Meet Scout!!

Scout is our NEW dog!!!! As some of you know, we’ve been keeping our eyes open for a new dog for a short time now and on Monday afternoon, I found this girl on Craigslist. By Tuesday morning, the owner had responded and by Tuesday late afternoon, I was driving down to get her…

Derek had to work late so mom went with me to Auburn to go meet Scout and be sure she was going to be a good match for us. She is a 2.5 yr old Jack Russell and is sweet as can be. She was a bit restless on the drive home, confused I’m sure, she mostly stayed on moms lap and slept some.

As we were driving home, Derek called. He and Brandon had taken the front door off our house and were heading to Home Depot to buy a doggy door. He got home just as we did and had the doggy door installed within the hour. It is a nice door, double flaps to help with not allowing heat to escape, but it scares me! lol When the dogs go in/out of it, it is very loud and a noise I will get used to, but a new noise for sure. She and Russell both have experience with doggy doors in the past so they both had the hang of it within a couple tries.

Scout did have an accident on our bed the first night, she was confused. I did not get mad at her, just said NO and took her outside to finish. After that happened, we watched her very closely and made her go outside every 30-45 minutes just to be sure she didn’t have to poddy. She did poddy a couple times outside before bed and then this morning w/o me having to ask her, she ate some breakfast and headed outside and peed on her own w/o prompting. So that is a GREAT sign!

She loves to be outside, she goes in/out that door a lot! Right now she is at my feet while I type with her tail banging on my leg… lol Oh I see why.. Russell is under the desk, so she is whining and trying to get him motivated to play with her this morning.

She did not sleep well last night… we put her and Russell in the big crate bed and she whined for over an hour before she finally went to sleep. We had to turn on a lamp and a radio to get her to quiet down. She did wake up a few times and start whining, but we were pretty zonked, so she finally gave up.

I am really happy we found miss Scout. I think she is exactly what we wanted to find, she just needs a few days to relax and get used to our routine. She is 100% adorable!

I did not get any really good pics of her, she moves so fast! :) These are the only 2 that did not come out blurry...

Now for this past weekend..

Whew life is still so busy right now! I have been getting my behind back in the saddle and that feels so great. I spent pretty much the entire summer not riding because of life in general and probably some lack of motivation too, might have been in a slump. But now I am getting out and it feels fantastic!

I had been contemplating all week whether to ride on Saturday or not. There was an annual Halloween ride in Arlington on Saturday, I've been doing this ride off/on over the last several years. With all the problems with Troy, I didnt know if I would be able to go and it was not until Andrea called Friday late afternoon and we had him put to sleep, that I realized I could go. I called my neighbor friend Molly and told her I was changing my mind once again, and going! I knew quite a few people going on the ride in different groups, but decided to ride with Molly. She had a baby about 9 months ago and I havent ridden with her this year. So I thought it would be nice to get out with her and her friends from Pilchuck Vet.

I was supposed to meet her there as she was getting a ride with someone else, but her horse Dozer who is part Percheron and part Clydesdale, would not fit in the other trailer! Her horse and Edgar are pretty close in size as far as height, but her guy is a little wider and this other trailer was pretty small for a draft horse! Apparently he got stuck at one point and they had to use a hammer to get the divider back open to let him out. I've hauled him in the past, so I drove up and picked her up. We did the ride, a nice 3 hour trail and it was fun. I didnt have time to stay for prizes, so after the ride was over, we loaded up and headed home. I dropped off Molly and Dozer, went to my house, changed my clothes and cleaned up a little, then headed to mom's house to pick her up, drop off Edgar and then we headed to Sultan to Bob's house for a card party that night. Got home from cards at about midnight-thirty! :) Had a fun time.

Toni was in town and came to visit on Sunday to see the house, we went to visit Echo, Briggs & Stratton & Edgar, and my parents.. lol

Derek worked a little more on his boat, he says it is close enough he could use it in the field as it is, but he still has a ways to go to completely finish it. I am impressed, he is doing a GREAT job! for never having built a boat, it is turning out nice. I did ask him how he was going to transport this boat, I didnt know if it would fit in the bed of our truck and he says it should fit just fine. There might not be room for anything else in the bed of the truck though.. Then I asked where he is storing his boat.. he didnt have much of an answer on that one. :) I think he'll probably store it in the shelter that we need to move over to the side of the shop. He'll have his project truck in the shelter and then this boat. Yet another project (moving the shelter and roofing it and putting up some sort of walls) that needs to get finished sooner than later, before winter sets in.

Derek's parents are coming into town tonight. They will be here for 2 weeks apparently, although not staying with us the entire time. I know they will come spend some time with us, just not sure when yet. I'll have to turn up the heat in the house when they arrive, we have the heat set at 62 degrees, which can be a little chilly at night, but we manage. I'm sure we'll have to crank it to 70 if not 75 for them, I'm going to roast! lol I'll have to bring out the tank tops and shorts!

Let's go back a week to what was missed....

With all the drama of Troy, I did not have a chance to tell you about my birthday weekend with the girls! :)

So a week ago (Sat 18th) we had a girls get together to celebrate 4 birthdays. Mine, Debbie's (Andrea's mom), Julie & Jennifer. Friday night I slept terribly, I was having some anxiety about a mission Derek was doing on Saturday morning. His mission was to pay a visit to a couple down in Eatonville that owes us too much money to ignore! His mission was somewhat successful, I guess only time will tell..

So anyways, I woke up WAY too early Saturday morning for a day I would be up all night! lol Mom picked me up Saturday afternoon to head to Seattle. We also had in the van, Julie, Angela, Debbie, Andrea & Andrea's gramma Charlotte and then Rachel on the drive home. A full load!

When in Seattle, we BS'd, ate some food and then decorated these bird houses.. that was really fun. A lady came with all the supplies, you just picked the size bird house you wanted, Mine is the biggest! lol I really like it. I decorated mine to represent mine and Derek's favorite colors and then put our last name on it. I cant wait to hang it up outside. It was a reasonably priced thing to do and it was a lot of fun to watch the creativeness come out in others.. Some that I wouldnt look at as girls that like to do crafts, came up with some of the more creative decorations!

After the houses, we went to dinner at a chinese restaurant in Edmonds and ate more food than our bellies could handle. It was pretty good and more than enough for each person to take home a box full.

Our last activity for the day was moonlight bowling in Edmonds.. it was pretty fun. My only complaint was that my ball stunk!! I'm going to have to wash it.. I dont know if it is the lanes or what, but every time I lifted my ball up towards my face, I wanted to gag... lol There were 13 of us there, with 12 bowling. Me, Debbie (Andrea's mom), Julie, Jennifer, Mom, Andrea, Shana, Dena, Rachel, Debbie (Don's wife), Jane and Angela bowled while Charlotte watched. The picture shows everyone except Jane and Aunt Debbie who left before we could get a picture. Bowling was really fun and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. I think us girls should bowl more often!

The next day, Sunday, my friend Adam invited me to go riding out his back door with him and Tracy. He lives in Snohomish and we rode some loggin roads for about 3 hours. Had some nice views of Mt Pilchuck, saw somewhat fresh bear poop. It was a great day for a ride, a little chilly, but sunny and I look forward to doing it again.

Hmm... what did Derek do while I had my girls day, oh he went on his mission and then spent the rest of the afternoon window shopping at Cabela's down south and I think one or two more sportsmen's stores.. I think he went hunting on Sunday? I am so forgetful.... I know I didnt feel guilty for leaving him all weekend cuz he had plans himself. :)

He did not make it.... sniff sniff :(

Troy did not make it.. Andrea called and his kidneys were shutting down. His bladder could not function because his kidneys were not even able to produce the urine. I told Andrea to put him to sleep as he did not need to suffer.

We will miss Troy very much! He was such a character and such a big personality. He loved to nibble on your clothing any chance he could get and he loved to lick the salt off my arms. But he hated his ears touched and we'd play a game of him grabbing my shirt while I grabbed his ears!

This has been a learning experience for us and we will take what we can and hopefully do more to protect the 3 goats we still have. Troy had some things going against him that didnt help, such as a penis about 1/4 the size of an average penis! This definately is a problem when stones are developed and we'll hope that our other 3 goats have an average or above average dingaling to help avoid this problem. Andrea also investigated after he was put to sleep and his bladder had sprung another leak and was turning black, and inside his bladder were hundreds of stones, one bigger than the original blockage, so it was only a matter of time for this to happen to him again.

The other issue is that typically they can develop stones from Alfalfa hay and grain, but I am not feeding either of these, nor have I all year. He's been on pasture all year with no other feed other than sticker bushes and weeds. According to Andrea, when they develop stones it is generally a calcium-phosphorous imbalance, which is what Troy's stone was and it was most likely caused from a weed in his pasture. So we'll have to research that a little more to determine which weed and probably pull the other goats off the field and bring them home sooner than later as our home pasture only has grass, no weeds.

Here are some pics in chronological order of Troy as he grew with us!

The first 2 pictures were taken the day we brought him home in August 2005.... Echo is his best friend and will surely miss Troy too.

The picture of Troy in the tree was taken March 2006
And the snow pictures were taken March 2007

Then the final picture taken in June 2008

A couple of random cropped head shot pictures..

Not seeing the Stream at the end of the Tunnel yet :(

Troy has not peed yet... :(

Andrea is on her way back from OR, probably will get back to the clinic around 7pm tonight and she plans to put Troy under one more time. He currently has a short catheter inserted in his urinary canal, but no pee has emerged. Which means he is not peeing on his own and the bladder is not functioning properly.

She will go in tonight, put him under and insert a longer stiff catheter that will reach all the way to his bladder. This will allow for his pee to just drain freely on its own, which will hopefully give his bladder a day or two to build those muscles to start functioning. In a day or two the catheter will be pulled slightly out to a point where his bladder must function on its own and if there still emerges no pee, then that will be the final sign that his bladder is not going to recover.

We could go to extreme measures and have another surgery performed to reroute his urinary canal to come out his behind (like a girl goat), but that would be tough on him and we have decided we will not pursue that option. Right now, he is not suffering, he is maybe uncomfortable, but he is doing okay.

So we are still waitin on pee and he's got 1-2 days left to make it happen.... :(

Sex Change Operation a Go....

Troy underwent a second smaller operation this evening to completely remove his Penis... poor guy!

The good news: The bead was successfully removed

The bad news: His bladder needs to function and there is a 50% chance that it will or will not work properly. If he does not pee on his own in the next day or two, it means the muscles are not re-developing to make his bladder function, which means he probably would not make it.

So I never thought I'd say this...... But here's to hoping that my goat will be able to pee once again!

Troy Update....

Andrea called earlier, Troy was up on his feet this morning at 6:30am when she was at the clinic. He was in no mood to eat, he seemed to be wanting to pee, but otherwise looking pretty good. Scott was going to work on getting a Catheter up his urinary tract today to open that up for the bead to come out on it's own.. Doesnt sound like I will be picking him up today, I have not heard yet though. Andrea is out of town tonight, I'm hoping they will let him stay one more night so Andrea can be there when/if he can get picked up Thursday evening.. Would be nice to have my birthday evening to sit and relax at home.. :)

Derek's Aunt Karen

I just received a phone call from Derek that his Aunt Karen passed away last night. She had cancer and was in the hospital down in AZ where she lives. My heart is sad for his family and their loss...

Andrea Saved Troy's Life!

wow.. where do I begin? First let me start by saying part of this may get a little graphic in description and DEFINATELY graphic in pictures a little further down the line!!

So on Sunday (3 days ago) I went out to visit my boys, the goats. Here is a picture of Troy taken earlier this year... (he was itching his belly on the tub!)



Well Troy was not feeling good. All 3 other goats were way back in the pasture eatin the bushes and Troy was hangin out in his stall, looking a little lethargic. I talked to him, but he didnt really answer and tell me what was wrong. I was concerned, but I did see him get up and move around a little, and then he went back to his stall to lie down. So yesterday I decided on my way home from work, that I really should go check on him and my horse. I start walking into his pasture and rounded the corner and there is my horse looking great, but to the right of Edgar is Troy, ON HIS BACK, with his legs sticking straight up/out and his neck bent over himself! It was so sad, I thought he was dead! :(

I went straight to him and rolled him over and he stood up, but seemed in a lot of pain, he was not standing right, then he immediately laid back down and was groaning, breathing heavy and his belly was contracting a lot. I immediately called Andrea as I knew this was probably serious. She was at the Dr's office waiting to be seen, she told me to load him up and get him to her Mt Vernon clinic, it was an emergency. She said it sounded like he had a blocked urinary tract and his bladder could possibly rupture! Wow....

So I called Derek who was home and asked him what we should do. We agreed that Troy was worth the drive/expense to atleast have Andrea take a look at him, so he drove over to my parents, we loaded up Troy in the horsetrailer and hauled him up to Mt Vernon. Eric & Andrea were having Toni & Amanda over for dinner and pumpkin carving that night, so we messed those plans all up! But Toni & Amanda followed Eric to the clinic and we all were there to watch Andrea up close and personal.

Andrea did a blood test on Troy and determined after examining him, she was pretty sure he had a blockage and it was likely his bladder had already ruptured. After talking with Andrea and discussing the only 2 options available, we opted for Surgery (with a family discount!)... we paid $75 for Troy, but he has been and is a great goat, we felt we owed him the chance to live and according to Andrea, if they opened him up and found him to be beyond repair, she would not continue and if they did repair his bladder, he has a very strong chance of being just fine, since he is still young and healthy.

So she got him ready (with Amanda's & my help) for surgery and with the help of Jackie who is Andrea's boss and was DUE to have her own child THAT DAY!! While we readied the goat for surgery, Eric Derek & Toni went to Red Robin to get us all dinner.. The guys returned just in time for Scott (Jackies Husband) and Andrea to open up Troy. Actually Andrea did most of the cutting, all 5 of us spectators were standing right there to watch the whole thing! Scott threatened us that if we feel AT ALL faint or sick, to SIT DOWN or he'd kick our asses! lol Apparently he had a client think she was fine, but then she fainted and knocked out her front teeth in his clinic!!

So we watched as they opened him up and pulled things out. Oh I have to say prior to opening him up and knocking him unconscious, Andrea had me smell Troy's breath and it smelled highly of ammonia! NOT a smell that should come from your goats mouth! :( So anyways, back to surgery.... so as they were looking for his bladder, lots of urine just came flowing out of his belly. Scott was saying that Troy's bladder was a very angry bladder, it was pissed off because all of the veins were showing which is not at all normal... and then they found the leak! Seconds later the bladder hole was sewn up by Andrea! 1/2 of the problem was solved.... Scott did one layer of stitching.. oh let me say the cut they made on troy down the middle of his belly was probably atleast 12-14 inches! So Scott did a lower level stitch while Andrea felt his urinary tract for any blocks and she found it! Yeah... but the bad news was she was unable to push it out of him and did not have the proper tools to do so. Apparently they need to go steal something from another clinic that will work. Basically they have to stick a piece of tubing down his penis and get the tubing PAST the blockage so it opens up a tunnel for the bead to pass on it's own. If they cant get the bead out, then all that work was for nothing..

They put a second row of stitches in to sew him back up and decided that it would be better to work on the bead issue today. Give him time to wake up, the penis is easier to work with when he is awake vs passed out.. Apparently, if they can get ahold of it, basically they are going to cut the end of his penis off! OUCH... The guys at the clinic didnt like the sounds of that, all 3 of them got a little squeemish at that thought.. So we decided that Troy went in as a boy, and is coming out a girl! lol His new name is Troyena! :) We left Troy at the clinic for the night, not sure if he will get to come home today or tomorrow... We are hopefull that he will be okay, we just need that bead to pass so it was not all for nothing.. I know, Troy is just a goat and the cost of surgery seems silly to spend on a $75 goat, but he is a great goat and he is part of our family and he received a great surgery and a great chance at living... It was interesting to watch the entire surgery and process and I think Toni, Amanda & Eric enjoyed it as well. Nobody got squeemish or passed out, so Dr Scott was happy about that.

I am grateful to Scott and his wife for allowing Andrea to do a family member a favor and save my boy Troy's life! Scott said, he WOULD NOT be alive today.. He would have died within probably 12 hours of us bringing him in.

So I left work at 4:30 yesterday afternoon and did not get home until 15 minutes into my birthday! We left the clinic at 11pm last night, Eric had to work today at 7am, so not too bad for him, but Andrea had to be up by probably 5:30 as today was her day to head to OR to make farm calls ALL day today and then all day tomorrow and head back home from OR tomorrow. I hope she is not too tired. I have not heard anything yet this morning about Troy, I'm sure she would call if he had died or was not doing well, it is 9:30 and she is long on her way to OR by now, but I know she had to go to the clinic this morning, so she would have checked on him then. I'll wait for her call and hope Troy is out of the woods..

One funny thing about last night.. okay well part of this is not funny, it is sad, but there was a momma alpaca in the clinic, she was very colicky and probably is not going to make it, but she had a 2-3 month baby with her in her pen. Now the baby was kinda cute, but the ENTIRE time we were there, it made this noise over and over and over.. it just went "HMMM" So what you need to do right now, is (out loud) do that.. go HMM?.. Not an extended hmmmmm, but ya know when someone ask you a question and instead of saying "what" you say "hmm?" Now do that.. common do it... OKay, now that is the exact noise this alpaca baby made! So Derek would go over to his pen and would go "What" and the alpaca "Hmm?" Derek says "Whats that?" Alpaca says "Hmm?" over and over.. it was funny, we all were laughing at that.

As Andrea and Scott were in the surgery, I had said, DAMN I wish I had my camera so I could take pics and blog about this... Then about 5 minutes later someone said something about cell phones, so me, Derek, Amanda & Toni all whip out our phones and surround the surgery and start taking pics! It was like a swarm of papparazzi! lol So here are some not so good, but best I could do pics from my cell phone.. WARNING>>> THEY ARE GRAPHIC, PLEASE DONT VOMIT ON YOUR COMPUTER!!!!

Here he is knocked out on the table..
Andrea's in there lookin for his bladder I think at this point... or maybe tucking it back in after she repaired it... Eric had the responsibility of checking Troy's heartbeat every now/then to be sure he still had one...

Scott's hands on the Right there..

Getting ready to stitch him back up. I think Andrea (on the right) is looking for the stone in his urinary tract, prior to stitching him up...

And this is Scott stitching him up.. the colored thing inside there (it is blueish in color) is placed in there to hold his guts in while they sew him up and just before putting in the final stitches, it is pulled out....

And here is Troy about 30-45 minutes after surgery, he is very groggy, drooling and barely awake. We propped him up against the wall/fence because apparently you want them in this position so he doesnt regurgitate. It was sad to see him in such misery, although I'm sure he was feeling no pain at this point. I love my boy Troy!

One Last Great Weekend..

What a fantastic weekend! Weather was nice and sunny, although not very warm.. I slept in on Saturday while Derek hit the alarm at about 5am something... duck hunting opening day!! I finally managed to get up around 9:30 and decided to go over to mom/dads and finish moving the rest of our "stuff" over. I had a bunch of things to clean out still, just miscellanous stuff that you dont really need. A lot of it is Carrie's things, a lot of it was garbage that was already bagged and then there was just stuff.....

I finished with that, whew. I was never so happy to be done climbing those damn stairs! Up and down, up and down. I unloaded the "stuff" into our garage and well there it still sits! lol Mom came over after I got back home and we made a trip to Bothell to a Country Village to walk around, it was nice but I didnt find anything I couldnt live w/o. Derek worked on his duck boat the second half of the day. This picture was taken just after he finished putting resin on it.
We decided to burn some wood Sat night, invited Steve & Angela to come hang out around the fire. We got another chunk burnt up, spent a few hours doing that, I think we finally went in the house around midnight. I love hangin out by the fire!

I got up to the alarm this time on Sunday morning, 8am. I was heading to Lords Hill for a nice ride with the club. There are some pictures here. Here's my super great horse Edgar before the ride started, he is just such a great guy. He was the babysitter today, there were a couple horses that were pretty antsy and instead of the owner fighting with their horse, they just put their horse directly behind Edgar on the trail and the horse was forced to slow down and relax. :)
This one is of some of our group (just 8 of us today, a perfect sized ride) heading down the trail, Lords Hill is very pretty this time of year.
This picture is of the river that I like to talk about, you can see lots of fishermen in boats. We had a really nice lunch break, we rode for about 4.5 hours today, with about 30-45 minutes additional lunch time. After the ride, 5 of us went to Ixtapa in Monroe for dinner with the horses inside the trailers waiting patiently in the parking lot.
So much for mowing my lawn this weekend! I had every intention of doing so, but I didnt get back to my house until about 7pm! When I dropped Edgar off at my parents, I had to play with the goats for a while and also I had to spend about 15 minutes plucking darn burrs out of the two black ones.. they were full! Probably was pointless, they will be full of burrs within days I'm sure.. It was really funny to see them though all covered. It was too dark to take any pics of them, daylight is definately gone by 6:30 now..

So here I am on the computer, relaxed. Derek spent the day golfing with some church and softball friends. He should be home any time now, it is 8pm. I have the day off tomorrow, Columbus Day! How did I get lucky enough on this holiday... :) So the lawn hopefully will get mowed, the dishes will get done, the TV shows will get caught back up on, the laundry will get washed and put away, the house will get vacuumed........ okay now ask me on Tuesday if I got ALL those things done.. yeah right! See ya next time.

Signs of Fall/Winter

How do I know fall/winter is here? Well, the first sign is the duck calls that tend to rotate from room to room in our house... and then there's the times when I hear the calls being used in the house, outside the house, in the truck.... :) I know fall/winter is around the corner when I hear and see those calls, opening day is this weekend, so it is now back to the season of early to bed on Fri &/or Sat night for Derek so he can awake at some un-reasonable hour to go sit in the cold, wet, rainy, sleety, maybe snowy weather to HOPE some ducks and/or geese fly by. lol

The second sign is the changing of my horse's haircoat... it's getting thicker by the day! He is entering that warm fuzzy stage that I love.. Horses smell so good in the winter, call me weird, but I love the smell of a fuzzy horse. :) I'm planning to go riding on Sunday with the horse club, YEAH! I have only been on I think 1 club ride this year, so I am excited to get out and ride with some friends again. It gets very lonely going out alone all the time. We are going to Lords Hill in Snohomish, which is great since that is in my backyard practically and will not cost me a fortune to drive there. Lords Hill is where I like to go when I ride alone, it is a very well used trail system and the ride to the river is my favorite. It is very peaceful down there and this time of the year you can count on fishermen down there in boats, so you might get to watch someone reel in a salmon. It is pretty shallow too, so I like to wade my horse in the water, although he probably doesnt like it much, he tolerates my needs pretty well.

The next sign, FROST! brrrrrr We had our first frost of the season this morning! I was excited when we built the house, that I would have a garage to park my "car" in so that I would not need to pre-warm up my car and de-frost windows.. dang if that plan is all shot to heck now that we own 2 trucks that dont fit in the garage! lol But I love the cold anyways, I always forget during the nice summer days how much I love this time of year. The trees are absolutely gorgeous right now (well not the ones at my house) but the ones going over the mountain passes are so beautiful and full of life/color.

Oakley Update

Not a lot to update, but I did email Tammy and ask how things were going. It had been a week and I was curious. Here is what Tammy had to say:

"amanda and oakley are doing great. amanda rode him in the round pen a couple of days ago. and she also rode him in the arena with everyone else and he did great. amanda is showing him to everyone that comes to barn. there is a horseshow oct. 18-19 in ridgefield,wa. oakley will be shown on sat the 18th in halter and showmanship and a haunted in hand trail class. he will be going against my horse and amanda's other horse too. amanda is so excited that nobody else is going to oakley at all but her"

I wish Ridgefield was closer, would LOVE to see his first show. Hopefully they take some pics so I can post here. I told Tammy, Amanda & Oakley are like my kids that I am proud of and want to brag about and show off to you all :)

I dont know what to name this post, so it is going to be blank... That is the hardest part of doing this! lol

We spent the weekend in Spokane. Well I should say we spent it first in Spokane, then driving through Idaho, then in Superior MT, then back through ID, then back in Spokane, then home.. whew.. that was a lot of driving! See this is how it worked out.... Derek's nephew Rob was getting married on Friday afternoon and being that we only own trucks now, it was not going to be a very economical trip for us. I devised a plan!! I emailed Julie who was heading to MT last week and is very close to moving her horses. I asked if she would like to pay my 1 way gas to deliver 2 of her horses to MT for her since she cannot haul all 4 in her trailer. I would save her a trip and would save her gas. So she thought that was a great idea.

We picked up 2 horses Friday morning and hauled them to Spokane, dropped them off at Toni's, pretty much unhooked the trailer, went in briefly and I mean briefly like less than 5 minutes to freshen up and change and then headed back down the road to the wedding. We were 45 minutes early to the wedding! lol It was a nice wedding and it was great meeting Rick's wife Kristen (whos wedding I missed a few weeks ago) and then to meet Rob & his new wife Alicia.

We OVERSLEPT Sat morning.. Wow!! Derek & I both woke up around 7:30 to poddy then next thing I know I wake up and it is 11!! HOLLY COW... So we got up and Toni had just gotten showered too, so she slept in as well. We hit the road as soon as we could, we needed to go to MT and deliver those horses. Unfortunately it was about 4:35pm by the time we got to Julies, walked around and realized it was soooo late, I really think an hour dissappeared somewhere and NOT the hour time zone change! We jumped back in the truck and headed back to Spokane. Stopped at a gift shop on the way, picked up some pinecone coasters for ourselves and an ornament for a xmas gift for a friend. Oh and on our way to Spokane on Fri we bought Toni & Mike their xmas present..

Got back to Spokane and again, ran in the house, freshened up and changed and headed back out the door to go have dinner with Rick & Kristen. That was nice... We had spent the day with Toni, although in the truck the whole time, it was important for Derek and I to spend some time with Rick & Kristen, rebuilding that family bond. :)

We got up Sunday morning at 6:30am, headed to the hay farmer and picked up 2 tons of hay to bring back for Adam. I utilized my skills again in finding someone that wanted some hay and got my gas paid for on the drive home too!! When we got to Adams, he had other hay there and an elevator and LOTS of help, so that was really nice to get that offloaded and done so quickly. He got a pretty good deal on the hay especially compared to prices in Western WA... ridiculous!!!

One of these days I'm going to take a pic of Derek, he is building a duck boat.. Well I call it that, but I think it is called a layout boat, as you can now guess it is for duck hunting though! :) It looks cute.. ahhh how girly is that! I hope it floats.. lol

Bye Bye Oakley...

Well, it is official. Oakley has been leased out to a GREAT girl named Amanda. I signed a 2yr lease and I could not be happier!!! She is 21 and was looking for a QH project that she can start showing, possibly gaming in the future, maybe some trail riding and who knows what else the future holds for them. I think Amanda & Oakley are a fantastic pair and I am excited to see how far she can take him, they both have great potential. The only bummer is he is clear down in Longview WA so I dont get to watch her work him, I just look forward to visiting them some day on the showgrounds...

Wheelin' & Dealin'

Here goes...

We are trading our awesome, super fun, great car in! Sorry little Kia, I love ya to death, but we want a bigger truck and we just cannot afford 2 auto payments, so ya gots ta go! I will miss you, I will be sad, but probably won't be thinkin too much about ya as I'm driving my new 3/4 ton down the road.. Took it in the shorts a little on the trade in of the Kia, but got the truck for 2K less than blue book. We decided if we were ever going to get a truck, NOW was the time to do it while the economy is still in the shitter and truck prices are still low. The plan is to sell our 1/2 ton green truck outright and use that cash to buy a different car, so we are just swappin cars all around.

IF YOU KNOW ANYONE LOOKIN FOR A DECENT 1/2 TON TRUCK, OUR GREEN CHEVY IS A GOOD TRUCK! ASKING $5500 FOR IT, WHICH IS LESS THAN LOWEST BLUE BOOK.

So here is our perfect little Kia car we will miss dearly....

And here is the NEW truck!! 2005 4x4 Chevy 2500HD, extended cab short bed....

And here is good 'ole greeny that needs to find a new owner as soon as possible...

An Accomplished Weekend...

This has been a great weekend! I took Friday off of work so that I could help with that prize ride our club was having. Spent 5.5 hours in the saddle that day, Edgar was tired. It drizzled most of the day, nothing serious. On the way home, I was feeling a little achy as far as my throat was bothering me and my head was feelin stuffy. I fell asleep on the couch at 7:30! Woke up at 7am on Saturday morning with crackly ears, suffed up nose.. dang! And it was raining outside. I could not back out of my obligation to help with our prize ride though. I picked up Edgar who had a very sore back. I did not want to have to ride him, but again, no choice at this point. I was the only one who was scheduled to help on that day, so there was no backup help. So we did our duty and rode the trail one more time, I did find Wendy who volunteered to ride with me, so I had company. Another 3.5 hours in the saddle. Pour Edgar.. I told him he could have a few days off. He is gettin his feet re-done on Monday, he really needs it. He was a little trippy on the trail, at one point OMG, he started to trip and I knew he was going all the way down on his front end... His entire front end dropped out from under me, I had a rain poncho on with open sides and as he went down, that damn poncho flew up and over my face, completely blinding me... I had to drop the reins because pulling his head up would not help him to recover from the fall and with the fall, the reins were too short for me to hang onto. So here I am on the back of this horse, completely blinded by my poncho, with no hands on the reins, just hoping it was not my time and hoping he would recover w/o me having to fall off. Sure enough, he recovered on his own and when he finally did, I was able to pull the poncho off my face! lol It was not real funny at the time, but I can laugh now.

I'm feelin much better today, stuffy head/nose but the ear crackling is gone. yeah!

I have been advertising Oakley for Lease and had a girl come out today. She is from down south in Longview. She is 21 and is looking for a project horse to show at AQHA shows. I am very excited and really hope this works out. I dont want to get too excited, it seems they really liked Oakley. He was on his best behavior for the most part, he got kinda upset when it really started to pour down rain on us. This could be a great opportunity for Oakley and he would be shown, so I am excited.

With Oakley possibly finding a new lease home, we will soon get Derek in the saddle. He still wants to give HotRod a shot and see how that works for him. HotRod is the black horse belonging to my friend Angela. Carrie used to ride HotRod a lot, he is the one pictured on my entryway wall with Carrie riding him. A nice horse that Angela wants ridden and I think would be a great horse for Derek to build up some experience on. So I have lots to hope for this week.

I should know within a few days if they will be taking Oakley or not. So the weekend could not have been any better.. well okay, if it had been sunny, that would have been nice! :) Off to do dishes and laundry, whoopie!!

Oh and we have premiere week this week on the tube, so I'm sure my *ss will be planted in front of that darn TV all week! lol

A Quest to Overcome my Fear!

I went back out this past Monday.. I ventured down the road on my horse to the same trail where I saw the bear last week. My heart was racing, I was nervous and a little scared if I am being completely honest. The last thing I wanted to do was ride that powerline again, back into bear eating territory, but I wanted to ride and my fears can be so silly and irrational, that I knew I needed to push myself through it. I did decide to go without Oakley this time, I figured if I saw a bear or was attacked by one, I'd rather not worry about dragging him along or having his rope get in my way of getting the heck out of there! ;) But.... no bear that day. Just me and my crazy thoughts. We had a good ride, gets kinda lonely riding by yourself, but it is kinda peaceful too. I am running out of time to get my horse in any kind of shape before Friday, lol.

I have someone coming up to see Oakley on Sunday. She was supposed to come up this past weekend, but had car troubles. She is from way down by the OR border, is helping her friend find a horse to lease. I decided to try to find a home for Oakley for a year or two so he can get worked and exposed to things while Derek builds confidence and experience on an experienced older horse. Here are a couple pics I took of Oakley, he looks really good! :)

I SAW A BEAR TODAY!!!

OMG... I decided I had about an hour of "leasure" time today after work to go riding. I've been trying to make a conscious effort to get my behind in the saddle again, I miss riding! I decided to pony Oakley while riding Edgar. Oak needs the excersize as much as Edgar and he could use the exposure. He actually is great to pony, nothing really spooks him (well except that dead raccoon in the road today!). As we were about 30 minutes into our ride with only about 15 more to go before getting home, I am strolling downhill through the power lines, when something catches my eye down the hill close to the edge of the woods... OH MY Heart just about leaped out of my chest, it was a black bear! It was just strolling along, didnt seem to notice me or if it did, it didnt care. But being a good distance away, I was able to see it was probably atleast close to mid thigh tall to the top of its back, I didnt know how old it was, so all I could think about was that momma bear must be above me on the hill looking down on her kid and gonna have to run right through me to get to baby.

Who knows, maybe it was a few years old, but it didnt make me feel any better not knowing! So I just scanned left and right and left and right looking for a second bear to come attack me. In the meantime, the one I DID see, strolled into the woods to be unseen. I noticed that the entire powerlines I was on, was FULL of very ripe blackberries, EVERYWHERE! and as I looked in more detail, I could see places where bears had gone into the bushes a little to eat berries and I could see paths going over the top of the berries that only a bear would make. It was a little unnerving, OKAY I LIED, A LOT unnerving! I just rode along as calm as could be to keep my horse calm, who didnt seem to even notice I was in a mind panic ontop of him, I just pictured myself calling Derek and trying to explain to him where I was at as I was getting eaten and beaten by a bear! lol I am such a freak...

I'm not sure I want to go ride by myself... I love the peace of it, but is it really a good idea. Maybe I need to start packin a gun so I have a fighting chance. What if that bear had been on the trail, what if my horse spooked and I came off.

OMG, I just remembered, before I saw the bear, and I mean literally not even 5 minutes before, I thought about the scenario of running across a bear and how would my parents deal with me being "gone". I honestly was thinking about that and worried about dying, and then WTF I come across a damn bear.. whew, riding has become an interesting thing for me. I almost feel like I have slight premonitions.. I mean this is only the 2nd time this has happened, but still..

about 4-5 months ago, I was riding by myself at Lords Hill. As I was starting out my ride and crossing the bridges, I looked to the sky and did something I never thought I would do. I verbally (aloud) asked my sister to protect me and watch over me, not because I felt scared, I really dont know why I asked her that day. I had a beautiful ride that day, but then... I decided to explore a trail I had not been on. Very long story short, my horse and I got ourselves into a very sticky situation which caused me to fall off him, falling OVER 6 feet down, flat on my back on a very very rocky trail. Now, normally when I fall off (yes it does happen occassionally) I consciously tell myself to tense my neck muscles to avoid hitting my head on the ground (and yes I know I should wear a helmet but I just am not there yet). Well this time it was like my mind went blank and I did not tell myself anything, I just fell hard as a rock if you can believe that. I landed pretty flat on my back and I am still 100% unsure and 100% amazed that my head DID NOT touch the ground.

How do you fall 6' flat on your back and NOT hit your head. Call it weird, but it was like a pillow was thrown under my head to protect it. I hurt BAD all over my body for days, my back was in serious pain, but my neck and head were just fine.

So I want to know, what is the deal? First I ask for protection from Carrie like something inside me knew I would need it that day, then today I worry about being eaten and dying from a bear attack while riding and minutes later I see a goddamn bear! WOW

Some Pics

Just a few pics to share.. these were taken by either my aunt or her boyfriend Paul.

Here is my aunt and my little Kidos at the Fair! :)

Me & Derek at the wedding

A Great pic of my parents

Finished Deck

So the deck is done.. It has Derek saying a little.. ooohhhhh.... we bought the corrugated tan plastic sheets for the roof material, I guess in my head I thought the tan might be slightly transparent and let a little light in, but nope.. it's solid tan and no light is gonna get by! lol So the inside of the house in the kitchen and especially living/dining room, is quite dark in the middle of the afternoon! Too late now ;) The deck itself is a little dark too, but what do ya do? It will grow on us and as winter approaches and if we get any more hot summer days, we certainly will love having a covered deck. Derek did a great job on it for never having built anything like that. He designed some brackets that we are considering having patented, they are genious!!! I am thinking the positive in all this darkness is that the house will stay cooler in the hot summer because the sun sets on the backside of the house and before, the sun would blare through the kitchen and living room windows and the slider. Now it cannot reach those, so should help to keep the inside cool, that is a good thing. We went pretty dark with this house, brown carpet, tan walls, darker countertops and now a dark (was supposed to be light) deck cover.. lol I'm not going to complain.. One BIG project down...

Another Softball Injury

I forgot to mention that Derek got hit Again! this past weekend while playing softball. He had a nice base hit and was rounding first base, the ball was thrown towards home (or 3rd, cant remember) so Derek thought he could make it to 2nd base. I think he forgot he is no spring chicken and doesnt run as fast as he used to. Well the ball was intercepted by the pitcher who saw Derek running and threw the ball to 2nd base. Unfortunately for Derek, he saw that the ball was heading straight for himself and as he was sliding into 2nd base, he covered his head. He should have covered his shoulder cuz the ball hit him square on top of his shoulder/collar bone. So he was safe, but safe with injury and a nice bruise to show for it. :(

Just another weekend.... right!

One more weekend gone by... So we did the dozing last weekend, here are some pics of that.

Before

Before

Before

& After!

& After!!

Oh and here are a couple of him bulldozing and then a pic of what I was doing while he dozed! It's all I could do really...

We just need to divide the pasture in half now to bring the medium children home first (goats) and then we'll bring the horses home in a month or two when we finally run out of the free grass for them to eat at their summer homes. I moved the big kids (horses) from their Roosevelt Rd pasture back to my parents. And I did it on old fashioned fuel, horsepower! :) I rode Edgar and ponied Oakley down the road, somewhat busy roads I might add. In some places there was not much of a shoulder to ride on, so unfortunately I was in the road more often than not, but I did not get honked at, cussed at, flipped off or run over, so overall, successful. It was an hour and a half ride and it felt GREAT to be back in the saddle. Oh, but at one point I did twist to look behind me for traffic and it tweaked a muscle in my thigh and whew, that was interesting to deal with.. Thigh is cramping up, but I cant get off my horse, it finally went away after a minute or two. :)

Now that the BBQ is done, the plan is to relax a little, get out and ride a little more and hopefully get some other projects done before fall gets here too quickly. I love the fall, I'm not complaining about that, my favorite time of year actually. But we need to build a shed, paint the house, move some hay, finish the pasture... all before the rain sets in.

We had softball Nationals in Puyallup this weekend. Team lost Friday night, won Saturday morning and then lost the next game. It was perfect weather, not too hot. Here is a pic of the team that was able to play this weekend. We volunteered our place for a team BBQ, probably will happen end of the month, what was I thinking! Just when I thought I could relax and not worry about things, I go and plan a BBQ here.. lol j/k It will be nice to have the guys drive north for a change vs us always coming down south.

I took a few pics of the inside of the house. oh and the fenceline as well. The neighbor did a GREAT job with the boards and it looks very nice. Now we just have to find time to burn that crap wood and get rid of that ugly mess. We are building a cover over our deck too, so there's a pic of how far we are as of this very minute. Derek is working on it as we speak (okay, well as I type and as you read if you are reading this at 5:25pm on Sunday 9/7) lol

Crazy Weekend

Whew, am I glad the work week is here... lol j/k but really, it was a very busy weekend for us. I took Friday off, I wanted a 4-day weekend. The plan was to get a million things done in the house. Here is what I wanted to get done: paint shelf, organize/unpack office, wash/scrape all windows, pick up garbage outside, clear off deck, clean bathrooms, unpack boxes in laundry room, unpack/organize bathroom boxes, assemble shelf for bathroom, assemble shelf for craft room, unpack craft room and organize onto shelving units, finish spare bedroom, organize garage, take empty boxes to the dump, clean floors, assemble pictures/frames. All that does not seem unreasonable does it?


We get our bulldozer rental on Friday afternoon, so Derek finished up with his day job (he worked at home all day Friday) while I painted a shelf, and then he got on the dozer.. he wanted me to stay out in the field while he worked incase he went over the edge or something happened, so for a couple hours I sat in a chair with my feet propped up and watched him move dirt! :) It was funner than it sounds, but really it wasnt necessarily fun but it was kinda cool to watch him wipe out trees and dig up stumps.

Saturday morning he got up early (we got up early) and were back out in the pasture by 9am bulldozing. I watched for a couple hours until Tyler showed up, then I was able to go in the house and get some of my things done. I didnt get much done, because my dad came over to help us finish with the yard fencing. We all worked on the fence for an hour or more and got it finished! Yippy.. meanwhile, the neighbor was sssslllll...oooowwllllyyyy working on his side and getting the word section done. I have to give him credit though, it is beautiful and he did have it finished by Monday, just in time for the BBQ. After finishing the fence, dad and I ran some errands in town, we hung the gates, installed some lattice and by the time we were finished, we decided eating at home and cooking after a hard days work, was not an option, so El Paraiso we went...

Sunday morning Derek finished with the last of the dozing. I stressed some cuz I felt like I did not get hardly anything on my list done and the big house-warming BBQ was the next day! George & Rachel were on their way to our house... They showed up and the guys were doing something, dont really remember what.. hmmmm. But we decided to go to the fair for a couple hours on Sunday afternoon. We just walked around, ate some, saw the exhibit barns and animals and left. No games or rides. I did go see my baby kids at the petting farm and it was very sad. They were in the resting pen and they just hung their heads and looked exhausted. I was REALLY glad that they were going home the next day cuz they didnt seem themselves and I felt sad for them.

We left the fair, and at home Derek/George started working on the deck cover while Rachel and I worked on my craft room. Here is what I got done from my list above. Built both shelves (almost took my thumb off, the electric drill slipped off the screw and went straight into my thumb, OUCH!!) finished the spare bedroom (yeah!) unpacked 1/2 the craft room, painted shelf and organized office, organized 1/2 of garage mess and delivered 1/2 the boxes to Julie. There were some other things I got done, but looking back, I was crazy to think I could get my entire to-do list done. I feel good about what I did accomplish, but was stressing because I didnt feel the house was 100% ready for the BBQ. I soon realized that it did not matter and it is what it is!

So I got up early Monday morning to get some things done, still needed to vaccum and go grocery shopping for the BBQ. The guys started working on the deck and were still working on it deck as people showed up. They got the framing all done, the only part left is the roof. OMGosh, it is going to be so nice when it is done! I just LOVE my deck now.. I cant even believe the difference it makes having even just a framed cover on it. Completely redefines my deck and the back of the house.

The BBQ/housewarming went well. There were 35 adults & 7 kids & 6 dogs! :) It was a great day, the sun was 1/2 out, but it felt very much like fall! Russell was exhausted, he played all day with the kids and this morning he didnt want to move much. He's a little stiff. It is always stressful throwing together friends and family that dont really know eachother, but it turned out okay and noone seemed uncomfortable. It was a nice day, people started showing up around 2 and the last person left at 9. Thanks to all those that came over, hope you had a great time. If you couldnt make it out, stop by anytime.