Banks Lake

We finally planned our annual family camping trip!  2 years ago we went to Bumping Lk, last year we just could not coordinate a weekend.. this year Eric/Andrea chose Banks Lk as our destination.  And we were going to be boating in!  Meaning we could not bring our camper and since we do not have a working boat at the moment, we would have to make 2 trips to get us all out there.  We loaded the car up, full to the brim with all our stuff.  It was 97 degrees when we arrived at the boat launch.  Eric & Derek headed off in Eric's boat and 15 minutes later, dad finally got his boat going and he and sarge headed off to find them.  Mom Andrea and I were left behind and watched as dad pulled away, wondering if he and the dog and the gear were going to make it!  He was loaded down pretty good and the dog had to lay on a table, and their clothing bag teetered on the edge.

45 minutes later Eric arrived pick us up, and we headed out to our camping destination.  As we are getting closer, Andrea is commenting that this spot was not where she was thinking.  I see a crappy beach with a 3 foot drop off to get down to the water and a bunch of trees.  I then see Derek standing there with a very leery look on his face, he did not appear happy at all.  Andrea was telling Eric he needed to go check out the other spot she was thinking about, so we dropped off mom and went in search of a better location!

10 minutes along the lake and we found the spot!  It was a big cove with a huge long perfect beach, a big shade tree, established fire ring and only a couple groups of day-users occupying part of the area.  So we moved in, unloaded and set up camp.  It was awesome I thought!  Derek was a much happier camper for sure.  The previous area was so buggy, you could hardly stand it.  So we ended up having a great weekend.

This was our camping and beach area.

 It was a very hot 3 days!  We did minimal fishing, got minimal fish..  :)  I hooked a 3 inch fish in the eyeball..  That was the extent of my catches.  But Derek and I didnt put in a lot of effort.   I did do a lot of swimming, well I should say floating.  When we got too hot or had to pee, we would just jump in the lake!  :)  It was a lot of work to boat in, but I think this spot we found was worth it.

Derek & I have now officially down-graded our camping status to "tenters".  We sold the camper, bought a new tent and hope to consider buying a bigger camper next year, but who knows if that will happen.  I will miss my camper....

Updates... finally

Yeah Yeah, I know I've slacked off...  My apologies once again!  :)

So lets recap some of our summer!  Back in June, actually on our anniversary weekend, we took Cooper down to Scappoose OR for a hunt test.  We had not planned to run him this year; however, Derek needed to get a Started Pass under his belt to qualify to become a started judge!  We were hopeful Cooper would pull through and perform well.. and he did good enough!  It was his first test in almost a year, he had the land series first and of course in his usual form, he messed around with the bird once he got to it and was reluctant to bring it back.. but he did and he certainly was much better than last year!  The second bird that went up, well Cooper had a bit more "fun" with that one as he was tossing it into the air.   No Joke!  He threw the bird up in the air multiple times and then he would leap up in the air too, he was having a grand ole time out there.. but he brought it back.  And of course his water marks were perfect so Derek got his pass.  Now on to becoming a judge we will go.  He will be taking a hunters safety course in August (he never took the class prior since he had military experience, he didnt need it for his hunting license).  And then we will be taking a Judges Seminar in August.  By next year we will be judging!! Yeah...  A new adventure in this dog world.

The following weekend we were back down in OR, the next town over in Rainier for the Annual Waterfowl Festival.  We stayed in our camper at the fairgrounds and spent the first part of Saturday walking around.  It was well attended and there were a lot of duck hunting type vendors, but still fairly small.  From there, we drove along the Columbia River to Walla Walla WA.  The plan was to look at a draft cross mare Sunday morning over there, then drive home.  But we got to WW at about 5pm and decided to go see the mare that afternoon instead of waiting until morning.  it was close to 100 degrees outside!  :(  The mare was OK, not impressed and she needed more work than I wanted to put into her, not as level headed as we wanted.  We then drove back home that evening..  What a long weekend of driving that was!!

We spent the 4th of July weekend at home this year.  Needed a break from being gone all the time and had a nice time just chillin.  Got to spend time with friends we dont see often, watched the fireworks in Monroe from the car races parking lot with my family and even got in a ride on Edgar!  Sure made me miss riding being on him and hopeful at finding a new horse sooner than later.  Although I still was not feeling any pressure to buy.  I had found a really nice draft cross down in Northern CA, but the logistics of it all put that horse out of my price range and would have completely drained our account.  Not looking to invest that kind of money again.

Derek and I had a Dog Training day this past Saturday that we had to help run/organize.  I had to "run the line" meaning I kept everyone going as they ran their dog and made sure the test setup was to their skill level etc.  But it also meant I had to load the winger too on occassion.  The winger is the contraption that throws the birds.. It was so gross!  I wore gloves so I did not have to actually "touch" the birds, but the stank of them was so gross, I was close to dry heaving every time I had to load it.  And I felt so disgusting at the end of the day.  But we had a good day and although Cooper had his mistakes, he ran pretty good.

The week prior to the weekend, I found a new horse to consider, over in Spokane.  A 12yr Draft cross mare.  I wasnt over-thrilled with her age, had hoped to find a horse under 10 but most everything else about her sounded quite promising, particularly her price of $2150.  Derek and I woke up at 3:30am Sunday morning to make the 5 hr drive to Deer Park (N of Spokane by 20min) as the seller wanted us there by 9.  He had a 5-day pack trip he was leaving for that same day.  We arrived at 9:10am, spent just over an hour there.  Her name was Jezabel "Jez".  Although I never called her by name as it was not one I liked!  lol  She is a 16h Belgian Paint.  A little bit of a stinker with picking up her feet.  She just doesnt want to, but never tried to kick.  I watched Garret ride her, he rode her down the road, then turned her around and loped her back to us in a big open hay field.  Absolutely NO buck or even thoughts of bucking in that field.. a very good sign.

When he got back close to us, he was trying to get her to back up and she planted her big ole feet and refused!  :)  He was rolling his spurs on her sides pretty good and she still just stood there.  Again, no thoughts of bucking with that spurring.  She tried to get away from the pressure and spun around a bit, but no rearing involved.  I mentioned that I thought maybe she would respond better to a sidepull bridle and not the bit he had in her mouth.  The guy riding her is a trainer, so no discredit to him at all.  He actually is not her owner, he takes horses in on consignment and sells them for the owners.  When he was done, I asked if I could put her in a sidepull and ride in the round pen.  Got on and immediately felt at ease, actually felt "at home" on this girl.  Rode her around for a while, she kinda responds to leg pressure, kinda thinks about neck reining.  But not solid on either area.. easily fixable with time.  She stopped and she backed.  She tried to stand her ground on backing, but with a little scissor motion on that bridle, she realized it was easier to back up than take the pressure.  I then asked to ride her out to the woods, so we headed on down the field to the trees.  She was very cautious and aware of her feet, she dropped her head and looked at the logs I asked her to go over.  She never tried to eat the luscious grass.  I took her through thick trees that brushed up against her and hung over her, she never flinched.  I broke branches above her and dropped them on her, no reaction.  She was solid.  We jumped a few deer back there and again, no reaction.  As I walked her back to the barn area, she stopped and stood fairly still.  Not 100%, but she didnt fight me either and I know with other horses around, she would have stood all day.

I was pretty much sold on the mare the second I got on her, but after riding, I just knew she was a great fit for me and possibly for Derek if he ever wanted to confiscate her from me.  They gave us some alone time to think on her and we offered $2000 and would pick her up in 2 weeks.. the next free weekend I had to get back over there!  Left a deposit and I now technically own this beautiful girl.

It took a while to come up with a new name for her, but we have renamed her "Hula Girl" aka Hula.  :)  My only problem.....  I dont know how I am going to have the patience to wait 2 weeks to get her!!!  I'm already in love with this horse and almost in tears because I havent been this excited about a horse in a very long time.  I want nothing more than to bond and have that solid horse and am very hopeful that I just found her.

We have decided we will not be buying or getting a horse for Derek this year.  Hunting season is approaching quickly and why spend money on a horse for him, when he will not be focused on riding.  Come about Feb though, that will change and we will then restart our search for a horse for him.  If he takes my Hula Girl, thats OK, I'll deal with it and will be happy knowing he has a solid horse.

AHHH, I just cant wait!!

And finally the last update I have is my Weight Watchers success.  I am now down 43 pounds!  I am officially starting to retire some of my baggiest of jeans.. They are all baggy (except some of my wranglers that have been in my closet for years as I outgrew them).  So I walk around baggy-assed most days and it looks terrible, but I dont want to spend tons of money on pants I intend on shrinking out of..  :)  I'm happy and working every day at this!

There are a lot of positive things going on around us right now and I am looking forward to the future!  ;)

I lost a Weekend

As I look back on my calendar to trigger my brain into remembering what we've been up to, I realize that 12 days ago I absolutely cannot recall what we did on that Saturday or Sunday!  I know it was something, or maybe it wasnt..  Not good when your memory is this bad already.

But I do know what we did this past weekend!  Fathers Day...  We celebrated on Saturday instead of Sunday so that Andrea could spend time with her family too.  Had a really nice BBQ at my parents, but the evening ended a bit oddly with the information that my mom had decided to share with us all about the tablecloth used for our outdoor dining that evening.  Not sure why she decided to share such disturbing information with us all or why she used that blanket to eat on, but it's an evening/moment I'll never forget..  good or bad, its a memory that causes me a lot of laughter and confusion in recap!!  :)

Sunday we had plans to hike the Snoqualmie Tunnel, part of the John Wayne Pioneers Trail.  The tunnel is the longest tunnel in the country for recreational use at 2.3 miles long!!  It was pretty cool though to hike it, but it does feel like your never going to get through it as you can see the other end of the tunnel as you hike along, its just a big bright light that takes forever for that light to start to grow.  The tunnel was built from 1912-1914 and it was maybe 36 degrees inside with a good wind running through.  Overall I think we hiked about 5 miles that day and I really enjoyed it.

The entrance heading Eastward

The entrance we used heading Westward

Hunt Test Weekend

It was a long, hot, fun, successful weekend!  Our retriever club hosted a Hunt Test on our training grounds in Monroe.  Another club, the Olympic Rainshadow HRC was the official club running the test, but our club did 1/2 the work and in the end, got a HUGE payoff because of it.  And I dont mean $ in the bank..  I mean that this test weekend was the largest Hunt Test attended this side of the Rocky Mountains!  We had 148 dogs entered over 2 days  :)  This awesome support of our grounds and hard work of those involved with our club and supporters, helped push the HRC in the direction of FINALLY accepting our clubs application for affiliation a week later..  It was a 4 year battle and it just feels Amazing!  There were many others involved in running this event than the ones pictured, but we were the last ones still hanging around at the end of the day on Sunday. 

Our club president Boyd & his wife Pam

 

Don & Anne West

Pete & Kate

Elroy & Lorri (Owners of Earl - Cooper's daddy)

I guess we had to get our pictures taken too!

Although we did not take Cooper to the event, we were too busy working, Derek did run home to get him Sunday afternoon to take advantage of another opportunity to get a picture with some other NW Boykineers!  Cooper sat patiently in the truck, just waiting to head back home.  Is he cute or what!  :)

6 of the 8 Boykins that were on the Test Grounds!

Cooper's brother Mace ran in his first 2 tests over the weekend.  Saturday was not a great day for Mace.. he struggled to bring the birds back and was probably quite confused on what this was all about.  Mace had never been to a test, or to any type of practices, just had real life field work.  We really had to encourage Jim to stay with us Saturday night and come back the next day, he felt a bit deflated I think.  But he was really glad he came back as Mace started to get the hang of what was expected and received a Started Pass on Sunday!  We were very proud of them both, as was Landon, Mace's real owner..  :)

I didnt realize just how exhausted and worn out I was until Monday afternoon at work.. I started to feel sick, my throat hurt pretty bad and I was becoming lethargic.  That evening I went to bed pretty early and didnt end up getting back out of bed until 5pm Tuesday afternoon!  19 hours was FAR too long to lay in bed sleeping the entire time as it took another 4 or so days for my back to recover!  lol

The positive was I lost 6.6 pounds that week at weigh in, then gained 2.6 the following week and now this week am back down 2.2   So its been a real WW rollercoaster, but overall now down 39lbs.  We had a sub last night at our Mtg and she helped me think more positive about weight gain..  Said we have about a 5lb bubble that surrounds us, because our bodies fluctuate from hour to hour on our weight, so as long as the bubble is gradually moving down, then dont sweat the small gains here/there!  I now have 31 pounds to loose in 4 months..  thats my short term goal I'm working towards.

Memorial Weekend

Once again, we ended up at Beavercreek for Memorial Weekend, in Twisp.  3 of the last 4 years have been here, but we really like it and since we were going horseless, we knew there would be some good hiking.

We had invited a few different sets of friends to come along, but none of them could make it, but we had a great time with our horse club friends that did go.  We struggled getting ready to go the week prior..  as we realized our camper was too small for our truck!  Didnt think that would be an issue until we put it on the truck, and saw that the cabover section was touching the roof of our truck!  After some creative thinking, we got it squared away.  But FYI, an upgrade in campers is now on our short-term list.  Which means we will most likely sell our camper this summer and have to be without for a few camping trips  :(  Oh well, we are perfectly capable of "roughin" it!

Our goal for Memorial was to hike the Pipestone.  We had ridden it 3 years prior and knew it would be a great hike.  I was feeling some apprehension about it though as I was fully aware it would be a 4+ hour venture.  Friday I was just not feeling in the mood to get out, legs felt tired and weak.. probably because I was up until 2am Wed night preparing for our trip on Thursday..  Things just were not coming together on Wed, had my WW meeting, my phone died, camper had issues.. so what was I to do?  I still had all that food to prep and clothes to finish washing before heading out the next morning.  :)

Derek went off hiking on his own for a while on Friday.  I dont know how long he was gone, I was lazy and hung out in the camper, nodded off for a while with Cooper!  It was nice having some down time, just me and the dog.  I was sad to have left Ellie behind that weekend but it would not have been right to leave Russell home alone.. poor guy is getting blinder and deafer by the day!  :(

Saturday morning was the day.  We were going to hike out to the Pipestone.  We got directions on which trails to take to get there and headed out.  We dropped down into Death Valley, a completely different vibe walking through there vs riding a horse through.  We had Cooper with us and decided to teach him a new command "follow" as we wanted him to learn to walk on the trail behind us and not running off into the snake filled bushes!  Coming back up out of D.V. was a steady climb, we stopped often for mini-breather sessions and at the end of that climb, realized we had just hiked the backside of Pipestone and missed it completely!  We were at the far West end of it, so we hiked up another section to get to the top of Pipestone which gave us a great view of the entire area.  So we did still hike to the Pipestone, we just didnt end up following the trail ALONG the Pipestone.  But thats OK as we had done the trail horseback and this route we took was one we had not seen before and the lookout where we stopped for lunch, was not an area we had explored on horseback either.

These are some horses that came from a barn around the other side of this hill.  They are on a trail that connects into the top ridge of the Pipestone trail.  They actually took a right and headed down to the intersection of the trail on the backside, which is the same way we had walked up.

Overlooking the Pipestone.  That big hill in the background is the one the horses had come around.  It was really windy up here, but it felt nice and we had an amazing view.

After a nice break and some great pictures, we headed back to camp.  We followed the old ditch-line above camp on the way back and then had to drop down to the campers, so we did a big circle hike, took us 4.5 hours!  Again, AMAZINGLY my back was NOT at all sore the entire hike!  I'm sure the 4 Ibuprofen I took was part of the reason, but that was a very long difficult hike and I was pretty proud of myself.  :)  The weather was not as hot as Burke Lake, it was perfect.

I think we wore Cooper out more than ourselves.  Poor dog tried to jump off the tailgate step that evening and his legs buckled and he fell on his face!  Overall we had a really great weekend.  Cooper still has a major infatuation with fires and at times have to really watch him because he has almost gone in!

At the time of that weekend, I think I was down almost 35 pounds.  Today I am down 37.  Not a lot of change lately, its been an up/down rollercoaster for me.  Good decisions, bad decisions...  But I continue to work on it and am proud that I've lost that much so far.  I continue to work on re-training myself, its a daily battle.

Duck Dog Challenge

A friend took this picture of Derek Cooper & I.  I really like the picture!!

Our retriever club put on a Duck Dog Challenge back in May.  It was a 1-day event and 95% of us had never been to one, nor seen it in person.. so there was a lot of stress involved with getting all the details sorted and how it was going to come together.  I think a few of us were quite worried we wouldnt have anyone show up as its not a cheap sport to do.

There were 2 options.. a Team challenge consisting of 2 shooters, 1 dog handler and 1 dog for $150.  Then the 2nd option was 1 dog, 1 handler for $50.

Derek and I each ran Cooper in the Single Series.  It was interesting.  As the Bumper gets tossed into the sky, you have to 'attempt' to shoot/hit the target, then your dog retrieves it.  It is all timed and scored based on whether you hit the target or not and if your dog retrieves it or not.  Basically of all the teams, all the dogs scored 100% which leaves the deciding factor on points up to the shooters.  And if there was a tie for points, then winner is based on fastest time.

Basically..  we had NO chance in winning!  LOL   We couldnt hit the target very well and our dog is not that fast...  So I am proud to say that I took last place and Derek took 2nd to last..  Shouldn't there be a prize for that?  :)  Overall, it was a financial success, we had enough teams to atleast break even, maybe even made a couple hundred but it was definately a lot of fun..  cant wait to put on another one maybe next year!!

Cooper retrieving a water mark bumper

 This is Molly, Cooper's 1/2 sister

 This is Earl, Cooper's Daddy with Elroy.  Earl was attacked by coyotes in his back yard a few months ago and this was the first time he was able to do any retrieves, so Elroy threw 2 water retrieves for him.  It was really a special moment for us to be there and be a part of it and many of us had tears in our eyes.  Earl is a very special dog and has overcome a lot to even be walking, let alone retrieving again!!

 Derek handing over a Handler's Jacket to the founders of the Duck Dog Challenge, Thanking them for coming out to Monroe and helping us put on a fun event

Willie's Final Post

A few weeks ago, I took Willie to our horse club Breakfast ride for the day, wanted to get out for a nice ride, see how he would do with his new shoes and our first real trail ride.  I invited Suzi to ride Edgar, thought she would enjoy it.  We loaded up the horses and just as I was about to put the truck in gear, I hear and feel BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG.. I probably turned immediately red and full of rage, I was flustered as I tried to put the truck into park (because it already was in park!), flew open the truck door yelling WILLIE KNOCK IT OFF, flew open the horse trailer door and proceeded to kick Willie a few times as he stood tied in the trailer!!  Gave myself a few seconds, opened the divider gate, spanked him as I backed him out of the trailer, spanked him some more outside the trailer and then stood there again to calm myself as Derek came flying out of the house and Suzi's dad ran over from across the street to ensure all was OK at the Fecht's house!

I was sooo flippin angry at that horse.  OMG!  I closed the divider wall, put Willie in the far back section, noticed a couple of new huge dents in the trailer, got in the truck, turned the cool air on and drove off.  Not a great way to start my day!  :)  My internal body temp did not cool down until we got to I5.  Poor Suzi didnt even get out of the truck during all the commotion, she knew it was best to stay quiet and out of the way.  lol

I was still angry at Willie as I watched him stand tied to the trailer while we socialized and ate breakfast at the tree farm.  He was pawing and then trying to kick Edgar..  I got on finally and he was antsy, acting up a little but after about 10-15 minutes, he was his normal laid back quiet trail self.  We had a nice ride, he didnt limp at all and the day ended well.  The next day, Willie was a tiny bit "off" but not lame, so I was pretty happy about that.

I finally got him listed online for $900, had some interest but nothing serious.  I had been waiting to take new pictures and to get video, but decided I was tired of waiting and what I had would have to work!  After a couple weeks of stressing about him and just realizing that it was not likely I would recover much money, I decided to give him away.  I had already lost over $5k in cash this past year, so what was a few hundred more.. wasnt worth the stress of trying to make a few bucks.  There was one gal in Kennewick that had already been emailing with me about him, and when I decided Free was the new price tag, she thought on it for 24hrs and decided to give it a go.  With my schedule and hers, I ended up bringing Willie to work with me a week ago and left him untied in the trailer while he waited.  She showed up mid day, took him home, her name is Heather and she just LOVES LOVES LOVES Willie!!   :)  He is fitting in well with her mares, she has ridden him, he is sweet and lovey and she is very happy.  Which makes me happy and the weight has been lifted.  I know I did the right thing for him and for me and I hope she continues to enjoy him for the many many years to come.

I finally just within the past day or so, have started to feel the itch to ride.  I am not 100% ready to jump into a new horse, I still have some major reservations about buying again, but I want a horse.  I want to ride.  I also want to enjoy this time while I am horseless to get a few things done around the place that desperately need doing!  I think Derek thinks we are taking the entire year off from horses, and who knows.. maybe it will be the year.  But if the right horse comes along, I cant see myself turning it down.  ;)

WW Update

I never thought I would look forward to getting on a scale..  Its always been a dreadful time, such a dissappointment to realize you keep gaining and gaining and gaining over the years..  But now, I can hardly wait for Wednesday afternoon to arrive so that I can climb on that scale and hopefully find a smaller # than the week prior!  The past few weeks have been a bit of a rollercoaster, up then down every other week.  Last week I had done that big huge hike, then also walked 3 miles on the Centennial Trail so surely the scale would reflect all of my hard work..  Nope!  .4 gain last week.. Son of a Gun!!  Well thats not really what I was feeling, I was a bit more pissed and frustrated than that.

But I have to keep remembering to push on and put the work in, because then I bounce back a week later and drop 4.2  :)  I am down 31 pounds total, that is awesome!!  I have a long ways to continue to go, but I am finally starting to see the changes in myself.  Slight, very slight ones.. but I have had 2 people ask me this week if I am loosing weight, so thats really cool to finally loose enough that others are starting to notice.. people that didnt otherwise know I was doing WW or trying..  I almost believe I can do this..  There is still a tinge of doubt in my brain, but I continue to grow and get stronger mentally every week.

My jeans are so baggy these days, I definately can feel the change in my waistline!!  I decided this morning to go to the far right side of my closet to look for a pair of jeans to wear.. that is where the un-wearable clothes have migrated.. pulled out a pair of wranglers I forgot were there, they are 2 inches smaller than my baggy ones and they fit!  I didnt have to lay on the bed or anything!!  They are snug in my waist, feels weird to wear snug jeans, feel like my tummy is just rolling over the edge..  lol    But they fit, I'm not hurting and dont feel like they are too tight, with still some baggy ass issues going on!

Hike of my life..

We set out late Friday afternoon for Dave Bishop's Ranch in Quincy WA, the Burke Lake area for a weekend with friends.  6 months ago when we planned this weekend, we were going to bring horses and ride; however we all know the horse situation so Derek & I decided to go anyways and just go for walks and see the area.  We were tenting it of course since we have camper issues to resolve, so the adventure was on..  It was a great drive over, got there at dusk, good thing our tent is super easy to set up!  :)

The next morning we decided to go out for a walk/easy hike and explore the area.  We left at 8:45 am, the sun was out, the wind was blowing and it felt great, almost cool...  but the cool air quickly heated up as we continued on our walk on the trail.  We followed the canyon wall to the left of us, saw a couple minor waterfalls

and as we looked out across the canyon floor through the valley, we saw what appeared to be a trail going up the side of the canyon.  It looked fairly steep from where we were at and I asked Derek, "would you go attempt it if I was not here?"  He said heck yes he would.. so I said "lets go then!"

Here was our view of the canyon as we contemplated which direction to head.. we had come from the right

So we started our cross-country trek to the other side of the canyon and get to the base of this trail, now realizing this is NO horse trail!!  This is a hikers only type trail, far toooo steep and rocky for ANY horse to go up.  I knew I was being crazy but I was feeling good and I said, lets do this..  It was slow going and a sit down breather was necessary once or twice to make it to the top, but I did it and the view as amazing!!  

We were overlooking Dusty Lake.. I'm thankful for self-timer cameras so we were able to get a shot of us both at the lookout.  From our viewpoint, there was no getting down to that lake safely, so after a few minute break, we headed back down a level to the main trail on top of the ridge.  This was clearly a horse trail and we followed it back towards the end of the canyon.  We didnt really want to go back down the trail we had just come up and we also wanted to continue with our exploring.  

 At the far end of the canyon, we reached the trail that would lead us back down to the canyon floor, what a great view we continued to have of Ancient Lake as well as a couple other neighboring lakes too..

This is a nice waterfall into the green lake.

From our vantage point, we looked out across the valley and that little red X you see on the picture, that is the corner of the canyon wall we have to go around to get back to camp!  So we still had a long ways to go. At this point, before our final decent, we were about 2.5 hours into our "walk"!  

At this point I am still feeling really good, my back was shocking the hell out of me by giving me ZERO pain.. ZERO!!  My legs were a little tired and tight and the sun was getting quite warm, but I was still feeling great. I knew we had a long walk out ahead of us, but kept thinking the worst is behind me, I got this!!

That feeling quickly ended as we reached the canyon floor and started to hike out.  There were minor hills in the valley to go up and the first one I encountered kicked my ass!  I was out of breath 1/4 of the way through it, my body was starting to shut down.  I was struggling pretty bad with my breathing and for the first time, started thinking that I wished I wasn't out there.  About this time my head started to tingle as I was walking and I started to feel a bit nauseous, but I pushed on.  After 30-40 minutes or so of this, my body and brain hit the wall; I started to hyperventilate, my eyes started shedding uncontrollable tears, I probably was shaking a bit, and I'm sure my heart rate was up.  Derek indicated I was having an anxiety/panic attack.  I really struggled to get control of my breathing, but Derek was great and he took control of the situation and after a few minutes was able to talk me back to breathing and calm.  It took another 5 or more minutes to recover enough to continue on.  

I really had a tough time trekking back out of there, but I just put one foot in front of the other as they say, and walked my ass out of that damn canyon!  That last 1.5 hours of hiking, I was breathing heavy the entire time, struggling to find energy to do anything but walk.  I think my brain realized just how far we still had to go and it shut down and convinced myself it could not do it.  But here I am, back at work, so I clearly did it!!

I am proud of myself and I am sure Derek is proud of me too.. He never thought I would attempt the trail we took or that I would be out for a 4 hour hike!  I went too far, 2.5 hours would have been perfect for my conditioning and 3 months ago at 30 lbs heavier, I wouldnt have been able to do this hike at all.  I am certain of that!!  So I am proud and I did enjoy it.  It has easily been 12 + years since I've been on a hike and this by far has been the longest and hardest hike I've done in my life.

I marked in white the route we took..

 When we got back to camp, we both doused our heads in water and just sat for a couple hours doing nothing!  And that felt awesome..  lol    Later that afternoon we went out for a little 20 minute walk with Scott and Barbara as they showed us the lookout of the Columbia River and another area that can be ridden, beautiful!!

The next morning, I felt pretty darn good!  I was not ready to head out on another hike like that, but I was not really sore at all, just some tight muscles  :)  I am completely amazed with my back and a little confused why my lower back has been pain free..  Not that I want the pain, I'm really really excited its not there.. just surprised mostly.

The thing that disappointed me the most.. was my WW activity monitor!  After we reached the peak of our hike overlooking Dusty Lake, to that point I had already used up probably 125% of my daily points target.. but when I took the monitor off, it was telling me I was between 50-75%.  I was PISSED!!  I cussed at the little monitor and was quite irritated that it was not accurate.  I guess because we were going slow and it wasnt moving around a lot, it didnt realize just how hard I was working.  By the time we got back, it finally registered at about 125%, which again is full of ....  because I should easily have been 250% for the day.  Too bad it doesnt monitor heart rate.. so it is a minor glitch/flaw with the tracker.

But I am proud of myself because when we got home from camping yesterday and after we had put everything away, I was at 100% of my activity for the day, but I climbed on that elliptical anyways and put another 20 moderate workout minutes into the end of my day.  Because w/o the loss of almost 30 lbs or the use of the elliptical I've been doing the last couple weeks, that hike would not have been possible..  I'm working my way to fit...  :)

Changes...

Ever since we got the new upgraded horse trailer, we've realized that we really needed to consider upgrading our truck.  The rear end in our 3/4 ton truck was on its last leg.. who knows, maybe the leg would last another year, maybe not!  But with the added weight of the new trailer (which we could definately feel when pulling it) it was more likely to be sooner and not later that the truck break down..  so upgrade trucks is what we did.

Welcome to the family our 2010 crew cab F350

I always go into stress mode and slight anxiety mode when we buy a new vehicle.. not sure what that is about or why I do that, but I do..  This is a NICE truck!! more bells and whistles than we've ever had on any vehicle and it has a few more miles than I wanted to find in a truck, BUT we really dont plan to drive it much and with the crappy mpg it gets, wont drive it more than necessary, so it should last for many many years..  We got a fair deal on our red truck trading it in and feel we paid a fair price for this one.

We had pulled the camper into the shop this past week to clean it out, get it ready for the camping season.  We had planned to take it to Burke Lk with us this past weekend, but we had some issues that need resolving before we will be taking it anywhere..  Had a leakage issue so it needed drying out as well, also had to replace 2 jacks as one completely broke and the other was on its way..  We now need to decide if we want to patch the problem or tear the whole thing apart and re-furbish the entire camper as Derek has been wanting to do since we bought it.  Its still in good shape, and very usable, but there are features of the camper we dont use and have thought about taking them out and creating more space for us..  So not sure..  maybe we will patch and then sell it so we can upgrade campers too.. heck why not, we've been upgrading everything else these days!!!

The good thing about our upgrades so far is the horse trailer upgrade cost us $0 and this truck trade in upgrade is minimal cost, as it only affected our monthly payment by an amount we were comfortable with.. I have a feeling though that a camper upgrade will not be $0, so it will be something to consider..  Afterall we still need to buy a couple horses in the future..

Speaking of horses, we've put that process on the back burner a bit..  I'm still keeping my eyes and ears open, but not going to stress or go out of my way to look right now.  I'm a bit motivated to get some things done around the place and the only way that will happen is if I dont have a horse to focus on riding!  :)  

I still have Willie and need to get that situation figured out soon....   its been a slow process due to many different circumstances, but I think it is now time to focus on finding him a new home.. wish me luck!

Happy 40th Continued..

Fish On.. Fish On.. Fish On..  That was the sound of 16 of our friends and family catchin fish on the Hula Girl, May 21st!!  The boat caught 40+ ling cod and probably 130+ rock fish aka sea bass..  meaning we drove home with about 25 pounds worth of filets to fill our freezer.. yummy yummy.  My sister-in-law had to almost ruin it for me and informed me though that bottom fish (which is what we were catching) has worms and now I'm a little more than leary and a bit grossed out about eating the fish..  I guess they are easy to pick out and as long as you cook the fish fully, its not a problem, I just need to look for them... Thanks Andrea!!!    ;)

Derek & Eric wanted to ensure a successful trip, so in Deadliest Catch fashion, they bit the heads off some herring and a great trip indeed is what we had!!

I think this picture about sums it up

Derek and I both caught our fair share, about 15 fish each.  At one point I had 3 sea bass on at one time, that was cool.  We were so glad so many friends could make it out, it really made the trip that much more fun and special.  We plan to now continue and restart the tradition of going out yearly on the Hula Girl!!  Maybe one year we'll splurge and do a Halibut trip..

This is Derek & the captain Steve..  This is the same captain Derek grew up fishing with, so it was really great for Derek to be back on the boat.

 

Horse Situation Update

So here's the lowdown on the horse situation..

We did drive to Cle Elum to meet Breeze & Nellie.. very sweet girls (horses), very nice people!  with a beautiful OMG amazing log home..  But Breeze & Nellie were lacking a little bit for us, not quite what we are looking for.. I'm sure they are great horses, just not for us right now.  We enjoyed our day together though, was nice to just get out and have some down time. 

I have found a couple other horses that Rachel is going to stop by and see while on her Walla Walla trip this coming weekend.  One is in Walla Walla, the other in Selah (outside Yakima).  She has a new boyfriend from over in WW, so she is over that way often these days and although she is still in a walking boot from her horse-accident, she's going to stop by and meet the horses, see if they are worth the drive over for me.  One is a draft cross gelding, he's 15.2h age 7, with some trail exp.. nice looking horse, asking $3800 for him.  The other is another draft cross, 16.3h mare, age 5 (she would be for me) with some trail miles, excellent video but they want $5000 for her!!  Both horses are MORE than we want to spend on any one horse.. so I'm not getting too excited.. 

The shoers put new corrective shoes on Willie a week ago, he seems to be doing really well.  I have not had a chance to work with him yet or ride him, so I have no idea if he is now sound or atleast sounder than before!  I'm hauling him over to Shannon on Tuesday so she can ride him and help me determine what step I need to take next..  The shoers indicated that he has Navicular Symptoms, that he is not yet Navicular...  They feel he could be worth a couple thousand!  So that made me feel MUCH better and more hopeful at being able to sell him.  I joke around about him and have over the past year, that I like him, dont like him, like him.. etc..  Bottom line, I do like this horse and am very sad about it, not just because of the financial in-the-shorts-loss I am experiencing with him, but because he is a really sweet horse and he doesnt deserve this.  He certainly will not hold up for the riding I want to do, so a new home is a must, but I did shed a tear at the thought of him not working out, so I guess this stone cold horse heart beats a little still..  ;) 

The plan is to get some great pictures of him, hopefully somewhat professional type quality from Rachels daughter, and also get video too, I want to show how sound he is or is not in the video, and get him up for sale.  Might see if I can pay Klay (her son) to ride Willie for a couple weeks, get him back in working mode.. 

Also, Also..  cannot forget the horse trailer!  Derek painted our 2 horse trailer so we could sell it....

Yeah!!  It looked brand new..  he is amazing!!  I had spoken with a trailer dealer and he indicated I could ask as high as $5500 which was a surprise.. so I listed it for $5300; 4 days later it sold for $5,000!!  The gal sent her dad (from Snohomish) on Sunday to look at it, since she lived in Wenatchee.. she called later and made a committment to come buy it the next day.  She shows up with her dad/mom and says to me "You look familiar and your name seems familiar"...  well I graduated Snohomish 91, she graduated 84 I think it was.. so it wasnt that..  She then says "do you know Shana?"  Why yes, yes I do know my cousin Shana!!  lol  So Shana's best friend is Dottie, who our whole family knows pretty well..  Well apparently Rhonda (gal from Wenatchee) is Dottie's Sister!!  Small World... 

I am pretty happy about the trailer deal though..  We bought our 97 Circle J 3-horse trailer for $3600, put another $1400 into it via new tires, licensing and having the wiring fixed..  so out of pocket so far is $5000 for that trailer..  Cant believe we just did an equal swap and we now have a bigger trailer for the same price!!  Derek seems pretty motivated to paint this trailer sooner than later.. we still have a few minor things to fix but we got very very lucky in finding a seller that didnt realize she undersold her trailer by atleast $1000!

Surprise Surprise!!

Derek turned 40 this week and being the awesome wife that I am, I wanted to be sure it was a special occassion, a birthday to remember!  So we invited all our friends and family to join us at Rhodes River Ranch for a Sunday afternoon lunch..  54 people were able to come out!!  It was AWESOME to have so many want to share the day with us and the best gift of all was the surprise arrival of his parents Bob & Nouna.. they drove up from AZ just to be there for him.  That was really special.  :)  We had a fantastic lunch, OMGosh the food super yummy.. I had some cupcakes made by our neice's friend.. she did a great job of decorating some with shotgun shells that read "40 age" instead of "40 guage"!  Clever..  and then some with ducks on them, others had edible pictures of Derek..    Derek wanted a rice crispy cake so I made that..  7 bags of marshmallows!!  I found the edible camo border and put some ducks on it and then a shotgun lighter I found..  It turned out better than expected, I was really proud of my awesome cake!!

 

His parents spent a night at our house, which was great as they were able to join us on Derek's actual birthdy for dinner out at Ixtapa Snohomish (Dereks favorite restaurant!)  Carlos brought Derek a HUGE shot of 'Tequilla Something or other'...  :)

My friend Rachel, her 40th was 4 days before Derek's so we took her out on Saturday afternoon and suprised her by buying her, her very first pair of real comboy boots!!  She grew up riding English, so she had never owned a pair of real boots.. LOL   She LOVES them, and it was so great to do that for her.  We went to school together and were friends through our 4H club, drifted apart for many years after graduating, Carrie went to school with her sisters and used to babysit for her.. we slowly rekindled our friendship and then I just barged in and demanded more time with her over this past year and we've grown as close as 2 girlfriends can get, non-sexually anyways!  lol  She has filled this void in me that I have been needing, just having that one girlfriend you can tell anything too, with no fear of being judged, someone who will be honest with you and set your ass in check when needed, support you and just be there for you.  I havent had that since Carrie died and never thought I would find it again..  I am truly thankful for my friendship with Rachel!! 

I've been on this slight mental rollercoaster when it comes to my WW success/failure the past couple weeks.  A week ago when I stepped on the scale at WW, I had a feeling it was not going to be less than the week prior, I felt that I did not make great food decisions and although I was still within all my points, it was not as healthy of a week for me and the scale reflected that with a .6 gain   :(  I was pretty distraught over it though, it really had a pretty big mental impact on me and I was more down about it than I expected to be.  In an irrational fashion, my brain was telling me "see, I knew you couldn't keep up with loosing every week, sooner or later you will start to gain again and this system is not going to work for you!"  F*ing  Brain!!  That is my biggest downfall, is myself and my own ability to convince myself this is going to happen for me.

So over this past weekend and up until my weigh in yesterday, I basically felt like I fell off the food wagon!  I certainly did not eat as much food as I would have 2 months ago, but I was having some major cravings for C-R-A-P!!  Rachel realized I was mentally hitting a wall so Monday, she surprised me with these beautiful flowers..  and a note that said "WE GOT THIS!"

I ate over my bonus points this past week, BUT because I knew I was not eating well, I did finally start using the elliptical again, to help compensate... Monday and Tuesday I spent 20min/day on it..  I was also running around a bit more than normal with this birthday planning and then Derek's parents surprising us and then telling us they were coming to our house!!  Which put me in a late night frenzy to get the house CLEAN..  Spent a few hours cleaning and got it cleaner than its been in a while, so I feel really good about that!

I was dreading the scale yesterday, my belly felt bloated, my pants felt tighter..  I'm trying to peer over the scale weight to see the readout as I'm standing there and she starts to write down a # and I'm thinking I saw a 5lb increase but apparently I couldnt see the #'s as well as I thought, because she recorded a 1.8lb LOSS!  I was shocked..  Seriously..  So with that loss, I have now lost exactly 25 pounds!!!  I was pretty happy and feeling very refreshed and positive again.. 

The good, the bad...

Its only Thursday and it's already been one of those weeks.. 

I had hoped to get on the scale yesterday and wanted to see atleast a 1 lb drop in weight, as that would have put me at my 5% loss, but I got on the scale and was in shock as she recorded a 6.4 lb loss!  Every week I am amazed at how well this is working for me..  In 6 weeks, I have now dropped 23.8 pounds..  WOW   My brain still thinks I cant do this, suprisingly.. but I know myself and I have yet to believe in being skinny. 

I feel better, my pants are looser (heck I seriously can walk right out of my wranglers now, they will fall off my butt within a 40 ft walking distance, trust me I tried it!  Jeans around my ankles walking from the barn to the back door)  lol  My girl jeans are looser, although they are not as apt to fall off my tooshy since they are built different.  I feel like my shirts are looser and I can suck in my tummy while sitting and it dissappears under my boobs..  LOL

I have little goals here and there for myself and hope to achieve them..  see, still not ready to say WILL Achieve..  I am SOOO looking forward to the day I can get on a horse from the ground w/o the aid of a person or stump or stool helping me out..  Not sure if I mentioned but when that happens, I'm booking a weeklong vacation at a dude ranch of some sort.. Its been on my bucket list for a very long time and I think that is a great way to celebrate something I havent been able to do in a very long time.

Unfortunately life is not all about roses and rainbows and thats how the rest of my week has been.  It all stems around Willie, I finally got him to the vet for a lameness exam and after temporary nerve blocks in his feet to determine it was in his feet, and then xrays to determine the cause of him limping, I can now say with certainty that I was right..  But this is NOT NOT NOT a time I wanted to be right..  Willie is Navicular!!  :(

You never want to here that word uttered when it relates to your horse.. "It most commonly describes an inflammation or degeneration of the navicular bone and its surrounding tissues."  There is no cure, there are things you can to do help the horse along, but everything is temporary and eventually the horse will deteriorate and get to the point of needing to be put down.  Willie could likely have many rideable years in him still, with some corrective shoeing, maybe some nerve blocking and supplements and/or drugs.. but he wont have it with me.  Between buying, training and diagnosing him, I have $5,000 wrapped up in him and I'm sick about that because I basically am going to have to give him away...    Pooooffff!  Shannon thinks she might be able to help me find a "buyer" for him, but I'm not holding my breath, who would buy a horse with this problem.. 

So its been a couple days of severe crying sessions and depression.  Every time I talk on the phone with a friend about it, I start to cry, I just cant help it.  We have lost 2 horses in 2 months.. WTF is happening in my life right now.  What have I done to deserve this, seriously...    Derek and I are taking a step back, regrouping and trying to figure out what to do next.  Neither one of us is willing or even wants to spend ANY money on buying horses right now.. although neither of us wants to give up riding.  I just cant see spending thousands of dollars after having lost over $10,000 in value on the 2 horses we had.  Thats a pretty tough pill to swallow. 

My shoers are great and they have a client with a couple mares that they want us to go meet..so we are going to Cle Elum on Saturday to meet these horses and see if we like them.  The gal is willing to do a lease, she knows our situation and is willing to work with us and just might be willing to part with 2 of her horses.  So although neither of us is jumping into this with ANY expectations, I cant blow her off any longer and I TRUST my shoers completely and they wouldnt steer me wrong..

Happy Easter

Since we dont have any children and there was no reason to paint easter eggs or hide chocolate rabbits around the house, we decided to go clamming instead!  Lance had invited us out to Whidbey Island (Penn Cove), it sounded fun..  And the weather this weekend was amazing, blue skies, close to 70 degrees.. 

It only took us just over an hour or so to get our 40/each limit!    In the above picture, there are 80+ clams there.  Apparently they are called butter clams.  I'm not a big clam lover, I dont like to eat them actually.. the only way I will tolerate them is in clam chowder..  Although I dont know if I've had clam strips or not, I would imagine I could eat those.. but eating the entire clam right out of the shell.. Yuck, not gonna happen!!

And boy do we have some biggy clams!  :)  They are on our back porch right now, resting in salt water, eating corn meal which is supposed to help clean their systems out so they are not full of sand.  The plan is to leave them that way for a couple days, then steam them, freeze them and wait until we have the time to attempt some clam chowder or who knows what other recipes we can come up with!!

We had a really great time and look forward to more clamming trips in the future.. I hope to find a way to love eating them, otherwise I'll be calling some friends to take some off our hands..