Lumberjack Derek

In another life, Derek was a logger! Long ago when we first moved into the Marysville house that my parents owned (we rented) there was this lone apple tree in the front yard. Not a bad tree, a cute little tree. From the beginning Derek had a hate-hate relationship with that tree. Not sure why he hated the tree so much, he just didnt like it! Derek had mentioned to my parents that he had wanted to take the tree out, open the yard for a better lawn, but the answer was no.. Not a maybe, but a NO! :) Well the parents wanted the tree pruned, something you should do every year... Let me give you an example of what the tree looked like to begin with:

Okay, now Derek volunteered to prune the tree and the best tool he thought for the job was a chainsaw! Typically you prune with... Pruners! nip some branches, easy peazy! Well I came home to this!
Oh he pruned it all right, sawed off every branch til it was nothing but a 5 limbed stump! Quite commical actually, but I am fairly certain my parents (mom in particular) did not find this very funny.. at all! Now that the tree was nothing more than a stump, it eventually was completely removed.

The yard was much better to deal with, it did open it up and we replanted a nice big bush in the corner to compensate. So years later when it was appropriate to finally joke about the situation, we now tease Derek about his pruning abilities and he is the first to come to mind if anyone wants/needs a tree taken out! :) He took down a really big tree 2 years ago on our property and then I believe he took out one of his x-boss's trees as well.

Tyler asked him to take out 8 trees at Kathy's house, so this past Saturday we went out and finished that job. These trees at Kathy's all ran parallel to her house and were within striking distance to the house, so the guys had to cable the trees off to ensure they fell the right direction and all 8 trees managed to fall perfectly, avoiding any of Kathy's existing fence posted, 3 other small baby trees, and the house... Derek did a great job and Kathy was very thankful, and I'm sure she was relieved to be able to breath again when that final tree hit the ground and not the house! :)

Here are some pics of Derek taking out the trees. At times it hailed, at times it was clear and then after a while it just continually dumped rain on us, we left her house drenched and in desperate need of a shower.

Here's also a picture of Russell, he was being a baby at this moment and begging me to lift him up on my shoulders! :) Isn't he the cutest dog ever!!!!

On Sunday the weather was very cooperative so we headed to Lords Hill to meet up with a few others for a club ride. There were 5 of us to start on the ride, 2 riders left us half way through so Wendy Derek and I had a great day exploring. Red is getting much better with his feet, he slipped once and his behind went down pretty much to the ground, but he's learning.. He was a little sore this morning on his back, but we did ride for 4.5 hours! This week is supposed to be crappy and rainy all week, so not much opportunities to ride.. I will be moving the boys to their other pastures Tues or Wed this week, I will be bummed to not see them in my pasture every day.

Funny Story

The other day on the radio, they had asked listeners to call in and indicate what they had maybe posted on FB that they regretted and could not take back before it was too late.. Some funny stories called in, but it got me thinking about my funny story that happened long before FB!

It was my first "real" job, working for the Snohomish School District. I had just graduated HS, Derek & I were still new in our relationship by maybe a month or so and all was going great. The department I worked for had I believe 5 other ladies working in it, the room was actually my old 6 grade classroom as the District Building was the original Central Elementary School.

All the ladies were off at a meeting, so I was the only one in the room and either I had finished my projects or I was bored or maybe I was just slacking! But I went to one of the computers and typed up a letter to Derek.. It was a letter stating my 'feelings' after our first 5 or 6 "times"! I was a sentimental 17yr old at the time, I wanted to let him know what each time meant to me, because he was my 1st. So it was a big deal...

Well I finished up my little letter and hit print.. I sat staring at the printer! And I continued to stare at the printer.. and then I just kept staring at it.. wondering where the HELL was my letter! The computer said it printed. I went to reprint and it was only then that I realized there were MULTIPLE printers connected to that computer! This was way back in the day, OMG 19 years ago and I didnt know much about network printers. I knew at that moment my letter went to some other printer in another department of the district building and I had NO way to get it or even figure out where it went.. So I retreated to my desk and hoped with all my might that it went into some cyber world..

I dont recall if it was that day or the next, I'm pretty sure it was the next day, my boss Eleanor called me into her office.. SHIT! I was on the verge of crying, literally. I was so embarrassed, I knew exactly what I was going in there for. She set the letter on the desk and asked if it was mine? See, I had not signed it but there was no mistaking that a teenager typed this letter. I fessed up of course and said I had done it on a break and when I hit print, I didnt realize it was going to another printer besides the one next to the computer. They handed me my letter and asked me to keep from typing out these types of things at work.

I am sure I cried many times over that, I was mortified! I could hardly drag myself back to work. I am pretty certain even though my boss was fairly firm, straight faced and to the point, she was giggling inside at me. And not sure if she told the entire office or other deparments but it felt like everyone knew and were laughing quite histerically at me, heck I would! I can laugh about it now, but it has got to be one of my most embarrassing moments in my life!

Cant escape the Gunfire or the ducks!

Yesterday we decided a ride after work was definately in order! The sun was shining and why not take advantage, plus I had wanted to get my new saddle on Red. The saddle seemed to fit just fine, I'll ride in it on Sunday too and after that 3+ hour ride, will have a much better idea on fit. As we are saddling up, in the distance out of nowhere and suddenly, we heard gunfire! You have GOT to be KIDDING! We just looked at eachother and shook our heads.. What the Heck! We both realized it was atleast not coming from the direction we were going to ride, just a weird coincidence that it would be going off just as we were getting saddled up to ride.

After we did our loop, we rode down this gravel road and up ahead was a lone duck in a fenced pasture.. Red stopped in his tracks..OMG what the hell is that! His head was way high, he was alert and standing at attention. I think had the duck spread his wings and flapped, Red would have quite possibly exploded straight up! I urged him forward and as we got closer there were more ducks, but they were retreating to the barn. There was also a lone pygmy goat hangin out by the barn. Red relaxed a little and we continued on. When we turned around and had to walk back past pasture, the ducks were all over by the barn and the little goat was now in the barn with his head sticking out of his barn door.. Then another goat appeared in the barn door. Then a 3rd. The third goat decided he was very brave and he wanted to see what this big horse was all about so he squeezed his fat belly through the door and started trotting towards us.. Oh shit! Red did NOT think that was funny! He bolted, spun, tail sticking straight up/out. I grabbed the horn, I had heard he hated lamas or maybe it was alpacas.. either way I was not about to get dumped on this gravel road. A couple more goats followed suit and were heading his direction. Red acted like he was under attack and was not having any of it, so I calmly kept him to a walk and kept going. I wanted to get off and force him to stand next to the fence, but I was cold and decided we'd save that for another day! Sounds like Red needs to be exposed to my goats.. cant wait to get them all home and together so he can learn to accept other small animals. Funny that it takes Gunfire to spook Edgar and all it takes with Red is a little duck! :)

Birthday Weekend

Happy Birthday to Derek!! He turned 37 this past Friday.. To celebrate and to do something different this year, we opted to go to Silver Ridge Ranch for the weekend, we needed a mental break and I knew he would love the trails over there...

I was hoping my saddle would show up before we left town on Friday, Derek actually drove around Snohomish looking for any UPS drivers to go up to, incase they had my saddle! :) He didnt find any.. I had procrastinated on ordering Dereks birthday present so it was not here on his birthday, so I gave him a temporary iTunes giftcard to tide him over for his real present, although he loved the iTunes, so it was a win-win. We had made chili a couple days prior to take on our trip, it was our first ever attempt and it turned out pretty good I think. Not as creamy of a chili that we are used to eating out of the can, but it was pretty darn tastey.. good enough to be comfortable feeding to others.... Maybe a little regretful taking chili on a weekend where you are confined to a small camper with no air flow to move the fumes during the middle of the night... PWEW!

As we were driving through Carnation, my dad called to let me know my saddle was at the house! Darn, we missed the delivery by less than an hour.. Oh well. The weather Friday was terrific, mid 60's and after helping Tyler set up his tent (he has a cast from wrist tumor surgery), we were finally able to sit and relax. I realized in setting up his tent how glad I was to have upgraded to a camper.

We did then get the boys out for a nice 1.5hr ride along the creek. On the way to the creek, we were following some very fresh bear tracks on the trail under the powerlines.. claw marks and all.. :) Derek really liked the trail, the creek was beautiful and the only issue was a downhill creek crossing that Red did not want to cross at first.. I think he was going to jump it, so we backed up the hill and tucked in behind Edgar and he easily walked over it.. Oh I have to say that I put a rope cinch on Red, I had found it in my old tack trunk and I also borrowed a breast collar from Penny, between those 2 things, my saddle was a lot more secure when mounting. It still moved some, but not nearly as much as it did before. I really feel the cinch made most of the difference and am very happy I can continue to use my new pad. Red also was walking out well and was not slip sliding away on the trails. They are fairly dry trails, but the few downhills we did encounter over the weekend, not one slippage of his back legs...

So my dad allowed us to take as much of his wood as we needed that was down by the firepit, the wood we took had been cut into rounds more than a year ago, so we anticipated it would burn fast as some of it was very dry and falling apart.. so we took lots! Well Friday night as we are burning the wood that Jon/Arlene purchased (which was super dry and dissappearing rapidly) well we started to throw on the wood we got from dad, and it was not burning at all! We finally after about 30 minutes pulled the one log out and the fire hadnt even broken through the outer layer.. Derek split it and the inside was wet wet wet.. No wonder it wouldnt burn.. So then he went over and grabbed the piece that was so dry the inside fell out and it was a hollow tube.. they broke it into pieces and OMG, that damn wood refused to burn as well.. So then we put the 1x6 old fencing board on the fire from dad's stuff.. do you think it burned up quickly like normal 1x6 wood should.. Nope! it slowly burned. I sent dad a text at about 10pm and told him this wood was "crap!" lol The next morning he saw the message and responded that it must be the altitude! We all laughed.. We left that shit wood for the next camper to use.. We figured they would be thankful for this big pile of nice wood, made us look good for leaving it behind, little do they know.......

Friday evening about the same time I sent off that text to dad, I get a text.. a random text that you forward around and around about women etc.. It was an Eastern WA # but I had no idea who it was from, so I text back and said "Who is this?" I got a response "This is Christine, I own Charlie Horse".. Charlie was the last horse Carrie sold, about 6 weeks before she died. I actually sold Charlie for Carrie, he went to this very nice girl, he was her first horse if I recall correctly. Mom Carrie & I delivered Charlie to Christine who lived in Omak, it was a fun girls day on the road, around the beginning to mid October. I had wondered a few times if she still had Charlie and how she was but lost her information, so I was glad she randomly sent me a phone text.. I told her about Carrie, she was upset of course and welcomed me to come see her and Charlie anytime I was in the area, so I actually would love to take her up on that and stop by if I ever get that way...

As we saddled up Saturday for our ride that day, the weather looked fairly nice but questionable so we packed the horses and prepared for rain. I drew up a map for Tyler and Kathy so they could find their way to the lake and/or the creek trail.. they took the dogs with them (Russell and Kathy's dog Brownie) and opted to drive around vs hiking, it was great that Russell had company while we rode. As we headed out, we could hear lots of gunfire in the distance.. my gut told me they were shooting out at the lake and most likely shooting out towards the water as there are many trails that follow the lake for a long ways.. As we get to the lake, we realize we are still a little ways off from the shooting, but close enough to be a little uncomfortable. I should have just turned us around and went off another direction, but that slight stubborn streak in me, wanted to follow the lake trails because they are really nice trails! I wasnt about to let some gunfire ruin my weekend, dammit! Jon/Arelene seemed ok with it, we followed the trails hoping we would eventually see the shooters so we could be positive they were shooting away from us.. If we could just get behind them... We did hear atleast one ricoche bullet but no idea again which direction it was heading. I did vaguely recall Derek saying he was not comfortable heading towards the shooters, but I didnt listen :( We finally came up right behind the campsite of the crowd, there were a lot of them there for the weekend and they seemed to have taken a break finally from shooting. The horses all seemed okay, they were "aware" but not worked up. We did ask the campers and confirm the direction of fire, which was out towards the water. We rode past them down the beach quite a ways and got off, tied up and ate lunch. Just as we were eating, it started to rain a little, and then a few minutes before we were ready to head out.. damn, the gunfire started up again. Not sure why this time it was different but Edgar was NOT a happy horse! He became VERY spooked, he wouldnt stand still, he was pushy and almost aggressive with his behavior. He didnt want to listen to Derek, Edgar was on the verge of exploding. I actually took over for a few minutes because I feared that Edgar might do something really dumb, Derek immediately went into defensive mode and I dont blame him because this was a completely new behavior he had never seen from Edgar, me either actually. We could not get him cinched up, definately could not get his bridle on, Derek was unable to put a water bottle back in his pack.. it was a little nutso! So we started to lead the boys away as calmly as we could. Dollar (Jon's horse) seemed to be OK, so Jon got on after a few minutes of walking but I was not going to get on until Derek was safely on. I offered to trade him horses, but he was not in the mood to consider trading, he wanted to work through this with Edgar and get the hell out of the area. We made it back into the woods at which point Arlene opted to get on her horse CK who seemed fairly calm by this point. We told them to just ride ahead because Edgar was really almost out of control nervous and I did not want him causing the other two horses to get upset. I figured we'd hook up with them down the trail after a while.

I led Edgar for a while and every time he thought about calming down, more gunfire would go off. Now by this time we are as far away as we had been before lunch when Edgar was just fine.. so I really dont know what burr climbed up his ass. I handed Red over to Derek so I could try to get Edgar bridled. Well every time I attempted to bridle, Edgar flung his head up knocking my arms out of the way, then he'd dance around. At one point he actually flung his head which caused me to have to take a step back and being in the woods and not on any designated trail, I stumbled, fell to my back and Edgar was walking right at me!! I almost panicked because he was NOT paying attention to me on the ground whatsoever.. I started to slightly yell at him and shook the leadrope saying HELLO ASSHOLE, I'M DOWN HERE AND NOT IN ANY MOOD TO GET RUN OVER!! I finally was able to get my balance and get up, he got a few spanks. I was not spanking him in frustration, although I was slightly frustrated, but he was acting a little dangerous with NO regard to me and that is NOT ok! I was still completely shocked at how bad he was behaving, this is the Steady Eddy type guy, the one you should always be able to count on.. Who was this beast that took over??

I kept breathing calmly and finally he relaxed for just long enough to get the darn bridle on him.. Derek led him down the trail a little longer and as we were walking, I see Tyler and Kathy driving down the beach, so I walked Red back out of the woods to let them know what was going on, just to catch up for a second.. by this time, nothing else seemed to be working to calm Edgar. We told them we couldnt chat long, just needed to get on our horses and get moving. Derek got on Edgar finally and started walking around and I was leading Red over to a big log, had him step over it, but then he kept going, so I turned him around and stepped him over the log the other direction, he then backed up off the log so I got him to come up sideways next to the log and just as I did that, Derek comes over and says "Quit talking to Tyler, we gotta f*ing go!!" Well I wasnt just standing around shootin the shit, I was attempting to mount my horse who was much calmer than Edgar, but slightly worked up in all the commosion. I got on and told Tyler, sorry but we are outta here! We headed back into the woods to find the trail away from the gunfire, Derek at this point was very aggitated and pissed off. He and I were not in any position to be chit chatty.. I was not upset with him, I was proud of him for wanting to work through with Edgar and not being afraid of him. I could see he was not angry at Edgar or me, but he was angry and frustrated at the situation we were now in. We found our way to the gravel road and took the first trail in, attempting to ride away from gunfire. I knew the trails fairly well, so I knew how to keep us going in a direction to get away. There was this trail that would take us up an old logging road to a nice lookout.. we would be climbing and since Edgar was in no mood to walk, he was jigging quite badly, maybe if he had to work, he'd tire out and relax. So on the way up the hill, he was still slightly trotting and Derek wanted to be in the lead. I rode quietly behind, just watching my poor husband ride this bouncy damn horse. I offered many times to trade him, I would gladly attempt to work that jiggyness out of Edgar but he was adament that he do it himself..

As we rode up, we came across a major washout and could go no further, bummer! It used to be a great trail. So I rode past Derek so I could get behind him and turn around, he says "What are you doing, I want you in front of me!!" Well I suppose I was supposed to read his mind to know on the way down, he'd want me in front.. I let that little spat go and quietly got in front of him, every bone in my wanted to snap back at him at this point because he and I were not communicating really, he was in no mood to chat. As we approached the bottom I decided maybe he would take some tips on what I would do if I was riding Edgar to get him to start walking again.

I was happy and very much relieved that Derek wanted to listen and take my advice so he did. We stopped at the bottom of the hill and he would tightly circle Edgar in a very calm manner and then ask Edgar to stand still. If Edgar moved, then he would circle and circle and circle again.. then ask for a stand still. We did this for quite a while and it helped. Edgar was not jigging as badly but he was not 100% calm either. We were headed towards the woods, back to the creek trail. As we rode, Derek started to talk a little about the lake experience and prior to lunch and how he was upset with me for not listening to him. I was just so set on showing him these great trails, I didnt want to let a little gunfire ruin our day! :( And again the horses rode before lunch with tons of gunfire going off and they were all fine. I have no idea why Edgars attitude changed for the next round.

As Derek was somewhat snappy at me, I started to cry as I rode behind him, I had ruined our weekend, ruined his birthday, what a disaster.. I was just very upset with myself about the whole thing. Oh and by the way, we never did run into Jon/Arlene.. they had rode ahead on their own which I am glad for because Edgar was such a turd that I wouldnt have wanted him to be around any other horses. So anyways, like nothing could get any worse or the shit hittin the fan anymore.. just as we are a minute or so away from entering the woods.. BANG BANG!! Right infront of us.. somewhere in those woods, someone just fired off 2 or 3 rounds.. SONOFABITCH! Zero gunfire had been happening in the woods and now all the sudden as we are headed that directions, towards safety that we think, more gunfire which was even CLOSER than what we experienced at the lake.. Now I was pissed.. Derek who was in the lead immediately turned his horse around and had this look of "ARE YOU F*ING KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW!!" I knew better than to even speak a word.. I just cried as I rode along. Every now and then Derek would stop Edgar and do the circle exercise because he still was not walking...

After another 20 minutes of silence, Derek finally stopped Edgar, waited for me, grabbled my hand, apologized for snapping at me and we started talking again. I was not mad at him for snapping at me, I blamed myself and I knew he was in a situation he had never been in, Edgar was not acting normal and he was trying to cope with that and learning how to deal with it all. I apologized for everything that had gone wrong that day. When we got back to camp, Jon/Arlene's horses were already put away and they were sitting with Kathy and Kathy's yearling she had brought along on the trip. Edgar FINALLY was standing still at camp.. We decided we wanted to keep the horses out a little longer to end the ride on a more positive note because Edgar jigged all the way until we got to camp. So we told everyone we would be back in a bit, but the horses were not done for the day. We follwed a trail that follows the road and I-90. Edgar was walking!! He seemed pretty relaxed actually. We came across Tyler and Kathy on the road, chatted for a few seconds, told them we'd be back at camp in about 30 minutes. Derek and I joked and laughed about random things and now that Edgar was relaxed, Red was not so relaxed! LOL.. He was a bit jumpy with the I-90 noise and distractions.. As we rode back into camp the 2nd time, he actually spooked and humped up just a few feet from our trailer when a tractor started up.. silly horse! What a long day that was...

We both were happy and relieved to be back on the ground, safe and sound. The horses were back to normal. I spoke with Miki who owns Silver Ridge, she told me the shooters are not supposed to be out there, that it is not legal. Especially the one in the woods.. But then Tyler and Kathy said they ran into a ranger that day and he said it was completely legal as long as they are being safe and responsible, but that they do monitor the situation to ensure safety. Well I dont know about you, but the more I think about it, the more I feel it is completely unsafe! I have ridden my horse on the other side of the lake, in the direction of the gunfire. I know they were firing at targets.. but the ONLY thing behind those targets, was air! and below the air was water and behind the air and targets was a huge lake and a shoreline across the way with other trails.. And then there is the ricoche, where do those bullets go? Derek says a bullet can travel 1-3 miles! The shooter in the woods, the area he was at, there is not a safe place to shoot in there... I have ridden that area a lot... There is a creek and trails, thats it! I am going to put together a letter and write to the ranger district in that area and also encourage Miki of Silver Ridge to do the same. I am all for going out and shooting at targets in a safe area, but that area by the lake is used by hikers, bikers, ATVS, horses.. NOT a safe area to shoot and although I do plan to go back to Silver Ridge, if this type of gunfire activity continues, I might reconsider and Miki as an owner of the camping facility, I'd think she would be very concerned if people were opting out of her campground because there is too much gunfire in the area.. so maybe she should work on getting the shooters out of the lake area as well. And it has NOTHING to do with the way our horses reacted. I am OK with what happened with Edgar.. It sucks that it happened and he was so reactive to the situation, but that is on me. I obviously need to desensitize him more to gunfire so my issue is not about my horses.

As we sat around the campfire Saturday night, Derek and I were able to laugh about our behavior and make light of the situation.. which was great that we did that because neither of us wanted to dwell on it.. it was what it was!

In our campfire conversations, Arlene was talking about a horse she owned or looked at, can't quite remember.. Anyways, she says the horse seemed to have hock issues. Tyler is standing, stoking the fire and he stops.. looks at Arlene with a very puzzled look on his face and says "Hockey Shoes?" LOLOL We all busted out laughing.. He just looked at us like we were crazy and we explained it was Hock Issues.. not hockey shoes.. lololol It is still very funny!

Sunday morning we all packed up early, it was a beautiful morning. The sky was clear and it clearly was going to be a 70 degree day. I had wanted to get on Red and just ride around the airfield bareback once, but unforseen circumstances came into town the day before and I was unprepared, so we just loaded up early and headed out by about noon.

We did eat lunch before heading home, for whatever reason, Derek decided an MRE (Military packaged meal) seemed more appealing than a tuna sandwhich. So he ate that while we all had normal meals. We keep a few of them in our camper so we can take them out riding with us, they are a good thing to have incase you ever get lost out in the woods and need it for an emergency source of food. Russell was a really good camp dog, sometimes we put him in the truck and as long as the door was open, he'd just sit there.

We got home and reluctantly got everything unloaded, camper back off the truck and to the chairs we sat to do a little catch-up on a few shows. Derek then spent a few hours uploading his iTunes music while I snuck off to bed.. I was exhausted. Overall it was a terrific weekend, just wish we could have stayed another day. Instead of a birthday cake, Derek had wanted a rice crispy cake and from now on, that is his cake of choice! :)

Saddle Saga..

Well I found a saddle for Red.. did I mention that before? Found it on TackTrader which is a website for individuals selling anything from horse property, to horse trailers, to saddles, to halters etc.. A pretty popular site that is a spinoff from their horse advertising original site Dreamhorse.

Since I rode Red in Dereks Wide Tree saddle, that seemed to fit very well, I went in search of my own Wide Tree Tucker Saddle and found one in Colorado! I didnt really want to buy one out of state, but I went for it. With shipping it was $925, about the best price I could find anywhere online or locally for that saddle, so I jumped on it. The saddle looks great in pics, my concern is that I wont get what was pictured, or it will have a broken tree or a million other what-ifs!

So I sent off my money via Paypal and the next day as promised, she sent me a UPS tracking #, unfortunately there was a slight mix up and she shipped the saddle to my home instead of my work. See at work, the saddle guaranteed would be there by 10:30 which is our daily drop off time. Now that it is coming home, I have NO idea what time it will be there and considering we are heading out of town the day it is supposed to be at my house and I had wanted to take it out of town with me.. well it sucks!

Then I had the idea, maybe we can intercept the delivery and have it set up for Will Call in Everett on Friday instead of delivery to the house, so the seller of the saddle tried to do that and apparently if we did that, I wouldnt be able to pick up til Monday! What the Heck! I dont get it, so she canceled that option and now the UPS status says "exception" instead of "on time" and now I have no idea if it really will be out for delivery tomorrow. My gut told me not to worry about it and not try the intercept and I didnt listen, I just hope I dont pay for that when the saddle doesnt show up tomorrow. I should know in the morning, the status should say out for delivery if it's coming. Here's a pic of the Saddle in my saga...

I need to unwind..

Some weeks I just feel so bogged down with "stuff".. unexplained stuff that to the outside world probably seems so trivial and dumb, but there is too much floating in my brain lately and for the past 4 or 5 nights I literally wake up during the night with a headache and a brain that feels like it just cant relax. Not sure what exactly the anxiety or worry or stress is about these days..

I have really been wanting to get Derek to Silver Ridge Ranch in Easton, there is great riding, great camping. So I suggested we go for his birthday weekend, a little early in the season for camping, but it is a nice place to go that will not overwork the horses and will get us in the mood for our camping season. Well the trip is coming up and just a week ago, the mountains were getting hammered with SNOW! There is snow at the campground now and although yesterday's forcast was calling for very sunny skies for the weekend, the forcast now calls for rainy days.. bummer. So I think a lot of my stress was in making a damn decision, do we go: do we cancel. Well we are going.. rain or shine. Jon & Arlene are coming along and so are Tyler & Cathy (who will go hiking instead of riding since they are non-horse friends).

Then we decided to make this a chili weekend so we are making our first batch of chili tomorrow, I've never made it before.. I surely hope it turns out!! ;) My brain currently is full.. I can feel it pushing itself against my skull, trying to escape. I procrastinated on ordering Derek's present so it will not be here by Friday and that sucks. I just sent a lady $925 on paypal for a saddle with the very high hopes and expectations that she ships out today a saddle that is not broken and is exactly what is advertised so I'm freakin out just a little over that..

The goat situation was stressing me way too much as I was getting upset that they were cooped up so much, I finally came up with a solution to that problem and we are pimpin them out to local Craigslist followers that need brush clearing, so that is one problem solved for now anyways. I think clutter is getting to me, I'm trying to get more organized, we finally spent this past weekend working on the garage, got it 100% better even though it is not 100% but it works for now.. We can actually walk in there, park the bikes, we are not tripping over shit everywhere.. We still have a weekend or two of organizing between the garage and the shed but it's been started. Speaking of bikes, we did ride 3 days last week.. actually come to think of it.. that is exactly when my headaches started!

I'm not just saying that to get out of excersize, but my first headache came exactly a week ago on our 2nd bike ride, my head just started pounding. 2 days after that on our 3rd bike ride, I actually had to stop my bike and put pressure on the back of my neck to alleviate pain I was having which helped cease my head pain.. Ever since that 2nd bike ride especially, I am getting daily headaches, maybe that is my problem. Maybe it is not stress or worry afterall, its just a pounding head which feels a lot like stress when in reality has nothing to do with stress.. hmmm Last night I took 3 asprin (grrr, I could not find any ibuprofen which is my much prefered drug of choice!) lol but I had to take them to eliminate my headache and hopefully keep my head clear through the night, it 1/2 worked... I am one that typically never gets headaches, maybe only a few each year so to have one daily, I can see why I feel so bogged down now. I find it interesting that it took me writing about random thoughts to figure out my issue..

But I am still worried and stressed about other little shit.. the horses for instance. I went to a damn grass seminar which was actually great, but it has me all freaked out about putting the horses back on grass this spring and whether it will cause them to colic etc.. The grass at my parents is lookin soooo good! I need to get them moved over there and stop feeding hay, but I cant just send them over and turn them loose, they could get very sick.. so I worry daily about how to section them off, where to put up temporary fencing, how to get them out for an hour a day easily when I dont live there, how to keep them from having vet visits.. Funny growing up, we never worried about anything and the horses were fine every year.. now as an adult I try so hard to do things "right", why can't I just be a kid again with no worries.. lol

The lender is (excuse my language) "dicking" us around on our remodifiation process.. I sent them the paperwork a month ago and well, they just dont have it logged in yet.. they are WAY backlogged with paperwork and have no clue when they will get to me. I will bug them WEEKLY about this until it is resolved. The crap the banks are pulling was even on the news last night, the news was reporting that it might not be a bad idea to just stop paying your mortgage! NEVER thought I would hear a financial planner say that could be the best thing to do. We are not that desperate yet, but I suppose it works for some to get their attention..

We did get in a ride this past weekend as well as garage cleaning and picking up some sticks out of the pasture. Just Derek and I at Lords Hill for a couple hours, it was a great weekend with lots of sun. I am still struggling with saddle slippage with Red, maybe the thick pad was a bad idea, too thick makes for a less secure saddle even though the thicker pad does provide better shock absorption. I think when I get my new (used) saddle, I'm going to try a really thin pad and see how that goes. Technically if the saddle is truely a good fit, a thin pad should be just fine. We'll see, I'm so confused sometimes..

I am excited to get away for the weekend.. I really need some downtime and I suppose if it rains the entire weekend, well we'll just be riding in the rain then. :) I wish a few more had wanted to come, they probably dont want to go camping this early in spring, but I'm a camper, I dont care if its going to be low 30's at night, I'll have the dog to keep me warm, the fresh air to clear my head and a fire to stay warm by.

We reclaimed our bed!

When we lost Scout 3 months ago, we immediately allowed Russell to sleep in the bed with us every night.. before, it was a weekend only deal but we felt super sad for Russell and did not want to make him sleep in his dog bed all by himself so we just allowed him in ours for 3 months straight! Now, he is a pretty good bed dog, but he still takes up room. Last night we decided enough was enough and he's a dog... so we opened the dogbed door and he walked right in, took his treat, looked at us with an "Are you sure you want me to sleep here" look and went to sleep! Not one whine or whimper out of him, he took it like a man, I mean dog! :)

I'm sure he's known for a while that his "luck" would run dry sooner or later and it was nice that he did not complain about being demoted to dog status again. He definately is a lonely guy though and I wish December would come faster! We have made plans with the breeder of the Boykin's, so we'll be putting a deposit down on our pup this summer for a Christmas puppy.

We took Schwinn and Blue out for a ride around Lake Tye the other day.. In the Rain!! It was alright actually. My behind was a lot less sore than the first time we rode them, so that was great. We might try to get out again tonight, if it's not SNOWING when I get home! Yep, it is supposed to snow tonight... although right now it is just super windy and blue skies. This weather is almost depressing. I like WA weather, but I'm motivated to get out to ride Red and Blue (haha) and the ground is just mucky and saturated; the blue skies are far and few between these days. I'd really appreciate some better weather as we have plans coming up that I dont want to have to cancel..

We posted on Craigslist to try to find a temporary new home for the goats.. I actually got 3 responses so far of people that want some land cleared and the free use of the boys. It would be nice to find them a better place than the small corral at my parents, they are pretty irritated that they have no freedom, it is their own fault though, they did such a great job of clearing stickers, they created a path right to the fence free road!

And finally an interesting tidbit about Red.. I am wondering how long he was kept a stallion because that horse has 2 poop piles in his pasture and he ONLY poops in one of those two spots! It is a little bizarre, I'm not complaining I wish ALL horses knew this trick.. I've known horses to poop in one spot in a stall, but not out in a pasture. I miss riding, I have not even been able to use my brand new pad yet.. sad.. but riding is on the agenda for the weekend as well as cleaning up the garage... hmm we'll see how that goes!

Sore and tired...

That is how I feel this monday morning. We actually opted to take Schwinn and Old Blue out yesterday instead of Edgar & Red. Schwinn and Old Blue have been cooped up for a few years in the shack, but we got 'em tuned up and ready to ride and ventured down to the centennial trail on Sunday afternoon. It was not quite the relaxing ride we are used to, we had to put quite a bit of leg work into the ride especially since it was a very windy day; we had a lot of head-wind to fight. But we got a good 45 minute ride in and it felt great to be back out there. My legs were a bit jiggly afterwards and my ass is still quite sore today :( We hope to take Schwinn and Blue out a few times a week, rain or shine and eventually we think it would be fun to ride them to our meetings in Lk Stevens...

Yesterday was Easter and although we did not intend on going anywhere for dinner, of course my mom cooked a huge ham and called at 3:30 asking if we'd come help eat all this food she made! Good thing we dont plan ahead too much, so we were able to postpone our chicken salad dinner to go eat her ham and scalloped potatoes, which must be an Easter tradition meal because I heard of a couple others that ate the same thing.

Do Not Touch the Remote..

I was reminded today of a funny story, thought I should share. :) Maybe over time I will continue to post some of the funny or bizzarre or questionable stories of my youth! Won't that be fun.. lol

I was talking with my dad this morning while he waited for mom to get some bloodwork done at the clinic and the subject came up of porn on the cable tv! Odd subject for a daughter/father discussion. We had been chatting about movies that were out, that can be ordered through your cable company and I think he mentioned that there were a lot of porn flicks you could get, although they are not $4.99! I then told him this story, although I'm sure I've told it to him and mom before...

A LONG time ago, Derek and I were living in our apartment in Snohomish. Mom and dad had to go out of town for a softball tournament with Carrie and it happened to be Eric's birthday weekend. So we decided we would take him and a few of his friends out to Alfy's pizza and then back to our place to watch movies. I think the boys were spending the night too, there were maybe 4 kids. I am trying to recall Eric's age... hmmmm He had to be turning maybe 13 or 14.

So anyways, back at our apartment we left the boys alone in the living room to watch whatever they wanted and after a while we realized that they were flipping back/forth over the porn channel because back in the day when you did that, you would get a quick second of picture before it scrambled itself, so they flipped over that channel a hundred times or more! Derek and I looked at eachother and came up with a great on-the-fly birthday present... We quietly phoned the cable company (cuz that's how you did it way back when) and ordered that channel. A minute or more later as we spied on the boys, they flipped over the porn channel and realized they were getting more than a seconds peak worth of picture! They all gasped and one or more said to the remote holder "WHAT DID YOU DO?" as they realized they had not done anything different they all started saying in slow motion almost "DO NOT TOUCH THAT REMOTE!" They just kept saying it over and over, like the remote was the magic wand that suddenly granted them their wish.

It was Frickin Hilarious!! They were so dumbfounded by what was happening, they had no clue how or why they were getting this channel all the sudden, they figured it was a glitch with the remote, but they soon realized something was up as we were laughing our asses off and of course they now knew we were behind it all... So we left the channel on and went to bed knowing the boys would be up for a very long time!

Dessert Auction

I had wanted to post my desserts for the dessert auction and almost forgot. I made a triple batch of rice crispy treats.. mostly because about 1/3 of them were going to stay with us! You can see in the one pic how half of the bottom pan is already gone.. lol

Then I also made Rocky Road Bars.. MMMMMM those were delicious! I need to make them again just for us..

Sit Red, Sit

Friday evening we had company over, Yvonne & Brooke. They had come over from Spokane to have Derek repair Yvonne's car that Brooke had dented last summer! :) They are the wife and daughter of my x-coworker Greg. I miss having Greg around the office, he now has a job over in Spokane so it is very unlikely he will ever come back to AWS :( bummer...

I had planned to bake up some cinnamon rolls on Friday evening for our annual horse club Dessert Auction on Saturday evening. I had 2 frozen uncooked batches leftover from the ride a couple weeks ago; however the dough was not rising as fast as I expected it to and come 11:30pm, I said to heck with it, they're goin in the oven! They rose up just fine while baking, but did turn out a bit browner/darker than mom's batches, my oven must run a little hotter.. I hope they tasted just as good, they looked a little overdone. My house smelled really good at midnight though!

Saturday the girls borrowed our truck and went shopping at Alderwood for the day while Derek finished up with the car. I decided to take advantage of the weather and the free time to go riding with cousin Shana.. :) I had already months earlier convinced her to help with our auction, so it was super easy to get her to come over earlier so we could get the horses out. She is really happy that she gets to continue to ride Edgar! We decided on Lords Hill, it was close and easy. I opted to ride in Derek's saddle to give it another try. I am happy to report that Red had ZERO soreness after our almost 2.5hr ride!!!!!! I was using Shannon's very thick wool pad (I have already ordered my own, that was a big ouch) but I am relieved to know that Derek's saddle was a great fit. For now I will ride in his saddle and he'll have to ride in my old saddle until I can find a saddle like his to buy for myself and give his back. Gerri, you cannot take Red anytime soon cuz I dont want to fight saddle fit on a new horse for a long time to come, I feel like this has been an ongoing battle for about 2 years now between the 4 horses we've been riding over the past couple years.. lol

We had a great ride, I am still getting used to Red out on the trails. He is pretty solid but he has his little ways.. My biggest issue is getting used to his wayward feet! His feet are huge bells.. they actually are the same size as Edgar, which is a size 3 shoes, but his feet are shaped much different and I feel like on the mucky trails, I am riding a horse with skiis on his back feet. He really slides around a lot in the simplest of mucky areas. I will feel his left back leg cross over to his ride side and his right back leg cross over to his left side.. maybe it's not as exaggerated as it feels, but it's a lot of movement. So when we are on slight downhills I sit much tenser than I probably should and he tends to not rate himself going downhill, meaning he has this really big stride and can walk pretty fast at times, so when going downhill he walks like he's on a flat area whereas I want him to slow down and take smaller steps to avoid any chance of him falling by taking large steps that will cause him to loose his footing.

So we are going down this hill, it is hardly mucky at all, just a little slick from recent rains. Anyways, he is walking a little faster than I want, I'm in the process of asking him to rate himself down to a slower walk and his back legs start to go. I literally think of bambi on ice, legs just going any direction. I dont know if that is how it was, but he was sliding and he couldnt get his back end to stop, and I probably pulled up just a little (I know I did NOT jerk) but his head went up and his back end just dissappeared, I screetched.. I'm sure Shana was up ahead thinking what the hell is going on back there.. lol As I am screetching and thinking oh crap what's going to happen next, I am pretty sure he was basically in an almost sitting position, I was leaning way forward to keep from coming off and after what felt like eternity, he figured out his footing and did not go over.. once he stood up he was pissy and wanted to walk out right now! I wanted him to remain calm and collected, so we had a little 3 second "issue" moment of him feeling like he wanted to be a terd and get cranky, he was trying to veer off the trail into the brush and didnt want me on his face at all, but I didnt give in, he needed to remain collected and we walked out of that and I gave him big pats when his attitude went back to relaxed. ;) It was a little unnerving for sure, I dont like feeling so out of control and I am hoping as time goes on, he will start to learn to rate himself in mucky situations and will start to learn better foot placement for better stability on icky trails. If not, I will continue to show him the right way by asking him to slow down and using my legs (a lot) to keep him where he needs to be on the trail.

Gerri, I do not want you to think I am complaining because that is NOT what I am doing, just talking through my trials and experiences that he and I need to still work out. :)

After the ride, I had walked him up to the truck and tossed his leadrope end into the bed of the truck while I uncinched him. He stuck his head into the bed of the truck and before I knew it, he had his halter hung up on part of the truck bed railing. OH SHIT! he pulled back of course in a panic, his face was basically "tied" to the truck. He pulled back and then realized it got him nowhere, so he stopped moving with full tension on the halter, I tried to unhook him but it was just too tight.. then he started pulling again but quickly stopped and dropped his head just enough for me to quickly unhook him.. WHEW!!! Boy did I feel like a big dumbass! Poor guy, he was a little spooked after that (I dont blame him!), I rubbed him and talked to him, apologized up and down for my mistake.. I was happy to see that he did not go completely bonkers in the situation, he could have made it a whole lot worse, injuring himself and the truck. Aside from 2 mishaps, Shana & I had a great time and it was fun getting out with her again, I invited her to come to the ladies ride with me later this year.

After our ride, we cleaned ourselves up and headed to the dessert action, which went really well. Eric & Andrea came and brought Tony & Amanda with them. Heck I hadnt seen them in well over a month, my brother that is! Dena (my aunt) & her fiance Paul came as well, bringing friends and then my parents were there. The people that I brought in for the auction, including ourselves, bought 25% worth of the sales! and my guests totaled 45% of the non-horse club attendees.. :) I am proud of those numbers. I always invite all my friends/family in my email database because you dont have to like horses to LOVE dessert!!! and I think it is fun for anyone AND we are a great club that I am pretty passionate about. I may not always be on the top of the political ball, but I do my part I think.

Yesterday (Sunday) was a downtime day for us, just ran a couple errants, OH we did take our bikes in for a tune-up, they have not seen the light of day in atleast 3 years.. but I really want to start riding a couple nights a week atleast down on the Centennial Trail, so we should get them back by the weekend. Yeah! and I am super excited for our trip to Easton next month.. I want time to speed up so I can get to all these things I want to do, yet it needs to slow down cuz 40 is approaching way too damn fast..

This one's for Gerri!

So Gerri has a new blog (reminder that Gerri is Red's owner). Anyways, she has started a blog about getting back into horses and her adventures, experiences, joys, freedoms etc.. I really enjoy her writing style, she is a kick in the pants and her posts keep you wanting to read more. I can only hope that mine has maybe the same affect on my few followers.

I just watched the movie Julie & Julia (or is it Julia & Julie) I guess it doesnt matter, but it was a cute movie about blogging and cooking. It was inspiring how a blog turned Julie's life around and opened a new door for her, not that I expect or ever think mine would. But it does make me want to keep this interesting for those that take time out of their day to actually see what we are doing! :) I wish more people I knew would blog, not only does it give me something to do during the day when I am suffering from a lack of workload, but it allows me to be in a small loop on someone else's life. There are PLENTY of blogs out there to read, this is true.. but it's not the same if there is no personal connection with the writer.

I just read Gerri's posting which brought tears to my eyes. I can just feel the love and passion she has for her horse and it makes me realize how grateful I am to have met her. I can feel that she trusts me with Red and that is a really nice feeling. Her words were quite powerful to me and showed me that although she misses her horse, she knows he is in good hands and she sees that I do appreciate this opportunity to lease a great horse.

After only a short couple of weeks, I dont see the big head, long legs, short tail, non-Quarter Horse build of a horse. I see a big handsome bay gelding that is bringing a lot of joy in my life right now.

The drowning Story

I am going to share the laughing/drowning story as told by my cousin Shana and then my version will be at the bottom! :) We were camping at Salmon La Sac outside of Cle Elum, WA with our 4H group I think it was. 4H was a lot different back in the day, atleast our club was because most of the parents were backcountry riders, so our adventures were out on the trails. Enjoy...

OK, the river story... Shelly and I (age 12 or 13) were swimming our horses in the river. Shelly's horse went under a downed tree that stretched way out into the water. In doing so, Shelly got swept off of the horse and into the river.

I, very gracefully and intentionally of course, dismounted and swam to her in an attempt to save her because she was sort of freaking out. I got her to another downed tree that was at river level and connected to the shore. Each of us was on a seperate side of the tree so we were facing each other (I'm not remembering how we were on different sides).

Anyway, as we clung to the tree/log, her face went blank. She was staring right at me but she looked dazed. Next thing I knew, she disappeared! She lost her grip and floated under the tree and past me. I'm looking for her, yelling for her but I don't see her. Finally, out of nowhere, she pops up from under the water, standing in only about 2 feet of water but about 30 yards down river. I floated down to her and "drug" her by the hand back up stream and back to our log.

I told her to shimmy along the log back up to the shore but she was frozen in fear! I could've made it but I wasn't going to leave my friend there! Finally, we hear something from the shore. Perhaps someone to save us? I look up and it's my cousin Piper. Sitting on a horse, LAUGHING HER ASS OFF!

Shelly's yelling "Help! Help!" And you were just laughing hysterically! Just sitting there, horseback, laughing your ass off! I yell at you "Go get help!" and I don't know if you couldn't hear me or what but seems like you sat there laughing for a long, long time.

To this day I don't remember if you went and got Dave or if he just happened to be there, or if he heard the cries for help! But out comes Dave Huber on Rosie (his horse at the time) and he rides out to us, puts Shelly, maybe both of us, on his horse and he grabs Rosie's tail and Rosie took us all back to shore (maybe he had to come back for me? Or maybe I climbed the log to shore? I'm not actually remembering how I got out, but I was never really worried for myself, I knew I could get out!)

Either way, as I remember it, you watched the entire rescue from shore through slanted, teary, laughing eyes! It doesn't sound as funny in type, but it's one of my favorite stories! Although my very favorite Piper story I think will always be the gas siphon/lawnmower story!

Piper Back In: Okay, so my version... I cannot really recall the situation vividly in my head like Shana can, all I remember is that I was 8 or 9 years old and it was FRICKIN HILARIOUS!! lololololololol

As a side note so you dont all think I am the worst person in the world, remember I was only about 8 years old so I was not old enough to comprehend the seriousness of the situation and to this day... We both laugh about it! The 'river' may be more like a swift moving big creek, or maybe it is a river.. either way it is a shallow river at many points. I have since redeemed myself in stressful situations and can remain calm and collected, I do not laugh in the face of disaster! :) Shana has held that potential drowning against me all my life and we enjoy recounting our varied versions.. Although I must say I dont have much defense because my version only recalls "laughing my ass off" as she recalls!

The lawnmower story is another funny one. Heck Shana & I have quite a few funny stories together.... some should be told and others will remain in our own heads! :)

Early to bed and Early to rise..

Okay I pretty much fail at the early to bed part. I did manage to get into bed by 9:30 on Friday night, which is 1.5 hours earlier than normal, but I was getting up 1.5 hours earlier than normal. Amazingly it worked out and I awoke feeling pretty good Sat morning. Why would I wake at 5am on a Saturday you ask?? Well Derek & I had to drive to Ellensburg for some BCHW training for the horse club. It was the annual training and meeting over there and it was a great day. I got some great info out of my Treasurer class and Derek attended the President/VP class (since he is VP of our club). He really enjoyed the class, I was suprised at how excited he has been getting lately and how much he really wants to get involved.

We've been trying to come up with ideas and ways to maybe incorporate some new concepts into the horse club, give it a more current vibe, attract in some new members. Not 100% sure everyone is on board yet with our suggestions, but we'll be talking about them in the coming months because we are pretty confident that this is a positive direction to go. Derek was really glad he went to the training and was able to meet other chapter members, hear what is working and not working for other clubs...

Sometimes I feel like this can't be real. How did I go from having a husband so passionate about softball, retire from that and start almost a second life involving the horses and preserving the mission of BCHW. When he first started riding, I was not sure he would even enjoy it. I hoped he would, but he exceeded my hopes and then some. I have always had a supportive husband, he lived and loved the country life. But now he LIVES the country life to the fullest! Riding is not our hobby, it is a lifestyle. He enjoys all aspects of what that entails; Cleaning the barn, shoveling poo, brushing dirty horses, renovating pastures, building fence, being poor! lol

Something he said to me the other day, something along the lines of "Riding takes away all stress, I think about nothing else but just enjoying the time while I am out on the trails or brushing my horse, when I ride I dont think about my daily stresses and concerns, it all just goes away even if only for an hour, but is a break from the daily grind". I said to him "Welcome to my world!" I am so proud that He Gets It!!! I have felt that way for years, when I ride whether alone or in a group, it is like there is nothing else on earth that exists. Time just stops and I am able to let go of life for a couple hours. And now that Derek sees and feels the joy and love and passion I have had all these years, how much better can life get? Okay life could be tons better with tons more cash in our wallets, but if we are gonna be poor than atleast we are happy poor! ;)

After our training, we spent the other half of the day going to a couple feed stores in Ellensburg looking for some tack. What a bust.. oh we did find a horn bag, a cantle bag Derek wanted and a leather strap. On our way home, we drove up out of Cle Elum and down to Salmon La Sac, a camping area I went to as a kid. I do believe that the Cayuse Horse Camp there is where we were the year that I laughed on the bank as my cousin Shana and her friend were drowning! Another story.. another time! lol We wanted to check it out, but there was still lots of snow in the campground, so we were not able to get a good feel for the camping. It seems like a nice place to go, might have to consider. As you are heading to the camping area, it is a dead end road basically, and the last town you pass through is Ronald. We stopped in at a old town General Store, thinking we might find something interesting. What we found was old nicknack crap that has been on the shelves for years, some things that maybe were supposed to be antiquey but were really just old crap, some misc camping/food type items that I would question the date on and a creepy guy behind the counter that if you enter the store alone, you might worry you wouldnt make it out alive!

Sunday we took the boys up to Mann Rd and got in a 2.5 hr ride with Adam & Tracy. Mostly rode the logging roads, we did get on one trail that was VERY muddy and boggy, we finally turned around because we had come upon a downhill that was far too slick to attempt to ride down. Oh well! I was riding in Derek's saddle, wanted to see if it fit Red better than mine. It definately felt better, Red is built slightly downhill and I am now 99% sure my saddle (although still hard to believe) is too wide for even Red. So when that saddle was on him, being too wide would rock me forward even more on him and put so much pressure on his shoulders. With Derek's saddle, I felt pretty level. He was a tiny bit sore on one side of his shoulders after the ride, but NOWHERE near how sore he was the week before. And I am not sure if it was residual soreness from before or truely new soreness. This morning he was still just a little bit sore on the one side is all.. so I think I need to ride in his saddle again. I will again give him the week off, I want him as fresh as possible between rides so I can really make a determination on saddle fit.

I will also try one other saddle we have on him, my other Tucker Saddle. I think that one will be too narrow but will set it on him and see how it looks. He did great on the ride, I rode in a Wonder Bit this time and I think that works well on him. I get the whoa and I get side leverage and he seems content in it. He didnt stretch his neck out like he has before and he didnt over-play with the bit in his mouth, he kept his mouth fairly quiet actually which is good because the less he pays attention to the bit, the more he pays attention to the trail. We did get a little bit rained on yesterday, it was actually quite muggy, we all were stripping down before we even got in the saddle.. NO we were not naked! :) Wouldnt that be funny to see.. Hmmm maybe not so funny! lol

Russell had some company yesterday, his friend Brownie came to visit. Brownie belongs to Tyler's girlfriend Cathy. He's a cute little dog and they enjoyed exploring the yard together. The great part about having Tyler and Cathy over last night is that Tyler wanted to show Cathy our vaccum cleaner (we have a rainbow) and how the room does not smell of dust when you use it, so he vaccumed my very dirty carpet to show off the vaccum to her and it was GREAT! Derek told him we have a toilet scrub brush he could show off to her as well.... lololol

Ah the start to a new week.. lets see what adventures we can find next!

There's no Vampires in our barn!!

Just incase you ever worried that vampires might shack up in our barn, well worry no longer... Gerri gave us this tub of garlic that is fed to Big Red, to help detract mosquitoes from him as he is sensitive to normal fly sprays and boy let me tell ya, I think the entire neighborhood is vampire free! Whew that is some damn strong garlic.. :) lol

I also have to find him a good "natural" flyspray, I found a sampler spray that smells very heavily of citronella, so there are some quite strange smells in our barn these days. I did learn the other day too that we can detract flies from our home and barn by hanging ziplock baggies 1/2 full of water with 3 pennies in each baggy. Hmm.. not sure if it works, but worth a try!

If gassing doesnt work...

then Drown 'em!!

Those pesky moles are back.. Last year we thought we had rid the yard of the damn things and the holes started popping up again this year. We first tried the gum trick, put some juicy fruit down the holes and that seemed to have done the trick, but then WHAM, 6 new holes overnight a couple weeks later. So Derek found a tailpipe contraption and gassed their chambers for 30 minutes... We thought that had done the trick, but then again a couple weeks later new holes arrived.

So last night we gassed 'em again for 30 minutes and to finish it off, we figured if they passed out and didnt die from the gas, we'd get the job done with drowning them. We filled up one section that only took a few minutes to fill the hole. The hole in the picture... heck we had the water going for 15+ minutes full blast on that hole and I dont think it was close to filling up, so there are some serious chambers going on down around that tree!

I also had Derek take a few pics of me and Big Red. I gave an article to our horse club Newsletter Editor to introduce him to everyone. I think the headshot is pretty cute, EVEN IF I am in it!! :)

I took one of Edgar too.. he's such a stinker, when the camera comes out, he always leaves! He did stop to look back at me, I'm sure disgruntled because I had interrupted his dinner..

Not to rush the year, but....

We are waiting on Christmas.. Already!

We emailed with Jim, a WA breeder of Boykin's in Eatonville and he is going to breed his female with Earl and pups will be ready around Christmas. Earl is a Boykin that came from back east and is a great hunting/working dog down in OR that has video posted on YouTube. Derek and I have been very impressed with Earl and are super excited that we will be getting a puppy out of this dog!

We will get pick of the litter as well, which is AWESOME. I wish the timing was a little better, but we cannot be too picky on the con's because there are far too many pros to this situation, particularly since there are so few breeders in our area. So Merry Christmas to us!!! lol

Something else we are waiting on is a yeah/neay from our lender. See our lender took bailout money and because of this they have to offer to us an option of getting a Loan Modification on our current mortgage. We filled out all the paperwork and sent it in, we'll know in 10 days or less what the status is of our eligibility. We could really use the relief on the mortgage, basically the program lowers your interest rate and locks you into a new 30 year loan. NO FEES WHATSOEVER! If we do not qualify (not sure why we wouldnt) but anyways, if we dont get this program, we have been talking recently about options again. I want to stay, there are so many cool things I want to do to our place but it's tough being maxed out on your loan.

We havent ridden again since this past weekend, wanted to give Red some time to be sure he was not still sore, Derek was amazed yesterday at just how much Edgar is now shedding! I had warned him that within days of being wormed he would start dropping his hair rapidly and I dont think he believed me! lol He does now..

Derek cooked us a traditional (well probably Americanized or Safewayized version) of an Irish Meal, Corned Beef and carrots and potatoes and cabbage. Well we boiled the shit out of it, the potatoes were mush, the cabbage resembled nothing like cabbage, the carrots were alright and the flavor of the beef was okay, but OMG the fat on that beef was just gross! We both finished our meal feeling like AGGHH.. The meet was very bizarre there was soooo much fat in it.. We decided that our first traditional Irish meal would be our last traditional Irish meal! As we lay in bed disgusted with our meal, we concluded that next year our St Patty's Day dinner will be a big fat bowl of Lucky Charms! mmmmm.....

It's that time of year..

when I will start posting more often because the days are longer officially now, the weekends are nicer and there's so much to do!

I took Friday off from work, I needed the day to prepare/make the cinnamon rolls for our horse club annual Cinnamon Roll Ride in Arlington. This year was finally the year I would basically do them myself (with mom's guidance) so I was excited to attempt this venture. I had planned to spend the entire day there, however I received a call earlier in the week from Shannon (who is training Oakley) voicing some concerns over his mouth and that she felt I really needed to get him to a vet to get his mouth/teeth looked at. Shannon was worried he had a cracked tooth, he was shaking his head and acting funny with his head/mouth when she was riding him with a bit, so to rule out any issues, I scheduled a vet appt for Friday at noon.

I decided I might as well take Edgar along too since I knew his teeth needed to be filed down as well. Here are a few pics of the boys, doped up (or should I say down with their heads hanging). The contraption on the face is what holds their mouths open, I was able to look inside and see where the vet was going to file down, see what the problems were with both horses and then see the results of his work. I took the boys to Pilchuck, the vet was really GREAT and it was Dental month so I got a good discount.

Edgar was pretty jagged on his teeth and really needed the work. Normally horses should go in every year, both boys hadnt been to the vet for a teeth checkup in 3+ years! :( bad mommy, bad mommy.. Edgars teeth were filed down nice and although Edgar previously indicated no issues with his mouth, he should be able to eat a lot better now.

Oakley had minor issues with jagged teeth but enough that he probably was sore when the bit was in his mouth and raking across his teeth. He had some bruising on his inner cheek on one side. He too is all fixed up and Shannon already notices a difference with his behavior when she rides him, even though she has yet to put a bit in his mouth.

Speaking of Oakley, she took him out this past weekend at Mann Rd, she had a friend ride him that had never been on a horse before and she is just so amazed at what an awesome horse he is. She told me I did a really great job with him and she is excited that she knows for a fact that she can market him to anyone, she would sell him to a child or an old old lady.. :) Sounds like she's got some people coming out to see him, it's just a matter of the potential buyers having the cash we are wanting for him. We all agree its best right now to shoot really high and see what happens. I keep telling her if she can get more to go that direction, I certainly will not complain about having a fat wallet!

I do occassionally feel guilty about selling him because in a couple years, he really would be a great fit for Derek, but Derek has lost confidence in Oakley from the mistakes Oakley made last year. It was not Oakley's fault, he had never been trailridden before last year, it was my mistake for allowing Derek to ride him so soon. But Derek does admit he learned some things about riding from Oakley and what he learned has helped him to trust Edgar even more. Technically at this point, there is no reason not to trust Oakley, but I know for Derek's confidence to continue to grow, he needs to continue with Edgar (plus Derek now realizes as well how fun it is to ride big horses!) lol Derek and I are a true power couple on our big ass beasts!

Even though I had to take the boys to the vet in the middle of the day, I was still able to do all the steps to making the rolls.. we prepared the bread and as it was rising, I went to the vet and when I came back from the vet, the dough was ready to turn into rolls.. It was pretty easy and fun and they were very NUMMY!!!

The ride on Saturday was very well attended. I think there were about 35 that RSVP'd for the ride, most were supposed to be bringing horses and about 1/2 ended up coming with horses. The weather looked questionable that morning, but it did not rain 1 drop on us. It was a really nice 2.5hr ride. Edgar and Red were well behaved, We started with 10 in our group which dwindeled to 8 after an hour and then dwindled down to 5 for the last hour of our ride. Red did threaten to kick Edgar one time, but overall he was not as pissy as he has been in the past. It was a lot of fun and he rode okay in the hackamore.. I'm still not 100% lovin his bridle situation, working on it.

When I pulled Red's saddle off after the ride, he was extremely sensitive/sore in his wither area. I have NEVER had a horse get sore there before. Typically the horse will be sore on the top of their back, above their flank. But he was not sore there at all (which is great!) but I was really concerned when he was so tender where the front of the saddle sat on him. Red is built slightly downhill and I think the weight of me and the saddle rocks forward on his shoulders more because of this. I really need to get a much thicker pad on him (I plan to buy one this weekend and if I dont find one to buy, will order it online). I may also add some front cushion/support under the saddle over his withers to level things off a little. And I will be riding in Derek's saddle to see if there is a difference in fit.

On Sunday, he was not very sore at all in his withers which was GREAT! I was VERY VERY happy to see him drastically improved over a 24hr period. We took the boys out on Sunday and spent some time just brushing them.. good bonding time for both of us, got them both wormed so they should start dropping their winter coats rapidly. I am concerned about the saddle fit just a little, I really want either my saddle or Derek's to work out so we dont have to go through this.. it's a big bitch to have to deal with saddle fit and I think I am just going to continue to love Big Red! He is super sweet, I am getting to know his personality and he's just a nice horse.

In the mornings when I am preparing their grain mash, he sticks his neck waaaayy out into the isleway and flaps his lips then if he's really impatient, he'll rake his teeth on the stall wall! lol Now Edgar, when he is impatient, he talks to ya and nickers at ya and then he'll grab ahold of the extension cord on the outside of his stall and flip it just enough to let you know he wants to be fed right now! :)

Sunday was basically a lazy day.. well not really I guess, afterall we did brush the boys out and that takes a little elbow work these days with all the dirt they seem to find! I did take my cousin Marc over to meet HotRod, they are considering leasing him for a while to see how it goes. There was supposed to be a late afternoon meeting at our house for the horse club Ladies Ride later this summer, so I spent the afternoon cleaning the house and then mowed the lawn. And as I sat down to relax, the meeting was postponed to another day.. Oh well, my house needed the cleaning anyways! Derek spent the afternoon working on Adam's tractor implement, getting it torn apart so it can be sandblasted.

In the morning on Sunday, I found a dog on Craigslist in Snohomish (my parents have been keeping their eyes open for one) and I thought he looked like what they might want (a small-med size dog), I forwarded the link and a couple hours later dad sends me a pic from his cell phone of the dog! I told him "You better stop over with your new dog!" And they did.. lol The dog doesnt have a name yet, it is about 2 years old is their best guess, the previous owners rescued the dog from a shelter and only had it 3 months, their daughter who begged for a dog decided she didnt like taking care of the dog as much as she wanted to the dog. Anyways, he is a mutt, looks kinda like a scotty type dog crossed with a beagle maybe.. not really sure! My parents didnt like the name his previous owners gave him and he didnt know it anyways, so hopefully in a day or so they'll come up with a good one to fit. He immediately got along with Russell, poor guy was being violated by our dog and he didnt growl once, he just jumped around in a goofy manner and ran around the yard with a big ole smile on his face and tongue hangin out. I hope he and my parents bond well together, he is cute and his temperment seems ideal.

This post is never going to end.. And soon enough I am going to start posting about Derek's new project. He bought this chevy luv truck a couple years ago I think it was and has been slowly searching for parts for it and he's just about got all he needs. He found a bed for it, a motor and a rearend.. so now it's just a matter of getting all the different parts put together. I want to post pics of his progress, I am trying really hard to remember to not only have the camera on me, but to use it!!

Hoorray for Spring!

and longer days.. Well not quite long enough, but getting there minute by minute every day. Daylight savings is this weekend, which is GREAT. It already stays fairly light out til almost 6:30.

Now that I have a horse to ride, there is time to come home after work and get an hour ride around the neighborhood in. Derek & I did that yesterday, it was a nice cold day and I was anxious to ride. Now that Red is home, I just want to ride ride ride.. it's all I think about practically! I am trying to talk Derek into going camping for his birthday weekend over in Easton, but he's not really biting on the idea.

I decided to try Red in a hackamore instead of the english bit he was in. When I was riding him before, he would respond, just not very well at times. When we were going through these big mud patches, when he was in the lead, he wouldnt slow down to look at them, just powered through. Which isn't terrible, but the bit was not giving him any bite to pay attention to me. He seemed to do pretty good in the hackamore.. There is no bit in a hackamore, it is just based off of pressure and although you don't have as much side control, I definately had more whoa control.

After riding him in that, I was happier than the bit, but not 100% satisfied, I think I may try riding him in a halter around the pasture a few times, see if I can get him to comprehend pressure on the nose and get some response there, I think that will make him respond better when I put him back in the hackamore. He didnt throw his head around like he did with the bit and his mouth stays quiet so he focuses on me more.

He seems to be settling in well, which makes me happy. He comes to the barn when he hears me. This morning is the first time I saw any aggressive behavior at feeding time. See the horses enter their stalls right next to eachother. Their doors are side by side and not seperated and then the divider between the stall is open so they can reach across to eachother and this morning he was a little pissy and grumpy, didnt like Edgar so close to him. There was some threats of kicking (although he'd only hit the wall if he tried). Red finally realized if he walked to the other side of the stall where he is fed, Edgar is not too close! :) Silly boys.. I'm glad we have the ability to seperate them.

Oh and some good news about the other animal in our life.. Russell! :) We put him on a GlycoFlex supplement, per Andrea's suggestion because his hips were getting really bad with shaking. Every time he would play for even just a minute or two chasing a ball, his back leg would shake like a twig in the wind... Well he's been on for 5 weeks now and there has been no shaking going on! We've played with him for 20 minutes and he still doesnt shake. I am so happy.. He does still shake his leg when he's outside and gets cold but we are so relieved that it is working, the little buddy is going to be 11 this year!

Edgar & The Mariners Moose!

Big Red's nickname is now the Mariners Moose.. goes well with Edgar! :)

The plan for Saturday was to ride the boys at Mann Rd, help Shannon with some video, go to a jewelry party then off to the 4H pre-sale to look for some much needed larger tack... Well on our drive out to meet Gerri, she called and said Red was missing a shoe... grrr Not anyone's fault, just a bummer because that changed everything up.

We picked up Red, then headed to Shannons (she no longer needed video either) and visited with her for a while, wanted to talk to her about Oakley as an offer had been made on him by a 73 yr old woman! She was very impressed, however we were not impressed by the offer especially considering he has not even been listed yet. So we talked it over with Shannon to get her opinion if she felt that was all we could get for him and we all concluded it wouldnt be fair to take the first offer on a horse we havent even put up for sale yet.. She thinks if a 73yr old comes out and doesnt even ride him, is that impressed just watching her ride him bareback in a halter then we should invest a little more time and effort into him and see what happens. If we try for more and it doesnt work out, then so be it.. we get it that times are tough, but we also know times are not tough for everyone out there and he is an awesome horse! Shannon's been taking him out on the trails, he just isnt doing anything wrong and he is gorgeous!!! :) And its not that I'm being greedy, however I only get 1/2 of whats paid, that's the deal we made and we'd like to try to get a bit more in our pocket and would like to see Shannon make a bit more as well. She's got the resources and we've got the time.

So.. back to the weekend... While at Shannons, Derek was able to play on the tractor and drag the indoor and outdoor arena, he loves playing on the farm! I gave Red his shots while there, we then loaded the boys back in the trailer (they'd been standing around for an hour) and headed home. As soon as I got home, I had to unload Edgar and put him in the pasture, and me and the Russ drove up to Arlington to meet the horseshoer so they could put the shoe back on. Just as I pull in the shoer's driveway I get a call from Danielle and she says to me "Who's driveway are you pulling into?" lol I laughed and said "follow me in". She was headed out to see her horse which is just a couple minutes down the road, how funny she was right behind me and I didnt even realize it. She knew it was me when she saw Russell hangin his head out the window.

I followed her to her horse after Red was done so I could see where he was boarded. Stayed there only about 25 minutes, I had to get on the road and head home to get to the jewelry party. I realized while driving home I would literally pull in the driveway the same time my mom was due to pick me up. AND I wouldnt have time to change or even put Red in the field and watch him to be sure he was settling in. It would not be fair of me to leave a brand new horse on the property w/o being home, if something went wrong, Derek would have to deal with it alone. So I had to cancel the jewelry show.. I was bummed, I had wanted to go.

Red of course settled in just fine! It was like he lived there forever, he drank water, went in/out of his stall.. he was content. He did kick Edgar when I was leading him through Edgars side of the pasture. Red stopped to take a bite to eat and Edgar got right up on his butt. I dont think they will have a love/hate relationship, I think in a couple weeks, all will be happy. For now, we keep them seperated just to be sure nothing goes wrong. They trailer GREAT together and we can tie them right next to eachother; they both could care less.

While Derek worked on one outdoor chore, I decided to prune some of the VERY low hanging branches on the apple tree.. I cut anything off big or small that was eye level or lower to the horses, Red was oblivious to all the falling branches around him.

Angela picked me up at 7 and we headed to the 4H tack sale, I did not find any cinches and there were LOTS to look through, just nothing big enough.. found a really nice blanket and a nice fly sheet, but people wanted $100 each for them.. I can buy them new for less than that. I did find a pad for Derek and a $2 rusty feeder I will use for the goats, which is perfect! :) So I left content, wish I had found other useful items, guess I'll have to buy brand new.

Sunday we woke early and loaded the boys up, headed to Lk Cassidy to meet Barbara V to ride the Centennial. Got in a solid 2 hour ride, Red did good. I am not 100% happy with his bit, he doesnt have a lot of stop with it, I might try to switch him up a little and see if I can find something he responds better in. He was a little lazy and tripped a lot, nothing like going down tripping and he got grumpy once again for the last half of the ride at the other horses and did a lot of ear pinning. I dont know if he is the kicking type, so I am going to be cautious about it.. I definately make him pay attention to me when he gets pissy, and I dont let him get cranky, maybe he'll learn to get over it over time.

As soon as we got home, we started up a fire and FINALLY got ALL the scrap wood burned!!! YEAH.. I was SOOO happy and excited about cleaning up that big mess by the shed, it was a terrible eye sore! We spent quite a few hours with the fire, I drug those cut branches to the fire as well and got all but the 2 biggest (undraggable branches) burned.. Just minutes after I had put all the branches on the fire, it started to rain, what perfect timing! Felt like a very accomplished weekend..

I am bummed that in about 2 weeks we'll be moving the horses to summer pasture.. I will greatly miss having them around. But it will give us a chance to get our pastures done, I hope everything works out and the pastures are flattened out like we hope it should work. 12-18 months of keeping the boys off, its going to be tough to start over.

I would have posted some great pics for ya, but I forgot my camera at work! It is supposed to rain ALL week.. we have our annual Cinnamon Roll Ride this coming weekend, I'd really like to see it clear up for Saturday, the trails will be wet and slick AND there is the slight threat of snow this week as well.. should be interesting.