Project and Parties

Spring is in full swing here at the Lazy G.  Matthew and I have been working on a couple of landscape projects over the past weeks and our property is really looking great.

 

We spent one weekend finishing up raking the back two acre pasture. As you can see, we usually have lots of feline help.

 

Then we had someone come and spread lime on the pasture to help raise the pH. Here is a short video of the truck that came.  By the time I went inside to write a check he was almost finished! I also bought fertilizer and grass seed that we will be spreading soon.  I can't wait to have some real pasture for the horses!

 

You know it is spring in Georgia when the azaleas start blooming.  Ours did not disappoint this year.

 

We've also been doing some work in the garden.  I filled up all of the raised beds that we built last year with early crops like potatoes, broccoli, red raspberries, lettuce, onions, carrots, and green beans.

 

Now we have to build more beds for the summer crops!  Here are the two that we installed over the last week.  Both are already filled with tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and cucumbers.  I still have enough plants started indoors to fill another two raised beds so we will be busy for a couple more weeks!

 

Here's an updated garden photo, including the two new beds, right after a week of rainy weather.  We have a total of nine beds right now and hope to eventually have 20.

 

A couple of months ago I entered some photographs into a photography contest through the Georgia Nature Photographers Assn.  One photo (the shell one seen below) ended up second place out of about 150 submissions!  I also had two other photos in the top 25 (the bird photo in the top left below as well as my manatee one).  We spent one evening at the gallery show opening and enjoyed a date night out in Savannah.

 

This past weekend we went to a friend's wedding, also in Savannah.  It was an outdoor wedding and the weather was perfect.  Here are a couple of shots from the event.

 

The happy couple. "Wives for Lives!"

 

Cody with a few of her past science center coworkers.

 

 

And one of Matthew and I all dressed up.  After the wedding we went on to a ballroom dance.  Two parties in one night is a record for us!

Horse Rides

The last month has been a busy one for me and my horse Mow.  We competed in two different rides two weeks apart and enjoyed some camping time together as well.  The first ride was a competitive trail ride at Mingo trails, about two hours away.  I took Mow over on Friday, rode Saturday and Sunday, and returned home Sunday afternoon.  We did about 18 miles each day and were judged at various obstacles throughout the day.  Here we are at one of the pulse and respiration checks (for the horses).  My new riding buddy Judy rode with me on Saturday and took this photo.

 

After we finished riding on Saturday we had another check from the vet and then did an obstacle in hand!  Mow had never done something like this but he tried his best.  This photo was taken by a gal who just took photos of everyone for fun.

 

Sunday was a little soggy but it didn't do much more than a gentle sprinkle on and off throughout the day.  Here we are waiting at the start.

 

All finished for the weekend and back at camp.

 

To my great surprise, Mow and I both placed third out of the six horses/riders in our division!  Now if I ever get around to making something with all of my ribbons I will have a few to add for Mow.

 

Our next ride was the first weekend of April in Jasper, FL, about 3.5 hours away.  This was an endurance ride and I signed up for our first 50 mile competition (in one day).  Matthew came with me for this trip and took some of the following photos.  Here we are checking in with the vets.

 

Coming in after our first loop of 15 miles.

 

Unfortunately, shortly after we started the second loop Mow was slightly off on his right front foot so we were done for the day.  Here are a couple of photos from right before he started limping.

 

And a couple of our campsite.  Although I was very disappointed at this ride, within two hours Mow was feeling much better and there does not seem to be any permanent damage.  Better luck next time!

NC Trip

Last weekend Matthew and I made a quick trip to North Carolina so that Matthew could ski before the weather started to warm up.  We stayed Friday night with Emily and Miran in Charlotte, then all four of us drove to Blowing Rock on Saturday where we enjoyed an outdoor dinner at a little restaurant with a wonderful view.  Next, we continued on to Grandfather Mountain State Park.  It was late in the day so we only had to time to drive to the top of a the mountain for a quick walk.  The winds were gusting at over 40 mph, brrr!

 

 

But the view was still beautiful.

 

After an evening of board games and a little sleep, I took Matthew to the slopes Sunday morning.  He skied all day on what snow remained.

 

While Matthew was enjoying himself, Emily, Miran, and I went gem mining.  We each got a bucket of dirt to sift through in search of various treasures.

 

After sifting through all of the dirt, we took our finds over to a counter where someone sorted through and told us what everything was (since most of them, to us, looked like a lump of rock!).

 

The most exciting part of mining, at least for me, was talking with the gem cutter about what our rocks might look like if they were cut.  Here is one that I decided to have cut and then shipped to me when it was finished.  The top rock is uncut and below is the cut garnet (about 8x10mm in size).  I would like to make a necklace out of it since it is my birthstone.

 

After mining and lunch we still had an hour or so until picking Matthew up.  We decided to check out a little hiking trail at the base of Grandfather Mountain.

 

Since gems were fresh on our minds, we spent most of the time looking for a ruby or sapphire among the rocks! (without any luck)

Reducing Waste

My New Year's Resolution for 2015 is to reduce the waste that we send to a landfill, especially plastic.  I was inspired by a story that I heard on NPR about people who are adopting a "zero waste" lifestyle.  They expanded the original Three R's to five, so now I will be trying to Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and finally Rot as much as I can in order to move towards producing zero waste.  Here are a few of the changes so far.

 

 

Instead of buying plastic-packaged horse treats, I dehydrated lightly salted carrot slices instead.  The horses love them, and so do I!

 

 

Another easy change was to build a compost (Rot) bin by the garden.  We had been piling our compost in the woods but with an actual bin we can now compost things like paper towels and horse feed bags (without a bin these blow around and are annoying).  This was a very easy project - we just had to screw together a few pallets!  It is definitely not pretty, but it will work.

 

I don't plan on putting this compost on the vegetable garden so we can rot things like meat and cardboard food containers.

 

The easiest thing so far has been buying produce without bags.  I have been doing this with many things for several years now (avocados, bananas, etc.) but I was still buying things like lettuce, potatoes, and apples in a plastic bag.  I guess it was just habit, because I don't know why I was buying the bags!  I also bought some cloth bags for buying supplies in bulk.  I have been visiting lots of local stores looking for various things like rice, rolled oats, flour, etc. in bulk without packaging.

 

I bought several glass storage jars for all of the items that I can find package-free.  They are labeled with re-usable chalk board stickers so that I can change/move them as necessary.  I love the way they look in the cupboards too!

 

 

At the end of last year I quit buying cereal and started making granola for breakfast instead.  It is a lot healthier and cheaper than cereal, plus I can find all of the ingredients package free.  I already make yogurt and it is great with the granola!

 

Another very easy switch - making my own salad dressing.

 

 

And finally, I found a couple of shops downtown that sell natural products.  I bought an all natural loofa (instead of the plastic ones usually in the grocery store) that can be composted when it is worn out.  Next time I may just buy the fabric to make one, but I wanted to see how this works first.  The Savannah bee company also makes Bee's Wrap that can be used in place of saran wrap (and its reusable) plus I bought some bee's wax that I will be using to refill lip balm tubes. 

 

I haven't been able to eliminate all waste yet (and probably won't be able to 100%), but we have definitely reduced it and I will continue to work at it!

New Door and More

I'm a little behind on posting, so here are a few of the things we have been up to over the last couple of weeks.  We bought a new front door before Christmas but just got around to installing it two weekends ago.  We had to move the hinges on the door and move the latches in the frame, but installation didn't take too long and the door works very well.

 

I still have to paint the outside, but it is so nice to have a clean and bar-free door!

 

Last weekend we ran another 5k, this time in Statesboro.  The theme was chocolate and there were lots of goodies at the end!

 

And in case you didn't see these on facebook, here are some photos of Mow being silly with an old rag.

 

 

 

Endurance Ride at Broxton Bridge

Last weekend Mow and I competed in our third endurance ride.  This event was at Broxton Bridge Plantation, located about 70 miles away in South Carolina.  The weather was beautiful and we both had a great time.

 

We arrived Friday evening in time to check in, go through the vet check, and eat dinner.

 

I like the horse accommodations here-nice safe panels.  Here Mow has his number and is all settled in for the night.  It was very cold sleeping in my horse trailer (my contact solution actually froze!) but no rain this year.

 

 

We started the ride at 9:00 am on Saturday and the first loop was about 15 miles.  I was able to actually start with the group this time since Mow has settled in so much.  Here he is enjoying a snack between loops.

 

Mow and I during our hold (break time between loops).  It was a little cool, in the 50s, so Mow has his blanket to keep warm while we rest.

 

 

The second loop was about 10 miles and we finished the ride with a total ride time of about 3:35 (a lot faster than the 5:07 it took us last time!).  Mow had plenty of energy left so I hope to move up to the 50 mile ride soon.

Photo by Becky Pearman Photography