Barnsitting

Barnsitting, like housesitting, but with a lot more work involved. My good friend has gone to the Dressage World Cup Finals in Las Vegas and I stayed home to take care of the horses. Boy, I wish I were in Vegas. They have VIP seats -- 2 rows back from E with free drinks and eats. The best riders in the world eating with them, at the hotel pool with them, and on the streets with them. Wow. I am more jealous than I thought I would be. It is really inspiring to watch these riders and horses. Plus, Las Vegas weather has got to be better than what is happening in the midwest right now.

But I must say that I do love taking care of the horses and barn. It's about the only time I can get out of bed by 6 AM without a problem. I even jog around the yard a bit while I'm feeding. And although my sleep pattern is totally out of whack, I still feel good during the day. Yesterday I had to spend 4 hours at home to take a nap in the morning because I was so behind in sleep, but that's just because I haven't been getting to sleep until 11:30 PM and my dog woke me up several times every night because he was nervous about sleeping at a strange place. He may be a 100 lb. dog, but he is still a big sissy. He loves to be around the horses, though. He is so happy in the mornings to go out and feed with me. He jumps and struts and smiles and plays with everything. It is a great way to start the day.

I look forward to the day we finally have our small farmstead on our 18 acres. Getting up for horses is the best way to get out of bed.

Clinic

Even better! I had a GREAT ride on Jimmy. I'm learning more and more and Jimmy responds to me so well. I can't wait to compete this summer.

Zoe was SUPER!! Her trot floats you along, even as a young, unbalanced, barely backed 3 year old. She was calm and willing the whole time. I tell you, she is going to be a great horse. I hope I can buy her in June. I'm planning on it. I'll try to get some video up here in the next month.

Riding the Young Horse

A wonderful experience yesterday! I rode Zoe for the first time on the lunge. She was an angel. She cared more about trying to rub her face on my friend's shoulder than about me being on her back. The last time I was on her, my friend just walked us around for a few minutes. This time I was out on the lunge and we trotted. It felt much more like a real ride! The fact that she didn't act up, didn't stop, didn't spook and was just calm and collected (though very baby-wobbly) is a good sign! I'm very excited about her.

Not to ignore my main horse, Jimmy.... He's been going very well and I am pleased with our progress. I will start out riding First Level Test 4 and do Second Level Test 1 at our first show out this season, which will probably be in June. If I score well enough on First 1, then I am into Level 2 for sure! I'll have the scores I need in First to qualify for my bronze medal. I'll just need to get two scores over 60% in Second level, and then I am on to third! It's amazing to think about, considering it took me 2 years to get through Training level. By the way, his sinus infection is totally cleared up and he will be off the antibiotics on Sunday. That's good news.

Needless to say, a ton of my time is spent with the horses. My husband isn't that thrilled about that, but he is so supportive and likes to see the progress, too. He is really the most wonderful man I could have married.

Next week the Dog Training Club classes begin again. I'm taking Fred to Agility 1 and Rally-O Intermediate. And I am assisting a Puppy Kindergarten class. That's 2 nights a week that I won't be able to do much with the horses. Mondays I won't even be able to go to the barn. I have until 7:30 PM on Tuesdays to go to the barn and take care of things. It's going to be a challenge with the weather turning so nice! I'll have to take vacation time on Tuesdays so I can leave work early! Whoohoo!

Stinky Snot!

This weekend my horse developed a sinus infection indicated by some rancid smelling nasal discharge from his right nostril. It is quite disgusting. The good news is that it is not infectious to other horses. Bad news is that it could be a long process to rid him of the infection. He is already started on a course of antibiotics and got a shot of penicillin and an IV of antibiotics to start his treatment. !0 more days of giving him 24 pills a day, and hopefully he is better. After reading about equine sinus infections online I worry that he could be on antibiotics for months and end up having surgery to put a drain in for flushing his sinus. Sounds expensive, doesn't it? Check out this article from HorseCity.com, "Clinical signs, diagnosis and treatment of Sinusitis explained" at http://www.horsecity.com/stories/120400/hea_sinisitis_ML.shtml. It even has a picture of what his nose looks like.

Digging Deeper

The new horse. I am about an inch from being a certified crazy horseperson. Yes, that means I have a trial ownership of a three-year old Oldenburg filly. She's a fantastic mover, but her disposition makes her a difficult horse to work with. All of the professional trainers that I have taken her to so far have said she is going to take a lot of time and effort and will be a challenge. Shouldn't that be enough to make you walk away??? Perhaps, but since I am so close to being a certified crazy horseperson those warnings make me want to prove what a great horseperson I really am. I can be the one to make her into that really super dressage horse and everyone will be impressed with my ability to handle and train challenging horses. Well, that's the fantasy anyway. The reality may be more of a frustrating road than I am willing to dream of right now. Anyway, I don't own her yet, so I can still have a fantasy. I'll post pictures and a video clip as soon as I have some.

Everyone Needs Another Horse

I have a chance to buy an untrained 3 year old. I love the way this horse moves and she gets along great with the horse I have now. I've been working with her for about a month. It's not the best time for me to buy a second horse, but as the title points out, everyone needs another horse. I started out very neutral about the horse. I'm worried about the money it will cost to keep her, in addition to the purchase price. On the other hand, she would be a great horse to replace my aging gelding, who turns 19 in March. I would be responsible for her training. That takes a lot of time and patience, not just a lot of money. And I am not ready to retire Jimmy yet.

On top of all of this, my husband and I are about to close on 17.83 acres in a few weeks, so we are putting out a ton of cash for that. I don't really have the cash around to buy this new horse, but I am sure I could scrape it together. It's being able to scrape together the monthly costs that is a bit of a concern. I know it can be done, but do I want to do that? Will my husband silently be mad at me for putting our money to another horse? Silently? Probably not. I did already tell the owner that I didn't think I could afford to buy her. I offered her a lowish price -- she didn't say no, but she didn't accept it either. So I am still working with the horse until March. And I feel myself coming a bit attached to her, and that scares me. I like the idea of owning her. I like the idea of competing with her. I think she would be a great horse. Can she be MY great horse??

A Picture's Worth A Million Words

Hopefully the final post on the infamous pet portrait saga. Finally the substitute photographer called me back. I only had to leave a million voicemails and be as sweet-sounding as I could be to convince her I wasn't out to sue her. Once she called -- leaving a message on my home phone at an hour that I likely wouldn't be available to answer -- she was apologetic and confessed she wanted to do anything to please us. She'd give us another sitting for free. All we wanted was some reprints of another shot that was at least frameable and giftable and to get on with our lives. We weren't about to go for another sitting. No way. We didn't want to do any other business with this person. So now we are waiting the 6 or whatever weeks it takes for her to get reprints done. Supposedly it will be mailed directly to our home. I'm not totally confident that we'll get what we think we will, but all I can do is wait.

Welcome ESLPLANET.COM users

This site is now the destination for eslplanet.com. As a budget measure, we are consolidating sites for better use of our resources.

Portrait Saga Continues

A short update on this saga with the pet portraits. Still after calling almost daily, the photographer has not returned any calls. I talked to a live person once. He said she tried to call me back on Christmas Eve. Who in their right mind would make a business call on Christmas Eve? Furthermore, none of my caller ids on any of my phones indicated a call on Christmas Eve. So now we have a "professional" photographer avoiding a customer and outright lying. This does not bode well for what the final resolution will be here. I get angrier and angrier each day I have to leave another message. I try to be nicer and nicer sounding in my messages so she does not think I will rip her a new one when she finally does call. I just want new prints! Arrgh!

The only positive thing that came out of this was contact with the REAL photographer, who IS a professional, and who has gone out of our way to make up for the circumstances. So on one hand I can still believe that there are decent professionals in the world.

I think my next step will be to complain to the pet store that sponsored the portrait taking. They should be taking more responsibility with this. I shouldn't have to be dealing with this!

New Year

It's the new year! Whoohoo! We've had unbelievable weather since Christmas. It has been 60 degrees Fahrenheit like every day. This is bazarre when you consider the previous week was -15 with windchill, and we should be getting snow on the ground and having ice storms. Why is the weather so messed up??

It has been a great holiday this year. I got 10 days off work, my sister is here from The Netherlands, and it has been all fun times. My in-laws gifted us with a whopping sum of money to help us with the down payment on our 18 acres. I started crying right there. They are such great people. We close on the property in March. In the next weeks we will lock in our interest rate. I hope it is still low.

So, in March we will be farmers. Well, we won't actually be farming, but we will have a real farmer farm for us. Let's hope soybeans do well this year! That will help finance our seeding for pasture and hopefully pay the taxes on the land. In five years we may be able to start building our dream house and barn!

Language Map

Now this is a cool treasure I found on one of my favorite blogs, Pedablogue. Detailed language maps from the Modern Language Association (MLA). As an avid foreign language learner and a former ESL teacher, I thought this was fascinating. Check out the map: http://www.mla.org/resources/census_main
Check out the post I stole this from: http://blogs.setonhill.edu/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1105

Portrait Update

I have some good news on this front. Well, it is partially good news. I sent an email to the photographer that was supposed to take the pet portraits letting her know I was mad at the pet shop and the replacement photographer for not being forthright in telling us the photographer had changed. She emailed back offering a free sitting for us! That was really unexpected and generous on her side. We will definitely take advantage of that offer.

The bad news comes from trying to contact the photographer that took the photos. I left a message with her yesterday, but of course I have not heard anything back from her. I really don't expect to hear anything. Since she wasn't the most professional photography in her style, I don't have expectations that she will handle our dissatisfaction professionally. It's a pain in the butt.

Finding the photographer

I tried calling the replacement photographer again today. This time I at least got an answering machine. I left a message and just when I was about to leave my phone number the recording ends Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep! For a moment I thought someone must have ended it on purpose, I mean it was a complaint so if you can keep them from leaving a phone number you can avoid them. I called back and left my numbers. I will call every day until I hear back from her. It still pisses me off that the dog looks like an evil freak in the picture. If she couldn't fix the red-eye then why did she say she would?!? Argh.

svenmusic.com

A great site with cool art, cool music, and cool things you can buy: http://www.svenmusic.com.

My favorite song on the site is "In this moment I drift". Download it at http://svenmusic.com/haadve.mp3. I love it that you can also buy dog t-shirts, a clock, a mug, etc with the artist's work or signature. Visit now!

Pet Portraits

We were bamboozled by a local pet shop that advertised pet portraits with a well-known, experienced photographer. We of course signed up, showed up, and paid our money. Turns out they replaced the photographer with an inexperienced one at the last moment and didn't bother to tell any clients. It explains the sub-par quality photos we got in return. The only way I found out about the swindle was by calling the original photographer to complain. She filled me in and I contacted the pet shop who only said, "Sorry for the miscommunication, " and gave me a phone number for the replacement photographer. I called the replacement photographer, and what do you know, the number had a voicemail that wasn't set up and you couldn't leave a message. I have a feeling we are out our 2 clams. I hate that we put our trust into businesses and professionals and they let us down. We should have known better and simply walked away without ordering prints we weren't pleased with. But, damn, the photographer said she would fix the red-eye in one of the photos and we get them back to find that the dog looks like a freak! Evil! I wouldn't frame those photos for anything. On the other photos, the lighting was weird, washing us out on one side, and the angles were just not the best choice. She took a lot of them from the top of a ladder. Whatever. Not my taste. So now I am trying to get a hold of the allusive replacement photographer to get our money back. I wonder how successful that will be.

Lili

This place needs a photo, and this is one of the cutest I have on my machine right now. Lilikoi as a day-old foal.

Forever and a Day

It has been forever since we posted something. I would think I could post more than once a year!

Our most recent activity has been painting our basement family room orange. It actually looks great, and with some key furniture and accessories from IKEA, we are looking pretty cool. My sister is coming home for Christmas (she lives in The Netherlands with her husband), so we are trying to make the guest bedroom down there look cool so she wants to stay with us.

Lame Effort to Bring In Technology

We found an interesting Blog that talks about educational technologies today. Visit cogdogblog!

Welcome to the new Techspecialists.