Craig and I pulled "Christmas Chicken Chimichanga" out of storage today, and put him up on the shed.  

He's lit up like the Vegas strip.

And we decided to decorate the shrubs too.

Aaaaaaannnnddd...... winter's officially here.....

Sometimes it can be fun to do some research on the all breed database.  If you dig around enough, there are some neat old historical photos that are in there.  I found this very old photo of Octopelle's distant relative, a thoroughbred on his mother's side, named "Polymelus".  In some ways they have a similar appearance.



Octopelle 2005

Polymelus 1902

 

The three amigos were goofballs today.  I turned them out while I was cleaning their stalls, but managed to snap a few photos of their hijinks...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A fiesty little pony! Breyer Croi Damsha that I repainted as a homozygous chestnut tobiano for Natalie Sherard of North Carolina.

A fall favorite, my homemade lamb posole.  
Craig absolutely loves it!

A couple of photos from one of my customers.  These simple repaints have been doing very well for her at live shows lately.  The photos are courtesy of Natalie Sherard.  Thanks Natalie!  =:)

Refinishing

One of my projects this year was to refurbish a few pieces of furniture for my parents new home.  They have waited a long time for a new house, so I thought that it would be a nice thing to do a few pieces for their new place.  I started with this kitchen table and chairs shown below, but I'm planning on doing a dresser for them as well.

This table was pretty beat up when we purchased it second hand.  Lots of scuff marks, scratches, and deep gouges on it, but I was fairly certain it would clean up nicely when it was all done.  The wood underneath had a nice grain, and it came with a leaf for the center too.

 

A little kid had given it some original crayon "artwork" underneath.... 

And a bit of pencil "art" too.  I ended up refinishing the whole underside so you'd never know it had been there.  

The legs were really scratched and dinged badly, but they sanded down and turned out good when they were finished.

A sanded one on the left and a finished one on the right.

I found these nice caster dining chairs at a local yard sale for $1 apiece.  I purchased six of them altogether, (so there are enough extras for another future project).  The green ones on the left are how they looked beforehand, and the brown ones are how they looked after I refinished and re-upholstered them for my parents.

The finished setup.

Some of our photos from the Foothills ride, courtesy of photographer David Honan.

Foothills of the Cascades

Since the Milwaukee ride was cancelled this year, we decided to head to the Foothills ride this weekend in Molalla. Craig and I had never been to this ride before, so it was great to try out a new place. The valley has such a vastly different "wet and green" environment, so it was really interesting to ride the trails on the other side of the state. I was happy with how Nettie handled the humidity, slick muddy footing, and also the rolling climbs up and down the mountain hills. It was a good ride.

Second ride went much better today.  I found out from the first ride that we need more prep work on the right side.  Left side is great, right side has the sticky holes.  We did some exercises moving the right shoulder in and bending it around out of the way, (instead of his normal wielding it as a snowplow and trying to bull into me with it).  It worked successfully and we had an uneventful ride both ways today.  Making progress...  

Took the first "official" ride on Ira today.  Wished that I could say it was uneventful, but it was a fairly froggy trip around the round pen.  I didn't come off, and he eventually did relax after a good amount of  reassurance.  I know what we're going to have to work a bit more on now, so this first experience was a good test.    

Have I mentioned how much I love my horse?  Well..... I most definitely adore him.  "Mr. Awesome-Sauce" is amazing.

My mom and I seen this lovely fellow out on our ride today.  =:)  He was very brave and didn't fly away when we passed by.

Okay, so this is my very first "attempt" at making some jewelry.  I'll keep this one for myself, because there are so many ungodly horrible mistakes in it.  It's my first fledgling venture at doing this, so I certainly can't expect perfection right out of the gate.  The skull marks and sand buffing will improve with time.  It's a starting point.  

Pac North Oregon 100

Some photos from our ride last weekend in Brothers, OR. Nettie did great! I was so happy with her!

She had a lot of "forward" at the start, so I held her back for the first 10-15 miles so she wouldn't wear herself out at 30-40 miles.  After that, it was smooth sailing all the way to the finish line for the rest of our ride.  Photo courtesy of Chelly Bouferrache of Trail Song Photography.   

A photo of our last loop, still chugging along great!  Photo courtesy of Chelly Bouferrache of Trail Song Photography.

Chowing down on her mash after the ride.  She's such a sweetie.  So proud of my little yellow broomtail!

Shake N Bake dressed out at a whopping 279 pounds - hanging weight! Live weight was somewhere around 370-80 pounds. She was a big one. We fed her REALLY well!

Angry Birds!

Well, I wasn't expecting a surprise like this in our little backyard hummer paradise.... the plot has officially thickened! 


Now there are TWO male hummingbirds squabbling over the nectar feeder.  There's a tiny new male "outsider" that showed up this afternoon, and he's trying to muscle in on the resident males territory.  They had an epic skirmish at the feeder, and I was thrilled to have a front row seat for this tiny little micro event.  For me, it was even better than an MMA fight.  The two little farts were very quick to throw-down.  They started buzzing and dive-bombing each other fiercely, and there was some tiny little angry trash-talking chirps, and basically they got right up in each others faces to lay the smack down.  It lasted a grand total of about a minute and a half.  I wanted to make popcorn and grab a chair, but I thought I'd miss the whole damn thing if I even blinked the wrong way for a split second.....

The challengers.

The stare-down, followed by some brief trash-talk on who's feeder it actually belonged to.

Mid-skirmish.  They're both in this picture, but it was so quick the camera could only capture one of them.

The 10th round was still undecided.... 

But then there was a winner.  I have no idea if it's the original male that was here first, or if this is the challenger.

The male hummingbird managed to sit still long enough for me to get a picture of him this morning!  It was a rare opportunity, because he usually never stays in one spot for very long.  He's a pretty little bird with a metallic green back and white tips at the end of his tail.  I guess that I'll have to come up with a name for him too...

My "el cheapo" Walmart camera strains and groans to get very clear photos when it has to zoom in such an enormous way. 



I'm glad that he felt comfortable enough to perch in the lilacs for awhile this morning.  Such a cute little handsome fellow.  =:)

And while I was taking photos of the male, Humma stopped by the feeder to grab a drink.  I'm bummed out that the iron rod that holds the feeder up was in the way... it would've been a cute shot of her. 


I think that these two probably have a nest somewhere, but it would be a miracle if I was ever able to find it.  They are so tiny! 
I found this stock photo on the internet of the actual size of a hummer nest with a size comparison to a penny:
 

Humma Kavula

We have a resident female hummingbird that likes to hang out around our yard.  I love these tiny guys! 

I started noticing her buzzing around last year when I was outside gardening, so I purchased a hummer feeder at the local store and have been keeping it freshly stocked during the spring and summertime ever since.  This year a more brightly colored male also showed up, but I haven't gotten a chance to get a picture of him yet.  He likes to quickly buzz around and only stays for a few minutes before taking off like a little rocket.

And yes, I did name our little resident female hummer...  Her namesake is from a character on the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.  It seems to fit her.   =:)

These photos were taken from our kitchen window before the afternoon sun hit the back porch.  For the sake of Humma's health, I like to mix my own nectar formula (minus any red food dye).  She seems to enjoy the simple mixture, so I guess I must be doing something right. 

I've noticed that during this time of year Humma gets fairly thirsty and she'll perch on the feeder and guzzle nectar for awhile.  The flowers are mostly done blooming and the weather is really hot, so she'll come and sit at the "mini-bar" for a refreshment.  I love watching her from the window as I drink my morning cup of coffee.
 
It's the smaller things in life that make it enjoyable.  =:)

A gift for a friend.

I sculpted this foal medallion, (in what seems like eons ago), in 2006.  I cast around 25 of these little guys in polyurethane resin as live show donations.  I used to get several requests from show holders to donate stuff for their live shows, but I just didn't have time to paint a bunch of mini models to oblige their requests.  So, to come up with a solution I sculpted this little medallion so that I'd have a blank copy to send to show holders when they contacted me.  It worked out great!

I thought that I'd distributed all of these medallions, but I found two of them hidden in the bottom of a box that I had put away.  A friend of mine is having some health issues, so I painted one of them to send to her in hopes of cheering her up and maybe lifting her spirit a bit.  =:)

I gave this chestnut fellow a gloss finish and put a magnet on the back of him, so he's a perfect little fridge ornament.

My second gigantic batch of freezer jam for the year.  I've made about 3 gallons of jam so far.  At this rate Craig and I will be eating toast for the rest of our lives!  Luckily this stuff keeps in the freezer for a long time.

The first batch that I made earlier in the year was a "mixed berry" from the garden consisting of strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and rhubarb mixed together.  (It's really yummy tasting jam with all of those ingredients.)  This second batch pictured above is wild blackberry, cherry, and rhubarb. 

My rhubarb plants did really well this year, and I was able to get three cuttings from them.  The first cutting went to a friend to make her own jam batches with, and the last two cuttings were for our own freezer jam.  I love gardening!  It's so rewarding making your own food.

A newly completed Cantrell resin "Nitro" that I painted to a sunbleached bay overo. I gave him the nickname "Pyro" when I was painting him, because the ends of his mane and tail have some firey sunbleached metallic red shades. He's owned by Diane Finazzo of Minnesota.