So most of you know from reading my other blog (which I am probably going to abandon being as I own this domain name and the other is a wordpress-owned blog) — anyway — you know that I did a marathon this spring and actually finished. I am thinking about doing another but I have to decide — do the marathon in October or a triathlon in September? Tough decision. I really liked doing the marathon. The triathlon is an open water swim and I really hate to swim, even in a pool. But, I do have a brand new tri bike. But! I have a heck of a time using the new tri bike as I am not used to being clipped in or the aero bars. What to do? What to do? Stay tuned . . . I’ll figure it out. And deadline to register for the tri is today. So I better make up my mind. Maybe both?

I think one of the red hens is getting lazy.

The poor horses! They thought they were getting a whole summer of being blissfully ignored. Never ridden, out to pasture. We ruined their idyllic existence yesterday by taking them out for a ride on one of our favorite trails. This is one thing I like about Fjord horses. They are like elephants. They never forget how to behave when ridden, even when they have had close to a year off. It was old hat to them, and the one I am on is just a baby, only 5 years old. I highly recommend this breed of horse to anyone who wants a good, solid, safe, dependable, sensible mount.

This was my view for most of the day:

Then these two came from behind:

Lots of water crossings. Last year these were dry. This year — up to our horse’s knees!

See this sweet-faced mare my daughter Lula is on? This is my mare. Looks like it is now going to be her mare. Lula has outgrown her pony. Anybody have a young Fjord horse for sale? I need a new mount. I was riding my husband’s horse on this trip.

We made it to the end of the trail!

Once upon a time there was a family that built a log cabin in the woods. They were happy to live in the woods, but missed having an apple orchard and cherry bushes like they did in their old farmhouse. So, the mom of the family called the county extension office because she had heard that they had trees and bushes for sale very cheaply!

And they did! Only 25¢ each! So the mom ordered a bunch of cherry bushes and eagerly awaited their arrival in the spring.

The bushes came, only they were not bushes. They were little sticks. Little one-foot high sticks with tiny bare roots sticking out them. The mom felt very silly, but she dutifully planted the sticks and dutifully watered and babied them through seven years of drought.

The sticks grew little by little, but didn’t do much. They had tiny leaves and every spring they would flower with pretty pink flowers, but alas, no cherries.

Then one year the drought ended. There was a spring of rain! Glorious rain that awakened most every plant in the woods and beyond. However, the mom had forgotten about her cherry bushes. She had given them up as a lost cause.

Then one day one of the children came in from playing on her swing. “Mommy!” she said. “There are cherries on our bushes.”

The mom was skeptical, but decided to go and look to humor her youngster who would not leave her alone. Imagine her surprise when she saw limb after limb of big, fat ripe cherries! There were cherries everywhere!

She quickly set her little daughters to picking cherries. Soon the little daughters were kicking themselves for even mentioning that there were cherries on the bushes. They picked and picked and picked. They fought off birds and bees who also wanted the cherries. Then they sat at the kitchen table and pitted and pitted and pitted.

The mom busied herself making cherry preserves with the fruits of their labors. 30 half-pints of cherry preserves to be exact. The mom was pretty sick of cherries by the time she was done.

The End.

Except — that is the best darn cherry preserves we have ever tasted! Bar none!

I’ve been very blessed the last 10 years to have been able to build a business and work from home. For the most part I really enjoy what I do. I get to be creative which I like, I work on the computer which I enjoy, and there is plenty of wiggle room for procrastination which is my nature. I like to fool around alot until I am under the wire for deadline and then I can really crank out the goods. Most of the time, for some reason, this approach has me producing my best stuff. I can’t really say why.

I work as a web developer, and in light of this, I’ve been buying top of the line computers for the past 10 years, upgrading every 3 years or so. I usually migrate down the used computers to the kids, and once I even traded a computer for a dairy goat — my first dairy goat. That, my friends, was a good trade.

Sometimes I like to read “frugal living” blogs to find out tips and tricks on how I can trim our lifestyle here and there. One article on upgrading your computer at Cash Money Life caught my attention today. He recommends not buying the extended warranty on a computer. I beg to differ, and here is why:

My first internet connection was modem based, and something was really wonky with our phone line. I kept blowing out the modem on my system. Because I did buy the extended warranty, the computer manufacturer sent a guy out to my house to replace that modem no less than five times. Definitely paid for itself on that system.

Next system. Somehow acquired a virus. Wiped out everything. Again, they sent a guy out to repair, wipe clean and re-install all my stuff. Even recovered the data on the hard drive. Cost to me? zilch. Paid for the warranty again.

Next system. Booted up to hard-drive failure. No idea why. The next day the guy came out again with a new hard drive, salvaged my data and I was good to go.

Finally, my laptop. I agonized over whether to get the “accidental if you drop it or if it is stolen we will replace it” warranty. I did, and was kicking myself thereafter for spending the money in a “moment of sales pitch weakness”. Until. Until lightning hit our house. Hit just as I was reaching behind the laptop to unplug it. The surge went through two surge protectors to fry my system, and I felt the “Zap” run up my arm. The computer? Totally dead. Can you guess? Yep, brand spanking new system in two days. Even recovered data.

I am not here as a sales pitch for the extended warranty although it may look like it. That’s why I purposely left out what brand of computer I buy. I just felt it was important to maybe get another perspective on this. I never buy extended warranties for anything: cameras, cars, TVs. But, because my computer is my livelyhood I made the choice to go that route on the computer every time. And so far it has been a good choice.

Back to your regularly scheduled blogging tomorrow! I am working on a landscape watercolor that is taking more time to complete, but you all will be the first to know when it is ready. Until then, enjoy little Mr. Owl doodle. He’s been hanging around in my head since about 8th grade.

I have made a big decision. It was a tough one to come to. Can I do it? Do I have what it takes? What if I ruin them? What if I am not smart enough? What if I miss something important? What if this isn’t the right thing? Then I walked by the sunroom this morning and saw this. And I knew my decision was the right one:

That’s a textbook she is reading. Studying assignments I have laid out to “practice our decision” this week.

I am going to homeschool my kids.

Turnips! Turnips are the garden now. Usually what I make with turnips is an awesome chicken or turkey frame soup. But alas, it has been 90 + degrees, not exactly soup weather. So, I’ve been dicing and blanching and freezing for fall.

Last night I heard our little Sheltie dog barking up a storm. She stays in at night, but really wanted outside badly! I knew something was afoot. I groggily opened my eyes and nudged Mark and then –ewww!! skunk! Unfortunately, Lena our big black shepherd dog got the brunt of it. Oh boy did she stink. She did keep the offending rodent away from the red hens, though. A large bottle of white vinegar took care of it, although she is still mildly pungent. I hope the bugger doesn’t come back.

For walking-around spending money, I play in a local folksy type band. It is a lot of fun. I play bass guitar. We have a fun outdoor gig scheduled for this weekend. I am pretty excited about that. If you are reading this blog from a local area, please stop by and see us. We are at the Firehouse downtown. It’s a really cool venue. Non-smoking — yay! And its an actual converted firehouse from the days when they had horse-drawn firewagons. I remember going there as a kid with my dad and eating hamburgers that were huge! The size of my plate. The gig starts at 9 and goes until 1 (yikes!)

Other than that I have been just plain lazy. But hey, it’s summer, it’s hot and I have a hammock in the backyard under the aspen trees

Once upon a time there was a little country mouse. She lived with her husband and little mousies in a little log cabin in the country. They were very happy, but sometimes the little country mouse became a tiny bit wistful remembering the days when she was young and carefree and lived in the big city.

One day the country mouse’s brother called from the big city. He was very sad. He needed his sister mouse to come and cheer him up. So she packed up her satchel and her little mousies and drove through the country to the big city.

The country mouse’s brother was very happy that she came to help cheer him up.

The country mouse stayed at a wonderful “boutique hotel” which is all the rage these days. The country mouse’s brother told her that these are old hotels that are restored and made into beautiful, funky yet very luxurious places to stay. He got her a room at one of these because he knew she would enjoy the “artsiness” of the place. This one was called the “Teatro”

The beds were like climbing into a cloud!

Since it was the 4th of July, they took the little mousies to a baseball game where they had fireworks at the end of the night.

The next morning they enjoyed breakfast that reminded them a little of their country home.

And wandered around the big city looking in wonderful old bookshops and seeing all sorts of sights.

Being an artsy fartsy type, the country mouse especially enjoyed the funky neon signs.

And the warehouses that are converted into lofts.

The best part was the art museum, where the country mouse could show her little mousies paintings by Monet, Gaugin, Mary Cassatt and Degas. The little mousies were full of questions about the Impressionist era, and the country mouse realized she needed to bone up on her art history again!

As the country mouse is in a watercolor phase, she studied very closely the watercolor sketches by Charles Russell.

The Little Mousies also enjoyed riding the big city bus with their mousie cousins.

After several days in the big city, the Country Mouse knew it was time to go home. Her brother was much cheered up, and she knew he would be OK if she left. She was happy to be home in her little cabin, but also was glad to know that she could visit the big city any time and enjoy her time there as well.

The End.

Here we are all famous and stuff: Click Here

Boy am I having fun with the rhubarb! Besides the ice cream and the painting of the rhubarb, I just had to make sugarlaws jam recipe. Oh. My! It came out perfect! I was worried about using just the 1 tsp. of pectin, but it worked. I processed it in jelly jars for 15 minutes in a boiling water bath. Again, we are so easily entertained around here that we were calling out “there’s another!” when we heard the *pop* of the lids as they sealed.

I like these little jelly jars. This way I feel like I actually made some jam. Instead of all that work and ending up with only 1 or two of the larger jars.