getting mocha back

I met Kristina almost 15 years ago in 8th grade.  We both played clarinet in band and became fast friends, passing notes between our music stands in the clarinet section.  We quickly learned that we both had a hot and heavy love affair with horses and had even been at the same barn for a short while.  We both had big bay geldings, her horse was named Mocha, mine was named Taco.  Apparently we had a thing for food named horses.  
After graduating high school, both of us ended up having to sell our horses and give up the equestrian lifestyle in exchange for college.  Last August Kristina realized that Mocha was probably nearby, since she'd sold him to a family in Oregon.  She began the process of trying to track him down, finding out that those folks had sold him, and after months of phone calls and emails she eventually tracked him down in Albany, Oregon.  Finally in February she got to drive down and visit him.  What she found was devastating.  His ribs were showing, he was living in a tiny stall, and was clearly neglected and treated extremely poorly.  She immediately decided then and there that she would do whatever she could do to get him back.  More months of negotiating with his owners passed and finally was able to buy him back.  She found a barn near Tacoma where she could board him, and this Sunday he was shipped up.  I hadn't seen him yet and was there when he arrived.  His condition took my breath away. 

The photo above is what Mocha looked like during our Senior year of high school.  The photo above that?  That's what Mocha looks like now.  His previous owners claim they fed him a ton and he just wouldn't put on weight.  Well, surprise surprise, he has a ton of worms that are consuming all the food he eats and barely gets any nutrition from his food.  How someone can let an animal get to that point of malnutrition without even thinking of having a vet come out and see him is beyond me.  Kristina and I spent hours brushing him and it looked like he hadn't been brushed in a year.  He had only two shoes left, was lame in one leg, and one of his hooves is so overgrown I can't imagine he's seen a farrier in far too long.  And to make matters worse, his previous owner, a very large man, told us that he rode Mocha in this condition (and was confused at why Mocha didn't seem to want to do anything when he rode him, I wonder why...).  Mocha's tail was a solid mass of matted hair.  One giant dreadlock.  His mane also had tons of mats.  We soaked his mane and tail in detangler and Kristina spent hours detangling his entire tail.
She had a vet scheduled to come out the next day to assess his situation and see what needed to be done to bring him back to health.  This is the vet's assessment:

"Physical exam and observations:

Mocha is Underweight. A body score of one out of five is appropriate. He has severe atrophy of gluteal muscles, His ribs are prominent.  His top line has minimal coverage with very prominent dorsal spinous processes. His withers are similarly prominent with lack of muscular coverage.
Mocha's right front and left rear feet are highly overgrown. The toes are 3-4 inches too long. These Feet are shod with uneven aluminum shoes. His left front and right rear have more normal angles, walls and toe length. However there is evidence of chipping and wall damage. These feet are unshod.

Mocha has uneven teeth with a mild wave, sharp lateral edges and shear.  Although these teeth need dental work, I do not feel they are so severe to be entirely responsible for the dramatic weight loss.

Mocha has minimal inflammation in his fetlock joints in the front, but range of motion is normal. There is a minimal amount of inflamation in his knees as well, again he has normal range of motion and does not appear painful.

Mocha has a grade 2/5 lameness on his left front.  This lameness has not been accurately investigated due to his poor body development.  However flexion tests of his fetlock and knee aggravated the lameness.  There is no apparent increased vasculature (pulse) to his foot, although the foot remains suspect as a cause of pain and lameness.

At this time nutrition is paramount.  I would advise a good quality hay offered free choice or at a minimum of 2% of his body weight (approx 20 lbs per day divided into 3 feedings).  I would suggest a high calorie grain feed.  I would feed at 2 times maintenance until optimal weight is obtained and then reduce intake to maintenance levels.   It is important to increase feed gradually over 1-2 weeks to avoid possible overload complications."

 

  Mocha in Kristina's senior portrait :: Mocha now
The dedication and tenacity with which Kris has pursued getting Mocha back is unrivaled.  In order to afford buying him back and paying for his board, she's moved out of her apartment and into my Winnebago.  Still, the vet bills, supplements, farrier fees, dental fees, and feed to get Mocha back to a healthy place are bleeding her dry (and to add to her stress, her car broke down while driving out to the barn yesterday and needs hundreds of dollars in repair work done.  When it rains it pours, right?  Ugh).  It breaks my heart to see her precious Mocha in such a horrific condition.  Seeing the photos of him back when she owned him in high school next to the ones of him now make me sick to my stomach. 
Kristina's heart is huge and she's poured her whole self into getting Mocha back in order to save him from spending one more day with people who would let him get to such a deplorable state of health. We've started a fundraiser to hopefully help pay for some of Mocha's vet and farrier fees, dewormer meds, supplements, and other costs to get him healthy.  As of now, the costs have totaled about $1000 and any small donation would help cover the costs to help Mocha get healthy.  He's got a ways to go, but I can't imagine anyone who could love him more and pour more of herself into giving him the life he deserves than Kris.  Thankfully Mocha's bloodwork came back and it looks good, which means that other than the malnutrition and other problems mentioned, he doesn't have any serious health issues.  In just a few days she's noticed that he's already put on some weight and his demeanor is happy, which is great.

If you feel like donating, or sharing on social media, any help would be amazing.  Here's the link to the fundraiser page, and you can also link to this blog post.  Every little bit helps, even just ten bucks or a retweet.  

lichtenstein

A few years ago when I first had transitioned from my natural dark hair to being a redhead I bought this black wig in order to quell my desire to go dark again.  Wearing orange while having red hair feels a little bit clashy so I was inspired to drag out the wig for this look to give it some contrast.  The white and orange dress is such a bold, graphic look, so I felt like I needed some contrast with my hair.  I love having the option of wearing a wig.  Now that I've been doing more burlesque and stage performance stuff lately I've been inspired by stage hair and make up.  I haven't worn my pink wig in a long time, but I think it needs to make an appearance.  I love that wigs and make up give you the option for more dramatic transformation without needing to do something permanent.  It's fun to be able to play around with your appearance without the threat of permanency.  Now that I'm delving into stage performance and burlesque, I've decided that I need like ten more wigs and way more fun colors of make up. 
After I took these photos and was looking at them, I felt like the were very Roy Lichtenstein.  I did my senior thesis paper on pop art, so I have soft spot in my artist's heart for Pop Art.  Lichtenstein was never my favorite artist, but I do like his work quite a bit.  Still I think my favorite period of art is between the 40's and 70's.  I have two artists in me, one that adores a graphic, bold, pop art look, and one that is very maximalist, hippie, bohemian, and natural.  I think my personal style also tends to alternate between those two extremes.  Part of me wishes I could go "all in" with one style, but I love being able to pick and choose which style I want to express on any given day, whether it's with artwork or personal style.

 

dress + shoes(similar)/courtesy of modcloth :: necklace(similar)/francesca's collection  shades(similar)/courtesy of lulu's :: photos by Dan

fields of poppies

So, a few months ago I applied for a stall at my local farmer's market to sell cute homemade artwork and home goods.  I had been waiting to hear back on the approval, and didn't receive an email with any kind of green light so I figured I hadn't been approved and let it go.  This morning I got an email asking if I was planning on showing up to the market, and learned that apparently I had been approved.  The market has been going on for two weeks already and I've missed the first two already!  So in the next 24 hours I have to get my shit together to sell at the Tuesday farmer's market.  Nothing like a last minute deadline to kick my ass into gear, right?  Oh man.  I'm only freaking out a little bit.  Okay maybe a lot.
This is the dress I mentioned in my last post, the "Wizard of Awesome" dress.  Awesome indeed.  I'm currently slightly obsessed with the giant petticoat underneath the skirt and have been scouring my closet for other dresses and skirts I can wear with it.  It's sort of amazing to me that women used to wear these giant petticoats on the regular.  I don't think I'll be pulling it out too frequently, but it certainly is rather fun now and then.  One thing I've learned?  It's kind of hilarious to drive a car with a huge petticoat.  And squeezing into a booth at a restaurant?  Also humorous.  This outfit it a little fancier than my norm, but I wore it out to a cabaret burlesque show, and the dress code read "dress to impress," so I figured poppies and a giant petticoat were certainly in order.  I couldn't find a yellow brick road for my outfit photos, but I figured a field of yellow blooms with a brick building in the background would suffice.

 

dress + petticoat/courtesy of modcloth :: shoes(similar)/courtesy of blowfish shoes shades(similar)/gift :: photos by Dan

wizard of awesome

About a month ago, after months of hard work, the Adventures in Oz cast took the stage in front of a sold out crowd at the Temple Theater in Tacoma.  Holy cow, was it an incredible night.  After the first performance where the entire cast was on stage, we all watched the rest of the first act from the wings and I got choked up with pride as I watched every single performer knock it out of the park.  It was seriously one of the most fun nights of my life.  At the time we weren't sure we'd have any prospects of performing the show again, but we've heard back and will be performing the show again in Olympia on September 27th!  We're hoping to be able to perform it in Seattle as well at some point.  I'm so glad we get to perform again.  Everybody worked so hard it'd be a shame to have done only one performance.  Meanwhile, I'm dreaming up new solo acts.  I just went to the debut show at a new monthly cabaret dinner club and got to see some of my fellow Adventures in Oz ladies do amazing solo performances.  It's a little out of my comfort zone to do a solo performance, but I'm really excited about the prospect of doing one!  I have a couple concepts buzzing around in my head for fun routines...

 

I think the performance actually might be available in DVD form someday soon.  We had a film crew shoot the whole show and I saw the unedited version the other day, so if any of you guys want to know if/when that becomes available I'll keep my ears open for more info (here's a little trailer of the show in the meantime!). Being a fine arts student I grew up with a pretty negative opinion of all things rhinestone and glitter (the herpes of craft supplies).  I'll tell you what, though, I'm a huge fan of both now.  Bring on the sparkle.  The day of the show my whole body was covered in glitter.  My headpiece had glitter spray paint, my hair had glitter hair spray, my skin had body glitter, my eyelids had glitter, my lips had glitter, my leotard had glitter, and even my fishnets had glitter.  I don't think I've been around that much glitter in my whole life.  I don't even want to think about how much glitter I probably ingested that day.  It was awesome.  I'm pretty casual in my day-to-day life, so spending hours transforming into a glitterbomb fancy lady was amazing.  I'll probably still avoid glitter and rhinestones in my everyday life, but I'm excited for my next opportunity to spend hours glueing rhinestones to a costume. Another unintended effect of performing as a poppy in the show is that I'm now kind of obsessed with poppies.  I bought a bouquet at the farmer's market on Tuesday mostly because it had poppies in it, and I just got this dress because it was covered in poppies (it's called the "wizard of awesome dress," so I pretty much had to).  I need to get some poppies to plant in my garden too.  Poppies everywhere!

 



top photo by ebony morris :: all other photos/willow's photography +  heather schofner photography + gerry collen + lock & key photography

homemade chips + salsa

You know what I hate?  When someone leaves the ziplock baggie full of tortillas unzipped, rendering them all dried out and hard.  Unfortunately I also feel like I can't just throw them out, it's not like they've gone bad or anything, they're just a little...crunchy.  I'd been wanting to make some salsa anyways, since the weather has been oh so summery, so I thought I'd try my hand at making the chips to go with it!  Back in college I used to work in the campus cafe, which was a little fancier than the cafeteria, and I was stationed at the Baja Grill, making burritos, quesadillas, nachos, etc.  We'd make our own chips by chopping corn tortillas into wedges and taking them over to the burgers and fries section of the cafe and use their deep fryer to make the chips.  If we had leftover chips at the end of the night, whoever closed got to take a bag home full of them.  Oh man, did I ever eat a metric ton of tortilla chips that year.  


 

Salsa 

(recipe adapted slightly from pioneer woman)

Ingredients

1 can (28 Ounce) diced tomatoes with juice

2 cans (10 Ounce) diced tomatoes with green chilies

1/4 cup chopped onion

1 clove garlic, minced

1 whole jalapeno, quartered + sliced thin

1/4 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 cup cilantro

1/2 whole lime juice

1/2 can (15 oz) corn, juice drained.

This recipe makes a lot of salsa.  If you're not planning on using a ton of salsa, I'd suggest halving it.  If you don't have a big food processor, you can process the ingredients in batches and then mix everything together in a large mixing bowl.

1. Combine diced tomatoes, diced tomatoes with green chilis, onion, jalapeno, garlic, sugar, salt, cumin, lime juice, and cilantro in large bowl.  If you want to have a bit chunkier salsa, take a small bowlful  of this mixture and set it aside.  I like my salsa a bit more chunky.

2. Working in batches (if you have a small food processor like me), add the mixture to the food processor and pulse until you get the salsa to the consistency you'd like.

3. When you're done processing the mixture of salsa, add in the un-blended portion and the corn.  Test seasonings with a tortilla chip and adjust as needed.  If you like a bit spicier salsa, add Tapatio (or your favorite hot sauce) until it gets to the spiciness you prefer.

Refrigerate salsa for at least an hour (while you're making chips!) and serve.  YUM.

Chips

(recipe via simply recipes)

Ingredients

3/4 to 1 cup canola, grapeseed, or corn oil (a high smoke point oil), more or less depending on how many chips you are making

Small corn tortillas, each tortilla makes 6 chips, 12 tortillas will yield 72 chips

Kosher salt

1. Cut each tortilla into 6 triangle shaped wedges.  I use a pizza cutter and do 2-3 tortilla at once.  The chips will fry better if they are a bit dried out first. You can leave them out overnight, exposed to air so they are stale the next day, or dry them out in the oven.  I needed chips, like, now so I used my oven to dry them.  Just lay them out in a single layer on a baking sheet and baked them at 350°F for 5 minutes. You don't want them super crispy, just as if you'd left them out overnight.

2. Pour the oil into a medium skillet to a depth of 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch.  Heat the oil on medium high heat until a small piece of tortilla placed in the oil sizzles, about 350°F. Don't let the oil to get so hot that it smokes, if it does, remove it from the heat and let it cool off.

3. Place a paper towel onto a large plate and have several other paper towels ready (I was out of paper towels so I used newspaper and napkins). Place a handful of tortilla triangles into the hot oil, in a single layer. Use metal tongs to arrange the wedges so they aren't overlapping and so that all sides get coated with oil.  Fry for about 2 minutes until the chips just begin to color and they are firm, no longer pliable. Remove the chips from the oil and lay them on the first layer of paper towels. Sprinkle with salt and lay another paper towel over the top, to be ready for the next batch.

4. Continue to cook the chips, working in batches, placing the freshly fried chips over a new layer of paper towel each time, and sprinkling with salt. When the chips are all fried, pat any excess oil from them with a fresh paper towel, and eat!