Me and my Pony…

Posted on by February 21, 2012

Jessy was happy to take some pictures of my little pony boy today in the warm winter sunshine!  It’s hard to take pictures of him by myself because the little wort gets so close and is so interested in the camera when I have it!  We were out playing with the sheep and Cody today, as it was a little too cold to do too much work, but we just needed to soak up some of that lovely sunshine!!!

 

He has the prettiest eyes, all lovely brown and gentle. I like that he’s getting a little brown highlights in his forelock! I wonder if he’s sneaking off to Bo-Rics or something to get that done!

We play a few little pony games… this one is called “Let me see your head…” haha…. I fuss with his hair and push it over to the side all pretty so I can see his lovely forehead and eyes. And he… resets it.

I think he kind of has a sort of 80’s Rod Stewart rock pony look going on! I love that he’s sticking his tongue out as well. Naa naa naaaaa naa nah!

I love that he loves to be hugged. He really doesn’t seem to mind. In fact, he’s pretty affectionate for a little old man. Sometimes he will be a little crabby and will act uninterested, but then if you ignore him a moment or two, he’s right there at your arm, nudging and rubbing and will even nicker at you if you resist his devilish charm too long. It’s hard to not want to give him some loving. He’s really like a big old dog.
Another game we play is called “get my ear”. Now, he’s not the happiest if you are messing with his ears, like fixing his halter or trying to comb around them, that sort of thing, but this is totally different. He WANTS you to try and get his ears. He will stand there for an hour and play the game. He ducks and weaves and head bobs and all, but won’t leave. If he was really annoyed, he would leave. Haha. And the funny part is that he’s very good at keeping his ears from your reach. But once you stop, he’s right back in your face teasing you to try again.

He likes it best when you start laughing and will shake his head and nudge you to try again. He really is good at dipping and bobbing and staying away from your pinchy fingers. Rules of the game are that you can’t move your feet. Neither of us. You start moving your feet and the games over. haha. We probably look like a pair of total goofs.

But, hey, pony love is a very wonderful thing.

What I love is that sure, he loves a pony cookie or a carrot, and will gladly accept those treats, he will come running if I call his name and don’t even have anything for him. And he’s cool with it. He likes the attention of any touching and talking. He will follow us all over the yard when we’re working or just walking through. He will come to the fence when I pull up from errands and whinny. He likes to stand and look in the kitchen window when I’m cooking. I think that is so wonderful. All my life I have wanted an equine in my life. When I was younger, it was a horse to ride and love. Never happened. Now, having this little rascal in my life, it’s just like perfection to me. I love everything about him. I even love the smell of his stall! The earthy smells of horse and straw and hay… yeah, even the exit end materials! They don’t smell bad, they smell like EQUINE… and to a horse crazy girl that’s pushing 50? It’s the best smell in the WORLD. And the fact that Cody has bonded so nicely and easily and really desires my companionship, wow, that just rocks my world! I can’t wait for the warmer weather so I can be outside more and more and hang with my little buddy. I really hope that I can find him a friend soon. I know that he might transfer some of his attention and affection to his pal, and that’s okay. But I hope that he will instead tell his new buddy all about his human woman and that they can both share me! That would be pure bliss!!!

Just think of all the pony games I can play with two ponies!!!! Yeah!

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Week One… Our Spending.

Posted on by February 19, 2012

I’d like to get a REAL handle on our spending. And learn to build a decent budget for us with our new home and lifestyle. There are times when I feel like we are just leaking money! We don’t have a ton incoming, but enough, but as I have been making some changes, like getting rid of our storage unit and reducing company web site costs and such, I’m beginning to wonder… what else might we be able to whittle away?

Every budget/money saving guru seems to think that you need to have a GOOD REALISTIC look at what you are spending NOW. It’s so easy to think of the big things… rent, insurance, electric, etc., and build a budget from that and then find you’re out of money after the first two weeks. Because you forgot to add in all the little things… that add up!

Hmmm… first week of my “learn our budget and what we spend” lesson. I saved EVERY single receipt that we spent for the household. We made 16 purchases totaling $376. (I rounded up to make it easy) I was sort of shocked to realize that EVERY visit I made to a point of purchase was costing us on average… $24 bucks!!! Yikes! (part of my brain said, stop going places. haha…)

Of that… 10% went for heating/kerosene. 14% went to gas for the car. Fast food/food out was only 4%. Animals were 12%. Household/food was 32% And extras was 27%. Interesting.

Now, extras were 4 purchases. One was a new bedspread/quilt for me. $40. I’ve been looking for one for a long time and finally found one. My old one was just in shreds, falling apart. I’ve had it over 10 years, daily use. So, that was kind of a good extra. I got a cheese stock pot for $10, and a pair of wool carding tools on Ebay for $30 (normally $70!) And last but least, haircuts… $22.

Now, the last time I went and got my hair cut was about oh 6 months ago. And that included a tip and a deep conditioning wash. We have very hard water and I’ve found that my favorite hair place, they have this treatment that they do that really really works well to deep clean and condition my poor damaged hair! (Look at me, making excuses for spending $20 on myself, twice a year. Hey, it was Valentine’s Day! It was my gift to me from me… pretty pathetic, I know. But it did make me feel happy.)

I suppose, in hindsight, I really didn’t need the wool hand carders. But they were such a great deal… the first pair I bought a while back were $70 plus shipping! These were $30 free shipping. And with seven sheep to process, I think we’re gonna need more than one person working the wool!!!

It’s so sad to see a grown woman making excuses for spending, now isn’t it? But then, that’s what this lesson is all about. REALITY. Not some fake paper budget that really isn’t real.

Really a little more “extras” then normal, but well, I decided that I would not try and fake our budget and spending just for the lesson. I will be as normal as I can. I think a lot of people THINK they can make a budget, but don’t really have an idea on how much little purchases they make here and there that add up. Now, we didn’t have any bills in this week, so that will change things some for the next couple weeks.

I hope to do this for 6 weeks or more. It’s very interesting….

I thought the animals cost would be higher… that 12% was for ALL the animals… pets and farm. And right now, is a higher cost time, since all the hoof animals are on hay and feed, since the grass is pretty much non-nutritional. And the chickens are getting full feed instead of free ranging bugs and grass and such like they do about 3/4 of the year.

Now, the household/food cost was kind of around what I would have guessed. I thought it was around $100 a week, and it was like $121. I went through all the receipts and just looked through it all, and about $30 was hardware/farm related. We had to build new floor platforms for the bunny hutch, since the old ones were not handling the weight of the three bunnies on the top level. Design adjustment. So, I guess, maybe I should have pushed that into the animal cost, but I didn’t want to start itemizing every receipt and such. We got the materials as we were also buying food and paper stuff and all that. It’s not a real regular cost and I imagine that next week, the household category will probably be a good deal less. Like I said, I’m not going to take hours and hours to itemize every single item, and I’m going to try and spend as normally as I might have last week or last month, etc.

If i had to guess, I would have said that we spend about $200 a week. But just based on this week, it’s nearly double that! It’s a big eye opener for sure. In a way, can’t wait to see what the next couple weeks bring. I wonder what surprises might lurk around the corner for us! Hope this might inspire you to try and do this as well. I think you’ll be surprised! If you’re anything like us, what you think and what is really the case is not quite on the same page, it seems!!!

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Seed Starting…

Posted on by February 16, 2012

It’s dreadful… but I must admit, I’m a seed starter dunce. I try EVERY year! And I usually end up spending countless hours and expense and I’ll just get a few plants to start. Half the time, the stuff I just plant straight into my beds does way better than the little victims I try to coax out early.

It seems I have several big issues when I do this.

1.) Nasty little pets. Usually it’s the kitties and then there was the big ferret devastation of 2009. (I still have post traumatic garden syndrome issues with that… oh the horror!!!) Once the puppy knocked a whole flat over. I suppose that now that we have much more room, I can cage off my little precious darlings… hmmm….

2.) Lack of good warm sunny spot to keep them all. The old farmhouse has a lot of nice southern windows and a warm area in the big office… I’m thinking, maybe? Maybe?

3.) Bad watering/starting containers. I always try to do the little expando peat net things and then move them to bigger pots and then move them again… shesh… way too much effort. And I think I stunt them and mess more up than I start. This time I’m going to start everything in the umpteen hundred pop bottles we’ve been saving. They call them ghetto greenhouses, but I think they would work way better. You take a 2 liter clear pop bottle, cut off the top pretty high up, fill it with good soil/seed starter/mix and plant your seeds. Water nicely at the beginning and then slip the cut off top back on and taper’ up. Set in a nice warm sunny local and wait. Take the screw top off so it gets a little air.

I’m thinking…. er… I’m HOPING that this will work nicely. Then just leave the little dudes alone. No transplanting and moving, the pop bottle will have a good 6 or 8 inches of soil in them. When they reach the top of the inside, it’s time to remove it and let them keep growing. Turn them around some so they don’t get too spindly and leaning towards the window. Take out into the screen porch when it starts to get a little more tolerable during the day.

I’m thinking that I could fit quite a few pop bottle starters into a sturdy cardboard box. That way they would be easy to move around. And I think I could build a CAGE around it, with these black wire panels that we have for the rabbit exercise cages, or Edward’s old cage… yeah… then the little kitties would not mess them up.

Oh, it’s a sickness. I hope and pray every year I’ll figure out a good system that works and I get a nice jump start on my garden! We’ll see…

Does anyone do this successfully and want to share some of their secret tips???? PLEASE HELP ME! (haha…) Leave a comment, share your good tips! Thanks!!!

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