Wordless Wednesday - Faithful Companion

Annie

She has a soft, kind eye and a sweet personality.
Don't you just love those white eyelashes???

More to come on Annie in the next few days....

Macro Monday - Stalking Dragonflies

Our pasture has a good size pond that is teeming with life - frogs, turtles, fish, dragonflies and damselflies. I spent about an hour in the late afternoon stalking dragonflies.  It was difficult to get really good shots of them since they were flitting around, hunting bugs. The late afternoon light made their wings glow.

Sunday Stills - History

This week's Sunday Stills Challenge is History - This should be fun, this can be anything over 60 years old, people, places or things, or even events replicating over 60 years old…Have fun..  p.s. if you are over 60 you are not history yet..:-)

A bracelet that my grandfather gave to my grandmother when they were married in 1941

The inscription says "Jack to Mary 4/13/41"

My mom was born in 1942

A Victorian necklace that my mom purchased in Ireland in 1994

The necklace was made circa 1890

I wore this on my wedding day

View other Sunday Stills participants here.

Share the Road!

I don't normally rant on this blog but I'm going to today.  I live in a pretty small rural town.  We routinely encounter farm vehicles and tractors, ATVs, motorcycles and various forms of wildlife on the road.  Because the back roads are winding and hilly, it seems to be a favorite spot for cyclists.  The MS ride and the LiveStrong ride both come through our town.  Lance Armstrong even rode through with a police escort the first year the LiveStrong ride came to town.  Those rides are well marked and organized and for the most part the riders are courteous.  We simply avoid the race routes on race day and every goes their merry way.

The Lance-wanna-be's that ride around the area drive me nuts!!!!  For some reason, they seem to think that a bicycle gives you free license to ride where you want.  We've even had a cyclist pull out in front of our truck hauling a loaded horse trailer with no reguard to the fact that a vehicle was on the road and she rode in the middle of the lane.  

Case in point:

I apologize for the poor quality but I took this with the cell phone through the windshield.  This is a group of about 30 riders that I was behind for about 2 miles prior to me taking this pic.  I drove slowly and gave them their space.  Some of them were courteous and moved over to the side of the road but most did not.  What makes you think that it's perfectly ok to not only ride in the middle of the road in a group but to ride in the oncoming lane???????

If I was walking on foot, jogging, walking the dogs, or riding my horse, I obey the rules of the road and give the cars the right of way, stay to the side and ride/walk single file.  I ride and hike on multi-use trails locally and always make way for the fellow users of the trail.

Cyclists, for crying out loud, SHARE THE ROAD before you become part of it!

OK, rant over...enjoy your day :o)

Skywatch Friday - Season 4, Episode 50

Sunset over the horse pasture, earlier this week

View skies from all over our planet at Skywatch.

Stahl's Pottery Summer Festival

On Saturday, we visited Stahl's Pottery 23rd Annual Summer Festival in Zionsville, PA.  I had seen ads in the small local papers last year and this year so we decided to check it out.  Craig and T collect face jugs and I love rustic pottery so I thought it would be something that we would all enjoy.

From Stahl's website:
Stahl redware, a traditional Pennsylvania German style of pottery, was first produced by Charles Stahl from approximately 1850, until his death in 1896. Upon his death, his sons Thomas and Isaac took over the family business. The brothers continued making pottery until 1902, when the small family-run business found that it could not compete with mass-production pottery manufacturers....Pottery-making began in 1934 at the current site of the Stahl Pottery.   You can read more of the history of Stahl's here.

The Potters displaying their wares

The stone barn

The kids wheel (on the left) and the Kiln (on the right)

The outside temperature was in the 90s so I didn't get too close to the kiln

The potting shed

Some of the wares available for sale

This was by far my favorite artist, Andy Loercher, of Folk Art Pottery in Redware in Lancaster, PA.  I just loved all of his designs and the colors that he used.  He was very friendly and a real pleasure to talk to.  Andy's pottery is also in the lower left of the collage above.

I found a local artist, also in Zionsville, that makes horse hair pottery, Pottery by Bachert.  The pottery is molded, sanded, and fired.  When the pot is removed, the hair is added while the pot is hot.  The hair carbonizes and leave marks on the pottery.  When Jet died, I clipped pieces of his mane, hair and forelock.  I did the same with Diego when he died 2 years ago.  I would like to have a piece of pottery made, maybe with hair from both of them.  I will be contacting Pottery by Bachtert to see what my options are.

We didn't buy anything on Saturday but plan on going back for the October show and I took business cards from several artists that I liked including Andy Loercher.  It was fun to see something new and discover local craftsman.

Wordless Wednesday - Smiling Girl

Riding Again

When Jet died, I wasn't sure that I wanted to ride again.  He was my lead horse and the one that I trusted completely.  Zip is a much more high strung personality and I felt like we didn't really know Kali well enough to know what she was capable of.  I felt a bit lost, like I had lost my riding guide.  I shook myself off and made a decision to ride this past weekend.  I wanted to see if I still loved riding as much as I used to.  We've all decided as a family to kind of go back to basics so we're taking it easy and reinforcing the basics.  Plus it's very hot here (high 80s and 90s) so no one wants to do anything too strenuous.

Me on Kali with the sheepskin bareback pad

(please ignore my very white legs that don't see the light of day too often)

T on Zip

(don't let the jeans fool you, she had shorts with her and went in the creek after we rode)

A quick switch and I was on Zip

We worked on lots of stopping plus walk/trot transitions, 

a little bit of weaving the cones and ring spear

T tooled around on Kali

She's like sitting on a couch

Backlit

My next goal is to ride Zip with just the bareback pad and the English bridle with the pelham bit.  We have never ridden him bareback so it should be interesting.  All in all, it was a good ride for horses and riders and it reminded me why we do all of this.  I am looking forward to more ride time and hopefully some trail time.

Macro Monday - Pretty Girl Bling

Sunday Stills Challenge - Go Low, Looking High

This week's Sunday Stills Challenge is Go Low, Looking High - This may be a bit of a challenge to those folks who can’t get down to ground level so get creative and look for things at waist or shoulder high and shoot up from there.

The bank barn at the farm

The silo attached to the barn

A native cedar tree in the pasture

The horses use this as an itching post and to get the bugs off

Click here to view other Sunday Stills Participants.

The Brenda Photo Challenge - Bedtime

I can across this photo challenge on Retired and Lovin' It and thought I would give it a try.  I have found that photo challenges give me an opportunity to look at every day things differently. 

The Brenda Photo Challenge is Bedtime.  I wanted to look for things that weren't so obvious.

Kali dozing in the sun at last week's show

Farm dog at the Kutztown Produce Auction

Miniature horse foal, Kutztown PA

View other Challenge participants

Skywatch Friday - Season 4, Episode 49

Late afternoon clouds and sun at the hay farm.

We stopped to pick up a bale of hay and the sky was picture-perfect.

View skies from all over our planet at Skywatch.

Snacking on Corn

I was going to post this late last week but then things took an abrupt shift.  These pics are so bittersweet for us now that Jet is gone.  This was my herd of three snacking on fresh corn a few days before he died.  Jet loved the corn cobs the most but would eat everything.  Zip prefers just the cob and the juicy kernels but will eat the husks after he's finished with everything else.  Kali just preferred the husks and would share with Jet.

Wordless Wednesday - Working the Fields

Saturday's Show

Saturday was Buxmont's third gymkhana of the season.  It was a tough one because we had hoped to bring Jet along with Kali.  T was the leader in year end points on both Zip and Kali so she didn't want to miss a show.  She works really hard getting ready for the shows and wants to do the best she absolutely can so missing it wasn't really an option.  She did really well including a first in barrels and she added 18 more points to her year end total.  T and Kali are working towards becoming a really good team.

Warming up

Ring Spear

Barrels

I love this picture.  Kali has no feet on the ground.

Speed and Action - Kali didn't do well on this one. 

She was trying to guess the pattern and was confused as to what direction she was supposed to go. 

They are doing great considering this is only the third show together.

Birangle

Life goes on

A heartfelt thank you for everyone's support in the loss of Jet.  It totally sucks but life does indeed go on.  I have a child who is grieving in her own way, a husband, a job, and other critters that need attention and care.  Zip and Kali are adjusting to being a pair and we will adapt to the hole that Jet left in our lives.  We had a horse show on Saturday afternoon which was all the more difficult in that we were planning on bringing Jet along with Kali for that show.  We were a little concerned that Zip would be ok by himself but he did just fine.  We got home about 10 PM.  It was hot and humid with a mist over the pond and thousands upon thousands of fireflies.  It was pretty cool to be able to stand in the mist shrouded pasture with the two horses in the dark.  T gave Zip a big old hug which I'm sure will help to heal her heart. 

Thank you again to everyone.

Macro Monday - In Memory of Jet

One of my favorite pics of Jet that I took last summer.  I liked it so much I used it on my business cards.  It really captured him well.

It has been a very tough weekend since Jet died on Friday.  He was fine one day and gone the next.  Please bear with me as my world sort of rights itself again.  We had a horse show on Saturday afternoon so I tried to focus all of my energy on that.  It sucks because T was planning on bringing Jet to that show.  I'll post show pics once I get through them all.