Matthew's New Toy

When we were in Tennessee, my parents gave Matthew my brother's old bow.  He and my dad shot a few times while my mom and I were riding and they only lost 1 arrow to the woods!  Matthew and I decided to practice a little more today between rain storms.  I haven't shot my bow in several years but we both polished up pretty quickly, as you can see from our very nice groupings in the second photo.  Those hay bales never had a chance!

Our Vacation

Matthew and I spent last week vacationing with my parents at their cabin in Tennessee near the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area. We took both of the horses along and spent our time riding, hiking, and relaxing.

My mom and I rode the first full day after we arrived. My new horse, Mow, was wonderful and I really enjoyed spending the week bonding with him.
















My dad, Matthew, and I headed out for another ride.















Matthew and Rabi also got a chance to bond over the week. Matthew rode him 4 times (a record, I think) and I didn't ride him at all!
















In the middle of the week we had a chilly day (low 60s) and decided to give the horses a day off and go hiking. We went to see an old coal mine and hiked about 6 miles to several overlooks of the Big South Fork River.

Here's a group shot at one of the overlooks. Part of the decking on this overlook had recently burned down but luckily the railings were still in place!
















Matthew and I at Devil's Jump overlook, above some class 5 rapids.
















My mom and dad at an overlook of the old mine. You can see the mining tipple over my mom's shoulder. We hiked across the bridge in the photo and all the way up to this overlook (and another one) before turning around and going back.















Some interesting fungus along the hike. I haven't had a chance to look it up yet.





















While visiting we also had a chance to see my parent's new house. They bought it in January and hope to sell their current house in MI soon (it's now on the market, click here to see the listing) and retire to the TN house. The property around the house is beautiful but the house itself needs A LOT of work. It reminded Matthew and I of a rental house! In addition to lots of grassy fields, it has a nice pond and we brought a fishing pole to see what we could catch. Here I am with the only catch of the day, a small bass.






















On a side note, Matthew and I have still not closed on our new house. The bank we were working with was so bad that we have switched to a different lender. This means that our closing has been moved back to May 11th (supposing that the seller gives us the extension, which we are still waiting on). Keep your fingers crossed for us that it actually works this time!

Waiting

As most of you know, Matthew and I have been (sort of) patiently waiting for our new house for quite some time. So far our closing has been delayed twice and we still don't know if we will actually make the new closing date of March 30th. The bank we are working with is terribly disorganized and severely lacks communication. Some of our belongings have now been packed for 5 months (including Matthew's shorts, which he is missing now) and most of our stuff has been packed for at least two weeks. Luckily we didn't pack up the kitchen, so we can still eat! I have brought my horse trailer to the house twice now and the second time we actually packed it up so now it will be staying until we move. I am not great at backing this trailer but somehow managed to back it into our driveway so that we won't get in trouble for having it parked on the street for too long. Most of the pre-rental work on our current house has been completed so our weekends have been relatively uneventful. I was able to take one of my horses to a park to ride last weekend and we will go ballroom dancing this weekend.

The trailer parked in the driveway. No curbs, parked cars, or flower planters were harmed!

Rabi all geared up for our ride. The mosquitoes were quite annoying at this park but it was nice to see some different scenery.

On a side note, everything is growing like crazy around here! We have actually had some good rains and the early spring has triggered a lot of early growth. My planters (which we will be moving with us!) are really filling back in after the winter frost.

Packing

Matthew and I worked hard this weekend packing and getting our house ready to rent. Our entire front room is pretty much full of boxes and we haven't even started on the kitchen yet! We have already taken one large load to goodwill but I'm sure we will have another load soon (not to mention all of the stuff we have given away or sold on craigslist, including my wedding dress). I brought my horse trailer home today so that we can start loading it up for our first trip. We are supposed to close on the new house on Thursday and hope to move in on Saturday. Fingers crossed that it will all go as planned!




















We did take a break from work this weekend for some delicious quesadillas at our friend Ben's house followed by some great contra dancing. Then we stopped by a new country bar with a live band where we did a little more dancing.


Using Ben's Quesadilla Maker.

















Matthew enjoying dinner.


















A view of Contra dancing from above. Matthew is in the light blue shirt in the middle of the right side of the photo.


















If you've never seen a contra dance before, here's a little snippet!

Salty the Sea Turtle

The Tybee Island Marine Science Center's loggerhead sea turtle, Salty, was found on Tybee Island as a straggler (a hatchling that didn't make it to the ocean with the rest of the nest) in August of 2010. As he (or she, we don't actually know) has grown, a congenital shell deformity has become more pronounced. I have been working with the vet at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center on Jekyll Island to treat Salty's symptoms. He has been floating and unable to dive properly so we decided to start him on weight therapy. We attached a piece of Velcro to his shell using epoxy and used a neoprene weight pouch to attach weights to the Velcro. We also started feeding Salty in a "basket" made of mesh so that he can dive to eat but the fish cannot get to his food. Two weeks ago I took Salty to a hospital in Brunswick for a CT scan. It was really neat to see the scan and how Salty's deformity is affecting his lungs. We don't know what the future holds for Salty but will continue to use the weight therapy and encourage diving. Click here to see an article from when we first started treating Salty.

Salty is buckled up and ready for a trip to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center.
















Salty's velcro.
















Salty eating in his new feeding "basket". We call it his playpen!
















Salty was lightly sedated for his CT scan.
















Salty's scan is on the left monitor. You can see him in the scanner in the top right corner of the photo.
















A 3-d image of Salty. You can see his curved spine and asymmetrical shell.

Lindsay's Mom's Visit

My mom came for her annual "escape the winter" trip this year for almost 2 and a half weeks. I picked her up in TN with my horse trailer (we exchanged stuff as well) on a Saturday and we drove back on Sunday, her birthday. We kept ourselves busy with riding, birding, arts & crafts, and road-tripping. We also spent lots of time talking about the new house that my parents just bought in TN and the house that Matthew and I are hoping to buy!

My mom spent the days that I had to work wandering around Tybee and the beach painting in her water color journal.
















We spent one weekend riding the horses. This was the first time I had ridden Motive VIII on the trails and he was perfect!
















We were also able to join the Ogeechee Audubon club for a birding trip at the Savannah Wildlife Refuge. My mom and I both added some new species to our life-lists.





















The second weekend she was here, my mom and I drove down to Tampa to visit my Grandparents at their winter residence. We spent most of the time driving around to different parks and watching the birds. We also enjoyed some story telling from my Grandpa and some hot-tubbing at the resort.

I, of course, took lots of photos of the birds and other wildlife during our trip. Here is a great egret that was begging for some handouts from a fisherman.





















This little blue heron was fishing for himself from the mangrove roots.















A scenic spot at one of the parks.





















The tree swallows were migrating through Florida during our trip. There were thousands of them flying around the fields and wetlands.















My aunt, uncle, grandma, and I watching the birds.
















One park we visited had a host of black vultures on the boardwalk. I think they are awfully cute - for a vulture!















The sun shining through a palm frond.

Weekend Projects

Lindsay is in Tennessee this weekend to pick up her Mother and a horse pen panels for our future house; where ever that might be.  I've been busy here.

With all our bunnies, their stand has gotten real dirty and is hard to clean.

So I hung the cage from the shed!  I used wrenches I got for my birthday and the magnetic arm band I got for Christmas on this project.

It swings a little when they jump around but will be easier to clean.

Another Birthday present from Daddy came in handy while cleaning the front yard.  It's hard to see but I'm using a push broom.

The driveway has never been so clear!

I secured a loose cable outlet to the wall.

I replaced the glass and hanger string on a picture frame that fell off the wall recently.  Zia always tries to help me in the shop.  She can't decide if screws are cat toys or cat treats.  Anything small left on the work bench is on the floor if I leave it unattended.