Seeing Double

It's the double-mint twins!! One is Baxter, one is not Baxer. Can you tell which is which? Dilligent students of Prisoner Y will be able to spot him...Oh I made a funny. Spot...get it? Ok it wasn't that funny. :-P Anyway, the body double is Baby Huey's full sister, Blue. I wish I could get my hands on her... Four of these pictures are Blue, the rest are The BaxMan! Have fun :)

The Broken Arrow Performing Arts Center

This is where we are working rignt now. We have a little over 14,000 square feet of stampwork to do here. Fortunately for Bill and I, the company we subbed the job from is actually pouring it out for us. Since Bill and I are the only ones on our crew who can actually finish concrete, this is a big help for us as straight edging is a butt-ton of work.

The architect had a great concept for this job. The paving is actually dark gray, almost black, and white. The white sidewalks run through our black imprint and it will look really neat...for about 3 days. For some silly reason, he did not specify a sealer for the white concrete, which means that every time a car drives over it there will be tire marks. Soon, it will be dull gray anywhere there is auto traffic. The white concrete is really white. It has white cement, sand and aggregate. It supposedly also has oyster shells included in the mix. It is incredibly expensive at almost $200 a yard. It sure is pretty coming out of a mixer though.

Here are some pictures!

This is the white sidewalk. Not a great picture, I will do better later. We are making some fairly large pours on this project. The tools we are using allow us to do much larger areas than the tools with joints. It's pretty nice to get large chunks out of the way, instead of doing a bazillion small pours. YAY!!!

This job is full of difficulties. The bollard run though the middle of our pours. That means that we have to work around them and let me tell you, troweling at a distance, around something is a challenge. Bill actually made a stamp that fits right around the bollards, so stamping is easy. He's the bomb! The bollards are actually the traffic control devices for this big drive. Every other one has a light in it. Bill and I both anticipate them being knocked over pretty quickly. It will make a mess of our work. Oh well :)

This is the pour we filled in last Friday. We had to go back and cover it with curing blankets since it was dropping into the 20's that night. The wind was gusting to over 40mph. I know this because I was standing on one of the curing blankets and it flat picked us both up and surfed us over the slab and I know that it takes at least a 40 mph wind to blow my fat ass around. I was not amused. I finally had to get down on my hands and knees to keep from being blown away. Did I mention that the wind chill was in the teens?? Well it was. I fricking hate the wind. You can see the white sidewalk a bit better here.

This is the texture the architect chose. It is a ripple slate. It's kind of a subtle texture that is very pedestrian/handicap friendly. Here, it is still covered with release, so you can't actually see the color which is a sort of silvery charcoal gray if that makes sense.

I am hoping that I will be able to get inside and take some pictures of this after we are finished. I think it is going to be very attractive once it's done. Now it looks like a puzzle that isn't finished.

Monkey wrangler!

The past two weeks have been very busy for us. We *finally* got to start the big job that we have been waiting on over a year. We made some pretty big pours, and man did it beat me down. My right knee was as big as a good sized grapefruit. These tools require you to walk a lot. In order to get good texture you have to take little tiny steps all over the things. They are about 4' x 4', so you can imagine stepping back and forth to cover that area probably a thousand times in a pour. My knee does not like this. Taking little tiny steps is hard on my knee and hips both. It is really just exhausting. It is also dirty and there is no time to eat once you start, so you get very tired. I am thinking that I'm too old for this shit.

Enter "the boys". We have two kids working for us that are around 18. They do not know how to finish concrete. In fact, when they try, they mess up more than they fix which means that Bill or I have to constantly go behind them and fix what they screw up. I finally decided that instead of watching me work, they should get their bony asses out there and do something... So I had them get on the tools, and let them wear themselves out doing what I usually do. Between the two of them, they managed to do a fairly good job, only making a couple of mistakes.

So now, in addition to being the StampMonkey, I am also a Wrangler for StampMonkeysInTraining. Thank doG. I am going to work their little asses off while I stand around and watch. I am incredibly stupid for not making them do this before. All this time they have been picking their noses while someone old enough to be their mother works till she drops...now it's their turn. Bwaaaahahahahaha! Pictures to follow :)

Barrel Killer

Truck trees

I found one!

Ever since Prisoner Y has been having his dental issues, I have been looking all over the place for the caps I know he must be shedding. It's a pretty big paddock, so I have not had any luck until last Friday. I finally found the thing that has been making him chew like he was eating lemons.

Here it is, front and back. This one has been worn quite a bit. Sometimes you can find one that has no wear on it, and they are pretty cool. I know I am weird, but I think they're neat.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh!

Ok, you know that I have been thinking about cutting my hair, yes? Well I was just screwing around with one of those programs where you put your picture up and then the program will put different hair on the picture so you can see what you will look like. Hahahaha! I demand to know right this second who swapped my picture for Marty Feldman??? You want to talk about some scary shit, well that was pretty scary. Imagine Jessica Simpson hair on Marty Feldman, and you will have a pretty good idea of what I saw. Hell! Delete Delete DELETE!!! How discouraging :( Horrifying actually. I really should make *some* attempt to look like a human being on even numbered days...

I am going to go back to playing with my pictures now.

Prisoner X abandons Prisoner Y

It is always dark when I feed the prisoners in the morning. I like it. No noise, no people, just the prisoners and me. Lots of nickering and quiet talk. This morning I drove up, and no Prisoners. Oh Dear! So I wait a few seconds. Still no Prisoners. This is odd. They are *always* waiting for me in the morning. I went and dished up the slop, and by the time I had watered it down, Prisoner X had made her appearance. Still no Prisoner Y! Oh NO!

Back to the truck for a flashlight. Grabbed the slop buckets, and fed Prisoner X on the way to search for the boy. Saw something dark looking on the far side of the round bale. There he is! Oh dear! He is stretched flat out. Eyes open... evidently not breathing. Not moving!! ARGGG!!! My BOY! I waved the flashlight over his eyes several times... nothing. I finally stepped up near his head to look closer and... **blink**! Yayassssss! Thank you Jeeeesus! **blink** Utter confusion is written all over his face. He finally rolled up to his chest and blinked a bunch more. I put my hand under his nose, and he sniffed, and seemed to finally wake up.

I showed him the slop bucket, and took off back to the feeder. I think he figured out that dining Roman style was out of the question, and finally got his lazy ass up to followed me. He was still asleep, as he ambled slowly instead of bolting and bucking. Sheesh! I can't believe that Prisoner X abandoned her charge for food. She has never left him while he is sleeping. She must have tried to wake him up, as I have never seen him sleep alone, nor with his eyes open. Shame on her! I was ready to have a conniption. Thank goodness all the prisoners are accounted for, and seem in good health.

Ahhh the joys of owning a deaf horse! Thank goodness he wasn't all the way at the back of the pasture :)

Big Boys Don't Wear Lipstick in PUBLIC!!

I wrote about Baxter not being just right at dinner a couple of nights ago. I watched him the next day, and he was still just not right, so I called and made an appointment for Doc to come see what was going on.

We looked in his mouth as well as we could before sedating him, and saw that he had finally (at almost 4) shed some caps, but Bax wasn't real fond of having someone's arm shoved in his mouth, so we decided to sedate him and get a good look.

Baxter is pretty special. It takes about twice as long for any sedative to act on him, and about an hour before it is safe to leave him alone in the pasture. So Doc got his float and other stuff out while Baxman was getting good and loopy. After a bit, he re-examined his mouth and found not only a partial cap, but some developing hooks on his upper molars on one side. His wolf teeth also decided to erupt - finally. I think poor Baxter is a case of arrested development for sure. Everything is late with him - losing caps, wolf teeth, stopping growing...grrrr. Ahem... anyway... So the floating proceeded, and went pretty well. Baxter did NOT like it. Of course, he was all fuzzled up with good drugs, so the worst he could do is roll an eye at me. Poor BOY! He got the wolf teeth pulled. Tiny little things. The vet was surprised at how tiny they were. Baxter is so special!

Why is it that you can only get a good head shot when there is something hideous on your horses' head huh? Isn't his face pretty? Well, once you get past the bloody lip it is :)

Doc also treated the little cut by his eye. He did it about 4 days ago, and by the time I found it, it was too late to do anything about it, so I just wiped it off and left it. It wasn't a big deal, but since we had him snockered up, it just made sense to clean it up again. After all the drama, he spent the next hour tied to the fence sleeping. He is such a good boy. Poor little Susie was upset. She stood and watched the whole time, and after he was tied up, she started nickering and talking to Baxter. Yeah sure, she hates his guts. Cute.

The only bad thing about it is that I forgot to check and see if he had a bean while his weiner was hanging out. Dang. Oh well, there will be other times.

Prisoner Y Has a Problem

When I was out feeding yesterday, I noticed that Prisoner Y was cranking his head around. He had been fine while scarfing down his slop, but when he got to the alfalfa, he paused and wallered his jaw around. Sheesh. I sat and watched him for about half an hour, and he stopped wallering and ate hay, so I figured whatever it was had come unstuck and all was right with the world.

Fast forward to this morning. Of course, it is still dark when I feed, so I had to sit and wait a bit for enough light to see him eat. Sure enough, he is twisting his head around and wallering again. He is not real enthusiastic about eating, and he let me scratch his jaws, which he usually won't allow while he is eating. He was in fact, all lovey-dovey instead of giving me "the look", and wishing I would just leave. So I have made an appointment with the vet for tomorrow morning. I am sure he either has a cap or two coming off, or needs floating. He was fine the last time we checked, but it has been a few months. My one real concern is that I just got a bunch of new hay, and it is possible there there are some foxtails in it. I didn't see any, but tht doesn't mean anything. If there are 10 foxtails in 15 bales of hay, I would trust the Prisoner to search them out and try to eat them. It's just how he operates.

At any rate, it is a long way from his heart, and he is still eating and drinking, so I will wait for the vet to come see what's up. Gawd i sure don't like this kind of thing. Whatever it is, I can't do anything about it without some help and some sedation, so I am not even going to try as it would just piss him off, and I couldn't do anything anyway. Frustrating.

Harumph!

Ok people tell me honestly, does Prisoner Y look like a draft horse to you??? I will be the first to admit that he isn't exactly a delicate little hothouse orchid, but ...a *drafter*? No, seriously? He has pretty good bone, but nothing I wouldn't expect in a horse his size. Maybe I am just the most barn blind person on earth, but I don't see a trace of coarseness in him. Granted, his neck could be prettier, but still. To me, he doesn't look anything like a draft. Perhaps the color reminds people of a Clydesdale eh?

Today the hay guy came and brought my round bales. When he pulled up he asked who the pretty black horse belonged to. I told him he was mine. The very next question out of his mouth was - "Is he paint or mixed...like part draft?". Poor Baby Huey! Even though he is deaf as a post, I could tell that he was wounded by the question. He actually stopped scarfing down his alfalfa for a chew or two. HUH??? MOM! He's callin' me names! Of course there is no way for the hay guy to know my personal philosophy on riding an animal that has been bred for centuries to pull a wagon. Personally, I don't see the point. I have no heartburn with other people who ride them, but they are bred to pull, not carry, and I think it isn't good for them, so I don't ride one. I think they are way cool horses, and if I ever have a beer wagon, i will get some drafts to pull it :)

I think that the hay guy figured out that I was not amused when I told him that Baxter was insulted. He backpedaled then, saying he had meant warmblood (which in our barn were always referred to as Dumbbloods for good reason). I guess that most people who ride foxtrotters and arabians aren't used to bigger horses, so it's reasonable that they are all drafts, right?

I told him that actually, Bax is mostly QH, with some TB thrown in. Then I told him that he is three and one half. He said, he will get bigger huh? I said unfortunately, that is so. He changed the subject :) Anyway, lets compare....

I am sorry, but I honestly don't see it. Maybe I am barn blind...