727 - birthday lunch with friends

Day 727 was our work girl traditional birthday lunch. I chose Original Joes. After getting up early yet again and seeing Britt off to school I spent the morning updating the blog for last few days, feeding the dogs, pitch hay in the wind to the 7 horses and making food for Scooter and Julio too. It seems that Julio hoovers his food down and then sent Scooter off with a mean look and threat to kick so as I was getting ready for lunch I had to run out and put him in the other pasture so she could finish what he had not already scarfed down.

This had me running behind for our 11:30 lunch but only by about 10 minutes. it was an enjoyable lunch catching up. hard to believe it has been a month since I was at work. And other than my two good friends I sure don't miss it. :-) I grabbed my free birthday Booster juice (Brazilian thunder..YUMMY) before heading to the chiropractor, seems that 3 of 5 of my lower spine were indeed out causing the pain so hope that helps.

It was also my lucky day, I got to take the garbage to the dump and the cardboard to recycling just after I got the mail! And it was getting really cold, flip flops were not  the show of choice. I opened the gate for Julio and Scooter as the wind picked up and not soon after a quick blizzard blew thru!! then the sun came out for a bit!! then wind ..Crazy world

I put a 2nd coat of blue paint on the inside of the octagon table finishing up as Britt got home from school. We waited for Sheldon to get home at 5 so Britt could drive her car to polox practice. It is the last one before the big production this w/e. Jacquie was so sweet and had brought me a birthday tart, thanks Jac!!

 after practice we took a short drive to see Bugaboo.. KD's 2yr old baby who is now a very big boy

 mr curious

Britt drove us safely home arriving earlier at 9:30! Sheldon had spent the evening enjoying steak and beers with Brad, old coworker from Encana who invited him in and then pitching hay to horses before dark then enjoying hockey!

726 - happy earth day

Day 726 is earth day and what a beautiful day it was!! It hit high teens. Britt was off to school, Sheldon went and got a bale as we are out except old crap ones and I worked on washing up some new projects.

 lazy pets in the sun

 primer sprayed on a few repair areas

Mitzy enjoys the Mr J hair spa.

After lunch I started painting while Sheldon ran to town to run errands returning with a chai tea too.

He created a wider harrow system for the pastures which worked well and saved half the time of previous years

 I worked on painting the inside of the 2nd project and put 2nd coat on the purple table

When Britt got home off hte bus, she and I did our earth day part and started cleaning the small pastures by hand, Diego enjoyed a swim with each dump

4 quad trailer loads later we stopped to enjoy a late but scrumptious steak supper topped off with the most delicious cheesecake, fantastic Britt!!

don't the pastures look so much better

now we need rain.. no snow!

Britt brought home the art present.. well done missy!!

After supper all 3 of us went for a ride, poor Pepper is very out of shape, think he and Sheldon need to join us more often. It was getting dark as we untacked so we pitched hay to them all and came in for nice hot showers!!

725 - Happy birthday to me

Day 725 is my birthday! The weather started out crappy even showing briefly but by noon it straightened out and even the sun peeked out occasionally thru out the day. Sheldon served me a coffee in bed then he made a full fledged yummy breakfast of my favorite pork sausages, eggs, toast, hash browns and fresh fruit.

Britt even got up for this! she then created a home made cheesecake from scratch for my cake after she made food for Scooter. We braved the weather and took it out to her.

I had 2 gifts to open, card, cash and pkg powdered chai tea from Mom and Dad, THANKS!!! and new boots from Sheldon

 Sheldon worked on taking the island damage apart

At 2 Britt drove us to the city, first stop Michaels for stencils then Costco to stock up. Getting good at city driving the next place we headed was Value Village to see if any furniture but what was there was high priced so off to Chinook mall. I had been thinking about the beach salad at Joeys all day and it did not let me down.

A quick stop at Lammles found a pair of ariat fat baby pull ons which were more comfy than the pair Sheldon gave me this am so picked them up instead. Britt ran to get candy and met us at the theater where we enjoyed The Host. We found a cute note on the car before Britt drove us safely home. All in all it was a nice birthday. thanks to everyone for the facebook messages, emails, texts and phone calls. It is nice to receive them all!!

new boots and the cute note

my cheesecake and flowers from Britt.. thanks sweety! (oh and art work soon to arrive)

724 - new girl Scooter arrives

Day 724 .. well its started overcast and dismal and by noon turned to sleet and snow, then clear then sun out for a bit while snowing.. an all round crappy weather day. The weather had the ponies acting like wild mustangs, Check out the 30yr old Julio!

Sheldon and I barred the element before noon to prepare for the arrival of a new gal joining the herd. Sheldon put up 2 rails broke last year while I refilled the mineral/salt tubs and blocked on paddocks. Sam delivered her just before 1. We swapped her into one of our blankets and sent her out in her own pasture for a few days. Here is a blurb Sybil (the gal we got Nightbird from who originally sent Scooter to Sam)

"Nice that dear old Scooter has ended up in your caring hands! She was a great mare that was in my brother-in law's string. She was imported from Argentina by a wealthy American and played high goal polo in California. She could play like a demon, was quick as a wink but was always very controllable. If you ever use a western saddle - DO NOT PUT A BACK CINCH ON. She can act a bit like a grumpy old lady but that is typical of most Argentine horses."

 Scooter checking out her new digs

 Pepper having a good roll

 over to meet the herd

 but the fellows are racing after hawk says don't talk to the new girl Julio! So after they go to the far pasture he grazes closer to the house and the new girl.. what a stud!

Good to have the cinch tip before I rode her :-) At 2 Sam headed back to Calgary and Sheldon Britt and I loaded up for town. Of course Britt drove us in her car dropping me at bangles for Amanda to highlight my hair. Thanks Amanda for the lovely color. It sure will not look like this a year from now! She only has 3 more work days before the arrival of baby Paetz!!

We did stop quick at rummage sale to buy a bag of rags but they had it all cleaned up :-( While I enjoyed the hair spa, the other two went for groceries, Walmart, Tims, bank and did some parallel parking practice. By four I was picked up and we were on our way home.

Supper tonight was one of my favorite dishes at Original Joes; but I used this recipe for fish tacos. Yummy!  

before cooked and below after.. I tried soft tortilla and my favorite hard taco shell shown below

After supper we enjoyed 2 good family movies; Amazing Racer and Pure Country 2: The Gift. 

A fairly good day at the ranch, welcome Miss Scooter!