I think I am playing farmtown too much, riding too much and just staying too busy for this every day or week blog LOL!!

I rode in the Fourth of July parade here in my little town. My first parade – not the horse’s! We won second best theme – “Farm Life”. Biggin was his awesome self – except for the Llamas. I guess all of the horses thought the lanolin smelled bad because NONE of the horses could stand the beautiful llamas.

(side note about this pic – does everyone still feel and look fat to themselves after they lose a lot of weight?! LOL)

The 20X40 shed is gutted, inventoried, dispersed to the burn pile, dump pile or salvaged and the new ones are up. I painted the shed – referred to as the barn – pink! The walls are med pink and the floor is cranberry.

There is hay in it and four saddle trees – pic shows just 2. I am working on a shelf that will run the width of the barn across the back for seasonal items like the water heater and duck heat lamp.

Thinking of the ducks…. I am entering 3 of the young ones in the county fair this year. And the orchid that grows 8 – 10 shoots full of blossoms. We found out that 2 of the new ducks are male… was wondering why I was not finding eggs! Hopefully when the sheds are completed, I will be able to finish the duck house before winter. The sheds are getting the roofs finished, a storage area made between them and steps to my barn.

I have been riding Biggin about every other day now. Up and down the mountains and around the trees….. the other day we went about 8 miles. I just keep pushing farther and farther

Hopefully I will be back soon…. happy trails, everyone!

Yesterday morning a fire started about 3 miles NW of my home. The wind was at a “Red Flag” alert blowing in a NE direction. We were put on “Preliminary Evacuation Notice”. Apprx 60 homes north of me were evacuated last night. The wind died off last night and the fire seems more in control this morning. So far, no cause has been determined.

These 2 pics are taken from the Arizona Daily Sun newspaper this morning

I took this one this morning from our driveway

Only residents and deliveries are being allowed in from the main road. Keep your fingers crossed that the wind stays blowing north and that the fire crews can get it contained as soon as possible.

We got our delivery from Home Depot this morning and have a crew working to finish the shed tear down, lay railroad ties to get a level base and then erect the new sheds. I will post before and after in a few days!!

Both of my boys ROCK and I am very proud of them

Luke is 13 now. Since we live in a rural area, his dad has been letting him drive our pickup in the area – with an adult. Up until recently, I have not been able to admit my “baby” is growing up. He has hassled me so much since GH went back on the road that I relented… and let him drive…. ME in the passenger seat! This was quite a reality check for me – he IS growing up! GH and I thought he should learn to drive in the event of an emergency evacuation around here… the truck would carry sooo much and I would have the van with my MIL.

Yes, I think he needs a haircut, too! LOL

Luke has never much liked school but this year, for the FIRST time, he came home from the first day of school VERY excited about 8th grade. My dream come true for him. He has sat down and actually read a book for the first time, too. I knew he could read, but he has REALLY hated it! He read this book from beginning to the end in a few hours, came out of his room with a smile on his face and said “That was a GOOD book!”

And I think I found an author that I could actually kiss!

A few weeks ago, Leavi and I started to dig a hole. We were looking for a leak in a pipe for the water spigot for the horses. The ground around the spigot had been damp to puddly for weeks and in this dry air, that meant a leak. I have, also, noticed our water usage had doubled and the water pump was coming on too often. Leavi did most of the work… digging out the dirt and the rocks. The pipe is three feet down so that it won’t freeze in the winter. We did find a leak at the elbow – three feet down. It was a hard and muddy job! (Sorry about the cell phone pic, again.)

We ended up calling the plumber and the whole spigot from the elbow up had to be replaced. The water usage went from just under 3000 gallons a week to about 1200! And the water pump calmed down, too!

Leavi, also, worked for the water man this past summer delivering flyers by foot. He was so business-like about the job

Don’t you just love the briefcase?

No, that is not Santa early at our house – even though the boys call him that and living with him (most of the time) is like living with Santa.  But it does look like Santa in his work clothes, does’t it?  Last Monday GH got on the roof and put heat tape on the internet dish and the satellite tv dish!  I have waited for this for a long time.  He is usually out on the road and when it snows, we loose internet and tv until either 1-I climb up high enough on a ladder to knock the snow off with a long pole or 2. the snow melts.  We were hit by a snow storm Tues and we still have both signals working!

We have another storm hitting tonight with forecasts of up to 2o inches at our altitude of 7500 feet. 

I spent most of the morning working on “my” shed project.  I call it mine because great husband is on the road and I am the carpenter/Jane-of-all-trades when he is gone.  The boys helped me finish the outside panels – there are 5, 8 foot long plywood panels – they are supposed to keep the rain and wind out of the shed (there used to be screened “windows”).  Then I went inside to work on one of the “cubbies”… I am trying to put in some shelves for all of my plastic boxed things, holiday decorations and fix up the tack area.  I will post a pic of the “cubby” when I get one of them done.

Then, this afternoon, I went out to the horses – cleaned feet, combed manes and brushed them – all 3 that are ours.  Then I saddled Biggin for my first ride on him.  While I was saddling him, my BFF Nicole, came to drop off feed for her horse, Zzari.  We both rode Biggin in the round pen and we both enjoyed our ride.  He is very smart and figures out what we ask of him within a few minutes.  He is actually for great husband to ride.  When he has his first ride, I will post pics.

This is me.

This is Nicole

I finally feel that Star is doing good.  It is hard sometimes when she is not there in the morning to ask to go out and I miss her “Thank yous” after dinner.  But she is happy where she is and I am very glad to have had her as my friend.

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Two weekends ago my daughter and her boyfriend came to stay for the weekend.  They brought Leavi home – which was very good for me because I missed him so much!  Also, her boyfriend, Jesse, constructed the duck foundation so that it will NEVER fall over.  Nicole and I did our best, but he and Jessica dug a ditch, filled it with concrete, set in rebar, drilled holes in the railroad ties and reset the railroad ties. 

AWESOME!

Now, I am hoping to get them back to do the framing part for the netting!  They did a great job!  And it was, of course, very nice for me to have them here

They, also, brought a new friend for us.  His name is Archie and he is about 4 months old now.  Jessica rescued him as a very small baby from under the dumpster at her apt.  He was filthy, had swollen shut eyes and sores on him.  He has been a delight to watch play with his own tail, jump into boxes and just get to know the other cats – they, on the other hand, were NOT pleased by him at all!  It has been a week and now they will tolerate him… he just can’t touch them!  He makes me think of a black Siamese… his face is narrow and his tail fans like a bottlebrush when he is scared.

Archie and Brandy…. he kept sneeking closer and closer to her til he touched her… then she growled and spitted at him – he was gone in a flash!

We, Luke and I, got the burn pit cleaned – all of the ceramic, metal and tree limbs that have been dumped there whenever we don’t know what to do with the item… kind of like a junk drawer.  He and I cut the tree limbs into kindling and Luke got it all stacked.  The only thing left there is a stack of pine needles.

And, last but not least, we have had a birthday.  My mother-in-law, who lives with us, turned 86 last Monday.  I took her to have her hair done and then the boys and I took her to dinner.  When we got home, we gave her the flowers and had cake.

Happy Birthday!!

That is all for today.  Next post is about some “guests” that we have!

The boys had soccer games on Saturday.  I am thankful that their games are on the same street in Flagstaff about a mile from each other.  It makes trying to get to games a lot easier.  Last year they were on the same team (age difference of 2 and half yrs puts them on diff teams this year) and the year before they were on diff teams and it was very hard to get them to the games on time and be able to stay and watch each of the games.

Luke

Leavi

And we did some weedeating.  We did the half acre that the horses don’t have of our entire acre.  We picked up tons of rocks that we will use in the duck/wash project.

This is a view taken from the horse fence

 This is a view from the street

A weed flower that was too pretty to cut down

A VERY good friend of mine came over this morning and we put some real Girl Power to work.  I am trying to build a duck house/garden bed/wash dam with some railroad ties, rocks and lots of dirt.  We got most of the foundation for the duck house part done.  My chainsaw would only cut one tie because I need to take it in to be sharpened.  So, we got all of the uncut ones laid – oh, and the one that we did get cut.  The two short ends are laying near where they will be placed, with an end up so that I can get it cut when I get the chainsaw fixed.

Taking a railroad tie from the main pile – we had 40 of them delivered.

Oops, this one didn’t want to fit since it seems to be warped!

So, we took it off and traded it with a lower one and then put the “funny” one on top

Two hours later, this is what we had

We were filthy and tired.  I still have to cut a few to fit. Then I need to build a structure from the railroad ties to make it all about 6ft high (so that I can walk in it), put the fencing around the structure, fill the spaces between the railroad ties,  make a “roof” of plywood over about half of it, build the pond and make a hole in the shed that it is built next to so that I can make a small wooden “house” inside to protect them from the snow and ice we get here.  It will have a heating lamp to warm the “house”.

When the duck housing is done, we will use the rest of the railroad ties to make a dam for the wash that runs through the yard when the snow melts.  Between the dam and the duck house will be about 8-10 feet which we will have filled with dirt so that I can have a veggie or flower garden.  Hopefully, this will harness Mother Nature to control the amount of water and mud in the horse corral.

THANK YOU, Nicole, for all of your hard work today.  It is VERY MUCH appreciated!!

The old door got broken at the bottom by the boys when they were wrestling through the house.  I could NOT find the part to fix it, so this closet got a new look.  I want to get the knotty pine doors for the 2 bedrooms and the bathroom.  So, Great Husband…. here is the surprise that I have been working on the past near week

Please, note the coooool knob!!   It was the final touch that I got yesterday.  I would like the knobs for the other 3 doors like this, too – OK?