The Life of a Non-Working Girl

Ok, first off, that title is not totally accurate. Even though I am not working a full-time job, I can't believe how busy I am staying. I end up with more on my "list" than I can get done in a day! So I may not be working at a professional job and getting paid, but I sure am working at the homestead here in Kansas.

Today, I got my hair cut. Yep. I think we took 3 or 4 inches off. It was getting pretty mangly at the ends and I just could not stand it any longer. I like it, I think. I'll give it a few days and see how it works out when I wash and dry it. Could be a whole different look then. I'll try to get a pic in the next few days and send to a select few. :)

Stopped at the grocery store before I headed out of town to get some fixings for a pasta salad; just finished putting it all together, and first taste was pretty good. We'll see how it tastes after the flavors blend together for a few hours.

Tom & I also took paint horse to the vet this a.m. for a follow-up. He tangled with some barb wire fencing last weekend, and it was very, very ugly. He tore off a section of his foot above one of his front hoofs (hooves?). We were up until midnight last Sat, between Tom getting him to the vet and then rigging up a small pen to keep him in from this point forward. Of course it was raining too. Took Tom almost an hour just to get the fifth wheel loose (rusted) and the trailer hooked up. He hadn't used it since last fall. He learned his lesson from that lil episode. :-( While he was doing that, I was holding paint. Amazing how high a horse's pain tolerance can be. He walked around with blood pooled at the bottom of the ripped portion, and he was quite content to eat the "good" grass. In any event, when the vet took off the bandage today, he just shook his head and said (again), "not good". So it's a day by day thing now. Tom has given paint a shot of penicillin every day for the last 5 days, and redressed his wound and rebandaged it every day too. Now we'll just be redressing it and rebandaging it everyday. I was blown away at Tom's patience, his calmness and his knowledge. He's awesome with horses. :)

This pic of paint a few days ago belies just how serious his injury is; you can just barely see the lovely aqua bandage on his front leg. His sedate temperament has really shown through these last few days and he's been awesome through everything. His problem is that he's only 7 years young, and he gets bored easily. He had a bad habit of hanging his head over the fence to get the grass on the other side, even though he has 15-20 acres to graze. He must have got his foot caught in the lower string of barb wire; we weren't home when it happened. We just came home to a disaster after a lovely day running errands on Saturday and eating at a mexican restaurant.

The Big Abilene, Kansas Rodeo

It's 103 degrees right now, at 4:07 p.m. Forecasted high is 107 by 6:00 p.m. Sheesh!!!

This is one of the big rodeos in the U.S. Everyone who is someone in rodeo makes a stop here. So many of the trucks and horse trailers were, well, nicer than the homes that some people live in! All in all, it was a great time, even though the temps were just shy of roasting. Note the sweaty backs on some of the cow guys. Yep, I don't even know how they could tolerate wearing jeans and long sleeve shirts that day!

We walked around and looked at the pigs, some of the horses, saw some cows. Quite interesting. LOL. Earlier in the day, Tom had made a joke about all the people that love to go to fairs/rodeos and get a big ole turkey leg to gnaw. Well, at one point, some guy walked by us eating one big, honkin' turkey leg. We got the giggles so bad we couldn't stop! What is it about those turkey legs at the fair??? :-D

On Kansas Wheat Fires, Storms and Fluffy Clouds


One of the more amazing phenomena here would be the wheat field fires. It seems I moved here as the farmers were harvesting their wheat fields. Well, the next step in the farming process, before they plant anything else in the wheat fields, is to burn them off. According to Tom, this eradicates any diseases or pests that could be in the soil, so as not to affect the next crops. The fires are quite an amazing sight, especially at night time! I've included a few pics here but it doesn't come close to capturing the sight as you stand outside the house and watch them when they are just a mile or two away!!










Then there are the storms. As they appear to the west and south of us, I love to take pics of them. Surprisingly, I am less afraid of storms out here than I was in Ohio. I think being able to see them form, and see the direction they are tracking, makes a big difference. It is awe-inspiring to be outside taking pics of a storm as it passes around you. Maybe I'll feel differently the first time it comes right at me!! :-0

Finally, there are the big white fluffy cloud days. I love these days the best. I think the sky is incredibly beautiful when it is big and blue, and full of white fluffy clouds!

Daily Life in Oz Land

Ok, I am sooo not used to these temps! We have a heat advisory today, which basically advises everyone to stay in air conditioning, if you can. Heat index may get as high as 107 today, plus the humidity is very high, so a very bad combination. At 1:53 p.m., it's currently 96 degrees.

Daily life consists of early rise between 6:30 and 8 a.m. to get the girls outside and then feed all the critters, excluding the horses who are happy with their grass this time of year. Put some coffee on, check my email and maybe do a little reading. I'm currently reading The Simple Living Guide by Janet Luhrs. Great book if you're interested in streamlining and getting back to basics. I made some "from scratch" macaroni & cheese yesterday morning. This morning I made pancakes from Bisquick, but quite tasty with a little vanilla added to the batter.

I'm having just a little difficulty adjusting to my schedule, which consists of getting up around 1 a.m. to fix/finish Tom's dinner. Then I'm awake until 3, sometimes 4 a.m., watching TV with him. Usually he falls asleep before me. Last night he started watching "The Kingdom" with Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Garner -- not usually my pick as far as movies go. But I got involved in watching it while he fell asleep. A bit graphic for my taste, but a very simple and profound ending. I seem to run out of steam every 3rd or 4th day, and I can only attribute this to my weird sleeping/waking schedule. So yesterday I ended up napping for about an hour. :) I've never been much for naps, so that's a very new concept for me.

Tomorrow we are heading north to Abilene, KS to visit his relatives and attend a rodeo; it's about a 2 hour and 45 min drive. Tom was born and raised in Abilene and although both his parents have passed way, he still has family up there. They are throwing us a little party, then we'll head to the rodeo for the evening so Tom can watch some of the team roping events. Hopefully I won't pass out in the forecasted 104 heat!! How embarrassing that would be! :-0

I've included some new pics -- some are for fun, and some are me playing around with my camera and trying to get better at taking pics. Blogger.com isn't very user-friendly when it comes to arranging your pics in your blog, it's quite tedious. So if it looks a bit mussy, oh well, what can I say. I did my best. ;-)