Mar

29

My Old Friend

Filed Under dogs | 6 Comments


1995-2009

My Bradley boy passed away yesterday.

He was the best thing that ever happened to me, and while I know he had a good long life, I still feel like a big chunk of my heart’s been ripped out.

Rest in peace, Brow boy. I love you.

Mar

16

Dungeon Master

Filed Under cats | Leave a Comment


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This is our crazy little barn cat, Ina. She started life as a feral cat but was caught and rehomed with my sister’s family. She was a little, uhh, intense for that life. Ina likes to tackle things and torture things and that didn’t mix so well with a toddler (who’s spent the majority of her life terrified of animals), so Ina got moved to our barn.

We were in desperate need of a barn cat and had more mice than I could shake a stick at. And believe me, I am practically a professional stick-shaker.

Ina took care of the mice in a short time. Or maybe they just moved out after they heard about the beast that tortured their kind of 20 minutes before finally eating them.

Somehow, though, I think that Ina ate her fair share of them.


No, this is not an Orca. It’s Ina!

Ina doesn’t stop at torturing mice, though. She chases and swats Olio any time he sets foot in the barn. She sits in Santana’s grain bucket when he’s trying to eat and swats at him (he also bites at and slobbers on her, so he’s not exactly innocent).

She’s taken to riding the horses around at night, sitting where their blankets bunch up by their withers. I’ve asked her to actually do some training work while she’s up there, but so far no such luck.

Mar

15

La Cocina De Kalin: M&M Pretzel Thingies!

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I received some recent criticism from someone who shall remain anonymous but may have just given birth in regards to La Cocina De Kalin. Or rather, the food that is featured in La Cocina De Kalin. This person expressed some concerns because I’m included in a group of chefs who will be preparing food for this person and her family.

So the last post was not completely (or at all) appetizing. I’m making that up to you now with these super easy, super tasty little morsels:


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INGREDIENTS
Waffle/criss cross pretzels
Hershey’s Kisses (in whatever flavor you like)
M&M’s

PROCEDURE
1) Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, preheat oven to about 300 degrees.
2) Lay out pretzels in a single layer on the parchment paper. Try to use the full pretzels, not the chipped ones.
3) Unwrap all the kisses and put one in the center of each pretzel.
4) Pop in the over for a few minutes, keeping an eye on the chocolate the whole time. I like to mush them with a knife a little to see if they’re soft enough. They have to be melted enough to smoosh out when you press the M&M into the center, but not so melted as to get overcooked.
5) Pull out the cookie sheet, press an M&M into the center of each kiss.
6) Let cool completely in the fridge (or cold back porch, if you have one).

I made these at Christmas time with the candy cane kisses (white chocolate and peppermint bits) and red and green M&M’s. They were delish and super cute to boot. This time I used caramel kisses and regular M&M’s.

The salty & sweet combo is hard to beat. They make great gifts and are quick and easy to make.

Mar

14

Nap Time

Filed Under horses, tennessee walkers | Leave a Comment


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Santana has started taking afternoon naps while out in the pasture. Apparently his life of leisure (current schedule: waking up in the morning, getting fed, being turned out in the pasture to play and eat, being taken inside and fed again, sleeping) is tuckering him out. Not that I’m judging, because lawsie mercy do I love a good nap myself.

While it’s not totally unusual for a horse to nap out in the open during the day, it’s not completely common, either. After all, it leaves them vulnerable to predators like wolves or bears or mountain lions or equine photographers.


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Mar

13

Grammy and Emmeliese

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As some of you know, my grandma passed away on Sunday. We got to spend a lot of time with her in the past months and weeks, which is something I think we’ll all always cherish. Grammy was an extraordinarily gracious and classy lady and a world class hostess. She also made some fantastic deviled eggs and meat loaf. And iced tea and fried macaroni & cheese.

One story my sisters like to remind me of is during one of my birthdays when I was but a wee little tyke. I had received an (anatomically correct) plastic model bull and I made sure to expound on my newfound expertise of bovine anatomy to Grammy. Little did they all know that I would grow up to major in agriculture and blog about basically the same thing on the internet.

We will all miss Grammy lots and lots, but I know we’re all so grateful for the great times we had together.


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On the other end of the spectrum is Emmeliese’s arrival early Tuesday morning. She’s April’s third child and my fourth niece. She ended up having to arrive via c-section, which was not planned but if there’s one thing we support in this family, it’s independent thinking.

Mar

4

Wordless Wednesday: Hunting as a Pack

Filed Under horses, tennessee walkers | 3 Comments

Mar

2

Fun with Arabians!

Filed Under horse shows, horses | Leave a Comment

This rather horrific video is from a regional Arabian show a number of years ago. The clip is 6 minutes, 47 seconds long which means that I walked into the arena at about 7 minutes, 15 seconds. The arena was empty and they hadn’t started the next class, so Mom and I took our seats and wondered why the heck nothing was going on.

A lot of people seem to make woulda/coulda/shoulda-type comments after seeing this video, but if you’re honest with yourself, you don’t know what the heck you’d do unless you were put into that situation.

No horses or people died or were seriously hurt, though several were taken to the hospital. In fact, at the nationals championship show, people had “I survived the Region XI Driving class” t-shirts.