First of all, I'd like to thank all the people who have written, sent cards, sent e-mails, phoned to see how I'm doing and sending thoughts and prayers. You mean so much to me and I give thanks every day that I have so much love and support around me. Right now I am in the second month of chemo treatment. It's 3 weeks of treatment once a week, then 1 week off. Fatigue is the most noticible side effect for me. Bad taste, neoropathy in one foot and a general feeling dumpy are the others. But there are better days when I get around quite well. I've put on a few pounds (151 now), but is a far cry from what normal was for me before getting ill (175 would be my target (6' tall) but that's not likely while doing chemo. One the last week off period, I felt well enough to go remodel our guest house bathroom... I know. It took much longer to paint, and I had to do it wth rest periods, but I got it done. Next was the granite tile floor...but it was only 25 square feet, so quite small. Peter screwed down the Hardibacker board for me, and all I had to do was tile, cut, and grout. He set the new granite vanity and new toilet and we're done! So I've learned that off chemo, there is life. I also have been back to the ceramics studio and cleaned up a bit in there. I had a few unfinished pieces that I'd started last year, and just decided to tackle them...

This Kaiser was a white bisque one to start with (I love this mold!). I hadn't quite decided what I wanted to do with him before, but I wanted to try finishing one and seeing what I could still do. I just budgeted my time on working on these things in the morning, before I got tired, and could get a bit shakey. I would say it took me 3-4 times longer to finish, but it's the only way I could get it done.

I also finished my Saddlebred mold "Prowler", who I'd left around with the color on, but edges not finished. I "skritched" off the mapping until my hands hurt...and it took so much longer than I figured, but he's done and sitting on the shelf now. I have one greenware one I'm trying to get cleaned, and I'm finding that even harder to do, since you have to be so careful cleaning. Nearly got him done, then will get him bisque fired and then decide what color he needs to be. Right now, I can't really pour horses, the plaster molds are just too heavy for me to hoist around...and the Prowler one being Traditional sized, is pretty heavy to begin with. I'll just have to wait.

On the crummy days... I just couldn't justify laying around (rest does not help during chemo, it does not work that way). So as long as the mind and fingers still work a bit, I started working back on the updated model horse tour! But that in itself was very, very tiring! First of all, the horses get taken off shelves, dusted, photographed, shelves cleaned, and put back. And for some reason, they never go back the same way they came. I had to go and "tidy up" and put horses who were new ones into where they belonged, as well as finding a few boxes of odd ceramic stuff that I thought I needed displayed. I'll call it the "wedge and cram" excersize. Wedge in as many as you can! But they are pretty much all where they need to go...with only about 25-30 left overs I'll try to find places for. The tour update has been well received! Alot of fellow collectors have been able to identify models they have, and where I was missing information, collectors helped fill in the blanks! And the shelves are much cleaner! I won't tackle the minis, I'm too shakey for that kind of work. While I could do that work for awhile, I still have to take alot of breaks, and so could work on the webpages instead. They work pretty well, are kind of simple in design, and easy to update. I'm down to a few brands to do, including the BHR line. But am trying to decide how to present that...with a bit of history behind the molds and things, but it means going thru photos to find some relevant things... and I full cat litter buckets of photos (good tip, photos do well in there, mice can't get to them no matter where you store them!).

On the real horse front, nothing much happening...yet. Ongoing Quest, the solid black halter mare I've been showing for the last few years, is 340 days today. She is a maiden mare, so who knows when she'll decide to foal. She is in foal to Pleasant Dreams. She is from the first foal crop by The Quest, so is the first mare I've had by him in the breeding program. I only bred 3 mares of my own last year due to the economy. Like everyone else, we wanted to see what was going to happen, and I had a boatload of unsold weanlings and yearlings then. So it was a planned "vacation" so we could concentrate on getting what was already on the ground started, shown, sold. I had planned on "Tyra" foaling this foal and going back to Nationals in Broodmares. This still may happen, we will have to see what developes. Meanwhile, staying up watching her isn't such a hard thing...when you have insomnia anyway, it's much easier! I also have due a week later, my grulla blanketed mare, Andrews Passion (dam of Dreams of Passion). She also is in foal to Pleasant Dreams, so would be a full sibling to DOP. Last to foal is Classic Colors, due late May, in foal to Knight of Nights. Right now, weather is starting to get a bit better, but we've still had alot more snow/rain than we're ever had as I recall. But a bit of green fuzz is starting to show on the pastures, so spring may be around the corner. I'll know when the open broodmares start hanging their heads over the fences and gazing longingly towards the studs. On the open mares I have for sale, I may try pasture breeding a few, so that will be a new one for us.

But at this point, I'm just not strong enough to collect the studs like before. But I think people want bred mares more than open ones, and since I'm still in the selling mode, will do what people want. I have Spotdotcom and Knight of Nights to use as I've live covered with them before, so both those studs may be used.

I'll try to use this format to update all my friends with what is happening here. Some people get pretty worried when they don't hear anything from me, and I appreciate their concern. As soon as I have foal news, I'll list that on the pages as well. Thanks so much for your love and support.

Karen