Famous Daisy

I told you I was going to tell you about Daisy's big day and I promise I didn't forget. On Friday, Daisy became a local school celebrity! Our school holds a big fundraiser for Relay for Life. Our school team promotes a big event that whichever teacher raises the most money will earn something or have to do something in front of the school. I haven't been on the team in the past - mostly because our church has a team also and I would feel guilty picking one over the other so I support both and do what I can.

Well we always seem to be the 'givers' of the school event team - in the past the 'money winner' has had to kiss a frog (gotten from the pond beside our little Cove House) and one teacher got to hang out in our VW Bus for the afternoon. This year, they had a western theme and the 'winning teacher' was going to have to ride a bucking bronco. Well, that quickly got downgraded to 'ride a horse' (for obvious reasons!). While trying to find said horse to ride, I was asked if we had a 'tame horse' that could be used. Um, of course we do! Daisy was chosen because she does very well in front of people (although never in front of that big of a crowd of crazy elementary school children). So Logan took off and brought her to school on Friday for the event.

She was a hit! Although the winning teachers (and principal and vice principal) only got led around by Logan (definitely for the best!) the kids loved seeing them up there and I was even (conned) into getting up there and seeing one of their teachers really ride. By then Daisy was VERY grumpy and threw a little fit in front of everyone with me on her but that was even better for the kids and I was able to trot her around a bit and show her off.

All in all it was a very successful event and Daisy made it to the front page of the paper! To see the article, go to : http://www.swvatoday.com/comments/relay_coming_around_again/news/2359/

Meet the Newest Morrison

Meet Miss 'Splendid Jetta Bar' - aka Jetta. It was all I could do not to write about her yesterday but heaven knows I have to keep to a schedule - haha. We bought Jetta because sadly, we are going to sell Brisco. If we had enough land to keep him we would in a heartbeat because he is honestly such a smart, sweet horse but we decided just spooks way too easily for him to be a good trail horse. Just like some people aren't cut out to be baseball players or doctors, some horses aren't cut out to be trail horses or race horses or cutting horses. Just one of those facts that I am trying to come to terms with - Logan assures me that this is part of owning a horse - finding the 'right one' - some people go through tons of horses before they find the right one. I hope I don't have to. So, if you know of anyone that would be interested in a very sweet gelding Thoroughbred - you know where to come. I am pretty positive he would make an excellent English rider or even a jumper or sport horse.

So, about Jetta...She is half Quarter Horse, half Paint and she is registered as a paint - hence the complicated 'fancy' name. She is a bay with tobiano paint markings and she is only 2 years old so she is still kind of a baby - this was Logan's big great idea. He has been wanting to train a horse for awhile - mostly so he knows their background and can stop any bad habits (like Brisco's scared of cows) before they begin. He knows the girl that owned him - she breeds and trains/starts paints - so she's from a very good background. Right now she is busy getting used to her knew home. Her and Daisy were instant best friends and she is getting used to Logan and me slowly but surely. She's got a ways to go but hopefully will make a very good horse - right now Logan is kind of in charge of her - I will ride both Brisco and Daisy until she is 'ready' for me :) So now, let's meet Jetta - I will get better pictures soon! The first day she was kind of jumpy and then it has rained, rained, rained so these will do for now!

Jetta comes up to say hi!

The girls munch on some hay.

Here you can see her really pretty paint markings - and a lot of mud - it poured BUCKETS! (yes that is the body of a Beetle - anyone want it? You come get it you can have it!)

A view from behind - I love how her tail starts out white and fades to black - the brown tips are just 'split ends' that need to be trimmed - in summer her main and tail - other than the paint markings - will be black from her bay coloring.

This is the first time anyone has gotten on her bareback - she did very well! No riding was done - just sitting - a good start!

Mother Earth Monday - Plastic Panic

It was a wild and busy weekend which I have a LOT to blog about, but today is of course Monday which means we have to talk about Enviro-mente today. I wish I could say I thought up this idea but I credit this one to Becca. I think it was as we were eating pancakes Sunday morning and recycling plastic was brought up - I think it was because the margarine tub was a '5' and the lid was a '2' which I thought was weird. She asked what was the difference and what the numbers meant so I thought I would give everyone a little Plastic 101 today. I wish I knew the difference...I have pulled most of today's info from National Geographic's new magazine "Green Guide". So here we go!

All plastic is made out of chemicals (duh, no plastic trees around here I guess). Some chemicals are safe, some are not. Some can be recycled and broken down, some can't. Some are ok to have your food and water in contact with...some scarily aren't. Here's a breakdown of the different numbers...

"1" - PET or PETE (polyethylene terephthalate) - This is safe plastic and is recyclable. We most commonly see this in water and soda bottles. It is safe but you shouldn't be washing and reusing these - they chemicals eventually start breaking down (and getting into your stuff - yuck!) so these are a 1-use-only-please plastic. Make sure to recycle!

"2" - HDPE (high-density polyethylene) - Another safe and recyclable plastic. Some examples are milk jugs (and apparently the tops of Country Crock margarine?)

"3" - Vinyl or PVC (polyvinyl chloride) - Ok, so anything with 'chloride' in it I am not too fond of putting near my mouth...This should be avoided and is not recyclable. Some products can leak dangerous hormone-messing-with junk into foods. Um, so the example that they give in the magazine are the little vinyl lunch bags - I am going to throw mine away this second...yuck...

"4" - LDPE (low-density polyethylene) - safe and recyclable at places that accept it. Places that accept plastic bags will accept this - this will include plastic shopping bags and even plastic food wrap.

"5" - PP (polypropylene) - You see this a lot with food storage - especially yogurt and margarine containers. This is safe but beware - not all places (like Wytheville for one) accept this type of plastic so find creative ways to reuse this - cat food scoops, paint containers, seedling pots, etc. Be creative!

"6" - PS (polystyrene) - This one should be avoided - think Styrofoam picnic-ware - this can leak styrene - a possible carcinogen - into things. This can be recycled though if your program offers it but I for one wouldn't be using this one!

"7" -

PC (polycarbonate) - For all of you Nalgene-aholics like myself this one you should know is now considered possibly hazardous - it is made of 'bisphenol A' - a hormone-disrupting (what exactly does that mean? I am going to have to do some more research on that!) agent. I still don't know what I am going to do with my 5 Nalgenes - they are like souvenirs I have collected throughout the years! These are not recyclable. Maybe I can plant something in them? Anyone know a cool Nalgene art project?

PLA (polylactide - made from renewable plant resources - I guess there are 'plastic trees' after all!) - These are safe to use unlike the PC #7s but they are not recyclable - they can be composted however.

So, there is your intro to plastics. Be aware the next time you go shopping to make sure your food or whatever might come in contact with your mouth is something safe. A few more tips to remember is that microwaving plastic and dishwashing them eventually breaks them down. I am trying to wean myself off of them and use more dishes but I am always afraid of breaking them or carrying them back and forth to work. Also, look for the 'Preserve' line of reusable plastic picnic-ware - (they also make awesome toothbrushes) - the stuff is made from recycled plastic and is recyclable again. Neat! I haven't been able to find it around except for the toothbrushes but I am still on the look out. Hope this has been informative! Beware the Plastic!

To Brighten Your Day!

Just a little something cute to get you through the weekend! They were caught in a very rare 'kitty friendship' moment. Cleo looks like she is in trouble - hehe.

My friend Becca (my 'City Mouse' friend) is coming to visit this weekend so I will be off and about having a fun girls' weekend! If you remember, the last time we hung out we had our Barnes and Nobel 'knit fest'! I think it's supposed to be rainy this weekend but we always find something crafty to do (please don't make me tile tables again though! just kidding - I still love my table :) ) Have a good weekend and see y'all back here on Monday for another dose of Mother Earth Mondays!

P.S. I might try to post some pics over the weekend - Daisy the horse gets to be famous tomorrow. The teachers always do a contest for Relay for Life and whoever wins usually has to do something rather outrageous in front of the whole school. This year they chose a 'western' theme and originally started by saying that whoever won would have to ride a bucking bronco - well Daisy isn't a bucking bronco but they have downsized to just 'ride a horse' and the kids are still pretty psyched. Logan took off tomorrow and is bringing her down - this should be a hoot!

Thank You Earth!

First, before I say anything, this is what I woke up to this morning (sorry for the poor picture quality - this was at 6:30 this morning and not a lot of light to help it out!) Apparently our neighbor's cows escaped and decided they wanted to come live with us...Maybe someone told them I wouldn't eat them?
Ok, now for the real post. As promised I am taking a 'Earth Day' turn - not like I don't anyway. I thought and thought about what I was going to talk about and what helpful hint I was going to give but the more I thought about it, the more I didn't want to make this like my typical M.E.M.'s - I wanted to do something special. That's when it occurred to me to just celebrate Earth Day by celebrating the Earth. What better way to do that then to enjoy what the Earth has given to us? I dedicate today's post to all of my 'city' friends who don't get this kind of scenery very often and to everyone who just needs a little bit of time outdoors!

We own a little more than 12 1/2 acres and the whole back half is untouched woods - well, mostly untouched - more on that later! So I decided to do some exploring this afternoon all by myself. No husband, no dogs to worry about keeping with me, just me and nature (don't worry Mom - I took my cell phone with me just in case!).

To get to the back of the property you have to go up the huge hill behind our house that is pasture for the horses. This is the view from the top looking back toward our house:


We installed gates to keep the horses out of the back so I had to go through the gates to start my journey - there is a nice wide path at the beginning that I am sure was once maybe a tractor or 4-wheeler path down to the back but is now very grown up and has fallen trees over it -

The walk down to the back isn't very exciting - in fact it still looks like autumn back there with all of the fallen leaves that haven't been broken down yet. It gets pretty steep and like I said there are a lot of fallen trees so it was hard to take pictures on the way down - plus it's pretty boring picture-wise -

I did find this very tiny pretty white flower poking out of all of the leaves. I looked and looked to try to find out what kind of flower it was but couldn't find it - even in my wildflower guide. I will keep searching though and if anyone has any clue please let me know!

After walking downhill for what feels like forever, the forest opens up to a beautiful meadow in the back. I want to build a log cabin back there with no electricity and use it to escape life. Logan would want to live back there forever!

At first I thought this was a small bird sitting on the branch. I got curious when it didn't fly away. It is a very strange growth on the branch - I wonder what caused that? A fungus maybe?

There is a ginormous tree back there and I couldn't resist a self-portrait! Not the best picture in the world - I had to balance the camera on a rock on the ground and hope I was lined up and made it over there before the timer went off! I made it!

When we first bought our property, we explored the back to see what was back there before we bought it. We saw a stream bank that we thought was dried up. I found out today it wasn't dried up and had a pretty good flow to it even though it's small. You don't know how excited I was to find this! Playing in creeks is one of my most favorite things to do - I love lifting up rocks to see what is under them!

Speaking of lifting up rocks - look what I found! Under almost every rock I lifted, I found salamanders! They were everywhere! This tells me it stays pretty damp down there and it's not just a run-off stream that happens when it rains. This was a tiny baby salamander I found.

Then I got real brave and wrangled one myself! Sorry for the sonic glow of my hand - pasty here hasn't gotten much sun yet...And yes Mom, I washed my hands when I came back!

I followed the stream from the bottom back up the hill (mountain!) just to see how far I could go. I thought this might be the end of the road but I squeezed under- yes under - around was not possible - and continued on...

There wasn't a whole lot more exciting parts. I found some very pretty 'flora' -

And fuzzy flora (maybe fern? - I'm not doing very good with my species identification tonight - I will work on it I promise)

Finally I came to the end of the 'road' - this is the hill I hiked up and out back up to the top field. I am definitely going to feel this hike tomorrow but it was fun and very peaceful - not to mention a very good workout!

Happy Earth Day!