Sunny Sunday

And what a beautiful sunny day it was. I saw a thermometer that said 65. WAAAAAAAHOOO.
I am so ready for nice weather.

We went to church this morning and it was a beautiful service. BUT, the church was filled with Easter Lilies and I though I would croak. They really send me off in an allergy attack. My eyes watered, my nose ran and by the time we got out of there my head was pounding.

After church we had a quick lunch and went to a tack liquidation sale from a Tack Store in Sandpoint. Got a new saddle pad to try to make my saddle better for Dixie and they gave me another one. I am going to donate the extra one to Mustang Days raffle. We have alot of saddle pads but I wanted one really built up in the front and yet cut back. Bob bought a saddle too. I don't have the foggiest reason why, its too small for me. Anyone want a really pretty well made youth saddle - or someone with a smaller rear than mine. Its a 14". He will want $400.00 for it. It was a good buy but???????????????

Came home and did chores. And now I am here. Bob and I had a good time at the auction and just being together. Now the week starts all over again. He will have to drive to Chelan again tomorrow. I hope Steve comes to work on the porch some more. Bob talked to him this evening and I think he is.

Have a marvelous Monday.

A great ride

We had a marvelous ride. We went out to Fishtrap Lake. It was so pretty and peaceful there. We had lunch on the shore. Down the lake there were either swans or snow geese. I could not tell and we did not go down that way.

These folks were not as far ahead as it looks. Different horses walk out at different speeds and Bob and I were kind of in the middle. Grass is beginning to turn green. It was pretty muddy in spots but none of the horses seems to have trouble with it.

The picture below is a windmill in front of the rangers house. I liked how it turned out agains the sky.

I don't know why Bob did not take his helmet off while we were eating. He just didn't I guess. Not everyone rides with a hard hat but we do. I won't give a lesson to a kid without them wearing a riding helmet nor will I allow our grandkids to ride without one. We believe we should practice what we preach.

Part of the group eating lunch or just fooling around. Bernie is the man with the red bandanna and he is a wonderful photographer as well as a funny guy. Bob was leading for a while and got off on the wrong trail. You can bet that the article in the next newsletter will be in great detail about Bob getting lost and us wandering around. He did take the wrong trail but we got it sorted out and were never lost but it will be funny for sure. His wife Sherrie got bucked off her mule too and it will be funny. Not when it happened though. Tinker just got all excited and bucked. She was embarrased but not hurt. All the mules bucked at some time or the other during the ride

Dixie and Pepper tied to a tree while we were eating. Pepper just stood there and took a nap. He is such a good boy mostly. He pulled a couple of things today that he has never done before. I wore my spurs - bumper spurs- because he lags along alot of the time and it gets tiresome. He was doing that and I just touched him with the spurs and he took off like a shot at a hard gallop right toward the horses in front of us. I got his head pulled around in a one reign stop and he ran into the back of Alan's mule. He stopped but the mule took off bucking. Lordy, lordy. I wanted to throttle Pepper. The other thing he did was when we went thru a gate he decided to tuck his rear and just scoot through. He almost went out from under me. Never before has he done things like that. And Dixie did fine too. Bob said she settle down about half way through the ride instead of feeling like you were riding a rocket.

So that was our adventure today. When we got home we went into town and got a new TV. Our living room TV went woosh and quit last night. So Bob can watch his hunting shows. Also CSI, Law and Order - all those gory shows that I don't watch.

We went to Big R and got some things that we need. And we got some things we didn't need but wanted. It was a good afternoon too.

Have a blessed Palm Sunday.

Friday

This is the framework of my ugly porch. I thought Steven would be here today to put the siding on but he didn't come so it still sits there looking just like that. The sides towards the bathroom window and the side toward the living room window will have big windows. I still think its ugly but windows and flower boxes will make it a little more appealing. We will be siding the house this spring and it will match. Maybe anyway. I am trying not to be negative.

Bob should be home soon from his 5th. out of town trip this week. Three to Yakima, Moses Lake and Chelan. He said he would be traveling all next week too. I hope the weather is as good as it is predicted so I can get outside and do somethings. Need to really clean up the yard both front and back.

When I put the horses in I looked at Pepper and Dixie. They are going to take some vigerous grooming before we ride tomorrow. They are really big mud balls. The weather better be as good as they are predicting. My saddle got a good makeover this winter at Indiana Harness. Pat did a good job on it. Love my saddle, it fits me really well. And all but Dixie it fits well and I can make it fit her high withers with a good saddle pad. I wish I had bought the one I looked at in Albany. I did not want to spend that much at that moment. I have thought about it alot since and wish I had.

Have not seen baby Henry today. See his mom over in the far pasture so know he is well there. Bob said he was up with her at the water this morning and he was bucking and running. I am sure they were just resting over there.

Maybe tomorrow I will have more to say about the horses. Miss them. I petted Ravens poor lopsided upper lip today when I fed. It worries me. She eats OK but it looks really weird. Liberty is going down the road to Shannons one of these days for a while to have a mule baby and Shannon is going to get her riding. I thought she was going last weekend but she is still here. When I think about how she was when we had to run her into a small pen to finally get a halter on her and then "led" her with a bucket of grain to get her to our place and how she was so scared of being touched and now she is sweet and loving and wants to be handled. Just needs to get finished and get so you can ride her. She is a nice big mare. She will have a nice mule baby for Shannon.

Have a great Saturday.

Thursday

New baby Henry with mom Spot who was pawing dirt over her back into the air and his Aunt Candy that we think is going to have her calf in about a month. Spot is extra, super extra protective of her babies. He was born in the middle of a hail storm and then survived 4" of snow this morning. Cows are not really very bright.

This has been a very busy past two days. Yesterday Bob got home early and wanted me to go to town with him. We got the stuff to cover the new ugly porch and we went to Carl Jr.'s to have a burger and then went grocery shopping. I was so tired when we got home I crawled into bed. This morning I met my dear friend Kim for breakfast. She is a flight attendant for Alaska Airlines and had a layover here. I had not seen her for nearly a year and it was wonderful to hug her and sit and just talk. She is getting married in 11 days in Hawaii. Not her first, nor his. I am praying this is wonderful for her. He is a fisherman in Alaska all summer and she flies all over whever AA flies. Winters in Mexico and summers to Alaska. Love her like a daughter.

Came home and finished up some things I had to do for Marriage Encounter and then met some folks back into Airway Heights to give the stuff to then. By the time I got home it was time to do chores.

The horses are all great. I don't think they were thrilled with the snow but then who was. I don't care if we are setting records all that much. Ditto is so dirty. She is mostly white and rolls in the muck. We are going riding at Fishtrap on Saturday. I will ride Pepper. Bob is going to take the edge off Dixie for me. We were going down to Escure Ranch south of Sprague but the guys changed their mind. I am afraid of mud but it will be fun.

Am tired and Bob wants his hair cut. Have a great Friday.

Thankful Tuesday

An interesting day. My ugly porch is all framed in. Found a way it won't actually bug me forever and that is big windows and window boxes. Don't think that is too much to ask do you?

We have added to our critter family this evening about 6:30 in the middle of a hair storm. Spot had her calf out in the middle of the field with the hair falling. I felt so awful for her but she could have gone into the little barn. No way, right out in the middle of everything. Bob and I had been in a shed waiting and watching but she knew we were there and was very nervous so we just came to the house. She has had several calves so it wasn't like it was her first. She did good. We did not get close enough to tell bull or heifer but it is a good sized black calf. Pictures tomorrow.

The horses got fed today but not much else. It is so ugly out. They would have thought they were pegasus today with the wind blowing the way it is.

Today I am thankful for out first born, Steven. Steven is a very talented man. He got hurt last year on Fathers Day. He was after wood and somehow got his foot caught while a friend was pulling the log and it twisted the bone in half. He has not worked since. At least not at a regular job. He is kind of like his dad. He will do anything to make some money except things up high. He and heights don't mix. He is the one who is framing in our front porch, and then went on to frame in the bathroom in the barn. Thursday he will be back go do some other things his dad asked him to do. He was a good baby. He weighed 8 pounds when he was born and we had a hard time getting him here. He was active and curious as a little boy. He grew up and married Debbie who had 2 little ones when they married and they did not have others. He is a grandpa to 2 boys who live in Maryland. I don't always love his lifestyle but I do love my boy.

Have a great Wednesday.

Tuesday

Steptoe Butte

Along side the road outside of either Colton or Uniontown on Hiway 195. Am so glad the hiway had been graded before we went through.
Our Back Country Horsemen's exhibit. We took second place with it. Bernie Lionberger took most of the pictures.

A local Lewiston vet during the cold starting clinic. It was Saturday morning. It rained hard in the afternoon and night and the arena was like a giant lake so they had to cancel the finals on Sunday morning. This young horse was an appaloosa. She was not to excited about being there or being started. By the end of the hour and a half he had sat on her but she was getting ready to buck.

I thought I had uploaded a couple of other pictures but apparently didn't. There was a small bay AQHA that the lady worked with. I think she would have done anything Nichole wanted her to. Then there was the roan QH/Thoroughbred. She bucked and ran when he first went in the arena but gentled right down. He put a halter on her and got the saddle on her then did all the gentling stuff and by the end of an hour and a half, he had walked in the 60' round pen, trotted and loped both ways. He did beautiful. I don't know the trainers name - Dan or Don someone.

Today was a catch up day. Our son came out and started our front porch. I don't like it but Bob does. I could be really aggrevated about it but it wouldn't do any good.

It was so cold today but the sun was shining. That made it better. It is supposed to snow again tonight. Isn't it just hunky dory that we now have the snowiest winter EVER. EVER I say. See I had a reason to grump about it.

Hope you have a great Tuesday.

Sunday

We are home safe and sound. My pictures are still in both cameras. That is a job for tomorrow. I am tired, have a headache and want to crawl in bed.

Had a wonderful blessing today when Barbara from Serenity Gate came to the fairgrounds and we got to physically meet each other, not just via our blogs. She and her husband came and met Bob and I and we had a wonderful chat. Our husbands have alot in common.

The road home was clear but we were extremely thankful we did not have to come home until later in the day. There for 3 or 4' drifts along l95 at the top of the Lewiston Hill and toward Uniontown and Colton. They had graded the roads and they were dry but it would not have been fun earlier in the day.

Thought we might have a new baby calf by the time we got home but Katie got a little ahead of herself telling us. Spot is about ready but don't think its eminant. Don't know about Candy, will have to wait and see. The horses are all just hunky dorey. Katie and her dad took good care of them. Dixie gets mad at me though when her routine gets changed - like I am not there. She would not let me pet her face in the stall this evening. Pepper and Ditto were glad to see me though.

More tomorrow. Have a good Monday.