July 2020

Last week a neighbor couple got a baby Basset puppy. Looking for an excuse for a get together, another neighbor and I decided we should have a baby shower for the puppy. It was hot, so we had it in Kathie's garage, which is nicely air conditioned, and big enough to spread out. She got a cake and put pink streamers around the garage. I made ice cream.
Puppy owner arrived from across the street and started looking around. It was funny to see the light dawn on her that it was a baby shower. She went right back to get the puppy, who went right to work checking out everyone's shoe laces, untying some.
We talked and visited, ate ice cream and cake, and enjoyed one another's company for a couple of hours. The "shower" was a success and puppy went home with some new toys.

How fun ELLEN..............we now need pictures of your deck...............

I'm watching horse racing at Saratoga..................It's so odd without the fans yelling.

I'm watching horse racing at Saratoga..................It's so odd without the fans yelling.

oops

I'm watching Saratoga too. They started racing there on Thursday, and will continue through the next several weeks.
It is definitely odd to not have the fans there, but the racing is just as good.

As Minnie Pearl used to say ... "HOWDY ...". I trust you've all had a good year so far in 2020. I had a second face plant on the tar & gravel road on Saturday after Valentines Day that was miraculously not worse than it was. The nose piece on my glasses got bent outta shape and snagged the inner tear duct of my left eye and tore it in two. That necessitated an overnight in the hospital for surgery early Sunday morning for a tear duct stent. Thankfully NO DAMAGE to the eye itself. Also had a tear completely through from corner of nose to the top of my lip. That is what really hurt including getting numerous numbing shots in face. I BEGGED the doc that stitched my face to put me to sleep ... Carol joined in with my request but she would not listen!! GGGRRRRRR!!!! Otherwise, just had moderate to light facial pains. Visitors to neighbors stopped and helped Carol get me into car for trip to ER. And also so fortunate I did not reinjure my shoulder. I think Ill live for awhile longer as long as I don't stumble and fall.

Went up to Petersburg, Va. 3-4 weeks ago to visit with my 92 year old brother. He was having dementia difficulties as well as problems getting around ... has fallen several times. I got phone call this morning that Dean had passed away during night. He was a retired Quartermaster officer and served in army for 22 years. We will be going to Petersburg on Tuesday for visitation Tuesday evening and then Military Graveside service on Wednesday morning. Of my parents 3 children (all males), Im the only one left as well as being the youngest at 75.

We have been fortunate with avoiding Covid 19 virus stuff ... wear masks when out in public. Hope everybody reading this is able to avoid virus.

My love to all ... Rick

Oh boy, RICKSTER. My hands go out to you. Prayers from here. I'm very sorry for the loss of your brother.

The ice-cream truck just came by.........kids were out everywhere. The owner lives here in the hood and it's a
real kick for the hood. I was hanging out towels from swimming or I would have run out there, too. The music was twinkle twinkle and went to jingle bells........LOL.

We had some good fried chicken today.............steak tomorrow.

No other news........good safe horse racing today...........the fans are the fun & excitement as far as I'm concerned.
It was still beautiful.

That's it for today folks..................

Rick good to hear from you...so sorry to hear about your brother. Hug for you.

Puppy shower is cute ide Ellen and bassett pups are the cutest.

Ice cream truck may be good idea here its been so hot.GM.run out there next time.

We bought a small place here in elephant butte nm. Its a fixer upper on a double lot with a cimplete rv hookup...so we are living in the rv while fixing up.

Have gotten out twice this week to ride sxs...once we rode to the rio grand and had breakfast. Saw beautiful white cranes.
Dont play golf but the restaurant at golf course has a huge outside balcony and the food is reasonably priced and delicious....

Going back to idaho to grab my car this week...

Ark..love seeing pics of your rides.

Come on everyone else need to see yas posting....at our ages ya never know.....

Rick, I'm so sorry about your brother.
I hope you are healed up after your face plant.

CB, this is not the time of year I'd want to be in New Mexico. It's right toasty now.

Ark, it's so nice that you are getting to ride. How many miles do you have done towards the 100?

It's been hot and humid here. Today is more humid than hot, so the AC is getting lots of exercise.
This morning, I made a run to the bulk food store in Shipshewana. They have great prices on a lot of items, including foam bowls. When I make ice cream I ladle it out into 8 ounce bowls with lids and put it in the freezer. When the troops arrive, all they have to do is get it out of the freezer and get a spoon. My cousin declared that I am a genius.
I always enjoy the drive there and back. There are lots of weanling draft horses in the fields, and a few little babies. The laundry was hanging on the clothes lines; it's Monday.

RICK:
I am so sorry about your brother, Dean. I guess 95 is a decent age, but it is never a good age to lose someone. Safe trip to Petersburg and back. It is so hot, I hope you stay cool and comfy on your trip.


ELLEN:
What a cute idea, a baby shower for a puppy! I bet his owner was tickled pink! And home made icecream..... yum!

I am about 70 miles into my 100 miles. The challenge can include walking, biking, riding a horse, or driving a cart. No motorized stuff. I added in walking when it became apparent that just riding would take a very long time in this hot weather. So I have about 35 miles riding and the rest in walking, so far. I signed up for a different challenge, also 100 miles, and only have 3 miles done on it. Both end on December 31. I want to do it with Areion as much as possible for the second challenge, called the Valkries Challenge.

GRAYMARE:
We were just talking about ice cream trucks earlier. I haven't seen one since I was a kid, but I guess they are still around in cities with decent sized neighborhoods. We used to get a soft cone for a dime. What do they cost now?

CB:
Congrats on your new place! Is it a year round home or just for the summer? What needs fixing up?


Donnie installed an air conditioner that we used to use before we expanded this house. It's been sitting in the garage ever since, but our house usually doesn't need an air conditioner because we insulated it very well and it has a lot of interior stone and concrete to retain the temperature. With this long heat wave, and our heat pump with air conditioning still not hooked up, Donnie stuck the former air conditioner into the kitchen window over the weekend. Wow. How did we live without it? The entire house is so cool.... the view out the kitchen window is a bit restricted. It will be gone when the heat pump gets installed.....right... ....The other big news is that our water heater decided to give up the ghost, so the rest of the weekend involved buying and installing a new one. It works, too. It's been an appliance weekend.

Have you all seen the comet? It is in the early evening sky now, under the Big Dipper. Very nice comet! Try to see it soon, it won't be around much longer. Binoculars work great, but you can see it with just your eyes.

I gave Areion a bath last night. She sweats the most of all the horses here. After her bath, I put snacks in the horsey snack balls to distract her from rolling in the dirt. By the time she got all the treats out, she was dry. Daisy gets a bath this afternoon.

RICK:  Oh my gosh. Good to hear you didn't do severe damage to your eye when you fell.  Sorry to hear about your brothers passing.  Stay safe on your trip to the service.

ELLEN:  Loved the idea of the puppy shower.  How cute.  What a great idea about the ice cream bowls.

ARK:  In this crazy heat ya gotta have A/C.  Our weatherman said this has been the hottest July on record here in PA.  He's right.  Our electric bill was not a good one this time.  YIKES...but gotta stay cool & be able to breathe.

CB:  Congrats on the new house.

GRAYMARE:  Lucky you... a ice cream truck.  Boy I remember those days as a kid living in town.  The highlight of summertime.

Our celebration of life for Karen was wonderful.. She was able to attend and enjoy all the love that surrounded her & Rick.  We had prayer over her by our lead pastor from church.  He and his wife attended. That made Karen's day.  We had great food and a wonderful time spending time with her.  She is still talking about how much love she felt from all of us.

Our garden is doing well.  Picked beans, cabbage and cukes yesterday.  Granddaughter Bailee came out for the day and helped in the garden.  She is just the cutest little kid.  Pap took her for a ride on the ATV, it was too slow for her, she is a pee wee dirt bike racer.  She got a first place last weekend and is so proud.  She is a mudder...rode in the rain.

Stay safe & healthy everyone.

We've had a few days of slightly lower temperatures, but the humidity has made it really uncomfortable. Last evening a jet ski ride helped with that considerably.

Not too much going on around here right now, but on Saturday the family troops will arrive to spend a week. They are a good bunch, so I'm always glad to have them here. I know the 16 year old will probably keep the jet ski well exercised. He's gonna love it.

Since they probably won't be eating out as much, there will be an abundance of food around here. Good food, but not good for any kind of diet.

ARK, our ice cream truck is very different as it is only in 3 small neighborhoods.  For instance, I paid $10.00 for
an ice cream sandwich about 3 weeks ago.  The adults contribute to the ice cream and kids pay whatever.  The truck is 25-30 yrs old
with calliope tunes.  It never has a full ice cream shop of choices so the kids have to order from whatever is
on hand..............they don't know the difference. One child bought an ice-cream sandwich for 3 cents. She was 3 herself and had her pennies. The older kids keep asking for popsicles and they have those in all flavors.
Anyhow, we all love it and we love seeing the little kids dance and get all excited when the truck goes/comes by.  I'll
get some more ice cream when it coms again...........it's a neighborhood of love.

Boy, it's very hot out here and very humid for AZ................lots of rain in the mountains and south of here..........
none here so far.

Hope all is well with our gang................God bless everyone.

Sad news from PA. My little Medicine Hat Paint, Mack was euthanized today. He had a tumor in his bowel.
I had given him to our friends in 2008, when I decided maybe my ortho doctor was right and I should stop riding and Mack was young and needed a rider. They took such wonderful care of him and he had a great life with them. We are all grieving for the great little Paint horse.

TRUDY, hugs from here...............keep your memories in your heart.

Awww, Trudy. It's always hard to lose them. But you know he had the best of care for his whole life.

Trudy...Sorry about Mack....he is running the barrels in the sky now ....it hurts to lose a great steed.
We went to idaho to pick up my car...had dinner with the kids...played with my grtgrdson who is walking now. He has the stockiest legs for 10 months like his Daddy and poppop. Hes always going...but will snuggle up on me when tired and fall asleep. He has red hilights in his light brown hair...lol...when sun hits he is redhead. All 3 of my girls are redheads like me.
Anyway we are headed back to NM. Got dome gixerupper work to do on our little place we bought there.
Rv parks are filled and that doesnt usually happen when its this hot...i think a lot of it is becuz of covid and people lost their homes.
gM...love your ice cream truck.

TRUDY:
I am so sorry about Mack. I think that is what caused Kazi's end, too. It was a difficult decision to let her go, just as I am sure it was for Mack......


CB:
What kind of place did you buy? How far is it from where you lived in Idaho?

GRAYMARE:
What a nice neighborhood you live in! An ice cream truck for the kids is so nice! I can still hear the jingle from the ice cream truck that was a summer fixture in our neighborhood. The truck's name was "Mr. Frosty".

ELLEN:
Tell me there is a little cooler weather coming! It has been so hot for the past month, the hottest July on record here. We have had rain enough to keep the grass green, though. We are getting near cutting time for our upper field.

RICK:
Are you home yet?


Stay cool people....

Thanks everyone for all your kind words.  It is always difficult to lose one of our 4 legged kids.  Even though Mack was 200 miles away from our farm, Em kept me up to date on him.  She sent me photos thru the years & stories of the funny things he would do.  He was such a character.  My heart broke for her when I read the things she wrote about him on his last day with her.  He was loved.

What a sweet picture of Mack and a pretty girl!

The family troops arrived on Saturday.  After getting settled in, the fun started.  The jet ski has gotten a lot of exercise.  Today, we borrowed the neighbors' pontoon and took it and the jet ski to the big lake.  "Little" Alex (16 years old, 6 feet tall) was riding and looking for waves to jump.  With the speed of this jet ski, it can create it's own.  We were cruising along when "sweet little Alex" came alongside at approximately 60 mph, made a hard right turn which caused a wall of water to launch into the pontoon.  With an evil grin he sped away leaving his dad and me completely DRENCHED, and laughing.  
He has sprayed us before, but this one was epic.  

TRUDY, that's a great picture. Thanks for adding that.

My friend had to put down their foundation bred paint stallion today......he was 28 and bred and born on their ranch.........he was
in the mountains and a great old horse..............many babies. SAD, sad, sad.................

ELLEN, glad you're having fun..........

Today was hot hot hot this afternoon.................typical monsoon season in AZ............

Everyone have a good evening.............

God bless..........

TRUDY:
Mack was sure a sweet looking horse. The best thing is that you said, he was loved.

GRAYMARE:
Sorry about the stallion. Hard day....


ELLEN:
So what will revenge look like with that kid?


Hot here, too. We did have two thunderstorms today, so the grass is happy. A friend from Donnie's work got hit by lightning over the weekend! He was working on a fence and lightning hit an apple tree up the hill from him. Just so happens, he had his hand on the fence. He lived, but was knocked out and his arm isn't working yet. The storm was no where near him, the sky was clear.

Thankfully, nothing exciting has happened here lately.

Graymare, that's really too bad about the stallion. No matter how or why, it's hard to lose them.

Ark, I haven't really contemplated revenge, but now that you mention it, I think I will be watching for opportunities. It will happen when he least expects it.
It didn't make any of us mad. We all thought it was funny. It was hot, so the cool water actually felt good. There was just a lot more of it than needed for cooling.

We went. To yuma az to get stuff out of storage unit. 116 degrees yesterday. We started loading it at 8 pm and it was 11w degrees. Got done at 130 am and it was a 100 degrees. No more yuma in the summertime. H says never again! We were so exhausted and im sure we were on verge of heat stroke. We werent sweating anymore and we drank and drank water. Got inside our truck in th a\c and crashed. Too old to do this....we have dreamed of getting to our little house and showering and going to bed very early.

Time to change the calendar. See you in August 2020


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