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...