Wolfie caught one!!!!

Steele has had a new sidekick lately. This new sidekick MUST go everywhere with us. And MUST be treated like the rest of the family. He gets tucked into bed with him and he gets goodnight kisses. He gets wrapped in Steele's prize blankie that no one else gets to use. Which none of really complain about since he doesn't allow this blankie to be washed either. Any meal that is offered MUST be approved by Wolfie too. I even had to put a bandage on Wolfie yesterday cause he had an ouchie.

Wolfie was a gift from our dear friend Martin that came to visit us last year. I always tell them the best treasures are gifts from friends.

The End

The was last Sunday after Jeremy cleaned up the mess I made when I couldn't get the ranger to start and block the gate for him. Yes, it was right after I told him he could go home and unsaddle cause I already got the job done but who is keeping track?

That is sweet Kate with him. He is riding Flash a colt we have bred and raised. He sure is a nice one. He has a pretty big motor as his momma is TB. He was all to happy to turn it up and run off at one time. He seems to have matured and gotten over it because when Jeremy had to open him up after those cattle he just lined out and got the job done and then dialed back down when they were done. No fuss, no messing around. He just knew his job and then walked out like a gentleman.

We still have to find Travis' longhorns but they are elusive punks so it will take some time for them to turn up.

Sledding

Putting cows back where they belong.......

I have been working my butt off lately. I have worked everyday last week and then Saturday we celebrated Sage's birthday. Yesterday we had to sort the cows out of Tejon's and get them back on our pasture where they belong. I hate to have to admit it but I left a gate open for a mere two hours one day when I went to work. I have four gates to open and close to get out of here and it was pouring rain........so needless to say I thought since I wasn't going to be gone long on one of the days I would leave just one measley gate open. There were no cows to be seen afterall. Well, they must have all been notified by some unknown source that I left the darn thing open and by the time I came home (in the dark and the rain I might add) there were cattle tracks going through. DAMN! I just caused us more work, not to mention I didn't want Tejon to know about it before we could get them cleaned up. Those of you that are on Facebook saw the picture of the vagrants in the snow the day after I had left the gate open. It was a real neat picture of them all hiding behind the bushes but I can't for the life of me get it loaded here.

So yesterday we were off to get it cleaned up when we got the call from Tejon. Double DAMN!

They weren't mad and I admitted it was me that left it open and apologized. Jeremy saddled a horse and me and the kids took the ranger filled with hay. We gave him a head start and then joined him. We can cover the longer flatter distances so we headed south toward the gate and he went over the hill to check a couple of canyons. I had just went through the creek when I spotted a whole bunch of them mixed in with Tejons cattle. I was trying to get a plan together and went on past them to open the gate. In the time it took me to find the gate keys and get it open the cows must have seen the hay and decided they might get an easy meal and there they were! Right smack behind us! I throw open the gate and toss a flake of hay in the road just beyond the gate and there they went through the gate right where they belonged. The Tejon cattle aren't nearly as gentle and were kind of hanging back, there were two more of ours that had paired up with them, dang it! Well they were two of our real nice ones and I wasn't about to let them get away so I jumped in the ranger and told the kids to HOLD ON!!! Off through the bushes we went, every so often I would yell to them to make sure they were okay and by golly we got those tail over their back punks! Sorted out Tejons and had everyone where we needed them! I was so proud of my kiddos, oh and Moose the dog. He was in the back of the ranger too! I think his brains are already scrambled though. So of course I went back and closed the gate and headed back toward where Jeremy was. I rounded the corner and found him, of course I promptly tell him he can go ahead and go home and unsaddle his horse cause me and the kids single handedly had gotten the work done already.......he loves it when I get cocky!

Well, we still had a couple more mixed in with Tejons cattle to get but I will save that story for later. It involves a bit of cussing though........

So sorry to have not posted anything here lately........I have been a busy girl I swear. I have worked everyday this week and although usually it was just a couple of hours each day I had to drive through the driving rain and flooding streets to get there. I think I may have caught a little head cold the first day when I didn't cover my ears up in the wind blown rain........Not to mention I cannot get this blogger thing, or my computer could be the problem, anyway i cannot get it to load pictures. I hate to blog without at least one picture. I have more excuses but I will spare them this time.

I will keep wrangling with the picture deal cause I have some cool pictures.

The good doctor and I worked on a horse in Leona Valley in a couple of inches of beautiful snow today. He is one of three ranch horses left on the man's property. He used to ranch........the horses are all old and the one we worked on was an old bay. I love bays. He had an absess and it has been needing to be flushed. It is healing really well and the man that owns him is a pleasure to work for.

I will try and find more time to update this more often........sorry to keep you all hanging!

Something is terribly out of place.......

Have you ever been in a situation where something just isn't right?

So on Fridays Sage had enrichment classes in Tehachapi. I love Fridays. It forces me to slow down and spend the day doing kids stuff. I really look forward to individual time with Steele. He is so darn cute and funny in his own way. I love seeing him talk to other people. So darn cute. Sage attends classes in the morning and then Steele and I join her for lunch and storytime. During storytime kids can sign up the previous time for show and tell. One certain little girl who routinely cracks me up anyhow, we will call her Katie, brought her pet for show and tell. It was one of those little bug container thingys. I remember seeing the cage over my shoulder as I was eating. Didn't think much of it. So at some point cute little Katie decides to unleash her beast. It was a freaking stinkbug!!!! A huge freaking stinkbug!!!! I hate stinkbugs!!!! I fell in love with my peacocks even more when I saw them eat stinkbugs!!!

Oh Lordy......she is carting the thing all over the class and now a crowd of kids have gathered and want to "pet" it. Well, after the teacher calmed a few of them and reasured them she knew she had it and yes it was a pet.......I am just sure this thing is going to somehow land on my back, crawl up my back and suck my brains out............I am seriously thinking of a way I could justify leaving without looking obvious. And you know if little Katie saw the terror in my face she would bring "Jack" over and ask if I wanted to pet him........oh gosh. I can hardly think about it.

The teacher distracted me long enough to tell me a couple of storys about it. How Katie accidently stepped on him one morning and he is now one leg lighter. Katie was on the florr apologizing to him over and over. How Jack rides around on her NOSE!!!! Her cute little nose!!! Oh my gosh, I can hardly take another minute and then it was time for storytime to start and she had to put the creature away.

THANK GOODNESS FOR SMALL FAVORS!!!
I could have died!

Lessons in Old Agoura from Saturday

Jeremy and Donie. I can neither confirm or deny this story but

I think he was talking to Susan about how to convince Zorro, Susan's horse,

to accept the bridle better.

This is Carolyn and Mr. T, he is a cow eating fool and a

classy little dressage pony all wrapped up in one. Can he get any cuter?!

Speaking of cute this is Mary and Tex, she owns his momma.

You should see how soft and responsive he can be. She also owns the

beautiful mare that Jeremy is riding.

We had a beautiful day of lessons in Old Agoura on Saturday. The weather was just about perfect. This is Susan and Zorro. As always I am chasing kids and Priss as well as making sure the release forms are signed and of course visiting with people so I didn't get a picture of everyone riding but here are a few.

This is what my rascals did all day long. The horse park is right next to a park with only a creek bed in between. They rode here most of the day but we went to the park for a little while.

This was one of the group lessons Jeremy had in the morning. Cutest bunch of people all day.

We love spending time there and hope to be back next month.

Our 5yr. Anniversary here on the Broken Arrow Ranch

So yesterday was our five year anniversary here at the ol Broken Arrow Ranch. I cannot believe I have survived here that long. I owe huge thanks to so many people for helping me tough it out with the man I fell in love with.........the crazy man who has so much stay in him. I can't tell you how many times I threatened to move back to town and asked him what we were doing here. Why we were working ourselves to the bone. Everytime his answer was " nothing worth having comes easy". Plain and simple. That was my answer and now that we are five years into this deal I don't know that I could ever move anywhere near town. I am ruined of town life. It would just feel like vacationing. I love it here. Our sactuary in the hills. Our peace and quiet in this crazy world. Yes, we make alot of sacrifices but in this nutty world I think it is worth it in the end for our kids to be raised in a place like this and will appriciate the their lives that much more.
I can only hope and pray they will want to continue what we are building when they are grown.
I want to add so much more to this post to commererate the occasion but in an effort to stay afloat I have started working with a large animal vet and am tired....I am lucky I even got to mention the anniversary............
Happy New Year!

There was alot of action in my bed last night......

We were all pretty tired after a long day and the clinic yesterday. We had stopped at the post office and had another disk from the Deadwood series we are addicted to. Steele was so worn out riding his bike all day he crashed in the truck just about the time we hit the first gate. I knew this would me he would be up early but I had no idea........

Jeremy had missed his dog so we had Kate and Priss in the house with us and of course they thought they should all be camped out on the bed too. Kate doesn't usually sleep inside because she always has to go out to potty at about 4am. And you know I wake Jeremy up to let his own dog out! I just cannot get up and make the trek down those stairs and to the door and back up without waking up completely that close to morning. Jeremy on the other hand can fall back asleep anywhere anytime anyhow. So he can get up darn it!

The moon was still shining bright in the window. I thought about covering it but that would take too much energy. Just about the time I had drifted off to sleep the dogs started barking. On the bed. So of course I jerk up and for a second am terrified that someone just came up the stairs and we don't have a gun in the bedroom. I plan the change that tonight! Then all of a sudden I hear the sound of Steele wailing.

It was Steele coming to get in bed with us. Which by the way he never does. He usually will just lay in his bed yelling for me to come get him. Sage was the sneaker, when she was younger she was a master at sneaking in bed with us. Not Steele he prefers the whole house awake with him.

So the dogs barking at him, well it was more of a bark and then they were going to rip whatever's throat out that it was, it scared him and he was crying. He is a sensitive boy you know. So we got the dogs settled and I got Steele cuddled up and calmed down.

I had just drifted off to sleep again when Priss tried to jump back on the bed and Kate must have gotten woke up and she snarled at her...........argh!

So there I was wedged in between Kate, Priss and Steele. All the while Jeremy is snuggled up all cozy on his side of the bed. *sigh*

Just as I drift back to sleep again Steele is awake........I am sure I got a couple hours sleep but it sure doesn't seem like it. Steele has to go pee and needs a flash light to see where he is going. Being the flashlight king he is you would think he would know where one is but no not my luck this morning. So I carry him down stairs to go to the bathroom. We get snuggled back up and after awhile he says "I am going to my bed". So soon?!

He procedes to wake up his sister and wants to know where his game is. It was still in the truck and since I figure I am not going to get to go back to sleep anyway I might as well get up and unload the truck from yesterday. Well, God forbid you wake up the goats and don't feed them right away.........and the damn cats........ahhhh the damn cats. I don't know why anyone keeps cats. I feed them all and decide since I am up I will do some laundry. There is no water!

Dang it! Sundays shouldn't start out this way!!! So why I am sitting here on the computer and not out starting the pump I just don't know. I thought I should at least let Jeremy get some sleep afterall he worked hard yesterday.

Please wish me luck with the rest of the day. And I am thankful my little rascal is healthy and happy enough to be raising so much heck!

Agua Dulce Horsemanship Clinic

Here are just some pictures from the Horsemanship class yesterday. We had a great group of people and we had a wonderful time. The weather couldn't have been better and the lunch was grand! Thank you so much Jennifer and Patti for putting it all together for everyone!

My sweet Sagie chasing Jennifer and Otis. She did so well. She is a good girl with so much try in her. And her Chico is worth his weight in gold, and then some!

Jeremy rode one of the training horses, a mare named Dancer.

Here is a group shot. Patty took tons of pictures and she probably has some better ones.

My little point and shoot could only capture this. Let me see if I can get everyone's names correct. From left to right. Gina, Janine, Tracy, Bonnie, Jeremy, Sage, Jennifer, Pam, Margi, Krista, and Zusanna.

Thanks so much for joining us everyone!

Misc Clinic Pics

After a hard days work......

My girl at the end of the day. Practicing her loop building and swing.

I thought this was a sweet picture of a mare we have in training. Jeremy used her the whole day during the clinic. Darn it if my shadow isn't in the picture. I don't really look like an umpa lumpa in real life.