Just a Swingin'

One of the best toys in the world can be made from a rope, 2x4 and a beam. It can cause feelings of excitement, soaring, laughter, happiness, 'enlightenment', and lead to a world of imaginary games. It provides hours of entertainment which then leads to tired and compliant children. Best of all, Daddy made it!!! A swing...........from off the hay stack!!!

This is her 2,546 time, at least or maybe its 3,345 or.........

Only one problem-I'm still trying to figure out how they are going to get on the swing when the hay is gone. There will be more hay-lots of it, but there will be a 'short' time where the stack won't be muck of a stack.

When all done swinging, time to 'rest' so .............

she can swing again!!!

Just a Bit

This is a first! I've had reins get broken, leather ties and other leather parts of a headstall break when I horse has stepped on a rein and jerked up or from just the wear and tear of things over time. When it comes to leather and steel, one would think that the leather would be the 'weak' link when it came to taking pressure. Not this time! What happened!? I was done riding and was leading the horse out of the arena-horse shook-rein fell to ground-horse stepped on rein-jerked head up when she felt the sudden down pressure-ring on snaffle bit snapped!!!! Good news-the horses mouth is fine-I'm so thankful; and the headstall is in tack. Bad news-the bit was my sisters so I needed to replace it and of course I can't find the exact same one so I ordered 2 of them that were similar. Jessie couldn't understand how a horse could carry a bit comfortably in its mouth-I had to remind her of the differences of her mouth and a horses.

Still, she had to try.........

and try again.........just for laughs and giggles!!

Bitter Cold

This past winter, I thought that the 'bitter' cold, meaning below zero temps, came earlier than it usually does. I'm glad that we are past that-I hope!! During the 'bitter cold' there always seems to be challenges that come up; usually keeping pipes from freezing or dealing with those that did. There is also the challenge of making sure that all of the critters can keep warm and avoid frostbite and of course making sure that they can all keep hydrated!!!

Thankfully when it comes to watering the chickens, goats, dogs, cats and horses, this is 'easy' with the heaters, de-icers and heat lamps. This just leaves the rabbits that I have to water a couple times a day. Sounds like a great plan.......right? It is until you discover that the outlets that are down by the horses, that worked all summer long are no longer working!!!! Okay, this has happened before, just go check the breaker-easy fix.

Well, that didn't work and after a couple hours of checking outlets, wiring and replacing outlets we come to the conclusion that the problem is with the wires, which are a few feet under the very frozen ground. So we tried to use extension cords to run the de-icers-this didn't work due to the volume of power that they would 'suck'-we ended up frying 2 cords!!!

That left us with the 'old fashion' way of making sure the horses had water!! The sledge hammer-a couple times a day plus putting water in frequently which would melt some of the ice before it froze again. Draining hoses is a lot of fun too!!!

At this point, you can probably guess whats on the to-do list this year BEFORE it gets cold again!!!

A Morning in Cottonwood

Every fall in October we buy a bunch of pumpkins to take out to one of the canyons and shoot them-its great when you fill them with water! It becomes a pumpkin shower! This year there was only a small crowd of us. The weather and schedules kept the crowd small but we still had a great time.

Its a Jessie deer!

One of the 'pumpkin' victims.

Until next year, take care and keep safe while pumpkin hunting!

Winter Storm

Finally remembered to take the camera out and get some pics of the "never cease to amaze me" weather that we have around here-its always amazing. A lone blackbird that found refuge under the eve of the chicken coup.

A frosty limb. Each little 'ice sculpture' is so delicate and never the same.

Blackbirds in the tree tops that are so eager for spring-notice the buds.

WOW UGLY!!! Everything else was so picture-esqu until this thing showed up! Someone should fire the photographer!!!

On this chicken: She is a Turken-she's suppose to be ugly. She is Jessie's favorite chicken. Her name is 'Neckless'. She lays very large, brown eggs and will guard them with every 'inch' of her beak!! I wonder if she ever feels a 'chill' running down her spine?

Aahh, much better!

Juniper trees heavy with snow

very heavy with snow.

Small pasture on the north end of the property under a blanket of snow

The driveway

Panther. We miss him. Its amazing what a little TLC can do to a 'wild' kitten. He became our shadow and loved to 'talk'-it would get annoying at times but now he's gone and we miss it(think that the neighboring dog had a one-way conversation with him)-very sad.

A Little Over-Do!

WOW! I haven't posted anything in over a month! What's with that?! All is well with us, just been busy with homeschooling, cooking, cleaning, baby(not mine-we have a new niece!), waiting patiently for spring to arrive. Patience is a virtue that I am constantly reminding myself-daily, hourly, every minute, second, milli-second! You get the picture. So while we are all waiting oh so patiently, please enjoy these misc. pics of the girls-a small glimpse of a couple of the blessings of my life! Yeah, Marisa is not a morning person. She's a lot like her dad in this way-needs her time to 'wake' up.

Jessie being her very care-free, living for the moment, off on a 'fairytale' adventure self. She can always make me smile!!

February 2nd was when my new niece came into the world. The girl's just love getting to see her and hold her-they are great helpers!! This is when Melody came home on Feb. 3rd. The girls couldn't believe how tiny she was. They think that I should have another one-Ha Ha-NO!

Proud little cousin! Turning into a great babysitter already!

Jessie the 'fire-maker' who has recently learned how to split firewood-and loves it!!!

Imagination is wild(but in a good way) with her! Halloween costumes get use year round.

Little Miss Melody

School time

Workin' hard or maybe its hardly workin?