A Beautiful Morning with Pony Kisses

Yesterday was so cloudy, our satellite didn't even work for awhile. It was literally as thick as pea soup, as the saying goes.  This morning, though, it is beautiful out.

This is the view from our living room of the Olympic Mountains...I never get tired of looking at them.

And, as promised...pony kisses from the girls: Kate on the left and Emma on the right.

Dory

Poor Emma

We went out to feed just the other night and discovered that some bully had punched Emma in the eye.  Well, okay, so it wasn't really a punch or a hit of any kind. She just all of a sudden had a really swollen eye. A call to the vet to determine whether we should just dose her with penicillin resulted in a trip to the vet and a lovely $125 bill! He thought she might have a fox tail in her eye, but we knew better: first, she's not in a pasture that even has fox tails (it's too wet), and second, her eye wasn't tearing, so it wasn't trying to get rid of any foreign object.

Unfortunately, this is our only trailer. Small, eh??? It's great for endurance rides, but really a pain when you're only transporting one horse. However, I was quite proud of my girl. she'd only been in a trailer once, last summer, for trailer loading practice. She'd never actually gone for a ride and she'd certainly never gone in by herself. She was such a trooper, she loaded right up and off we went. Of course, when the vet came out to see her, he asked how many horses we'd brought...such a smart aleck.

He gave Emma a cortisone shot and gave us drops to put in her eye three times a day. I was amazed at how good she was about the whole ordeal, but I think she knew we were helping her. Hardly any head tossing as I held one eye lid up and the other down so Dennis could put the drops in. This is how it looked after a few days.

Finally, she's back to normal and as beautiful as ever. The only cause we've come up with is some sort of bug bite. Consequently, her fly mask goes on early and comes off late. (Ignore her stupid brother in the picture below...he likes to toss his head)

Dory

Winter Returns for a Day

The weather here has been amazing...its so springlike, I'm loving it. I am hoping for a few more good storms though to stave off fires.

This morning, however, we woke up to snow! Emma was not thrilled with the fact that she'd been left out in the pasture to suffer such a horrendous winter storm. All the ponies were happy when we showed up early with their breakfast.

A picture of Chloe doing her usual fence run and then jumping around with her feet just barely inside the pasture watching us feed. She loves her horses!

And Hank...have you ever seen a cuter dog???

Pictures of Miscellaneous Stuff

My camera cord arrived, so now you get photos:

This was a few weeks ago...Emma needed her feet trimmed; however, I don't think she thought a chainsaw was the correct tool!  Luckily, Dennis was just headed out to chop some downed trees into rounds for firewood.

These are our good friends, Julie and Abi. 

They're in a bit of a pickle.  They live several miles in, down a windy, tree-lined, dirt road.  They ordered this park model rv, got the outside measurements and then measured the road into their place to be sure it fit.  Slight problem:  The rv was actually 13'8"--not the 12' they were told.

Two days later, one tree down and part of the roof removed, the rv is at its new home...perseverence wins out!

The yurt has turned out to be such a wonderful space.  I never bought much into the feng shui stuff, but the building is round and feels so good when we're in it.  This is a picture of the sky through the skylight on top.  It lets in so much light during the day that I often forget to turn on the lights above my longarm--who needs them??  Now that the weather has changed (I know its only February, but its spring in Butterfly Valley!), we have a fire in the morning, let it die in the afternoon, and open windows and the skylight and its perfect in there!

I mentioned my sister's visit in my last post and the $100 worth of gift cards I had for quilt shops.  Note:  The key word is "had."  A friend and I went to Reno last week and I spent every last penny.  This is my loot!  I found a colorway for Mythical Horses that I hadn't seen before.  I have every last one of those fabrics; unfortunately, I'm afraid to cut them because they're so beautiful. (I'd be open to suggestion though, if you've seen a pattern with them that looks great)  The bright purple, green and sunflowers are for a block swap I'm doing (you can check it out here).  The purple and brown batiks are to finish my retreat quilt and the others are to take with me to Asilomar next week.

Beautiful Morning...Poor Emma

Went down to feed this morning and the sun was just coming up and hitting the valley floor. This is a shot of our neighbor's house, he's directly across from us and I really hate him in the morning. There's nothing better than sitting on your porch in the early morningsun while you drink that first cup of coffee. But, alas...we get the afternoon sun, so I spend alot of time jealous of his location. On the other hand, though, late summer eves find us on the porch enjoying a margarita in the sun, while he's in the shade.  Guess you can't have everything.

As the title indictes..."Poor Emma." We went down to the pasture Friday morning and she came bucking and kicking out of the trees headed straight for us. When she got close, we saw that she'd somehow managed to take a 6" circle of hide off her butt. It looked awful; no blood, just alot of weepy, naked skin. I have no idea what she did. I've walked the pasture looking for a clump of hair to no avail.

Since Friday afternoon, I've been washing it gently with betadine and applying a topical antiseptic; she isn't pleased. She's been tolerating the doctoring, only tucking her butt under her and trying to move away but never even offering to kick me. She's a very good girl.