No Problem!

After chores we caught up Mica and took her over to the trailer to put Rich's saddle on her. Rich said if she was behaving that well he would ride her.

I wanted to take her on a test drive first and well, I was not disappointed. She behaved perfectly.

I took her up and down the driveway and rode her for about 10 minutes. She never flipped an ear the wrong way nor did she make any misstep. In fact, I think she was quite pleased with herself.
I had told the kids that mules were happiest when they had a job to do.

We got the rest of the mules out and started grooming them for saddling.

Everyone gets involved. Dennis is still learning about saddling, but Ariel has learned how to properly saddle Siera along with putting on the breast collar and the crupper.
It really helps to have an assistant when getting this many animals saddled up.

I used my Stonewall saddle on Sunshine. My other saddles are used for the kids.

If we do another group ride, I will have to hunt up another saddle pad too. It has been years since we rode this many animals together. The last time may have been about 10 or 11 years ago.

My love of riding helmets also has proven to be a nice bonus. I have three and so we were able to use them.

After some safety checks and equipment adjustment, we were ready to go.

I called my neighbor and asked if she'd come out to our shared driveway and take a shot of this 'historic' event. Grandpa riding Mica .. and all of us mounted and together!

She obliged and I am grateful to her.
We went off to ride the oat/hay fields on the ridge. Nothing too difficult or demanding as Dennis is still getting down the finer points of mule operation. Plus Fred is in his early 30's so we try not to work him too hard.

I can only say that everyone was smiling. The mules were happy, the people were happy.
I was over the hill happy.
After Rich's stroke he was sure that he would never ever ride again. This proves once again that animals are great therapy.

This was a pretty large step for everyone. Grandpa out riding with the kids.

Sometimes things just pull together and this was one of those times.

What a fine day!

Grandma's Hands

One of the things I recall from childhood is my Grandmother's hands.  

She gardened with gusto, she almost never wore shoes in the garden or around the place either.  She had a razor sharp hoe, but when it got to the nitty gritty, she got into the dirt and pulled weeds with her hands.

She never wore gloves.  I'm not sure there were gardening gloves back then for women.  You just went out into the garden and got your hands dirty.

I can recall going over to her house to get her.  Mom was going to get in the car and we were all going to go to town.

Grandma was in her house with a scrub brush soaping her fingertips and scrubbing away at the dirt that had embedded itself into her fingers.

I always thought it was neat how the dirt made the lines in her hands stand out.  

I learned to understand that she didn't.  She didn't like the dirt that was embedded and tried to get it out before she went anywhere public.  Especially to town.

She explained once that the women in town didn't have dirt in their hands like hers.

I didn't understand it when I was young, but I think the town ladies looked down on the ones who lived in the countryside and worked 'in the dirt'.  I saw it as cool and a sign that my Grandma Pearl was tough as nails.

She wasn't a soft lady who drank tea and always wore dresses.

I think her hands embarrassed her when she was around the church ladies or town people.  It never bothered me, I liked her rough hands.  They were nice to hold as a child.

I looked down at my hands after pulling weeds in the perennial garden this year.  The gloves were still in my back pocket.  I always intend to wear gloves when weeding and pulling, but they always come off.

My hands become embedded with dirt and sometimes the hardest scrubbing won't take the dirt out.  I find myself then thinking about those hands of Grandma's and I smile a bit.

"A little dirt never hurt anybody," she was fond of saying.

I think she was right.

I do love getting my hands into the soil.  It just doesn't feel right with gloves on.  You can't feel the roots of the plant you are pulling out.

Just a short one today

I'll get back to my hiking adventures, but I did a bit of indoor fun today.

A Tea Party:

And some dear Memories from my Grandmother's journal she kept:

This is fun and totally different for me.  For the above shot I used a silky dark scarf, coffee cup, old carnation, old glasses, and a black t-short for a backdrop.
The notes are actually from my Grandmother's journals from years ago, it is fun to read them and recall how diligent she was to make daily weather observations amongst other things.

Being a Grandma

Some days are absolutely worth getting up for early.  I rose at 4am [yeah crazy huh?] ... and got Ariel up at 5am.
We hopped in the Subaru and headed to the ridgetop where I parked on the side of the road.

I wanted to share with her the wonderful pre-dawn hush of the world before the sun awakened the day.

I'd told her that she could come with in her PJ's and we'd enjoy the early calls of the pheasant and robins as light came to the ridge.

I'm pretty sure by the look on her face that this was a very cool experience for her.

Because I didn't want this moment to be forgotten, I set up the camera on a tripod and used the flash and remote to take a 'sunrise' selfie of us.

Surely, this will not be one photo tossed soon.  

~~~~

We discovered by a small rash, that Dennis had gotten into poison ivy the day before.
We found it rather quickly...or should I say his mom did.

Treated it right away with some hydrocortisone cream and then Jewel Weed soap and a gauze wrap for the night.

Imagine my surprise when the kids pitched in on their own to help do the chores yesterday morning.
I was pleased as punch.

I do think that letting them chose to do it and letting them figure things out on their own was a good thing.
They were very proud of the fact that they did this on their own.
They engaged in pretty tough work and I must say, I was impressed.

I'm thinking that this is what great fun it is to be a grandma.  Not only to infants, but to kids and to watch them grow and do good things.

Of course I've been a 'grandma' now for 10 yrs and it has been fun.  But never quite have I had a weekend like this.

I'm sure looking forward to a whole week of 'Grandma & Grandpa Camp'.

I'm pretty sure we are going to avoid Poison Ivy and Sunburn!
Well, do our best anyway!

If anyone told you it was not fun growing older and becoming a Grandma, they have NO clue.