Blogging With a Purpose

Last week, L.A. Mitchell bestowed upon me the Blogging With a Purpose award !

THANK YOU! :)

I'm always delighted to hear from someone who gets any good out of my ramblings and was tickled to get this bit of recognition.

The original rules(which she says she loosely altered) 1. Nominate 5 blogs which haven't had this award before 2. Each of the blogs must have a purpose 3. The nominated blogs must make a link back to this page 4. The logo from the award must be put on their blog and it must link back to this blog. ...I'm going alter as well, not 'alter' really, but I'm only going to follow #s 1 and 2.

I have to admit I've been working on this for a couple of days now. :( We've been busy here...

But I'd like to name some blogs that I frequent. It's hard to pick just five, but I'll try. And these are not in any order. I have too many 'must reads' to have any real favorites, so I'm trying to pick a variety.

First, I'll plug the Hero Rats. We have pet rats, and they are sweet as can be. Now I know that a lot of people who haven't been around them, just can't imagine what great pets they are, but they really are wonderful. They're loving and very playful. And clean. They clean themselves all the time, like little cats. Back to the Hero Rats. This is an organization that uses trained rats to demine at-risk areas. They sniff out the buried explosives and they are light enough they don't trigger the mines when they find them. They are also using trained sniffer rats to identify positive TB samples. One rat can test as many samples in ten minutes as a human technician can test in an entire day. They're amazing little animals. If you've never been around them, spend a few minutes checking these two links and give them a chance to win your heart.

Next, I'm going to give you a couple of places I 'hang out', just because they are interesting people. Val is a cancer survivor, a vet, a horseman, not to mention a mom and a long list of other stuff - and she's an interesting person. As is Leah. Leah is one of my long-time crit partners and I have the greatest admiration for how she keeps writing though all of life's travails. She's an endless source of inspiration and support for me when life gets me down and my writing slacks off. She always gives me a hug or a slap - whichever is needed. :)

An Arabian horse blog that I follow, Daughter of the Wind, and a website that has not just modern show and race horses, and the ever elusive Pure Desert Horse.

oops. That's more than five already - ok, I'll stop there, but I'm not taking one of those down.

Time Warp!?!

I can't believe how fast the month of August has flown by. I never intended to be a prolific blogger, but I did intend to be regular. I could claim that I've been on vacation!?, but the truth simply is that I've been pulling in a lot of different directions with all that we've had going on here, both good and bad.

First, I have to brag. My brother took this shot of my foals while he was playing around with some new filters on his 'toy'. I thought it very well captured my Bedouin Horses in Texas in a wonderfully surreal kind of way.


Otherwise, in short order - a new truck to pull the trailer I got last year. This is quite a step up for me as I've been driving an '83 Chevy, which I love, BUT, it's done more than it's share and while it's still strong, it's ready for a retirement home with someone who will baby it instead of running it all over the state.





We lost our beloved, snuggly, old-man rat, Loki, (who was so warm and wonderful to take a rat nap with) and so ...
Tiri, and now also,

Elizabeth, have joined our family.





Ratties are one of those things that are a little hard to explain to people who haven't experienced them. They're incredibly sweet and loving and always willing to help out around the house. They're especially good with paperwork and like to help with the schoolwork and the filing, although I have to admit that while Tiri is very efficient at getting the desk cleared, it's a little hard to find anything again since alphabetizing isn't her strong point!





We have a pipeline going in along our back fence, (no pictures of that, it's just ugly. Imagine a dirt highway where there used to be native cover.) complicated, of course, by the crossfencing and horses. AND have started building our new house. I had some cute pics of the kids driving the heavy machinery, but I didn't find them easily.





Horses ~ of course, lots going on, as usual.

Glamdrings brown recluse bite: YUCK! This is about six or eight weeks old, after it was healing nicely and after he ripped his stitches out three times and then ripped out the staples. It was closing up and healing, but he won't quit rubbing it on the fence and he's ripped it in new and improved ways, so it's back to the vet for him, where he's spending another week or so in a comfy stall with the vet techs ooo'ing and ahh'ing over him several times a day and giving him the pampering and scritches he so dearly loves. I've tried to cuss him in a gentler tone during the twice daily treatments he was getting at home, but I'm not very good at pampering when he has the medication rubbed on the fence before I can get out the gate. grrrrr..... Of course, he's for sale *head in hands* and this bite comes at the worst possible moment, he's been with an eventer for dressage and jumping and has been coming along really well - and we were just about to get some video and update his listings and - I know, I know ... it's back to Ye Olde Booke Of Horsekheepers, (transcribed, of course, by the Ignoble Gertrudick c. 1429 from the ramblings of an aged captain of the guard) :: Chapter XXII Yea, It Be that Badde, section VIVALaXIII On Other Matters of Weaknesses of the Flesh and Selling...//snipped//Yea, though thee train and toil and scramble for success in the arena and on the trail, and Yea, though thee seem to have that success within thy grasp - it is but the light of the train barreling headlong through the darkness of the tunnel toward you. Knowest thou that the horse that thoust toilest most with, with dreams of fortune, shall be the one that shall suffer untold bizarre and inane trauma and set thyst dreams back of their furry-coated asses and send them screaming into the night.

*ahem* ... moving along.

AAS SHAHIN SHAHIL has been picked up and is out on a breeding lease and ASF VANIAH was picked in the same week, going as a second family horse and possibly to be bred.

The weanlings, AELFLEAH 'Yoda' and Little 'Blue' have gone home, as well as the black TB mare, Shadow (also for sale, and, I might add, unhurt!) that I was riding in exchange for GLAMDRING's training, so my barn is feeling a little empty right now - which is sad, because I really love playing with the babies, kinda nice each evening at feeding time.



and ... um... LOL! ...isn't that enough!?! I'll save the rest for another post! That's not cheating is it?
.
.