When Will Enough be Enough?

OK, so I was a bit out of the loop this weekend. My in laws were here, and we had a lot of work to do. So I had a bit of break from the usual. I did get an e-mail from my friend Mar, about Cloud's herd. If you are not familiar with Cloud who is a mustang living with his family in the Pryor Mountains of Montana, I urge you to go to the Cloud Foundation website .
A bill recently passed the House of Representatives that will protect the wild horses, but it still needs to get through the Senate.

These horses need our help. The Bureau of Land Management wants to remove 70 horses from this herd. I worry that the long term plan here, is to eliminate their genetic viability. If they do this, then I am sure that there are other groups - ranchers are the first that come to my mind, as every time I read about a "ranch", they don't actually own very much land, but lease thousands of acres from the government. This puts wildlife that should be protected in competition for food and water with the rancher's animals. Eliminating the horse's genetic viability, threatens their claim to their land. I would like to add here, that I do come from a farming and ranching background. While I understand the challenges that ranchers face trying to make a living, how high of a price are you willing to pay?

Then, I get online this afternoon, and what do I see at the top of the news on YAHOO?!?!?! "Israel on Iran: Anything it takes to stop nukes". Now, if you took in this headline in a calm, never-before-heard of Israel, you might think, "Ooo, they are gonna lead some big diplomatic mission!" For those of us who know Israel all too well, this headline reaches down into you, and drags up alternate feelings of rage, helplessness, and despair, leaving behind a steadfast determination to do everything possible (and in non-violent manner) to change this.

So while I am so very angry about everything I hear out of Israel, and the United State's relationship with Israel. I cling to hope, and I write about it, talk about it, do everything I can to educate my fellow Americans to what is really going on over there. I just wonder, if Israel does a pre-emptive strike against Iran, what is the US going to do about it. This should be the straw that breaks the camel's back, and forces the United States to recognize Israel for the real threat that it is.

Talk about a terrorist nation! Arresting their kids for refusing to kill, and throwing them in prison, does not sound like a democracy to me. Large groups of activists having to accompany farmers in the West Bank to their fields, armed with cameras and cell phones, often being arrested, and or assulted by Israeli Defense Force (IDF) soldiers, just so the farmers can work their fields and feed their families, is a disgrace. Don't forget that they have kidnapped and killed US citizens, and I don't even know where to begin with Gaza! We have bombed and invaded other countries for less than this! Yet the United States is pretty much all that stands in the way of Israel being punished for UN violations.

My light in this is that I know that there are thousands of people out there who feel the same as I do, and that number grows every day.
I recommend checking out ibn ezra . They are great about getting news out about what is going on in the West Bank. I follow them on Twitter, and they are just a great source of pictures, videos, and links to news articles.

I just want to know, when will enough be enough?

To close on a somewhat positive note, we had a storm yesterday, lots of rain pelting down, lightening (not so positive about that is that it started a couple of fires.) The power even blinked out twice. It is nice and cool out today, and we have chances for rain all this week!

Things Around The House Intro & Part 1

OK, so my husband and I are into like not buying things. At the same time, we both like to make things, and although we recycle, have a desire to keep stuff out of the chain altogether. So, what has been born out of that are several projects that are very simple were we have re-purposed things. I am posting the introduction to this along with the first part. I have at least five, I might do more if people enjoy them, or if I feel that I have something interesting to share. So, enjoy!

IT IS RAINING!!!!!!!!!!

It's raining!!! yay!

Something I Am Working On

This is part of a project that I am working on. It as created in Fireworks, that for all my gnashing of teeth am really starting to enjoy using. Now I am on to Flash and more gnashing of teeth, but hopefully it will be worth it!

Books, Books, Books!

I am not sure if I have mentioned this before, but

I LOVE to read. Learning how to read was my

proudest childhood accomplishment. If I was not on the back of a horse, I had my nose in a book (usually one to do with a horse). Feather is exhibiting signs of being a reader too, and I am excited about that.

I am reading the third book of the Grail trilogy by Bernard Cornwell, and it is very good. I recently made a big trip to the library, so after this, I have The Shock Doctrine and Fences and Windows: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Globalization Debate by Naomi Klein. I am looking forward to these, at the very least, I will see everything that Bryan and I have been talking the past several years in one place. Also, I have Lipstick Jihad and Honeymoon in Tehran by Azadeh Moaveni. Her article in Time a few years back, about the effects of Bush's "Axis of Evil" on the daily life in Iran, was a touch stone for me. I will try to remember to post a few words about these after I read them.

In my local weather news today, I thought that we were going to get a storm - and we might still get one later. On the radar, it looked like it was going to go right over us. I could hear the thunder, but it ended up passing just to the east of us. Oh, the torture of it! Standing in the back yard feeling the wind and stray drops that were blown our way. Oh well, maybe we will have better luck next time. It is 89F right now.

Israel is planning to bulldoze more Palestinian houses in order to build more settlements in East Jerusalem despite the outcry of the rest of the world. The United States is going to have to cut them off. They are losing support daily, as more and more people are learning the truth, but how does that comfort the farmers in the West Bank whose crops are burnt by the settlers? Or the people in Gaza who are caught in a hellish limbo? Even if you do not care about the plight of the people in the Palestinian territories, you would have to be out of your mind, not to realize that the actions of Israel only daily further the cause of the right - wing extremists in the Middle East and the world. This in turn, making the situations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran even more impossible.

On top of this, wild horses that were drug off of their land and away from their families, are under threat of euthanizing because the BLM says that they don't have enough money to feed them. Oh, wow, how about turning them loose?!?! Idiots! Give the horses their land, leave them alone, and let nature take care of them.

I am so sick of greed!

House of Spiders

OK, so weather update.... we climbed above the high which was changed to 94, to 95. It was 91 when we set out for the pool. Talk about freezing! Yes, I know that most people would think 91 is way hot, and definitely pool time. Not I! I guess my body in an effort to survive, has reset itself or something. I was joking about it the other day, but I guess that it is true. I did have a nice chat with one of my neighbors, while Feather played with her daughter. She is a year younger than Feather, but swims like a little fish. So cute! Feather's swimming skills are improving in leaps and bounds. She was trying to do handstands and flips underwater today.

When we got back, Bryan pointed out this cute, little fuzzy black spider that had taken up residence on our coffee table. She would crawl up to the top, and seemed to be after this fly that would periodically land. Bryan was about to smash the fly, and give it to her, but I was not sure if she would take it like that. This sparked an investigation around the nooks, crannies, and corners of the house. We found several. They all seemed to be different. They had their little spot with their little webs. Their predominate place seems to be the dining area off of the kitchen. The reason for this, we think, is there is a hideous sliding glass door there that opens out into the backyard. I say hideous, because although it lets in a lot of light, it is accompanied by an annoying vertical blind, lets in a lot of heat, and when we have to open the door for the dogs to go out, which is about every 5-20 min. a lot of flies seem to find their way into the house.

I know that flies have their purpose, but I wish that we could work out some sort of agreement that would entail them staying out of the house. So the way that I look at it, the spiders are beneficial, by catching the flies. Once they move on to spider heaven, or a new spot, we clean away their cobwebs and that is that. Maybe it was that Charlotte's Web made a huge impression on me. (my mother read this and Black Beauty to me at a very early age. I have despaired that Feather will not sit and listen these now, although she loves the cartoon version of Charlotte's Web.) I remember my mother and father threatening to take away my Charlotte's Web movie, because I would be distraught when Charlotte died at the end.

Maybe this is why I can not kill a spider....

In Anticipation of Cooler Currents

OK, in case you did not realize this. Don't feel bad, until I started blogging (feels weird to say blogging - don't know why, it just does.) So anyhow, I have found that I am a weather nerd. I already knew that I was obsessed with storms. LOVE STORMS!

Living here in Texas, we get storms. Although being in the DFW area, it is like a bubble, The storms will roll in from the west. We are watch the radar, all excited, towns on the outskirts are told to take cover, then they dissipate. To add insult to injury, as soon as they get east of Dallas, they reform usually as strong as ever. I have issues with this, that I am sure that I will work though.

So anyhow, lately I always going on about how hot it is. In my defense, our area has been setting records for electricity consumption. My plants are so wilted, I worry if they will make it, much less produce vegetables or flowers. Today though, for the first time in who knows how long, we did not break 100F. It almost felt cold by comparison. We are supposed to stay in mid 90's for a few days, and I am so excited! I am imagining all the plants perking up revived and determined anew to survive and thrive.

I am hoping that we can at least get out and take the dogs for a walk. School is starting in 37 days, and I am planning on walking Feather to school, so I want to figure out how long it takes exactly. I think it is 10 min., but not sure. The only drawback, is that once we get there, she wants to go play on the playground equipment, so I have to remember to take water for the dogs.

My Life in Horses

My friend Mar brought to my attention yesterday, H.R. 1018, that is being voted on today in the House of Representatives. This bill if passed will go a long way to protecting our wild horses. In my mind one of the priceless, if not THE most priceless treasure that we possess. I am optimistic that it will go through, as it is something of common ground, that most can unite on. Something that is rare in this day and age.

This also brought on much reflection about the animal that has shaped my life to what it is today. What follows, is close to my life history, though horses. I have condensed it a bit…..

From the time I knew what a horse was, I was obsessed. For the longest, I desperately wanted to be a horse. I would say my prayers as a child “Now I lay me down to sleep….” and at the end I would pray that I would wake up as a horse. If I could not be a horse, then I was going to be the next best thing -- to my knowledge-- a cowgirl. The only footwear that I would put on my feet willingly until the age of 8 or 9, were my cowboy boots. Heaven forbid, someone might see me in sneakers, and not know that I was a cowgirl! This did make it a little difficult for my mom on the days that we had P.E. at school, as on those days, we were supposed to wear suitable footwear. Oh, well, I am paying for it now with Feather.

The first horse that I rode by myself, was actually a Shetland Pony named “BoBo” who belonged to my cousin, but when he was not at his grandparents, I rode him. The only thing about BoBo, was that he did not like water. This was fine and all, until one day I was riding him in a field after it had rained a lot, and I was supposed to meet my parents on the other side of the field. It was the day before the first day of first grade. We got about half way across, when he stopped in the middle of a puddle and refused to budge. I got off, and set out to lead him. We progressed a few steps, when he came to a halt and refused to budge. Somehow, as I was cajoling him to move, I became stuck in the mud. I looked up, and saw buzzards flying around, and just knew that they were coming for me. I was freaking out and close to a complete panic, when my parents rode up. I was so relieved to see them, but they seemed to think that the whole thing was hilarious. Only now, with my own daughter, who is so like me sometimes, that it is scary, can I appreciate this. So I set about trying to dig myself out of the mud, and as I leaned over, BoBo grabbed my ponytail in his teeth and yanked. As you can guess, this was hilarious to my parents, but just about the last straw for me. I eventually became unstuck, and made it out of the mud, and back onto BoBo, and back to my great grand mother’s house. There are earlier memories, most of them spent with BoBo. Oh, how I loved to play with him! He was one of my first best friends. I did have human ones, but horses were always the best.

I will try to keep this short, as I could probably write a novel about my horse experiences alone. There was Rhoda, who was my dad’s roping horse for awhile, but first, I rode her around my great-uncle’s arena with a too big saddle, feet not reaching the stirrups.

Then there was Flint. He was probably the most magical of all my horses. When we got him, he was starved, in horrible shape. With a lot of time and love, and care, he filled out and was beautiful. He was half Arabian, I don’t know what else. We just thought that he had been cut in a barbwire fence until a woman saw us at a Jr. rodeo and asked if he was Arabian. Upon further investigation, we learned that the “cuts” were actually a freeze brand saying that he was half-Arabian and the year he was born etc.. That is how sophisticated we were back then.

Flint was a magical horse. He was not the fastest, which meant that we were out run in barrels at the bigger jr. rodeos, but he was so quick that he could hold his own in pole bending. Every weekend, we would be at a play day or rodeo. The play days were his thing. Five or six different events, and we would usually win all of them. He would put on a big show before we went into the arena, prancing and showing off, acting like he was wild. That was the thing with Flint, is that he could read his rider, and know where they were at, and what was good for them. He always gave 100% of what he had. The smoothest lope/canter that you would ever see. He did like to keep his head up, and that hurt us in the Western Pleasure classes. To this day, I do not have a whole lot of respect for judged equestrian events because of that. It is not natural for a horse to go along with it’s nose on the ground, unless it is looking for food. Most of the time, if we were not competing, I rode him bareback, with just the halter and lead rope. He worked mainly off of knee pressure, and I was not big enough to saddle him myself, so that is how we went.

I eventually moved on, and he retired, as my sister was not as into horses as I was. A few years later, I was injured really bad, and when I got the clear to ride again (although most people that it was crazy) Flint came out of retirement to teach me how to ride all over again.

Once I learned how to ride again, I was about eleven or twelve. I had to go almost a year without being able to ride. I may or may not go into all that down the road. So after I learned to ride again, I got to train my first horse. I got him green-broke, and was able to teach him how to neck rein, barrels and everything. Aside from the years with Flint, this was some of the most rewarding time that I had. All the while I was teaching Kip to rein and all of the patterns, he was helping me to build strength back into my leg, and to get through physical therapy and surgeries. (As you might guess, I am very much in favor of equine-therapy programs.)
After Kip, I had Black. He was beautiful, and I am pretty sure that he knew it. At the time, I just had to have a horse for high school rodeo. After much scouring and searching, I found him. I did not take him anywhere to try him. Just rode him at the owner’s place and fell in love. We did really well in 4-H, and he carried me through a rodeo queen contest (that we won, and I met my future husband though that, although we would not remember that until later down the road when we met again.) The only problem, was that not one time in competition did we turn the first barrel, it was like there was some kind of block. So, Black found a home in Mississippi where he was loved just as much there as we loved him. He went on to do really well in the Mississippi State 4-H halter class.

After Black, I found Badge. Like Flint, he was a flea-bitten gray, meaning that he was white, with reddish, brown specks on his body, a grayish white mane, tail, and black on his legs. The term “flea-bitten” is due to the specks. They look like they have been bitten by flies or fleas (I would think they would have to be large fleas! Big old horse flies, I will buy though.) Also like Flint, Badge seemed to have this other world thing about him. Unlike Flint, Badge had plenty of speed. Although we did not have luck at rodeos, we did well at barrel races. I won my sole barrel racing belt buckle on Badge. He was also very good at pole bending. A couple of times, he almost lost me on the turns, he was that stout and quick altogether.

When I graduated from high school, I had to sell him. I was moving on, relations were strained with my parents (and only got worse from there, but that’s life). I did not have a way to keep him. Thank goodness, that he went to a good home.

Everything about who and what I am today, has been shaped by horses. So to think that wild horses, representatives of what is or can be good of our country, being rounded up and sent to be slaughtered, is beyond thought.. There is no excuse for this. I think that there needs to be more regulation in the horse industry period. I don’t think that anyone should be able to just breed their horse. One of my few human heroes as a child, Charmayne James, has cloned Scamper, who was my hero. Probably one on the best athletes in the world period. Of course she is just standing the clone at stud. Disgusting!

I hope and pray that one day, I will be able to have horses in my life again. I don’t know if it will all be completely right until I do. I don’t think that I would be able to compete again. At least not here in Texas. It is too hot! I could not imagine asking a horse to sit in a trailer at 100+F, then to go out and run as hard and fast as possible at those temperatures. Even back when I had horses to ride and exercise, I did not go ride them in the middle of the day in the summer. You either did it in the early morning, or at dusk. Most competitions were at night. That has been eleven years though, and it has gotten a whole lot hotter here.

I still see horse trailers going up and down the roads here though. I do not know anyone who is competing now to ask, but I wonder.

Videos, Healthcare, & Viva Palestina!

Feather and I went swimming again today. She was swimming underwater with a hand sticking up, pretending that she was a shark. My job was to act scared that she would eat me. It was a lot of fun. When we stepped outside today, I noticed that it was just skin cooking hot. I wondered why it felt so different. Then, I stopped to talk to a neighbor, and she said that it was 110F yesterday. So that explains it. I did not realize that it was that hot, but it definitely felt it.

Viva Palestina was allowed to cross into Gaza today. Of course they are only allowed to stay for 24 hours and had to leave half of the aid they brought back in Egypt. Why is Egypt going along with this whole blockade business? George Galloway, a British MP gave a really good speech upon entering Gaza, calling on President Obama to back up his words. I can only pray that he will. It is still nice that so many people from the U.S. are there. Maybe at least the people of Gaza know that we care and are trying to change things.

Here is the website for Viva Palesina US

http://www.vivapalestina-us.org/

Here is the video of the convoy entering Gaza.



Also today, Dennis Kucinich posted
Healthcare: Change the Debate http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=156831770&blogId=500488185

It gave me a little bit of hope as to the future of American healthcare. Until now, it has seemed that only the people that I would say are responsible for over-inflated, unattainable healthcare have been calling the shots. So my take on it has been, “OK, it is horrible now, how much more are they going to screw us?” The fact that HR676 is alive with 85 co-sponsors gives me some hope. The way I see it, we either have to go with universal care, single payer, or legalize all drugs and medications, make doctors and hospitals bid on procedures etc. Insurance companies have got to go. I will stop there. Post on healthcare coming soon!

I mentioned in my first post, that I was thinking of doing a video blog. Well I do not think that I am ready to dedicate myself to producing at least one video a week. I will stick to this. It has been bugging me though, that I do not have any of my own videos uploaded, so I made a short one. I feel so silly talking on camera, here in my white box of an office. We are lucky to have the room, but it is so freaking white! I did not really realize that until I was doing the video. Feather is a prolific artist, so I will have to hang more of her pictures up in here.
So here is my first video attempt.

How to Survive a Texas Summer

OK, the high today was like 106 F.

There is a new hell, it is Texas!
It has always been hot here, but the last ten years it has gotten a lot worse. So anyhow, I had promised Feather that I would take her to the pool. One of the cool things about where we live right now, is that it is just around the corner from one of the neighborhood pools.

So we set out, towels and pool toys in tow, slathered with sun screen. It was so hot, that you could barely breath. That is a step up from it feeling like your skin is cooking. lol. We did make it to the pool, got the chairs closest to the edge, took off our shoes, and ran into the water before the soles of our feet melted.

Feather, at five is finally old enough to enjoy playing in the water. Last year she was scared and clung to me the whole time. Now she likes putting on her goggles and swimming underwater. (she is getting good at that too)

So for 2 1/2 hours, I was transported back to my childhood. Splashing and chasing her around the pool. I did refrain from cannonballs, but we had a lot of fun.

With all that is going on in the world, she and I had today, and in it's own way, it was magic.

Now more than ever, I realize just how precious water is. I do know that there is no way that I will ever be able to have my own private swimming pool because of guilt. Even if I were able to capture rainwater, I would want to use that for plants.

We are not anywhere near to the end of summer here. I will probably talk about it a lot more.

For now, I recommend ....water, and a child's resilience.

First Blogger Post

Ok, well I have a blog on my Myspace profile, but everyone seems to be here. So I will see how this goes. The design issues are not so "drag and drop" easy as Myspace, but I love a challenge, and I have become way too lazy! I do love the fact that there is spell check here -- I can not spell -- even when I do spell a word correctly, I am always second guessing it. I have been considering doing a video blog, but I don't know. I hate the sound of my voice. So I will think about it. I really wanted my blog to just be about my daily life, but there are so many things going on in the world today that need to be addressed. Maybe I can do the daily life here, video blog about world events (i.e. the Palestinian territories, our messed up country, the environment, etc.), then put links to it all on Myspace. We will see.