Thursday, July 23, 2015

Bees, brambles, and birthdays

Bees!!! Ziggy and Ziva were in the back, so they got the brunt of it. Poor Ziva was scared and wouldn't come on the trail with us. I kept having to stop, get off, and get her. Finally, she just lay down and wouldn't come. Shirley had a birthday party Redding and Lynn had town errands, so they both said we could call it a day. We barely got past the dump.

Sunday, Lynn and I rode again. I was worried that Ziva wouldn't come. In my head, I went over all kinds of scenarios--most of them with her not coming riding anymore. :( But she was a trooper. We went for a good ride and she was right there on Jupiter's "6." We had a great ride.

Yesterday, Haley came up lame. She wouldn't put her back foot down. Lynn and her co-workers tried to muzzle her and hold her and use the big spotlight to try to find the problem, but she would not let them. Lynn took her to the vet who could not find anything either. She asked if maybe Haley got in the brambles. :) Ha! Among other things! She was walking better while she was there--hopefully, today she is fine. She's has to have good feet--we've got riding to do!

Today, Thursday, July 23, is Ziva's second birthday! I have been so blessed to have her. She is a good girl. I brought her home in September of 2013 and she has made my life so much better. I think that is why the loss of my jewelry has been less traumatic. Yes it is a terrible feeling to know someone came into my house and took my things--special and irreplaceable things--but still, things. It could have been worse. I live a very blessed and fortunate life--they can't take that away.

Sunday, July 12, 2015

Bee eradication & happy days

Pictures

I almost feel guilty that I am so happy. :) We have ridden every weekend and it has been great! The weather is cool and we have even been misted on. The horses are in pretty good shape and ready to go every day. We have been traveling with wasp spray and no one has been stung or gotten too crazy. Today we filled up three nests. We filled up one a few weeks ago, but somehow they have moved into another site nearby, so we made a trail around it until we find the new nest. So far, so good! One funny note--I always laugh as I ride behind Lynn and Shirley because they have the same posture. The other day it was even funnier: Lynn had her shirt off her left shoulder like it does sometimes and I'll be darned if Shirley's wasn't too. It was at the same exact angle and the exact same amount of shoulder showing, alone with the same hand on the same hip, and both bodies canted to the left. Yepper--they are cut from the same cloth. :)

Friday we tried a new thing. Something Lynn and I aren't very good at (Alisa is much, much better at it)--we met the Back County Horsemen Association up at Stanshaw. It was a working week and weekend for the Redwood chapter. We introduced ourselves, but they weren't overly welcoming. :) We explained that it was our idea to "pay back" by working on a trail since we used them, too. The men began talking to us and sharing stories, but most of the women didn't have too much to do with us. I told Lynn they probably thought we weren't really worthy since we had on our good shirts and pants without holes in them. :)

When we walked back to the trailer, Zigs was untied and eating the alfalfa he had pulled out of the trailer. I'm sure Jupes was not happy that he hadn't untied him, too. Lynn had told Ziggy to look good, we were meeting new people, but he had his tongue out when we walked them up to the camp. One silly looking man who had no room to talk in my book said, "He's got his tongue out!" Imagine it in kind of a Gomer Pile kind of way.

The people we talked to first thing, had been there a week and working hard, too. They had many bee stories that scared me. Mules on their backs, horses running into stobs that left big holes in their heads. By the look of horror on my face, I'm sure they thought I was unworthy for sure. Then we finally decided we would just go out by ourselves--best decision ever! So in our spurs now, we clomped back up to their camp (by now more were up!) and said we would go in and trim chaparral and see Monument Lake. They said it's 8 or 9 miles---ONE WAY. We just smiled and said okay. Then of course later they saw us ride by with HELMETS on. Sheesh, we must have looked like arena riders, for sure. :)

Anyway, we had the best day. Although Shirley says it's a dude trail, I loved it. (I guess I'm still a dude.) There was lots of water for the boys to drink and green grass to eat. We saw fish in the creek and two deer. We stopped on top of the ridge and looked at the lake. It was good enough for me. (I had already figured that maybe we would just go home after our ride.) We ate a little lunch, the boys took a nap, and we watched the clouds roll by. It was incredibly nice. I loved every minute of it.

Then we headed out. To pay our dues, we stopped at a long stretch of chaparral and trimmed the trail. It was somewhat productive and somewhat funny and somewhat not so productive. Ziggy kept grabbing the branches that Lynn threw over the trail and brought them back on to it. Jupiter would grab my shirt and pull it up, like "get a move on." Lynn would yell at Zigs and he would back in to me and then turn and look at me like, "Sheesh, look out, you're in my personal space." It was funny. We got back on and although we came to a stretch that really needed it, we said, "Next time!" We decided we would trim going in next time. :)

If we thought Zigs was on fast walk going in--it was nothing like the one going out. Once when Jupes was leading, he took off trotting fast and then the trail turned and he almost stopped and he swung his head and looked back at me. I think he was thinking he was heading into a great big green meadow of fresh grass, but then the trail turned and he felt like I tricked him. What a bummer.

Between the two of them, we moved out pretty fast coming out. It was about 4:30-5:00. Lynn thinks we left about 10. So 16 miles-ish in six hours, plus eating and trimming and letting the horses graze. I think the people were surprised to see us and I don't know about Lynn, but I know I had a big ol' grin on my face because I was so happy about our day.

We walked back up to say good bye and see ya later, they were surprised we were leaving. They were a lot more friendly and welcoming. I think I would do it again. I might even go to a meeting! Some of the guys were great fun and had good stories. I think they would warm up to us. There's so much more to tell. . . like one of their members passed away and they put her ashes right by the sign. Pretty cool. Two dogs got in a fight right underneath me and Lynn as our picture was being taken. Kind of funny. One guy kept getting in my personal bubble and I nearly tripped over the lady president's walker trying to keep a comfortable distance. Lynn said, "I wondered what you were doing." So anyway--a good day and a good weekend of riding (3 days!!).

AND driving on the way out, we saw a bear. Lynn is much better than me, she got a whole sentence out, "Look at that guy moving out!" or some such thing; all I could do was shout, "BEAR!" It was awesome.