Country - Kids

After spring rain. (image Blue Shoe Farm Blog)

My daughter has told her friends that her mother is "going country". The way she says it makes it seem like I am "going postal". I just happen to live on property with a horse or two and a chicken or two, but I still have the same amount of cowboy boots and country cd's as I did when I was a city girl. Which is more boots than cd's honestly....

Work - Procrastination Station - Right here

What I would rather be doing. Image Blue Shoe Farm Blog

Writing three blognotes in one day means I am procrastinating on other things. I have not written in a while on here due to the (still) active virus on my home computer, so I am never online at home. That means I get a lot of work done on the house, yard, etc, but not a lot of work done of PAID work . (I process dozens of work emails a day, call folks, yaddy-ya, etc) Due to this virus event, I have over 1700 emails waiting for processing in my inbox. I only have done 2 hours of computer time a week for the past month. That is not enough for me!
So I am behind on work, so am working on typing these little missives. Please give me the key to overcoming procrastination. I need to unlock a really really big door with it.
(Am leaving now to Go To Do Work)

Horse Info - for stalls

Some things to note:
1. After digging the stalls down down down, I leveled it and put down recycled rubber mats. Then I put straw pellets down first. Not a good idea. Bey ate all of them. They plump up after you get them wet and look like fluffy bedding but it did not matter. He ate them.
2. So put down wood pellets. He nibbled but did not scarf them down. They make the ground fluffy above the mats, and collect any waste they choose to do in their stalls.
3. Put down 3/4 minus gravel, not cleaned outside the barn. This should tamp down nicely, the horses do not slip in it. Plus... it is good for their hooves when they are shoeless.

House - Project List

I have actually finished another item on my to-do list. The big wicked festival of mud that was right outside the barn stalls is no more. Well, technically, I think it would be no more in the summer since it is dry, but that is besides the point. My retired neighbor Dan came over with a borrowed bulldozer and not only scraped the stalls (you would not believe the smell when you did down through 10 years of horse cesspool compressed into layers) (previous owner must have had major hoof problems with his horses if he let them stand in that), but also took away all the extra goo outside the stall doors. He absolutely rocks. And I don't know how to appropriately thank him. Then, I had a big BIG truck dump 12 yards of gravel down. I don't know how big a yard is, but I know it was a big truck that mooshed down my grass 4 inches into the ground it was so heavy. The other thing was my scoring deal on a new kitchen sink (the previous owners were a bit on the cheap side, and put in a plastic sink) (not kidding) . Home Despot had a 400 buck Kohler on sale for $52! Love that sort of deal. Now if I just had the time to put it, the bathroom vanity, sink, toilet, flooring etc etc in my house, I would be set!

Baseball - Part II - Or, reliving the terror of your youth

Now that I have been a parent for a few years (okay... technically 14) I notice I look differently at how I was raised. And, I have noticed that as parents, we don't always make the right choice, sometimes we operate on auto pilot, or relive some childhood trauma, or some youthful slight, or just force our kids into doing things that we wanted to do as kids, but did not get a chance. Of course, when I type this I am not talking about myself... just OTHER parents. ha. Remember my story of Wilder joining the baseball team? Well I had a moment of slapping my brain right back 33 years and it was not a good thing.
When I was an urchin, I had a workin' professional ma. So if I did after school sports, she was not a parent on the sidelines. As a child, I was tall, gawky, skinny, with an overbite. This was in the 70's before the school curriculum on bullying. I, like every kid of my era, received bullying, nasty names, etc etc. That was just par for the course. Most of us survived, but I notice I have a very strong defense mechanism for the underdog instilled in my genes. I attribute that to being the underdog at some point, and knowing how it feels.
So Wilder's first game. As we walk up to the field, both teams on the field in their team colors, groups of parents on the sidelines, I was thrust back instantly to my childhood and the uncomfortable feeling of organized sports. I am all flipping out (inside) and Wilder runs off to join his team. He knows no one. But, after about 7 minutes, Wilder being Wilder, he knows everyone, has filled me in on who is 'mean' and who is 'cool' and is sitting on the bench surrounded by his new teammates. This kid is SO not me as a child, and I thankfully, am also so not me as a child, as I blather at all the surrounding parents.
I just walked up, into and out of a childhood fear, and came out fine with the help of a great son. So strange how those sort of things can pop up at you.