Never forget life is precious

Sometimes the comments of someone I have never met or do not know
strike home so much more than seeing a news item on TV

I received this comment today on my site

Thank you so much for this site. We recently lost our 35-year old son in a motorcycle accident. He has two children ages 4 and 3. I have used information from your site in the journal I am working on for them to help them remember their Daddy--and have included the events from the year of his birth, the year of his graduation, and from the year of his death--2009. I am looking forward to your posting the information for 2009.

Which bought home how precious life is and how we take for granted that those around us will always be there

So before you go to sleep tonight give your loved ones a kiss and for those who live far away make a phone call and remind them you love them


Steve

Reflections of a Brit In America

It has now been nearly 10 years since this Brit met Callie and decided to come to America
Some things seem second nature and normal, others still seem strange

1. Driving on the wrong side of the road
2. Driving an automatic car
3. Where we are the much slower pace of traffic and better mannered drivers
4. Not being able to walk to the local shops
5. The wonderful variety and color of the birds
6. Getting used to spelling things how they sound not how I was taught E.G. Color -- Colour and many many more examples.
7. Having a garden bigger than a postage stamp and using a tractor to mow the lawn
8. Collecting the mail from the end of the drive rather than mailman putting it through front door letter box
9. Big boys toys like quads, trucks, Snowmobiles and Motorbikes ( Last two I AM NOT ALLOWED TO HAVE we have democracy in this house and Callie and Zoe outvote me every time even when Zoe is at college )
10. College Tuition and the debts kids build up getting an education
11. Kids going to school at 7.00 AM that still blows me away
12. School Busses for most kids going to school
13. Calling things by different names ie washing up liquid ( Dishsoap) plus loads of others to numerious to mention
14. The price of Petrol whoops sorry Gas
14. The very different political system and how influenced politics is by big business
15. And last but not least the size of the country as demonstrated below


I am currently working on a new web project looking at events around the country and the vast differences when writing up these two events bought this home to me



Mount Dora Arts Festival
Mount Dora, Florida
February 6th to February 7th
Mount Dora Arts Festival


Mount Dora Arts Festival is one of the largest in the state with about 285 artists on location from all over the world attracting more than 300,000 visitors. The artists are selected by a panel of jurors from nearly 900 applicants. Wear comfortable shoes, sunscreen and sunglasses. There is a lot to see spread out all throughout the town.




Portland WinteRush
Fort Portland, Maine
February 13th
Portland WinteRush


Portland WinteRush, get out and enjoy winter featuring Maine Snow Sculpting Contest, Snow Plow Parade, State Street Extension Sledding Hill, Build Igloo Forts with Snowball Fights along the Bowling Green Path, Snow Painting and a Scavenger Hunt. Dress up warm and wear boots.

A Wonderful 7* F Today ............ Brrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is frigid cold today. I'm looking so forward to warmer spring air. Stephen is currently working on a crock pot beef stew. I'm also looking forward to that.........Just got that started. Yum!

Misty is doing well, I will call Jeremiah today and schedule a hoof trim for next week. I will once again put the girls on the Elkhorn Vet Clinic Equine Wellness Program. That is $295 per horse and includes the gamut of spring and autumn shots, coggins, a wellness health exam and a teeth float including sedation. I will still have to pay the near $50 for a farm call, but the program worked so well for us last year, that I just cannot pass this up. Does anyone else out there have a Vet that offers such a program? I think we're lucky in that way because we are so connected to UW Madison, which has one of the biggest Vet Schools out there.

More Happening's From Today........

Our Redheaded Woodpecker has returned. Of course Stephen just refilled the bird feeders and all the birds are coming in droves.

As you can see, just after two weeks on Mina's weight loss program, she is beginning to once again take the shape of a dog rather than that of a beached Manatee...........

The evening Hay Dance begins..........

Only slight distractions from dogs in the field.

Does that thing belong there?

And Misty's knee today. Think we're pretty much back to normal. Hard for me to judge totally as it wasn't until her injury that I began inspecting it so closely, but she seems to be doing fine and this after being de-stalled for a few weeks now. Still moving forward, pushing Kola around and back to her normal self.

Conditioning & Practice?

As Stephen and I were out and about running our morning errands, we came across this. Which required us to turn down a new back road in order for me to snap some photos.........Found it interesting.........Looks like they might be getting some winter exercise and conditioning, getting ready for perhaps the Midwest Horse Fair, which is my guess.

A New Blogger To Me , Anyway..........

And a neighbor! I see a few of you have discovered her already, but I just did........So I'm posting the link. Here it is...... No Hoof, No Horse? Her latest post is hilarious with some crazy old laws that involves horses.......Really enjoyed it!

Sunday Stills

I can take the credit for the one above............

A Friday Funny to make you smile

Phone
Ring Ring

Me Pick Up Phone
"Hello"
Lady On Other End
"Gladys is Ready"
Me
"UGHH"
Lady On Other End
"Gladys Is all Ready and Waiting"
Me
"Sorry What Do You Mean"
Lady On Other End
"Sorry Wrong Number"

And Phone goes dead

Now Callie and I spent the next hour or so coming up with scenarios ranging from

1. Gladys is old lady waiting for car or van to collect her
2. Gladys is pet who is all ready to go home
3. Gladys is an old car that has special pet name

But of course the best is Gladys is in the pleasure business , ( but I did wonder at pleasure girl with name of Gladys as it does not conjure up the greatest idea in pleasure ) "please insert your own thoughts here as some of mine and Callies are not suitable for print.

But the one thing we did do was Laugh our butts off so if laughter is the way to stay young , we will have some more of those type calls instead of people trying sell crap ( maybe that is why my telephone manner has become much worse over the years )

What is the funniest wrong number you have had

Have a great weekend

Steve

Bracing For Crap Weather.........Again!

It's been just about a week since I released Misty and "knock on wood" so far , so good. She seems to be doing very well. I hope she continues. I swear this horse has Mustang in her. Wish I could afford a DNA.........She is usually tough as nails.........

I had to try winter poses with my girls yesterday. Of course I interrupted them while they were eating , hence how tight I was hanging onto those halters.

Although they were not impressed, they engaged my whimsy as the good girls they are.

The goats were getting goofy as well as the dogs at dinner time last night. I did a little rearranging of barns and such in preparation for which sounds like crappy ice rain coming. The skies are very telling tonight. I dread to see what we're in for and for how long. Sounds like crappy rain for the weekend, then followed by light snow!

Another Update...............

Well, Misty continues to heal..........She seems to be quite right. I will schedule a trim for these long hoofed girls to be done in 2 weeks. Misty's knee still looks good. I have Kola off her Levethyroxine for now and we'll see what she looks like this spring. This morning brings me two happy, hungry (as usual) horses. I received very pitiful looks from all four legged family members as I drove off to work for my mandatory over-time last night. Miss Mina (fat dog) seems to loosing some weight already. What was tight rolls of fat seem to be getting a little squishier, feels like it's loosening up. And all dogs are adjusting to their feeding schedule. Only thing is, my Mina dog will not eat unless I put her food bowl next to me where ever I happen to be, LOL. Dork! Spot, the Border Collie had a sore hip last week and was gimping around, but seems to have gotten over it as well. We were worried about a hip dysplasia with a full bred dog, but he seems ok now. We will watch him and give the glucosamine as the old dog Fido get that and 16yrs old, he keeps on ticking.............Have yet to figure that one out!

How Do You Consider Your Horses ?

I know this seems like a strange question but it refers to how we think of our horses.

When we go out or come home the first thing Callie does is to check the girls ( Kola and Misty ), now I think the best way I can describe the way we look at our horses is "as members of the family"., where as we consider our dogs and cats as Pets and members of the family

I also remember some 20 plus years ago watching a BBC documentary on real cowboys, those guys who spent most of their time on horseback on the range, and one of the questions the interviewer asked them was how they thought of their horses and the general consensus was that while on the range they thought of their horses as their best friends because they trusted the horses natural ability to sense danger.

What Do You Think ?


Looking forward to Spring it should only be ?? weeks away

Steve

This Morning Brings............

A horse whose left knee really seems to be handling the release from stall rest and lack of hand walking fairly well...........Last night found her resting herself within the open stall after dinner and the same this morning. I believe she enjoys the comfort of her stall now that she has the freedom to roam if she so chooses. Her left knee really doesn't look any different. I see while she was eating, she had brought that left rear a bit forward. My guess is that she may be a little sore after yesterday's initial escapades and is now self regulating her movement. Smart horse. I do not see an increase in swelling, which makes me happy........I think we're actually heading in the right direction. I will blow off any trimming of hooves until the end of February, which I know is a long time to go, however, I do not want to stress this any more than necessary.....We can always fix feet.........

What A Disaster............I Hope Not!

Well, this afternoon, I decided to separate Kola from Misty and take her for her first hand walk in the deep snow paddock.........It started out OK, I say that with apprehension. She had to sniff out poops and take me for a stroll around the paddock. I decided to unclasp her after a few minutes and let her do her exploring..........MISTAKE! She decided that it would be great fun to run and buck. She just missed my head at the first buck! No amount of "QUIT!" & "WHOA!" was stopping her from barrelling through the small paddock of snow and of course the dipstick slipped and fell, but quickly stood up. All the time, Kola decided to race her up and down the fence line. Idiots! I did catch her, no limp at this time and re-stall her, threw in some hay to distract her as she did not want to go in. All this in a matter of ten minutes. Initially looking at her knee has shown no changes. I will look in a few hours and see if she re-injured herself. I figure it one way, if she didn't feel up to the insanity, she wouldn't have done it. And her actions the last couple of days, tells me she is ready to get out of the stall.........Of course my hopes were at a much slower pace............Good Grief!


This one, Miss Kola was clearly an ass this morning at breakfast. She did not receive her breakfast until she stood still for it!

Mina, Miss fatty, is now on a strict diet, hence the food and the unit of measurement that goes wit it. She is NOT pleased about it, but we had finally discovered that after thinking she really wasn't eating that much that she was sneaking food late at night that the other's had left behind. So everybody, dog that is will now be fed separately with their own food type. Hopefully, in a couple of months, we'll see some progress............

She looks like a beached Manatee right now.........

This was Misty's knee as of last night.........I guess we'll see what tonight brings us.........I'm praying that she's OK and didn't screw it up again........Nut case!

FYI..............

First..........I want to start by Thanking All who read my blog and to anyone who chooses to leave a comment....... BUT...............If you are simply visiting to push what your selling, I will delete that comment, in the end. I've let a few slip by for now. I do not go to other people's blogs and leave a link to my blog or anything I may be selling and expect that of others. NOW, In saying that an informative link to the relevance of the blog post is always welcome. I instead prefer to exchange links, link to me, I'll link to you. It is just common courtesy. Thanks!

Today's Winter Storm Brings.............

Kola's usual dinner time or anytime "feeding" antics, which brings me great enjoyment making her wait...............

Besides of which, it gives a bit of exercise prior to her stuffing her face.......Which she needs....... She is such a dork! My animals aren't spoiled at all are they...........

This evening's shot of Misty's knee.........Left knee, still looking pretty good at this point. And I can tell by her actions within the stall, she is getting ready to be done with it. Next week, we'll start hand walking..........

The winter storm has also brought out dozens of birds to the feeders. I mean dozens. This is one of the two female Cardinals at the feeder. Stephen has named Mrs.Special.

The male Cardinal was there this evening as well. Stephen has named him Mr.Special. We believe he has his own harem going on as we have seen at 2 females and only one male. Even the Blue jay was there this evening. Stephen has named the Blue jay, Mr.Angry.

The bazillion year old Christmas cactus continues to bloom like crazy.

On a "Bad" Note, a very bad note. Stephen was approved back in September for his green card. We were told to wait, it will be here. I spoke to our attorneys back in the end of November, asking we need to do any further inquiry as it hasn't shown up yet. We were advised to wait until January. So, today, after hours of to put it plainly, bullshit, I was able to speak to an actual human at Immigration to inquire about this situation, which should no longer be a situation. Mind you we have spent 3 grand on an Immigration specialist attorney out of Chicago. And low and behold, they do not have this approval in the computer system........Marvelous! Can ANYBODY, I mean anybody in the government do their f-ing job???????????? This lady was kind enough to fire off an email to the Milwaukee office explaining situation and asking why this hasn't been pursued. I called our attorney and we will give Immigration until Monday to respond to me and then we fork out another 500 bucks for the attorney to start pressing buttons. All the while, our British family wants to know our itinerary.........which we cannot give until we have this in hand.......... Honestly, I have never in my life been more pissed and frustrated! I had to jump through hoops to get vacation time for this. We have forked out literally thousands of dollars and pay a lot of tax money and this is what we get in return...........Nothing............

Ready For Another Blast Of Snow...........

Well, We're due for another blast of Winter Storm coming our way......... Kola is taking "dinner" very seriously tonight as they had breakfast earlier than normal this morning.

Misty says, "What? I'm eating and ready to get the hell out of solitary!"

Knee is still looking better even after yesterday evening's "Spook!" when I accidentally clanged a bucket which sent Kola flying , which then sent Misty sliding in the stall to one side. Thought I may have left her re-injured, but 24 hours later we have NO increase in swelling. Just the same ole healing knee! Yay!

The three amigos posing together, thinking they may get a little extra food, NOT!

And the weirdest dog ever!

Back To Horsey Post..............

That begins with the neediest puppy this morning.............. Isn't that the most pitiful face you've ever seen.

And a reason to celebrate! This is the first time that I have gazed upon a pretty normal looking knee. Pardon my camera angle, but I assure you up close, this knee is looking great!

I am so excited about this. The plan is at least two more weeks of stall rest and then perhaps a slow intro to walking and then just the small paddock in which to stretch.

Fresh water today for the girls, and a delivery of hay. I'm weaning Kola off her Levothyroxine slowly and even without upping their winter hay, she still has plenty of weight to keep her warm, fatso!

Twittering without spending time and effort

Ok

Two Posts in One day , promise I will not post for a while and hand back to my darling Callie who will tell you all about the girls and how spoiled they are.

How to publish your work on Twitter without spending even more time doing something your not sure will help

Ok I am not sure how many of you have come across something called Feedburner , most of you more than likely have not , but it has just added a little extra that makes it worth checking out.

As usual I try to suggest things that do not involve money none of these do

Feedburner ( What Is It )

Basically it takes your blog posts and allows you to display them nicely on other websites etc. I have used it for a few years to display my Born This Day, This Day In History and Daily History Trivia Question on The People History and For others to Publish for example on Classmates and Classcreator plus many other sites.

So what you say ?

Well over the last few weeks Feedburner ( Socialize )and Google ( Shortened URL's )have added a couple of nice extras which mean when you create a blog post the first few words of it and a link to your post will show up on Twitter automatically without further work from you.

Step 1 create Twitter account ( easy enough try to make it similar to your blog name )
Step 2 Create Feedburner account and add your rss feed into Feedburner ( Do not redirect I don't )

Step 3 Choose Publicize Tab then socialize link and just link your twitter account to your feedburner account and for the future all your blog posts will appear on your twitter account

Cost 000000000000000

Time about 1hr in total

Here is a link to my People History twitter account to give you an idea

People History Twitter Account

as you can see I have a few hundred tweets without having to log in and create them

Have a try you can join the twitter revolution without doing anything more than telling other twitterers about your latest post

Steve

Once again
Very Happy New Year To You All and the next few dozen posts will be Callie talking with photos about the horses (the girls ), Goats (the boys), the dogs, the cats and of course wonderful photos of Wisconsin Snow and cold

Help Creating A Website

Happy New Year To All.

As many of you may know I earn my living from the Internet and because of a new project I am working on Fairs and Fun Days Out I realized how daunting it is for those not fully conversant with HTML, Hosting, FTP ETC. ETC. and all that Jazz to think about creating thier own website.

The reason I discovered this was talking to some of the 8 out of 10 organizers of events who did not create a website to go with their event because they were worried about the technology and cost. Being honest It can range from many hundreds to many thousands of dollars to get a company to do it and the gobble de cook scares the pants of doing it themselves.

So I spent a few hours looking around at options that do not cost a fortune and make it easier to create a website, the best option I came up with was Google Sites.
Here is a sample site I created in couple of hours Example Basic Web Site Using Google Sites

PS If any of you would like an invite to play with that site and try editing let me know , You can't do much damage and if it will help you be more comfortable your welcome.

There are a number of advantages to this

1. Organizing your pages and information is simple ( sort of once you get the hang of it ) I would advise thinking about what and how you want your site to be organised first even if it is just on paper.

3. You can invite friends to help work on the website

4. Adding information to a page is similar to using a word processor

5. You can buy a proper domain for $10.00 a year and redirect your Google site to the domain and that is all it will cost you except time learning.

6. You can create a page about something and update and increase the information on the page over time, so you might create a page all about horses teeth , what to look for, photographs of good or bad teeth but the great thing is you can work on it over time and add something couple of years later.

7. You can place your own advertising on your website

IS IT AS GOOD AS Paying someone to host, create and manage a website for you NO but it can be a good way to get started.

The one thing I have noticed over the last few years posting occasionally on Callies Blog is how much Horse knowledge and information many of our readers have.

Blogs are good to post fun stuff and updates but not great to create an information website and because it seems scary and expensive, I have noticed few Horse Bloggers bother to create websites to share their knowledge.

A few basic points about Blogs in General

1. Blogs are not very Search Engine Friendly

2. Blogs are not easy to organize for visitors to find Information

3. It is hard to move a blog to a real web address E.G. www.horsesinformation.com because if you use anything other than basic blog template it does not work.

Sorry I did not create a Horse related site as an example but it is the same principle as the site I created except named and organised round horses.

The other beauty of this is it costs nothing to have a go and if it works for you could open up a whole new world of opportunities

Steve