A Few Things

First off, ya'll remember the story I posted up here last? The one with all the pecker jokes? I'm revising that, filling in some blanks, polishing it up, and preparing for our Administrative Visitor in Creative Writing.

See, the school wants to see that the instructor is doing her job, and she decided the best way to do that is to have everyone give a reading. And, after a set of instructions that included "I will not tell you what you can and cannot say. Just remember the audience. If you're comfortable saying fuck in front of an administrator, then go for it," I decided that it was my duty to represent freedom of writing.

Besides, I've been wanting to revise that one since I wrote it.


Second, thank you all for your kind suggestions on saddle makers. I really appreciate the input!

However, guys, please understand, I can't go to Oregon, or California, for a saddle. I just can't. I don't have the money for the visit for the initial fitting, on top of the cost of the saddle itself, let alone enough to check the fit as the saddle is built. Since fit is one of my major concerns, I want to be able to check on that.

I have been watching tack sales and farm sales, too, but I run across the same problem. The vast majority of people just don't ride a saddle under fifteen and a half inches. Which means the sales are chock full of saddles that size and larger, but once again, not in the size I need. I have found some youth saddles, but that comes back to the working weight problem. I have examined options that don't cost an arm and a leg, folks, it just comes right back to the fact that short of a miracle, some other tiny person deciding to not ride anymore and giving up their custom saddle, I'm not gonna be that lucky.

Farmmom joked that I should run a Buy Farmgirl A New Saddle fund raiser. Frankly, good people, I'm considering it. I was looking at my synthetic yesterday and the poor thing is getting a little worn. It just wasn't built to do as much work as I've been putting it to. It's not falling apart yet, but it is showing some real signs of wear.

So, before I start asking ya'll for money, I'm asking your opinion. If I were to go ahead and set up a Paypal account and/or provide a mailing address, would you donate? And, whether you would or not, would you feel it was a good cause? Or sheer personal greed?

Please folks, I'm not asking for money yet, I just want to know the general feeling on such a donation drive. If it's mostly negative, I won't ask ya'll to give up your hard-earned cash.

If it's mostly positive though, I might be able to get the saddle a lot sooner than if I have to save little by little. Frankly, with the cash flow I have right now, it's looking like I'm going to graduate before I can afford it, with no income other than my student aid during the semester, and having to save a certain amount from any work I do in the summers to help with expenses during the school year.

So please, comment here, email me, let me know your opinion on the subject!