Video of the Week - Week 20 - Ruby is Weaned

This shows a little more horse play between Butters and Prince but also shows a little bit of Ruby's reaction to finally being weaned from her Momma.  It actually went pretty smoothly - this was the most she reacted.

Project 365 Days 135-141

Day 135 - May 15

We had a gazillion boxes that had been piling up since Christmas and we finally found a free night when the ground was moist and there was little wind to have a bonfire and get rid of some trash.  The girls love to help!

Day 136- May 16

With the heat of summer, I'm up early 5 mornings of the week to ride.  Love my Parelli Fluidity saddle.  I hear they are close to taking orders for their new jumping saddle.  Can't wait!  I've got to start saving my bucks!

Day 137 - May 17

The dog days of summer are approaching fast!  Makes me tired just thinking about it!

Day 138 - May 18

I loved this book as a child and I couldn't pass up buying Ava a copy.  She loves it too ;-)

Day 139 - May 19

It was Ava's Play/Field Day at school and she had a blast!  In this game, they had to carry all these items to the end of the line, then put them on and run back wearing everything! Love how this girl jumps into life and isn't afraid to have fun!

Day 140 - May 20

Amelia got a bug barn as part of her end of the year party bag at Mother's Day Out.  She was so excited to find a bug (and she found a nice large black beetle - YUCK!) to put inside it.  Hope that beetle likes cheese because that's what those large orange blocks are ;-)

Day 141 - May 21

It was a hazy, wet morning when the sun came up but with the water in the air reflecting so much, it made it look like a nuclear bomb just went off in Decatur!  It seems logical that the next few frames would show the mushroom cloud forming as the nuclear blast cools and dims.  Freaky.

Video of the Week - Week 19 - Sleepy Baby

This baby is sooo cute!  I've felt this sleepy before too ;-)

Project 365 Days 128-134

Day 128 - May 8

The last day of the Colt Starting seminar started with Pat giving his last EVER public performance on Magic, his super-mare.  She is 20 years old and he is retiring her to Atwood Farms in California to be bred.  It was of course a super performance and I did get a little teary - but I included this picture (taken at the end of their performance) because Pat took his hat off and you rarely see him like that!  He has a good head of hair - I think he should go hat-less more often.  And he's also lost quite a bit of weight lately - I think he's looking pretty good!

Day 129 - May 9

We're still having our spring storms and there was quite a lightening show that rolled in with this storm!  I love how it looks like the clouds just opened up a hole to shoot that lightening out!

Day 130 - May 10

And along with rain storms comes lots of rainbows!!  This one is hard to see in the picture, but it looked like the rainbow ended right in our front pasture.  Ava really wanted to go down and look for the pot of gold!

Day 131 - May 11

The cloudy weather hung around through the next morning and gave this moody, dark sunrise.  

Day 132 - May 12

This was a pretty eventful week weather-wise!  This was a cool anvil-shaped cloud that developed right around sunset.  We ended up getting a good soaking form this storm too.

Day 133 - May 13

And here is our Rosie again.  She sure is fitting in well here.  

Day 134 - May 14

Finally the stormy weather had rolled out.  It was a cool evening, under a full moon.  The kids were in bed and it was perfect weather to enjoy a movie out in the hot tub!

Video of the Week - Week 18 - Barking Cat

This is pretty funny - this crafty cat was trying to get the dog in trouble for barking too much (I think ;-)

Project 365 Days 121-127

Day 121 - May 1

While this picture is blurry (still trying to learn my settings), I like how I caught Tommy running with all 4 feet in the air.  He's a little out of shape here but I love to see him run and play.

Day 122 - May 2

Here's dear old Belle.  She's 25 years old now and showing every year, unfortunately.  Her teeth are pretty much shot.  She's on an all grain/mush diet now and it's difficult to keep weight on her.  I fear for the winter.  But for now, she's happy and loves to graze on the back pastures (even though she doesn't ingest much of it).

Day 123 - May 3

Here's our cutie-patootie Amelia.  Ava's class had a field trip to this cute little zoo in Gainesville.  In front of the zoo is a nice, large playground that everyone had fun playing on when I caught this shot.

Day 124 - May 4

  

So today was the actual day of the field trip.  I snapped this picture of several of the animals at the zoo.  Can you spot the really wild animals in the mix?

Day 125 - May 5

This is one of our gorgeous sunrises, straight out of my camera.  I love how the water tower and the county courthouse are silhouetted so strongly on the horizon against the bright pink sky.

Day 126 - May 6

I was so excited to attend the Colt Starting seminar that Pat Parelli gave this weekend in Fort Worth.  Wow.  Did I learn a lot!  And most of it was just by sitting and observing the 8 or so of Pat's students work with about 16 different colts and how they started them.  Pat really broke it down in to a few simple steps and to see his students apply those with different horses was so educational!  There were some 'exciting' moments (as you can tell from this picture) but these were the most educational, in my opinion, because you started to learn what to do when things don't go as planned or hoped ;-)

Day 127 - May 7

The next day of the Colt Starting seminar had a sliver of time for Linda to come out and speak about horsenalities and how you sometimes change your methods based on your horse's personality.  She also was able to introduce two new horses - one which will most likely replace Remmer, her warmblood that she had to retire early this year due to an injury.  That's Hot Jazz on the left and Linda is riding West Point.  The girl riding Hot Jazz is Linda's "personal assistant" (for lack of a better term).  She gets to work side by side with Linda everyday, including helping her to exercise and train her horses.  If I were only 20 years younger...