Road trip in the Farm Truck

We decided to take a road trip in the ol' Ford.  My brother and his fiancé joined us in there 1965 Ford.  The guys planned it all out, booked rooms and picked the days.  Friday after work, we left town and headed for Grand Junction, Colorado.

Colorado bound





The drive to Junction was nice, warm but nice.  We got there ate dinner, had a few drinks and hit the sack.  The next morning we got up early and got on the road.  Eager to go see the sights.  We headed to Gateway, Colorado.  If you haven't been there its worth the drive to check out.  It's a beautiful drive down through farm land surrounded by mountains. The owner of Discovery Chanel put a car museum in Gateway and it is worth checking out.



Gateway Canyon, Highway 141

Gateway Auto Museum

The Gateway Auto Museum has a nice collection of cars through out time.  They are always adding new cars to the collection and have some awesome vintage signs and displays.

After the stop at the car museum we continued on our way... reaching our destination of Ouray, Colorado in the late afternoon.  I love Ouray.  We go there once or twice a year.  It's a beautiful town and we always seem to enjoy ourselves.  We stayed at the Black Bear Manor, a quaint little bed and breakfast.  We went shopping on Main Street (I bought my first cowgirl hat), had a few shots at the local pub (where no cell phones are allowed) and dinner at the Mexican restaurant, Buen Tiempo.  We had the waitress stick a dollar bill on the ceiling so that Haley could see it done. 

We decided to continue our drinking at the Black Bear and played have you ever.  Gees that was good entertainment!  Learned a few new things about my husband, brother and Haley.  On Sunday morning we ate yummy breakfast and went over to Silverton.  The Million Dollar Highway is stunning.  I love that drive!  

 

After all the sight seeing we decided it was time to head home.  On our way home... the heater in the ol' Ford decided to kick on and stay on.  I thought we were going to roast!  It was 100 degrees outside and the heater was stuck on. 

All in all it was a really good trip!  The ol' Fords did well (except for the heater).  Can't wait to go back to Ouray!

At war with my Chickens

I adore my chickens, but they are eating my flowers up like crazy.  I've been at war with my chickens all spring/summer.  I sit outside and spray them with the hose when they get close to my flowers.  They especially like my Hosta plants for some reason. 



I've had enough of them eating my flowers and decided that I needed a fence.  This way they can stay in the "jungle" and free range all they want with out eating my flowers.  I've thought of a fence since I first got my chickens 2 years ago but I decided that it was go time.  

I really wanted the old style chain link fence.  Which has a few names that it goes by, ornamental wire fencing, scalloped fencing, double looped fencing... But it is hard to find.  I scoured the internet looking for a good deal on some.  I finally found some through Hutchinson and even though its expensive I decided that I had to have it.  I opted for the easiest way possible to put it up, fence posts.  I spray painted the fence posts white and Rick put the fence up.

I found the gate while I was on a bicycle ride along the canal.  It was buried in a trash pile and barely sticking out.  But I knew I had to have it.  The next day I went and got the Rhino and my Dad and went and picked it up.  I was glad my Dad went with me because it was heavier than I was expecting.  I love the fence.  I love the gate.  I love that it doesn't block the view but keeps the chickens out of my flowers.  I absolutely love it!  It turned out perfect!

My hosta's and flowers love it too!

 

Laying Sunny Down

I showed up for lessons without knowing what was on the agenda.  Shana was with another student so I went in the corrals and got Sunny.  This part is getting easy.  Sunny comes to me with eagerness and loves to be loved on.  I took her down to the arena where I was met by 3 young kids and I was surprised to see that Shana's student was about 5.  Haha!  Gee's I felt old. 

Anyhow... I worked with Sunny while Shana finished up.  She did everything as I asked.  I knew it was going to be a good night.  Shana informed me we were going to work on laying Sunny down with the help of her husband Greg.  I watched as Greg and Shana tied Sunny up.  Her front left foot was tied up into her body while they tied another rope around her front right foot and up and around her body. 



Poor Sunny!  She didn't know what to think.  Trying to get out of the situation she kicked and reared up.  But she finally gave in and to my surprise after a bit of work she laid down.  Greg laid on top of her and she slowly began to relax.  Eventually letting out a big sigh... and then another.  Then they untied her legs and let her get up on her own time.

Then it was my turn to join in all the fun.  Shana tied and I held the lead rope.  As Shana was tying Sunny was already trying to kneel down, making it that much harder to get the rope around her feet.   She eventually went down and we loved on her and I laid on her.  When it was time for her to get up she didn't move.  She just laid there relaxed.  We had to put the pressure on her to get up.  We do everything in threes... which meant she needed to do it one more time.  The third time I had to do it by myself (with Shana's guidance and help of course), Sunny went down pretty easy and I loved on her some more. 

When it was time for her to get up, she went half way, I got on Sunny's back and she stood the rest of the way up.  It was awesome!  I didn't even fall off!  Tonight's lesson was amazing. 

My Babies (dogs)

Yep, I'm one of those people that consider their dogs their kids.  I love my dogs. 

I got Gracie when I was 19.  She's my baby.  I lived by myself and decided I wanted a dog to keep my company.  My parents had 2 shelties so I decided that is what I wanted too.  She was an adorable little fluff ball when I picked her out from the crazy German lady. I loved her instantly, but I'm not going to lie it was hard to get used to having a puppy.  She does what she wants and has since day one.  She is my traveling partner, my room mate and my friend.  She's quirky and she doesn't like anyone.  She hides from little kids and she only eats when I'm home.  Strangely enough she is becoming friendlier in her "old age" and now likes a select few people, including Rick. 

Gracie

Rick wanted a big dog.  We adopted Lucy from the Humane Society in Casper, Wyoming.  We went to the pound and looked around.  It was so sad.  There were so many dogs there I almost cried.  Rick and Uncle Bob picked Lucy out.  She was one of the only dogs that didn't bark when you walked by.  We had a little bit of a rough start with Lucy.  She jumped out of the car window on the way home from Casper.  Her and Gracie did not get along one bit.  In fact Lucy bit Gracie the first week we had her.  I wanted to give her away. No on hurts Gracie and gets away with it.  Needless to say we had a rough start with Lucy.

Lucy

After quite some time Gracie and Lucy started to get a long and I fell in love with Lucy.  She is a good dog.  Everyone loves her, including Gracie.  They complete each other.  Lucy listens, Gracie does what she wants.  Gracie likes to play fetch, Lucy likes to steal the toys.  Gracie likes to ride in the back of the truck, Lucy likes to ride up front.  One thing they both have in common is they both love attention!

Our Happy Little Family

Gelding

Now that we have a mare we decided that we need another horse.  My husband is dead set that he has to have a gelding that he can name Darrell.  Go figure.  Darrell of all names.  I have been looking and keeping my eye out for a large gelding that is broke and well behaved.  We went and looked at one here but Rick was not impressed.  I found one to go look at in Park City, he's tall, black and broke.  We were going to go out on a Saturday, I called to make sure he was still available but nope, he had sold him the night before.  So the hunt for a gelding continues.

We looked at this horse (Photo courtesy of Facebook)

Being new to horses, I had one question for Shana about geldings... Is it going to be bad to put a mare and gelding together?  She said they should get a long just fine... but that's not what I meant.  I was wondering if putting a female and male in the same field would mean we would have baby horses to deal with... she kept a straight face but I think she wanted to laugh at me.  Keep in mind I'm horse dumb.  This is a big learning process for me but she informed me that a gelding is a "fixed" horse and that he won't be making babies with Sunny. Phewwwww! Good to know. 

I've been having a hard time finding a gelding around here.  There seems to be a lot of mares for sale but not nearly as many geldings.  I have found a lot of them on the Wasatch Front, but we can only go on the weekends and it seems like they are all sold before we can get out there to look at them.  The other problem is it is going to be Ricks horse so I feel like he needs to pick it out and because of his work schedule / play schedule we have a hard time making time to go look for a horse.

Hopefully this weekend we will get a chance to go check a few of them out.