I have been without a cat since I was about 14 years old. That was a long time and a total of 20 different cats. Some didn't make it very long for one reason or another. But most have lived a long life to go on to a well deserved place in Cat Heaven. Right now we have Jade, K.C., and Murphy. This photo is of K.C. . Eight years ago she came to the door as a tiny kitten, screamed and screamed that she needed to live with us and finally had her way. We don't know where she came from and couldn't find anyone to claim her, so she became one of the family. Her name is short for Kitty Cat. Named by my then teenage son. Now isn't that orginal. K.C is the kind of cat that regardless where she decides to lay down she can look totally and completely comfortable. With all the cats I have had, and cats are known for looking comfortable, K.C. takes it to extreames. I just wish I could do as well at relaxing as she does. K.C. is also, an excelent mouser, and gets along better with the dogs than the other two cats do. In fact she is not sociable with the other cats at all. Even after knowing Jade, (who is 10) all her life and Murphy ( who is 5) all of his, she still hisses, and spits at them if they come close to her. She diffently perfers the company of my husband and myself over other cats, but will run and hide if we have visitors.

Ship Wrecks!

2 cannons and 2 or 3 ship wrecks have been discovered along the coast of Oregon in the past month or so. Most are in the Astoria area. It is so interesting. And weird that it as happened just at the time a full moon was appearing. Not only a full moon but an eclipse as well. Could they have something to do with each other? Well it is interesting to speculate on such, but the sever storms of the Oregon coast had more to do with the uncovering of long wrecked ships buried in the sand than the moon or the eclipse. Or one would think so. But did the cycling of an eclipse cause the storms? Or was it global warming as some think? Hummmm - there has got to be a supper natural, science-fiction, the world-is-coming-to-an-end, romantic, twilight zone story in this somewhere.
For more on the shipwrecks go to these links -
http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/dt.cms.support.viewStory.cls?cid=64302&sid=39&fid=2

http://hotfreshnow.blogspot.com/2008/02/oregon-shipwreck-solved-more-appear.html

http://nwlimited.wordpress.com/2008/02/21/oregon-shipwreck-mysteries-multiply/

Urge for Spring

In going through some of my photos I found this shot of some cherry blossoms I took last year. My urge for spring is getting stronger every day.

Eclipse of the Moon

How many people got to see the eclipse of the moon last night? I had seen them before but they ae so interesting to watch. We didn't get to see the first part where moon gets dark as we had to much cloud cover. The eclipse is caused when the sun, moon, and earth line up in such a special way that the full moon passes into earths shadow blocking the rays of the sun. For us the clouds driffed apart for a few seconds and minutes so that we could see the moon as it came back to where we could seeit. This web site has great photos of it from around the world. http://channels.isp.netscape.com/whatsnew/gallery.jsp?floc=g-wnew_lunar_eclipse212&gname=wnew_lunar_eclipse2&pi=5&grurl=http%3A%2F%2Fchannels.isp.netscape.com%2Fwhatsnew%2Fdefault.jsp%3Fstory%3D20080221-0917&photo=12&xad=true In some parts of the world the moon took on an orangie or copperish color. My sister in Oregon said it did there, but we just had normal moon color. A full moon is always interesting but with an esclipe it is even better.

Color

Talking of the depressingly drap desert colors we have now makes me want to try and hurry spring along. We had a couple of days of 55 and 60 degree weather that always makes me want to get out and start the gardening. In my back yard, away from the horses where they can't eat them, I always grow lots of easy to care for flowers and a few tomatoes each summer. This photo is of our wild four-o-clock. I have put so many mundane photos on with no bright colors lately, I though it was time to do so. These are native here and, although hard to transplant, if you can get one going it will take the place. They are usually only about a foot tall but will spread out and cover as much as 12 square feet in a summer. Then they die back in the fall and you can't even be sure where the plant was after you get rid of the dead vine and leaves. All summer, from late June until the first hard freeze, each evening, as the sun desends toward the west at about four-o-clock, (that is why it is named that) the plant opens its hundreds of purple flowers and purfumes the air with a wonderful sent.

Pony Play

Here are Stormy and Travey playing. You can see Travey's teeth as he nips at Stormy. The two little guys play the same as two young stallions would that where full size. They nip and bite, and kick, and kneel down to bite each others legs and try to throw the other one down.

Their pen is at the edge of our property and you can see the drive way just the other side of the fence. This shot lets you know just how much desert we actually have here. The browns and grays and a few very dark greens are about the only colors you can see at this time of the year. It can be a bit depressing if you are not used to it, and even if you are. There is sage, tumbleweeds, a few native yuccas, and some short cactus between where the road is and the homes beyond. These homes are of some of the more distant neighbors, most of them I have never met. It seems that unless you live right next to someone no one trys to meet anyone else. I think most people have moved out here for the privicy of not having their neighbors be so close that everyone can see what everyone else is doing. When I look at the fancy new homes in the residentual areas of the towns near us, I wonder how people can live where they can almost reach out their windows and shake hands. Out here if someones dog barks no one is going to call the cops. Or if someone has a broke down truck in their yard no one else is going to complain. It may not be pretty but we do have our priviacy, yet if something was going wrong I think all the others would come together to help. Like when a horse does escape. I am lucky that mine have never done that, but I have helped others round up loose horses and even held them on my land until they could fix their fence. Once a whirlwind came through and picked up the roof on one of our horse shelters. We actually saw it happen and watched in dismay as the roof when up in the air and came down in the road. Two of our neighbors had seen it happen, also, and where right there to help pick it up and get it out of the road so it didn't block anyone from driving through.

Nikki

I have 3 dogs. Nikki is our oldest at 14. Her4 she is with Codee. She is a Lab/Collie cross, and has been a good adoptive mama to both Codee and Tuffee as well as our cats. Tuffee has ears that flop, Codee has ears that stand up, Nikki's ears may either flop or stand up depending on the mood she is in.I don't know how much longer she will be with us. I see her going down hill every day. She is deaf, and almost blind, and can't seem to stand up for very long any more, but she still insists on going outside every time I go out, crying when I try to leave her in. At times she still trys to get out and run and play with the other dogs. We will let her do the best she can for as long as she can. When I got Nikki I had a

nother German Shepherd named DeeDee. When DeeDee got old she couldn't seem to remember where the door was to come in and I got tired of going around the house to the side to get her. Nikki seemed to understand DeeDee's problem and leaned that when I said to "Go get DeeDee." she was to go to the other dog and lead her back to the door, and DeeDee would follow her. Now I tell Codee to go get Nikki when she is either out and can't hear me or is asleep and I am going out and think she needs to come with us. Tuffee is good at grabbing Nikki's collar and leading her to the house when we are outside, also. It is amazing how animals seem to know the help that their friends need.

Hay Dogs

This is a photo of Tuffee and her best friend Codee, and me. Codee is our almost 8 year old German Shepherd. Tuffee is the only Border Collie I have ever had, but Codee is my 3rd German Shepherd. I love German Shepherds. They are one of the best breeds of dogs in my opinion. They love their owners with a devotion this is incredible. They really want to be your best friend.They are good guard dogs, and with proper training can be great for working all kinds of fields, like police work, rescure work, dogs that help the blind, and disabled. They are excelent at doing obedence and agility work the same as Border Collies are. Although they love to get out and run and need lots of excersise they can make do with living in small homes and apartments as I found out with my first ones. Codee and Tuffee think it is so much fun to help us unload the hay for the horses when we bring in a truck load. It is great fun to jump up on the truck and sit on the bales. Sometimes they can be a bit of a pain getting them to move so we can unload. Tuffee and Codee do a lot of playing together, but Codee is alot better at obeying me than Tuffee is, especially if Tuffee thinks she needs to do something with the horses. Although German Shepherds are classed as herding dogs, like Border Collies, Codee isn't interested in herding the horses. She will run along the outside of the fence and bark at them but that is all. I don't let her in the pens with the horses as she doens't seem to be as good at avoiding their heels as Tuffee is. And the weird thing is that the horses will tolarate Tuffee a lot more than they do Codee. But if I take a horse out of the pen on a lead to groom, ride, or what ever Codee is better than Tuffee at leaving the horse alone.

Tuffee

Tuffee is the youngest of our 3 dogs. And she is 4 years old today. I chose Valentines Day as her birthday after the vet and I decided she was born around the middle of Feburary. So Happy Birthday to Tuffee. Tuffee, also, was a foundling, but she looks to be pure bred Border Collie and she certainly has all the personallity and looks of a Border Collie. Her goal in life is to make sure that the horses are OK and behaving themselves. If not she will bark and nip at them and come tell be that such in such horse is running, or rolling or what ever. Since to day is her birthday we decided she needed a bath. Last night was the night so she could be in all night in front of the woodstore and get dry. Tuffee sort of likes her bath and outside she is a confirmed water dog. She chased the water coming out of the end of the water hose, and will even bring the end to me so she can play in it. If she runs until she get hot she will jump into one of the half barrels that we use to water the horses in. And she will hold down the short little dishes I use to hold water for dogs, cats, and birds with her feet when getting a drink. This is the exact opposite of my other dogs who hate water. After Tuffee's bath we descovered again that the brown tip on her tail is actually white. I don't know if it is a trait of all Border Collies or if it is just Tuffee but if there is a way to get dirty Tuffee will find it. When she runs her little feet pick up the dirt and throw it back onto her hind legs and belly. My other dogs don't seem to do this. And she loves a mud puddle. Of course when chasing ponies the additional horse manure only adds to the situation.

and a 5 and a 6

What would life be with out more critters to take care of. As if we didn't have enough horses we let ourselves be suckered in to taking 2 more horses last July. Acutually they are ponies. Well sort of. Number 5 is Stormy who is half Minuture Horse and half Shetland, number 6 is Traveler who is half Tennessee Walking Horse and half Shetland. They are half brothers on their Shetland mama side. You wouldn't know it to look at them. Stormy is the short solid black one and Travey is the larger pinto. At this time they are still stallions and I am not sure when or if we will geld them. Right now they don't seem to know they are stallions but I am sure that will change when the mares start coming in season soon. Right now all they want to do is play. And play they do. They are constantly running, bucking, kicking, and biting on each other. They need the excersise and it runs them down as it would little kids on the playground. I have hopes someday of a cart and harrness but that might be another dream. Travey is terrified of any kind of rope around his rear end. Stormy does ok and both are good at leading, grooming, and tying now. You can see the difference in their size in the photo and I hope Travey doesn't get so big I have to seperate them. He does seem to be getting taller, remember he is half Tennessee Walker, and is not quite 2 years old yet. Stormy is almost 3.

4th Horse

It was never planned that we would have more than two horses and here we were at three. So another horse came to live with us, making it four. Sundance is about 20 years old. He was another of the millions of unwanted equines that are hunting homes everywhere. Sunny, as he is better known as, is an ex-roping horse or that is what we assume, with what was a bad hoof when he came to us. Lots of vet work and even more good farrier work has fixed the bad hoof up enough that we can now ride him for short lenghts of time. At some point the hoof and heel of his right front foot had been injured, almost as if it had been sliced off. There wasn't a lot that could be done to repair it except let time see if it could. It has as much as it can, I think. And for us Sunny is a decent riding horse, considering neither of us is up to riding for long periods of time. Sunny is abit stand-offish, but will do anything I ask him to but would rather do it for my husband. Sunny will follow Lee like a puppy dog. Sunny is a big horse, like our bay mare, Nita. Both are close to 16 hands, and weight about 1200 pounds. Sunny is a brown and white paint Quarter Horse. As soon as Sunny came in I was able to put him out with Nita. But it has taken about 2 years to be able to put them out with Jack and Star. There has been quite a bit of fussing, kicking, and nipping to determine what the pecking order is to be in this little herd. But when all was said and done, Sunny came out on top. He is the boss. Jack is next, followed by Nita, and poor little Star came in at the bottom. In this photo he is looking out across the desert toward the Sandia Mountains. Actually Albuquerque is hiding down in the valley just under the moutains, and over the desert ridge.

Nita

After BlackJack came my bay Quarter Horse mare, Nita. Nita was needing a home so she didn't go to auction, which around here usually means the horse will go to slaughter. (Yes, people slaughter horses for meat and it isn't pretty. If you want more on that try googling it. I don't feel like getting into that discussion right now. It is very controversial.) But Nita came to us. Nita is a sweatheart most of the time. But then she can get - well - I call it antsy or frisky, and she will take off and run round and round and round, kicking and bucking, and then she will stop, throw her head and tail in the air, and snort real loud. I call it playing 'wild horse'. All of the horses do this and it is incredible to watch, but Nita is the best at it. Of course Jack and Star are just as fantastic to see as they imitate there wild horse ancestors. It makes you really appreciate the thought that horses are the most magnificent creatures that Mother Nature invented. I always think of the sayings like - The Thunder of Mustangs - The Sport of Kings - and something about 'I would give my kingdom for a horse.' I never tire of watching them play like this.

I was able to get some decent film of them on my camcorder the other day, but do to an old computer and dial up I can't put it on my blog.

Comments

Concerning the post on Dogs, Cats, & Friends. Sundancer says, "Ha! Very true! May I add another one? The FRIDGE is for people food. Please keep your stinky nose OUT of it!" Boy do I agree with this.
And Strawberry Lane said that Star was a beauty with a perfect star. Well beauty is in the eye of the beholder when you look at a sorrel pony who hasn't had a bath in several months do to winter and who has rolled in a fresh pile of manure. But thanks.
All comments are appreacated.

Another Pony

When Star was 3 I came to the conclusion that she wasn't going to get very big. She is big enough, and strong enough for me to ride, but not the most trust worthy horse. And at the same time the horse next to her at the stable where I was boarding her came up for sale. After trying him a few times I knew I had to have him, just as I had been determined to have Star when I first saw her. My new horse, and I say horse lightly as he isn't much bigger than Star, is a black Morgan gelding. At that time he was 9 and is about 14 now. BlackJack is a great riding horse. He was well trained when I got him. He is just big enough to be a horse, 14 1/2 hands, but is short enough that I can get on him. He is smart. He always knows what you want and he is ready to go. Unlike Star who is lazy. Jack isn't a solid black horse, he has brown around his muzzle and on his flanks, as well as a white star on his face too. Being a Morgan he is very strong. He is usually very well mannered with people but can be a bully with the other horses. He wants to be the boss with his own kind. He and Star are totally attached to each other now, especially Star who will holler and through a fit when separated from Jack. Jack is my trail horse. He doesn't care much for riding around in circles in the pens but loves to get out and explore our desert trails. I am so glad I finally have a home where I can ride my horse, that I had wanted so long, right out my gate and down the road.

Dogs, Cats, & Friends

Again a cute email from a friend about dogs and cats.

To be posted VERY LOW on the refrigerator door - pet nose height.
Dear Dogs and Cats:
The dishes with the paw prints are yours and contain your food. The other dishes are mine and contain my food. Please note, placing a paw print in the middle of my plate and food does not stake a claim for it becoming your food and dish, nor do I find that aesthetically pleasing in the slightest.
The stairway was not designed by NASCAR and is not a racetrack. Beating me to the bottom is not the object. Tripping me doesn't help because I fall faster than you can run.
I cannot buy anything bigger than a king sized bed. I am very sorry about this. Do not think I will continue sleeping on the couch to ensure your comfort. Dogs and cats can actually curl up in a ball when they sleep. It is not necessary to sleep perpendicular to each other stretched out to the fullest extent possible. I also know that sticking tails straight out and having tongues hanging out the other end to maximize space is nothing but sarcasm.
For the last time, there is no secret exit from the bathroom. If by some miracle I beat you there and manage to get the door shut, it is not necessary to claw, whine, meow, try to turn the knob or get your paw under the edge and try to pull the door open. I must exit through the same door I entered. Also, I have been using the bathroom for years --canine or feline attendance is not required.
The proper order is kiss me, then go smell the other dog or cat's butt. I cannot stress this enough!

To pacify you, my dear pets, I have posted the following message on our front door:
To All Non-Pet Owners Who Visit & Like to Complain About Our Pets:
1. They live here. You don't.
2. If you don't want their hair on your clothes, stay off the furniture. That's why they call it "fur"niture.
3. I like my pets a lot better than I like most people.
4. To you, they are an animal. To me, he/she is an adopted son/daughter who is short, hairy, walks on all fours and doesn't speak clearly.
Remember: Dogs and cats are better than kids because they:
1 Eat less
2. Don't ask for money all the time
3 Are easier to train
4. Normally come when called
5. Never ask to drive the car
6. Don't hang out with drug-using friends
7. Don't smoke or drink
8. Don't have to buy the latest fashions
9. Don't want to wear your clothes
10. Don't need a gazillion dollars for college, and...
11. If they get pregnant, you can sell their children.

Star Pony

This is my Star pony. Not the greatest photo but you can see her star, and some of the spots that she gets in the summer. In the summer she is an appaloosa. In the winter all the spots go away except the star and she looks like an ordinary sorrel. Star was only a yearling when I got her so I expected her to grow up to be a horse instead of a pony. She is now 8 years old and only reached about 13 and a half hands. Horses are measured in 'hands', 1 hand being equal to 4 inches. They are measured from the ground up to their withers, or the boney area where the neck connects to their back. A horse should be over 14 hands, and ponies are under 14 hands. Measurements in hands were started when there were no tape measures so men would use their hand to stair step up the height of the horse to figure out how tall it was. Mustangs and appy's are known for being stubborn and a bit difficult to train. Not that they are really any worse than other breeds of horses but Star does seem to be related to a mule or donkey as for as being stubborn sometimes. She is smart but if she can get out of doing work by pretending she doesn't know what I want her do to, she will. But she loves to be groomed. I guess she would stand all day and let you brush her, clean her hooves, braid her mane and tail or just be usefull if you need a big, red shoulder to cry on.

Our Thoughts

Every time I think that living out here on this cold, windy desert must be one of the worst places there is, I hear about the disasters that are happening elsewhere in the United States and the world. Our thoughts and good wishes for a speedy recovery go to all those who lost so much in the tornadoes that ripped through so many states. Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, and anyone else I didn't hear about. Also to those in Chama, New Mexico who are buried under so much snow that your homes are caving in, and you can't get out for food and medicine, and I am sure you don't have heat in most places. I understand this has also been happening in the Durango, Co. area and in Detroit, Oregon, as well as other snow covered areas.
I guess it isn't so bad here in the desert where we just get cold wind.

Get a Horse

No one has made a comment on it yet but I can hear all those questions anyway. Why would I want to get a horse? Why not. Because I have always had a very deep, burning desire to have my own horse. I don't know why I have always had the yen to have such an obnoxious, expensive creature, but I have. I believe I was born with it. I can remember my parents telling me that they would take me to parades when I was little and some how I connected the horses with the marching bands and called the music 'horsey music'. To this day if I hear a marching band I can see horses marching along with it (of course in my mind, not in actuallaty). My parents grew up on farms and to them horses were a tool. As a child my dad was in the Air Force and of the opinion that having a pet of any kind was not good while doing so much moving. It seemed we moved every year to two years. Anotherwords very frequently. A few dogs and cats were aquired but didn't last long either do to the fact that vacanations for distemper weren't very good in those days or because we had to give them away when we moved. Mostly we had parakeets, fish in tanks, and the occisional turtle (the kind you can't buy any more in pet shops do to desises, although we never got sick from any of our pets, but the turtles never lived very long). In all that time I longed despertly for a horse. I don't think my parents realized at that time how much I wanted to be able to be around horses, to ride, even if I couldn't own one. I was a shy kid, not given to really letting my wants be known. My mom had somehow taught me and my sisters that we should be thankful for what we had (which we were) and learn to not want or even talk about what we couldn't have. Her life was so much better with my dad rather than what she had when she was growing up that I don't think she thought to much about wanting more. Both my parents had been very poor as children and their live in the Air Force made them feel rich. But my desires for a horse couldn't go away. I did keep them bottled up in my mind, only allowing them to be seen in the books I read and the TV shows I watched. I became quite a fan of all the TV westerns that were so common when I was growing up mainly because they had horses on them. But because that love of horses caused me to watch Westerns and read western books both fiction and nonfiction I developed a love of history. Especially Western history and the Cowboy. I always told myself that when I was grown I would be able to have the horse I wanted. But it wasn't to be. After I left home I married a man in the Navy and we did some more traveling. That was followed by years of not much money or at least not enough to afford a horse. Thankfully Lee has been very good at giving in to me when I would bring home lost kittens and puppies. We have had a long list of dogs, cats, birds, fish, and even lizards, and gerbils, as well as one human baby. During all that time I tried NOT to push my feelings about horses onto my son. Being an only child he got his way with about anything he wanted, within reason. He had pets, computers, games, and even a 1968 Mustang car before he graduated from high school. That is when I found out that he, too, had been hiding a love for equines. He had two jobs by the time he was 18. He worked at a Wendys and another helping take care of some horses. When he told me about the job with the horses I was certainly surprised. Next he was telling me that he was buying a horse and was going to keep it at a stable. He had a horse before I did. He got a skinny little palamino colt, that turned into his stallion Goldie or Golddust. (remember you can see Goldie at www.goldstud.net ) But that was fine with me, although his dad was a bit upset at the sudden turn of events. Of course this only fueled the fire that had been smoldering in me for 48 years. I begain the hunt for my horse. If my son could keep a horse at a stable, I could. At that time I also had the best paying job I have ever had in my life so I had the money for one. One day I saw an add for a horse in the paper and decided to go look. The horse advertized wasn't what I was looking for but I took the time to look at others that the man had. Off in a pen all by herself was a very small sorrel yearling. She looked at me with her great big brown eyes, with a white star between them. I was lost. I had to have her, even though the man explained that she was wild. He had got her and some others at an aution in Grants, NM. They had never been handled, and he hadn't got around to working with this one yet. He said she might not even be a yearling. She was just a baby. I did the stupid thing that so many first time horse owners do, (as my son did). I bought Star.

Snowy Tumbleweed

That inch of snow we had yesterday made for some almost pretty tumbleweeds today. This one was peaking through one of our fences with its covering of snow. You can almost see the Sandia Mountains in the distance.

Breeding Season

Speaking of horses, it is February which is considered the start of the breeding season in the horse business. If you are looking for a stallion to breed your mare (registered or not) to you might want to look at my son's web site, www.goldstud.net . There you can see photos of the stallions he is standing this year. There is Darkan's Mystic Art. Arte is an Arabian/Saddlebred cross. He is a beautiful black and white pinto. Next is Golddust, a dark palomino Quarter Horse. And there is Beau, a grey appaloosa. And then there are the brothers Cloud, and Lucky who are Mini/Shetland crosses. Cloud is solid black and Lucky is a black and white pinto. I find it very unusual that Lucky and Arte are marked so much alike. It is one of the reasons that my son got Lucky. One big pinto horse and one little pinto horse with the same marking.

Horses

It's time to get back to the subject of horses on my blog. Horses are the reason I started writing The Tumbleweed Crossing. I love horses. And dogs, and cats, and all animals. But horses are one of my favorites. So it is time to write about what I love. We have six horses or rather three horses and three ponies. Sundance, our paint Quarter Horse gelding, Nita, our bay Quarter Horse mare, BlackJack, my Morgan gelding, Stardust, my sorrel mustang that never got to horse size so is a pony. Stormy our Mini/Shetland cross, and Traveler, our Walker/Shetland cross. You will see there photos from time to time, and you can see other photos if you want to go back through my postings and find them.
It was a cold, windy day today after the inch of snow we got yesterday. The wind coming off the mountains that surround New Mexico made the wind chill really cold. So we didn't do much today other than make sure everyone was fed, had water, and able to get into their shelters out of the wind. Thank goodness horses can survive it this horrible cold that chills me to the bone. According to the TV weather man it is supposed to be warmer tomarrow. I can hope that it is so I can get out and do some grooming on the six mud balls that consider themselves horses.

Country Wisdom

This was in an email I received from a friend today. Not only is it cute, it is so very true. So I thought I would share it with everyone.

Keep skunks and bankers and lawyers at a distance.
Life is simpler when you plow around the stump.
A bumble bee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor.
Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you.
You cannot unsay a cruel or unkind word.
Every path has a few puddles.
When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty.
The best sermons are lived, not preached.
Don't judge folks by their relatives.
Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.
Always drink upstream from the herd.
If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin'somebody else's dog around. Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly.

Small World

Blogging seems to be proving that the world is a small place after all. Our blogging comunitity seems to be growing by leaps and bounds. Not just here in the United States, but all over the world. I encourage anyone that hasn't tried it to give it a try. It is fun and you never know where new friends are going to pop up. I have been doing it for about two years now and enjoy it more all the time. You will find someone who has the same interests as you do. Or you may find you have developed a new interest by reading someone elses blog. But do be careful. Someone with your interest may not always be the exact person you want to corospond with. Some sites do have things on them that shouldn't be on family oriented sites. Even though I don't have childeren in the house any more I don't want to read a site that is not family oriented. And if someone puts a bad comment on my site I delete it as soon as I see it. Since I don't always get on the computer every day, if you see a bad comment, my apoligies.
None the less, give blogging a try and may new friends.

More blogs

After reading JD's Soapbox I tried his wifes blog at http://www.jonjdsbitsandpieces.blogspot.com/
It is just as good. They both have a long list of bloggers that are great to try. It will take me a long time to try and read them all. Something to do for these long, cold winter nights.

Another Blog

My English friend Cindy from Cindy's Snaps recommended another great blog to me, and it is. I really like the way J.D. thinks. His story about dirt roads is wonderful. You can find him at http://jdssoapbox.blogspot.com