Auto buying stress, Auto repair stress

We agreed to buy the truck. The actual purchase will take place Monday, giving both the seller and us time to get out ducks in a row. Cashiers checks from two financial institutions must be obtained with the correct spelling to the Payble To. There is a waiting period for availability of transferred funds. The seller has to arrange for a way home from his workplace where the sale will take place. DMV forms in order too. And time to check the VIN in Carfacts. There are weirdnesses, of course. Trucks like this are not usually for sale until they have many miles. This one has only 21K. Its barely 11 months old and we are the third owner, and it came from TX. We have had to decided the weirdnesses are worth the risk.  Still stressful to spend this much money.

I have been trying to band x-foster rabbit Kasey with widower bun Pierre. After a month of bonding exercises and a stress bonding of a three hour trip to the vet in Los Altos during the commute, They got to spend an afternoon in the same BUNker. The plan was to allow them to spend the night if the afternoon went well. Sadly, after I went to bed, there was chasing. I got up and separated them so I could sleep. That was Thursday. Today, Saturday, Pierre escaped during Kasey's playtime out, and after he requested grooming(he is SO ready to be bonded!) Kasey humped his head instead, but that was OK and now they are fine.

I picked Joseph up from work yesterday and we stopped to pick up the parts to fix the Bronco. He has figured out that he can do it himself and moved on from his place of despair. He had reached a hopeless stage where his resources of money and knowledge could not meet, and I offered him financial help. He asked for the promised money it before he ran out of his own money and I didn't cough it up, asking instead for an outline of finances on paper. He did that, and now I have to summarize under his disorganized mathies so I can get a clear picture and he can see how to present financial info(without me asking for clarification and trying to teach him directly, which wouldn't work). In the meantime, he figured stuff out better and may not need as much money.

Craigslist Love/Hate

We are trying to buy a truck. We have a lead on one, on Craiglsist. Its such a good deal we feel frantic, we are afraid too many people are also pursuing this truck. We have no idea if that's true. It is stressful.

Harry came to Ed Levin yesterday and gave me a lesson, we tried to get the pole and pole straps better. There was a lot of finagling. Every time you change one thing, a bunch of other things have to change to accommodate it.  We think the last thing to do is replace the pole straps, which can't get short enough, with quick links.

We passed the golf course on our drive. There was a group of golfers and one of them saw us. She tried to point us out to her friends, who were not interested in anything that was not on the golf course. Finally, someone looked, and she poked someone else end pointed. She obviously had more social clout and it was a chain reaction until the all the golfers were doing a pretty good meercat imitation. It was fun.

Someone else wanted to buy both ponies. Sorry. Harry told them it would be 100K each.

"Did you sneeze on your screen?"
"Yes, with coffee."
"I thought so."

The Fuzzy Line.

I have spent four and a half hours sitting in traffic between yesterday and the day before. I took Kasey to her Rabbit Haven new adoptee vet appointment in Los Altos and got stuck in commute traffic coming home. I went to the DMV and got a form for Joseph and got stuck in commute traffic coming home from that. It was a DMV form that cant be printed on the computer and has to be an original, not a photocopy with the signatures on it.

Its his crazy junk truck problem. We bought him a '98 Acura to drive when he graduated high school and got his license. He chose the Acura. He really wanted a Bronco but we said no because of the high insurance cost. The Acura was a little high maintenance but many of the problems were from not checking oil and coolant. It was old and needed oil and coolant regularly.

He talked us into signing it over to him so he could swap it for a '90 Bronco. We told him he was now in charge of paying his own insurance. The Bronco is a piece of shit. He has gotten so deep into dept trying to keep it running. Sadly, he spent most of his paychecks on eating out and buying extras stuff for the bronco like a sound system and light bar and things to make it louder, instead of saving so he could afford to fix it the next time it broke down. Its been sitting in front or our house for two months now because he could not keep it running, nor control his impulse to drive it somewhere if he could get it started and end up making it worse.

We are helping him out because that is what families do, but we are not loaning him a car because then there would be no problem for him from making a bad decision. Plus, having him drive our truck makes it very high maintenance for us. He drives like an idiot and he has to pay associated costs of that until he figures it out. Parenting is tough. There is a very fuzzy line between helping and enabling.

So what he decided to do was buy another Bronco from Craigslist from a guy who got it from a picknpull. The sale to the picknpull was a lien sale. It isn't licensed. He figured he could sacrifice it for parts to fix the current heap. Turns out is is in better condition that the heap he wanted to fix, so now he has to strip the first heap of anything usable and get the new heap registered and repaired.

He is nineteen years old and I believe this is age appropriate behavior. He is learning a lot, though it seems to be trial by fire. A lot of things in life are just that.

Really.

Really.

I ordered Buns-of-Silver blog in a book. An indulgence(? really) that I figured was OK after I got some money for licensing art to BTizzy. I think it closes a chapter. I can see Silver's grave from the bathroom window at the Mountain House. She was a very good rabbit.

The house is moving right along. We ordered the counter top for the kitchen and bathrooms last week. Dave finished the install of the cabinets in the kitchen and is working on the under-cabinet lighting which is going to look great. I like to have low lights at night so I can move around but not feel like its daytime.

On my carriage, I made the adjustments of the pole back to where it was before. Harry Council recommended some changes and I tried them, but they created more problems than they solved. Francois helped me hook the girls, but with a shorter pole, the breeching couldn't engage and we had to break constantly going down hill to keep the carriage from banging into them.

Kacey, the foster turned adopted bunny, has her free vet visit today. Rabbit Haven pays for a vet visit to one of their vets for each adopted rabbit.  I am going slow bonding her to Pierre, so I will use this car trip to take them int he same carrier help the bond. I got the new bigger carrier with my 20% discount at For Other Living Things that came with the adoption.

Having two bunnies that are not bonded is hard because I need two Bunkers. Kasey is a leaper and hers has to have a ceiling. I am hoping that when she is bonded to Pierre, she will not feel the need to go out.

Where Have I Heard That Before?

I keep saying I'm going to start blogging again, and then I don't. Can anybody else relate to this? It isn't that it takes a lot of time.

So, one of the latest things that happened was going to the Combined Driving Event at Shady Oaks in Lodi and talking to Rif the carriage guy about my squeaky shock. He said the coil-overs that Todd Frey uses on his Sprint carts develop squeaks and the only thing you can do is get new ones.

Harry Council said I could order them from Ebay and install them myself, saving hundreds of dollars. So that's what I did. They arrives while I was out of town, visiting Daddy in Sparks, NV.

"The drive to Sparks, with Lydia dog, was uneventful." That's what I'd like to say. What really happened was that I hit traffic about a mile up the freeway in Fremont. It wasn't commute traffic. Probably an accident. Then again in Pleasanton. These two delays kept me from getting through Sacramento before the commute there. Eight hours after I started, I was half way through a five hour drive and I knew I wouldn't make it so I stopped in Rocklin, at the Heritage Inn where they charged my $50.00 for Lydia. We continues in the morning and were doing well until Donner Summit, when a tractor trailer about a quarter mile ahead of us, smashed up a guard rail and incinerated. We sat, imobile, engine off, for over an hour, in pouring rain, while the fire went out and the cinder was removed. The audio book I had was not good.

Fortunately, the trip home was uneventful.

Pepper had diarrhea when I got home. I new this ahead of time but I didn't realize it was that bad. I decided to give her wheat bran, but I didn't have any. Saturday morning I went to buy the bran. I had to stop at Orchard Supply Hardware to get a can to put it in, then to An Jan for the bran, then to Indian Hill.

While Pepper and Yndi were eating their hindgut ulcer treatment, I opened my new shocks. Instead, the box contained socks. at least they were the right color.

The new bran can wouldn't fit in my locker, so I had to take everything out and rearrange it. but it fit. Then I got the bran in and gave them each a nice mash. You cant just do anything around the barn, it always explodes into a huge task.

After the whole locker-bran-socks thing, I thought I was home free. Then I went home. On the way I say flames, going up the hill though the dried grass, toward Ed Levin Park. The fire trucks passed me going the other way. After reading about the Butte Fire and the Valley Fire this summer, I thought is was wise to prepare. I went home, grabbed a bag of chips and Lydia, and got the truck so I could go to the barn and hook up the trailer. On the way back to the barn, I saw aircraft rushing in to fight the fire. Then I loaded up with hay and water. They got the fire put out.

On the way home, I stopped to talk to an old friend. She talks a lot, I listen. She was hungry, they were out of food and money. They had clients who were not paying. That sucks. Lydia and I shared out chips.

After I got home, I had to run to the store and get something to cook for dinner so while I was there I picked up some things for my friend and took them over.

It was a silly day of unplanned stuff that never ended, but it could have been worse. I could have been hungry.

Days like these are why I don't get anything done.

Pepper Lee's new pictures.

These pictures are from Saturday. Our clinic was cancelled, so Yndi got a massage from Jaime. She is having some TMJ issues and waiting for the chiropractor clinic. She liked her massage. You can see Pepper is standing a little differently from two years ago. My hips are out of whack. I need something. The therapist who was able to help me was in an auto accident and is now disabled and can't work..

Journey to Gotland

Facebook posted this throwback photo from my timeline two years ago:

My response was this: "Just had a wonderful time with her today. As I approached with her bridle, she gaped her mouth open big enough for a grapefruit. When I wasn't fast enough, she made a nipping motion at me and opened her mouth again. She nosedives into her breast collar and tries to get her butt lined up for the shafts. It's so fun when they like their work." and I posted this picture that I took with my IpodTouch:

Pepper, asleep at the trailer. Probably not really asleep, but relaxed. I realized how far we'd come in two years.

It has been a long story of trying to unravel the problems. The disaster of just hooking her and trying to drive her and not being able to turn until we were scrunched up against Terri's new truck and she was rearing.

Training that didn't produce results, just morphed the problem into something else.

Vet visits with expensive x-rays and joint injections that only produced the results of a spunky horse that has been rested and now you can't see the lameness until day two.

Shoeing for foot soreness. It didn't work.

The acupuncturist who couldn't find anything to treat and thought maybe a chiropractic problem in the lower cervical upper thoracic where she couldn't be adjusted and the recommended conditioning that she couldn't do without being beaten, and the recommendation to give her a handful of Tums every day in case she has ulcers.

The follow up on the ulcer hunch that found hindgut ulcers that the Tums wouldn't have helped. Long term treatment for that Showed improvement.

Some practice in a pair with Yndi and she couldn't settle. Working her single, I figured out, with the help of Francois, that the breeching was bothering her. We have been working on that. We are also doing some easy conditioning work around the ranch.

Her coat has improved, her mane and tail are growing better and bushier, her hooves are growing. Her posture has changed. Repeat that again because it shows in this picture, and I'll take a new one today.

HER POSTURE HAS CHANGED. She is not longer downhill from croup to wither. She isn't hunched in her shoulders. The two year old picture shows how wide she stands in her elbows and the her chest is flat. A muscled chest would show an upside down V, but hers was wide and flat.

Now I can see, in the old picture, that she wasn't really present in her body. Today, she stands with her elbows closer to her body. Her chest appears narrower, but it also appears normal.

The chiropractor suspects a fall that injured her sacroiliac, most likely in the hills of Kentucky unknown to any but her and the other ponies. I also suspect that she fell in the trailer while remaining tied by her head. She came out of the trailer in such bad shape. It was a 2400 mile trip and she did not fare well.

It has been a long two years, and I almost gave up, but now I have a brave and loving Gotland mare and it was worth it.

Away Mission for the Ponies-RIP Truck

It's Thursday, I think. I am just recovering from the weekend. Unbelievable.

I planned on a attending a play day at Roger's in Oakdale. What is it, maybe 80 miles away? Anyway, I went. CiCi's student Francois and his wife Wendy met me there on their way to Tahoe. Francois was a carriage driver at home in France. I met him accidentally when he asked if my pony was an Icelandic. He found out I had two carriage ponies. I hooked him up with carriage driving stuff. He didn't know there was any here.

Yndi was great and Pepper stood calmly at the trailer eating hay. I drove Yndi while Francois rode groom, then Francois drove, while I rode groom, then Wendy too my place and rode groom. Then we switched ponies and Yndi stood calmly at the trailer while I drove Pepper and Francois rode groom. Great ponies. Both have come so far.

So We did the playday and I came home in terrible traffic. The muscle in my shin was cramping painfully from hovering over the brake.

I got home to disaster. Elaine's horse and broken her hip. The mare had silicosis and subsequent osteoporosis and UC Davis wanted her body to study this disease. She had to be euthanized and she had to be loaded into a trailer for transport before she was put down. Elaine has a trailer but no truck. Many people had been trying for hours to find a truck. Then I showed up.

So I unhooked my trailer, everybody helping to put my stuff away(and putting Yndi in Pepper's stall and Pepper in Yndi's, which upset Yndi tremendously) and we got the mare in the trailer and put down and parked in the shade. It was tricky because I had to back it up as close as possible because she could not walk far.

SO the next day we got up early and drive her to UC Davis and came home. We were unhooking Elaine's trailer and noticed greasy stuff on the chains. Then I hooked my trailer and pulled it away from the fence it is backed up to so I could open the gate and get me cart out. Then I put the trailer back. almost. The transmission died while I was doing it.

I left the truck there overnight and we got it in the morning, adding transmission fluid to drive it to AAMCO. Dave and I are having one of the most epic disagreements in 27 years about what king of truck we need to buy to replace it.

In the meantime, we just got it back yesterday, repaired until the next problem. It's 20 years old. It's officially for sale. Now it needs to be cleaned up and listed on Craig's list.

She said; "They're so cute! (my ponies)! I love how you always smile when you're with them."

Driving event in San Martin

Ew. I don't know how it happened, but I became the organizer for a driving play day in San Martin on August 23rd.

I have written a proposal for funding to the Western States Draft and Driving Association, which sounds like a huge club but its really really small. They came back with some good questions that I have asked the facility manager. The facility is under new ownership and it seems that my questions don't have answers yet. In fact, it seems that they don't even understand what my questions are. This is great, I think to myself. I'm new at organizing and the facility is new at hosting.

I have submitted my proposal to the Northern California Driving Club, which is huge, by the way. I need their approval to get the required insurance. WSDDA is way to small to be able to provide it. They have approved the event and had some really great input that has been very helpful. Celine of Carriage Driving Essentials in Mariposa is on the activities committee and she has been fantastic. IT's difficult through because the NCDC insurance policy renews in May and they cant get insurance for ANY event after that date until after that date!

I ordered a carriage from Celine a little while ago. It,s not here yet, but will look something like this when it arrives, except the wheel will be painted yellow. Snazzy, but I picked yellow for viability on the road. The current production run for Bird-in-Hand Carriages, in Bird-in-Hand PA of course, began the first Monday in March. Any day now, I think.

Wow, soon I will be driving

a Bird-in-Hand Pony Red Hawk!

Over the Mountain

Yesterday we drove over Mt. Hamilton and down the other side to Livermore. We have been planning to do this for over a year now. We thought we wanted to go to Patterson, but that was too far, so we just went to Livermore instead, then home on I-680

We had planned to stop at the little restaurant, but needed to take Lydia with us because it would be too long for her and her bladder to stay home by herself.

It was a great drive and we saw two mule deer with their antlers beginning to grow, and we saw a tortoise. I've never seen a tortoise in the wild in California.

Here we are at the top, at the James Lick Observatory.

Pairs, Singles, Rabbits, over the Mt.

Somehow, I found myself in charge of planning a driving event at HD Equestrian Center in San Martin. This my be a complete boondoggle. So, this weekend, I am writing the proposal for funding. It sounds like too much grownup stuff for me!

I drove the ponies as a pair in San Martin on Thursday. Trainer Harry Councell was next to me. We used his carriage. The girls were champs. Someone even pulled up along side of us with their car and asked to take a picture! wow. Almost famous.

Pepper pulled single for the first time since Oct 13. That was Friday. It wasn't great, but we didn't die. Fancois helped. I need to do it more, with a walker person. She needs to get used to the breeching. I think that is what bothers her.

Today is the Bunny Bee. We sew crate liners and blankies for bunnies.

Dave is taking most of the bathroom flooring and shower wall tile up to the mountain today. The rest tomorrow. We are going to spend the afternoon driving over the top of Mt. Hamilton and down the back, through Paterson to Livermore. We haven't done it yet. Putting it off. Not sure why. Supposed to be a nice drive.

Driver Proficiency

Yesterday, I attended a workshop to prepare for the Carriage Association of America river Proficiency Level 1 evaluation. Jane Moody was excellent, as were hosts Roger and Marion Cleverly of One Two Carriage Driving in Oakdale. Marion even served pie and ice cream.

Carriages and Ulcers

I have been shopping for a carriage. Its not easy. The east coast has so many more carriages, new and used. The west coast, not so much. Surprising, a little, because there are so many driving events around Sacramento. I almost bough a Polish off-brand in VA, but it seemed more for minis ans small ponies. The seller said it was for medium to small ponies, but I think she confused VSEs with small ponies and, hence, small ponies with medium ponies. There is not much out there for medium ponies. Go too small and you cant see over the pony butts, too large and it gets to be too heavy.

I have a lead on a Hardwicke Puddle Jumper in Grass Valley, but the trainer that is helping them sell it is competing in Florida this winter. There is a three hour time gap that makes everything feel very strange. Then there is a Hans Meier that would need shipping from the east coast. But the price is very good. With either of these, if they turn out to be wring for me, I could flip them. I am almost afraid to check my email this morning.

Pepper is nearly done with her ulcer treatment program. She is having a little of her old unsoundness going on, I am not sure what to do. I signed her up for the chiropractor. Both girls need their annual dentistry.

Pepper is doing pretty well in long lining and ground driving. She can do leg yields and rollbacks. Now I am just putting miles on in ground driving. She is not very good at compliance in turns. Practice practice practice. My feet hurt. I am hoping to get my little Ballerina Girl hooked by Friday.

No Ponies

No ponies yesterday. I drove to Watsonville to help the Rabbit Haven rescue with a mass spay neuter clinic.  Rabbits are a bit different from cats and dogs. You can't put them in a holding cage to wake up while you just keep an eye on them. Bunnies need to be armed and massaged, while their body temp is closely monitored. It is more common for them to go into shock and die, or just have such a hard time waking up that they stop breathing. Each rabbit had a team of two people to help them come to. It takes a half an hour or more before they could go into a pen and be watched by another team. We did over 20 bunnies yesterday.

Here is a photo of my two buns, Silver and Pierre.

My last post had Pepper pictures. Today; Yndi pictures!!!

Success! with Photos

Absence has caused my password to be forgotten. This has been complicated by having this blog linked to an email address that I haven't used in so long that I have forgotten the password to that too. Cheese Louise!

Lots has happened. The passing of persons who were so intrusive that I didn't want them to know what was going on. Presence of others who might be offended by my problems, thinking I was insulting them.

But, I won a free photo session from a pet photographer, three subjects of my choosing. Of course, I chose Yndi and Pepper Lee, my tow Gotland mares, and myself. I got one print included in my prize, and I chose to have many photos put into a bound book, pretty nice. Thanks PawPawrazzi and AnnMary.

These photos are electronic files with the photographer's mark. All the other ones are in my book.

Pepper Lee is chocolate brown, nine years old, and stands 12.1 hands.

New Bathroom

We are building a new bathroom. We need it in our new house.

Living room

Bathroom

We are actually pretty close to the end of the project. It has taken years. The longest time was getting the permit from Santa Clara County. Nothing like working with a government employee who is making it difficult for you just because they can. Most are not like that, but we had one who was.

Far away

hi again. I have been far away in mind if not in body. The latest is that I put my computer away for Christmas house guests. I wanted to be able to use the dining table!n Then....rabbits ate the cord and I had to order a new one. and wow, I was out fo the habit of being on the computer and I didn't want to go near it! Maybe I am getting over it and  maybe not.

Yesterday though, I had a great time at the Bunny Bee sewing stuff for The Rabbit Haven Rescue. I haven't sewn in years, really, and I forgot how much I liked it.

Ever Since my Father had surgery in December 2010 and Janow's illness and death, the acquisition of Maggie and her colic and surgery and then death, the purchase of Yndi sight unseen from the internet and her problems and rehab and training, the death of my mother, followed by the death of my mother in law 6 weeks later and all the funeral stuff..... Plus Lydia the dog came to our house and is wonderful.

Four years of loss. I can continue with my life, these are normal things. It's been a hard four years, but basically, I am happy. A good Husband in Dave. A son that appears to be growing into a functional adult much of the time. Pepper Lee and Yndi, the wonder ponies. Silver and Pierre, bunnies supreme. Whiskers the kitty and maybe Mary Shelley who is still a little strange. Wow.

Kokovoko Pepper Lee

I have not posted in a long long time. There is a reason for this, but I won't trouble you with that. But know now: Kokovoko Pepper Lee has joined Skansend Yndi at Indian Hill Ranch. Here she is:

I wrote this for the Indian Hills Ranch newsletter.

Welcome Pepper Lee

She’s here! Pepper Lee joins Yndi the driving pony on the back lane. She came all the way from Kentucky to get here. She is a Gotland pony, just like Yndi, and she likes people and being scratched on her neck.

She and Yndi got things sorted out right away, with only a hairy eyeball and a wrinkled nostril. Now they can be seen together, standing around the water cooler, passing the time.

It’s taking me a little longer to sort things out with her. We didn’t seem to be speaking the same language. I tried watching the show Justified, about the US Marshall in Kentucky, but then I found out that it’s shot in southern California by a bunch of posers with fake Kentucky accents. No wonder it didn't help.

Amber Lydic is helping us develop our communication.

Pepper is already trained to drive, and will, one day, go in a pair with Yndi, but I want to develop our relationship before I get her hooked up. The relationship with a horse is the best part.

Is she cute or what?