My Father's Daughter

My dad was a gadget man and he liked to try out new things. When we were growing up he collected them like people collect stamps. He had hotdog cookers, crepe makers, milkshake machines and so on. Some got relegated to the basement and a few are still in mom's cabinets. His last fancy was some sort of software he and Uncle Cal found on the internet so they could talk to each other over the computer (back around 2000). Since I worked on a computer all day long I was a good person to experiment with. Both of them were calling me while I was working. I had this crazy laptop that had the speakers coming out the bottom. I remember hearing dad’s muffled voice while I was typing. I had to tip the computer over sideways and talk to him through the bottom. There was an easier way invented in the 1870’s called the telephone.

I am my father’s daughter and I inherited the desire for the unusual and a willingness to try anything once. You never know some of the crazy things actually work. In the last year I’ve gotten two great microwave inventions, one for steaming and one for pressure cooking, you know the kind of stuff I’m talking about…”14.99 if you call now!”. A few of my gadgets from this year are collecting dust in the barn or in a box of kitchen stuff I never use. That box is collecting dust bunnies under our bed. I don’t think I will be able to put my latest contraption under the bed if it doesn’t work out. Thank-goodness for E-bay, dad didn’t have it but I do. I bought the thing on E-bay and can surely sell it there.

You need a little history to fathom why I bought what I did. Somewhere along the way Jeff told our friend Ray that horses produce 40 pounds of poop a day. Ray wonders what we do with all that poop. I wonder what we do with all that poop; with two horses that amounts to 29,200 pounds a year. Last summer I tried composting some of it. I mixed up a cart full of poop with a cart full of old hay and a cart full of leaves. Once a week Sadie and I went down to the poop pile and flipped it around. Summer turned into fall and I forgot about my poop project.

This spring I needed some compost for the trees we planted and remembered the poop project. Sadie and I headed down back to the pile and were disappointed; the top of the pile looked the same as it did last summer. I jabbed at it with my pitch fork and to our amazement underneath the top layer was black, crumbly, rich compost.

My mind was at work while we mulched the new trees. How much compost can I make with 29,200 pounds of poop and what is the easiest way to do this? The answer was a few clicks on the internet: The Compost Tumbler: Makes Compost in 14 Days! On the web site you get the Tumbler, the thermometer and the activator for one not so low price. In that respect I am not like my dad, he would have bought it anyway. I switched personalities and became my mother’s daughter and searched for tumblers on E-bay. After watching for a few weeks I found a used one. The lady advertising it said it didn’t work out for them. I switched back to being my father’s daughter, bid on it anyway and won the auction. I mean really, I have composting experience and how could this thing not work.

The Compost Tumbler arrived on Thursday. Like my dad, I have a knack for getting other people to help me out with my schemes. Jeff put the tumbler together for me and set it up near the garden. Following the directions in the manual, we raked up the right combination of fresh grass clippings from the pasture, old leaves and horse poop. He mowed over them to mulch them up and helped me get one load of it into the Tumbler. Hmmm, the thing has to be 2/3 full and one load barely hit the ¼ mark. At that point I lost my helper.

Saturday morning I raked up three loads of grass, a load of old hay, a load of leaves and a load of horse poop. I mulched it all down with the lawnmowers and used enough gas to buy the equivalent of 10+ bags of cow compost at Lowes. After 4 hours of work, blisters on my hands and a sunburned nose the Compost Tumbler is loaded. All I have to do now is rotate the drum 5 times a day for the next 14 days. In the mean time I’ll be thinking about an easier way to get all this stuff into the Tumbler. I wish my dad was here, I’m sure he would have some ideas!

Two Down, One to Go!

Big Brown Cruises to Another Easy Win in Preakness
Excerpts from AP Racing Writer: Beth Harris

BALTIMORE - Not once but twice, jockey Kent Desormeaux sneaked a peek to see if anyone was gaining on Big Brown. "I looked between my legs, under my arms, and they were eight (lengths) behind me," Desormeaux said. "I stopped pushing. I said, `That's enough.'"

His big bay colt ran away with the Preakness on Saturday and now is pointed squarely down the path toward the Triple Crown.

The 3-year-old with the perfect record heads for the Belmont Stakes in three weeks as the fourth horse this decade to try for the triple, a sweep last accomplished by Affirmed in 1978. The last to try was Smarty Jones in 2004.

"Wow is all I can say," Steve Cauthen, who rode Affirmed, said by telephone from Kentucky. "He looks pretty special. It was like a cakewalk for him. The important thing to me is he keeps passing all the tests."

...As he did two weeks ago in a Kentucky Derby marred by the breakdown of Eight Belles, the colt named for UPS delivered another stunning win, this time by 5 1/4 lengths. Macho Again was second and Icabad Crane was third.

"We just got beat by a monster," said Julien Leparoux, who was aboard Macho Again.
Big Brown slipped a bit while breaking from the middle of an undistinguished pack and Desormeaux took him off the pace in front of 112,222 fans.

..."My whole job in that first half-mile was to keep his face clean," Desormeaux said. "There's not a grain of sand on most of his body."

The decisive moment came just before the final turn, when Desormeaux angled Big Brown out three-wide for clear running room. As he hit the top of the stretch, Desormeaux simply crossed the reins to let Big Brown know it was time to take off.

He didn't even need the whip, which he initially left behind in the jockeys' room. He could have saved himself the trip back to get it. His horse covered 1 3-16 miles in 1:54.80.

"This is the best horse I've ever ridden," Desormeaux said.

That's saying something.

In 1998, the jockey rode Real Quiet to wins in the Derby and Preakness only to be denied Triple Crown immortality when Victory Gallop stuck his nose in front at the wire in the Belmont. The final jewel is also the longest of the three races, a grueling 1 1/2 miles that proved the undoing of War Emblem in 2002, Funny Cide in 2003 and Smarty Jones the next year.

"We should have the horse to get the job done," Dutrow said.

Big Brown went off as a shorter priced favorite than Secretariat in 1973, who went on to win the Triple Crown, capped by a stunning 31-length victory in the Belmont.

"It looks like Big Brown might win the Belmont farther than Secretariat," said Paddy Gallagher, who trained 10th-place finisher Yankee Bravo.

Penny Chenery, Secretariat's owner, said she plans to be on hand for the history making try on June 7.

"I don't know whether Secretariat can stay with him or not," she said. "I won't speculate how that would come out, because we haven't seen him at that long a distance. But you have that big sweeping race track. I think he's going to do just fine."

In the Derby, Big Brown started on the far outside of 19 horses and used an explosive finishing kick to win by 4 3/4 lengths, the tightest margin in his 5-0 career. He's won those races by a combined 39 lengths.

The muscular colt joined Majestic Prince (1969), Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew (1977) and Smarty Jones (2004) as undefeated Derby and Preakness winners.

The victory put the sport's focus back on racing after two weeks of frenzied debate about safety and breeding following Eight Belles' catastrophic breakdown. His dominating performance came in front of a crowd that surely breathed easier after all 12 runners returned safely. On the same track just two years ago, Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro broke down early in the race.

The Preakness win also means Big Brown's connections — Dutrow, Desormeaux and principal owners Michael Iavarone and Richard Schiavo who once worked on Wall Street — are headed back to their New York base with a horse that could make history.

It was an especially meaningful trip to the winner's circle, since Dutrow had accompanied his late father, respected trainer Richard Sr., on past Preakness days before the two fell out over the younger Dutrow's drug use and blown chances. In the past, his training license was revoked for personal drug use and he was suspended for doping horses.

The Preakness was also a homecoming for Desormeaux, the Cajun jockey who launched his career in Maryland in 1987. Cheering him on were his wife, Sonia, and two sons, including 9-year-old Jacob. The boy was born with Usher syndrome, a genetic disorder that stole his hearing at birth and is slowly robbing him of his sight.

In the winner's circle, Jacob said to his mother, "I wish Daddy would buy Big Brown. Mom, can we buy Big Brown?"

Big Brown earned $600,000 for the win and boosted his earnings to $2,714,500 for Iavarone and Schiavo, co-owners of IEAH Stables, and Paul Pompa Jr. Pompa named Big Brown in honor of UPS, a major client of his Brooklyn trucking business.

The festive mood at Pimlico after the race was in sharp contrast to the scene at Churchill Downs two weeks ago. Eight Belles, the filly who took on 19 colts and finished second, broke both front ankles while galloping out and had to be euthanized on the track, the first time that has happened in the Derby.

It was the second time a horse had broken down in the past five Triple Crown races. Barbaro shattered his right rear leg shortly after the start of the 2006 Preakness. Many in the grandstand cried that day at the sight of the Derby winner taken away in an ambulance. Barbaro was euthanized eight months later because of laminitis, an often fatal hoof disease.

There was no sadness Saturday, only giddy anticipation that racing might see a Triple Crown winner at long last.

Tornado Stono Bridge

When we lived on our boat in Charleston we lived at the Stono Marina right of the bridge on John's Island. The weather has been awful this week across the US. I heard there were tornados in Charleston and found the reports:

2210 1 SE HOLLYWOOD CHARLESTON SC 3272 8023 LOCAL MEDIA REPORTED A TORNADO ALONG HIGHWAY 162 LESS THAN 1 MILE SOUTH SOUTHEAST OF HOLLYWOOD SOUTH CAROLINA. (CHS)

2220 1 S JOHNS ISLAND CHARLESTON SC 3271 8007 LOCAL MEDIA REPORTED TORNADO ON THE GROUND ON THE STONO BRIDGE. (CHS)

2225 ROCKVILLE CHARLESTON SC 3260 8019 CHARLESTON COUNTY SHERIFF OFFICE REPORTS A POSSIBLE TORNADO AT 4897 MAYBANK HIGHWAY. NO KNOWN DAMAGE OR INJURIES AT THIS TIME. (CHS)

Horse Party at Our House

Aunt Betty sent out an e-mail titled the Cowboy Bible. The first truth was "Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight and bull-strong." We have personal experience with the first one. Last week Jeff stayed up to watch a movie and fell asleep on the couch. He woke up to thundering hooves and whinnies that sounded too close to home. He sat up and looked out the window just as three horses walked by. Thank goodness they weren’t ours. The neighbor's horses decided to have a party and invited themselves over. They were having a great time playing a game of "run and tease" with Skipper and Peanut along the fence line. Our horses were wanted nothing more than to be on the free side of the fence. So at 1am we’re all outside with the neighbor trying to capture the wild Comanche’s. I was in charge of looking down by the creek with a flashlight that needed batteries six months ago. Jeff and the neighbor ended up chasing them (in a pick-up) through the other neighbor’s field and finally got them back where they were supposed to be. I wouldn’t trade living in the country for anything.

PS: Jeff came home the other day with a cool flashlight for me… it’s a spot light and I can see clear to the back fence with it.