Thursday 11 March 2010

It has been a long absence! January and February were tremendously hard months for me both with the terrible weather we experienced for such a long period and thus my mental frame of mind. It has finally started warming up after 5 weeks solid of sub freezing temperatures, snow and ice (not nearly as bad as some of our surrounding states ... but with 13 horses here and caring for 11 of my friends' horses 5 miles down the road it made it unbearable). We have gone from below average temperatures to above average temperatures in a matter of days. Indianapolis topped out at 72F yesterday, there are still patches of ice and snow all around despite the warmer temps which is a good indicator of how fast it has changed. Of course the mud has come along with the thaw!!! One can just never win LOL!

I put Gee and the two babies (Goldie who is now a two year old and Herbie who is 9 months old) out for the first time in a while the other day and they had a ball. Below is Gee, all 17 hands of her, elevated at least 2 feet off the ground!!!
(Click on each pic to see a slightly larger version)
She has such a joy for life, she is the TB mare who has boarded with me for the past 4 years. I love her to bits, she has such a wonderful disposition and mind for a racehorse! With Larry passing last year (can u believe it has been nearly a year) I havent had much time to bond with my little palomino mare, Goldie (yeah I know that is original but her Daddy is CK Sun, and I had just seen the most beautiful sunrise minutes before I first laid eyes on her that her name CK Golden Sunrise was a must), and have NEVER seen her roll. She rewarded me with a few rolls on this occasion, this one was in a drier area of the pen, you will see further along that she found the wettest, muddiest part of the area and promptly rolled there too! She is not going to be a big mare, might just make a horse but may still stay short enough to be a pony but she is a tank.

Gee just loves to find any water she can, paw it into a muddy mess and then roll in it. There is a small pool that forms at the base of this tree when it rains, and she found it and did her thing. You can see the results, oh yes she made sure she laid down in it on both sides!

Herbie found the Jolly Ball in the mud and had a bit of fun with that. He and Goldie are also best buddies, my next job is to get him gelded, poor boy. He hasnt displayed any studdy behaviour yet but then spring is young that could change quickly.

He also had to coat himself in the mud. It is one way of getting that winter coat to shed out, and when it does start shedding it probably itches like heck so they love to roll all over the place and when I look out in the pastures there are white and brown patches scattered all over LOL.

Here is a picture of the three of them after they had all had their bit of fun in the mud, you can see how muddy and wet Gee got and Goldie too.

I have hardly touched my camera in months. I was looking at my photos the other day and since the beginning of January I have only shot a few more than 100 frames. This is very unusual as I normally shoot hundreds every week. I am hoping that with the arrival of the warmer weather, my passion for photography and life will improve. It has been a long battle the last 11 months. I am still looking for a job and have no income so have become an expert at shuffling money between accounts in order to get the bills paid!

I am not going to aim too high to start with, hoping to maybe get a post a week up. I miss all my blogging friends. (((Hugs)))) to you all.

Lori
xx

Monday 18 January 2009

A quickie today, these are two chiauhauas (sp!) that are brother and sister, about 6 weeks old now belonging to my friend Judy who's horses I feed in the am. Believe it or not they are from the same litter and the smaller one is the little girl and was bigger than the other one at birth!!!

Too cute LOL.

Lori

Friday January 15 2010

We are well into the new decade and this is my first post. I am struggling more every day to stay on top of thing financially, mentally and emotionally, feel like I am on a rollercoaster most of the time, torn in 10 different directions, and no answers just a pit of depression.

I was coming back from feeding Judy's horses the other morning and this Cardinal was in a tree right next to the road, I stopped and reversed the truck and snapped a few shots of him, this is just about full frame, just a little cropping. I have been trying to get a good Cardinal shot for the 9 years that I have been here and this one just happened and I had my camera with me. It was shot through the truck window so didnt so too badly! Finally!!

Yesterday on my way back from Judy's again I saw this chap ice fishing on our local Lake Placid (a christian community property with a lake on it and with all the extreme cold we have been having obviously the ice was thick enough to withstand his weight, personally I wouldnt have attempted it LOL). He had drilled his hole in the ice and snow and was patiently waiting to catch himself a fish. Dont know if he succeeded but he didnt seem to happy to have me pointing my camera at him LOL. I hope he was successful because the January thaw started yesterday and I am pretty sure he wouldnt have attempted it again today.

With the crazy weather we have been having it has not helped my mental state. I had the horses in during the extreme cold week to 10 days that we had and put them out a few days ago but with the thaw starting now of course the mud is starting again. I have dreadfully dirty stables to get cleaned out, snow and ice still on the ground and dont know where to start. I may have to bring them in tonight if the mud is too bad as they will just trample their hay into the mud if I feed them outside. So far they are all looking great, not as fat as I would like them to be but we are weathering the storm so to speak.

I still have not been able to find work and photography sales have been minimal so it is a day to day struggle to find the money I need to pay the bills, especially the huge ones left after Larry passed away. I have been lucky enough to get some energy assistance for the electricity account which has been a blessing, but as far as Social Security, Disability benefits or Medical care, nothing!

And that doesnt even begin to cover the funeral bill which I have been trying to pay off monthly (you dont want to know how much that came to I was shattered when I got the bill!!).

Well had to get a bit of that off my chest, my horses are my other worry, I have had too much time on my hands and although everyone tells me to send them to the sales, I have done a lot of research and seen too many horror stories on the horse slaughter issues here in the USA, that I would never take one of my animals to a sale, I would be lucky to get $50 a piece for them anyway and they would probably end up on some European or Japanese dinner plate in a restaurant, I dont even want to get started on what is going on in that area at the moment, it sickens me, which of course doesnt help my mental wellbeing either.

Sorry for the Blaaah post today but that is how I am feeling and it is not getting any better. Sometimes I feel I am just being a pain in the ass and complaining all the time but I really do care and would do anything to get some type of work to help me clear all this backlog but it just aint happening and me not having a work history here doesnt help either. I also have to wait until I am 60 (another 10 years) before I can draw a pension off of Larry's Disability. Wonder if I will still be around then!!!!

I am not normally as vocal about my problems but needed to get it out and today was the day.

((((Hugs)))) to you all and I hope that all is well in your neck of the woods, we have had to deal with a lot of bad weather country wide and in fact world wide, so I hope you are all doing okay.

Lori

xx

Monday 28 December 2009

I have two regular readers who dont post in the comments much but who are encouraging me to be more active on here and I am really going to try. Annette and Paula thanks, it helps so much to know that there are people out there rooting for me, it has been a difficult 9 months and the winter weather, snow, cold and ice is not helping my frame of mind.

Paula I have been thinking of you while watching the terrible weather all around us, we have been lucky to dodge the worst of it where we are so far. Keep safe and warm!

Todays triptych is one I made up of Taxes who will be a 3 year old this January. I am not shooting much but I particularly loved this grouping, shows the life of a baby horse, eating, playing and sleeping.

(((((Hugs))))) to you all.

Lori
xx

Sunday 27 December 2009

It is snowing outside, expecting a few inches, we have avoided most of the really bad storms so far this year, they have been east west south and north of us. Just had one light icestorm on Thursday and I ended up halfway down the embankment in one of my fields when trying to drive down our lane. The trees stopped me from going right down the bank, so I am very wary about driving in this weather.

Todays picture was one that my late husband Larry digitally enhanced a year or so ago a few months before he passed away. He made it from a picture I had shot at a Palomino show or one of the contestants in Parade Costume taken from the rear. It is a very emotional picture for me and brings back a heavy heart every time I view it.

Hope everyone is safe (((Hugs)))

Lori
xx

Friday 4 December 2009

My walk to my mailbox at the end of our lane sometimes holds pleasant surprises for me as it is right next to a forested area and I sometimes over the years see a mother deer and her baby (I have seen her with her offspring right there in front of me not 25 feet away many times) and of course lots of squirrels.

I saw the Doe and her fawn a few weeks ago for the first time in a long time but hunting season started shortly after that and I havent seen any sign of any deer since then until today when I saw just the baby and no momma by the railway tracks as I was crossing them to turn into our lane. I can't help but think that momma has been a victim of the bow or gun season as this is the first time I have only seen one on its own and it was definitely a young one. It isnt enough that we have to endure seeing multitudes of dead deer on the sides of the roads and highways wherever you go, but the hunting seasons take their toll too and as riders we have to be careful during these times that we wear bright orange clothing so we are not mistaken for a deer and shot!!!!!

To each his own but I would rather shoot these beautiful animals with my camera, but then everyone is entitled to their opinion I suppose. I also shot the second picture of the squirrel a few days ago. Oh and they have squirrel hunting season here too for those that dont know! Everything is regulated and supposed to be to keep the populations manageable, I still think we should control our own populations then maybe there will be room for all of God's creatures. Sorry venting, but I am an animal lover and that is how I see it.

My frame of mind is still not great, struggling but still here (((Hugs))))

Lori
xx

Tuesday 1 December 2009

Okay great start, missed two days already!!! Hi CG so good to hear from you. I am struggling but still here. ((((Hugs)))

Todays pictures are of some cattle a few miles down the road. They have Longhorns and Watusi's (an African breed) and I am not sure if this one with the calf is a cross between the two or not, but the horns are sure impressive whichever way you look at them!

Lori
xx