Sunday, October 17, 2010

Progress in progress

We all have our moments...


Although this is not exactly one of those photos many would consider a 'great shot', I like this one. Kat learned forward is the only direction he is supposed to really go!


Which he did.


We actually put him to the cart last weekend. Sorry no photos as there was nobody else around to take any. That is one of the drawbacks and such is life. He handled it all really well though. Stood like a rock as the shafts were lowered on his sides, through the tugs... the shafts bumped his sides and moved up and down in the tugs- everything they would be doing once he was moving. He handled it all really well. Nothing phased him, bothered or upset him.


So why is there someone else at the end of the lines and not me? Um yeah... I had one of those moments when it all goes according to a plan different than mine. I was jogging along behind him as he trotted around the arena. We jogged & trotted, then went back to a walk, stopped, walked, jog/trotted and then for some reason he startled at hearing me jogging behind him and rushed forward.


Not a big deal but he started to run and I could neither stop him or keep up, so I let go of the lines. He ran down to the fence where the mares were on the other side of it. He was talking a big game but they couldn't be bothered.


So back to work he went and since hubby was at the end of the lines and my cell phone was in my back pocket- we have pictures!


And there were a couple that I really, really liked.





Especially these two...


Can you imagine if he was 16 hands?

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

At a bit of a standstill

Ok so maybe things have temporarily come to an all out stop. It has rained here the past couple of days. When I say it rained, it should read more like- It. Downright. POURED!

Last night as I left work, I was a bit excited. The power had gone out for an hour in the afternoon. Then it came back on and went out just before time to close up and go home. We actually got to leave 20 minutes early... Hooray!

It had poured on us a couple times throughout the day. Rain, pour, stop, pour, pour, pour, stop, rain, sprinkle, pour... It was nice, I am not complaining, but sheesh. It was actually in the low 70's and I had worn a sweatshirt in the morning. I don't like being cold, can anyone tell?

The weather channel and online weather service websites spoke of heavy thunder storms and mentioned tornado warnings. How is that for comparison to some other areas of the planet? As I loaded my stuff in the truck to leave I looked up to see a mass of gray/green clouds blowing in from the southeast. All day it had been dark skies out to the west... But as I drove away and reached the end of the street, the skies unleashed on us again.

It had started to hail! Pretty good sized chunks of ice hit the street and smashed to bits. It also pelted the truck so hard I could not hear the person on the other end of the cell phone, even with my hands free ear buds in... The rain, hail and wind was so bad I could barely see past the end of the hood of the truck. I had turned right into the storm and had to either sit and wait it out or trudge forward and go home.

Not only was the rain and golf ball sized hail pelting and beating the truck and windshield, there were pieces of tree branches flying past- good sized branches mind you, debris from the road and nearby houses in the neighborhood... I just hoped the windshield and windows in the truck held up. The windows on the building next door at work- they didn't! Every one of them is broken or has several holes in them.

It took me several minutes to drive the two short blocks to the railroad tracks. I stopped for a minute there. The power was out at work when I left. I couldn't see if a train was coming or not and wondered if one did, would the warning lights go on, arms come down and anyone know? I decided to go for it and hit the gas pedal. Not too hard- don't want to loose traction and not get over the tracks quickly...

Once on the other side, as I came up to the traffic light, it seemed everyone was sitting on the side of the road waiting it out. At least the road was clear and I was able to get through. Getting on the freeway was another interesting feat. Some of the traffic had pulled off to the side- both on the right and left sides... At least nobody was blocking the ramp. There were several drivers pushing on and going forward so I joined them. All of the semi's had their hazard lights on as they plowed through the water on the freeway in front of me.

About 4 miles down the road I had made it out of the storm. The wind was still blowing, but the hail had stopped, the rain was a slight drizzle and I could actually see where I was going again. I still had to stop and get hay, feed when I got home, unload the truck and go inside to cook dinner for the girls. Although I had left early, I still got home late. Not sure how that works, but hey. At least I made it home.

While eating dinner the weather kicked it up again. This time though at least I wasn't outside in it. The wind blew our one wind chime to a horizontal position and the rain all the way up under the porch to the point the front windows were wet half way up.

We might live in the desert, might not get rain that often, but when we do... Mother Nature sure throws a hell of a party!