Family photos

DS and his outside Main Coon Cat Nari and Nari being where she likes to be... on DS's shoulder.

She is one happy cat and Lad too for that matter!

OK... a so, so photo of me. I do not normally do photos of me because I am not photogenic.

Down to size 8 pants..and the pants are starting to look big. Wearing my really comfy Cabela zip on boots and a soft Alpaca wool sweater.

Wee Christmas Tree and Nari the shoulder Cat

We have a small house, not really any room to set a Tree up this year and then, there are the Cats. Sure DS would get tired of picking up a large xmas tree and or the ornaments several times a day, as the Cats try to rearrange it to their liking. So this year..we just decided on a tiny table top xmas tree, set away from the Cats.

Is still festive and smells just as good as the large trees.

Nari, with her favorite person, standing on her favorite spot (her 2nd favorite spot is laying on Dyfra). Any time DS goes out side there is Nari, wanting to sit on DS shoulder, when he is standing, walking or doing chores. LOL I told him, I could always design a platform to go on his shoulders so Nari can sit better, but DS just looked at me kind'a funny ....and I swear... he rolled his eyes! Can you believe it?? LOL

Dyfra's Sporting Stjarna's Parson's rump, so someone I know could see it on a grey horse... couldn't miss her could you!!?

Excuse the odd angle of the photo and even with a rainsheet on, Dyfra finds new and interesting ways to get dirty.

Baking bread today, and the house smells wonderful!

A cool Tuesday morning Sunrise

Woke up to 18* temps on Tuesday morning but it looked like it would be a beautiful day. Can see the Moon on the upper right and the sun just touching the next hills over.

And a Closer shot of the Hills next over, camera couldn't quite capture the stunning beauty of that morning.

Made it all the way up to 20* later that day. I saddled Dyfra up to ride the fence line to make sure the poachers hadn't messed with it.

Had my new shoes on and with the Protection Vest I now wear every time I ride..

Stayed nice and warm.

DS even had to use the snow shovel for the first time this year. ;O)

If we can't have Sun ....a Fire place will do...

This is what cats love to do during a winter storm.... Sun themselves in front of the Fireplace.

You can't see DS off to the side.. but he is playing with Mia. She likes to bat the foil ball back at him, when he tosses it to her. Also a great winter storm pass time.

Can see her in... "well hurry up" Mode... "toss the ball already... I am waiting". LOL

First Snows of Winter

Started snowing Sunday morning and has basically been snowing since then. Not a whole lot but enough to turn everything white.

Edda in the snow around 1pm on Sunday. Snow is still kind'a new to her. Can you believe is a little over 12.3 hands now!

The Icelandic's are loving this weather... they spend a lot of time running and playing. Is a joy to watch.

A little more snow on the ground.

Right now it is Monday evening... and along with the snow and hail every now and then, we are having fairly high winds. Just hope the power doesn't go out.

Have a good snow shovel, plenty of wood, food for us and the animals...

We should be all set for awhile.

An November Evening

Yesterday evening it was so nice, I thought I would stay out after feeding the horses their evening meal.

After being fed and well groomed, there is nothing better than a relax rolling in the Evening sunshine... LOL Stjarna is really enjoying it.

Next up we have wee Maggie... and her cute, adorable teddy bear like winter ears.

Think the will be the last time I will Roach her mane, as I won't be driving this winter. But she really doesn't seem to mind having no super thick Mane to lug around.

When I looked up into the sky from taking photos of the horses and foliage I see a Rainbow cloud. Of course I had to try to take a photo of it... camera wasn't happy about it, had a hard time trying to focus but it came out fairly well.

The Evening sun in Nov looking toward the night pasture, hay field and our woods beyond. This is such a beautiful place.

A little Fall color.

Everyone is doing well, staying busy to say the least. DH is enjoying his job, DS is trying to find work and practicing with his Longbow and me.. I am handspinning more yarn and working on my online shops.

British Longbow arrived

Will take more photos in the next couple of days but even stringed, the bow is taller than DS. Is a Traditional Red Oak Huntsmen's Longbow design from the Middle Ages.

He is also going to have to build some muscle because this is one powerful bow.

Can see one of his new cool looking Noggle Stone arrows in flight, too.

Archery

What a beautiful morning for a little Archery practice. Can see our lopsided straw bale targets. LOL

Getting ready...

DS is using his small Martin Bow until his Red Oak British Longbow comes in.

Can you find the blue arrow in flight?

DS is doing quite well.

Me... I am a little more rusty. But it is the first time since the accident I have been able to shoot my Horsebow and not get a headache.

Forgot how much fun Archery is.

Cool Leaf Moth, DS and Nari, Stjarna taking an morning nap.

Stjarna happily sunning herself after her breakfast.

DS, getting some help on how to move a bale of hay from Nari. LOL

This cool looking Moth that ended up right by the back door. Looks a lot like a Autumn Leaf, have never seen this kind before.

Lush Green pastures and working on fencing

Finally put up the last line of heavy duty hot wire. We have had a bear trying its darnest to get into the the horse pasture, over the camel backs.. even bent one of those 8' tall heavy duty T posts. Sigh ~~ So beefing up things even more. Have a predator rated charger too, so it has some bite to it.

If the Bear keeps being a problem, will have to call Fish and Game... that is if they will do anything about it. There is nothing to entice the Bear at all...other than the horses.

Beautiful slightly foggy morning yesterday. The sun did come up a little later. The weather has been perfect for doing things outside.

Can see how lush and green the miniature horse pasture, as we call it, is. And the main hay pasture is growing quite well now. Much better than last spring. Which means, the horse's haven't been able to run in that pasture during the day as the green grass is too rich.

Normally this time of year most everything is brown, but not this year.

Am going to have to put some horse's back in this pasture for a few days, so they can eat it down.

This is such a beautiful place!

Homemade Rice Milk ~

Allergic to cow dairy or just do not want to use dairy products but need some kind of milk to cook with. Here is a good recipe that will allow you to do just that.

BASIC HOMEMADE RICE MILK - Adjusted

yield 6-8 cups

You can use all kinds of brown rice - basmati, jasmine, short grain, long grain, even sweet brown - to make this milk. While they all work, I like the overall effect of short grain best. But the choice is up to you, feel free to experiment.

1/2 cup short grain brown rice

8 cups water

optional: stevia or other natural sweetener to taste, Maple syrup, or 1-3 pitted soaked dates

2 TBP sunflower oil to make it creamier.

Rinse rice and soak for for 6-8 hours. Rinse then place in a large pot with 6-8 cups of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover and cook until rice is totally soft and starts to dissolve and get very mushy, about 45 minutes to an hour.

You can also do this in a crockpot and cook it on high for 3-4 hours or low for 6-8 hours.

Once your rice is super soft, transfer rice and water to a blender,, fill your blender halfway with the rice mixture and halfway with water and blend until totally smooth, working in batches as necessary. If using, add sweetener to taste and blend until combined. If you are not using a Vitamix or other high-powered blender, you may want to pour through a fine sieve, straining out any small chunks. Pour into jars, cool, and cover, then store in the refrigerator for up to 7 days. Shake well before consuming. Milk will thicken slightly as it cools; dilute as necessary when ready to use.

A look at the label of Rice Dream Rice Milk reveals that it contains oil. Oil does make things creamier, and can add about 2 Tablespoons of organic sunflower oil to your batch of milk.

You can also add about 4 Tablespoons of Maple Syrup to our batch of milk,instead of sugar, as most are still used to the slightly sweeter taste of the Rice Dream product than what you get from homemade. It’s not a big difference…just a little one.

You may have to experiment to get the milk the consistency you want. Have fun!

Going to Pull the House off the Market, Sunrise and Edda Dyfra photos.

Early Sunrise the other morning, looking over Rainbow Hill.

DH and I have decided to pull the Farm off the Market. No one is willing to pay a fair price and since we owe the bank and do not want to destroy our excellent credit....

We will be keeping the farm and next year, mostly likely the first week of March, will put it back on the market and see how it goes.

Finding a Lease on the other end hasn't produced any results either. Mostly do to my health issues..ie.. needing to live in a very quiet place, my lack of ability to go up and down flights of stairs easily and our limited budget.

Sunrise a couple of mornings ago.

Not the best photograph but you can see how tall Edda is getting. Dyfra is a solid 12.3 hands tall... think Edda is taller than that now.

The House

Think I did pretty good here, with the photos of the house, front and back. Bright green of fresh spring grass and a bright blue sky with wisps of clouds.

Think we have pretty much decided to lease the house for a year.

People seem to only want to pay half of what we paid for the place 5+ years ago and that is not going to happen. Specially when we bought this place at a more than fair price because we were the only ones that put an offer on the table and could jump through the State of Oregon's Lawyers requirements (hoops).

Put a lot of work and love into this place and not about the ruin our good credit because people now think it is cool to rip good honest folks off.

And we can't compete with the many, many short sales and foreclosures in this area.

Lack of jobs in Oregon doesn't help either.

We are looking into a place that we can lease until our place sells, should know in the next couple of weeks wither it will fly or not. Place we are looking at was pulled off the market because its owner is having the same problems we are. We are right side up but no wants to buy at a fair price. And we can't buy until this place sells. Soooo... keep your fingers crossed.

If we get the go ahead with the place we are looking at... will have the property manager handle the Farm, while DS, the cats, horses and I travel to our new home.

On the family news...

DH really likes his new job and is enjoying it.

DS , got all 4 of his wisdom teeth out. He is doing fine now. His latest read is the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Universe.

Me.. all kinds of dental work done and need to get a bone graft the first week in Oct. Know it needs to get done badly but not looking forward to it. ah well...

Other than that...

DS and I have been keeping up with the Farm chores, enjoying the cooler weather. Much easier to get work done when it is cool.

I have been working on getting my 2011 Calendars made.. lots of work and time there.

Also decided to try my hand at making some Glass earrings with my paintings on them in miniature. Gathering all I need now and sometime in the next couple of weeks will put something about it up on my Art Blog.

Hugs and Kisses to the family...

Now they want to take our Modest Retirement pay away

...Along with our very modest medical and dental.

Please contact them, via the link below, tell Congress and the civilian oversight, they need to keep their promise to the hard working men and women who served their country faithfully.

Here is the letter I sent via email to the Congressmen.

Did your time for little pay, long hours, travel when and where the Gov tells you to, with little notice, signed away your rights as an American citizen but with a promise after 20 years of service to your country, you get a tiny monthly retirement pay and pay into a not so good Medical and Dental but it is better than having nothing.

Now you are thinking of doing an over haul and taking this away from Us? And funny how you don't see this on the news.

If you do this,,, it would effectively kill us. Is the only thing that has kept us barely afloat for so long. Only way we can have any kind of Medical or Dental.

My Husband is a hard worker and after spending 20 years in the Military, he has been trying to find a full time perm job but because he spent those 20 years in, that is a hard thing to do. No one offers us medical or dental that we can afford, when they offer it that is. Would come down to either a roof over our heads or living on the street with medical or dental.

Only thing DH has been offered is short term contract jobs, all because he spent his early years serving his country.

No good tax paying citizen that served their country, should have to go through that.

My DH did his time and I am sure many others did to The Government needs to keep their side of the bargain.

Doing what you propose, is going to hurt a lot of Military Retiree's that did their time because of the above promise.

I am the wife of a 20 year veteran, My Husband did his time with honor, I followed him when and where you told him to go because I loved him and was proud of what he was doing for his country.

What you do to my husband effects both of us.

Let them know hurting their Veteran is not Kosher on so many levels!

http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,218378,00.html?ESRC=mr.nl

Roses, Roadkill Toys and the low down ~

Sorry I haven't been updating the family Blog like I normally do. A lot of things have been going on.

Staying very busy keeping up with this place, getting all the chores done and things packed. Have been spending a lot of time at the Dentist.

DS gets to have all of his wisdom teeth out next Friday. Things are a lot easier now a days and he doesn't even have to be awake to get the teeth removed. Nice.

DH is enjoying his new job and keeps him really busy. :O)

Some of the beautiful Roses from my Garden.

The weather has been nice this summer, cooler, some clouds, some sun and no where near as hot as last summer Thank goodness.

Kind'a of hard to see in this photo, but the Element in its natural state... dirty...

Impressive on how dirty it can be and I can still see the blue paint. LOL

Roadkill Toys.... the Cat's love them! Can see the little brown one has been licked to death. LOL

Roadkill toy on a string, in action. Its funny because Mia will talk with the Roadkill in her mouth.. most likely telling us how much she likes them, all the while leading DS around with the string. Makes me wonder who's playing with who? ;O)

DS took this photo of the Grosbeaks and a Hummer earlier this summer. They tolerated each other,,,barely but it was sure fun to watch the different birds interact.

We still have the farm for sale, no luck so far selling it. People are all for wanting things for free but price a place at a fair price...We just can't compete with all the Short Sales and Foreclosure's on the market. We need to be able to pay off the loan, pay the Real Estate agent and so on.

Also put a lot of work into this place and see no reason to destroy our good credit, just so someone can take advantage of us. We have to be able to pay our bills, just like everyone else.

So we sit and wait for the right buyer, that will appreciate this beautiful farm and not try to cheat us. Pretty sad the way people are now a days. Sigh ~~

Just a little frustrated as you can tell.

Have started another painting, well sort of. A Navy Phantom but realized after I penciled most of it in... I did not have a photo that would help me draw in the far side of the wings and missiles. So for now, I guess I need to work on something else. Do not know the fighter well enough to fudge it.

Edda Photos and Video

These photos above the videos were taken today, 6 July 2010. Edda has slicked out to her summer coat and looking very nice!

I need to take a measurement of her again soon. But when the photos and videos below were taken.....

Edda is now 12 months old, 12.1 1/2 hands tall on level ground. Have had a hard time getting any photos her her because of all this rain.
Did get a break in the rain showers today to take a few videos and what I could of still photos. She is still shedding out her cotton ball looking winter coat and growing like a weed.

Can start to see her lower Charcoal colored legs, as she sheds out. She also has a lot of, light silver in her mane and tail but doesn't show up in the photos.

This is my usual type of photos of my horses, they have to see close up, what I am doing.LOL

Look at those long silver colored eye lashes!