Filed under: Horses
I couldn’t understand why she wasn’t being so nice and then I found out it was “that time of the month.” Poor girl. I was trying to insist that she be in horse school and she wanted to go text her boyfriend across the fence.
It was a little dark when I took the picture of them sneaking a kiss, so I blurred it like one of those romantic wedding pictures.
Isn’t he a handsome guy? And yes, I have been spelling her name wrong all this time. Ya gotta love breeders and their fancy horse names.
Pulled in for a pit stop
We named it Humphrey. Isn’t that cute? Thomas is proud of his new carbon foot that has already imprinted our property. I can see how erosion could be a problem with ATV’s. His sister has been reluctantly agreeing to riding with him and has been engaging in extortion as well. He probably has agreed to feed her rabbit for a week, poor boy.
Our beautiful Arabian mare, Jasmin, arrived Monday. 
Here she is with her boy. Turns out that Thomas really likes horses, too. Who knew? It was never something we could really explore living in the city.
Each day since we ‘ve had her he has insisted on getting up early (generally anathema to teenagers) and helping me groom her and walk her around to get her acclimated to her new home.
You can see that she is quite beautiful; a very dark bay with a little star and a hint of a sock above her left rear hoof. More endearing than her goodl ooks, however, is her sweet (and sometimes mischievous) dispositio
n.
During the adjustment period where she’s getting used to her new digs, Thomas and I have just been leading her around after she’s done with her morning spa treatment. She’s so spoiled! Cocoa, our dog, is quite jealous. She thinks Jasmin is just a big dog getting all the attention that should be going to her. Cocoa is learning not to crowd her as she has been stepped on a couple of times. The last time was pretty sad because the horse had not a clue as to why this dog was yapping, seemingly in pain. Jasmin had a hoof just enough on Cocoa’s foot to keep her from being able to move. Cocoa was fine and didn’t even limp away. She acted like she was dying, though.
Filed under: Garden
The day we were moving into our new home I happened to pick up a paper which had an article in it about organic gardening. It suggested a technique for starting a garden without tilling first. Since our rototiller was had been given away in one of the many purges I forced on my dear husband and since we don’t have a tractor, I thought I’d give the idea a try. 
Using cardboard, mulch, manure and compost I am beginning to make layers. When it is 8 inches high, I will leave it alone for the duration of the winter and when it is time to plant, I should have some great soil to do it in.
I picked a spot on the south side of the house where the trees will provide some protection from the north and west winds.
My neighbors up the road raise alpacas and had some partially composted manure to donate. Now that we have Jasmin and the rabbits, we should produce manure of our own pretty quickly. It will go into a pile near the chicken coop and away from the horse. I’ll be counting on those chickens to keep the flies down. I think it will work w
ell since the pile will be close to the garden and easily accessible.
I’m looking forward to seeing how it turns out. It seems like a great idea because it will help us recycle all that cardboard from moving boxes, it should be effective at keeping weeds out and the soil should be wonderful.
…and I’m getting excited! Note the happy expression on the City Girl’s face. This picture was taken in front of Big R, a place I had never been shopping until about 60 days ago. I am holding a manure rake and a bareback pad. I feel like I’m adopting a baby. 🙂
Note the BlackBerry at the hip. There’s still some City Girl in there!
Filed under: Horses | Tags: Arabian Horses, horse, Jasmin, Quintessential Arabians
A friend of mine has a horse who needs more attention than she’s able to give her now and so when she heard I moved and have 40 acres of living space, she thought I might be able to help her out. What she didn’t know was that she was making a childhood dream, a dream that I gave up on a long ago, come true.
Being a city-girl my whole life, there was never a possibility of horse ownership. Now I have a pretty safe deal. My friend re-familiarizes me with what I need to know and I keep the horse as long as I want. If it’s too much work or I decide I don’t like the horse any more, she goes back to my friend. I’ve spent a few hours at my friend’s place getting to know the horse and I’ve even taken her for a short bare-back ride. I got on her from a stump that was about 8 inches off the ground. Boy, am I glad my husband didn’t have a camera then. I jumped on to her back and then my friend pushed me up the rest of the way. Just picture a 160 lb., 48 year old woman hauling herself onto a horse—but then again, maybe not. Some things shouldn’t even be imagined.
Part of my training involved going to a very informal Arabian Horse show at Quintessential Arabians, a local breeder. Since Jasmin, the 4 year old mare I hope to adopt, is 7/8 Arabian, my friend thought it would be a really good idea. So I took Thomas and we spent the whole day yesterday looking at beautiful horses. My favorite was this little yearling filly named Psylk Noir, “Silk” for short.
Isn’t she adorable? I learned that black is a rare color for an Arabian horse. Jasmin is black with dark brown in her flank and belly area. I don’t have a picture of her yet, but “Silk” gives you an idea of what she looks like. Just picture her three years older. Here are some more pictures I took yesterday. They were just a joy to watch. They were all so attentive, energetic and eager to please. They reminded me a bit of equine border-collies.
Silk and Stardance
Stardance
Filed under: Politics
…or rather, who needs to be voted out. I Googled it. It’s true. ‘Nuf said.
Filed under: Politics | Tags: bailout, economic crisis, economy, foreclosure, government bailout, subprime
This has nothing to do with farming but the economy affects everyone sooner or later. Although blaming is always so tempting because it relieves you of the burden of thinking, it is always more constructive just to take things as they are and figure out a way to solve the problem. I came across this idea from Dave Ramsey and thought I’d post it. It looks like a great solution to me.
The Common Sense Fix
Years of bad decisions and stupid mistakes have created an economic nightmare in this country,
but $700 billion in new debt is not the answer. As a tax-paying American citizen, I will not support any congressperson who votes to implement such a policy. Instead, I submit the following three-step Common Sense Plan.
I. INSURANCEa. Insure the subprime bonds/mortgages with an underlying FHA-type insurance. Government-insured and backed loans would have an instant market all over the world, creating immediate and needed liquidity.
b. In order for a company to accept the government-backed insurance, they must do two things:
1. Rewrite any mortgage that is more than three months delinquent to a 6% fixed-rate mortgage.
a. Roll all back payments with no late fees or legal costs into the balance. This brings homeowners current and allows them a chance to keep their homes.b. Cancel all pre-payment penalties to encourage refinancing or the sale of the property to pay off the bad loan. In the event of foreclosure or short sale, the borrower will not be held liable
for any deficit balance. FHA does this now, and that encourages mortgage companies to go the extra mile while working with the borrower—again limiting foreclosures and ruined lives.2. Cancel ALL golden parachutes of EXISTING and FUTURE CEOs andexecutive team members as long as the company holds these government-insured bonds/mortgages. This keeps under-performing executives from being paid when they don’t do their jobs.
c. This backstop will cost less than $50 billion—a small fraction of the current proposal.
II. MARK TO MARKET
a. Remove mark to market accounting rules for two years on only subprime Tier III bonds/mortgages. This keeps companies from being forced to artificially mark down bonds/mortgages below the value of the underlying mortgages and real estate.
b. This move creates patience in the market and has an immediate stabilizing effect on
failing and ailing banks—and it costs the taxpayer nothing.III. CAPITAL GAINS TAX
a. Remove the capital gains tax completely. Investors will flood the real estate and stock market in search of tax-free profits, creating tremendous—and immediate—liquidity in the markets. Again, this costs the taxpayer nothing.
b. This move will be seen as a lightning rod politically because many will say it is helping the rich. The truth is the rich will benefit, but it will be their money that stimulates the economy. This will enable all Americans to have more stable jobs and retirement investments that go up instead of down.
This is not a time for envy, and it’s not a time for politics. It’s time for all of us, as Americans, to stand up, speak out, and fix this mess.
If you think this is a good idea, pass it around to all your address book buddies and let your representatives know, too. You can do that easily at Congress.org.
The City Girl Farmer 