“There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship” – Thomas Aquinas

I had a warming conservation with a long time friend that I had lost touch with over the years.  We grew up together to only part ways after graduation.  It was quite refreshing and sad at the same time.

How do we lose the connection with those that were so important to us?  I have no clue.  You shared the most important things in your life with them and couldn’t wait to share with them the important things in your life.

We live in a fast paced world of multitasking and making a living to support our everyday life and lost sight of so many things.  We think of them but never take the time to reach out to them and see how they are doing.  We put it on the back burner and say “some day soon”.  What if that day never comes?

We have so many social media mediums that we can use to stay in touch.  I was reluctant to access the use of these tools.  Finally I took the plunge and use those mediums to contact those friends of yesterday and to me it has become a God send.  I have been reunited with many of those people and began rekindling those long lost friendships.  At the same time I have made many new friendships.

We need to remind ourselves just how important friendship is and not take it for granted.  We all have been faced with the loss of a friend, leaving us with only the memories.  I have lost several friends in the past year.  When it happens we start questioning ourselves.  Were we a good friend to them?  Were they aware of how important they were to us?  Did they value my friendship as much as I did theirs?

I challenge everyone to reach out to those friends that you have lost contact with.  With today’s social media it isn’t hard to do.  Rekindle that lost friendship.  Catch up with the missing years.  Take that walk down memory lane.  It will sooth your soul and rekindle your spirit.  You will be glad you did.

God Bless you one and all and thanks for reading.

 

 

 

“When relationships failed to last, it was not because love was no longer present, but because people stopped believing in themselves and in their partners.” – Oswald

Sleep escapes me once again no matter how hard I try to shut down the swirling mind and let sleep overtake me.  I wonder what the stress tests will show and if I will need surgery or receive a clean bill of health and a effective way to cope with stress.  When relationships fail everyone wants to blame each other when in fact most of the time both parties attributed to the failure of the vows that were spoken.  It is not always the case but if one really reflects on the whole picture there is plenty of blame to go around for both parties most of the time.  Did one try too hard?  Did one not try hard enough?  Did one expect too much?  Did we not try hard enough?  Who knows for certain however one can’t  keep beating themselves up.  They just have to find a way to deal with the pain of a broken heart and move on with their lives.

The lies start so parties involved can make themselves feel better.  They run from the truth and bury their head in the sand instead of fighting to keep it alive.  Personally I think it is a time when one should reflect back and see what they could have done differently and learn from their mistakes so that if one would happen to cross that bridge again they can build a stronger relationship.  Putting the blame in the wrong place doesn’t resolve anything.  It only adds to the heartache and resolves nothing.

Some people think saying “I Love you” is enough when in fact it takes a whole lot more than that.  You have to be there for them through thick and thin and show them the love that is needed to etch that feeling into one another’s heart.  That love that will bind that relationship for eternity.  When you gaze at each other from across the room other people present should be able to see that eternal light of love that burns for one another.  I envy those people.

Never forget to show the one you love how much you love them and how much they mean to you.  Always strive to make it stronger every minute of the day.  Always be by their side not just during the times of elation but also through the times of tribulation.  Grow that bond daily and tell them how proud you are to have them for a spouse and tell them how much you look forward to growing old with them. True love is a sacred thing, don’t let it slip away.  Hold on to it and cherish it because when it is gone it is the most empty feeling one will ever experience.

God Bless everyone and I pray you never have to experience the devastation of losing the eternal light of love in your life.  Thanks for reading.

Farrriers Are Independantly Wealthy! NOT!.

In this pic I am working with Dr. Loafman of Equine Medical Associates

Do you know what you call a farrier without a wife?  Uninsured!

I have come to the conclusion that people think that farriers are independently wealthy.  They seem to forget that their payment to us is our pay check.  We don’t get a pay check on Friday for all the work we have done by some charitable Samaritan that donates money to us so we can go out into the world and do our job for free.  Now, now I know that is hard for some to believe but I am telling ya pilgrim, it is the truth.

Another thing that I would like to clear up is that we do have to pay for our supplies.  No, there is no “farrier supply fairy”.  I know, I know, you think I am pulling your leg.  Really I am not.  We DO have to pay for our supplies.  Usually cash because if we charge it and have to pay interest on the purchases that cost is passed on to the customer.

Out of that check also comes care and custody insurance, liability insurance, diesel, and if we aren’t married to a wife with insurance benefits, medical insurance also has to come out of that.  Vehicle insurance and maintenance also has to be paid.  The list goes on.

One of my favorite is “Can you hold that check for two weeks”.  (That is usually asked after you have shod the horse all the way around and it is 150 degrees in the shade.)  I promptly call all my creditors and ask them if they can hold my check for two weeks.  NOT!

Another favorite is when you tell the client you are raising your prices by $5 and they act like you kicked them in the crotch and gave them a wedgie all at the same time.  Meanwhile they have a two horse trailer, a four horse trailer and a brand new dually sitting in the drive way well worth over $100,000 but I am asking too much when I want to raise my prices by five dollars.  Silly me, what was I thinking?  I should be beat with a wet noodle.

“I have 10 horses so what kind of discount are you going to give me?”  The same discount that the gas station gives me when I buy 30 gallons of diesel.   The guy with the Prius just put 11 gallons of gas in his car so I should get a discount.  Right?  I am sorry but it takes the same amount of work to do horse number 1 as it does for me to do horse number 10 but by that time my back is threatening to commit suicide.

I could go on all night but time escapes me and I have to shoe ponies in the morning so I need to put my underworked, over charging, lazy arse to bed.

In closing I would just like to remind everyone that shoeing horses is hard work.  They say it takes a “weak mind and a strong back”.  Remember that your payment to them is their “paycheck” and they need that to pay for their supplies and bills.  I once had an old seasoned farrier tell me that the best tool one can have is a 5 gallon bucket.  Ok, I bit and said why.  He said when you are done you turn that bucket upside down, take a seat and tell them you aren’t leaving until you get paid for your services.

Yes I am a whiner and I will take a little whine with that cheese!  Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the ramblings (or whining) of an old farrier.  God bless!

May 8th I turned 61 years young.  Reflecting back upon those years I felt sadness, happiness and wonder all at the same time.  I have seen a lot of changes in the world good and bad.  I felt sadness because of the people I hurt and those who left the world too soon, happiness for the old times and wonder for what the future holds in this fast paced world infested with so much hate and crime.

I lived in an era when you could walk the St. Louis streets at 1am in the morning without fear of getting mugged.  Life was simple.  I remember when the “Golden Arches” started selling fast food.  I don’t remember there being an obesity problem caused by their cuisine in those days.  We played hard and exercised daily and didn’t sit in front of the TV playing video games.  We watched violent cartoons and didn’t go out into the world and practice the art of murder.  We were taught respect and that hard work paid off and it was a way of life.  We knew what it was like to lose and were taught that winning wasn’t everything and that it wasn’t a bad thing.  We learned to work harder to become a winner.  Not everyone made the cut for the baseball, basketball or football team.  We respected our parents because they earned it.  We took family vacations and spent time together.  There were no cell phones and I can remember the old rotary phone and the dreadful “party line”.  We said things like “yes sir/ma’am” and “no sir/no ma’am.  We rode in the back of a pick-up truck and never used a seatbelt.  Life seemed to move at a slower pace and life was good.  How the hell did we survive?  A miracle that I made it to 61.

The world today seems so much more complicated and moves so fast.  Kids have their own computers, cell phones and everyone wins.  Most of them have no idea what respect is and parents seem to have forgotten to teach it.  I heard someone once say “I just want my children to have more than I did”.  Really?  I don’t think my generation turned out so bad and most of us did without a lot of things.  We were taught the value of a dollar and we heard the word “no” several times.  We got our hind ends busted when we did something wrong and schools didn’t spare the paddle.  According to all the children behavior specialists of today we should have never been successful and should have a plethora of behavioral and anxiety problems.

I am by far no expert of the behavior of  children or a psychology major and don’t pretend to be.  All I know is that I don’t really feel that my generation did all that bad.  When we left the nest I think we were better prepared for what the world was going to throw at us.  For the most part we weren’t spoiled and we knew how to make it through the hard times.  We knew how to handle rejection because we didn’t always win.  We know what respect is because we were taught how to respect.

Reflecting back today I thought about what life might have been like with all the luxuries that children enjoy today.  Everyone is a winner and never having to experience a “party line”.  It was the scariest 15 seconds of my life.  It didn’t take me long to realize that I feel blessed that I got to experience my childhood when life was simple and moved at a slower pace.  Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the ramblings of an old farrier.

                                                

Me and Kate my ride dog!                                                                                Me and Nick our new pup!

The life of the mountain man has always intrigued me.  Men like Jedediah Smith, Jim Bridger, Kit Carson, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau and William Henry Ashley were among some adventurous men that explored the vast unknown wilderness of the west.

It was a hard life but the rewards were numerous.  They saw things that the Native Americans had only seen.  The great buffalo herds, the vast elk herds and the great abundance of wildlife were subjects of their diaries.  They were truly blessed by the beauty of nature in these uncharted  areas.

William Henry Ashley is credited with devising the rendezvous system in which trappers, Native Americans and traders would meet annually in a predetermined location to exchange furs, goods and money.  This system is still celebrated in various areas and re enacted today.  Men and women gather together to relive those days and keep the rendezvous system he created almost two hundred years ago alive today.  If you have never been to one it is a site to behold.  Black powder shoots, knife throwing, trapping demonstrations are a part of the days agenda and they wear the original clothing of the era.  They cook with Dutch ovens and over an open fire filling the camp with an aroma that is sure to entice ones taste buds.

Every time I fire up the Dutch ovens, cook over an open fire or run a trap line my mind wanders back to the stories I have read about these courageous men and women and I hope deep down inside that their accomplishments are never forgotten.  Long live the way of the mountain man.

Jim Bridger wrote, “Hunters and boatmen took the weather as it came, believing that men who never slept under a roof were in little danger of sickness.”

Jedidiah Smith said, ” I wanted to be the first to view a country on which the eyes of a white man had never gazed and to follow the course of rivers that ran through a new land.”

In my life I will never be able to experience the true ways of the mountain man but I can cherish  their stories and imagine life as it was in the days before the west was tamed.

I really didn’t want to use my blog for government bashing but the EPA’s attempt to regulate backyard BBQs in my opinion is an excessive over reach of their authority.  Totally ridiculous.

What concerns me the most is where is this madness going to go?  They are trying to regulate woodstoves.  This could be disastrous to rural America.  There are so many in rural America that rely on woodstoves for heating their homes.  The EPA continues to move forward without even considering the impact that this will have on these Americans.  I remember growing up  my grandparents relied heavily on wood heat.  It was economical and cost effective for them.  They were on a fixed income and they had acres of fire wood to harvest to feed their stove.  I don’t know the number of people that still rely on this method of heat but I am sure the numbers would be staggering.  With the high cost of electricity it is the only way they have to supplement their home heating.  Now that way of life is at risk.

As if that wasn’t enough now they are coming after backyard BBQers.  Really?  What is more American than firing up the grill and grilling a meal?  What would the Fourth of July be like without firing up the ole grill and enjoying some hamburgers, hot dogs and pork steaks?  I know they are supposedly talking about gas grills at the moment but will they stop there?

What is next?

       

My concern is that they will try to regulate campfires and campfire cooking.  This is my backyard and as you can see I am an avid Dutch oven cook and love cooking over the open campfire.  To me there is nothing more relaxing than sitting around the campfire with friends and relaxing with some adult beverages.  It is a way of life that I enjoy dearly and hate to think that the EPA would even think about regulating it.  Frankly it scares the hell out of me.

Maybe I am over reacting but the erosion of our civil liberties everyday is enough to make me nervous.  Maybe it isn’t on their radar and they won’t regulate it but the possibility is there.  It is time for Americans to stand up and reign in the EPA and fight these ridiculous attacks on our freedoms.  JMHO.  Now go out and fire up that grill and let them know how you really feel.

“There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm.  One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from the furnace.  Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac

I am a full time farrier, part time beekeeper and my wife and I run a small hobby farm.  We raise sheep, have a milk cow, chickens, rabbits, five dogs and four horses.  We also have raised bed gardens and dabble in canning our own food.  We also feed out a couple of steers each year and we KNOW where our food comes from.

I feel in today’s world it is good to be as self sufficient as one can be.  It is a full time job 365 days a year taking care of all the animals but it is all worth it.  We are lucky to be living our dream.

    

These are pictures of two sets of twins that were born in March.  We have had a total of three sets of twins and one single so far this year and have two ewes expecting.  They are out of a Dorper/Katahdin cross ram and Katahdin ewes.  We would like to have a total of 10 ewes with a ram.

    

Here are two steers that we fed out and our future milk cow that we call Riba.  She has a ways to go before she will be ready to milk but you have to start somewhere.  All were bought as bucket calves.  They had to be fed milk two times a day for about 2 months.  The stories I could tell you about that time on the farm would have you in stitches but that is for another time.

Both of my grand parents were farmers and my wife’s grandpa raised beef cattle.  We are not new comers and had a background in raising animals.  I regret that I wasn’t able to establish a hobby farm earlier in life but it is what it is and I was finally able to realize my dream.  I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

I will admit that it isn’t for everyone.  It is a lot of work and vacations are virtually non existent but it is the life we chose.  The animals have to be fed and taken care of 365 days out of the year no matter the weather conditions.  They are totally reliant upon us to feed and take care of them.  If you are sick you just have to suck it up and take care of them.  You can’t call in sick.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it.  Just remember when you make that next purchase at the grocery store that there was a farmer who made that purchase possible by putting in a lot of hours and a lot of work.

Johnny Depp said, “The only creatures that are evolved enough to convey pure love are dogs and infants.”

I have had several dogs through the years. Big dogs, little dogs, hunting dogs and just plain ole pets.  Out of all of them I never had a dog that loved me as much as my “ride” dog Kate.  My wife got me a Red-tri Australian Shepherd for me three years ago for Valentine’s day.  The White House has never been quite the same.

Meet Kate.  Here she is riding shotgun.  She takes her job very serious  She is a very good listener and very entertaining.  If I don’t take her with me she drives my wife crazy and becomes very unruly.  Her biggest downfall is that she thinks that everyone loves her and all other dogs adore her.  She is a bundle of energy and joy.  She tries real hard to talk but hasn’t quite managed to master the English language.

Here is Kate at a dog show.  My wife shows her and they make a great team.  She has one title in AKC Rally Novice where she had a score of 100%.

Here she is posing for a Christmas photo.  such a ham!

         

Yep she likes to have her picture taken!  The end picture is my wife, Kate and the blue ribbon she won.

Not everyone finds joy in the ownership of a dog.  In the White House they are considered members of the family and our world would be totally empty without them.  The house wouldn’t be the same without them.  They have brought us much joy and happiness and have earned their place in our household.  We have a total of 5 dogs and yes it can get quite crowded in the living room but that is the way we roll around here.

I just wanted to share the canines involved in our life who make life interesting.  Thanks for reading.

Below are pics of the rest of the crew.  I haven’t got any pics of our Blue Merle, Sioux, that we adopted from our neighbors.  I guess I am slipping.

                                

In order:  Bella- Blue Merle Australian Shepherd, Eros- our Great Pyrenees, Nick (our newest addition) Red Merle Australian Shepherd and the last is the pic of the Three Amigos.