Calm Before The Storm

Snowmageddon 2026 is being predicted for this weekend. 

As you can tell from the map, we don’t know a whole lot yet.  

But we could use a little moisture. The dry weather has been great for Joe to be able to get around the farm with the tractor feeding. But it hasn’t been so good to keep the water troughs full.   This one is in the horse field. The 10 cows from the cattle drive earlier are now here. They will have to be moved tomorrow so hopefully the trough will fill up some before the arctic blast freezes everything solid. 

On my way down the driveway going to work this morning I had to stop and take a picture of the beautiful sunrise. It looks like the calm before the storm  

I also have an update on my shades. I think they look nice from the outside.  But I needed them last month when we had a crew putting a new roof on the house. 

I will have to brag on the double sided tape I got to attach the fabric to the metal rod.   It actually came from Dollar General (I had a $3 off $15 that was good all month not just on Saturday). There were rave reviews. So far it is working great.   I would highly recommend it if you need strong double sided tape. 

 

Surprise Replacement

Some may remember the failure of my Birdfy camera this summer. After the loss of that brood, I cleaned out the bird house and discovered ants were nesting in the camera.  I eliminated the ants but the camera would still not work.  I spent an hour on chat with technical services but had to stop once my phone charge ran out.  I set the project aside until I had time again.  Last week, I plugged the camera back in to start with a full charge and contacted technical services again.  They never asked if it had been invaded by ants and I didn't offer up that information.  After trying all of their solutions, taking pictures of the camera and providing the original sales receipt,  they decided to mail me a new camera.  

What I wasn't expecting was a brand new bird house to go with it.  

The first bird house still works as a bird house.  I can also open the side and examine the nest and take pictures with my phone.  I was very pleased with the service and the warranty.  A definite win, win.  If anyone is wanting a birding camera, I can recommend Birdfy.  
 

Four Followups

1- I tried the detangler knot away on Otoelene’s  tail yesterday.   This time I misted it slightly so I didn’t have to use as much.   It worked perfectly. 

I got it combed out in half the time with only a fraction on the broken hairs that I usually get. 

2 -  I added three more birds the my flock.  

These two are from the same fabric just different placement on the fabric pattern. 

3 - The stabbed goat will be heading to his new home tomorrow. They are thinking of naming him Spike.

4 - No picture but I had my back check up today.  Everything looked good and I was released from care. I was told to take things slow and maybe hold off on horseback riding for a little longer.  He also recommended that I not run out and start lifting 30+ pounds. So I still won’t be able to help Joe as much as I would like and sadly still  won’t be able to pick up Allie and Sadie for a bit longer. But I can stop wearing the back brace. 

I’m going with 4 follow-up wins! 
 

Couponing #88, Product Review

My local Dollar General is eliminating the textured hair care section. Apparently, when they decided to dedicate a 4 foot section to it no one bothered to check the census to see that there was probably only 2 people within a 10 mile radius that might have textured hair. 

But I found a different subject to try out some of the products on. 

Hugo was a mess. 

I was keen to see if this leave in knot away might work to make his tail easier to comb out.  The  90% off clearance price was just 62 cents.  Plus there was a cash back offer of $1 off two.  It was a 24 cent splurge but I think it was worth it. 

It took almost no time to get his tail combed out. It will really be worth it if it works as well on Draper’s and Otoelene’s tails.  I went back and bought two more. 

 

Camera Comparisons

Virginia told me that she is seeing a big improvement in my blog picture quality.  I thought I would do a little comparison to see if there really was much difference.

iPhone

Emily’s Canon Powershot

My Canon Powershot pocket camera.                                                                                                                         

 IPhone

Emily’s Canon Powershot

My Canon Powershot pocket camera.

I think the iPhone is the winner.  Emily’s camera is very nice and will probably do zoom better (forgot to compare that) but it is much bulkier to carry around.  My canon is very convenient to carry, fits in my pocket, but the pictures are really lacking in quality.  Maybe the iPhone will be the best of both worlds, fits in my pocket and high quality pictures.

 

Harveys Bristol Cream Sherry

Mama was cleaning out a cabinet and came across this unopened bottle of Harveys Bristol Cream.  We are not sure how old it is but I am going with 25+ years. 

I was interested in having the blue bottle. 

But Kerian was interested in tasting it.  After a quick Google search he determined it was probably safe to drink but would most likely not be any good. 

I have never tried Sherry before, but I don't think is should be brown.  And I can say, after smelling it, that I still have not tried Sherry.

Emily said it was nasty. 

Kerian said it wasn't that bad but it defiantly wasn't good.  The rest got poured down the drain. 

Filth

Apparently, I have been living in filth.  Who knew?   I have a robo vac that lives in our bedroom.  I turn it loose once or twice a week.  But I recently purchased a Bissell Crosswave.  Once I got the brush for wood floors and wood floor cleaner, I decided to test it out in the bedroom.  I had just used the robo vac the day before.  

 This nastiness is what the crosswave still found.  I tell clients that a little blood in a lot of urine looks like a lot of blood.  So, I am telling myself that a little dirt in a lot of water looks like a lot of dirt.  Well, that's because IT IS a lot of dirt.  Who am I fooling, I am living in filth.  How often am I going to have to Bissell now?

Feed Bag and Draper

First, a brief Draper update. 

Three successful rides since my fall/throw.   Normal stuff in barn, walk, trot canter.  Then just nice calm walks outside around the farm, no outside trotting.  My nerves are still recovering.  So far so good.  

I ordered a feed bag from Tractor Supply for  Hank.  He has few teeth left so his chewing isn't the best. 

This is what the ground usually looks like after he finishes. 

He took right to the feed bag, and the ground was clean.  

But the problem is the poor design.  The seam is on the inside so a lot of feed got trapped between the sides and the seam.  

So today, I think I will try in inside out.  This will put the slick rubber side on the outside.  

And the rougher fabric on the inside, but also a smooth seam on the inside.  I will let you know how this works.  
 

New Pressure Washer

I finally broke down and bought a pressure washer.  I have been talking about getting one for years but never could decide on what to get.  

So this year I buckled down and checked several out on line.  I decided to get an electric one because I thought I would have power everywhere I had water.  Plus, no worry about keeping up an engine and trying to start it.  I opted for the most powerful electric one that was still somewhat affordable.  Lowes carries this brand but I had to order it because they only had the lighter duty ones in stock.  

Well, you don't know how dirty something is until it's clean.   It is doing an amazing job on the brick, 

and on the sidewalk.  I was also able to spray the mud off of the driveway where J parks the farm truck.  What normally takes a couple of hours and lots of tools, only took about 15 minutes and probably less water. 

We are weaning and hauling cattle tomorrow so maybe J will try it out when he cleans out the trailer.  So far so good.  Going out now to finish the walk and brick planters. 
 

Parks Board Game

E received the game Parks for Christmas. 

It looked like a good fit for a naturalist interested in hiking and visiting the National Parks.   Four of us tried to play it yesterday.  Between us all were 4 undergraduate degrees, 3 masters degrees and a DVM.

Note the ages and time to play.  And interestingly, you can play by yourself. 

The game is super cute, nice game piece, 

and beautiful graphics. 

After an hour of reading the 10 pages of directions we finally had the board set up. We managed 1 round of turns with mostly illegal moves before giving up.  I really have no idea how a 10 year old could figure this out.  E decided we needed to try it when we were more rested and maybe with just 2 people, then add in more as we figured things out.  I have since watched a couple more youtube videos and think I am ready to try again.  I'll let you know how it goes. 

 

Product Review, Drill Brushes

There use to be a rechargeable scrubbing brush by Dustbuster, that I wanted but never got.   I don't know how I learned about these brushes, but I thought they would be the perfect substitute. 

 They are brushes that can attach to a drill. 

J was needing new Muck boots, so since I was getting free shipping I just added the brushes to the order.  So far I have used the large flat one on the tile floor and the 360 brush on the shower.  Let me just say, they work GREAT.  Love, love, love the shower one.  I can now even use up the cheap cleaner that wasn't working all that great.  The scrubbing ability more than makes up for the bad cleaner.  I've been using them for about a month now with no issues.  If you have a recharagle drill and need to do some cleaning, try these.  I got mine off Amazon for about $14. 

The Aloof Horse

E received this book as one of her awards at the Arabian Nationals Horse Judging contest a couple of years ago. 

I started reading it then and it was very interesting in how it described different horse personalities.  The author discussed 4 main personalities: social, fearful, aloof  and challenging,  then combinations of the 4 types. 

 Can you guess which category I'm putting Hank in?  He is the sorrel to the far left.

 Here is the rest of the herd (minus Wrangler because he was painting),

and here is Hank.

The Aloof Horse:
   "The aloof horse is easiest to define by what he doesn't do.  Aloof types interact much less than any of the other types do, and at times this horse may seem to be in his own little world.  He will frequently seem detached or removed from his present environment, to the point of being disassociated from it.  Owners of aloof horses frequently notice this detachment or distance, as if their horse had an invisible barrier around him.  It may appear that your aloof horse is paying very close or studious attention to almost nothing at all."

I think this describes Hank to a tee. All in all, an interesting read, especially if you have has several horses.  It is fun to guess what category they would be in.