{crazyjen}

Auntie Shelly's House

Here are some pictures of stuff that caught my eye out at Auntie Shelly and Uncle Tim's house tonight.

The 'ole Farmall tractor steering wheel. Just seemed old and interesting. Yeah, I know, I find old tractors interesting I guess you know that I'm my father's daughter then. :) ('cept this one ain't a John Deere)

Boomer taking a rest. He's looking at me like, "Woman, the f*ck are you doing?"

Some old wheels laying against the machine shed. I love the repetition, the continuity, the sizing and the circles along with varying textures. Makes it sort of interesting, if you're into wheels of course.

A couple of the horses out in the pasture with the old cow barn in the background. I spend many a year out in that pasture and in that barn. No pictures to prove it though. So does that mean it's like the proverbial tree in the forest? If I had no physical proof of working on the farm did it really happen? Does verbal proof from my Aunt and Uncle count, um...yeah. I should hope so. I busted my a$$ out there; milking cows, pitching sh*t, bailing hay, stacking hay, yada yada yada.

Me and the Mouse out in the pasture. I'm on the right therefore she's on the left.

Some random gladiolas growing in the pasture. They were so pretty and colorful next to all the weeds and mowed down grass.

Tara and the little kitty.

Here's the money shot from the day. Tristan getting thrown in the pool. Look at his little ribs sticking out and his pants falling off. I have another picture, which I decided not to post, because it showed his little butt-cheeks too much and I don't need pedaphile's haunting this blog.

Waseca Open Horse Show

Here are some pictures of Traci and Tara riding in the show on Sunday. Traci received two red ribbons (aka 2nd place) which was good because her class sizes were 15 horse&riders. One in showmanship and the other in English Equitation.

English. Nice posture Traci. Heels could probably be down a little more. I'm loving that your feet are positioned against the belly and not pointing toward the inner ring.

You look nervous sweetheart. Loosen up. Your horse looks at ease. :)

Profile shot. Grandma would say, "Smile!"

Riding Western. She looked so much more at ease here than in English. I think Western is more like her personality than the uppity English. Cool, calm, collected and casual, that's Western.

There's that nice smile I was looking for.

That's a girl, giving Heidi-Heidi-Ho the pat-down.

This is 'Sandra (Cassandra) and John (Johnny Cash) Bethke [brother and sister] waiting patiently. Poor 'Sandra was DQ'd from the class because she had no saddle and no hat. She probably could have won riding bareback. She's good. Oh well, maybe next time.

Here's Tara doing pole-weaving with Rocky (he's 19 which is getting up there for a horse).

On the way back. In pole-weaving they cross the start line, weave through 5 poles I believe, whip around the last one and go back through again.

This one looks exciting. I'm loving the angle here, gives it some craziness I think. See how tight the turning is on those poles.

Here's my favorite. Traci running after getting past the last pole. Rocky's hair is waving wildly and Tara's facial expression is priceless.

I love my poochers

I love my poochers. Well I don't think it's quite accurate to call them "mine" but they are a part of our family and we've had them since I was in jr. high I think so I guess them being "mine" is a relative term.

Anywho, so I was feeding and watering them today and I played around with them. Cleo likes to grab things and make me chase her. Then she lets me have it, I chuck it, she chases after it, then comes running at me like she's going to give it to me but veers off at the last minute, so I have to chase her. It's fun anyways.

So after I chased the dogs and watch them roughhouse I decided to give them some dog biscuits. Cleo is so cute. She's the grandma dog. I give her a biscuit first because she's the oldest and my favorite. So she leaves where I'm standing and gives her biscuit to the puppy who promptly takes off to her spot. Then I give the other two dogs their biscuits and Cleo another one. They all trot off to their spots to eat them.

Here's Cleo with her biscuit. She's so cute. She gives her food to the puppy. Most likely because she doesn't think the little one would get one.

The puppy guarding her biscuit like she's never going to see it again.

pictures, poochers, puppies and pretty-sleep

Just some pictures from today.

scruffitz...whining at me.

my favorite poocher, Cleo. A strange shot yes but for some reason I like it.

One more. When I go out to feed the animals if I don't pay enough attention to her she paws me. Her claws are getting sharp so it hurts a little.

the last of our puppies. what should we name her? skunk? after the stripe she has from her nose to the back of her neck? paint blot? after the 1/2" of white on the tip of her tail? precious? because she is the only one that latest out of 9 puppies. Oh I got it. the money shot here. Zena, as in warrior princess. What about Vivien? We'll call her Viv for short, like Vivien Leigh, Gone with the Wind or Cleopatra as my Mom has become obsessed with telling me.

Mom: Jen, Did you know that Vivien Leigh, you know, as in Gone with the Wind.

Jen: Yes Mom, I know. I'm not stupid. I watch old movies. I got it from you.

M: Well, she played Cleopatra.

Jen: Yep, I know, you told me. Remember?

Think she looks like a Vivien? Maybe. When you pick her up though she shakes like a leaf. I can't tell if it's from cold or fear. Shouldn't be fear because she paws your legs like she wants you to pet and pick her up.

Me taking a cat nap at little Kimmie and Thomas's house. Not sure why it's comfortable to have my arm curled around my head and resting on my cheek. Just one of those things.

Arizona - favs so far

Here are a couple of my favorites...so far from perusing my pictures last night.

Orangutan at Phoenix Zoo name of Duchess.

Arabian Costume ride at Scottsdale Arabian Show.

Scottsdale, AZ bike trail.

Outside the window of the plane on the way to AZ. This is straight out of the camera, no adjustments. Beautiful gradient color.

This I touched up some, made some huge contrast differences and adjusted the saturation. I thought it looked cooler this way. If I remember I'll try and post a before and after.

My Grand Canyon panoramic. You should be able to click on it to see it in a larger view.

World's Toughest Rodeo - Part I

Here are some pictures from the World's Toughest Rodeo that I went to on Friday at the Excel Center in St. Paul, MN. I am not posting all of them just a few. I'll post more later.

Kimmie, Auntie Sheila, Traci, Tina Louise and Little Lyndsay

I know this is blurry but my camera isn't that good but you get the general idea. I love that horse tail flying in the air.

\

Blurry, but I love the look on this guys face. That says it all. Oh and the light spot at the bottom there is the old bat's white-blonde ratted-out mop who sat in front of me and got her head in every shot no matter how hard I tried. Why am I always cursed?

This one is cool. legs extended, tail flying and everything. Pretty sweet.

I like this one too. Too bad the old bat got in the way again. I repeat, why am I cursed?

This one is cool. He's mid-falling off the horse. Awesome! Isn't that why people go to the rodeo? To see people fall off and be trampled? :)

Here's the money shot. This one is my favorite because it's in focus and the horse is extended and I love the expression on his face. Awesome!

Puppies.

Here are a couple pictures. check out my flickr account, link on the left, for more.

I count 8. Left to right:

Blackie, Sugar (light tan on left), Gremlin (middle), Blinkie (top black dog), Bridget (dark brown), ??? (way right), Sleepy (bottom light tan), Black-belt (bottom right)

those puppies know how to keep warm...snuggle.

the cat giving the puppies the evil eye because she wants me to feed her. I saw the puppies on my way to the kitty dish and was distracted. shame on me. She's probably saying "I'll get you, you little pink-nosed freaks. I'll teach you to distract my feeder. Yeah, you just sit there looking cute. Just wait until she leaves and your momma abandons you. I'll get you back." :)

cleo watching over them too. she doesn't look quite so hostil maybe more adoring/loving.

I call this double trouble. Doesn't the one on the right look like spike from Gremlins? I think I'll call him Gremlin.

pink tongue.

Puppies, kitties, Rockband and Project Runway

Tonight was full of fun and excitement.

#1: Fed and watered the animals. Got these pictures of the kitties and puppies.

look at how precious they are. they are only a few days old so they can't see yet. we won't see them with their eyes open for some weeks yet. we've got a wide variety of colors, some white with black and brown, some black with white, some light tan, some dark brown and some black.

kitty, en route to food

"back off beotch, I'm gonna eat now." :)

suck it up baby.

me playing Rockband with Thomas. I did some singing too which Kimmie has on her camera. I might have to destroy those images. Nobody and I repeat nobody wants to hear me singing along to any song. Yeah, I'm that terrible. I'd be one of those idiots on the first show of American Idol with the exception of I'd never be that stupid and do it. :)

Me and Thomas singing along to Dani California. "California rest in peace, simultaneous release, california show your teeth, she's my priestess, I'm your priest. yeah, yeah."

"Hey Keddy (that's what Jack calls her) are you cold?"

Project Runway's winners. I took a picture of the tv screen. Pretty interesting dress, dontcha think? 45 yards of fabric. Holy Schneike's! Definitely avant garde.

Fluffy, fat, lioness kitty cats...

So I was outside on Saturday morning feeding the animals (cats, dogs and a horse) and I finally saw our barn cats. They are fat...and I mean fat, like fancy feast fluffy fat cats. They are pretty friendly too. Here are some pics.

did I mention we have puppies?

Close Encounter of the "Deer" Kind

So after I get home from work, my evening went a little like this.

I get home from work, warm up the oven for Schwan's Lasagna, change clothes, fill a bucket of water for the animals (the outside water source is frozen, it's cold in MN) while emptying the dishwasher and then refilling it. Then I truck outside with the water while thinking about what things I need to buy at the grocery store (flour, brown sugar {mom's is rock-hard}, pretzels, yada-yada-yada. I feel pretty good because I've just checked a couple things off my to-do list.

So then once I fee the animals I realize we are almost out of horse feed and dog food, so, add another item +stop at Fleet Farm. I get in my car and plow through the 5 inches of snow in our yard, past the foot and a half at the edge of the driveway from the snowplow {b#st#rds!} and take the Cedar Ave. route to the big city of Owatonna.

I'm driving along, I leave a message with Michelle's cell because she didn't pick up her phone and as I'm doing so I notice some snow-mobilers trucking along near a patch of trees on the right {secretly thinking to myself how badly I'd like to be trucking along on one}, so my eyes suddenly, in a split second, spot a deer on the side of the road bolting out in front of me. I don't even have time for the traditional brake reaction. I just plow right into this deer, it flys up and grazes my windshield and then rolls over the hood of my car. It happened so fast I'm not exactly sure if it just grazed the roof or what. Later I see that there is deer hair on the roof that's how I concluded that part of the story.

My heart is thumping like I've got a polka band in my chest. I quickly pull over, get out, check my car to see that it's damaged but still in decent working order and then check on the deer. To my astonishment, astonished because it sounded like a mack-truck had hit this deer, it's laying in the middle of the right lane, but it's head is moving around and it looked like it was trying to get up. I'm guessing that it's legs were broken so it couldn't move anything but it's head and part of the neck.

My first thought is, "Sh*t! the poor deer isn't dead. I don't have a gun or anything to put it out of it's misery. I can't pull it off the road because it's still alive and the road I'm on wasn't plowed well so it's full of snow and ice patches. Someone's going to come clipping along behind us and clock this deer. Sh*t!"

So I get back in my car and pull about 50 yards forward just in case someone does hit the deer and their car goes sliding or knocks the deer toward me. I get on my phone and call 911. A lady stops by me at the same time and asks how I am. I tell her I'm fine and that the deer is still alive and in the middle of the road. (I'm shouting across the road because she's on the other side while apologizing to the 9-1-1 operator for being rude.) She eventually gives up her quest to be absolutely sure I'm okay (Thank you, whoever you are.)

Right before she leaves, I'm standing there examining the right side of my car for any damange that I didn't intially notice and I suddenly notice some bright lights in my peripheral vision. I glance over and see a car coming my way. My first thought, "Sh*t they are going to hit it, they aren't slowing down." I sort of duck behind my car near the rear and see them clock the deer again. The deer slides about 20 feet or so and the car keeps going.

Well, I guess the deer is dead now.At least I hope it is. That's got to be a horrible way to die.

I finally am off the phone with the cops at this point and tell them to hurry up and get this deer off the road before it causes more accidents. Incidentally, they got to where I was in less than 5 minutes. Bravo!

While I'm patiently waiting that 5 minutes, I'm calling my mother to let her know I'm okay, calling my husband to let him know my car is wrecked and then calling my Dad back who seemed to sneak in during my calls to leave me a message.

His first words were, "So, I hear you went deer hunting tonight?" Mom told him. She said she drove by later when I was talking to the cop and said it looked like a pretty big deer, no horns, just a big doe.

The cops dragged the deer off the road and disposed of it right away and then gave me a packet and said, "Fill this out and turn it in to your insurance company if they need any forms you come down to the police station and we'll give you a copy of the incident report. That's all for you then." Then he asked me what happened and I told him it just bolted out in front of me. I had no chance to avoid it. He could see deer hair on the roof so he assumed, as I had, that it went over the roof.

So....after all of that, I'm fine but my car had a close encounter of the deer kind. Here are a couple "after" pictures.

Nice, eh?