mmmmm leftovers, Sara and Luxor

I made Turkey gravy yesterday and turkey noodle soup today. Hubby and I canned them up to have later. Well I cooked and helped pack the jars, he does the canning. We got 9 pints of gravy and 8 pints of soup.

We took Sara to the airport last night, we had a good visit. I will miss her, her and John seem so far away. Sara got the meet Luxor for the first time, and as he usually does he played and was a sweetie, he took full advantage of being able to wrestle with Sara. He always manages to slime you with his wet nose LOL.

Wanna share my bone??? huh its really good, I have it slimed up just perfect want some?

He is such a goof ball.

Thanksgiving and the day after!

Moms beautiful Thanksgiving table, the grand kids always set it for her, it has become a tradition.

Dinner menu was:

Smoked turkey
stuffing, bread stuffing with wild chantrell mushrooms
gravy
candied yams
corn
green bean casserole with wild chantrell mushrooms and bacon
cranberries, cooked from scratch not canned.
mashed potatoes
rolls
Jello w fruit salad that Meg made
Pumpkin, apple and choc fudge pie
cookies
and finger veggies with ranch
dried figs, mom got from a friend that is greek, and made a trip home.
Wine and beer
sparkling cider

we all ate the better part of two 12 lb smoked turkeys!

Meghan and Sara before dinner, Sara just flew in from Mississippi, she flies back out tonight. Its been fun having her home, makes me miss her more, shes my book buddy, we both read a lot.

Grandpa and Rick enjoying dinner, my dad was so funny.

Me and Sara, geez noone usually takes pics but me, it funny to see me in one sometimes.

Sara, Meg, "the boyfriend" David, we really like him, and Davids mom Nancy.
Ok the kids make my husband do this every year at Thanksgiving, he has to make a "chicken" out of a towel, the kids after all these years still just crack up, Rick tries to get out of it every time but they always convince him to do it. Can you see the chicken?

Well that was Thanksgiving, a good time for all, and good food.

.................................................................................................................Sara, Meghan and I went to the Christmas Bazaar on Fri. wasnt too bad, everyone else was hitting all the black Friday sales. We got there at around 11am and left at 5pm. This booth had buttons with funny sayings on them. One was "How do you set a laser printer to stun?" there were some good ones.

Toward the end, Meghan was getting pretty warn out.

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After we got home from walking 6 hrs at the bazaar, my cousins all came out and we had a bon-fire and ate hamburgers, and had a lot of fun. My one cousin lives far enough away now we only see them a couple times a year. All the guys went sturgeon fishing today, Rick, Matt, Steven, Zac, and Luke, the last three are Matts boys, 18, 16, and 9.

The adults sat in the garage most of the night.

The teenagers had a great time out by the fire, it did start to drizzle a little. They had marshmallows and smores, and had a lot of fun telling stories and joking around. Goofballs all of them LOL. I think we were all up untill 11pm or so.

Sara leaves to go back to school in Mississippi tonight I will miss her. She is planning on getting married in January, back in Colorado, where her fiancee is, we are still trying to figure out how to get back there at that time, not a real good time to drive, or fly for that matter, think I would rather drive...... we will see and we well do it somehow!!! Sara is scheduled to go to Iraq in April, thats why they want to do it then. She is stationed in Texas.

For now Sara and Meghan are headed to the mall, to go shopping. Me I get to sit and smell another turkey cooking today, I usually have to cook a bird whether or not we host dinner cuz the husband wants leftovers, lol, it sure smells good, I injected it with butter and garlic. at least turkey is good for you. Have the giblets cooking too.

Thanksgiving

In honor of Thanksgiving I want to share my very favorite cartoon strip. Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller. I hope Wiley doesnt mind my sharing this, as I get no compensation but he might LOL.

I first found a 2005 calender that was Lucy and Danae, thats what started it all, and then I got all of Wileys works for Christmas, and I ordered this from Amazon.......

What can I say they make me laugh!!!!

Everyone have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!!!!!!

Sara is coming home for Turkey Day!!!

I am excited to see my oldest daughter, we pick here up at Portland Airport tomorrow morning yeah!! she hasnt been home since last Christmas, and not since my surgery. We have a big family dinner at my moms on the holiday, and then we will probably go to the Worlds Largest Christmas Bazaar in Portland on Friday, Saturday the husband (Rick) is going to take my cousin sturgeon fishing. Meghan has a drill practice Sat. AM, and Sara unfortunately flies out Saturday night.will post pics after the holiday.

This picture is all of us (except John) with Sara at her BMT graduation in San Antonio TX in 2004.

I'm going to take on a tag......

Karen over at Life at the Rough String http://jksroughstring.blogspot.com/ has an interesting tag she put out for whomever wanted to take her up on it.

This is what she called the newest blogger virus LOL

"Ok, here's the deal...answer the following 5 questions and pass on the virus to some other unsuspecting soul...ummmmm...blogger friend! Tag a few more if ya a mind to!"

And its horse related!!

1. Where did you go riding this week?

I took my daughter to ride does that count? probably not, I have to start figuring out how to take my horse when she goes, but that is not always possible. No I havnt ridden in awhile, still taking it slow, but I do plenty of the chores, and cookie spoiling he he he.

2. Your most embarrassing moment on horseback.

I would like to forget, LOL. Mickey bucked with me at a reining clinic we went to and I came off, in front of everyone, so embarrassing.

3. What is your favorite piece of tack?

My favorite is probably my Crates saddle it is so comfy, I bought it from my sisters boyfriend for $250. about 10 years ago, a steal! ( wow where does time go?) and so far has fit all of my fattys and the old mare, with no dry spots under it. The stirrups dont go short enough for Meghan though, LOL she is a midget at 5'3, Sara is 5'10 and I am 5'6. Sara took it over while she did 4-H. Next would be our Parelli rope halters, they have made a difference, I even tied some of my own, that turned out good!

4. Do you collect anything horsey?

If I collect anything horsey it would be books, I think I have a book fetish LOL. I dont decorate western or horsey, we have a timber A frame home that I decorate eclectic log cabin, I tried to do a farm theme in the kitchen but the fish keep creeping( swimming lol) in there. This is the view from the "man" chair LOL. If you look close you can see my son and daughter that are in the Air Force, in the picture frame on the right. I am so proud of them.

5. What is your least favorite aspect of horse ownership?

The cold, the wet, and the mud. Which could be a movie title around here LOL, (The Good The Bad And The Ugly) I love taking care of my girls, but as I have gotten older I have turned into quite a wimp where to cold weather comes in, oh well I will live through it, and chores tend to warm you up. Although the weather is beautiful sunny this morning! Rain on turkey day :(

OK whomever else wants to do this, have at it, and have fun, LOL.

Last remenice about Silkey

This is my mom on Silkey when she first bought her, Silkey was four years old.

Me with the old mare, she was such a pretty red sorrel. This is probably at a game show, Mom and I used to both ride her in the games, we did ok.

ah geez, I sure look like a dude LOL love these old pics. This was at our little local 4H fair again.

Oh we had our wild moments, this is my sister on Silkey and me on Dusty, Silkeys foal. Barefoot and no helmets how did we live through it, LOL.

The next horse I rode was named Joe, aka Mescaline was his AQHA registered name.

Lazy Mon., gaming practice Sun. night

So far this morning I havnt even showered and its almost 11am. Meg stayed home sick today with a stomach bug. So her and Luxor and I are just sitting around watching TV and doing nothing. The husband is pulling a 16 hr shift, yeck, his first, I asked him if he just wanted to prove that he could do it, he said "ya, and the moneys good" did I mention this is a graveyard shift? if he isnt home pretty soon, he is going to pull the full 16. If he does he will be home around 3pm this afternoon, after going in at 11pm.

Last night I hauled Meghan and Rocket to thier first gaming practice. Went well, the coach will not let them run fast and works on position and patterning the horse with all of them, he is a great coach, and still rides games in his ealy 70's. He volunteers all his time to coach the team. They practiced poles, birangle and barrels last night. It was to dark for pictures inside.

Meg yelled at me cuz the light was turning yellow and we still had to go through the intersection, "Mom! just drive!" fast light LOL it was so pretty last night, dont know if you can see it but there is a pink Mt Hood in the middle there. This is at an intersection right in front of our friendly neighborhood Safeway store in town.

I hate that it is dark so early, it only 4:30 here..... winter time. We walk about 200 yards from the parking area to the arena. In the dark and in the rain, it was windy tonight and cold.




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Pretty sunset here at the farm, this used to be a thoroughbred racehorse facility, but the owners got out of it, they now only have a few borders. Walking up to the arena you can see the round pen on the left with the track fence on the right, and then the arena itself. We realy appreciate the owners letting the E-team use the facility.

Hay, Bazaars, and Joannes fabrics

This was our Saturday:

The youngest daughter and I kept busy yesterday, I went and got hay for the mares in the morn. 5 bales of Teff grass, the horses seem to really like this hay, and if you havnt used it before I was pleasantly surprised by its food value when I did research on it. for Teff grown in the Willamete Valley it is 12-14% protein! which makes it a good food source, and what is funny my mares like it more than orchard grass, must taste better. You wouldnt think it is so high in protein by the way it looks it is yellow, it is also a cereal grain. I buy it in @ 160lb+ 3 string bales at $18.50 bale.(about 14 bales to the ton, I think their sign says $240ton) Which in comparison to orchard grass w some alfalfa in it 2 string bale at $14.5o bale. so I get the larger bales. We live just one mile from the Dairy that sells the hay in our area so I dont have to go very far. Next is the trip to the feed store to pick up grain, they get beet pulp and vitality 14 right now, I am thinking of getting some alfalfa pellets for the old mare, that is what the vet suggested. We tarped the hay on the truck so we still have to unload it today, glad its not raining.

Next we went to the annual Christmas Bazaar at the High School, it was a pretty good show. We took Luxor with us and of course Meg cant walk 10 feet without some little kid wanting to pet him or someone asking a question about him, it was good, she said it gives her practice for her senior panels where the judges will ask her a lot of questions. I bought two pieces of jewelry, a cowgirl necklace, made by a friend of mine, and a bead necklace. I spent a whole $20. Here they are......

The back of the cowgirl necklace says "Yee Haw!"

We then stopped at Taco Bell for lunch, I love the sw steak bowl and chips, Meg had two bean and cheese burritos and cheesie potato's. It was good and we had more questions about Luxor with us. Then we went to Joanns Fabric store, I had to buy some curtain material for our bedroom so the husband can sleep on graveyard, it has been to light for him. He has to work 16 hours tomorrow, yuck, he will be tired when he gets home. I found an upholstery type material in brown with a touch of green, and an ivory light blocking liner material, it will go with my valances in there. Now I have to dig out the sewing machine and start sewing. They wont be classic curtains but flat panels velcroed to the wall so light cant get around them, thats what he wants. I cant get in there to do the measuring until he isnt sleeping so it may wait until he is on another shift this time.

Everyone is talking about book lists, some of mine

Everyone has been talking about horse books and their reading list, alas I am new and havnt been tagged, yet? But I thought that I would throw my two cents in. Cuz its my blog and I can LOL. I try to look for old horse books a garage sales so I have quite a few oldies, it makes garage saleing fun.

In no particular order:

True Horsemanship Through Feel-Bill Dorrance and Leslie Desmond

True Unity-Tom Dorrance love it, have to keep rereading it as I find something new every time

Revolution in Horsemanship-Robert Miller dvm and Rick Lamb highly recommended!!

Spotted Pride-Frank Holmes quite a few of my mares ancestors are in here

Teaching Safe Horsemanship-Jan Dawson from my 4h leader days

Monte Foreman Horsetraining Science-Monty Forman and Patrick Wyse went to one of Pat Wyse's clinics@ 04, it was ok, I adopted the curb bit he uses and still use it to this day

101 Horsemanship and Equitation patterns-Cherry Hill

Discovering Natural Horsemanship-Tom Moates kind of memoirs on his journey a little slow

The Faraway Horses and Believe-Buck Brannaman-highly recommended!

Chicken Soup For The Horselovers Soul

Some of my oldies I have found at sales:

Horsekeeping On Small Acreage-Cherry Hill this is one of her first ones

Saddle Up-Charles E Ball hard and soft copies

The Western Trainer-Dave Jones

Family Horse-Jackie Spaulding

Album Of Horses-Margeret Henery beautiful drawings of breeds of horses classic book

CW Andersons Complete Book Of Horses and Horsemanship-CW Anderson-Billy and Blaze fame I loved the Billy and Blaze stories

The magazines I have laying around are Horse and Rider, Savvy Times, and Western Horseman, and I occasionally pick up Equus. I told you I read all I can get my hands on LOL I am sure there are more around, this is just the livingroom bookshelf LOL cuz I have some Pat Parelli books, showmanship books LOL I need a library room

Here are two really neat photos I was able to take this fall during hunting season. I didnt buy my tag this year for obvious reasons, so I was shooting with the camera. I may print and frame these and enter them in the fair next summer. What do ya think?
The first one is a little blacktail spike that was bedded down with his mama she moved off but I got this shot of him. The second is of some late mustering,one of the "cowboys" stopped us and asked if we had seen any cows on our way up, no we hadnt, just a few more of the crew loading up their horses. He He He real cowboys LOL LOL. (oh and the cowgirls cant forget them!) (can I ride P L E A S E??) ( I would love to round up cattle at least ounce in my life) LOL we dont see real ranch life here on the west side of WA.
Any way I thought they turned out cool, they are taken east of us in what we call the Klickitat area, actually south of Glenwood WA.

4-H memories with my girls...........

A couple of my favorite pictures. The first is Meghan on Mickey on gaming day at our county fair, love the look on Mickeys face " Mom, cant you get me out of here? I would rather be in my stall eating." I laughed cuz when I called Megs name for the pic, Mickey looked at me.

And next almost in the same spot on the fence but 4 years later, arent they pretty? I love my little stubborn Appy girl, and my little stubborn daughter, LOL. This time Meghan looked at me!

This is this year at 4-H horsecamp.

I think about it and I have been a 4-H mom and or leader for the past 13 years, Meghan has one more year left, I will miss it We started when our older daughter Sara was 9 yrs old, and she is 22 now. Here are some pics of her and Easy...

Boy this was Easy when she looked really really good, she is a hardkeeper, and I think this was the best she has ever looked.

Here are Sara and Easy at probably a 4-H gaming clinic at our fairgrounds.

Saras getting ready to go out and show in showmanship class. Our little fair is one of the last in the state where they can not wear show clothes, white shirt and dark pants are the uniform. I always liked it because I thought it made all the kids at least look the same level, if you will. They look clean and neat too.

Luxor

I did say we had a 3rd dog, well technically he is not ours. Our daughter is raising a guide dog puppy for her senior project, from Guide Dogs For The Blind. It has been a really good experience. Luxor even got to visit me in the hospital when I was there. He is 11 mo. old now and he will go back to either be trained or be a breeder at about 15 mo. or so. We dont have a lot of time left with him now. He has been an exceptional dog, Meghan takes him to school with her every day and everyone loves him. These dogs are bred to be smart, and smart he is, he is amazing. It is a different experience being able to take a dog into the grocery store, school, hospital, he goes anywhere we go.This is baby Luxor, he was so cute....
The next pic of of little Luxor at his first WAHSET meet.....I never seen horses before! much less cows and applause and all the noise. I was such a good boy. This is Elma WA in Feb. '08, Luxor only about 10 weeks old. Right before my brain surgery.



One of the many field trips that the guide dogs get to take, this is at Horizon Air training facility in Portland OR, this is a plane simulator and all the dogs got to go on and be stuffed under a chair, to simulate flying with their blind person. Black dogs are so hard to take pics of, they absorb the light instead of reflecting it. This is Luxor being a cheerleader LOL he will hold this pom pom and carry it around, at home and at school. He carried a big stuffed spider around school on Halloween.

This is me and Luxor at the pumpkin patch in Vancouver,WA, the week before Halloween, we had fun and got pumpkin's and went through a corn maze, the dog club had dinner on the farm too, it was fun! Lux wasnt to impressed with the pumpkins........ Having a guide dog puppy has been such a good experience for us, he goes everywhere with my daughter. We puppysit when she goes out or leaves. It will be very hard to give him back, he is such a love, and a gentleman (not to say he doesnt have his dumb puppy moments, he is a Lab!)We have fallen in love with him. After he is done being a daddy dog he can go to finish his training as a guide or companion dog or we may get him back if we want him (of course we do) he would make a realy good guide dog, nothing fazzes him, he takes everything in stride, a very good minded animal. Which I hope is making him desireable as a breeder, they usually fix them by 6-8 mo. and they have not fixed him yet, so the thought is that he will go as a breeder.

More Silkey PIctures, memories...........

This is me showing in 4-H at our local Fern Prairie 4-H fair, we had to do showmanship and riding classes separate, we 4-hers had cows and horses and all did showmanship at the grange hall, then the horses would on a different day go to the rodeo grounds and have their riding classes, a lot of good memories and good times. This first pic is of me and my friend Patti, and her pony Misty.

A Blue ribbon in western equitation!

This is in order L to R, my sister on Pepsi, Me on Silkey, Patti on Misty, and Eric , dont remember his horses name. Arent we the crew! Holding up all of our awards.

Theres a fungus among us....

The guys went hunting on Sunday and brought home a mess of chantrell mushrooms! Just like getting an animal, now the work starts. We wash them and then cut them up and can them. We filled 14, 1/2 pint jars, so a good batch. The washing up takes the longest. Now my Hubby is out in the garage with the pressure cooker, takes about 20min after its up to pressure.

a nice mess of mushies! All clean!

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Ok I am going to post my first Silkey pic too, will post a few more this week.

This is probably the same year that Mom bought Silkey, thats me and my little sister on her. Ya ya this is 1970 dont report me to fugly LOL.
She wasnt a bad looking mare for the '70s.

Me on Silkey, my freind Shelly on Daisy to my left. At a game show.