Cedar tree with a job.

Yesterday was stall stripping day! Mary picks the poop all week and on a Friday we strip stalls. It doesnt take long to do 7 stalls, 3 hours tops from stripping the stall, dumping the poo, lay lime and 3 barrows of shavings and put horse back.

This week while I was in my minis dry lot I noticed this little Cedar tree growing. I thought to myself, if you get any higher you will be short circuiting my electric fence...you have to go. I had a job for this baby tree that would short out my fence and 1 day, if it grew big enough, my mule would girdle it and it would die a slow painfull death, so I had to put it out of its misery a bit sooner than planned, but it had a job to do, I wasnt going to waste it. So off I went down the road with my baby tree and drinks.

Star Ranch This is where that little Cedar tree would be working today, along side me & Mary...or should I say Mary, I wont be anywhere near it if I can help it. The job this Cedar has sends me running for cover untill its job is over.

These cobwebs appear over night and stay all week. You usually find most of them above the stalls up in the rafters and in the corners of stalls where the horses butts are to large to get into to swipe them away. They appear out of nowhere in the summer, you dont see them in the winter, its to cold for them to come out I think, but thats fine with me. Saves me having a hissy fit every time I feel a cobweb run across my face. Mary just shakes her head and me, runnig round like an crazy person with arms flying everywhere.

So down to stall stripping. Nothing much to it really, you shovel shit and shovel more shit, you take out all thats in the stalls, lay a bit of lime to get rid of the amonia smell that sometimes chokes you to death and you stand for 10 minutes choffin your gutts up and cant get rid of the smell out your nose. So Smoke went out 1st, he wanted a cookie and he begged for one. I didnt have anyhting to give him but he kept on, looking at me with those big expressive eyes he has and leaned his head over like PLEEEEESSSEEEEEE!!!!

I had to give in, I didnt bring anything for him, so I gave him a handfull of feed to keep him happy and to stop begging like a pauper on the street. You would think hes hard done by...but hes not!
So, we scooped shit and Mary went to dump it out in the pasture, the back of the gator lifts up, the idea is to spread it as she drives but most of the time it will THUD to the ground in 1 big heap..oh well, never mind.

Then comes the job of the Cedar tree. Mary shoves the small trunk of the tree down a piece of tubeing and uses it as a duster, to dust away all the cobwebs that appeared over night and got to stay all week. Because the tree is sticky, the webs stick to it and they dont fall all over you when your doing it. As you can see im standing faaaar away so the spiders dont fall on me.
We then lay lime and add 3 barrows of shaving to the stall and add the horse to flatten the shavings .

Usually when you put Smoke back in his stall the first thing he does is have a pee, then he gets down to business and he will waller in the shavings and spread them round his stall. Today he wasnt having any of it. The camera in my hand must of looked like a cookie, so I had to walk away and wait...and wait...and wait. In the end he did go down, it was a 2 second roll before he spotted me and was up in a flash. No Smoke, its not a darn cookie!!!!
So that was 1 stall done, another 6 more to do yet. But we got the job done. The Cedar got his job done too. I didnt feel 1 iota of guilt as I was cutting this baby Cedar down, this Cedar was going to save my life and dignaty from flailing around like a demented chicken. Next week we will hunt down another Cedar, thats the worst bit, they dont last long. 1 cleaning to be presise, after the cleaning it does, the stickyness dissapears and its job is over. It dries out covered in cobwebs and its only payment for doing such a good job is to be taken across the road back into the woods where it will die. Im sorry baby Cedar tree for taking your life so early but you did a good job, saved me from cobwebs and siders and gave Mary a clean barn.
Thank You baby Cedar Tree!!

Some more pics from the barn

Willie B A Loper...aka Willie

MARY

This is Mary, my neighbour, my side kick, my South Carolina mum and my best friend. I wanted to do a blog about Mary through photos and tell you all about her.

So this is Mary, she grew up in Greenville South carolina where she met her husband Tony. Shes probably going to kill me for the nest sentence but its my blog and Im telling the story. Mary and Tony got married when Mary was 14/15 years old! Yep, she always jokes that Tony raised me, Tony came to my prom.  Now some of my facts may be a bit mixed up, but im just going to go with the flow and by the stories Mary has told me over the last 4 years, and Im sure Mary will correct me on it once I have finished.
So they got married young, and got a  house, I dont know if the house came before or after graduation but I do know they got a dog and decided to show Chow Chows. Mary tells that they werent aloud to have a dog in the house so she kept it hidden and would only let it out when no one was around. I think Tony showed dogs at first, Mary would tag along, she would bath and groom the dog and set Tony up for his shows and he would win. Then Mary decided she wanted to show dogs to. She did obediance with them and she says all she had to do was look at this dog in a certain way and the dog wouldnt move. Ive seen that look, I know how that look goes. They both started up a Chow how can I call it, a show group for Chows and used to travel alot to Atlanta. I think they had a pretty good name for all the wins they had with their dogs.

Mary likes to go on road trips, it doesnt matter if its just to town or for a drive about. 1 day she took me for a drive round the local area and she showed me the 1st barn her and Tony built, about the cow she was given and it would jump the fence to follow her and she would have to take it back, about the families who lived round about, I love stuff like that, listening to people talk about the past. I think she got her 1st horse while they were at that place and she learned herself to ride. She showed me the litttle store down the road where she would stop with Bryan so he could get coke. The stories with Mary are never ending but they are funny and interesting.

I dont know if this is the place they sold to move here, down the street but anyway. They live down the street from me, they have about 80 acres of land give or take. They have cleared alot of the land and fenced, and fenced and fenced some more. Most of the fencing is still there 30 odd years later, Ive seen the hills they had to go up to big holes to get those cedar poles in, Ive seen how far it is from the house to The Bottoms as they call it, its a hike, I know, Ive walked it. So its all fenced in now and Mary & Tony have raised alot of animals there over the years. I dont know if the Chows were here but I do know they have raised beef cattle, Brahman cows and they also built a dairy on their property and milked for many a year while they were both working. It came to an end when Tony said Mary had crashed to many cars driving home from Michelin to go milk. They both worked there for alot of years and they run their dairy too.

Oh, I forgot the most important bit about Mary. Mary is a mama to 2 kids. Mary didnt have Bryan untill she was 21. The little boy with the cows is Bryan her eldest, Bryan got married last year to Wendy and we all went down to Alabama for the wedding. Bryan works for a tucking company who hauls stage equipment for bands so hes out on the roads alot touring with different bands.

So...Mary left Michelin and after a while Crystal came along. I think there is 10 years or more between Bryan and Crystal. I can finaly tell you all now since its now common knowledge. Crystal is pregnant and making 1st time grandparents out of Tony & Mary. Congratulations to Crystal and Justin

I dont know if the cows came and left or if they were still there but next came horses. I think Tony bought a horse and said he was going to show it. Mary would go with him, bath and groom the horses and get them all set up then she decided to show herself. I do know they have had alot of horses over the years, the evidence is clear in the photos she has shown me, photos and trophies you can see around their house and barn. They are everywhere and I mean everywhere! I dont blame her for showing them, If I had done all the things that Mary has done in her life time then, darn right I would show them off.
Mary is a go getter, she is ruthless in everything she does and she doesnt back down at all. Im going to say ruthless, but it can also be passionate. If Mary cant do something then she is going to keep at it untill she knows how its done. As I said she trained dogs, then there was the cows, they have raised rabbits, goats, chickens, you name it they have had it. Mary has also raised, trained and shown horses for many a year. Horses are Marys passion. She has had many a broken bone with her horses, arms, wrists, fingers, nose, feet trodden on, bucked off, sore backs, knees, stitches, braces, casts. I know I shouldnt laugh but the stories she tells about how she broke this or that cracks me up. Mary & Tony were quite high up in the Palmetto Paint Club, they might of started it, I cant remember, but I do know they have traveled all over America showing their horses. Mary is a perfectionist..in everything she does, wether its to do with showing horses, bathing the dog, cutting her grass, or mucking out stalls. Ive been at the barn helping Mary on many occasion wether its to clean stalls on a hot day, where in wringing in sweat ready to fall down with heat stoke LOL, she will say WELL!!! Just suck it up. Its funny, you can complain about anything wrong with you and Mary always starts with WELL! as for the suck it up, Im a wimp, I hate hurting, I do most days and I get yancy when Im hurting, or hot. All I get is Suck it up were nearly finished. I told you she was ruthless. Marys ruthlessness isnt always bad. I say ruthless because thats how she goes about her day in everything she does. She will ruthlessly do it untill its done. It doesnt matter that shes tired, sore, broken wrist or doubled over with a broken back, shes going to get the job done and it doesnt matter what is in her way. If a horse throws her, shes going to go catch that jorse and get back on and do it again and again untill that horse keeps her in the saddle or does what she wants it to do.
She tells the story that she wanted to win some thing at the end of the show year, You had to have so many points and have done so many classes and won so many...I dont know the ins and outs of it but  Iknow she had to work hard, show and win. She was booked into so many showing classes than she was still showing at 3am. She would go back to the stalls with her horse, get her stuff ready for the next day and be back out showing at 7am and show all day untill she was done. So at the end of the year mary won this prize. Its a replica statue of your horse. She has to send in photos of every piece of her horse and someone made a copy of it and that was your Prize. Mary doesnt have 1..noooo, Mary has 2. For 2 different horses. I dont know if they were the same year or if Crystal won 1, but hey, she has 2 statue horses that look like her horses. In this photo are the statues. The Ginger horse as I call it is Rusty and the paint is Smoke.

I went to Marys yesterday to take some photos and told her she had to leave. She said tome. WELL!!! Dont you dare take photos of my dust. If I did, you cant see it. I had to move a few things to get these 2 statues put together and yes Mary I wiped the dust off Rusty & Smoke.
Ruthless. This is what Mary worked hard for, I could be giving all the credit to Mary, when some of it could be Crystals hard work, I dont know but if it was you Crystal, I am as much in awe of your hard work and so proud of you both. Mary & Crystal showed alot. They shared the same horse alot, Smoke. Crystal would do Junior classes...and WIN!! then they would change saddles and Mary would do her classes and WIN!!. Let me show you just some of what they won over the years.

The last photo are some of the photos down in the barn where they have won shows, some of Mary, Tony  Crystal. I could of taken photos all day at Marys house, the ruthlessness is everywhere and on every wall and on top of kitchen cabinets. I didnt dare take those phtotos, who dusts the top of their cabinets everyday, but i was damned if I was going to clean the dust of the cow skull and photos in the barn. I told you the ruthlesness was there, its everywhere for everyone to see. If I was that ruthless, I would have neon lights on my house so everyone can see that I was Number 1.
This is the 1 that helped Mary & Crystal get to number 1. He is the love of Marys life. Silverado Smoke. Smoke is up there in age now, I dont know how old, but Im willing to bet hes at least 20 if not a day older. Hes getting to be an old man but he sure acts like a 2 year old.

Thats Smoke, the been there, done it and won. Ruthless, in everything they have done together to win those trophies that adorn Marys walls. Smoke will go anywhere Mary points him towards, over, under, through, you name it, Smoke has done it. He has been through the show circuits through out America with Mary & Crystal in both Western & English, hes seen Crystal through 4H with Barrels and go knows what else, Hes carried many a flag in Rodeos for The Ken Treadway Rodes Company, toy drives, Christmas parades,, you name it he has been there with Mary through thick and thin, shes had her highs and lows with Smoke, He has thrown her off, or just decided he needs to roll in the ring during an English class, or roll in the sand on a trail ride, or that he desperatly need to have a pee while hes showing. Hey, when you gotta go, you gotta go!!. He is so human its unbelievable. He loves Dr Pepper and cookies..a cookie to Smoke is anything you have in your pocket, a bar of chocolate, a candy, a cookie, you name it, hes all for it and will stretch that neck out and pleed with those big eyes untill you give him another and another. I spoil him, Mary says I shouldnt. Its came to the point that Smoke now thinks everyone who stands in front of him needs to give him a cookie. I learned him that. Not that I won a trophy for it, all I get is a talking to for feeding him to much sugar.

 As they say, all good things come to an end. So before long we have to shut this story down.
Mary is Tonys wife, Bryan & Crystals mama, and soon to be Grandma. She is there for her family at big Holidays through out the year and does the dinners and cookouts. You all know who you are, you need to come down and visit more to keep the family together, to see each other at special times of the year, None of you are getting any younger. Mary IS the been there and done it. She really is, I could go on all day but I would be here forever more. Mary has a heart of gold, she will help you with anything you want to do and be ruthless in helping you. She can tell a story and it always starts with WELL!!! She can somethimes be ruthless in what she says and it can cut like a knife, but you have to know how to take her. I have been with Mary the past few years doing alot of things I would never of drempt I would ever do. Mary gave me that chance. I am honoured I really am. We have been through the wringer the past few years just like everyone else with the way the ecconomy has gone. We have clubbed together to get hay, we go to get 2 round bales for the 2 pastures and when we get there we have counted pennies so we can get another bale because it looks nice. We have counted yet more pennies to get a soda on the way to get said bales. We have been trail riding, Christmas parades, fixing fences, catching horses and moving them, same with goats, we go to chicken sales, rodeos,, cleaning stalls, bathing horses, the list is endless and too many to mention. We go on days out and go to Outback and tell our hubbies we ate off the dollar menu at Mcdonalds. We have had good & bad times, we all go through it in our every day lives. I have been there for Mary just like she has been there for me, why...because we are friends, we are bestest buddies, we are partners in crime, shes my side kick, we are each others helper or an ear to listen to. Dale in our local TSC said I was number 1 customer, we were laughing and joking and then Mary said no Im number 1, I spend more money here than you. Fine I said,  you can be number 1..after all age is before beauty. Talking about age. I pull Marys leg that she is old enought to be my mom. We were going to pick up my parents from Charolotte last year and we stopped for McDonalds on the way. I was saying to her, Your old enough to be my mom and she said WELL!!! If im old enough to be your mom, you better remember its Mothers day next week so best you get me a Mothers Day gift. We were going back and forth with this conversation while we were sat at the order box and all we could here through out Mother conversation was HELLO!!! HELLO CAN WE HELP YOU WITH YOUR ORDER!!! We ignored it and carried on. It was funny to us and the woman was getting Peed off we were holding up the drive through.

My Mothers Day present to Mary.

Well im going to shut this down, you are on the way to the Doctors, I have animals to let out and feed.

Mary, you are my bestest friend, my South Carolina Mom and all of the above I said before. I hope we have many happy years of friendship together. You are as Dale say, Number 1. You are Number 1 in everything you do and have done.
This is for you, Mary, I admire you and think the world of you, you have no idea, I Love You with all my heart.

  

Shootings

Its hot today but it was hotter the last few days. The heavens opened and gave us some much needed rain, it came down in bucket fulls, so fast and so hard it didnt even penetrate the ground really, just sta there for the ducks to make mud holes, or should I say BIGGER mud holes. The rain went as quick as it appeared but we did have another down pour around 7ish just in time to cool the day off before I put the ducks up for the night.

I had a Mafia Wars friend comment on 1 of my photos yesterday, I havent seen him on my FB page for a while so asked how he was doing, wheres hes been and what hes been up to. Hes a nice guy, 1 of my ducks is named after him...Sarsipius Brown, some of my duck friends will know this name, and probably recongise the photo of him. LOL, well its not him but the photo I put up is what he sent me. Anyway!! He answered me back. I got shot!!!!! As I said, hes a funny guy, always laughing and jocking around, my wise ass comment back was...What did you do, rob a 7/11. He was walking home and got a sore back, went into his house, took his shirt off and was covered in blood, he went outside and next he knew he was in Hospital. He didnt hear the shot, doesn tknow who did, it or if it was even for him. I was a bit shocked and my guilt kicked in for my wise ass comment. I couldnt hold back my wise ass yet again and said, so did Big Pete sack you for being late for work, did he come visit you in hospital, did he stick his finger in your bullet hole. Sars, he just takes everything in his stride, but hes now scared of the city and is looking for somewhere else to live. Im glad to hear hes ok and making fun as usual, just think, if he hadnt off popped up on a comment, I would never know he had been shot.

My neighbour Anita called me yesterday, she was up in Greenville with her family, she called to ask if I would go and check on Maxes water. Max is their dog, he went wandering yet again for a girlfriend and came back home with a tore up leg so he is now grounded in the back yard. I said yes, no problem, I would go check on him. Max is just a mutt, the best kind to have, I dont have a photo but hes a big white and brown patched dog who likes to give kisses when you go visit. Anita asked me if I had seen the news this morning, No Ma'am, Im lucky if I get to watach TV till later on tonight. She said a local Laurens County Sheriff had been shot in the line of duty last night and it was her nephew. So please give thoughts and prayers for the family of fallen Sheriff Roger Rice today. The man who shot him also shot his girlfriend, so our thoughts also go out to her family today. The Laurens Dept shot the guy, but hes now using tax payers money at the Hospital!!!

Dear Blogger dashboard

Dear Blogger dashboard. This is the second time I have typed out this wish out to you. Took me a while to explain what I wanted in my last wish with carefully chosen words and this time I dont know if I have the will, time or the patience to say it so nicely again but I will try my best.
WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!!!!
Its my blog after all, I realy would like to COMMENT on MY BLOG to the nice people who have gone out their way to COMMENT on MY BLOG.
I come to my dashboard and see I have a comment, I go and read said comment and then I want to reply back, thats MANNERS, Something I think your mama, did NOT install into you. I would LOVE to install some manners into you!! WHERE THE SUN DONT SHINE!!!
So as I was saying, I make my way over to comment, yes I have to sign in, but at the top right corner is says in signed in, so I press COMMENT and I have to sign in, I sign in and it takes me to where I can comment. I make my comment with as much feeling as I can muster knowing the outcome of it and press send. You then make me sign in!!! 
WTF!!!!
 Didnt I just sign in. Ok, I must be blonde, I know im not, I have brown hair, ok, I have gray hair coming thru and I dye it when ever I feel the need or the grey roots are showing by 3 inches and it looks like crap, but thats neither here nor there.
So I sign in again, then you ask me to type in the few letters to make sure in not SPAM!!!  SO i type in my letters and I press send..or comment or what ever you make me press. And LOW AND BE HOLD!!! You take me back to the sign in page.
WTF is wrong with you, This is where the manners should kick in for you, I did as you requested, you are ment to say Thank You Ma'am and move on to deliver my comment to the screen. But noooooooo!
I go to my dashboard, It says im still signed in, so I delete my comment and press send, here we go again. Im starting to feel like DAMN SPAM!!! Spam is crap they scrape up of the floor mush it all together stick in a can and tell us its meat. It aint mean by any means, its crap, just like you, a waste of time.
So, Dear blogger dashboard, point me in the right direction, tell me in big bright letters what I am doing wrong, send me towards the light so I can do it right the 1st time and not have to get frustrated with you when you beat me with that shitty stick of yours. Let me sign in but once a day, and not let me sit here swearing at you. If my mum was here she would look at me in disgust and tell me swearing is not lady like and do I want soap in my mouth. Yes, I might be 39 years old my mum will still put soap in my mouth if she hears me swearing, But Im past the point of giving a shit about soap in my mouth. I would rather my mum do that than me have to sign onto my account that it already signed into 100 times a damn day.
So this is what I have done oh Dear blogger dashboard. I saved my dashboard on my favourites, then i saved my blog page too. My dashboard it clicked to stay signed in but my blog page says not signed in. How do I sign into my page, or do I do it all thru my dashboard. if the dashboard, how the fuck do I comment without having to sign in every time you get a corn cob stuck up your ass, I really do hope your next shit is a hedgehog you nasty piece of work. All I ask is you let me comment witout repeating myself over and over like a damn parrot.
Please oh Dear blogger dashboard, mend the errors of your ways and lead me not into temptation of swearing at you with unlady like words.
In the name of sign in screens, swearing and soap in my mouth.
A FUCKIN MEN!!
Fingers crossed this postes when I press the Publish Post Button!!!

Under the Tree

Well, I think my 1st blog went ok, easier than I though really. I had lots of comments on my Facebook about it, I told Mary she needs to do a blog, Im going to blog about Mary 1 day, then there was Renita, she thought the same as me...Would people really want to hear about my life and the things I do and about her dad and kids....Well Yesssss!! We would. So hopefully I can get Mary & Renita to do a blog to. We all live on the same street, Renita is at the beginning of the street and im at the top end...3 miles away.

So getting on to yesterday after dinner, took the camera out while I was feeding, I took photos round the tree that is just outside the garage by the drive. Yes I take photos, of all sorts of stuff, mostly as Bambi said today my Kidamals...nice new word for me to use about my kids/animals.

Flower of Scotland!!! Growing in my front yard. I havent cut my grass for a while because I want to leave something for the geese to eat. I saw this growing last month and have waitied for it to bloom.  Yes its a weed by any other name, but its The Flower of Scotland, growing in my yard in South Carolina USA.. How cool is that weed...VERY COOL!!! Its a little piece of home

My very 1st duck! He is sitting on a swing and the weather weathered the string that was on the swing and he fell to the ground like a lead brick...Just like my pekin ducks. He is now propped in the tree.

I wish this was the only sun that was shinning. I need a break from this sun and heat, its depressing to me, it makes me sweat, makes my hair go curlier than it is, makes the animals uncomfortable and makes their pool water hot. Sun, you need to dissapear behind a cloud for a few days and let the rain come. We need it!

I bought an Ivy a few years ago, it died, just like everything else round here. Its hanging from a tree branch and now has clover growing in it. Really, clover, in my pot of dead Ivy, looks like its growing too so keep growing and be lucky your not on the ground for the ducks & geese to eat.

Sonny, my last piece of baggage that I have left that I brought over from Scotland with me. He will be 14 this year, He was sitting on the chair under the tree in the shade with his tongue sticking out and dribbling. I think he misses Benjamin, Ben got run over last month but he still deserves to be next in the photo line.

Benjamin Blyth, may you rest in peace. 6th Jun1997 to 16th June 2011.

Noahs Arc, something was in it this year, glad it didnt get washed away in the flood...what flood, oh yes, we havent had any rain to have a flood!!

Someone was living in the old Wooden House, maybe they will come back next year, this is Noahs Arcs neighbour.

Wasps are living in the Flower House, I wish they werent, but hey, we all need to find a home somewhere and I dont want to evict them, they might come and get me!

Then I came to the Yellow House!!! I was like oh a Lizard is in there....then I moved out the way!

It decided to show me he wasnt no Lizard, so I took a photo and went and shouted Boyd to come looksee.

I went and finished feeding and when I got done he was out!!! Slithering across a branch. Boyd was there watching him, I was trying to move slowly so not to disturb him, I didnt and still dont know what kind he is, I think its a black snake, he was his full length so I knew he wouldnt try to strike. So there I was trying to take photos, Boyd is right behind me, making noise, trying to prod & poke, in the end I said. You need to move coz if this thing turns my way I dont care that you are in my way Im gonna plough right over the top of you so move, Please, you are making me nervous!!

Next minute something touched my leg!! I jumped, they jumped and ran. Elliot & Gemini my 2 young drakes have figured they can get thru the holes in the cattle panel fencing and they had come over to say HI!!! They got screamed at, not that they listen to a word I say.

SO there you go, that was my evening Under the Tree. Mary came round for 10 minutes, I think she had gone to get milk and she came to tell me she wasnt going to the sale today. My ducks have a reprieve this week, I dont want tog on on my own. Its no fun sitting havign dinner at Petes on your own. At the sale I would have the old foks to chat to but I would rather be there with Mary on our girls night out. Yep, small things amuse small minds, It used to be that my girls nights out were full of drinking, music and dancing, now iI live the quiet life here in South Carolina, my night out consists of dinner at Petes then the Chicken Sale with a bottle of Dr Pepper and a bag of M&Ms.
Well thats about all for this blog, Im sure I have bored you all ready.

God Bless American and the spider that had left its web in this house.