Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Awesome photos, moar!
Background, history of that coastguard cottage plz? How long ago are we talking when they realized that stone would be better, since the wood was being pilfered?
~Hoofer
Oh my, if you are THAT heat intolerant, you better plan your trip around the winter time. Trust me, even their winter will feel HOT to you.
As for the ‘new things in grocery store’ ha ha ha ha! I made a comment to my best bud, when I knew I was going to visit Maryland back in the day, “I’m going to see new kinds of trees!” She looked at me so strangely, laughed and responded, “Trees, what about all that new Trim?” Which was our lingo for a good looking fella. It was at that moment that I knew I was cut from a different mold.
When my wonderfully sweet Mother and Father in laws came up here to visit from Argentina, she took PHOTOS of the inside of our grocery stores and he took photos of all the various cars and road systems we had here. So don’t feel goofy at all about that, it’s VERY normal to be excited about different things, even something as simple as how overwhelming, stocked our grocery stores are.
When I went down to Argentina to visit them, oh yeah, we are very lucky in certain regards here in the U.S. And if you’ve never experienced it for yourself, you’d really have no idea how fortunate we are here. But being from a hickville town in FL, I did appreciate their lack of road structure through their small towns and I did appreciate their sparse life style and I definitely LOVED their siesta time.
It’s such an awesome idea to shut down during the hottest part of the day for several hours and reopen at about 4 p.m. And because they did that, they usually were open MUCH later into the evening than we are here. Gaithersburg used to shut down at 9 p.m. and the only thing you had open was a 7-11 (convenient) style store and that was NOT a Podunk town.
And yes, it is very safe to assume that the south is humid, especially when compared to the northern regions. Some are just more humid for longer periods than others. I used to explain to my northern friends, as we road tripped from Maryland back into Florida, that the reason why all them southerners walk and talk slower is because it’s so damned hot down there. You can’t run around in super speed, even talk fast, because even talking burns more energy than you’d realize, because if they did, they’d all keel over from heat exhaustion.
I HAD to get out of Florida. I had acclimated so well to the temperatures (lack of humidity) of Maryland that when I returned to Florida, I experienced three minor heat strokes. It took me approximately 5 years to be able to really do the things I liked, without fear of falling over from a heat stroke. I have pictures of me out trail riding IN THE NIGHT, during a full moon, and my horse was sweaty and all we were doing was walking! Now that’s HOT. It’s the humidity, yes, it was cooler temperature wise, 80’s vs 100 degrees, but when you are walking around in air filled with moisture, well, you just can’t imagine, until you experience it yourself.
It’s like Dragoneer stated when they went to New Mexico, they could suddenly BREATH better, they were not exaggerating. I have NO idea why people think relocating to FL to retire is actually better for their health. It has a cheaper economy yes, but you give up a lot of other things for that cheaper house/piece of land. And that’s not true for the entire state. Certain areas down there are quite expensive, simply because of the influx of “Northern” retiree money and their need to have these super duper sized houses.
A true Cracker doesn’t need that much house.
As a matter of fact, we had no AC in our house or cars when I was growing up down there. Two windows down at 55 mph was our AC. A ceiling fan churning about during the night, creating a breeze as you slept, was our AC. When I was back down there, I still rarely used my AC in the car in FL, it made it worse for me, since I was mostly outdoors. In the shade, but outdoor. I had no control about the AC in the house. I used to have to put on a sweater, in the middle of summer, because 70 degrees from false AC air was chilly. Here, I run around in a shorts and a tank top in mid to high 60 degree weather. Weeeee!
I had another AH HA!! moment after relocating up North. I used to get smoker headaches as a kid. We’d go out riding all day long during the summer. Yay stupid same school schedules all across the United states. They should let kids out DURING the winter months (end of November and into December would be PERFECT for kids down there) and have school during all that super hot weather. No matter, it is what it is and although inflexibility equates to sheer stupidity in my book, we were probably way more tolerant of the temperatures and humidity back then.
Sooo, since I grew up in a real Hickville area, our road structure was all Limerock or sand trails. If you don’t know what Limerock is, it’s very white and is pulverized with chunks of white limerock stone throughout it. Very powdery if it wasn’t getting rained on and yes, if not smoothed out with equipment once a year, it became washboard central with serious pot holes throughout it. We used to joke, ‘Holy Wow, where’s the road to that hole.” And since FL lacked lots and lots of money, if you didn’t have a person down the road with the equipment, the road never got smoothed back out.
So imagine super bright sunlight, riding around all day on WHITE roads and into the woods that became WHITE sand here and there ….
It wasn’t until up here that I first heard the terminology, “Snow Blind”, oh yeah, I had that AH HA! moment. I realized that I had not had a single one of those damned debilitating headaches after relocating.
And to think, the proper hat or even sunglasses would have stopped all that, but we were kids. Who thinks like that when you’re a kid?
:->
~Hoofer and her Novella
My very first Windstone was the Mother white Unicorn, gifted to me in 07, many years after I used to ogle the male sitting white Unicorn, which was gifted to a close friend of mine. Although I dreamed of owning a Windstone myself, I somehow forgot about them. Well, not completely, I had a fold out pamphlet that showed all the various sculptures and newest dragon colors that Windstone offered at the time, which was a lot.
I think they faded from my mind for several reasons, 1) I couldn’t afford the luxury of dust collectors 2) combine that with moving a LOT, not by choice & 3) I never saw them anywhere anymore. Although I knew I could probably get my fix by walking into a Wicks N Sticks or a Tobacco store in a mall, I’m no mall rat, barn rat yes, so jaunts into a mall were quite rare. Needless to say, I was quite happy with real horses.
However, the person that gifted that Unicorn mare to me had ZERO idea I was a Windstone freak. That was like the Holy Grail of collectables for me! They just knew me well enough to know what a hit that beautiful Unicorn statue would be with me. I was staring at her one day and a thought bubbled up into my head, “Gee, I wonder if I can find a shop that carries more of their line via the internet.”
:->
My first Dragon purchase was a Peacock Old Warrior …..
My favorite color scheme, though they almost ALL are beautiful, (I’m no fan of the Black Gold), appears to be the Rainbow color scheme. The Black violet/Black Emerald Peacocks are a close second.
Check out their monthly raffles. You too could win a special Windstone sculpture for free! They also have quests, and guess what the prize is if you win one of those? :->
P.S. Welcome! We understand your addiction I mean, desire to collect these beautiful statues.
Wow, those are scary (eerie), amazing and very lizardy (dragony) looking.
I could imagine those on the spectrals, since they look quite lizardy, that and I guess I’m used to seeing them with their unusual diachronic eyes already.
They’d probably look pretty neat on a Secret Keeper.
I bet it’s just a matter of seeing the sculptures with them, because they definitely look reptilian and almost eerie, tough, mean, etc.
I could see those eyes changing a cute looking fledgling into a very formidable, eerie looking one.
I bet some test paints on eBay with those eyes would sell super well, not that they already don’t. But they would be new and unique, not to mention, quite reptilian looking.
Melodys sculptures definitely hold their own with their current eyes. If you’ve never had the pleasure of owning one, the detail on them is so amazing. When viewed from different angels, their expression actually changes. Pensive one angle, angry another. Serene one angle, cocky another.
~Hoofer
Oh yeah, Maine vs Maryland vs Florida. The lack of daylight had to be way more obvious for you.
As mentioned, mine was a minor niggle, yours had to feel like Thors hammer to the shin.
They don’t call FL the sunshine state for nothing.
I was midstate west coast. I used to jaunt to Ocala for horse groceries. There’s an awesome place a few jigs north of all the horse stores and the Ocala Breeders Association. It’s right at the railroad track and has been there forever. And if you’re near there, and still have yard trimmers, it’s worth checking out.
Because everything is railroaded in from the Midwest, their hay may very well be the best you’ll find around and since it is railroaded in and they sell it at a per pound pricing, it was very worthwhile for me to make the 35 minute trip for my loads.
I do miss the Withlacoochee National Forest. It was practically in my back yard. All that shade made for awesome trail riding. Don’t get me wrong, I have a lot of options here, but the ability to ride off your property and into a forest that you could spend days in AND rarely see a human. I saw my first and only FL bobcat in that forest. Growing up, I didn’t exactly have a full forest to ride in, but I did have a lot of land available. It was a designated flood plane and because it could flood during the 7-11 year cycles, the adjoining land masses were huge with swimmable lakes spread throughout it.
Ok, here has lots of hills, creek crossings and eye candy (aka range tops) and I’m not sticky feeling for 7-8 months out of the year, but there are, without a doubt, a lot more people around. As for that busy body thing down there, that all depends on where you live.
The dry here isn’t as horrible as you indicated it had to be in Maine. We even use a wood stove during the winter. I think I helped that situation by preferring the radiator style, electric heater. That and when I do start getting that dry skin thing, my trick is Olive Oil every day til it rights itself, twice a day if I was negligent. Some might not like the smell, but I’m Italian descent, I joke that my bloodstream requires two things to function properly, Olive Oil and Garlic.
The oil absorbs a whole lot faster than you’d think and the smell wears off, eventually. A coworker asked if I had on a beachy, coconut style lotion a day I used it in the morning. Heh
~Hoofer
A new addict member, Welcome!
Melody is our dealer, Windstones are our drug and forum members understand, support and feed each others addictions while remaining nonjudgmental.
There’s amazing information all over these forums, but here are three links to get you started in your collecting:
http://www.astralcastle.com/windstone/wsframe.htm
http://www.ravnheart.com/windstone/index.php
http://www.sarahjestin.com/feedback%20lists.htm
~Hoofer
Chiming in, it’s been super awesome road tripping vicariously through your posts. The furthest west I’ve been was Colorado, which was as amazing as I knew it would be. According to my folks, I almost ended up growing up there, instead of Florida. They road tripped out there during their honeymoon with the intent to find an area to reroot to. But alas, the folks did not find a patch of property during their road trip and life in FL got in the way of their dream.
Personally, I’ve always wanted to reroot into the Midwest region that you’ve driven through. At least visit specific states some day.
I’d love to be doing what you are doing right now, sans the seeking job thing of course.
Good luck in your searching! And thanks for updating this thread during your journey. Sending good mojo juju your way with your job questing adventure.
~Hoofer
I know I want it. :-> Pegasus is my one true fantasy horse since way, way back.
To ride a horse is amazing, to ride a horse that can fly, WHOA!
I also know that there are deeper pockets than mine out there that also might want it.
Let the deepest pocket win!
As you’ve learned, you have a really nice find there.
The generosity of that person that gave that to you, kudos to them and kudos to your good fortune. :->
You’ve started a few threads in regards to this print, so I’m not sure if you saw my response in one of them, if not, click below to check out her sculpture she’s been working on that looks a LOT like this actual print.
http://windstoneeditions.com/forum/melody-can-you-identify-print
Blah, this is easier, check out the below picture. Looks a lot like your picture huh?
Well , to throw a monkey wrench into this thread, we spent a couple days sorting, cleaning and repairing the carts of “seconds” and “strays” so now we have a $#!t load of pieces to use as prizes.
Just the context in how this was said made me bust out laughing ^_^
Yeah me too, however, what had me chuckle went like this, “Oh BLEEP, check that out, the creator curses too!”
:->
Awesome job you all who took the time to make those entries. They were ALL great ideas.
Congratulations to the winners!
Who did entry #6? Whomever you are, that was the one that made me chuckle out loud when I saw it. The idea of a bunch of baby dragons hopping about in a ‘potato sack race’ motion, ha ha!
~The easily amused Hoofer
Awesome!
How big is that dragon? What kind of eggs did you use? Size of them?
New quest idea, Windstones on vacation or during the holidays or, or …..
~Hoofer
The majority of you are wonderful and never break the rules, but we continue to have a few repeat offenders who have compelled us to change this rule. For those of you who are legitimately in multi-collector households, we apologize that we have to limit your participation as well. Unfortunately, enforcing rules to make sure no one is cheating sometimes penalizes the honest entrants as well as the dishonest ones.
What a shame.
Kiya, it is ALWAYS the dishonest, unscrupulous people who have no qualms about cheating the (any) system that limit those of us that would never do that, not sometimes, since honest people don’t try to cheat the system, period.
Honest people ALWAYS pay for the mistakes of the dishonest people, because unlike honest people, where we live by the rules, the dishonest people face the ‘new’ rules by trying to figure out another way to cheat the ‘new’ system. FACT
To be deliberately vague, can we say Windstone box disaster? I just found out about that and had that not happened ….
You all were so generous prior to that occurring that you would have had no problem with my request. But because of one unscrupulous person trying to cheat others ….
I won (I think) the second raffle ever held. That item was the first thing EVER that I randomly won like that. And it came to me at a time when I really, truly needed a pick me up. My Pop passed in December, his Birthday was in the early part of July, his death finally hit me like a ton of rocks six months afterwards, which happened to be the end of June.
That raffle was drawn for June at the end of June, but I was afk for a few weeks dealing with his death and everything negative going on in my life. So I did not find out about my win until about a week after my name was drawn, which happened to be right before his birthday. It was not long after finding out I won that I realized these coincidental sequence of events. That win means so much to me.
There are things that occurred during that two week period that I’m not really writing about here that have me considering that it could have possibly been a way for Pop to cheer me up. Because it truly, truly did. Acknowledging his death, winning that raffle when I did (near his Birthday, coincidence?), evaluating where I was and where I wanted to be. That win, at a such a low point in my life, was my stepping stone to getting the heck finally out of FL and back up here, where I never really wanted to leave. :->
Aaaaand back to my point.
And as much as I could have cheated the system, new forum name (I had trouble logging in with my old name since you all updated your system while I had my PC shut down, but good old Jennifer helped me with that.) But I also had a completely different IP (since I moved from FL to MD) and yes, like everyone else on the Web, I have different e-mail addresses for different things, I sooooo could have cheated and entered the newer ones.
When I realized that I could actually do that, and possibly get away with it, oh yeah, I thought about it, for about .00000001 of a split second.
However, I would have felt horrible had I won something under those pretenses. I’d have to basically hide/lie about it the entire time I owned it and posted here on the forums. Let alone how bad I might have felt every time I looked at it, knowing that I cheated to obtain it.
Here’s the thing, I have learned that those who cheat, actually ENJOY the rush of winning/cheating the situation and opposite of how I would have felt, they actually can get a rush each time they would look at it. Wild isn’t it? People really can be geared differently.
To bad though, what they aren’t doing as they get their rush is they aren’t considering the repercussion of their actions on the REST of the people involved and how it might affect things for everyone else later on down the road.
It’s a shame you have to go to the extent that you are, but yup, some people are just, well ….. The best way I can put it here on these forums, they’re apparently out for a different thrill ride in life.
As a side note, and I know you all won’t acknowledge either way, which is very understandable, but I’m going to weigh in here, this is an open forum, :->, I hope you all at Windstone have banned the offenders from any future raffles or quests.
The offenders might be on a ‘different thrill ride in life’, but everyone should be appropriately punished for their actions.
Trying to cheat someone who’s going above, beyond and completely out of their way, for the sake of bringing us some joy, shame on you all that did that.
~Hoofer
The same thing happened here in Calgary. The snow from last week has melted though as it was nice yesterday and today. I just wish we had more fall and spring as those are my favourite seasons.
That’s what it was like about a month ago here in the interior of British Columbia, but there is hope, trust me – you won’t have that horrid spring on/spring off weather for too much longer. It’s finally full on spring here, so it should be that for Calgary pretty quick and other parts of Alberta. 🙂
This is so neat hearing about other parts of the continent and what they’re like. 😀 The furthest I’ve ever been from home is Saskatchewan and I’ve never left Canada. If I can save up enough I am going to visit my buddy in Texas, though I’m not sure what all there really is to do there. I’m a hiker so I think the main draw will just be my best friend, not the outdoorsy stuff I love as I’m not sure how much Texas has in terms of walking trails (my perception is that it is kind of like big patches of rural Alberta where there’s nothing to do and cool stuff in between.) I know it has some nifty historical stuff like the Alamo though and really pretty blue flowers!
The weather here is usually pretty mild in winter, going no lower than about minus thirty degrees Celsius but it can get up to forty sometimes (rarely thank goodness, usually more like thirty-five) in summer because the valley where I live, the Okanagan, is a semi-desert. Down closer to the border in Osoyoos there’s even scorpions and there are cactuses and rattlesnakes too. We have the most northerly species of constrictor snake, the rubber boa, which is endangered.
Oh! Those that live in Canada should appreciate this. As mentioned, we had an unusually cold winter here in Maryland. Week after week after week, we kept getting one type of snow or just plain ole cold weather. We had a two week arctic blast of solid freezing temperatures, at one point the wind chill was down in the negatives. I was neglectful and figured that I did not need to plug in my deicer on the water trough (your typical 100 gallon poly tank), because winters here aren’t that bad and although one of my mantras is ‘never say never’, blah.
When that two week period hit us, my 100 gallon trough became a solid block of ice within 3 days. That NEVER happened here. Up til that point, I could easily pull the ice off the top and my horses are not woosies, they’ll drink cold water, even though they came from FL. That and I had the plug in buckets for them in the barn. They also have a natural pond to drink from, but it’s shallow and we know what happened to that. :->
So anyway, that’s an example of how cold it got here this winter and yes, it was darn near a two week period it was super, duper cold for this region. Well, since I deal with the public, day in and day out I heard folks just complaining about how cold it is, yada, yada, yawn, shut up! I’m usually a patient person, but when it comes down to it, you just get tired of people and their complaining. My thoughts, ‘this to shall pass’, eventually it’ll warm up again and yes, I would say things in response, after weeks of hearing it mind you, “Ok, I know you don’t realize it, but, you’re complaining about this cold weather to a FLORIDIAN and I’m doing just fine here thank you very much, dig out your big warm coat, put on a few extra layers and DEAL WITH IT!” And I would usually follow it up with, “It’s not like we’re living in Alaska or Canada ya know.”
Now I’ll admit, that response from a skinny runt from Florida, who’s ‘doing just fine in this cold weather’, did have some of them reevaluating their moaning, to an extent. BUT, when I would point out, ‘try going through an Alaskan, Mid-Northwest U.S.A OR ‘what them Canadians are going through right now’ and then moan to me about two weeks of some cold temperatures’, now that usually had them step mentally back and shut the heck up.
;->
You all KNOW what a real winter is.
As for your Texas visit, that’s a HUGE state. It all depends on where you are as to what you’re going to do/see. You can easily Mapquest or Google earth the surrounding region and you’ll be able to see the terrain in the area, including neat places to make a point of visiting. There are plenty of trails, but of course, not what you’re used to and depending on where you are in Texas, quite different from one coast to the next, including the north of Texas versus the south region of Texas.
I will say this, depending on the time of year you’re going to go down there, no matter where you are in Texas, you’re definitely going to experience a different kind of hot. The thing with that far south is how much closer they are to the equator than you are up there in that northern hemisphere. You don’t really think about it until you are exposed to it.
When that sun goes down, it does not really cool off, not like you all are used to, so be prepared.
First hand experience.
I kept thinking to myself that something up in Maryland was different than Florida, but never really put it together until I went back down to FL for a full change of seasons (if you want to call them that) and then it hit me. No, it wasn’t something as obvious as the weather, temperature or terrain differences. It was something that was very subtle and like a niggle in the back of your mind, I knew something was different, not quite right, but I just couldn’t figure out what exactly it was that was niggling at me.
Turns out, it was the amount of daylight.
Because the earth tilted back towards the sun during summer, that meant that the southern part of that northern hemisphere (in this case Florida) was that much closer to the sun, since the equator isn’t that much further away. But being 1k miles north of that equator in Maryland, I realized that it was the amount of daylight in a given day is what had me feeling something wasn’t right.
It’s stuff like that, that you don’t really think about, until either someone explains it to you or you experience it yourself, that really is wild.
I had to chuckle and yeah, I called myself dense. But really, loosing daylight isn’t as obvious as you might think. Especially since each day tends to blend into itself. But the overall amount of daylight in any given day? Whoda thunk it?
How about a little experiment, since us forum members are so widely spread out. How about you all up there in Canada take note when that sun reaches below the horizon, mountain range included, of the time it was when you could no longer see the sun beyond the land mass and then take note of the last of the dusk light, when it’s actually considered dark. You’d be surprised the difference between your amount of daylight in the northern, northern hemisphere vs the amount of daylight in the southern, northern hemisphere.
Personally, I’m very curious as to how much of a difference there really is. Maybe it turns out it’s only 15 minutes per every 1k in mileage.
Anyone game?
~Hoofer
I wonder if all those ” Hokays” are legally binding.
< :
Yes, but only if there are a minimum of three Poads and one Unicorn who witnessed said Hokay(s). It’s in the fine print that apparently is so tiny, only Poads can see it. That and they told me. :->
How many Poads and Unicorns are sitting around you at the moment Melody?
There is an out clause, but I’m not willing to release the details as of yet.
;->
HA! Only one adult poad, a Breyer horse, a Kirin and a tadpoad, (who isn’t old enough to vote) were witnesses. My loophole.
Shooooot, that’s not even a loophole/out clause.
And here I thought I covered all the angles.
The Breyer should be excluded, since it’s not a Unicorn (I’m assuming here.) However, I should have specified, but I did not, that all witnesses had to be Windstones, but that could have worked in my favor!
I should have remembered that old picture of your desk area with that Breyer. If I recall correctly, isn’t that the ‘parked’ Morgan Breyer mold? If it is, for you to unpack that fella after the move from CA, there has to be a story behind that guy/gal, have a moment to share it?
Back to the witnesses!
Ok, the Kirin qualifies, because I was neglectful to specify that they had to be an EQUINE Unicorn and I did not, but that works in my favor!
But you’re right, a tadpoad of minor age does not a witness make.
One adult Poad and one Kirin Unicorn are not enough, you’re in the clear. There were not enough witnesses for said “Hokays” to be legitimately binding. ;->
Thanks for playing along.
OMGawd. I knew they would be but WHOA, they really ARE amazing.
The light source is from a bunch of skylights in the above ceiling and a cloudy day, so these came out a little more washed out than I would have liked.
Frontal, note the purple above her grey knuckles:
Emerald Peacock Lap, to show the purples on her, no flash:
EmPea & Blue Morpho w/flash:
Female detailing, since we already have a close-up of the male detailing, that and there is NO such thing as to many pictures of a Windstone :->
Melody, or anyone else possibly reading our drool filled posts, if Brandi does not read the forums, please, please, PLEASE let her know how amazing we all think these are.
~Hoofer
