A Little Praise Where it's Deserved

Today, I looked at another blog site that I follow and they posted about a saddle they found advertised. I volunteer occasionally with a therapeutic riding organization designed to help people with various handicaps, including children and veterans. This saddle is designed by special order and accommodates the handicapped needs. I applaud the owners and creators of this saddle for their desire to help. You can check them out at http://www.grayscustomsaddlery.com. Another interesting I discovered on their website is that they also created a saddle for a Cowboy Church in their area. It was beautiful and was used as a prize in one of their events.

Have a good day.

Sometimes

Sometimes there are weeks at a time where nothing really happens ranch-wise. We do the same ole' same ole', and go about life. I don't really believe that anyone who reads (and there aren't that many) really want to know every Sunday the details of me sitting in a saddle doing about nothing.

This past weekend, our church had our one year anniversary. It was a big deal, but I'm not sure what to write about it. We had barrel racing and team roping on Saturday and Kids' Playday on Sunday. I rode around on Koda Saturday, but didn't do much on her but trot a lot. I kinda pretended to have a job. I was supposed to direct traffic but people in vehicles don't take a lady on a horse riding up to their window to mean that they should roll their window down and take directions. I guess they already knew how to park and didn't want help.

We sold the donkeys. We were supposed to have them for view up at the church on Saturday, but who knew that they do coggins on donkeys too. Not me! Had to take them home, then there was the revelation that I should have picked up their tail and checked their packages. We thought they were geldings but the nursery rhyme "Yes sir, yes sir, 2 bags full" comes to mind now. Last time I trust that rancher on gender labeling. Love ya Mr. Dave! That will be a fun time to tease. Anyway, the grey sold for $20 and the black for $10. The jury's still out on the black's sale though.

Other wise, we have had a LOT of rain, Whoo Hoo!! Over 3 inches since Sunday. (This is Wednesday.) That keeps us pretty well inside with no outside chores. It has also filled up our pond and overflowed the creek. This is a much needed attack on our drought.

That's all the news from D²C Ranch. Can't wait for Summer!!

Donkey Pics

These are the donkeys that we picked up from my dad's for auction. We've taken to calling the grey one Donque and the black one Otie

Once a year trip!

It's that time again. Spring, when all God's creatures turn their hearts towards love and flowers. And Koda gets to make a very special trip. So we loaded up and drove the 45 min down to her favorite person, the vet! Koda got her blood drawn for coggins, then her Tetanus and West Nile shot. I used think that the WNV shot was a big hype, but we think that my friend's horse died from WNV. Anyway. He then gave her a sedative and she started stumbling around. It was kind of funny except it was then that the vet then thought about the fact that he should have sedated her AFTER she was in the wash rack and secure. We finally got her there with the help of a broom handle. Then the midevil torture began. It's teeth floating time. We have had Koda for about a year and I have never had any horse's teeth floated. They talked about putting Scarlet completely to sleep to float her's. But since she was almost 30, there was not much point in grinding teeth that weren't there. So I was interested in seeing how it was done. It was kind of weird. The doc worked on her for a little while and about the time that he was done, she started waking up again.

Wow, it's been a long time!

It's been a long time and there's not much ranch-wise to catch up on. County fair weekend was everything it promised, right down to the major allergy attack. Between the fair and our 40 mph winds, I ended up taking that Thursday off work. We did nothing farmish except that the mama goat died last Saturday. :( I dragged her out into the big pasture on Monday with the 4-wheeler and Dennis' lasso. We've had a good deal of rain and our fields are all nice and green (with weeds mostly).

We were all off work Friday for Good Friday. We slept in, did some house work, then went to my dad's house. We took the horse and most especially the trailer. He is cleaning out one of his barns and needed a covered trailer to carry some good furniture. I cleaned on Saturday and we had a nice lunch. I think I left his house dirtier than when I got there though. My sis coked brownies and left the kitchen a mess and I washed his sheets but never remade his bed. We did go do some target practice though and thoroughly dimpled a metal pig. That was fun.

After the target practice we had to chase down some donkeys to load in our trailer. They are going to be temporary tenants on our property. They are going to be sold in auction at our church. I'll post pics this week.

I rode today. I was the only one at the church to ride, but I loaded up Koda this morning and took her to the church. I left her in a small round pen through church and lunch. I went up at around 4:30 worked her on the ground for a little while and then rode. The church was having an Easter egg hunt, supper, and a sunset service. I worked, and rode, her while people were getting ready. She did great.

Now it's time for Walmart, so, have a nice week and ride your horses please.

Fair Weather

It's county fair weekend in our county! woo hoo. I'm excited. yea. um, yippee. Ok so we aren't entering anything this year, there are NO horse activities, and the shows are boring. We go for the time with friends. Well, my kid's friends. She wants to meet up with her friends and ride the carnival rides and visit. I told her this year she had to pay for me to get in if she wanted to go (I ended up there without cash!) No prob, Mom.

Half our church was there showing tonight and I even got to attend a birthday party for a little girl from the church. Umm, cake. The goat show is tomorrow at 12:30. I think it would be wise to attend since we are wanting to show goats next year.

The sun was shining and the sky was beautiful. It was very windy, though, and the wind was cold. We were all the way down to 45! Break out the heavy parkas.

10 after 11 and time for bed!

Good night.

(ps. I don't know why the blog says it's 10 til when my computer says it's 10 after)

All about food time!

I got home yesterday and hooked up the four-wheeler to the spreader. We got this spreader from home depot and modified it. It will spread seed and fertilizer as well as dry manure. I put out 100# in 2 acres. There was already grass out there, I just want to encourage the stubs of grass to turn into a lush 12in deep bed of grass. Koda's hanging out in the front pasture instead of hers in order to allow "re-grassing."

Once that was over, it was feeding time at the ranch. Koda was hollerin' for her food. "Ok Mom, you're home, where's my dinner? You've taken too long. I'm hungry!" So I went and grabbed her feed. She gets just under 2 scoops of strategy every day and currently a box of gelatin every night.


Koda had her hoof pedicure last week and the ferrier said to feed her various amounts of gelatin to help her increase the length of her hoofs to the proper length. Koda gets to "enjoy" the cherry flavored. It's lip-smacking good. "Like my lipstick?" It looks like my daughter when she eats colored foods.

Then the little ones get their yummies. My girl does that. They get two scoops also. (Sounds like a Raisin Bran commercial doesn't it?) Here's those loverlies getting their grub.












Then we have to put the bucket away...
I won't tell you what her nickname used to be, but I think I've seen this pose before.
Then, it rained today!!!!!!! We were told it would, but you know, in Texas, you never can tell. Here's a couple of tonight's sunset views. Now the rain can work in the fertilizer and the horse will be ecstatic.