Christmas in July!

Another fun Christmas in July!!

2012 4-H Fair

This is probably the first of several posts about 4-H fair - Equestrian Girl is taking Stanley to fair this year!  This is the poster she made for his stall.  It's pictures of the two of them plus a little bio about the pair.

Things that make me smile Part 2

Sometimes I see pictures on Facebook or a blog and just smile...here are a few of them.

A Hot Summer Day

It's been ridiculously hot this summer.  Last Tuesday it was 104 mid-afternoon.  Way too hot to consider riding our wonderful pony.  Instead we waited  until evening and then went over to give him a cold shower.  He stood so quietly while Equestrian Girl hosed him off with an almost dreamy look on his face.  He had been sweating in his stall.

After the shower we took him outside to dry off a bit.  The temp had dropped to 95 with a decent breeze. It almost felt cool compared to the 104.  We settled into a couple of chairs and let Stanley graze around us on the little bit of grass that wasn't burned to a crisp.  Our boy was quite content and so were we.  Life is good.  Even when it's hot.

Redneck

Along with going "granola" I'm adding in some redneck too.  After the last little horse show, I really needed to clean out the trailer since 4H fair is next and I could potentially be living in the trailer for a week.  I hooked up the sewage tanks to the sewer drain in the driveway and ran the hose to the toilet for a good clean out.  In the middle of all that I had finished a load of horse "clothes" from the wash and figured they would almost dry faster in that hot sun than in the dryer banging around so I attempted to string a clothes line.  The lightbulb in my brain went on when thinking where to hang it - those tie rings on the trailer would be perfect!  The bracket holding the AC on the house made another end and voila!  Totally redneck set up but at least I didn't have the horse grazing in the garden on the other side!

A Little Horse Show

We've had this corner stall at the Spur Horse Show 4 times now.  Stanley knows I usually keep the hay right outside the stall where the muck bucket is in this picture.  I tricked him and moved it to the other side of all the tack so when he peaked out to snag a bite - it wasn't there!

But as usual, he went out and did his best in spite of the high temps and high humidity and helped Equestrian Girl bring home lots of blue ribbons.  In this picture they are the second horse but her good friend Val's Girl is taking center stage.

Long Hair

Equestrian Girl has some LONG hair!!!

I'm Going Granola

Don't ask me what got me going on doing this...maybe it was saving money or maybe it was knowing that commercial laundry soap is hard on clothes and the environment but seeing homemade laundry soap on Pinterest peaked my interest so I decided to try it.  I ordered all the ingredients I didn't have (which was everything except baking soda) from Amazon for about $30.

I started with the pink Zote Soap.  Two bars.  I let them sit out for most of the day and then first used the grater attachment on m food processor.  Then tossed the shreds in with the blade and chopped them up even more.  This is kind of messy since the soap is a little sticky but it smelled good.

 I dumped it all in my stock pot thinking it would be big enough.  It wasn't.  I ended up using two of them by the time I added all the ingredients.

The borax was a little clumpy.  I felt compelled to break them up before mixing.

The Oxi-Clean (I always thought it was Oxy with a Y...) and baking soda went in next.

Next I split the ingredients into the two pans and added the Purex Crystals.  The pan on the left has them mixed in.  The pan on the right has them just dumped on top.

The whole process took longer than I expected - probably an hour by the time I cleaned up all my messes.  Next time I'd layer the ingredients into the two pans to  make it easier to mix.  That was a big mistake.  It was very hard to mix and having the sticky soap on the bottom didn't help.

I can say the stuff works well and smells good too.  You only need about 2-3 tablespoons per load and it's good for HE front load washers too.  I refilled the Purex bottle with about 1/4 of the batch and the lid makes for handy measuring cup.  The rest I put in ziplock bags. Now to see how long it lasts!!

Back to school....

It seems crazy to be planning for school in the middle of July but that's what we are indeed doing right now.

Equestrian Girl has been schooling all summer to double dip on a few subjects.  Motocross Boy/Man worked hard to be done in early June and voted to take the summer off.  Well, almost off since he still meets with our wonderful tutor, Hannah, once a week to work on Math.

MCB/M will continue to do all his schooling at home next year except for his "industrial arts" class next door with Jeff learning to weld and work with metals.  He will use Switched on School House for all subjects including Math (Algebra 1) this year.  We might add some Ted Ed video lessons to keep things interesting.  I'm only just digging into Ted Ed videos but so far I'm pretty impressed - and it's all free!!

Eq-Girl will attend the homeschool co-op twice a week now though I have no idea how I'm going to get her there and back every week.  This could be interesting.  Her friend A is going on Tuesdays so we can share that day.  She'll be taking Algebra 2, Spanish 2 and Biology at the co-op along with a sculpture class for an art credit and time filler.  The rest she'll use Switched on Schoolhouse.  The girl is making big plans for a straight 4.0 through high school with hopes of going to UofM when she graduates.

My kids are growing up so fast and having them homeschooling has been such a blessing.  Our relationships are so much stronger and we've had so much more time to teach them OUR morals and values rather than being swayed by peer pressure in those years when they are most vulnerable.  Love my kids!!!

A Gated Community

Equestrian Girl and I made a detour...the gates to a gated community were open so I decided we needed to check it out.  We were in the truck so I figured if anyone noticed us on a hot Friday afternoon, they'd figure we were gardeners or something.

I loved the porches on this one though they really could use a gardener, that those two trees on the left closest to the house are way overgrown for this pretty landscape.

But this is the one I want to live in.  I should have lightened this up in PSE since the sun did a number on it but it's a beautiful house with manicured lawns, pretty pastures and a small barn.  It's at the end of this very long winding road in this gated community.  Just perfect.