Careful, "things" can grow on leather

Leather has a mind of its own. The reason I say this is because its not at all like fabric. Leather can hold moisture which you can pick up from the air not necessarily from rain. When storing any leather garment take care to make sure that it hangs "freely" in a dry room before putting it away. By this I mean don't stick it in the closet or leave it rolled up in a saddlebag until spring. You'll know that you have a mold problem by the smell and color of the leather, it looks kind of dusty almost greenish.

Depending upon the area of the US that you live in, you need to be aware of what can happen to leather in a damp environment. Keep in mind that leather consists of fibers that have been chemically treated in order to preserve the "skin". These fibers can hold moisture and within them mold can start to grow. If left for long periods of time mold can ruin leather or leave it with a smell that you can't get rid of.

There are commercial products that will get mold off of leather or you can do it yourself. Here's how: first using a damp rag wipe the mold off of the garment, preferably outside so you don't breath the mold. Clean all areas which include both the lining and the leather itself. Frequently rinse out your cleaning rag. It does not hurt to use a mild soapy solution like Woolite or even Fiebings Saddlesoap (its the best) then wipe again with another clean rag. After wards, condition your leathers with a good quality cleaner. If using Saddlesoap you get to skip this step.

The most important part is that once you clean the garment you must let it dry thoroughly. A word to the wise: Don't let leather hang too close to a wood stop or furnace...you can fry it like bacon. It then become really ugly! Good luck and remember spring is just around the corner!

On another note

We often times don't stop and think about our communication skills until it's too late. Better yet we all tend to blame it on the other party who we're sure misunderstood what was being said but let's talk a minute about how much trouble we can save ourselves if we just slow down.

Bob and I made the decision to changes web host servers. EasyASP Hosting could not provide us with the ability to enlarge photos so that my customers could see the details of my work better. No problem...Bob found another host. In the meantime he asked that I relay our plans for closing our account which was to happen at the end of December. Being that EasyASP Hosting does not have a live body to speak to a very long process was initiated and every web owners nightmare occurred; my site was taken down without my permission.

I would like to blame everything on them but I can't. What transpired was that the important wording stating "Please be aware that we will be closing our account as of the end of December..." was left out of my email and only "we will pay until the end of December" was what they read. Needless to say the site was down for 3 full days and the worst part was that I have lost all of the online exposure which had me up there in the search engines.

What can you do? True if EasyASP Hosting would have real people to speak with the issue could have been resolved the same night it was taken down but when a company chooses to do away with live customer service and go to the world of long drawn out emails a lot is lost. Would I recommend this hosting company to anyone, "NO" especially if you still value the ability to speak to a real person. Onward and upward. :)

Underneath the bad haircut, she's still Riley Marie

It's been several weeks since the Terrorist had her pink tights removed and started her rehab. Those of you who have had an animal in rehab know that you are not only doing your best to cover all of their needs, keep them safe but the hardest part is second guessing what it is that they are going through. The beauty of animals is that they stay present to what is going on at that moment; they don't live in the past or the future.

So after the tights were removed Miss Riley Marie became the center of attention. We live in the country on a steep hill with no level areas to speak of. The vet's instructions called for confinement, walks on a leash preferably on level concrete surfaces. "Oh brother!" I thought in a sarcastic train of thought! Needless to say she had to get tuff pretty quick because there are no options for "walks on concrete" where we live and lucky for us our vet understood this. We did the best we could finding small areas of land that were even the tinniest bit level and there was always one of us who was out with Riley on her leash.

Slowly but surely things have gotten better, except her attitude when she doesn't get her way. Going for a walk and having Pete go out of her sight is not a good thing. Ken has started to let her outside on her own (without Pete) and this seems to be allowing her to strengthen her legs at her own pace. We have one more week to go before her possible final vet check. In the meantime like a muttly dog who tired to look like a poodle, her "hairdo" continues to look bad and the indignant looks we often get from her have not changed.

How the Terrorist Wound Up In Pink Tights

Ok, I'm going to tell you what happened to Riley Marie the little "Terrorist". A week ago on Sunday me, her and Pete the Pit were walking down our driveway which is steep as we live on the side of a hill with lots of acreage around us. The dogs took off running. I had never seen her run so fast as she's always been weak in the hind quarters however, this time she ran so fast that she tore the ACL's in both of her back legs. It was terrible as her back legs just quit working.

On Monday, we located a vet who in short explained that Riley's past set her up for what happened because more than likely as a puppy she was injured, probably by someone pulling her by her legs. Due to the weakness in her legs or "knees" as the vet called them they could either do surgery or put her down. The latter was not an option.

She underwent surgery on both "knees" and they gave her implants, repaired the damage, old and new and removed some arthritic spurs...she's only about 2 1/2.

So I went to pick her up at the vet and between the drugs and her feeling of abandonment, she looked at me with a stare that had to have said, "quit the baby talk voice, where's Ken?" and I knew then she was going to be alright. She seemed vaguely happy to see me but man when Ken got home here is what happened, she rolled over on her back, pink tights in the air, "bikini cut" flashing and let him know he was her pack leader! The photo says it all.

Riley Marie the Terrorist

Pete is my dog and then there is Riley Marie the terrorist, she is Ken's dog. Riley is a terrier mix of some sort. We own a well pump business and she's Ken's constant companion and "pump assistant". She goes everywhere with him and they both come home looking like they just got off another dirty job. Riley and Ken don't care if they get dirty and they both like going to work to get dirty. On the other hand, Pete and I love our comforts. Pete love his fireplace, his bed and blankets, the swamp cooler, the shade in the summer and of course his cookies. Riley would rather roll in cow poop and eat something dead.

Riley is famous and she's had her picture in our local paper for the way she sits in the pump truck. She sits in the front seat of the pump rig with her "elbow" on the door, her legs spread and her belly jiggling as they go down the road. She looks old but she's only two.
She is known to Ken's customers as the dog with the happy wiggle butt and a few have asked if they could have her. We think Riley is one of the cutest dogs around other people have told to Ken; "that's one ugly dog". He laughs and said that he thinks she's beautiful. When we got her from the pound Ken asked why I named her Riley Marie; "because people will think she's ugly and she needs a beautiful name". Now he understands why.

We call Riley, Pete's little sister but its obvious she's not. It just a dog owner's way of personifying their pets and they're right! What is also true is that "Ri-girl" is a terrorist. She drives Pete to distraction, bites his back legs to get him to play, taunts him with her rope, takes up the whole seat in the truck, growls at him if he gets near the cookie she doesn't want and then crawls in bed with him if something scares her. Pete just puts up with it because he can out run her but then last Sunday Miss Riley Marie ran faster than her little legs could carry her and she had a terrible mishap, but I'll write about that later............

Pete the Pitiful-Bull

I'd like to introduce my dog Pete. He has a few other names, all of which he answers to. There is Bubba, Pete Bull, Bubby, Boy Boy, and the list goes on. Pete came from the pound. We don't know exactly how old he is but he hd fallen out of a truck and was found hurt and homeless. The lady who found him wanted to keep him but his vet bills were too high and so she turned him over to the pound.

One vet said he was 9 months the other said he was almost 2 yrs old. Still he is Mr Awesome but let me back up. I was scared to death of him when Ken's brother brought him to us. The reason we got him is because our little dog Andy, met an untimely death at the hands of the local "choir boys" aka the coyotes and so did our other little dog Cricket.

Ken made the decision that he was going to get a dog that no coyote was ever going to fool with or hurt for that matter so he had his brother pick out a pitbull and Ron picked Pete. I had heard all the pit bull horror stories and was sure I'd wake up with his jaws around my neck only after he had eaten the cats and killed my husband as well. ........

I'll tell you more about this amazing friend of mine as time goes one but first, you'll need to know that Pete loves blankets, soft rugs, cookies and his "pack leader" more than anything in the world. He is also afraid of small dogs that bark at him.

I made him a sweater or 2 or 3 during the first winter that we had him. One afternoon in my shop he kept staring at me and I realized that his teeth were rattling in his mouth because he was so cold. I didn't know that Pits get cold because they have very little hair and in his case very little fat. Here is he is in front of the fire place in his sweater, a happy dog. This is my wonderful friend.

It's Show Time!

I think Bob knew that when you are dealing with an artist, "Show Time" may never come around because....there will always be one more tweak that must be made, one more photo that has to be added and it just doesn't work that way. So when he Skyped me and said "We're going live tonight" as I was heading out the door all I could do was pray. I left for my lady riders meeting knowing the site was live and knowing that one more tweak was not going to happen before it went live. Show Time was here and from here on out we were going to be working everything while on stage!

So since I last wrote about the new website in August I've learned a bunch. It's still a bit fuzzy but as repetition is the best teacher, it's starting to sink in. I'm sure Bob is enjoying having me do so many of the things that I would just toss at him never knowing what it entailed. Thanks for your patience Bob, the university students in Salt Lake City are very lucky to have you as their professor.

Wow, a new and improved website!

Bob has been teaching me how to work with, not against, my new website! It's a lot more fun than I thought. Still, I'm only doing simple things but at this point they feel huge. The goal is for me to get to the point where I can manage it myself and only rely on him for "the big stuff". Bob came up with a background color that I really like which matches my new business card, the road sign for my house and my truck. It's all coming together nicely.

It's hard to imagine that this coming March, Ace High Leathers will be celebrating is 5th year in business. Have I experienced a learning curve? OMG! I have learned more about my self than I could have imagined. I have met more wonderful people all over the US and Canada than I could have imagined. I have received emails from Ireland, Australia, Italy and Germany AND there's more to come.

Please keep checking the site because in a minute, it will be transformed and even better than what you see now! Nanci

It's been way too long!

Six, almost seven months is way too long in between blog comments from me....the person who has the website. H-H-H-H-ell0! So let me catch you up on what is going on here. First off I've been working with Bob, my wonderful web guy and there is a new site around the corner. It's slow going for two reasons: one, I am clueless in certain aspects of websites and two Bob is a university professor and father extraordinaire and so together we make slow but steady progress. The reason for the change in the site is so that I can edit articles and add photos to my hearts content. My current site was created by Bob and it is a bit beyond a novice like myself.

My work continues to change. It keeps getting better and more interesting. With that I will bring some new photos and new products to the site for everyone to look at. One of the new pages what will appear on the new site is the "Cool Stuff for Sale" page. This page will feature ready to ship products, one of a kind items and also sale items. It should be a fun page in that you will have to hurry to make sure you get the items before they are gone.

Also, the gallery will be very expansive and will show the many phases of work that I do. I have over 500 photos so keep checking back as once I figure out just how to get these puppies up on the site, I'll have my work cut out for me!

Many thanks to Bob Trim who, over the past 5 years has been patient above and beyond the call of duty along with being my head cheerleader with a lot of "atta girl" shouts! Thanks Bob!