Reclaiming The Land

Well this won't turn out to be what you think by reading the title lol. Let me preface by saying, when the gal who owned this place before us had her perimeter fence done, on the west side they "missed the mark" so to speak, lined up with the wrong stake out front and therefore left out a pie-shaped piece of land, which they later enclosed with a simple 3-strand barb-wire fence. In the back the two fences were REALLY close together, but the wedge gets wider as you move toward the front, and at the very front it is more than enough room to drive a car in! After about 5 years of cattle, and another 7 years of horses, the fence was in really sad shape in the back, and one goal with truck money once it sold was to take care of that problem - and MY goal was, to reclaim our land when we fixed the fence. We did the first 100-foot section last weekend but I wasn't able to take pictures due to camera problems. Now that I have a working camera again, this is the piece we did last week:

Today we had some helpers:
Shasta

Zacchaeus (and Shasta again)

Rocket (at least he looks like he might actually be some help!)

Here is the end of the first section and the start of the second section. The old fence is on the right. You can see that in 100 feet, the two fences are already about 5 feet apart!

Oh boy, found another helper! Justin is supervising Randy's use of the come-along.
This is the come-along - yes, HOME-MADE! We didn't have one, and Randy has gotten quite good at finding solutions to our problems that don't overwork his bad back or his "older" wife lol. With his issues it's a necessity... and I am more than happy to take advantage of his brilliance to save my own aching back! It's truly a blessing in our situation that he has such a good brain for figuring out how to accomplish what we need done that we really cannot do ourselves. His motto - work smarter, not harder!


Cranking away, looks like he is working hard but the strap is doing the hard part!

The old fence:



And the new one, all stretched and ready for us to strap it to the T-posts! Also on the ground on the right you can see the T-post puller, which makes it real easy for me to pull out the old posts! Putting them back in to supplement the not-enough-posts in the barb-wire fence was not so easy, even with the post-pounder! It really wore me out, but even so the post-pounder is much easier than trying to do it with a sledge hammer!

The only remaining issue is removing the wooden posts from the old fence line. Behind these where the shovels are leaning (see the orange handle?), you can see where we put 3 green T-posts close to handle the seam in the fencing, instead of using wood like they did on the old fence. Bcause we plan to put pipe fencing up a few feet inside the wire fence, to keep the horses off it, we did not need to use the heavy duty wooden posts - besides, as you can see from the old ones, the horses just use them as chew toys anyway!

As for these posts, the half-dug first one took Hilary and I over half an hour last weekend, and I was NOT looking forward to having to dig up the rest of them. But SCORE the neighbor's teen-aged son came out the back door just at the right time today, he's visiting long-term from out of state and was quite amenable to making a few bucks - which I am happy to spend to keep myself OFF the wrong end of the shovel!!!! Especially since there will be 3 more, and 3 more, and 3 more... each time we replace a 100-foot section of fence!

Merry, Merry Christmas!!

A peek at the mischief our little "Santa's Elves" got into ;)









We pray that all of you are have a blessed Christmas!!

From all of us at Painted Promise Ranch:

Randy & Susan (the folks in charge of it all)

Hilary (the only kid still living at home)

Paint Mare, Katie, Skeye, Destiny and Luna (the big horses and pony)

Foxy, Holly and Ozzie (the mini horses)

Dillon, Wiley, Milly Jo, Taffy Leah, Betty Jean, Betty Lou, Susie Q, Josey Marie, Becky Lynn, Peggy Sue, Mary Ellen, Ellie Mae, Sarah Beth and Charles (the mini donkeys)

Tank, Shasta, Samson, Delilah, Zacchaeus, Sherman, Rocket, Jacob, Radar, Darci, Vada, Justin and Ty, and the 4 "elves" above (the dogs)

O'Malley and Twister (the cats)

Dodge (the ram)

{{yes, Dodge the ram - hey it's RANDY's sheep, not mine!!}}

and of course all the goldfish in the fish pond and horse troughs...

Wow Two Days In A Row!!

Well there isn't much to this post FROM ME but it's a CUTE one... my good friend Tammy has a horse crazy daughter, so I thought I would share what she is up to since I am scheming to take advantage of her NEXT school break:

http://spicebootcamp.blogspot.com/

Added to my blog list if it's easier to go click there :)

Back From Among The Missing

Sorry, things have been SO HECTIC here... and to top it all off the video camera broke, and BOTH my little digital cameras are having issues. {gggrrrrrrrrrr}

So I bit the bullet and bought another camera. AND IT WORKS! I'm officially happy with it :)

Now if work would just slow down I could get back to blogging! I miss all my friends, haven't been keeping up on ANYBODY's blog any better than my own {embarrassed face here} I think about you all and miss you terribly though!!!

So some updates.

Work: Thought I was losing my job 12/31 but the good news is, I have a reprieve of 5-6 months that just might turn into permanent. So praying hard and would appreciate any and all added prayers! With Randy out of work since March I do NOT need to lose my job too! Have been busy as all get-out at work, organizing the division of our firm. The paperwork is unbelievable!!! Which means I have to actually work instead of blogging lol.

Critters: Darci's and Vada's pups are walking around, playing, eyes wide open, even growling and barking (but still mostly whining). Here's a sample and I have more so watch for me to add...




And one of the videos I have so far:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESL33j0wSGE

Randy: Things are looking up a bit, he had an interview today. So we are praying for a call back. It's not the best but a darn good opportunity for now considering he's had no other luck.

The Ranch: Since we finally got the small horse trailer and the Ford truck sold, we started some long overdue fence replacement. No working camera for before and after pics darn it. But between the two of us and a little assistance from Hilary when she got home we completed the first 100-foot section. Broke down and bought a new camera AND IT WORKS (ok, maybe i should say AND I CAN WORK IT) so I'll get some pictures up when we do the next 100-foot section. And the puppy pen is well on the way so will get some shots of that too.

Well I have been lots busier than it sounds but a lot of stuff that would bore y'all to tears so I'll say goodnight for now.

Chi Pups - Eyes Open!

I am still fighting withmy camera so some of the pictures aren't the greatest but you will get the idea...
Well, eyes are not open when one is sleeping!

This is Vada's fawn boy... and the batteries died before I got a closeup of the girl! (But she looks quite a bit like this one.)

Vada's black and white boy

Darci's fawn boy - look at all that hair!!!

Vada watching me take pictures of the pups

Since the four pups were all together, Darci just fed them all... and actually, shortly before this, so did Vada!

Up on little legs instead of scooting on bellies!

Ty wondering why the little ones get all the attention (he actually blinked when I took this, his eyes were WIDE OPEN watching me take all the pictures of the otherse!)

Now the fun will start... once they can actually see and start walking around, they get SO CUTE! I got the black and white boy chewing on his brother's ear this afternoon. And, we have actually heard a couple of little barks already.

MARES!

I've added a new blog to my list, by Betsy Kelleher. I've read two of her books and they are awesome. Brought tears to my eyes multiple times!! Be sure to check her out and, if you own a mare, add your input!

Bye, truck!

Finally, finally sold the truck. Took quite a hit on the price but man, things are just NOT moving around here. No one seems to have any money... it's really sad. And scary. Even scarier is, now we have nothing BIG left to sell... so we are really praying that the VA gets off its duff and gets us a determination SOON!

Chihuahua Pupdate

Still having problems with the camera but got a few ok pictures...
From left to right, Darci's little fawn boy, Vada's fawn girl, Vada's fawn boy, and Vada's black and white boy...

Tried to get "individual portraits" but some of them were too blurry to post...


The girls are swapping and sharing puppies with no problem!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I've solved the mystery, in case you have been wondering where pumpkin pies come from...

It must be true because I've found TWO examples...

Somebody pass the whippped cream!!!

Just What We Needed...

Vada went into labor this afternoon! Randy called me to come home from work, we had a feeling things weren't going right but were comparing the timing to Darci and not quite sure, called my friend Stayce (where I got Darci from) who said it sounds like there is a puppy stuck and suggested we go on in and we decided being a holiday weekend we'd best do it, did NOT want to end up back at the ER because (a) they were NOT nice people and (b) it would cost a lot more - upon arrival the vet prepared us for the worst, she couldn't feel any pups moving! But when they came out almost two hours later we had 3 live pups and mama doing fine... I asked how many pups and they said just 3, so all were saved. The stuck one had feet in the right tunnel and head turning back into the other uterine horn so would never have come out on its own, thank God and Stayce we went in when we did, if we had waited a couple more hours we would have lost at least that pup and maybe all of them.

Darci's pups the first time weighed, in ounces, 2.0 2,0 2.5 and the second time 2.5 1.5 and 3.15 - Vada's pups weighed 6.0 6.5 and 7.0!!! No wonder she was so huge!!! She is spayed and the rest of them will be fixed as soon as we can scrape up the money (anyone want to buy a truck or trailer?), I am so done with this. The donkeys are MUCH easier! Lots of people tell us they want a dog just like ours but we have decided this is their only chance, after this they just have to go look somewhere else. It's not worth risking our girls.

Randy is frustrated with the "grand" vet bill (yes, a THOUSAND dollars!!) but it could have been much worse, at least the pups survived! That's a better percentage than the bill for half that much for Darci with only one pup to show for it... I think breeding dogs is just like breeding horses - the only way to make a little money from it is to start with a LOT!

So all total we have a tiny fawn boy from Darci, and a fawn boy, fawn girl and black/white boy from Vada. Darci is helping Vada with her pups as she is still disoriented from the anesthesia and a little weirded out by these strange creatures since she was asleep when they arrived. But she is settling in and it looks like all will be well.

Unfortunately the pups will not be old enough to leave mama by Christmas but if anyone doesn't mind a late Christmas present they will be ready mid-January. However if anyone needs a puppy for Christmas the boy born last March is available, he is cute as the dickens and really sweet, but the old (86) lady who bought him decided she just can't handle a pup. Justin is already neutered and has had all his shots so you won't have those expenses... she has about $500 in him and would like to get some of that back, she knows she can't get it all back... so feel free to make me an offer to present to her.

There will be no more puppies around here, this IS your LAST CHANCE!!!

Tough Few Days

Well my Darci (chihuahua) had her pups on Saturday afternoon. The first one was stillborn, a boy that looked EXACTLY like Ty... the second was a TINY black girl and then a HUGE fawn boy (well he was more than twice the size of his sister!) The last two were born so close together that the boy came out before the afterbirth for the girl... unfortunately weighing in at 1.5 ounces our little girl was not very strong and although we helped her nurse and even bought supplement to feed her, she did not make it past 36 hours. Darci is understandably pretty intense about her remaining pup but I insist on weighing him several times a day and he is gaining each time so all seems well there. Darci herself was trembling pretty bad and panting late Sunday night, we ended up at the animal ER at 1am and didn't get home until 3am but they couldn't find anything bad wrong, the things they checked were all ok, but they did say she needed to poop and they "helped" her with that. X-ray at the regular vet in the morning ruled out an undelivered pup and there is no fever or unusual discharge so they don't believe she retained any birthing material either. At this point I am thinking that constipation is her problem, so we are working on that. She is not eating real well which worries me a bit but of course we can always tempt her with people food {sigh}.

As a consequence of not much sleep for several days I crashed yesterday, took off work early, was home and in bed by 4pm and slept almost the whole night through except for about an hour around 9pm when I woke up hungry and ate a couple of apples and some Amish peanut butter. I slept so hard I had a bad headache but that's finally almost gone too. I'm really looking forward to hitting my pillow again shortly here... My apologies to my blogger friends, I have not been able to keep up with anyone (including my own blog) but I hope to get back to it soon!

One good result of all the worry over the pups is I didn't eat regularly and this morning the scale said a new all-time low of 184.8 so I broke that 185 barrier... I am sure it will fluctuate back up a bit as it has been fluctuating a couple of pounds either way for a couple of weeks... but maintaining pretty much 186-187 or so.

And our other chihuahua Vada looks like she is about to BURST! Her belly is so tight, and I love to lay my hand on it and feel the pups moving inside - they are really active the last couple of days. Had her checked at the vet too and they said it should be within the week... we are praying for a better result with her litter. It's hard to deal with but the vet said that with the dogs this small, they are actually surprised if they DON'T lose at least one pup. My experience is with bigger dogs - and even Hannah was over 10 pounds and her pups were small but not tiny.

Well good night all.

Introducing... Santana!

Long story short someone else I "know" through the internet has a blog... and a very interesting story from yesterday! So check out Santana and Kathryn on my blog list :)

Once you read it you will understand when I say, I am now off to search Randy's shop and steal his fishing vest ;)

Not Much Today...

I had some really cute shots of Sarah Beth and Charles both, and my pregnant chihuahuas, and some other stuff... but when I went to download them from the disc, they aren't there. Even retook some but still not there... so something is up with my camera! And I'm not good at diagnosing that kind of stuff... so this is all you get today:

Charles playing dead baby... they all do this at some point, and stop my heart until I get close enough to see them breathing...

Of course all the others wanted to know what I was doing out there and the commotion woke him up!

The first four of eight butterflies I am making...

Shades of Mikey LOL... I got 6 of them in one picture! That's Justin in the middle, part of Ty upper left, Vada's head upper right, Radar and Sherman in the bottom right corner and Rocket bottom left


Randy and I made more progress on the dog pen too but by the time we were finished it was too dark for pictures. Not that it would have showed up anyway GGRRR. We also did a major cleaning job in the living room and got the crates set up for the girls. Yes that's plural, crateS and girlS - we have TWO pregnant chihuahuas! Darci could go any time now and Vada soon after... now I'm hoping I can retake the belly pictures for posterity {and blogger} before they pop!

Today I scanned this picture for my friend Mary. This is her favorite picture of her shi tzu Squirt. She was 16 and passed away last night. Her health was getting pretty bad so it's not such a bad thing for Squirt... but it's awful hard on Mary! And then I got caught up on my blogger friends and found out about Mikey's Casper... such a sad weekend!
RIP Squirt and Casper!!!

Veteran's Day - Thank You!

To those serving now, THANK YOU! May God keep you safe from harm and bring you back to your families.

To those who have served in the past, THANK YOU! May God bless you with the strength to deal with your physical and emotional residuals from that service.

To the families of those serving now, THANK YOU! May God bless you with the safe return of your loved one!

To the families of those who have served in the past, THANK YOU! May God bless you as you deal with the residuals of that service.

And to the families of those who gave their lives in service, THANK YOU! May God bless you as you deal with your loss.

And a very special THANK YOU to my very own veteran - LOVE YOU HONEY!!!!!

Busy Busy Week!

Well I don't have any pictures - don't shoot me!! I had a nice ride on Saturday morning with a few neighbors and Lindsey rode Luna who was a total b*tch again. Geez. But I got on her Saturday late afternoon and rode her around the yard and she was perfect.

My dear friend Shirley came over Sunday to ride, perfect timing after a quick trip to Wickenburg for breakfast at Cowboy Cafe for me and Randy :) and a stop at Matt's (Serenity Farms) where I got a few necessities and a new cantle bag, AND a new water bottle carrier - which I discovered, during our 3-hour ride, works REALLY well! My frozen water bottle didn't melt!

A very nice young lady came over on Sunday afternoon to ride Maggie, our horse guest, and they clicked really well. Maggie's owner Mary came over to meet Savannah and her mom Tammy and I got some more good reports on our Ruby as well. And I rode Luna again. That's my goal, to get her going again, even if it's only 10 minutes and one time around the yard, I've got to keep her working.

Then yesterday I got the call that a deal was made, Maggie is going to be Savannah's new horse and her gelding is going to Mary's - but Mary says, he is going to be a horse for hubby and daughter - SHE WANTS RUBY! I am so happy to hear that Ruby is such a good match for Mary!

I rode Luna again and we had a real breakthrough. Normally when I send her around in the round pen without a lead rope on, when I ask her to stop she turns her butt to me - which of course is a BIG NO-NO! I know there is a way to tell her not to do that and I have been shown more than once but I just couldn't get her to face me. So I started using the lead line AND the round pen, and when I ask her to whoa, I give a little tug on the rope and MAKE her face me. Well last night I sent her around without a lead rope and when I said WHOA she just stopped and faced me pretty as you please. WOO HOO!

Of course tonight my plans to ride got sidetracked darn it. But I had Savannah and her mom here to pick up Maggie and drop off Blaze, and Mary came to meet Blaze and ride him a bit, and two other neighbors stopped in to see the new donkey foals AND one of them wanted to meet our rescue donkey Abigail and really liked her, so much she is going to try adopting her as a companion for her horse! So even if I didn't get to ride Luna tonight, it was a very productive evening!

Luna will get a double break though as tomorrow night is Midweek Fellowship and by the time I get home after 10pm I do NOT feel like riding! Blaze is our guest until Friday when I have the day off work and can deliver him - I told Mary I would bring a horse, and maybe a friend, and we are going for a little ride Friday morning as well! I'll try to get some pictures, and some more foal pictures too, very soon!!

Finally! Pictures...

Meet Charles, all dry!






When he first came out all wet, I really thought he was going to be chocolate like his father:

Then when he was almost dry, but it was almost dark, in the flashlight he looked the same color as his mom... And now, I just don't know what to think! I guess we will have to wait and see what he looks like when he grows out of that baby fuzz!

Indian Wife Named Four Horses...

That was me today. Because YESTERDAY I asked Randy to take daylight pics of our new little boy and he FORGOT. I ask you... HOW????????? Some days I just don't understand him. Now everyone is after me to post dry pictures of the little boy and I still don't have any.

So today I am the Indian Wife named Four Horses... have you heard that one? A white man asked the Indian why his wife was named Four Horses. He shrugged and said, "you know....

NAG

NAG

NAG

NAG!"

LOL but I got the job done, Randy called mid-afternoon to say he took some pictures for me. Of course it's Wednesday and we have Midweek Fellowship so I'll have to see if I can stay awake long enough after I get home tonight LATE to get them uploaded and downloaded - or is that downloaded and uploaded?

PS the young man says his name is CHARLES!

Diet Progress and...

Don't worry I have more Sarah Beth pictures for you! But first...

Today is day 8 of our 4th 11-day diet... which means it's veggie day. Can I just say that salad is NOT on my top ten list of things to eat for breakfast? Especially when the exact same thing is on the menu for lunch? However, I just keep picturing in my mind that scale this morning, that said 185.4 WAHOO!! I have promised myself that IF I can get to 180 by the end of this 11-day session, that's it for me on the quick-loss plan. I am getting awful tired of eating this way... and I have found that although it's slower, I do keep losing just following the 45 pages of regular diet tips from this plan. Randy wants to keep doing the 11 days and I'll eat with him when he does, whatever he is eating, but at work or elsewhere, I'm not going to be that strict.

I am ALMOST to a total weight loss of 25 pounds though so i'm extremely happy with my progress so far!

OK, OK, here you go...













Randy took these for me when I got home




And thank goodness I asked Hilary and Randy to take some pictures for me during the day, because even getting home early, with Susie Q going into labor, this is all I got of Sarah Beth myself today!


Dry pictures of our little boy are on order from Randy today :) so check back tonight!