Cold wind...

It finally stopped raining sometime during the night. This morning we woke up to sunshine and were excited to have the warm weather return. Not quite. The wind is bitterly cold, almost artic feeling. The puddles from yesterday's rain were all frozen over and there was frost on the car windows. Oh well. It's sunny and that's wonderful! And the wind is making short work of drying the clothes on the line....

This morning Dad & I drove over to Turner to get a load of hay - 2 round bales in the back of the truck and 2 round bales in the red trailer. No need for tie-straps. They're too heavy to go anywhere while we drive!

I just finished Jane Green's Swapping Lives. It's about a single girl who wishes she could be 'married with children' and a 'desperate housewife' who wishes she could escape surburbia. They exchange places for a couple of weeks and realize that the grass may look greener on the other side, but it really isn't. All of Jane Green's books are so well written and this one was no exeption. The issues that these ladies face and the way this swap changes their outlooks on life made for a very good read.

I'm still tired...

What a weekend! Friday morning I dragged the boys and dogs to my hair-coloring appt. Then, we went to the Webkins Extravaganza at Maine Made & More. The boys each spent their allowance on 2 Webkins stuffed animals. They chose Burger King for lunch and we happened to be there at the same time as some friends from school, so that was fun. Then, we drove to my parents' house, where we dropped off Daisy for the night. The boys & I headed for my brother's house so that the boys could stay with their cousins overnight. I stayed all afternoon with them and really enjoyed visiting with my sister-in-law. We don't spend enough time visiting anymore...

After supper, I headed in-town Portland to attend a Going-Away Party for my husband's boss. I found them at the Old Port Tavern Billiards Room, actually playing darts. His team is a great group of people and the laughter was non-stop. We ended up going back to his ex-boss' apartment, where we spent the remainder of the evening playing Rock Band. WICKED FUN!!

We finally got back home at around 2 am. Just long enough to take a nap and head back to Portland for work. Dad ended up staying there and working into the night, but I left in the middle of the afternoon to go to our nephew's birthday party. It's always a whole lotta fun when we all get together! His mother made a cake that looked like a bunch of Lego pieces. It was amazing! And yummy!!

The kids had a grand time playing outdoors with the bubble sword that we bought for him. I had picked it out as a good gift for him because he is always wielding a sword, but it turned out to be fantastic at making bubbles! Lots and lots of BIG bubbles!! Each of the kiddos took a turn waving the sword around while the other kids would chase and try to catch/pop the bubbles. They had a ball!!

Here's my brother prepping the grill for the first cookout of the season. We look forward to this time all winter...

I finally dragged the boys out of there and arrived home around 9 pm. I left the house again at 7 am to drive to Goose River Farm in Swanville (near Belfast), a 2-hour drive.

Believe me, it was all I could do to wake up! But, I really wanted to go to the team penning clinic that I wasn't riding in this year, to take some pictures for an article that I'm going to write, and to visit with all my friends there. Inside the arena was an extremely difficult place to take photos and I wished that I had researched the best way to do it beforehand. I just kept changing settings on the camera and hoping for the best. I took almost 500 pictures, but only ended up with 150 good ones! And, even some of those aren't great. Oh well. I do have a few that will do well in a newspaper article. (Yes, I should be writing that and not this, but I hate getting behind on my blog!)

It was hard to watch and not participate, but I stayed most of the day and really enjoyed myself. I made sure to get a picture of the instructor, Robin Stang, and the back of his jacket - he won the Extreme Cowboy Race in Ohio last spring! (I don't know how well he did in the championship, or whether or not it has been run yet - I couldn't find that information on the Internet today, although I know that I read about it somewhere awhile ago.) This is a paragraph that I found online, at the OFQHA website, about his win:
"The Extreme Cowboy Race -
Trainer Craig Cameron held his Extreme Cowboy Race at Equine Affaire under the covered arena next to the Celeste Center. Approximately 20 people were entered. The course was crammed with obstacles and maneuvers such as a water obstacle, a deadfall of logs, a cattle pen, etc. The most difficult obstacle for most horses was 3 piles of dirt, which were about 15 feet high
and very steep with no flat place to stop on the top. It basically looked like a roller coaster in which the horse had to up and down the 3 hills of dirt in rapid succession. Other maneuvers included winding through poles, loading in a trailer, side passing, backing through an "L", opening gates to a cattle pen and herding the cattle from one pen to another, a log drag (which some of
the contestants did at a trot or lope), loading in a trailer and running to the finish line on foot. Each contestant was allowed 12 minutes to complete the course and the faster times received more points. After the dust cleared, Robin Stang from Pennsylvania won the race. His time for the course in the finals was just under 4 minutes!"

Yesterday morning was another early one because I had to rush to a dentist appt after putting the boys on the bus. Afterwards I did some grocery shopping. Fortunately, I got them all in from the car before the rain started! It's been raining since mid-day yesterday! There is some flooding, but I am just so happy to see the rain because everything was so dry. It's crazy to have a Very-High Fire Alert in the springtime!!

After lunch, I handled the selling of Dad's Scrambler 4-wheeler. It was a fixer-upper project that he just really didn't have enough interest in. So, it had sat in the garage taking up space for too many years, and now it's not. Yippee!!

April Vacation

Yesterday the boys filled the kiddie pool and had a blast playing in the water! In this picture, they were playing toss with a fabric ball that they saturated with water....

Today they have spent most of the day riding their bikes up and down the driveway. They even went and got the mail for me!

Here is another cross stitch design that I have stitched for my kitchen. I finished it last night. Isn't it cute? The pattern is by Prairie Schooler.

This morning I decided to saddle Ace again and this time I also put on his bridle. He's wearing the lime green tack that my older son loves so much. We went for a nice long walk because I just don't think I'm quite ready to hop up on his back yet. We're getting there though. Today he was a bit fussy about the saddle. He didn't buck, but he sort of hunched up for the first few steps. Even though he wore the saddle without complaint last time, he wasn't so sure about it this time. Fortunately he settled right down and was very well-behaved for the rest of our walk.

Today when I tacked up Lily & Tillie I had the camera with me! Lily is wearing the purple bridle that I made especially for her. Unfortunately, it's a bit big and after putting the orange one on Kitchy the other night, and looking this one over, I've come up with several modifications. Back to work! ;-)

Lily did great during our ride, although she was a bit resistant to backing up for some reason. We'll have to keep working on that. Look at her ground-tying! She did great!!

While I was grooming Lily, Tillie was grooming Daisy. Whenever I'm working with the horses Daisy will come over and stand really, really still while they sniff her and even nibble on her. It's kinda strange. Especially since she keeps her distance when they are out in the pasture....

Here she is with Ace...

Tillie is still wearing her black leather bridle, but I replaced the reins, which were almost to the breaking point, with this 8-strand herringbone braid contest rein....

Tillie also did well on our ride, but not so well at the ground-tying. She did fine when I got off her in the middle of the driveway to pick up a piece of trash, but in the round pen she kept trying to eat all the hay on the ground....

The biggest thing that we need to work on is standing still when I'm mounting. She's such a brat about walking off when I'm halfway up!

Back Deck, Fire & a Cousin Visits

I think my niece enjoyed her visit with us on Monday. We sure kept her busy! She & the boys made lots of videos, which they enjoyed playing for her parents when they came to pick her up in the evening. We even put her to work on our new back deck, which unfortunately monopolized our time, so she didn't get to ride until late in the day. She did get to ride by herself though, without an adult leading her, which she was so excited about! She looks so tiny up on Kitch, but she is absolutely fearless! He was being a lazy brat, which was frustrating for her, but at least we knew she was safe. It's much easier to make a lazy horse go than it is to slow down an overexcited horse. Once she gets her cues more consistent, he'll listen better. After awhile they were starting to work together. Then I lead her around for a short time while she sat side-saddle.

Look at our newly expanded back deck! It used to just be small, but Dad added an old swimming float onto it. Now, he just needs to get the railing put back up. Someday we hope to put a roof over it...

We couldn't believe that the birds were continuing to visit the feeders even with all the building commotion!

While Dad was working hard, the boys were playing in a nearby tree....

Last night the boys wanted to cook hot dogs over a campfire. They made a circle with old garden edging and rocks, gathered up some firewood and I helped them get it started. Daisy thought all that wood lying around was great for chewing!

This afternoon, I rode Lily & Tillie for the first time since October! I figured my back was feeling as good as it was going to and I just couldn't keep putting it off because I was making myself nervous worrying about how they were going to act. They had opposite problems - Lily wanted to hurry and Tillie wanted to sleep!! Both were very responsive though, and it felt really great to work with them. Lily really remembered her training from last spring, which impressed me. Tillie was soooo good about listening to my leg and seat cues (which truthfully, were probably a bit off since I'm so rusty and weak!) that we did a couple of rollbacks and even opened and closed the gate into the round pen. I only rode each of them for about 1/2 an hour. Just long enough for my back to feel tired, but not sore. Now that I've taken that big first step, I'm going to try to get out there and ride every day! (I know, reality bites!!)

I can't believe it's already over and I haven't blogged yet!

What a busy, crazy weekend! Friday afternoon I picked the boys up from school and drove them to Ernie's Cycle Shop in Westbrook, where we met Dad & his mother. Grammie & Grampa bought the boys new bikes!! Dad helped them find great deals and the shop owners were extremely helpful in sizing and fitting the bikes to the boys. I was also able to put a 'Comfort' bike on layaway. I love my cruiser style bike, but it's just not practical for the types of trails that the boys want to ride. The 'Comfort' bike still sits me up straight, which is better for my back, but it has wider tires for stability and traction, and 24 gears, as opposed to 3. I can't wait to pay it off and bring it home!!

After bike shopping, we went to Wendy's for supper - always a big hit with the boys. Then, spur-of-the-moment, they decided that they wanted to go home with Grammie for the night.

Dad & I had a quiet day at home, just puttering around and getting some little projects done. Then, we headed to Camp Hinds in Raymond, to get the boys' bikes and leave them with some clothing, because they had decided to stay another night with Grammie. They had such a great time!!

We decided to take advantage of our night to ourselves to go wander around LLBean and have a nice dinner in a sit-down restaurant. We chose Pedro O'Hara's Pub - American, Irish & Mexican Fare. We ate Mexican and it was delicious!! Especially the margarita!! After dinner we treated ourselves to ice cream cones at Ben & Jerry's. YUMMY!!

This morning we headed down to Standish to get the kiddos. We picked up Italian Sandwiches at Amato's on the way, and enjoyed a picnic lunch with the grandparents. Afterwards, we went over to my parents' house for a quick visit and then to my brother's family's house. Remember the plants that I started last fall? Well, they are ready for their new homes and looking gorgeous, if I do say so myself! My sister-in-law and her mother each wanted a hibiscus, and my sister-in-law also took a clivia. The hibiscus each had several buds on them. I can't wait to see what colors they are! My neice came home with us this afternoon and we had fun playing with the horses this evening. I think she would have gladly ridden Kitch until she fell asleep, but since I was tired of walking all over the yard, we put him away and came in....

Daisy the Watchdog

This afternoon, Daisy sounded the alarm!

Something was very wrong and I needed to be told about it...

The horses had decided to come over by the house to lay down for their afternoon siesta!

While that's a bit unusual, I'm not quite sure why Daisy got so worked up. The horses were a bit peeved that she disturbed them!

Yesterday evening Ace wore a saddle for the first time! I know it's supposed to be a momentous occasion, but he was very relaxed about it. I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong or right, but that's the 3rd horse that I've started under saddle and they haven't freaked out. I'm just kidding. But in all the movies, the horses buck and throw a fit! It just goes to prove how important groundwork is. By the time I get to saddling them, the horses are so used to me fussing with them that they're just like "What now, Mom?!"

Laundry Day

The weather is glorious! Warm and sunny!!

Yeah! I can hang our laundry outside again!! I know, my mother does it year-round, but I'm a fair weather 'clothesliner'. Doing my little part to help the environment....

This afternoon the gerbils visited the 2nd grade. Here they are on top of my car, looking over at the school...

The kids really enjoyed their visit! They had lots of exciting stories to tell me about all of their pets. I let each of them put their hands into the cage, and the gerbils would come up and sniff them and let them pet their heads. There was NO picking up of the gerbils. The LAST thing we needed was to chase a gerbil around the classroom. They are way too fast!!

It's all about the attitude....

Kids can be so mean! I guess they teased our youngest yesterday because he wore Western clothing. The good news is that he wasn't terribly upset by it, he understood that they were just jealous. He dressed up like a cowboy again this morning!! I was so proud of him!! He even went a bit over the top and wore the black boots with the silver toe tips and silver rosette harness...

Because his shirt says 'Wrangler' on it, he told everyone that he was a 'real' wrangler! And a bull-rider! (note the belt buckle) Well, that was different than just playing dress-up and so they were impressed, instead of teasing.

A while back I had explained to the boys that cowboys need to be careful how they hold their rope, or when a cow pulls back on it they might lose a finger. Well, he shared that with all the other kids today and said that he kept folding a finger down and holding his hand up and freaking the other kids out! (mostly the girls, I'm sure!) He and Daddy have discussed that girls really like cowboys and I think that may have inspired him to dress like this. There is a particularly pretty little blond whose name I keep hearing come up in conversation....

Our oldest had his physical exam yesterday afternoon. He's all healthy and growing - 75 pounds and 55 1/2 inches. The doctor had a serious talk with him about not hating school so much. He tried to impress upon our son the importance of schooling on his future plans. I only hope it sunk in!


You know the sun is getting warmer when this is what you see out the bedroom window in the middle of the afternoon....

They were so sleepy that they even let me get close to them! Usually they wake up and come to see me....

Right after I took this shot though, they did get up. So, I haltered Ace & Kitch and took them with me down to meet the bus. Ace stepped right over the exposed culvert with the raging river (brook) underneath it with only a slight hesitation. The big yellow monster (bus) made him nervous, but he stood his ground. Of course, having Kitchy there helped in both cases, which is why he was there. Ace is doing very well with the training that I am doing with him. He's still a bit stubborn and likes to argue/ignore me at times, but we're getting there. Lily & Tillie are doing great. I can't wait to get my back straightened around and start riding them!!

I've hurt my back again....I'm getting pretty tired of this....all I wanted to do was a little bit of work outdoors....but apparently that's not allowed...I cancelled my registration in the penning clinic that I was planning on attending at the end of the month...I just don't think it's wise to spend 2 full days in the saddle at this point...