Hello Alarm Clock!

The kids both started school yesterday, and while it was an exciting time, none of us looked forward to having to be awakened by the alarm clock. Both kids had a great first day, and I must admit that I did absolutely nothing yesterday except go to the gym.
Look at my little redneck in his Fox t-shirt!


Miss Katie Kate in her classroom.
The day before school started, my hubby and his friend filled up our woodshed, and because men are strangely attracted to firewood, my husband asked that I take a picture of his truck, loaded with wood, and put it on the blog. So here it is honey... just for you! You will now be allowed to sleep back in our bedroom..lol!!! Later that night, after the truck was unloaded, Kevin, his friend, and Eric went grouse/bear hunting, and look what Eric brought back...his first grouse! Kevin proceeded to dissect the poor thing, and its breast is now in my refrigerator (Kev swears that it will taste scrumptious stuffed with dressing or Rice-a-Roni. Feel free to bake that hon!).
Well...I am off to pick up the kids from school. Hope you are all having a good day :)

Award Time Again!!!

So it seems that some people enjoy reading my blog, and I have been bestowed a couple more awards. A few weeks ago (I can't believe how the time has passed!!), Andrea, over at Swamp Suburbia awarded me with the Art Y Pico award. Thank you Andrea! I have added your name to my award on the sidebar.
If you have not already visited her, go wish her well...she lives in Louisiana and is getting ready to head back home after the storm.
My next award, comes from the Jack Daniels drinking, trail riding, weekend-full-of-fun organizing, Pony Cousin...also known as Saddle Mountain Rider. Thank you so much!
This award comes with some rules, and asks that the recipients post them. Here they are:

1. The winner can put the logo on her blog.
2. Link the person from whom you received your award.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Put links of those blogs on your blog.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of those you have nominated.

As you can see from my blogroll, I try to visit several blogs, and I can tell you that they are all great to read. I have also noticed that a lot of you have recently been, or have been in the past, nominated for various awards. That being said, I will not pass this award on to seven other blogs, rather I will encourage you to go and visit the many good blogs that are out there.
Thanks again to Andrea and Saddle Mountain Rider!!!!

Warning...

...Warning: the first part of my post is not horse or blog related at all, so you may want to skip down a bit, or you may want to read it anyway. They say that writing/journaling is good for the soul, and I have to agree...sometimes. When there is an issue that is really bugging me, putting it down on paper helps me to think more clearly, and then I can usually come up with a solution. Blogs, however, are not always that "place" for me, because you never know who is reading them. That being said, I am going to write about something anyway. I get really tired of "he said, she said" talk, and I feel that if someone has something that they need to clear up, they should come to the source-me!- and address it. It has come to my attention, that some minor things that I said about someone (a member of my family), were somehow turned around and used to cause harm, not left alone as they should have been. That is really all that I can say, without prying, investigating, and most likely causing more of a scene. To the people who were hurt by what I thought was an innocent conversation, I am sorry. I honestly had no idea that the other adult involved, was going to take a three minute conversation that we had about you (and maybe she didn't...there were other people there who may have been listening as well), and use it in a spiteful manner. If you want to talk about it, call me.In other news...we have had a crazy, holiday weekend so far. Friday morning, Amber and I loaded the horses up, and trailered to an area that I have not ridden in for 12 years! The trails used to be unmarked, but over the last 10 years (?), the local Back Country Horseman group, has taken over trail maintenance and they are now labeled, and mapped. We had a good ride, although poor Waska was a little under the weather from his vaccines that I had given him the day before.
Friday night was Kevin's cousin, Keith's, 60th birthday party-Happy Birthday Keith!-and we all had a really good time. Lots of food, wine, fun people, and did I say food?
Yesterday, we spent most of the day at Amber's house, because it was Brad's son, Cody's, 10 birthday (more food and drink!). He got a dirt bike, and was so excited. I am a horrible blogger, and I forgot my camera, so I have no pictures from either event :(
Today, we have to attend the annual Labor Day picnic that one of the fireman puts on, so that should be a lot of fun too(yet more food and drink!).
Oh...and Eric took this picture of the horses "behinds" the other day and, really wanted me to put it on the blog, so here it is! He thought that it was really cute. Hmmm....must be a boy thing...lol!!!

Anyway...I hope that you are all having a great weekend, and I promise to have cheerier posts in the future :) I will be spending all of next week in the gym, trying to work off all of the food and drink, that I have ingested over a three day period!

The Lazy Days of Summer...

The lazy days of summer are quickly approaching an end for the members of the Knutson household, although we did not have the best summer weather around here. Last night, the kid's school had an ice cream social/come meet your new teacher/drop off your $100 worth of school supplies, function (school starts for them on 9/2). We already knew that Katie would have Mrs. L, because Eric had her for first and second grade, and I requested that Katie get her also, but Eric's teacher was still a surprise. I had a particular teacher in mind-I heard that she taught similar to Mrs. L-and luckily Eric was placed in her class, along with two of his good pals.

Once they start school, I have one week to get prepared for my classes, so I will have yet more running around to do. I logged on and checked out my text books for this semester, and used, they are going to run me about $550!!!! Can you believe it??!! I can't! Oh well...what can I do? Usually, Amazon.com beats PLU's (my school) used book prices, but not so this semester. I think that college bookstores are figuring out that students can get their text books at a discounted price elsewhere, so they are making their prices more comparable....grrrr...!!!!

Do any of you know recognize the torture..I mean..orthodontic device that is in the picture above? It is known as a rapid palatal expander, and poor Eric has had one in his mouth since last March. It's a nasty little contraption that essentially tears apart your child's upper palate, expanding it to make more room for the adult teeth to fit, and to correct any "bite" problems. When he first had it placed, I had to stick a "key" into the middle area of it, and turn the crank nightly. It was very barbaric, and I had a hard time doing it, but it only had to be done for five weeks, so I managed. Still...knowing that I was spreading his bones apart really grossed me out...and I am a nurse!!!

After five weeks, he had to start wearing headgear, but not the kind that resembles what usually comes to mind when you think of headgear...trust me!!! It has two hooks that fit into his palate expander (in his mouth) and then wraps around his head. He rather looks like a horse with a bit in his mouth and very tight draw reins! Eric says that he now has a new appreciation, and respect, for what horses go through by having bits in their mouths...I say "good!" It will only make him a kinder, gentler horseman. :)

Anywho...Eric did great with the headgear, until the ortho also placed a spacer, another spring-like device that is used to push his permanent molar back into place, thus ridding him of his cross bite. The constant pressure that the spacer exerted on his mouth/tooth/jaw, made the placement of his headgear very painful, and he would literally cry for over an hour. I took him back to the ortho and told her what was going on, because she said that the headgear/spacer combo was essential in getting rid of his cross bite, and she said that Eric needed to toughen up and just deal with it (this makes her sound mean, but she isn't, and she said that some of the little guys, like Eric, just cannot handle the pain and discomfort), and that she would check him again in two weeks to re-assess.

So...Monday was our recheck, and she said that because he continued to refuse to wear the headgear-don't get me wrong...we tried it every night, but he would scream and cry, and I am not going to deliberately torture my child!-Eric was going to have another palate expander made for him, and that I would have to turn it again for at least two weeks. Poor Eric! He said that the key turning was less painful and that he would rather have that than the headgear. The ortho was surprised, and she said that the headgear must have really been pretty painful for him, because most kids prefer the headgear to the key. Do you think???? We are now home, with the new expander in place, and I have already turned the expander once today. Eric has to follow up in two weeks, and then we will see how this new one is working. The lengths our culture goes to for a perfect mouth!! I tell you...

...Which brings me to the Nacirema. Have any of you heard of them? Click on the link, read the article, and let me know what you think...teeheehee!!! I have learned about, and studied this culture in different sociology and anthropology classes.

How It All Began, Part Two...

...Ok, here comes part two of my story. I am sorry that I left you all hanging on for so long, but it is impossible for me to sit down and write a memoir, when my kids are home...fighting...and arguing...and playing...and hungry..all of the time! They are always hungry! I also need to apologize about my ending to part one,because it made it sound like something bad happened while I was away at camp, and nothing did. I need to go back to Writing 101 and learn how to not leave my endings sound like cliff hangers :)

So...I was sent away to camp for one week, and I was not happy about it. My poor mom had to feed Cheyenne small handfuls of hay every hour, and she even fed him throughout the night. She also had to deal with the after effects of his tube worming, and she said that it was not pretty! Upon my return a week later, Cheyenne had made a complete 180 degree turn, and was putting weight on at a rapid pace ( It's amazing what food can do!). Even though Cheyenne began to resemble a horse-with really long legs!-people still thought that my parents were crazy to let me "waste" my money on a half-dead, yearling, colt (I may have called him a gelding in my last story, but he was not gelded until the following March, when he was 1 1/2 years old. We gave him some time to "catch"up).
After about one month, Cheyenne had put on about 75 pounds, but you could still tell that the world had not been kind to him up until now. He was so scrawny, but I just new that he would mature into a big, well rounded horse, because of his Crabbet breeding, his 1/8 QH, and because I knew what his sire, dam, grand sire, and grand dam all looked like: BIG! Still, everyone of my friends, and fellow 4-H members had QH's, and they all just looked at me like I was crazy.

Remember when I said that I was a hopeless romantic, who knew everything there was to know about about Arabian bloodlines and pedigrees? Well I was not about to let my little guy go around with the name of Cheyenne ( it wasn't "Arabian" enough!) so I began the task of picking a new name for him. I still had hopes of being able to register him, but that never happened because in order to be registered as a 1/2 Arab, the sire must be registered, not the dam, and with Cheyenne, it was the other way around (I did contact his sire, Solomon's, owner-she gelded him, and she still has him!-but it was going to cost her about $800 at that point to register him. I offered to pay half-I really wanted to show breed shows too!-but she was unable to come up with the other half. To this day, I still get angry when breeders are irresponsible and do not register their foals. If you cannot afford to do it, you probably shouldn't be breeding them!).

Because I had Cheyenne's pedigree-the lady that I bought him from owned his paternal grand dam, and dam, so she knew his breeding-I played around with several Arabian sounding names that included parts of his heritage, and let me tell you...I came up with some doozies! I ended up combining his grand sire's name, Shabaoud, with his dam's name, Destrier, and came up with Shadest (pronounced "Shuh"dest). At first I threw in part of his granddam' s name-her name was Spirit Anissa-and I called him "Shadest's Gallant Spirit," but after about one week, even I thought that it sounded ridiculous, so "Shadest" he became.
I continued to ride both Pinto and Jewel, but I also spent hours with Shadest. I groomed him, trained him to side-pass, back, pivot, set up for halter and showmanship classes, and basically just fell in love with him. We would go on long walks together, and I even led him along on trail rides (He was one of the easiest horses to ride, because by the time he was old enough to be ridden, he had just about done and seen everything and anything, and I think that all of that experience made him a great little trail horse). He continued to grow, and just like I knew he would, he began to get big. After just one year, he no longer resembled the skinny, scrawny, colt that I brought home...except for his coloring..lol!
There was, however,one nagging reminder of his days as a starving, worm-infested colt...Shadest was prone to colic...something that eventually took his life. The vet said that his digestive tract was irreversibly damaged form his lack of "groceries," and from his lack of being wormed as a foal. So...every fall, Shadest would colic; sometimes multiple times, but we were always able to stay on top of it. Shadest was also very accident prone, and he always had some type of injury on his body, and some, as you will find out later, were life threatening.

To be cont....

Under the Weather....

Hello everyone out there in blogging land! I haven't posted in a while because I have been a little under the weather, and have therefore not been doing much. Those of you who know me, know that I have always had some issues with my back-who doesn't, right!-but they have been on the down low for some time now. However, last week, one of my thoracic vertebrae decided to slip-I believe that is the word that the chiro used!-and it has sent my whole back into rather painful, muscle spasms...not fun! Thankfully it is starting to feel better today, but I woke up with head congestion and body aches...what is up with that??!!!! At least I can take some good old fashioned Sudafed for that! Tylenol, Advil, and a muscle relaxer called Flexeril, have not even touched the pain in my back.

My hubby has magic hands though, and he has been kind enough to give me great massages, which has helped to ease the pain immensely. Thank you honey!

Anyway, because of my back, we have not done a whole lot of anything this week, except for lots of last minute school shopping, because I am a terrible procrastinator...I am still not done with it! Poor Bo, Waska, Amber and my kids. They have all lacked attention from me this week.

On Friday, we did go over to Amber's, took the trailer to get new tires, got a load of hog fuel for the flooring in the horse's shelters, brought the trailer back, washed it, painted any rusty spots on it, and unloaded the hog fuel. Well...the kids and Amber unloaded it. I sat there like a toad and watched!

What could possibly be more fun than riding in the back of a truck full of hog fuel??

Here they all are, getting ready to unload the truck. For those of you who know us, look at Jake's-Amber's 14 year old Aussie-coat. He just had it all shaved off last week, and he now looks like an old, saggy dog. He feels much better though!While Amber pulled forward and backed into the next run, Eric posed for this "Built Ford Tough" shot. That's my little redneck! Complete with Ropers, Wranglers, and a Mack truck t-shirt! My kids are both great little helpers, and Amber says that she cannot wait until Eric is around 16, because then she will hire him to do everything! Hey...wait a minute Amber! I am the one who labored for 38 hours with him, so I should get first dibs on him...heeheehee!!!As previously mentioned, I did not help unload the truck, but I did help wash, prime, and touch-up the trailer. My kids were more than a little bit bummed that I did not feel up to riding, but they settled for grooming and playing with the horses instead.

Don't you just love Katie's pink socks with her brown tennis shoes??? She had been wearing her flip-flops, and didn't want to put her boots on. The hot pink socks make a lovely statement with her plaid capri pants, don't they??

Tomorrow should be our last day of school shopping, orthodontist appointments, dentist appointments etc...and I should continue to feel better, so things are definitely looking up. Hope that all of you have had a nice weekend!

I Love You Bo!

It seems like everyone is nostalgic about their horses these days. Both Swamp Suburbia and Mrs. Mom have been writing about their horses-current and past ones!-and it has made me want to post some vintage photos of Bo and Amber. As some of you know, Amber leased Bo for five years, returned him to his original owner because she wanted him back, and received a phone call-after Bo being gone for five years!-that his owner wanted to give him to Amber because she was moving to Colorado.

There has also been a lot of talk, in horse blogging circles, about how many of us have had a special connection, with either a current horse or a horse from our past, and whether or not we will find that with another horse again. I am not done with my How It All Began story, and I know that I will never have the same level of intimacy-sounds kind of gross, but you know what I mean!-with another horse as I had with Shadest, but Bo and I definitely have something. When Amber previously had Bo, Shadest was still alive, and I had one, then two little kidlets, so I did not pay him a whole lot of attention, but I was the one who convinced Amber to lease him...because I thought that he had a cute personality (Amber thought that he was an ugly example of an Arab, but I told her that she had to look past that).

It was an awful day when Shelby, Bo's old owner, came and picked him up from my parents house five years ago, and I can still see Amber leading him into Shelby's trailer. We were not very happy about him leaving, because we had a feeling that he would just sit and not be used. Over the past five years, we were able to keep tabs on Bo Bo, because an old co-worker of mine lived near him, and drove by his pasture everyday (her daughter is the same age as Shelby, and showed with her for years). Needless to say, our worst fears were realized when she told us that he was out in his old pasture, with about six other horses, no shelter, and was only being fed once a day. Bo had clearly had a rough go of it, as his condition attested to when we got him back in May. Thank goodness he is once again "ours," and this time it is me who has developed a great relationship with him. Don't get me wrong,...Bo still loves Amber, but he is always happy to see me and the kidlets, and lets us know by nickering to us when we drive up to Amber's house. I love Bo Bo, and am glad that the two of us-as old and rusty as we may be!-have been able to return to horsemanship together. I love you Bo Bo!!!

Bo and my kidlets go waaaaay back! Here they are, with Amber, standing at my mom and dad's back door waiting for treats.
Amber used to show Bo all of the time, and at some of the shows, once the performance classes were over, they used to do some gaming for fun. Bo Bo was quite the speed demon in his day-well actually, he still is!-and they usually cleaned up in gaming as well.One year at our county fair, Amber was asked to carry the 4-H flag on Bo. Didn't he look handsome back then?These are old copies from a photographer who took pictures of Amber and Bo at the Washington State Fair. He was always so handsome in his English attire.

Bo Bo looks silly in this one, but I posted it so you can see how un-marred his coat was. If you look at the pictures that I take of him now, he is covered with scars that he received during the past five years. Shelby told us that we would be shocked by his coat when he shed out, because he was involved in an accident on a bridge, while trail riding, and because the other horses in the pasture beat up on him pretty bad. I guess so!!!!

Ohhhh...and did you notice the tail bag??? That is for you Jewel! I told you that we understood the preparation that goes into making a gray Arabians tail look full and white!!! Sooooo...the point of this post was to say that "yes," you can find another equine buddy after having that special one...it's just a little different!