Horse trials

I am back in the horse hunt again. Tonight I went down to the Craig's and tried two horses out. The first was a paint mare that was 6 years old and had cutting training. She just weaned her first foal about 6 weeks ago. She was a nice looking mare around 15.1 and a red and white tobiano. Sorry I forgot the camera. She was obviously well trained just a bit rusty from having a year off. She was extremely gentle and well mannered. She just didn't make me go wow!

The second horse was a 3 year old perlino gelding AQHA. I know, I know 3??
Well let me tell you, he was as gentle and broke a 3 year old that I every saw.
Mike rode him bridle less around the arena. At first I was not crazy about his looks, then when I saddled him he looked kinda flashy. He was very sweet and wanted to crawl in my pocket. He moves beautiful! I rode him for awhile and though he is not "finished" he was very responsive and calm! His lope is to die for.
Just not sure about the color.

Is that silly? I mean a good horse is a good horse right?

He has greenish eyes as well.

I decided that I would go back next week and ride them both again although I think I have ruled out the mare. She is priced at 6 and the gelding at 3. Gonna take some time with this and do some more looking around.

As for Harley, yes I am going to disclose his aggressive stall behavior to potential buyers. No way do I want any bad karma or anything on my conscience if he should hurt someone or their kid. Mike thinks he has a guy interested in trying him as a heel horse. That would probably suit the little firecracker.

Will keep ya posted.

Here we go again....

I'm torn.....

I feel as if I am on this crazy roller coaster ride from hell with Harley. One minute I am enjoying the ride and the next I just want to puke! You all know the saga of Harley, keep him, sell him, keep him etc etc.

Well, I know we have made tremendous progress this year and I have learned so much from this crazy little horse that it even impresses me. He is going quite well and we are placing in every class. I can honestly say he is just getting better and better each show. Except....... oh yeah, there is always the except part.

He is stall aggressive. Yes, a charging gnashing monster to put it mildly. He has never been aggressive with me but he has charged my kids more times than I care to admit and this weekend he was charging folks at the show. How embarrassing.
I was saddling him for the lead line class and Thank the Lord Jesus I had him tied because when my son walked in the open stall door he lunged at him again.....
I lashed out at him and called him some really colorful names at that moment. I was unaware that the President of the national organization was in the stall behind me.
Talk about double embarrassment.....
I explained the situation and apologized for my truck driver expletives at once.
He was gracious and told me he understood.

I really don't get it, he is fine in the field, on the cross ties anywhere else but the dang stall. I know his past and it is not an abuse issue, maybe territorial but why not with me and other adults?

I have had it, I had nightmares about it last night. I cannot take the chance he may hurt one of my kids. He is officially up for sale.

Carson is showing such interest in horses now that I really want to get a well broke safe one he can learn to ride on. I am going to the Craig's tomorrow evening to try two horses. I found a mare that fits the bill perfectly, but they really cannot trade with me. Since Harley is most of what I have to spend it either has to be a trade situation or sell him first.

Not an easy decision but I think it is the best one.
Sigh......
Here we go again.....

Back from the show

I survived another show... somehow. I have come to the conclusion that I wear too many hats. Between showing a horse, helping run the office and putting out fires all over it is exhausting.

We left Friday just after noon in the rain and cold. Poor Harley looked like the abominable snow horse in all his hoods and blankets. I had to bundle him up as it was 39 degrees and raining and the trailer is open at the top. It did stop raining about 20 minutes from the showgrounds. We found the facility with no problems, you can check it out here . We were greeted by the owner of the facility and told where to park, not something I am used to. Upon entering the building (it is an all enclosed facility) I found a very unhappy president of our association. She informed me that the owners were trying to not honor the contract we had with them and were trying to charge differently for stalls and camping. After settling Harley in his stall and nominally setting up camp I went in search of said owner with a copy of the contract in hand. After a session of posturing and trying to intimidate me (which did not work!) we came to an agreement which suited me. Still, it left a bad taste in my mouth. I mean if people cannot honor their word or in this case contract, do we really want to do business with them? It all did work out fine in the end.....

Friday night we did the costume contest and the kids and I were pirates. Hubby did snap a few shots before my camera crapped out on us. Here is one of me and the kiddos plus Betty dog.












We did not have too many people participate which is a bummer but the kids had a ball and me well I won the mounted costume contest with this get up.











Here is a shot of some of my other friends, Wendy from the Wendy's restaurant
Dorothy and the wicked witch , me and pirate Harley and the headless horseman.











After being judged on our costumes we participated in bobbing for apples and the streamer race. I had the darnedest time getting an apple, even with my big mouth!
Harley did not appreciate the streamer race either so we bombed. The premise is to get another rider and you hold one end and the other rider holds the other and you travel together down the arena around a barrel without breaking the streamer.
Much fun anyway!

My favorite costume of the evening was the smallest Chihuahua I have ever seen wearing a saddle with a man riding him. This is the best pic hubby got of him.










My oldest son Carson got brave and did show Harley in lead line for the first time ever. He got a rainbow ribbon and was so proud that he wore it all day on his jacket and even slept with it that night. Too cute!
I did show in five classes and placed in all around the middle of the road. Not our best effort but certainly not the worst. Harley was amped up as usual and hard to rate. Sunday I just helped in the office and hung out to watch some of the cattle classes. All in all a great weekend, we had a nice turnout with around 111 horses from 5 states. A nice facility and looking forward to the next show in December.
For now I am catching up around here and on the mountain of laundry we created this weekend. Going to the Craig's this weekend to work Harley on a mechanical cow and to try a horse again. I know, I just can't leave it alone. Never hurts to ride just one more.

Friday ....already

Hey kids, I cannot believe how the week has flown and that it is Friday already.
I am just finishing up the packing of the trailer for the ranch horse show this weekend. I am leaving at noon today. Getting to the show early because we have fun classes tonight at 7 and since it is an all enclosed facility I want to ride Harley around in there some before the show. Tonight we are having a costume contest, a mounted costume contest that is.....
The whole family is dressing up like pirates! Including Harley and Betty the dog.
I hope that hubby will be kind enough to take photos of this event so I can share it with you on my return. We also are bobbing for apples, catalog race and the streamer race. We are having a best decorated stall contest as well.

I decided I am going to show the "bean" my pet name for Harley. The judges really like his type of look and I am so close to getting ROM (range of merit) in several classes that I should just do it.

The weather is absolutely horrendous today. Raining like mad and 40's. Glad this facility is all indoors, including the stalls. Unfortunately I will have to run outdoors to get to my trailer.

Hope you all have great weekends and I will have lots to share with you next week.
Until then....
Happy trails.......

Ghosting it forward

So my fellow sometimes cantankerous southern friend,Mrs Mom down yonder at Oh Horse Feathers has tagged me for a game of
Ghosting It Forward. I liked this idea as we all could use a little fun in our day to day lives. The rules are:



1) Have a Ghostly Image to pass along

2) Tag three people on your blog, with links to their blogs. Tell about what great folks they are, or offer to send them a Ghostly Treat.

3) Include a link to Ghosting It Forward in your blog.


So here is my ghostly pic:



















This is a photo of my bank barn, the horses live underneath in the concrete part.
See the window in the upper part? Sometimes in the early morning when I am walking down to feed the horses and I look up at that window it is almost as if someone is watching me. This is impossible since the window is about 15 feet up in the air and I know there is no one there. Still gets me sometimes.

So here are my three picks for ghosting it forward:


Gecko musings
This gal makes me smile with her stories of the cattle on her ranch. She also has some awesome pictures she posts.

Seat belt for my saddle
Jamie girl, you love to trail ride as much as me and really share your life with us in your blog. She is also starting to show her beautiful horse Rio and doing a fine job at that!

Pony girl rides again
This west coast girl always has an interesting blog to read. Her style of writing is just beautiful and I love to read about her pony cousins and their adventures.

Now if you ladies would like to share with me your address, I will indeed send you a little gift! Email me at Imaslider2@yahoo.com.

So there you have it folks let the fun continue!
Happy trails....

Weekend at the fall gathering

Hi all, I am hoping you all had a great weekend like I did! My family and horse family went to a fall gathering with my ranch horse club in Springville, Indiana.
It was a short 1 1/2 hour trip for us for a change. The gathering was held at the Bar P ranch, a lovely ranch consisting of about 400 acres and owned by two lovely older folks Charlie and Esther Parton. This was the second year for the gathering, I missed last year because I was at the Quarter Horse Congress shopping! The weather was beautiful, sunny and high in the 60's. The gathering was lightly attended and that was sort of a bummer, but on the other hand it gave me lots of opportunity to play in the cattle! Let me give you a run down on the weekend:

Friday: Finish packing horse trailer with all the gear and goodies. Best Friend in the world Susan arrives with daughter Eliza. We have fabulous dinner prepared by my hubby as pack of now 3 children proceed to make as much noise as possible. We reminisce over mojitos (my new drink of choice).

Saturday: After another yummy meal made by hubby and gathering up the kids and dogs (Susan brought her two plus my jack russell) we loaded Harley and Tank and we were on our way at 9 am. The trip was lovely through the rolling hills with the fall colors at mid peak. We found the ranch without problem and quickly got the horses tucked into their stalls while we set up camp. Everyone was heading out to gather cattle, we didn't make that trip as the kiddos were growing hungry by then. Esther has a little restaurant there on the ranch and folks come from miles around to eat her homemade yummies! After lunch we saddled up the horses and Harley gave me the best buck of his life, made me ride the horn and all. I was expecting it as I have been slacking on the riding lately. The footing was deep and it did not take long for him to settle down and get working nice. We brought around 15 head into the indoor arena and took turns cutting them. Harley was not as timid this time when entering the herd, helps that these were normal sized cattle. My BF Susan was kind enough to take some pictures of us working cows. Here is a shot of us.
















Harley did really well on these cows, they were slow and gentle which gave me time to properly make the maneuvers without getting in a hurry. Fellow club member Sheila was very helpful in coaching me through the runs and had some great exercises for me to work on at home with Harley.


I love this next picture, he is so intent on watching the cow that you cannot see in front of him.














Before we knew it the dinner bell was ringing, I love that Esther has the old iron triangle and she rings it when dinner is served. We all cleaned up and went in for a wonderful dinner of meatloaf, homemade chicken and noodles, mashed potatoes, green beans and rolls. Ugh, I think I gained 10lbs this weekend! After dinner we saddled up and rode out into the pasture to map out the ranch horse challenge course. It was my "baby" sorta like the extreme cowboy race, just not so extreme. The property was just perfect for this sort of competition. I found exactly what I needed just behind the barn and that way everyone could watch the riders compete. We rode until dusk and then we all made a campfire and had marsh mellows with the kiddos and just socialized and talked horse. It got cold and we all headed off to bed.

Sunday: I awoke to a very cold morning with frost and ice on everything. It was 30 degrees!!! Egads! not how I like waking up. Not to fear Esther had a nice hot breakfast of Biscuits and Gravy, eggs and bacon ready for us by 8. We bundled up and saddled the horses and rode out to gather the cattle again. What a morning! I wish I had remembered my camera, the property was stunning. The trees were in full color and it was a wonderful mix of woods and grass hills for pasture. We saw coyotes and deer besides the little cows we were hunting. We split into two groups and prepared to bring in the fuzzy critters. We managed to gather around 30 head and started driving them back to the barn. I tell you it is harder than it sounds! Those cows know that land much better than me and they were crafty little fellas. We drove them down a creek bed and I could not get in front of them to stop them. I told my riding partners that I would go out and around to try to get in front of them to turn them back. Harley was a gem, left the other horses without hesitation and rode thru some pretty gnarly brush and briar's to get to these cows. We got them turned and I tell ya, I felt mighty proud of the little horse driving 30 head by himself.
When I looked up I saw my fellow riders loping back to the barn! What the????
My heart sank, I just knew these cows would go right back to the pasture we originally drove them from. When I looked that direction thank goodness I saw the other group of riders coming down the hill with 15 head. I yelled at the top of my lungs that I was coming out with 30 head. Sheila yelled back that she heard me but could not see me. Well duh, Harley is so small and we were down in a creek bed.
We managed to merge herds and drive them into the barnyard without hassle. I unsaddled Harley and it was time to set up the ranch challenge course.

I had seven obstacles that were spread out in the back pasture. This is a description of the course. First the riders had to open and go in the pasture and close the gate while mounted. Second they had to negotiate a water crossing (the creek came in handy). Third they had to go to an area I had four cones set up, park their horse in the middle, dismount and ground tie the horse, walk a circle around the horse.
Fourth they had to ride to a mailbox, open it and retrieve the mail ride straight up a hill and hand the mail to my assistant Cassidy. Fifth they had to run down the said hill and get handed a rope with a log attached to it, they had to drag the log around a small group of trees and drop the rope at starting point. Sixth they crossed a wooden bridge. Seventh they entered a round pen with 5 head and had to sort one cow and drive it up an alley.

The rules were simple to make it fun. They were judged on time and horsemanship skills. They had one minute to complete each obstacle if they did not they were whistled out and could continue on. They were scored 0-5 for horsemanship on each obstacle 0 being they did not complete it and 5 being they did it perfect. They also had an overall time. I average the two scores to get the winners. It was $25 to ride and was an 80% payback. I had nine riders and they all had a blast!



Here is a shot of me getting ready to walk them through the course. That is not Harley this is a mare I rode a bit and wished I didn't this weekend, she was nice, nice, nice and of course for sale!



















This is some of the riders getting ready to ride.











This gal was on course here riding a lovely App that made me think of my pony cousin
pony girl! This horse was nice and handled everything well.













A shot of the water crossing, this guy was serious and ended up taking third place. My hubby took these and did a nice job.











This is a shot of the approach to the wood bridge, this fella rode his horse bridle less. He ended up winning the challenge on his other horse. Chatting with him later he told us he is got invited to ride with Craig Cameron on the real extreme cowboy race later this year.











This is a shot of a rider headed up the hill , he was just helping run the mail back to the mailbox in between riders.





We handed out the payback money and had to wrap it up for the weekend. We decided we are going to host a versatility show there in June of next year. We loaded up and got home around 7 last night. Now I have four days to get about 2 weeks worth of stuff done before I head to a show on Friday.


I know I have been tagged to play ghosting and I promise I will work on it!

Till then

Happy trails........

Mile High Apple Pie...... cooking with cowgirl

OK, fall is officially here and that means Apples! Oh, fresh yummy apples.
So I am sharing my cowgirl recipe for mile high apple pie with you.
It is of course an easy recipe to follow and you can cheat accordingly as to your available time constraints.
The combination of the two apples gives this pie a sweet yet tart taste you will love!


Mile High Apple Pie
with double crust

makes 8 servings

You will need the following ingredients:

Double crusts
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup plain yellow cornmeal
2 tbsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup of cold butter, cut into pieces
1/4 cup shortening, cut into pieces
8 to 10 tbsp chilled apple cider


Stir together first 4 ingredients. Cut butter and shortening into flour mixture with pastry blender until mixture resembles small peas.

Drizzle 1 tbs of cider along edge of mixture in bowl. Gently toss mixture into cider until just dry ingredients are moist. Continue until all remaining cider is mixed in with flour mixture.

Shape dough into two circles, flatten and wrap in plastic wrap . Chill 1 to 24 hours.

Or for a shortcut, go buy the pre made rolled Pillsbury crusts.


Mile high Apple Pie

You will need these ingredients;

1 1/2 lbs Granny Smith Apples --- About 9 large
1 1/2 lbs Brae burn Apples ---- About 9 large
1/4 Cup all purpose flour
2 Tbsp apple jelly
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/3 cup sugar
Double crusts
Wax paper
3 tbsp sugar
1 Tbs butter, cut into pieces

Preheat oven to 425
Peel and core apples, slice into 1/2 inch thick wedges
Place apples in large bowl. Stir in next 7 ingredients.
Place 1 of the circles of dough onto floured wax paper: sprinkle dough with flour.
Top with another sheet of wax paper and roll dough to 1/8 inch thickness. Discard top wax paper and place rolled circle of dough into 9 inch pie pan. Press dough into pie plate with edges overlapping.
Stir apple mixture: reserve 1 Tbsp of juices. Spoon apples into crust, packing tightly and mounding them in the center. Sprinkle 3 Tbsp sugar over apples; dot with butter pieces.
Roll remaining dough same as first dough and cover the filling. Fold edges under, sealing to bottom crust, and crimp. Brush top of pie ,excluding the edges lightly with reserved juices. Sprinkle with sugar. Place pie on cookie sheet . Cut 4 slits into top of pie for steam to escape.























Bake at 425 on lower rack of oven for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temp to 350 and bake 35minutes. Cover loosely with aluminum foil and bake 30 more minutes or until juices are thick and bubbly or apples are tender when pierced with toothpick thru slit in top of pie.

Remove from oven to wire rack. Cool for 1 to 2 hours.

Serve with vanilla ice cram or whipped topping . YUM!

Loose ends

Oh, where has the week gone??? I know I have been bad about posting again and disappointing all of you out there. I am feeling like my life is around a million loose ends these days.....

I have been meeting with real estate agents and showing them the house in preparation for choosing a listing agent. I showed the house to an interested party twice, no call backs yet. Cleaning the stinking house , way to much.

Quick trip to Lexington to check out a house. Won't work. Sigh....
Showing the black horse trailer, still trying to get it sold. Have someone coming tonight to buy it, Hopefully!

Getting forms and junk together for the fun weekend. I am in charge of the Ranch Horse Challenge which is on Sunday. Been fielding calls all week about that.

Did I mention the field trip to the pumpkin patch with oh say about 50 3-6 year olds!

Harley is practically being ignored and is sure to give me a butt lashing this weekend when I climb up on him. He is starting to hair up as the days get shorter.
I think I have the bots under control and am actually looking forward to the first frost just so they die!

Oh yeah, I am in the planning stage of the trip south with Tank as well. Not anyone out there figured it out yet? I guess maybe it isn't such an interesting issue.
He is going south to Savannah to a favorite blogger friend of mine, she will have fun trying to fix up his pigeon toed, flat soled feet.

Yes, MM I am going to do that post on the mile high apple pie I Swear!

Right now I am going to pack for the weekend trip!

Happy trails....

Home Tour......Come on In!

OK, been teasing you for awhile with the home tour thing, here goes.

This first pic is of the outside of my house at late afternoon.




















The next is of the fall display on the front porch.





















Now let's go inside. Here is the foyer.



Don't ya just love those wood stairs and that banister? I never did get to replacing the wall paper in here but oh well. If you turn to your right just at the foot of the stairs you will enter the parlor. Well, I use it as my bedroom. It is my favorite room in the house!

























Here is a closer view of that fireplace. Yes it is original to the house as is the Mosaic tile around it. 1871 folks, an oldie but a goldie.


























Now if you were to head to the left as you came in the front door you would be in the living room. The rooms are around 15 x 16 with 10 ft ceilings, kind of hard to get that perspective in a photo. That mauve carpet was here when I moved in and well it is in nice shape so I left it, definitely not one of my favorite things in the house.




























Just behind the living room is the dining room another of my favorite rooms because it also has a fireplace in it. This one we converted to a gas log. The fireplaces are shallow as they were made for coal and burning wood in them would not be to safe with the age of the chimneys either.






























You can see I am all decked out for fall on my mantle.





























Behind the dining room is the kitchen. When we moved in there was carpet on the floor. We pulled up the carpet and sub floor and stick on tiles and refinished the original oak floors. I also painted the cabinet doors and put on new hardware, this was one dark kitchen when I moved in now it is bright and happy.



























As you can see the cabinets go all the way to the ceiling in the kitchen. I took off some doors and made open shelving for some of the crap I collect. (I collect to many things!)























This part is hard to explain but if you were to walk straight thru the foyer you would enter what I claim as my office. It is a summer porch that has been closed in to create a room that is 23ft long and 15 ft wide with the old mini tiles on the floor. Here is a shot of where I blog.






















Note the ribbons on the wall from Harley's shows, those are various horse pics they are hanging on. The circular things are bird plates I collect from the Bradford exchange. Not much on my desk to comment on this was taken in a rare moment when it was clean.

Just off this room at the back of the house is a small bathroom. Since the walls are solid brick and 15 inches thick all the plumbing is at the rear of the house. This bathroom had a corner shower in it when we got here. I remodeled it and had to replace the floor all the way so we found a claw foot tub and now my little devils have somewhere to bathe besides a rubber maid tote! Yes I truly bathed my oldest son in a tote in the shower until he was almost two!


























If you give me the asking price I will throw in the two little farm hands!
JUST KIDDING!

There are four bedrooms upstairs but I did not snap pictures they are basically just boring rooms full of my little monster's toys! Upstairs is kid ville around here.
Hope you enjoyed the tour of this old house.

I leave you with more clues on the where is Tank going game. I can't believe you guys aren't even guessing! This should do it tonight.

The new owners follow the thoughts of Tom Dorrence and Ray Hunt.
Remember the famous quote from Ray? "It's all about the feet!".

Happy trails......

October and the love hate relationship

October is a tough month for me personally. I am torn with my love, hate feelings toward the month. It is fall, I love the fall...trees changing colors, crispness to the air, no more flies, campfires! I hate October because it is the month my mom died. True it has been twenty years this month but it really doesn't get any easier. Sigh......
I also hate the fact that winter follows fall.... Ice, snow and cold wind. Less riding, trapped inside with crazed kids. Bots.... What the heck, I have bots like crazy this year. Harley and Tank are covered on a daily basis. I go out and scrape them all off with my lava rock and the next day they are back with a vengeance. To boot the little boogers are even laying in Harley's gorgeous mane! How might I go about getting rid of those without pulling out precious mane hair?

Enough of that, I made the decision to sell my farm this past weekend. I have had enough. My hubby travels most of the time and it is just to much work for me here alone with the kiddos. I snapped some pictures today and when I get them uploaded I will take you on a tour of the old house. It was a mixed decision to sell it with the economy right now and my feelings for the old place. But, it means I can relocate to Kentucky finally and be near good friends and a little milder weather.
Also, hub will be home more nights!

Ready for the next round of clues in the "Who is inheriting Tank Game"?
OK, here goes....
He will feel the fresh ocean breezes and have two little people to play with.
His new staff is extremely camera shy. He will be bringing his new staff back to riding again.

That's it for tonight kids... good luck
Happy trails....

Game on

OK, time for some blogger fun!

Who can figure out first where my beloved Tank is going to?

Here is how we will do it. I will post a series of clues in each of my entries
and the first one to correctly guess will get a prize from Beyond the Barn Door (my new website is up and almost done) but that is another story.

Let's see if you guys have been paying attention here at all things horses.
I can tell you he is going South but not as far as we used to live. He will have one horsey companion there to meet him. I think that is all I am giving you today on the clues. See if your thinking caps are on.

In other news, I have been diligently working on my barn signs and trying to catch up on the special orders. I am thankful! I love being busy. However, I haven't been up on Harley since the show! Bad mommy! Today I am heading out for that lovely butt beating that I know I am going to get. He gets broncish when not ridden for a bit.
It will just be one day of it and then we will be good. I am supposed to have two horsey activities this month and I haven't given them enough attention either.

The first is a fun weekend put on by my ranch horse club it is scheduled for the
17th and 18th. We are heading out to a lovely ranch owned by an older couple to play in the cows and just ride and have fun. It is a nice time to practice on cattle without pressure. I am responsible for putting on the ranch horse challenge that weekend. It is going to be similar to the extreme cowboy race and be a payback competition. It will be judged on horsemanship skills and timed. I have had a lot of positive feedback on it so am expecting some serious riders to show up.

The very next weekend is a double judged show here in Cloverdale Indiana and I am not sure if I will show or just run the office. We really need for this show to run smoothly and efficiently as the venue is costing us a pretty penny. Still trying to decide if I can show and help out enough.

Well, now you are caught up in my little neck of the woods, mostly.
Let's go ride!

Hope Heritage Days

Hi all, No I am not missing in action just busy , busy and busier. I have much to share with you but will start back at the beginning for today. Last weekend I did a local festival here in my home town called Hope Heritage Days. I decided to take my signs and some crafts and try to sell them there. My neighbors across the road shared a booth with me and I sold their pumpkins and gourds and apples for them. The weather was beautiful and the crowds were huge! Here are a few shots of my makeshift booth.
























Since I only decided two weeks before the festival that I was going to do it, I did not have a lot of time to devote to a booth display. I was to busy making signs.
I sold about half of what I brought and got 7 custom orders over the weekend. I was very happy with those results, especially in this economy. However, I also decided that I am not a craft show person. The sitting around stuff is not for me. The kids came and helped me man the booth some on Sunday but I think they really came for the parade and candy.





















Here they are with Dad anxiously awaiting the start of the parade.





















What would a parade be without an Elvis????






























Yes, of course there were horses and I had to snap their pictures.















All in all a nice but long weekend and one I do not want to repeat anytime to soon.




Now, for the next post I think we will play a guessing game. Since so many of you responded to my other child post on Tank, I think we will have a contest on who is going to adopt him and I will make a prize for the winner. Stay tuned for clues ...