Overdue!

Well, our due date came and went, and I'm beginning to wonder if she's going to have that baby! Pretty soon she'll just look like a hairy snowball with feet!

I guess a little late is better than early, especially for the baby. If I remember correctly, Keira was a little late, and she was nice and healthy, and ready to go.

So we'll see how the next few days go. I'll keep you posted. I still haven't been able to come up with any names for the baby.

Fred? Susie? Martha? Jimmy?

Hmmmmm.........

The Home Stretch

It's a little after 1:00 AM, and I just went and checked on Chroi. She's not due for another eight days, but I figure we're in the home stretch. She could deliver early, and there's a storm front coming in from California tonight. Arthur and Keira were both born during a rainstorm, so I'm paying close attention to her as the barometer drops.But she looks OK, I think she's still got some time left. Although, she is showing that she's more uncomfortable - shifting her weight, and laying down to nap. And she's quite bitchy with Keira, too, chasing her off and not wanting anyone to mess with her.Oh I remember those days! When I was pregnant with my first, by the end of the term, I was so miserable; puffy with water weight, my feet were so swollen that none of my shoes would fit; the skin on my belly pulled so tight I thought it would pop, and no matter how hard I tried I could not get comfortable. Like sleeping on top of a watermelon. I finally took to walking around the mall, for miles it seemed, just to kick-start my labor and get it all over with. Little did I know it was the last time I would ever have peace and quiet.Just kidding. Peace and quiet is highly overrated, I'm sure.But I can relate to the crabbiness. When you're fat, puffy, and uncomfortably carrying a watermelon in your belly, you can get a little crabby. Keira better look out, 'cause Mama's not having any of it. Chroi's watermelon is more like one of those giant squash-pumpkins you see at the fair in the bed of a pickup truck.Ugh. Poor thing.

Midweek Mish Mash

Well, folks, I have a few different things I want to let you know about, so I'm giving you a Wednesday quickie! ;)

1. Books!

First, I have to do some friendly promotion. My friend and mentor, Deb Ledford, has just released her second novel in a series.

Deb was one of the first people to encourage me to write - not only that, but to take it seriously, and to treat my writing professionally. I am indebted to her for her guidance and enthusiasm regarding all aspects of my writing, as are the other members of the Scottsdale Writer's Group, of which she is the moderator.

I was honored to have been a part of Deb's editing team, and proud to see my mentor reach her goal of publication. And now, as a cherry on top of her sundae, not only is she published, but has been honored with an award nomination! For anyone out there who likes a good, tight mystery that keeps you up at night turning pages, please take a look at Staccato and Snare, by Deborah J. Ledford, available through Amazon, Kindle, and Second Wind Publishing.

The first, Staccato, is a thriller set in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina, and follows a piano prodigy as he pieces together the clues to find his girlfriend's killer, and the deputy who is trying to solve the case.

“Deborah J Ledford's thriller tears through mountains and music with a steady rhythm in perfect time with the maestro Alexander's music room metronome ... as readers turn STACCATO's pages, quickly, crisply, sharply throughout Ledford's Toccata-like virtuoso performance.”

    ~ Malcolm R. Campbell, 5 star review: “Knight of Words” Book Reviews

The second book, Snare, follows the same deputy, Stephen Hawk, as he helps a Native American pop star find the person who is trying to kill her. Snare has been nominated for the Hillerman Sky award:

"Performed against the backdrop of the picturesque Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina, and New Mexico's mysterious Taos Pueblo Indian reservation, SNARE is a thriller fans of Tony Hillerman will appreciate."

"White-knuckle suspense at an electrifying pulse." ~ Suspense Magazine

"Deborah Ledford's expertly crafted SNARE is a gripping story of the price of fame and the haunting and deadly power of long buried secrets. It’s also a valentine to the landscape and people of New Mexico’s Taos Pueblo. A terrific read."

        ~ Dianne Emley, L.A. Times bestselling author of Love Kills

They are both great reads and I highly recommend Staccato and Snare for you and the readers in your life.

In today's tumultuous publishing environment, getting a book sold is more difficult than ever. Please support up-and-coming authors. I have provided a link to published friends on my left sidebar.

Disclosure - I receive nothing for promoting Deb's books, other than good karma.

2. Update!

Second I wanted to give you an update on Chroi's icky dermatitis condition. It had gotten to the point to where it was bothering her so bad that she was kicking her foot on the ground, and hurt herself. I think she bruised her hoof. Yes, that can happen. None of the idiot home remedies that I tried worked, and the itchiness and scabs just got worse. So the vet came out, and his recommendation, which I had feared, was to clip her feathers.

I know. Ugh.So here's what a Gypsy Horse looks like with shaved legs:

who wears short shorts?

Awww.

Luckily we just had to clip the feathers on her hind legs because she didn't have any issue on the front legs. In addition to clipping, I have to wash her legs with a prescription-grade anti-fungal shampoo, and gave her antibiotics twice a day for five days. If any of you ever have to give your horse medication, here's a good method:

• dissolve the tablets in a couple tablespoons of water,
• mix with a couple handfuls of sweet feed (oats and grains mixed with molasses)

to make it extra yummy, follow Mary Poppins' advice, and (see below)

• add a generous spoonful of brown sugar.

For Chroi, this worked so much better than trying to force the medicine down her throat - she actually loved it!

So she's feeling much better, her infection is clearing up and even though she's lost some feather, it will grow back. And she still looks pretty.

3. Baby Watch!

Which brings us to our next subject: BABY!!

 Chroi is due to foal in two weeks! She's getting super fat, uh, I mean, great with child. As we get closer to the delivery day, her body shows signs that she will be ready:

• Udder filling up with milk (already happening)
• "waxing" of the teats, which just means some of the milk is starting to flow.
• softening of the pelvis, right above the tail
• slight decrease in appetite, which is a big one, especially for a pig like Chroi. When she's not hungry, I know something's going on!

I will keep you posted. Last time we had babies, they were both born during a rain storm, so we will also be keeping an eye on the weather.Now, I just have to think of a name... any suggestions?

***

Chroicoragh is a perfect example of how "a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down." I loved Mary Poppins as a kid. We had the soundtrack on vinyl, and used to sing along to it all the time. I miss the days when Disney just wanted to put out great films. And I mean how can you top Julie Andrews? She's the best. Enjoy![youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djQdI1t9_Ag]

Stats

Have any of you seen The Social Network? I highly recommend it. Not only because I am just a teeny tiny bit of a computer nerd, but as I'm sure you've heard by now, it's just a really really good movie.I'll let you form your own opinions, but the one thing that stood out to me as I watched the film was a scene where one of the characters said to Mark Zuckerberg, "you got 22,000 hits in two hours? Wow."And all the computer-nerd-blogger in me could think was: Wow.

A "hit," or pageview, is recorded anytime someone downloads your page. For instance, since you are reading this post, you have generated one hiton this page.When I first started blogging, there wasn't an easy way to see how much traffic your site was getting. But then Bloggerreleased a new feature called Stats. It's totally awesome. Here is what I see when I go to my stats page:

I can see how many visits I've had in a week (or day,month, etc.)

which posts are getting the most hits:

where my traffic is coming from (how people are finding me, i.e., did you find me through Google, my website, facebook, or another blog?)

I can also see what part of the world my readers are from, and what operating system they use:

How cool is that? What's up, Pakistan! Hello, China! Cheers, UK! Bon Jour, France! Slovenia? Who would've thought?? Malaysia? Come on! And of course my buddies up north, eh?The thing I love about stats is that it tells me that all is not lost. I am not alone. My parents are not the only ones reading my blog (hi guys!) And it propels me to do more. It's kind of like crack. I see some hits, and I want to see more. So I keep writing.So thanks to everyone out there in the world who wanders onto my blog. I hope you like it. I hope you find it worthwhile to come back. And I hope you tell your friends about it.I may not be a computer engineer on a college campus getting 22,000 hits in two hours, but I am totally psyched to see this when I open my stats page:

Yay!! We hit the 1,000 mark!

Thank you.

Training Day

I was contacted recently by some folks from Canada who were in Arizona for a winter break. They'd never seen Gypsy Horses before, and were eager to come by and see our girls. We had a very nice visit - I mean, have you ever met a Canadian you didn't like? :)I let Keira out of her stall, to let our visitors watch her trotting and running around the yard like she usually does, but she was so interested in our visitors that all she did was go from one to the other, sniffing, getting scratched, and munching carrots.So I thought we'd go over to the round pen to maybe show off a little, and I let one of the guys, David, try her out. This was the first time she'd ever lunged off a line (I usually work with her at liberty in the round pen), and she did great! She was so curious, and motivated to please. It's so fun to work with your own horses, but such a pleasure to be able to observe from the outside and see how they interact with others. I was so proud of her![youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7zZ7SDxtJY]Thanks to George, Mary, David and Gabby for coming by, for the lesson, and sharing the video with me.

It's 2:00 in the morning...

Why am I up?Well, in the process of writing my next post (about blogging), I realized I was using an awful lot of blog terminology that some of my readers (Yay! I have more than one!) may not be familiar with. I know that when I started writing my blog, and figuring it all out, I would come across terms like blogroll and follow. I didn't know a post from a comment, and I sure didn't know what RSS meant. Well, to tell you the truth, that one's still a little foggy to me, but onward. So I Googled and read my ...For Dummies books, and slowly got familiar with all of this blogology. But I thought I'd make it easier on you, so I made a Glossary page! Wait, you have to say it in the Oprah voice like she's giving away free Lancome or something...ready? 

GLOSS-A-RY!!

OK, much better. Sorry, but it's late and I'm a little punchy. For a multitude of reasons (Horse, Kids, School, Work, American Idol) two o'clock is the time of day when I have nothing else going on and can actually concentrate on writing.

So do me a favor, check out my Glossary of Blog Terms page, and let me know what you think. Hopefully it will bring clarity to those of you new to this medium. Feel free to shout out a term you've been hearing but don't know, and I will do my best to find it for you. It will be added to as need arises. I also plan on adding a Glossary of Horse Terms page in the future.

Now, due to the severity and frequency of my typos, and the frustration of constantly having to correct them, I feel the need to retire to my bedchamber. 

So farewell and goodnight!