The Stupid Things We Say...

And how love overcomes. Sometimes, I say stupid things. I use sometimes here in a very strict manner. After all, it's probably less "sometimes" and more "every time I open my mouth". We won't go there...or we will. Working Man occasionally says something silly...but not very often. Darn him.

Anyway, we'll start with just one of mine.

Working Man: "After all, I know when we're old, you'll appreciate a 25 year old man's body but you won't act on it."
Me: "I doubt that."
Working Man: "So you will act on it?"
Me: *Back-peddles*

And now for his...

Working Man: "Love doesn't care what you look like, especially ours."
Me: "Are you saying I'm ugly?"
WM: *Back-peddles*

So you see, we all stick our feet in our mouths from time to time. Love is knowing what your spouse *probably* meant to say (after all, when do we REALLY know what our spouse is trying to say? When have men ever understood women, or women understood men? I digress...) and ignoring that what they meant is not what they said...or vice versa. Works either way.

Love is falling in the hole from time to time, digging it deeper with our feet moving so fast to back-peddle and our spouses giving us a hand, and not a shovel.

Thank you Working Man, for understanding that I really don't know how to speak but that I do know how to think appropriately. And I hope that I really am able to think out what you MEANT to say in your statement...like you know what I meant in mine...right? Right?

ILY

FFR

Winter's Changes

Winter brings about a lot of changes on a farm. Out here, we see a fair amount of rain and with the first rain, we end up changing a lot.


The horses don't beg for food any differently.

We don't feed any less.

The mule doesn't push us around any harder.

Try as we might, we can't push the mule any harder either.

But did you notice those fancy duds Working Man has on? Those are Mucks and they are pretty much the best pair of shoes for during the winter. They can't be beat, except by the slip ons you put on after you take the Mucks off.

Then of course, there's the added hassle of the jacket and the mess it brings...The boys start shedding their clothing outside because me and MIL J will not have something this filthy coming in the house.

Then there's the eggs...you can't see in the bucket, but with the rain, comes filthy eggs. We have to wash them and scrub them, instead of just rinsing a few of them off.

In spite of all the changes winter brings, I sure do love it!

FFR

The Moon

Have you ever noticed how incredibly hard it is to get good pictures of the moon when clouds are in the mix? The very notion of pictures of the moon takes long shutter times...when we have these moving things like clouds, the delicate dance between long shutter times and low exposure begins. Here's a few decent ones I managed to get.

This one, I really really like.

It's not great...but they're decent. So I'll share them with you.

FFR

Cousin F's son, F, comes to visit

Remember Cousing F's son? How cute he was? It was probably a month ago when I did a post about him. Well, he came to visit and we turned him into a cowboy. I use "we" loosely here. I was not actually home at the time, I was working (remember that? With the irate customer?). All of these pictures are courtesy of Working Man, all I had to do was edit them.

I know you can't really see him here, but I like this silhouetted look.


Oh gosh, my heart be still.


What a ham!


He's going to totally be a heart breaker.


F and Uncle R, his grandpa.


Then, together with his Aunt, K. Not be confused with Sister K. This is Cousin K.


Cousin K and F.


Into the trees!




Hey kid, you can stop whenever now. A special shout to the best horse in the world, Yuma. He taught me, my friends, and now my friends' kids how to ride.


Now, someone teach this cowboy that he is never supposed to remove his hat.

FFR

Protection

As some of you may know, I work at a veterinary hospital. On the whole, it's a low risk, high emotion job. Tonight, it was not as low risk as other nights. We had a particularly irate customer who actually frightened me quite a bit. I do not work alone, not at any time, there are always people there and we have a panic button just in case. Never at any point did I feel like I was going to be in any real danger, but I was shaken.

I left work and all I wanted to do was go home and crawl into Working Man's arms. While my job is low risk, his job is not. He works in one of the most dangerous cities in the country and he handles himself through so much worse. I know he would protect me from anything. On my way home, I was thinking how nice it would have been for Working Man to have been working with me. I would have never felt frightened or shaken...

But then I thought about it. Chances are, Working Man would jump in to protect at the slightest hint of anything against me. Thus, no one would want to come to our hospital. So on second thought, I don't want Working Man to work with me...but I am definitely extremely glad for his capable arms at home for comfort and protection when needed. I love you Working Man!

You're my best friend, Love, and I will always be glad to come home to you no matter whether my day was amazing or terrible.

FFR

Two reasons you don't drink from the hose around here...

First off, this is not all about the hoses. Mostly, I just have a bunch of pictures of Rocky that I want to show you. It just so happens that a couple of these correspond with why you don't drink out of our hoses around here.

Reason 1: Self-explanatory

Reason 2: Also self-explanatory

Reason 3: I gave Rocky a bath, he also got a sheath cleaning...with the hose. For those of you who don't know what that is...let's just say boys get dirty places girls do not. After the bath, I bribed Rocky with a flake of hay to keep from rolling so I could get at least one picture.

Rocky likes a good grooming, can you tell?

And now, my final note of randomness. Rocky is a good luck attractant:

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to wash my hands for the twentieth time. They still smell like sheath.

FFR

Henry the Jumper

Henry's so tall, he didn't really have to jump. He just decided to step over them. Rocky isn't that lucky...he has to jump them. I think Rocky now resents Henry for being so tall.

For a big lug, he's very dainty with his feet. I expected this, he is a mule after all, but still, he's massive. Hard to imagine something with dinner plate sized feet as dainty.

FFR

Matt and Henry

Matt and I finally got a chance to ride Henry and Rocky together this last weekend. Henry pulled a lot of the same tricks with him as he did me. It was fun but, as before, Henry is a work out.

All is well and good at the start. Pictures and fun.


He's such a big mule.


He was following along nicely...


Until he didn't want to anymore. Bye Henry.

To be continued...

FFR

Starbucks Date

Tonight was an awesome night. Working Man and I took an impromptu Starbuck's date. We grabbed our Bible and took off. I don't know for how long we sat there...but I would guess an hour or two. It was so...relaxing. I'm thinking...we need to do this more often.

Some photos for your pleasure...you know, if you like crappy phone pictures.

The best man in the whole wide world.


The best book in the whole wide world.


...and me.

With the requisite flip flops of course. I highly recommend this type of date for anyone who just wants to relax. The bonus of going to Starbucks (or just about any coffee shop) is that you can sit after you've ordered and no one is going to bug you for refills, appetizers, desserts etc. How nice is that?

On a side note, I got to work an early shift today at work and my hubby went to a pig roast and brought me home a huge plate of food. I'm now rolling everywhere I want to go. At least, until tomorrow when I find some way to get up and work some of that food off. Thank you honey! I love you oodles and oodles of noodles!

FFR

My Rat Terrier

I don't have a real rat terrier. In fact, up until recently, my dog had nothing to do with rats. Now, however, Lucy has turned into a rat terrier. She has become very intent on hunting down the rats. The evil, eat all of our grain, scare the bejeezus out of my MIL, rats.

And because Lucy has taken up this new hobby, Lucy is now a family favorite, especially by my MIL.

We love our Lucy dog.

FFR

A Guide to Henry in the Who's Riding Who HandbookLadi

Ladies and Gents, I present a new segment of my blogging development...The Who's Riding Who Handbook. I put a lot of thought into this. It took about...10...minutes to decide to do this. Yeah, I know. Hard to believe it took so long. Anyway, here it is.

A Guide to Henry

The Who's Riding Who Handbook

Rule #1: What Henry wants to do, Henry is going to do.

This is pretty obvious. 1200lb Henry, 180lb you...Do the math. You lose.

Rule #2: Do not force Henry to do ANYTHING.

See rule #1 and its reason. Again, you lose. Henry does not get forced to do anything...and if you try...well, we'll get to that.

Rule #3: If you try to force Henry to do something, you will be racing towards the destination of HIS choice.

See Rule #1 and Rule #2. Henry does not get forced to do anything. When you try, you end up running, yes running, through anything (including trees) back to where it is HE wanted to go.

Rule #4: Henry does not go out alone.

Henry will not go out alone. If he does, it's only as far as he wants to. See Rule #1. Then you come home...quickly. See Rule #3.

Rule #5: Do not use your heels on Henry.

Heels are like forcing him to do something. See Rule #2. Legs, however, are perfectly acceptable. This is more like urging.

Rule #6: If Henry runs off with you...Stay on.

There's really nothing you can do except wait for him to stop. The more you pull, the farther he goes. Just stay on and ride it out...and watch out for the trees. He will take you through them. Why on Earth did you try to force him to do something?

Rule #7: All movements should be very light on his mouth.

If you're trying to turn, stop, or lead Henry, keep all of your movements and pulling to a minimum. Start out as gentle as possible, then increase your pressure slowly until he does what he's asked. If you go too fast...See Rule #3 and Rule #6.

Rule #8: If rule #7 fails...

Henry won't always do what he's asked just because you urged him to. The best thing to do is to wrap a single rein around the horn and tug until his body finally turns where you want him to. Immediately release. Urge forward with your legs ONLY. This is the only way to "force" Henry and it doesn't always work.

Rule #9: Henry learns fast.

If you do this enough and do it right, Henry will do what you ask more and more. He will not however tolerate any manhandling. Be prepared for a workout if you do.

Rule #10: Henry is extremely sweet.

Stubborn or not, Henry is incredibly sweet and should be treated as such. There is no getting angry at Henry. Period.

Tomorrow, the guide to Rocky.

FFR

Never Seen This Before...

I've seen a lot of new things living out here in the country...ish area that we do. But still, I get surprised from time to time. Imagine seeing this while out on the motorcycle!

He got incredibly close to those power lines. That takes some precision!

FFR