A good productive study break!

Seeing as I am horseless out here in flat-lander land (aka Saskatchewan) I am becoming creative in ways to take a mental break and get some physical activity. Went tonight and played innertube basketball in the co-rec intermural league at school. Play on the vet school "lame ducks" team and was the only first year to show, guess everybody else thought studying was a better idea for our exam at 8am tomorrow, guess we'll find out! I had a blast though. You sit in an inner tube and paddle around with your arms and legs tossing a waterpolo ball around and trying to score in the little basketball nets. It is really just a tons of fun, lots of splashing and knocking the other team out of their tubes.... the funny part is then watching them try to get back in! Its a great cardio work out and your arms and abs hurt pretty bad by the end! We ended up winning 8-5 and now with the endorphin rush I think I'll be up past midnight studying.... wish me luck! Only 6 more sleeps till I get to go visit the ponies!

A method of procrastination

Decided to make cinnamon buns this morning as the studying was just not happening all that productively. Will post some pictures of the reults in a few hours, they are currently rising and then thye need to bake....
Does feeding yourself count as procrastination?

Attack of the group projects!!

So every professor has decided to assign a rather large group project worth a substantial proportion of our grades. Every group wants to meet at the same time, or different times, argh! Group work is really the pits as everyone tries to be the boss of the situation. I am pretty okay with someone else doing the majority of the work, but all I ask is that my ideas be given an open ear. We also have a midterm Monday on top of it. 5 groups projects....... eek. Oh, and I never updated on the last couple of exams I wrote last semester, ended up with an 89 in histology (3rd highest) and an 84% in cardiac physiology. Go team me! Classes could be going worse, we have very long days currently of nothing but lecture, We currently have a really interesting class called survey of veterinary medicine, where we get keynote members from and we sit in the same classroom for all 8 hours of it. I am an outside person so sitting in a lecture theatre without even any windows really gets me down, if it wasn't so cold I would go skating again, but -34 is TOO cold. We have a neat course right now called Survey of Veterinary Medicine featuring keynote members of all different facets of the profession in to speak to us about what is unique about their job. Had a really good one yesterday on learning to talk to the press. Learned some neat tricks as well as how to prepare, and according to the wonderful prof speaking, if you have a British accent, you are automatically trust able (he is from Cambridge). Also had a neat one called The Unexpected Consequences of Purposeful Social Action. The vet speaking was the head of the animal welfare department of Manitoba. Really interesting lecture, though I have never had a prof swear so much or call us "young bastards" so often. Was rather refreshing. He brought up some really interesting points though, such as an animals inability to time travel. No, I don't mean physically, but mentally. Think about it, your dogs greats you the same whether you have been gone 3 minutes or 3 hours or 3 days. Animals live in the present. He also talked about how this makes an animal not value its life. We all know all animals want to survive, its just instinct, but that relates back to the living in the moment thing. but do they value living the way we do? If animals can't comprehend time travel then they will not understand death as we do. Interesting stuff. An animal doesn't conceive pain like we do as they do not understand the how or why behind it, only that they want it to end. This brings up other ethical debates such cancer treatment in pets, or prosthetic legs in horses. They don't understand why they are in pain, or that the pain will help them in some near future (remember, no time travel), they only know that they are willing to do anything to make it stop. His main example was the horse slaughter debaucle in the US. Anyways, enough deep talk. Good news is I get to go home next weekend! YAY! The weather should be decent and I am dieing to get outside and get some fresh air and not think of school for a few days. I leave you with a few pictures of my boys! Will get some news one of them in their furry wonder next weekend.
My Main Man Digger

My boy Eurus, not sure who got the best of that bath......

The result of a weekend party...

I think I have been sub-clinically sick for a bit, just tired and sore throat, but I believe my partying this weekend pushed my immune system over the edge. Spent all last night coughing my brains out and had to leave lecture too many times to have a coughing fit in the hallway instead of annoying my classmates. Walked to the pharmacy on campus over my lovely warm weather lunch hour and stocked up on drugs to get me through the next few days. With the 5 group projects I suddenly have been loaded down with and a midterm next week I can not afford to be sick! Miss my mom tons, but especially when I am not feeling well. It was so nice to have a sympathetic ear and caring hand to force cough syrup down my throat as I stubbornly try to refuse it.

manitoba and back

some fellow classmates and Agriculture friends and I headed to Winnipeg Thursday night for a intercollegiate multi species judging competition(Sorry Aunty Sherry, no coats!) We rented a 15 seater van dubbed the hutterite wagon and loaded it with 12 people (4 girls, 8 boys) Had a couple of DD's and the rest of us partied all the way to Winnipeg. Had a blast. Got into our hotel at 3 in the morning then up at 7 to head to the competition. It was -30 and we were in an un heated riding arena for most of the competition. We were pretty bummed that all of the cattle classes backed out at the last minute, but we still had horses, sheep, goats, rabbits, chickens, canola, forages, a species animal and plant ID quiz, and a wine tasting/judging class as the mystery class. Was soooo much fun. That ended around 1 so while the boys went to Cabello's us girls went to the hotel to shower and nap. Went to the judging banquet and had an awesome dinner of perogies, meat balls, and so on and won a ton of ribbons at the awards ceremony. We then went back to the hotel and got ready and partied till we went to the Eat your Hat social hosted by the U of M aggies. There was a great live band,1000 people, We did tons of two stepping, and yes ate hats (5$ got you a cheap hat, you took bites out then spit it on the floor, that much fibre is bad for us monogastrics!) Partied there till they kicked us out then went back to the hotel. 11 people in 2 hotel rooms = 3 people per bed so at least we were warm! Woke up and left Winnipeg around 10 am and headed back to Saskatoon. It was such a fun weekend and great to get away from the estrogen loaded environment that is the vet school and hang with the guys. I then spent Saturday night and all day today doing homework and catching up from the missed day on Friday. It was worth playing hooky. Onto another week! Gosh being a student is hard..... jk. I so love what I am doing and loving school.

The Bus ride down
Cleaning up at the judging competition

Eat your hat social!

The quiet before the storm

Well, one week down! Had a quiet weekend, the roomies and I decided to have a star wars marathon and watch all 6 (I know, geeks!). It was a slow weekend school work wise, a little eerie as we know in a couple weeks the shit will hit the fan and we will once again be swamped, but we'll enjoy the quiet while it lasts. Had a beer night at our favorite bar on Friday. $2 for all the beer you can drink. My one room mate Sydney and I went and drank a lil more then $2 worth of beer, the other room mate picked us up at 11 when the beer ran out and said we were quite comical and the highlight of her night..... we had fun and the best part is its over at 11 so you still get a good nights sleep! Watched Stars Wars episode 4 that night....

On Saturday we watched number 5, then I headed out skating. There is a lovely little rink just outside our condo, I can see it from the porch. I had the entire rink to myself and the snow was falling, closed my eyes and pretended I was at home skating on our rink on Lac Ste. Anne, it was lovely. I have never been much of a skater due to leg problems, that's a story for another time, but its resolved enough now that I can enjoy skating, but I strained my lateral collateral ligament in my usually dependable right knee back in October that was later further aggravated by a well placed kick by Eurus so I only managed a half hour before it protested, but enjoyed it none the less. Ordered pizza and watched 6 and 1 Saturday night with some more friends who came over. Received this lovely photo of Eurus being silly and standing in his feeder, sure keeps Aunty Sherry on her toes with his antics!

Sunday, woke up and did the dreaded laundry and watch 2 and 3, which I always end up balling through the entire thing. blush. Later in the evening talked to the folks back home and did homework.

As I watched the movies decided to do some artwork, I did a ton of artwork back in high school and took a lot of classes but Its so hard to find time to indulge in it now. and of course my subject matter is always horses:) I drew my gelding Digger, who I miss tons while here in Saskatoon, I know to some it appears he gets pushed aside for Eurus, but Digger will always be my buddy. He got me through the toughest years of my life, as I was the nerd/outcast/ random cowgirl in the middle of the city that always got picked on and was the brunt of all the cruel mind games young girls like to play. Digger buddy, this is for you!

Happy Ukrainian Christmas!

To all the Ukrainians out there, merry Christmas! We vet students are always looking for a reason to party. We had a large potluck at a friends house with copious volumes of wine. Had awesome food that included perogies, meat balls, roast, potatoes, salads, chutney, and so on! It was great to relax with a few good friends. We then played a little wii before heading to the nearby pub for some karaoke. It was a great night.
As for school, they are putting us through the grinder. 8 hr days of nothing but lectures. We have started a great new course though called Survey of Veterinary Medicine. A veterinary degree gives a person so may options as to careers, and what you do when you first graduate isn't what you have to do your entire life. This class is presentations by keynote members of areas of veterinary medicine. Today Dr. Jerry Haigh, author of the the book series "A Glascow Vet in Africa" and wildlife veterinarian spoke and WOW what an amazing speaker. No props, and after an entire days of lectures kept us all riveted on the edges of our seats as he told us about his adventures in Africa. He has been in numerous facets as a veterinarian, but spent the majority of this life in Africa and Mongolia. Amazing, can't wait for the next class!

2 weeks of awesomeness!

Well, as you can all see I've let this sit for 2 weeks due to the fact that exams were over and i got to go HOME! My bro drove out Thursday the 18th and after my exam was finished at 10am the 19th we headed for home. Full van load, my roommate caught a ride to Edmonton with us as well as my bird Louis and all my belongings. Louis traveled well, i was worried with the -20 temps but covered him well and blasted the heat all the way home. Drove through a horrible blizzard but we took our time, making it was more important than getting there on a time budget.
Spent a couple nice days at home, freezing temps, -30!, so although I was at the farm I did nothing but pet noses. My horse would look at me and say " you nuts mah?" if I tried to ride. Left the family golden retriever Rosey with Aunty Sherry for the week she always has a good time at the farm chasing vehicles, cats, and eating the odd horse turd........ deworming when I get home!
left Rosey with Sherry as my family and I headed to Cuba for a week! What an awesome vacation, all inclusive so i could eat all i wanted and drink all i wanted....... it was so nice not to have to think about meal planning for a change. Went riding for 2 hours in Rocazul national park on what appeared to be a small thin crooked legged horse as seen everywhere on the roads and was a bit worried, but was rather impressed at the surefootedness and stamina the little beasts had. Went snorkeling, SCUBA diving and just relaxed. Managed to be on a first name basis with the bartender at the swim up bar, not sure if that is a good thing or not.

Spent the week after getting home relaxing, we had our little Christmas and I got tons of coffee, and other caffeine related products including an awesome little espresso maker complete with milk frothier so I can finally make a good cup of coffee and survive the next semester. Also gots some books, movies, and a Winchester pellet gun complete with scope, awesome.

Aunty Sherry picked me up on the 30th after dropping Rosy off at the house in the city and I spent the night at the farm. Winston and Skeeter, my doggy buddies at the farm, were very happy to have auntie Angela spend the night. I worked with Eurus the next morning, saddle, bridle, lunging etc. have come to the conclusion that I have a broke yearling so will spend the next semester thinking up things to do with him over the summer. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! Have been studying long lining and driving in hand and might give it a go....
It was snowy like crazy and very cold still, but helped treat Rocky, a little colt we are taking care of, for his pulled stifle and also went to get hay. I love going for hay and the falling snow made it such a pretty trip! Most of the horses get rounds, but we buy squares for the little guys so there is less wastage and we can keep a better eye on the amount they are eating. I love climbing high up on the stacked hay to chuck down bales, as long as its hay, not straw, as straw is too slippery and I always feel like falling!
Got back from hay and brought my girl-hood gelding digger up to the barn for some love and treats, and decided to go for a ride in -30! I was a human Popsicle when I was finished but enjoyed every minute of it and apparently so did Digger, as he jigged and pranced the entire ride. I love that horse to pieces.
Spent new years at the farm and then came back into town, down to 1 vehicle due to an accident so didn't have a choice otherwise I would have stayed out at the farm. Did some shopping saw a movie, Australia (awesome!) and chilled.

Came back to Saskatoon today, caught a ride with a room mate. it was too funny as we had her cat ( in a crate) and my bird Louie side by side on the back seat. We had that little car loaded to the nines. Now I am busy prepping for class tomorrow, printing notes, organizing etc. Louie is sitting on my arm watching the computer screen.

Back to the books tomorrow, I am now 12.5% a veterinarian, time to earn the next 12.5%!



Out riding, my horse was the pinto and was named "pinto", my sis inappropriately wore shorts and suffered later for it.

Bro and I at out favorite spot, the swim up bar

Bro, sis, and I

Hobie Cating with my sis