June 2015 !!!

Bingo, we have a happy man now too! woohoo!...that's some good pay on those miles rick! just going by what hubby use to make....maybe u won't have to do a whole year.

We will leave in the morning early..everything is in the car but us and the dogs and the cooler......horses will get banamine again in the morning and we r off....I really think it has helped them....one of the minis sounds better but the new guy is really coughing still....shootyshoot! I'm leaving him in good hands.

Later alligators!

I'm an even happier camper. My jet ski is in the water and runs perfectly. It needs a good cleaning, which will happen tomorrow.
I had never heard of a battery getting below 12V and locking up. But apparently, that is what the ones of my jet ski's age did that. The company finally got tired of all the owners complaining that their skis wouldn't start every spring and changed it. The fix for an unstartable jet ski was a new battery.

In wyoming, may be there tonight if all goes well. will be there for grandsons birthday 18th on tuesday. jessi and her family were spening night in vegas....all is well, its much cooler here!

Safe trip, CB! And have fun....

ELLEN
Congrats on getting your jet ski mobile! I bet that is fun to ride.


We worked Friday, Saturday, and Sunday on our tv room. We have about given up on the carpenter and are doing it ourselves. The wall opposite the new window is all wired for the new TV and awaiting its second coat of plaster. After the third layer of plaster, we will paint the wall, then carpet the room. Then we will finally get the new TV, which has dropped $500 in price since Christmas. The carpet is in two foot squares and sits waiting on us to install it. It is a special anti-static carpet for electronic devices.

Riding lesson this evening, hopefully Ivan's lesson won't get rained out again.

I think I'm starting to grow webs between my toes. It just rains and rains and rains. We get a few hours each day with no rain, then it starts in again. Like now. It has rained since about 1:00 this afternoon with no sign of stopping. When it isn't raining, the humidity is killer. 80%. 90%. 98%........

Oh ELLEN, yuk. However, this too will stop.....and the grass will be SO green!

ARK, hope your lesson went well.

CB, I bet you're having a lot of fun.............

Hope everyone had a good day.

God bless.

With the tropical storm out in the gulf it is stealing all our rain but we are hotter than Hades with temps in the high 90's and heat index of over 100 it is hot, hot, hot and humid enjoy your lesson with Ivan Ark, and will keep my fingers crossed that it does not rain

SUNNY
It is very hot here, too. It has hit 90 the past few days. The humidity is terrible, too. We are having a thunderstorm right now, but most have gone around us this week. It is pouring as I type this. We are about 10 ° above normal for us.

GRAYMARE
I had a good lesson on Ivan last night. It didn't rain, but it was hot. Luckily we had shade in the arena by the time my lesson came up. Ivan was mildly spooky, but not terrible. One corner of the arena is the horses' Spook Corner, that bothers them in the evenings. Deer have been known to jump out of the bushes along the fence there.
Anyway, Ivan and I didn't part ways and we played catch-up on lessons. I had twinges of hip problems, but we trotted a lot and it never got worse.

Areion was somewhat spooky on the ground, but did great for Lori under saddle.

ELLEN
I didn't know it was raining so much at your place. Rain is good, but a dry day now and then is nice, too!

I have a missing peahen. They opened up the dome' s door and let themselves out at lunch time. I kept hearing the peacock yelling, but was into a book and didn't pay attention to him. Our postal lady honked to alert me to a package and I went out to get it. While I was talking to her, the peacock strolled up beside us. She helped me herd the bird back into the dome and pointed out a peahen standing in the yard. It was the old one and I just picked her up and carried her back to the dome. After the post lady left, I realized my younger peahen was missing. I have searched, but haven't found her. The three stupid roosters have probably chased her off. Hopefully, she will return this evening.

The storm has passed.....

Do the peahens make the same sounds as the peacocks? Maybe you'll hear her calling.

They have similar, but distinctive calls. Sometimes they honk like a VW.
Donnie saw her briefly down by the arena, but she disappeared into the bushes before we could get there. Peahens are very camouflaged in dim light. I left the dome open and hope she comes back early in the morning. The roosters will stay locked up for awhile.

ARK, she sounds like a regular huckster...tricky tricky. Hope she returns.

Funny thing.....I was feeding the dome birds this morning and wishing the peahen had come back. I looked down the hill at the horses and three of them were standing together with their noses as high as they could reach. On the 6 foot high panel separating Ivan from Daisy and Areion stood Princess Pea with three horses sniffing her from below. Everything was calm until I yelled down to the bird and told her to come. She flapped those big wings, flew off the panel, and scattered horses in all directions. The peahen flew towards me, then landed and walked. I opened the gate between her and the dome and she marched right into it! I could not believe it! I sure wished I had a camera. Princess Pea is happily back where she belongs. That is the longest she has ever been out of the dome since she was a chick. I am very happy to have her back.

She must have decided that foraging in the wild was not all she thought it would be. It's nice to have regular meals provided.
I'm glad she's back.

ARK, she's no dummy. She knew you were/are the boss. Certain things are just plain funny. I don't think birds are as dumb as we think they are.
LOL

Hello All,

My but a lot has been going on.

CB I'm sorry that you've had to go through all that you have with the sick mini's. So thankful it appears that you have been able to keep it from spreading to the rest of the herd. Also sorry that a long time friendship came to an end because of it. SAPP had a sign posted in her barn, it said: My Barn. My Rules. So sorry your friend couldn't/wouldn't abide by your rules. On a happy note, have a great time visiting family.

ARK so glad to see that Princess Pea found her way back home. I would have liked to see the horses sniffing her and then scattering when she decided to fly off her perch. Big Brave Horses.. AAACCKKK! Also glad to hear you're riding again with minimal pain.

GRAYMARE, it sounds as if you're having the most fun of us all. Keep it up!

ELLEN, I'm with you. Enough with the rain already.

Elkhart is having their annual Jazz Fest this weekend any my company has a client appreciation picnic type thing on Saturday because we're right downtown. Gives our clients the opportunity to get a free meal and mingle between music sessions. Lots of fun for them. Lots of work for us. And if it continues to rain, we'll have lots of leftovers to give to the mission. Then Sunday I'm hosting a family get together at my house. It was kind of unplanned. My cousin called and told me my aunt would be in town this week and would like to get everyone together. I agreed it sounded like a great idea. Then she asks, "Can we have it at your place? You have the most parking." Uh, sure. Hadn't really planned on that but ok. So along with the set up and tear down of the Jazz Fest thing on Saturday, I need to make sure my yard is mowed and trimmed and the house clean. If it continues to rain the picnic will move into the house. But it's worth it. I haven't seen my Aunt in 4-5 years.

Sophie The Wonder Pony's summer camp got put on hold indefinitely. The trainer had a set back with one she was working with and will need to spend more time with that one before she can take on Sophie. I understand, but I was so looking forward to be-bopping around behind Sophie in my new cart.

Take care everyone!

I think the local college here in town needs to offer a new course: Ark Building 101.
It's POURING AGAIN! This one might be missing Indy; I think this one is going south of her.

I'm gla we r in idaho cuz missouri was spose to get lots and lots of rain also....so we r missing it for this week. we did run into slushy hail stones and HEAVY rain coming cross utah/idaho border where I had to pull off road several times with lots of other drivers...and that storm spawned tornados east of us.....I couldn't even see the road and wipers were not keeping windshield clear at all...

Ark, glad your hen came home.

Indy, sorry you can't get sophie trained right now.

Harper is a doll.....gramma is in love...she has the tiniest little mouth....we got her the tiniest real saddle we could find, and a rocking horse for now...lol. I'm hoping kids will post on face book.

Later taters!

ELLEN:
Wow, you really are stuck in a rain pattern. We have had incredibly hot weather, 90 degrees about every day and very humid. We didn't get any rain today here, but Donnie said they were poured on over in Blacksburg where he works. He said they had 6 inches of water in their parking lot....and he left the passenger side window open a couple of inches in our car. Yesterday we had two thunderstorms with terrific lightning, today they went around us. It feels like summer.

INDYAPP:
Your weekend does not sound like it will be an easy one. I would be having panic attacks over getting everything done! Maybe you can bring home lots of food from Saturday's activities for Sunday's gathering.... ....Good luck! Will you be taking lessons with Sophie when she learns to pull a cart? Did you ever get your fence done?

GRAYMARE:
So what is the gang up to this week? Are you riding any or is this a camping expedition only? I can't remember if you said you were taking a horse or not.


Princess Pea seems very content today. I still can't believe what she did yesterday. She really must have more brain cells than I gave her credit for having. The old peahen, Pea-nelopy, is about 20 years old and getting very frail. I don't think she will make it thru another winter. Princess Pea is about 11 years old.

Donnie is taking a vacation day tomorrow. We hope to finish the t.v. wall's plaster and get it painted. Then we can carpet the floor and buy ourselves a t.v. It will be a year at the end of this month that our old t.v. was bashed by the neighbor's truck. We are still watching videos on it, despite the lines thru it and the bent screen it suffered when it was thrown across the room. Poor thing was only a year old. We are getting a slightly larger one to replace it and hope it lasts longer than a year.

ARK, I'm home this week...............irrigation (leading Eli through water). bathing & grooming all 3, worming, horses were trimmed last week before I got home. I ride, yes, but down here in the heat only about 30-45 min at about 5 in the morning before the heat. Right now we are havinarrelsg mega heat by 3P so horses are in under roof for shade & water.........they go out from 4:30A until about 10A and then in...............back out at around 7P for the night. Eli continues to grow and he is high rumped right now.

Rex is turning into a great barn buddy and tries to help with all chores. He runs along side the tractor, not in the way. I don't know how he knows that, he just does. He lays at the open gate to whichever stall I'm cleaning, and drinks from the horse water barrels.

Each night we have family over for dinner which means simply salad and some chicken in this heat.

We have to get back up to the mtns to rest up to come home again. That's it for our heat here in the valley. Heat will continue until Sept........this current extreme heat will last until Monday then drop to 106 which is average. That said, this extreme is no worse than 90 degrees with 95% humidity. Currently, the humidity is 10%, which with wind and any lightening, produces forest fires...........very dangerous.
All climates have their downfalls..............we all select which we can tolerate.

CB, glad you're have a great time.

INDY, oh boy. Hong in there for the week end.

ELLEN, enjoy your jet ski this week end.

Everyone have a good day..............

I keep hoping to have some fun on the jet ski, but the water level is so high we can't make any wake at all. Many of the docks are floating. Waves would tear them up. Yesterday, a rowboat was blowing down the lake with nobody in it. Later, I saw somebody rowing it back home. My jet ski is tied to the lift, and is mostly floating.
Today, several of the neighbors contributed items to a garage sale, two doors down. I spent the day there, trying to help out however I could. This might be my last garage sale. It's a whole lot of work for not much money. I'll just donate and be done with it. We'll go at it again tomorrow for the whole day. Then, I'll load up what's left of my stuff and take it to a shop I know of, that will buy it outright.
At least it didn't rain. Thank goodness. It was cloudy and too cool for June, but better than more rain.

I guess I complain about our weather a lot, but truthfully, I like the general climate here in SW Virginia. We get fairly warm, but not as hot as on the coast or below the mountains in the piedmont of NC or southside VA. We get snow, but not usually as much as West Virginia, which is just a few miles north of us. We don't have the bugs of further south or the mosquitoes or deer flies of further north or on the coast. If we could shrink the winter a bit and lengthen spring, it would be perfect. We live in the New River Valley so we aren't as high in elevation as where we used to live, but still at 2000 feet above sea level, we still benefit from the mountains. The surrounding mountains do seem to keep the tornadoes away, thankfully. Earthquakes are almost non-existent and forest fires are rare, hurricanes happen on rare occasions, but usually are mostly spent by the time they get here. Yep, I will stay here.

We had another thunderstorm today, but it was slightly cooler than yesterday's 91. Donnie worked on the wall, I worked on the barn twice. We celebrated Friday by having pizza...

With all the security and small seats, flying isn't as much fun as it once was. But, here's a flight attendant that might make the inconvenience worthwhile. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07LFBydGjaM

I feel for all out there that are having issues with rain here it is hit and miss mostly miss it comes near than just splits and goes around us it has been berry hot here today it hit 100 with heat index it was more like 105 to hot for this time of year can't even go out in the day the sun is just to intense
All FATHERS in over 50 have a great fathers day I am still l hit and miss on going up to clubhouse to get wi- fi it closes at 10 p.m. and that is when it cools enough to go out but I will try to go in early morning

Here's a gal that has worked beyond hard...............

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcDLLxgWa_Y

Graymare, that is dancing on horseback perfection! Wow!

Sorry, happy fathers day to all pops of 2 and 4 legged kids, hope you had a nice day.

Wanna see somethin funny, come thru the mountains of colorado and watch a teenager go thru cell phone withdrawal...lol

We drove thru yellowstone nat. park, saw lots of wildlife and lakes were beautiful blue in color, saw a glacier in the grand tetons which I never knew we had....saw a huge buffalo herd of at least 500 as I stopped counting at that number in the tetons, not in yellowstone. saw grizzly bears, moose, elk, buffalo, antelope, eagles.....

Then we went thru flaming gorge in utah, dinasaur momument in vernal utah and the museum.

Drove thru the ski areas in colorado, hated those mountains, up and down and swithbacks and mostly no guardrails anywhere.....yikes....I couldn't breathe!
We have discovered colorado has the most snow left and also has the largest mosquito e population in the united states!

Drove thru jackson hole wy and what a tourist trap that town has become....couldn't even find a parking spot anywhere close to town and mobs of people.

Headed home now, nice trip, but everyone tried to cram too much into few short days....baby harper is 10 lbs now and cute with her perfect lil bow mouth. she smiles and it shatters ur heart into millions of pieces of love.

Later taters