Spring is here! Wait, at least I think it is here...

The old saying is that "In Idaho, if you don't like the weather, wait five minutes; it'll change." That was never more true than the last two weeks. It has been crazy! For two days it was sunny and 70, followed by snow, wind, rain, thunder and hail - in one day!

So last week, my friend Theresa and I decided to head to Fort Collins, Colorado to pickup her boyfriend's one year old filly, Ruby. This little girl is freaking gorgeous! A daughter of the reining stallion, The Mighty Gambler; she will be a strong contender in the show pen in the coming years.

In the meantime though... this trip was a continuation of the bad weather that had been plaguing Idaho. We spent Tuesday night in Kellogg with Mauri's mom, Shelley; which we left bright and early intending to hit Fort Collins on Wednesday night. Well, all was good until at 75 miles per hour somewhere between there and Missoula I hit an ice patch and spent 30 seconds getting the truck and trailer straight again. I am quite confident I was no longer breathing, nor was my heart beating. Theresa woke out of her slumber long enough to say "what?" then went right back to snoozing; not so for me. If I had been sleepy at all I was now WIDE awake!

Next came the 6 inches of fresh snow on the top of the pass going into Bozeman, MT. Plus the fact that my windshield wipers had decided to take a hiatus and were no longer cleaning the drivers side of the windshield - Theresa could see just fine though, go figure.

So after Bozeman, the worst weather encountered was rain, and a gorgeous rainbow over the plateau's outside of Cheyenne. We made it into Fort Collins (actually Wellington) at about 8:30 and decided Subway sounded good for dinner. NOTE TO SELF AND OTHERS: do not stop at the Subway at the Wellington exit after 8:30 at night. They close at 9:00 pm, however we had to listen to 30 mintues of the sandwich "artist" complaining about how she was almost done cleaning the store and now she had customers and how hard it was to go to high school, raise two babies and work. We just wanted dinner after having been on the road for over 14 hours.

So, again bright and early we left Chase and Chelsi's (friends of Theresa) and headed to Windsor to get Miss Ruby. The drive home through Wyoming was almost as bad as the drive down through Montana. When we fueled up in Cheyenne it was so cold our fingers just about got frost bite putting the tarp over the hay in the back of the pickup. About Chugwater I noticed that our freezing fingers and hurried job had not been successful. I spent the next several miles looking for an exit with an underpass and access back the freeway. In the meantime I also noticed the 1+ inches of ice building up on the mirror's, antenna and windshield wipers. Finally finding an exit designed the way I wanted we stopped, unloaded the hay, retarped and were on our way again. Into some quite awesome Wyoming wind.

Bozeman found us spending the night in the dorms at the Montana State University - ahh to be in college again! Ruby spent the night at the barn of Theresa's friend, Laura. What a barn full of nice horses, good breeding, nice build and great attitudes. I must say if you are ever in the Bozeman area, you MUST eat at Stacey's in Gallatin Gateway -AMAZING!

Friday found us on our way home and finally enjoying some beautiful weather. Meanwhile Luke and Harley were at home taking care of Lady and the kitties. I was very glad to be home in my own, uncomfortable lumpy bed with my hubby near.

Saturday was our Latah County 4-H Horse Judging contest. I was asked to bring an English horse and rider so once again, Theresa and I were on the road. This time only to Potlatch though and with Lady. Theresa has been dying to ride Lady and while my little crab apple has gotten to be sooo much better this year than ever before, she is still a little crab apple. Poor Theresa! After not riding for over a week she had to spend half an hour utilizing every muscle in her legs to focus my girl on forward movement and positive attitude. Not sure Theresa will ever ride her again!

Luke as it always seems is working, but he has found some time in the past couple of weeks to get new tires and a leveling kit on his pickup. He also has been playing with his welding skills in rebuilding the back door of our horse trailer. I must say he has done an awesome job, the person who originally put the rear tack in, used three pieces of metal to construct the main beam and four or more pieces to build the rear door. Luke has pulled all of that out and put in solid pieces of metal that are now more secure, not too mention better looking!







Luke's higher ride and new tires

Tonight we spent an hour increasing the size of Lady's mini pasture and burning piles of brush from last fall. The grass is really growing and I had such plans of staying ahead on weed plucking, spraying and yard work. Don't see much hope for that at this point in the month, but next month is just around the corner so maybe I will be able to find more time then!

Just some of the nature's miracles Theresa and I encountered in our 23oo mile jaunt...


ICE

SNOW

RAIN
















RAINBOWS


FINALLY SUNNY!


OH, YEAH and FIRE!

Definately, describes us on this trip!

Snow, snow, snow

So this last week was been another oddly busy week, nothing really out of the ordinary; just the feeling that there is never enough time to get it all done.

We started out the week with extremely cold temperatures, such as negative 10 one night and a high of 14 the next day. I sure hope that March goes out like a lamb and am beginning to hope it is sooner rather than later! This past weekend was warmer which was nice.

I ended the week with the first horseback ride since last August, oh it was so nice to be back on my horse. However when I came home there was a terrible smell about a half mile from the house, so bad in fact that Theresa and I could smell it in the pickup! Luke had thought he would be nice and get hay and grain put out for Lady when she got home and feed the cats. Well he surprised the neighborhood skunk that seems to now be living in the barn... needless to say Luke spent an awful long time in the shower on Thursday evening!

Luke is working on a friend's trailer, improving his rusty welding skills. He is also sketching out a "road armour" type bumper for our pickup and the cardboard model is starting to look like it might actually be a successful project.

On Sunday I took a 4-Her to look for her first horse. I think we encountered every single type of weather you can in the pacific northwest! Snow, sleet, rain, hail, high winds and several times multiple combinations of the above. We started out literally almost at the Canadian border in Washington and worked our way back through Spokane and finally the fourth and last horse of the day in Rathdrum. Our routine was to mess with the horse a bit, saddle it and I would ride for a few minutes before putting my student on the horse. The first three were okay but I was still not feeling completely comfortable with them for her skill level. The last horse we looked at I speng all of 30 seconds before I felt, FINALLY we have got it. I put her up and we didn't see her or the horse for about thiry minutes while they went jogging off and around. She came back with a huge smile on her face and a great big nod to her mom. Oh, it was so good to see a youngster connect that way with a horse. They will make a great team for the next several years.

Luke stayed home and worked on his bumper and Craig's trailer. He is pretty excited to get two new horses in May. Bret (Luke's brother) has two mares that he wants to pass on so they will be coming up soon - hopefully we will be able to finish our fences before they get here! He is also pretty excited that this is the first year in about 5 that our taxes are not only under $2,000 they are also under $50! Which of course is fine with me.

Ta Ta For Now all!

Finally out of the construction phase...

After several months of this blog being blank, I decided to take it on. Hopefully I will be able to schedule more time to keep this up so, check back often for more! :-) Luke is in the shop playing with his toys and I am on the couch with the computer again. It seems to be a never ending story.

As of March 1, I am working full-time for the Latah County Youth Advocacy Council, which will be nice. I have been working three-quarter time for them since 2o05 however, this year the comp-time is really adding up. It has become apparent that 32 hours per week is not enough when I am racking up over 50 hours in an average week. I pointed out to my boss that although adding 8 hours per week won't make a significant dent in the comp-time at least I will have less stress from working at two part-time jobs in the same office.

Luke still really enjoys his job working for JJ Building Supply as a delivery driver, however the current economy has not been generous to the home building industry. He took on a second job on Saturdays as a delivery driver for Furniture Center here in Moscow and really enjoys it as well.

I also added cleaning of the JJ store in Colfax to my to do lists on top of work and 4-H. Yes I am still involved in 4-H (it's an addiction for me, I know!). The kids in our club are amazing and remind me every day why I do the work I do with LCYAC and 4-H. They keep me in the moment, on my toes and laughing.

All the kiddo's (yes they are four-legged) Lady (my 21 year old Arabian), Harley (our 4 year old Jack Russell Terrier), Bobby & Tommy (my 18 year old kitties) are doing well and have so far survived the winter. I am not sure I can say the same for our basement at this point. Luke has been running the sump pump four hours per day and is barely keeping up with the amount of water filling the rooms down there. Between the melting snow and pouring rain, I am surprised we have not floated away yet!

Well there will be more here shortly, although I have to warn you this may be the longest post you will see on here!

Ill get more on here when I get time.

Under Snow and Under Construction