Bits of Randomness for Friday

Murphy Says, "Hi Everybody!"

Not much going on in these parts, so here are some random blatherings for your entertainment. To begin our randomness, I will relate a story that shows why I'll never achieve the Fearless status of my dear friend, Mikey. Why is Mikey "Fearless"? (Oh come ON! I know you read her blog!!) Shoot, the woman relocates rattle snakes. Tames large, fierce bulls. Crawls into small, confined, perfect habitat for scorpions and large spiders and snakes drain pipes to rescue puppies. Seriously. I think Mikey, whom I dubbed Wonder Woman, is totally fearless. (Hence the name of her farrier service, Fearless Farrier, now taken over by her trusting, long suffering and equally funny wonderful other half, Poor Wade.)

So we've established why Mikey is Fearless. Now we get to learn why yours truly is NOT.

Mikey likes snakes. She posts pictures of them being relocated by her, usually in flip flops, on her blog. Me? Not so much. See, where I grew up, if we saw a snake at all it was a big deal. Add in that the average size for a snake was MAX 12" long, and we have someone very undereducated about this particular type of slithering reptile.

Earlier this week, I took Dear Husband to work. Which involved a fairly early start to the day. The sun was shining, birds singing, and the temperature was actually under 100* for a few moments. As we left our driveway, headed sedately up the road, we all had an optimistic outlook for the day ahead.

I spotted something in the road ahead of us. Initially, I though, "Dang. That's a big stick. How'd it get there?" Then the awfully big stick MOVED. Y'all, I kid you not-- this moving stick was close to six feet long. It wasn't a stick. (Wasn't a gator either, which I suppose was good right?) It was in fact a nearly six foot long Water Moccasin. *gulp*

Now, Mikey wanted to know, "Did you get pictures at least? You sissy girl!" My thought was, "Pictures? Of an almost six foot long WATER MOCCASIN? Dude-- not enough drugs or money in the Universe for that move!"

See, for those of you who don't know these crabby things, Water Moccasins will CHASE you. They know no fear-- they will come AFTER you. In fact, a few years back, two 2' long ones chased Johnny Reb a couple hundred feet from the lake to the porch, where they became fish food with snake shot. They mean biz-ness.

I don't think good pictures could have been obtained, as muzzle flash tends to obscure photo ops.

(No, we did not stop. The snake was headed away from the lake, into the woods. Worked for Dear Husband and I, so we continued on our merry way.)

And that is why I am no where NEAR as tough as Mikey is.
Lutin, aka: Mommy's Little Dump Truck, or The Pregnant Gelding, got himself a new fly mask this week. Those dastardly gnats were making a mess of his beautiful eyes, and he was miserating over them. He thinks he is THE most handsome pony going now for sure.

Being the evil woman I am, I am just waiting... waiting.. as I know that someone, somewhere along the way, will ask, "Why on Earth do you have your horse wearing a blindfold?!"

My reply will be something along the lines of, "He is in training to be a Ninja Attack Pony. He needs to be able to operate confidently using just his senses of smell and hearing."


The Big Kahuna is doing well. He seems to think that he does not rate, because HE did not get a fly mask too. Spoiled. Plain rotten. Apparently, him getting extra feed four and five times a day does not count for much.

He is gaining. Poor guy- during this last hot spell, he miserated badly. We learned that while checking the water tank, it is an important step to hose of Kahuna. Who will stand next to the fence, look at the hose, look at you, back at the hose, back to you... and turn himself to the side so that you may wash off the sweat from his Royal Hide. Once one side is done, he will delicately turn himself, so that his other side can be rinsed. Deep sighs of contentment resonate from deep within his chest. And it is nothing for him to flash you a dirty look should you stop hosing him off before HE feels it is time to be done.

Told ya. This is one ROTTEN horse!

That's about it for the randomness. We had some interesting weather earlier, which was great. We are in dire need of rain, but I sure could have done with out the gumball to golf ball sized hail. It looks nice out right now, but according to the radar, more is on its way this evening. Works for me- more rain equals a chance HAY will grow.

I plan on posting for Memorial Day this weekend as well. The post will be slightly different from my usual Memorial Day posts, so be sure to stop in and read a tribute to an American Hero that meant a great deal to my family and I.

For now though, Happy Hoofin!
~MM