The Hobbit Hole III - Journey to the Cross-roads!

[HairOfTheDog]

Welcome to The Hobbit Hole!

Journey to the Cross-roads
The Two Towers Edition

Come on! Come in! -if you would like to have some seedcakes and a pint and relax a while. (If it is a special occasion, we still have a few bottles of the old wineyards left!)

Our first thread ( New Zealander builds Hobbit hole ) reached 4,100 posts, and we thought that was big. Our second thread (The New Hobbit Hole ) held us for over 48,000 posts, and we loved it dearly. We talked about moving to a new thread for the last 38,000 posts, but we are really slow to muster! Finally, the time has come. Tomorrow (at 12:01 am, to be precise!) The Two Towers comes out, and we start a new chapter.

[300winmag]

22 is an older horse, to be sure.... but it is not unheard of to have horses able to be worked through 25 or more if they are kept sound, and not rare at all for them to live into their middle 30s if they don't have something go wrong.

Arabs and part-Arabs tend to grow more slowly, and live longer, than other horse breeds. A friend of Marl had an Arab that lived to be 43, although his last ten years were spent in lazy retirment. Kinda hard to say goodbye to a friend you've known since you were ten years old, but they had a good long run together.

[HairOfTheDog]

Bay can enjoy as many years in lazy retirement as he wants to have. The deciding factor seems to be whether or not they develop Cushings syndrome... That seems to be the disease that has taken out the old horses I have known. The vet said it is becoming more commonplace as horses live longer, that Cushings is one of the eventualities that they will develop if they don't die from something else first.

[Wneighbor]

So, is Bay the first horse you've had? Or did you have others before him?

I learned about a kind of work animal I didn't know about when we moved into the old place. The man who owned the ranch surrounding our property did not live nearby. There were a lot of cayotes out there. He had herd donkeys along with 2 dogs to keep the coyotes from the livestock. These donkeys both were friendly to my kids. Of course they were across the fence but when the kids were out in the yard they'd come visit. And yet, at night I could hear them sometimes take out a cayote. That was also a learning experience.

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

Have you tried the HEB or Pace Roasted Pepper salsa?

No I haven't. We usually get Pace Picante sauce (hot). I find it works especially well in omelettes.

[Wneighbor]

I would let a child come and learn on Bay,

My oldest grand-daughter is not all that far from you... as hobbit hole distances go.............

she's in Portland.

I bet she'd like Bay....

[HairOfTheDog]

I had other horses when I was a kid....

My first horse was a wild-born mustang from Nevada.... a rancher shot him and he was found dying on a friend's property.... they nursed him back to health and broke him to ride and sent him up to me. I had been working and for riding privileges and otherwise just hanging around at an appaloosa farm for a few years.

I sold him when I wanted to get into showing horses and got first and Arab-Saddlebred cross and then a little Arab stallion. I have always wondered where my mustang ended up, and that guilt drives me to do right by Bay, and now this little pony.

Pictures: Ancient History - Old horse friends

[Wneighbor]

Night ya'll. I'm going to turn in now. I was up way to long last night.

300, hope that T-watch doesn't get to your neck of the woods.

[SuziQ]

Thanks for the congrats. We're very proud of him; he's a really smart young man! He's going off to Law School in the Fall. This will cause no end to the merriment in BOTH our families; we haven't had any lawyers on either side, yet, but they're full of lawyer jokes. My nephew will start Old Miss Law School in the Fall, so there will be 2 lawyers on my side of the family, but only one on SSQ's side.

[HairOfTheDog]

If her folks would drive her up here, she could ride whenever she likes, if she were good to him!

[SuziQ]

I really wish that more of our long term Americans with the lib-iot mentality could be cognizant of what the young man was saying.

What was amusing about it was the stark contrast between Sasha's speech and that of the Anthropology prof who preceeded him. The prof's speech was so gloomy and seemingly negative. I just didn't think it was appropriate for this kind of event. It wasn't a Commencement, but it was supposed to be a CELEBRATION of Excellence!

[Wneighbor]

Now, those are all some very nice photos. But, tell me, just how old were you in those Chico pictures? You looked about Myranda's age if not younger.

[HairOfTheDog]

I am about 14.... Don't you love the bell-bottom jeans?

[Wneighbor]

The prof's speech was so gloomy and seemingly negative. I just didn't think it was appropriate for this kind of event. It wasn't a Commencement, but it was supposed to be a CELEBRATION of Excellence!

I think that exuberance and celebration spirit is part of what's embodied by immigrants like that. Can it be that folks like that prof. have lost touch with our roots? okay, that was kind of a facetious question. But, I just don't see how these guys can NOT see that we are still the Land of Opportunity. The place the rest of the world WANTS to be. That the reason others dislike us is that they want to be us.

[Wneighbor]

YES!!! I love the bell-bottom jeans!!! FYI - I NEVER stopped wearing them!

Okay, sometimes I had to wear straightlegged jeans because for TOO many years that's all you could buy. But, I always kept all the bell bottoms I had. And I was the fashion horror of my oldest daughter. LOL

You looked lovely in those photos. Very happy and content.

[300winmag]

300, hope that T-watch doesn't get to your neck of the woods.

Looking at the radar map, the storm is over the west side of the state. At a ground speed of 30 mph, it should hit Marl in about two hours, and me near Detroit about five hours later. That would make it early morning, and I think storms weaken during the day, and start building up again at sunset. The barometer is low, but not "scary low", and it's 65 and muggy out there. This isn't tornado alley, but I've seen more green sky that I need to.

[Wneighbor]

No I haven't. We usually get Pace Picante sauce (hot). I find it works especially well in omelettes.

Well, I dunno if they still do, but used to, a long time ago, Pace made the HEB generic salsa. And with these new variations of Pace, HEB has the same "flavors." We've tried the cilantro one, it was very good. And we tried lime and garlic, so-so, plain Pace (or HEB) hot is better. But, we just opened a jar of that Roasted Pepper - and it's gone. Didn't expect it to be that good.

[Wneighbor]

If her folks would drive her up here, she could ride whenever she likes, if she were good to him!

*sigh* I wish I could come up and drive her up to you. She'd be good to him. She's a sweetie. (not just saying that cause she's my grand-daughter)

She is my son-in-law's daughter from his previous marriage. So, blood-wise, she is not connected. But, she and I ignor that. She lives with her mom now that Jill and Tom are in Germany/Iraq. Her mom also has another younger child. They don't do too well and her mom doesn't seem to be able to get the kids out to do much of the kid type stuff. They're latch key kids. The mom and 2 kids live in a 1 bedroom apt. Mom seems to have trouble keeping a job.

At Christmas, she asked me for a set of the books for her birthday. I didn't think about her being old enough but duh, she's 10 now. She got the books. And video. Shoot, any kid that's bright enough to ask for THAT for her birthday deserves the whole enchilada!

[Wneighbor]

Sounds like you ought to be okay up there. Green is definitely NOT the color that's supposed to be in the sky! It looks like from here that this won't be like last night. Hopefully, I'm not just getting that impression because the storms aren't close to me.

I said goodnight a good bit ago. So, I'm going to mean it here shortly.

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

I'll look for the Roasted Pepper flavor when I go shopping Monday!

Good night!

[Wneighbor]

I'll look for the Roasted Pepper flavor when I go shopping Monday!

Wish you could get me some.... we still don't have HEB's up here this close to Mordor.

But! Nevertheless! We will be making a trip to check on Grama soon - my pickup is repaired. We will return with salsa. (and other goodies we only find at HEB.)