Three Hours

I love the quilting on this one!

fun Machine binding

a Semi pieced back

All of this was done in three hours. I love it! These were just simple coins that I sewed together super fast and easy.

Sampler

I got this stack for Christmas and made a cute sampler with it, I need to take a picture of it before I send it to the longarm. This was a fun wuilt to make, I made a lot of different stars that I haven't made before. I just used a bunch of different 12" blocks I got some ideas from this quilt along but I only made about three of her blocks.It ended up being about a double size quilt that will probably end up on my bed.

My life

My Family ~ December 2011

Hello Everyone! I am still alive I promise! Hopefully I will post more regularly in the next little while, I have several quilts and such to show you, but first I need to take pictures of them, so you get horses today :)

He looks like a up-side-down duck!

Our colt is starting to get big, or Bailey's getting big sp hopefully that means that the colt is getting big! (the picture was from a while ago, around September I think) She is starting to eat a ton, but after all, she's always eating a ton so I don't know how acurate that is!
On another horse note I recently read "the man who listens to horses" This book was really interesting. and I really enjoyed it. I don't necessarily agree with everything that he says, but it made me think about the whole way I communicate with horses. I love his website . Eventually, when I have internet I would like to suscribe to his Equus University His methods are practical and useful, I've tried some of his exercises, but it is kind of hard without a round pen, but I would love to learn about more of his exercises and training methods.



Here is a great example of his method, the 'join-up.' So much better than the conventional way of 'sacking out'

Oh, and Fanny is doing a-maz-ing. I am so grateful that she is doing well. She is back on alfalfa and is running around the pasture with Bailey like she was 5 again.

On another note our house is coming along wonderfully. We are hoping to start digging in the next few months. We just turned in the paper work for the loan this week. So we should be set! I am so excited.

I hope that spring is on the way, the horses are shedding pretty good so hopefully we're close! We have been blessed and have had a fairly mild winter.

Olivia

Capstone

This week I was able to attend a week long mock legislature "capstone." We have done the day long one "Stonesetters" but this was the first year that I have been able to do the week long one. I really liked it and I can't wait to go back next year! I learned so much in just four days, it is amazing! The last day(friday) there was an optional public speaking class. I was able to go to that and it was really good, but scary at first!! We had to give five impromptu speeches ranging from 30 secoonds to 3 minutes!
We all had to write and debate our bills among other things. I had to debate mine in comittee and on the house floor. The boys only had to debate them on the house floor(one day isn't enough time!)

The videos won't load but I will try later...

Christmas Baby!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope that everyone had a very merry Christmas. I love this time of the year to remember the birth of our Savior.

Anyway! My Aunt Francine had her baby on Christmas day. We were able to go and see her the next day. She is so darling! Yeah! Another girl cousin.

Laila Mae
born December 25, 2011
at 5 am

Darn it! I forgot to take a picture of the quilt I gave her. Anyway, it was really cute!

Life is Never Dull on the Farm

     These last few days have been an adventure! And life is certainly never dull on the farm. I am blessed to praise God every day for all that he has given me. My life is certainly amazing and I would not trade it for anything.

     However, that does not mean that things will never come do discourage me. Last week Fanny choked fairly severely. Our amazing vet rushed out to resolve it and pump her full of drugs. We put her on a pellet/mash diet and started the waiting game.

     The next morning she had choked again. Bad news! The vet came out again that night and we repeated the process of resolving her. Which includes sedating her then we pass a nasogastric tube through her esopohogas down to the point where the blockage is. Then you flush it out with lots of warm water until the blockage breaks down and then you suck it all back out through the tube. The first night we were doing it for about an hour and a half and the second night it was for about forty-five minutes.

     The vet suspected a stricture in her esophogas with lots of scar tissue from previous chokes. You can feel a large lump in her esophogas which could be a number of things. The two most likely are either it is a melanoma or a lymph node. She has melanoma pretty bad, 99% of Grey horses get them at some point in their lives, however they don't usually go internal unless they get really bad. And it is a deffinate possibility because of Fanny's age.

     So, we took her off of all feed for 24 hours. Thankfully she didn't choke during that time. She also drank lots of water. YES! When I fed her that night a mixture of Equine Senior and wheat bran mixed with lots of warm water to create a soupy consistency. She drank it all really great and didn't choke or show any signs of choking.

     She is still doing great today, several days later. She is on some SMZ's which is a sulfa drug. I have to give those to her 2x a day. It is the same stuff that Bailey was on when she stepped on the nail. She is also on banamine which is a pain drug. I haven't given it to her for a couple of days though.  I am also giving her some probiotics every day because they are kind of brutal antibiotics.

All of her drugs. I have used like 1 1/2 bottles of Molasses. Now I am going to try Kool-Aid.
Anything to hide the antibiotics! I have also used 2 syringes of probios. and already a bottle of antibiotics.
Plus all the wheat bran and Equine Senior! AHHH!

  
  She will be one the 'soup' diet for about another week, then we will start introducing hay back to her. That's where I'm worried but we will have to wait and see.

Another thing, She was diagnosed with Cushing's disease. A complex disease in which the body over produces steroids. This causes an overlong thick shaggy & curly coat, excessive thirst, muscle wasting, wight loss and excessive sweating among several other things. The condition causes pain not to be felt as much. But they are more prone to things like hoof abscesses lamnitis (founder) and other things, but they don't feel it, so conditions can fester and get really bad without anybody even noticing. Similar to a diabetic human. She isn't too bad yet and there is a medication available but it is expensive so, we don't really know yet. We're just trying to get her over her choking problem, and then we"ll worry about the Cushings.

     The outlook certainly didn't look good for a couple of days. But God is very generous, and we are blessed to still have Fanny with us, even if it's only for a couple more days, or weeks, or months.

Jared's Ordination

Last Sunday we were able to go to Boise to see my darling little cousin Aubrey get blessed. Afterwards, we had dinner at my Aunt's house and we ordained Jared to the office of a deacon.

My parents with Jared

My Grandma and Aubrey

All the grandkids!

Brooks and I hanging out

Jared with all the men that stood in the circle while he was ordained

Jared blowing out his candles

Prelude in E minor

Happy Birthday!

I went a little wild with the pie decorating!

Happy Birthday to my Momma last week, I love you!

Delicious White Bread

We use this recipe for everything! You can use it for breadsticks, pizza dough, rolls, rasin bread, cinnamon rolls, etc. We make it in our bosch but, we used to make it in our bread machine. You could probably make it in a kitchen aid too.

White Bread

3tbs yeast
4 C hot water
3/4 cup sugar

Mix, then add

6 C flour
1/4 ish cup of oil
1/2 tsp salt

Mix well then add
6 C of flour

Mix, check consistancy mix 10 minutes

Shape into loaves or whatever you're going to do with it. Let it rise 20-30 minutes then bake at 350 for 20ish minutes. As soon as they are out of the oven smother the top of the loaves(or rolls) with shortening and put a dish towel on top of them, if you do this it makes the crust soft!

For Rasin Bread add some extra sugar for sweetening, with about 3 cups of rasins(more or less depending on how many you like) with a couple of teaspoons of cinnamon.

For cinnamon rolls just add extra sugar to make them sweet and roll and fill to your preference.
This usually will make 4 loaves of bread, or a pan of rolls and 2 loaves of bread etc.
Mixing for 10 minutes will eliminate the need to knead it.
You can also use honey instead of sugar, wheat flour instead of white, or half of each. You can use shortning instead of oil(it works the exact same) it is just not as healthy. I usually use canola oil, but any kind works.

Forgiveness

This poem was in the November 2011 New Era, it is a good reminder that none of us are perfect and that we all need to forgive others.

Forgiveness

By Sidni Masoncup

To forgive
 is not to forget.

To forgive
is really to remember,

That nobody is perfect,

That each of us stumbles
When we want to much to stay upright,

That each of us say things
 we wish we had never said,

That we can all forget that love
 is more important than being right

To forgive
is really remember,

that we are so much more
than our mistakes,

That we are often more kind and caring
than we really think we are

That accepting anothers flaws
can help us accept our own.

To forgive
is to remember,

That the odds are pretty good
that we might soon
 need to be forgiven ourselves,

That life gives us more
than we can handle gracefully.

To forgive
is to remember.

That we have room in our hearts,

to begin again,

and again,

and again.

This Winter

Last Year, I posted what feed I had the horses on. And beware. It may get really boring really fast. If you are bored just skip it all. I don't mind at all. I could go on for pages and pages.

So, here's for this winter.

1. My horses stay on pasture until snow flies or the grass gets so bad that it isn't of any nutritional value and then I put them on hay, I take them off of it as soon as possible. Usually when the grass starts growing again. I believe that this is the most natural approach to horse keeping. Horses in the wild eat pasture all the time and dried grass(that's in the pasture!) in the winter which they had to dig for.
2. My horses don't get grain unless they need it. Fanny only got it last winter because of her emanciated condition. Now, she is doing pretty well and I'm not even planning on giving her anything besides hay this winter. I don't give my horses grain during the summer unless they absolutely need it. Bailey is on it right now only because she is pregnant. If she wasn't I wouldn't be giving it to her.
3. Hay. I have mixed feelings about hay. Meaning what kind to feed. Grass is obviously more natural(their natural diet) but I love alfalfa too. We are feeding alfalfa this winter though. If I had a choice I would probably feed Fanny grass and Bailey alfalfa. But we trade a guy horse boarding for hay. He is getting alfalfa this winter. Fanny is overwieght so that is why I would give grass to her. Bailey is kind if fat too but she will have higher nutritional demands this winter, which also means less grain!
4. Grain. Again! I like feeding single whole grains if possible. i.e. Oats, Corn, Barley etc. by themselves. Because it is much more natural. However, I am a stickler for pellets too! (How can you like both???) I like pellets because there is so much more in them! So I am much less likely to feed a vitamin supplement. They are also designed for specific needs and lifestyles. My favorite brands are Nutrena and Purina . Nutrena is probably a little bit of better quality but it is also more expensive.
5. Supplements. I don't feed any supplements unless I feel that it is neccesary. Last winter I gave Fanny MSM. I still might give it to her this winter, just because her joints get pretty stiff during the winter. In general, horses really don't need any supplements unless they have a specific condition.
6. Salt. I offer a Trace mineral block free choice all the time. I just keep it in a tire rim, which allows it to drain pretty well. I don't reccomend keeping them on the ground unless you have a lot of horses(or cows) on them at one time so that they get 'licked up' pretty fast.
7. Feet. I keep my horses barefoot unless I am riding them a lot at the time. I got them trimmed once by a guy who does the Pete Ramey method. and it was good, and very natural. However, I usually just go to our normal farrier who also shoes them when they need it. He jsut does one of those 'flat hoof' trims. They work just fine and are cheaper!
8. Holistic Vets. I would love to have a holistic vet. but I don't. My vet is awesome though. they are really flexible for what you feel is right for your horse. They have been really great with everything that we have had to do with Bailey. Between breeding her and her stepping on the nail.
9. Wormer. I don't do anything natural with my wormer. I've heard that the majority of natural wormers don't even really do anything(including herbal ones). So, yep, I just stick with good 'ole ivermectin. I usually give it to them every 8 weeks except in the winter when it is cold and the parasites can't survive anyway and then I just do it every 3 or 4 months.
10. Vaccinations. I give Tetanus and West Nile for sure every year. I usually give Influenza, EHV 1 &4, EEE, and WEE every other year. I try not to worm them and vaccinate them in the same week because they both depress the immune system slightly, and when you combine them you can get allergic reactions a lot easier. I learned this the hard way. I accidently vacinated bailey at the same time as I wormed her and she usually never has a reaction, but oh boy. She had a pretty big one that time.

Bailey:

• I haven't started her on hay yet. In fact I don't even have it yet. She's just on pasture still.
• Right now I have her on 1 part Purina Senior to 2 parts Purina Strategy. Which equals to 1/2 quart Senior and 1 quart Strategy per day. This works pretty good. In my area Senior is about $23 per bag(50lbs) and Strategy is about $17 per bag(50lbs)
• As soon as I am out of this stuff I am planning on switching her to just 1 1/2 quarts Nutrena SafeChoice per day. This is a bit cheaper and simpler! SafeChoice is an awesome feed! It is kind of similar to Purina's Strategy GX but better in my opinion! SafeChoice is about $17 per bag(50lbs) in my area.
• When she hits month 8 of the pregnancy I am planning to add about 1 quart of oats to her daily ration. A 40lb bag of oats is about $7 in my area.
• She gets a EHV 1 + 1b vaccination at months 3, 5, 7, and 9 of her pregnancy. This is to prevent her from getting EHV(Equine Herpes Virus) during her pregnancy which causes abortion. I would only do it at months 5, 7 and 9 but I live in a high risk area. So my vet recommended doing it at month 3 too.

Fanny: 

• Poor horse. She doesn't get any grain. Except for when I let her lick the bucket after I am done graining Bailey :) She's like a dog!
• Depending on how she's doing I might give her a small amount(like less than half a quart) of SafeChoice with some MSM in it to her for her joints since I have a bunch left over form last year and it is still good.

     I am horrible at feeding hay. All the 'good' horse owners get nice hay bags or racks and feed 2+ small meals a day. But me, I just go throw a bunch over the fence(usually once a day) in different places so that Bailey doesn't hog it all and so that Fanny can get some. When it's gone I give 'em some more. Why? Mainly partially because I'm lazy, but also because I believe that it is more natural than some other ways. Horses are naturally foragers. They find food and they are constantly eating. For a animal that wieghs 1000 lbs they have relatively small stomachs. So yeah, the good horse owners just feed several small meals every day. But I just let them eat as they want it. I do give some restrictions on alfalfa though because they can get really fat really fast on thet stuff. But besides that, even with a mixed hay for the most part I just give it to them free choice.

Yep, I'm pretty sure I lost you somewhere in there. I told you it would be boring...

Salt Lake City ~ The best Halloween EVER!

We are in Salt Lake this week for fun. Today has been amazing!

This is what {the organ} looks like from a distance.

     First, we went to a Organ Recital in the Tabernacle, well afterwards, the performer, Brother Unsworth came up for questions. I wanted to ask him some questions so we went up. Well, we talked for a little while and after learning that I was learning the organ, he asked us if we wanted to look at the {giant} organ up close. Of course, I had to say yes! Pretty soon he asked if I wanted to sit on it and then if I wanted to play it!!!! I got to play 2 hymns, oh boy. That thing is massive!

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge.

The beautiful Salt Lake Temple

After this we were able to go and do baptisms for the dead in the Salt Lake Temple. It was super cool! I love the temple.

Now that we have found the camera cord...

...you can see some pictures that I have taken and edited over the Summer.

The boys playing in the treehouse!

I loooooove this picture! It looks like I have a lot of horses in it though!

These are the geldings. You can only really see one though, the other one is behind him.

You've gotta love Caleb!

The same gelding, but in a clearer view. He is soooooo pretty. I love his flaxen mane and tail(it's hard to see it in this picture)!

My calf is such a goofball!

this is the other gelding with Fanny. (Fanny is the white grey one!)

This is just a closer view of the other gelding. Nothing special about this picture, but now you know what he looked like up close.

All about my life for this semester!

My life has been pretty busy of late. So many things seem to be going on!

• The calves are doing great and are so fun! We let them out into the pasture today and they loved it! They are such goofballs! We are weaning them in a few weeks too!
• I am taking another class from Williamsburg Academy. It is an amazing political literature class. We are reading some pretty cool books! There is a lot of writing involved which I am pretty bad at, but, it is good practice!
• We got the geldings sold! Yeah! they were really nice and everything but what were we going to do with two more horses?(Race horses I might add!)
• Bailey is pregnant with one baby now! Yeah! It is a colt if you didn't already know. I am so super excited! Our best guess is it will be a palomino! I love those! They are so pretty! The only problem is we have a huge family reunion in California 3 days after she's due, so...yeah. I think I'm going to talk Kristen into keeping her while we are gone(whether she has foaled or not)!
• Fanny is doing good...still really fat and still need ridden...
• Last tuesday we canned 150 quarts of peaches with our very best friends in Dietrich! It was a long day, but super fun! 50 of them were ours too! We had one for dinner today! Delish!
• We made a bunch of plum freezer jam today! We have two trees at the land that we pruned and sprayed in the spring and we are just getting the fruits of our labors!The jam is so delicious! And we have lots more still to make.
• We bought two boxes of pears to can today!
• When our apples come in season we want to make apple sauce and apple butter. We also have lots of tomatoes that we are probably going to can too! I am soooooo excited!
• I am doing a home study for seminary, starting a year early, it doesn't count toward graduation, but it is still really good!
• Jared and I are doing Jr. High XC for Richfield. It has been good, but hard! The races are really challenging, but they have gotten easier as we have gone along. We only have one more meet! YAY!!!

Me at the finish of my first race

Jared at the finish of the same race

Our little team after the race.

• I have started organ lessons in twin! I love them! they are so much fun! It is really hard and way different then it seems! But it is a good challenge! It is amazing how different the Organ really is from the Piano.
• All four of us have started participating in a handbells choir! It is so fun! Right now we are working on some Christmas songs for our Christmas Concert.
• I am still working hard on the piano. I have really improved and really enjoy it. The classical music on my playlist is music that I am either learning to play, or, I already can play.
• Jared and I are going to a local Commonwealth School in Twin. I am taking an Economics and Biology class and Jared is taking a American History class and biology with me. The history class is the same one I took a couple of years ago. Both of my classes are really fun! Handbells is also in the morning the same day of class in the same building. We have to leave at about 7.30 am on Fridays to get to Handbells before class and then we get home at about 5 pm! It is a really long day but so worth it!
• I haven't been sewing lately...my sewing machine was in the shop for a week because it stopped working and I have been trying to study more than sew! But, I did make a skirt last week with my mom's machine. We lost our camera cord so I'll show you some pictures later. Oh, I also made a super cute bag in July, I'll have to show you sometime...

I'm sure that there is something that I'm forgetting but, this is all I can remember for now. Enjoy the rest of General Confrence!!