A normal quiet evening feeding the girls....

This would be dinner! Which they were eagerly awaiting. Mick and Emma always talk to me on my way out to the barn.

 I trimmed Easys feet earlier today, she was just a little long, but now that she is older she was a little trippy with me when I rode her yesterday. Hoof parings and hair and dirt! I also clipped her bridle path, legs and chin, and combed out her tail and mane. She got the works, except for a bath!!!! LOL

 Miss Emma, my girl is looking pretty good. Getting whiter every year and dare I say it!!! She is starting to get liver spots!!! in her flanks! LOL

 And fatso Mickey, she has always been the easiest keeper even at 22. Its just to bad she is so lame now.

 Easy coming to the gate for her dinner. I separate her because she is the only one to get grain.

 She is still a good looking old girl for 26!!! I still cant believe she is that old!!! She is the same age as my oldest son. That means we have had this mare for 22 years, my Dad and Mom bought her when she was 4.

 Here are her pretty toes!!! LOL She is a 00, double ought, shoe size, not that she has had shoes on in years! Meghan competed her for two years in WASET barefoot!!! I am proud of that!!!!

 She is the only one to get grain/mash, I have to wet it or she drops it all over, she still drops it wet, but not as bad. Senior feed, Golden Senior.

Oh! I bought myself a new pair of boots too! With some of the money I earned from selling my extra stuff on consignment. They are Justins and a winter weight water proof boot. They are pretty comfortable! I havnt bought new boots for like 10 years!!! My old lace ups were getting pretty tired! I love the deco saddle on these, thats what I wanted on my new boots!!! 

Well thats an evening out to feed the mares, I will take you along again sometime!!!

Beautiful sky and a start....

the sunset was pretty last night. I noticed the clouds on fire and had to grab my camera.

 Hubby thought this one looked like it had ears, LOL.

 The colors were just so pretty.

 Light fluffy clouds....

 We had thunderstorms this morning!!! Not usual in the mornings here. The lightening strikes were really loud, started at around 3 AM!

....and a start! I rode Easy tonight, bareback, for about 15 min or so. I think I am going to have to start slow, my muscles have forgot what my memory hasnt!! I want to try to ride at least twice a week, and get back in some muscle tone, before I start riding Emma again. Its not that she is hard, and she would probably be just fine, but I guess I have to work on my confidence again! Not that Easy is a slug! Not at all she is the most push button and easy to ride horse I have. I really have to work to ride Emma because she is l a z y, LOL She does everything I ask her, but preferably at her pace. I need to be in better shape to make her mind LOL. It felt good to get on the old mare, but now I need a mounting block!!! LOL LOL

Parade Day Saturday the 23rd....

Finally Parade day!!! All of our work has come together.

This is about half of the kidlets that rode in the back of the truck! They are holding the signs from one of our sponsors that loaned all the plants, and for the barn.

 Left front view, you can see Pete the Python! I think there is just the right amount of plants.

I didnt get any pics except this one of the first place float, behind us, I was to busy tweeking and messing with stuff as long as I could, cuz thats how I am! LOL

 Left rear corner we had a Tiki man. Anyone catch THE END symbolism? LOL LOL

 The END, LOL Vulture, cow skull, there even is a little alligator skull!! LOL LeAnn picks up the darndest things from garage sales! LOL All of the greenery around the edge of the float was a $5 garage sale find!

 Stanley the giraffe! and the Zebra that was loaned! We placed most of the grasses around them and the larger plants front and back. The Right front view.

 Most of the kidlets, waiting and waiting, in the back of the truck.

 Here is the Parrot I painted, and Bro in law in the background.

 Right side back view.

 We won second place in the Parade! For the second year in a row!!! All the kids and LeAnn showing off the 2nd place plaque that she got!! Georgia Pacific won first place, again! LOL They had a giraffe too!

We set up behind this colorful and full of chickens and turkeys, 4-H float!

 This old man was walking the parade route selling cotton candy!! LOL

 Hubby had fun driving, for his first time in a parade!

 We followed a firetruck during the route.

The parade was great fun, and it was fun getting second place again! LOL There are always a lot of people at Camas days. This year was no exception! After the parade was over we had to go park and tear it all apart again. Bro in law and LeAnn took all the plants back, and we met back up at the house to drop the trailer. LeAnn has her "Horse Camp" with all her barn kids this week, so she will be busy busy!!
Hope you enjoyed the float! I think it turned out great.

Sneak peek! and the Camas Days Parade is Tomorrow!!!!

A quick sneak peek!!! We went up to Hubbys brothers today to put together the float!

Bro #2 and L, had picked up all the plants, now to just figure out how to arrange everything. We brought the giraffe and the snake! LOL

 Pete the Python, He is looking pretty uh, snake like? !! LOL LOL

 The signs that sis in law had made for the parade.

 She has a friend that works for someone, who worked at the zoo, and was able to get this zebra!!! He is pretty cool
 The view from the back! Can you spot the characters?

 Front view!

 A close up of the monkeys!!! They turned out cute!!!

More to come!!!

Fishing wash out.....or not so much

Well Hubby and I wanted to go fishing for trout Wednesday, we drove 190 miles, and didnt get to wet a line. We were so disappointed. The places we took the kids when they were little are no longer accessible. Goose lake, it is way to overgrown to even think about fishing from the bank now, only if you have a belly boat, or a row boat can you fish there now. Swift reservoir, well there is so much construction there now that there is only the boat launch and about 50 feet of shoreline. It was really depressing. We havnt been trout fishing for a few years, and boy have things changed. We are without a boat right now so we havnt been able to do that either. I did get a few pretty pictures though!!!
The wildflowers were all in bloom, I dont know what these are called, but we seen wild tiger lilys, Foxglove, Lupine, and many others.

 Blue flowers are my favorite. This is the area around Goose lake, it is a volcanic area. This area is covered by an old lava flow.

 It is very very rugged country, if you get lost out here, navigation devices, like compass', dont work! Because of all the iron in the rocks it causes them to go haywire. Quite a few people have been lost in this area (usually Chinese or Vietnamese bear grass pickers) they usually dont find them until the next year.

 This is Goose lake. It is a beautiful lake, maybe around 10 acres, I would guess. A few years back we had a dry Spring and Summer (yes we do occasionally!!! LOL) and the lake was almost dry, there is a great big volcanic hole in the center of this lake where water comes in and or in the case of that year drains out!!! It was something to see, I shall have to find a photo of it then and add it onto this post.

 This is really rugged country!

 They were supposed to stock trout into this lake around June 15th, they were not able to get in to stock it until June 29th, because of the snow pack!!! It just was not accessible!!

 We then thought we would drive over the mtns. the check out Swift Creek Reservoir, where we used to fish all the time. We stopped at a Mt. St. Helens lookout point, to eat lunch, on the way. Really she is there, buried in the clouds!

 Trying to get pics of the kids on the rock wall! LOL LOL

Finally somewhat of a pose!!! LOL

 Ooooo there she is! trying to peek out!!

Still very magnificent, even though you can only see half of her!

This is the South side of the Mt. when she blew in 1980, she blew to the North and East. 

Well I got a few pictures anyway. We are really going to have to do our homework and figure out where to go fishing at. We both want some smoked trout!!!! Gosh darn it!!!!!

Deer in the yard....

We had visitors in the yard yesterday. I just caught them out of the corner of my eye when I headed out to feed the horses. So I ran and grabbed by camera.

Peek a boo, I see you!! LOL

 Now I kinda see you! LOL

 There you are.

This little guy was still on the other side of the fence. He is trying to bite an apple, took him awhile to finally chomp down on it!!

 Sheesh the electric fence didnt even faze him. The center line isnt hot, only the top and bottom. Maybe it should be!

 This is why they are called Black tailed deer. There are four species of deer in Washington. The Black tail being the most common, there are Mule deer on the East side of the state, and also White tails, and down close to the coast in a protected area we have a small population of Columbia White tails.

I ran back into the house because I forgot the memory chip for the camera, left it in the computer. While I was inside something spooked them, maybe the fence bit the little guy! LOL LOL But they came right back.

 They had a good old time munching on the apple trees. This doesnt bother me because they need a good pruning.

 Funny how she kept an eye on me.

And I finally got a good look at the little guys future horns. He looks like he will be a small forked horn.

I went out to feed and I had to fill the water trough. While I was waiting for that, the little brats got into my garden, such as it is, LOL. So I had to chase them away, which was easier said than done! They were not really afraid of me, I had to throw stones at them to get them to leave.

Easy was watching them too! LOL the other two were busy waiting for their dinner, or they probably would have chased them away! Easy well, she is non confrontational and pretty soon she turned around and went back to her herd mates! LOL Usually the horses keep them ran off, but we have new neighbors and the old place where they would feed under the neighbors fruit trees is now fenced off. I bet we will be seeing more of them!!! I dont mind, as long as they stay out of the garden and roses!!!!