Now I Need to Decide

Yeoldfurt converted from Blogger to Wordpress a while back and after much soul searching has deleted both blogs. I don't think he'll be back. 

Maintaining a blog does take a lot of time, especially if you try to post with any regularity.  The benefits used to be there ...a sense of community, a sharing of ideas and information.   I'm grateful that we had the privilege of meeting some of you face to face and grateful for the friendships we've made, even with some that we only know in this cyberworld format.  But could the hours I spend at this keyboard every week be put to better use in the garden, with the animals or perhaps even researching new skills?  Probably.  No, not probably ...absolutely.  When money is short, you get frugal and watch every penny before you spend it.  Well, time gets spent too, folks.  And time that is wasted or misspent in less productive endeavors will be far more costly in the long run than money wasted or misspent. 

Though my readership is more now than I ever thought it would be, I am seriously leaning toward following Yeoldfurt's lead and shutting this blog down.  If I do, please know that I appreciate everyone who clicked 'Follow' and has stuck with me through the many dry spells of sparse posting.   

Exceptionally Good Weekend!

My weekend got off to a great start since I was off work on Friday for Texas Independence Day.  It was an optional holiday at work.  If I had gone in to work, I would have earned comp time, but I had the option of not going in and that sounded like the better deal to me! 

Modern Day Redneck and his family were coming to visit on Saturday so I had plenty to keep me busy  getting ready.  Yeoldfurt and I had the pleasure of meeting MDR and Mrs MDR a few months ago when they dropped their oldest daughter, BEB, off for her freshman year at Texas A&M.  We were looking forward to seeing MDR and the Mrs again, but this would be the first time we would get to meet the girls so we were really looking forward to it. 

If you are familiar with Modern Day Redneck's blog and have been reading his posts for any length of time, you will know that he is very proud of his three girls.  After meeting the girls this weekend, I can tell you that he is not just blinded by fatherly love ...those are some truly awesome young ladies! 

When I found out a few weeks ago that they would be coming to our place, I decided to make lasagna for dinner while they were here.  I made a grocery run that Tuesday before and accidentally grabbed two big packages of MONTERREY JACK instead of MOZZARELLA cheese.  They're both WHITE cheese and I was in a hurry, what can I say?  I discovered my mistake when I got home and resolved to pick up the CORRECT cheese on Thursday ...which I did.  Unfortunately though, I did not have the foresight to put the MONTERREY JACK in the freezer and far, far away from the MOZZARELLA cheese in my fridge.  Nope.  That would have made too much sense.  Instead, I put them next to each other in the fridge and again ...they are both WHITE CHEESE and I was in a hurry Friday morning so I grabbed the wrong one! 

I did not discover my mistake until the lasagna was made and I was cleaning up the kitchen.  I grabbed the bag of cheese and there in big block letters were the words MONTERREY JACK CHEESE.  When I realized I now had a FIVE-POUND pan of lasagna made with the wrong cheese, a couple of rather non-churchy words escaped my lips.  Okay, it was really only one rather non-churchy word repeated several times in rapid succession.  

I confessed my mistake to MDR in email and left it up to him whether to forewarn the rest of the family that the lasagna would have a bit of a southwest twist.  I told him I hoped it would still be good ...I thought it would still be good and that I experiment on Yeoldfurt with recipes all the time.  But I was a little freaked to be subjecting HIM and his FAMILY to such an experiment, especially considering it was not a PLANNED experiment.    He graciously laughed off my concern with "I don't know if there is such a thing as wrong cheese.  No worries." What a nice family those Rednecks are! 

All's well that ends well though.  We had a great time catching up with MDR and the Mrs, and really enjoyed finally getting to meet their three girls.  Yeoldfurt also managed to get the tractor running again so he no longer has to roll round bales by hand.  Yup, it was an exceptionally good weekend!  

Well, They're Gone

Two of the horses we thought would be with us all their lives left in a two horse trailer this afternoon, heading back to Alvin with their new owner.  This will be a new chapter in their lives and, hopefully, it will be the beginning of happy times and new adventures for them.  The man who bought them has a lot of kids, including two teenage boys.  Yeoldfurt and I hope each of the boys will strike up a bond with one of these two horses.  If that happens, the lives of those boys and these horses will be mutually enriched. 

The trailer they left in was a fancy rig but has seen better days.  The floor was good and solid though and the latches are secure.  We don't haul that often and ours is an open aluminum stock trailer.  This is a two horse straight load and I wasn't sure if the horses would be balky.  But they loaded right up when asked, they made me proud.  Maybe it was the fresh hay I put in the mangers for them, but I like to think it was their quality upbringing. 

We sent them off with a 50-pound bag of feed so that if the new owner has a different type of feed, he can introduce it gradually.  We gave him their bridles and bits too.  They are good leather headstalls, double-stitched and well-oiled, and they are already adjusted to fit these horses.  We have a surplus of tack anyway and want the transition for Lucy and Lyric to be as smooth as possible.  Hopefully, a few little familiar things from home will facilitate that. 

The two horses that remain will have 8-1/2 acres to themselves.  We expect them to be anxious and calling for their missing herdmates for a few days.  It's always unsettling to a horse when members of the herd come or go.  But by next weekend, they will have settled into the notion that they are the herd now ...just the two of them.  The good rains we've had these past six or eight weeks have caused the grass that was so stressed by last summer's heat and lack of moisture to try and come back.  With only two horses on it now instead of four, it will recover more quickly.  If the rain patterns continue through the spring and we have at least minimal rain this summer, maybe hay prices will come back down too.  With only two horses on the feed/vet/hay/farrier bill now, maybe our finances might have a chance to recover too.  One can hope.

I took one last picture as they pulled out of the driveway.  I wish them and their new owners all the best.  Sometimes we have to let go of things we love in order to do right by them.