Cool & Crisp Saturday

We've had some really cool evenings lately and when I heard that Saturday morning was going to be 28 degrees, my friends Cathy and Traci and I decided to wait until 10 am to go riding. I loaded up my appy mare, Dixie, and swung by and picked up Cathy and Busta and we met Traci at Diamond D Ranch to take an easy ride on dirt roads through the timber company's land. There were signs stating no trespassing until hunting season was over, but we thought we were clear until the spring turkey season next month. (I wore my blaze orange jacket just in case)


The day warmed up nicely and we would up taking off the heavy jackets before we started. The horses did well....Dixie balked on me a couple of times and we had to work some trotting circles and trot away from our buddies, but I should ride and work her more often. I like to keep her in riding shape as she is 22 years old and is our good ole standby horse. Busta didn't want to cross a small ditch with water and we tried to get a picture of him popping up in the rear in protest. Cathy worked him through it and got him to cross the ditch. Busta is such a character, he will grunt and buck up a little when he doesn't want to do something. He's 5 and still testing her and she's doing great with him.

Traci and Tucker didn't have any drama - he was a good yella horse for her and is an excellent trail horse. He's 5 as well, but Traci got him as a weanling and raised him herself. Cathy got Busta as a 3 year old with no training.


We only rode for 2-1/2 hours and called it a day as we had other things to get done that afternoon. Dixie and I had a great outing and she is such a good old girl. I normally prefer to ride Stylin, but its fun to get Dixie out occasionally. Isn't she a cute, fluffy Appy?

Bobby, his daughter Carolle and I went to a neighborhood cookout and oyster roast later that evening and had a really good time. If the drunk ones remember the plan, we're going to try to have these once a month or so. We love having our neighbors that look out for each other. We all have some acreage amid an otherwise standard neighborhood of homes and trailers. Jacksonville has some pretty bad crime statistics and its good to know the people around you.

This is our grillmaster and host of the evening - Darrin.

Barbara and Fred who live right next door to us on 7 acres.And here are Bobby and Carolle as they were digging into some oysters.

My Friend Marilyn & her Mule Clyde

You may of heard of the disappearance of a little girl named Haleigh in Satsuma, FL which is just about an hour -1/2 south of Jacksonville. This little girl's plight has touched everyone, especially those who have had such a tragedy strike their lives.
A good friend of mine, Marilyn Whitford, was able to participate in the search effort last Friday and was highlighted on our local news. Marilyn and Clyde have participated in search efforts previously and have been on numerous wagon train rides and other adventures.
LINK TO VIDEO

Florida Agricultural Museum Camping

Cathy and I joined some other friends in Palm Coast at a benefit campout at the Florida Agricultural Museum. It was primitive camping, but they hope to make some improvements as they grow and improve the equestrian camping facilities. The Florida Agricultural Museum preserves the history of Florida agriculture and historical Cracker livestock.

Cheryl, who is a volunteer with the FAM, did a great job organizing this first camping event. We had a pot luck dinner on Friday evening, then a great pulled pork Bar-B-Q dinner on Saturday evening with some Blue Grass music for entertainment.

Along with the trails around the FAM, we were able to cross the landbridge and enjoy all the trails along Pellicer Creek and Princess Place. We rode for about 4.5 hours on Saturday and then on Sunday morning we just played in the arena with all the poles, balls, jumps, etc. We had a ball ! (pun intended)

You can see all the rest of the pictures at the LINK.

Moving Right Along - New Year Ramblings

The new year is moving right along and I'm hoping not to move in the same old paths as last year. Although I did not make any concrete New Year resolutions there are several things that I started and want to continue. I want to continue growing in my faith walk, work at being kinder to my family and friends, keep from gaining back all the weight I lost, continue improving my partnership with my horse and expand my horizons.

I got off to a good start by going to Europe for a vacation! I went riding this weekend with Cathy and we had a blast and got some good cantering in. I signed up for a new class at church, I'm really trying to keep my mouth shut and listen more and I started going back to Weight Watchers last Thursday.

I've started a new blog just to share Karen's and my vacation journal and will continue posting to it for the next week or so until it's complete. You can check it out if you like - http://kdandkaren.blogspot.com/.

All my chickies are still alive - 3 months old now. I think I have 4 hens and 6 roosters.....anyone want some roosters? We just have to figure out how to catch them and put them in the coop.

The picture above is a random picture of Stylin because I didn't take any this weekend......

Home again, home again......

Last week I was so fortunate to go to the Netherlands and to France for vacation with a wonderful friend of mine from work, Karen. (Karen's on the left - I'm on the right) We stayed with friends who live in Wassenar, a lovely town near Amsterdam. They treated us like royalty, taking us to dinner and giving us personal guided tours of Amsterdam, Delft, Wassener, the Hague, and Paris. We also got to have a lovely dinner one evening in Rotterdam at Las Palmas where we were served a 7 course meal of different fish dishes and a special wine to go with each course. mmmmmmm....yummmmmm. A girl came by the table with a little bucket around her waist to open oysters for us one at a time as an appetizer.

The weather was miserable, but we were prepared for the cold, wind and rain. The upside was that we didn't have to wait in any lines for any of the museums. The Van Gogh museum was awesome, but the highlight in Amsterdam was visiting the Anne Frank house....what a sobering experience. Amersterdam is a beautiful city with the lovely brownstones, cobbled streets and canals.

Our friends, David and William, drove us to Paris for a wonderful 2 nights right in the heart of the city. Our hotel was just one block off of the Champs Elysees in the ritzy shopping district. We went to the Louvre, the D'Orsay (forgive my spelling if incorrect), Notre Dame and walked along the right and left bank of the Seine and had a blast in the local cafes and shops. Here we are having some champagne at the Plaza Athenee where we stayed. (We had a special deal here or we would have never been able to afford it.)

The Louvre was sooooo big that we only had time to visit one wing. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail now because Karen and I journaled the whole trip and I will be writing that up for an account of all the fun we had on a separate blog.

In the meantime, if you are brave enough and have a little time on your hands...... check out all of our photos HERE. The first 100 or so were from my new little camera and the balance were from our friends super dooper cameras.

When I get the journal written up - I'll post some more. Stay tuned.........

Stay Tuned .......

I caught up with some riding friends this past weekend and rode for 5-1/2 hours at River Rise Preserve at the O'Leno State Park near High Springs, FL. It's the first time I've been back since they opened up a new trailhead and some new trails. It was a great day!

But..........the real news is I'M GOING TO EUROPE ON FRIDAY !!!!! I still can hardly believe it. I'll be visiting Amsterdam and Paris with great girlfriend from work. I've got my new camera working right, I'm going to journal and when I get back in a week I'll have loads of pictures and a narrative of our fun times. We're staying 2 nights at a 5 star hotel in Paris called the Plaza Athenee .... FOR FREE !! Check it out on line..... So... is Paris ready for us? We're ready to go ! Stay tuned................

Holiday Week in Review

My sister Shelly packed her stuff and her son this morning and headed back to Springfield, Tennessee. We sure enjoyed their visit.

We had a fun Christmas gathering on the Saturday after Christmas so that she and Bo could be included.

We three sisters enjoyed being together and had some fun aggravating our mom and going through old pictures and reminiscing. From left to right - Robbin, Me and Shelly.

Before Bo went home he wanted to ride, so he and JT both rode on New Years Day. Bo chose Stylin and JT chose Maybe. Dixie got to have a break from the kids. I was very impressed with Bo's skills - I don't think he's ridden since he was here over a year ago.

JT continues to be a great little rider and it's time for me to take him on a trail ride. We did have a little mishap yesterday, though. Between me not retightening his girth on the pony saddle and him not letting me know that his saddle had gotten off center, the little saddle slid off to the side while he was cantering. He told Maybe to whoa, grabbed the fence and stepped off of her. She's such a great little horse, she just stood there while we got her resettled and JT climbed back on.

Even our pups got in the spirit..... here's Jesse and Sarah.

For family and friends who want to see WAY too many photos - click here.