Winter sets in at the Farm

I'll just come right on out and say it--this weekend was miserable.

Now, I'll be the first to say it could have been a lot worse, and we've definitely had a lot worse. I know I'm a big wuss when it comes to cold weather. The Almighty played a cruel joke on me when He gave me no coping mechanism for cold weather, and yet zero melatonin in my skin to enjoy the warmer climates. It's a conundrum I've dealt with all my life.

Ah, there it is--hear that? The world's smallest violin? It's playing for me.

So, I decided to turn these frozen lemons into limoncello and use the cold as an excuse to stay inside, close to a heater, and clean the mountain of old, abused, and worn tack I have from ages and ages ago. I'm happy to report I got it all sorted through. I threw out anything that wasn't still safe and usable, and I cleaned everything that was left, keeping some items for myself and posting the rest for sale.

Then I bundled back up in my seventeen layers of clothing, headed back outside to feed last night and took my camera with me.

The boys are in a pen closest to the room in the old barn where I store the grain. They were hungry fellas, too. Much like me, the horses get hungry and cranky in cold weather.

Hungry.

Cranky.

The barn kitties are wondering where their food is, too!

I feed the kitties up in the old barn. There's not much left of this relic, but it's where the kitties currently reside, until it's time to tear the old thing down, anyway. For the time being, the kitties come to the window where the hay loft is, meow down at me, and demand to be fed immediately

This is Milton's momma:

And his sister (who still won't let me touch her, although her momma has been somewhat tamed:

For the first several years that my dad had this place, I tried to save this neat old barn. I worked really hard one summer to remove the dilapidated lean-to on its side, to keep it from being pulled down, but I just couldn't keep up with it. It's now terminally irreparable, so in the next couple of years it will be torn/burned down.



It's kind of sad, but I can say I did try. It was just too far gone and I was fighting a losing battle. I should be able to get a second shelter up this summer, and then board off this old barn, remove everything out of it and prepare it for its demise. One day (in my five-year plan for this place), it will be replaced by a large barn with an indoor roundpen, a few stalls and a hot-water wash rack.

Friday afternoon the farmer who leases the irrigated circle brought his cattle over, and Sophie has been beside herself ever since.


The horses have gotten over it, but Sophie is still bound and determined to let those big black beasts know this is her place.

Of course, I also got the girls fed and all tucked in for the night. Paula and Bambi were all snuggled up in their turnouts.


Unfortunately I still have yet to talk Betty into wearing her blanket.

By the way, that's what I'm calling "Itty Bitty" now--Betty. It's faster, still sounds like her old name, and is also the name of my ex-grandmother-in-law, who is one of the most amazing, sweetest, kindest people I have ever met. It is also the name of my great-aunt, who has also been very kind and sweet to me my entire life. With knowing so many sweet woman named Betty, it seems only fitting that this very sweet girl be called that as well.

Betty hasn't been handled a lot and I wanted to give her a chance to settle in, so although I do have a blanket for her, I'm not risking putting it on her yet. I plan on working with her over the next few weeks, weather permitting, now that she's settled in and knows who brings the food.

Since I was outside with my camera anyway, I thought I'd take a few pictures of the projects going on at the farm.

Here's the backyard light, all ready to be hooked up. There will be a line also ran from this pole to the shelter, eventually, so I can keep the horses under lights until I can get the big barn built.

This area was a complete jungle when I moved in. It's changed so much. Before, you could hardly walk through it. Now it's almost all cleaned up. I've just got to cut down about ten thousand volunteer sapplings in the corners.

Just ten thousand--that's all!

Then, I'm doing some landscaping. I'm going to build a wall up, then steps down, rather than having the slope that erodes every bit of grass, but none of the weeds or volunteer trees (funny how that works, huh?). I need materials for the wall, and rather than buy landscaping bricks, I'm going to use the bricks from the old hog shed that's hidden in the tree row (and had fallen down long before Dad ever moved here).

The house itself is also coming along, slowly but surely.

The new top has been sided.

And the overhang on the roof is now halfway done. You can see the old stuff (on the left) compared to the new trim (on the right).

By the time the house is done, all that electrical scary-looking stuff will be underground.

The underside of the overhang is finished on the back of the house, and is finished, except for painting, on the North side.

That vent will be gone soon, too. As will be the avocado-green siding.

It's really been fun, seeing the house progress, even as much of a headache it is to live in it and all the problems associated with renovating a 120-year old house. I know in the end it will all be worth it.

I had never planned on living here permanently--this has always been someone else's house to me, but this past year has been really lovely here. As the days go by and I get to make more and more decisions about the future of this place, and as I get to see how it's changing to suit the needs of me and my menagerie, I've come to realize one very important thing:

This is home.

A Nothing-But-Restful Saturday

Note: I found this in my list of drafts. I guess I got so busy that I forgot to publish this! This post is from October 2009 and offers a bit of a glimpse over how much has changed in just a little more than a year. I don't have that lemon of a car anymore, I don't have to drive 100 miles to get a part anymore, I have a great hay provider that keeps me stocked up AND accepts checks, and I now know my PIN, although I'm not going to write that here. I may have been born in the dark, but it wasn't last night! Anyway, enjoy my mini-meltdown from last year:

This morning started at 6am. Ran to Kansas City (well, actually I drove) to pick up a part for the Honda. Couldn't find the place but after taking the long-way to get to that side-road I got in there, had to wait half an hour for them to find it in their huge warehouse, then was able to get home, jump in the car and take it down to the Barn in Amsterdam.

I tell you what, those guys are terrific. They checked over the car, bled the brakes, test-drove the car and all-in-all believed my brake issues were NOT the master cylinder! That part was $120, so if it turns out that they fixed the problem without it, I will be absolutely thrilled. The brakes worked great all the way home, so keep your fingers crossed for me!

I got home and needed to go pick up hay. Problem was the guy I wanted to get it from wouldn't take a check. I have no clue what my PIN is, so after trying several times at the ATM I finally gave up. I called him up and offered half cash, half check but he was being stubborn so I gave up--will have to go to my regular hay guy tomorrow. I was just trying for a bargain--so much for that!

Well, in the process I froze up my debit card, so I'll have to call in tomorrow to get that straightened out. I was able to get water hauled, but will have to do the hay tomorrow. I got the hoses brought in, blankets put on all the horses, got the lawnmower in the garage and test the antifreeze in both vehicles. All in all, I guess I did get a few things done, but it doesn't feel much like it. I wanted to relax tomorrow!

Note back in: I'm still waiting for the opportunity to relax, but life is infinitely better now. Instead of merely trying to survive, I feel like, for the first time in a long time, I'm able to actually gain some ground--all of it thanks to my friends and family!

Contemporary Art at the DAM

This is the last in my Denver Art Museum series...I promise. At this point, because I'm such a dork, I can't remember who did what, so I think rather than strain my brain and risk severe injury, I'll just let you peruse the photos.

That, and I feel lazy today (I'm nothing if not honest).

This painting was interesting because it had an entire room behind it dedicated to the creation of this painting.

I didn't understand either.

A couple of contemporary ropers:

How do I know they're contemporary? Hot pink background, of course.

This horse was made out of a Volkswagon. Seriously!

A horse for the people...sort of like Mr Ed, er...Mr Red!

I think I've found the new tagline for my blog:

Narly.

This painting creeped me out and fascinated me at the same time.

Sort of like watching those plastic surgery shows.....

OK, now this painting is definitely worth discussing. Yes, it's a PAINTING!

The thing was, you couldn't tell, even if you stuck your nose right up against it. I know because I tried, before I was ushered out of the exhibit by the guards. The only brush strokes I could discern before I was hauled away were on her eyelashes. Brilliant!

It was this painting, though, that was probably my favorite of the group. It's classical, yet humorous, like me!

"Qatar?!"

OK, maybe not so much like me at all. Just checking to see if you were paying attention.

After viewing all that, my dogs were barking, so I thought I'd have a seat...

...or not. I think the set of Beetlejuice may be missing a couple of chairs...

..and this ...plow????

Um-k.

Things were getting weird, and I felt like I needed a moment to think.

But all the blood rushing to my head didn't help as much as one would think.

So, I decided to keep my chin up and press on.

That may be a little too much press...or on....or both.

At this point I was in utter dismay as to what to do next.

Although I did know to keep my clothes on, along with the paper bag over my head. Blue pill or red pill?

So, I decided I'd better just get outside of the museum and get some fresh air.

Apparently the freakiness isn't adequately contained. I mean, just look at that guy on that bike without socks on. Wierdo!

I suppose it's time to just give up and make a clean sweep.

Now that's more like it.

Asian Art at the DAM

The Asian Art gallery at the Denver Art Museum had many beautiful pieces of historic artwork. The Indian art hall contained some of the most dramatic pieces.

By the way, all photographs from the museum on this blog were taken by me with my little point-and-shoot camera, and are in no way accurate representations of the outstanding beauty of this art. If you like what you see here, please plan a visit to the DAM!

Also, I forgot to take notes of several of the items I took pictures of. Case-in-point this item:

I know it's Indian, it has a horse, and I found that I sympathized with the character holding up the front two legs of the horse.

I also found this tapestry piece to be quite intriguing.

Again, a horse. Again, from India. Again, quite old. I want.

This interesting bronze figure is the Hindu god Shiva, from the Chola dynasty, Tamil Nadu, India (from the twelfth century). From the information plate: "The Hindu god Shiva dances the universe into and out of existence. The sound of his drum heralds its creation; his burning flame signals its final conflagration. In his dance, Shiva tramples on the demon of forgetfulness, shown in the form of an infant. The cycle of time—past, present, and future—runs through the circle of flames within which he dances."

Beautiful.

This piece is the "famous monkey hero Hanuman" from South India and dates to the 1800's. According to the Hindu epic Ramayana, Hanuman helped the god Rama rescue his abducted wife Sita. Here Hanuman kneels with outstretched arms to show his devotion to Rama.

It was so dramatic I had to edit the background in black. I had no idea monkeys could be so serious.

However, I did go bananas (nyuck nyuck nyuck) over this guardian lion sculpture from 18th century Thailand.

According to the DAM: "The fiery colors and fierce roaring appearance of this massive lion indicate that he was one of the protectors of the temple, whose job it was to frighten away evildoers. "

I think I could use him on the farm to frighten away the possums, along with these gargoyles.

Notice the heads they're standing on? I think these are representative of the migranes caused by having one too many TPS sheets to worry about.

Just say'n.

I really admired this 19th century statue, called a Garuda (half bird, half man) from Bali.

This would make one heck of a scarecrow, oui?


Before my trip to the DAM I would have never known what a mandala was. In 1996 "three monks from Seraje Monastic University in southern India created a Hayagriva mandala at the Denver Art Museum. Hayagriva is regarded as one of the Great Protectors of Buddhism. The abbot of their monastery, Venerable Jampa Tegchhog, offered the sand mandala to the museum 'as a token of spiritual gift and as a basis of blessing and faith for the people of Denver and also to protect the people and environment from disease and natural calamities and evil elements.'"

Usually, when the monks complete the piece, they gather the sand and release it into the river as a way of releasing the prayers captured within the mandala. This is one of the few preserved mandalas in existance.

Of course, no trip to a museum is complete without the obligatory equine-related snapshots!

Stirrups:

Hunt Cap (just kidding--obviously some sort of scary-looking helmet thing. I don't know about you, but I think most of my horses wouldn't allow me to get close to them wearing this thing):

Ancient clay horse:

Another ancient clay horse (which to me, looks like the trinket in The Black Stallion):

Glazed horse (which I believe is around 1200 years old?):

Another ancient clay horse:

The spare parts section:

I hope you enjoyed today's tour. Tomorrow will be contemporary art.

And don't worry, folks. It's only a three-hour tour....

A three-hour tour....

American Art

This post is a combination of the art I saw during both my first and second visits to the Denver Art Museum.

It just occurred to me, though, that I haven't explained why I went to the DAM on both my trips to Colorado. Well, the first time it was to see the King Tut Exhibit. I wanted to go see it for my birthday, so my mom treated us (me, my youngest brother Chris and herself).

The second time I went to Colorado was for my brother Nick's college graduation. He graduated Magnum Cum Laude and received a special distinction honor--one of only two students in the college to receive the award! When my dad asked Nick what he wanted to do to celebrate his accomplishment the next day, he (surprisingly) said he wanted to see the King Tut Exhibit.

I had no idea he liked that stuff, too! So, we (me, brother Nick, his wife Lauren, and Dad) went to the DAM. But as I said before, I'm an Ancient Egyptoholic, so I didn't mind in the least. Actually, it was very cool because I got to read about a lot of the items I missed before because it was too crowded.

Anway, so that's why I ended up with so many museum pics. And I love museums, so I want to share. And it's my blog, so I do what I want. So there.

Ummm....sorry about that. Moving on....

First, the paintings! I really love early American painters. I wish I could have gotten a better picture of this one, but it was hung in an odd place, in sort of a living room set-up and I couldn't get the right lighting on it for my little point-and-shoot camera.

The wagon says "Pikes Peak or Bust," and the guy is laying under the wagon, dead from an arrow. One ox is also on the ground dead. The other poor ox is trying to hold up the yoke, while a curious bison inspects the scene. It is a depressing depiction, but I suppose I love it because it says so much.

The landscapes in this part of the museum were gorgeous.

They also had an entire exhibit dedicated to Charles Deas.

There were also artifacts in the museum, representative of the different cultures that have called America home, including the Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest.

There were even American artists, particularly of the western persuasion, in the contemporary art wing:

Contemporary art included furniture, and when I saw this chair, I fell in love.

Over the next few days I'll share a few more museum pictures with you. I promise, though, it there will only be a couple more posts on the subject.

All of a sudden, I heard a collective sigh of relief.

I always like to keep my audience riveted,