THE EXTERMINATOR

Gophers beware!

This is what I stepped on as I walked out the door onto the back porch.

Cort was proud and protective of his 'kill'.

I was showing just a bit too much interest so he took it away.

What a good dog for helping us with the gopher population explosion.

What a mess our property will be as dog exterminates gophers.

Sunday Roping and Gardening

This afternoon we had our second roping practice and lessons. There were 10 horses this time, all in one arena; ropes swirling, horses galloping, the mechanical steer being pulled around by a quad; pure chaotic bedlam. On top of all of the commotion, I wore spurs on my mare for the first time ever. She was in a snit about the spurs and fretting about the constant action. I suffered through several of her bucking tantrums and then we got down to business. It was fun but painful, I twisted my back yesterday carrying boxes and am paying for it today. I am a wimp.

Did I mention that Jerry was worried about not being able to rope when his shoulder dislocated last week? Well he roped. Needing a bit of a break, I reined into the center of the arena to join Jerry chatting with the arena owner. Jerry laughingly says to me, "hey I just had one of those hot flashes like you always have." Huh??? I'm thinking I heard wrong, but then I noticed his cowboy shirt is drenched with sweat. And he LAUGHS as he tells me that while roping, his shoulder just popped out of it's socket and then back again. He says he got really queasy and almost passed out, but just got sweaty instead. I married a freak folks. Because later he takes his turn at chasing and trying to rope wild roping live steers.

Not me, I roped only a tame mechanical steer. We made it home safely. Rinsed off the tired sweaty horses. Jerry cooked dinner. And now we are settling down for the night. The weekend went by way too fast.

I took garden pictures to share. Our vegetable garden is truly pathetic. Very little of the seed we sowed has germinated. I was hoping to avoid pesticides but we have bugs. I hate poisons but we have gophers. Lots of gophers and they have now discovered the garden.
No carrots came up, no beets came up.

We have plenty of cucumber plants now. I'm supposed to thin them to one per spot, but I cannot.


There are three tomato plants and they look better than anything else. I planted romas, better boys, and cherry tomatoes.

This is a very lonely little lettuce. I planted two rows with two types of lettuce. This is it, one...

We have bean plants coming up beautifully, they are feeding the bugs. I can't see any bugs, I don't see any grasshoppers, but those leaves sure looked snacked on to me.

In the past week I have visited friends with marvelous green thriving gardens. I am envious.

One recommended spraying the plants with a mixture of water, dish soap and vinegar. I'll try it tomorrow, if that doesn't work, I am declaring war and will use insecticides.

It sure doesn't look like I'll have to learn how to can excess vegetables this year.

Updates

Since I haven't been posting very regularly and often have trouble posting comments. I'll answer a few questions here.

Thanks for all the expressed concern for Jerry's shoulder. He is feeling fine most of the time and hasn't slow down at all (such a surprise) . He has not been able to schedule an earlier appt. with his physician, so won't know when he will get an MRI scheduled.

Amy didn't get the job here in California. She continues the search. I know she will eventually get her ideal position in the ideal place for her and Tristan. But I still hope that that place is not far from here. I plot of awful awful things, such as buying Tristan a horse and telling him it's here waiting for him..........


I have decided to adopt the two kittens. Jerry saw them and also thought that I 'needed' them. I loved the idea of cowboy type names. They are being called 'Annie' (as in Oakley) and 'Billy' (the Kid). They live at a technician's home and will be ready to come home with me next week.

That's all I can think of right now. It is way past my bedtime. Good night and Happy Trails.

Last of May

A month ago, Coffee Bean at Righteous Buzz, issued a challenged. I jumped in with my goals. And it worked! Thanks Kelly Jean!

My Goal #1 was to get up early and work in the gardens daily. Jerry and I are sharing that one and have gotten a lot done. Our veggie garden is becoming quite a challenge (or disappointment) but we're not giving up yet

Goal # 2 involves weight loss. 50# in a year.... ugh I am on the right track with eating better. I need to increase my physical activity though. This month I lost 7 pounds. I am pleased.

And finally Goal#3. "Drum Roll please"



I was ashamed to share this mess. I am sure you remember the horrifying garage pictures I shared at the end of April. My life was shoved into boxes and hidden away in a storage unit for a year. Some of the boxes had not been opened since the year 2000 when I started out on my 'Quest', which landed me here in California. But that's another story for another day.
I announced that I would have this mess cleaned up, sorted out and put away by the end of May.





Today is the LAST DAY of MAY. This is my last pile of empty boxes to be broken down and recycled. A N D ........





This is my side of the garage this afternoon! (Jerry's side has been clean all along because he had no boxes in storage to clutter up his side)

and more of my clean, organized, lovely garage.

I am so glad to have that job done!

Next goal; see a few of the boxes on the shelves? There are about 5 boxes containing about 30 years of photographs. If I sort out and organize a year per month, I'll be done in about 3 years. I may change my mind but I'll aim for a year's worth of pictures gone through by July.

And #2 : how about 8 pounds lost in June. And #3: at least 30 minutes of planned exercise 5 days per week in June.

How about up dates from those 'playing' along?

Dislocation

This has certainly been one crazy day.
It started bright and early in the dark chill of 4 a.m. when Jerry abruptly woke me from a sound sleep with agonizing moans and groans. He sleeps on his back with his arms above his head, and early this morning, while just laying there sleeping, his right shoulder dislocated. This shoulder dislocated about 2 years ago when he fell while high in the air on a tower crane and grabbed and hung on a steel support to keep from splatting on the ground. He has had no problems with it since, until this morning.
With the original dislocation, he had asked the Dr to explain how he could reduce it himself if it ever happened again. Yes, he is kind of a do-it-yourself guy. So the Doc explains that he should lay on his front, with arms hanging down while trying to lift a heavy weight, and that would slip the bone right back into it's socket. Alrighty then...... I went out to the garage and brought in a nice and heavy 20# dumb-bell.
He was in agony and here we are trying to figure out how he could roll over onto his tummy. He just couldn't do it. He made me palpate his shoulder and egads, I had to sit down to keep from passing out or throwing up. All I could say, was, "it doesn't bother me in animals, but this is really bothering me happening to you." He refused to let me call an ambulance. And I was thinking we would just be here all morning at the rate we were progressing.
I decided to call the Emergency Room and spoke to the Advice Nurse, a nice, sympathetic fella. He keep saying, "oh man, the poor guy." I kept asking for him just to help me with ideas to get him up. He said he was thinking..... He suggested having him swing his legs off the bed and then I could lift him up to a sitting position from behind, instead of him trying to roll over. So Jerry swung his legs off the bed and I pushed him up and POP, that shoulder slid back home and Jerry was instantly pain free.
He drove himself to the hospital, I went about my morning as usual, just a bit earlier. At the hospital they took radiographs. He has to see his regular physician to order an MRI. I am guessing that surgery will be in order. He can't get into his Dr for 3 weeks. For tonight, I have ace bandaged his arm to his side. No repeating this morning!
So that was our crazy morning.
The rest of my day was crazy at work too. The Friday before a long weekend usually brings in folks who have just been hoping Spot or Fido will get better during the week, they don't so then need to be seen before the weekend. We were squeezing in sick pet appts. all day. I worked with a great crew today and they kept things moving right along. We finally finished up at 7pm.
Now I am exhausted and ready for bed.
Heaven only knows what tomorrow will be like. I am thankful that it will be a short day.
I hope that everyone has a pleasant weekend.

Felines

Look what was in the clinic today. Momma Cat and four three week old kittens.

This little boy and girl keep snuggled together. Caught her in a big yawn.

Aren't they adorable?

I think I need two kittens.

These two will need a home in about three weeks.....

I've e-mailed their pictures to the cowboy.. how could he resist?????

They need clever names. The calico is a girl and the cream and white is a boy.

'Girl kitty' and 'boy kitty' are not clever names.

I really need two kittens.

More Oroville Trails

The campsites at Oroville are some of the nicest we visit. Corrals for the horses and even hot showers for the humans. That's a bedroll next to the horse, it was so hot we slept out on the ground. I love the sound of horses munching hay during the night.

Everyone gathered at our campsite Saturday evening for a pot luck dinner.

Dusty trails through the woods.

The only green grass was in the shady wooded areas.

Only three of us stayed through Monday. We trailered past the reservoir to the Feather River trails. The river and shade provided some welcome relief from the heat.

A very long unused railroad tunnel gave the horses something new to experience.

There were a few places we could ride into the river to cool off and let the horses drink. Koko loves to play and splash whenever she gets in water.

It was a nice weekend, even with the heat.

But I am glad to be home, there's no place like home.