June 2018

Even Royal horses can be afraid of big noisy crowds. There were two gray horses leading the Queen's procession into Ascot. When they got to a tunnel that leads to the inner walking ring one of them decided that he didn't want to go in there and started doing what every horse naturally does, started backing out of there. There was a ground man very nearby who moved in and helped lead him in. After they were on the walking circle, the horse was still unhappy and managed to get the ground man on the ground. The poor guy got up and resumed trying to quiet the fractious horse. I'm guessing he will be replaced for the next two mornings.
After the Queen dismounted from the carriage, she went to see a couple of the horses pulling her carriage.
It is neat to see a 307 year old tradition being maintained.


Trudy, I'm glad you had a good day yesterday. It is 69° with 93% humidity this morning. Rain is coming.

My phone is dying a sliw vengeful swan dive.
Rain, thunder, lightning last night, windy city today, in liw 80s.
Jessi and family arruved at their new house in north pole, alaska today. They had a nice trip except her one dog wiuldnt go potty on the ferry for 32 hrs....owie.
Kids saw wolves, moose, and saw sea lions while in the ferry. They enjoyed their adventure. And i can quit worrying...lol.

My phone is dying a sliw vengeful swan dive.
Rain, thunder, lightning last night, windy city today, in liw 80s.
Jessi and family arruved at their new house in north pole, alaska today. They had a nice trip except her one dog wiuldnt go potty on the ferry for 32 hrs....owie.
Kids saw wolves, moose, and saw sea lions while in the ferry. They enjoyed their adventure. And i can quit worrying...lol.

CB … if you like Christmas stuff, you'll love North Pole, Alaska!! Big shop there that even tour busses stop to see !! I followed the crowd into the shop and quickly turned my way out again...too many people in one place for me Reindeer next door that were nice to see

Ask around about driving up there. Carol's sister and hubby got a real cheap rate on a brand new motor home just to do the delivery. Said it really was not that bad. Drove it from Iowa to Anchorage!!

I use to live in north pole, santa clauss house was there in the 70s.
We use to get coffee on way home and just pull over and watch northern lights and be in awe of the dancing lights.

I use to live in north pole, santa clauss house was there in the 70s.
We use to get coffee on way home and just pull over and watch northern lights and be in awe of the dancing lights.

Well, hello everyone. Nothing new here in the mtns.......

But, I did watch soccer today and what a fight of a game between Switzerland and Serbania
(I can't remember the spelling of the country). Switzerland won. I'm not a huge fan of World Cup soccer but that was good.

Rex & horses are fine.

TRUDY, how is your eye coming?

Somebody jump in & say hi. I'm going to watch the races tomorrow...............

I have enjoyed watching the Royal Ascot every day. The 300 year old traditions are nice. The Queen seems to really enjoy all of it. The fashions are rather amusing, but again, very traditional.

It's been cloudy and cool and a little rainy today. Definitely not outdoor weather. Maybe tomorrow. The inside of my house hasn't been this clean in a while. Next week, I'll do some cooking and freezing to get ready for the gang to arrive in a week. They like peanut butter cookies and chocolate chip, and I like oatmeal/raisin. I'm thankful for my stand mixer and convection oven. They make it easy.
I'm going to make up the meat mixture for lasagna so I can do slow cooker lasagna when they are here. One cousin is bringing a good casserole and some more cookies. We won't starve. Our family has a lot of good cooks. Trying not to gain a bunch of weight in a week will be the hard part.

GRAYMARE:  My eye is doing well, still can't read well but I'll need reading glasses once the other eye is done on July 10th.  Once both eye are working together things will be easier.  Distance is fine, up close difficult.    Keeps me from reading for spending much time on the computer.  Might be a good thing, keeps me away from all the insane news stories and spending more time with The Lord & my doggie Ace.  LOL  Still using tons of drops in both eye now.  Having dry eyes really makes things more difficult.

It's raining today but at least it is cooler.  WHEW...I'm not a 90 degree old girl.  Our church had to move the Freedom Fest celebration because of thunderstorms that are on the way.

It's strange to see sooo many horses in one race. In some cases, they have 30 or more. When a horse wins one of those races, he's really won something.
However, it looks like some of those horses could do with a bit more starting gate training. MANY of them have to be pushed in with 4 guys pushing and 1 pulling. One of the favorites was hard to load into the gate, even with a hood. They also put a rug on that would be pulled of when he left the gate. The jockey had trouble getting the hood off, and then the horse dropped his head and kicked so high with both hind feet that he was momentarily hung on the rear gate. He still had one over the gate when the starter let them go. He got out of it okay, but his race was lost in the gate. Those horses are tough.

I would have been hiding my eyes behind my hands, omygosh! We all know that could have ended so badly.
Going to go get camper, been in the shop and wecamped out in the house, they have ordered the parts, will fix in 2 weeks...ack. hurry up and wait.

Yes, it could have ended in a bad way. The jockey didn't realize that there was one leg still hung up and gave the nod to the starter that he was ready. The horse was not hurt. He ran the whole race, but his bad start ended any hope of winning.

TRUDY:
I am glad to hear your eye is doing well! My surgeries were 2 weeks apart and dealing with one eye good and one eye bad was weird. I am not a 90 degree person either. Most of our week was that hot and I just melted. My horses see me early, then see me late. It is cooler now, 83, and cloudy. It feels better.

RICK:
I would like to see Santa Claus.... ... at his house in the summer. I am not an overly 'cold' person either. I like my temperatures JUST RIGHT! 75 is good.

ELLEN:
I didn't catch the Ascot races, but they sure sound intense! I do like looking at the clothes and hats, though. Did you see the lady wearing the plate of spaghetti?

GRAYMARE:
How cool is it in the mountains? What are you and the gang up to?

CB:
My life has been a hurry up and wait kind of deal, too. My horse trailer brakes are ordered, we have a person to install them, and I am stuck at home with the horses for who knows how long.....sigh... Our truck brakes are going to be replaced, too.


Donnie is working on an antenna for his radio (his favorite thing to do) . I am finishing up a painting I started almost 4 years ago. It is going into the 'catio', which is still in the works. The chicks I saved from the snake have fledged and are gone from their bucket nest and their parents have rebuilt their original nest and have started laying more eggs.

My dog, Shadow, met a fawn last week. He was very friendly towards it, thank goodness. He really is a nice dog.

We were there.....

Its changed a little, i remember it being more white outside, and things were expensive. We were there 76 thru 79. Our oldest loved going there, she was 3 to 7 while we were there. Jessi just bought a house in north pole.

Where did everybody go?

Things are at a standstill I think. No one is saying anything. Hmmmmmm. Are we really too bored or lazy?

I think lazy.

I cleaned, really cleaned, yesterday and I was too tired to do anything. I moved the furniture,
washed behind things, and tossed junk. It all feels good now. BUT, I'm recuperating today.
All is well.

I'm going to hear a speaker today on the status of local wild life this season in the drought.
I still see elk, deer, antelope, eagles and all kinds of birds but I don't know if the numbers are normal this year or not. I've not seen any bears, tho, which is unusual. There are several
in the lower altitudes reportedly, but I don't know. Our forests are closed due to fire danger
so I can't go out in the Ranger.

A little girl (about 12-13 I think) got a new puppy, a female 1/2 border collie and 1/2 great
pyrenees. Boy is she cute............

That's all here. God bless.

RICK:
My youngest sister, Annie, would love that Santa Claus place. She spends her year counting down until the next Christmas...

GRAYMARE
I think they sent your bears here, or at least not far from here. They had to close down the trails at a state park because of 'bear activity'. I worked at that state park one summer. I believe they actually bring bears from the Smokey Mtns here that have become too familiar with people and cause problems. They used to do that, so probably still do. Silly people feed or interact with the bears and the bears get in trouble.

ELLEN:
I didn't get my early morning riding lesson yesterday because of rain. It poured. I like afternoon lessons, but we were trying to avoid last week's 90+ degree heat. So it was cool all day yesterday, but rained. It is cool today, too, but the 90s will be back in a couple of days.

I just checked on a different bird nest in my barnloft. It has Carolina wrens in it. I thought they were gone, so peeked into the nest and was nearly knocked off the loft by two chicks zooming out of the nest. They landed in the pony stall floor. I got out the butterfly net and caught them and put them back into their nest. They aren't quite ready to leave. That nest is on top of a haybale just waiting for Dorian GrayCat to find it. I hope the birds hurry up and learn to fly. That nest will be gone soon afterward.

The wildlife I see are mostly waterfowl. A Great Blue Heron landed on my neighbors' dock for a fishing trip. He was successful in short order. About 40 geese came ashore on my beach. I did not approve and discouraged them from staying very long. I don't mind the geese, but I sure mind what they leave behind. There is a boat with 3 wet fishermen; it's pouring down rain.
My relatives will be here this weekend to stay for a week, so I'm going to do some food prep. Cheese toast. Prep for slow cooker lasagna. Chocolate chip cookies. Peanut butter cookies. Homemade ice cream. I know the others will bring a lot of stuff with them, so I'm trying not to fill up the refrigerator and freeze before they get here.

I'm asking for prayers for Neighbor Pirkko. Her husband, Ron, just called to say that she is in the ER with signs of a stroke. Thanks a lot.

So sorry for your friend ELLEN. Definitely prayers for them. Hope she's fine. Keep us posted.................

Pirkko did have a stroke. She did not get to the ER in time for the treatment. Her right side is affected, and her speech is slurred. She told Neighbor Pat that if this is the end, she is curious to see what's on the other side. If not, she is ready to get going on rehab.
Thank you for your prayers.

ELLEN:
I am so sorry that she didn't get to the doctor quick enough. Do you know what her symptoms were that she didn't realize meant a stroke? I sincerely hope she recovers..... (((((((Pirkko and Ron))))))


It was a chilly and dark cloudy day all day. It is funny how 69 degrees feels cold in late June and feels so wonderfully warm in the winter.

My trailer's new brakes have arrived. Now we just need to get them into the trailer. Hopefully it will happen by the end of next week.

ELLEN: Prayers were sent up for your neighbor.

I had quite the near death experience yesterday.  On our way to Bible study, over by the stone quarry a HUGE truck hauling stones pulled right out in front of us, it almost smashed into Dee's van.  OMG it would have killed us.  I know Jesus took the wheel of the van cause Dee is disabled and really couldn't have pulled off that driving stunt.  All her controls are on the steering wheel and she was freaking out.  The truck was right at her window.  He never even looked before he pulled out.  We went off the road.  Thank God there were no guard rails in that spot and we didn't hit the HUGE hole that would have cause the van to flip, or run into the hillside.  WHEW we were shaking and praising God.  We didn't think anything happened to the van but she is having AJ take a good look at it tomorrow just in case.  God didn't wants us yet, we must have more things to do for Him down here.

I was wearing my "NOT TODAY SATAN" shirt yesterday, Everyone was commenting on it at the Bible study.  What a day to choose to wear it. Who says God doesn't speak to us?

Wow, Trudy! Thank God for handling everything to keep you safe. Did the truck even stop to see what he'd done?

Ark, the symptom that Pirkko should have recognized (she's a retired nurse) was her handwriting. She was at a book club meeting and noticed that her handwriting was making no sense. She should have gone to the ER right then, but she went home and went to bed. By morning, she couldn't get out of bed without help. They went to her doctor who sent her straight to the ER.
She is 84, but still VERY active and involved. She is the one who initially brought our neighborhood together. It's been about 8 or 9 years ago that she was walking up the street handing out invitations to a get together at their house. That was the when we all began to get to know neighbors farther away than next door.

So thankful, trudy, everyone was ok.
My jaemi pulled people out of a car and house that were overcome by a major break in a gas line, she has been sick for a few days, breathed too many fumes in. Pulled five kuds to safety, she and another guy oulled grdma if kids and guy from car that hit the mobile home so hard it flipped it iver off blocks.
We r camped at fam camp on base, leased our.house. this really nice big motorhome, 4 slides, cuztom seascape paintjob camped across from us. This morning they did kaundry, the girls were told to air dry the bras, 4 teens, they mived a wire rack in the street, didnt want dirt getting on bras, hung 30 bras, flowery, lacey racey ones on the rack. I had to laff. Mom came and was mortified. Other neighbor said he enjoyed his coffee this morning!