Fixin' Fence

Well my dogs love to chase bunnies, but the bunnies have learned where the fence is and they zip right through it. Unfortunately there is a section in the back corner that is still 4x4 wire adn Sherman recently chased a bunny through there and found he could fit too. He got in big trouble a couple times for leaving the yard, and was behaving again, but yesterday morning he went through and took Ty with him! And that is NOT going to happen again!!! So I'm fixing fence... can't afford to replace the 4x4 wire yet but had some scrap of the shorter no-climb so i'm wiring it along the bottom of the back fence. Sure wears me out in this heat but I got a good section done before dark last night and another good section tonight. Will finish wiring together in the morning, then have to search out one more piece of scrap for the last section...

I'm just relieved that for whatever reason, the big mean dogs that I USED to see in that neighbor's yard have not been out lately...

Rainy Monday

Two days of traveling with no time for a nap has left me beat! And now I get to work 4 days in a row with no time for napping... which I really need, with my summer schedule of getting up at dawn so I can do stuff while it's "cool" (yup that is a RELATIVE term! This morning I was getting hot already, checked the time and it wasn't even 6am yet!) It was awful hot today too... until just before dark, we got a nice breeze and a rain shower... I was happy that it came while I was out in it, I LOVE the rain... Didn't last near long enough but off to the northeast it's looking like we might get more... and boy do we need it, it has been SO DUSTY!

Granite Mountain Ride

Just one shot from the end of the ride... I had both Sherman and Rocket with me just at the end, but for most of the ride, Rocket hitchhiked with Melanie on Shiloh. We did discover that although Rocket rides better than Sherman (Rocket tucks himself into the saddle and just lays still, while Sherman stands and "surfs"), when it comes to dangling, Sherman is definitely much better. So it's a good thing that Rocket rides so well and doesn't fall off much! When he did lose his seat once, rather than hanging patiently like Sherman does for someone to hoist him back into place, he was scrabbling and clawing trying to get back up himself, and the horse did NOT like that...

It was a little warm at first but with cloud cover and breeze and being able to dunk heads and wet clothing in the water pump at the lunch stop, we had a lovely ride today :)

Saturday Surprise - Sharon's Shower

How's that for alliteration? {grin}

One of my horseback riding website "hag" friends is due to have a daughter in early August. Sharon lives in Flagstaff... so I was thinking about planning a "virtual shower" for her - we would all mail gifts, then get a temporary chat room so we could all log in while she opened them and posted. Unbeknownst to me, a couple others in our group were also e-mailing about doing a shower for her... Then I got a message from another friend who has known her longer than the rest of us about the shower her family had planned... it was not a surprise itself, but they were hoping some of us could come up from the Valley and WE would be the surprise. So we did and we were :) Sharon was so happy to see us. Turned out there were 6 of us from the website:

Wendy, Sabrina, Sharon and Melanie, and me and Suzi in the front
(and that's Ava, the littlest haglet, still inside lol)
She got some really cute baby stuff including three - count them THREE - of the same little stuffed horse. It is part of a set with matching outfits and she got the outfits in each size they come in as well. So cute, almost makes me want to have another baby - ah ha ha ha ha, just kidding honey! It was fun seeing all the cute stuff but I don't even want a grandkid unless it has 4 legs and a tail ;)

Luckily I can have a little fun with Sharon's baby :)

One Last Friday...

Well today was my last Friday of work. From now on it's a 4-day week - and, darn it, a 4-day paycheck! So I am trying to concentrate on what I will be able to do on my day off... lots of chores! Oh joy!!!

Actually, it will no longer be called FRI day...

It will be RIDE day!!!! WAHOOOOOO!!!!!

PS to all my blogger friends. I am disappointed in you. I know I got behind on my blogging when I went to San Diego to ride on the beach and my daughter was visiting. I know!!! But I posted a really cool video (see San Diego Day #3) and THERE IS NOT ONE COMMENT ON IT!!!!!! Actually there is not one comment on my whole trip to the beach with the horses and I am so bummed...

Two Whole Years...

Wow we had an awesome Midweek Felloship last night... I can't believe it's been two whole years. And neither can Gary... he thought it would fizzle out after a few weeks!

Anyway once again if anyone is local, you are MORE than welcome to join us :)

Smart Chihuahua!

No this is not one of mine, just a picture that a friend sent me via e-mail... but it's good for a laugh!


And tonight is the 2-year anniversary of our midweek fellowship with The Valley Remnant, they are planning EXTRA MUSIC and I am so looking forward to that!

WOOT!

Lookee what I got!


This guy did himself in, went down a gopher hole, came out with a gopher and got himself stuck in the gopher trap... when my neighbors found him he was already dead. So they removed his head and called me :)

So he is in the freezer awaiting me to have some free time to try this on my own - Mikey says I can do it!

They're Back!

Our portraits, I mean. The ones that the 3 girls and I had taken while Andria was here a couple of weeks ago. Of course I always hate pictures of me but I think the girls all turned out really well... now to divide them up and get them where they need to go!

And... this is my last FULL week of work! Of course I will miss the 20% of my pay I will no longer be getting {sigh} but I am trying to concentrate on all the {chores I can do} ahem FUN I CAN HAVE on my days off! Ok, knowing me, I will be doing chores AND having fun ;)

Happy Father's Day!

Got all my calls made - my father, my step-father, my father-in-law... and yes my son-in-law. I don't have any 2-legged grandkids but I wanted to call and tell him how much I appreciated that he was such a good dad to my granddogs :)

Surprised him! But I think he liked it...

All 3 of my girls called Randy which makes me feel good. And we had Alex with us for the weekend, so we met up with T.J. on the east side before taking Alex back to school (long story short, this whiz kid is in summer school at ASU for the second year, and he just finished his junior year of HS!) - anyway we had a nice lunch at Monti's La Casa Vieja, we'd never eat there before. Of course the lunch conversation was pretty much guy stuff so since I couldn't talk I ate too much lol. Thanks boys!! Seriously, thanks so much for including me in your dad's lunch...

Had some time to kill so visited the local Ross store and SCORE I found 3 pairs of capris :) Happy Father's Day to ME! ;)

An Awesome Day...

I was fortunate to be able to join a few friends as they worked on their horses for upcoming endurance rides. First ting out on the trail the lead horse came upon a rattler... the rest of us backed off so she could turn around, then a couple of us walked back to toss rocks and convince the snake to move on and let us pass. Stubborn thing took quite a few rocks!
A Katie earcam

Gorgeous day, gorgeous rocks, gorgeous view (and if you look close you can see the rigs between the rocks!)

One of my friends is trying out a horse and, I believe, this was her first "real" ride - several others and several hours.
Melanie and Baloo

Caught this shot of Melanie after a session of gaiting along the wash...I think she's happy!

What a great couple ;) I hope it works out that she can keep this horse!


Afterward we hit Harold's in Cave Creek for lunch and I had the YUMMIEST chicken sandwich - if you go there, try the "Sandscratcher"! Then I came home and took a nap ;) I was supposed to go get hay but by the time I got home I wouldn't have made it, so I talked Randy into going during the week for me - he's such a great guy! And to top off the day he took me to Olive Garden for dinner!

Walking With Winnie

WOW! I got an e-mail today with this link:



ok link not working for some reason so you will have to cut and paste this:

http://www.shawangunkjournal.com/2009/06/18/news/0906184.html

and I will try to fix it later at home, sometimes my work computer doesn't allow stuff {go figure}

...anyway so I checked it out and WOW! Definitely added Ann and Winnie to my blog roll and I am going to follow their journey...

Quite the uplift after yesterday's post huh?

Sugarfoot Is So Lucky!!!

This mare was not.

I found out about this yesterday. It is unknown whether the horse was turned loose or whether she got out but even if she wasn't dumped, just look at her apalling condition. And she got caught in the cattleguard - 3 broken legs, yes she had to be put down on the spot. By the way this was in Tonopah and the pictures were taken by someone I "know" through my riding forum.

It just makes me want to shoot someone.

This is happening more and more. This is why, despite a huge decrease in our income, I still have 20 equines. It's heartbreaking to see this happen to ANY horse. If it happened to one of mine, it would kill me... so if we have to eat Top Ramen so we can feed our herd, well, so be it.

Little Boy Pupdate

No pictures this time darn it, but on a whim I stopped by and got lucky, found the ladies in the dining room after no response at the apartment door, they were finished so took me back upstairs to see our boy. He's grown a bit but still really little... his ears are about standing up... and HE REMEMBERED ME!

They decided to name him Cocoa, which is still an awful trite cliche name to me but not quite as bad as their first idea, Pepper... at least he LOOKS like a "Cocoa" with his chocolate color. But the important thing is, HE IS LOVED. And he has a buddy, a tiny gray poodle named Dusty, who was quite put out with me for touching HIS puppy! Once I got Cocoa on my lap, though, he decided to join in and after that I guess I was okay...

And we have a tentative plan for me to bring Darci for a visit, to see if they remember each other and because the pup's owners would like to meet her. I WILL have the camera with me then!

Donkey Stuff

Well tonight I trimmed two more donkeys, Taffy and Mary Ellen. Both were almost perfect for me. So I am wondering, WHAT IS UP with my donkeys???? Of course I did have oatmeal raisin cookies to bribe them with...

And I forgot to post these on Sunday: This is what was waiting for me when I returned from my ride...

Do you think they are hungry?

Once the gate was opened, all I saw was heels


Happily eating - better late than never!

Little Girl Pupdate

She's getting cuter all the time isn't she?

As for me I'm feeling good about accomplishing something. Got Betty Lou trimmed and she gave me no trouble at all. And I brushed ten yes TEN donkeys tonight! Then fed everybody, and all after work and before dark!

Horses and Cleanup

Just missed Mercy's ride at the gymkhana last night but I got to see Wade and Mikey run. Too dark to get pictures that far away but got a couple shots on the bleachers... Mikey and Mercy

Wade sits down, Mercy jumps in his lap and says "Daddy save me from the Mommy monster" whereupon Mikey growls and tickles...

Notice the color of the shirts worn by Wade and by Mikey...I told her, next time SHE should wear the blue shirt... and maybe SHE would win the blue ribbon instead of the red! Congratulations on a good night though to all three as Mercy also took 1st in her age group... Mommy better watch it!
Then I got up early this morning and went for a ride with some friends

Came home and fed and unloaded hay and grabbed a bite and down for the count I went... Got up about the time Hilary came home from work and we took two young'uns for a ride - kinda! Neither one wanted to be first so we had a heck of a time getting anywhere. Until we turned around to head home of course - THEN they moved out...
Got the yard cleaned of critter litter before trash runs tomorrow, fed the horses, then spent an hour or so driving all around in the golf cart, picking stuff up that was in the wrong place and putting it where it belongs. Randy did the same with his 4-wheeler and things are looking better around here. Still a lot to do but we are making progress!

Snakeskin Update and Miscellaneous

Ran up to Wickenburg this morning, picked up friends Mary and Lisa, had breakfast at Cowboy, picked up a load of bermuda at Serenity Farms (wow does Matt have some nice hay in!) then stopped by Mikey's mom's yard sale and picked up some good odds and ends, and this:

Leave it to Mikey to wrap it in PINK paper...

Mikey said, "It's like butter".
Isn't is pretty?

I'm bummed I can NOT get a good closeup of the rattle... 3 tries and this is the best.

Now it's off to a nap! I think I will run up to Wickenburg again tonight and check out the gymkhana...

Can't Resist...

Sharing a little known fact...

The first testicular guard (Cup) was used in baseball in
1874. The first helmet was used in 1934. ~~

It took 60 years for men to realize that the brain is also
important.

Aarrgghh!

Lindsey called me today and commented what a drag it is to be home. I agree. Work is hectic, there are tons of chores to catch up on, I've woken up in the wee hours the last two nights and been unable to get back to sleep forever... and the wicked stepmom is at it again. Now that the girls are both 18 and child support is all done I was hopeful that she would just GO AWAY. But she still feels it necessary to bad-mouth me to my kids. You know, if she wants to b*tch to the ex about me, hey what do I care? What either of them thinks means about as much to me as, say, whether it rained a quarter inch in China or Spain today - in other words, NOTHING! But why does the witch have to constantly rag on my girls? All I can figure is, she is still jealous because I had him first, even though I don't want him and haven't for almost 20 years now... guess she just can't handle being the encore instead of the real thing? I am so tempted to use some of That Chick's famous terms... douchebag for instance? But really, I have more important things to do, so I'm gonna go do them ;)

And if I get lucky enough that she internet stalks me again and reads this, hey, BONUS!

Catching Up ;)

OK if you've been checking here you know I haven't blogged in over a week, but I am going to take advantage of Blogger's "post options" and go back and fill in... so be sure to check back! Was busy getting ready for and going on a trip to San Diego with the horses so there will be some awesome pictures as I get time to update...

UPDATED to say, ALL CAUGHT UP! So go check out our awesome trip...

Back to Normal :(

My first day back to work (well ok, PARTIAL day, I went in late!) and this afternoon Andria flew back to Utah...

BLECH! I want to go back to San Diego!!!

Get A Load Of This!

My new tattoo!

It's Dillon!!! The guy did a great job with the shading etc...

And why did I do this? Well I've been wanting to for a while and when the girls decided to get "sister" tattoos, I tagged along.

They had been talking about sister tattoos and Andria had the idea to each get their own unique butterfly but in the same place that I have mine (back of right shoulder), to honor mom... and I was honored!

Following are closer shots of each one - unfortunately they turned out a little blurry. Oddly enough all three girls chose various shades of blue and purple... but each style is unique.





So for me it's one down and two more to go... For years, besides the donkey, I have been wanting to do a design of a string of tiny horses I want made into an anklet, and I want to do a lower back piece of my Justice...

However... While there I looked through the books and now I have LOTS more ideas {grin}

Bye Bye San Diego :(

We hung around until checkout time at the campground, took our time breaking camp and chatting with the few people who did NOT leave at the crack of dawn... another LONG LONG drive, this time it seemed to take a lot longer. We didn't get home till pretty late and I am thankful that I took tomorrow off work too!

San Diego Day 4

Today's ride was out from the campground in the opposite direction from where we went Thursday morning. We went pretty much "through town" although we were skirting their huge park.
Someone worked HARD on this part of the trail, check out those rocks!


Stopping for lunch at the Jack-In-The-Box drive through

Checking the menu...

Katie thinks she would like a Pomegranate Berry Smoothie!

This trail had everything! Bridges, water, people walking, biking, running, puyshing strollers and walking dogs - and we even came upon several other horse people!
Going THROUGH a tree...

Water crossings...

Just some shots along the trail...





I am loving this!

Pretty Katie...

Along the golf course


I've got a couple of videos to add to this post too so be sure to check back.
'Twas a long ride so afterwards I relaxed with my boys - they were so happy to see us! We left them in camp since today's ride was through the city...

San Diego Day 3

Today is a trip to the beach with the rest of the group. Of course since we had been the day before, we had a leg up on the rest of them - our horses pretty much went right in! But we had a blast watching the others figure things out.

Judy even surfed with her mare!

Pretty paint!

I took some videos too:

Me and Luna, Andria and Katie


Luna and the pelicans - hang on to your chair for this one!


Later we went into San Diego for dinner at Anthony's... YUM!

San Diego Day 2

Here we go, PICTURES!

First a few from our morning ride out from the campground...
Thanks to my friend Vicki for grabbing this nice shot of all 4 of us with the lake in the background... That's me with my dorky helmet on Luna, Andria on Katie, Lindsey on Thorn and Hilary on Destiny

It was so fun to have BOTH my boys along for the ride... even if I don't quite trust Luna to carry them yet. Andria took Rocket because Katie's had the most practice, and Lindsey took Sherman because Thorn's done it before once with no problem. The problem this time was that it wasn't ME riding Thorn so Sherman kept looking for his mama!

And this was Rocket's FIRST ride - look how relaxed he is!

As Toni (our trainer) suggested, I occasionally take Luna off to the side of a trail ride group, working on teaching her to go where I ask no matter where the rest of the horses are. I LOVE the zoom on Andria's camera... I was pretty far off!

Sherman and Rocket were both exhausted after their ride

Back at camp we had lunch and then headed off for the beach!
Look what we found on the way to the beach! I got my donkey fix ;)

Hey, what's that ahead?

Getting closer... and all ears focused on that movement and noise!

From Andria's camera on board Katie - she is really studying that surf. Can you read those ears? In case you can't, I will translate: "WHAT THE HECK?????"

And Thorn agrees!

Scaring the sh*t out Katie lol

Thorn checking out that surf... after this picture I put the camera away in preparation for trying to get Luna in the water. And of course right then, a big wave came, Katie backed up so fast she SAT DOWN in the sand and couldn't get up with both girls aboard, we were all laughing so hard and they had to get off so she could get up. Actually that worked out well because with the girls on foot, the horses were more inclined to follow them into the water... but oh how I wish I had more than a mental picture of Katie's "sit"!

Still thinking about this...

But Thorn is willing to trust Lindsey - pity the poor fool, he ended up in the farthest - even had one wave break over his back and reach up to Lindsey's neck!

Luna still watching... Thorn and Katie were fairly easy once they got their feet wet.

Destiny, however, says "NO WAY!"

A smack on the butt isn't working...

Kicking isn't working either... see that tail swishing?

So Hilary got off but Destiny still says "NO WAY!"

The secret - trade the bridle for Thorn's halter and get her close when the wave was out, and HANG ON when the wave comes in!

Hilary refused to give up and give in and her perseverance pays off!

Luna heading in, I'm so proud of my little girl!

Once they got their feet wet, we were pretty much good to go!

Moving out!

My Luna earcam of the surf... a dream come true!
What an awesome day! Can't wait to come back tomorrow with the rest of the group!