Cloud

Cloud got a new home last week-end. Cloud is Macy's 2 yo parakeet. She had always had a buddy, one died (post about my involvement in that incident in previous post) and Buddy, the replacement, flew away last summer. We are done replacing parakeets, so Cloud has been alone for almost a year now. My SIL has birds and takes in unwanted ones, so we asked her to take Cloud, and she graciously agreed. Saturday, Macy and I took Cloud to her new home, where all the birds are allowed to fly free. Cloud knew something was up, she preened and preened all day, cleaning each feather, puffing up, chirping to us all. She has been rather shy here, so I wondered how she'd be meeting the other birds, if she'd be intimidated. Not at all, she wanted to come right out of her cage and meet everyone, and talked away. She cannot fly well, we've never trimmed her wings, but she was very trimmed when we got her. She will fly down, Alan called her Petrie after the bird in Land Before Time who thinks he FLYED! Anyway, she would always come up to you to be picked up, and she always went to Macy's finger. We stayed and watched her get settled a bit, then Macy went to say good-bye. Cloud tried to get away from her, as if she thought she was being taken away. My SIL noticed this too, and I think we both sent a message to Cloud that Macy was just saying good-bye, because she did let her pick her up and give her a kiss before leaving. We're hoping Cloud fits right in and gets as big as the rest of the birds from all the exercise they get!

YES WE DID!

Back at Christmas, my sister, Tonia, out of the blue, turned to me while celebrating with our family and said, "Tim (our little brother) lives in Washington, DC, lets go to the Inauguration!" I said, "Let's go!" So we decided to take our daughters, mine, Amber, 12, and Macy 10, who's 11th birthday was the 20th, Inauguration Day and her daughter Shiann, 10, started making plans after New Year's and everything fell into place. We got cheap flights, a hotel and time off. We arrived in Washington DC at 8:45am on Saturday, January 17th after spending the night at a great hotel, Holiday Inn Express, in Manchester, NH.

We had a GREAT time in Washington! My oldest son, Ryan, lives an hour away, so he and his girlfriend came to visit Sunday. We had never met her, so that was very exciting! We all LOVED her! We all went to the concert at the Lincoln Memorial and ended up sitting right in front of a monitor without even standing in line! Some people had been lined up for 2-3 hours and still didn't get as good a spot! People had given up on the security check points and they were breached by the time we got there.

Macy has been bugging me for MONTHS to take her to a Jonas Brothers concert, I told her it would never happen because they don't come around here and we'd never get tickets. Well, they were playing at the Kid's Inaugural Concert on Monday night, day before her 11th birthday. I still didn't think they'd be able to go UNTIL I read a site that said it was for military families and my SIL works at the Pentagon. After that I was just sure she would be going, so packed her dress, shoes etc. and sure enough, my SIL got 2 tickets, one for her and one for one of the 3 girls, Amber, Macy or my niece Shiann. Well, Macy was the only one really crazy about the bands, so she got to go!!! She had a fantastic time. Best birthday present ever!


Tuesday, we decided to go to the Inauguration early, but to leave the girls home since it was 6:30, very cold and it would be HOURS before the inauguration. So my brother, sister and I hit the Metro and the trains were so crowded my brother just couldn't do that. So we decided to go back and celebrate with everyone somehow. Later, my sister and I decided to take a walk and see what was going on, so we checked out the Metro. The hallway leading into the Metro from the mall was filled with people, so we thought we shouldn't even try. We started back and then she decided she wanted to get a souvenior and we had to pass the Metro again, this time it was almost empty, so we checked it out. It seemed fine, so we ran back, got the girls and started out at 10:00 am to catch the 11:30 ceremony. We got right into the Metro, train arrived as we came down the stairs, walked on, plenty of room, talked to people and they told us to go right towards the Capitol when we got off, so we did. By then, the security barriers had been breached, so we ended up walking right up in front of the Capitol on the mall where we could see, although everyone was little and you couldn't tell who was who, but we were right under a speaker and could hear plain as day! It was awesome! It was Macy's birthday, and they spread a blanket on the lawn and everyone wished her happy birthday. I shared my binoculars and made lots of friends! One couple was from the east and had been to Deer Isle, Maine last year, best vacation ever, and the older gentleman beside me was from Philly and his son had gone to Bates here in Maine! So funny. The people on the subway were from CT and had been to Maine too. Everyone was in such a great mood, so happy to be there and helpful and patient. I've never experienced anything like that. Afterward, it was a little scary because they didn't open the Metro like they had said and people were confused and there wasn't anyone to direct you. It was a mob and it got scary for 10-15 minutes. We decided to go back to the Air & Space museum to warm up and regroup. Warmed up, used the bathroom, my sister met some women from Texas and Florida and became fast friends in the line to the potty! They sang Happy Birthday to Macy! She was wished a Happy Bday by two young men from India that had been standing in the mall for 7 hours and commiserated with the girls as they could remember going to events and being less than thrilled. They were very cute! We decided to walk back to Pentagon City over the 14th St. bridge, which was a great decision. There were many people on the same journey, still happy, no complaining, so orderly! Every color, shape, age, and sex! The city was a HUGE mess. Tonia started collecting lost mittens and is going to put them on line to see if anyone claims them! We could have collected scarves, blankets, even coats! The girls did a great job, we had Chinese food and got ready to go to the airport to fly home. There wasn't ANYONE at the airport! It was dead. We heard that most everyone tried to leave today and its a mad house! So, I have never been so convinced of the POWERFUL effect of positive thinking. We still can't believe how smoothly everything worked out for us. Its something I'll never forget, and after seeing the yearning of all these people to step up and contribute to fixing whats wrong with the country, I'm more sure than ever that we will come out of this better, stronger and a more perfect union. YES WE CAN!

We were crazy, but I'm so glad we did it!

First Real Snow

December 17th we had our first real snow. The horses were all snowy and frisky when I went down to feed in the morning, happy that the frozen ruts in the paddock were filled in enough to make a flat surface again! It wasn't much snow, but a reminder that winter is on the way.









How do they always know when you have carrots in your pocket?

New Links

Check out the new links I added to Radio/TV/Video and Favorite Blogs. If you haven't read Mugwump Chronicles, she's a great writer and also an artist.


Liz Graves is saddle maker Dave Genedik's partner, I would love to catch one of her clinics someday.



Carolyn Resnick's blog is great reading too.


I'm adding Anna Twinney to my list of Authors, Clinicians, she inspired me to take the Reiki course and I've had great success with that! She will be in Connecticut in July and I hope to be able to attend her clinic there. Most of the trainer's DVDs can be found on the Horse Flix rental list, I'm asking for a membership for Christmas!



I've listened to many good interviews on the Horse Talk Radio



and Rick Lamb's show.



I actually hooked up with one of the interviewee's on Lisa's show, she was discussing losing her horse to a vaccine reaction and I discovered she had moved from CO where she lived next to one of the authors of the book, "Acupressure for Horses" to Belfast, Maine and has gotten even more involved with holistic healing, too cool! There are many great resources on Lisa's site, I've learned so much from her shows.

Grand Adventures Ranch does Red-Light Therapy and also

uses herbal treatments to heal and has had good success with cancers in animals. For Love of the Horse

also has done extensive research trying to save his own horses from Insulin Resistance and resulting Laminitis. There's so much great information out there, and if you have a link you think I'd be interested in, let me know!

Christmas Critters

We had a little fun in the ice storm dressing the horses up like reindeer. I'm sure they were very impressed with our antics! Angel seems to love the lime light anyway, Princess Angel would be a more appropriate name I believe! Matches the personality of her owner, LOL! Click on the picture of Macy and Angel, look at the expression on Macy's face! Drama queen. Even Chase got in on the act!

Clown and Queen

We're having fun with the new kittens, they sure do liven up the place! I thought cats were supposed to be quiet, but these two sound like little elephants running around the house like mad critters! They are growing so fast and have such different personalities. The gray male, Mittens, is such a ham and love bug. When tired, he wants to be on your lap with front paws wrapped around your neck and nuzzling your chin and nose! Then climbs on your shoulders and rubs all over your face. Love me, love me! The female tiger and white, Bella (who always gets called Mini) disappears when she's tired and only comes out when you call her to get fed. Then she plays with such intensity til she wears herself out! She loves the little rabbit fur mice, carries them every where and just beats the stuffing out of them! She will let you hold her any way you want, will lay on her back, let you cradle her like a baby, but you usually have to intiate it. Mittens so wants to go outside, but Bella is scared. When Alan came down the stairs the other day, the two kittens were laying on a baby saddle pad on the landing and the parakeet was sitting on the basket right beside them! Don't know how she got all the way in there, had to fly or walk through the kitchen and down the hall to get to the stair landing, but there they were, just hanging out! We're postponing putting up a Christmas tree this year, Mittens has reprised Fancy's role as Catzilla in the little lighted village I put out every year, so I'm sure a tree with hangy things will be quite an attraction for them! Oh, and the cat hating husband insisted I come take a picture of Mittens sleeping the other day, coz "he looks just like me when I sleep!"

Spa Day

Tuesday I decided to scan and red-light Fly as I hadn't done that in a while. She didn't have very many areas to treat, which surprised me. She got so relaxed with the cap on, she quit eating, which never happens with Miss Bottomless Pit! She also had a couple of good stretches. I didn't get to work with her after due to time constraints. Since then, I've seen her bucking and kicking and generally acting like she's feeling GOOD! The next day, she actually ran out of her stall, which I need to address, but didn't expect because she's never done that before. Keeping my fingers crossed that she's getting sounder.

Update: I didn't have to address the rushing out of the stall issue, she hasn't done it again.

Grooming Revisited

Monday the 10th I put Fly in the stall to groom her and she was nippy/anxious again, though not as bad. I stepped back and just looked at her, wondering what was up. She showed me where she was itchy on her belly and I scratched it for her then proceeded to experiment with where her favorite places to be scratched were. I felt that was a productive use of our time. The I went and got the saddle and blanket and put them on the stall door. She didn't look too pleased about that, sniffed the saddle but no big reaction. I decided to start with the pad and put that on her then took her out for a walk/lesson. She did fine, wasn't bothered by the pad sliding around and me flopping it back on her. We walked up and down the driveway a couple of times and she was great about staying back and walking slowly and controlled downhill. We went and got the mail and finished for the day.