For the love of a horse

Emma inherited the horse lover gene from her aunt Jacko.  I like to ride but I do not have much interest in professional riding of any kind.  I prefer the lets take the horses out and pack some snacks for a picnic lunch somewhere kind of rides.

Emma and Tux

So we packed the girlchild off to favorite auntie's house for nearly 3 weeks so she could get her fix for the year.  There has been talk about just signing over the custody papers and letting her stay forever.  But word got out that we are going to disneyland next week, so the girlchild decided maybe she'd move next summer instead.

As part of my "MOM watch!" duty, at least I can tell she is making progress from last year.  We are still working on balance but at least we've moved onto the trot.

 

 

 

Along with the riding, the girlchild got to help with the routine chores.  They let the horses out to pasture every morning.  She got gates while Auntie cleaned pens.  The gave the horses their daily afternoon beer to cool them down.  And did bed checks at 10pm just to make sure everyone was still standing.

 

I'm glad for this opportunity but equally glad to have her home. We missed her silliness!

 

Be very, very quiet

So I spent a good part of last weekend hunting crawdads with a certain little girlchild.   I don't know about you, but when I think about hunting crawdads I think:

A) some kind of trap
B) set down in some kind of water
C) filled with some kind of bait (a.k.a. bologna).

Not walking out into the yard and shining a flashlight down a hole.

And yet we ended up out in the front yard shining flashlights down 1 inch round holes looking for claws or the shine of those beady, little eyes.

 

 

 

 

I don't know about you but the fact that the crawdads live in the lawn (I assume because the water table is so high there) kind of freaks me out.  In the it's okay to visit but I could never live there kind of way.

 

 

Sorry Illinois!  You are not the state for me.



Round up in Pictures

My sister came to visit.  I had intended to take lots of pictures and put some on the blog.  But, as evidenced by the crickets here, that did not happen.

We have been busy!  Here are the highlights in pictures.



We have had a lot to celebrate latey, birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays.



Turns out Bobbo is not so very good at back flips

Everybody say hello to Georgia.  She is a jumper...this is new for us.
And she is also named after the beloved bartender of the Silver Spur Saloon
who lost her fight with cancer a few weeks ago.

I made patriotic jello.  You should be impressed.
 Most of the time I epic fail at jello.

We had some flash flooding on 4th of July
Turns out watching the greased pig contest is not so much fun in the rain.

Emmers wanted to ride the 4-H float in the parade.
I did not.
I think it's clear who won here.

Have You Heard?

 

You can always count on Uncle Daniel to show the appropriate facial expressions... (Even when it's 6 o'clock in the morning).

 

Have you heard the new Skylanders Swap Force is coming out this fall??

 

A certain little 5 year is quite excited about it.  Beware if you show up with a device that has an internet connection, he will ask you to watch the preview for it.

 

 

Why they invented waterproof mascara

So much depends

upon

a red wheel

barrow

glazed with rain

water

beside the white

chickens.

William Carlos Williamson



So we knew this day was coming around our house.  The day we would decide that Maggie, the goat we got for weed management really, has had enough of this living with cancer business.  It has been rougher than I imagined it would be.  She really weaseled her way into our family.  The last 6 months she's gotten more attention than ever as we managed her health.  And just last week I caught her drinking beer out of the cup I'd left on the back porch and begging marshmallows out of the kids' hands.

We talked about what would be different when we got home and how it would go for Maggie.

She's in good company with our beloved Beatrix.

And as Burrito and Emma reminded me: Dobby (the rooster), goldie (the goldfish...naturally), and blackie (the black goldfish if you can call him that....who lived for quite a short time in our house).

And after all was said and done I noticed Maggie left me one last message.   Not three days ago, the blackberry plant that I have been trying to grow all season (it was transplanted from the front to the back yard) was finally starting to look really good and I thought maybe we'd get blackberries this year after all. 

Today I noticed Maggie had nibbled on it, one last time:

All I could do was shake my head, smile, and wipe away a tear.

Scenes from Last Week

Last week I was both sick. sick. sick. and away at a work conference.  Two things that go so very nicely together.  Okay, they don't.  But I survived.

Here are the good highlights....as opposed to the nerdy-work related ones.

Drinking Minnesota beer and visiting with the Germans....it doesn't happen every day

Bob (that's the guy in red) won the lumberjack contest.  And we love all people named Bob around here.

Someone told me there was a giant spoon with a cherry on it at the park behind our hotel.  But all I could find was this dandelion....

The gift I got my mom from the vendor show.  You know, to remember the time she really had MRSA.
Just in case she forgot.

I remember now why we avoid the carnival at all costs. 
But the kids had a good time.

The boy got a jeep for Father's Day. 
I think Emmers and Bob are going for best kids ever award or something.

A day at the lake

Paddle Boating with the little man -
 turns out he's more in it for the joy ride and not so much the pedaling part

Emmers doing what she does best

Emma is desperate to be a lizard whisperer someday