Yep, I got the craft room finished, the apron completed (did a pretty good job on it too!), house cleaned, laundry mostly completed.. yep we were ready for our company and the busy weekend ahead.
Rick & Kristen came in late Thursday evening, they as well had a busy weekend planned so I didnt feel too badly that we could not focus all our attention on them. Friday, Shana came up and we went out to the tree farm to ride the flagged trail for our annual club prize ride. I rode Red and she had to ride HotRod.. we borrowed him for the day since Edgar is still lame on his shoulder. I knew it would be a slight challenge for Red, he hates to have brush around his legs and sure enough I had to get him in the bush many times on that ride to adjust flags.. considering we are the tallest ones, we tend to get needed often. :)
He was definately irritated at me for asking him to go outside his comfort level.. his lips were smackin a lot, but he had his ears forward and he seemed happy to be out. A few times I had to remind him what "WHOA" meant, he was a bit anxious but I'm sure it had more to do with brush on his legs than him being overly defiant. Towards the end of the ride, I asked him to sidepass to the right to get into some brush and he had a little tizzy, struck out his front leg with a clear message saying "Hell No Lady, I'm done!" :) So when I put more leg into him, instead of going away from the pressure, he went into it, sidepassing the wrong direction and then got his gangly legs hung up on themselves and the 6" embankment, yeah... we went down!
All the way down.. I screeched as I thought for sure I was coming off, plus it startled me pretty good. He's a big guy to go down and I'm a big girl to get back up! My riding buddies for the day were up ahead of me, so they all missed the fiasco. Red was on his side somewhat, I was just waiting and he started to attempt to get up, it wasnt pretty.. because he slipped a couple times on that darn 6" embankment that was underneath him, so it was sloppy and really bouncy back/forth but he made it up and my ass remained in the saddle. My gut has a pretty nice round horn bruise, but that is the extent of the battlewound. Shana came trotting back to see what the commossion was about, but she missed the entire show.
Minutes later I again asked Red to get into some brush to finish off our ride and he was a little less irritated and just did what I asked.. He worked hard that day and I was really happy he did so well, doing something he just hated!
Shana, Derek & I got up at about 5:30am Saturday to get ready and head off to the tree farm for the day. Shana & I worked registration until about 3pm, while Derek helped wherever he was needed and then later cooked up some really tastey burgers with his stylin apron on! The day/ride was a success and the rain held off, amazing!
Derek & Shana setting up signs
Shana & I at registration sportin the flashy organge vests with Kathy and Del in the front.
Derek and Earl cookin burgers and Dennis servin up cookies!
The day was not over for us though, we left the tree farm and headed straight to my brothers for some dinner and cards. When he invited us days earlier in the week, it sounded great.. and it was great, but we were exhausted.. mostly Derek. He actually went home after dinner while I stayed to play cards and hitched a ride home with my parents.
Sunday the boys had plans to play golf and us girls were going to go riding. Kristen hadnt been out in about 5 years so she was really excited about it. The weather seemed questionable but OK and just as she got in the shower, the showers outside came down! We held off for a while then decided to heck with it, we were riding rain or shine! Loaded up the boys (I rode Edgar, wanted to feel how bad his shoulder was and see if he was okay, which he is not yet) and she rode Red. It rained on us as we took the horses out of the horse trailer at Lords Hill and 5 minutes later, it quit and we had nice clear dry weather for the entire ride. The guys were not so lucky, although they didnt get rained on much, it had rained so much that the course was 5" of standing water so they cut it short at 9 holes. As we rode, we witnessed the falling of a random tree in the woods, I think Edgar was ready to run for the hills when it started to fall.. :)
Oh and I was pretty excited over the weekend because on Thursday I had an email that a trainer had a 'ready-to-buy' client that wanted to come see Oakley as soon as possible. So I arranged with Shannon for a Monday afternoon showing, I talked to the trainer on Saturday and all seemed very positive. I was excited, waited all day Monday for a call from either Shannon or the trainer.. nothing. That evening I sent a text to Shannon who then got back to me, she said the showing went great. Oakley was a perfect angel, he didnt do anything wrong and the 11yr girl that is the one looking for her first horse, loved him. It is now Wed and I have yet to hear from the buyer or the trainer, so not sure what went wrong or why they decided not to buy him. Maybe they are just mulling it over but I am dissappointed because it seemed so promising and perfect.. oh well.
Oh and the tree! Well.. the guy that we decided would take the tree, came out Friday afternoon when Derek was home from work. I was still out riding. So I get home at dusk and the guy is just getting ready to leave, he looks like someone that lives out in the woods, a little quiet and odd. After he pulls out of the driveway, Derek just shook his head and said "If your dad was here, he would have kicked this guy off the property". So the guy was supposed to take out the tree is small sections, he told me 2' pieces. Well he was taking it down in 8' sections which would be OK if he knew what he was doing. But the guy apparently did not and as Derek watched him from inside the house, he realized he had better get outside and supervise before the guy killed himself or wrecked our property. He wasnt listening to the ideas Derek had to make the cuts and he then put himself in a position that when he cut a big branch, he was right underneath it on his ladder, the branch swung around, swiped him off his ladder and his ass landed on our shed awning (busting the roof piece) and then the branch landed next to him, busting another section of the roof. Derek told him after that, "Hey why dont we de-limb what is already on the ground and get that taken care of before cutting any more down". So they did and then it was dark so the guy left his ladder and the 8' sections and went home. I called the guy the next day and told him he could have what he had cut down, but we were uncomfortable with how the tree was coming down, so he could not work on it anymore and we would get someone else out.
What a joke! I am thankful the guy didnt get hurt, I have someone else interested and he is a commercial tree faller, so they should be coming today or tomorrow to take a peak and tell us exactly how he intends to take out the rest of the tree safely so we can decide if we are okay with it. I thought I was be super sad when the tree came down because it hangs so nicely over the yard, but now that the bottom branches are all cut off.. it is amazing how much it opened up to seeing the pasture now and the light it lets into the yard and even a little into the house and I am no longer sad about taking it down. I'm not going to miss the tree as much as I thought I might!
We've got the divider wall up in our entryway so the dogs can now come into the house. So far so great, no poddy's on the wood floor. Ellie is really doing great at 'come'. Not sure what the turning point was, but all the sudden she just gets it. I have now moved on to "down".. not as in "off" but down as in lay down. She is doing well at that, my goal is to eventually get her to "sit" from the down position.. that one is tougher. I work a little on it, but once she lays down, she hasnt figured out that sit means to get back up. If we leave the front door open and the back door closed, she has finally figured out to march her behind up to the front door and go outside as we want to now discourage her going out the back slider and only to go to the front door.
Our Boykin pup Cooper should be born about any day now.. I'd say within the next week for sure, if not sooner. Apparently her belly pretty much drags on the floor.. we are still hopeful that there is atleast one boy inside. :)
The fenceline has not changed in 2 weeks, maybe next week we can get started back on that, but what I really need is a dump truck/trailer load of gravel... Fall has set in around here, foggy cold mornings and I am eager as ever to get the boys home.
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