A good scratch....

As I was taking pictures the other day, Emma was grazing away, then suddenly she started walking.....

And proceeded to accost the Pussywillow tree LOL

She scratched her neck on both sides and her pole and her shoulders.... and tasted a little tree.

She had quit a satisfying scratch! After this demonstration I walked out to the barn and got the fly spray and sprayed all three of them down. The little black flies are bad right now, and get their ears, chest and belly, and the dock of the tail. If I keep these areas sprayed regular they dont rub out their tails! I think the black flies have a lot to do with starting the allergic and sometimes autoimmune Sweet Itch problem that a lot of horses have!

Wandering around the yard....

All of the Rhododendrons are in bloom. This is one of my favorites

The pictures just dont do this one justice. I tried all kinds of settings, but the bright sunlight washed them out, they are a pretty dark royal purple!

This one shows the color better at least, with the unopened blooms.

These are my favorite flowers around the house, and they come back every year, they are planted in an old old piece of clay sewer pipe, I have three of these pieces of pipe.

The wind chimes the Equestrian team gave me for my birthday, they are a nice quiet sound. I like them!

This was my project on Tues. I got pole beans planted and cucumbers, I am going to see if they climb up the trellis. Also planted bush peas, Oregon sugar pod, I know, I know its way late for peas, but what the heck, and it is in a shady spot, maybe we will get enough for a stir fry or a salad.



This was my project after working with Emma Thurs. Getting the rose bushes out of the weeds, stickers and grass, it took me awhile, but I got it done! I still get disoriented and dizzy sometimes bending over, I am hoping the more I do it the better it will get!

The pots on the wall are the next project, we grew hot peppers in them last year, and have three bigger wooden barrel pots for tomato's, I still have to buy the plants. I never get my garden in until the first on June, and I seem to get plenty of harvest.

This is the other side I want to work on when it isnt 86 degrees out, man it got hot fast! The pond in the upper right corner with weeds too, all this has to get done before Meghan grad party on the 20th of June!

The Peonies are blooming, talk about color!

The Chives, I love chives, we have had this plant since we moved into the house, 11 years, I fertilize it and harvest some and thats about all, and it comes back every year. Chive blooms are so happy bobbing in the wind.

Happy frog, and some of the water Iris around the pond.

And my Emma, she is getting whiter and whiter! I think she is a little sore from her workout yesterday, she was a little gimpy on that left hind. Not enough to let me walk up to her in the field and spray her with fly spray, little brat kept walking away, usually she just stands there. The other two did.

Close up of her side, she has shadows of tiger stripes on her ribs.

And she will probably never be completely white, she is starting to get liver spots! these are on her shoulder.

Her back leg, I love the patterns she has, you can see the darker leg barring greyer area above the hock, she has a lot of dun factor, she has just lost most of it to white (((sigh)))

She was impossible to get pics of in the sun. Can you say whiteout! I kept waiting for her to come all the way into the shade but she wouldnt. I love how the white runs up both sides of her neck next to her mane. She still has a little bit of her dorsal stripe up above her hips too. I thought for awhile I was going to have a white Appy with red front socks! LOL, but now that she is getting liver spots.... who knows, Appaloosas!

I hate it when I forget my camera!

Hi all,

Had a busy day today, went out early, for me anyway LOL before 11am, and worked Emma from the ground. Meghan and I wormed them on Tues. and Emma was full of it, so I decided I better get out there and give her a job! She has an attitude when she isnt worked with much.

We had a good workout, I free lounged her, because she was to much on the end of the line! She had her Parelli halter on and I had the 12' line but she jerks out of my hand unless I have the 22' line. So I let her loose and worked her on changing direction, she ran and ran and ran, geez she was full of it LOL I didnt have a watch on but I bet she went for a good half hour! I clipped the lead back on her and did some ground work that way too, and some respect work! A little of the 7 games, I need to brush up on them LOL. She was being a brat, and got spanked a couple of times, although I did get a lot of lick and chew after that! I worked with her for another half hour and she was soaking wet, so we went and had a hosing off! She sure is white, I WILL remember to take my camera out and get some pics tomorrow!

I am going to do some ground work with her for a few days before I ride her, for the respect. For those of you that do Parelli she is a Left brain Extrovert, and has her own idea about things! She can be a handful, but as long as you earn her respect, she is fine. One example of her attitude, when I had to spank her, because she was ignoring me, she squealed and did a small strike motion! I dont think so brat!!! She would really take advantage of someone who wasnt boss! So I make her move her feet where I want them! She also is such a love too, and totally different under saddle, except for the kick out when she gets spanked ((sigh)) She is a spoiled brat LOL, but I love her, and she is solid on the trails! Meghan and I want to go for a trail ride soon!

After I worked Emma I came in and rested for a few, then went out and weeded the rose garden, that took me awhile, glad I wore sunscreen, as it got up to 84 degrees today!

I felt like I got a lot accomplished today, relaxed and read a book the rest of the afternoon, then Hubby BBQed some killer chicken mmmm mmmm.

Time to catch up on blogs and write a note! Pics tomorrow I promise LOL

Oregon Coast, North up through Dairy country, headed home....

Going North from Lincoln City towards Tillamook. This is Dairy country!

One family Dairy sign we passed, it is challenging to take pics at 60MPH!

A farm with a Semi parked out front, and an old fashioned wind mill, not those new fangled ones!

Cows, cows and more cows!

Neat old farm house, there are a lot of these.

View up the Highway. Its flat farm country then all of a sudden it goes straight up into the Coast Range.




More cows.

A big Barn and lots of cows!

Did I say cows, I have a theme going here LOL







A pretty little river we drove along, I dont remember the name of it.

Pretty, quiet little river.

Flat and then mtns.

More cows! When we are hunting we call cows "slow Elk". LOL

And real Elk! They were eating Alfalfa provided for them, there were hundreds!

Here in Oregon and Washington we have Roosevelt Elk, they are quit a bit smaller than the Rocky Mtn Elk. There is also another subspecies down here on the Oregon coast and I think into California that are called the Tule Elk.(toolee)

This guy will probably have a good sized set of antlers! being it is only May and they dont lose velvet until around August.

More farm country on the other side.

And another Air Museum, in an old Blimp hanger from WWll.

This was just North of the field where the Elk were.

And the road leading to the Museum. There was an airplane on a pole!, I didnt catch the name of this Museum.

More cows!

Big Dairy barns, beautiful, green, country. At least it still is right now! Everything but the Fir trees will turn golden brown by August.

Neat old barn.

More fields of Clover in bloom. We passed some fields of White clover too, but they didnt show up in the pics.

More old farms and crops growing, I was amazed that some were already cutting hay! Grass hay that I could tell, usually they dont start until late June. Maybe it will be a good year for the Hay crop.

And after this we headed into Portland and the concrete jungle, no more pretty pics. We started our day at McD's for breakfast and ended our day at McD's for dinner! At around 8:30pm. We had a great day and want to do it again soon, it has been a couple of years since we were able to go, even for the day.

Thanks Honey for a great day!!!!!

Beach trip, post #2, lots and lots of people!

When we finally got to the coast, we both were hungry and wanted to go to the seafood place at Lincoln City, Mo's. Mo's has the best clam chowder in a bread bowl ever! But as we drove in the parking lot a problem became evident. Lines of cars and....

Cool fish sculpture. (not the problem lol)

The estuary next to the restaurant.

There are Tsunami evac signs everywhere at the coast, like you would have time to follow them all! LOL

Mo's!!!!

And this, the line to get IN, was way out the door!!!! Darn it, so we went somewhere else. Next time maybe, it is a popular place, being right on the beach and all, and having good food!

We found a nice tiny little roadside restaurant called J's seafood. I will tell you it was good stuff! Hubby had the fresh fried lingcod, 3 pieces and slaw and fries for $10, I had a 4 pc plate that had a cod, a halibut and two shrimp, all breaded and fried! LOL I also had a special of this little place, salt and pepper chips, made fresh, and hot! they were great, and coleslaw. It was a good lunch. But I didnt take my camera in.

Then we stopped at Barnacle Bill's.

We wanted some smoked salmon and a salmon fillet for my dinner for memorial day. (Hubby had a ribeye steak, of course LOL I also had some good scallops I had in the freezer and made a killer potato salad!)

There was Moist, Medium and Dry smoked fish.

Hubby made a smoked salmon and cream cheese dip out of it, sure was good! Smoked salmon is at $19 a pound! wow, our little piece was $8.

My fillet was the one the fork is in LOL
$9.99lb and Canadian caught fish, so much for local LOL

There were also clams and scallops, and.... lots of good seafood!!

After this we went to the Tangers Outlet Mall, and walked around for awhile. Bought a few things, my favorite place in Harry and Davids though. We got dark chocolate truffles and Peanutbutter Moose Munch! Yumm Yumm!!

This was our last stop at Lincoln City, the other Casino LOL we played for awhile, the machines werent playing, so we decided to head home! I made the mistake of giving Hubby my $20 ticket to cash out for me, but he wouldnt give it back LOL We really didnt lose much, or gain any LOL but we had fun. We only play slots, no cards or bingo or anything for us.
This Casino is right on the Ocean. The Indian Tribe owns the Hotel behind it and we noticed, the Golf Course now! Which is a little farther inland.

The view of the ocean from where we were parked.

And North, prettier view without the buildings, it was breezy and a little on the chilly side, but a beautiful sunny day!! About 61 degrees here at the coast.

And we head home, North up towards Tillamook, beautiful Dairy Farm country. (the specks are from the bugs on the windshield LOL)

There are cows out there LOL.

Hubby made fun of me taking pics of cows on the way home!

More to come and Pics of cows and Elk!