Christmas Is Just Around the Corner.....

*****First, I want to thank all of you for visiting my blog and leaving such nice comments. Just know that even though I do not always have time to comment on your blogs, I still try to keep up. As much as I can, anyway!!******

Now, back to the task at hand...Christmas is just around the corner, and I thought that I would share a few of the horses that I really like...teeheehee!! And Stephanie, if you ever visit blogland anymore, I still like your Stretch too!

Surprisingly, there really aren't that many horses out there that really catch my eye right now, and if they do, they are over $20,000; which makes them a little out of my price range...lol!

Above is a local gelding that appears to be well trained and extremely versatile, and he could be mine for the small sum of $30,000. Who cares if he costs as much as my education????

Smart Millionaire is another handsome boy that I have had my eye on, and if you follow the link to the owners farm, you can see another horse that I really like named Hold the Chrome. Look under the 'sales horse' tab and then look under 'two year olds.' (I tried to copy her picture, but they all copied at once)

Now for the $10,000 and under horses.....

Above is an appendix QH gelding named Ben Has Friends and at $3000, I am really surprised that no one has snatched him up yet. He appears to be well put together, but I wonder if he has any lameness issues from years of jumping? He would definitely need to be vetted. (Well, they all would really...)The bay roan mare in the above picture is not the prettiest thing on the block, but she looks sturdy and honest, and also like she has a bit of get up and go. And for only $6000, she seems like steal after some of the above horses, right???
I really like this mare's quiet demeanor. The only thing I would be worried about is genetic stuff, because don't those Coosa horses have some weird chromosomal defect, or am I thinking of HYPP in Impressive bred horses???? Help me out Chelsi and BEC!!!!! Coosa mare

The appy gelding above reminds me of a darker version of Pony Girl's "My Boy," and I would really like to see more of him. What do you think???? He seems fairly priced at $3000, and the owner is willing to negotiate.
Then there is this bay appaloosa gelding in Nevada. He appears to be quite handsome as well, but I do not think he is as inexpensive as the last few horses, as his price is marked "private treaty."And what the heck is up with the Arab and half-Arab's right now???? There is literally NOTHING out there that really sounds (or looks!!!) good, except for this handsome boy. He is quite easy on the eyes, but a little too old for my taste. He would make an excellent horse for my kidlets though!

Oh, and he is listed at $8000, which seems a little steep for his age; although he is quite accomplished and versatile.

So...what do you guys think???? Are you able to find well-bred, well-trained, and eye appealing
horses out there right now, or am I just really picky??

Until next time......

KISS This!!!!

I hope that everyone had a safe and fun Halloween out there, and of course, I have to share pictures of the kidlets in their costumes, but first, check out our friend's costumes....How cool were they???? Below is the real KISS, just in case you don't know what the real band looks like. Being a child of the 80's and 90's, I was only aware of the infamous Jean Simmons...lol!!!! We went out with a bunch of friends after we took the kidlets trick-or-treating, and our KISS friends ended up winning costume contests everywhere. Another great costume idea that we saw last night was a couple of guys dressed up as Dangle and Junior off of Reno 911... right down to the teeny, tiny shorts and bullet-proof vests!

So without further adieu, let me introduce you to the newest nerds of our little town.....

Here's a closer shot....And last-but-not-least is my girlie girl dressed as a cheerleader. And in a pink camo jacket no less! (It was really blustery and it rained off and on)How could you NOT love this face????? Alright, I must go now, as I have exceeded my allotted blog-time by about 15 minutes. Homework is waiting......

Wait A Second!!!!

Goodness! I don't post for over a month and then I go and post twice in as many weeks. What's up with that??? LOL!!! I wanted to thank all of you for stopping by and leaving comments. It was good to hear from all of you out there in blogland. :)

Seeing as how fall...and hunting season...and football...and...where was I ???? Oh yeah...seeing as how all of the above have descended upon us like a swarm of bees, I figured I better put a couple of obligatory football and hunting shots up.

We were driving down an old logging road the other day, when I spotted what I thought was an owl. Eric quickly identified it as a grouse, loaded his shotgun, jumped out of the truck, yelled "cover your ears," and proceeded to shoot it. I must admit that I am starting to like wild grouse!I took the above picture of Kevin, Eric, and Katie while they were perched atop an old logging stand. And believe it or not (I didn't believe it until I saw it for myself) orange vests really do stand out in all of that clear cut and/or greenery. Next we have Eric in his quarterback stance (if you look close you can see the ball as it moves towards his eager hands), and laying on the ground after he dove for and removed some poor kids' flags. This will be his last year playing flag football, as we have decided to move him up to tackle football next yearAnywho...I also forgot to mention that, after three years of suffering, we have bought ourselves a new travel trailer. It is a 26 foot fifth wheel, with a slide-out, and man is it nice!

Well, I guess I better be going, as I should be working on a paper that I have to turn in tomorrow...blech!!!! I have been told that I am officially suffering from senioritis, and it is just terrible...teeheehee!!!!

Until next time....

Password??? What Is My Password???

Sheesh!!!! You know it has been a while since you last blogged, when you don't remember how to log on...lol!!!! I hope everyone is doing well, and I really miss checking on you all, but I just have not had the time.

Here is a quick run-down of what we have been up to...

Washington has had a record breaking salmon-spawning season, and we have spent many hours at the various creeks and rivers watching them as they make their way upstream. In the picture below, Eric was helping to move one past a man-made, rock dam, and I had him pause a moment for a picture.

Did I mention that there have literally been thousands of salmon??? The water was literally crawling with them...
Uhmmmmmmmm...all three of my sisters (Beki, Amber and Jen) had birthdays, and so did Eric and my sister-in-law, Mary. Oh yeah, and Kevin and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary!The kidlets started at their new school (the first of September), and while Eric settled in just fine, Katie is just now starting to adjust. Poor thing! They went from a school of around 280 kidlets to a school of almost 500 kidlets, so it has been kind of a culture shock for her. Eric and Amber's husband, Brad, harvested a large bull elk with a bow back in September, and then Brad shot and killed a black bear, so I guess you could say that hunting season is/has been in full swing. I was hoping that Eric would be upset and distraught over calling in and watching a bull elk die, but he wasn't...thanks Brad!!!! LOL!!! I am, of course, still in school, but I only have to go two days per week. They are long days though, and on Tuesdays, I leave the house at 6:45 in the morning and don't get home until 10:00 at night.

This leaves M/W/F open for me to work at my internship, and I love every minute of it! I am working for the Indian child welfare office at a local reservation, and every day, I meet amazing people, see tremendous suffering (I am not so fond of that part!), and gain invaluable knowledge. So...in my spare time, I catch a horseback ride here and there, and spend as much time with my family as I can. Above and below are some pictures that I took while out "hunting" with the boys...and Katie! (If you click on the picture above of Katie and Kevin, you can see Katie's toothless mouth...lol!!!)

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that Eric is playing football. I have been a bad mom so far though, and I have not taken any pictures...

Anywho, it feels good to stop in and say "hi," and I hope that all of you are doing well. Until next time...

Where Did It Go???

Hey there!!!

I realize that I haven't posted anything in a long time, and I haven't visited any one's blogs either. We have been really busy-as usual-and school has started up for all of us again. I swear the summer flew by way to fast! Where did it go???

(Above is a shot from the woods the other day....)

Anywho...I have been thinking long and hard about what to do about blogging, because I really enjoy it, but I am finding that I am at the point in my schooling where I need to focus on that-and life in general-vs. blogging.

I have four classes two days a week, and I am doing my internship three days a week, plus the kidlets have their school work and sports as well. I will not stop blogging altogether, because I know that my family enjoys getting updates on the kidlets, but I am going to have to cut waaaaaay back.

(Below is another shot from the other day. The eagle was sitting above the river and watching the spawning salmon below)I am really going to miss reading your blogs, and I will miss the "bloggy" camaraderie that takes place out there in blogland, but I will try to visit and check up on you gals every once and awhile though. Also...for any of you that have my email address, please feel free to shoot me an email every now and then...okay????

Hopefully, in December, or in May (I will graduate in May, but my classes will cut back down to three in December), I can get back to blogging as usual.....

Now, here are some much belated pictures of the kidlets that I have been promising my family members for weeks...

Katie on the first day at her new school.....

Another shot of the two of them....
Eric's grouse that he shot last weekend (it was really yummy too!!)....

Katie shooting her Red Rider BB gun....

And, for Amber, Waska carefully eating the delicious blackberries on our ride the other day.

Again...I will keep posting periodically, but not as much as I used to, and it will most likely be about non-horsey stuff; although I am continuing to ride as often as I can. Take care, and I will "see" you all around!!!

I Did It To Myself....

(Pictures are recent ones I took of Jinx)

I am a terrible procrastinator!!!! There...I said it!!!!
I have been told that it goes along with my ADD-like tendencies, but it drives me-and my family!!-nuts.You know that research paper that I have been working on...off and on...this summer??? Well I am almost done with it, which is good because it is due next week.
But even though I did the research for it, and have spent countless hours perusing through scholarly, peer-reviewed, evidence-based databases, actually sitting down and focusing on the task at hand is difficult.

Oh yeah, and have I told you that I really detest writing papers??? LOL!!!! The good thing about this is that I can use a lot of the info that I gathered for this paper, to write my senior thesis/capstone next spring...if I so choose, and with the professors blessing.So, even though I am really, really, really stressed out right now, and missing tons of family functions due to my own dysfunction, I may not be so crazed when spring semester-my final semester!!!-rolls around.

In theory, right??? (wink, wink!!)

And I have absolutely no idea what is going on out there in blog land right now, but just know that even though I am not able to visit and comment, I am still there in spirit. Hmmmm....does that sound kind of creepy??? LOL!!!

Buck Creek Adventure, Part Three....

(I know I am posting twice in one day, but I have to finish this so I can focus on my paper!)

So what did we decide to do??? Well Amber wanted to turn around and go back the way we came, but I put my foot down and said that we were going to walk down the logging/forest service road, until we either ran into another human being or we came to highway 410.
I hadn't been up this particular road in over 10 years, but I knew where we were, and I figured if it got too late, we could always call 911 and tell them our location...and we would be a hellava lot easier to find on a road, than on a trail somewhere.

Because the road was steep, and because our horses were weary, we led them down the road, which thankfully ended up only being four miles long. Unfortunately for us though, cowboy boots are not made for walking, let alone down a steep, gravel, road. The bottoms of my feet and the tips of my toes are still sore...lol!!!!
As we were walking, we decided that we would ask one of the many people who should be camping near the river, if they could give Amber a ride back up to Buck Creek, so she could bring the horse trailer back down to our new location.

Thankfully, about mile post three, we began to hear cars travelling along the highway, and right at four miles, we ran into a group of local guys-and their girlfriends-who were on their way up to cut firewood. We told them our story, and they agreed to take Amber up to Buck Creek. I stayed at Huckleberry Creek and let the panonies graze on the damp grasses and underbrush along an old road. And sure enough, about 25 minutes later....
... Amber came banging and clanging up the road. The horses heard her before I did, and boy were they happy!!!! So we untacked our tired panonies, offered them water from the trailer, loaded them up, and headed for home.
The only problem was that we did not have cell phone service for another 50 minutes, and it was now around 5:00. We were both hoping that Brad wasn't completely panicking, and that he hadn't alerted Kevin-my hubby-yet. Once we got back into town, I immediately called Kevin, who asked "Where are you???" and I told him, "We just passed the golf course."

He then said he needed to hang up and call a couple of my family members, because they were on their way up to see if we had made it back to the trailer yet. Long story short...we made it home safe, and in one piece....I must admit that I had a healthy respect for the wilderness before, but I really respect it now.
I am not riding out on trails unknown-trails that take you into a national forest-without sitting down and mapping a course out first. I will also be taking a compass, a knife, flint, and a first aid kit.

Now that we have ridden this magnificent trail, we will definitely have to do it again, but next time it will be planned!!! LOL!!!!

PS-All in all we rode the horses and walked/hiked around 13 miles that day. So much for a "quick loop," eh???? We also started out around 2100 feet in elevation and was about 5600 feet by the time we were at the highest peak/ridge. No wonder we were tired!!!!

Buck Creek Ride, Part Two...

As previously mentioned, we continued to climb, and I mean climb! At one point, we did start to descend about 300-400 feet, and Amber was quite pleased with herself. "See???" she said, "I told you we were heading back down."
Her smugness didn't last very long though, as we turned a corner, and began to climb uphill again; quickly regaining all lost elevation. You can see how steep some of these switchbacks were by looking at the picture below... I was beginning to become mildly alarmed at our elevation too, because every where we looked, there were wild mountain huckleberries...Noble firs...And long, grayish/black, stringy moss. All things that you only see growing at higher elevations over here.Now, before I continue, let me say that we were definitely not prepared to be riding up in the high country. We had two large bottles of water, two baggies of almonds, two granola bars, light weight jackets, a cell phone, and that was it.

We had no compass, no knife, no first aid kit, and no flint; although I did of course have my epi-pen.

Remember, we had planned on going for a trail ride, not an adventure, and by this time, we had hiked a good two -three miles ourselves, and we were hungry and thirsty. Moving on...we came around a corner, and found ourselves up on a ridge line, and all of the sudden, we had cell phone service. As it was about 2:00, and we figured that we would be expected home by no later than 5:00, Amber called her hubby, Brad.

She was able to tell him that we left Buck Creek around 11:00, that she had thought we were heading in a loop/circle back down towards it, but that now she wasn't so sure. Her last words to him were "Yeah...don't worry. We are up on some ridge, and we are lost." Then, at that exact moment, she lost service.

So...here's the thing...we were never technically lost, as we had remained on the same trail-whose trail number we knew-the whole time. All we had to do was turn around and ride back, right??? Wrong!!!! Amber-oh how I do love thee!!!!!-still insisted that we should forge ahead, and that if we did, we might find a spur to take us back.

I should have put my foot down, but I told Amber we could ride for about one more hour and then turn around.

I was also worried that Brad would call Kevin and tell him that we were "lost," per his cut-off conversation with us. Who knew what was going on back at home????

Do you see the rock face in the picture below??? At our highest point, we were riding up in the treeline above it. Then, we started to wind downhill a bit.Finally, at 3:20, we came to another logging road, and the trail that we were on had the same trail number that it did when we left Buck Creek, but it also had a name. And do you know what that name was???? Suntop Trail!!!!! "Oh shit," I said, "We just rode on that trail from Buck Creek to Huckleberry Creek, which means that we are not going to be anywhere near our trailer when we get down."

Ever the optimist, Amber then tried to tell me that I was confused and that I must be mistaken: Suntop wasn't at the top of Huckleberry Creek, it was at the top of Buck Creek.

She then suggested that we turn around at this point and head back the way we came. Now...it had taken us 3.5 hours to get here, and it was now almost 4:00, so that would put us back at camp around 7:30 or so, and back home around 8:30.

All of this, and who knew what was going on back at home???

To be continued.......