Just checking in

First of all, I want to thank my anonymous commenter for suggesting that I buy Dr. Scholl's shoes at Walmart.  They are very comfortable shoes, and they only cost me $30 plus tax.  
Please, anonymous commenters, give a first name when you leave a comment (like Karen, Pat, Lindie and others do), so I can get to know you.  I realize many bloggers don't like to allow anonymous comments, but if you have the word verification in place, it won't get you a lot of spam; and it will allow you to make more Internet friends.  Some of my favorite regular readers comment anonymously and simply sign a first name.     
While I'm on the subject of blogs and bloggers, I do wish the people whose blogs I read would list an email address on their profiles; sometimes I'd like to say something to them that isn't appropriate to leave in a comment.  
If you look over on the left side of this blog and scroll all the way down, just above my mother's picture you'll see "Rachel" and "Donna" listed as contributors.  Rachel is my daughter; she's only listed so that in case I croak, she can get on my blog and tell you.  I'm Donna; click on my name.  On the left-hand side of my profile you will see "contact me" followed by my email address.  This way, if you'll like to tell me something but don't want to comment publicly, you can do it.  Just put something in the subject line so I'll know it's from a reader.  
Here's an interesting item:  The last entry I did here about the logging has been shared on Facebook eighteen times.  I guess folks find the fact that we got paid for our logs an item of interest worth sharing!  
Oh, here's something:  Notice the picture at the top of my blog is smaller now?  That's because Picasa, the site that hosts pictures for Blogger, says I've reached my limit for free pictures.  However, I can use pictures smaller than a certain megapixel limit and they are allowed; hence the shrunken header picture.  For five dollars per year, I could add bigger pictures, and Cliff says to do that... I owe it to "my people", he says.  So far I'm balking because I already have a paid flickr account; Blogger should let me use that for my headers photos but it doesn't.  I can use flickr for any pictures in my blog entries, though.  

Got shoes, got tomatoes

I didn't go very far in my search for shoes this morning.  An anonymous commenter suggested I go to Walmart and buy a pair of Dr. Scholls.  Got to Walmart, tried them on, bought them.  Oh, I'm not done with my search for the perfect pair of shoes, but these are much more comfortable than the New Balance shoes I've been suffering with for months.  I figured for thirty bucks, I'd give them a try.  I'm keeping my list of shoe recommendations for future reference.  
There's something else I've been looking for:  flannel pajamas.  Not that there aren't plenty of them around, but good grief!  Since when do people pay twenty to thirty dollars for flannel pajamas?  
J. C. Penny has a lot of stuff on clearance today, so we went there; the cheapest marked-down flannels they had were $16.  I refuse to pay more than $10, so I may very well end up sleeping in sweats before this winter is over.  
I did get a coat worth the money, though.  Cliff said he's tired of looking at that long, red coat I've worn for three years, so he helped me pick out a new one.  If you need a coat, this is definitely the time to buy one.    


On to the subject of tomatoes:  My garden really let me down last summer, most of the tomatoes rotting on the vines before they got up to any decent size.  I didn't have enough to can, but I was able to try something new with the few extra tomatoes I managed to save.  I washed them, cut out the stems, put them in gallon bags, and froze them.  To use them I just immerse them in water for a little while and the skins come right off; they are then ready to be used in soups and stews.  The only drawback is that until you get them thawed, you don't really know how much you have.  I'm getting to be a pretty good judge of how many it takes to make two cups full, though.  
My tomato patch also redeemed itself by providing me with fresh tomatoes clear through November.  All my efforts weren't in vain.  

The shoe quandary

Back around Thanksgiving, I asked for my readers' suggestions for a comfortable shoe.  The New Balance athletic shoes I have now are so uncomfortable, I can feel every inside seam where they were sewn together.  So, although someone suggested New Balance, I won't be getting any more of those.  
I may as well go ahead and tell you that I wear size 11 wide.  Try finding that size shoe in the women's section of the shoe department:  It isn't easy.  The obvious solution would be to buy a man's shoe, size 8 or 9.  But when I can get my size in a women's shoe, they just fit better and feel better than a man's shoe.  I have no idea why.     
"Anonymous Lurker" suggested I go to Nike's online store, where they still have a model by the name of our old favorites, Oceana.  Unfortunately, because of my shoe size, they don't have much of anything that would fit me.  Even if they had my size I'd be afraid to order something I haven't tried on, because Nikes tend to run a little smaller than other brands.  
Paula suggested Earth shoes.  Karen likes Aravon, but we'd have to travel quite a distance, into the heart of Kansas City, to find those.  Margaret recommends her Brooks Ghost running shoes.  
One of my most faithful commenters, Taryterre, suggests Danskin shoes.   Small Farm Girl says Asics are the only shoes that don't hurt her feet, and Pat likes her Sketchers.  Kathy suggests Rockport brand walking shoes.  
I'm going to do some online research on all the brands you folks have recommended (except the New Balance), and Cliff may be taking me shoe-shopping today.  I'll let you know how it works out.  I see there are stores at Independence Center selling some of these shoe brands.  Oh, and if anybody has a favorite brand that hasn't been suggested yet, feel free to leave a comment here.  
Don't worry, if your brand doesn't work out for me, I won't hold it against you.  

Time for the farrier

Blue lost a shoe on his one white foot (a back one) last week, so I called my farrier, Randy. When I looked at my checkbook, I saw it had been eight weeks since his last visit, which is really pushing the limit. I took this picture the day Blue lost the shoe; it looked much better today, since my riding him on gravel had the effect of trimming it. I noticed Blue didn't seem tender-footed at all, the five times I rode him with a missing shoe. When I told the farrier about this, he said horses carry 80% of their weight on their front feet, and lots of people only shoe the front feet.

"OK," I said. "Unless you think he needs a shoe on that white foot when you look at it, let's do that."

Randy takes off the old shoe from one foot, trims the hoof, and puts the shoe back on. Cliff was busy, so I had to try and take pictures while holding Blue. This is an under-the-belly shot.

Notice, like all real cowboys, Randy wears Wranglers. I don't see how farriers keep from having constant backaches.
He places the shoe on a hard surface and pounds it with a hammer to get it to fit the hoof properly.

After taking the shoe off, he uses a rasp, or file, to smooth out the edges of the hoof; he uses it again on the outside of the hoof after nailing the shoe on.

Since we were leaving the back feet bare, all he had to do was clip off the extra part of the hooves where they had grown, and then file them smooth. This picture, by the way, is a front foot.

He's clinching the nails here.

80$ later, Blue is ready to be ridden. Seems a little pricey since only two shoes were put back on, but I'm not going to mess with a good farrier. Besides, how many people could stay bent over like that for so long?

Hopefully I won't have to call Randy back until mid-September, and then I'll probably leave the shoes off all around.

Shoes for Blue

Over the past fall and winter, I had great success leaving Blue barefoot. As I rode, his feet toughened up; it worked out great for both of us. Even gravel didn't seem to hurt his feet.

Unfortunately, during the past month or so, his feet were wearing away drastically, and he was getting very tender-footed.

So yesterday I called Randy, my farrier, and had him put shoes on Blue to the tune of $85..

The past two summers it seems Blue's feet refused to grow. The shoes would fall off, but there was no new hoof to nail them back onto for a re-set; so Randy would have to do the best he could. Before long, Blue's feet would more or less crumble from all the nail-holes; then I'd have to simply ride him unshod at home in the pasture.

We'll see if this summer is a repeat of the previous two.