Husqvarna Viking Machine

 I was at the store with my friend this afternoon and we wandered by a display that said "Singer - Heavy Duty" machines.   Because I've been pondering getting a sewing machine that can do tougher stuff, i.e. repairing horse blankets and making saddle pads and equipment bags, I was tempted by the sale.  However, upon closer inspection I learned the innards were actually partly plastic, partly metal, and so not as heavy duty as it appeared.  The woman at the store said that particular machine will usually be returned within the first month because something inside has broken. I then wandered over to these Husqvarna Viking machines.  I sat down and tried it in the store - I watched it go through 7 layers of tightly folded denim in one pass like it was nothing.  This machine even will go through leather if you use the right needle and thread, just what I want to get through 1600 denier nylon waterproof horse blankets that need repair, and heavy canvas sheets with nylon webbing straps.

 To familiarize myself with it I filled bobbins and sewed some scrap horse show ribbons together, then I jumped right in and made this with scrap stuff I had:

Finally, I was happy to get it because I can do all of the stuff needed to finish this horse show ribbon quilt with my own machine rather than send it to someone else to finish.  It will easily go through all the layers of slippery fabric to quilt the whole thing together with just changing some small parts and settings.  It's a super simple machine but tough enough to go through the stuff I want to do - and it was a great price!  Who knew I could be so domestic?  This is the ribbon quilt so far:

 This is a heavy cotton sheet patched with an old pair of my jeans (I wore out the jeans riding, nothing like swinging your leg into the saddle and hearing the seat of your pants split).  The machine had no problem going through it.

This was two layers of nylon webbing, two layers of fleece, and denim from jeans for the patches.  Again, no issue at all for the machine.  The next attempt was putting the tail flap back on a blanket (no pics, sorry), and the machine went through 4 layers of tightly folded nylon webbing plus 2 layers of 1200 denier nylon like it was butter.  Good deal.  These horse clothes were ready to be trashed, and repairing them was simple.  To replace the horse blankets I fixed this weekend would have cost more than the machine did - it has already paid for itself!

Pumpernickel's Photo Shoot

 Pumpernickel profile shot - turns out he really is ready for his close-up!

 Thinking at the dog water bowl...  what do guinea pigs ponder?

 In the corner of his cage, and yes that is a buffet of orange slice, zucchini, strawberry, a stick, and timothy pellets with a side of hay.

 Who knew doorstops were so interesting?

 

There is nothing cuter than guinea pig lips.

Nase spends a lot of time watching Pumpernickel, and Pumpernickel watches Nase, too.  When Pumpernickel starts running or playing with his hay bag it always startles Nase and he leaps up and runs from the office.  Not too aggressive, thank goodness.  He only gets a little jealous when Pumpernickel gets to sit in my lap and eat a carrot, because Nase loves to be in my lap and also loves carrots. 

Inspiration from bravegirlsclub.com

This blog post is for anyone with a broken heart right now…anyone with a broken spirit…anyone with broken wings….anyone who is trying to figure out how to put their life back together. This is for you……

I then went on to tell her about the dreams I was having and the way I was feeling and the books I was reading and how everything just pointed to broken wings…..wings that felt like they could never heal or mend…..that my best years were over…….and…how devastating that was. How permanent it felt.

I told her how I’d always been a huge proponent of PICK YOURSELF UP, DUST YOURSELF OFF and START ALL OVER AGAIN. I told her this time it was different. I couldn’t do it….I felt broken and I didn’t know how to ever feel whole again.

I told her about the recurring dream…..of being a little birdie, and sitting under the tree watching all of the other birds fly…..birds I used to fly with….and new birds…and birds that didn’t even know how to fly when I used to fly up there….but now they are flying. I told her how I would just sit under the tree and watch all the birds fly, and cry…..BUT, that I didn’t know for sure why….I wasn’t sure if I couldn’t fly, or if I wouldn’t fly. All I knew is that I wasn’t flying, and that it hurt.

I told her that I read books about how to find your passion, how to ‘fly’….I read books about how to find out who you are and what you want to do with your life…

But…….they only made things worse. You see, I told her…I KNOW how to fly. I have flown before…I used to fly fly fly day and night. I don’t need anyone else to show me how to fly or how to find my wings……my wings are broken….what do you do when your wings are broken?Well, it hurts. It doesn’t make sense…I think that’s one of the hardest parts….that, one day you feel like you could conquer the world and soar to the highest heights…one day you feel like you are riding the wind, letting the current take you away…..everything flows….you have a bird’s eye view of life….

and then, something happens….and now that I have been through it, I am seeing it happen again and again to other birds….and it doesn’t matter why you feel like you lost your wings or that they are broken past repair…. doesn’t matter…it all hurts the same….and lots of times it leaves you to crash to the ground in a botched emergency landing.

there’s one truth that ties it all together, though…….that you WILL fly again….you will.

Now…let me tell you what else I learned today..I learned what to do when you find an injured bird……directly from the ornithology society it says…

“Place an injured bird in a covered box (with air holes punched in it), and keep it in a warm, QUIET place. Do not try to administer first aid, offer food or water to the bird, and avoid lifting the lid to check on its condition. The less it sees of you, the less stress it will experience, and the better its chances for recovery will be.“

So…are you giving yourself a break? Are you letting yourself heal up? Are you understanding that it’s ok if you need to be left alone to get things figured out? For me….once I was in a “covered box in a warm quiet place” I was really able to let God do what He needed to do for me….but that took lots of trust. That’s back at the end of 2007 when I CLOSED FOR RESTORATION….I really did too….we moved way out in the country, an hour away from everything for a whole year….that wasn’t planned on my part, but it sure was exactly what I needed.

so here’s me…..a little flying birdie……and it feels so good….even though I am not one of those really fast and really elegant and really exotic birdies….I am who i am and I am flying….and I am so happy. It was time for me to fly again….and it was not on MY timeline because I would have chosen for it to come much sooner…BUT….God is never early and never late…but always right on time….(in the words of Egonda’s daddy, one of my greatest teachers)

I will leave you with one final little message from my sage friend, Mary Kay……..we sat in her Pilates studio earlier this week…..and, as she always does, she coached me with some really wise words……she said….that she wishes that New Year’s resolutions did not come in January…that it’s just the worst, most unnatural time..during the Winter..when everything is dormant and we can not plant or grow anything…that it is just not natural…that winter is for rest and renewal and recharging…..and that spring will come soon enough….
and I realized….that flying is that way too….some years we are in the winter of our life……..and it seems like nothing is happening…that everything has stopped…that it’s cold and lifeless…but, it’s only a season…and then spring comes…and we can fly again.
YOU WILL FLY AGAIN…I just know it. YOU WILL. Now…go make a list of all the things you can do while you are in your little box, resting, mending, healing….make that time for yourself…because before you know it…you will be soaring….

-          Melody from Bravegirlsclub.com

Major Stitched Finished!

Done!

Doggone Fun in the Snow

 We had our first snow of the season last night and today.  Many of the trees had not yet lost their leaves so we had many downed branches.  We also had very happy dogs (except for Belle being disgruntled at the snow packing in her paws). 

 It gets harder to find the ball when it's coated in sticky snow.

 Miles with a smile!

 Ball?  What ball?

 This might be one of my favorite pictures of Miles, I love his intensity.

Pics from the cell phone

 Cecil asks politely for a cookie

 Sabbath is the feral cat no one saw for 6 months after I got him.  He has changed a lot and now lobbies for house cat status (denied - Owen and I have allergies), and will approach strangers to ask them to rub his belly.

 

Miles coaching a client and her horse during a riding lesson

Belle discussing fetch with Sabbath.  He doesn't want to throw her tennis ball.

An Afternoon with Newman

 Miles is my border collie and Newman is the neighbor's corgi, they are the same age and good friends.  Until they turned two years old Newman was almost always at our house working with my dogs.  Since June, when both dogs turned two Newman has discovered that he is actually a corgi, thus deciding that it is too much work to be at Kamp Kim all the time with the work-a-holic border collies.  When he was a pup he would come with us on 2+ mile trail rides, but as he grew up he eventually chose to stay home and wait for us to return when he realized his legs were short.  These are some old pictures that I took about a year ago but only recently found the adapter to get them off my camera card. 

 These show exactly the kind of work that Newman does.  He feels that horses should always be standing, and so barks vehemently at them whenever he catches them down.  When he gets really worked up it sounds like "hubba hubba!"  My horses mostly ignore him.

Major Stitched

I'm pretty fast cross-stitching, and the kits at the craft stores don't last long enough.  I frequent ebay and find patterns I like and purchase them there, then buy my own fabric and thread.  This is my latest project, it is a stunning likeness to Major, my grey thoroughbred, with the same expression on his face and everything.  I'm about 2/3 done with it, the unfinished part is his haunches and more background on the left.  I included a close-up so you could see the different colors in the white of his face, total in this design there are 62 colors.  I also included a photo of the back side, since recently I've met people who have complimented how that looks.  I'm not sure why - it is kind of just a mess of thread, but I've been told it's a good thing to be able to see the patten in the back side. 

The Clothes Horse

The local tack store had a really excellent sale last weekend.  Cecil needed a new raincoat and the sale provided (and inexpensive, too!).  I'm not sure why blogger is keeping it such a dull brown color - it's actually really bright yellow, green, blue and red in the swirls.  Cecil was of course happy to model his new duds, he never likes to miss a photo opportunity.  Sometimes I get jealous because my horse has more clothes than I do, but I was able to get a new hunt coat, gloves, and show shirt at the sale for myself as well.  It's a REALLY nice upgrade from my somewhat dated hunt coat (probably about 10 years old), and selling my old stuff covers the cost of the new because the sale was so discounted.  So this time I don't have to be jealous of Cecil. 

Psycho Clinic

 This is the "psycho clinic" in Laramie. It was at a friend's stable and Daniel Stewart was the clinician. He coached the US showjumping olympic team and has a heavy focus on sports psychology. The point of this clinic is to increase your ability to ignore distractions and handle stress. Basically this exercise had 8 cross-rail fences set up in varying angles and distances within a 20 meter circle. He would shout out the course to you as you cantered in, and you then had to enter immediately and jump your course of 12 fences while he attempted to distract you with chatter and questions. It is way harder than it looks!

 It included very tight turns

 Major shows off the suspension in his stride - only 1 foot on the ground.

 Diagonal/crooked lines of jumps

Even though the jumps were very small, the mind game was very difficult.  We've never knocked down so many rails as we did at this clinic - but we had a great time.  It stressed Major a little since he REALLY doesn't like to make mistakes and hit the rails, but when he realized I wasn't worried about it he settled down and understood he wasn't going to be in trouble.

Neighborly Relations

It's one thing to have the neighbor's dog come over and hang out at my house, playing with my dogs.  It's a similar thing to have the neighbor's kids come over to visit and pet the horses.  But it's another thing altogether when my neighbors wake up to discover my horse is grazing in their backyard.  We all had an early morning today in our pajamas catching Garmin because he took himself on a field trip to Newman's house. 

Cross Country Schooling Water

 Here we are receiving our instructions for the ride - Cecil is posing for the camera, as usual. 

 Cecil has been in lots of water, but the water near us is usually on the farm.  We don't get to do this much at home because of the slick mud through which we must wade carefully so as not to face-plant in the muck. 

 Check out how flexed his hind legs are in this photo - this is why eventing horses have to be REALLY sound.

 My horse has springs in his feet!

My fancy thoroughbred type.  I'm so happy!