Christmasized

Sorry it has been so long. The Holiday season is a bit crazy when you are a carriage driver. We have been lucky enough to have had a lovely season, pretty good weather, and a psycho cat that thinks the tree and decorations are his personal jungle gym. Yep. Paxton has taken over the tree. And knocked it over too! Sorry this one is short but I will come back online in January and post holiday videos, and more pics. For now Paxton in the tree will just have to do! Miss you all and hope you had a lovely season!

Sledifying

We got snowed out this weekend. Snowed IN I suppose is a better analogy. It did allowe for some sledding with the small child and I actually got to spend time with the family. I suppose that is a good thing but I could have used the money. Made a new video though! Hope ya'll enjoy it!

Zombie

I have had the week off of work (thank you Marie!) and have been thoroughly enjoying it but unfortunately I think it backfired on me tonight. It is almost 3:30am and I am not tired enough to sleep. I have Facebooked for hours, completed a school project, and modified the Irish Rose Web page but nothing. I didn't know what else to do except blog so here I am.

I thought I'd post that I went to Morgan's Parent-Teacher conference and got no surprising news but did get to talk about her reading difficulties. Morgy was there and we both gave her strategies for dealing with stress and panic hoping to ease it. Little thing just worries to no end. Seemed to make her feel better as she immediately came home and read the opening paragraph of Inkheart and then we discussed the comprehension of it. (Yea Morgy!)




She's doing well in Math and was really surprised when I told her how much trouble I have with math even though English is easy for me. Her teacher told her he had trouble in science and some in math and I think she realizes that everyone has trouble in some areas. Hopefully I am doing right by her. Cody tries hard and deals with her a lot better than me most of the time. He's more patient. And he's home. That helps a lot. (I just visit.)



The weather is lovely here but we are supposed to get snow/rain this weekend. Hopefully it won't do too much. I need gas money! Toby and Annie have their full winter fuzzies on under their blankets so there is nothing to worry about there. Good thing as I don't have time to coddle them.



Photos are of my skeletons playing in a co-worker's pumpkin on Halloween at work, two photos of Me driving our new company horse, Mozart, on his first night on the carriage last week, and one of City Park in the snow two weeks ago. No snow anymore. It's 70!

Snow Daze

We have a ton of snow over here. Somewhere between a foot and two feet right now and it is still snowing. Yesterday Cody adn I spent the day together and we took them dogs to City Park downtown. I got lots of pics and footage for carriage videos and also for another dog video. Morgan is in AZ visiting about half of you who get this blog so she is not in this one. I am studdying today as school was cancelled. As you can see I am getting very far in my studdies! We saw the ponies also and they are doing well all bundled up in their shelters. I am sure Toby is wondering what the heck he has gotten into!

Autumnal

Sorry I have been so negligent in my updates. I have been a bit "off" as my hard drive crashed. The external one. The one that houses all of my photos, and videos. (A moment of silence is appreciated.) I have been wandering around lost. Coming home to an empty computer and in such a state as to even neglect my lovely camera that has been so good to me. I finally woke from my stupor this week and made two videos. One I will post here and one you can look up on YouTube. The one here is one I made for the Irish Rose site on paper, but mostly for me. It had been floating around in my head for months and I finally got the footage I needed to make it. It is entitled Autumn with Irish Rose and shows off the fall colors, and first snows of the season. I am thrilled with how it turned out! The second is the video of our newest Irish Rose carriage horse, Pippen. He's a handsome Suffolk Punch gelding who is cute as a button and a very rare breed to boot. I feel better now that I have the creative juices flowing thoroughly again and my hard drive is in the hard drive hospital seeing if it can be recovered. Everyone keep your fingers crossed!

http://eighthparakeet.blogspot.com

Winterise

Well, it snowed this morning! How crazy is that? It didn't stick but the horses are now in their winter blankets!!


Speaking of horses... Morgan is starting to turn into quite the little equestrian! She and Toby are buddies and I have a video to prove it! Enjoy!

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Animalia

Made a little video of the new critters. For those who don't know, Stratton is in a new home on 35 acres in the country living with folks who do agility and have 7 other Border Collies. In the last few weeks we got a new puppy who we named Maximus Doggus (AKA Max). He is a black and white Shih Tzu/Poodle mix and is about 16 weeks old now. Also Cody was in Iowa on a job for two weeks and came home with a cute 4 month old kitten who he named Paxton, after the town in Nebraska where Pax adopted Cody at a gas station. He is orange and white. He loves all the animals. Pixel is not convinced he is a good addition but is leaving him be. Max thinks he is the coolest playmate ever created. Pax thinks he's a dog and agrees with Max. Here's the video!

3D

Cody and his friend Chris have been busy for most of the summer planning and setting up a RC Airplane fly-in. I have been busy with many things but as he is having trouble getting the video I made for him uploaded I figured I'd host it for him. Hope you all like airplanes!!

http://eighthparakeet.blogspot.com/

Changeling

There have been some big changes over here. Straton is in a new home. We had a surprise storm one afternoon and he ate through our bedroom door. Cody and I decided that he needed to find a new home. We just couldn't afford to repair anything else. We found a home out in the country. A nice family on 35 acres that already had 7 Border Collies, does agility, and home schools so they are home a lot and have a 13 year old girl. He did escape from their place once but has since been returned and hopefully he will be doing well soon.

After a few days of sadness Cody and I found a puppy to fill part of Straton's gap. He is a tiny Shih Tzu/Poodle mix, black and white and cute as a button. His name is Max. Morgan came up with the name, Cody decided Max was cool if he could call him Maximus, and I said his full name is Maximus Doggus. He is settling in well though Brigs has been slow coming around. Today they were playing in the park and seem to have crossed a hurdle. We'll see if that keeps up but I have high hopes.

I have included a picture of Max and one of him and Brigs on the "new" couch for you all to see. He's had a minor haircut since the photo. I will get more photos and post them soon. Might even make a video. Speaking of videos... I included one of my new ones of the carriage horses. This one is a compilation of weather according to a carriage drivers in Denver this year.

Video Killed the Radio Star

OK Nana... here is the Denver Vacation video. It took a long time and I must warn all viewers that is is about 20 minutes long so clear your schedule before viewing. Once again I provide a link to the blog online so you can actually view it. Enjoy!

http://eighthparakeet.blogspot.com

Throwing

I have been up to a lot of horse training lately but have little to show you all. Cody has been working and flying and has also come up with the event listed in the photo above. It should be a lot of fun. I am working on a few videos but with the schedule I will not have them available for a while. I will write a longer blog soon but Nana was complaining about the lack of blog activity. =)

Independent

I hope you all are having a lovely summer. We had a great fourth, especially me! I had the day off of work as the Fourth and horses are not the best combination!

Straton went to fireworks shows on the third and fourth and did surprisingly well. He definitely freaked out initially but then just hid and found out that he can survive. The thunderstorm issues have been somewhat managed lately as Cody has been home a lot, the storm have subsided a bit (though it is pouring so hard right now I can't see the street from our front window!), and we have purchased three thunderstorm CDs that we have been playing non-stop since the Trauma post.

I have another video or two for your viewing pleasure. Sorry Nana... I still haven't finished the WEB Ranch visits Denver video. Sorry!!

Here are my latest videos!

http://eighthparakeet.blogspot.com

Spring Swing

I made a new video covering everything that all us carriage drivers had been doing over the last two months. Everyone is loving this video so I thought I'd share it with you. Marie wants me to make a variation of this video to put on the website and I might have some other carriage companies that want me to do similar for them. I'm all for making videos, especially if I can manage to get paid for it so I say bring them on! We'll see what actually happens in the future...

http://eighthparakeet.blogspot.com

Horsified

Life has been good lately. I have been spending time with horses from the moment I get up until I go to bed at night. I've been over to Marie's place daily spending a ton of time with some of the young horses getting them ready to go downtown. Pippen has made two trips in the training cart down town and Pippen, Willow, and Bailey have all been down the road in it. Annie has been getting ridden and I even bought materials for a PVC drag to start getting her trained to drive.

The first photo is of the cottonwood trail that we discovered while driving Pippen the other day. This was the second day with Marie driving Pippen, Me riding Annie, and Katey was on the camera. I am also including the new video I made of when Katey and I went down with Bailey. Some of my favorite Squirrel Nut Zippers songs are in it. Enjoy all the photos and video!!

This is Travis. Marie got him from another person downtown who was going out of business. He's gorgeous, well broke, and has as much personality as Sweetie Pye! Everyone who has driven him just loves him!

And here is the video of Bailey!

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Trauma

Well, we have a huge problem on our hands. Straton has a severe phobia of thunderstorms. We have had him scale fences into the neighborhood, bust through windows to escape, and now that we are kenneling him he is actually hurting himself to try to get out. Today he chipped 4 teeth, bent the metal grate in the front of the kennel, tore all the pads on his front paws, tore up his face, and REAR legs (I have no idea how he tore up the rear legs). We are entirely flummoxed as to what to do with him. He is manageable if we are with him during the storms but today he was even with Brigs in the kennel and still freaked out. I have had to wrap his paws but what to do about him chipping his teeth? The only thing we can think of is a different home, preferably one in a place with fewer lightening storms or one in which someone can be with him when there is a storm. We just can't stand having him hurting himself. He has come so far in so many other ways, we have managed the door bolting, he is nearly over the barking at strangers, he almost has a solid recall, and he is spectacular at the dog park with only the lightest irritation at dogs that are obnoxious. He's great with the cat, Brigs, Morgan, in the car, in the house, exemplary house training, and he knows sit, down, stay, git, kennel, a frame, jump, tunnel, wait, quiet, it's OK, and off. Just looking at his paws I can see that his nails aren't torn but are bruised (of all things). Anyone have any solutions for us? We love him to pieces but can not watch him hurt himself anymore. Big sweet, stupid dog. *sigh* We will assist with any transportation, etc. if we can find a better home. He also loves chasing model airplanes, and floppy Frisbees, and would be a spectacular Agility dog. If anyone has any solutions that would allow us to keep him that would be beyond awesome.

Adieu

It was Morgan's last full day in Colorado today. She leaves tomorrow afternoon to see her dad for six weeks or so. I needed to do some horse training at Marie's so she came along and played with Toby. He needed some exercise and so I let her choose a whip and turned them both loose in the front arena. The result was perfect: both got plenty of exercise and no one got hurt or upset. The day was gorgeous and the photos turned out wonderfully!

Katey showed up a little later and we got Bailey worked at the canter quite nicely just before it rained.

I have included TWO videos today! One of Morgy and Toby and one of Katey and Bailey. I hope you all enjoy them!

Getting this post in an email? Click the link below to see the videos!

http://eighthparakeet.blogspot.com/

Lighting

Well, I am down to one final. I am thrilled more than you can imagine. The Parasitology test was ugly but the two I had today weren't bad at all. As you know my computer was down for over a week adding to the stress. Now it is back working and though Nana would like to see tons of photos and videos of their trip out here but I just am NOT up to completing that project yet. The horses in the lush Colorado pastures sounds MUCH more of what I need right now. Forgive me Nana. Just remember patience is a virtue.

We have a lady from New Mexico coming to try out Bailey and she sounds like a really good match. Keep your fingers crossed! Katey and I got him cantering while being ridden today and he did super! We sacked him out really well yesterday and he did extremely well with that also and Katey and I are thrilled! Yea Bailey!

Annie gets turned out with the shire mare Willow (she is the big black and white one), and her corral buddy Charlie. He is an Appaloosa Mustang.

Toby gets turned out in the round pen and the front arena because there is mostly weeds and little for him to get fat on. Isn't he pretty in his clipped coat?

Pippin is a 4 year old Suffolk Punch, a rare breed of draft horse. He is going out on the carriages in a few weeks. He is the all orange one with the gold edging.

Clancey is a beautiful Clydesdale/Belgian gelding who is Bailey's buddy. We are hoping to get him working by next year. He is the golden boy with the white mane and tail, face and legs.


There are some Pronghorn herds that hang around the area where Marie's place is and I happened to get a few pics of some girls. I am thinking that there will be little pronghorn soon.

Brigs was a big hit in the pasture. Apparently horses like butt sniffing also!

Just pop in Beethoven's Symphony #6 and enjoy the scenery!

Headache

My computer has had a rough week or two. The last post was just before my computer crashed and I am just now getting it back online. *sigh* I would explain more but I'm too tired. I will now post a new video taken with my awesome new camera and then get to the task of installing my MyBook that I have had for a year or two and haven't used. It is finals week and I am having to get Bailey tuned up for a viewing next weekend by a very interested buyer. I don't want to get any one's hopes up too much... the video is of the Dog Park. The video of Nana, Buddy, and Sarah's video is not likely to appear for at least another week. Stupid computers. Oh, and the photo today is of my suture project. Kyle had a rough day.

http://eighthparakeet.blogspot.com/

Stormy

Nana, Buddy, and Sarah came out to visit this weekend. It was awesome! Morgan got to stay in the hotel with the crew and everyone came on a carriage ride with me. Nana got a cool jacket, Morgan got a new wardrobe, and we all got to eat very well!

I was working Friday, Saturday, and Sunday but was rained on all of those days and hailed on on Sunday. Pye was NOT impressed. We didn't work on Monday, thankfully but it didn't make up much for three days of being soaking wet and making little money to show for it.

Enough of my whining though, Cody took the crew to Heritage Square where there were rides and games for the kiddos and I went on a shopping adventure with the rest of the crew on Saturday. Another big item of note is my birthday present... a new camera! All these pics were taken with it and I am in love! There will be a new blog video soon.

The only other item of note is that Straton apparently has severe issues with lightening and thunder. On Saturday he jumped the fence into the neighbor's yard and then destroyed their fence climbing out of their yard, and then on Sunday went through our bedroom window screen and climbed the fence escaping into the neighborhood. Even the rain has him shaking at this point. The neighbors were thankfully understanding, but we now have a large, heavy duty dog kennel in the basement to confine him anytime there is a potential of thunderstorms. Poor Straton. Brigs was upset at his escaping but otherwise unaffected by the storms.