Duns

Dun is the "original" horse color, as in early horses were some variation of dun. A dun horse looks a lot like a buckskin, but it has markings that are referred to as "primitive markings", such as leg barring:



And dorsal stripes:



The original variation of dun was bay + dun + mealy. However, many more dun variations exist today.

A bay with the dun gene is a Zebra Dun:



A chestnut with the dun gene is a red dun:



A black with the dun gene is a grulla (pronounced grew-ya):



A palomino + dun is called a palomino dun or a dunalino. A buckskin + dun is called a dunskin.

An interesting fact about the dun color is that a horse cannot be a dun unless at least one of its parents was a dun also, unlike most other colors.

Roans

Now, I'm going to talk about roans.

A roan is a horse who has the base color, such as bay or chestnut, mixed with white hairs. The head and lower legs are darker. Sometimes the mane & tail are also mixed with white, or "frosted".

A bay with roaning is called a Red Roan or a Bay Roan:



A chestnut with roaning is called a Strawberry Roan:



A black with roaning is called a Blue Roan.



Roaning can be found in all colors, but in light colors it can be hard to see. Here is a buckskin roan:



All roans carry at least one copy of the roan gene, which means that all of their foals will have at least half a chance of being roan. Roans are born the base color of their coat (bay, black, etc), but when they lose their baby fur, which is some time between 4 months and 1 year, the roaning shows. Sometimes a roan is confused with a horse that is greying out.

The Cream Dilution

Now that we know about the basic horse colors, I'm going to talk about the cream dilution.

A bay horse with one copy of the cream gene will be buckskin:


Notice that a buckskin horse looks alot like a dun horse, however, the are not the same. A dun horse will have a dorsal stripe and leg barring, and a buckskin will not. Also, the genes that cause duns and buckskins are not the same.

A bay horse with two copies of the cream gene will be perlino:


Perlinos are often confused with Albinos, but they are not the same.

A chestnut horse with one copy of the cream gene will be palomino:



And a chestnut horse with two copies will be cremello:



Notice how cremello looks like a very light shade of palomino instead of just white. Also notice the difference in the palomino's eyes and the cremello's eyes.

A black horse with one copy of the cream gene is very hard to tell apart from a normal black horse except by DNA testing or if it produces a cream dilution foal. Single dilute black horses are often called "Faded Blacks", "Smoky Blacks" or "Summer Blacks".

A black horse with two copies of the cream gene is a smoky cream:



Don't go anywhere, because next I'm going to talk about roans!

The Basic Horse Colors

I decided to do a series of posts on horse colors. This one will start with the basic horse colors, bay, black, chestnut, and grey.

All colors are either red based or black based. Bay and black horses are black based. Chestnut horses are red based. Grey horses can be either, because the grey masks another color, such as bay or chestnut. These horses are almost never born grey, the horse is born one of the other colors and then they "grey out" as they get older.

Grey horses are often confused with white horses, but see the black muzzle and the black around the eyes? A true albino has pink skin.

Grey horse (either base):



Here's a chestnut horse (red based):



Here's a true, or jet black horse (black based):



And this is a bay (black based):



One of the reasons that a bay turns out bay instead of black is because of a gene called Agouti. If Agouti is present in a horse's coat, it restricts the black to the legs and muzzle, so the horse is bay. If there is no Agouti, then there is nothing to restrict the black so it covers the entire horse.

Horses are either homozygous or heterozygous for any gene that they have. Homozygous means that a horse has a double copy of the gene, and will always pass on one copy of the gene to its foals. Heterozygous means that the horse has only one copy of the gene. For example, a horse that is DNA tested and shown to be e/e is homozygous for red, and will never produce a black based foal. But a horse that is DNA tested and shown to be E/E is homozygous for black and will never produce a red based foal. A horse that is tested to be E/e can produce a red based foal or a black based foal, because it has one copy of each gene. However, since black base is dominant and red base is recessive, a horse that is E/e will appear to be black based.

These are just the basic horse colors. You can add dilutions to them to get other colors, but we'll talk about that next time.

**NOTE: I got all of these pictures and all of the pictures I will be using in the rest of the horse color series off of Google.**

The Wonders Of Science

Reagan has made 2 important scientific discoveries lately!

The first is that if you don't chew your pickle slices AT ALL, they can be barfed up completely intact at a later time and make for a really gross story.

The second discovery was made today while we were picking pecans. She informed Mommy excitedly that she "Opened a pecan and IT! HAD A NUT! INSIDE IT!", and best of all, "The nut, IT! TASTED! GOOD!"

I wonder what we'll discover next.

The Throw-Ups

Reagan has "The Throw-Ups".

That would be bad enough, but Reagan needs a little work on obeying without arguing. Here are some conversation clips that I heard:

"Mommy, I WANT TO GET UP!!!!! You KNOW my stomach doesn't hurt ANY MORE!" (To make this sound authentic, have a whiny two-year-old say it while another sibling is stomping their feet and one more is making gagging sounds.)

"Mommy, WHY can't I have cereal?!?!? You know I don't have the throw-ups any more!"

Add a long pause, and then:

"Mommy, I NEVER EVER throw up!"


In other news, how do you like my blog's new look? Mommy A certain person named whose name I shall not mention said that my header looked like it had a big pile of sand in it.

Tell me if she's right. Okay?

Katherine's Story

Last night, I overheard my 4 y.o. sister pretending to read a book to my 2 y.o. sister. I'll relay the story to you IF you have a strong stomach and IF you are not eating. If you fall into that category, just go away. That's right. Leave. Go on!

Katherine's Story (with interuptions)

4 y.o.: "Once upon a time there was a dog and-"

2 y.o. "What kind of dog?"

4 y.o. "Just a dog. Once there was a dog and he ate a person-"

2 y.o. "HE ATE A PERSON?!?!?"

4 y.o. "Yes."

2 y.o. "Eeww."

4 y.o. "But his stomach didn't like the person, so he BARFED HIM ALL UP!"

2 y.o. "EEEEWWWW!!!"

4 y.o. "And then he got a drink out of his water bowl-"

2 y.o. "Eeww."

4 y.o. "And then he ATE THE PERSON AGAIN!"

2 y.o. "EEEEEEEEWWWWWWW!!!!!"

The moral of this story is: Dogs, DON'T EAT PEOPLE!

And to all of you who were eating when you read this even though I warned you: Aren't you sorry now?

What Will Happen If Obama Is Elected

About spreading the wealth:

If Obama is elected, there will be no more little red hens. They will all die of starvation:

LITTLE RED HEN

"Once there was a little red hen. She called all of her Democrat neighbors together and said, 'If we plant this wheat, we shall have bread to eat. Who will help me plant it?'

'Not I,' said the cow.

'Not I,' said the duck.

'Not I,' said the pig.

'Not I,' said the goose.

'Then I will do it by myself,' said the little red hen, and so she did. The wheat grew very tall and ripened into golden grain.

'Who will help me reap my wheat?' asked the little red hen.

'Not I,' said the duck..

'Out of my classification,' said the pig.

'I'd lose my seniority,' said the cow.

'I'd lose my unemployment compensation,' said the goose.

'Then I will do it by myself,' said the little red hen, and so she did.

At last it came time to bake the bread.

'Who will help me bake the bread?' asked the little red hen.

'That would be overtime for me,' said the cow.

'I'd lose my welfare benefits,' said the duck.

'I'm a dropout and never learned how,' said the pig.

'If I'm to be the only helper, that's discrimination,' said the goose.

'Then I will do it by myself,' said the little red hen.

She baked five loaves and held them up for all of her neighbors to see. They wanted some and, in fact, demanded a share. But the little red hen said, 'No, I shall eat all five loaves.'

'Excess profits!' cried the cow. (Nancy Pelosi)

'Capitalist leech!' screamed the duck. (Barbara Boxer)

'I demand equal rights!' yelled the goose. (Jesse Jackson)

The pig just grunted in disdain. (Ted Kennedy)

And they all painted 'Unfair!' picket signs and marched around and around the little red hen, shouting obscenities.

Then the farmer (Obama) came. He said to the little red hen, 'You must not be so greedy.'

'But I earned the bread,' said the little red hen.

'Exactly,' said Barack the farmer. 'That is what makes our free enterprise system so wonderful. Anyone in the barnyard can earn as much as he wants. But under our modern government regulations, the productive workers must divide the fruits of their labor with those who are lazy and idle.'

And they all lived happily ever after, including the little red hen, who smiled and clucked, 'I am grateful, for now I truly understand.'
But her neighbors became quite disappointed in her. She never again baked bread because she joined the 'party' and got her bread free. And all the Democrats smiled. 'Fairness' had been established.

Individual initiative had died, but nobody noticed; perhaps no one cared...so long as there was free bread that 'the rich' were paying for. And eventually there were no more rich because they all joined the 'free bread' crowd, so all of the animals died from starvation."



(Click on the picture to see it bigger)

About the Obama tax plan:

Our Tax System Explained: Bar Stool Economics

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.

The fifth would pay $1.

The sixth would pay $3.

The seventh would pay $7.

The eighth would pay $12.

The ninth would pay $18.

The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do.

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. 'Since you are all such good customers,' he said, 'I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20.' Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free.

But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?'

They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.

So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so:

The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).

The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).

The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).

The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).

The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).

The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.

'I only got a dollar out of the $20,'declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man,' but he got $10!'

'Yeah, that's right,' exclaimed the fifth man. 'I only saved a dollar, too.

It's unfair that he got ten times more than I got'

'That's true!!' shouted the seventh man. 'Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!'

'Wait a minute,' yelled the first four men in unison. 'We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!'

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

*Snicker snicker* This stuff cracks me up.

I Like To Ramble

Well, I was going to have a giveaway for the bloggy giveaways carnival, but by the time I heard about it, IT WAS OVER, Y'ALL.

Because Mymomconnie forgot to tell me about it while it was going.

Oh well. Better late than tardy.

"What did you just say?" You're saying.

Oh nothing, I was just quoting Hank The Cowdog.

So at the NEXT Bloggy Giveaways, I'll be giving away...

A HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS!!!

Just kidding.

I'll be having a really great giveaway with crafts that you can make yourself, so don't miss it!

My Math, It Is STRANGE, Y'all

This is actually a real problem that was in my math book today.

"The formula for the space (s) passed over by a body that moves with uniform velocity (v) during a given time (t) is s=vt. Find s when v=180 feet a second and t=3 seconds."

Now, I'm curious: At what time is the human body moving at one hundred and eighty feet per second?!? Is it a common practice these days to shoot people out of cannons so scientists can dream up mathematical formulas to torture innocent kids?

My Very Long Educational Post

I decided to write a very long educational post about the upcoming election and the presidential and vice presidential candidates.

About spreading the wealth, I wonder if Obama has realized what will happen if we "spread the wealth". It's nice for people who have money to help suffering people, but if Obama takes from the people who have money and gives it to people who just don't feel like working, what do you think will happen? The people who worked to earn their money would see it and think, "Hey, I don't have to work to get money! I can just sit around all day, and Obama will GIVE me money for doing nothing"! Pretty soon, all of America would just be sitting around and waiting for someone to spread the wealth, and one day everyone will wake up and there won't BE any more wealth to spread!

I'm sure that everyone has heard that Barack Obama voted to withhold lifesaving aid from babies who survive abortions, but do you know what that means? If not, watch this video:



Obama and his supporters call themselves "Pro-choice", meaning that they think a woman should have the choice whether or not to have an abortion. They claim that it is the mother's body, and she knows what is best for it and should be able to choose what she wants. If this is the case, then why would a mother who delivered a full term baby and decided she didn't want it be arrested for leaving it in a closet to die? Would it be any different for a 1 week old than a 1 year old? NO! So why is it any different for a baby delivered at 22 weeks than for a baby delivered at 36 weeks?

And if people know what is best for their bodies and should be able to chose what happens to them, why are people arrested for abusing drugs?

Did you know that my dad was adopted because his birth mother was not married and decided she didn't want to take care of a baby on her own? If she had decided to have an abortion, I wouldn't be here right now.

The moral of this story is this: don't forget to vote (for McCain!)

The Ultimate Chocolate Cookies

I invented a recipe for Ultimate Chocolate Cookies and Ultimate Chocolate Icing. The cookie recipe has been posted before on Mymomconnie's blog, but no one (except us) has ever seen or tasted Ultimate Chocolate Icing. So I thought I'd share with you.

Ultimate Chocolate Cookies

4 sticks softened butter (not margarine!)

3 cups sugar

4 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

1 1/3 cup cocoa

3 cups flour

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking powder

Pre-heat oven to 350. Beat butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until fluffy. Mix in cocoa. Stir in flour, salt, and baking powder. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

Ultimate Chocolate Icing:

8 oz. cream cheese

2 cups powdered sugar

2/3 cup cocoa

1 tsp. vanilla

1 Tbsp. milk

Cream the cream cheese in the mixer bowl. Add the vanilla and the powdered sugar. Beat in the milk. Stir in cocoa (and I do mean stir. And do it SLOWLY, or you'll be sorry). Whip the icing for 45 seconds to a minute. Spread on cooled cookies.

**Note: These are the large family versions. If you have a small family, then halve both recipes.**

**Warning: These cookies are dangerously chocolatey. If you aren't extremely careful, you may find yourself wanting to lick the knife after you ice the cookies, and as we all know, that is a bad example. But I did it anyways.**

The Kind Of Town We Live In

Here is an example of the kind of town we live in. These are the things that made the August news:


8-2-08 At 9:30 AM a resident reported a wallet stollen from an unlocked car. At 11 AM a resident reported ATV tracks on his property.

8-4-08 At 10:15 AM a resident reoprted that a CD case had been taken from his car the night before. There were four homes whose occupants reported doorbells being rung between 3:30 AM and 4 AM, with some reporting property damage.

8-6-08 At 10:30 AM a resident reported plant and yard items missing.

8-7-08 A resident reported golf clubs missing. The resident was unsure when the clubs disappeared and said they may have fallen from a golf cart.

8-8-08 At 11:45 AM there was a collision. There were no injuries, and the drivers exchanged information.

8-11-08 At 12:30 PM a resident reported that a canoe had been stolen. At 3:15 PM another resident reported that 8 to 10 gallons of gasoline was stolen out of his car's gas tank.

8-12-08 The garbage truck operator reported that house paint had been thrown away in someone's trash and was now leaking onto the road.

8-13-08 At 9;30 AM a resident stopped at the Security office to report that an older man was walking along the road near the campground area with a stick in his hand. As cars would approach he would hold the stick out onto the road and cause the cars to swerve to miss the stick.

8-14-08 At 1 PM a resident reported suspicious activity at her home the night before. Security went to the area but found no one.

8-15-08 The same resident from the previous report again reported suspicious activity outside her house at 1:30 AM. Security went to the area and found suspicious activity at another location on the same street that turned out to be an underage drinking party. The Sheriff's Deputy on duty took over the situation. The resident was fined a flagrant violation.

8-16-08 The clubhouse recieved a report of boys on the golf course with BB guns. Security ent to the location but was unable to locate anyone fitting the description.

8-18-08 Damage to the golf course was reported in the area of No. 6 hole. More than 15 holes were punched into the green, the water fountain was broken, and the irrigation controller was damaged.

8-19-08 The garbage truck operator reported that gasoline had been thrown away in someone's trash and was now leaking onto the roads.

8-24-08 Homeland Security, the Secret Service and the Sheriff's Office responded to the air strip for an airplane that flew into restricted airspace. The situation was quickly resolved.

8-26-08 At 9:30 AM the garbage truck operator reported that three different colors of paint were leaking onto the roads, after which he was told to fix the hole in his truck. (Okay, I'll admit that I made up that last part!)

Fish And Other Thoughts

My guppy had babies.

Again.

From the last "batch", I have 1 male and 1 female who are about 6 weeks old. From this batch, it looks like I have 4 that are living, and I can't tell if they're males or females yet.

I'm going to have to give them away before we move, so here is a list of all of the fish that are we have that we need to give away:

1 full grown probably pregnant guppy
1 6 week old female guppy
1 6 week old male guppy
4 1 day old guppies
2 male platies
1 female platy
3 minnows
1 Rosy Red minnow
1 goldfish
1 algae-eater fish


I'm going to let the minnows go in a pond, but the rest are going to find a new home.

Now for the random thoughts:

If you go on a trip, and you think, "I'm not going to drink out of that water bottle after everyone else did because they might be sick and then they would get me sick", then sure enough, nothing will happen.

But, is on the way home 5 days later, you think, "Well, no one got sick last time, so I might as well get a drink", then sure enough, your 4 year old sister will start throwing up the next morning.

57 million chigger bites are VERY itchy!

The fish population is multiplying way too rapidly.

Why did the one who got sick have to be the one who takes one and a half weeks to get well?!?!?

We have piano lessons and a dentists appointment overlapping tomorrow.

Also, the dog has an eye infection and needs to be taken to the vet.

And don't forget, you have a couple if other tiny little things to do, like, I don't know, oh yeah, we need to PACK UP THE WHOLE HOUSE!

6-soon-to-be-7 year old's birthday is in a week, and we still have to pack and do school whilst getting ready for a birthday.

What do I do if someone starts throwing up all over the floor while Mymomconnie is at the grocery store buying toilet paper?

When you go to the liquor store to get boxes to move, you REALLY hope that no one you know hears the 2 year old bawling, "YOU NEVER TAKE ME IN WHEN WE GO TO THE LIQUOR STORE! I WAAAAANT TO GO TO THE LIQUOR STORE!" (Nevermind that she has never seen a liquor store in her whole life, That "never" business is just a trick to get what she wants.)

The same 2 yr old has very clever ways of getting what she wants, like this:

Daddy: "Woobie, when did you get so big?"

Woobie: "It's the ice cream."

And this:

Woobie: "One day, I'll grow as big as Cameron! (the 8 yr old)

Me: "When will you get that big?"

Her: "When you give me some chocolate milk."

Me: "What if I don't want you to grow up?'

Woobie: "Could you just give me some chocolate milk?"

Me: "What if I don't want to give you some chocolate milk?"

Her: "Then could you give me some candy or gum?"

And this. First, let me set the scene: 2 yr old sees sick 4 yr old get a popsicle.

Her: "Mommy, I neeeeed a popsicle!"

Mommy: "No, you're not sick."

Her: "Mommmmmyyyyy! My mouth makes me sick!"

The Sign At McDonalds

OK, I know that the title of my blog is "My Favorite Things", but seeing something like this sign is NOT one of my favorite things. Except that it made us crack up laughing.

This is what the sign at McDonalds said, and I'm not kidding:

NEW! SOUTHERN STILE CHIKEN!

I'm going to try to post a picture later.

Oh, by the way, the "N" on "Chiken" was backwards.

Also Known As "P-Bess"

We're having the first night of VBS at our church tonight. We have a CVS in our town. My little sisters like to watch a channel called PBS.

So they call VBS and CVS "PBS". But when they're in a hurry, which is fairly often, they shorten it to "P-Bess". These are phrases commonly heard areound these here parts:

"Mommy, can we watch P-Bess Kids?"

"Mommy, what time does P-Bess start? Can we invite the neighbors?"

"Mommy, did you get my medicine at P-Bess, or the other place?

Off to get a little Woobie dressed for P-Bess.

We Have a Winner!

We have a winner to the blog contest! I used a random number generator to get my number. And the number it picked was...

Congratulations to...

JULIE D!

Who Needs Toys When You Have A...

I'll bet you're dying to know what one item can substitute all of the baby toys in your house. Be patient! I'll tell you in a minute.

If you want to get rid of all of the thousands upon thousands of baby toys, just go out and buy your baby...

A PHOTO PRINTER!

A photo printer is a baby's best friend.

See?

It teaches them how to crawl...

How to sit...

And how to contort themselves into all sorts of bizzare positions.

And also how to fall without breaking your nose.

And then they will just sit and stare lovingly at the photo printer, and talk to it, and proceed to turn all 37 knobs the wrong way.

A baby and her photo printer... how sweet!

Tutorial on How To Use GIMP, Part 1

I've decided to do a tutorial on how to use the various tools on GIMP. I don't know what some of the tools do because I don't use them.

When you first bring up GIMP, this is what the main window will look like:

These are the first 4 tools on the top:

The first one is used to make rectangles and squares. If you wanted to draw a house on GIMP, you could use this for the "body" of it. The second tool is just like the first one, only it is used to make ovals and circles. With the third tool you use the mouse to hand draw an area that you want to crop. The fourth tool is used to select an area so you can erase everything on the outside or inside of it without erasing the outline.

These are the next 4 tools:Actually, I'm not sure what they do because I never use them.

Here are the next 4:The first one you use to pick a color that is already on an image so you can color another part of an image the same shade as the first part. The second one is used to zoom in or out on an image. I don't know what the third one does (grin), but the fourth one you use to move an image that you have put on top of another image around.

Here are 4 more:I only know what the second one of these does. It's the cropping tool, and I used it to make these pictures that y'all are looking at right now!

Come back later for more of the tutorial!