Whirlwind Activity

I like dawn. I like it even better with a pal. In this case my pal was not just a mule or one Charlie.

I took Ariel on her first 'rough' ride in the woods. This photo was after she and Siera did a mule slide into the creek. A big deal for Siera as she is pretty sure she doesn't want to do it and a big deal for Ariel who had to convince her it was okay.

Everyone survived and Ariel got to test out her 'muleman ship'. Ariel didn't seem convinced that she did fine. I was on Sunshine who is rather ho hum about mud, muck, and sliding into streams. Siera is sure it is mule-eating mud. She will do it though.

We rode two early mornings and what can I say? It is fantastic to have a riding partner. We beat the heat, got wet from dew laced leaves and got to see the fog coming off the creek into the warm air. The trails we followed were deep in the woods and along the creek. We simply followed the 4 Wheeler's trails. [Apparently they are not allowed in there!]

I rode Mica the second morning. We took the 'tough' trail out to the valley bottom and then used an old logging trail to head back home.

On a nice open trail like this Siera is the dream ride. Mica gets bored and seems to walk in her sleep.
No matter, we made two early morning rides and enjoyed them.

When I got back, I asked Dennis if he'd like to ride and brush up on his skills. He said yes. I gave him a boost to get on Siera and let him ride in the yard area.

The kids are pretty darned good riders on well behaved mules of course. I wish I had a buddy that would come ride with me often.

Morris always used to run alongside Badger and I. Later after Badger passed over the rainbow bridge, Morris would come with Siera and I. He even rode with me on Opal.

We'd had a very busy weekend. Stepdaughter's husband had wanted some wood to cut and load so he was busy during the blistering heat on Saturday. We grilled hot dogs and had a nice supper in the air conditioned house.

And...
of course Charlie makes for sweet moments. MIL thought he was so darned cute and Rich held him for her to pet.
And...
then there was this other Charlie Moment with Angel, the beagle. They grew rather fond of each other.

I've been working my fingers to the bone on the little gardens I have around the house. So much great dirt to work with! I'll catch up on that later.

Our farm friend stopped by, and yesterday I had to move the Dexters we are shipping to auction. We just can't afford to feed them and take care of them as they deserve. I kept the 'good' ones as forest foragers and they are just the right number of cattle to help keep the pastures in order.
More on that later too.

This morning I will see them off. Yesterday was an all day extravaganza of me pounding posts with a heavy post pounder, stringing electric lines and testing them.
The effort was worth it even if my hands hurt like the dickens this morning along with my arthritic sternum. The cattle are ready.

As soon as they are loaded and up the drive, it looks like I have MIL duties to tend to.

Tomorrow my Kenosha Gang will be arriving for the weekend. Charlie can get over his doldrums, I can wish that my house were clean after such a whirlwind weekend with the in laws and grands...however.
So much to do and it is delightful outside.

The locust trees are in blossom and the air around the house smells delightful.

And that is that....
Until I catch up on my garden stuff, yard stuff, ... and ... well, you get the idea!

Guest Blog by Ariel

 Shouldn't leave your laptops open when I am around. Word of advice.😆
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ah, the Saturday morning before our parents arrive and that peaceful feeling of "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH! MOM AND DAD ARE COMING TOMORROW." *Cough, cough* is in the air. The donks are braying for their breakfasts, ye olde Fred is busy with Sundance, and Fifteen is standing next to the catchpen while everyone runs around putting on cowboy boots and prepping for a nice ride in the neighbor's hay field.

Since the V had asked the R if one would like to join the V, A and D for a ride and the R had said "Sure". Everybody was in hustle and panic mode.

After gathering four leads and halters the wonderful catching of ye olde Fred, ye younger Mica, ye even younger Sunshine and ye youngest Siera. Then comes the fun part of tying everyone to the trailer and...

Brushing them out.

Dun, dun,dun.

Oh wait, we can't start just yet! Sundance decided to crunch the top of the catch pen! Now how did she think she could jump that five foot high fence of rails? On to the naughty tree you go!!  

*An hour and a half [or so] later*

Bridles, check (yes! Got Siera's on myself!), saddles, check, helmets, check, pants,check, Dennis, check.

"Let's go."

Up, up, up the driveway we go and cya later, Sundance!! Have fun on the naughty tree!!

(If you look carefully next to the catchpen (not the crunched one) you should be able to make out Sundance. That is why the picture is blown up so big.)

Onto the hay field we are.

We rode for a few minutes then discovered Scrawny (Dennis) cannot sit straight in the saddle unless you get after him...A lot....Also discovered he sits back too far in the saddle when trying to get Fred's head up when he's trying to eat. (Le sigh.)

After we got the 'minor details' out of the way, we had a grand old time. After riding the hay field in full, it was high time we went home and got lunch after putting everyone away!

Or so I thought.

We came home and I started taking Siera's tack off when Grandma comes around the corner and goes: "Nu uh! Hang Siera's bridle on her saddle horn, we're going to eat then head out again without the boys."

...OK, sure, why not?  We have an afternoon to kill, Grandpa's going to sleep anyway. So suuuuuuurrrrrre!!!!!

*Boring lunch sequence, watches Fred and Sunshine get put up, yada, yada, yada.*

"We're going down through the soybeans and into the woods, K?"

"K."

Little did I know, we were not just going down to the creek and back, oh no. We were going down to the back valley.

(Face of someone who didn't know we were going all the way back to the back valley.)

We rode down the ridge road and down next to the creek where we went left instead of right, hmm, I'm getting the sneaky suspicion this is going to be a longer ride today.

Going left we encountered the 'dreaded' creek, Grandma made Mica cross instantly while Siera...Stopped. Decided 'nope, not today' and I spun her in a half circle and made her try again.

"Ooh! You are not going to make me cross the creek? Sure! We can go home!"

"Don't let her go home!"

Spun her around again and tapped her on the sides and told her she would be fine. "Nope. Nada, zilch. Forget it! Not today! Not today!"

Next thing I know Grandma and Mica have crossed again (note: Mica doesn't like it either, but she still did it) and Grandma is doing everything she can to help without tying Mica up.

"I don't see any trees closeby I can tie her too."

So we kept working on Siera and I ended up in another spot entirely then...

"Keep her going! Keep her going!!"

She crossed but we ended up only halfway. Grandma hollering instructions and telling us to keep riding right. Sure. I can do that. Gets in knee deep mud for Siera. *Insert loud sucking noise and Grandma spins around in the saddle thinking Siera fell*

We walk up close and I nod. We keep going. However we had to bust brush as the weeds and Wild (dead) Parsnip were up really tall. Mica put her head to the side and walked forward, while Siera plowed through like it was nobody's business.

Sweet. We got through. Now what? More snowmobile trail? Sure!! Uphill? Why not?

We rode up through the woods and then we came to a cornfield. Can you say 'middle of nowhere?' I sure could! (I honestly had no idea where we were besides that we weren't too, too close to Awesome Creek anymore, I vaguely had a sense of where to go if I needed to get back myself though.)

(Note: While we were riding up said woods all of the sudden whoosh! We are in a hole and stumbling out.

"Oh yeah, watch out for the hole."

So helpful indeed.)  

We came to another mysteriously hidden trail head and were traveling downhill again. How nice it was to look down and see a really wicked steep looking drop off and seeing dirt and water below.

We rode until we came to a downed tree, we found a trail through the underbrush and went around it. Then we came to the ice cave. We stopped (first previous photo) and let our mules rest.

"Check your gear, ...Oh look at your pants."

I do not wear jeans so I had a bunch of those icky green things stuck to my hems. Eww. (Took an hour and a half to get those things off.) Time to consider a pair of jeans…

We headed back and no one had any problems. Siera crossed the creek without issues in round two and we headed back home.

We stopped at the head of the driveway to dismount and walk down the steep part of the driveway. It took two attempts for me to get out of the saddle. (That was my longest ride to date.) We walked back, tied Siera and Mica to the trailer and that was that.

What a nice Saturday afternoon.

Berry Pickin' and Mules

Oh how I love black berries, black caps...anyway.  Those beautiful black berries that ripen in the woods on or around the 4th of July.

This year they were a bit later, which has worked out quite well.

Yesterday before breakfast I was able to walk out to the edge of the woods and pick enough to go with our breakfast.

Yesterday afternoon, I took Morris and we went for a walk alongside the road.  Morris loves getting in close to the plants and picking his own berries.  Yes, he eats them!

I froze a pint and a half from that little walk.

Later on we took out Opal and Fred and decided to ride back to the yellow-golden berry patch.

Each year it is harder to get to as the multiflora rose and other plants like wild grapes begin to crowd the area out.
But we went prepared!

Here is Fred with Hubby and a couple of buckets.

Here is the stand of berries.  I think I'll need to go back and pick again later.

It is hard enough to pick these that you have to wear hiking chaps to protect your legs from the other prickly things that grow there.

For me, half the fun is getting to ride a mule to the location of the berries. 
It was a quiet pleasant ride.
And a beautiful summer evening.