Maybe it's easier to just move closer to the hay...

that is what we are starting to wonder!

So this past weekend was our annual Spokane trip for our yearly supply of hay. We drive to Spokane because even with cost of fuel, we pay less than 1/2 the cost of hay from Western WA.. which equates to more than $1000 savings every year!

We left Friday afternoon with Shannon's 1 ton dually truck and her 10 ton flatbed gooseneck trailer.. perfect combo for the 6-7 tons we had planned to buy... We stayed with Derek's nephew Rick and his wife Kristen.. Derek, Rick & Rob went golfing Saturday while I spent the day with Toni visiting and later that evening we all met up at the races. It was a busy couple of days with our late night dinner Friday and then late night again Saturday.. Rick complained that it felt like we were always on the go-go-go when we come to visit and there was no down time. We have a lot to try to fit in on our annual hay trip with dinners, golf, visiting friends & hay, so we decided that in the future we should definately plan a trip over w/o getting hay because that's the only time we typically drive over. It did not feel super busy and exhausting to us, we are used to being on the go constantly. It was funny to hear from the guys who are 10 years younger than us, that they couldnt handle not having the down time.. downtime, what the hell is that? :)

We started loading our hay at 7:30am on Sunday morning, decided the trailer looked great with 6 ton, so went ahead and put 1 more ton on. No squat in the truck and hardly any squat on the trailer, but the tires looked a bit low (one in particular was clearly very low with the load). So we filled them up at the farmer's place and headed to Greg's (my x-coworker) who lives in Spokane to visit him and his wife for a little while. Trailer pulled great, tires looked good.. All was well.. Had a nice visit with Greg/Yvonne and got back on the road at 10:30 to head West.

At 11:15 (about 40 miles from Spokane) we hear a big "BAM" with a jolt of the truck and knew right away a tire was gone! Shit! We pull over and the drivers side rear tire was gone, plus the rim was destroyed. After some panicking, we called Toni's son Darrel as he drives a tow truck, asked him if he had access to a spare tire/rim and we'd pay him to come out and help us. He had a tow call to make before coming to our rescue so it was 3pm by the time he showed up. 15 minutes later his tire was on the trailer, clearly low on air.. we paid him some cash and drove off to the nearest gas station for air. Got the air in the tire, grabbed a quick (not very good) bite to eat since we knew we wouldnt want to stop again for food and headed back out on the road.

As we approached the 1st rest stop on our way, we decided to stop and check the tire just to be sure all was okay. It was the Schrag Rest Area, about 20 miles East of Moses Lake, it was 4:15pm when we stopped the truck. We get out, walk to the tire and see that it clearly is about 1/2 empty on air and we can hear the air leaking out... We walked back to the truck and just sat inside with a blank look on our faces I'm sure as we both independantely contemplated our next move.. 4 minutes later the truck jolted a tiny bit and we realized the tire had just gone completely flat! Its a damn good thing we pulled off I90 or we'd have been stuck on the side of the road..

So we contemplated the options, made quite a few calls.. our emergency roadside service was happy to come help but the only help they could provide was to haul our trailer to a shop and wait til Monday to get the tire serviced. They dont carry tires/rims. So we quickly realized we would be sleeping at the reststop with no food and only a couple bucks in our pockets to each get 1 bottled drink out of the vending machine... I attempted to get pizza places to deliver to us, but we were too far out.. It was suggested that we unhook and drive to get a bite to eat, however we had no chalks to block the trailer tires, it was not a good idea to disconnect and prop that trailer back on the rear axle even more w/o that tire and it's a real bitch to disconnect anyways.. so we sat there and played "20 questions" trying to get time to slip on by faster. We slept OK, not great through that night.

At 7am, I was on the phone with Moses Lk Schwab. They did not carry the size tire we needed so they informed me that we'd have to buy 4 new tires, that no Schwabs carried that tire anymore! F*ck!! Thats pretty much what we were saying.. Derek went to the restroom at that time, said he was contemplating ripping the handdryers off the wall, he wanted to destroy something when he heard what we were about to pay to get back on the road... I told them OK, I guess we are stuck so come on out. I got smart and called around, talked to a guy at Tires West who said we should call Ritzeville Schwab because Moses Lk was a bit shady. I did just that and they carried our tire! AND they had some used tires/rims in the exact size we needed with 80% tread left.. I told him to bring 2.. we would put 1 on the trailer and take 1 as a spare. I was very happy and at 9:30am Monday morning, we were back on the road. I must mention that it had started raining 30 minutes prior to getting back on the road; however it only continued to rain another 5 minutes as we drove away from the clouds and into the sun.

As we approached Moses Lk we contemplated stopping to eat but decided we just wanted to stay on the road and get home asap; we'd wait til Ellensburg. 30 minutes after leaving the rest stop, cruising along at about 50-55 mph, BAM! Another blow out... GODDAMMIT! well that's not exactly what we said, but you can use your imaginations. :) The new tire we just put on blew out.... So it was now 10am, stuck again on I90.

We have now realized that although the trailer says it can handle the load, clearly the tires are rated for only 1/2 of what the trailer can handle.. We call Schwab from Moses Lk, as we are less than 15 miles away and waited for the them come out and put the spare on. In the meantime, we are still very hungry and now pretty thirsty and even with an empty stomach I still had a full bladder! Squatted next to the truck, right there on I90.. Nice! We decide the only 2 options available are 1) Drop a couple tons off the trailer at the nearest farmers house and just give it away to get rid of it or 2) Hope and cross all fingers, toes, limbs, any available body parts that our flatbed trailer is at our house and my parents can go pick it up and make the long drive to Moses Lk to get some of this hay off this trailer! See the day before Derek had told our neighbor he could borrow our flatbed on Monday, so we really needed a little lady luck and were anxiously awaiting the call from my parents saying the trailer either was or was not in our driveway! Thank You Jesus, Jim had not come for the trailer yet (he was unreachable via phone so we had no idea if he had it or not). So as we sat waiting for Schwab, my parents loaded up the trailer and started the 3 hour trek to save our asses!

Schwab finally arrived at 12:30, put the spare tire on and we drove a couple miles down to the nearest exit (Dodson Rd) and quickly got off I90, pulled into a large gravel parking area and sat waiting 2 more hours for mom and dad to show up.

We played a little more "20 questions" as we waited.. doing really good at keeping our cool with the entire situation. I was still completely stressed about the rest of the trip, hoping that removing part of the load would solve our problems, worried we'd blow another tire with NO spare left to put on! As we waited, Derek hit his head pretty hard on the gooseneck section, darn near knocking himself out..

2:30 WHEW there are my parents with some water! We had hussled them out the door so quickly that they didnt have time to think about grabbing a bite to eat for us, I dont blame them I was pretty much telling them what I needed them to do earlier and I felt bad, they had company over and there was no time to doddle. :) They heard that the pass was going to close Westbound at 7:30 for rock blasting so we were on a time crunch.

An hour later, we had 2.5 tons off the borrowed trailer and onto our smaller trailer and another 1/4 ton in the bed of our truck. 3:40pm back on the road for what hoped to be the last long haul to home! A quick stop in Ellensburg (yes we made it from Moses through Vantage Hill and to Ellensburg) for some fuel in dad's truck and a stop at Subway for some much needed fuel for ourselves! As we ate our 6" subs, it had been 25 hours since we had eaten prior.. Derek nor I could recall a time we had ever gone that long without eating and although I experienced some hunger growls, I wasnt really that hungry.. I think the stress of the situation had my stomach in knots so eating was low on my priority list.

As we approached Cle Elum the skies were lookin mighty ugly and as the downpour started, we just drove on, unwilling to stop. We hoped (once again) for a little lady luck in that the squal would last only a short ways.. and it did stop pouring as we crested Snoqualmie Pass, the skies parted to partially sunny and continued to stay dry until we pulled in the driveway at 8pm Monday evening! Amazingly that with the 2nd round of rain (about 45 minutes) the hay felt only a tiny bit damp. The small flatbed was parked in the shop and the big trailer parked in the barn isle to be unloaded most likely Wednesday... What a TRIP!

We worked really hard at maintaining a good attitude and finding the positive in our situation.. we did both get a day off (although only 1 of us got paid for that time off) and we got some nice time of relaxing and doing nothing (which is always nice to get away from TV and noise). And even with all the extra expenses of these damn tires, the hay is still cheaper than what we can buy over here in Western WA, whether its grass direct from a farmer or the bales in the feedstores.. Next year we plan to maybe rent a big Penske flatbed and let the tires be the problem of someone else and we'll plan to head back on a Saturday with our load and not Sundays.. we'll save socializing for another time! :)

We set out with all the right tools, we had a trailer heavy enough for the load, a truck big enough to pull said load, noone to blame.. shit happens and I'm so thankful to my parents for coming to our rescue!! What was supposed to be a 12 hour easy drive back, turned into a 36+ hour nightmare! It reopened the door to discussion on whether it might just be easier to move closer to the hay and have the hay delivered direct from field to our barn! hmmm... the possibility is there if the right job came up for Derek. Maybe it's time for a change..

Herbs are not just for the birds..

apparently they are good for horses too!


So this past weekend was the annual horse club Ladies Ride, this year up at Harry O, outside of Sedro Woolley. I do miss the old location of Silver Ridge Ranch (Easton, WA) because I like the camping much better there.. but Harry O is free and there are more trails. I brought along my cousin Shana but I told her the stipulation was that she had to sleep in a tent! :) I really enjoy having it to myself when Derek is not with me. It was the running joke of the weekend (thanks to Shana) that because I sleep in the buff (which is partially why Shana was banned) and because I said I wanted "me" time (which was the other reason I gave Shana for not being allowed to sleep in the camper) that she assumed "me" time was for personal/self fulfilling reasons, also referred to as "Piper Time!"


Which to set the record straight, is 100% NOT the reason she was banned from the camper.. lol I just wanted the peace and quiet of having alone time... :)


The weekend went really well, we arrived Thursday afternoon, got our tent and awning set up and opted not to ride that afternoon, it just got too late. We did get in a 4 hour ride on Friday, the weather was nice but not too terribly hot, rode to the lake which was fun. When we got back to camp, a short while later, Edgar laid down.. DAMMIT!! I knew right away he was colicky.. He never lays down around people... He kept looking at his belly, so I gave him a round of Banamine (the magic paste!) and 20 minutes later he was perfectly fine.. He was still eating, drinking, pooping, peeing.. I think he just gets a gas colic or some sort of nervous stomach or something. Maybe he internally is a little stressed out and it bothers him enough to cause him to get a belly ache. We rode again on Saturday for almost 3 hours and Edgar was great.. but around midnight as I was attempting to sleep, I heard him lay down so I got up and sat out with him for 30 minutes to watch him.. he kept looking at his belly so as he lay there, I walked over and gave him another round of Banamine and went to bed. I figured it was better to be safe than sorry and it allowed me the opportunity to sleep soundly vs fretting and watching him all night.


Sunday he again was good to go.. my plan was a 1 - 1.5hr MAX ride... we got back to camp 2.5hrs later! lol Which turned out just fine, I was in no rush to get home since I knew Derek was off golfing that day and would not be home til probably after 9pm. Shana and I slowly packed up and headed out early afternoon. We did get some rain Saturday night and sprinkled on for just a few minutes on Sunday, but overall a terrific weekend with some great riding.


While I was away, Derek spent Saturday morning golfing with Jen & John in Snohomish and then spent the afternoon at the Hunt Test out in Duvall/Carnation area. He met Elroy who owns Earl.. Earl is the pappy to our future puppy.. He met lots of very nice people that were more than happy to talk with him and answer questions about the world of hunting with dogs and hunt tests.. We initially thought about training Cooper on our own, but he was advised its not as simple as it seems so Derek is now gung-ho on sending our dog down to OR for 3 months of training.. I told him he has 7 months to save up the cash! I have a feeling this new adventure will be somewhat time consuming and I think I will be very thankful to have the horses home 24/7 next year so we wont forget they exist as we focus on the pooches. :)


Speaking of pooches.. Ellie is doing really well. She is getting big and fast, she FINALLY now "asks" (because she cant quite jump up on her own yet) to come up on the couch with me and sits by my side (well when she is tired anyways cuz if she has an ounce of energy in her, she wants nothing to do with sittin still for more than 3 seconds at a time!)


So back to the herbs.. I called my vet to find out what could be causing Edgar to Colic. He had a 4-day colic bout that started at that Winery Ride last year, then he started to colic again last month while camping and again this month.. my vet, Dana indicated he could have ulcers which when stressed might cause him to start to colic.. so she recommended Celery Seed & Aloe Vera Juice! There are ulcer medications but very expensive, so we'll try to the cheaper route first. There is also a supplement that might help but it too is pretty spendy at $100/month! I will try the seed and juice and start feeding them to him a week before all camping trips and then through the camping weekends.. see if we can get his internal system to function better... Another reason to have him home so we can feed him grain year round as well.

My camera either died or both sets of my batteries died.. :( I really hope it was the batteries or the battery charger that died.. not quite ready to buy a new camera yet! So I stole these couple pics off Shana's FB page.. this is how I wash my hair with no shower or bathroom, just a teakettle and some soap! :)


And then the lake we rode to, you have to walk through part of the lake to get back on the trail.

2 Hot 2 Function..

that was the case this past weekend.. mid-high 90's.. ugghhh

We didnt quite have the gumption to get our asses out of bed as early as we should have to beat the heat, knowing we had work to get accomplished outside. We managed between Sat & Sun mid mornings, to get all the t-posts pulled out of our pasture and seperate all the field fence wire.. why? so we can start the process of building our permanent fencing.. finally!

I am tired of having the horses away from home, we have decided that next year, the horses will stay home with us most of the year, which means we will be feeding hay year round. That is the tough part because I get free pasture, so why pay to feed what I can get for free? Well it just sucks owning my own place and not having the boys home with us. We may occassionally take them to my parents to eat down their grass now that the fencing and clearing is finished, but other than that.. we want 'em home! It will still be a few weeks before we get it all finished, taking down the old fence was really only about 1/5 of the work to be done. I'm just hoping for 70 degree days vs 95.. We just melt when it gets that hot and have zero motivation to do anything other than waste gas driving around in the air conditioned truck!

It should be interesting to see how Ellie reacts to having the horses around. It will be a while before she can go in the pasture with them.. I certainly dont want her to become a pancake! This morning I found a dookie in the back bedroom.. it had clearly been there a day or two.. lol Not funny really, my dog shit in the house and I didnt catch it, oh well what can ya do.

I have been out for a couple rides without Derek lately.. he's had other plans so I went out with Gerri (Red's owner) and then my friend Rachel (highschool re-connect friendship). They both rode Red, so I was able to ride Edgar... I joked with a friend (Shannon) that Edgar has become 'man'ified.. he's stiff as a board, is not soft and supple like a woman would have her horse. He turns and stops just fine, just in a more gruff manner now.. I'm sure Edgar prefers Derek's style of riding though, a little more laid back and less demanding. :)

I'm excited for the weekend, our annual horse club Ladies Ride. My cousin Shana is going with me, although I do feel a little bad that I am not allowing her to sleep in the camper with me! I told her I kinda wanted it to myself so she will have to tent it... lol I dont think she minds, I think she will enjoy having her own "space" as well, but she will be welcome to come in and we can play cards or chat etc.. I just love sleepin in the buff on hot camping nights and I'm not givin that up.. LOL Dont ever open my camper door in the morning without knocking, you might just stumble upon a full moon in the light of the morning sun!

back to puppy business..

Little miss Ellie is turning into super fun puppy now! In 2 weeks, she's had 1 accident in the house, she sleeps through the night pretty well and was moved up into the big girl crate (Russell is much happier about that) and she's picking up on commands amazingly quick! After only 5 times of "practice" asking for SIT, she now does it on command.. I am just blown away with how quickly she picks up on this stuff. She will be all excited and put her front paws up on me for attention and I can ask her to SIT and she will get off me and sit.. I cant wait to see what else I can teach her as time goes on. She's not so good on the "come" command but I think that is more out of being a little timid/shy than being disobedient.

She definately has the "outdoor dog" smell going... lol Whew that girl stinks when she gets wet and I just gave her a bath about a week ago! She's a little digger, the other day when it was rainy out early in the day, she must have gotten wet and then spent some time digging because when we got home, she was covered in dry mud! small clumps of mud all over her underside and legs.. She will definately be getting a weekly bath, I cant handle outdoor dog smell.. :)

I am really happy we got her, Russell is much happier (most of the time!) and she filled that void. I am not too worried about our 3rd dog and how we will handle it, I just know we will.

We have been educating ourselves about "Hunt Tests" which are tests for bird dogs done out in open fields and in ponds, to judge their ability to retrieve birds and listen to commands etc.. We found a couple clubs that run shows in the area, Monroe/Carnation is the hot spot of the state for these events.. how lucky is that! We will be joining atleast one of these clubs in the near future and attending as many tests and practice days as we can to get educated on what we need to do with our Cooper in the future.

There is a big Hunt Test coming up soon and Derek is going to go (I will not be able to make it :( bummer) and he is going to get to see other Boykins work. People come from out of state and we are really excited that Elroy (who owns Earl, the pappy to our future puppy) will be up here for the next event!!! We have been wanting to meet Elroy and his dog Earl in person... Derek can take pics in person, ask questions and get information about these Hunt Tests and meet the dog we are so proud and excited to own a puppy out of. Earl has accomplished a lot and we hope to be able to train our pup to accomplish great hunt test scores as well..

As far as the other animals in our life, the goats seem much happier now.. my parents have finished half of their fencing so they are turned out to the big pasture now and then my parents also went out and bought 2 sheep and 3 goats, threw them all together and they've established the pecking order and are happy to be a group. My boys were a bit chicken, rarely venturing out in the pasture very far but now that they are a full "herd" they all support eachother and have no problems leaving the barn.. I'm not sure I will want to break up the little herd and bring them back home, maybe we'll have to buy a couple new ones to put back at our place... hmmm

...the plan for next year (well actually as soon as we get our fencing done which we are starting this week) is to keep the horses home 24/7 instead of putting them out to pasture.. in keeping them home, it would mean feeding hay year round but we realize that having them away from home, we are not riding as often as we could be, the boys are now in "out of shape" status.. and with getting another dog and getting involved in training that dog next year (and potentially working/training Ellie as well for agility), if we dont keep the horses home, we may never squeeze in riding.. oh what have we created for ourselves? I dont want to be so busy we forget about the one activity that soothes my sole.. riding!

passing of a friend..

Derek received a call a week ago, an x-coworker of his that he worked at Heiser with, passed away unexpectedly. David Ridge was a friend... the guys carpooled to work every day and they maintained a relationship even after they had both left Heiser in the dust... His wife Emily used to make these DELICIOUS banana roll-up things, she'd make them fresh so when Derek dropped off David after work, she'd hand him the still hot out of the oven platefull and then Derek would drive over to my work (5 minutes from their house) and pick me up to head home. We'd munch those things down before we even got in the car!

We are not sure David's exact age, but we are guessing he was only about 26 or 27 and apparently he died of a Heart Attack :( He was playing basketball with his buddies when it happened. His memorial service will be at their home on Saturday, we will definately plan to go and pay our respects to his wife and the family. They had 5 children.. it was a tough weekend for Derek, he lost the last connection he felt to my uncle Dave when he lost little David. Uncle Dave mentored Derek at Heiser and Derek passed that down and mentored little David.. We are not sure if he had an unknown heart condition that caused his way-too-early passing, we just know it is hard to accept things like that happen to such young friends with so much life ahead of them left to live.. really touches home and makes you think about your own life and what you should be doing to take advantage of every day.

Family Reunion

Well we had a great weekend, the annual family reunion at Lk Wenatchee with Derek's family (his mom's side). We left Thursday and camped til Sunday. The original plan was to take the kids with us, but we realized that Ellie is just too young to expose her to the elements of being in such a dog-friendly environment.. plus she is not able to hold her potty yet so she would have to be with us 24/7 which puts a real damper on swimming! :) Maybe we need a doggy nanny! lol

So I'm sure Russell was not very happy with us as we had to leave the children outside the entire weekend and he hasnt been locked out of the house since.... well he never has been for 4 days straight! My parents came over twice a day to feed them and play with them, we could definately tell he was ready for us to be home though. It really is amazing since Ellie came home, he does not whine and cry, we have yet to hear him howl, he seems happier and not so lonely. Just this morning he really started to "play" with her, he was pinning her down and play biting her neck, just like he used to do with all his other girlfriends... She is getting bigger by the day it seems, she runs circles around him and she loves to steal his ball and hide it under herself.. she's one smart cookie! She has had a couple pee accidents in the house, so I'd say she is 75% trained to go outside.. sometimes she just needs a little reminder. I have been working on "sit" with her, she knows her name already, doesnt always "come" when called as she is not a brave puppy, she tends to steer clear of iffy situations.

Here's the kids after our return home, happy and content!

Later Sunday evening, Ellie was telling me she was hungry... she will lay down at her bowl when she thinks she needs to eat.

So back to camping! We had okay weather, Thursday was spent just getting set up and hanging out.. mid 80's. Derek had said that he would go swimming with me in the mornings, I think after last year I made it look/seem so refreshing that he wanted to do it this year.. Well Thursday night was not so warm of a night, it was not cold, but it was comfortable on the borderline of cool so when we awoke Friday and it was in the 60's he was second guessing his decision. But we headed on down to the water with looks of "Are you crazy!" from those around us. Well apparently we were crazy because that water was COLD! Much colder than last year's morning swim. It took Derek about 15 minutes to get to waste high, then another 15 minutes of standing there deciding if he was going to dunk. I did dunk, washed my hair, was freezing but felt refreshed. After 30 or so minutes, Derek finally decided to dunk and then immediately got the hell out! I was chilled for many hours that morning, I had to put a hoody on to warm up and finally around 1 or 2 it warmed up enough around camp to want to get back in the water. It was much warmer down at the water than in the trees, it probably reached low to mid 80's on Friday and we spent an hour or two in the water. Pam and I swam out to the "No Wake" bouey.. that was a long hard swim as the water was very choppy; It took us atleast 30 minutes to casually swim out there and literally only 5 to get back.

Thursday evening Derek & I had walked down to the lake around 8:20 and realized we had missed the sunset by about 10 minutes, so on Friday we decided we wanted to catch the sunset and let everyone know we'd be down at the lake at 8 for those that would like to join us. It was funny, because Derek's nephew Rick (who is about 12 years younger than us) was teasing Derek and saying "Oh is this what guys your age do, go down and watch sunsets?" :) He thought it was silly, but we all went anyways.. it was beautiful! We had a few pics taken (the only pics taken the entire weekend) and they are a bit dark. There was one taken that used the flash and it was aweful! You could see just how gross my hair was so I decided to burn that picture (okay well I sent it to the trash anyways).. lol But I think these are okay and good enough. The very top pic was the first pic taken as the sun was setting and then we got these shots below as it continued to set behind the mountains.

I did get a chance to tease Rick regarding the sunset issue because his wife ratted him out and said that recently he had "Thanked" her for cuddling with him.. so I told him "Oh I see.. Derek cant enjoy a good sunset, but you can enjoy a good cuddling session?" or something like that.. it was funny though!

There was some thunder Friday evening and maybe a couple minutes of sprinkling, but nothing serious at all and we awoke to clouds :( The boys were going golfing Saturday so there was no morning swim, us wives decided to cook them a nice breakfast of pancakes and eggs and bacon, yummy! I stuck around camp most of the day, I know it was warmer out in the sun but I was comfortable just relaxing and doing nothing! About an hour before the guys were due back, it started to thunder and once they got back, the lightening and rain started. It was pretty loud, pretty much right above our heads! but it also became quite muggy and with the bug spray and sunscreen on, I was feeling a bit sticky and decided it was a good time to take a bath in the lake. Derek and Crystal came down to the water with me, it seemed like the storm had passed by, it was still thundering out, but I hadnt seen any recent lightening and it felt like it had moved on. They both thought I was crazy, but I walked out in the water, it was raining but it felt great.. it was actually a very comfortable water temp. Dawn and Tammy were down at the beach pointing off to something, I assumed they were pointing at where maybe Kenny and Cody were swimming..

So I just casually stood in the water, slowly deciding if I wanted to swim for a bit or just get busy and wash my hair.. when all the sudden a VERY LARGE bolt of lightening struck right above everyone's head!! Apparently the storm had NOT moved on yet... I basically was like, OH SHIT! I dunked pretty fast at that point, Derek was on the shore telling me to hurry the hell up... so I washed the hair and body quickly and got the heck out.. Which was a total bummer because the water felt great and I could have swam out there in the rain for another hour.. When I got on the beach I realized what Dawn and Tammy were pointing at was a forest fire that had started not even 1/4 mile away from the beach by a lightening strike! It clearly had happened within about 45 minutes of us being down there, there was no visible "fire" in all the thick trees, but a lot of smoke so something was definately on fire over there.

It continued to rain for pretty much the entire evening on Saturday.. it would quit here/there but it sure made for a mess in the camper with pine needles stuck to our shoes as we walked in/out. Sunday we awoke to broken clouds, sunny skies.. We casually took down camp and headed out at noon.. no more swimming. Overall it was a great weekend of seeing everyone, Derek's ribs turned out super yummy! I'm already excited to go back next year, and VERY happy that his family has restarted this reunion after about a 20 year break.

I cant say there is much else going on with us lately.. with having the new pup in the house, we havent been getting a lot done, but we hope to start changing that soon. We have a day ride planned for Saturday, I forget what it feels like to ride its been so long! :) We are also having Dave Marzolf (realtor) come over and give us his opinion on the value of our place right now so we can make a decision about what direction to go with trying to get in a home loan modification. The bank is taking their sweet time and of course values are still dropping.. we now worry/think our home value is below our loan value, not good! Dave will give us a better idea on that so we will know how to proceed with the bank and if we will tell them to take this house and shove it or if we'll try to find a new route to approach the loan modification. It is very frustrating, we are just in a hole right now and need to dig out, with or without the banks help. Neither of us wants to loose our house, but we are tired of struggling. I know I know.. some of you are saying "well you can afford a new dog but not your house?" well, yeah actually! We have a little bit of money saved up for such things like a new dog or new fencing etc.. but when I have to start dipping into that "savings" to pay my normal bills/mortgage, thats when I know things are too tight....

the Light still shines!

Yes the light in the tunnel that I saw on Sunday has continued.. and today is Wednesday! Ellie successfully now goes outside every time she has to potty. Every now/then I see her sniff the floor and I say to her "Ellie Outside!" and typically she heads that direction. Zero accidents since Saturday and 100% success of going in/out the door. She is not going to the front door though, she uses the back door/slider onto the deck. I think because it is closer to the living room whereas the front door is around the corner and further away. She will eventually figure it all out and use the proper door, all I care is that she is using a door!! The down side to it all is the house if full of flies since we leave the doors wide open when we are there so she is not hindered at all in her potty attempts.. the small price to pay for a well trained dog! :)

After a looooong week of feeling like I could do nothing but sit and watch Ellie 24/7, we are now at the point of being able to roam about the house while she is in the house.. we can do laundry, do dishes etc w/o too much stress over where she's at.. and Russell is starting to play with her! He actually kinda ran with her a little, he's been horny and likes to air hump over the top of her since she's so darn small.. lol

more doggy business!

Got the message from Jim today (he is the breeder of our Boykin pup) and his female just came into heat!! Which means.... our little "Cooper" will be coming home just before Thanksgiving! They say it takes 6 months for a puppy to be fully potty trained, well Ellie will be exactly 6 months old when Cooper comes home, so lets hope the 6 month mark is true because I dont think I could handle trying to potty train 2 dogs at one time. :)

We are getting very excited about Cooper, I love having the puppy energy around, but whew the potty training is tiring.. She is fairly content staying outside on the front porch, but I feel bad for Russell having to be left outside all the time, so I try to allow her in the house as often as I can.. which basically means not much ability to do anything else while she is in the house. She pees every 30-45 minutes when she is awake/active and if you dont get her outside before she has to potty, she'll just drop a damn squat on the living room floor!

Saturday was a bad piddle-on-the-floor day.. she pood once Friday night and then peed 3 times on Saturday and it was NOT because I was not paying attention, she just goes from playing to peeing in a matter of a second! I was frustrated a little, I must admit. I needed a break from puppy, so was glad to get to leave the house for a few hours and head off to my cousin Shana's 40th Bday BBQ/Party.

I had spent most of Saturday working on more videos of Oakley. We went out Thursday evening and shot more video of him and then I spent probably 6 hours Saturday compressing things down and finished with uploading 4 new videos to youtube! So now there are 5 total and possibly will do one more trail video in the future if need be. There has been a lot of interest in him from our online ads and these videos.. some promising potential buyers.. Derek spent Saturday out dragging the pasture, exposing all the rocks and sticks we need to pick up over the next couple weeks before the grass takes over again.. All the cross fencing was pulled up so we are getting closer to putting in our permanent fencing.

Sunday evening I saw some light in the potty tunnel.. for the first time Ellie twice walked over to the screen door to the back porch, Derek jumped up both times and let her out and she immediately went out in the yard to potty! It was fantastic!! Yes my life has resorted to being overly joyous at the sight of dog piss/poop.. LOL What the hell has become of me...

I have to remind myself she is only 8weeks old.. 8 weeks old.. 8 weeks old.. and stop for a second and take a step back because potty training does not happen overnight and I was crazy for even thinking we were gonna have that perfect dog that NEVER went in the house!! :) Russell has yet to start "playing" with her, but he continues to allow her to now bite at his face, she will run under him, she steals his ball from him, she runs up sideways to him and pushes her body under his face, she's curling up next to him in the crate.... Soon, soon he will fully appreciate this gift we have given him! lol

In the meantime, the horses continue to enjoy their vacation! August will be a much better month for us to get back in the saddle.

Pics of the Ellie Bean

Taking a moment to chill out.. these moments only last but a few seconds when she's in "play" mode! Then she's off and running again, grabbing whatever her mouth can get ahold of.

Welcome to our house! This is what you see when you come up to the front porch these days, it's been transformed to a playpen basically. Not only is the crate on the porch (so she can get accustomed to going in/out of it on her own so she learns to love it!... well that's the plan anyways) but there is also a big igloo dog house next to the porch that they can go in as well.

Another pause in playtime..

She's so flippin cute, I can hardly stand it! :)

She thought the camera noises were "Cool Beans!" She kept lunging at me when I would zoom in/out or the flash would go off.. I know it's blurry, she was running straight at me from out of the crate.. lol

This is a rare moment in time that she was okay with sitting on your lap.. Even though she's a small little lap size dog, she's not necessarily a "lap" dog yet! Normally she wiggle worms her way off of ya and prefers to cuddle up at your feet... occassionally I can get her to snuggle on the couch cushion next to me, but she has yet to "love" the lap dog roll.... which is okay, I know she is going to be a happy loyal dog, and that is important.. it might be nice to have a dog that prefers to lay on the ground next to you than be a baby (Russell!) and beg to get in your lap with dirty camping paws anyways!

Ellie Video

Here's a video I took yesterday, a little blurry at times, but it shows only a small portion of her energy and crazy playtime behavior.. she is definately cookoo crazy funny!

adjusting..

things are going pretty good with miss Ellie! :) No more worried calls about where the dog is, the doggy door is taped shut, so she cant get in the house while we are away. Let me tell ya, she THINKS that she should be able to get in that house though, scratching at the door when she feels left behind. I dont know if Russell loves being an outdoor dog, I'm sure he misses his comfy recliner but he seems content with what he has.

Ellie is quite the character and proving to be as smart as Aussies are known for... I picked up some tiny soft treats yesterday and she was trying to get into the unsealed bag before I even had them out of the shopping bag.. she could smell them and was fanatic about getting into that bag!! something to worry about.... garbages beware. I worked on the command "come" yesterday for the first time and she was doing soooo great at that! If I say "come" and tap my leg, 85% of the time she comes running! Sometimes I reward with lots of praise, other times she gets the treat. I've started using the treats every time I ask her to go in the crate too.

Russell is really coming around with her.. He only growls on slight occassions now, he lets her run under his legs (yes she is still small enough to fit even under his short squatty legs!), lets her cuddle up next to him, she is starting to bite his nubby tail and his neck.. most of the time he acts like she doesnt exist and just ignores her, she attempts to play and he just keeps on walking.. but give it a few more days and I think he'll be chasing and running with her, not past her. :)

Putting him in the crate with her at night has made an amazing difference! In the evenings we let her play real hard for a couple hours to tucker her out... The crate is all open/wire type, so she can see from all directions. When she first goes in, she does whine a little even though Russell is with her, but as soon as she's in, I lay on the bed which is right next to the crate and put my fingers in the side, she will come over immediately, sniff/lick my fingers and lays down right away, curls up and goes to sleep. If I dont put my fingers in, she gets upset and will sit there whining.. so she definately is comforted by our touch and once she goes down, she's out for the evening! :) Monday night I got up once in the middle of the night to let her out to potty when she whined and then last night she didnt even stir.. she slept til 6am when I got up.

It's still tough to figure out how to get anything else done besides playing with her! :) She is a barrel of monkeys all in one little fur ball of a dog! She goes crazy and is so fun to watch run and scurry.. she loves to run full speed and squat her butt and lay down before she's even stopped moving practically... very typical Aussie behavior in her play. I bought her about 10 toys yesterday, they are scattered all over the yard and living room.. I want to be sure she has lots to chew on.

Tomorrow she is 8 weeks old, I think we'll have to give her another flea bath or drops if she is old enough and she might have some ear mite issues.. need to get up to see Andrea to have her take a look.. otherwise she's happy and healthy and we love her to pieces. She's a lot more energy than we initially had set out to get in our "next" dog, but that's okay.. I'm looking forward to working with her, training her and eventually maybe get into agility...

Just what we need, another hobby to take up the little spare time we gripe about not having! lol Plus when we get Cooper, we plan to train him and do field hunts/trials with him too... something will have to give at some point.. housework maybe? cooking? household projects? It's not that we need more time in the day, we just need more money to hire someone to do that crap we dont want to make time to do... LOL

on a side note, Shannon is starting to get some interest in Oakley, his online video has been viewed almost 250 times!!! Yeah... that is exciting! We are shooting more video tomorrow that I will have to piece together.. I might try to figure out more with this video, could be a decent side cash job I could do for horse owners.. I come out and video for them and put it all together... I suppose I could do it for other animals too, maybe I should take a video class at the college, I could really enjoy that as a side job!!!

Awaiting the call...

I've been at work, waiting for Derek to call because it is 3:55 and he normally gets home about this time.. So he calls and at first sounds like he has a really worried tone, so I almost start to panic.. he says "Did you leave Ellie outside when you left this morning?" YES, of course I did... My heart began to sink, tears were welling up already and he says.. well I just found her in the house!! LOL

We are not 100% yet how she figured it out but she did it.... that little Ellie squirt figured out how to get through the doggy door while we were away at work! 1 day alone and she is smart enough to figure something like out that, I thought it would we weeks before she was even big enough to go through it.. we are in trouble with this one!!! :)

Now Derek is on potty patrol.. just because she found her way in, does not mean she will have found her way out and who knows how long she was in the house for.. hmmm She was hiding under the saddle in the entryway, she probably heard Derek calling her when he was out in the yard. Funny Damn Dog!!

All About Ellie..

Yep, it's all about her right now!

The plan was to get up early Saturday morning and drive down to Damascus OR (just outside Portland) and pick up our little Ellie! but Friday Derek sent me a text saying, why dont we just leave after work? So we got home, loaded the camper and headed on down the road, just us and the Russ. We had contemplated staying at a campground, but we wouldnt get down in time to check in, then we thought about finding a Walmart to stay at but because we dont have a potty in our camper, figured it was best to stay at a rest stop, so we pulled over at Milepost 11 rest area in WA and slept there.. it was a mini adventure and it was actually kinda fun! We woke at 6am (not really intentionally), it was only 40 minutes to our destination and we couldnt show up til 9, so we stopped for a big breakfast and tried to relax the anticipation of getting our dog!

The lady we got our pup from, Denise, she has a lot of Aussie's and had a few other females available too.. one was a red female that was going to be smaller than Ellie. We contemplated for a few seconds, but both realized we had our hearts set on Ellie and that's who we wanted to take home with us. She's a little pudge ball with fur! :)

The ride home was great, she slept up on my chest/neck the entire way, we stopped often for potty breaks and had no car sickness issues with her. Because of her ball of fur and since she's been raised outside, we had to keep the cold air on her to keep her from panting, she is really cute when she pants though! lol

After we got home, we rested for a while then headed out to the Scherrer's for the horse club Ice Cream social and potluck dinner. It was delicious and fun. We had Ellie in her crate most of the time in the shade, she was content to just sleep. Poor girl was tuckered out, but I was happy to see her so comfortable in her crate.

Every time for the rest of that day, whenever she would start to fall asleep, I would make her walk into her crate so she learns that is her safe zone to be quiet and calm. Saturday night in her crate was a completely different story though! She slept just fine in her crate for an hour or so and then she would whine.. so I'd get up, take her out to potty and then put her back.. an hour later she would wake up and we'd do the same routine.. well after a couple hours, she figured out that if she whined, she would get taken out so then she just wanted to be held.. so i'd take her out, hold her til she fell asleep then put her back in the crate and again an hour later, she'd wake up.. on and on and on, til I just gave in and got up for the day much earlier than I wanted to. :)

Sunday we went to my parents for breakfast and she did good, again we used the crate for her to sleep in while we ate and she did great.. we'd then take her outside to play.. the first time my parents Aussie dog ran up to her, she screamed like she was under attack! Sarge didnt even touch her, he was just looking at her and she sat there and screamed bloody murder and didnt stop until I picked her up, she acted like he was eating her.. :) A little later we reintroduced him to her and she was just fine.. I think the initial shock of him running past her, just scared the shit out of her! lol

I spent the afternoon on Sunday doing some of that long-lost cleaning that I've procrastinated on.. not sure what burr climbed up my behind, but I got windows washed, dusting done, vaccuuming.. Ellie sat in her crate as I vaccuumed and was not phased one bit by the machine... She really started coming out of her shell yesterday, she was doing a lot more playing and running around.. She LOVES the grass! Ever since we put her on grass on our drive home from OR, she just loves the feel of it and rubs her head in it, rolls in it.. She has figured out how to go up/down the front steps, she's slowly starting to come in/out of the house on her own, she is doing great with potty (no accidents as we are very good about getting her outside). She is definately a much different dog right now when she is inside vs outside. Outside, she runs and spins circles, rolls in the grass, growls, chases Russell, explores.. In the house, she plays a little bit but is more reserved and tends to want to hang out by me. I am really glad she likes it outside considering that when we are gone, she is out there all day.

Last night we put Russell in the crate with her (a little snug for the 2 of them) but it worked well because she slept solid from 10pm - 5am! She had to potty real bad when I took her out at 5, we came in the house and I put her back in the crate.. Russell had jumped out as soon as I opened the door.. he was not really okay with being forced to sleep with her, I would say he tolerated it very well.. :) But she slept solid and when I put her back in at 5, she whined and cried, so of course I caved and put her in the bed, she fell asleep between us until it was time to get up for the day.

Russell doesnt yet love her, he likes her okay.. he growls at her a tiny bit if she gets too close for comfort, but he's slowly tolerating more and more from her.. she tries to bite him and runs up to him all the time and he's coming around.. she follows him all around in the yard. We have to keep reminding him to not get grumpy with her, I think in a couple days it will be a different story. Russell has never been a puppy fan but he's also a good boy and since we are now going to make him sleep with her, he'll just have to learn to love her!!

I think it's only a matter of a few days before Russell stops feeling butt hurt and starts realizing she is going to be his next best friend! :) It is tough though with her... trying to figure out how to cook, clean, get ready in the mornings, work around the place.. we are wanting to keep our eyes on her a lot for 1) she is so darn cute! and for 2) because we want to be sure she is not going potty in the house or chewing up things she is not supposed to! I think as the week progresses we will find a way to balance this out a bit, but for now, our day (aside from being at work) is consumed with how to work around our little Ellie bean!

wooohooo

I finally got back the letter I needed for Edgar! Yeah... The ranch that branded him sent me the letter indicating they release him and that to the best of their knowledge I am in legal possession of him.. so we can now get a brand inspection done on him which means we can then travel across state lines... legally!! YEAH! That was a big headache process but I'm glad to have it resolved.. The bummer part is that they didnt send me any information on Edgar, like I had hoped they would.. oh well.. we love him and that's all that matters.

If you ever buy a horse with a brand, just be aware of the potential issues it could cause you down the road, it is not easy tracking down where a horse came from that has ZERO papers or known history! :)

Volunteer Weekend

I'd like to get back to the weekend, but not to the weather.. it was just too hot! Yes I am a "too warm bitcher!" :)

I had Friday off and used that day to run errands in preparation for our weekend up at Harry O out of Sedro Woolley. This was the weekend of the fundraiser ride that I made all those bulls for. It was so hot on Friday, I had to work in phases... Me n Russ went grocery shopping early to beat the heat, picked up the horses on our way home and then I had to get the trailer organized and cleaned out, make and pack up the food, finish the laundry, pack the camper.. Derek got off work early thank goodness so he was able to help me because I was not functioning very quickly that day.

We finally made it to the campground around 6:30pm, had some dinner and decided it was a great night to get in a quick ride. So we saddled up and were on the horses at 9pm! Rode down the road to the Cowboy Campsites to check it out. We had never been to their facility, it is basically a big area where you can purchase camping lots, you get a lifetime ownership of that lot. They are not huge, but big enough for your truck/trailer, maybe a small cabin, 1 or 2 corrals, firepit.. Some people have put a lot of time and money into their sites and they are so cool! Cowboy Campsites does not own the land, it is leased land, so you dont technically own anything other than rights to your spot for as long as the land is leased to CC. I like the idea of having a place to go and you can set it up real nice, but 2 minutes down the road you can camp for free and access the same trails.. soooo... why buy what you can get for free! :) But it was fun to ride through the area and wave at the campers.. the very last couple we came to were sitting and watching their 2 pups run around. The guys says to Derek "I really like that roan horse you got, is he for sale?" of course Derek says no, we wouldnt sell him for anything at this point! I asked if his dogs were Toy Aussies and he said no, they were mini aussies but only 3 and 4 months old.. OMG, it made me sooo excited to get our dog when I saw how flippin cute those little buggers were running all over the place!! It was dark when we unsaddled, sat with some Horse Club friends for a bit then headed to bed, it was an early to rise Saturday!

Saturday morning, we saddled up and rode out to our station on the trail. We left about 45 minutes before the official ride started so we would have time to get to our station and set up the bulls and the tarp. At our station, we met all the riders, they drew poker chips from us and then most of them participated in the ride challenge of attempting our obstacle type course. We were at our station for about 4 hours, until the last rider had come through.

Here's a couple pics of our bulls and some horses crossing the "tarp water" and then they had to navigate through balloon hanging cows. It was a great setup and fun for the riders. A few horses wiped out our bulls here/there and we had to mend broken legs, horns, replace the stakes into the ground.. some horses had no respect for them bulls! :)


Here's Josh riding HotRod and then a pic below of Adam on Princess.

After we finished with our station, we then were able to saddle up and finish the rest of the ride, behind the last riders. We attempted to do the other obstacles at the 4 other stations, a bridge crossing, shooting a toy gun, opening/closing a rope gate and then riding across a wood teeter totter... that was interesting. We were pretty tired that night, the weather was fantastic on Saturday, I think it reached about 80.

Here's a pic of Derek in the woods on our ride Saturday.

As we rode that day on the rest of the ride, Edgar and Red were walking out a lot faster than normal and were pretty tired from the ride and heat. When we got back into camp, I realized that Edgar was not feeling well, he was acting colicky! :( He drank plenty of water on the trail, he was happy to eat grass, so we think maybe he got overheated. He thought real hard about laying down, so I grabbed the banamine paste and gave him a dose. He also had no gut sounds. We then led them down to the creek, Edgar drank a little, stood there for about 15 minutes while he ate some grass then led him to the water again where he drank some more and by the time we led him back up to the trailer, he had some gut sounds and he had quit looking at his belly. So phew!! He seemed all good...

Sunday morning Edgar was still fine, he had pooped, peed, ate, drank and had gut sounds.... We took our time that morning, no need to rush. We then saddled up for an almost 2 hour easy going ride with Barb S and Renee. We explored, had no idea where we were going, but we did a really nice low key loop and it was a great ride to end the weekend. I have not ridden much up at Harry O, but the riding is great! You can do easy and you can also do pretty tough hard riding. Derek & I both are looking forward to going back, it was his first time there and we had a great time.

We got home in the early afternoon on Sunday and as we were taking the camper off.. there was a MOUSE under the camper in the bed of our truck! We noticed it when we lifted the camper up out of the truck, I have NO idea where the bugger came from, there were no holes in our camper, so I dont think he came from inside.. I HOPE NOT anyways!! Maybe he jumped in the bed of the truck while we were camping and then went for a very long ride.. unfortunately we didnt get a chance to kill him, I had wanted to but Derek never had the shot to take with the 2x4. :) I dont know where else he would have come from.. It really bugs me though that he was there, I HATE rodents!!

We both crashed in our chairs that afternoon and got in a little nap with Russell who was very upset with us for leaving him behind, but it was just too hot to take him and leave him in the camper all day w/o us able to stay there with him. It's a bummer to be back to work, I think we both would have enjoyed another few days up there camping with the horses.

I have always been an over-packer when I go anywhere, camping too. So I've been trying to be normal I guess you could say and pack smaller bags but I have realized I am going back to my old ways.. I took 1 pair of jeans that I wore all day Saturday and they were so dirty and gross, there was NO way I was going to put them back on Sunday! So I had to ride in shorts, which was OK, except there were a few spots on our trail that had stinging nettles hanging into the trail and they were brushing up against the horses. A couple times I had to swing my legs out of the stirrups and up onto the front of the saddle, which normally is fine, but Red was being "jumpy" so a couple times when I did that, as my feet are out of the stirrups, he jumps/lunges a little forward and spooks at my legs! So here I am trying to now avoid nettles, avoid falling off my horse who is spooked by me and keep him walking forward while I have no legs on him to do so! :) I did not get one nettle sting, so I did good...

Red is doing much better as a trail horse, he is figuring it all out slowly. He still needs to get used to saddle bags, those still make him jump at times and I realized too he doesnt like it when I break off huckleberry bushes and hold them up to my face to munch the berries off.. oh that spooks him if the branch is big enough for him to see so as I'm trying to ride with no hands on the reins so I can hold berry bush in one and pick berries off the bush with the other, my horse is trotting rapidly down the trail spooked at the bush! I kept grabbing the rein and asking him to walk but eventually had to throw the bush full of BIG plump delicious berries because he just would NOT walk and he was getting out of control with his spookiness.. oh well, things to work on! lol

So only 5 more days til we pick up Ellie!! I am excited, I think a lot of my excitement and anticipation is for Russell's sake, I just cant wait for him to realize he has a new girlfriend to love with and play with. And the breeder of our Boykin Spaniel pup, he went down and met Earl, the boy dog he's breeding to his female. Earl apparently is the 3rd highest ranked Boykin Spaniel dog in the US with the 1 and 2 dogs coming from the same lines as Earl who are older. So that is GREAT news! We really lucked out on this deal.. We are getting a champion pup for probably 1/2 the cost and it's a local breeding and we get pick of the litter... A lot of the big top breeders of the Boykins have waiting lists up to a year for a puppy.. I still am unsure of how we will handle having 3 dogs, but it will all work out, that I am confident of. :)

Wants Wins!!

We wanted, therefore we get!! :)

We just paid our deposit on a cute little blue merle toy aussie down in OR.. she's 6 weeks old, we'll drive down on the 17th to pick her up in OR. We are super excited, she is super cute!! We decided if we were going to get a purebred, we were just gonna have to spend money.. We were okay with getting a mut, but once I had my heart set on a toy Aussie, there was no going back. I dont know anyone with one.. so this is going to be GREAT! We are keeping the name Ellie for her.

Wants vs Needs

We are struggling with what to do now for another dog! :( We had our hearts set on Ellie and it's tough to go from being ready for her, to now having no plan again..

I've been looking on CL for re-homed dogs.. not much out there that we are interested in.. oh there are LOTS of dogs! But we are a little picky on the type of small dogs we like. I started looking into the Toy Australian Shephards.. they are pretty damn cute and I found about 6 breeders across the NW that have pups ready now. The problem? Sure, I really want one of these dogs, I am loving the size, the breed, how cute they are! But do I really Need to spend $600+ on a dog??

hmmm.. just not sure what to do.. we didnt set out to spend more than maybe $200 for a dog, and now since we are considering purebreds, we could be up in the $500 range to get what we want.. Its a tough decision, we want a friend for Russell but do we really want to spend the money to get what we want.. You'll be the first to know through the blog and FB! :)

No Ellie..

We got a call today that Ellie had a hypoglycemic seizure (or spelled something like that) and they were unable to save her. We are really sad, we have been talking about her every couple days and were planning to pick her up in about 10 days. We could have picked her brother, who is VERY cute as well, but our hearts are set on a female, so we will continue to look for the right dog for us and for Russell.. It's a shame that cute li'l thing did not make it

mooooooo-ve over cow, here comes the bull..

One other project this weekend was the "painting-of-the-bulls 2010" :)

For the fundraiser this weekend, our ride challenge station will have a blue tarp with a bunch of bulls standing up on the tarp.. the riders will have to ride their horses over the tarp, weaving around these cows for points.. they will be judged on how their horses handle the challenge. Derek and I had the responsibility of creating the bulls, so I cut them out of cardboard, we will attach them to stakes and put them in the ground.. I spray painted them and then was going to hand draw in their faces when Derek came up with a quicker and better way to make the heads and I think they turned out as best as they could for keeping it on the cheap! :)

a week of non-stop digital technology..

I've had this camcorder that belongs to Shannon for over a week now.. she needed me to pull the videos off it and edit them down to make one solid good video of Oakley to post on the internet. I soon realized I had all the tools I needed except the biggest part, which was the program to load onto the computer which enables you to do all the editing!

I purchased a video editing program at Staples, loaded it on my 2 computers here at home, spent the entire evening trying to get that darn program to work.. the program only works on my laptop and somehow it was not reading the videos on the camera! GRRR So then I thought, well maybe I should just pay and download the program that was originally supposed to come with the camcorder.. so I downloaded that.. download failed twice on one computer and then loaded unsuccessfully on the laptop, so I was back to square one because although I was supposed to have 5 downloads, I really on got 3 and of those 3.. non worked! GRRR again!

As I lay in bed Thursday night frustrated at midnight from all this work I was putting in with little to no results (and a few FB posts) I wasnt sure what to do next.. I then popped up out of bed because it hit me that the name of the program sounded familiar, so I threw on a t-shirt and sat my behind in the office and found the program! Our digital camera runs from the same program.. WHOOPIE! I could finally go to bed satisfied that Friday would bring me success..

I had plans Friday morning to meet up with Lynda Burgan at 9:30 because my parents had found a really nice digital camera at a g-sale so they bought it and gave it to us.. So all this past week I messed with the camera off/on and found it to be completely frustrating as well! If there was any light, the images came out BRIGHT. In slightly darker settings it took really good pics.. and then anything with any movement.. complete blurr.. I tried and tried and played with it for days.

I awoke at 6:30 Friday morning and spent 2 hours working on the computer on the image editing program we have had on our computer for years. What I realized is that the program I had, ONLY recognized the pictures and videos that were created on my digital camera. The program is ALMOST identical to the one I needed, but the one I needed was specific to the DVD Handycam.. GRRR!

But I was able to SUCCESSFULLY create one video which had pieces of 3 different videos and I was able to eliminate noise.. I literally skreetched out in joy!! Now that I could do it with our program, if only I could download the other program which looked identical, I might just be able to accomplish my task.

I then headed off to Lynda's inwhich she indicated although the camera is in great condition and a nice camera, she did not find an action setting so it is most likely not going to be good for us since I LOVE to take pics of all our 4 legged children.. then off home I left from her place, loaded up the horses and headed to pick up Rachel to ride at Lords Hill for 2.5 hours. We had a really nice ride, she rode Red (I let her have pick) and I teased Derek that she chose my horse! lol It was nice to ride Edgar again as I hadnt been on him in a really long time..

When I got home I promptly plopped back down at the computer and decided to re-purchase the program I needed and HOPE that it worked a second time.. WAHLAH it did!!! I got the program running and after a couple hours of playing around, I got the program to recognize the videos I needed, got them loaded up and then it was off to dinner..

Saturday we went shopping and dinked around and when Derek left to go watch the UFC fights at a bar with Tyler, I stayed home and spent the next several hours putting together the video.. I successfully edited the video clips into a 7 minute video with no sound... perfection! well as close as it can be for now.. but it shows GREAT footage of Oakley, I am really happy with the video AND I successfully got it loaded on youtube.. I am amazed and the hardwork paid off, I have spent the entire week completely stressed out about this deal. Now I can help Shannon anytime with making videos for her and that makes me really happy.

You can see the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejmf4tnlT60

This morning we woke up early to meet my parents and brother/andrea at Big Lake.. the weather was crappy, got drizzled on, took Russell with us and got skunked. Not even a bite.. we only stayed out a couple hours, apparently the weather was too crappy for fish to even bite. Bummer! It is now 3:40, Derek is snoring in his chair, house is dark and cold and we are supposed to be at Eric/Andreas in about 3 hours for a 4th of July BBQ. Hopefully he'll wake up soon... We both have tomorrow off, not sure if we will go riding or fishing or both.. maybe even go see Ellie!!! 2 more weeks til we can get her.... hehe