Sundays vacation!

Okay, this is not even a FRACTION of the pictures that were taken on Sunday(at least with Amber).  It was fantastic, I don't know if its being with Kylie or being back in NY or BOTH.  I was tense for a little bit on Amber, but I started to relax as Kylie kept talking to me.  I finally worked my way up to trotting on Amber.  I haven't trotted in AGES, as in before I left NY.  I could even post on Amber's trot it was nice and smooth.  Then to calm my joints, and check see how my ankles felt compared to my regular irons and Kylie's flexi-stirrups(which was a HUGE PLUS- I'll be getting some of them for my saddles).  Then I walked the ring a couple times and then sitting trot her stirrupless.  Amber really was a REAL BIG SUPERSTAR to tolerate this weirdo on her back, who she'd never met and isn't as good a rider as she needs to be.  It felt awesome to come and smell a horse again too, I'd been away form them for far too long. 

Sunday now as I'm settled into a hotel room that Allen got for mom and I to sleep in we saw a rainbow outside the window.  It's a good omen I think.  Tomorrow is the LONG drive home.  Thankfully it'll be shorter coming from here than it would be from East Greenbush or Argyle.  Should be about 11-12 hours.   

Just an amazing couple of days.

It's been an amazing vacation so far!  I've loved every day so far- but it's going by way too fast! 

Friday/Saturday with Rachel and Michelle was awesome. 

 

     I got up to Argyle around 4:30 Friday afternoon.  I was beyond exhausted but we got the bunnies settled in up there, and ran to Fort Ann to visit her dad(who didn't bother to meet us) I started to get irritable so we went to the hotel and stayed at the Landmark for a girls night.  We got our bathing suits on, sat in the hot tub to start unwinding and then into the indoor pool(which was COLD at first!) for about an hour, then the Hot tub for the last 30 minutes they were open for the night.  Got back to our room, showered and goofed around until we all about passed out asleep. 

 

 

     So Saturday- my real 'day' with Michelle and Rachel we spent a few hours at a Baby shower for Rachel's sake.  I behaved amazingly  I'm not usually this well behaved, but for her I could do it!

 

      Then I stopped at Walkers, mainly to look for stuff for Heidi.  They shockingly didn't have much of anything for draft horses.  But I got her a new little tag for her bridle!

 A couple of random scenery shots on the way home.  It was on Route 43, that much I do remember, near Holmes Road.  I never did get a chance to stop by Trish's house.  I just plum ran out of time- seriously disappointed in that!  Needed way more hours in a day.

 

 After getting back into Argyle I stopped by Locust Grove Smokehouse for hotdogs(Jess and Dad) and I got a brick of cheese for Allen. 

 Then I stopped by to see Gena and the farm.  Man do I miss it there!  Old man Spudley is still there- almost as old as Phoenix but he's also a Morgan too.

 Eeyore and Dakota are still there, Dakota's got an amazing amount of gray on his head now and Eeyore just looks tired and older. 

 The old Farmhouse:

 

 Then a quick stop up by the Neighs to see them- They've had 2 more boys since we left.  Aleta(second oldest) wasn't home at the time but I got the rest of them.

 Our old house, Mom's Magnolia bush has REALLY grown!  They sold the trailer and it'll be moved out next week or little afterwards.  I got there just in the nick of time to see it again!

 Then back by Cindy's, had to see her one more time!  She's such a goof but I love her! 

 And the boys, Red and Chase.  Chase is older than Phoenix, he's 33 years old, Cindy's had him since he was 6 months old, Rachel has owned Red since he was 8 months old and I think he's around 8 now. 

 Keiffer was born there and he's a TB x Appy cross. He loves Michelle! 

 Cindy's not much of a picture person!

 I left Argyle and headed back to Aunt Sheri's back in East Greenbush.

I'll update tonight with Sunday.  But I was sad to see the sign as I left Argyle.  Argyle is HOME.  I have a newspaper so I can even attempt to look for some jobs again when I get home.

Jitters

     I'm all jittery part of it is excitement for my vacation and my first return back to Argyle since I left September 25th, 2009; and part of it's I'm worried.  I hate leaving the rabbits and the horses behind.  I worry about what's going to happen, worse case scenario's, etc.  I need to worry less and enjoy the time.  I've got my 2 hole carrier going north, and 2 cat carriers to avoid bringing a big 4 hole carrier.  1 cat carrier has Penelope in it for Rachel, the other carrier has a dwarf pair for her. So the doe will most likely be bred by the time she gets up to NY- she'll be getting to my place Wednesday with the buck and staying with the buck until Friday when they get to Rachel's.  Oh well.  Unplanned babies but it gives the doe & buck a safe place to go with someone that will love and take care of them.  It's too hard to find pet homes down here for anything.  Aunt Lisa's going with straight New Zealand's I'm going with straight Dutch (though I do have an odd pair of Holland Lops still).  I'll have a trio of steel/steel carrier Dutch eventually-still working on a buck for them!  Bringing home a pair of chocolates so I can start to dabble in them slightly, but they'll remain at a trio(use another of my does with my black- Chocolate and tort carrier- to produce the 2nd doe). Until I actually pick up a great fondness for them.  For this moment I'd rather stay with my blues and torts, but just dabble a little with the chocolates.  Let's hope they're decent little rabbits.
     I'm starting to worry myself with getting yet another color to dabble in but if I keep them small in numbers like I am the steels I should be alright.  I'd LOVE to add a second Chinchilla doe to make them a trio but sadly I don't have the room unless I move a couple brood does out. I'm going to come home and go through my rabbits one more time and get things settled and then do a solid culling in the barn to get them going in a good direction. 
     Two more nights of work. I can make it- I think . . . I hope. 

Happy thoughts!

     I don't mean to be so jambled in my thoughts but my brain is just going, going, going right now.  I'm happy that I'm finally going 'home'.  Though for now Owingsville technically IS home, Argyle will always be HOME to me.  I'm going to hate leaving Heidi, Phoenix and the bunnies for the week but I really need to go back at least once in the 4 years.  It's been almost 4 years since I moved.  4 Years since I've seen Michelle, Debbie, Red, Keiffer (Heck the little butt head is already 4 years old, he wasn't even a weanling when I left), Old Man Chase, the Neigh's, Pam, the Farm and well, I've seen Unc and Auntie since then but it's not the same.  I can only hope Phoenix will be alright until I get home.  Dad knows what he has to do if something happens but if nothing does happen then I'll be fine. They won't like going without their food but that's a bit more than dad should have to handle.  It'll be easier if dad and I go to Florida late this fall, I'll have Heidi already moved to Tamarack, so it'll just be the bunnies for mom to feed. 
     I DO have a pair of chocolates coming down, buck and doe pair.  So my two chocolate carriers will have something to do when I get back.  They'll both be crossed out for chocolate babies for the fall show table.  Axe that, they won't be ready for the fall shows.  So it'll have to wait.  I might cross the chocolate buck out with Terra and move Terra on as she's a black and I'm not going to purposely keep blacks(except my Connie), same with Lawrence- I might cross him to Marie as well , they'll be ready for showing in the Spring shows and the LATE, late fall shows.  Lawrence will probably end up freezer meat, sadly.  Buck's don't sell well to start with plus he's got white hairs in his tail.  Eh, who knows.  I've got to breed out for a litter of blues soon too.  I got my torts, that's for sure!  no more torts until Marie's litter!  Now to focus on the blues a little more again! 
     Lunch is ready, time to get ready for work.  One night, then one night off, then 3 nights of work then VACATION!!  I can't wait!  

Random rambles

     Just some random ramblings of things going through my head.  I've been doing much thinking about a LOT of things.  I personally have fully decided- pending on my paycheck next weekend to go ahead with the human version of Spirulina wafers from Springtime and the doTerra oil Breathe- to control my allergies.  I'm ordering the doTerra tonight as I finish paying my one bill that I had this week to pay.  I do plan to order the Spirulina this coming weekend with next weeks paycheck and go from there.  With doTerra Breathe and Spirulina I can hopefully stay as natural as possible and have zero sinus issues. 
     I've been horribly bad about sexing my baby bunnies.  The only ones I've been screwing up were the New Zealands.  So I think Wednesday when I go to Lexington to do the bunny swap and pick up Lisa's New Zealand buck, a couple of dutch babies and trade out a couple of dutch babies I should be fine.  I can't understand what's going on with them.  Terra popped sick- like a snuffles sick, after kindling and one of her babies I am seriously considering culling the sick baby.  I've never culled a sick baby bunny before.  Then Zelda is wheezing and I have no idea why.  I'm going to start both of them on PenG Shots and see what happens.  Hopefully I can pull both of them out of it.  I love both does VERY much. 
     I haven't done much of ANYTHING with the horses because it's been so hot.  They were both covered in sweat today it was just hot and humid. 

Jumbled Rabbit mess

     Well I've had a few very hot days to do a lot of much needed thinking.  I've got a couple of Della's babies that I'm watching, I'm on schedule to pick up the 'new' tort buck which is Jeanie's half brother and that pretty well solidifies my torts.  I've got the base I need now to rebuild my torts.  A couple of Hope's babies look OKAY and those are by Lawrence.  Lawrence will hang around long enough to breed a couple of the chocolate does when they get here and out he goes-I've got a few folks that want to try dutch meat.  Lawrence will be the first to go.  I'm supposed to be picking up a pair/trio of Chocolates while I am northward so that'll be the first foray into chocolates.  Hopefully it does well.  Terra will be rebred for chocolates at that time to whatever Chocolate buck I pick up and the two does bred to Lawrence before he goes. 
     I kept thinking, looking around the barn and telling myself, 'what am I doing?' I don't know anymore.  I want to keep raising my blues and torts, and something in me wants to raise the chocolates now.  Maybe it's a solid color thing, I don't know.  The steels just don't hold the appeal to me that they used to. The Chin's always have and always will probably, but I'm keeping just the pair of them.  Being not a recognized color and so hard to find it's not always easy to want to keep going on them.  But for now I'm going to keep my pair, I love Belle and Eliot to death, I love the Chinchilla color.  I think I'll just add a Mel x Anna buck baby as their mate and with Connie and Natalie and that'll be all the steels I have.  A full trio.  2 steels with one black- steel carrier.    I have one more blue doe baby coming in, It's out of a Raf x Anna black daughter and Timon- a black buck that carries steel and blue. 
     The worst part of today is going back to work.  I've been off for 6 days.  If I think 6 days is bad, wait until the next 5 day weekend- that'll be 7 days off for my trip back to NY.  It's been too long waiting to go 'home' and I've needed to do this for a while.  So right now I'm going, car is reserved and I've got some plans already cemented, a few others not so much for cemented yet.  The second worse was taking my weight.  Oh my gosh.  I've been trying to stay under 255 for a while, 258 . . . I hate long weekends I have to do something to eat better or something.  Maybe it is time to join a gym, where I'll find time to do this I don't know, but I've got to try something!  That's 5 pounds in 2 weeks.    Something's got to give.  The steady sinus pressure has been killer enough, I don't need to add the extra weight to it too.  Anyway.  I've got a few things that I'm going to try this weekend and we shall see how that goes. 

Fun times in the barn.

It's all a jumbled mess of photos from the rabbit barn.  I had 3 litters due July 5th.  Terra went a day early- she's a first time mom- had six.  She's popped sick so I'm going to start some treatment and I'm going to try to supplement what little milk they're getting from their mom.

 

 Della's babies are growing like weeds, I'm watching 3 of hers develop to be potential show rabbits this fall.  1 buck-Dylan and 2 does. 

 Here's Dylan, he's such a little darling!! 

 My little goober bunny!  He'll be staying in place of his father, Colby. 

 Hope had her babies late afternoon on the 5th.  3 torts, 4 blacks.   Though it's her first live litter(she had a litter of DOA's).  This picture is from not even half hour old!

 Hope checking in on her babies.  She's such an observant momma. 

 Della nuzzling one of hers that has figured out how to get out of the box.

 

 Peek-a-boo bunny!

 'To go or not to go . . .  Now that's the question!'

Hope rechecking her babies again. 

 

The ponies have been good, I haven't been doing as much with them as I should be.  But with it raining every day for the past week- and more rain to come, it's just too wet to do much of anything.

 

 Saw this deer one afternoon I was out and about.  Licking the dirt where their mineral block had been sitting.  There was a total of 4 of them.  It was really neat to see them out there.  A 4 pointer, a 6 pointer and 2 does.  So we know they're around.  Hopefully the lack of horses in the fall won't spook them too badly. 

 And high water pictures, of coarse. 

 I LOVE the clouds.  I really need to get out with the camera way more often than I really do. 

As for personal update.  My weight's been going back up.  I really need to join a gym and do something to start working the weight off.  I've talked a little with my Aunt Cathryn about some holistic approaches to help control my allergies and weight.  I've got Heidi on Spirulina wafers and I'm going to try them for myself, and I'm going to try the doTerra DigestZen oil and see what happens.  Take the change in supplements and see what I can do.  Between doTerra and Springtime I'm hoping the supplements will help control my allergies.