Quarters By Coyle's

Yummmmmmyyy!!!! 

If you have never been there before, they specialize in fire grilled pizzas.  Not your traditional pepperoni/sausage.  The Greek pizza is garlic infused olive oil topped with gyros meat, kalamata olives, tomatoes, red onions, tziki sauce (yogurt cucumber) and feta and mozzarella cheeses.

I had Capellini, fresh tomatoes, onions, garlic and basil sauteed in extra virgin olive oil and tossed with angel hair pasta and shrimp.  Randy had the spaghetti and meatballs.  It was delicious!!!  Thanks Leah and Brian for the great night out. 

I also went to Winona and watched the Minnesota QH show, really got me in the mood to showing.  Ice is the hairiest polar bear right now and it is hard to believe under all that fur is my Ice man.  I saw some top named trainers like Eric Peterson, Rick Klaus, Bonnie Pumper-Miner, Larry Stratto and others.  I also recognized some show people like Hannah Glowacki, Breanna and Heather Grebin, Suzie Peterson, Chris Reivers and her daughter. 

Fred Mousel, the equine chiropractor, took the drive to MN and adjusted horses . . .oohhh they feel so much better.  Thanks to your talent Fred . . .the horses might not appreciate it at first, but they soon realized they felt much, much better after the adjustments. 

Friday I went to HeartMath and learned a great way to de-stress, get in-sync with my inner self and find a happy place while decompressing in a matter of minutes. 

Have a great Valentines week and don't forget to treat your Valentine special this week. 

Well, I decided to have Randy take the round pen down tonight. 

Mandy, the newbie in training had 30 days on her last summer and she passed the first day of ground work with flying colors and I really need the room to teach others how to steer. 

Now I have the wide open spaces and I can use the long diagonals for straight lines. 

On Friday I get to go to HeartMath, a de-stressing training that Gundersen Lutheran is making available to all their employees.  I can always use a good de-stressor in my daily activities and find different ways of coping with every situation I come across. 

My de-stressor thus far in my life has been training horses.  I am always in a better frame of mind after riding, I become one with the horse, which causes all my stress to go away. 

Another way to de-stress is to work out with Jillian Michels every morning.  I am at level 2 of the 30 day shred and she is kicking my butt.  Every day I can see improvement by getting stronger, better balanced and less winded.  I love to sweat, so the sweatier I become the better I feel about the workout, so full sweatshirt and sweatpants every morning.  It opens up the pores and gets your mind clearer. 

I will give you a run down of how the training session goes on Friday. 

Well, not sure that I will be watching the super bowl today, too many other things to do. 

Went to Winona and cheered Lori on in her barrel racing, she placed 2nd in the 3D today, 3rd in the 3D yesterday.  We even got to snuggle with Tristan while we were waiting for her to run.  He is soooo adorable and snuggly. 

Then onto Rogans to buy ourselves some running shoes.  We are getting committed to be healthier in 2012.  I have been doing the 30 Day Shred with Jillian Michels and Randy is starting to run on the treadmill. 

When we got home I went out to the barn and did chores, feeding all the training horses their grain, wrapping Dreamer's leg, de-worming everyone, feeding hay, topping off all the water tanks and sweeping down the isle . . .man those 2 hours went by fast. 

Dreamer banged her knee a little over a month ago and I have had to wrap it every day to keep the swelling down.  As soon as I would unwrap it the swelling would come back.  She had a cut on the lower ankle in November that was almost healed, but now with the swelling that broke open and it has been slow to heal.  I have been keeping a non-stick dressing on it with triple antibiotic ointment.  The dogs love licking the quilted leg wrap that covered that area, yuck.  This week I had Randy unwrap it when he put her outside and put Underwood/backing powder on it.  I also sprayed it with Vetricyn a couple times and it seems to be healing better now that there isn't so much swelling.  Now the swelling had localized below the knee.  She still has an orange size lump right on the front of her knee, that might take a while to get back to normal.  Great to see progress though after a month of wrapping and 2 cycles of Penicillin.  The vet told us her tendon sheath going over the knee was inflammed.  She hasn't been lame at all on it.  We have her under lights to get her to cycle so she will be our first mare to be bred.  This makes it a lot easier to do dressing changes too. 

Now in from chores and waiting for the T-bone steaks to get done for supper. 

Have a great week everyone!!!

I really need to find someone else to do the Canton Township books. 

I spent all day Sunday doing W-2's, 1099's, printing W-4's, and year-end processes for township. 

I have been employed by Canton Township since 1991, so I believe I have paid my dues, so if anyone from the Canton Township area is willing to take over for me I would be more than happy to give this title to someone else. 

I have the process down to a science and there are great people to work with like Fay, Larry, Gary and Ricky.  A laptop computer is provided with the needed software such as CTAS and Quicken.  All set and ready to go for the next person to take over. 

Have I convinced anyone yet?????

If you are interest please contact me . . . .remember I said please . . . .:D . . .you can't pass up this happy face!

It warms my indoor arena so nicely . . .still 20 degrees at 7 p.m. on this fridget Friday night, woot, woot!!

Lots to get done this morning (Sat), ride 3 horses, clean stalls, clean house (if I find enough time), wash clothes, go to Roy Erickson's wake (prayers go out to his family) and then onto Goonies Comedy Club in Rochester.

We tried going to Goonies last Saturday, but didn't make reservations and they were full, drats, so this time I made reservations and we are going with Cristina and Chad . . .can't WAIT!!!!

Have a great weekend and stay warm!!!!

When I arrived at the horse barn at 4 p.m. it was pleasantly 25 degrees, thinking maybe my thermometer wasn't working . . .well at 7 p.m. it definitely had  moved . . .now 12 degrees, not so bad considering it is near zero with a -21 windchill.  Yikes

Now remember how fridged it is in July when it is beastly hot . . .you won't get any complaining from  me. 

Have a great TGIF tomorrow

I just looked at the next 10 days of temperatures . . .it doesn't look good, but I was pleasantly surprised last night when I looked at the thermometer in the indoor arena . . . .25 degrees, woot, woot, it sure felt much colder outside.

Today, the high is supposed to be 4, so we will see what the temp is like tonight in the indoor. 

It looks like I need to dust off my thermometer . . .don't really see it that close up unless I am on a horse taking a picture of it, ha!

Have a great Thursday!

We are very proud of Emily's purchase of Soda.  They will have great fun this year learning to work as a team and I will be there to help them along the way. 

Dr. Arnie had the task of completing a vet check on Soda and Soda was a champ being tolerant of all the poking, prodding, stressing and trotting off. 

It is truly amazing how nice Soda and Emily work together already and it sure is nice to see how Soda moves from the view point of standing on the ground watching instead of being the rider.  I love how she moves. 

Congratulations, you will make a great team, Emily and Soda!!!!

Well, old man winter has finally hit Minnesota.  I was truly loving the warmer weather to ride in.

At least on sunny days the sun warms my indoor up an additional 15 degrees so it is pretty comfortable to ride in yet. 

Now all the holes I missed caulking are filled in with snow due to the wind. 

The horses are nice and furry.  The huts we provide them are standing empty, not sure why that is, but they stand on the outside of them to block the wind. 

My saving grace to stay warm is the toe warmers I put in my boots and gloves and the warm office I can go in to get warmed up between rides. 

Great to see the white snow on the ground . . .it cleans everything up.

Randy and I tore down the hut that flipped over in the wind . . . .it was very, very cold and windy. 

We weren't sure if we coud salvage  it or not . . .a closer look at it determined it would never make another flip over to get it upright. 

Hopefully I got all the nails picked up . . .I think I had pounds of them in my pockets. 

Of course, Foster was right there to help and supervise.  I could hear his little brain going, okay, just push it this way, no, the other way, great job, I checked it out, it is okay now, I will get the gait, I will watch so nothing escapes out of the empty pen into the hayfield, I will go first and check things out, whew, oops there goes a piece of the hut in the wind I'll go get it for you, ah, too heavy for  me, don't know if I could have done it without you humans. 

Good job done, now to build a new one, or better yet, move the one over by the house to Soda's pen to get some use out of it. 

Happy New Year everyone!