Good words

'The will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you.'

For some reason everywhere I have turned lately I have seen this phrase. I thought I would share it with you all.

I guess I need to have faith and believe it!

more misc.......

So I got an email this morning from a concerned friend telling me my extensive email list that I send out stuff to is being reported as a new phishing scam.............jeez!!! What kind of people get their kicks scamming things? I mean really, what kind of gratification is in it for them?!?! I just can't believe there is such ill meaning people out there. So anyway, now I am crying out for help on this one. While I try awful hard, this computer is a darn mystery and not only have I not been able to figure out how to send an email to a bunch of people and not show all the email addys (cc) but now I don't know what to do about the scam thing. Do I have to change my whole email address? Please help!!!

Not only that but the guys watched some crazy barbie movie with Sage last night and now they are both singing everything to me instead of just talking like normal adult grown men!

Maybe we are in the Twilght Zone!!!

Swimming at Katie's

Check out that face! Jeremy and Paul were slinging him back and forth. It was so funny but I really don't think it was much good for somebody's arm!
I have the proof he was using it. As I was telling him to stop, he was telling me he wasn't using it. He was using his other arm.............hummmm.
They did have a great time though. Actually we were working just before this. We had a couple of lessons at Moonraker Ranch and then they had a nice lunch for us and then swimming! Can it get any better?!

The day to day around here.

You never know what will happen in a day around here. I mean we usually wake up with an idea of what we will do the next day and then the day comes and something will happen that alters the plan............

Take yesterday for instance, we were supposed to get up and saddle horses and go gather cattle of ours that had gone into Tejon cause I can't close our gate. We have four gates to open, drive the car through, and close again to get out of here. And I usually have sandals on when I go to town, geez! So my stomach was upset and I hate to ride off without Jeremy and the kids, plus the area where they were is pretty big and I wasn't even sure they were still there and not heading to Arvin. So we decided to take the truck and dogs, locate them and then if need be come back with the horses. We pull up on the darn things, they catch sight of us, flip their tails over their backs and start to RUN!!!

Before anything can be said Jeremy and Paul jump out of the truck and run to the back to get their dogs and off they go. I am thinking they are nuts but at least I am in the truck! Naner naner. So long story short (and I mean long story, like where is the breeze we had yesterday, I am not in as good of shape as I used to be, where is my gosh darn dog!!! story short) drove the truck around and open the fence into our property and we get them back in.

So today we gathered to the East of here to have a couple to rope at our Practice roping we had here. Sage wanted so bad to go with me and I have never let her go yet cause I worry about her too much. She has gone with Jeremy but not with me, and specially without Jeremy there. So I am rolling around trying to get up out of bed when I hear a bunch of racket on the porch. Sage had gotten herself up and dressed at the crack of dawn cause she does not want me to leave her behind. AND she is on the porch playing catch with the dogs..........argh! At least she has stopped prying your eye balls open in the morning. Literally pulling your eye lids open. Not fun.

So I figure I will take her. I can do this. I have been riding my Poco mare and she is pretty unflappable, not yet as experienced as she could be but damn solid still. We head out and spot them all spread out on every ridge we can see.........damn, we were hoping the heat had kept them at the spring. Paul headed for the furthest ones and Sage and I cleared the canyons closest and headed them for the spring. Sage did damn good telling me stories the whole way. I didn't worry too much. Once I wanted to trot to get somewhere a bit faster and just told her to stay with me and she did but asked to just walk. I was pretty happy to hear that so I agreed. We met up with Paul and then spotted a calf that had gotten left behind and he went back for it. The cattle that had been with the calf were the same son-of-a-guns that we had cleared out of Tejon the day before. They saw Paul and just lit out running as fast as they could run. Left the calf behind and never looked back. Bad mother.

Sage and I are making our way down to the spring when I spot my german shepherd dog right near the road and then I hear the rattling of a truck coming. I freeze holding my breath cause she doesn't listen anyway so there is nothing I can do................I am frantically waving my arms to get the drivers attention, I mean there are always cows and calves out there and this truck is flying. On a dirt road and I kid you not doing at least 55 miles per hour. They are either heading up to White Oak or Tejon land. Thank God the darn dog did not keep coming toward us. Paul was up ahead of the trucks path still bringing that calf down and I am praying they don't get hit. The truck finally catches sight of Paul and slows just a bit and nobody gets killed. I plan to find out who that was. Not cool.

We get down to the spring and group up. We head them toward the pens and the renegade bunch takes one look at us and high tails it up the ridge and are heading south. Paul says to me, "what are we going to do?" I am sure he knows since Sage is with us and we are on a time crunch since the roping starts soon the situation might be different from normal. Thanks for knowing that Paul! I am a nervous basket case with her on a horse usually. I did okay today though. I say to him "we are going to hope the rest of the herd doesn't follow!" Thankfully they didn't and I am here to tell you, Sage was a huge help! Her and ol Chico did awesome. Nice and quiet and easy.

I wish I could say I had pictures to share, I just could not figure out how to carry that camera with out knocking myself out with it. Or breaking it. I also thought I had too much on my plate to think about taking pictures. By the way, my Poco did great also. At one point she had to lead since I wanted Sage behind me on a narrow trail. Sage's job was to stay right behind me without letting Chico touch Poco. They did fine. I love our horses!

So needless to say we are going to have to get some help (with Jeremy not being able to be horseback) and gather that bunch up. We will never going to be able to work that renegade bunch if they keep getting away with that. Wish me luck I am cowgirl enough on my green mare! Maybe if we live I will have to raise her price!

Itchy

Before anyone worries, this was before Jeremy's surgery. I was just looking through some older pics and found these I wanted to post. Can you believe how soft he can get a horse?!

This was her first saddling. Looks like she is going to be a good one!
She wasn't worried about much.

Cinching her up was no problem either. What color do you all think she is going to be?

Her momma is a grulla and daddy is a grey.

Never a dull moment on the ol rancho......

These pictures are from yesterday on the way to the farmer's market. We like to take our time and drive over the mountain sometimes. This is about halfway over and if you look real close you can see the herd of wild horses that live on our side. They are almost right in the center and to the left a bit. There used to be seven horses but this day I only counted..........

EIGHT!!! Can you see the new little one? They sure are being born late this year. Generally they are all born brown/grulla looking and then they darken as they get older.

This is the herd on the Tehachapi side of the mountains. They are all spread out on the big meadow. I am pretty sure the saddle you see in the background is somewhere close to where we came over the hill.

Here is a closer up shot. What a life for a horse huh?! It is all private land and managed privately just in case anyone was wondering. No, you cannot just drive in there!

I thought these pictures were perfect since with this cold weather our horses out on pasture are acting so darn frisky. We have a fence around the main house and hay barn, corrals area. Mainly so the cows can't eat the hay but also so the mares on pasture can't get near Cody, our stallion. I started my day out hearing him screaming in the distance. I am just getting over a cold and was sleeping so good darn it!!! So I drag my but out of bed and grab a sweat shirt since it was FREEZING and head down to the corrals. Sure enough all six of the horses that are supposed to be turned out are in the corral area. Just to give you an idea of who I am talking about as this story progresses I better introduce you to the renegade horses. First there is my mustang mare that I have had forever (I think she is 20 years old now), Cheyenne. Second is Charley, Jeremy's sorrel gelding he used to ride alot and now Paul rides. Third (in no particular order) is Cat, one of my favorite mares because she is so solid and sensible. Fourth is her daughter, Poco, another of my favorites, she is just like her momma. Fifth is Min, a really well trained horse also that Jeremy uses alot. And finally a long yearling filly named Itchy. Jeremy's pride and joy. Everybody always sees her first because of her color. We are pretty sure she will turn grey but she looks like a blue roan. All of these horses are valued members of the family as well as 4 out of 6 are some of our best trained animals. Back to my story! I get them all caught up and put back where they belong and run back to the house to make coffee and warm up. Paul gets up and feeds shortly and all is happy. Around lunch time I head out to put a resume in at the cement plant in Neenach and ARGH!!! Just outside our front gate and standing on Tejon property is Min, Charlie, Poco and Itchy. Or course I am all cleaned up and trying to look presentable cause I could really use this job, we had heard they were looking for someone in the office. So I try and call Jeremy and he doesn't answer the phone. Double ARGH! I found a hay twine one of the kids had drug into my car and tromped thru the sagebrush and catch my sweet little doe eyed Poco. I kid you not, they were all looking at me like "what are you doing here?"

I uneventfully lead Poco back in and the rest followed. Closed the gate and went on about my destination.

I was excited to come home and make a couple of recipes I found on a fellow bloggers site. They were homemade flour tortillas, empanadas and cast iron skillet biscuits. I think I gave myself carpal tunnel kneading and kneading! I s l a v e d away on our dinner. Told the guys they had better eat real slow because of how long it took to prepare it! As I am cooking and washing the endless dishes the water goes out. So I go out to ask Paul if he had water on, "no" ARGH!!!!

He went down to check it out and the horses had broken down the gate and were in the corral area AGAIN! They like the grass by the main water valve and had broken it and all the water was running out.

We all peacefully ate our dinner and were sitting around watching Whale Wars when the phone rings. Our neighbor on the mountain was on his way to his cabin and there are six horses romping along with the cows way where they shouldn't have been. Now the way our property is set up is we are in a canyon with a ridge on the east and the west side. Normally the horses don't climb the hill to the east because it is too steep. Not to mention there is plenty of feed down below. So we all jump up and grab jackets and head outside. Sure enough it is our horses. We hadn't ruled out the fact that someone had set some horses out and they were someone else's. Although we are so far out chances are they wouldn't find us.

We drove up to the top of the property and threw some hay off the polaris thinking they would come down when they saw us throw hay............nope! That would be too easy! They are running and playing like they have been standing in corrals all their lives. Buttheads. So Jeremy and Paul climb the hill on foot to go and catch them. Thankfully that went pretty smooth and we locked them up in the arena until tomorrow when they will all loose their freedom for awhile. Since there are no training horses here we have plenty of empty corrals and they will each get one! I am sick of worrying about them and if they can't stay out of trouble that is what they get!

I will sleep easy tonight knowing the huligans are contained!

Thanks Tony for calling!

Lazy dayz...

This is what we all do while Jeremy is working giving lessons. Aren't we supportive?!

Steele and Paul checking out the hammock at one of the lesson locations.

This was a week ago or so. This is our idea of a pool.

We got in about midnight from giving lessons down in Old Agoura. We had a wonderful time and dinner with some great friends. Thank you again Mary for letting us decend on you.