My Best Baby Yet!

What a busy weekend... Friday I cleaned ALL the pens except one, plus did other chores... never got to ride though.

Saturday I spent the day riding Katie in Black Canyon City with friends, had a lovely time, and a pot luck afterwards, with guitar playing and singing and a fire... stayed WAY too late, got home after dark and fed and THEN had to go into town to fuel up the itty bitty truck since there was no fuel on the way home from BCC or on the way to where I was going Sunday... locked Becky Lynn up for the second night, because her udder was suddenly twice the size of a couple of days ago... got to bed late and set the alarm for 4:30 to feed the big girls so they could finish eating before we left for our Sunday ride. Woke up at 4 a.m. so went ahead and got up to feed rather than try to catch another half an hour, since I was planning on going back to bed anyway. Had a funny feeling so cruised by Becky Lynn's pen and sure enough, there is a big donkey AND a little donkey... she just HAD to do it on a day I can't stay home because people are counting on me... checked real quick, baby was wet and wobbly, mama still dragging the you-know-what so I knew it had only been a few minutes since birth... lifted that tail though, and YAHOO it's a girl! And of course Randy has my camera at his Civil War reenactment event in Yuma, and my cell phone doesn't flash so no pictures in the dark :(

Went ahead and fed the big girls and went back to bed for a couple of hours. Laying there trying to fall back asleep, thought I wouldn't be able to because of the new baby, not since Moses have I gotten a name so strong... Yup she is definitely Jessica! Trying to think of a middle name and next thing I know the alarm is going off! Back out at 6:30 to feed all the minis, checked on baby and she is nursing, she has pooped, and mama has dropped the "stuff" so I cleaned that up and put betadine on the baby's umbilical cord. Got everyone fed and got ready to go, just poured my cereal when DeAnn arrived, so she was the first person besides me to know of Jessica's existence and to see her... she claimed "godmother" rights and that solved my problem of a middle name, so meet Jessica DeAnn:


Doesn't she have the BEST spot pattern??? And I love this accidental artistic shot with the shadows...


Proud Grandma...


After 4 months of Emily Ann and her igloo mama, THIS SIGHT thrilled me to no end...


The pictures are from tonight, since Randy didn't get home with the camera until after dark yesterday... so now I'm a bit ahead of myself. DeAnn and I loaded Glory, Katie and her Onyx and picked up Laurie down the street and her Topper, then headed for Camp Creek northeast of Carefree. Lindsey met us there, as well as Sabrina and Brenda with Jersey and Patch, and the 6 of us had a FABULOUS endurance training ride. Thanks Linz for exercising my Katie for me :) second week in a row I got 2 horses ridden at the same time {grin}. We had lunch ar Harald's afterwards and then headed home. Laurie brought her camera over and took some pictures of the baby for me, then DeAnn headed home and I saddled up Luna to go for a quick ride with Laurie and HER Katie... got home just about dusk and fed everybody and came inside to mess with the links to Laurie's pictures while I waited for Randy to get home. For whatever reason, I could open her photobucket album and copy the pictures to my computer, but a) they came out really small and b) i couldn't get them to load from my computer onto MY photobucket... SIGH.

Anyway I've got pictures now and I really do think this is my best baby yet! At least, spot-wise!!

Good Grief!

In an odd coincidence, both Sue (remember, my new friend from blogger?) and a former fellow employee have asked me, this week, for pictures of Turbo and Hemi, and I went looking for blog links... and realized that I had NEVER blogged their arrival!!! I guess I thought I did because I posted the story on AzBCR...

Well, I have corrected that oversight! But you will have to click here to read it... please do! Randy deserves some congrats AND some sympathy, even this long after the fact!!!

Can I Just Say...

I LOVE my new boss!!!!! She is friendly, cheerful, wholesome, nice, happy, hard-working, and fun to be around. Katy turned 29 today, we went to lunch for her birthday, had a nice chat, shared a piece of birthday cake I surprised her with this afternoon, and she hugged me before she left at the end of the day. Although she is closer to Andria's age, she reminds me so much of my Lindsey... I think they would be friends if they met! I am really happy that our paths have brought us to the same workplace!!!!!

Now You Can ALL Meet Sue!

I was taking my friend Laurie for her first "endurance practice" on her gelding Topper, along with my daughter Hilary and another friend DeAnn, so I invited Sue to come along and ride Katie and she did! I was impressed to hear that she actually drove to Estrella and HIKED the trail a few days before, so that she would know where to park and what to expect...

Laurie and Topper with downtown in the background

Deann and her Arab gelding Onyx

Me and Glory of course...

Hilary and Destiny - wish I was that limber!!!

Along the trail...




This is the smart-@$$ response I get when asking my daughter to move out of the way so I could get a good picture of Sue...

Finally, a great picture of Sue and Katie!
Sue has family coming in this next week so she will be busy, but I hope to talk her into another ride soon!

Wickenburg Massacre Site

Today found me and Luna and a bunch of friends out west of Wickenburg...
Mama's itty bitty truck :)

It was a bit larger group than I usuallY take Luna with, and a longer ride, but it was the best option for taking her out this weekend, so I did it anyway. In the beginning I was wondering what I had done to myself, she was rather squirrely... so I had to pay attention and didn't get many pictures while actually riding. I did however get some when we stopped, and from some friends :)

Lovely footing though!

One of Luna's better moments ;)

Came across an old ranch house

The horses were confused by the EMPTY water tank... Playboy, to Luna's right, even licked the bottom of the metal tank!

The old barn...


The old corral

We rode along the railroad tracks - some of us hoping for a train, and some hoping for NO train (and yes, today on Luna, that would include me) - and eventually had to cross under this trestle, which said "1926" on one side...

All but one of us had to dismount to get through - one young gal on a short horse just leaned over and came right through! No way I could do that on Luna, she is at least as tall as her mama!

We had been told there was a crested saguaro out here, but that it was inaccessible so you had to use your zoom to get a good picture... could that be it? Hard to tell in the picture but this is actually a side view and the top looked just a lil funny to us...

Here we go, up the hill...

That wasn't so hard!

Yup we found it... one other gal went with me up (and of course, back down!) the hill, and she took my picture. Not sure why the claim you can't get to it - the hill was rocky but we had no trouble at all, up or down - yeah, not a good idea to tell me I can't go somewhere with my horse{grin}.

This is the view that the crested saguaro sees... that 3-tipped mountain on the left is Vulture Peak in Wickenburg


Finally, a tired girl! Perhaps my ride home will be more relaxing...


Although our fearless leader feared he had missed it somehow, one of the other second-timers on this ride kept insisting it was just ahead... and SHE was right! We DID find the massacre site...

The marker explaining the history of the site:

For more information on this historical event, click here and click here

Luna sees the trailers, we are back!!! What a great ride...

Thanks Ms. Martyr!

For my award:



OK so the rules are:

1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award

2. Share 7 things about yourself

3. Award 15 recently discovered great bloggers

4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award!

So this may take me a while but here we go...

Already covered the first part of #1 in the title so for the second part...

So, seven things, hmm.

Thing #1: I have blue, blue, blue eyes. They don't SEE very well unfortunately, but they LOOK great :) - at least, that's what I am constantly told... {grin}. In case you didn't know, I LIKE having blue eyes!

Thing #2: I would give ANYTHING to have naturally curly hair!!!

Thing #3: In the beginning, I was a donkey admirer. Then I got my own and I was a donkey lover. Then I got more and more, and I was a donkey addict. Now I breed them, AND rescue them, and in selling my babies and adopting out my rescues, I have become a donkey PUSHER!

Thing #4: I started endurance riding last January - next week it will be a year ago. I started it thinking that riding 25 miles in 5 hours was a small price to pay for NOT missing out on camping with my friends... I sure didn't expect to enjoy it! After my first ride, I was like a fish on a line, and now I'm hooked and I can't get enough...

Thing #5: I have been to Europe once, Mexico twice, and Maui three times. I have not been to Australia but that is on my bucket list! I have never been on a cruise either, also definitely on my bucket list!

Thing #6: My girls have things a little backwards. I have all 3 in college, 2 aiming for nursing and 1 to be a veterinarian. Which is nice because my own kids can take care of me AND my animals. But since there is only one of me and I have so many animals, I think the girls have things turned around, don't you?

Thing #7: Quite honestly it was probably bad JUDGMENT but I prefer to claim that I had bad LUCK with men for 20 years, before I found a good one (yes Randy). So... I have been married three times. Randy and I are coming up on our 11th anniversary, which is longer than both of the others put together. THANK GOD!!!!! I will probably never have a 75th Anniversary, heck probably not even a 50th Anniversary, but I will take whatever I can get with this one!!!

Ok that wasn't so bad...

Now for 15 bloggers... notice I did NOT say "recently discovered" because I am limited on time to discover new blogs so I am going to ignore that part and just pick some of my favorites ;) - oh, if I hadn't gotten this award FROM Ms. Martyr, she would be on the list, but... NO REPEATS! And except for #1 because without her I wouldn't be blogging, they are in no particular order...

1. This One nagged me until I started my own blog

2. #1 also nagged This One until she started her own blog

3. This One is a member on my favorite horse forum, AzBCR

4. And so is This One

5. This One touched my heart

6. This One makes me laugh so hard I almost pee my pants

7. This One is a neighbor

8. And so is This One

9. This One is a fellow donkey lover

10. This One takes the most AWESOME pictures

11. This One does amazing things with donkeys

12. This One is THE donkey man

13. This One has some amazing stories

14. Then there is This One

15. And last but not least, This One

So I'm gonna go ahead and post this - I haven't done #4 YET but I will, I swear I will!!!

Remember Argus?

His blog slowed way down and I haven't even been checking it for a long time but something today made me click on it... and I found...

THIS

Katie has done an AMAZING job with this horse... AND I was shocked to read that in December it was his 3-year anniversary of being rescued! Wow... I know I've been follownig his story for a while but hadn't realized it was that long...

Tough Subject

When is it "time"? It's different in every situation, but in every situation there comes a "time"...

I Couldn't Have Said It Better Myself!

If You Haven't Seen...

THIS, you need to!

Yeah, I finally got some time to catch up on some other blogs... and WOW! You'll get another tomorrow ;)

Another Blogger Meeting!!!

Well, kinda... Sue is not technically a blogger as, unless she is hiding it from me, she doesn't have her own blog... guess we'd better get busy bugging her to start one! AND, I did actually MEET her at the Resolution Ride, she had been e-mailing me and I hooked her up with Rusty and she came to volunteer and looked me up... anyway we agreed to keep in touch and try to get together and...

TODAY WAS THE DAY!

Sue is wintering here from the northwest and did not bring her horse, and methinks she is kicking herself... although quite understandably, she worried about the traveling and then maybe not finding anyone to ride with. So I have already told her to get started on arrangements for next year, I can introduce her to lots of people {grin} and yes, some of them even have weekdays off!!! AND if she doesn't find a place closer to where she stays, she can park her trailer and her horse at Painted Promise Ranch...

Anyway, she came out this morning and we did the tour, sorry I never even THOUGHT to get the camera... I was up late last night and it took a while for the coffee to kick in this morning! In fact I slept in so late that I was only half done feeding when she got here so she had to watch me finish that first... but she got to meet all the minis, and the big horses, and the cows and the goats and chickens and the dogs...

By the time we finished that, the big girls were about finished with breakfast, so we grabbed Luna and Katie and saddled them up. We just did the little loop across the street that my neighbor and I usually do on our night rides, but it was a perfect introduction for Sue and Katie, and Luna was a good girl for me. Sue will have to check with hubby about possible other plans BUT I am hoping to introduce her to a sample endurance ride next Sunday - some friends and I are planning to do the Estrella Competitive Track (9+ miles) in "practice" mode, which would give Sue a taste of what she is headed for...

See, she told me today she was so excited, she had found someone to start riding her own horse for her, getting it started conditioning, and she is hiking etc. while here to get herself started, and...

SHE IS HOPING TO DO HER FIRST ENDURANCE RIDE about a month after she gets home...

And yeah... she is blaming it on me...

;)

Sayer Spring

Today saw us exploring the Wickenburg area, I've never been here but I'll definitely be back, with LOTS of extra batteries... sorry I don't have more pictures, my camera batteries had the audacity to die!

The foundation of the old general store...

The first hole in the cliff that had water...

Wonder what this was?

The second hole in the cliff that had water... Someone chalked on the wall - "H+V+J 1/4/10, damn cold water" and on the left, "10 feet back"

It does go back around a corner, farther than I could see, so I'll take the word of the person who wrote on the wall... and yes I stuck my hand in there and they were right about the cold!!!

My friend Evelyn who planned this ride also shared this link about the area... and yes we saw "Rick"'s grave!

San Tans

I've never ridden here before, but convinced a gal I met through AzBCR to lead a ride if I planned it... and of course, if I am riding on the east side, I do my best to convince Lindsey to let me pick her up...

Just a few shots from the ride...





Leave it to my daughter to find a great place to tie her horse for lunch...


Too funny, without even meaning to, I caught Lindsey's "Italian" description of the subject under discussion, which was using your abs while you ride... (*you know, Italian, as in talk-with-your-hands)

Love the saguaro


The San Tans are beautiful and even though it's one heck of a drive from where I live, I will definitely be back!