hqueen's collection of Far From the Usual stuff.

[hqueen13]

Deb the workshops at the one here in MD are pretty lame. I don't know what is going on, but she hasn't been able to get any good headliners in a LONG time. We rarely make the trip up to Harrisburg for that one, mostly because we work this one and it is exhausting to do so, and then I usually am gearing up for the events here and just don't have time. We watched some crazy guy talking about how to "train" a horse to not weave, crib, and stall walk. I was NOT impressed... he seemed kinda nutso to me. To his credit he's only got an hour to "do his thing" and make an impression... He had 3 different sessions (on the three "topics" and they used the same horse, so he was progressively working through some of the horse's unconfidence, but from my perspective the horse wasn't any more confident when he finished than when he started, and in fact was beginning to get lathered (and not in the good way).
At any rate, if you ever do want to come to the MD one, our door is open and we've got an extra bed.
You'll have to let me know how the one in PA goes if you make it!

 

[Denim Deb]

Well, RU is talking about going, maybe getting there on Friday, but not for the Expo, just so we don't have to leave so early on Saturday morning, then coming home on Sunday. We'll see. I can only go right now if someone else drives-I'm not sure my truck is up to the drive! (It needs a new radiator, and I don't want to drive that far from home w/the way it is.)

I've been wanting to get to the MD one for awhile, so thanks for the offer! I just might take you up on that next year.

 

[hqueen13]

Please do, Deb. It is a lot of fun, even if the demos aren't too great. We're there all 3 days all day, which is crazy, but fun. We do strange things, too, like bring our own pot of chili in the crock pot and stuff, LOL, I get tired of paying their prices for such crappy food!

 

[Denim Deb]

We always get a room w/a mini fridge and a microwave in it and bring our own food. I refuse to buy the food at the Expo. It's just waaaay to expensive. If we're meeting friends, we may go to a restaurant 1x, but that's it. And, we may stop on the way home in Lancaster to get a bite to eat, but don't always. It depends on what time it is when we leave, and what the weather's like.

ETA: That guy that talks about training a horse not to crib is one demo that I want to see. (I'm assuming it's the same guy) Don't know if he's any good or not or actually knows what he's talking about, but I figure it can't hurt to listen.

 

[hqueen13]

Probably is the same guy, Deb. Sort of skinny, I think had a bit of a beard, dark hair, not very tall.
I just wasn't impressed. I understand what he was attempting to do, but I don't think that he was applying the theory as well as I have seen it applied before. I was disappointed that he didn't talk more about the connection to the vices and the training, he only mentioned it in the beginning. If you had walked up in the middle of his talk you wouldn't have had any clue what he was trying to accomplish. Not that the outcome has to look like the process to get there, but there was little reference to it. He says he trains horses for a mounted unit somewhere, but I didn't catch where that was.
I do believe it is possible to "train" a horse out of certain vices, at least to some extent, just like it is possible to train a dog out of certain bad habits. I'm just not sure I'd use his methods, LOL. His rope skills left something to be desired (he was using a lunge line, and it kept getting more and more wadded up and tangled, and then a loop of it fell down, low enough that the horse could have gotten a leg into it if he had stepped the wrong way at just the right moment), and at one point in the session he had a tarp draped over the lunge line as the horse is trotting around and he is smacking the tarp with a lunge whip to "desensitize" the horse. The downer was that the horse came out of the short hour session sweaty, and sweaty in a nervous way, not in a "I've worked really hard" kind of way. He wasn't working him so hard that he should have broken into a sweat, even for a fairly unconditioned horse. When he stopped trotting I noticed that the horse was breathing fairly rapidly, again, more so than he really ought to have been for the work, and it took him a long time for his breathing to slow.
Ahh, well, takes all kinds, LOL. You'll have to let me know what you think if you get to see him!

 

[Denim Deb]

Will do.

 

[hqueen13]

UGH. Aweful head/neck ache that has just gotten worse through the day. It is mostly on the left side of my head/neck. I'm sort of ok if I sit really still. Its when I have to move around that it HURTS. I would have loved to go home early, but then I don't want to lose the work time, either. Bah. Of course, I'm also still dealing with cramps.
There is a part of me that wants to soak in the tub when I get home. But that would take entirely too much work (can't half get to the tub for the crap sitting in front of it...), and I just don't have the energy.
I really just want to feel better, this fighting sick crap for 2 weeks is getting really old. I have stuff to do and I don't have time to not get things done!!
This will probably be the second night in a row that I just go home and don't move. All that other stuff is just going to have to wait...

 

[rathbone]

 

[hqueen13]

Woke up feeling a bit better today. I noticed there is a big solar storm going on right now, maybe that is why everybody is having a bit of a rough time past few days.

Mental notes....

Saturday I have lots to do. Saturday morning I really want to work the horse. I wonder if the arena will be thawed. If it isn't I hope my friend can come ride while I work that way they will have a buddy in the field and maybe he'll be less likely to do something stupid if he's not by himself.
After that I have to run over to the framing store to order the frames for the prints that I have. Gotta use these groupons before they expire!!
The other half has to go into work that morning for inventory, he's going to stop on his way home and pick up some canning jars from someone on the other side of town. free jars!!
Once he is home, we have to make a run northward.
We need to pick up Chinchilla food from the rescue (best price, biggest bag!)
He wants to stop by the gun shop and show the owner some gloves he found that he thinks will work well for shooting.
I want to go all the way up to TSC to check on the components to put up Bee's amazing deer fence.
We'll probably stop at the Mill in there some where as well to see what their price on the fencing stuff would be as well (probably more expensive )
Somewhere in there if we happen across a Lowes I want to check on the canning lids that someone said were on sale, and I also need to pick up a white board to put on the side of the fridge so that we can work on better managing what is in our freezers so we don't have to try to guess what we've got when we need to go shopping.

Since my February and March are so free, I want to try to get several projects done.
I need to get the last of the mat board to finish framing the photographs that we already have printed. That would be a way to make money, so I need to get that done!
I need to order the rest of the supplies to start making lotion bars. I plan to do that some time in March once the money situation settles down a bit more.
In March my goal is to get mulch and mulch the front yard (gonna take about 20 yards to do everything), plus talk to the saw mill about getting a couple of logs delivered with the mulch so that we can make a boxed in "patio" for a fire pit. I suspect if we negotiate right we'll be able to have them GIVE us the logs, which would basically make the fire pit patio FREE! We'll just have to buy some kind of container (I know, I could make something up for free, but we won't be staying here forever, and we are thinking we want to take it with us... we've got time to decide...)
At least by March I want to have the electric fence up to protect the front of the house from the deer.
March is also the month I will need to do all my pruning of the trees and things to get them ready for the new growing season, really that could be done at the end of February and it wouldn't hurt. I need to fertilize the Azaleas this year, hopefully they'll begin to grow back again if the deer aren't eating them all the time...
I really want to work over the next 2 months trying to get the house a bit cleaner and decluttered. It just needs some attention. I need to clean the windows since they are no longer leaking and getting dirty constantly, plus work on getting rid of some things that we just don't need anymore. I guess I'll spend February inside, and work on spending March outside! (even though it will likely still be really cold!!)
I also have a sock I am working on knitting, plus two other projects for friends that would be fun and fairly easy (gotta find a pattern for one, actually... hmm...)

I also need to work on planning a few events for the equestrian center. I hope these details come together easily because I am not looking forward to stress trying to pull this off! It probably will be stressful though I just care too much sometimes. Gotta plan a bull roast for June and our big community event for the fall.

Never a dull moment!!

 

[CheerioLounge]

Glad to hear that you are feeling better. I was wondering if that solar storm would affect people. J has been feeling a little "out of sorts" for a couple days now. Doesn't seem to be affecting me though.

I know it's been affecting satellites, cell phones, etc. When I worked in Cable TV, years ago, there were a couple times a year that solar activity affected signal transmission.