Month: October 2020

My Weekly Smile; Oct. 28, 2020

On By DianaIn Barn stories, weekly smile12 Comments
Welcome to my weekly smile! I have a lot to smile about this week! Let’s start with a trail ride!

What makes you smile? I am smiling because today my best friend in the whole wide world rode my horse Chloe while I rode Zack back to the stables I had been boarding at for years! I am so excited to be back as I was missing all my riding buddies. The only stalls they had open are two barn stalls. One barn stall has a run or paddock out the back which costs more money each month but gives Chloe more room. She is a big girl and needs this extra space. The other barn stall is just a box with no run. Zack will get turned out every day so he should be fine in this stall. The price is less since it doesn’t have the run and is right across the aisle from Chloe. He can see her, but not touch her but it’s all good. They will get turned out together daily with trail rides sprinkled in during the week. It’s the only stalls available and I am on a waiting list for outside pens should a couple become available. 😀

We are making our way down the trail to my original boarding facility. They were perfect!

I sure miss the trails. I stopped going out because it isn’t as fun by myself and so my friend and I mostly ride in the arena. Her horse has been retired from trails since she has been tripping, and the trips are bad to her knees. So, it just isn’t safe for her and I was happy to oblige as I don’t mind the arena riding, I just rather enjoy the trails a bit more. I am smiling as I think my ponies made the move well, and have settled in the new stalls. I have been feeding them a calming supplement which has natural calming ingredients for the last week and will continue feeding for the next few weeks. This will help them completely settle into their new home. Even though this stable is their original home for many years, they are in completely different stalls. There will definitely be an adjustment period!

This photo is from a year ago and am sharing because of the barn in the back.

I will take more photos but the first window closest to Zack on the barn in the background is Zack’s stall. Chloe’s is across from him which you can’t see in the photo. Zack was a bit nervous as there are only two ways to see out, the back window and over the door. I am praying he will settle in and enjoy the stall until a bigger outside paddock opens up. They will stay warm and dry in these nice stalls. I am incredibly happy the move went smoothly and that all is well at the barn! 😀

Looking around and Chloe was busy eating but looked up for a quick photo!

You know I take tons of photos so I will share more this weekend. My best friend didn’t want to take the other box stall and decided to move her horse about five houses down from where I am at to a nice stables that the stalls have full roofs. They are pipe corrals with full roofs which is different than a barn. Anyways, I will probably take some photos of where Gracie is living just because that will be fun to share too! Our very tiny herd has been broken up, but it is all good. This has been such a strange year for so many reasons. And as we go through these changes I do believe they are all for the better. I have to smile at this thought as you can’t live with regret. I don’t want to be regretful and think maybe the decisions I had made had its reasons. I feel I’ve healed some emotional wounds when I left this original barn and those emotions and what it all meant at that time seems insignificant when I think of everything I have gone through getting back to where I started! Haha, talk about circle of life! I just did a circle of stable boarding. I’m excited for the future with the new job and barn! 😀

Happy smiling cowgirl!

~Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; Better Late Than Never!

On By DianaIn Living life, Love being Grandma, weekend coffee share25 Comments
Welcome to my weekly coffee share! I have a lot to share and I am a bit late to the party!

Can I get you a cup of coffee or tea? I am trying to catch up and didn’t want this last day to share in this group to slip by without sharing the most wonderful week. To be honest, this whole month of October has been really good to me. Last week was incredibly busy with family in town as we celebrated my 60th birthday! I still have some cake, would you like a piece? It was delicious. I will share some birthday photos as I have a lot to share. It was a beautifully fun, very horsey celebration. I felt like a kid again! A great way to feel when you are turning 60! 😀 😀 😀

A very HAPPY grandma and papa, little Teddy and cutie pie, Alice!
Not every day you turn 60! What a FUN day!

The necklace I am wearing in the photo is a gift from my son and wife and it is stirrups, which are on an English saddle. I love it! They also gave me a beautiful scarf with horses on it and my hubby got me wireless earbuds. My daughter gave me a cookbook from a favorite cook and the picture of her and my granddaughter which is behind the cake in the first photo! (You scrolled up and looked! I did! Haha) My sister who lives out of state, her gift was all our food that we ordered from a wonderful BBQ restaurant. Oh my, I hope I am not forgetting anything as it was a wonderful day, with beautiful weather, food and fun times! Here is the horses with Alice!

Chloe just Loves children. She actually really Loves people!! Sweet Girls these two!!

Zack (my other horse) is around too, but I didn’t catch him in any of these photos. We didn’t have a lot of time to ride and so we walked around a bit and gave Chloe pats and hugs. Alice helped me put together their grain buckets and then put them away as we needed to head back to the party. I am glad we had this time together. I also am glad the weather was nice, not too hot or cold. Just perfect! I want to share the next day after my birthday. My daughter, son, hubby and I went to Long Beach for lunch and then went to the Aquarium of the Pacific. Only the outdoor exhibits were open and we had to buy tickets at a reserved time which is how they control the crowds. So there were not too many there at one time for safety.

Love the dolphin fountain out front of aquarium. And Penguins!
My hubby and I standing and my daughter and son sitting! ❤ ❤ ❤

It truly was the most wonderful week. I forgot to mention I got to babysit baby Teddy Monday before the birthday party. It was so wonderful to have him for the day as my son and wife with her side of the family went to the San Diego Zoo with Alice. I just have to share a couple more photos, I can’t help myself!

Loving my grandkids!!

They are just so adorable. But before I close I had told you that I had a surprise and I didn’t realize when I mentioned this surprise what it all entailed. Because of this I thought it best to wait to share until I had 100% confirmation and now that it is all confirmed and all the important people know I can share my surprise! It is a surprise because I have made a decision to look for another job. It’s a surprise because I can’t believe it, but YES! I have acquired a new job and it is a day shift position. I can write a novel about my job history (I will share that in a separate post soon!) as I think it may be interesting and something that would be fun to have written down. I have been working night shift (grave yard shift) for 30+ years with only a couple of breaks in between. How have I done this for so long you ask? Perseverance!

I am not sure why I thought nights are the best hours and to be honest I have been a supervisor at this laboratory working nights for over 15 years. The money is good and I just always thought this was the best for us, the family. But as I am getting older, and a bit burnt out, the stress of supervising and working night shift led me to the decision that I should look for a day shift position. I am beyond EXCITED!! I shouldn’t be surprised I got the job because it is a laboratory job in Chemistry, my cup of tea and I will be taking care of instruments and working swing shift so I can take care of my horses in the mornings. No more night shift, and another plus, no more weekend work! I won’t have any excuse to missing another Weekend Coffee share again!! I just have 2 weeks to go and I will be like other humans, and living a more normal life! YAY!

I had a lot to share today. I may be writing about the difference between night shift hours and living and working day shift and sleeping at night! Haha, I still can’t believe it! I owe a lot of this wonderful decision to my daughter. Everything just fell into place and that’s my surprise!! 😀

MY SWEET GIRLS!!!

Thank you for sharing coffee or tea with me today. My life is full of changes. I know changes can be hard but I think changes are good. I was getting so burnt out at my job. I was also feeling like I was not taking care of myself by working these crazy hours. I started to think why don’t I take care of myself? I worry so much about others, I forget about myself. I think we should all take some time and look at our situations and see if there isn’t some way to make things better. After all, we are worth it! ❤ ❤ ❤

Excited, Loving 60 Grandma!

~Diana

My Weekly Smile; Oct. 14, 2020

On By DianaIn Barn stories, weekly smile21 Comments
My grand daughter Loves to cook as she helps her momma in the kitchen!

Welcome to my weekly smile as I love to share the things that bring me joy in my life and as I look at how happy Alice is in this photo, she just brightens my day! I am grinning from ear to ear, she is just adorable! My birthday is just a week away and these little ones will be coming here for my birthday ❤ that is the best present EVER! I miss my son and his wife and to be able to see baby Teddy crawling, I can’t wait! And my daughter will be coming home too ❤ my heart will be full as we celebrate this milestone birthday. I also treated myself to most of the week off from work! I am grateful the stars aligned so that I didn’t have to cover vacations or any other issues at work to get the days I needed off. Yay! Lots of smiles going on over here! 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀

This year 2020 has been a very strange year. We all know one of the big reasons why. It seems like this year has messed with our brains, haha, not really but I have made decisions I regret but I am thinking I need to learn from these decisions. Exactly six months ago with emotions running high (I am thinking now, don’t make big decisions based solely on emotions) I decided to move my horses with my girlfriend and her horse to where I am at now. Of course, I tried to not be emotional about this move and my girlfriend did have needs she wanted for her horse as she wanted more shade from the sun. The covers where we were didn’t provide enough shelter like she wanted. But I figured this would be a good move for us both.

Fast forward to now and I have made the decision to move my horses back which I am doing at the end of this month. There are many reasons why I am not happy, one of the biggest is not having a riding partner on the trails. Since Gracie is 28 and has EPM which she is being treated for she has a risk of tripping and falling. EPM is a protozoa which lives in her brain, and they are trying to get her immune system to fight it. Zack has EPM too, but he is in remission as far as I know and is doing fine. So, no more trail rides with my dear friend and I have no other riding partners as there just isn’t any boarders that trail ride. All my friends are at the other stables. It is bittersweet leaving my best friend as she wants to stay with the shady stall!

It’s hard to take action shots, but I love how pretty Zack is moving. See how he is stretching out his front and back legs, that is what we consider a good mover with the stretch coming from his shoulder! Chloe is not a good mover, but has healed injuries that have added to her bad movement. She does have a lovely gallop!
This is how I’ve been riding lately. I ride on my bareback pad either on Chloe or Zack in the arena. It’s fun, but I miss the trails and its difficult and not as fun riding alone on the trails here in my town. I am just a bit lonely at this stables when my girlfriend is at work.

I am really excited to move back across town to where there are lovely trails and all my other friends. I was tearful after making this decision. I’ve been torn and almost made this decision a month ago, but didn’t want to leave my best friend. (We have been friends since 10 years old) She finally gave me permission as she said to me last week, take me out of the equation. If you remove me from all your decisions what would you do? I knew in my heart of hearts I wanted to be back to where I was, so I decided to make that happen. Shedding a few tears along the way, I didn’t realize how much I miss all my other riding buddies. My best friend is like a sister to me, we will always be BEST FRIENDS FOREVER!

Instead of regrets, I am going to look at this adventure as a learning experience. I did not know or realize what a social girl I am and how important all the social interaction is to me. Currently when I am at the barn it is like my own place because rarely is anyone there. Maybe one other boarder, but she is up at the barn so we don’t visit. It’s a ghost town, so I get very lonely even though I love my horses, I miss the people. I realize I never want horse property, unless it could be a small gentlemen’s ranch so I could have boarders. Not going to happen in my lifetime, but good to know! 😀

My girlfriend is more of an isolationist, loving the peace and quiet and aloneness way more than I can bare. I guess that is why I blog. I didn’t know what blogging is or how it seems to be and with all the friends and lovely people that share their thoughts and kind words, oh I am in blogging heaven! I never knew and drink it all up and love each and every blogger out there who want to share with me their world. It’s been amazing and am smiling at my smile post! THIS IS ME! and I am discovering me with new realizations all the time. You are never too old to learn, I am grateful for this adventure! I am going to end with a video of Zack feeling his oats running in arena.

Thank you for visiting my smile post today! What makes you smile? I am loving October so far….

Happy cowgirl Grandma,

~Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; Busy Days!

On By DianaIn Family is important, Living life, weekend coffee share31 Comments
  • Welcome to my weekly coffee share where we catch up with old friends and new! Can I get you a cold brew? or an ice tea? Too hot here to share a warm brew. How are you doing?

Welcome, and for those of you that need a hot cup of Joe, of course I have that as well. It was a bit cooler today but will be hot again going into next week. It’s going to be a very hot October, time for me to body clip my horse Zack. He grows a thick winter coat and so to keep him comfortable in our warm winters here in Southern Cali, I partially clip him (it’s called a trace clip) and I shave off the hair where he sweats the most and leave the hair along his topline to keep him warm. It’s an easy clip and I have these huge sheep shearing clippers that makes it a fast and easy job! Now I’ve gone off on a tangent, which I do sometimes. Let’s bring this back to heading into the weekend as I wanted to share a sunrise photo which I took on my walk this morning.

This is across the street from my house, the new school buildings are almost complete!

The last month or so have been hard for me as we are trying to figure out our future and what plans are good or bad which include where we want to live. I’ve shared lots about moving which may not make sense at this time and so because of this it is taking time away from what I would call my “normal life”. It’s been a roller coaster of emotions and I won’t delve into all the details here but suffice it to say I have been a bit absent from blogging. It has been a bit hard to focus my thoughts and when you feel anxious and a bit confused, it makes it difficult to put thoughts to virtual paper. I am pretty sure by the end of next week I will be able to write about something I have been working on, so it will be a surprise! Excited? I am, as it will be something totally worth sharing and am hoping set me up for a much better future!

So, I am going to share my kitties, my sons kitties and my sweet grand daughter which I miss terribly. I know I am not alone missing grand children and am thankful for technology since we can visit virtually which I am hoping we can do this weekend. I have been crocheting a baby blanket for yet another relative, my niece who had a son. Families growing, no matter what happens time keeps ticking. Oh speaking of time, this month is my birthday month. Hold on, I will post a birthday post as its a few weeks away. I think I am extra emotional because I am turning 60 this year. Yep, I can’t believe it and want to just stop counting. But I am a proud 60, healthy and going very strong. Here I go rambling again! Can I get you a refill? 😀

  • Duchess in her hammock
  • Dinah all comfy!

Funny story, my hubby came across a cat tree for free that was really tall. I didn’t take a photo of it but it had lots of cubby holes and was at least 5 feet high. Hanging rope to play with, all the fun things cats love so you would think this is a wonderful kitty jungle gym. After the cats checked it out it began. Dinah started hiding under the beds and would barely come out to eat. She would leer towards the room where this big cat tree was waiting, and running back under the bed at the slightest noise! YIKES! I told my hubby that cat tree has to go right away! He said he cleaned it really well, vacuumed the heck out of it and sprayed it (not sure what with) but it doesn’t matter, the scent will always be there and my Dinah was sure a new cat was in the house!

It took her 3 days to finally come out and about sort of ~ she is almost back to normal except if she hears a loud noise she scurries back under the bed. She is doing much better and I told my hubby no more used cat trees, EVER! Duchess didn’t blink an eye, so interesting their personalities. She doesn’t let a thing bother her, Duchess is brave and unaffected. 😀

If you follow my blog, this is my 4th sweet dreams blanket! Haha, I know, again? It is actually really fun to make, I can’t help myself and each one is a different shade of blue, one was pink!
Aww, my sweet grand babies! Alice and Wolfie kitty as they watch Saturday morning cartoons. You can see baby Teddy sleeping on Dad! My son and wife have the sweetest family!

My niece had her son at the end of August and so I am trying to get the baby blanket completed so I can send it to her. Darn, it’s already October. I just have threads to tie off on the back and stitch a border and it will be complete. These Sweet Dreams blankets are so much fun to stitch up, but this will be the last one for awhile. Next year I may make a few to sell at the local craft fair.

I just had to share the cute photo of my grand children. Oh how I miss them, but it is what it is and I know they are happy and healthy. I will be visiting them sometime soon so I have that to look forward to and I am thankful I can easily drive there, flying even better! ❤

My sons house, Wolfie and Dublin ~ Brothers, being brothers!

Thank you for having coffee with me and sharing with me my ramblings. I am hoping to get back on track soon. I will call it growing pains, haha, since my family is growing and there are so many moving parts. I have family all over the place when I think about it and so I need to be thankful I have the wonderful family that I do. I had a wonderful chat with my sister today, and I just have to be thankful to be here and that I am able to share. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Confused kitty crochet loving Grandma,

~Diana ❤