Facebook and Me

It's not healthy.

Now, I'm not saying that it's unhealthy for everyone.

I've decided that it's not healthy for me.

The issues have been in the back of my mind for a long time, and with the New Year, I've decided to do something about it.

What bothers me most is scrolling through tons of crap to find something interesting! It's like having 350 TV channels and nothing good to watch (one of the reasons we don't have TV)! The 2012 election TOTALLY took me over the edge. Secondly, I don't like how FB manipulates what you see...they think they know me...I call Bull Sh!t.

My true prompt was a blog post that was "Freshly Pressed" in WordPress a few days ago (similar to Blogs of Note by Blogger, which took me a long time to find today since they don't seem to have the link in my Reader anymore)...

Good Riddance, Facebook by Gary Mondejar

Gary's post lends to a humorous yet serious take on how Facebook affected him. I could relate to quite a few of his statements...time-sucking was high on the list as well as constantly thinking of "have to share on Facebook" syndrome! Luckily I have not had to experience high quality photos of a baby's first poop (you'll have to read his post to understand that one) ;~)

Scrolling through the comments (332 so far; and 899 likes), most people agreed with Gary's "good riddance" stance. But another comment was saying how can the writer blame Facebook...has he no "self control?" That's a pretty good point. We command our own destiny!

~

Do I not have self control?

Well, looking at my experience with Facebook, no, I don't.

So, I'm gonna fix it.

Late last year, I deleted my Google+ account and my Twitter account...which was a freeing feeling, but I didn't use those social media sights...so it didn't free up any time. It just felt good to get them out of the way though.

So, what to do with Facebook? For me, limitations.

I see lots of good that can be accomplished with FB...organizing the cow dog clinics, learning more photography tips, learn more gardening tips, keeping in touch with family and sharing photos, etc...

Using the Friends Grouping option, I'm organizing my group lists by horse people, dog people, high school, bloggers, etc. If I don't know someone...it may be the delete button. Why should I be friends with people I don't know? It doesn't make sense to me, and it's just not my thing.

I'm going to take my life back.

I enjoy my blogging friends, my Dogster friends (and pups) and real life friends.

You know how to reach me ;~)

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Tomorrow we will be back with our regularly scheduled programing:

Life at the Rough String!

Update on Pierce

Well, the lil' guy is doing much better today!! When I let him out of his stall this mornin', he came loping down the run and into the round pen!

I appreciate everyone's input...seems that Vetricyn is the medicine of choice by most people. But of course, that's not what I had on hand.

When Whiskey was run through a similar fence by the neighbor dog a few weeks ago (same thing with his hind legs getting caught in the fence), I treated him with Underwood Horse Medicine. So, since I had it on hand, that's what I'm using on Pierce. It's a spray (which freezes VERY quickly in the bottle BTW) that you then coat with a light dusting of baking powder...treating at least 2x a day

Our local feed store carries Vetricyn, so it's on my list when I go for supplies this week.

Mr. fuzzy...with shavings stuck to his coat. He loves laying in his stall.

Pierce gave me a scare the first night. He had laid down in the snow in the round pen, and when he got up, his whole left side was soaking wet and his coat immediately started to freeze and frost up. Pierce was shaking from head to tail...and the temps were going to be sub-zero that night.

I got him into his stall and closed the door to the run. Once I got him doctored, medicated with a dose of Bute again and let him loose, he started eating hay and stopped shaking. Amen!

We rarely close a horse into the stalls, but I was really glad I had the option available that night! I put Colt into the stall next to him and let Colt have the run too. They were both cozy and comfortable...which definitely relieved my worries.

The feeding arrangement behind the barn.

The sun was shining yesterday afternoon, and where I set up their morning feed behind the barn was toasty warm! Today may get up to 26 degrees, and the low is supposed to be 16...that's a welcome change! I may not need to lock Pierce into the stall tonight.

Thanks again for all of your input! I think he's well on his way to a full recovery!

Baby It's Cold Outside!

(been humming that song lately)

We've been having a long spell of cold weather, but this is more normal for SE Oregon than we've had in the past few years. Global warming? I don't know...you get what you get I think.

But Christmas Day and the day following, we got 8-10 inches, and it's not going anywhere.

It takes 10 minutes to get dressed to go do chores...of course Cindy Sue is another couple of minutes. She's wearing a fleece Snuggie under her coat...she really wants some booties I think!

Quite a Pair of Hooters!

The owls were totally lookin' awesome yesterday! They don't normally sit next to each other in the tree...they had positioned themselves so the breeze was coming toward their back, but they had the tree trunk behind them to block some of the wind...and they seemed to be snuggling. So very cute!

The herd is getting lots of extra hay to keep the internal heat turned up.

Yesterday's high was 15 and this morning it was -5. Forecast is a high of 23 by 11 AM (I'll believe it when I see it) and will go down quickly in the afternoon with a breeze picking up.

Afternoon Snack

Pierce had an accident yesterday afternoon. I didn't see it, so I can only surmise...Colt and him have been turned out together during the day, and I think they got to running and playing...of course Colt is a lot bigger than Pierce. Pierce ended up going over/through a fence made of field fencing in a corner spot, caught up both rear legs in the fence and got scraped and cut pretty good. Doctoring in sub-freezing temps is not fun.

He's pretty swollen and stiff this morning. I thought I was out of Bute, but I'm not...so I'm going back out now to give him a dose. He should feel a bit better with the Bute, but I'm concerned with the cuts and scraped hide in these temps. Any suggestions?