1 April 2017

Ignoble Dismount

We have been making a habit of sorting out the pairs of Fridays. Tanna comes over and we spend most of the day horseback. Sometimes we even have enough energy to work with Rusty afterwards, not very often though. Today was different. Today her brother was going to a branding with his horse and would have the trailer on. She was able to convince him to bring her horse over. Then he decided to come play too!

With Tanna riding her horse that left Princess Onna free for The Goblin Child to ride. I bundled her up toasty warm, long underwear, scarf, hat under her helmet. Last time she got cold and wanted to go ride in the payloader with her father. Last time she was riding double with me on Coyote, I must admit it was easier without her help as much as we enjoyed it.

Tanna’s horse is Jerry. Jerry was my mare that I showed on a decade ago this year, time does fly. It was nice to see her again. She and Tanna are doing very well together. Her brothers horse is a big young quarter horse. A sorrel to match the other two, Coyote and Jerry. We were all nicely matched, he is a flaxen even, except Princess Onna of course.

The Goblin Child and Princess Onna did very well together. T.G.C. even enjoyed the trotting we had to do to get around a couple of calves. But soon enough she got cold. Apparently I didn’t bundle her up enough. It wasn’t entirely a bad thing Princess Onna isn’t the funnest horse to pony and combined with the deep mud in places having them along mad life a little difficult. It was great the she got to come as long as she did though.

There were quite a few calves born over the last week and with all of us out there we made quick work of them. My cow hating husband was working mostly on foot as his dad rode around on the four-wheeler with 8 in front. I would wave at 8 as he went by and, from his position laying down on the gas tank, he would grin back at me.

There are lots of gates. Lots and lots of gates. They would be more convenient for me with horse friendly latches. This is a four-wheeler outfit though and being handy for me would mean unhandy for those guys on their four-wheelers. Opening and closing these gates from a horse requires leaning way down off the side and spending lots of time fiddling with chains run down, around, or over.

I should mention that my cinch is never tight. Coyote and I consider touching his stomach to be tight enough, and that’s at the start of the ride. I lent him to a guy once, and only once, who threw his saddle on and yanked the cinch tight. In protest Coyote threw himself to the ground. He is clear in expressing his opinions.

I was heading back to the others and pulled the gate closed behind us. It latched in a corner, requiring a horse to curve into the corner to reach. I leaned over and stretched. Despite my constantly loose cinch even corner gates aren’t usually a problem, as long as I pay close attention to balance. I was leaned clear out reaching to wrap the chain around another gate and I felt my saddle shift. I pushed back but it was too late. I was up against the fence so I just grabbed hold, no problem. I hooked an arm over the guard rail and hung on. It dug into my side a little, hurting just a bit. I rearranged and pulled my feet out of the stirrups. Or tried. My mud boot was well wedged. Not stuck hard but I was right up against him and didn’t have room to pull if it didn’t slide out easy. I finally wriggled around enough to get both feet on the ground and keep my saddle from ending up clear under his belly.

Now my saddle was well stuck on his side. I glanced up once in a while to see if everyone was watching my fiasco. They appeared to be busy. The cinch wasn’t tight enough to hold the saddle on but was to tight to let me pull it back up. I yanked and tugged then went around to the other side and repeated. He wanted back to the others and was done standing still. As he circled I tried to loosen my cinch without letting it fall into the deep mud. I pulled then went around and pushed, finally it rolled back to the top. I snugged the cinch up, a little and climbed on.

I thought no more about it until afternoon as I rested during the kids naps. My side hurt. I ignored it but it kept getting sorer. I asked my not horse person husband if there was a bruise there or something? He was horrified, there was definitely a bruise. A big one. As not a horse person he can never understand why I love something that causes pain more often than not. I was rather impressed that my brief moment of hanging on the guard rail, apparently the sharp edge of it, left such a beautiful purple bruise.

It was a good day though we got most of the calves out and put Tanna’s brother to good use. It didn’t even rain on us!

 

Category: Cows, Family, Horses | LEAVE A COMMENT
27 March 2017

A Chilly Spring Day

After church, and lunch, I took the children to the park so their father could take a sanity break at Walmart. Someone needed to get groceries.

 

 

 

Once home we took naps! I rode Rusty, out into the corner of the pivot. He was very good. My hard working husband finished mowing the lawn. After naps they wanted to fly a kite.

 

After that, because it was so nice out? Because they are insane? They ran through the sprinkler for awhile.

It was a busy cold spring day.

Category: 8, Family, Goblin Child | 1 Comment on A Chilly Spring Day
25 March 2017

Reading, Riding and ‘Rithmatic

Not that there’s any reading in this one but we do that all the time. I wanted to show what The little Goblin Child usually rides like. When her world is not collapsing because her lead rope is the wrong color. She’s such a good little rider. Tanna and I were going out to sort some pairs and she wanted to come with us instead of riding in the pay loader with her father. Unfortunatly she faced the same delima as last time. Her horse or her saddle. She chose her saddle and was going to get on behind me on Coyote.
I put her up and let her ride by herself through the gates. In the first pen I turned her loose, she had been loose the whole time so I guess I chased Coyote away from me. He was glued to my shoulder begging me to save him from small children.

We have been working with 8 on very simple counting for awhile now. How many eyes do you have? One, two, two eyes. While swinging at the park the other day I decided to try to teach counting the way I did with The Goblin Child, I would count to three as he repeated after me then at three I would let the swing go.

He was getting it. He counted to three once. I frantically grabbed for my phone, tried to figure out how to hold it and catch him at the same time. And he never did it again. Dang kids. He got kind of close though and looked cute doing it, that’s a start.

 

Category: 8, Goblin Child, Horses | 1 Comment on Reading, Riding and ‘Rithmatic
20 March 2017

The Pink Lead Rope

It was the last nice day. I caught Princess Onna and Coyote and saddled Princess Onna so we could go out for a nice ride. At first it went well.

The Goblin Child’s beautiful pink lead rope is long, very long, longer than what is really useful. I traded lead ropes. Coyotes shorter green rope would be easier not to get tangled in and to keep from dragging while ponying. The long pink lead rope would work fine as reins for me and 8 on Coyote, I would just tie a bigger knot to take up some of the length. It seemed simple.

Then this started as soon as we got through the gate into the cattle and she noticed.

 

I was going to take her over to a fence line, set her down and tell her to walk home after I switched lead ropes and gave her the stupid pink one. It’s not that easy a thing to switch with two squirming children and prancey horses, so I tried to ignore her. By the time we got back to the corrals it had progressed to this

 

When we got back to the house I switched lead ropes so she had the pink one. She sat on Onna and balled. I turned 8 loose with Coyote and had at least one happy child until he fell on his little butt. Then there were two screamers.

 

Why do I even try?

Category: 8, Goblin Child, Horses | 1 Comment on The Pink Lead Rope
17 March 2017

A Great Gift

8 has been climbing out of his crib. He is quite nonchalant about it most of the time. He’ll saunter out of his room in the morning, look around and say hi. When things don’t go smoothly is when there is a problem. He has fallen rather dramatically twice now. Twice was enough for us to decide to do away with the tall crib rail. Over the long spring break weekend we converted the crib to a toddler bed.

The next two nights my loving and supportive husband was gone. He will tell you it wasn’t on purpose. I’m sure it wasn’t, work is work after all. Maybe, I declared it an excuse to get away from children who wont sleep.

The third night he had had enough of my ribbing and promised he was going to be home. I clung to that. So when he was fifteen minutes late and still no word from him I went ahead and fed the children. I was starting to get a little grouchy. In the scheme of things it wasn’t that late but I was tired and sore and not in the mood to be reasonable.

When he came in the door, not even half an hour late I made a great attempt to be civil. The children had scarfed down what food they were going to eat and I was ready to start the battle to get them into bed. They had skipped naps and had entered that crazed, overly tired stage. But I sat down with my hard working husband, tired too from a couple of late nights at work and we talked as he ate ignoring the rotten children and what ever they may have been destroying upstairs.

After eating he went up and ran a bath, scented with lavender, and insisted I soak and relax. I protested but my will to resist was weak. He then prepared both children for bed and fought them into their beds and to sleep. All while I relaxed in a hot bath. What a man.

 

Hard at work
Category: Family, It's a God thing | 1 Comment on A Great Gift
14 March 2017

Life Lessons

We all piled on the four-wheeler and rode along to check the cows. As soon as we pulled into the corrals, there was a cow about to calve. We sat and watched, the children were hilarious. 8 kept saying baby, baby, baby. The Goblin Child was full of questions, most of which you can hear in the video.

I have more video of her cleaning him up later it is >here<.

 

Category: 8, Cows, Family, Goblin Child | LEAVE A COMMENT
11 March 2017

Welcome To The Terrible Two’s

The first birthday party we planned was canceled on account of snow. The next try went much better.
We got the bouncy houses, otherwise known as the refuge, for the evening. A very carefully scheduled evening. It is booked solid and you get exactly the amount of time you reserve. There was another party immediately following ours and another after that.

We had only invited a few families but by the time whole families come it makes for a large crowd. With the bouncy houses there was room for all and I didn’t have to clean house! Plus the kids like it, I guess that’s a bonus.

With only our group there, the need for decorum and acting like an adult was gone and the grown ups might have enjoyed it just as much as the children. We all got in on it, bouncing like idiots and plunging down the slides.

 

It was a great night and The goblin Child was very jealous and plans to have her party there this summer.

Category: 8 | 2 Comments on Welcome To The Terrible Two’s
11 March 2017

The Blog Is Back

It was out of commission temporarily while it got moved to a new server. But it’s back and better than ever.

I need to get 8’s birthday written about but first, well, I may be a bad mother.

I let him out the door then tried to hurry his sister after. She is impossible to hurry. I peeked out the door to check on him and heard screams. It scared me half to death until I saw the reason for his screams.

Category: 8 | 1 Comment on The Blog Is Back
24 February 2017

A Little Snow For 8’s Birthday

It was only last night (or the night before that now) that we were out in jackets, at sunset, going for a nice ride.

Today it snows. Lots of snow. In the drifts at least. I had been inside most of the day. 8 went to help feed and The Goblin Child and I went out to try to convince the horses to go into the barn. They didn’t stay of course. So we jumped at the chance to ride along to pick up the mail. I envisioned a fun jaunt through the drifts out to the mail box and back. Then we’d play outside for awhile.

In reality even the good old blazer had trouble getting going. Then we made it half way out the drive, with the ride going just as I had expected, before plowing into a drift and coming to an abrupt halt. At the top of the hill was a drift as high as the blazer, it’s bottom at least. We got stuck. Snow was backed in tight around the under carriage, it was not budging.

My brave and chivalrous husband walked back to get a tractor.

With the snowblower he dug his way back to us, pulled the blazer home. He and 8 went off to blow more snow while The Goblin Child and I went off to play in the snow. I don’t know how much we got, a foot maybe? It wasn’t too bad of a snow, nothing like our Christmas blizzard.

It was enough though that we cancelled 8’s birthday party. Poor little guy, they were looking forward to the bouncy houses. I think he is just as happy though out in the tractor this morning feeding cows and, probably, moving snow. We’ll try for the bouncy houses again next week.

Until then Happy Birthday 8!!

 

Category: 8 | 2 Comments on A Little Snow For 8’s Birthday