Making Hay

The second cutting of hay at my sister's hay field has been cut, dried, and baled at last. Now, Tim is getting ready to haul 21 round bales from her place in Brookston back to the barn here in West Lafayette, a distance of 16 miles each way. 

It's complicated by the fact that Tim wanted square bales as he has the means to transport them, but the farmer splitting the yield with him (and doing the cutting and baling) decided to do round ones. Tim had to rent equipment to load and unload those round bales. And, getting them back to the barn will entail multiple trips.

It was spitting rain (the spots on the photo) when I went out to check Abby and her friends. The hay wagon was ready to be hitched to the truck

and the tractor ready to haul the wagon out to the northwest field where the bales will be stored.

It's fun to watch round bales being made. The hay is raked into rows and then the farmer drives over the rows and the hay baler picks it up.

And even more fun to see those bales pop out of the baler! (Sometimes hay baling makes me think of Dr. Seuss illustrations.)

We still have plenty of good pasture now, but fall is just around the corner, so it feels good to be putting up the hay.

Pancreatic Cancer - The Loss of Pat Coulter

 The passing of family, friends, and acquaintances never fails to sadden me. But Pat Coulter's passing hit me harder than most.

Pat, a long time hobbyist, passed away from pancreatic cancer. She was diagnosed in June and lived just two months after her diagnosis.  That short rate of survival post-diagnosis is pretty typical as pancreatic cancer is generally asymptomatic until the end stages and has a very low survival rate. 

Like Pat, I had my own brush with pancreatic cancer. The difference was that my tumor was found very early during the precancerous stage. It was removed and I am alive and cancer free.

A year ago, I wrote about getting the post-op report where I received the joyful news that I did not have cancer. The full blog entry can be found here, but the following paragraph made me think of Pat and her pancreatic cancer journey:

It's hard to describe how I feel - relieved, grateful, humbled, blessed, teary, and very, very empathetic to those who have been on this journey or are just beginning it as well as for those whose pathology reports came back with different news than mine.

Sadly, Pat was one whose pathology report had different, much harder, news.

Daughter-in-love Vanessa and me yesterday, at my family birthday gathering.

I am grateful that I am alive and was able to celebrate another birthday yesterday. But as I thank God for my life, I also mourn for Pat and others whose pancreatic cancer journey had a very different outcome.

Rest in peace, Pat.

Still Enthralled

 Today is my birthday, and I have been thinking back on my lifelong love of horses.

Curly headed me, age three, enthralled by the horse that we found wandering our neighborhood.

Still curly headed and still enthralled, sixty years later.

My Penpal, Pepper: A New Toy!

(Second post of the day.) This is a non horsey post. Our dog, Pepper, is a retired Seeing Eye Dog, and to let the woman she guided know how she is doing, Pepper and I send "letters" that are posted in My Penpal, Pepper. Enjoy!

Dear Mom,

Oh, boy, just wait until you hear about this! I have a new toy and I am so excited because I absolutely love it. Can you guess what it is? Here are some hints for you.

First hint: It's round. 

I'll bet you guessed a tennis ball. Nope! It's not a tennis ball. They're fun, but this is funner. (Lynn says that "funner" isn't a word, but I had her look it up and she discovered that by the usual rules of adjective formation, it is a word. She says she still won't use it herself but agreed to type it in for me.)

Okay, here is another hint. My new toy is round and flat.

I can hear you now - you think I got donut #5368, right? It isn't a donut! (Although I love, love, love all my donut toys. Lynn says the food donuts are even better, but she won't share with me when she eats one. She said that if I want to stay svelte for my sweet Nacho, then edible donuts aren't for me. Hmmmm...)

One last hint. My new toy can fly! Well, it can fly IF the person playing with me has a good arm. ::cough cough:: (Lynn needs practice; a lot of it. Just sayin'!)

It's a frisbee! Did you guess? (Photo of Pepper lying in the grass, green frisbee beside her.)

Lynn and I have been going down to the park every day to play with it. (Picture of me loping after a green frisbee. Lynn would like to point out that it IS FLYING despite what I said about her ability to throw. I say that she got lucky.) 

When Lynn pulls my frisbee out of the cabinet by the front door, I grab it in my mouth and carry it all the way to the park. (Photo of me carrying the frisbee in my mouth.)

I don't mind that I can't sniff at all the trees and things to see who has visited the park before me. It's more fun to carry my frisbee and worth missing out on the pee-mail. (Another photo of me carrying my treasure.)

Lynn has promised to practice throwing it, and she said that, in the meantime, I should be glad that she hasn't (yet) thrown it into the lake or someone's back yard by mistake. (Picture of me lying in the shady grass with my frisbee between my front paws.)

Call me one happy dog!

Flying high into the sky I remain,

Your Pepper

Circus Girl: The Story Continues

I love looking at performance entries and scenes that people create, whether it is for a class in a show or just for fun. Having my Circus Girl doll has enabled me to join in that fun. And am I ever enjoying it. I don't think Teacher Daughter really believed me when she asked how my day was. (See that "haha" she attached to my text?)

A few years ago I created a Lynn doll scene on one of the shelves here in my office. Using an old Brenda Breyer, I set up a little Christmas scene.

Naturally I had to include the set of sleigh bells that Jennifer Buxton made me! But I never went beyond this. Until Anne Field made me my Circus Doll.

She's been entered in three of the ten classes of the Pandemic Performance Panorama show 

and they all tell a narrative.

The third one is for Sparkly Performance and is titled "Flamingo Fabric Flummox." 

After the surprising success of her Flamingo Pond performance, Lynn is thrilled to have been asked to make it a regular part of the circus. Here she has gathered her dear friends, Peppermint and Little Raj (as well as her flamingo buddies - after all, they were a big part of her success) to help her choose the fabric for her new Flamingo Pond costume. Decisions, decisions!

I don't expect to win any ribbons for any of my entries, but I am fine with that. Why? Well, just as I learned from my NaMoPaiMo experience, there is joy in the journey and that can be as rewarding as any ribbon.

And right now, I am finding a lot of joy.

Flamingo Pond??

 Flamingo Pond? Where did that come from? It came from a conversation I had with Anne Field.

My Flamingo Pond entry in the Bad Performance class of Jennifer Buxton's Pandemic Performance Panorama.

Anne was working on my Circus Girl doll (who is named, naturally, "Lynn"), and sending me photos of the doll so that I could see its progress. I mentioned how Swan Lake-elegant she was and then commented on the flamingo in the flower pot. 

Anne quickly joked, "More like Flamingo Pond," and as I laughed about that, I also had an idea. Instead of creating the elegant scene I had envisioned entering into Pandemic Performance Panorama, wouldn't it be more fun to use the idea of Flamingo Pond?

An online search found some inexpensive flamingos that were the right scale

and I gathered some construction paper and a circus tent appliqué out of my quiet book supplies.

I began experimenting with how I wanted the scene to look, but I also needed to make it so that people looking at the entry understood what was going on.

The sign I'd made was too small to be read. Either I needed to put fewer words on it

or make it larger. I felt the larger text, though out of scale, was better because if the judges are scratching their heads over what is going on, they will move on to the next entry. 

I also put a narrative with the name of the entry:

The Show Must Go On! Lynn has been working hard on her bareback rider apprenticeship. Her final task was was to perform a scene from Swan Lake with her favorite circus horse, Mr. Nedz. But alas! The circus swans flew away! Thinking quickly, Lynn rounded up a few flamingos from the side show, changed the title of her performance, and proved her circus mettle - yes, the show did go on! (She passed that apprenticeship with FLYING colors!) Owned by Lynn Isenbarger (Thanks to Donna Chaney for making Mr. Nedz and to Anne Field for turning me into a doll.)

I had so much fun putting this entry together that I decided to continue the story with an entry in the Sparkly Performance class.

More on this entry tomorrow.

Circus Girls - A Dream Come True

Circus girls! My favorite imaginative game to play as a kid. Leslie and I would pack cardboard suitcases (swiped from our dolls) and get on the circus train (the couch) and  travel to the circus's next destination. (Always the back yard.) There we would put on performances before packing up again and traveling to the next town.

Leslie and I grew out of our game, but we are both very fond of the memories. "Of course I remember Circus Girls!" Leslie responded when I asked. "Those were tremendous memories!" Yep! They sure were.The Circus Girls actually got to go to Baraboo, Wisconsin and meet some real circus horses when we were a little older. That was a treat. (Leslie and me along with our little sister, Jenny.)

Finally, after years and years of thinking about it, I circled  back to my Circus Girl roots. I did some research and asked Donna Chaney to make me a RubberNedz Circus Horse and Anne Field to make me a Circus Girl Doll. 

The end result was just as I'd hoped and imagined it to be. I never had a real horse who looked like Mr. Nedz, but I did have someone who looked like my new doll. 

You see, my elegant new doll is me, Circus Girl Lynn. And she is just as I imagined her, all those years ago.

Thanks so much, Anne, for bringing my dream to life. 

(I'll explain Flamingo Pond tomorrow.)

Found! A Chalky Appaloosa Performance Horse

I have been looking for a chalky Appaloosa Performance Horse for years. When he was first released, I did not like the mold (that tail!) and so I chose other Breyers over him when I was buying new pieces for my collection. But, I did love the color - it is probably my favorite of all the colors Breyer has ever produced.Recently I found a really nice one. It was a smidge over what I wanted to pay, but because it was so nice and my search had been so long, I purchased it. (Photo by seller.)The color is one of Breyer's most popular and has been used for several Vintage Club offerings.

And they all have the smile-inducing double dots on the back.

The free Vintage Club stablemate in 2012 was Eagle. This was the first year for the club, and we vintage collectors were thrilled to see that APH appaloosa color used again.

The next year, Halo, the Stretch Morgan in the APH appaloosa coloring, was one of the four Vintage Club offerings. I was surprised to see the color used in the Vintage Club so soon again, but I sure wasn't going to complain as I loved it!

We had to wait six more years until 2019 when Leopold was released for Vintage Club members on the Fighting Stallion mold.

Of course, by then I had begun a serious search for the original Appaloosa Performance Horse to add to my collection. I bought this non chalky piece in 2017.

But still I kept looking for the chalky version. I found and rejected many on various sales sites - either the price was more than I was willing to pay, or the model was in poor shape (and even a few that were a combination of the two - high price/beat up horse.)

This guy has some flaws, but they are minor and hard to see. I am pleased to have finally completed my search! (Photo by seller.)

Gordon Crossley Posts

Gordon Crossley, the brother of Karen/Pawprint, posted today on her blog. He shared the sad news of her passing and posted a new photo of her.

I am going to leave a comment on her blog and let Gordon know about Jennifer, Anne, and me honoring her memory by completing her alphabet project. 

I do hope he leaves her blog up. She was an engaging writer with creative ideas, the alphabet project only one of them.

On the Table Again

The first NAN (North American Nationals) was held in conjunction with BreyerFest in Lexington, Kentucky in 1995. I was there with my dear friends, Kathy Bateman and Beth Dickinson.

Beth, me, and Kathy at the 1995 NAN. We are wearing our Haynet buttons.

Here it is! The photo I had been looking for of Liberty and Nancy (she has a name, now) with their NAN Top Ten ribbon.

I recently wrote that Liberty and Nancy would never go to a show again, but I was wrong. Anne Field suggested that I enter them in the Pandemic Performance Panorama's Vintage Performance class.

It's been twenty-five years since they went to a show, but there they are! I have no idea how they will place, but win or lose, I'm just happy to have the chance to let them shine a little bit again. 

Go, Liberty and Nancy!

Pandemic Performance Panorama

The pandemic has spurred the hobby to return to its roots - since live shows are currently not safe to hold or attend, many hobbyists have returned to photo showing. Only instead of doing the ol' physical photos stuffed into a large envelope with a SASE to return them, modern photo showing is done digitally and online.

The options for specialty shows have been creative, but probably none more so than Jennifer Buxton's Pandemic Performance Panorama. (The teacher in me LOVES that alliteration! A+, Jennifer!)

The class list is unique and allows for a great deal of personal expression and creativity from the exhibitor. I'm not great at making tack, props, or dolls, but I can use what I have and come up with entries.

I have a whole bunch of Thelwell rubber horses and riders. Using some appliqués tucked away in my quiet book supplies, I created a scene of dedicated fox hunters heading out despite the looming hurricane. (The appliqués are taped to the wall.) This is for the Teeny Tiny Performance class.

My lovely doll from Anne Field is here, and while I intend to use her for a more elegant entry in live shows, I also used her as I toyed with ideas for the Mixed Scale Performance class.

Another quiet book appliqué was taped to the wall and a narrative was posted with the entry.

When I saw there was a Vintage Performance class, I entered this photo taken in the early 1990s.  (I love looking at the entries in that class - so many old photos that bring back lots of memories.)

I am working on one last photo that I will enter in Bad Performance. It will include my new doll and my new Rubbernedz. Anne inadvertently gave me the idea when she sent me progress photos on the doll, and I am hoping I can pull it off. 

I'll post the photo here when I do.

The Old Barn

The old barn is my favorite of the barns on the property. It's not original to the site - the original barn burned down decades ago and the old barn was moved here to replace that one. But it, too, caught on fire, and if you go up into the hay mow, you can still see charred spots on the rafters and beams up there.

Diablo, Hokey (barely seen) and Trouble.

Tim checks it regularly and repairs and reinforces any weak beams. Like most old wooden barns, there are some cracks between the wallboards that let in light as well as fresh air. Surprisingly, though, it stays cool in the summer and warm in the winter despite those cracks. I love to hang out with the horses in there and listen to the barn creak and sigh. 

There are two huge box stalls, each with their own entrance, on the southern side of the barn and the horses have the freedom to go in and out at will. 

I'm glad that Abby has that freedom and can live as naturally as possible.

Shelter, pasture, water, salt and mineral blocks, with frequent offerings of peppermints and carrots...

Life is good!

Suitable for School

 You know, if I'd won a mutton busting champion belt buckle, 

I might wear it on the first day of school, too! (Who needs belt loops?)