Hooray!

I am just all excited! I finally got an email from my tattoo artist. I had just about given up and resigned myself to going all over town to look at people's portfolios when I got an email on my facebook account. I had searched on myspace and facebook, found her on both and left emails there. It's been a while back. She emailed and told me that she had been in a rather bad car wreck, and had been in the hospital for ten days! Sheesh, it must have been bad. Usually they kick you out the door ASAP.

She also told me that she is working at a shop in one of the big malls. She is so funny... she said she knew how I felt about malls! It made me laugh. I can't even recall the last time I was at that mall. It has been at least say, 10 years. When you get everyone to give you clothes for Christmas, it solves ever having to go shopping. I just can't stand being in a mall. Sheesh...there are untrained people there. They are everywhere and they use up all the oxygen! It is going to be awful to have to go there, but I guess I will just have to suck it up and go. She is still going to open her own shop, and I would really rather wait until she does, so she doesn't have to split the dough, but we will see. I am just glad she wasn't hurt any worse, and is back to work. I was not happy at the prospect of finding another artist. Experimenting with permanent markings on my skin is not something I am looking forward to!

Happy Happy Joy Joy!!!

Contemplating my navel

I was sitting here this week, having my own private pity party. This year has been very difficult for me. My mother passed away just over a year ago, and I miss her a lot. Add to that, she made me the executor of her will. I know why she did it, because I am mean assed. She knew that I would be fair or die trying. I don't think she had any idea what her state of affairs was during the last few years. She was barely making ends meet, but until the last couple of months she was alive, I didn't know. I don't think she did either. As long as there was enough money to pay the bills, she was totally unconcerned about it. I am glad actually that she didn't live her life stressed out about stuff like that. It was a blessing for her. It is a mess for me. I have not had a very easy time trying to get her estate settled for a lot of reasons. If you haven't ever done this, you have no idea what it takes, and how depressing it is. To have to go through all her things and decide what to keep, what to sell, and what to trash was horrible. It just goes on and on, and when you have fixed one problem, another one comes along. Trying to pay bills on two houses, and make sure the yardwork is done, nobody trashes her house, and keep the realtor working, court appearances, attorneys, blah blah blah, is hard. I absolutely hate going over to her house. It is so empty without her there. I just want it sold and gone so that I can close this book.

So, while I am sitting around feeling sorry for myself, I get an email from one of the horse groups I belong to. It is from my friend Kristi. She is a great one. She is probably the toughest, bravest, most patient woman I know. She recently got bucked off her dead quiet mare when she spooked at a bunch of trash on a trail. It was totally unexpected, and Kristi was hurt pretty badly. She unfortunately fractured her back, and it scared her. Well I say, of course you'd be scared. It isn't like you bounced up, spit out some dirt, and walked away. This was a serious injury. She also had some other bad times this year, she lost her beautiful cat, and was very sad. But here she is, wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, and hoping that next year will be better for all of us. Sheesh, that girl. She is my hero actually. She has an autistic son that needs a lot of her time, and she gives it. Her kids are so great, and you can tell that she dotes on them, and loves them. Her husband is often out of town for his work, so she is alone with them a lot of the time, but you know, she *never* complains. Kristi does endurance rides with her beautiful Arabian mare named Shaqerriae. She is a lovely mare. Shaqerriae hurt herself badly last year, and almost died. Even though Kristi has gone through all this "stuff", she is still able to be cheerful, even when she is hurting. She has given me such a lift. I am grateful to have her as my friend. She doesn't know it, but she (along with a couple of other special friends) had made it possible for me to get through this year. Just when I think it's too much, I get an email from her, and it makes it easier to go on. I think she has no idea what her kindness meant to me this year, it's just who she is, and what she does.

So now it's my turn to say, hang in there girl. You will heal, and decide what you want to do, or not do. Let Di help you. She loves you, and will take care of you. Take the time you need, and don't sweat the small stuff. You are strong, and you will be fine. You are a such special person, and I am proud that you are my friend :)

The question is...

To cut or not to cut...that is the question. I am contemplating cutting my hair. This is no small decision for me. It took me a lot of years to grow it out, and now it is down to my butt. The bad thing about long hair is the limitations. You can put it in a pony tail...or a braid...or pigtails/braids (and endure the Pocahontas remarks), or a bun, or one of those celebrity mussy updoos. The bad thing is when you do the kind of work I do, it can be a serious liability. When you are up on the back of a concrete mixer looking down into the drum to see the mud, you worry that it will get caught on something and get you killed. Also, it is long enough that it falls over my shoulder and gets in the concrete. Oh, and it is fricking hot in the summer too. If I wet it down to cool off it stays wet for hours, which contrary to what you'd think does not make you cooler, it just makes you hot and wet.

I have had short hair before. I have had it so short that it was really a longish buzz cut. I liked it that way. It's super easy to care for, but then you have to get it cut every 5 or 6 weeks or it is a mess. I love me some curls too, and when your hair is three feet long, there is no such thing. I had a Stevie Nicks perm a while back and while I loved it, it was a pain in the ass to care for. Long and layered with a big curl perm. I couldn't run a brush through it or I looked like Broom Hilda. My hair will hold a perm forever, so that is a consideration. I have also considered dying it a couple of shades lighter, and with long hair, that is a pain. I really need to go to a salon and have it done, but that would cost a small fortune as it is. Here is a pic of me with Big E. It's a few years old, notice no tattoo? My hair is a about or so inches longer now.

So here I am... and I am leaning towards cutting it off. There is plenty for locks of love, and at least it would be put to use that way. I dunno... we'll see. Bill didn't fall down and scrub his face on the concrete when I asked what he thought. He actually said he kind of liked it short and curly, so...

The mail came

And in it was a check. The check is from the people we are subbing the big BA performing arts center job from. We invoiced them a month ago, because we should have been half done by now. Due to delays (for which we are not responsible), we have barely done any work there. I guess they decided they could trust us, because we have basically been paid half of the contract in advance, and there is still not a weeks worth of work for us to do there. YAY! Now we can pay the mortgage. WooHoo!

Frozen Farriers

I stopped at the QT yesterday and picked up some drinks for the guys. I always bring them something to drink, so we can gossip when they're done trimming. Yesterday I got both hot chocolate and sodas. They came early, which they almost never do, so I was still sitting in the truck contemplating just how damn cold it was, and procrastinating catching the prisoners. I hopped out and got some hay to throw out. The greedy guts never learn that being lured with some tasty alfalfa means they are gonna get caught...thank whomever.

While they were scarfing down the hay, the guys were swilling down their hot chocolate. They really looked cold. Their faces were all red, and their fingers too. Craig's gloves had holes in them. The wind was terrible, so I can imagine how cold his hands were. Brrrr. I got their presents out of the truck, and they just lit up. I have not seen such excitement in a long time. Craig declared that now he would be able to make it through the day with his sister in law present. I kind of got the impression that he doesn't like her much ;) John was pretty excited too. Now if you want to see indignation, all bright and shiny, just ask a 21 year old young man if that kind of gift is gonna piss his momma off. Dear lord, you'd have thought I asked him if his diaper needed changing! Whew! He quickly informed me that he did NOT live with his momma, and even if he did, he was old enough! Well alrighty then :-) I told him that I just didn't want to cause any trouble, and he got untwisted. I think he thought I was making fun of him. I wouldn't do that...who would trim Prisoner X then?

Everyone got trimmed, and I shooed the guys off. It was too cold to stand around and gossip like we usually do. I fed the prisoners their dinner, soaked with hot water, and they were happy. Next trim is scheduled for Feb 3rd. Hopefully it won't be snowing/raining/or blowing 100 mph.

The best farriers on earth

I have the best farriers on earth. My guy Craig, and his apprentice John come every six weeks. To say that I am obsessed with feet is putting it mildly. In the past, I have had horses that had foot problems. Of course those problems were not caused by neglect, but that does not matter. They had to have shoes on a regular schedule, or they got sore/lame.

I get pretty antsy if my prisoners don't get their feet done on a regular schedule. Logically, I know they won't die, or become lame overnight if they chip a foot, but I can't stand it. It makes me crazy. I know everyone has their "thing" - horses too skinny/fat/unmannerly/whatever, but tidy feet are mine. This year has been wet, and warm (up till this month), so their feet have grown fast. In 4 weeks they are ready for a trim, so I spend the next two weeks lamenting the fact that it will be two more weeks before Craig and John come to do their thing, and carefully averting my eyes from the agonizing chips! Yes, I am crazy. It makes Joleen laugh. I am serious though. I can't stand even looking at feet that are all chipped up, or obviously too long. It makes me want to grab a belt sander and fix 'em up.

So back to Craig and John. They come faithfully every six weeks. Craig trims Prisoner Y, and John does Prisoner X. They both do a great job. Craig is so good with Baxter. Baxman had the scratches/photosensitivity so bad this year that we could barely pick up his hind feet, but Craig got him done, and nobody died. YAY! John is so careful with my old girl Susie. She is arthritic, and has trouble with her hind legs. He is gentle, and gives her all the time she needs to be comfortable. She actually dozes while he trims her. I love these guys. I just hope when Craig is famous and has all the H/J barns calling him that he will be willing to keep coming out for my meager two trims. I am not above bribing and paying bonuses to insure he will keep coming out.

This year, John is over 21, so he will get the usual farrier Christmas present - a nice bottle of Crown Royal. Craig said that I am his only customer who ever gives him a Christmas present. Can that be true??? Surely not. Well, I guess in a way that is a good thing. If it were me, I would dump the stingy people and stay with the one who gave me good booze, but I am a bit mercenary :) I was at the liquor store buying the booze and had pulled the boxes off the shelf and put them on the counter by the register. The guy at the register asked me didn't I want the gift boxes? I was like Huh? He said there were gift boxes with crystal glasses for the same price. I said Hell Yeah! I am all about free, and the nice crystal glasses make me look like a little less of a cheap skate :-) See the glasses? They're even etched. It was nice of the guy to point them out.

Soon I will take off to meet them. I usually take them a soda, but I think today I will take some hot chocolate. It is way warmer today than it was earlier this week (highs in the high teens with 30-40 mph wind!), but it is wet, windy, and about 35. I think I will take some hot water with me and make a mash for the prisoners. They like that. Stay warm everyone!

Ho ho...no!

We came to the office today, same as every other day. It has been pretty fricking cold here for December. Yesterday it was freezing in my office all day, despite the electric space heater stashed under my desk. I need it because the little bulldog gets cold without it. Oh yeah, I like it too. Anyhow, today we came and the MIL told us that the heater on her side of the offices was not working. Perhaps this is why my office has felt so cold eh? Right now, we have a fan pushing air from our section of the office over to hers. Fortunately we have 3 heating units for the office area, + another for the shop area. But dammit! We were supposed to leave work at 2 today. Now we will have to wait on the heater people to come see if they can fix whatever is wrong. It could be a few dollars, or a few thousand. Not what we needed to hear right now. Cross your fingers that it's a blown fuse or some other equally fixable-for-cheap thing. Merry Christmas... uh yeah....

I am not Imelda Marcos

Bill keeps calling me Imelda. Honestly! A girl needs some shoes, yes? This girl happens to only be able to wear a few kinds, so when she finds them, she buys them. So there. Here we have the latest finds. Worth their weight in gold I say. If you only knew how long I have been waiting for a purple pair... *sigh*

I *love* the ebay saved search thingy. It sends me new shoes in just the style/size I want every time someone lists them. If they have a reasonable buy-it-now price, I can snag them before all the other goons even see them! YAY! Life is good. Anyhow, here they are...purple, turquoise, and black. Awesome! ;)

Sleet, I still hates it...

Well, now the main roads are fairly clear, and you can mostly go the speed limit. YAY! The back streets however are even worse than they were the first day. The temp's have been so low that even the ice is not doing a good job of melting stuff. The roads by the barn are abysmal and very dangerous. What little stuff melted has now frozen again and is a solid sheet of ice. If I had a pair of ice skates I would be having some fun, but in my pickup it is pretty scary. Here in Oklahoma, we do have some winter weather, but usually it doesn't last long, so we don't have a lot of experience driving in it. People don't slow down and it is downright scary sometimes. I really hate going out in it, but so far I have done pretty well. The only trouble I've had is turning into the barn drive. It is right at the top of a hill and it's polished to a very nice shine - in other words, it is slick as greased owl shit. You have to creep up and roll in. If you try to brake or accellerate, you are in trouble. Now that I have that figured out, everything is peachy!

The prisoners love this weather. They are pigs, and live for anything that gets them extra food. Because the temps have been so low, and the fact that Prisoner X is old, and Prisoner Y has almost no hair, I have been giving them some extra alfalfa. They are going to be upset when it warms back up to normal temps and the extra slop stops flowing. They have been very busy shitting up the barn. I bedded it down with some nice bermuda hay so they would have a good dry place to sleep, with the added benefit of being able to eat the bedding. Besides, it was *waaay* cheaper to use hay than shavings. I will have to pick out the poop tonight. It has just been too cold for my weenie butt to stay out there and pick. The wind has finally died down today, so they ate outside this morning. YAY!

I actually saw the BM throwing hay to the old man and his gelding friend today. I have been breaking the ice on their tank and I took them some warm water yesterday. They seem to be doing fine. It is supposed to warm up to the 60's Friday. I will have to fill my water tanks then. The watering system at the barn is primitive - a bazillion hoses strung all over god's green earth, and when the weather is freezing there is no water to the paddocks. It sucks, but it's what it is and you learn to work around it. Last year it was cold so long that I had to haul in water twice a day. Hopefully this year that won't happen, but if it does, oh well :-) As my DH says, "Isn't horse ownership *wonderful*?" And I say, yes, indeed it is!

Animal rights?

What is up with animal rights? Animals are. They are animals. They do not have rights. They they live in the moment. They are our devoted companions, and provide us with happiness, but I don't believe they have any rights. Rather, I believe that we humans who own animals have responsibilities. We have the responsibility to treat our animals humanely. We are responsible for their well being, making sure their needs are met. Part of our responsibility is to treat them well, never being cruel or neglectful.

I am tired of all the people who insist that animals are children. These people believe that animals *are* equal to people. These are the same people who won't put a suffering animal down because they don't have the guts. Man up people. If you love widdle Pookie so much, make the tough decision. Do the right thing even though it hurts. Making your baby suffer when you have the ability to end that suffering is cruel and wrong. I don't get this at all. I have worked at barns and vets, and I have seen first hand what animals go through when their owners don't have the intestinal fortitude to do the right thing. If this is love, I would hate to see cruelty. There are things worse than death. I know because I've seen them.

The end goal for a lot of animal rights people is that no animal should be "exploited" by humans. This means that no animal be under the control (or responsibility) of humans. No pets. No livestock. Nothing. No breeding, or ownership period. If that isn't crazy, I don't know what is. Anyone who has ever owned an animal of any kind knows that domesticated animals are dependent on humans for everything. If you have ever lived in the country, you know what a dumped dog looks like. How it gets thinner and thinner until it disappears either because it starved to death, was run over by a car, or eaten by something bigger. Anyone who thinks that horses can live just fine running free, take a gander at what the mustangs are going through. Starvation is an ugly thing.

People who are responsible animal owners must keep on top of what our government is doing. We have to write letters to our representatives and let them know that we are here, and we don't want them telling us what we can or cannot do with our animals. If we don't, we will not have anyone to blame when it becomes illegal to own a pet or breed our horses or cattle. I for one do not want to live long enough to see that day, and it is happening slowly in bits and pieces now. How sad for us all.

I know I am rambling, but I am so annoyed by all the bleeding hearts that I just can't help it. I am tired of their bleating and bawling. The ignorance is amazing and unbelievable. I am appalled on a daily basis. Sheesh....

Hot water, no NCA

Our friday pour for the bank was super. It is going to look better than the original we did years ago. The funniest part was the crew from the company we subbed this job from. They were there doing a pour on the street. They were waiting on their mud when ours came. We poured out and I started floating the edges. They stood there with their mouths hanging open, staring like a bunch of new calves at a fence. I guess they have never seen a woman finish concrete... It was funny. Made me laugh. Of course, they are also our competition. They only do brick strips because that it the only set of tools they have. The extent of their pours is a strip 16" wide, by however long... they couldn't do a driveway or a patio without some major problems. Bill and I have been doing it long enough that we can do a 1000 foot pour and not have it kick our asses. It would be very amusing to get some chairs and watch them try to stamp a driveway. HA! Anyone want to bring popcorn??

Sleet, I hates it

It sleeted here last night. Some places got barely anything, and some got lots. Unfortunately, Broken Arrow, where the horses live, got a lot. I am not overly fond of driving my truck on anything but dry pavement, so I waited till 9 to go feed. I hoped that most of the idiots would be at work, or in a ditch, so as not to make me insane (I know, it's too late...kiss my butt). I went the back way, because nobody goes that way. The back way leads to the turnpike which is usually clear by the time I get on it. Well, not today. You could tell they had sanded it a bit, but it was still covered with what is now ice. You couldn't even see the lane markings. Frankly, this scares me to death. Not because I am a terrible driver, but because other people drive like there is nothing on the road. Geebus people. Where are you going? If it is on fire you can't help, and if it isn't it'll be there when you get there. Slow down for heaven's sake. One woman passed me and waved. She was going about 50. I was not surprised to see Michigan tags on her car. I will be happy going 40 and living another day.

When I got to the barn, my feed shed was iced in. I had to shovel about 2 or 3 inches of ice away from the door. The prisoners were not amused. Nor were they in the mood to hear any excuses. It is cold dammit! Where is our slop? Prisoner X was doing a fair imitation of a lippizzan, with her exuberant airs above the ground. I didn't know a 23 year old horse could do that ;) Prisoner Y was less enthusiastic because Prisoner X was busy running him around in circles. He was too concerned with preserving his hide to do any tricks. I fed them in the barn so their alfalfa wouldn't all blow away in the wind. Oh just so you know, the wind chill was -2 according to the weather guessers. It felt at least that cold.

I checked on the orphan horses in the two paddocks across from my prisoners. Someone strung a tank heater to the first paddock. The second one didn't have one so I broke the ice for them. I just don't get these people. Apparently nobody ever comes out to feed or check on any of these horses. I have been filling the water tanks for the last three weeks because I can't just walk away from horses that have no water. The amazing thing is that two of the three horses in paddock #1 have been blanketed for a week, and the other one had a blanket and hood on today. Who does that crap? Why blankets but no water? Don't people realize that horses colic without water? Horses die without water? But we don't want the little darlings to get cold!!! Bah! A pox on all their houses. Some people should only own stuffed animals. Idiots.

Fowl doings

I went to my friend's house to deliver her Christmas present. I was just there last week to deliver it, but me being me had walked out of the house without it... typical :) I was also going to take pictures of her beautiful horses, but the wind was blowing about 50 mph, so that was a bust. Anyway, she and her DH were out of town judging a horse show, so I just dropped it off in her office and was going to leave when I saw a little parade shaping up between the two barns. My friend has all sorts of animals, and they are all pets. If someone goes missing she is out searching for them, and they all love her and come for petting. Here are some of her friends.

Now I love birds, and these turkeys are beautiful, but they are strange too. I think they are, in fact, proof that there are aliens on our planet. I mean what other animal looks like this?? The white ones let me scratch and pet them. The hen loved it and followed me around after that. Bill calls birds dino birds. If you look closely at any bird, they do look very prehistoric, and the bigger the bird, the more evident it is. Their feet look scaley, and their eyes... scary enough. Big birds like emus and ostriches look at you as if you might possibly be food. I think they are speculating on how much of a fight you'd put up. Most horses are horrified by turkeys. The toms like to scrape their wing feathers on the ground, and the rattling noise they make will send a lot of horses right into orbit. (fortunately Baby Huey is deaf!) The white tom is a patriotic guy!

I am in love with this boy. He has one blue eye and one brown eye, just like Monkey. He is really beautiful and the pictures don't do him justice. His feathers are irridescent and so shiny.

Hot water and 1% NCA

If you know what this means, you must be a concrete monkey! Hot water and NCA is what you put in concrete to make it get hard faster. NCA is Non Calcium Accelerator. Concrete gets hard because of heat. It's called hydration. When concrete is made with hot water, it makes it set up faster. When you add in some NCA, it gets hard even faster. Since it was cold today, we decided we'd just help the mud along a bit. We really hate it when the concrete just sits there. It's like a great gray mass that jiggles with laughghter every time we check to see if it's getting hard. A smug little mud pie sitting there doing nothing while we dither. Well, not today.

We have been in the office mostly for the last couple of weeks, waiting on the big job to start. As a consequence of sitting on our ever widening asses for a few weeks, we are not in finishing shape...or much of any shape but round ;) We opted to do half of what was set up for a couple of reasons. First, we have been sitting around eating like it was our last meal for weeks. Second, because the mix design that was already approved came from a different concrete company, we were unsure of how the mud would be. We didn't want to get an ass kicking on our first pour. Aren't we the clever ones? Yes, we are. Cutting this pour back was the smartest thing we have done in a long time. The hot water and NCA did their job. We had poured out, and just finished edging all the pours when we decided that it wasn't just drying out on top, this shit was getting hard. When Bill says "this is getting hard", that is code for "I am gonna work your ass off", or alternately, "we are gonna get our asses kicked". Personally, neither of those options is very appealing to me. I am allergic to hard work, and my butt doesn't appreciate being kicked.

This being our first pour on the job, and our first time working for this particular company, we were determined to make a good first impression, so we kicked it into high gear. Well, Bill and I did. The rest of our crew pretty much wandered around aimlessly, or pretended to work, far away from where the actual work was going on. This is normal for us actually, so it wasn't a huge deal, but I digress. Just so you know, today's pour was actually four pours. They were three foot wide three sided tree rings. We had to run back and forth between the pours, doing all the things we had to do to make it ready to stamp. We managed to keep enough ahead of it to get it all stamped. It actually ended up being a very good first day, and the stampwork looks great.

Tomorrow we have a very similar pour on another job. We are replacing some work we did a few years ago. This job is for a bank. We had put stamped work around three sides of their building, and the city tore out all the stuff on two sides when they widened the street. The bank insisted that the replacement concrete match what was there before. We found this very amusing because the company we are working for is our competition, but they don't have the tools needed to match our work. Nobody does. Hee hee! Sucks to be them. Needless to say, we decided to take the NCA out of the pour tomorrow. We both feel like someone ran over us and then backed up so they could do it again. We don't want to have to work at warp 9 two days in a row... Damn it sucks to get old. My brain is stuck on about 19, but my body tells me in no uncertain terms that it is not amused, and is old. I'm off to get a couple of tennis elbow straps and a new wrist brace. At least tomorrow is Friday. Oh and next week, they are predicting "winter precipitation" all week. Hot damn! Another week to eat! Woot!

Elf Yourself!

Hey Kristi, I know you aren't feeling well, so this should make you laugh. I hope it doesn't make your back hurt... Be careful or you'll wet yourself!

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/bdDYNNdiztlbZY7KLRKy

I hate developers

We have a big job under contract. There have been a multitude of delays, and we are still waiting to start. In the mean time, we have been hustling smaller jobs, and got two in the last two weeks. One of them was an on again off again thing that as of last week was supposedly on. All that was left to do was for the owner to pick a color. Well, I just got a call from the guy we were going to sub the job from. Seems that the developer wants a different company's tool system. The architect and the owner both approved our tools and picked a color, but apparently the developer had an entire litter of kittens and insisted on the other tools. This is suspicious on several levels, but is not all that unusual. The real corker is when the guy we were supposed to do the work for asked me if there was a contractor around with the other tool system. Now I am a real nice gal, but I do not believe it is my obligation to sell work for our competition. As far as I know there is not a contractor with the other system anywhere in Oklahoma. Even if he were next door, I sure wouldn't help someone find him and do work that we were supposed to do. Call me bitchy that way.

The other highly annoying thing about this job is that we had a verbal commitment to do the new GIANT wally world there. They told us to book the time and get ready. Well, we didn't hear from them, and drove over there, and lo and behold someone else had done this huge assed job. It looks like crap, and I am sure they got what they paid for. There are barely any joints on a lot of it, and it is definitely not up to the standards that wally world set during the 2 years we worked with them to specify these stores. The developer who is insisting on the other tool system undoubtedly approved that stuff, and is wanting the same thing in front of this bank we were supposed to do. I feel sorry for the guy we were going to work for. He admitted that the developer is a pain in the ass and does not pay well. Ain't that an incentive for us to work for them now... not on your best day. Hey, at least we found out before we invested a lot of time and money in the job. Thank whomever....

Shoe report

Bagged another pair. They are turquoise sorta... Total $25 shipping included. Such a buy!

Optimism abounds...cautiously

I went to my friend's house Saturday, to drop off her Christmas present. I started out by going to the feed store. It is *always* a hair raising experience on a Saturday. Everyone who can't make it during the week comes then. People butt in line and hog the dock, so if you're a polite sort, you get to wait and wait. The kid who was loading grain had an attitude going on. I guess he was pissed because all the other hands were unloading a truck, so he had to load all the customers. Whatever the reason, he was slinging grain around managed to break open three of my bags :( Little turd. Went back and got my alfalfa and headed to my friend's place.

This woman raises thoroughbred hunters. She has some of the prettiest horses I have seen in a long time. I am a little jealous maybe. Of course she actually rides and shows them, so I am not too jealous. My less than stellar show career was over years ago, thank goodness! Anyway, once I pulled into her drive, I realized that I had left her present at home. *sigh* Anyone who knows me knows that this is not surprising. It's ok though. She is close enough that I can go back next weekend. I will take pictures of her horses when I go back. They are just gorgeous.

So we come to the reason for the cautious optimism. The waiting period for creditors has either passed, or is about to pass, and the biggest creditor for my mother's estate, a credit card, has not responded. If they don't respond, we are not obligated to pay them. YAY! That would be such a relief. Now if we could only get the house sold... It'll happen.

Little Monsters

I don't have any children. I made the decision a long time ago that I would not be a good parent, and therefore should not have children. I wish that a *lot* of other people had been as conscientious. There are apparently a lot of people in this world who indiscriminately reproduce for fun, and without any thought of the consequences.

Today I stopped at the local convenience store to get something to drink. It is always crowded, usually with a herd of day workers waiting for someone to come pick them up. Today there was a smaller herd of teenagers. They were hanging out at the fountain drinks. This is at the back of the store, and is next to the coffee bar. It is always the busiest place in the store, and often so crowded that you have to wait in line. The teens were hogging the fountain bar, standing and swilling energy drinks, blocking everyone else. I finally got my tea and went to the counter to put a lid on it. One of the little princesses came over and slung her cup into the trash. It was half full and of course I got an energy drink shower. Grrrr. She just looked at me. I wanted to slap her face. They do this every morning. They go in and drink as much as they can and then throw the cups away. I guess their "parents" haven't taught them that stealing is wrong. I used to report it to the clerks, but they just said it's an "expected loss", and they are "too busy" to keep an eye on things like that. Fine with me, except that when people steal stuff the rest of us pay for it, one way or another.

I am not an "old lady", but I am old enough to be most of these kids' mother, and it really pisses me off when kids act like thugs. They are disrespectful, rude, and thoughtless. Their parents have little or no control over them, and cater to their every whim. They are producing a generation of entitled, selfish assholes. These kids are not cute. They are little monsters. They are overindulged, whiney, self-absorbed spoiled brats, with never a consequence their actions. Their parents ought to be ashamed, but of course they are like barn blind horse owners. Not *my* kid. My child is perfect... he/she/it would *never* do something like that. Well guess what Mommy, your little yuppie spawn does indeed do crappy stuff. Someday you will see it. Probably when they move back in with you after college because working doesn't fit in with their entitled lifestyle. You will be spending your meager retirement supporting the slobs that you raised and conditioned to believe that everything they want magically appears, without any effort on their part. Enjoy Mommy and Daddy, the fruits of your labor. Perhaps you should have had a better plan, eh?

I know that there are good kids out there. I even know a few personally that are polite, helpful, and respectful. They are always a pleasure to be around, and their parents are to be commended. It's just unfortunate that the good kids are greatly outnumbered by the spoiled bratty ones. It used to be the other way around. *SIGH* I guess I am an old lady...

I just saw this... http://tinyurl.com/6s96jj Sadly, I am not surprised one tiny bit. Disgusting. And Daddy is defending her. Yeah....

Shoe report

I snagged another pair of black shoes on ebay! Such a deal...$26. *If* you can find them in the stores they are at least $55 a pair. I also won a pair of red ones, but she emailed me and said she couldn't find them... WTF? Oh well.

I am a little obsessed about these shoes. Because of my right foot, I can only wear a few styles of shoe, so I buy all of them I can get my hands on at a "reasonable" price. I hate paying $50 for a pair of shoes I will wear out in 3 or 4 months...Call me crazy. I will answer.

Muppet Wave

Yaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy!

Bill called me outside yesterday to see what he was doing. I got out there and lo and behold, in our parking lot stood a round pen! He has been making feet for it out of the left over composite decking material we had. Now the dirt won't get all stuck in the legs and rot them off. It looked huge! but we didn't measure it. I swear, this is the best horsey buy I have made in a long time. I got a pretty darn nice round pen for $225! Woot!

Now to find time to haul it out to the barn and assemble it in my paddock. It is going to be too cold today, but maybe Friday. Pretty exciting stuff in my dull life. Prisoner X has a rude rude awakening coming...heh heh heh.

Drift Into Overdrive

Drift Into Overdrive is a very special horse. She is Baby Huey's momma. She is such a fine animal. I love her. She has produced some really great babies, and I have the best of them. My friend Joleen owns her, and she loves her too. Drift is such a nice mare. She loves attention and is always polite. She is one of those horses that is a joy. She doesn't fight or act marish. Just a good girl. She may come keep Susie company when Baxter goes to the trainer. What a treat for me :) She is one of those keeper mares. She will have a home until she dies, and she deserves it.

Here are some pictures of her. Joleen and I speculate that she has shrunk a bit in the last few years. I distinctly remember her being taller than this :) And see the blue spot in her eye? That's cool.

Dancing in the dark

Rules for feeding animals of the equine persuasion after sundown :

Rule #1. Try never to feed in the dark.

Rule #2. If you must feed in the dark, always remember that horses can see quite well without much light. You may have a difficult time seeing a black horse in the dark (ya think?), but he is busy playing peekaboo with you. Be afraid.

Rule #3. Remember that Prisoner Y perceives any deviation from normal routine as an excuse to play. This is when Hide and Seek begins. I find it horrifying that a huge horse can be so damn quiet. It is not amusing to turn around and find yourself face to face with a two foot long nose. Note: "Playing" with a 15oo lb horse in the dark is not fun. GAH!

Rule#4. Never ever depend on the feeders being where you left them. Baby Huey has other plans. Now the fun begins.

Rule #5. While searching for missing feeders (see rule 4), never assume that you will find them. Have a backup plan in place, and prepare to lose whatever container you use for the backup. Baby Huey is a busy boy.

Rule #6. Never depend on the prisoners becoming bored and patiently waiting for you to serve their slop, while you are searching a three acre paddock for the slop bowls. As soon as you are lulled into a false sense of security, you will hear thundering hooves. Prepare to die.

Rule #7. Never assume that a deaf horse can't find you in the dark. He may be deaf, but his snooter works just fine, and he *knows* that you have a tiny apple wafer crumb in your jacket pocket. He knows this because he can smell it from 5 miles away in a good stiff wind. He feels obligated to hunt you down and wrest it from your frail body.

Rule #8. Never try to escape from the prisoner in the dark. Remember he can see better than you can, even though you have a flashlight, and he will mow you down to retrieve the cookie. Screaming like a cat on fire while running through knee high dead grass only encourages the prisoner to persue you more intently. Throwing the apple wafer and running in the opposite direction may buy you enough time to reach safety.

Rule #9. Accept the fact that after you have searched all the usual places and come up empty handed you must use the shabby torn slop bowls. As soon as you have admitted defeat, the good bowls magically appear but it is too late. You have already poured the slop in the icky bowls.

Rule #10. Be happy that only one of the prisoners felt the need to assault you, and you did not recieve any crippling injuries. Whew!

I think this picture captures my recent mood fairly well. It's been there less than a week and this is all that's left. It was a good sized deer.

The Chaps

Well, here they are. We are a little disappointed, but I guess it was a good learning experience. This woman bills herself as a custom chap maker. What she actually does is custom-ize chaps. She has a bunch made up in various sizes and has you try them on until one fits "good". This should have been our first warning. She didn't ever take any measurements. She found one that she felt fit well enough, and made his from that pattern.

Bill wanted red/burgundy, so we had to order the leather, which was fine. He wanted some shield knots on them, and we figured that would be simple for someone who supposedly had a lot of experience. Well, we figured wrong. If you click on these pictures you will see the lack of attention to detail. I am not just randomly bitching about this. I have done plenty of applique work, and a lot of leatherwork and this is unacceptable for a pair of chaps that cost $550.

We do like how the colors worked out. They are different, but not too gaudy and I think they are bright enough to make people notice him, which was the main purpose with going custom.

We think they look ok, but the lower legs are not great. They are waaay too loose, and it wasted quite a bit of leather. *sigh* We have begun to seriously consider this as a way to supplement our income. We have a heavy duty sewing machine that we have used to make tents in the past, so that major expense is already done. Between the two of us, we have enough leatherworking experience to do this, and do it well. Bill is very anal retentive about things being perfect, so nobody would walk away disappointed. Now all we have to do is make up a couple of pair and get people to wear them as advertising. I don't understand why someone would spend $30K on a bike that is all dolled up and fancified, and then wear the same chaps as every other biker. We are going to make a pair for my brother I think. He is pretty active, and lots of folks see him. Maybe some flames down the legs, or wings as a yoke.

I think there is a wide open market for true customs made to fit a person, and appliqued to match their bikes. Maybe I will be able to retire someday! Woot!

Bricks and slate

This job was for our tear-out guy Skip. His poor wife has been waiting for a front walk and porch for three years. We found time to do it before the big job and apparently she loves it. If momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. Skip is happy. All in all, a nice little job.

We always dislike putting a second color/pattern border in the middle of something. It is a huge pain in the ass, and makes things way more complicated. In this case, we could have poured this in one day, but the border made that impossible. The right side , brick wall, and border were done in one pour, and the left side with it's brick wall were done in the second pour.Bill tried really hard to talk her out of it, but she knew what she wanted, and it really does look sharp. I have never done the brick wall before. It was pretty neat. I love the crow foot tool that makes the corners.This is after it was sealed. You can see the slate texture nicely.
This is all handwork. Fun stuff :)

sick and tired

You know that trite old saying? I am sick and tired of being sick and tired? Well I am. I am tired of being depressed. I am just tired. I hate the holidays. I hate all the fake cheer and fakely cheery people. I am sick of it all.

Big job update

The concrete guy on the big job in Broken Arrow called us. He wanted to let us know that the entire job had been shut down because his dirt dood had cut a four inch gas line. Holy Mother! That is so dangerous. I am glad it did not happen while we were working there. Anyhow, more delays... We did manage to pick up one small and one middle sized job. The small one is done and I will have pictures next week after it's sealed. It is a very cool job. The middle sized one is an entry for a bank. We are supposed to start it next week. I am not holding my breath...I do not look good in blue.

I *love* my work...

Well hell.

I finally saved up enough money for a new tattoo. I have been itching to have some passionflowers done on my right arm so I won't look so lopsided. So I trundled my butt over to the tattoo shop. The tattoo shop is in the rear of a head shop in Broken Arrow. It is sort of a seedy place, but you just walk through and they don't bother you, so it's ok. I got back there, and there wasn't a soul in the place. I looked around and Lesa's painting was gone.... and so was all of her stuff. Damn. I am not happy. I went to the counter in the head shop and asked where she was. He told me she had been fired and no longer worked there. I made an educated guess of "lateness an missed appointments". He said yes. I was neither shocked nor surprised. She was late a lot. I didn't mind because she does good work, and from what I have gathered, it is pretty typical of tattoo folks to have some quirks. *sigh* She emailed me a while ago and told me that she had finally gotten enough money together to open her own shop. She was not a happy camper working there, but it costs a ton to open your own place, so she had to wait. I told her to let me know when she got set up and I would come by. So now I have to wait until she reads her email, which is not frequently. I don't know what I will do if she doesn't answer me. I definitely am not thrilled about finding a new artist. Not just anyone is going to be allowed to put anything permanent on my frail little body. It is hard to find someone decent. So I will wait... patience is not my forte, but I will try.

Gloom, Despair, and Agony on ME!

Deep dark depression...excessive misery...

Ok, not really but not such a great start to the week. We just came back from the big job in Broken Arrow that has been on contract for almost a full year. We were told two weeks ago that today they would be ready. We went by this weekend to check, and found they had about 500 sq. feet ready. Whoopie! There are over 15K square feet on this project. It is supposed to be done by January 1, 2009. AAahahahahahahahaha!!!! Foolish mortals.

Bill and I talked about it, and decided the only way to rock these fine gentlemen off high center was to just show up and start pushing. Unfortunately, they have bigger equipment, so our baby push was met with a big ole backhoe. Damn. Here is what really sucks. We have turned down about twenty five thousand dollars worth of work that we could have gotten done in the next two weeks. Since they have lied to us, and they are not going to be ready till the END of next week we are screwed. Not only did we turn down the work, but they are going to cause us to be unable to meet the project deadline. I sure hope they like payint those liquidated damages, cause I sure ain't gonna. That will give us 3 days to work and then the Thanksgiving holiday. I swear. Why do people have to be dishonest? Why couldn't they just tell us they werent't ready? We are trying to contact the other jobs and see if we can beg them to let us do the work.

Some days it does NOT pay to get out of bed. Damn...

new pics

I finally added the before pics to Mr. Steffawn's post.

Mr. Steffawn....Fabulous!

Our latest project was a patio for some friends. They had a pergola put up in their back yard, and wanted a new patio to go under it. It is a beautiful thing, made of rough cedar with lots of embellishment. It was fun to do their patio. It has been a long time since anyone was this excited about their new concrete.

We met Randy and Annette through my brother Stephen. They are all members of a local Harley owners group. They go everywhere together, and have been really good friends for a long time.

Stephen was the designer for this project. Well, not really. He was the designated fidget. He had to make sure that everything was just so....so fidgety. I swear, he was more worried than Randy and Annette. He asked more questions, double checked more patterns and colors, and in general had more anxiety than any of the rest of us put together. He instant messaged and called me so much the week before the job that I seriously considered having him kidnapped and taken away until the job was finished. Of course, he wanted to make sure that R&A were happy with their new patio. He fretted so much that we renamed him Mr. Steffawn. He is not happy about this, but the rest of us laugh. He acted so much the typical decorator (fuss, fuss, fuss!)that we could not resist. He threatens us with bodily harm... funny guy. Uh Mr. Steffawn? This isn't our first pour...really :)

Anyhow, back to the patio. The cover is actually half roofed and half pergola. Under the roofed part, they wanted a simple pattern that was nice and flat for the patio furniture. Under the pergola section, they wanted the forest floor pattern. We did a ripple slate skin under the roof. This is a seamless pattern that you can either score in a design, or leave in large blocks. They opted for a two by two foot pattern, scored on the diagonal. This always makes an elegant look. Bill profiled the house with a nice six inch border to make it look finished. On the pergola end, we used the same slate pattern, along with the tropical leaves, and maple leaves that are native here. I also pulled a couple of leaves off of the trees in their yard and used those too. I really like this pattern. It is pretty labor intensive - lots of crawling on hands and knees, but the result is worth it. We used a lot of colors to hand tint this time. There were 6 different colors, along with the antiquing. I also combined some colors to mimic the leaves changing colors in fall. It was pretty interesting. Hopefully, by next summer we will have a new leaf pattern that is strictly native plants. There are a lot of very interesting leaves here, and it will make a nice pattern for hand coloring. I just have to preserve some leaves until I have time to make the new pattern...there is never enough time.

It was very nice working for R&A. They were so excited. After we got the patio poured, we told them that it would have to cure for a week before we could clean, color, and seal it. Of course, since daylight savings time has come it gets dark before they get home from work. On the day we poured the patio, they were out with flashlights trying to see what it looked like! The day we cleaned and sealed it, they again took the flashlights out and looked it over. Apparently it was like a bunch of little kids at Christmas! I think that is great. I guess I am so jaded that it's nice to see someone excited about their slab :) A called us, and was so excited that I just had to laugh. We met them for dinner the next day, and they were all grins. Fun!

Here are pictures. I sooo need a nicer camera. I had a difficult time getting good shots of the texture, and leaves, but you can get an idea. I thought I had all the pics here, but alas some are at home. I will add before and during shots tonight.

The shoe fairy came!!!

I have been lusting after a couple of pair of shoes on Ebay for about a year. I am such a tightwad that I didn't want to pay $49 a pair for them. I wear them out so fast I hate spending that much on them. So, periodically I search for them, just to look at the pictures... I am such a doofus.

First off, you have to understand that due to having had a pretty bad club foot (and many corrective surgeries), I am very limited in what kind of shoes I can wear. No high heels, no flip flops or clog type things. My knee goes out in high heels, and because of my foot, I can't even begin to keep anything without an enclosed heel on. It also helps of I have ankle support, so I am limited to very low heels, ala Ropers, or flat shoes - like tennis shoes. I look for shoes all the time, and when I find them cheap I throw them in with the rest of the ones waiting to be worn. I am not particular, because everything I wear ends up trashed, so any color is fine with me.

Anyway, back to my story... I finally broke down and paid the $49 + shipping for the two pair I have been looking at for a year, and guess what? They showed up today! YAY! I think I am going to swoon, they are so pretty! I am NOT going to wear these to work. Nope, no way Jose. These are for dress up! LMAO! At least they are sparkly :) Perfect for a Fairy Princess eh? Ohhh Iridescent sparkly love! My Shoes!!! The ones on the right are actually a sort of green with greyish overtones, kind of dusky. Hard to get a good picture. Bliss!

Here are some of my other shoes, just in case you don't have any water to boil, or some other equally engaging task. These little beauties are my current pair of work shoes. They are covered with color, release, sealer, and other assorted icky stuff.

I like Black because it makes my feet look really small! Ha!

Here are the ones i am wearing right now. They are riding sneakers. They are also covered with grunge. Poor things. These are incredibly difficult to find, as nobody makes them any more. I snag a pair every once in a while. Lucky me! I love them, till they are in pieces...and then a while longer.

This is a pair I got off Ebay. When I saw the ad, I missed the part that said they were patent. Even as odd as I am, I find it really difficult to wear patent leather shoes to work on concrete. So they sit in my office, and I look at them. And they shine. I dunno... maybe some day I will wear them. They are awfully dressy for climbing up the ladder on a mixer though.

Here are the doggers inspecting the goods. I think they both approve. They like my work shoes because they have dog hair all over them. Their dog hair. They smell best.

Next, I will show you all my riding sneaks..... Bet you can't wait.....

Black cats are bad luck.

I know this because yesterday afternoon I went out to the barn early so I could catch the Bax Man and smear some fungus goop on his back legs. It was a beautiful day. I opened up the feed area and he came right in. I went and got his halter, and he came right over to me to get hooked up. As I was reaching around his neck to put the rope around him, out of the brush pile shoots this wild assed black cat. Of course it ran right between the water tanks and behind Bax. Of course he shot forward...right over the top of me. Smashed my sunglasses into my nose, stepped on my left foot (thank god it wasn't my surgically engineered one), and jammed my right hand. At least he just ran me down and didn't kick out at the cat as he ran off. I watched as his feet flew past me, thinking I was dead meat. If he had kicked out I would have been at the very least (more) brain dead, or perhaps just plain dead.

I am a very lucky girl. I could have been very smashed up, or worse. As it is, I have some bruises, and a couple of scrapes, but nothing serious. Guess I have some more desensitizing work to do.

I hate that cat... and the goats that are probably what flushed the cat out of the brush. I really only hate the cat because it sprays the back of my little feed room and stinks up the whole thing. Stupid Cat.

Houdini

Here is Houdini. I have no idea what his real name, or even if he has one. I call him that because apprently he can escape from every fence on the place. I have not seen him for a couple of days, so either his owner got some ass kicking hotwire up, someone stole him, he ran away, or he is in horsey heaven.... He is a cute little thing though.

Does anyone care....

I mean really, does *anyone* care whether or not Toby Keith shaves his pits? Really? Geebus, someone needs to get a life.

Interesting

I was looking at my site meter, checking out where people are from. I noticed that about 75% of the people from another country are finding my blog by searching for things like hairy blondes, bloody murder, or tattooed ladies.

About the same percentage of people in the US have either been referred by someone who has a horse blog, or they are looking for pictures of concrete.

Isn't that interesting? Things that make you go Hmmmmmm?

Some people should not own horses.

There are few things more annoying, to me, than someone who has a butt ton of horses and doesn't give a damn about them. Todays diatribe is brought to you by the pretty dappled gray pony that has been standing outside my paddock for the last two days. I have called the barn manager and left messages about him. He is constantly roaming around loose, and often people don't see him, so they leave the gate to the road open. This is a disaster waiting to happen. This morning, the gate was open, and I drove up to my paddock...guess who was there. You got it. The pretty pony. I called the BM again. He finally answered right before his voice mail picked up. He sounded sleepy, which is unusual because he works nights, and is just getting off about the time I feed. I told him that the pony was out *again*, and the gate was open. That is when he said he was in California, and could I please close the gate! Bwaaahahahaha! I woke his ass up! He mumbled something about the pony's owner needing to buy some hot tape for the paddock, since said menace was such a Houdini. He also said something about the pony not seeming to go towards the gate! Holy Cwap Batman! Uh.... it will only go out the gate and be smashed by a car once. (This has actually happened at this place)

Skip to this afternoon. I drove up to feed, and who is still there? Houdini is munching on the icky alfalfa I threw on the burn pile for the bazillion mini goats that roam loose. He has apparently been there all day, judging by the number of poop piles. When I drove up, he left. He trotted across to visit the bay horse who is three legged crippled (I called the BM about him too, see extended rant below*) I fed my two and went to get their hay. Here he comes. He is smart.... he knows about being caught. He followed along down the stallion lane while I took the hay to the barn. Of course, when I went out with the halter, he left. Bastard.

I went down to the main barn to see if anyone knew who owned Houdini, and where his dappled ass belonged. Apparently, his rather absentee owner doesn't come to the barn often. She also apparently would not miss him if he were loaded up and taken to timbuktu. *Apparently* she has fifteen horses in the far back pasture. She is totally unconcerned that one of her horses could get killed on the road, or worse yet, cause a person or a whole car full of people to die. This is one example of someone who should not own horses in my never to be humble opinion.

*Extended rant: The bay horse I mentioned above appeared along with three other horses in the paddock directly across the road from mine. This is not an unusual occurrence as people and horses are in and out of this place like a revolving door. I noticed that he was three legged. His right hind was useless and he was hobbling around looking very uncomfortable. I called the BM (I love how those initials work out! HA!)and told him the horse was crippled. He said that those three horses were not even supposed to be in there, and he didn't know how they'd gotten there. He supposed they had come through the back fence. Of course he would call the owner... and of course the horse is still out there, still crippled. Rant on! Another former client had about 50 fricking broodmares. The woman's hubby passed and left her an apparently endless supply of dollars so she went to the auction and bought every mare anyone was selling. Then she hauled them all to various stallions to have them bred. Sheesh eh? Well, one of them was a pretty gray mare. I always looked for her. One day she was standing all spraddle legged by the front fence. Hmmmm. I had noticed something hanging down under her belly. I went over to look, and this poor mare had a fricking fist sized hole in her belly. Fortunately, there were no guts hanging out, but it was a nasty wound. I called the BM... of course he would call the owner. He thought they had called the vet.... Uh yeah, sure. Every vet I know who actually graduated from an accredited university and passed the boards would have shaved and trimmed that wound, even if they couldn't suture it. 'Cause you can't suture a wound that is DAYS old. Fortunately it did not kill her.

The BM is the same guy who periodically sends out these idiotic demands... like you WILL vaccinate for WNV, and you WILL bring me proof that you have done this. Uh BM? Kiss my ass. What about rabies you idiot? There are just a lot of people in this world who should not own animals...or breed.

You may now return to your regularly scheduled...whatever :)

Quirks I gots 'em

My friend Holly challenged me to list 6 quirks and then tag 6 other bloggers to do the same. Ok, let's see....

1. I am a tomboy. A 46 year old tomboy. As a little kid, I never played with dolls, or dress-up, or getting into mom's makeup. I still view all of the above with a sneer. There is nothing wrong with trucks I tell ya!

2. I must own a horse. I found this out when I went for a few years without one. There was always this feeling that something was missing, or undone. I figured it out when I bought Emmett, and the feeling went away.

3. I worked as an animal lab technician in a research facility. I liked it. I can tell if there is a mouse in my house by smell.

4. I am a concrete finisher.... (is that technically a quirk, or just mental illness disguised?)

5. I have been married (to the same guy) for almost 22 years... I think that is a quirk today. I only want to kill him with my bare hands about twice a day.

6. I have aphasia from a serious head injury. I lose words...I don't remember things like people's faces, and have short term memory problems.

There! I did it. Well, I did most of it. I only post comments to a couple of blogs, and lurk on a few. I hate to break the "chain", but I don't feel right asking someone who doesn't know me at all.... Hope you're not too disappointed :)

Help!! I've fallen and I can't get up!

Ok, how many of you have watched those commercials where some poor little old lady is rescued because she has the panic button around her neck? Now, how many of you have made fun of same? I admit it, I have. I have made fun of people who have fallen down by sing-songing that commercial at them. Karma, being the Bitch that she is, gave me a good dose of that today.

We were staining a deck and interior up at Grand Lake. Every house up there is built on the side of a cliff. There is no dirt, only rock, and gravel. I had gone down to grab a hose and pull it around the side of the house. Mission accomplished...no problem. Then as I was walking back around the house, I stupidly stepped on a mound of chat, and the shit all flew out from under my feet. Of course, I fell. I fell downhill. I banged the shit out of my knees, both hands, and my head. Good thing my melon is hard. Damn. I cried.... Of course, my wonderful, kind, loving husband heard the commotion and leaned out over the rail to ask if I was ok. Bastard! He did manage to keep a straight face until I got back on the deck. He didn't actually start laughing till I told him I'd hit my head. He is still laughing... We are not amused. I hate Grand Lake. We have to go back tomorrow.....damn.

Old friend

Do you all get those annoying emails from classmates dot com where they swear someone is looking for you? Well, I went to the site, and looked around. Nobody was looking for me at all. Boo. While I was there, I searched for my best friend from high school. I didn't find her, but I did initiate a search, so they apparently started searching...and guess what? About 2 weeks later I got an email, and it was my friend! How cool is that? I have been too busy to get together with her, or even email past the first few, but as soon as work calms down, I am going to call her. I was pretty excited. We were inseperable back then, and she is a cool chick. Get this... she is a machinist! LMAO! Now THAT is funny. I am not in the least surprised. Fun huh? Hi Stefanie! :)

The smell of leather....

It's one of those things that I can't describe, but I know it when I smell it. We got to smell a lot of leather last weekend. Bill will eventually get a big boy bike, and when he does, he will need some leathers to ride in. So, we loaded up, fed the pones, ran to the feed store, and then scooted down the highway to Beggs where the leatherworker has a shop.

Beggs is a tiny little town about forty miles from Tulsa. Of course, knowing how small it is, I did not take the address with me. My bad! The actual area of town with anything resembling a store is about 4 blocks, and we finally found it on the 4th block. LOL lost in a teeny town! We found them in a storefront on Main Street. The smell of leather hit you in the face when you walked in the door. There were racks and racks of the stuff. My brother had recommended them to us. He had a pair of chaps made several years ago and really likes them.

They had a bunch of ready made chaps on some racks. Of course, they were all black. No can do! Chaps are for protection, so I guess most people don't think about them past that. What I don't understand is how someone will spend $30K on a bike with a super fancy paint job, and then wear leathers that are just like everyone else's! I am a weenie. I know that riding a bike is dangerous and it scares me. I think that the brighter and more "different" you are, the more people will look at you. This is a good thing. If they see you, they are much less likely to run your ass over.

I have had custom chaps made before, so I know what all the options are. Poor Bill was a bit overwhelmed, and hadn't really given much thought to what he could actually have done, and what he really wanted. He was willing to go in and accept whatever they shoved down his throat. So we proceeded to tell them what he wanted. He wanted burgundy buffalo hide. Apparently, there is no such animal. (I know better, but...) They did have some burgundy/oxblood bull hide. It was very nice, so we decided on that for the base. It has enough red in it to be really loud next to the ho-hum black that everyone else wears. I asked Bill if he wanted something on the yoke. He looked at me like ??? I told him that he could have a different color on the yoke, or stamping or whatever. So, he says blue. Well there are about 20 shades of blue, so they started pulling out samples and books. He decided on sapphire blue. Cool - the bright/dark color will go well with the oxblood. Then I asked him if he wanted some piping. ???? You know, piping. A thin strip of color between the yoke and the legs. Ohhhhh! Yes. Yellow. Bright yellow. So we found a yellow for the piping. Then he wanted some sunwheels on the legs, done in the same yellow. Those will really get noticed, and I am all about people seeing him on that bike. I tried to talk him into fringe, but I think he was worried about how much they were going to cost. The owner was not big on fringe - said it got stuck in the zipper. Well, it ain't rocket science. Hold the fringe aside while you zip them eh? It's also possible that fringe is too girly. I could smell the smoke from his neurons firing, so no fringe. Even though this is my gift to him, and he should not have worried about the cost, he was fretting. I wasn't....

One thing that worries me is they did not measure him. They had him try on a pair of their ready made chaps and decided that was good enough. I get that bike chaps are different than horse chaps, but geeze. I am used to being measured and having a pattern made for me, or at the very least, having an existing pattern modified to fit me. The woman who owns the shop insisted that the legs have to be big to go over the boots he will be wearing. *No* they don't. You are just being lazy and wasting leather. Bill thought they were fine though, so as he is the one who will wear them, I let it go.

When my brother had his made, the shop was owned by a little old man. He sold the shop this year. The woman who bought it said that after he retired, at 80, he found that he was bored and asked if they would let him come back and work. Well DUH! They were happy to have him back, and frankly, I hope he works on Bill's chaps because I don't know that the new owner will do a bang up job. The old man has made hundreds of pair, so maybe we will get lucky.

When it comes time for me to have a pair, I don't know if I will go to them or not. I am waay more picky about chaps, and I want them to fit me correctly. I don't know if I can do the big baggy legs. Ick! I have made a couple of pair, and they are not hard...maybe I'll make my own! :)

Your tax dollars at work!

Every day, I drive by miles and miles of pastures full of horses. At first, I thought some obviously insane animal collector was randomly breeding them. My farrier disabused me of this notion by telling me that these were mustangs. The pastures are "holding areas" where they stash all the mustangs that were never adopted. The ranchers that feed them get paid a goodly sum to do absolutely nothing with them, other than make sure they don't starve, and report any that die. There are literally thousands of them standing around eating their heads off. Some of them are quite nicely built, and easy on the eyes. They will remain in the holding areas until they die, and we have the priviledge of paying for it. This really bothers me. I understand people wanting to see them running wild, but these horses are not running wild. They are housed in sex segregated herds, and I have yet to see a single one run. In the winter when the ranchers supplement their hay, they line up like a herd of cattle, eating the cubes the trucks trail out.

Why, pray tell, are we paying hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for this? It's not as if they do tours where people could take pictures, or just look at the horses, rather, they are off limits to the public. I wish all the people who are so adamant about mustangs being part of our history would have to pay for keeping these herds. I love horses as much as the next person, but this seems an unreasonable waste to me.

Sorry for the crappy pics. If you get out of the car they run away....

Idle hands...

Are nowhere to be found around here! I swear, Bill is trying to kill me. We have been working our collective asses off, and finishing up the jobs left and right. Yay! and Boo! At least we have some money in the bank to make payroll, but damn we are tired.

Just for the record, we do work in hell. Bill once told one of the guys on the crew that he was El Diablo Blanco, and he owned his soul. The poor guy never came back. I don't even think he picked up his final check. Working for the devil. HA!

We did a small patio for a distant relative of Bell Starr. He was very nice, if a bit odd. His wife made things simple for us by wanting only the base color with release. He wanted several highlight colors, but she overruled him. Excellent! We also did a little job for a previous customer. She had a gate put up on her drive, and we had to wreck out a strip for the conduit to go under the slab. We put it back with a nice paver brick pattern. She was easy too. Nice lady :) She says she will be calling us to replace the entire drive. Oh goodie :-P We are working now on another add on for a previous customer. It is tiny, so two days at most! Then we go up to Owasso to do a patio for a friend. She had a beautiful pergola installed, and we are doing the leaf pattern under the open end and a slate skin on the other. It is a bit bigger, bur still not over two days. Coolio!

Remember the job for the family friends? Wellll it is done. Hooray! We are hoping that that was our yearly PITA job. Believe it or not, the damn pump blew up on us...again! We pumped three days. The first day, we had an excellent pump jockey. His name is Randy, and he is the man! We only had one clog, and that is great. The second day, we had the newest driver they have, and man, did he make our lives miserable. First off, he was late, so the pump was not completely set up before the mud arrived. I mean holy hell. It is hard enough to pump a job without having the mixer sit and spin, heating the mud up, and making our job even harder. He finally got his shit together, and started pumping. He put waaay too much slick pack (a runny substance that makes the concrete move through the pump easier) in the hose. Think a huge bucket full of runny snot, and you will have the right image in your mind. We got one good push through, and then the sucker clogged up. He had so much pressure on the pump that, you guessed it, the hose nearest the converter burst. It blasted the whole side of the newly painted house with mud. Grrreat! Love you. Not! So, on top of the mud sitting for an hour before we even started, now we had to wait for this goober to replace the burst hose, and start again. After multiple clogs, we finally got it pumped out. The first of the pour was by now, getting hard fast. We struggled all day long with this pour, and we got our collective asses kicked. Bill is a fricking genius as far as making a "mistake" better. Our first rule is - it isn't a screw up if you can fix it. He fixed a bunch of stuff on that pour. The poor guy ended up having to hand grind a big section, but he did a great job.

Long story short, it is finished, and she loves it. Her hubby came out and told us that it was better than he imagined it could be. He had had his doubts from the first day, but I think he was pretty happy with it.

Here are some pics.

This slab was hand tinted with about three colors, not including the base color, and the highlighting release. It made for a nice effect. I think it is beautiful. I do not want to do this pattern again any time soon. It's a pain to bring two areas together and make them match. Ick. This is the "cave". It was the biggest pain in the ass I have done in a long time. No room to work. We had to make bridges from 2x4's and inch our way through it. Turned out well though

There you have it. Thank goodness it is finished. I hope they enjoy it :)

I am so far behind. More later :)