6 Rides in 2009...

how many will we manage in 2010?

Iguana Porn...

Yes, I said it. Porn. and I'm showing it too!

Caught two of the 'Guanas doin' the wild thing on the pond bank this afternoon. LOL

Here they are.

Shhh, somebody's watching!

See ya!

Wait! Come Back!

I warned you!

I haven't been doing a lot of riding...

I haven't ridden in over a month in fact. This saddens me. It's been really busy with the restaurant, and the hotel, and Christmas, and and and...life just keeps getting in my way.

What I HAVE been doing a lot of is reading. Every night when I go home I sit down in my living room deck chair and chlillax just a little while before bed.

Yes if you're still looking for Nemo, I have him. I admit it.

This is what I've been going over the last few weeks. I've found it extremely interesting and informative about how conformation affects a horses movement and also the different types of movement each horse has depending on their individual conformation.

Also how a rider can influence and improve(or ruin) movement through balance and aids.

This book is now on my wish list.

Principles of Conformation Analysis Volume I

I'll just keep reading till I get a chance to steal away from here. (hopefully soon)

Merry Christmas to all!

We had a wonderful Christmas dinner here last night. 30 people, more food than we could eat, and wonderful conversation all night.

Countries Represented
USA: PA, OH, KY, FL, NY, AK, CA, GA, AR
Canada: British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario
Yemen
Belize
Guatemala
Honduras
Denmark
Holland
Belgium
France

We fed the world last night. (everyone brought something and contributed to the table)

Pictures. 'Cause they say a lot.

Full parking lot for a closed restaurant.

and so it begins

JP's a leg man.

Spanakopita

Lemon Garlic Shrimp

Carlos and Jake Loading up.

Lilly's amazing salad.

The bird

30 people need a big table.

Chowing Down

Me, Jp,  Michelle, Juan.

The caveman LIVES.  Michelle and Richard in the background.

Kelly, Hyla and Lilly

Yummy nummy goodness. Eggnog Cake, Kahlua & Milk soaked cookies in Coolwhip and Christmas Cookies.

Richard, Carol, Judy, and Sophia

Hyla

I have more pictures but real life is calling, I have to go make up some hotel beds.

BBL

I'm back..sooner than expected. The bed will have to wait a bit. Blanket's not quite dry.

Left to right: Sophia, Matt, Kelly, Carol, Judy, Shaman.

Me, Sophia, Matt, and Shaman

Me and Kelly

Me Kelly and Hyla

It was a good night.

Thank you to all who attended and helped make it so fun.

Sometimes waiting doesn't work...

When I got up this morning Juan had already been in for horse feed(keep it in my kitchen) and left the front door open. Between then and when I got up a hummingbird had flown in and couldn't figure his way back out. I lowered all my blinds and propped the front door wide open. He was bound to fly back out eventually right???

See him there? That little black dot against the ceiling?

Out the door little guy.

The door THE DOOR!

Ok, well he'll figure it out eventually...

45 minutes later...

Hour and a half...

Now, remember Hummingbird have an extremely fast metabolism.

On the average they need to eat every fifteen minutes....

He just couldn't get low enough to out the door and I was beginning to worry.

I chased him around with a broom until he collapsed on the top shelf of my kitchen cabinets.

I carefully climbed up with a scarf in hand and caught him. He was too tired to fight.

I took him outside but he wouldn't fly off, his reserves were spent.

I got a tiny drop of honey and dabbed it on his tongue.

After a minute or so I took him back outside.

Finally...ZOOM and whir he was off in a blur.

Stay safe little friend.

That's a Rufous Tailed Hummingbird BTW

 Here's a better shot from somewhere on the web.

That flower he's eating from is a Calliandra species. They grow wild all over this area.

We have a LOT of hummingbirds here but we don't put up feeders. Just flowers. I prefer they eat natural nectar as opposed to sugar syrup. The syrup can ferment in hot conditions and become unhealthy for them.

Recent Reads

So, I know we don't have snow, but this is the time of year that many do, and choose to stay in with a good book rather than braving the elements.

I thought I would list some of my recent reads in case you're looking for new material.

I just finished this last night. found it hugely enjoyable and a look in to a life I could never live but could feel their love for what they do.
Trapline Twins  Just before that I read their other book















At the moment I'm reading















Before I read all of those I enjoyed
















Most of my other recent reading material has been rather horsecentric:

 












Only a horse person wouldn't look at me funny if they saw that stacked on my bedside table that's what I read myself to sleep with every night pretty much.


Some more recent reading

My Friend (one of them) and strange happenings, and an ominous sky...mishmash post.

So, this morning right after I got to the restaurant, my friend came to visit.

This is my friend:

He's a Yellowthroat Warbler

He visits 5-6 times every day

Here he is on a different day

Yellowthroat Warblers are a neotropical migratory species.

Many people don't know that most warblers are tropical in origin and began to migrate north in the spring for the protein flush of the insect hatch to raise their young. So they actually live here and visit there, not the other way round.

I love having birds come in to visit me everyday at work.

If you're traveling to Belize and are a birdwatcher, here are a few good reference books to pick up before you come.

On to strange happenings.

Last night we had friends from down south arrive in the country after a summer north.

 It's a long drive to where they live and work, and they decided to stay in our hotel.

5 minutes after the get in their room, she comes back from the Cabana and says: "Houston, we have a problem."

We check them in everything is fine, he gets in the shower, and she lays down on the bed to rest...feels something funny under her head.

Gets up, ants...ANTS come boiling out of the pillowcase and from under the blankets...

They had nested in the pillowcases.

also in the fridge

My response to her:

Oh!   "I am SO glad you're not a tourist."

We moved them to an ant free room and all was fine.

Seriously, a tourist would have likely FREAKED. Locals....well it's just part of the joys of "Living in Belize"

 Here, they had gone back in the pillowcase where we left them until morning.

Also in the fridge.

Thes ants normally live in the leaf axils of Coconut trees and their common name is Johnny Coco.

Damn Coconut trees. I wanted to cut them down, but noooooo, I got voted down because the look so tropical. *rolleyes*

Noemi, our maid had just cleaned that room on Tuesday. This is what happens when the ground gets saturated from so much rain. Everything begins to move up and there's just not much that we can do but deal with the consequences. It doesn't mean we don't keep a clean place, or are lax in maintenance, it's just one of those things. Welcome to the tropics.

This morning, this was my view as I stepped out my front door at 7 am. It really was pretty, but means more rain on the way. The horses are still in.

Looking Southish

 Westish:

 

I am officially disgusted...

Who thinks this is acceptable? Not me that's for sure.

G**** ***se...why are you not answering any of your phones????????(our *clean* rice supplier)

Yes. Proper Rice Is Nice.

This...is false advertising in my opinion.

When you open the bag...

this is what you see

does this look like something you would want to eat?

So, we had to buy regular rice in Belmopan as opposed to getting already cleaned rice delivered here, by the normally very reliable Mr. Rice.

I cut open the bag and began the long....tiring...ridiculous task of picking stones, dirt, and seeds out of rice to make it fit for cooking.

If the Belize Rice Industry isn't ashamed of themselves...they bloody well should be. This is just downright pathetic.

Those are my mother's hands.

 

Although, it did one good thing...

Stopped me from dwelling on the state of my paddocks for a couple of hours.

I took these pictures this morning on my way up from my house.

This is actually my front yard, but you have to walk through here to get to the paddocks from the stable door.

This is the *big* paddock.

I've been thinking of filling the big paddock(which is really not that big) with "All In". Also known as road base.

This is my driveway that was made with "All In"

You can just see my boot in the bottom which gives you an idea of the stone size.

Rain or shine my road can be driven on. I just am not sure if it would be too hard on the horses to be on it all the time and also if it would provide sufficient traction when they get silly in the paddocks.

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