Wal-Mart...

We went to Wal-mart and bought a brand new red fire extinguisher....

hmmm... short and sweet

Hmm Thanksgiving day and boy are we giving thanks!!!

Before I get to the actual Thanksgiving day festivities, a couple of things I left off regarding our Newfoundlands.

Actually they are pretty bright and pretty physical. Wizard (Gandolf the Grey Wizard) use to eat fruit out of the fruit bowl on the breakfast bar. We put it there because it was WAY to easy on the counter top.  He decided he really liked fruit so when we weren't looking he'd help himself to just about anything, except bananas, he didn't like the peel.

So we moved it to the TOP of the refrigerator, about 5 feet 6 inches above the floor. Well you guessed it, Wizard soon found it on top of the fridge he.  Stood on his back legs, and helped himself as he pleased..

But really amazing was Amanda.  She can literally open ANY door that's not locked, lever, door knob, screen door... Open in or opens out.  Well she can't open them anymore as she's to old to have much balance, but boy have I seen some jaws drop.

OK on to Thanksgiving...

Gabriel and I went to Loveland to go to a Colorado Eagles hockey game. James and Solitare work as off ice officials (not office). They got us front row, on the glass, seats from a friend of theirs that works as the team photographer. It was great fun, Eagle won 10 to 4. BUT we didn't get home until almost 1AM, James and Solitare came with us.

I woke up a few miserable hours later at about 5:30AM, tired and grouchy, back hurting from all the sitting.

I knew it was going to be a long day so i got started with my Thanksgiving day chores, cooking...
I just decided I'd start early, take my time and get it all taken care of without any rushing or hassles.

Susan fixed breakfast, good plan, James slept in, another good plan... Why you ask, well I didn't start the peach margaritas at 10AM and I had something to eat. Good thing to...

Got  the turkey and dressing ready and popped it in the oven by oh,  11:30 for a 3PM "dinner"!
It's going along pretty good, made the traditional guacamole, made the cranberry relish (turkeys cooking). Put the yams on to boil and finally stared the potatoes for mashing.  Going along pretty good, James had gotten up and mentioned the Peach Margaritas. OK I think I can handle one or two of those about now, mostly everything is going along great...

I'm in the kitchen checking the yams and I hear a strange noise, looked at the potatoes to see if they might be boiling over, nope... Hmmm, noticed a little smoke coming out of the oven door... FOOLISHLY flung the door open and it was like flashback, fire in the face.... OK the kids are gathering, the adults are wondering what's going on. I asked for the fire extinguisher I knew we DIDN'T have... Hmmm what to do... OK Get the kids outside, everyone outside. The smoke alarm goes off, dang... Susie and  Solitare start opening windows as I again fling open the door to try and get the turkey out. The grease fire died down just enough for me to reach in and pull it out. The dang cooking bag had burst and spewed grease everywhere, which of course started burning. Black smoke fills the kitchen and living room. hmmm... hmmm ...hmmm.

I slide the turkey out of the oven and thank the Lord the grease had mostly burned off

It turned out to be rather benign.  The bag kinda stuck on the the legs, but the turkey was nearly ready to come out anyway.  No real damage to the dinner...

Hmmm try and burn the house down on Thanksgiving Day. I was however thankful that I wasn't already two sheets to the wind, mostly because I had eaten the  fine breakfast Susan fixed, it really was quit tastey and didn't get started on peach margaritas or beer until James got up.  My lips weren't numb yet!!!...

Susie of course took pictures up to the time I tried to burn the house down. See pictures here

Yup, I think it's time  to pass  the baton to the younger generation, I've been doing this entirely too long... BTW they are willing it's just that Amanda doesn't travel well..

now... some words about Amanda and our Newfoundlands

I'm so excited, Thankgiving day is tomorrow. I love thanksgiving, I can't decide which I like best, Thanksgiving or Christmas.  I like both for the same reasons and it's not presents... Usually all the kids and kids-in-law bring their families and come to eat, drink peach margaritas and play board games...and maybe a little beer.

It looks like Ed, Rachel and family won't be able to make it this year,  Eddie has to work. Halliburton seems to pay him pretty good, but it seems like they aren't to generous with PTO (vacation). We'll miss all four of them. I'll especially miss my little, or I should say BIG princess, Cordelia.

But today what I'm most thankful for is that Amanda, our nearly 13 year old Newfoundland is still with us.  I am stunned that she's lived this long and she's still happy every day. A little slow, a little weak in the back legs but happy. I'm thankful...

In 18 years we've had 7 Newfoundlands. The first Windy (Windwalkers Feel The Thunder) was puchased in Ogden Utah. The family took the mini-van for kind of a mini vacation to pick her up. Eddie and I tried to ski at "Park City", he had more luck than me, but that's another story.

We picked up Windy and brought her home. A 12 week old Newfounfland is very cute and weighs about 12 pounds.

We took Windy to the vet for a puppy exam. She was diagnosed with SAS (sub-aortic stenosis) a genetic defect of the upper heart. It manifests itself as a "heart murmur". 

We called the breeder who said "send her back and we'll send you the other one we have" (Bullet a grey newf). But of course we had fallen in love with her and thought she ought to live out her life in peace, whatever it might be.  Typically they euthanize (a polite word for kill) newfs that suffer from this condition. More on this later.

A bit later (really can't remember exactly how long) we found a breeder in Loveland CO that had a single newf left.  We went up and got Rainey, who NEVER learned to like riding in the car. Rainey had a slight corneal defect caused by a fungal infection early in her life. She subsequently had a little white spot on one of her eyes. 

By this time Susan had already started training Windy in "Search and Rescue".

Turns out Rainey was pretty timid BUT loved children especially little children.

Windy was a little over a year and a half old when out of the blue the SAS killed her without warning.
 By this time we had moved to Black Forest where we live now.

We looked around for another newf and found a litter of twelve(12), not unusual for a newf but quite a sight for us.  Twelve newfs and mom.. They tie a different colored ribbon on each one to identify who's who.  There was always a huge waiting list to obtain a newf puppy, we had our name on the list for a female.  Out of the twelve, there were only 2 females and one was destined for us.  We couldn't take her home until she was weaned at about 12 weeks or so.  The guy called a couple days before and told me that his vet had detected an SAS murmur in the female we selected, they were going to have her destroyed, BUT he happily told me they had a male we could take in her place.  We went to look at the male and agreed to take him. While we were there I begged that he not have the little female killed.  He said he'd think about it and talk with his vet.  FORTUNATELY the vet agreed with me, let her live out her life, she has no clue she's got SAS.

So we brought home Stormy to replace Windy for Susan, and Sunny the red ribbon "SAS" puppy.  Happily Sunny lived to a pretty old age for a newf, over nine(9), longer than her littermate Stormy who died of bone cancer.

Somehow we heard about a year old Landseer (black and white) that lived in Denver and needed a home. Seems they got her as a 12 pound puppy, then had a child. The excuse was that she was just too big around the baby, like they didn't know how big a newf got.  Well she just jumped into the van and rode home like she never lived in Parker.  They called her Darby so we called her Darby. She was very attractive and we soon learned the more probable reason for them abandoning her. She could slobber, slobber more than all the other newfs together... We still have slobber on our ceiling. We loved her anyway..

We went on for a few years when Rainey died of kidney failure. She was very sad toward the end. She was about six years old at the time. She never was very good at Search and Rescue but she sure liked going out.

In the mean time, both Sunny and Stormy were well into learning to search. Actually to be more realistic, they are born knowing how to search, the training comes in teaching them to find the specific scent you want, using a scent article, that takes a month or two at the most. The remainder of the training is really handler training. Similar to horses who are born knowing how to change leads yet it takes years for some people to learn to signal a lead change to the horse...

Darby had numerous problems with her kidneys and kidney infections.  She died of kidney failure about six(6) years old.

We had Sunny and Stormy and who know for what reason we decided to get another newf. We went to a young woman in Golden that was going to medical school. She had I think nine puppies, we brought Snowy home.  Well It soon became obvious to everyone but me, that while it was clear Snowy had a Newfoundland mother, we didn't know who her father was. Three of the puppies came out as newfs and four like Snowy, Lab looking. The newfs were genetically tested and pure newf... hmmm.

Shortly after that we were refered to the breeder that we got Rainey from because she had a replacement for Snowy (we kept Snowy too).  We went to look at the new pup, she had been very sick and spent time in the CSU intensive care unit. She was about four months old and a little small for a Newfoundland puppy. She was already named Amanda by the breeder so it stuck.

In the mean time Stormy died from bone cancer. He was a wonderful friend we really miss him. His death was partcularly difficult because he had his leg amputated and he went through all kinds of cancer therapy.

Shortly thereafter we went BACK to Loveland and found Gandalf the Grey Wizard aka Wizard.  He was a full brother to Amanda but not a litter mate, about a year younger than Amanda. Yes he was grey... and never did get much hair, he looked almost like a Irish Wolf Hound with a fuller face...

Back to Sunny, she never again showed any kind of symptoms of SAS, the murmur cleared up and she lived a long (the longest to date) life with us.  She died because of  a spinal issue that crippled her back legs to the point she couldn't stand or walk.
Snowy succumbed to a skin cancer that was horrible. Enought said about that.

Wiz started with a slight limp on his front leg.  It was eventually diagnosed as bone cancer. He died going to the pain specialist (vet) at about 10 years of age which is pretty long for a newf.

At this point the only one we have left is Amanda. Amanda was always small for a Newfoundland about 100lbs. We had her spayed at about four years because her hips were classified as "fair" , not really good for breeding as hip displacia is genetically passed.

Amanda IS a cancer survivor, I one day felt a lump on her side, pretty big really.  They took it off assuming it was benign.  Turned out to be malignant squemous cell cancer.  I thought for sure it would reappear, but to date has not.

Amanda greets us at the door, if she hears us come home, always wagging her huge rudderlike tail.

Like I said, Amanda is nearly thirteen(13) years old. She has been through all of our grand children and
now has four indoor cat friends.

Amanda has symptoms of hip displacia, but she still walks pretty good, has trouble on UP steps and uphill walking. She doesn't travel well but loves the car.  We can't really leave her with anyone because she is pretty fragile in her old age.

We love her and we're very thankful that she's still with us. We miss all of our Newfoundlands, except Amanda of course. Each was unique in personality but all were VERY gental and never agressive toward kids or humans.  It's hard to imagine life without a Newfoundland, but they are very high maintenance, mostly emotionally because they are usually so young when they die.

Enough whining for now... Have a good holiday.

Thinking about Kat aka Lil' Cuatra Susies black mare....

Last post I mentioned that our 21 year old mare, Kat, was having a little trouble with her foot, well it turned out to be actually a little trouble.  Kat has improved nicely.

In giving her twice a day epson salt soakings, I spent a fair amount of time on my knees, in the cold, in front of her "soaking" foot.  Trust me if a horse doesn't want to have its foot soaked there's no way your going to soak it.

In any case while I was on my knees I had some time to reflect on Kat and what she's brought to my life... She's 21 years old which isn't particularly old for a quarter horse, her sire "Peppy San Badger" aka Little Peppy, lived to 29 years. Little Peppy was one of the greatest cutting performance horses and sire of cutting horses. King Ranch

Kat was bred and born on the largest ranch in the US, the King Ranch headquartered in Texas.  We are especially honored to have Kat and another little peppy mare we lived with, PorkChop, who died shortly after we purchased her a month after giving birth to our "orphan" mare Pepsi.

Horses sired by little peppy are extremely rare and hard to find.  I've only seen one other besides Kat and PorkChop.

Unfortunately when Kat was younger, actually before she came to live with us, she broke a carpal bone in her left front leg.  As far as we can tell she never showed any symptoms but when we had her checked for insurance purposes one could easily see the healed bone in the x-ray. The vet said that eventually she would develop arthritis in the joint. She did and subsequently is very crippled on that leg.  Monthly deterioration is fairly obvious. At some time in the future (could be tomorrow or a year from tomorrow) the leg will not be able to support her and she will die, probably euthenized.

I could not in a single sitting, perhaps in hundreds of sittings, tell you all of the memories Kat has given me.

I remember when we first saw her, a year before she came to live with us. Robert, the "horse trainer" and I flew to Sacramento CA., drove to Napa Valley to have a look at a Little Peppy mare that was for sale. This horse which we bought on the spot was PorkChop. There was another horse in the pasture with a horse sheet on, all you could see were her black head and legs.  I never figured out how he knew but Robert walked up to her and picked up the sheet to reveal the horses hip and thigh.  I just remember him shacking his head and saying "I can't believe it".  I finally got out of him the the black mare was marked with the King Ranch brand (the running W, looks like a series of waves all points rounded off). Also she had the sire brand of P-Bar on her left hind-end (P-bar is he sire brand for Little Peppy).

As it goes we talked about and discussed how awesome it would be to have a Little Peppy mare, born and bred on the King Ranch.  As I said I paid for PorkChop, who was a wonderful horse in her own right but she died of  "colic" (a generic term for belly ache in this case a twisted intestine). She died one month after giving birth the Pepsi, another very sweet mare. 

I called Arlyta Brown, the woman that sold us PorkChop, and told her that PorkChop had died...

A few weeks later Arlyta called me back and asked me if I would be interested in buying the Other (Kat) Little Peppy mare she had, for what was a lot of money to me, but a real bargain. She offered her to no one else.

Back to Napa Valley, this time Susie went with us, we stayed at Arlytas house and went with her the next day to watch her cut on Kat... Wow I knew I had to have her so I could learn to cut. 

The first time the cow went left, she went left and I stayed on the right, needless to say I hit the ground and boy did it hurt. So now we own a broke,trained (by Buster Welch) cutter. Buster Welch

While Kat was very athletic and tough in front of a cow, she was the "go to" horse when friends and family wanted to go riding.

In any case over the next several days, for who knows what reason, Susie started riding her and never again was she "MY" horse, she belonged to Susie and CLEARLY preferred Susie to me, she was Susies mare who I occasionally rode. Kat was very good with novice riders and with Susan. Kat took very good care of Susan I can't recall them ever having any scary issues together.

One thing that Susie and I have come to realize is that the horses are our pets first, regardless of what the trainer or anyone says...

Enough blabbin for now. I'll revisit some of the other memories in the future....

Kat and her son Little Chic

I wish I had a job where I didn't have to EVER be right...... and Kat

You got it, weather guessers.....

So the last five days would have made algore and his followers happy, it's been warm, about normal maybe slightly warmer than normal. The snow from the last "winter storm warning" is nearly gone, mostly still around the trees and behind the barn. The HUGE mud puddles are starting to firm up and dry out, then guess what... another "winter storm warning". Of course most of the week (until yesterday) the weather guessers said maybe a little rain on Saturday. Yesterday cooling off on Friday MAYBE a little rain, possibly snow on Sunday (This is Friday the 13th). Weather Guesser Page for Black Forest. Now we're at 2 inches overnight, 3 inches tomorrow and "significant accumulations" for Sunday... Not only that as I type this it's SNOWING and they still say "partly cloudy".

I know no one is perfect, except my lovely wife, she's perfect for me, anyway I know most of us aren't perfect BUT my goodness the weather guessers are pathetic.  I knew four days ago that the slightest mention of snow meant 8-10 inches. All you have  to do is look at historical data put that together with what you can see to the west and shazzam... Never fails....

Just think if I was as "wrong" (for the lack of a better word) with my "forecast" in my job I simply wouldn't have a job.  My boss is talking 90% accuracy in my projections (guesses if you like). I use the same principles as the weather guessers but with an 18 month window and over 20,000 data streams.

So... I asked Susie if we needed to go anywhere tonight? "No" she says. I persude this with nothing at the grocery store? "Nope" she says "We can go tomorrow or Sunday".  OK let me put it this way, do you need ANYTHING before Tuesday? "Why Tuesday?" she asks... Well sweets we live at nearly 8000 feet, in Colorado where the weather guessers have said some number of (greater than 3) inches., and the department of transportation won't plow until Tuesday at the earliest).  If we need anything we aren't going to get it until Tuesday and that's optimistic. 

I took it upon myself to move all the vehicles to the leward side of the driveway so the drifts form in the grass (or what would normally be grass).

On the horse side... Kat, Susys 21 year old cutting/brood mare dodged the "bullet" yet again this year. She has severe arthritis  in her left front "knee", as she favors the good leg she causes damage to the lamina (material between the hoof and foot bones). When this breaks down enough it's called "founder" and the main (canon bone) rotates downward to the sole. Once this happens the chance of her getting better are slim to none. This is the scenario that killed the race horse Barbaro. Horses that have foundered can live long lives BUT when one leg is already marginal, well not much one can do. She came up sore a couple days ago, and REAL sore yesterday morning, she wouldn't choose to walk but I could lead her oh so slow.  Holly, one of the two vets from Rocky Mountain Equine Clinic came to have a look, being really smart Holly had a look and poked around before coming in to talk with us, we didn't know she was here. she knows how nosey and pesky  I am. In anycase she had exactly the same opinion I did, that Kat had foundered and wouldn't make it. BUT she brought the trusty digital x-ray and luckely the bones were still in place. She pushed the "button" and seven seconds later on the laptop screen there was her x-ray with the bone looking a-ok... As it turned out she has a massive abcess that hadn't ruptured, the pressure in her foot causes the pain... So now she has to put up with foot soak in epson salts twice a day... Another good day on the ranch....

WHO was the genius that came up with "daylight savings time"...?

Actually a better question is "why do the people of Arizona get it? (and never change)". Hmmm perplexing..

So now it's light when I get up in the morning, the dog (and the horses) failed to change their time and think I should jump right up and run right out to feed 'em...

5PM comes and the dog and horses are ready for food, again. It's almost dark which makes it a REAL pain to feed outside.

Just as soon as we all get use  to the "revised" schedule daylight "savings" time will come around again... DANG...

maybe we should all just go the GMT andbe done with it.

and exactly how do we SAVE daylight. I'm pretty sure the number of daylight minutes will be the same regardless of what the clock "says".