Back in the saddle again: more tales of our adventures on the ranch

(Some photos were added since first posting)

Well, it's been a few weeks since I've been consistent at updating this blog.
We are working at getting the house ready to move into (what is it Mike always tells me . . . "A month from today . . . you'll be in that house . . .").
We are hitting obstacles every so often (today it was that the granite counter tops we ordered and picked up were not cut right in several places!!)
There are lots of little things to do, and to this point our philosophy has been to get everything completely done before moving in so that it, in fact, gets done.
At some point, though, I will need to realize that it is never done, and just move the heck in.
It is looking good, and I am excited . . . and stressed and exhausted and . . . and . . . and . . .
Also, I am trying to prepare for the next school year, and we are just summer-busy these days.
We have spent quite a bit of time recently picking blackberries at our new house.
Have I mentioned the blackberries at our house?
Um,Yeahhh. We don't have a few blackberry bushes. We have a blackberry forest!
There are so many bushes, and they grow thick and deep around the edge and to the back of the property. There is no way to get to them all.
And have you seen the briers on these things?
Not to mentions the chiggers (ever encounter one of these little buggers? Actually, it's not so much that you encounter them as they invade you and make you itch like mad for several miserable days!) and spiders and other creepy crawlies that love blackberries too.
But the berries are worth every prick and stab and scratch. Every ugly bug mug we come across.
They are so fat and juicy, and one day soon, they will make excellent cobblers! Yum!
And it is fun to pick them, especially when we are all doing it together. The boys like to have contests to see who can pick the most.
Picking them with friends is fun too.
I did want to take some time, however, and write about our last few trips to the ranch.
The Tuesday we returned from Texas (July1), we headed out to the ranch (which helped with the home-from-vacation blues quite a bit!)
It had been a couple of weeks since we had seen Bounder, and we were happy to see him!
He really is such a beautiful animal.
Rachel started out by having the boys clean a saddle that had gotten moldy, and talked to them about the importance of keeping your riding gear clean and taking good care of it.
Then they got Bounder and brushed him off and got him ready to ride.
The boys had a great time up on the gentle giant, as always.
And then, Rachel asked me if I wanted to ride.
Me? Want to ride? It has only been the deep dream of my heart since girlhood to be up on horseback, riding wild and free, wind whipping my hair across my face, the land under me lapped up by horse's hooves pounding, running, flying . . . screech.
Reality check.
I got up on Bounder, (with a little help from Rachel) and nearly fainted.
He is one big horse.
I gained such a respect for my boys sitting up there, high above the ground, with such a powerful animal beneath me.
And then, we started walking.
I was so nervous.
All those romantic visions of me on horseback, riding into the sunset, disappeared in a quick hurry.
The more we walked, though, the more comfortable I became (except when Bounder would bend his head to take a snatch of grass. I felt like I would plumb fall off his back!) and I even trotted just a bit (can you say sore bum?) and I began to imagine again, one day . . .
After lessons, we went back to Rachel's house to pick up the new "members" of our family.
Meet Tigger and Jaguire.
They are Isaac and Josiah's charge, and they will hopefully be mousers extraordinaire.
Rachel has been working with a wild mustang mare named Tia Morningstar.
She is a gorgeous horse! But wild.
Rachel is trying to tame her, get her to be ridable.
She had learned some things about working with wild mares, and wanted to show us.
It was so interesting.
After corralling the horse, if Rachel paid any attention to her, she threw a fit; but if Rachel ignored her and talked to me, the horse would stand behind her, looking for attention.
Rachel also showed us that if she looked at the horse's hind quarters, the horse ran and ran and ran, but when she dropped her head and looked at the ground, the horse would stop running.
It was amazing.
She explained that horses communicate with body language; it is something they learn from their mothers and if you want to communicate with a horse effectively, you have to learn what body language to use.
We went to dinner after that, to a new little pizza place down the road a bit from them. We got pepperoni and chicken bacon ranch pies, both very delicious, though both so different.
We had a great time.
Ridding lessons last week were great too.
Rachel showed us all kinds of tricks and the boys learned how to stand in the stirrups while riding.
Here are some pics from around the ranch that I like.

We had another lesson again today, and the boys are becoming real pros.
At one point, when Jo was riding, he had Bounder in a trot, and instead of steering him where he was supposed to go, they headed right for a jump about a foot off the ground. Bounder, thinking this is where he was supposed to be heading, and being the champ he is, took the jump at full trot.
Josiah came off the saddle and landed on Bounder's neck, but he was okay, and regained control of the situation.
Rachel told me later she really thought he was coming off that horse, but he stayed on there!
Josiah told me later that it was so much fun.
"Weren't you scared? I asked, my own heart pounding at the thought of what could have gone wrong in that situation.
"Nope!" he said, just as happy with himself as could be.
I was so proud of him for hanging on.
Again, I say, my boys have some chutzpah to be up there in the first place.
They are learning, and each week they do a little more then they did the week before, and they love it so much.
One day, they will fly.

(Psssst. There is another update following this post on Isaac's surprise birthday and braces. Didn't want you to miss it. I'm getting ambitious again!)

A day out on God's big playground

It's been a full day, and as I sit typing this, we are under severe weather watches.
We went to visit grandpa at his house this morning.
The sky was blue, the sun was shinning and the clouds -- perfect, fluffy, white dreams -- were sailing over the landscape. It was soooo windy!
The boys loved it, though, and we sat out in the whipping wind, letting it blow through our hair, over and around us.
They sat for some time and watched Grandpa's neighbor, Jim, cut down some bushes by the pond that had rumored nests of water moccasins under them.
I just want to say for the record, no water moccasins were discovered. However, we are now one blackberry bush poorer.
It didn't take long, though, for the boys to be up and at it, playing all over the yard.
Josiah was running and jumping and catching hold of the lower branches of the trees. Then he would hang suspended and swing there for a moment before dropping off.
"Look, mom. It's like a playground. A nature playground. Like God just made a playground out of trees and stuff."
"Yeah, the trees are like the jungle gyms!" Isaac added.
What a child-like take on the world my young sons have.
I love it.
Daniel enjoyed playing outside too, and spent most of the time discovering the many joys and uses of rocks.
Grandpa is up to his old tricks again, tooling around in the tool shed.


I took these pics at gramp's ( your comments about my photography --haha-- have gone to my head, I'm afraid.).

The boys had riding lessons today.
Their dad was able to come along to see the action.
We met Andre the Giant, a good little pup that was abandoned out on the ranch, and who has adopted Kevin and Rachel.
Daniel was particularly taken with him. Ya know, being a puppy and all. Daniel loves him some puppies.
Isaac and Jo rode Bounder again. He is a good horse.
It was neat to see the boys lead the horse and groom the horse -- all the things they have been learning.
Rachel is a good and patient teacher.

They had a friend, Aaron, with them, and he even got to get up on the horse today.
We got home in time to eat dinner (thank you, Joe, for cooking a wonderful meal!) and head out the door to VBS.
We are coming to the end of VBS. Tomorrow night is Family Night, the last night of VBS, and we will have a cookout and fun activities to wrap up our week together.
The boys have had such a good time with it. They love all the spy gear they have been making, and the stories pull them in and teach them important principles.
Isaac was sad that tomorrow evening will be the last night . . . "until next time," I said.
Well, I think we are in the clear as far as the weather is concerned, so I am going to get some rest.
Tomorrow, as they say, is another day.

Mamas, LET your babies grow up to be cowboys

Today was the first official day of summer break.
Sleeping in was divine. Of course, sleeping in for me is 7:30 a.m., so that's a bit relative I guess.
I made pancakes for the boys, regular and blueberry, and we took our setting the table and sitting to eat. No hurried bowl of cereal today.
The boys went to work at the house with Joe, and I stayed "home" with Daniel.
The boys and I had a date to keep this afternoon, so they came home and got ready about one o'clock.
Today was horseback riding lessons out at Westbrook with our friend Rachel.
We met Rachel and her husband, Kevin, at church. They are such neat people and after having them over, I could tell it was one of those connections where you know you will be richer for knowing these people.
She works out at a . . ranch, farm. I'm not really sure what to call it.
There are lots of horses and hounds and cows. They put on fox hunts there, among other things.
Josiah has had this thing for horses for some time now, and asked for one for his birthday. Because we are moving to a house that has two acres, he believed this was a feasible request, and fully expected one on his natal anniversary.
We did the next best thing.
Riding lessons.
We explained that first he needs to learn all he can about horses: how to care for them and how to handle them and how to ride them, etc.
Then, in a few years, after he has been around them and knows what to do with them, maybe we will look into getting a horse for him.
So riding lessons began today.
Rachel taught the boys how to lead a horse first.
Then they learned about grooming a horse in preparation for riding him.
After that it was time to pick a saddle. They chose a western one. I think the other choices were English or Australian.
They learned how to saddle a horse, and bridal one.
Then, it was "up in the saddle 101."
The horse they rode was a 15 year old retired race horse named Skyward Bound, or Bounder for short.
Boy, was he big!
Josiah got right up on him, though, and rode him all around the pen. He learned how to turn him and stop him and make him trot.
Then it was Isaac's turn, and he rode like a pro. He even told Rachel he thought he could ride without her holding on, and he did!!
You have not lived until you have seen your young sons up on horseback, trotting into the wind, their hair blowing back, their faces full of smile, their confidence swelling.
It was amazing!
I thought about cowboys.
I thought about the kind of men most of them were: hard-working, honest, loyal men deeply affected by the land they worked and rode. Men who got dirty, but would never think of saying a dirty word in front of a child or a lady. Men who wore out their boots, not their couches. Men who believed in something and fell for nothing.
There are very few cowboys these days.
We go again next week.
Rachel said maybe we could all learn how to ride.
"We could be the horseback riding family!" I laughed.
"That would be so cool." she said.
Yes, it would.