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Star Creek Ranch and All Things Miss MinnieMountain Mama and Miss Minnie are hitting the road!!!
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I really dislike it when people ask to be my "friend" and do not leave a message, comment or their space is inaccessible. Are they that insecure that they need all these "friends".
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9/5/2008 Great Trail RideJoan and I just got back from a 2.5 hour trail ride. It was perfect. Miss Minnie was not too excited about going again, but she was good. We did part of the trails I did yesterday. There was some good hills so Miss Minnie, Jango, Joan and I are getting our workouts. I am going to clean house and do laundry now as Garry will be home in a few hours.
My lessons are paying off as Miss Minnie and I are doing so well together now. My confidence is really up also.
9/4/2008 Good Trail Ride and Not so good Ride at HomeRonni came over yesterday to load Duchess and to ride her on our property. The trailer loading went well. I decided to ride Princess. We saddled up and went down into the coral. The rest of the horses were in their stalls. I got on Princess and she bunched up like she wanted to bolt and was not listening to my cues too well. Below is what I was feeling like. I finally got off and let Ronni and Duchess wander around the property. They seemed to have a good time.
I wired the money for the Chewelah place so I guess we officially own two places now. It seems unreal to me.
Today my neighbor, Sheri and I went trail riding. We have not ridden together for a year or so. Miss Minnie did really well until we started home. We did a lot of hills so they got a good cardio workout. On the way home she jumped forward about 3 times in different areas as if there was a horse eating monster behind her. I was just shocked at her behavior, shocked I tell you!!!
Fortunately her idea of spooking is not that bad and I managed to maintain a balanced and correct seat at all times, well most of the time anyway.
It is sad with the high gas prices people are not getting out to ride that much.
More big news, the clinic "Savvy By The Sea" was canceled, Joan and I are going anyway to ride the beach and do our thing. We are all set up to go, so go we are!!!  Hopefully this will be Joan and I in two weeks. I have to go do laundry and get ready to get my chores done. I also need to clean out the tack room in the horse trailer a bit.9/2/2008 So Much Has HappenedSo much has happened in the past week or so it is hard to know where to begin. Garry mentioned that I have not been keeping up with my blogging. Right now I am finishing the newsletter and doing this at the same time.
My Aunt Sybil passed away on the morning of August 20th. Bev (our house sitter) called us when we were just entering Spokane on Hwy 395. Joan Sach, my Aunt's neighbor and very good friend, had called the house to tell me. Bev told her that we were driving back from Eastern Washington and I would call England in the morning. I do not have the capability to call overseas on my cell even though I did have Joan's phone number. I had not spoken to Aunt Sybil for several weeks as I was away from our home phone on the days I was due to call and then would forget on the days I was home until it was too late to call. They are 8 hours behind us. The last conversation we had was pretty good, but I feel guilty not calling when I should have or shortly thereafter. Joan called to see if I had heard from the solicitor yet and I have not.
Another bad thing is that my friend's husband passed away. It is sad, but the cancer had spread and they had to stop all treatments and just make him comfortable. He was on a morphine drip. They were planning on bringing him home for his last days and he passed before they could move him.
Some good news is we bought 26.6 acres in Chewelah. We are about 40 minutes south of Colville and the same distance to Spokane. The property is hilly but manageable for the horses with a lovely 1.5 or so acre bench for buildings. There is a good well installed, septic, power and phone. I am hoping we can go over next month. The plan is to stay in the camper as we will only be over for a long weekend. We will take the horse trailer with some panels to make two corrals and electric fencing materials for a small pasture. Garry had bought us a solar electric fencer some time ago and it works well. We are talking about putting up a shop next year and we can section a portion of it to stay in when we are over there. We can also start bringing things over when we are getting close to Garry retiring. The view from the bench is amazing and on Google Earth it looks as if we can ride over the top ridge and go for miles. No fences were in evidence. There is enough grass to keep the horses happy but not enough to founder them. No I did not take any photos. I will take a bunch when we go back. The closing is this Friday. Garry is out of town but will be home Friday evening. I can wire the funds and he can sign when he gets home. I had called and left a message with the Title person, but she as not gotten back to me. I am not going to worry about it. We have our funds ready to go so I will wait until she gets in touch with me. That will be difficult as I will be out of the house most of the week, but we will work it out.
I have been taking my lessons with Ronni and having a great time and making progress with Miss Minnie. Duchess will not load now, so tomorrow Ronni is coming here and we will trail ride on and possibly off our place and do some trailer loading as well. Today my neighbors are coming over to help me put the camper on. Joan and I are getting geared up for our "Savvy By The Sea" clinic in 2 1/2 weeks. I have several trail rides planned this week as I want to get Miss Minnie back into shape and get myself in better shape for the clinic.
Garry and I went to the fair at Monroe on Sunday and he bought me a new Aussie coat from http://www.gearupnorthwest.com/. They have a booth there every year and over the years we have bought some outer wear. I bought the Snowy River Coat as it is not as heavy as the Driza-bone coat and more supple but will keep me dry and warm. With the jacket I bought from Eddie Bauer and the poncho I have to keep in my cantle bag, I am in good shape for our Washington weather.
I need to bring in the horses for their breakfast and get my things ready for the post office. I have sympathy and birthday cards and memorial checks to get to the mail. 8/14/2008 8/14/2008 Great Two Days But HecticI have had a couple of great but hectic days. Tuesday my long time friend Arlene came up with her 9 year old Granddaughter, Emma. Emma is a darling child. She loved the dogs and the Ferrets. I had brought in the horses late for their breakfast so they would still be in when Arlene came. We went down and I introduced them all to Emma. We decided Sarge would be a good one for her to ride. We took him out and I brushed him, Arlene said to put Emma on bareback, so I put my helmet on Emma took Sarge outside and boosted Emma up. I then walked her around a bit so Arlene could take photos. Emma was very brave and seemed to really enjoy it. We then went into Granite Falls and had a wonderful Mexican lunch, which Arlene treated me to. When we came back I took Emma on a Gator ride around the property. Arlene thinks that is going to be the highlight of Emma's visit! We had a nice visit. Emma was on the floor with the dogs and Harley was giving her lots of doggy kisses and hanging out with her. Arlene is my very first friend that I made in Washington State. This was over 30 years ago. Now that we are both retired we get together once a month and have lunch and a wonderful visit.
Yesterday I was pretty tired as I have not been sleeping well again. My left leg hurts and keeps me awake at times. I had my lesson with Ronni and so I got ready. I went to load Duchess in the horse trailer and she would not load. I tried for about 20 minutes. She is just too large for me to manhandle. I put her back and grabbed Miss Minnie, let the herd out for the day and headed over to Lyn's arena. I was a little late but Ronni was excited to see Miss Minnie as she has heard so much about her from Lyn and myself. Ronni rode Miss Minnie first and I explained the crow hopping when I tried to get her to canter. After Ronni worked with her she realized that Miss Minnie does not know how to run with a person on her back. She was not crow hopping but lunging forward to get a head start. She worked her for a bit and then I got on and had a lesson. It was amazing. I am learning how to use my legs properly and got Miss Minnie to do things that I have not been successful with. I did not canter her but did jogging, extended trotting and we worked on her backing up. I was really really tired after all that. Ronni cantered her a bit more before we ended. It is so amazing to be able to learn and do these things. I am really really really enjoying working with Ronni. Joan said she would help me this winter when we ride indoors, so I should really improve. Ronni commented on how relaxed I am on MM. I told her I was in my comfort level with her, with Duchess my comfort level is fleeting.
Today Harley gets groomed and I get my nails done and have a few errands to run. I have to finish tweaking the mailing list for Jenny for the Prize ride and need to get spreadsheets etc e-mail off to the Realtor for this trip. I am a bit behind on that. It is hot here and I just feel exhausted, though sleeping through the night last night has helped a bit. 8/12/2008 8/11/2008 Good and SadThis morning I received an email from my friend whose husband is very ill with cancer. He had to be hospitalized on Saturday and apparently will not be coming home. She was supposed to go camping with the other two gals we ride with and they were leaving last Friday. I was going to call and talk with her, but do not want to wake anyone else that is there. I so wish I could do something other than being here for her, but I know that is all I can do.
On a better note, I rode with Jenny, Scott and Theresa (a friend of Scott and Barbara's) yesterday clearing some trail for the Prize Ride next month. It was a gorgeous day and we had a ball.
We only rode and worked about 3 hours, but it was getting hot. The woods were nice and cool, almost too cool, but being out in the open it was warm. It is nice when we do this as we get to drive our rigs up to the top and park there, which saves about 1.5 hours of riding to and from the parking area by the road. Jenny is a great person to ride and camp with as she has many many miles under her belt and has camped all over the state. I was hoping to go on the weeks ride this year, but was not able to go. I really want to get miles on Miss Minnie so I can start going to new places and using my wonderful little camper. Jenny's horse Cesar is a gaited horse and walks out pretty fast. I finally got Miss Minnie walking out a bit at the end. You can tell by some of the photos that I was trailing pretty far behind. Theresa lives near the van pool parking that my husband uses. Her husband also works at Boeing. Boy it sure is a small world.
I need to go and feed. I am working Miss Minnie and lunging Duchess before Arlene and Emma arrive today. I love the name Emma. My handy Lunging accessory arrived and I will use it today. Garry left me the rental truck as I need to buy feed and some wormer for the horses. Bill comes this Friday to trim and shoe Prin. I worm them every eight weeks when he comes. I also ran out of Program for the dogs, so I need to get more of that. We will be driving past the feed store on the way to lunch so I can just stop.
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