Meet Sunshine

Just a few months ago I had a gal wanting to trade two of my bigger mini mares for her smaller one. We had been trying to cut back for some time and not having any luck selling the last two. Randy agreed that trading two bigger appetites for one smaller one was at least progress, so we did the trade and Sunshine came to live with us.



Being so much smaller than my "original" girls, Sunshine can go along for indoor visits at the retirement homes and care centers as well, where the bigger girls had trouble maneuvering around the furniture and such. And now with Ozzie (black) and Holly (sorrel) and Sunshine, I can say I have a brunette, a redhead and a blonde!

She's a bit "stocky" but we are working on that!

The big palomino checking out the little one - or, Destiny says "hey, you are the same color as I am!"
She's already done one birthday party. Here she's anxious to get busy.
Under that red cowboy hat is one very happy cowgirl!

I have found over the years that you meet a lot of really nice people through the horses. The gal I got Sunshine from had not gotten her papers updated, and when I got to looking at things, apparently the man she had gotten Sunshine from hadn't either! Her registration was still in the name of her original breeder, Joan Solheim. With the help of some folks I know in the mini club, I got hold of Joan's phone number and called her to explain the situation. She said to bring the horse and paper over and she would try to help, and last weekend I had the opportunity to visit with Joan and get her papers straightened out.

I also got to meet Sunshine's sire, Sir Elegant. He is now 27 years old and such a sweet little old man...

Cheering Up Barb

Today I paid a visit to my friend Barb in Camp Verde. Barb is a recent widow and the week after the funeral she slipped on ice while feeding and badly sprained her ankle. Tough times call for a tough friend (hah! more like marshmellow as soon as I see her new pups) to come cheer you up!

Anyway upon arrival the first thing we had to do was check out the pups, now 5 weeks old. I am madly in love with Scooter, their daddy. He is a TINY little guy. I've known him since he wasn't much bigger than his babies. For some reason I did not get a good picture of him today.
This is him checking out his 3 sons.

Mama and her 3 boys. Yes all boys. Her first litter was a single pup and it was a boy too. Randy said I could have a pup if I got a girl. Figures...

Two of the pups cuddling.

This little guy says "Hey Mama! Whatcha eatin'???"

Munchkin the mama

A closeup of one pup. Aren't they just adorable... and my dear wonderful amazing friend Barb said in a year or so, when Darci is old enough, I can have some Scooter sperm :) - would the result of that be a Yorkhuahua? Or a Chi-kie?

Barb wanted to show how small they are so she got a couple of coffee mugs from the kitchen... Munchkin wasn't sure what to think of pups in cups...
Barb and one pup.

After playing with the pups we went to a great little local Mexican food restaurant for lunch. Burrito Verde is what I had, yum yum!!! I ate so much I didn't even need dinner tonight!

Then we went for a ride. Barb was grinning from ear to ear, she hasn't been able to ride much lately.

And this is me, riding Howard's mare Blaze. What a blast! This girl is a Tennessee Walker and she can MOVE - and while she is moving, I don't much, which is such a nice ride...

Barb offered to get a better picture of me and Blaze. Wow, what a horse. My Paint Mare is a big girl, but kinda lazy. Riding her is like sitting on a couch. Blaze, on the other hand, feels about like an electric chair... she is fired up and ready to roll!

About now Blaze was tired of posing for pictures and ready to get back to the business of riding.

Saw this patch on the way up this morning so on the way home, I watched for it and pulled over for a quick photo opp.

Spring has sprung!

Thanks Barb for letting me come up. It was a great day and we will do it again soon!!

New And Improved - ???

Can you relate to this? Randy says it's because they have to deal with the lowest level of intelligence likely to use the machine... but OMG my ATM is driving me CRAZY!

A while back they decided not to use envelopes any more for deposits. Instead they scan the checks and count the cash so you have ASSURANCE that your deposit is CORRECT. It even prints little copies of the check you deposit on your receipt... which means now the receipts are all different sizes depending on what you deposit, which makes a mess in my purse/briefcase/filing box. What was so wrong with envelopes that you put everything in and stuck it in the machine? I felt plenty of assurance depositing in envelopes...

Not long ago Randy got several bills from his bank and I then proceeded to try to deposit them in my bank. The machine refused to take one of the bills. The notice said "unable to accept your currency" with no reason why... AARRGGHH!! There is nothing wrong with this bill, IT JUST CAME FROM ANOTHER BANK!!! And Walmart took it just fine... If I had an envelope to put it in, this would not be a problem.

Several times I have gone to the ATM and it can't read the check. Or it's not taking checks at all right now. Or, if I by some miracle have cash to deposit, then it's not taking cash right now. And this is better than envelopes how???

Tonight I go to the ATM with 2 checks and a few $20 bills. I put in my card and my secret number. I get several choices and choose deposit.

Now that I have chosen deposit, I have several more choices - cash, or checks, or cash AND checks. So I choose both. I am told to put in my first check. I put in the first check. The machine says it can't read the amount, so I have to enter it. So I enter it. The machine then asks, is THIS the amount? Well, DUH, machine, I just put that in, so let me see, that would be YES! THIS IS THE AMOUNT! The machine says it is processing my check.

The machine then asks do I want to deposit another check. Yes. The machine says put in my second check. I put in the second check. The machine says it can't read that one either, so I have to enter the amount. I enter the amount. The machine then asks, is THIS the amount? Again DUH machine, that IS the amount that I JUST TYPED IN!!!! So YES!!! The machine says it is processing my check.

The machine then asks do I want to deposit another check. No, I do not. The machine then says it is processing my checks. Um, excuse me but DIDN'T YOU JUST DO THAT? With each one separately?

Then it asks me to put my cash into the special drawer for cash. The drawer shuts and the machine counts my cash and asks me if this total is correct. Yes it is. The machine says it is processing my cash. The machine then asks do I want to deposit MORE cash? Um, let me think - why would I not just put all my cash in the first time? Why in the world would I want to deposit more in a separate sequence of pushing buttons? Have I not already pushed every button you have at least twice if not more? Does this make sense to anyone??? No, machine, I already gave you the cash I want to deposit!

AARRGGHH! Randy is waiting, the car is running and we have probably used a couple of gallons of fuel by now, and several other people have arrived and are standing around waiting for the ATM. And it is so kindly now "processing" for the umpteenth time. I never thought I would say this but I MISS MY ATM ENVELOPES!!!

AARRGGHH!

Katie The Cow Horse

Well I forgot my darn camera and Melanie was taking great pictures until she erased them all... so you will have to make mental pictures. Katie is our Spotted Saddle Horse, our only gaited horse. Tonight she and I went team sorting. What a blast! Now I know that Paint Mare will do cows, but Katie hasn't even seen many.

You sure couldn't tell by her behaviour! Point her at a cow and tell her to get him, and away she went. Push him through the gate and stop and guard while our teammates Mary and Buck went after the next one. Then it was our turn again... it was amazing! All I had to do was put her nose on a cow and she took it from there.

The only bad thing is we started at 7pm and they were still going strong when we left at 10pm... and my usual bedtime is 9pm!

But we will definitely have to do this again! Gotta get Randy back on that mare so he can play with cows too :)

Hhmmm, wonder if the minis will let us use them for practice?!?

Meet Skeye

Skeye is on my mind today as I recently had Bonnie Fogg, my animal communicator friend, do a reading for a pregnancy check. Skeye spent a couple of months with Trooper last spring. Bonnie says Skeye says yes she is pregnant and it's a girl. Bonnie is also starting to guess at color and says dark. (By the way Bonnie said, last summer, that Susie was having a girl, and she did!) Skeye should be due within the next couple of months but she sure doesn't look very big. Of course 26 years ago I kept my first baby nice and tight, and Paint and Lily did the same. (The others it was not their first pregnancy - except for the donkeys, who seem to be built different as they get HUGE!)

I first saw Skeye when she was about a year old, she was called Pixie back then - her mom was Dixie, and she was the smallest horse on the place. When I realized that this solid black pony had two blue eyes I was fascinated. I told Yvette, who had rescued Dixie pregnant from the kill buyer, so had the pony from birth, that if she ever wanted to sell that pony, to let me know. Yvette promptly swore she would NEVER sell that pony... but about 6 months later she called asking if I still wanted the pony. Her kids weren't wanting to ride after all and she said "come and get her before I change my mind". However when she came to my house, with all the minis, she was not the smallest by far, so the name Pixie just didn't fit any more.
Since her eyes were blue as the sky I put the two together and she became Skeye. This white star is the only white on her, but I am told by a guy who has done a lot of genetic research that blue eyes come with paint/pinto blood, so that means she is what they call "breeding stock" paint, or in my terms, a "secret paint".
I also discovered that she wasn't truly black, just such a dark brown that most of the time she looked black. She has an awesome mane and tail...

She loves to play with Zacchaeus

This spring she will be six - SIX!!! How time flies... I started to teach her to drive last spring, then it got hot and when fall came I jsut never got back to it. Once she has weaned this foal, though, it will be time for her to have a job!

This is my favorite picture of her, at age 4 in the tall grass at Mormon Lake with Hilary atop - all slicked out she does look brown, with her winter woolies she appears black...
I just love my blue-eyed girl...

OK I Am Amazed!

Today was a long day for Darci and Hannah.

See it's Wednesday so after work I go to my Midweek Fellowship. I do not go home after work, it's the wrong direction.

Generally Hilary is home every Wednesday to feed, since Lindsey works every Wednesday. However yesterday Hilary had her car taken away... long story! And I'm sure she wouldn't want me to tell it!

I had already made arrangements to visit my friend K, the one with cancer that I talked about not long ago, and I wasn't going to disappoint her.

Hilary did manage to talk her dad into bringing her out to feed, so at least I didn't have that chore awaiting me at 9:30pm... but since she didn't drive, she didn't bring her keys. And the outside key was not where it was supposed to be, so she couldn't get in the house to let Darci and Hannah out. Which means my poor girls were in their respective pen and crate from before 7am to after 9:30 tonight.

And even after 4+ hours, neither one of them had a wet spot on their potty pads. Wow. I just couldn't believe it! There is no way I could do that, not even close... They were sure happy to see me!

Sure made me think about changes I might have to make once the girls are gone for good... I sure do depend on them to help out!

Weird subject I know but hey - I am AMAZED!!!!!

Tis Better To Give...

I hereby bestow the above award on my fellow bloggers:

Mikey http://thehorseshoeinghousewife.blogspot.com/

Katie http://savingargus.blogspot.com/

desperate horsewife http://carpentercreek.wordpress.com/

Josh & Lacy http://carrollfarm.blogspot.com/

Donia http://smallwondersminifarm.blogspot.com/

and

Tish http://www.foreverhomedonkeyrescue.blogspot.com/

and i would have given it to Jen at http://copenhagenkisses.blogspot.com/ but someone already did!

You are each special to me in your own way but with each of you, I know, the equines hold a special place in your heart as they do in mine!