Riding "O"

Whoa Nelly! Or Orlando! I never posted any pictures of my first experiences on O.












I promise I'm not that heavy, just hold still!!!

Easy, don't fall over...

And, woo-lah! (My daughter once shouted woolah, she meant voila, I'm sure you see why I use it, it is terribly charming.) Here we are! Now we get to start the whole process over again, it has been nearly a year since I really rode the poor fellow. Maybe his back is stronger. We worked on forward, reverse and whoa. He has a very good grasp on reverse.

Happy Birthday to ME!

My birthday is next week and I couldn't wait, I found this little guy and gave him to myself for my birthday. He is a 5 month old australian shepherd, perfect for a girl who has saddled herself with livestock and poultry.

Circus Chicken

All the chicks and ducks are now at the barn where they belong, but I miss having them where I can check on them frequently. One day my daughters asked if I would like to see Circus Chicken. Upon inquiry, I was informed that Circus Chicken is when you take a chick and put it on top of the waterer and and after fluttering helplessly, the chick jumps off. Kind of reminds me of cow tipping. Good times.

Yay Chickens!

Here they are, 28 chicks, 26 of them are bantam Cochins, 1 is a standard Buff Orpington-we call her Barbra Jean, and 1 is an exotic surprise chick that the hatchery sent us-we think he is a Phoenix chicken and we call him Brock (picured in the middle photo on the left, he has the brown stripe down his head). They are just over a week old in these photos and they have been so fun! This is their first time outside in grass, the rest of the time they are in large clear plastic containers with heat lamps in my house. I am looking forward to when they are moved out to the barn, but it has been a fun experience!

Too Long

It has been too long since I've posted, but I've decided it is time to post again. Unfortunately, since our other computer "caught" a virus, I don't have access to all of our digital photos, which is sad, I have some great stories to share. It will just have to wait a couple more weeks until we get our computer back. Until then, I have new stories to share. COMING UP-photos of the most adorable chicks ever! Yes, I hear voices in my head, they sing old macjocelyn had a farm...

Riding Orlando

I have done something today that I've never done before and that no one else in the whole world has done. I sat on my nearly three year old gelding, Orlando. This is such an amazing thing to me, that I am foregoing the pleasure of going to bed, so that I can mark the occasion on my blog. I've owned Orlando's mother, Sundance, featured in all her hair, since July 2004. Shortly after purchasing her, I was struck by the suspicion that she was pregnant. A quick trip to the vet's office confirmed that there was a horse the size of a football inside her. When I asked the vet if it was a boy or girl, he said yes. It had been a long journey, waiting for that baby, and the nights I wandered back to the barn to see if the colt had been born yet were momentous (I could have walked in on a horse theft, but Bob beat me to it, ask me about that story!) and very drawn out. We started waiting in March, and waited and waited and waited. Then, over Memorial Day weekend, I put in much hard manual labor at the barn and gratefully drove home, aching and hot. The next morning, I was awakened by a phone call from Bob, my friend at the barn, asking me if I'd like to see my new cremello filly! Sundance was very tricky and waited until I was too exhausted to be vigilant. And it wasn't a filly, but a colt, thank heavens, I have too many mares. So here it is, nearly three years from that day and I put a saddle on my colt, and after a time in the arena, I laid over his back. He was far more concerned with the other horses in the arena, so I retired to one of our runs and again laid myself over his back. Because that was so uninteresting to him, (not me, I assure you) I impulsively decided to put my leg all the way over and actually sit astride. I did that several times and even urged him to take a few steps. So there you have it, no one else in the whole wide world has sat on my colt, except for me, no one else has ever trained him, just me. And he hardly blinked an eye.

Hide your wallet

The other day I received a message from the Dallas Zoological Society. Apparently they were having trouble processing my request for a zoo membership and would I or my husband please give them a call so they could straighten things out. No problem, I thought, I would be very happy to give them a call, especially since I hadn't ordered a zoo membership. But first, I needed to pull out my stellar detectival skills and do a little research. I called my husband, thinking perhaps he had sent in the card the zoo had sent us last week, perhaps to surprise the family. But as I suspected, he was quick to deny any such plans. While he was on the phone with me I instigated part two of my investigation. "Girls!" They came running to the top of the stairs. Such obedient children. "Did one of you send in the card to get a membership at the Dallas Zoo?" "No," "Yes." They both stated at the same time. The "no" child was dismissed from the fore front of my mind as I quickly turned my interrogation skills on the other child. "What credit card did you use?" "Yours!" she laughed. I told my listening spouse goodbye, and proceeded to wipe the smiles and giggles from my browless child's face. (Well, she has some brows now, perhaps I should have said sparse. But maybe you can understand that I'm still not feeling all that charitable towards old baldy brows just yet.) After justice had been meted out, I quickly turned my attention to the final phase of this case-the zoo!
I called them and was transferred to a nice lady who seemed surprised I had had the decency to call back. She explained that they had run the card through three times and it had been denied each time! (Did Kaelyn go shopping before she thought about the zoo? Holy cow!) I exclaimed, "Good!" She was a bit surprised, but I explained to her that my daughter had sent in the information without my consent and that I didn't even know if the number was my credit card or not. She offered to read it out loud for me. IT WAS MY NUMBER! But all was not lost, she read the expiration date and it was wrong! Whew! It wasn't that my account had been raided, but Kaelyn had made up an expiration date! Why not?
I told her that if she would please shred the card, I would take care of my daughter. I guess my tone was a little ominous-all she could say was "Uh-oh." I think it was in sympathy for Kaelyn, but I don't really think Kaelyn needed that sympathy, do you? In fact, I would present the opposing theory that it is I who am in need of and deserving of much sympathy! After all, Kaelyn is only 9.