Back From Vacation

We are finally back from our vacation in Hawaii. John and I really enjoyed our trip but we were both very glad to get back home too. It felt so good to go out and visit with all of my critters, my poor dog missed me. Everything went pretty well here while we were gone with many thanks to all of the people that came out every day to feed, clean etc. we could not have enjoyed our trip without their help.

Today's picture is a cool sillouette that I got out at Wikiki Beach while waiting for the sunset

Having fun in Hawaii

A mongoose at Hanauma Bay


A plover that visited while we sun bathed


Hanauma Bay, we spent all day out there snorkling and sun soaking. We saw millions of amazingly colorful fish and sea turtles


A good sunset we caught at Wikiki Beach


The surfer dudes (John and Tom) comming in


Yes, another bird.


Playing with the boogie boards


Theresa wipes out face first!


Tom Clowing around


The fire dancer




Germain's Luau


Before the Luau


Our first sunrise in Hawaii


Teresa braving the waves


A sea turtle swimming just below our room



A museum we visited, the name of it escapes me.


Looking down at a lighthouse from the top of Diamond Head


The view from the top of Diamond Head


A cute little bird that joined our picnic


An extreme zoom into the sand.


Sunset Friday night


A cute little red bird


Tom playing in the sunset


A little beach crab that visited

The funny things that kids say.

Last week I had to go out on a follow up cruelty investigation with one of the local Sheriffs. I had to take Riley with me because I didn't have anyone to watch him for me. I tried to drop him off at my mom's but he started bawling and said he didn't want to go to Great Grandma's. When I asked him why not he said, "Because she's too old for me!" Dang it was hard to not fall over laughing!

So, off we go to meet up with the Sheriff and since I had a child in a car seat Riley and I just followed him out to the site. The poor Sheriff got confused on the road and had to turn around 3 different times on the way there. The third time he turned around Riley said, "Grandma, that crazy cop is yost again!" I laughed so hard I just about went off the road.

You've got to love those brutally honest little kids with speech impediments.

The Dog and Pony Show

Fuzzy Horse "Hey, get away from my food"
Dog Twin - "I'm just trying to keep the barn clean, honest. Look, a camera!"
Cat in Background - "Everyone look, Dog Twin is getting in trouble!"


Fuzzy horse "Seriously, GET AWAY" ----
Dog Twin - "How about if I don't watch you eat? Then can I stay?"
Cat in Background, "Ha ha, stupid dog won't leave fuzzy horse alone."


Fuzzy Horse "Leave or I will bite you!"
Dog Twin - "Oh alright I'm LEAVING!"
Cat in Background - "snicker"


There is where doing rescue can be fun. I have this DARLING 4 month old mini colt and the dog likes to "help" him eat his breakfast and dinner. Stormy (the horse) will pin his ears and stomp his feet at Toby (the dog) but Toby doesn't care, she just sits there waiting for the occasional milk pellent to fall into the dirt so she can lap it up.

Sometimes I Feel Like the Luckiest Person in the World, Others, I'm the Bug on the Windshield

Soemtimes I feel like the whole world is crashing down on me and I just can't take anymore. I try so hard to never let anything get me down too much and just stride with the punches. These past few weeks have kept me so busy that I really having had the time to feel sorry for myself and whever I do I just go out and hug on some of my rescues.

Our grandson Riley has a unique way of keeping my feet on the ground. He is so fun to play with and so full of energy and happiness that it's hard to be sad whever he is around. He REALLY loves his Grandpa and wants to be with him all of the time. Here he is all dressed up to go out into the woods with Grandpa to look for deer.

Yet ANOTHER New Horse in the Barn

Yes it's true I have another new horse in the barn. This one isn't a rescue tho, it's a really nice Quarter Horse mare named Dun Struttin. She's a really pretty little mare who had been through a lot in the past couple of weeks. I had a nice ride on her yesterday but today when I got ready to ride I noticed that she has mastitis. She had a 5 month foal pulled off her about two weeks ago so her bag was full of milk. I imagine that with the stress of having her foal weaned and being shipped off to a new home it was just too much.

I'm going to give this girl some time off to let her udder heal up and then I'm going to work on getting her back in shape and ready for a very lucky 4-H kid to buy her and continue her show career.

I had an awsome ride on Kiwi today. As much fun as it was to have that foal here all summer I am so happy to have my mare back!

I'm Tired

Today's picture is four generations of John Cheslock.

I'm tired of having to fight tooth and nail for every little thing that I've ever had or done my entire life. Every time John and I get to where we think we are comfortable something or someone comes along, pulls the rug out from under us and kicks dirt in our faces.

Just last night we found out that John is probably going to get layed off from work. With the current state of our economy we both feared that something like this would happen to one or the other of us and sure enough it did.

Luckily for us, we are hard working, determined indivduals and one way or another we WILL prevail.

On another note, our hard work around our place continues. John has been working on the firewood (finally) and works a lot in his shop fixing up cars. I'm constantly busy out in the barn taking care of all of the horses, riding and teaching lessons. I really love teaching lessons and hope to get more kids booked soon.

The Rescuing Never Ends

I have been very busy pulling off a large rescue operation of miniature horses and ponies. Please click on Lightening's Blog to see pictures and descriptions of all of the horses that we were able to seize over the weekend. There are more horses than what fit on the front page of the blog so make sure you look and click on each and every one listed on the left side of the screen.

Rescuing and taking care of these horses costs a lot of money that I don't have laying around. If you would like to help these little guys, please send a check to:

Highway 47 Minis
c/o Carlton Veterinary Services
P.O. Box 18
Carlton, OR 97111

I don't get a dime of the money, it all goes to vet services and supplies. This vet gives me a bit of a discount on rescues and they are great vets so your money will be well spent.

I still have 20-30 more minis to get out of there and there are going to be a lot of vet bills to pay. If I can get their teeth and castration done it's a lot easier to find homes for them.

I want to extend a very special thank you to all of the people who helped me round up, haul and care for these little guys.

Molly St. Hillaire
Shelby St. Hillaire
Debbie Arguedas
Barbara Jacobson
Jamie West
Laura Welliver

Good Friends are Worth More Then Silver and Gold

I treasure my friends, especially my best friends. John and I are lucky to have several couples living in our area that are very near and dear to us. As a group of friends, we are tight. We stick by each other’s side like stink sticks to skunks and we support each other through thick and thin. We have an informal group of us that we lovingly refer to as “The Oyster Club.” The women of the club are called the Mother Shuckers, the kidlets are called the Minnie Pearls and unfortunately we don’t have a cute name for the men. This little club was dubbed so because we all like to get together as often as possible to enjoy each other’s company, eat good food, drink beer, ride our horses and mules…..oh and let us not forget the OYSTERS! I always go to a quaint little seafood store in Hillsboro where all of the food is staring back at you and buy a bushel of large raw oysters that we cook on the bar b q and serve with melted butter and garlic. YUM YUM!

Recently, we suffered a devastating loss Micah Richmond was killed in a car accident leaving behind his young wife Courtney. This is a terrible loss for all of us because Micah is not only Courtney’s wife but also Caleb’s brother, Bobbi’s Brother in Law, Decker and Trey’s Uncle and to the rest of us a good friend and member of our little club. We will all miss Micah very much but most of all, we are all here for Courtney giving her a shoulder to lean and cry on, a safe haven to hang out and get away and mostly an ear to listen to her any time she feels the need to talk.

Micah’s funeral was this past Saturday at the Bethel Baptist Church in McMinnville, Oregon. Unfortunately John and I could not make it to the funeral but not for a lack of trying. We made the mistake of going to the church in Salem assuming that would be the one the services would be at because Micah’s family is from Salem. I wish we could have been there for Courtney but there is one good thing that came of our mistake. Everyone got a darned good laugh at our expense due to our blunder.

Today’s Photo if of one of my good friends Bobbi Richmond. Bobbi, I’m here for you and I’m ready to take you on soon drinking a few beers to honor Micah.

Get a Look at that Moon!

I love fall. Well, it's not technically fall for a couple more days but it's close enough for me to start getting excited about it. Even though fall signifies the end of the long, warm summer days I still look forward to fall every year. The lighting in the early morning and evenings is a lot of fun, the leaves start to change color, the apples and blackberries are ripe, the rains come to knock down the dust, clean the air and green up the fields and everything cools off. All of this adds up to some outstanding shows presented by Mother Nature herself.

Have you ever heard anyone use the terms "The moon and the stars line up and everything falls into place?" This is what we have right now but it's not the moon and the stars that are lined up, it's the moon and the sun with earth shoved neatly in-between. This is the week of the full moon and the alignment of the planets is so perfect that the moon rises and sets a bright orange and it appears much larger then it normally does. One more month and it'll be the harvest moon so it will be even bigger and brighter then it is right now.

An Exhausting and Exciting Weekend

Today’s photo is a nice black and white of a gal getting ready to go sign in for her first class of the day at the Pinto show in Western Washington.

This past weekend was defiantly an eventful one. As previously posted I drove a friend to a Pinto show in Western Washington and got to visit with some of my old show buddies for a couple of days. I really enjoyed seeing all of the people that I used to show with but probably one of the best things of the entire trip was Chelsea was there with my old show horse Blue. I swear when I saw her ride up on him my heart jumped into my throat and I cried like a baby because it was so good to see Blue again and see that he was so happy.

Saturday and Sunday I had the pleasure of giving riding lessons to several people. I’ve never been one to watch the clock to see when the lesson will be over and it has become obvious that I need to watch the clock because most of my lessons went over 2 hours when they are only supposed to be one hour each. I’m really excited about one of my new students, she is fun to work with and enjoys riding horses and her father is happy to support her desire to learn and grow in the horse world. I am looking forward to helping her to be an excellent rider and watching her grow. I sure hope that as she continues to take riding lessons from me she brings some of her friends so I can teach them too.

On with the subject of riding lessons. As much as I would like to concentrate on teaching young 4-H kids and helping them with their horses, I have several students right now that want to take lessons on my horses. I am very fortunate to have several excellent horses to choose from that are working out really well with the riding lessons. Using my horses to teach other people to ride is also forcing me to ride my own more so they will be safe for the program. I forgot how much I enjoy working with my horses in the arena because for the past few years I’ve only been riding them out on the trails.

Back at The Horse Show

Today is a really good day for me. I haven't been able to show on the pinto circuit for a couple of years because I sold my show horse and I don't have the money to show pinto anymore. But, this weekend I got to drive Heidi Ebner to a pinto show up in Spanaway Washington. I've been spending my evening walking around the show grounds visiting with the people that I used to show with and taking pictures of everyone preparing for tomorrow's show. It's really been nice to visit with all of my old friends and have the opportunity to photograph the beutiful horses. Today's photo is a National Show Horse who is here for the competition.

Lightening Update

Updated to add:

Lightening now has his own blogspot and can be found here:Lightening's Blog

Hint: - Just click on the words "Lightening's Blog" and it'll take you right to his page. Make sure to add this to your favorites so you can see how he progresses every day.

Last night the vet came out and did surgery to remove the growth on Lightening's foot. She is worried that the growth is a sarcoid rather then proud flesh and I am afraid that she is probably right. We will know more after the lab work is done on the specimine. He did make it through the surgery with no complications but he now has a huge gaping hole and his hoof is badly deformed. We will have to change his bandages every 3-4 days and I'm afraid that is not going to be an easy process. All of this is costing a lot of money, so far the vet bill is over $300.00. Thank you very much Barbara for your generous donation on the vet bill.

This morning Lightening looked bright eyed and alert although we had an unexpected light frost last night so was a bit cold. He quickly warmed up as he ate his morning grain and hay.

This photos were taking this morning.

Yet Another Neglected Horse Enters Our Gates

Meet Lightening. He is a little almost 2 years old arabian gelding that was surrendered to us. He was living in a junk yard and had suffered a small injury just above his hoof that would have been no problem to heal up if his owners had taken the time to keep it clean and dressed. Unfortunately he is yet another victim of human ignorance and laziness pure and simple. Luckily for little Lightening he found his way into our sanctuary and he has a sponsor who is going to pay to have the proud flesh surgically removed from his foot and once he has recovered from that he will be up for adoption. I’ll replace this crappy photo with a better one once I get a chance to set him up for some more respectable poses.

And since we are on the subject of rescue. I am still working very hard on the all of the ponies out on Highway 47. I have a site meeting next week with the Deputy that is assigned to the case, a vet and a mini expert. We are hoping to be able to gather enough evidence to convince the deputy to press charges against the woman. The trial for the Cordie horses remains October 30th, I can’t wait to go to that!

Things remain to be constantly busy in our little corner of the woods. I still have two horses in full time training. I have a three children and three adults signed up for riding lessons. I am taking private Photoshop and photography lessons which I LOVE. I still work 3 days a week and try to squeeze in riding and shoeing all of my personal horses.

Long, Hard, Good Weekend.

Today is the last day of my extra long weekend, I really don't want to go back to work but I sure need the money.

Over the weekend I did a lot of riding. The two horses that are here in training got ridden every day. Socrates is finally moving out a lot better and I was finally able to get on Dusty. The first time I just sat on him for a minute or two but yesterday I actually had him walk around the arena a bit. He was excellent.

I was also able to take a couple nice trail rides up at the Flying M. Yesterday my freind Barbara and I rode all the way to the top of the mountain and back. Today, Don, Laura, John and I all took a couple hour ride on some of the lower trails then had a couple beers after. Both rides were wonderful and our horses, as ususal were awsome.

As far as working around here goes, I managed to get the house cleaned up though right now it doesn't look like it. I worked on the firewood for quite a bit and the pile doesn't look nearly as big as I'd like it too. Tricia and I also worked on the basement a bit. We got the two bedrooms textured and after I scrape the walls down both rooms will be ready for paint.

The dogs all enjoyed having me home for five days. I have 3 dogs here right now; Toby - my dog, Cindi - the old dalmation I'm watching, and Foxy - a little corgie looking thing I'm watching. All of these danged dogs makes for a lot of danged dog poop. peeeeuww!

Today's Photo is courtesy of the "Kiwi Cam". This is Kiwi and Stinki traveling down one of my favorite trails.

WE FINALLY DID IT!

I can't believe it, the rescue horses were FINALLY relinquished to the Yamhill County Court and they are no longer in any danger of ever being retuned to the sick woman who beat and starved them nearly to death. This has been a long, time consuming and frustrating journey and it is finally beginning to come to an end.

After finding out this wonderful news I went out and gave both of those mares a big fat hug and told them they are safe now.

I have two new horses in for training; Socrates and Dusty. Socrates bucked me OFF last night. I don't know about you but I think that unscheduled dismounts SUCK! He wasn't trying to be naughty but rather got spooked when we walked past the mounting block and some sand got kicked up on it, the sound of that sent him sideways and knocked me off balance. Then he darted the other direction and took a couple hops which sent me into the air and off to the side and I accidentally harpooned him with my spur. He wasn't very fond of THAT so went off into the other direction and just when I thought I'd stick he took a big jump and sent me flying into the air. Unfortunately, this is when long legs do not work in my favor, I didn't clear the saddle and my spur hung up under the horn so I went down head first and became a human sled for a second. I didn't get hurt other then some sore spots on my body but my hair, mouth, nose, ears and underwear were full of sand. Take it from me, this is not a pleasant experience!

After I had a moment to gather my wits about me and shake the sand out of my hair, I noticed that poor Socky was standing there with a Steve Erkle “Did I Do That?” look on his face. He didn’t seem too rattled so I just lead him over to the mounting block and kicked sand on it a few times so he could see that the Booger Man wasn’t going to jump out and attack him, hopped back on and went back to work. The rest of our ride was uneventful THANK GOD! He did finally start responding to my voice whoa so I didn’t have to reinforce with the reins and I was able to work him into the corners that were pretty darned scary the night before. I’m hoping that soon I’ll be able to keep him moving smoothly forward and begin trotting.

Dusty got more ground work. His owner wants him to walk, trot, canter and whoa on voice command so I worked with that for quite a bit free lunging. It takes him quite a bit to whoa and transition from the trot to the walk so I might put a long line on him next time so I can reinforce with that a little. I’ve also been asked to work on his fear of plastic so the old tarp came out. I was able to drape it across his back and I got him to walk across it. He is still afraid of it when it’s just lying in a heap on the ground so tonight I’m going to heap up several tarps in the arena and work him around them for awhile. He’s a really smart horse and working with him is fun.

Both horses have a bad habit of trying to come out of the stall before I have them haltered so I make them both back up when I open the door and stand there quietly while I’m facing them. If they come into my space I twirl the lead rope right in front of me so they have the choice of backing off or being smacked with the twirling rope. I don’t hit them, they get themselves hit and it seems to be working well. I made them both spend the night in the stalls last night in the hopes that they will be more calm about staying in them to wait their turn to be worked each night.

Todays Photo is a warm and fuzzy. It's the neighbor kid petting Kiwi and Babs, this is one of those photos that just "has it all!"

Yet Another Day in Court

I have two new horses in for training and as soon as I get home today I'm going to get started with both of them, I'm really looking forward to it. Is it weird that I love working with horses so much? Does my desire to train horses make me some kind of a dominatrix? I don't think so, I think that my desire to work with and train horses stems down to my desire to make sure that each and every one of them are somehow given a "get out of jail free card". I strongly feel that educating your horses will hopefully ensure that he will have a good home to live out his senior years and not be sold for slaughter.

Finally Got Some Rain

We have finally been blessed with a measurable amount of rain. With it of course comes thunder and lightening but that's always fun too! This morning the rain was comming down so hard that it felt like ping pong balls hitting me but I really didn't care, it felt so good to have that wet stuff comming out of the sky and seeing the thirsty earth drink it up just as fast as it could come down.

The only downside of all this is that Cindi the old dalmation is scared to death of the thunder. The poor dog spent all night in our bedroom crying while the storm passed over our small ranch. I tried to comfort her as much as I could but I guess she just couldn't help being afraid.

Today's Photo of of an American Kestrel Falcon that was kind enought to let me photograph it. They are really pretty, very shy little birds of prey.

Dog Sitting Whether I Like it or Not.

It seems that the word is out that I am a pretty good dog sitter. I am now watching an old Dalmatian for two months while her owners are on vacation in the Philippines, her name is Cini and she really is a sweet old girl. The downside of this dog is that she is a house dog and we are not house dog people. This hasn’t been to terribly difficult to deal with though, I just vacuum more often, brush her a lot with the Furminator and sweep the kitchen more regularly. Hmm, maybe this is a good thing, my house is finally cleaner!

I think that the dog’s owners will be very pleased when they return from vacation as they will find their dog happy and healthy, well groomed with shorter toenails and they’ll get some awesome photographs of her, all for free!

So in closing, today's photos are of Cindi, my new house dog for the next two months. The backdrop is one of the wonderful sunsets that our recent hot weather had been providing us.

Getting A New Puppy

John and I are babysitting a mother dog and her 8 puppies for some friends while they are on vacation. Of course we've become quite attached to the lot of them and are thinking about keeping on for ourselves.

This is the one we are considering, we've already picked a name for her; Agnes.



On another note. The owner of the Big Red Horse came out Sunday and I took her on a long trail ride up at the Flying M; I rode the Big Red Horse, she rode Buster. We had an awesome ride together up the water fall trail to the top of the hill and on across the river and down the other side. The Big Red Horse was awesome for the entire ride, even when she got stung by a bee.

Sadly, the owner of the Big Red Horse has decided to take her home when my first 30 days is done. I'm sad because I'm having fun riding that horse and also because that will mean I won't have any horses book for August. I had someone bring a big thoroughbred in but I had to send him home because he was limping and coughing. Hopefully I'll get some more horses in soon, in the mean time though it will give me some more time to ride Kiwi and Stinky.