Eleven Good Things

Well the good news is that I'm still alive and happy! 

Second good news, Tom bought a coffee maker so now I get coffee in the morning!

Third good news, I am loving the work!

Fourth good news, I went riding yesterday!

Fifth good news, I am learning tons!

Sixth good news, my tennis shoes came in the mail today! No more blisters!

Seventh good news, there is a lovely little coffee shop in town that we get to 3 or 4 times a week!

Eighth good news, I am losing weight!

Ninth good news, I am tanning (well my arms are getting there)

Tenth good news, I am starting to get the concept of round penning!  

Eleventh good news, I have a lot of pictures for you! 

Here they are!

Amerta, a mare imported from Russia. She is a sweet heart and throws beautiful babies!

Amerta's last year's colt by Maruk, Philibert! My personal favorite horse on the place! He's gonna make a hell of a eventer! Already stands 14.1 as a yearling!

Izzy!  

If you don't keep this horse busy, he will find a way to busy himself! 

Kazoo, 2 year old stallion. What a mover!

Kazoo by Izzy, out of Amerta

 Maruk (the stallion) and Tom. 

Maruk and Tom

Peek-a-boo! A sweet heart filly! 

Peek-a-boo, she is half paint half Akhal-Teke by Izzy, out of Pippy.

Sudjy. Gorgeous grey filly by Izzy, out of Blanche.

Look at that movement! 

Frankie, the future stallion! By Maruk out of Kirkivie (out of Sam and Amerta)

Music and Life

I haven't posted for a while... Sorry to all who read my posts. 

I've been settling in here with work and all. Unfortunately the cat, Snow, decides that he likes me. So now, I who dislikes cats in general, have a 'friend' who thinks that I should pet him, and feed him treats. But, I have my revenge. Snow is a very dignified cat, he never plays, I make him do tricks for his treats. Which he dislikes greatly, but he does the tricks because he really likes the treats. 

On Wednesday, the 13th, we went to a 50th birthday party for a good friend, Will E. There was lots of food, drinks, desserts, laughter, talk, and LOTS of music!!! Naomi and I sang two songs, Streets of London and Ole Dan Tucker. It was a lot of fun practicing the songs in preparation, even more fun singing them at the party. There was a lot of good music! Bluegrass, country, folk, fiddle, blues (Ken Hamm for 3/4 of an hour!), and comedy. We all had a blast!   

Don Carter took this picture of Naomi and I singing Streets of London. I was pretty much blocked in with mics. I had to stand behind the piano with Naomi so I could read the words. 

On Saturday I got even more music! We were in Regina and I didn't want to go to the movies with Naomi and Jesse, so I went and hung out with Ray Bell and Tahnis Cunningham at the Music In The House recitals. Good music! If you live in Regina and are looking for, guitar, fiddle, drum, piano, bass, or voice lessons, I would suggest you check out Music In The House this fall! I know several of the instructors who teach there. They're good people who know their instruments. 

Another thing that happened in Regina was that I got an iPhone 4S. So far I am loving it! :-) If you want my number you can Facebook me or email me. 

I am going for a riding lesson on Thursday! I'm really excited about that! I hope it works out for me to take lessons steady. Maybe eventually I'll move Coyote down here and take lessons on him. 

From the 22nd

April 22^nd

7 years ago today Dad met me at the door of our porch (a converted grain bin) as I was coming in from morning milking. He took me around back of the house to where our first three horses were kept. There he pointed out that my mare ‘Jenn’, had 8 legs. J I kept Jewel until she was 2 and then sold her, but here’s a happy 7^th birthday to her. 8 horses later, I still haven’t had another foal born to any of my mares, but I looking forward to September 22^nd as that is when Muckers, Ellie’s horse is due to foal.

Last night youth was really good! For our activity we played football. My team got beat 2-1, but hey! We had a blast! J I think that is the best time I’ve had playing football; it even started me thinking that I should try learning how to catch. I can throw the ball actually not bad (‘for a girl’ as Larry P. would say), but I can’t catch one to save my life. :-P But I can run and block people, so that’s what I did. As well as, sometimes running into my teammates, Josh M. or Benj T., (the ones that can actually throw and catch that ball. J ) when they were trying to catch the ball. But then I also ran into Jay S. and Jesse (my bro), from the opposite team as well. Jay and Josh both play football for the Preeceville Panthers (high school team), so they are two of the better players at youth.

The lesson at youth was on BETRAYAL.      Brad had each of us draw a picture of betrayal, then he had us explain it to the rest of the kids. After that he had us draw responses to betrayal and explain them as well. Then he had us read the story of the last supper and Jesus washing the disciples’ feet. Even Judas’ and Peter’s (his betrayers) feet were washed. Jesus knew what they were going to do, when they were going to do it, and he still forgave them, BEFORE the deed had been done. It made me remember a sermon that I heard once on forgiveness. The message was that forgiveness isn’t just saying ‘I forgive you’, and then saying in your heart, ‘God will take care of you’. No, it’s actually saying and forgiving the person. Forgiving, is actually leaving the deed behind you, buried, to never be dug up again. So you can continue learning more from Jesus and help each other grow in Him. You can’t be totally in sync with God when you won’t open up your heart totally and let Him take care of all the hurts. He already knows they are there, but He won’t force His way into your heart to help you. His help is a gift, just like His salvation. A gift is not forced on a person, because then it would not be a gift to be received but, a duty that has been placed on you. Am I making sense? Sometimes something will sound like I worded it totally right and then when I say it to one of my friends they give the weirdest looks. So if that wasn’t clear please tell me. J

 We got home last night around 12:30 am, and after brushing my teeth I headed to bed. But at 1:00 I hear this scratching sound. I turn one the light and after a little bit the noise stops. I turned off the light and after a good while finally relaxed and was almost asleep when the scratching noise starts again. Now, get this, regularly I’m scared of mice, but at 2:00 am I am TERRIFIED of them, even if it’s only the sound of them running. So now I’m shaking and if I had actually seen a mouse I think I would have screamed, as it was, I picked up my blankets and went up and slept on the chesterfield. Even then it took me a while to relax and quite shaking. Sound crazy? I’m more of a girl than you thought! LOL! I don’t know if I’ll sleep upstairs tonight or not though. If I have the dehumidifier on and some music playing quietly then I can’t hear the mice and I’ll fine. Plus I want to get Dad or Jesse to set up a couple of traps. Hopefully we’ll be able to get them taken care of. Last night I’m not exactly sure what all I prayed for to happen to the mice, but I do remember praying that they would die, or at least not move anymore. J   

Tonight we (Ellie, I, Trisha F. and Martha) are, Lord willing, going to a youth get together in Preeceville. Our youth group met on Thursday because of the Easter holidays. Two youth nights in one week sounds pretty good to me! J

         I’ll sign out for now. I hope you have/had a wonderful Easter.

                                                  ~Lydia    

Hello again!

~ November 25 ~

   Lots has been happening since I got home from Saskatoon. And that's my only excuse for not writing. I guess I could think up a lot more… but, the fact is that I haven't written for a long time. :-P Sorry! Now, with that being said…

 Ellie's gotten sick again. She needs prayers. She's getting her nasty cough again. Other than that we are all doing well here. Dad, Ellie, and Jesse all got their deer. Two each. I found out that I don't like shooting the high powered rifles, so I have two unused deer tags. Jesse has yet to get a moose and then Dad, Lell's and I, all have our cow elk tags. So we still have a bit of hunting to do. Jesse makes jerky out of the elk and deer meat, it's sooo good! We all prefer the elk meat to the deer meat but all of it is good. :-)

 My biggest news would be that I bought new horse! Well, actually he's not really new to us but… He is a black Quarter Horse cross gelding named Coyote. Some of you may remember me mentioning him before. Dad used him on our 310 mile ride through SK, MT, and ID (we trailered the horses a good bit of the way). While us girls were at camp this summer Dad put his two horses, Coyote and Al, up for sale. Both of them sold, and nobody really minded them being gone. Until I got home and didn't have a horse to ride. It was kind of a bummer but I put up with it. Then a couple of weeks ago when we were in the Endeavour Store (the general store) Dad picked up a copy of the 'Bargain Hunter' (a free advertisement paper). When I got it I turned right to section #47 (Livestock /accessories). There I found an ad for a 9 year old black QH gelding, broke to ride, but needs experienced rider… I laughed to myself that it sounded like Coyote, then I checked  and wouldn’t you know it was in Yorkton which is where Coyote was sold to. We looked up the phone number and sure enough it was the same people.  So to make a long story shorter, Dad called them and they delivered Coyote here a couple of days later. Just a couple of days ago I took him for a ride. I had a blast getting frozen! It was around -20* C, but it was still fun to be riding again! Coyote did pretty good. He was freaking out when I first brought him into the yard to saddle him up but settled down on the road. Hopefully I'll be able to get him in shape throughout this winter. Right now he looks like a broodmare that's in foal. His belly is huge! LOL!

 I've caught Bucky a couple of times. But he's got more tricks than I do. So I'm rather stumped with what to do. I'll be leading him and he's walking along quietly then all the sudden he spins rearing and gets the rope on his shoulder and then bolts. There's no way I can hold him. So if there's any horse trainers reading this, please help me here. He only does this when I get him away from the herd, so I know is herd boundness. Anyways. Fandango is getting friendlier, especially if you have carrots. :-) I haven't tried haltering her yet but have worked on being able to pet more and more of her.

  Tomorrow we are, Lord willingly, going to the Agribition in Regina. We are hoping to get there in time for the Premier Select Ranch Horse Competition at 9:00 in the morning. That means we'll be leaving here around 5:00, which means getting up around 4:15. And yes I'm talking am. Sounds lovely eh? Should be worth it! :-) My greatest problem is that Martha heard this interview on the radio of this 17 year old kid that's selling wild rags (neckerchiefs) there. I guess he's been a bull rider for 2 years. Anyways the crazy girl wants me to take a picture of him for her. And to make it worse Mum thinks I should too. Maybe I'll take a random picture of him, but I NOT going to go up to him and tell him that my sister at home wants a picture of him so would he mind I took one, like Mum suggested. I told her that if she thinks it's a good idea she can do it. I'll even lend her my camera. I think that if Martha wants to see him so bad she should come along. She and Jesse are staying home so they can go to youth. Oh well! LOL! Talk about a crazy family!

I started studying the drivers handbook so I can take the written test and get my learners permit. But I made the mistake of starting a book called 'Wild Horse Annie ,The Last of The Mustangs' by David Cruise and Alison Griffiths. A very good book about how Velma Johnston helped the mustangs not to become an extinct breed. But I would not suggest starting it at the same time as the drivers handbook… Which one do you think gets read more? Ugh! Okay, now is a very good time to practice self control :read Wild horse Annie and then read the drivers handbook:! LOL! Just kidding. But I'm telling you it's a good book! I would even recommend it over Marguerite Henry's book on the same subject, which is a good book as well by the way. I just like how this one is written better. Right now Martha's reading it. Ha, maybe she won't finish it until I get done with the drivers handbook. LOL!

 Anyways.. I guess I'll go for now.

   Hopefully I'll be able to post this while in Regina. :-)

               G'day!

                      ~Lydia~

Pictures of riding.

We went for a ride yesterday! Had a lot of fun! I hope you enjoy the pictures!

Red's head.

Jesse riding Red.

All of who went, excepting Dad.

Movin' out!

Thanks to Dad for this picture!

A little different pose.

At the gate of where we board our horses! McGinnis Valley Ranch.

The road had lots of switchbacks!

I was ponying Millie (Hannah's filly).

Ellie, Dad, and Zeke. Dad is ponying Al, because he just had bucked Zeke off.

Jesse rode in my Australian saddle.

Enjoy and have a great day!

Lydia