Cold Chicken

I've had one of my two hens missing for over two weeks. We're having an unusual early cold snap for North Florida, so last night I was going out to blanket my ponies and heard this unmistakable loud peeping coming from near my pump house. I went back in the house to get a flashlight and see what it was.... it sure sounded like a little chickie. When I found the little guy, he was cuddled up against the outside of the shed, peeping his little heart out, and two siblings were laying motionless next to him. I gathered them up, put them in a cardboard cat carrier and went searching for momma hen. (this particular hen has never let me get close to her) I found her in the pump house (really just a shed), in the corner, behind some plastic bins. She was apparently keeping some other babies warm underneath her...I could see some broken egg shells around her. I took the strong chick and pushed it underneath her as well while she pecked away at my hand. Since it was supposed to be below freezing during the night, I rigged up a light in there to hopefully keep it a little warmer for her and her babies, put some scratch and water near her and let her be. Not that a chicken can be grateful, but she did start eating right away. Next, I took the two nearly lifeless chicks in the house with me and warmed them up in my hands next to my body. The little buggers came back strong, peeping and squirming.....I thought they were goners. Anyway, long story short - I fixed up the cat box with a heating pad and towel....they settled in and slept the night away in our bedroom. When I peeked in this morning - they were both alive and well! My husband is off today and will get some starter feed....and we'll probably try to get them back with their Mom today as it warms up. Since I'm no chicken expert, I was glad to have a friend that I could call for advice and moral support last night. Thanks Liz!

Maybe's Coming Home

My digital camera died on me on my last ride out of town. I LOVE to take pictures on my rides and I felt naked on Saturday. I don't get to ride very often with my daughter these days. She was able to come on a charity ride close to my house and I sure would've liked to get a couple of pics of her and her mare Maybe. This ride was for Dreams Come True - an organization that fulfills dreams for children who have been diagnosed with a life threatening disease. The threat of rain was 60% for the day, but the clouds parted for the ride and everyone had a great time. I bought a throwaway camera and will use it to get some more pics soon. In the meantime, here's a pic of my girl Stylin and one of my other girl Dixie.

Jenny has been leasing her horse Maybe out for the last 2-1/2 years and the lease ends on November 30th. That means that Maybe will be coming home. I set up a stall for her this afternoon and am looking forward to having her around for a while. This is Maybe - a solid bred Paint - registered name is Zippos Diamond Girl. She is my mare's first born and is a short stout pony like her.

Family Time

No camping, no group rides...... I had a nice quiet weekend with family. I got robbed of my normal Friday off because we had to count inventory at work, but I'll still get a long weekend because I had already asked for Monday as a vacation day.

On Saturday I took Mom to a second cousin's baby shower - I never look forward to these things but usually have a good time catching up with extended family. Saturday evening my husband, Bobby, and I went to see FIREPROOF and then to our favorite sushi restaurant. We both boohoo'd throughout the movie .... it has a good story and a strong Christian message. It should be required watching for any engaged couple . It has a lot of laughs as well. Off my soapbox now.

Sunday was church time with family and instead of a regular preaching service, we heard from several WW2 veterans telling their stories of battles and Christian faith. These services are always so touching....we got to sing tributes to America and recognize our veterans and current military personnel. Of course, I can't go a whole weekend without riding my ponies, so I rode both Dixie and Stylin for about 1/2 hour each in the back yard.

Miracle Ride in Eustis

I spent this past weekend camping and riding near Eustis, Florida. Since I already wrote it up on my other blog, I'll just direct you there, if you don't mind. We had loads of fun and got some decent pics as well. Narrative and pics of ride.

Riding the Greenway Trails

Cathy and I camped at the Florida Horse Park this past weekend and were able to get in three different trails we've been wanting to.

Friday was dreary and rainy, so we delayed heading to Ocala until 1pm. No sense in hurrying up to set up camp in the rain. By the time we arrived around 3 pm, the rain had stopped with just an occasional mist. We got the horses comfortable, set up camp and met the other folks who had come up from South Florida Trail Riders and were camping in the same area.

Saturday morning was overcast but perfect for riding so we headed West through the FHP trails towards the I-95 Landbridge trail. After crossing over I-95, we enjoyed the section called Christmas which took us to the 49th Ave underpass. Since that was a 2 hour journey, we headed back towards the park for a total 4 hour ride. After having a nice lunch back at camp, we set up our chairs to watch some polo. There was also a horse show going on in the park for pony jumpers. (Ponies that jump - not people that jump over ponies:-)

Sunday dawned crisp and clear and the plan was to break camp and trailer the horses to the Shangrila trailhead which is only a 15 minute drive from the park. We found the Shangrila trailhead being well used, with about 6 trailers there ahead of us. We decided to head back East and ride the Shangrila trail back to the 49th Ave trailhead where we left off the day before. We really enjoyed the Shangila trail the best. It had a lot of winding single track trails with some gentle hills. (There are more challenging trails and hills available on some loop trails that go off from the main yellow trail that we followed). The ride with a quick rest stop at 49th was right at three hours.

We plan to get back sometime this fall/winter season and hit some more of the sections available. We'd like to go east from the FHP and ride to the Santos trailhead as well as continuing west from Shangrila and going to Ross Prairie.

Here are more photos of our rides. PICS

Time to de-stress

Do you ever feel like there's just not enough time to get everything done? I'm trying to simply my life by prioritizing , doing what's important and cutting out the crap. My work has really been stressing me out lately, seems like I don't have a spare moment anymore. Don't get me wrong, I'm very grateful to have a job that allows me to have most Fridays off, pays well and affords me 4 weeks vacation a year..... but sometimes I wonder what it would be like to just go to work for Target as an hourly employee - no decision making, no deadlines, no stress.........

So Saturday, a couple of friends and I joined a BIG benefit ride and had a wonderful stress free day riding our ponies, meeting new people and riding new trails. You can see more pictures and a narrative of that ride at my other blog First Coast Trail Blazers. You won't believe some of the trailers that I saw and the horses.... beautiful ones, fugly ones, fat ones, skinny ones, old ones, babies that shouldn't have been ridden....... you get the picture. With 160 riders you get to see everything.

Marilyn & Spirit

Traci on Tucker & Cathy on Busta

Sunday started off great - went to church and then lunch with my husband and mom. Dropped Mom off at Wal-Mart while Bobby and I headed home to meet our trimmer. We were trimming every 4 weeks, but this time we held off until 6 weeks and he was very pleased with how both girls did. He barely had to nip anything, mostly rasped and cleaned up their bars. That's good news, our diligent work has paid off and I think the venice turpentine has helped toughen up Stylin's soles. Bobby power washed the horse trailers and I slung poop and did some chores around the yard. At 4:00 my phone buzzed and when I looked at it, it said "W&O Party". OMG! I had forgotten all about a company get together that I couldn't miss and it was a good hours drive away! Thank goodness I put it in my phone calendar and set the reminder with enough time for me to get ready and drive out there. The dinner was actually good and I got to catch up with our national managers that I only get to see a couple times a year. So that's been my weekend..... how was yours?

Friday Beach Fun

Cathy played hooky from work and we loaded up the ponies and went to Mickler's Landing in Palm Valley/Ponte Vedra Beach.

We took our time... no agenda, no pressures, even packing some brewskis for after the ride. The day started out grey and overcast, but the sun came out and it got pretty hot while we were riding. We didn't manage to get the horses in the water, but we did get them comfortable riding right near the edge. Stylin and I did lots of turns towards the water to keep her thinking.

Because of the front, the surf was rougher than usual (the surfers were diggin' it) and it was crashing kind of hard. Our horses performed some lovely side passes a la Merlin the Bullfighting horse. :-) The coquina sand was soft and Stylin and Busta hard to work a little harder than usual. At least we didn't have any crazy kites attacking us this time.

I think after a few more times we'll have them cruisig thru the surf with no problem like the rental horses we saw while we were there.

Here's the rest of the pictures I took........ PHOTO ALBUM