Don’t ya know?…Half the FUN is in the “planning”…

First of all, I need to give a big “shout out” to 2 very lovely ladies who have decided to take a chance and follow this train wreck….Welcome aboard to grammynmaggie…and also Skylady.  Neither one had a blog, but they gotta be fun loving people if they climbed into OUR truck!! Glad to have you riding along..If either of you have wine, you can ride up front with ME ..

  We have been having such GREAT weather for August!! It has been 80 and sunny, and a campfire is in order every evening…My Wren family “flew the coop” and I am now an empty nester.  My  hummers are getting more frequent and way more aggressive!

Please note that my pictures are not near as good as some, but I have to wait outside the backdoor and hope one shows up, otherwise I have to take the pictures through our screens..NOT a good photo!

We’ve been pretty busy around here.  MacGyver finished our front porch screens, installed new garage doors and took down a tree or two…We are still making trips to Montgomery every 3rd day to see Uncle Jr.  He is doing well and we hope to see him released before too long…and that is will open up another whole can of worms..

As I said, Dennis has been a busy little bee.  We got a call from our oldest daughter, Terrie, who lives about 1/2 hour from here.  Seems their 10 year old hot water heater “bit the big one”and decided to spring a leak…Enter MacGyver..

 

Dennis took the ol’ blue truck, picked up Tim, and they went to purchase a new hot water heater.  I was still at home.  Now Dennis discovered he needed LOTS more tools for this job…(We love our son-in-law very much. He is a wonderful Father, Dad and Detective…but he doesn’t know diddly squat about the right end of a screw driver, and has almost NO tools at their house!!) So Dennis called me at home, and talked me through gathering all the tools needed for installing a hot water heater, so I could take them over the them. This does NOT bode well for a congenial relationship..

  I went into our garage, cell phone in had with Den giving me orders of what to find and where to find it.  As you might imagine there was LOTS of heated discussion in that phone conversation.  The following are just a few finely chosen quotes from MacGyver.. “What do you mean you don’t know what a pipe wrench looks like?”…and..”Donna, that solder HAS to be right in front of your face…NO, NOT the acid solder, the solid solder!! “…”Now don’t forget my drill and socket wrenches…oh, and the pipe salve, sand paper and blow torch”…This next comment was the best..”Jesu_ Chr___!  I could have driven home and got it myself by now!!”  Holy Crap, please don’t let me forget anything!

TRA DA!!  Only one little glitch..Turns out that what I thought was steel wool was some kind of padding for some whatchamacallit…Hey! That was my only mistake!!  As you can see, their dog, Bogie, was lots of help with this project…And what does it call for when a big job like this is finished????…………

…why, a couple cold beers, of course!!!

Some of you may remember that MacGyver is a farmer “wanna be”..and he helps a good friend, Jim Fritch, combine the corn in the Fall.  (This often becomes a bone of contention when I am spinning my tires to get the Heck outta here in the Hiker, and the harvest goes on until December. Just for the record, these following 3 pics were taken Nov. 20th, 2008..I rest my case.)

Anyway, Jim called Den yesterday and told him we could go pick us some of his fine sweet corn.  It was in a small cornfield in back of his Dad’s house on the East edge of Sandwich.  So, on our way home from visiting our elders, we wheeled into his Dad’s yard and drove right around back to the corn…

 

As soon as we stopped, I jumped out of the truck and headed toward the cornfield….Just as I was about to climb over what I thought was just a fence, Dennis said,” “Be careful not to touch that electric fence when you step over it”.  WHOA, TONTO!!…Gee, thanks for telling me SWEETHEART!  “So….would it KILL me if I touched it?”, I had to ask.  “ No, but you will get one Heck of a shock..It’s there to keep the racoons out.”…OK, so now I am paranoid about this little nasty fence just a few feet from MY feet.

We managed to get out dozen ears and didn’t even drop one ..My evil twin was really wanting to throw one of the ears of corn at that fence and see what would happen.  I had to rein that twin in, and it wasn’t easy!  She’s a tough old bird!..

I guess that just about does it for excitement around here.  The Hiker still sits idle.  I did have a brainstorm though.  If we can get our elders safely ensconced in assisted living next month, maybe …just maybe we can go to Shabbona State Park for a couple weeks.  Shabbona is about 30 miles from here.  I told MacGyver that if he is making me a farmer’s widow again this Fall, first he has to take me and the Hiker to Shabbona State Park and PARK US!!  He can still play in the corn, and we are only an hour from the elders…It’s not far from where Dennis combines the corn, and about 45 minutes from OUR house in Sandwich.. See?? I gotta plan, Stan!! WOOT!WOOT!…please let this work out, please let this work out, please let this work out….

“Mix a little foolishness with your serious plans. It is lovely to be silly at the right moment.”

                                                           ~Horace

The fine art of “Dressage”

  NOT our usual casual Sunday last weekend..  You know….. doing laundry, mowing grass and generally lazing around the house…Here’s the scoop…Our nephew, Steve, is engaged to be married to a lovely woman named Bobbi Josephs.   And Bobbi owns “Our Farm”.  Our Farm is NOT your usual farm either…Bobbi trains horses and their riders in the art of Dressage.   The word dressage comes from the French word dresser, to train.  Dressage is also called “horse ballet”, and it certainly is beautiful to watch…Well, Sunday Steve’s sister (our niece)  and hubby (Leanne and Tom) called and asked if we wanted to go see a “riding clinic’ at Bobbi’s horse farm..DARN RIGHT WE DO!

Left is Bobbi riding Estrella, middle and right is Bobbi on Amber…Both horses are champions… Last weekend Bobbi had a “Riding Clinic” at her horse farm to train riders in dressage.  Bobbi also gives regular riding lessons and boards horses at the farm.  She has a big stable , an indoor arena,an outdoor arena and a huge pasture area.  In warm weather they train outside, in Winter they use the indoor arena.

Above is looking down one end of the barn. She has 14 horses there now..Middle is the indoor arena…and right are Bobbi, Estella the horse, and Steve, our nephew..Steve and Bobbi are getting married in Hawaii this November..We are so very happy for them both…They each have on child and are also both 57 years old.  It is obvious they are “made for each other”, and we are all very happy for them!!

On the left is Kate. Kate drove up from Springfield, IL to help teach for this weekend’s clinic.  Kate and Bobbi went to Germany for extensive training in dressage.  Bobbi has been training horses for 30 years. Notice the headsets on both.. Kate communicates to the riders via the headset on how they should move to make the horse behave in certain ways.  In the middle picture, is Bobbi, also wearing a headset. This way Bobbi and Kate interact when she rides Estrella (white horse) and Amber (dark horse).  Amber is a very engaging filly who has quite a few ribbons under her saddle, and is a National Champion… And then, on the right pic,  there is “moi”..harkening back to my days of watching too much Mr. Ed.  I actually think Amber can understand me..”OK, Wilber”..

The ribbons and awards are everywhere…On the right is a picture of Bobbi, riding Amber..U.S. National Champion Dressage…Such accolades are common around this stable…And, I might add, these stallions and fillies sure do get all dolled up for their riding appearances…

……………They get their toenails polished, they wear fancy hats…..and they get their hair braided!! Pretty snazzy!

I am loading a very short video if you want to see Amber and Bobbi do some practicing…..Sorry if it makes you nauseous, I am not a videographer!!

Amber and Bobbi ….strutting their “stuff”!

That Bull Mastiff’s name is Paddington…He is 9 years old…and that stable if FULL of cats!

Left picture…  just like I feel after pizza night..burp!………….This sign above says it all, there are 9 cats patroling that barn…Look at that cat food buffet above, would ya??spoil, spoil, spoil….Obviously, Mr. Fat Guy on the left, is the favorite..and the house cat.  Let’s talk OVER SERVED!!

I know this blog has gone on waaaaay too long, but we had such an interesting day that it’s hard to down size anything…Indulge me a few more pictures of these beautiful horses…

Above is Bobbi’s groomer, Marilyn.  She is braiding Beau’s bangs..Beau doesn’t like his band to touch his ears..I KID YOU NOT! ( I’m the same way, Beau.)…Marilyn is a rider too, and rode Beau for a lesson from Kate..Notice the stance on Beau in the middle picture…The key is to keep the horses’s head low…Magnificent animals, yes they are…OK, you talked me into it..ONE more collage…

There are a couple movies that have come out about the Lipizzaner horses who do this dressage.  One is called “Miracle of the White Stallions”.  It is the story of the evacuation of the Lipizzaner horses from the Spanish Riding School in Vienna during World War II.  The other is called  Warhorse, made by Steven Spielberg in 2011..

I hope you have found this somewhat entertaining…I know that I sure enjoyed being in the same space as these gorgeous horses..Oh, and I found out that they do have personalities..When Bobbi had Amber out of her stall and was getting her ready to ride, the horse in the next stall (Skippy) was kicking his stall door and whinnying for attention…Yup..they are jealous!  Steve gave me a carrot to give to Skippy, and I had a time getting it in his gigantic toothy mouth…those teeth were pretty BIG…I dropped the carrot on the floor about 5 times before I finally almost “low balled” it into his choppers…Beautiful, but dangerous if you are a total amateur, such as MOI!

MacGyver, moi, Bobbi and Amber, Leanne and Tom…THANKS BOBBI AND STEVE!!

                                                      “There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man.”

                                                                                                                                                                                                                  ~Winston Churchill

Guess I need to “tweak” my diet a bit!!

  Everyone who climbs aboard the Medicare Ship gets a free “Welcome” exam from their Doc.  I had mine last May.  That’s when I whined about my arm still hurting after my pirouette into our carpet, and my Doc suggested an MRI, hence finding out I BROKE the darn thing!  My Doc also listened to me crab about my kidney stones and said that a Calcium supplement probably isn’t in my future.  (Little did he know that I was taking one every other day..It was suppose to help keep my bones strong…so much for that pill.)  Dr. Erik also listened to me when I told him about our family history of heart disease….Mom, died age 64 heart attack, her Dad (my maternal Grampa), dropped dead at age 59…heart attack.  Mom’s brother (my Uncle Walt) had a stroke age 67 and died.  And my Dad…he was prophetic and wrote his will out because he wasn’t feeling well, then proceeded to die in his sleep 2 nights later..age 68.  So you see, the “Grabber” has shown his Grimm Reaper face many times in our family…Doc suggested I see a cardiologist for a screening, due to family history.  Good call, Doc.

 

 

 

Yes, my mother was a frustrated hair stylist and apparently loved the commercial about “I’m Buster Brown, and I live in a shoe”…For those of you who have NO idea what I am talking about, this hairdo was deemed the “Buster Brown” .  Named after the goofy lookin’ kid in the commercial who lived in a shoe…Oh, and his dog named Tag.  This haircut was also called the “Prince Valiant”.  (Sorry, youngsters, I,m darn sure you don’t remember that prince!)

 

Long story short, I had my appointment with Den’s same cardio guy (whom I love and trust, as everyone SHOULD feel about their cardiologist!)…Nurse weighs me and asks me how tall I am..Trying to be funny I tell her that I use to be 6’ tall but have been steadily shrinking to my present 5’2”…She was not smiling.  Then she takes my history, my blood pressure, gets an EKG of my ticker and puts me in an exam room that is the temperature of a meat locker.  As she left the room she informed me that the good Dr. was behind and there were 2 patients ahead of me…THEN she smiles….Not to be outdone, I smiled and pulled a book out of my purse ..I came prepared!!

I need to interject  here that I have NEVER been one with high blood pressure…In fact, they use to laugh and say I was barely alive, running a pressure usually around 110/62…..Remember, I DID live in a cemetery..HEE HEE!  So, my Cardio Doc was fairly concerned when I presented a pressure of 147/90….Needless to say, so was I. 

“The exact causes of high blood pressure are not known, but several factors and conditions may play a role in its development, including:

• Smoking
• Being overweight or obese
• Lack of physical activity
• Too much salt in the diet
• Too much alcohol consumption (more than 1 to 2 drinks per day)
• Stress
• Older age
• Genetics
• Family history of high blood pressure
• Chronic kidney disease
• Adrenal and thyroid disorders”(?????)

I crossed off the ones I didn’t think applied…Unfortunately I didn’t get to cross off very many!  My Cardio Doc suggested I try to do better for a few weeks…By this, he told me to limit my salt (DAMN, BUT I DO LOVE PRETZELS!)  He also said to limit my alcohol to (1) 5 oz. glass a day..(“Come on,Doc..really?”…”REALLY!!!!” )..He was deadly serious. 

Then he and gave me a copy of the Dash Diet …DASH standing for “dietary approaches to stop hypertension”..  He asked about stress..Yep, got some pretty good doses of THAT lately. And the “older age, Genetics, Family history, Chronic Kidney Disease I probably qualify for.  Not sure about the adrenal and thyroid stuff, but HEY, why NOT??  Might as well have ‘em all, eh??

  I am also scheduled to have a Stress Echo test at the end of August…AFTER I have been behaving (I will try my best) for a few weeks..I really will behave myself.  If this will bring my BP down, I’m all in!  My Mom and Dad would kick my proverbial arse if I didn’t do as the Cardio Doc said!!! 

“The voice of parents is the voice of gods, for to their children they are heaven's lieutenants.”

~Shakespeare