Deep Cleaning - Because I Finally Can!

June 22 I have ten horsey friends coming to my house for my pony party and show, Happy Trails II. I began preparing for the show last January, but there's another part of show prep that REALLY needs to be done.

Deep cleaning my house - the show's location.

It has been a long, long time since I have deep cleaned. Craig and I both tend to be neat and pick up after ourselves, and we do routine maintenance cleaning, but washing window blinds, vacuuming walls and ceilings, cleaning baseboards... Hasn't happened.

There is a reason why it's been that long, and it isn't laziness. It's my body, or my joints, rather.  I have had eleven orthopedic surgeries including two knee replacements, a hip replacement, and a spinal fusion.

 A few hours post op from my second knee replacement surgery. (Cover me with one of those heated hospital blankets, and I sleep with a smile on my face.)

I still need to have my other hip replaced as well as another place in my spine fused, but the other surgeries have done their magic and I am much more mobile and don't have the pain that I used to. And, I have lost over sixty pounds since January, and that has really made my whole body feel better.

So, it was time to get down and dirty - because I COULD. I wasn't super excited about cleaning, but the fact that I felt well enough to do so? Priceless!

People will set up in my living and dining rooms for the show and now both rooms are deep cleaned. (I even pulled the antique player piano, which has cast iron innards and took seven men to move into our home, out from the wall and cleaned behind it!)

I think the two rooms look much better, and I myself FEEL better to have tackled a task that had started bothering me a few months go. There is one problem, though.

We have twenty foot ceilings in the living room, and I can see some cobwebs up around the perimeter of the room. How on earth am I going to get those down??  (Maybe I'll just tell everyone not to look up. Haha!)

Next up? Deep cleaning the kitchen where the show rings will be set up. Wish me luck!

Non-Holiday Pillowcases

When we were in Santaquin and visiting Jessica, they were still in the throes of unpacking from their move. One of the things I noticed in their basement family room was this:

A big stack of the pillowcases that I had made for Cambria - one for each holiday. It made me really good to see that Jessica and her family enjoyed them. And, if REALLY made me feel good when she asked me to make some "summer fun" ones.

So, Jessica and I picked out some fabric together.

 Mermaids for Cambria to match her bedroom.

and dinosaurs to match Titan's.

 Colorful ice cream cones to reflect that summer fun for Cambria

while Titan got a camping/outdoorsy theme.

A Name Change?

While we were visiting Jessica and her family in Santaquin, I started wondering if Pony Pal Cambria really should have a different name.

 Perhaps, Unicorn Girl?

 After all, Cambria has a unicorn necklace, bracelet, and earrings that she wears ALL the time.

And, thanks to my friend Cristine Holt, a unicorn purse that goes everywhere with her. (Even to bed.)

But, I still see the pony pal in her.

Cambria absolutely could not resist the barrel of stick ponies (not unicorns; PONIES) that she saw while we were visiting a farm together, unicorn purse notwithstanding.

And despite the enormous size of the Percherons, she tried to get as close to them as she could before the handler brought Riggs out for us to visit.

 You can just see the excitement on her face at being in the barn with him.

And Cambria was bold enough to help me give Riggs a good scritch on his chest.

No, I think I will wait and see how things shake out before changing Pony Pal's name to Unicorn Girl!

Lilliputian!

At 5'6", I'm not a short gal. But this guy sure made me feel that way.

 Meet Riggs, a four year old, 18.3 hand black Percheron gelding, the biggest horse I have ever seen.

He was so tall, I could not even reach the top of his head. I felt short for the first time in my life! His handler told us that they use a ladder for grooming and tacking him up.

 Still, I could give his chest a good scratch. Soon those lips were loose and waggling in pleasure.

Jessica took me to see Riggs and the other black Percherons at Young Living, a farm near her home in Santaquin, Utah that grows lavender for essential oils and raises black Percherons.

 Visitors are welcome in the barns and Riggs was brought out for us to visit.

The Percherons are used for harness exhibits and shows and the walls of the barn are lined with their winnings.

Getting to visit such a magnificent horse was an unexpected treat during our trip out west to Denver and Utah. I've been around draft horses before (and even got to sit on one of the Budweiser Clydesdales as a child when they visited my hometown years ago), but Riggs was quite an awe inspiring experience.

I think I may now be a Percheron fan!

A Grooming Session

T-Bone and Casper are so gentle that we let the kids (all under six) groom them during our visit.

Pony Pal Cambria and Tara's daughter were so excited to get started that they began climbing the fence to get to the horses!

 Once Tara had the horses haltered and tied, the kiddos all grabbed a brush or curry comb

 and the groom-fest began.

 Cambria was just a little too short to get that muddy patch on Casper's hip.

 Her shoulder was much more accessible. 

 Cris, Casper, and T-Bone.

Tara works on T-Bone's legs.

I did a little grooming work on both horses, but mostly I just enjoyed watching the kids and horses interact. It is good to see another generation growing up with a love for horses.

A Get Together with Friends

I have been friends with hobbyists Cristine Holt and her daughter, Tara Holt Oliver, for years and years. From Iowa originally, both of them now live in Utah, and so when my daughter, Jessica, moved to Utah earlier this year, I took the opportunity to have a visit with them during our trip west to see Jessica and her family.

 Cristine, Tara, Jessica, me, and Tara's son, Nate.

Tara fixed us all a delicious lunch and then invited us to go up the mountain a ways and visit her horses.

Casper and T-Bone are Tennessee Walkers. Cris bred TWHs for thirty years or so, and T-Bone was her last foal.

Tara already had brought the horses up for us to see.

I was glad she did - their pasture is twenty acres!

Can you see one of the kids way out there, having fun running through the grass? That pasture was huge!

While seeing the horses was very exciting for the kids, so was running around in all that open space. It reminded me a bit of the movie, The Sound of Music, where Maria is up in the mountains and singing.

 Titan burning off some extra energy.

 Pony Pal Cambria taking a breather and looking around at the gorgeous scenery.

And trust me, it is beautiful! The property is surrounded by mountains on all sides.

 Tara has her trailer parked next to a small paddock and the horses' loafing shed.

 She also has a hay barn

where she also stores her tack, grooming tools, pitchforks, and other horsey necessities. (Her kids picked her those wildflowers during their jaunt out in the pasture.)

Me with Casper.

We had so much fun during our visit, and we also got to groom Casper and T-Bone. Photos from that in the next blog post.

Trinity's Baptism - More Photos

Here are some more photos from Trinity's baptism.

 Trinity and me.

Trinity and Lisa.

 Vanessa, Mila, Lukie, Curt, Andrew, Jessica, Cambria, Trinity, Titan, Lisa, me, Cole, Craig, Ian, JC.