Win and Awesome

That's what I'm made of. No, really.

See, we went to a consignment auction Saturday, and in spite of freezing cold and high winds, I stood outside and stoically kept on goal.

And do you have any idea how hard it is to be stoic while you're hanging on to a steel trailer for dear life with your feet flapping above the ground? Let alone bid??

Well, I got a couple of good back cinches, and a couple of good leather breastcollars, and some quirts and bats because they were really cheap and honestly you can always use a beating stick.

Oh, and I came home with a Frank Vega handmade custom trophy saddle, too. It's a barrel saddle, which I didn't really want, but its construction is such that I could tie on to a small to medium calf to doctor it if I had to, without breaking the horn completely off.

I'm about to go into some detail about this that some of you may not get. Those of you who ride western or have ridden western will get it, and most of the things that anyone doesn't get should be explained when I get the pictures up, so please bear with me till then... and I'll be happy to answer any questions, as usual.

It's all hand tooled, full basket weave on the skirts with oakleaf accents, and matching flank cinch billets. Rawhide edged cantle and gullet, in a silver threaded cherry pie roll. Minimum "flash" with three conchos on each side and the silver on the cantle and gullet. I can pull the conchos later and put strings under them to make them actually useful, so I'm happy enough about that.

This saddle is probably worth upwards of a grand, at the low end of the estimate, and I won the bid at under four hundred and fifty dollars.

Sure, it's got writing and engraving on the stirrup leathers but that doesn't make a bit of difference to how it rides. This thing... I swear until I threw it on Monkey to try it out yesterday, it had never actually been on a horse. Brand new, stirrups weren't even turned.

Which means I've spent most of the weekend smelling like neatsfoot oil, as I very carefully condition the leather. Farmmom would beat me if I tried to put a couple of heavy coats of oil on it and call it good...

The fenders and stirrup leathers are roughout, which I like for riding, but hate for the first good conditioning... cause you have to go in from the back side (the grain side) to oil it... and to get the whole thickness of the leather moisturized you have to do very light layers. Over and over again.

Too much oil at once will saturate a few layers of the leather fibers, and that will block the oil from going any deeper, which results in leather that's nice and supple and shiny... half way through. And dry and cracking on the other half.

I've got a few more days of regular light oilings before I'll have it to where I'm satisfied I can back off on it a bit. It's good leather but it was built in 2001 (so it says on the stirrup leathers) and I think it's sat around without much care since then... which is fine, if all you want is an object de art.

But if I'm riding that sucker it's gonna be conditioned, and being Farmmom's daughter (she's dabbled in leather work most of my life, only dabbling from lack of money to buy the materials... shes good) it's gonna be conditioned right.

I'll try to remember the camera when I go to the barn today, and show ya'll how good Monkey looks in leather. He's not real sure about the creaks, it's been a while since he's had leather on, but he'll get used to it again. Just like I'll get used to a fourteen inch seat instead of a sixteen.

It is just plumb amazing what a difference two inches makes.

Six Words...

AD tagged me with this one and I've been pondering it for a while now. It's tough to condense a memoir into six words. But, I finally figured out one that works, so here it is.


The Rules:

1. Write your own six word memoir.
2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you want.
3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post and to the original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere.
4. Tag at least five more blogs with links.
5. Leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play…

Laugh, cry, scream, but always.... Ride.

I'm tagging... no one. If you want to play along, go right ahead, and leave a comment so I can come see what ya'll have to say.

Life is a Mystery...

And sometimes you just have to deal with it. Other times someone decides to explain the mystery.

Not in any great detail, of course, but still. Here's the simplified version, possibly with more to follow later:

Farmgirl has met Mechanic Cowboy.

Farmgirl and Mechanic Cowboy really seem to be hitting it off.

Mechanic Cowboy is a very fun, very sweet smartass, introduced to Farmgirl through the machinations of their mutual friend D. Ya'll remember D, don'tcha? Yeah, him. Playing Yenta.

And so far, seeming surprisingly good at it. Time will tell but Farmgirl is seriously considering keeping Mechanic Cowboy around, and not for his skill with a hydraulic motor.

For Mechanic Cowboy brings Farmgirl really good 1800 tequila first, and only then switches to the more traditional offerings:


We'll see what the future brings, but for now, Mechanic Cowboy is a serious contender for the much coveted (HA!) title of FarmBoyfriend.

Scuse me, I gotta go be girly and smell my flowers now...

Sometimes...

I think I have too much willpower for my own damned good.











Yep. That's it.

My Feed Crew...

Is probably plotting a mutiny as we speak. I asked one of the girls that actually showed up early this morning to tell N to come over to the block barn when he got there, had F (called such because I already have an E) sweep in the arena barn, and let T and R feed and water out back and then told them to sweep the block barn. I even swept half of it.

When I went out and told T and R that they could start sweeping the block barn when they finished outside, T (the other supervisor) said "why can't you guys do it?"

"Because, I decided that everyone who was late more than once or just didn't show up this morning could make up the time they missed doing all the sweeping."

"Well, I'm glad you're an authority on everything."

"I am the supervisor."

R chimed in: "So is he."

Me: "Then he probably should have shown up this morning, huh?"

They're plotting to hang me right about now, I'm sure. But guess what? They swept. And Marilyn knows exactly why I had them all sweeping. And it's in the report, although I have a feeling that Marilyn is going to be sharing the story with the other instructors as soon as she sees them, she thought it was pretty funny.

Tsk Tsk.

This morning, three people, including myself, managed to show up for feed crew on time. The rest were late or absent entirely.

The ones who were late showed up eventually and did work... although I fed the entirety of the block barn, half of one side of the arena barn, and half of the pens outside myself. Normally, we break up into groups of two or three, and each barn and the pens has its own group that's responsible for it.

The one that didn't even bother to show up? The other supervisor, who hasn't done anything supervisory at all the whole feed crew.

There were two late yesterday too. I didn't mark it down because they got their work done and didn't make the rest of us stay too long.

I didn't mark it down this morning either. I have a better plan.

See, tonight is our last evening feed crew, which means its the last time we sweep. In the morning we'll just feed and water and we're done.

I think I want to hand over the barns to the next feed crew sparkling. And I think that everyone I've let slide on being late gets to do all of the sweeping. And they'll sweep until I'm satisfied. Or, I can always go back and put into my written report for the week who was late, didn't satisfy their responsibilities, or just slacked the hell off.

I'll remind them that I'm a writer and I can be completely truthful to the nth degree and still make it sound like they all stood around with their thumbs up their asses while the rest of us did all the work. Or, I can be just as truthful and make it sound like everything went fine and no one got in trouble except for the absences.

It's still a hell of a lot nicer than a real job would be, but I think it's fitting. Especially since most of them are the guys who avoid picking up a broom at all costs. And everyone who showed up on time, did their work and didn't complain? Gets to go home as soon as feeding and watering are done.

The ones that need this will hate me, but I'll be laughing my skinny white ass off while I'm perched somewhere watching them sweep.

Stolen...

From Mark


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Dang. Maybe that's a way to raise the money for the saddle? (I kid, I kid. No one around here has a grand an hour to spend on sex....)