Ansel

My friend Shawn and Ansel.

he likes to give kisses!

I met an old friend Shawn in the hospital.  He wanted to know if I was looking for another horse (since Pat died)  I told him NO!! after all I have a daughter in college, etc, etc.  He then told me that his sister was looking for a good home for her horse.  She is dying with a brain tumor....and wants to find a home for her 9 year old, 17.1 Hand Canadian bred Trakehner.  I asked more about him and was very interested.  He apparently is a big teddy bear, awesome on trails and very safe.  Molly and I went to see him on Saturday.  We both felt he was really special.  He hadn't been ridden since October and was a perfect gentleman.  I told him I am very interested, would want to ride him a few more times especially out on the trail this spring.  I couldn't take him until then as I only have enough hay for one for the winter.  Oh and I needed to work on the other issue...John!  So far so good...at least he hasn't said no.  Here are some pictures and a video.  Let me know what you think!

John's birthday

I asked John what he wanted for his birthday dinner.  He said meatloaf!  Yuck, but I said ok.  Molly and I found a great recipe on line and it turned out ok.  He said it was the best birthday ever!

Groundhog day storm 2011

Well it's still going on!  I think we got about 14 inches or so.  The DISH people actually showed up today. They had scheduled some sort of change to our HD Dish and actually showed up in the storm to do it!  Nice guys,  Mexicans!  No Vermonters would be out working today!  I was pleased to not have to work today.  I do go in tomorrow but hopefully things will be cleaned up.

January 2011 SNOW!!!

Well we finally got a good snowstorm!  It's still snowing now and we have about 12 inches of fluffy snow.  It's very windy and lots of drifting.  We had the pleasure of staying home all day.  I had a meeting this morning at the hospital but thankfully it was cancelled.  We had a great day of just hanging out, we did go for a short snowshoe but it was really tough going!  Molly had Austin out with his Iditarod boots on...he didn't really like them much but it kept him from getting snowballs in his toes.  John spent most of the afternoon plowing the driveway, Sue's, the barn and Robin's.  Hopefully it won't snow too much during the night.  Molly is going to Burlington with her friend Cassie on Friday.  We hope to go ice fishing on Saturday, then come back to the house for a lasagna dinner and a bonfire out back.  John cut a bunch of old trees a few years ago out back and never got a chance to burn the pile.  I think it will be fun and it will be a celebration before Molly goes back to school.  She leaves on Monday for her second semester.  She's got a great schedule with classes Monday through Thursday and every Friday off.  She's riding again this semester but hasn't got her schedule yet.  We went over a week ago to buy her books and she took me to the barn and showed me all the horses.  It's really very nice.  We are kind of contemplating sending Kacee if they wanted her.  If she is accepted they don't charge board they just use them one time daily for lessons. She was covered with snow today...had her medium blanket on but was warm and dry underneath.  She prefers being outside just standing with her butt up against the barn and her back to the wind.  I gave her extra hay to keep her happy and content.

Back to work tomorrow.  Hopefully it won't be too crazy.  Molly had a great time riding a long with RAS for a shift.  She got to see the other end of the spectrum, going into peoples homes and responding to Castleton for a woman with a fractured dislocated ankle.  I think she enjoyed going lights and sirens up the mountain to Killington the most for a skier that hit something and ended up with a fractured spine.  They said she can come back anytime!

 killington

We also snow shoed down Cumming's Road and checked out the Shaw Mountain Cemetery.  Very interesting!  Many graves were dated in the early 1800's.

winter storm December 27, 2010

The storm wasn't as bad as they thought it would be.  Lot's of wind and some snow maybe about 8-10 inches with lots of drifting.  The picture of John is before he heads out to plow on the tractor.