November Happenings

I joined my friends for a day ride at one of our favorite places two Saturdays ago. I knew I was going to go out of this the next weekend so didn't want to leave my husband with all the animal chores two weekends in a row. He's too good to me to take advantage of his good nature.

They were staying a River Rise Preserve State Park again and had plans to do the 16 mile Yellow Loop on Friday, so Cathy and I headed down to ride out with them around 11 am. We had perfect weather and a great ride. Some of us split halfway to trot out and met back up before heading back to camp. Here's a link to the pictures that Mustang took of their weekend and the day that I joined them. We have such a good group - we all know each other and our horses and work well together with the whole camping thing.

This past weekend, I joined 9 other ladies from our church for a retreat at Mepkin Abbey in Monck's Corner, SC . We were allowed to join the Brothers in worship and song, along with taking meals with them. They live, work and worship in harmony on this beautiful old plantation. It was an eye opening experience to see how dedicated they are to constant prayer. We began our day at 3 am and ended it at 8 pm. I became much closer to the ladies on our retreat and enjoyed a relaxing and peaceful weekend. The property is open to the public to walk the gardens and enjoy the view along the Cooper River. Guests are just asked to repect the monks living and working areas. You can read about their work at the link above. I walked quite a bit, enjoying the gardens and visited an old African American cemetary. Most of my friends enjoyed walking their Labyrinth thru a meadow with tall grasses which took about 40 minutes to complete. This photo was taken by one of the ladies as she walked through the labyrinth.

Tried Something New

Stylin and I doing our first CRI

Some friends, my daughter and I went to a distance riding clinic in September put on by Florida Horsemen's Association. We learned from everybody there and did a 10 mile mock CTR, then did a 17 mile ride the next day. What a lot of fun and everyone was so helpful! Don't think I want to do 50 or 100 miles, but I'm thinking about doing a limited distance of 25 miles. Something new for Stylin and me to do.

Beautiful trail through the woods

Our riding/camping season is here....temperatures are down and everyone is ready to ride! We started our camping season off with a 4 day weekend at River Rise Preserve in High Springs, FL. They have a wonderful set up and nicely marked trails. Next weekend away is scheduled for Dec 5th at 7BarL Ranch in Live Oak, FL.

Maxx

We recently got a new dog.... a cute little Papillon named Maxx. His former owner is elderly and broke her hip and couldn't keep him anymore. He's fit in real well with our other dogs but we're having to introduce him slowly to the cats and horses.

So Long,Farewell, Alverderzein, Goodbye......

I'm taking a sabbatical from blogging and my daily reading of other's blogs. I've been doing this for 5 years now and I feel that it is interfering with my home and work life. Don't know if it will be forever or just for a while, but I have had a lot of fun getting to know my blogger friends and wish you all well. I won't have your blog postings delivered to me daily any longer, but I will check in from time to time. See ya !

What is that?

This touching video was sent to me by my sister and really struck a nerve. You may have already seen it on Facebook or elsewhere, but I felt compelled to share it on my blog as well. Enjoy....

Jonesing to Ride

I am sure missing my ride fix..... but all for good reasons.

My sister Shelly and her son Bo came down from Springfield, Tennessee for spring break and visited for a week, so I didn't get a ride in last weekend. I did get some good quality family time in though and family DOES come first. Shelly took Mom back home with her yesterday and Robbin and I will go pick her up on Mother's Day weekend.

Bus driver Bobby

This weekend, Bobby and I visited the Florida United Methodist Children's Home in Enterprise, FL. Bobby drove one of the church buses and I came along. They have a wonderful ministry there for children who have had abandonment, abuse, or other issues and a beautiful campus.

Beautiful stained glass in chapel

The children sang for us and showed us their cottages.

Each cottage of 6 to 8 children has house parents who try to make the group living as close to a home environment as possible. I came back very blessed and knowing that our dollars are sponsoring a very worthy cause.

Boxed picnic lunch under the largest tent ever!

We didn't have to decide where to eat after lunch today after church since Robbin bought us tickets to the church spaghetti dinner.

No spaghetti sauce on my shirt :-)

I was hoping to get a short ride in today after church, but the weather didn't cooperate. Since it's going to rain all day, I've donned my jammies and am going to pull out my new director's cut of Aliens and enjoy. I got the Alien quadrilogy for Christmas and just watched the director's cut of the first one, Alien, last night.


Next weekend is Bobby's and my 6 anniversary so we'll head down to St. Augustine and stay in a B&B Saturday night. Should be relaxing and a nice reminder of our honeymoon. Maybe Stylin and I can get out for a ride next Friday. :-)

Mystery Ride

Stylin ready for bed

We had a great time this past weekend at the Rodeheaver's Boys Ranch in Palatka. A local group called the S.H.A.D.O. Riders put on their annual Mystery Ride and this year the theme was nursery rhymes.

Tucker helps Stylin "jump on the bed"

There were obstacles along the 7 mile trail; Billy Goats Gruff had some live goats and a wooden bridge obstacle. The Three Little Pigs had hay, sticks, painted piggies and a wolf trying to blow the brick house down. The Mad Hatter served us tea on horseback. Five Little Monkeys had a mattress for our horses to jump on. I think there were 10 different obstacles - we had a blast!

Our buddy Cathy brought Busta but wasn't able to ride him this weekend - she has to have corrective surgery on some discs due to a couple of hard landings. She kept the party going during the evening for us but we missed having her along on our rides.

Busta has the place to himself.

The next day, we rode along the Florida Cross Florida Barge Canal down to the Rodman Dam before packing up and heading home.

Here are a pile of pictures that Mustang took of our fun.... PHOTOS and the rest of PHOTOS that I took.

PRICELESS....

My good ole 23 year old Appy mare, Dixie, takes another person on their inaugural trail ride. This time it was my nephew Julian, who has ridden her in my yard for years, but this was his first venture away from the farm. You can't put a price on a horse like this.