Amazing Little Hummingbirds!

We've always admired the beauty and fortitude of the tiny little hummingbird.
Here's a great link at Youtube about one man's dedication to thousands of the migrating birds:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujN4osRD22E

I Love This Poem

Name of Horses by Donald Hall

All winter your brute shoulders strained against collars, padding
and steerhide over the ash hames, to haul
sledges of cordwood for drying through spring and summer,
for the Glenwood stove next winter, and for the simmering range.

In April you pulled cartloads of manure to spread on the fields,
dark manure of Holsteins, and knobs of your own clustered with oats.
All summer you mowed the grass in meadow and hayfield, the mowing machine
clacketing beside you, while the sun walked high in the morning;

and after noon's heat, you pulled a clawed rake through the same acres,
gathering stacks, and dragged the wagon from stack to stack,
and the built hayrack back, uphill to the chaffy barn,
three loads of hay a day from standing grass in the morning.

Sundays you trotted the two miles to church with the light load
a leather quartertop buggy, and grazed in the sound of hymns.
Generation on generation, your neck rubbed the windowsill
of the stall, smoothing the wood as the sea smooths glass.

When you were old and lame, when your shoulders hurt bending to graze,
one October the man, who fed you and kept you, and harnessed you every morning,
led you through corn stubble to sandy ground above Eagle Pond,
and dug a hole beside you where you stood shuddering in your skin,

and lay the shotgun's muzzle in the boneless hollow behind your ear,
and fired the slug into your brain, and felled you into your grave,
shoveling sand to cover you, setting goldenrod upright above you,
where by next summer a dent in the ground made your monument.

For a hundred and fifty years, in the Pasture of dead horses,
roots of pine trees pushed through the pale curves of your ribs,
yellow blossoms flourished above you in autumn, and in winter
frost heaved your bones in the ground - old toilers, soil makers:

O Roger, Mackerel, Riley, Ned, Nellie, Chester, Lady Ghost.

Good News!

I had my followup with my new cardiologist this morning, and he said that the narrowing in my coronary arteries is negligible!. He also said that if I keep doing what I'm doing, I should be fine! He was one of the nicest guys I've ever met, and so friendly and personable. He took his time answering ever single question I had and did not rush me. I left that office feeling like a million bucks!

So, here's advice for all of us to love our hearts and keep our hearts healthy and strong!

1} Exercise as often as humanly possible! Just make sure you clear it with your Doctor first. My husband, Ian and I walk with our little Jack Russell, Buddy, most days of the week for at least 2 to 3 miles up and down lots of hills. Ian rides his bike alot and we also do lots of barn/horse type chores, and I ride when I can. {I also want to get back into doing yoga!}
2} Eat a heart friendly diet! Ian and I have been vegetarians for almost 6 years now,and since my hospital scare a few weeks ago, I am just about vegan now. You have to choose what's best for you. I'm not trying to preach. But PLEASE eats lots of fruits and veggies and whole grains. Stay away from saturated fats. Eat walnuts and flaxseed because they are rich in omega 3 fatty acids that are wonderful for your blood vessels. And remember, what keeps your heart and blood vessels healthy also keeps strokes and Alzheimer's and cancers at bay. Oh, and stay away from simple sugars/things high in sugar.
3} PLEASE don't smoke or really consider quitting. It's THE single greatest thing you can do for your heart! When I was a dumb teenager who knew everything, I smoked for about 3 years. But that was over 26 years ago. I'm so glad I quit one day, cold turkey. No b.s., I just stopped. It's called loving yourself enough to do the right thing for your health. I know it's hard to quit, but isn't your life worth sticking around for? Aren't your loved ones worth it? Just do it! Your heart will thank you!
4} Learn to relax and manage your stress.Take time to smell the proverbial roses. Learn to meditate. We are all so caught up in our hectic lives that we forget about what really matters. We all need time to have time and space to ourselves to reflect upon who we really are and what we are meant to do with our fleeting time here on this planet. Are you doing what you really want? If not, why not? How can you start getting there?
5} Make sure you have a good Doctor, one who you can talk to and who listens to you. Have your yearly physical exams. Don't skip them! They are vital for catching health concerns early, before they can wreak havoc on your health. Also, learn to be your best advocate. Speak up for yourself, and voice your healthcare concerns, no matter how silly they seem.
6} Know your numbers and what they mean. Don't just take your Doc's word for it!
The most important numbers you should know include:
-Your blood pressure. Normal is less than 140/90 but ideally it's better for it to be down around 120/70 or so. If it's consistently high you may need medication to lower it. Make sure you discuss this with your Doctor. Uncontrolled BP has very serious consequences for your heart.
-Your lipid panel/profile, includes your cholesterol. Ideally, your total cholesterol should be less than 200, your LDL {the bad cholesterol} should be ideally less than 100, triglycerides less than 150, and your good cholesterol, HDL, should be greater than 40 for men, and 50 for women.
-Your weight. Yes, let's face it-it's so easy to put on weight as we age. But we are doing our hearts no favors by ignoring the scale. Ideally, your BMI or body mass index should be between 18.5 and 24.9 to be a healthy weight. Here's a great link to check your BMI. Just put in your height and weight and it tells you:
http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/
-have your blood sugar checked. A normal fasting blood sugar is around 70 to 110 or so. When you have your yearly checkup, make sure you have lab work done like a metabolic panel, CBC, thyroid function. The metabolic panel will include a blood sugar level. Knowing early that you have developed Type II diabetes is something you can then manage. Diabetes at any age is very hard on your organs, but especially your heart, kidneys and eyes.

It's up to us to be proactive in keeping ourselves healthy! And remember, whether you are young or not, heart disease in the family or not...any chest pain or pressure accompanied by shortness of breath/dizziness/nausea/vomiting/sweating ALWAYS warrants attention. Get yourself checked immediatley. What's the worst thing...you find out your heart's okay and you live?!

Great South Bay Music Festival

Our son Travis has volunteered to help out at this year's Great South Bay Music Festival July 10, 11 and 12th at Shorefront Park in Patchogue. Last year was great and we had a blast! Got to see original Grateful Dead members Mickey Hart, Donna Jean Godchaux, and lots of other cool musicians.
Here's this year's lineup:

Great NatGeo Link

Check out this link at National Geographic. There's a cool video of equine photographer Mark Harvey and how he is so successful at capturing beautiful pictures of our favorite creatures!

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/video/player#/?titleID=mark-harvey&catID=1


Here's a link to his website:

http://www.mark-harvey.com/

Going For A Walk With My Bud!

I'm about to head out the door for a walk with my best walking companion, Buddy.
He tries to drag me the whole way, and I'm convinced he wants to be part of the first ever all Jack Russell Iditarod sled dog team! As long as there are no squirrels along the trail to distract them Russells, they might even win. Or you might find our sled stuck up a tree. Either one. It's anyone's guess when JRT's are involved!

Some More Random Fjord Cuteness!

Here's our boy just hanging out in the paddock with his buddy, Orion.