I Really Am Still Here!

Boy, life just gets so busy sometimes that the things I enjoy doing get put on the back burner - such as this blog! Well, let's see, the last update was in March, I believe. Since then, we finished one wall on the barn, so a little progress there.

Inside of barn - future feed room and tack rooms

Outside of barn. The overhang will house my husband's dad's antique car.

Baseball season started and we were completely immersed in baseball from the end of March through the end of May.

The boys both played extremely well and D (below) even made the Rookie All Star Team!

My beloved Maggie turned 31 years old on May 8th and still seems to be going strong. This photo doesn't do her justice - it was from early spring before she shed out. She is slick and shiny this summer.

The first two weeks of June we escaped with my family to the beach (Tybee Island) for a glorious and much needed vacation. You would think after 2 weeks at the beach you would be ready to return home, but we weren't! I think we could have easily stayed 2 more!!

Tybee Beach cottage - this cottage is 102 years old!

My 92 year old grandmother joined us for a few days, and she is a truly remarkable woman. Sharp as a tack and lovely as ever. We are so, so blessed to have her.

Grandma and our family

At the top of the Tybee Lighthouse

D and his boogie board

Whoops!!!

SHARK!!!

A just reached into the surf and pulled out this baby shark - just kidding...my Dad was fishing and caught it. It was A's job to release it.

A few of the shark's teeth we found on the beach

The day before leaving for the beach, my parents found a kitten in their burn pit. The momma kitty must have been in the process of moving the kittens when my parents and the dogs happened upon the kitten. Since the kitten was feral, she had no plans of leaving the protection of the wood pile, so my Dad meowed like a cat until the kitten came out and my Mom grabbed her before the dogs got to her. She was so little; maybe 5 weeks old at the most, so my parents brought her to the beach.

Meet Tybee:

After returning from the beach, we celebrated D's 13th birthday. It is so hard to believe he is already a teenager! Still as sweet as ever at this point, but not sure what will happen as the hormones start raging...He will begin junior high as a 7th grader this year. Keep us in your prayers, please. :)

The Rookie All Star Tournament began the 3rd week of June, so for two weeks straight, D was playing baseball 3 - 4 nights a week!! Their team ended up in a very hard-earned second place, making us so proud!

And here we are, already well into July...hotter than a firecracker and humid as all-get-out! Filly has started rubbing her tail again, as well as her ears. We have fenced in a large paddock with no trees that she can rub on. Hopefully if we keep her doused in fly spray and treated with Swat, she won't completely mutilate herself like 2 summers ago. There has been no time to ride, so the only horse-related things we have done this summer are bathe and brush them. I've decided to offer Filly for sale, but I'm going to be very picky placing her. She has to go to the right situation or she'll just have to continue to be a pasture ornament. Selling one of my horses is like selling my children...and it is rare that I ever feel like selling my kids. :)

Anyway, we are still here, doing well; just as busy as ever. Still hoping we can get the barn finished one day before the kids are grown... :)

Sigh...microsteps

Still nothing going on here as far as the barn. It is getting closer to spring, and I begin to get antsy about getting the barn done and the fencing up. It is so hard to be patient. We poured concrete the end of September in 2007 and put up some of the studs along what are to be the feedroom and tackroom that same year.

The hill is still heavily damaged from the torrential downpour we had after grading the hill and putting down all of the topsoil. One area up near the barn has a good stand of bermuda grass, but we need grass all over the hill. Hubby said he would see about bringing in more topsoil and seeding again. This time we will possibly sod some areas and put netting over the rest of it to prevent washing as much as possible.



The area that washed the worst might become a shallow drainage ditch which we could line with sod. You guys provided some great suggestions to combat future erosion problems, now we just need to figure out the right approach.

Most of the hill is still bare. Because this is fill dirt, nothing will grow in it. Topsoil is a must and is not cheap.

Another photo of the errosion:

Here's the pole barn...it is amazing how quickly things become delapidated when they just sit. How I wish I was good with a hammer and pouring concrete.

For now it is the waiting game. It is hard when you and your spouse don't have the same dreams and ambitions or ideas about things. I need to be better about helping my hubby fulfill his dreams and ambitions and quit nagging him about mine.

Maybe one day it will all come together. I just wish it was before the kids were grown so they could have the same privilege I had growing up with horses. Now I wish I could outgrow the "horse thing" and put it behind me. I've tried, even selling my very beloved horse Hamlet right after my husband and I married. My parents have been kind enough to buy Tonto and Filly so the kids and I could enjoy them as often as we are able, but they are getting to the point that they won't be able to care for them much longer. It's frustrating.

On another note, Sam is still doing great. He has an appointment to be "fixed" on March 19th...don't tell him though!

Sam and Daisy have matching coats! I guess my husband and oldest son really are surrounded by red heads!

And here's old Snowflake...as soon as it is warm enough, I'm taking this poor guy to be groomed. This fellow is about 15 or 16 years old now and his age is beginning to catch up with him.

Enough of the pitiparty! Hope all of you are doing well and thanks for checking in.

Old Photos

My Dad has been going through some old photos recently. You see, many wonderful years ago, he started a small horse magazine called Horsing Around Alabama. I had the privilege of riding to different farms with him for photo shoots of Alabama horse people. It was so amazing who we got to meet!

Here are some treasured photos from two different articles published in the magazine. These first photos are of Susan Wainwright and her beloved horse Winston Himself. Susan is an avid eventer, trainer and teacher who lives only miles from where I grew up. If I remember correctly, she competed in the Pan Am Games at least once, if not several times. She is a very accomplished rider and has been very successful at the higher levels.

She is pictured here sporting a safety vest. Susan is a huge advocate of the safety vest, as she was wearing one when one of her beloved horses had a heart attack while jumping cross-country and fell on her. Susan's life was spared because she was wearing a safety vest. It wasn't long after this article was published that I was fitted with my own vest for cross country. (It was pink and green!)

Susan is posing with Winston Himself, who sadly went to Heaven last weekend. He was 38 years old! Susan competed Advanced on Winston, I believe - but I know for a fact she loved him more than words can express. He has been a part of her life for most of his 38 years.

The photos below are of the amazing artist, Nan Cunningham. I grew up riding with her daughter, so I had the privilege of getting to see Nan's art first hand, as well as get to know her as a friend. She is a lovely, lovely person. My Dad asked her to be a featured artist in the magazine, so she came to our house and created pastels of Buck for publication. The pastel she is creating in the photo hangs in my parents' house.

The dog in this photo is Spot. Spot was a stray that adopted us before we moved to Pike Road. (We love our strays!)

Nan did a second pastel, the one I talked about in my post: http://pikeroadgirl.blogspot.com/2008/08/in-memory-of-buck-1973-august-25-2001_27.html.

Please check out Nan's website: http://www.nancunningham.com/. She is an incredible artist!!!!

My Dad is a wonderful photographer with such an eye. (He passed that gift on to my oldest brother, who also takes extraordinary photos.) My Dad has documented so many precious moments in my life and in the lives of my children. Thank you Dad, you are so appreciated!!!!

Recent Photos

We haven't had much time with the horses lately, so nothing much to post. Here are some photos of a quiet weekend a few weekends back when the weather was warmer than normal and we got outside to enjoy it. The horses needed a good brushing and deworming, so that's what we did. Some photos from our nice quiet visit with the ponies. Enjoy.

B and Filly - notice Filly's long(er) mane!!!

She has hair everywhere! No bald or rubbed out patches!


Filly is so nosey! It is good to see her back to her old self again. When she was suffering from the sweet itch, she was so miserable, she didn't want to be touched.

Now she wants to be in your pocket and her sense of humor is back!

Filly is now groomed and her mane trimmed (butchered).

I'm not a fan of long manes - too much mud at our place!

I love Filly's eyes.

Little Tonto was patiently waiting his turn for a good brushing.

He wasn't too dirty!

All clean and looking for my Mom to bring a treat.

Here the three of them are turned loose to head back out to the big field.

They walk side by side like this often.



The playing begins.


Something catches their eyes...

They start trotting in circles...

Even Maggie was feeling good!


They stop again to get a good look at something in the field....

Then they take off to get a closer look! See my kiddos playing in the mud puddle?

Notice my daughter has NO shirt on?!?!

Tonto gives Filly a nudge - he wants to keep playing!

She says, "Nah."

So they get back to what they do best...



Hopefully we can get Filly and Tonto back into work once the weather begins to get a little better. It is just too wet to slip and slosh through all the mud.

Hope all is well with all of you!

Thank you for visiting!

Sweet Reunions

Time is never on my side when I want to blog. There are so many things I want to say, but can't find the time to get them posted! I do want to share something really neat that happened recently.

In my limited spare time, I love to surf the internet reading other people's blogs. I left a comment on a blog a few months ago, and by chance, an old friend that I have not seen since she was around 10 years old saw my comment and contacted me! Not only was she a friend, but she owned Maggie for a while! Her family boarded horses at the farm where I spent many summers working. We e-mailed back and forth for a while catching up on life. It was quite amazing! She was stunned that Maggie was still alive; and I was stunned that her Mother's horse was still alive!

Then I caught up with another young lady that I taught a few riding lessons to (on Maggie) at the same farm. She even came to visit Maggie while she was home on Christmas break!

And finally, I got back in touch with the lady that owned the farm where I had worked from age 12 to my early college years. After the farm was sold and they moved away in the mid 1990's, we lost touch. I tracked her daughter down, who led me to my lost, but not forgotten friend. This is the lady who gave Maggie back to me after our Shetland pony Amber passed away, leaving Buck alone. She also had her farm hand bury Amber, then a few years later, Buck.

So, these past two months have been a time for sweet reunions and catching up with friends from the past. I love how the horse world seems to be a world of its own and how it seems there is a connection every where you look.

Happy Happy Birthday to My BFF of 26 years!

My faithful cheer leader and supporter through so much...

This post should be much, much longer, but unfortunately due to the time factor, it will be briefer than I want.

Our family moved to Pike Road in December 1983. Back then, Pike Road was "out in the country," so only luck (or God) would have it that a girl my very same age lived right next door. We even ended up in the same 3rd grade class together and shared an amazing love for horses. We were instant friends and our friendship flourished and grew through millions of trials and tribulations over and through the years, but she stuck by me; an unfaltering, caring, loving, very best friend. We have been through so, so much together. She knows some of my deepest, darkest secrets, and I know they are safe with her. I would trust her with my life; with my kids' lives. Although we are now worlds apart (or so it feels with her living all the way across the country now), we can still talk and pick up right where we left off. She is one of my closest, very best friends in the whole entire world. I miss her so much - her witty, brilliant humor, and her loving compassion.

We shared so many fun times together....like swimming the horses in her pond....

She was always supporting me during competitions.....

Thank you so much for all you have done for me and with me. There are so many treasured memories. I want to wish you all my best for your birthday on January 17th and I sure wish I was there to share the celebration with you. I love you so much HCG#2 - LYLAS. Happy, Happy Birthday to YOU!!!!

Thanksgiving

Wow, where has the time gone? Still ticking by way too fast. That's the exact reason I hate the ticking of a clock. It reminds me of the time ticking by and minutes I can never get back. I need to put a positive spin on that, because thinking that could become quite depressing!

Work is keeping me extremely busy (thankful to still have a job after they laid off 1% of our staff right before Thanksgiving.) My heart goes out to those families. The downfall though...I have no time to blog!

A lot has been going on here - not much horse stuff unfortunately, but a lot of other things!

D played in the State Finals for soccer, but unfortunately his team did not win any of their games. They sure played their hearts out though! We are very proud of all of the kids and especially D.

Our neighbor had a birthday party for her son recently, and brought her horses over for the kids to ride. This fellow is "Rooster." My husband and I went to look at a house for sale a couple of years ago and Rooster was one of three starving horses in a pasture of dirt behind the house. The people had been transferred and had to find homes for the horses within two weeks. My sweet neighbor's Mom bought two of the horses, Rooster and a mare named Cocoa, while the little mustang went to a wonderful family with a little girl who adores her. Rooster was by far in the worst shape of the three. Here is a before shot:

and here is a recent one:



We had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with some of my husband's family from California. C1 & C2 are awesome and we always enjoy being around them. Hoping they will return soon for another visit to the south. ;)

My husband and the kids built this awesome teepee out of limbs, leaves and pine straw!
The weather threatened rain...so.....

we wrapped it on plastic to keep the cushy leaves on the floor from getting too wet!

Sam, the newest addition to our family, seems to be settling in and feeling like part of the family. He follows me to the end of our driveway every day...and is waiting in the same spot when I get home in the afternoons. That is loyalty. He is such a sweet dog and deserves a loving home. A and I bought him a dog bed recently that came with a stuffed dog bone with a squeaky inside. It took him all of five minutes to shred it and find the squeaky. That may have been the best five minutes of that silly dog's life. :)

The puppies that my parents rescued from South Carolina in October are having a blast digging up all of my Mom's favorite potted plants...and tearing up everything they can...as puppies do. :) They have now been spayed and neutered, so one less worry...If you know anyone looking for a very sweet and loving puppy, the little boy, Max, still needs to find a home. My folks are willing to keep the 2 little girls. We have no clue as to their breeding, but since they are approximately six months old, shouldn't get much bigger. They are all below knee height.

Nothing to report on the barn...it has been over a year since the concrete was poured for the aisle, and several months since the gully washer scoured the new topsoil off the hill. I try not to pressure my husband too much about it, but I am dying to get the horses here. (The ticking time...) They will probably be so old by the time we get them here, I'll be caring for geriatrics (and I'll be geriatric, too!)! At least I can still visit them on the weekends. Oh, and Tractor Supply just had its Grand Opening today, so maybe we can get fencing and barn supplies from there... :) Christmas is coming up soon!

I have another post I want to share soon - it is a pretty neat story about blogging!

Thank you for stopping by and I hope all is well with all of you.