MERRY CHRISTMAS TO US!

 I'm sure it seems extravagant that our boys got horses for Christmas but let me explain.  J and C are starting 4H next month and although R REALLY wanted them to do a steer project they both REALLY wanted to do a horse project for which they needed a horse.  Neither mine nor R's horses would be safe for a beginner so that wasn't an option and 4H is such a great program that we really wanted them to do and of course they want to do it so... Do we buy them Christmas presents and then next month buy horses or what so to be honest, I think we sorta got a freebie, we bought them horses for Christmas, if they only knew...  It really helps that we got smoking deals on all of the horses we bought, $700 for 3 horses that are great with the kids!!!!   This is Caleb with his horse Lucy.  They were all  told that in order to have horses they had to clean their stalls daily and brush them daily and feed them twice daily and make sure they have plenty of clean water always.  They also need to be worked and ridden daily weather permitting.   All without complaining, ever.  No amount of work would disuade them and they have held to their word.  All of their work has bonded them with their horses and Lucy loves Caleb like no other.

This is AJ and L on Buddy, their horse.  He loves them and attention about as much as he likes to eat.  They have yet to use a bit or saddle, they just ride him with a halter and lead line bareback and have a great time.  AJ informed us that he is a "professional rider".  I can't believe I didn't get a pic of J riding.  He got a black and white paint that is equally awesome and yesterday he rode her with also just a halter and lead line bareback and did so very well.  I am so very happy with the horses we got and even though we are now VERY horse poor it was worth it.  Now hopefully I can get a job!  

We told the boys if they got horses that it would be their only Christmas present from R and I.  They all agreed whole heartedly.  That being said R thought it was just wrong to not have anything under the tree from us so they each got a small present from us under the tree, thank goodness for Amazon and great prices!  And thank Heaven for extended family that also got them stuff.  This is the disaster left behind this am after stockings and gifts were opened and enjoyed.   Right now they are enjoying a full sugar high that I'm sure will result in upset stomachs but maybe they won't be so  eager to over indulge and MAYBE it'll even keep them away from candy for awhile!  Right now I'm looking forward to eating dinner and falling into bed!  But I'm definitely enjoying Christmas!  Kids'll do that for ya!

MY FAVE CHRISTMAS SONG

So I know it's a bit irreverent but it's funny and makes me smile everytime I hear it.  I love the Christmas hymns, they make my heart swell  but this one is my fave fun song.


http://www.metacafe.com/watch/sy-18085642/joe_diffie_leroy_the_redneck_reindeer_official_music_video/

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEVI!!!

Happy birthday to my sweet Levi!  He turned 3 yesterday and boy has he been acting 3 lately but let's not talk about that!  He is so funny and says the most hilarious things... Recently his new word is "BOOYAA"  I have no idea where he heard it but it cracks me up when he says it.    Anytime anyone gets hurt he very sweetly says, " I know honey, I know, It's okay..."I asked him what kind of cake he wanted... "ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm.... strawberry"  so strawberry w/ lemon frosting it was.  And before you start thinking what a weird combo... try it, it's delish!!!  He had so much fun singing happy birthday to himself with us and blowing out the candles and of course eating his custom ordered home made cake... I'm so grateful for him and the joy and laughter he brings into our home.

YUMMY!

Mine looked NOTHING like this but it didn't taste bad.  I'm not a fan of squash, in fact I generally can't stand it.  I'll choke it down to set a good example for the boys, especially lately since I'm really trying to get us to eat healthier and have been for the last 18 months and that means more veggies and fruits and grains and less meat.  That isn't really making R happy but he does want us to eat healthier so he is putting up an effort.  Anyway... Today I picked up the produce basket I was supposed to pick up yesterday but we were in Mountain Home buying horses for kids and since I can't be in 2 places at once... Anyway...in my basket was spaghetti squash besides all the stuff I was actually excited about and looking forward to eating.  I've never made it before but I've been told it tastes just like spaghetti so I figured I'd give it a shot.  It's pretty gross looking, I mixed the meat sauce up with it in some lame attempt to fool the boys.It didn't work. Levi and AJ didn't care and just dug in.  Jake and Caleb acted like I was trying to poison them.  R ate 2 helpings and I have to admit even though it didn't look appetizing, it tasted just like spaghetti, or at least spaghetti sauce so while they complained at first, even J and C finished theirs, probably mostly just to get their Christmas cookies though to be honest.  So I guess it was a success overall.

GLAMOUR GODDESS... NOT SO MUCH

Whan I was a little girl I saw this commercial where this woman was laying asleep with her hair fanned out perfectly on the pillow around her, her makeup perfect, I'm certain there is no way she had morning breath, in a simple satin nighty.  I aspired to be just like her.  Fast forward 25 years or so...  I'm laying in bed wishing I was asleep still on a cold snowy Sunday morning, AJ is asleep in the bed next to me (which is why I'm not asleep btw).  He has been of course fiddling with my long hair, because that's been his comfort thing since he was a baby.  Ryan comes home from work, builds the fire downstairs and all the boys hearing him get up and go running downstairs to mob him, which they do  pretty much everytime he comes home from work, so now I'm laying in bed alone thinking I might get a couple more winks in before the bedlam breaks loose.  Ryan comes up and into our room, the boys are downstairs eating cereal, a delicacy in our house because I make them eat a hot breakfast on school days( I know, I'm a horrible mean mom).  Anyway R comes into our room, walks around the bed and starts laughing and says, "Hey Medusa" (my hair is completely ratted up on the left side of my head from AJ's fiddling.  Nice!  Oh well...

WISE MEN STILL SEEK HIM

I'm so grateful for this time of year.  I'm equally grateful for the knowledge of just how special it is.  It's not about getting or giving gifts, it's not about winter break, I have to say when I was a kid it was called Christmas break which is what it is and it irritates me that they changed it, anyway, it's not about the lights or any of the other fun stuff we do this time of year.  It's a celebration of our Savior's birth.  I was supposed to give a talk today but church got canceled due to weather, crazy!  Anyway my talk was on focusing on Christ during this season.  I thought we were doing pretty good but there are some things we could do better.  I'm really excited about the FHE I  found to help the family focus together.  In case you are interested it's called O Come All Ye Faithful and it's on LDS.org.   I hope that as we all go into this sometimes crazy holiday season that we all step back and remember the real reason for the season and focus on Christ and putting Christ back in Christmas. Instead of going to church today we are going to stay home and continue to watch BYU channel and rest and think about how blessed we are.  Especially today to be inside and out of the horrendous wind and blowing snow outside!

MY NEW ROBOTIC FINGER

So when I broke my finger in September I really did a doozy.  I actually tore the ligament on the diastal (last) joint of my middle finger.  Ligaments don't have a great blood supply so often don't heal and this one didn't either.   When it started pulling to the left I knew it was going to be surgery, I figured I'd just say no and have a crooked ugly finger forever but unfortunately, I couldn't.  It was going to keep going left and getting worse so I had to fix it.  I did it this week.  The surgeon started talking graft from my wrist.  I voted fusion instead.  Realistically, it was a difference of 18 months healing time and several thousand dollars, neither of which do I have.  Now instead I have a screw in my finger.  It hurts like the dickens but is already hurting less than it was yesterday, thankfully because I don't know how people can stand to take these drugs.  My head is foggy, my stomach is yucky and I'm worthless all the time.  Since I don't make a habit of taking pain meds and when I have to I end up throwing away most of the script, my body isn't used to drugs and I can feel these ones kick in, it's like a wave and I don't like it!  Surprisingly it doesn't even get rid of the pain, only dulls it so I'm goofy, useless and exhausted and I still hurt, it's just not right. But there is an end in sight now and for this I'm grateful.  Anyone who knows me won't be surprised that I asked the surgeon to take pics of the surgery. Equally not surprising, he said no, he said that the window was too small and I wouldn't be able to see anything, he did however  take these xrays for me.  Cool huh?

HELLO WINTER!

We are into our third ID season so far.  COLD!  We woke up yesterday to real snow.  We've had some a couple of times before but the longest it had lasted was a few hours. 

We woke up to about 3 inches yesterday and it snowed for most of the day.  Then today it started up again and we've easily got 8 inches on the ground now.

The boys were and still are in heaven.  Thank goodness for all those trips to Flag and Greer that have allowed us to accumulate snow gear over time.  I remember as a kid wanting to go out to play and then being ready to come right back in within 10 minutes because I was freezing!  Thanks to bibs and real snow gloves and boots, these guys are out as soon as they get up, I have to make them come in for breakfast and they are back out and I have to make them come in for lunch. 

Jazz was a little unsure at first but quickly discovered she loves it!  She is happy outside all day with the boys, running up the hills and all over.  Neptune on the other hand, has outgrown his love of playing in the snow and is perfectly happy curled up in front of the fire with me.  I must say, I appreciate the beauty and serenity alot more from the windows upstairs but I love that the boys are having so much fun outside!

I'M STARTING TO FREAK OUT

So my surgery is in 4 days and now I'm starting to freak out.  Not really about the surgery, although R's characteristic tactful comments didn't help with that.  Mostly about all the stuff I have to get done before the surgery.  My finger already hurts so until R started talking about how bad it was going to hurt, I was looking forward to it.  I have my preop appt tomorrow and I'm going to try to talk the surgeon into letting R come in and take some pics, if he says no I'll ask him to take some for me, I figure if I start high he'll be more likely to accomodate my request when I compromise, we'll see.  I'm interested to see just how much uglier my finger can get, I wonder if my fingernail will come off, probably I figure.  I expect I won't get much sleep before then but hopefully, my house will be clean and fridge stocked.  At least the boys are off school on Friday so I won't have to get up to get them going and they can do the pastures for me.  Thank goodness for strong boys with willing hearts, plus it helps that I took them to the movie on Saturday and bought them some candy after they promised to help out and not complain, AT ALL!  For now I guess I'd better get to bed so I can get started bright and early tomorrow.  They announced my surgery in RS today  (so embarrassing!) I had deliberately not said anything, it's really not that big of a deal, it's not like it's back surgery or anything!  Anyway now my friend is bringing dinner on Thursday, so sweet but I feel like a loser, it's just a finger after all, and really only one joint on that finger.  I do really want to see the gorey pics though, so cool, I wish I could watch them drill the bolt into my finger!  Anyway, goodnight!

TORTURE

We have a  couple of great mousers that we acquired soon after moving here.  They  were both dumped and were still fairly young and we had seen a couple of mice and a vole in the pantry  plus several more in the pastures and garage so cats sounded good.  Unfortunately since I'm allergic to them they are strictly outside cats which I feel bad about sometimes, especially when they are sitting in the window staring into the house and it's freezing outside.  Anyway back to the mousers, they caught their first mouse the first day here and sealed the deal, they stay.  Since then we have seen drastically less mice, they even catch and eat small snakes.  A couple of times I've watched Tig play with his food before he kills it.  Today was the worst though.  We have a sunken area on our porch and he brought his mouse into that square and then sat up on the step and watched the poor thing run around and try to hide under the leaves then he would tap it.   At one point he even was sitting facing it and touched his nose to the mouses nose, the mouse bit at his nose, I'm not sure if he connected or not but I'd never seen anything like that before.  Poor fat mouse.  He finally killed it and then played with it some more, throwing it up into the air and catching it.    I'm no fan of mice but I did feel bad about it being tortured.

HAPPY TRAILS BIG JOHN

 Big John was what the boys named our largest rooster. He was big and mean!  He chased them around the yard and pecked them more than once and yesterday he stranded Caleb in a tree while he pecked around on the ground below because Caleb remembered how bad it hurt last time he got pecked.  We'd been meaning to eat him for a few weeks but never seemed to have the time to actually get the dirty work over with.  Today R got up and decided today was the day.  The boys  were so excited and went with him to catch the bugger and do the deed.  Thankfully R sent them away while he actually did the deed.  Anyhow R found a blog with step by step instructions and even pics (very graphic ones) of how to do the entire thing from start to finish.  Here he is right after he was done.  R's first comment? "We need a cleaver, that was way too hard to do with a knife"  Before you start thinking he sawed the head off while John was alive he didn't, he killed him first.  His second comment, "you're not so bad now are ya buddy?"

Next you put him in hot water for a few seconds to loosen up the feathers.  I clarified w/ R before the adventure began that I would cook the fellow but he had to gut it.  I expected the boys to pluck it but R did it all.  Notice the groupies following his every move.  Even the dogs were fascinated.  I have to admit, I was a bit concerned that they were too fascinated by the whole thing, hopefully they don't become serial killers or anything.
   I decided to spare you the pic of him gutting him although it's not that bad, no blood really.  I was a bit worried after hearing about it from Mel on the trek.  The whole process went alot faster than I had feared and we weren't even late for church.  Right now he is sitting in the fridge in an oven bag ready to be roasted for dinner tomorrow night.  So one rooster down, 3 left so watch out and don't peck my kids or else!

WHAT A STUD

 R started taking riding lessons last week but yesterday was his first lesson on the horse.  Last week  he learned how to do the groundwork before riding and safety measures.  We thought it would be best for him to ride a different horse yesterday since his horse, Reno, has alot of fire and while he is a good horse, not so good to learn on.  So here is my stud on Snickerdoodle.  He was so awesome!  Sheena, the trainer (horse and human) says R is a natural, he automatically used his legs to communicate with the horse and she didn't need to remind him once.  He loped, he trotted and he walked.  He sidepassed and turned and even did some barrel work! 

The boys of course think he is super lucky and kept asking when they could ride.  This after they rode on Monday, just 2 days ago.  Isn't he such a stud sitting that horse.  Of course he is a stud without the horse but the horse makes it even better.

I think this is just a great pic.  Would have been better if I could have gotten them all in but Caleb is just to the right darn it.  What a life we live!  We are outside so much more now, the boys are so much healthier now and get into so much less trouble.  It's great having space to just be and work to do.

AUTUMN IS HERE!

Having lived in AZ for so long I ALMOST forgot that there are real seasons in other places.  Not really but it's been so long since we've had the actual  colors of fall that I'm really enjoying it so far this year.  I could do without the howling wind but since it doesn't blow everyday, and when it does it blows all the leaves out of our yard, it's not so bad, yet.  Our boys raked themselves a leaf pile on Saturday and had a great time doing it and then of course jumping into it.  It must be a naturally occuring event because they came up with the idea on their own.  It's so stinking cold in the mornings that there is ice in the horse's water and the grass is literally frozen with little icecicles hanging off of our fences but by afternoon it warms to the 50's or 60's today and yesterday R came out wearing shorts, I don't know why I was surprised but I was.  Look at my sweet Levi, so cute in his layers this morning!  He was actually mad because AJ and he were fighting over the tree swing but he loves having his pic taken so he was having a hard time staying mad. 

BUILDING FAITH

Our stake Relief Society Presidency decided, after much prayer, to focus on faith so in early September they began a program of daily scripture study, of specific scriptures, given to each sister on a bookmark to be done in conjunction with prayer and fasting of our own.  We were each strongly encouraged to participate and I'm so grateful I did.  First of all I'm so grateful for these sisters and their willingness and ability to first feel the inspiration/promptings and second to put forth so much effort to put the project into action!  I have been so  blessed by studying these scriptures/hymns daily in addition to my personal scripture study.  Tonight my epiphany came after reading the scripture in 1 Corinthians.  Whosoever shall save his life shall lose it but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall save it.   Admittedly I've always had a hard time with this scripture, it comes up alot in the New Testament.  I thought to myself that's all well and good but I have children to take care of, I can't go dying on them now.  I'm not afraid of what will happen to me, I'm worried about my family.  Then tonight it hit me after I read it and the following one through a few times.  I don't have to die for him, although many have, I have to live for him.  I thought back to a couple nights ago... Faith without works is dead...  Show me your faith without works and I'll show you my faith by my works...So mostly I have to LIVE like his disciple and let my works do the talking.  Not let my worldly concerns take precedence over my eternal concerns.  It goes along with where your treasure is there will your heart be also...  What do you think?

IT'S HOMECOMING!

It's homecoming time here, and apparently in Twin also. I saw it on the calendar today and since we finished our chores, we went to the parade.  I love small towns!  The 2 police officers in Town were both there, one at the beginning to block off the street and one behind.  I love it, it's like we live in Mayberry!  There are 3 schools in our town, the elementary school, the middle school,  and the high school.  All of them were on the curbs wathcing the parade.  It was so awesome all the little kids, we sat in front of the elementary school, dressed in red and cheering "GO BULLDOGS".

AJ and Levi had a blast catching candy and just enjoying the hubbub.  It may have been a small town parade but that doesn't make it lame, it was fun!

CALEB'S BOBCAT

My superstar Caleb got his Bobcat in time for our first pack meeting in Idaho.  So proud of him!  He is already working on his Wolf.  GO  CALEB!!!

EGGS!

We got chickens last week to add to our previous chickens to bring us up to 12.  We finally got some eggs and the boys were so excited, so were we to be honest. 

COUNTY FAIR

Shortly after we got here the big news on the radio was the county fair in Burley, we didn't go because R had to work.  The next week was the County Fair in Filer.  We went.  It was expensive just like in AZ but WAY  smaller.  All the boys went on a few rides and I'm pretty sure the fave of all was the roller coaster. It was worth it every penny, except for the fair food that none of them finished,  ARGHHH!  They loved the animals in the ag parts, the biggest part of the fair by far and the petting zoo that boasted  a Zebu.  I admit we were singing the Veggie Tales song of the Zebu, lame I know but funny for them.  Before we left R said to me, "it kills me to blow the money but it's worth it to make the memories they'll never forget"  I couldn't agree more.

MMMM PEACHES!

Happy  Autumn!  The leaves are starting to turn, well some of them are anyway, the kids are in school, football is going strong, and we are all in jeans and long sleeves so it's time to can some peaches!  I was pretty intimidated since all I heard was peeling and waterbath and syrup and more stuff I had never done and I was doing it alone.  So I googled it and found this blog, http://www.simplycanning.com/canning-peaches.html  made it so much easier and has instructions for other fruits too!  These are the first fruits I've attempted to can and... just look at how pretty they turned out!  I left them in my dining room window just so that I could admire them for awhile, I thought about tying some raffia around them but decided that's a bit too much.

They are so much easier than I though they would be and now I'm not afraid anymore.  I'm going to tackle apple pie filling next, as soon as I find some apples for a good price, otherwise it defeats the purpose of canning to save money right?  I'm super excited though because I found a great and super easy recipe for pork chops and stuffing with apple pie filling and my whole fam inhaled it and R even took extra to work for later.  So yummy!  I love canning, it makes me feel like a domestic goddess!  I relish the little pop it makes when it seals!

MORMON HELPING HANDS

Early Saturday morning the boys got up and commenced to arguing as usual.  So, " you need to do something nice for someone and see just how blessed you are"  We were going to go anyway but I was REALLY tired and contemplating not going since it was slated to last until 3 and I had a ton of stuff to do on Saturday.  I'm glad we went.  As always we were blessed for service and I still got most of my chores done, I would have gotten all of them done if not for my ER visit, Dang Fingers!

They had a decent turnout and the boys stopped arguing long enough to work together for the rest of the day, for the most part. We collected food for the local food bank and had a good experience doing it.

Caleb went too but was in the truck fixing his belt/pocket knife for this pic.  Thanks for the pics Bro Knopp!

OUCH!!!!

Today I took off my wedding ring for the first time in 10 years, not by choice, it was that or the finger.  I got my engagement ring off but of the two I would rather replace the diamond, pretty good excuse for an upgrade don't you think?   I went riding with a friend today, sort of.  We trailered the horses accross the canyon and long story short...instead of riding we loaded them back up and took me home where R was waiting to take me to the ER. 3 x rays and a cast later I have 1 nicely broken finger, 2 more pretty swollen that I thought for sure were broken and I still can't move and 30, well 28 now, Norco(vicodin) and what I'm sure will be an expensive bill.  I set my finger myself when it happened, it was pointing sideways, and apparently did a pretty good job or so they said.  It made an interesting crunching sound but I'm glad I did it then since it would no doubt have hurt worse later the pics turned out pretty well don't ya think?  At least it's my left hand so I can still do alot, just alot slower.  Not the way I intended to meet the ER staff, oh well.

WOO HOO! POISON IVY!

OK so I just got a call from a new friend and... wait first let me tell you that last week her husband and R took our kids and their son crawdad fishing while I went for a ride.  A nice hike into the canyon to a perfect spot.  All the boys came home dirty and excited and saying they had a blast.  Fast forward to tonight... Her son has a whopping case of poison ivy and can't even go to school, he has oozing blisters and crazy itching and pain all over most of his right side and some of his left... THE POOR GUY!!!!  She called to see if any of our boys had any... Caleb has a rash on his bum but my kids are all prone to dry skin so I assumed it was that, it looks like that, sort of...  I told him to put lotion on it and haven't heard about it since, that was 2 nights ago.  Go look at it tonight after I get off the phone and it looks pretty much the same.  You would think it would be on his arms (he was wearing jeans and hiking boots) or that the little ones would have it too right?  No rashes on anyone else or anywhere else soooo... I'm thinking MAYBE we dodged the bullet on that one, maybe.  I'm hoping anyway.  I can't imagine he would have squatted in it, peed yes but squat?  I don't think so and that's the only way I can see it getting on his bum and nowhere else.

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL... FINALLY!

Last year the boys had a long summer since we switched to Odyssey, a great decision, but this summer I figured would be normal since we intended on staying put, having loved Odyssey so much.  Obviously that didn't happen and one of the things I was worried about moving up here was getting here either right after school started or the day before or something.  Well that didn't happen since they started unusually late in the entire area this year.  So... today was the first day of school AND the first time I have ever let my kids ride the school bus to and from school.  There was no way it was going to happen at Sundance because I didn't want them riding with such older kids and being exposed to all the garbage that goes on there.  I would have at Odyssey because their standards are so much higher and I would have expected that to carry over to the bus, just like the low standards at Sundance did, unfortunately it wasn't available.  Jake and Caleb have always wanted to ride the bus so when they found out they could here, they were ecstatic.  This morning we got up and had the normal hot breakfast that I always make on school days, it really does make a difference, R came home from work early to give them father's blessings before school and then walked them down to the end of our driveway, which is 1/4 mile long, after you go through the gates to the road to wait for the bus.  At the end of the day I was there to meet them, and of course Neptune and Jazz had to go also.  I asked the usual, how was your day, what was your fave part/thing about the day etc. then asked if riding the bus was as cool as they thought it would be... NO.  Poor guys.  Still the day was a good one and they'll keep riding the bus, at least they don't hate it, yet.  We'll see how they feel when it's still dark out and cold.  As usual, I was too busy this morning to get any pics but I'll try tomorrow, a second day pic is better than no pic right?  Anyway, with them at school, I got into my groove and everything is back to normal again, just in a new place with a couple of huge changes.

COLOSSAL CALEB

This isn't the most flattering pic of him but it shows his unconquerable spirit.  The look is more of the, "mom would you hurry up with the pic so I can get on with my fun." look but you can't win em all.  Anyhow, my awesome Caleb made the choice to be baptized this past Saturday and R was able to do that for him.  I am so proud of him and the young man he is growing up to be.  He has adapted to our new home and all the changes that came with it quite well.  He seems to have grown up alot over the last year.  He is still my secretly sensitive tough guy.  My super helper, the big bro extraordinaire, the budding horse man, a great cuddler, super smart, football player(every chance he gets), the jokester, and right now, the guy who's outside pushing all his brothers on the hammock while they laugh hysterically and watch in utter fascination as Bella hunts, catches, kills and eats a field mouse(I told you she is earning her keep).  I love you Caleb!

MORE OUTDOOR ADVENTURES

On Monday we took the boys crawdad fishing and Caleb brought a friend.  We hiked to the edge of the canyon looking for a trail down to the water but decided it was too steep for little ones, and big ones for that matter, so we hiked back to the truck that we parked next to the pond and sunk the trap into the pond.  Ryan enjoyed the scenery.

The boys had the most fun climbing up and sliding down the huge pile of dirt they found.  They spent pretty much the entire time doing that and having a great time getting very very dirty.

We didn't catch any crawdads but we did see this little guy hanging out and warming up in the sun since it was only 68 degrees out at 1 pm.  Anyway, it was lots of fun but next time we are going to some reservoir where apparently the crawdads are the size of lobster.  Maybe next week.  For now stay tuned for more adventures.

COWBOY UP

We are up early these days, feeding the horses before we eat and yesterday this is how AJ went outside. I had to laugh when I saw him walking toward the house from the barn for breakfast. Then he went right past me to see the horses and the only way he would stop and turn around for a pic was when Caleb posed with him. He reminds me of those old cowboy movies where the cowboys come out in their long johns and boots, all he's missing is a hat, but his hat has seen better days and we are waiting for the sale at D&B to buy him another one.

They have taken to the horses like old friends, no surprise there.

Neptune got stepped on this am for the first time and I'm pretty surprised he wasn't limping afterward. Both dogs get really upset when I'm in the corral with the horses and now they have found a gate they can go under so they do.

The boys, that's what I call them when I go see them, hey that's funny, I just realized that Jazz and I are still the only girls around. Anyway they are both very affectionate and come to the fence for some lovin' everytime they hear me. We looked at a couple of mares yesterday but decided against them and I was reminded again why I don't care for mares. I guess I'm happy being the queen bee around here. We are considering some angus heifers due to calve in spring but have more investigating to do first. Stay tuned for updates on that. Anyhow, that's what's happening around here these days.

MEET RENO

Meet Reno... R's new horse. He is a 15.1 hand 8 year old quarter horse/tennessee walker gelding. Ain't he purty! And he's super sweet to boot. We went to look at him on Wed night and R rode him and immediately fell in love, then ALL the boys rode him, one at a time of course, and there was no way we weren't going to buy him. He was and continues to be a perfect gentleman, although he kicked at my Tiger this am during their breakfast.

They are both pretty passive horses so we put them together and they went together like they'd always known each other. One of them will be the dominant one but it remains to be seen which one. For now, we are just getting to know them before we ride them and getting the barn and arena into shape. No shortage of work to do that's for sure. Speaking of work I had better go

HELLO TIGER!

This week has been a busy week around here. On Monday after seeing 4 1/2 mice in the pasture and droppings in the pantry again... we decided some abandoned cats would serve us well as mousers outside and then we got some traps for the pantry. We caught 2 mice inside on Tuesday. R is in charge of disposing of the bodies and killing them when they aren't dead yet...Anyhow... he shot one with the bb gun when it wasn't dead yet but suffering so he tried to put it out of it's misery but it took MANY shots. Anyhow the cats are looking like good mousers from watching Tig stalking and catching grasshoppers today, we'll see how they grow, they are still pretty young now. The boys named them Tig and Belle. Yesterday the boys started scouts and loved it... they both went on fieldtrips and made some more friends. Then last night we went out to Paul and bought a gelding for me. We are going tonight and looking at another one for R and maybe one for the boys too, depending on how long it takes in Twin. Anyway Tiger is a massive specimen and the first thing AJ said when he saw him was, "dad I'm not getting on that horse." We are thinking a pony may be better for him and Levi.

FIRE!

So we woke this am to the boys screaming and running through the house, "FIRE FIRE FIRE!" The whole house was filled with smoke. Have no fear, it wasn't our house on fire. The whole area is blanketed with smoke, the worst of it is to the North and West of us. Levi woke up a bunch during the night and I smelled the smoke then but all the radio stations we found are on a pre recorded or syndicate show so there is no news and we have no idea how bad or how far or if it's a controlled burn or not, I doubt it since I smelled it in the middle of the night and not earlier. It's not too bad since when the wind blows, and it has been alot, most of the smoke clears from around us, we can see a few miles now. I pray for anyone closer and those who are handling it. Another new experience of country living.

SHOSHONE FALLS

BEWARE... LOTS OF PICS AHEAD. I wanted to work around the property. Ryan wanted to go to Shoshone Falls. I decided his was more important and since he obviously agreed, we went. I'm glad we did. We are heading into the canyon and see this long line of traffic but since we were stuck in this long line we had a chance to look around and the boys spotted a large group of bull elk on top of the ridge. I have learned that they are much better than I am at spotting the wildlife but anyway... My pic doesn't do it justice, they are huge and there were at least 10-15 of them. As we got farther we discovered the reason for this highly unusual sighting... an elk farm.

Anyhow, next we saw tons of waterfalls, little ones, big ones some with rainbows and tons of spray. It's well worth seeing.

We played in the water.

The boys went crawdad fishing and caught more than they were expecting.

They found a snake, a frog (but he blends in quite well and I can't see him in the pic even though I know where he is), lots of small fish and lots of bugs. Their all day fave discovery/catch was the crawdad that R chased me around with.

All in all it was a great day! Lots of fun and some excellent time with R.