Another sorting story

No, no fines... the road bans are off.  No instead I started the day with an instant adrenaline rush.  How?

Well it is really quite simple. 

Plan to get up around 7:30am

Plan to pick up your friend and her horse between 8 & 8:15, and then....

wake up at 8:41!!

I woke up to Tucker barking and running over me.  Pie woke and asked why he was barking and after listening for a moment I told him that Tuck was barking because Echo was barking down by the barn.  Then I looked over and saw the time.  And said a very bad word.

I grabbed my phone and raced around throwing on clothes and sunscreen.  I zapped a quick message to Shann (in response to her "YO!!!" message)  I ran to the barn, grabbed Voodoo's halter, ran to his pen, haltered him and (you guessed it) ran to the trailer with Voodoo long-trotting beside me.  Threw open the trailer doors and he jumped in (good pony!!)  I was SO grateful that I had loaded my tack and brushes the day before.

Another quick message was sent to Kimfer asking her to let them know we were coming to sorting so that they could draw the teams and we would pay when we got there.

Thankfully Shann lives less than 5 minutes from me!  Got to her place and helped her load horses and tack and we were off!

What time did we arrive you ask?

9:36

I had been awake a whole 55 minutes! lol

Shann is an awesome travelling partner.  Not once did she come down on me for the huge screwup and rush.  She didn't keep picking at it all day, she pretty much laughed it off.  She also brings munchies and drinks.  

Sorting went okay.  I didn't have as good a day as last sorting but it was still fun, which is really what I'm in it for :)

So what happened with my alarm?  Well I set it on my phone and shut off my phone just like I always do.  And it DID turn on and the alarm went off, without sound.  I had several e-mails, text messages, Facebook messages and bbm messages waiting on it when I looked... and not ONE time did it make a sound. When I got home I took the battery out, put it back in and set another alarm and it was working. Weird.

This Sunday is barrel racing, I'm hosting a jackpot at my place.  And the following Sunday is sorting.  And yes we have a game plan in place to make sure this doesn't happen again! lol

Wordless Wednesday ~ Learning the ropes

May 31, 2011

We're infested!

*this post is the continuation of There be fairies*

So there I was... wandering around the yard looking for something yellow besides my flowers to post for Sunday Stills.  I idly snapped a few pics of dandelions when something caught my eye.  Do you see it?

I carefully looked around the treeline some more and saw another one!

Two gnomes... wait, there was a third.

I was a bit wary, who knows if they're friendly?!  So I cautiously looked around.  I tried to appear nonchalant, as if I was just out snapping nature pics.
Then out of the corner of my eye I saw another one dash across the lawn and managed to get a pic as he disappeared into the lilac hedge.

I decided to call it quits and head inside.  I wanted to quickly get some pics of the yellow flowers in my hanging baskets between the house and garage before I lost my nerve, and as I passed under the arch between the two buildings I got a tingly feeling.  I raised my camera and snapped quickly then looked at the screen... crap I think they're on to me!

I spun around and quickly fired off another shot, pretending to shoot the vine that is growing over the arch.  He had repositioned to keep me in sight! :o

Dang it I sure hope they're friendly!  Friendly with people, my critters and the fairies... I don't want a "supernatural gang war"!!  Speaking of which, I'm glad that we seem to have just the one 'race' of gnomes, I've heard that red gnomes and blue gnomes don't tend to get along.

Sunday Stills ~ Yellow

This week's Sunday Stills challenge was a bit harder for me, yellow: "Time for another color challenge courtesy of Val over at Fantastic Voyager who mentioned to me that yellow was her favorite color…:-)) "
Unlike Val I am not a particular fan of yellow... for awhile I wandered around looking at dandelions.  Then I looked toward the driveway, ah-ha our Province's flag has yellow!

And I do have a few flowers (that aren't dandelions) that are yellow...

*stay tuned... later today I'll continue yesterday's post and let you know what I discovered*

There be fairies

When I posted about finding those deer antlers and partial skull in "Strange Find" Mrs Mom jokingly commented that she thought maybe we had Wood Elves or Garden Gnomes. Ummm, no, however we do have fairies...

Can you see her napping in that log?

I don't mind the fairies, these ones are peaceful and playful in a "non naughty" way, as opposed to those that have a somewhat malicious streak.

I thought that's all we had lurking around until I was wandering around searching for something to shoot for Sunday Stills TNC: Yellow. That's when I saw THEM...

*to be continued on Sunday*

Friday Funny ~ The Movies

For the first time in many years, an old man travelled from his rural town to the city to attend a movie.

After buying his ticket, he stopped at the concession stand to purchase some popcorn.  Handing the attendant $1.50 he couldn't help but comment "The last time I came to the movies, popcorn was only 15 cents."

"Well sir," the attendant replied with a grin, "You're really going to enjoy yourself.  We have sound now."

Back to barrels :)

pic has nothing to do with the post

I just like it :)

Sunday I hosted a double header barrel race at my place.  Time is ticking away to get the boys qualified for provincial finals so I decided to enter both of them.  The last time I had entered Voodoo was October 31st of last year, so he hadn't had any barrel work other than the Molly Powell clinic I had gone to this spring.  It was the first time running Applejack in ages, other than the few runs I took when LK was tuning him up for me this winter.

I have to admit, I was a pretty nervous about running Applejack... we're having saddle fit issues and I was worried he would buck.  I have a new saddle on order and have been borrowing Kimfer's Black Rhino for now.  He seems to be working in it pretty good and seems to fit so I may end up buying it yet.

However the Sunday before when we went to sorting he seemed to get humpy when I asked him to lope.  But as LK told me, I wasn't going to be loping the pattern lol

I made the decision to run Voodoo first, I wanted to get the jitters out of the way with the horse that didn't have me scared ;)  The runs weren't perfect but I have to say that I'm quite happy with how the boys worked.  Four runs and no barrels down!

Both horses entered the arena nicely, which was becoming a bit of an issue last year.  Voodoo went to the gate nicely, although with a bit more spring in his step than usual and rolled on when I let him go.  Applejack walked up so quietly that I was actually kinda worried that he wasn't feeling like it was "competition time" however both times he jumped into gear and ran as soon as I asked.  

But best of all in the first jackpot both boys placed! :D  Applejack won the 3D, although I almost bit the dirt when he stopped.  He was running home so hard that he kinda ran through the bit when I asked him to stop.  My arena fence is made of page wire and I don't think he saw it or realized how close it was until he saw the banner on the gate and S.T.O.P.P.E.D. like now with his nose touching it!  The gate man jumped back and I popped over his shoulder, thank goodness I managed to stay on (thank you saddle horn!)  In the second jackpot we slowed down a touch and ended up 2 spots out of the money, I guess I didn't run him home as hard as I could have lol.  Voodoo placed 3rd in the 3D and I managed to get a bit more speed to bump up to the bottom of 2D in the second jackpot.  Neither one of them have had a lot of riding yet this year so I'm hoping we'll do even better once they're in shape!

I just want to give a quick Thank You to my momma and my friends Kimfer, Melly and BK for helping set up/tear down, announce and rake at the jackpot (and to Melly for warming up Applejack)