And STILL Waiting...

This does not look like a happy face to me!
But if someone were taking pictures of YOUR big belly...


Almost as wide as she is tall...
This part is definitely ready!
Maybe tonight...

Meet Dixie

A couple of weeks ago Randy called me and said, "We MIGHT be getting a new dog". (Notice the MIGHT, it's important.)

Now I have been offered SEVERAL chihuahuas lately and I have been a very good girl, NO THANK YOU MY HUSBAND SAYS WE HAVE ENOUGH...

So of course I want to hear about this "might" dog... well, says Randy, remember Christmas time, that puppy my sister got her kids? You mean, the Jack Russell Terrier, that you asked her did she research the breed, since they have cats... and she said but it's such a CUTE puppy, and you told her, when the dog gets older and you can't handle her, let me know...

Yeah, guess what, sister can't handle the dog, she is way too wild and won't leave the cats along... and called Randy to ask if he was serious when he said that...

And foolish woman that I am, I can't say no, because he STILL talks about Haley, the JRT we got him for Father's Day several years ago, that got out of the yard and got hit in front of the house in October that same year :'( (Side note - it was the roommates' fault, and in almost 9 years of living right on a 55-mph road, the only dog we have lost - we DO try REALLY HARD to teach them all, YOU DO NOT GO OUT THAT GATE!!! In fact a few years ago when Hilary tried to take Tank for a walk, on a leash, she gave up and took a smaller dog she could carry for a little ways, because she could NOT get Tank to walk out that gate!!)

So, back to the present, where is the MIGHT in all this? Not really any, other than he agreed with me that before he took the dog from his sister, she was to understand that a) if our pack wouldn't accept her or b) if she was too rough on our tinies, she would go right back to the sister, it would not become our responsibility to find a new home for this dog if we couldn't BE the new home... see we have "several" dogs {tongue in cheek here} and we have found in the past that while the pack will accept a puppy and raise it, and it becomes part of the pack, it is virtually impossible to bring in an adult dog... this one is about 6 months old so not an adult but not really a puppy any more either, so I have no clue how it will go... AND, because JRTs are notorious for hunting smaller critters, I was also concerned about our Chihuahuas and Yorkie... and rightfully so since she was already after the sister's cats...

So the very next day, Randy brings the dog home. She is a wire-haired JRT, looks a lot like a fox terrier... and thankfully, she puppies down to EVERYONE right away, even the 3-pound Yorkie... so no one sees her as an adult or a threat, one hurdle passed...

We watched her carefully with the tinies but since they are all older than her, and she is immediately puppying down at the slightest growl, it appears this is two hurdles passed, and she will likely stay. It took me a while to find time to take pictures though, but without further delay, here she is:


Well, OK, so she was there a second ago... seriously, this dog is NEVER still unless she is asleep... let's try again:

Maybe a butt shot? Nope, still blurry...


Called her name to get her to look at me, instead she comes running...

Finally, a piece of trash blowing in the neighbor's yard caught her attention and I got one that isn't blurry!

I'll have to try again when she is sleeping!!!

Keeping Busy...

Finally, finally, there is a light at the end of the tunnel... well, ok, that's a bit dramatic, but there have been rumors of moving our office for almost a year now... the latest lease extension is up May 31 and the story is we are NOT extending again... WOOT!

I say WOOT! because the plan is to move west on Bell Road at least 4 miles, if you know the area, they want to be west of Grand, which means a shorter commute for me AND will get me basically OFF Bell Road which is a b*tch - er, a BEAR! It is 24 miles from my driveway to my parking space at the current office, which takes somewhere between 30-40 minutes, and ALMOST HALF OF THAT TIME is the 4 miles on Bell Road!!!

However this means I have GOT to get the old files out of here BEFORE we move... this is the file room:


Each of those shelving units is 3 feet wide and 9 shelves tall, and there are actually FOUR of them FULL of files to be boxed for storage. And they can't simply be boxed, they have to be boxed BY YEAR OF DESTRUCTION and on top of that, there is an alphabetical list by client name which needs to include the box number for each file...

The good news is, this is STEP TWO of the file room project. I started out with 2 full shelving units plus 4 shelves, so a total of 22 3-foot shelves, that I had to go through file by file and determine their disposition... some required phone calls or letters but quite a few I could either move to the closed shelves or destroy... anyway after several months of working on this in my "spare" time (between current drafting projects) I am down to 2 shelves of files on which I am awaiting answers to letters or phone messages... My plan is, once I get the other 4 shelving units boxed up, any of those files that have not gotten a response, will just be added to those to be boxed.

The bad news is, there are boxes in storage with destroy dates through 2022 {YIKES}

Well I guess I could call it "job security" lol...

A Story of Sue...

You might remember me posting about Sue a while back, who has been following my blog and spent part of the winter here, and came to help at the Resolution Ride over New Years, and also came and rode with me a couple of times... Well, she had told me that she was also doing her first 25-mile endurance ride on the 26th - the same day I was doing Lucky Pup.

When I got home yesteday I found a couple of e-mails:

I’m glad I went and experienced it. It was challenging! Quaker was full of energy and tested my bravery and confidence level the whole way! I did get off and walk him several times. The ride, being wide open country with rolling hills, let him see riders and horse on every hill, ahead of him and coming up behind him. This “really” gave him a shot of adrenalin!! I think I need to practice on riding in groups but I don’t know if that would help. I think it is just the energy level of the ride. Anyway, I’m glad I did it because it pushed me way beyond my comfort level. I didn’t fall off which I thought was a plus!! He did buck a couple times, spin and bolt, and feel “bunchy” a lot. However, he is very controllable if you catch these behaviors right as they start. I just need to get braver and more confident!! Susan, I hope your ride went well.

And:
The girl I bought Quaker from took these pictures. The first one looks like he has a bloody leg but it is just the ribbons marking the trail. These are at the start of the race. He actually got more revved up the further he went!

And as the day progressed we traded back and forth a couple more...

Top 10!! Good for you! It’s so fun to do well. I can’t say that I did well but it was a good experience and I’m glad I did it and survived! I will be anxious to see pictures. Our ride had 11-75 milers, 60-50 milers, 60-25 milers and I can’t remember how many trail riders. I thought that seemed like a pretty good number. It sure seemed like it out on the trail because about 5 miles was a common trail. There were horses either in front of you or coming up behind you all the time!!

To which I wrote back along the lines of WOW what a big ride... our ride had 8-50 milers, 15-25 milers and just a few fun riders!

And:

I have no clue if that is a big ride for this area or not. Seemed big to me! Thank goodness parking was in a BIG open area. Otherwise I might have had trouble maneuvering. I bought some light weight panels to use for a pen and they are wonderful. 6’ long and only weight 9 pounds each. Well worth the investment. I am going on a week long ride this summer and they will be great for that too. I like the size of your ride better!!

So won't you all join me in congratulating Sue on a successful first 25-miler!!! After all, TO FINISH IS TO WIN!!!!!

Lucky Pup

This weekend was a 1-day ride, 25 miles on Saturday. So we headed south on Friday... I forgot where I put the camera when I brought it home from the office so I didn't take it with me. Halfway to Benson I remembered where it was, but I wasn't going back for it at that point... On a side note, the itty bitty truck did a lot better with the new rear end in it - averaged 7 miles per hour faster, with less audible strain on the engine - AND I EVEN PASSED SOMEONE!!!!!!! And, when Sabrina passed me, I saw that she was in the passenger seat... such a nice surprise to see that her husband Joe had come along! Lucky Pup Ranch, our base camp

Team Hag relaxing after vetting in Friday afternoon - Brenda, me and Sabrina

Obviously somebody said something funny...

It was early to bed and early to rise to get ready for our 25 miles! So nice to have Joe along to take pictures!!! Checked in and ready to go... Brenda on Patch, Sabrina on Jersey and me on Glory

Waiting to start...

Love love love this picture of Team Hag heading out... look at our horses, they are all walking the same - front left foot up! This is a controlled start, led by Brenda Riddle on the Arab (blue shirt on the right) - she is the ER nurse who saved the life of the fallen rider two weeks ago... always a comfort to have her along on the ride!

Brenda took this while we were riding...

Once again I was pleasantly surprised to find that Glory was already pulsed down to the criteria when we arrived at the interim vet check... we had a 45 minute hold so the horses and riders all had time for a nice snack.

Heading out for Loop 2

Glory kept looking back as if she thought Joe should be coming with us...

Joe had taken Brenda's pickup to run some errands, and he caught up to us on the road back to base camp

Happy to be almost back...

Do we look like we've done 25 miles???

Walking in from the final loop - I think this helps Glory a lot, to remove her bridle and bit and walk in lets her know she is all done, and...

Checking P&R to make sure we are down to the criteria (60) which she was!!! YAHOO this is the first time she has been down first try at BOTH vet checks... she is finally getting the hang of this endurance thing lol. We came in together at 6th place out of 15 riders, but they don't "do" ties so since I got to be first of our group two weeks ago, I took 8th this time. Team Hag Top Tens Again WOOT!!!

Waiting on Susie Q...

Took this last night. Checked her every half an hour from 8pm to midnight... no change. Then the moon came up so I went to bed... and, no baby this morning. I can't believe she hasn't popped yet! Of course she isn't officially due until at least the 27th but wow, could she get ANY bigger?

And yeah, I am scheduled to be out of town this weekend for the Lucky Pup AERC ride, so just watch her foal while I am gone {sigh}.

BLECH!

Woke up this morning to feed and felt AWFUL... seriously nauseous! Still not sure how I got everyone fed... Called off work sick and went back to bed... UNTIL 10:30!!! A little computer time to see if my stomach would settle upright... Randy fixed me some scrambled eggs and they stayed down... read my book for a while, then went back to bed... UNTIL 4:30!!!!! Really odd for me, I am not one to get sick and not one to lay around in bed... AND, it surprised me that I actually SLEPT all that time!!! Guess I needed it! Anyway when I woke up at 4:30, I felt a LOT better, just weak from not eating much all day... It had rained off and on all day, and since the rain had stopped, I got myself on the tractor and got the pasture done, it needed it so bad... got everyone fed and that was it for me, relaxed on the computer until Randy got home with my favorite rainy day dinner, grilled cheese and tomato soup! Just as I walked out to let the horses out for the night, it started to sprinkle, and just kept getting heavier and heavier...hoping it rains good again so the pasture soaks it up!

Busy Busy Weekend...

Thanks to the tractor-mounted post-hold digger, over the past few weeks we planted four palo verde...
and 6 mesquite, all in a row between our house and the neighbor, hopefully as they grow they will block his mess and his bright porch lights that wreak havoc on my night vision when I am feeding in the dark... finally finished the last today!

Also thanks to the tractor we got this post removed...
from this section, so now I can finally finish this corner of the small pasture!

Of course I have plenty of places to put the dirt left over from the tree planting...


Fresh dirt spread in the low spots...

And I have been spending a LOT of time pulling fiddleneck, which is poisonous to the horses...

Fiddleneck is the darker yellow flower, with the fuzzy curly leaves, in the middle...


Plus yesterday we got rid of the old bed by delivering it to a friend in Goodyear, then picked up 56 bales of hay in Buckeye, which I then unloaded and stacked - ALL BY MYSELF! I was one tired girl last night, but still managed to finish the trees this morning AND go for a really nice ride at Estrella Park today :)

Katie's 2nd Barefoot Trim

I am still learning a lot so it's harder for me to tell, but both Rusty and Sabrina were amazed at how much progress Katie's hooves have made in just two trims... (although I must admit to shock when Rusty told me this journey could easily take A YEAR!)

Just a few shots of interest, mostly the left rear which if you will remember is the injured hoof.
The left rear from underneath, before the 2nd trim:

After the trim, Rusty pointing out where the hoof wall is compensating for the injury site:

Side view of left rear after trimming, you can see the missing chunk real well in this shot:


Front left from below, before...

and after!


And since this is the hoof we used the first time, a shot of the front right showing where the heel should be. Unfortunately using the rasp, it hides some of what we want to see, I'll make sure Rusty uses his finger next time like he did the first time...


Front feet all done, aren't they pretty...

Old Pueblo, Day 3

What a day... we didn't start until 8:30 again today so we did a little packing up this morning before we left...

Same trail as Friday so once again we were flying - no still pictures but I did get a video {grin} ENJOY!

It wasn't quite as warm after the vet check today but all three horses were still pokey afterward... and Glory for some reason decided that although she didn't want to drink out of the nice clean water troughs the ride manager arranged, she WOULD drink out of the nasty cow tanks...


This little guy was like "WHAT THE HECK ARE THOSE CREATURES?!?"



Jersey and Patch, on the other hand, appreciated the fresh water!

Moseying along that same lovely trail...

A Glory earcam of Jersey's yin-yang butt

Brenda and Patch, on his 3rd day in a row!

Almost done... it's hard to see in the picture, but camp and all the horse trailers are there in the distance, on both sides of the very top of Sabrina's brain bucket...


A triumphant return to base camp for all three of us, and we took care of the horses then packed up the rest of camp and grabbed one last delicious meal from Rocky's Feed Lot... I got a call from another friend, who was on a different trip but also near Tucson, needing rescue from not one, not two, but THREE bad tires... so we headed north and of course Sabrina and Brenda were soon out of sight, my itty bitty truck is slow uphill... however they had to fuel up and I did not, so once I got on the Interstate I passed them at the truck stop. They finally caught back up with me just a couple of miles before Picacho Peak, where I had to pull off and rescue my friend and her horse. I felt bad for her vehicle issues but it was sure nice to have company on the long drive home!

All in all a great weekend :)