simple gifts

 

The prairie is in full bloom at last. The wildflowers seem to enjoy the summer heat much more than I do. It sure makes packing around a chubby baby in a too-big frog hat tough work, much deserving of a round of frozen fruit popsicles for all afterwards :)

hello again

Just thought I ought to say hello and send you all some pictures!

if it were a sunset (instead of a sunrise) it would be straight from the set of Gone With the Wind, no?

This whole month has been a bit of a blur. Poor, poor Momma has been ill in bed for most of it as a result of her last chemo treatment. Thank goodness it was her last. She's still very unwell even today, more than three weeks later.

 In other bad news, Fia, the grey mare we took in last Fall, caught a hind leg in our neighbor's barbwire, tearing it up badly on the front of her hock. We have done all we can, bandaging her up (there wasn't anything left for stitches) and slathering everything with anti infection salve, keeping her on Bute (painkiller), etc. Now we're waiting to see how she heals. I want to be optimistic, but the hock is a busy intersection of tendons, nerves, and just about everything important. As deep as her wound was, I can't see a way that none of that was severed.

It's rather disheartening when you realize that three of our four horses are now lame (Shyanne & Wilber we can't figure out why, despite numerous vet trips), and one of our two ponies is missing an eye. Which really isn't that big of a deal, considering she's doing just fine. Though, she may steamroller you if you're on the wrong side :)

Well. That was all very cheery. But it gets better:
 //The flowers are blooming & my gardens are growing (we might actually get some potatoes this year!). And strangely all our fruit trees have fruit on them - even the peach tree has fuzzy little nobs! this.never.happens!!!!!
 //My nephew just reached his 7 month birthday, and it's my favorite when he laughs.
 //Little Brother and I have been jousting on the ponies, and yes, we really do have padded lances and try our best to biff one another off. So far the score is in my favor - LB needs to work on his knight/steed communicating skills. ha.
//Big Brother and I dusted off our pistol bullets for the first time this year and had a mini gun show last night. He shot the Ruger Blackhawk (think cowboy-looking piece), and I shot the snub .38 special. It's my favorite because it's small, about the length of my stretched out hand, and it's a challenge to shoot well (because the barrel is so short you loose accuracy). But it and I get along very well and have some holy targets to prove it.

happy weekend, everyone

time marches with the vegetables

Our first fruits! Two bright and cheery little cherry tomatoes.

beans

the corn so tall and the beans so... bush-like.

baby cucumber

I really am not one for eating veg; I like carrots and occasionally the odd leaf of lettuce. But I must say that fresh cucumber and lemon and lime slices in ice water is the best thing since someone decided to put frosting on a cake.

it's hard to believe that our squash plants were just seeds a month and a half ago. Now they're great, spidery monsters taking over half the garden and churning out foot long summer squash like a machine. I do believe we'll have to get creative in the kitchen if we're to keep up. Or we can do what (I think it was) my grandma did and leave the mountains of extra squash and zucchini on the surrounding neighborhood's door steps in the dead of night.

On the weekend LB and I headed to the park with a bunch of my friends for the first annual event of 'Chalk in the Park'. I was actually surprised by how many people turned out, for as small as town is. There were two hotdog vendors and everything! 

Anyway, we requested two sidewalk blocks (128 square feet gah!) because we had a Plan.

 Complete and entire landscape in fine detail. Above is a small part of my contribution - Llyod's Llama Farm. I was in charge of all the farms (I also did an Al's Alpacas later on) and animals, and I had a lot of fun with me llamas and alpacas.

little brother chalked us an awesome mount rushmore under some equally awesome fireworks.

 i never got a photo of the whole thing completed - kicking myself - but we ended up winning in our category, so six and a half hours baking on the pavement were not for naught.

-Gwyn

Because life doesn't stand still

I have few words today. I think it must be the abominable heat. Or perhaps because for the last four days I have been beating myself about the head with a blunt object in an effort to make it come up with worthy story material. As it is, what pathetic sum I have scribbled is most unsatisfactory.
 And so, instead of writing you with words of things & happenings I am going to let photos do most of the talking. For while my pen may have been idle, Jackson and I were not.

All sleek and shiny in their summer coats. This might sound like bragging -- promise it's not -- but I have some pretty horses. Okay, so I'm a little me&mine-monster. Sorry. But every time I see them out in the sun, all glossy and beautiful, I get a semi-ridiculous smile on my face. 'cause they're my friends. :)

 Water fights + 103* = a mustmust. One sided water fights? Even better. As long as I'm the one with the hose.

 {And learning how to set shutter speed -- pure awesome sauce!}

 Spanish labels have taken over a large part of my room, peoples. Pillows, walls, boxes..... nothing is safe.

I think I'm learning.

 Lots of this. Because running the dryer is stupid when outside will get your clothes dry 10x faster.

 90's... 100's.... Who cares. When it's this dry it doesn't make a difference. It's a terrible year for crops all around. A dry winter and spring have totally butchered any hopes of surplus for anyone this year. As far as hay, this year we'll be lucky if we get enough from our fields to last us much past Christmas, so we've already bought up a bunch from a friend east of us to last us. A lot of people are going to run short.

 Farmer's who got up to four cuts last year are now hoping they can scrape together one. I know one man who raises hay who has 90 acres he won't be able to cut at all because the grass is only six inches high. I can't imagine how it is down South.

Mum and I went to town yesterday and got our hairs did, and I.... I am no longer Rupunzel. It's the shocking truth. After growing it out for a year & a half {ma hair grows fast, people} I whacked off 13 inches for a light bob {what a dumb name for a hairstyle, if I may say so}. I saw this photo, thought about how hot my mass of hair was, Pinned it, thought how I love my waves, reconsidered, decided not to do it, got to the stylists, told her to have at it.

 Regrets? Not yet.

This week has felt like a a glimpse of the future; my summer in a nut shell.

skunk hunts, riding bareback lots, stealthy birthday shopping {level: nonchalant ninja}, hot and very dry weather, trading riding lessons for Spanish - el caballo, si?{that's about as Spanish as I get right now. Impressed much? ha, no.}, extensive garden watering, and a sort of passive mood {which is not helping my word count for tlos, bristé, or two feathers very much. boo.} 

Giving my Sunday school teacher's -- saying Sunday school makes me feel about five years old. BUT my class (population: me + two teachers) is not to be confused with the youth group that goes bowling on Saturdays. No, in my class we debate Great Philosophies.... or discuss crazy relatives, depending on our energy status at 9:30am. Either makes us about 1000000x cooler than the YG, which is for public schoolers anyway....
  Ummmm.... Oh, yes. Giving my Sunday school teacher's two little girls riding lessons {read: showing them how to steer and then leading the pony around for miles -- don't feel sorry for me, it's worth it just to listen to them try and convince me that we should jump the fence to see the kitty on the other side.} in exchange for a tiny chance that one day I might actually be partially bilingual.... is cake. The kind someone else makes.

Did I ever tell you about ma' little skunk encounter? I told just about everyone else so I really don't remember. So here's if I didn't.
  I was going to feed the ponies one night about sunset, my usual time. The sky was golden and the air was soft. I was about to duck through the fence to go in the hay shed, in fact I was half way through, when I looked up and not five feet away was a Mr Skunk of Skunkly-in-the-wold.
 I paused.
 Caught between a skunk and an electric fence, what could go wrong?
Skunk toddled over to the old overturned molasses barrel under which we keep the cat food {pretty high tech security} and snuffled around several minutes in search of stray kibbles. Then it toddled off out of sight. It took a lot of summoning-of-courage for me to go in and grab an armful of hay --  I ran, people. That's how sure I was it was going to come back and bomb the place.
 That was a week ago and since then we have learned that we have a whole family living in the rock-cliffs behind our house, and our neighbor has shot two in his chicken coop. Da was there for the second shooting and we're going to have to burn his clothes, I think.
 And as if to drive home the fact that we and surrounding areas are being overrun by these stinking devils, the little cat food eating bugger came back the night before last when my brothers and I were out just hanging with the ponies. We watched him lope {they have the funniest way of running} up the road and further making his way to the cat food barrel.
  Like the War General I am, I ordered Older Brother to run and get his gun while LB and I stood watch. However, information must have been leaked for the enemy retreated behind a hay bale before Older Brother {since demoted to Private for slow running} got back with his .22 rifle. That was another thing. I wanted this thing annihilated. I wanted to see a cannon not some petty schoolboy .22.
  But it wouldn't have mattered anyway, for all the waiting in the world that skunk did not come out.
So the next night we hatched a plan. LB laid out a trail of cat food leading off into the pasture and blocked off any route to the hay bales. Then we hunkered down on the tractor tire to wait. and wait. and wait.

  Just when the last rays of the sun had faded and we were about to call it quits It Came. Bumbling up the road and down to the cat food as before. But instead of following the trail for long, it took off toward our neighbor's pasture. Tracking it far enough away from civilization so as not to disturb the country air,  Older Brother fired three rounds and the deed was done. And it 'twas to the tune of Daniel Boone that we made our way home again, knowing that one more menace was trotting around the prairies of heaven and not our backyard.

I apologize for the lack or real photos, I'm writing from my mum's laptop so random Pins it is! And thus I own none of them.

Oh, and I have a question for those of you who are readers of Bristé. It has been like pulling heath these last few days to get anywhere with part V,  so I was wondering, would you rather have two short posts within a few days of each other or a single long post that I'm not sure when it'll be finished?

Till next time,

-Gwyn

Word.

I am told that's the new 'It' word, replacing 'cool'. So instead of saying, "That sunset is cool!" just look at it and go, "Woooord!"

I digress.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

Summer is officially here! And I have become smitten with paper and ink.
 There  is nothing I  love better in the evenings after a good ride but to come in and read a good book. And 'good books' are no longer just Fantasy/Adventure in my book. I'm enjoying mysteries, histories, some non-fiction {gasp!}, and even some poetry {double gasp!}. You may have already noticed, but I have added my 'bookshelf' to my sidebar so you can see exactly what I'm reading and what I've read.
 And of all the bargains in the world, I stumbled on the best today at a little up-cycle/antique store in town: The complete Sherlock Holmes Adventures, 1929 edition, and Hair and Scalp Treatments, circa 1940. Both for $3. Awesome.
 Wondering about the Hair book? It has an amazing cover.

This infatuation has also extended to -- music! My brother bought a lovely mandolin a few weeks ago and yesterday and today {while he's off at work} I've been strumming until my fingers bleed. Well, not bleed exactly. But my thumb got a blister from it!

me and the rocky road to dublin*

My quartet group has also been dive-bombed with gigs, which is fantastic. Mostly is the easy stuff like background music for anniversary parties, church functions, and such. No weddings yet, and that's okay with me :)
 Hopefully all these performances will add up to a camera by the end of the summer! I'm excited.

Gardening moves apace. I am in the process of at last hammering together my boxes! They should be finished tonight and then it's fresh herbs and fruits all season long!

Jumping to another topic...
 I have been inspired lately by some fellow writer/bloggers who have pages devoted to snip-its and 'book covers' of each story they are writing, have written, or even have thought of. I'm thinking I must do this. Especially make a book front. I love that kind of thing.
 I so want to share my writings some how without being copied and this just might be an outlet. I'll let you know.

I apologize for such sporadic postings that cover no particular thing except life, but there just don't seem to be enough hours in the day to think out a deep meaningful post. I'm finding I have less time now then when I had school. Hm.
 I'm up earlier, too, and then I'm out the door to feed my animals and then it's to the garden to weed, back inside to eat and read, back out to weed some more, plant some more flora, ride; watch the sun go down to the sound of Miss McLeod's Reel*. And that's how it's going to be from now until school begins again.
I love summer.

-Gwyn

Create a MySpace Music Playlist at MixPod.com

October first and a chance of snow

The title says it all. *sigh* Good-bye indian summer! I'm really surprised it lasted this long! But, I guess it had to end sometime... 

Yesterday it was 84*, today it's 48* and winds up to 60 mph, and tomorrow we're going to get snow. But that's just the Great Plains for you! You never know what the weather will do. Here come the ice chopping days....yuuuuuck!

So, is it snowing anywhere else?

Last night I drew Gwyn and Emy as little girls.:) Happy with it! I'll try and post it tomorrow, depending on wether I'm on time for school or not.{That's why I wasn't on yesterday}

 

Well, if I'm not frozen tomorrow or late, I'll talk to you later!

~Gwyn