Help! My computer is going crazy. I am using my lap top to stay in touch with all of you. Please forgive me if you have tried to write me an email with no success. My Outlook Express went wild a coule of weeks ago and got progressively worse with time. Now it won't let me delete received mail and it won't allow me to delete sent mail, so anyone I dare respond to gets about 100 copies of the email I send. I have phoned the support center at the phone company and also asked around for advice. Right now I am running Windows Live OneCare - let's hope it works! If not, I guess I have to resign myself to the fact that this computer is several years old (donated thanks to Mary D. who was mom to Friendly Explosion until his death a couple of months ago). It may need to be replaced. NOT a great thing to think about, especially since we are still paying off feed bills - $700 left to pay, to be exact, before we can start ordering feed in bulk again. In the meantime our personal pocketbook is running to the feed store every few days to buy feed. Today Craig paid $10.29 a 50# bag for 10% sweet feed and we bought four bags. Sunday I bought four bags at $9.29 a bag. We have the following horses at our farm or at the farm in Newton right down the road that we are feeding:
Spirit O Vegas
Secretly Yours
Copper Cadet
Lyric
Brandy
Taser Gun
R Colelateral
Remmie
Janimal
Chief
Lakehills Texas
Little John
Steelin Apples
Strawberry Jacki
Bob Cook
Arne
This doesn't include two llamas, a donkey, and my own personal brood.
We need a grant! We need a donation for feed and hay! We are sending out personal plea letters, but if you have any ideas for grants we would love to hear from you.
This is the TOUGHEST year we have had for paying bills and for adoptions. I know all groups are stretched and some are even closing their doors. We are only as good as our supporters -
I have all of my pictures ready to send but the computer must be fixed first. Bear with me.
Remmie, Fargo, Craig and I traveled to the Kickapoo Reserve last weekend to ride. Too funny! As I was typing this I fell asleep and woke up to five typed rows of lower case "k"!!! Ahem....so we did go over to the reserve and were hoping to find a little private camping spot. With the weather being so warm and the hills being in full color, I should have known better! We did find a spot and took off on horseback with Remmie attempting to lead every step of the way! We cantered and trotted and it all felt so wonderful. Unfortunately, Rachel was calling on our cell phone during our first ride, and when we went to the truck to check messages she was in tears, wanting to come home. We had to cut our night short (we were supposed to be having an overnight together but our children made us feel as though we had to come home. They had been at a friend's house but Rachel often has trouble falling asleep at other peoples' houses. I think we made a memory, anyway, plunging across the Kickapoo River at the reserve that day (the deepest water I have ever crossed) and traversing the steep hills, with an occasional run.
This week my focus was to be on Cricket and Taser Gun, but my mother is still in rehab and not doing extremely well. I spent a couple of hours with her yesterday and she doesn't even seem excited about being able to be released and go to her condominium with 24/7 care. It pains me in my heart to see the zest she once had for life not quite all there any more. She continues to struggle with her aortic valve and transferring from sitting to standing position. We are hoping and praying that time will heal.
Work is going well, but being away from home full time is quite a hard thing to swallow. I leave at 7:25 and generally get home about 5:00. What am I comlaining about? Most of you out there are doing the exact same thing. And to think some race trainers train in the morning and evening and work all day. They must be soooo tired! I always feel a lump in my stomach when I leave home, thinking the dogs and horses will actually miss me. Then I think of how selfish a thought that is - they have each other, they have down time, and their main task is to eat, sleep, and lounge until I get home from school!!! What a great life they have!
Still getting tons and tons of referrals and horses waiting to get into the program. We need homes for the horses we have here first..........anyone willing to give me name and contact info for any publication or paper where ASAP could put an ad in efforts to raise awareness about our program? Let me know!
Until next week or sooner,
Susan
