Sledding........kind of

Just to start of with a cute picture. Here is my beloved Priss digging in the snow. Isn't she the darn cutest? Except for yesterday when she almost bit a little girl at the park. Yes, she was on a leash and yes, I had ahold of her nose. Yeah, I saw it coming and was trying to tell the little girl that "petting my puppy" was probably not a good idea. I could see in Priss that she wasn't liking how she was being approached. It is amazingly sad to me that people can't or don't read an animal better. It would probably keep people out of more trouble.

Not to mention their parents don't teach them self control and to listen to another adult. She acted as though I wasn't even talking and just had to reach out and pet my puppy...........I am not sure why Priss wanted to bite her...........she hasn't been off the ranch much. But she isn't insecure. Maybe she felt like it was rude too, the way she was so bold. I don't know but either way she didn't get a bite and the girl's mother was too busy smoking a cigarette to notice the danger her daughter just escaped. So she is still cute to me!

This was my brilliant idea this morning..........Steele was sliding on the hill a bit lower on the patch of snow on the bottom left of the picture. He says to me "wanna try Mommy". That is where things went bad. I have had that sled since I was a kid. A key piece to this story. When I was a kid I weighed less. My butt was smaller. The sled still had a seat then. Instead of two bars where the seat should be. The same bars that wound up crammed up my arse as I careened down the hill trying desperatly to steer the damn thing on the snow patches and in between the boulders.............

Can you see the terror in my face?! Neither did Jeremy apparantley. He was behind the camera and said he was too busy taking pictures to save me. I stayed upright until the bottom when I hit dirt. Frozen dirt. I heard giggling. I have since educated my sweet husband that when the only thing I can mutter out of my mouth is cursing that I am probably NOT having fun and forseeing my certain death. I must go now and nurse the road rash on the whole left side of my body.

Snow on the rancho......

Only a fraction of the dumb cats I feed. Everytime someone threatens to take one to the pound, or worse a litter of kittens, I relent and say they can live here and if the coyotes don't eat them I will feed em. They are good hunters so I can't complain too much. I have to feed them on top of Beau Bunny's cage so the dumb dogs don't eat their food. Imagine my delight when I found Moose, Sage's dog, up there one day.

My doves did not think this white stuff was so fun either.

Ahhhh, how I love my Hansel and Gretel. Although Jeremy informed me the other day I may have two Hansels. Better than two girls I guess. I have trained them to come up to the house and I throw seed out for them. Well........I was thinking the other day how darn smart I was to get that kind of "training" on a couple of peacocks and then it occured to me when I heard them honking for me to come out and feed them seed that they probably think they have me trained.

We had alittle snow around here a few days ago. It was kinds pretty and kinda neat. At first. Not so much anymore. It was so cold and it snowed so hard we couldn't get the front screen door open the first morning. The wind blew so hard it blew on the front porch and piled up in front of the door. I worried all darn night about that dumb goat that has been bagged up for like forever now. We are expecting another storm tomorrow night from what I hear. She will probably wait til then..........when I think of things like that and when they eat my beloved apricot trees I wonder why I have them. But when the babies live and they are kinda cute I remember. Then they get out and eat my favorite flowers and I hate them again........it's a vicous cycle.

Todays storm.....

This was just the beginning of the storm that hit this afternoon. We are now covered with about four inches of snow with the winds blowing pretty hard. I have a nanny goat bagged up and hopefully not going to deliver in this crap..........never fails! She had four kids last year so I really need to keep an eye on her. Hopefully the wind will die down a bit for all the critters sake. I already have half the ranch in the house! That tree you see on the left is our Christmas tree we planned to decorate but Steele got grumpy so we will do it in the morning.
This is my beautiful bathroom I have been working on painting for the past couple of days. I am so excited about it! We will do the flooring next and then we will be done! Well, we will need to put shelves or something but that is just small details, finally my bathroom is cute! Don't you love the shower curtain?! I got it in Reno at the Wild horse and burro Expo we went to a year or so ago.

Misc pictures from my day.

Alot of time has passed since the "miscarriage". It is a general term. Easiest way to refer to it I guess. What happened in our words is at our first doctor appt. where they performed an ultrasound to determine how far along I was and check everything out we saw that there was no heartbeat. I have seen enough animal and my two previous pregnancy ultrasounds and was always facinated with the heart beating and how strong it seems when you see it on the screen.

A week prior was when my ultrasound was actually scheduled. I had to cancel it to attend the funeral of another baby of a dear friend. I remember calling the doctors office because I was feeling crampy and worrying it was stress............they told me to just take it easy or go to the emergency room.........I had a feeling something wasn't right but never in a million years would have imagined what we saw that afternoon..........I knew as soon as I saw the baby on the ultrasound. The poor doctor was looking and looking and even called the other doctor in to look. While I laid there on the table, tears running down my face..............I was given the option of going to the labor and delivery right then or to go home and hope my body took care of it on it's own. We had to explain to the kids, well mostly Sage as Steele was only three still. I was heartbroken for Sage........she was so excited about another baby.

A week went by and still nothing. I called the doctor to say I needed to go to the hospital, I just couldn't take it anymore. I just wanted to move on, it was just too agonizing. This is where the small town has it's disadvantages........the Labor and Delivery said they had no beds and if I wasn't bleeding they could not admit me. Finally out of desperation I told them I was bleeding just to get admitted. Of course I couldn't continue to lie to the nurse and broke down and told her the situation. I wish in a situation like that you could remember everybody's names. She said she would do whatever she had to to get me a bed. And she did. I was too far along for a D&C and had to be induced. I think back on it and I wonder what was going through Sage and Steele's minds while Mommy and Daddy that are never gone were thinking. I have a hard time leaving my kids. I have issues I guess. The last time I saw my mom was when they dropped us off at a sitter while they went out. She died in a car accident that night........I think I am afraid to leave them for fear something could happen. Probably where I get my control issues from too......yikes. Anyhow, once again I did not intend to get this into the story but the above picture is where Micheal Tucker Dunn is buried.

Another feat I fought for as they were not going to permit me to take him home. I did not know how I would feel about it but when he came I felt the same as my other kids. They never left mine or Jeremy's sight in the hospital. He was coming home with me no matter what LA County thought. And I got it done.

Jeremy built the area around the site. I think it was his grieving coming out. Afterward he said "do you think it is too much?"

How on earth could it possibly be too much.

He is under the old Almond tree that has lived all the years the ranch was vacant.

Next to the pond that runs when the rain is good.

Jeremy buried his old horse next to him.

I will have to post the poem he wrote for him while we waited in the hospital..........

On another note, below is my sweet, beautiful girl. One of the things that helped me stay strong fighting to bring Micheal home. I had a picture of Sage and Steele next to the bed to remind me of what I did have. I am still a lucky girl. I don't know why things happen but there seems to be a reason for everything. I had been home from the hospital only a week and a half when Jeremy got hurt and I had to start riding the training horses.............

Probably just as well. I was going to hide under the covers as long as I could and that wasn't doing me any good...........

Where's Waldo?

I had to run out on the ranger to find Jeremy the other day. Thank goodness for that darn ranger so that I could throw the kids on and away we go. Anyhow, I needed to let him know a client would be coming so he would stick close and this is where I found him. Down in the creekbed on Shabba, a little Arab mare. I thought it was sure a lucky picture with the colors still in the middle of changing and the color of the horse. Hope you all enjoy it too!

handmade Hobbles

Jeremy has been filling his rainy day time making these things. This is the result of years of tying knot in everything he gets his hands on. He is addicted. Cannot stop tying knots and braiding. Hobbles. Handmade Hobbles.

He happened to have some at a clinic we had a couple of weeks ago and already sold a pair!

This was the first pair he made and already sold. He just keeps getting better and better with each one he makes. Pretty cool and handy guy I have huh?!

My guys

This is a hilarious story. See their faces. Jeremy had just gotten done with some lessons in Lake Hughes and we had met at the pavement to go in together so I wouldn't have to get the gates. I hate getting the gates........Jeremy had stopped at the gas station and had a big Mountain Dew and some pork rinds.....ewwww. Steele saw Daddy and wanted in his truck and I was on the phone so Jeremy put him in the truck and they were happily munching while I finished up on the phone. I had just gotten off the phone when Steele took a big ol drink of Daddy's soda, decided he had too much in his mouth and spit some of it back into the bottle. All before I could say anything. I took the picture just as I told him what had happened.....................