year 2011 in review

2011
January-
After wrecking my 2003 Infiniti FX45 in December, I bought my 2002 Subaru Impreza wagon,

My mom and I visited the Bosque Del Apache wildlife and bird refuge at sunrise, one Saturday. Visit here to see a Sandhill Crane dance video.

February-
Alas, I missed the Scottsdale Arabian Show for the first time in years. February was a busy month for me with both my boys' birthdays to celebrate.

My son,  daughter, and I took a quick road trip to Holbrook and saw the Hashknife Pony Express set off. Read all about it here.

I also attended a Dennis Reis clinic and invited my neighbor and her daughter. She got lucky and won a DVD set from him during the give-a-ways.

I lost my 16 year old cat, Simba, to kidney failure. I picked him from the litter of six kittens our Pearlie had. (We lost her the next year to coyotes.) Then Terra was the last kitten still to be given away and my husband convinced me to keep her too. As it turned out, Terra claimed me and I was never able to spend much time with Simba. He was beloved by all the family and used to head-butt on command. He was half Siamese and would wander around the house in the wee hours of the morning, crying out loudly, as only Siamese cats can. I miss him terribly but the yowling and prowling, I do not miss.

April-

I did not fall off of my horse but maybe I should have jumped. I was riding Scout at the back of my neighborhood when he got spooked from a pack of loose, running dogs, reared up, and fell over backwards on me, breaking my ankle, which required surgery.

I now have a plate and several pins on the inside of my ankle. I learned what it was like to be disabled, since I was off my foot and in a wheelchair for two months during rehab. I still have a very stiff joint and continual discomfort in my ankle.

I was fortunate enough to attend two fantastic concerts- both were opening nights of those tours and both required road trips to the Denver area:

In April, my daughter and I saw Arcade Fire in Broomfield (above Denver).


During our road trip, we visited Manitou Springs, Colorado Springs and the site of the Ludlow Massacre. Read more about that trip here and here.

In May, I added two aliens, erm, alpacas to my animal family: Thelma (red) and Louise (bay/black). Louise was supposed to be pregnant.

I saw U2 in May with my Sister-in-Law and a friend of hers. I bought the tickets for this concert over a year ago, on ebay, and then Bono hurt his back and the tour was postponed. After driving up to Denver, over 450 miles, I found out the tickets were fraudulent, on the morning of the concert. The girl who sold them to me, Natacha Gillis, had received a refund from Ticketmaster, right after I had purchased them from her! Fortunately, we were able to purchase three seats in the handicapped area (I was still in a wheelchair because of my broken ankle), and had a fantastic weekend together. We visited the Denver area, Central City, and the  Red Rocks Arena where U2 performed their landmark song, Sunday, Bloody, Sunday in the 80s.


While in Denver for the U2 concert, my SIL and I went to the National Alpaca Show to experience lots of close encounters with the "alien" alpacas. See here and here for more.

June just seemed to come and go. I had three physical therapy sessions and rode again for the first time since my accident. We had the alpacas sheared and I took a lesson on wet felting alpaca fiber. I made a hat which I will post about some day.

July-
It was a time of snakes and swallows.

My mother, daughter, and I flew to Oregon for my nephew's wedding. It was a mini reunion for my family- my mother, sister, brother and I were together for the first time in years.

Also, the family took a scuba diving lesson. How do I look?

I also went to the Arabian Youth Nationals. click on previous link for more.

And, very sadly, I lost my Little Buddha (Japanese Chin) to the coyotes one morning. Tragically, I heard him yelp but could not rescue him. He was only seven years old and I miss him every day.

August

My son, daughter, and I celebrated with my Mom for her 84th birthday at Pietown with lunch and a freshly baked green chili, pinon nut, and apple pie.

It's a long drive there and back but we all enjoyed the road trip. We even stopped along the way back to see the VLA visitor's center.

September

We celebrated more birthdays- my daughter's and mine. My sons took me for a nice little hike in the Sandia Mountains, my first and only this year.

I made bones for the One Million Bones project.

Meet Skyy, a part Australian Shepherd and part Blue Heeler puppy that my daughter acquired.

October-

Yalla! came down with a case of Pigeon Breast, (pigeon fever, dryland strangles, etc.) and it was weeks before it was advanced enough to be lanced. Nasty stuff, the infection usually settles in the chest, causing a huge swelling like that of a pigeon's breast, thus the name. Annie has had it two different times in years past. It is caused by flies and nearly impossible to prevent although it is not too common, fortunately. Annie had to have multiple lancings. Yalla! had one vet visit and drained thoroughly, although she is still scarred from it.

I decided to remodel my house. For years, I debated on bamboo, tile, carpet, or cork. I finally settled on Pergo laminate. I refinanced the house,  purchased the flooring and began the project. My son ripped out the old carpet and baseboards, I repaired the concrete floor, and everybody painted.

November-

The best thing to happen this month was the birth of little Sophie Rose Iman, Louise's cria on November 3rd. When I went out to feed in the morning, I was surprised to find a miniature alpaca with the two big girls. The birth went well and, because the alpacas and the horses had their fall shots in August and the little cria looked extremely healthy, in spite of being all legs and neck, I didn't even bother to call the vet. Besides, I was still paying off Yalla!s vet bills for the pigeon breast. Unfortunately, my camera was completely broken by now. It had been giving me problems for several months. These photos were taken courtesy of my cell phone.)

Meanwhile, the flooring project was becoming a nightmare. I had Thanksgiving at my house for family and friends even though the only complete room was the kitchen and that was a mess. We had originally been hoping for the flooring to be installed BEFORE the holidays but, alas, this was not to be. The order came in short two boxes. I had to wait almost three weeks for those to come in and then two more weeks before the installers would begin their four to five day job. 

December-

We had snow and snow, and more snow!! At Christmas time, we still had almost two feet of snow everywhere from the build up of the recent storms. Here's a view of my backyard.

Here, at the homestead, we had no furniture in the house. Without wood, I couldn't make fires in the woodstove and my heater was not running properly. We slept on mattresses on the floor for six weeks and the house got down to 56 degrees most nights. Needless to say, it's been rather miserable for the last couple of months. 

I splurged and bought myself an early Christmas present, a Canon Powershot SX 230, 12 megapixels and 14X zoom.

Finally, last week, the installers came and did a fantastic job in just three days (1500 square feet- living room, dining room, den, hallways, and four bedrooms). And guess what? There are at least four unopened boxes of flooring! We could have been finished a month ago!!! Didn't need to wait for the missing boxes after all, did we? Really?? My whole family has been sick for the last two months, living in a shell of a house, for no reason!

That was my year, more or less.

Happy New Year!!