More Truck Pics

A friend asked to see pictures of the truck hooked to the trailer... so here they are:

and the hitch/box, close up...

If you see this rig coming down the road, PLEASE don't pull out in front of it! The bigger they are, they harder they are to slow down... and with the critters in the trailer, sure don't want to be slamming on those brakes!!!

McDowell Mountain Park Endurance Ride - WOOT!

Sorry no pictures, I can't believe I forgot the camera... I've never been to McDowell Mountain Park, I just LOVED the trails... partnered up with a gal I sure hope to ride with again, Ellen and her lovely mare Feather, and we had a FABULOUS ride. Glory and Feather were a well-matched team, kept a good pace and we had a blast. For the first time, Glory was already pulsed down at both the interim and the final vet check, so no worries there... and for those interested in stats, we finished 23rd out of 30 completions, with an additional 7 riders who came in over time and so did not technically finish. AHAA put on this ride and it was a first for the coordinator, she did a great job! I wanted to get back home but it's been a loooooooong day topped off by a 2-hour drive home, so if I left anything out, feel free to ask and I'll check back on the comments...

And I have to say a BIG thank you to my husband Randy for coming home early on Friday afternoon to stay with Ozzie, my lil mini, who decided to have a bout with colic - of all days! Had the vet out and he said he thought it would be ok if I went ahead and left so long as someone kept an eye on Ozzie... if it weren't for Randy I'd have missed Moab AND McDowell!!!

Empty Nest Update

Well our young lady called me out of the blue today, apparently she packed the wrong saddle pad and wanted to switch it out for the right one... and she took another load of her stuff out of the barn. I asked her if she was happier now and she said she was. In talking about the dog she left here, she said she would be back for him once she got settled... I wondered aloud why if she had a place she didn't have a place for him, and she said she doesn't have a place yet... I asked if she was sleeping in her truck and she said no, just here and there... but she doesn't give out any information. I knew she saw her sister, and I have seen facebook posts from her, so I knew she was still alive...

At this point I have been pretty successful at the whole "let go and let God" thing, and there really IS peace in my home!!! AND, we are a little excited about our plans for redecorating now that we finally have our empty nest!

The Conversion Is Complete!

We've had my "new" truck for over four months and I think it's been home about two weeks out of that time... but IT'S DONE!!! Well, OK, there is more stuff Randy and Brandon want to do, like put a wind scoop on the cab, and my custom paint job, and finish the inside of the sleeper, but I told Randy he would have to wait, it's my turn to play with the truck for a while!

The bumper pull hitch is in and the back all done, including a step so I can climb up if I need to...



The box around the goodneck hitch is all finished with diamond-plate...

The spare tire is mounted...

And a big surprise for me... NEW SEATS! Randy has had them since before I went to Sonoita but didn't say a word...

Well what do you think? Sure looks a lot different than the day we brought it home...

Empty Nest...

It is with heavy heart that I post my empty nest... last night after I blogged about my ride on Luna, came the final blow-up with my youngest... as when I returned from my ride, she was not home as she should have been, and hadn't called, yet again. When a simple text and phone message to her resulted in several very vicious texts from her boyfriend, that was just the last straw...

Before she left, however, she did tell me that she was not angry nor bitter, and that this was a long time coming... AND that she never intended to follow our rules when she sat down and negotiated them with us last year, that we should never have let her move back in when things didn't work out at her dad's...

GEEZ. And we let this go on for over a year... she would do just enough to make us think she was trying, when in reality she was just trying to smooth things over and not get kicked out...

Well, she finally got what she has wanted all along - she can make ALL her own decisions now. But, she will be making them elsewhere and NOT in my home. In MY home, there will finally be peace...

Well, as much peace as can be expected since I don't know where she went... and a mother WILL worry...

As for the boyfriend, if I so much as see his face after what he "said" to me, I'll be calling the cops...

Lovin' My Luna...

Rode Luna again tonight with a couple of friends, just a short ride as it is getting dark so early now... but she is doing great! She is not spooky even in the dark, and when necessary even goes out alone, at least the short jaunt down the street to my friend's house... AND she comes home alone too, leaving her riding buddies without a problem...

One of these days I am going to have to get brave and take her out on a solo ride...

And Then There Were Three!

Yup Milly Jo finally had her foal this morning... or sometime last night... a lil boy, up and almost dry when I got out about 5 this morning... so I've missed all 3 this fall {sigh} would have loved wet pictures and foaling videos but they are all healthy so that is the REALLY important thing...

A few more pictures of the lil guy... mama is VERY protective, can't even get a picture of him without her in it!





So now we are done for a while... My best guess is that Susie Q will go next and that won't be until March or so... but they've fooled me before!

Ride... Ride... Ride...

What a lovely weekend! Rode Luna Friday morning in Wickenburg with a few friends, then had lunch at Anita's... Rode Katie out from home on Sunday morning with Shirley... then rode Glory on Monday at Dreamy Draw with a few of the endurance gals...

WOW haven't been to Dreamy Draw since I lived in town, 8+ years... it was like "going home", Andria and I used to ride there all the time... and Glory did great in the tunnel! Thanks Sabrina and Savannah for going along to check it out with me :)

First Texas Artillery at Pioneer Village

I wasn't sure how things would go, still waiting on one more baby donkey, so I didn't mention it ahead of time so as not to disappoint if it didn't work out... but I got up early Saturday morning and fed, and there was no baby, so I went in and got all dressed up in the outfit Randy's Aunt Carol gave me when we went to Michigan... and when Randy saw me, he was so excited: "Are you going WITH me???" Here's a few pictures and a real treat at the end of this post ;)






and here's a Youtube link to a quick video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dg7mJhaE4RE

And More Baby Donkey Pics

I took off work early on Monday to get home before the hottest part of the day, when the sun gets under the edge of the shades in the baby pens, so I could move Mathilda and her mother into the smaller pen where the cooler was hooked up, and watch the moms so they didn't fight, like we did Sunday. It was a cloudy day and as I drove toward home, it got darker... and darker... and darker... about a quarter mile from home, the sky sprung a leak and boy was it a gully-washer... it rained so hard I couldn't see the road under my Jeep! The windshield wipers were about useless and I almost missed my own driveway, thank God for our BIG mailbox! Out of the Jeep to open the gate, dogs are panicking - did I mention the thunder and lightning??? Park the Jeep and run back out to close the gate... by this time I am soaked to the skin, wow what a rain...

I left my phone, purse and everything in the Jeep and ran for the donkey garden... turned OFF the cooler first thing, sure don't need that right now! And thankfully the babies are each standing, under their covers where it's almost dry, and on the lee side of mama - even the mama who won't nurse was shielding her baby from the rain. Nothing more I can do at this point and I am shivering from the cold rain, so in the house to a warm shower and dry clothes I went! Oh, and warm food too! That is, once I got past the 14 dogs in out tiny laundry room LOL.

After a while the rain calmed down and eventually stopped, so out I immediately went with the camera to check on the babies again. Found Emily Ann happily nursing her igloo mama... {yes finally decided on a name for our lil spot}

And since yesterday there were more pictures of the first baby, today there are more pictures of the second baby...

Can you imagine how happy I am to see THIS?

Yup she's got a good grip - she's on the OFF side!

And of course I didn't have the camera at the time, but once I went out and found her nursing from the REAR - between mama's back legs!

She looks SO MUCH like Clementine...



Um excuse me... donkeys do NOT like rain!!!!!

As Promised, Baby Donkey Pictures!

Just some random shots in no particular order...

This mama loves her baby girl :)

Lindsey wanted me to take a picture of her holding both foals...

I had to get in on it because I never did get anyone to take pictures of me holding Peter Pan :(


"What is that in front of your face, Grandma? It sure doesn't look like a bottle, like I HAVE!"

She already LOVES to have her lil bum scratched!

Checking out Zacchaeus, look at that lil tail go!

Zacchaeus always loves the babies, he lays outside the pen every time we have a foal, hard to get him to leave that first day... looks a little off in the picture, he is just being cautious, he isn't afraid or mean at all...

Introducing Peggy Sue's lil spotted girl to Betty Lou... maybe, just maybe...

Yes, we did try, once Mathilda had a chance to get her colostrum from mama, to see if Betty Lou would take the spotted foal too... and she would have, but the poor lil thing had learned her lesson all too well - "If I stick my head under THERE, I get KICKED!" So it was a no-go darn it!

And as you can well imagine, I am thrilled to see this:


And yes you read right, the SECOND baby already has a name... however we aren't quite sure yet about the FIRST one {sigh} hopefully something will settle very soon! See last year, when Taffy Leah was pregnant, I talked to that belly all the time, saying if you are a girl you will be Sarah Beth and you will get to STAY... and it worked! Sarah Beth is almost a year old now and a lovely lil donk! So this year, I talked to Peggy Sue's belly too, saying if you are a girl you will be Liza Jane and you will get to STAY! BUT in my mind, Liza Jane was a chocolate baby like her mama and her big brother John Henry... the spots really did surprise me! On top of that, Lindsey says her name is Emily {Emma Leah?} so we are trying to decide which fits best... whether Liza Jane works after all, and if not, whether it should be Emily Ann or Emma Leah... hey, I can always save Liza Jane for the next one ;)

As for Mathilda, we tried that with Betty Jean's chocolate daughter but it wasn't quite right, my friend Mary kept insisting that Mathilda should be a gray donkey, not a chocolate... that baby ended up being Madeline and as you know that is perfect! So Betty Lou's lil girl, being the very next gray girl... yup she is Mathilda, and she seems to like it!

Man Against Horse in Prescott

This may well be the longest blog post I have ever done, but I'm packing the whole weekend into one report and boy what a weekend...

Friday morning I was up and about early, fed all the critters, did my walking, and yes even had time to do my Friday morning critter litter duty before the garbage man ran... had a lil talk with my three big bellies, "I am going to be gone for just 2 days so PLEASE wait until I get home..." then finished loading up and it was off to Sabrina's. As I made ready to turn onto her street, a lil blue pickup turned in ahead of me... hey, that's BRENDA! I called her and she said yup we were ALL meeting at Sabrina's and her mom had just pulled in... and as we approached the house, Sabrina came home from work in the opposite direction. So it was a quick transfer of all my stuff and all Glory's stuff into Sabrina's trailer, and off we all went... I am SO not used to being a passenger on trips like this, but it was very relaxing to travel with the Head Hag, I didn't even need to know where we were going!

Setting up camp was a breeze with "Jack" (Sabrina's new camper) and we were just about to relax under the easy-ups when we see Vikki and Claudia coming up the road... got them settled, had a snack, signed in and had our vet check... all the Friday afternoon "stuff" including SHOPPING {grin}. Ate dinner and attended the ride meeting, more camaraderie in camp and some relaxing beverages and we were thinking about bed when Toni and Melanie arrived...

I even got my camera out and carried it around but didn't take very many pictures on Friday
Camp...


Glory


We went to bed early... got up once, crawled back in bed and was thinking about the race when Sabrina said "are you still awake" and I said yes so she said she had to get up AND check her phone, someone texted her... it's ONE IN THE MORNING and she was afraid it might be one of the kids in trouble but the text was Melwood!!! "I am so excited I can't sleep" etc... well by that time neither could we, we looked out the window at the stars and chattered for quite a while, finally fell asleep and it seemed like just a few second later the alarm went off...

Getting ready Saturday morning:
Savannah (Sabrina's horse)

Shirley and Gypsy

Glory

Ellen and Feather


Claudia and Canyon


Steele (Vikki's horse)


Sabrina, Shirley and I had our hands full with our girls, they were ready to race well before it was time to start - and I was pretty proud of Glory, she hummed like an electric chair under me but as long as we were walking, she stayed in control and did NOT pitch her pretty-much-standard "when the hell are we going to MOVE" fit... We saw LindaK and Rachel coming in but couldn't really stop to talk...
Brenda took video of our start...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajf4gTBPVeA

...and we were moving pretty fast so just a couple shots from the ride itself:



The first 9 miles were awesome, we gaited, we went carefully through rocky patches and rough patches in the wash, we gaited and gaited some more... Savannah was getting tired, Sabrina said GO so we did... and we gaited some more, and we CANTERED - yes my first canter on Glory, and WOW... I couldn't help myself, I was hollering YAAAAAAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, she is awesome... Sabrina caught up at water, and she caught up at the potty stop, and she caught up at the next water... then we started up Mingus Mountain and we all slowed down so we were together for a while...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzLWPo8lhWc

Looks easy here but later on, what a tough climb! Towards the top of the hill Savannah said no more, Sabrina said GO ON so we did... we made the vet check and it was so good to see Brenda and Vikki's mom Nancy, and Vikki and Claudia were there, Canyon was fine, Steele not pulsing down... soon it was time for Claudia to go on... even though we walked in, Gypsy and Glory were pretty beat by that hill, took a few minutes to pulse down... then they had water and food and we did too, in the meantime Sabrina came walking in dragging Savannah, we were so happy to see her... and sorry to hear that she felt she should pull Savannah, but of course supportive of her decision to put her horse's welfare first! And all too soon it was time to go... I had no idea that Shirley was nervous about going on without Sabrina, she and Gypsy seemed so confident! and down the switchbacks we went...





I can see why Sabrina says this is one of her favorite parts of this ride, the views were incredible...

We crossed the finish line together, made it in with a LITTLE breathing room, thank goodness because Glory wasn't pulsing down... all the hags were there to help us untack and rinse the horses to cool them down, my friends are AWESOME!!! Gypsy was cleared and Glory still high and I was getting worried... but with 7 minutes to spare, the pulse-checker called for time on my horse and we had a successful first 25-mile ride, and a heck of a ride it was!

Took care of the horses and it's now about 1:45 or so, was planning to visit with Madeine this afternoon but first checked my phone... oh boy, what is this, numerous messages and texts... what is going on??? First message is Hilary, 9:40, "mom we have a baby and mama isn't feeding it and you need to come home RIGHT NOW"... oh boy, gee thanks Hil, I have THREE pregnant donkeys about to pop, she didn't even tell me which one {sigh} and I don't even have my own rig, I can't come home... next message is Randy, about 10 or so, sounding very serious, "please call me as soon as you can" and there is a text that says G I R L with a picture of a spotted baby... but I STILL don't know who MOM is!!! Called Randy, and NO ANSWER geez... called Hilary, she's at work so left a message, she called me back and finally I know it's Peggy Sue, the chocolate mama, which really surprised me because I was SURE Betty Lou was going to go first... and Randy is calling back on the other line so Hil went back to work, Randy says he got hold of Lindsey and she is coming to help, and my friend andneighbor Pam had been over to help {THANK YOU so much PAM}, and another great big THANK YOU to Sabrina and Shirley and Brenda and all the rest of the gang for listening to me babble and trying to keep me sane, Randy was saying if you can come home please do, I can't fathom dumping my horse on Sabrina but I COULD get a ride home with Linda and Rachel later... until I got a call from Lindsey, "do NOT come home mom, I am here, all is well, I will take care of everything"! What a great kid I have! Well ok Randy is great too, he hung in there and handled everything but for his sake it was best that Lindsey come take over...

So we then headed over to the finish to hang with the gang and cheer the 50s coming in...

In the meantime another call from Lindsey, she talked to Soleil, mama is in a lot of pain and identifying it with the baby, AND since Hilary wasn't up early enough, one of the other mamas, Milly Jo, had tried to steal this baby, and that interfered with Peggy Sue bonding... but they got colostrum milked from mom and bottle fed baby and things were going ok...

Dinner was great, and Dana, the gal who won 1st horse AND best condition in the 50, gave such a nice speech she had me in tears... guess I was so stressed and worn out I leaked!

Back at camp one last phone call with Randy, no additional problems, and at 7:50 Sabrina and I hit the sack in Jack...

BOOM FLASH WHOOSH and BAM BAM BAM on the camper roof, we awoke to a massive storm, thunder and lightning and wind and driving rain... quick zip the flaps and yay no leaks in Jack, poor horses and gosh hope our stuff is ok out there but the ONLY thing we would have accomplished by going out would be to get soaked to the skin, no point in that, nothing else we could do! As soon as it moved off and the rain calmed down we were up and out to check the girls, grab the camera bag off the saddle, grimace at the wreck of the EZ-UP... oh well, it's pitch dark, everything is sopping and muddy, the horses are ok so it's back to bed... oh, and checking the phone, it's TEN FIFTEEN! We thought sure it was like 3 in the morning!!

Oh well, back to sleep! Awoke to clear skies and lovely mud and mess everywhere... fed the girls, started cleaning up and packing up, into the dumpster went the EZ-UP frame but saved the canvas as a spare... all the chairs were wet, we carried them around the truck to set in the sun...


and lil miss innocent Glory


Look what she did!!!


Sabrina is such a good friend, no worries, it could have been my horse just as easily, and wow what a good girl she didn't pitch a fit or we'd have felt the whole rig rocking, and thankfully no injuries to Glory, it could have been so much worse... Shirley's mallet to the rescue, we got it bent enough we could lock the rear gate and get home safely and Sabrina's dad is quite handy So it will be fine...

Snuck in a quick visit with Madeline since I never got over there Saturday... guess David and Linda were still asleep!
Saying hi to the Head Hag


and checking out Ellen's dog Chloe Rose


and then coming over to lip my elbow...


and many thanks to Sabrina for getting some grandma pictures for me - i sure love this lil girl!!!




And I get my phone out of truck, it was charging... gee another text from Randy, it says G I R L and it's not spotted - what??? I text back ANOTHER ONE? and my phone rings, Randy's voice says "Yes, another one..." Betty Lou this time, no surprise there, I really thought she would go first... she did good, I told her that after Moses, then Jeffrey, it was time for a girl... the only thing she didn't do was wait until I got back! He tells me this one is doing fine, already nursing, he found poop... but please don't dawdle coming home...

Then it was off we go, stopped for fuel and McDonald's and down the hill we go... as we pass Sunset Point I get a call from Lindsey, she sounds utterly exhausted, "Mom please come home I can't handle TWO babies"... Oh my gosh, what now, I thought Randy said the second one was doing fine! "Oh," she says, "I haven't been out yet... I spent all night in the Cabella's chair (reclines) in the pen, dozing with Sherman, baby would wake me up when she was hungry and I would fix a bottle... didn't get to bed until 5am... just woke up."

Well we made it safely home, many many thanks to Joe and Sabrina for helping me transfer my stuff so fast so I could get home...

to this:


and this:


All I really wanted was a shower and a nap... but instead I spent the afternoon outside in the heat making sure the babies were ok. More pictures tomorrow, I promise!