My Serious Little Helper

Wyatt loves to help out in the yard. He drags the hoses everywhere and picks up whatever Mac has managed to 'hoard' onto the lawn from the outlying fields (sticks, bones, broken toys, cans, etc...now if we could just teach him to put them in the trash).

He's so serious about what he's doing when he gets focused.

His favorite thing is to help feed the dogs. He has to take food from one bowl and carry it over to the other. Dixie thinks it's great since she's usually finished first and he's handing her the other dogs' food. They've all figured out that they can clean up whatever he drops while he's 'helping'. It's so funny to watch him crawling under Dixie, around Mac, over Wrigley while they hop around him, walk over him and basically try to see who can get to what he drops first.

Designer Butts, Homey and the Couch Potato

My kid has designer diapers. No joke.

He also likes to wear his pants down around his butt. We call him Homey.
And he has a thing for the couch he got for his birthday. It's the first thing he goes for when he gets home each day. He walks over to it and flops down. It's too funny.

Can you guess who he might be mimicking with that book in hand? He'll often prop his legs up on it also and lean against the arm. I think I live on the coach with a book when I'm not outside..

Blast From the Past

Hey Michigander's - Remember this from your childhood?



My brother used to run around doing the baba boo thing from the flamingo and saying,"my makeup, my makeup!" and "5 minutes, just 5 minutes" to drive us nuts.

Buddies

I recently brought Ringo back into the home pasture to be with the rest of the horses. They've been a little rough on him since he's never been part of this herd before. He's very independent anyway so he's taking it alright.

I let him out to graze on the lawn from time to time and just be around the family and noise and dogs and anything else that he should get used to. Mac is super happy to have his buddy back!

MAC ATTACK!

This dog is seriously turning out to be the bestest dog ever. His herding instincts have kicked in, and though he may be a bit pup-ish at home, when I get on a horse he knows he's going to work.
People have been asking at the ranch where I had him trained and what I have done with him. When I tell them he's only 9 months old and I haven't done anything with him but take him with me, they are amazed. He's that good of a dog.

What could make a happier life for a dog when he spends it herding bison, cattle and horses....chasing birds and grasshoppers on thousands of acres....swimming in the stock tanks...and generally just getting to hang out?

Not too bad for a free dog! That's Maggie's feet he's sleeping next too. Those two have an understanding...

Ranch Pictures

I really am enjoying it there and am snapping pictures whenever the opportunity arises. Since I'm mostly on horseback sometimes the pics don't always come out to clearly, but occasionally I get a few good ones.

Labor Day Weekend...Part 2

Can you tell what this picture is?

Went to work on Sunday at the Ranch. We had a visitor the night before that broke into my friends house and ate all her sugar:



At least that's all he did before taking out her screen door! I caught the little bugger sniffing back around the house that afternoon. He wasn't too worried about me. There's been such a drought here that there isn't enough food for these guys and they are getting to be pests. Everyone is afraid there is going to be a huge die-off this winter due to lack of food. That and huge problems with them trying to find that food...

The managed herd is used to being worked on horseback and with people near them - this gal let me get up next to her on foot to take a picture. That is not something we would do with our wild herd as Bison are quite dangerous...not at all like cattle. We keep a few hundred aside that are worked regularly so guests can get closer for pictures and the experience.

Labor Day Weekend...Delayed...Part 1

We had a great Labor Day Weekend! On Saturday we went to the local 'gator farm (brought in to clean up waste from a Tilapia business), got a hair cut (our first!) and checked out the Early Iron car show!
Check out Part 2 soon to come...

Work

When I say I have to go to work, I mean I have to go to work...not school. For the first 2/3 of the summer I was teaching swim lessons (and I still have the random private lesson here and there), but I also have finally gotten on with the Zapata Ranch here in my backyard.

Many years ago (think 1600's), the area was settled by ranchers. The Zapata and Medano ranches were purchased by the Nature Conservancy and now are managed and run as a small, family oriented dude ranch. It covers over 100,000 acres and is populated year round by one of the largest Bison herds in North America.

I help bring our guests through the area on horseback and of course, manage the herds!

I can't think of how I'd rather be spending my school days off...

Springs Trip...Part 2 (a little delayed...)

Finally I am getting up the posts for our Zoo trip. The Colorado Springs Zoo is small, but it packs a great punch! It has great hands-on for kids and it was just the right size for little ones.

We fed the Giraffes.

We fed the Budgies.

We played with the Chickens ('cause they are so much more fun than at home).

We pet the baby Wallaby.


We watched the fish swim (Wyatt is not that much taller than Tanner. He's on a ledge!).

We crawled through tunnels.We loved the Lemers and took one home after laying down on it in the store and giving it kisses.

Belated Birthday Post

Some of you may have realized that Wyatt turned 1 on the 15th! I've been really caught up with school and work (more on that later - they are different).

We had a Barnyard theme birthday with handmade invites (super cute, sorry no pictures!), brisket, bbq beef, beverages (yum!) and a cake I made. Yes, I made it (though I ordered the decorations as I just didn't have the time).

County Fair

Every year at the end of July the PRCA Ski-Hi Stampede Rodeo and Carnival comes to town. Wyatt wasn't so interested in the Rodeo. The dirt and rocks surrounding the arena however...that's where it's at for a baby.


We had fun! We rode the train, the carousel, played in the duck pond and won a giant hammer to chase the cat around with!

Can't wait until next year!

Doing the Chores

Ringo is being ridden! Yeah! I've pretty much spent the majority of my summer messing with this colt on the ground, hauling him around and basically just letting him get used to daily life around here. I finally decided with the summer wrapping up he needed to be ridden so I called a friend and we started getting on him and now he's walking and trotting out a on a lunge line with a rider. I know I could probably be moving faster with this horse, but I have the time and we're doing well moving slow. So far so good!

Wyatt helped feed a bottle calf the other day and then decided that watering is his chore. He's so funny - he holds the hose until it over flows and then starts trying to move it, but that requires lifting it over his head to get it out of the water buckets and he loses his balance and falls over. Then he grunts while he struggles to stand up and hold onto the hose at the same time. It's so stinkin' cute.

Visit to the Springs

My girlfriend asked me last week if I'd like to take the kids to the Springs overnight to shop and go to the zoo. She has a son who's 3 in November and a son 4 days younger than Wyatt.




We're having a blast!

Oh yeah! And Wyatt's walking on his own! And yes, that's a baby shiner on his right eye where he faceplanted into a chair going after daddy's drink the other day. Lucky it's more of a scrap than a cut and it barely bled and Wy only cried for about 3 minutes. For some reason I think this is just the start of it...

Zoo tomorrow!

That Time of Year Again!

And it's even better than ever because Wyatt LOVES to watch them spray the fields! This is the power pole 50 feet from my front door. And the plane is only about 10 feet above the wires as he crisscrossed the field in front of my house. The week before he did the field across the street. We sit on the front lawn and watch the show! The pilot always sees us and always dips his wings as he passes by! Wyatt clamps and laughs! It's so cute!

Awesome for sacking out the horses too. Not many places a person can live where a horse will get used to a plane 20 feet over their head. Mine don't even look anymore.

Who?

Me that's who - hanging out in your tree. I think your cats got all the mice though and I'm not taking on your geese for the chickens - so I'll see ya later!

There's a nest down the road that a pair of Great Horned Owls raise their young in every year. I think this is one of their youngsters from last year because he's not real big yet. Kinda cool as long as he doesn't try and dive bomb the chicken coop!

Cowboy Wyatt

We've been busy riding! Wyatt comes and hangs out at the arena with me. He loves to sit in his stroller or playpen and pet the "kitties" (everything is a kitty right now) through the fence. Afterwards he gets to play in the giant sandbox. He loves dirt. All boy I tell ya.
He'd love to ride on his own - but is a bit small for it still.

Vernors - A Michigan Original

And we have it at our local Walmart. Yeah! Finally! The SLV is finally being influenced by the real world!

A little taste of home...

The Mother of All Bugs

This is what the dryness has brought into our house this year. There must have been a nest nearby and they are coming in for water. I've literally only seen about 2 of these since I've moved out here, and now not a day doesn't go by when we don't kill at least one in the house. They move super fast and creep me out.

If you didn't like bugs before, this puts them all to shame. I don't even care if I see a spider anymore as long as it isn't one of these things.

As big as my thumb. It 'scurries' - climbs walls - terrorizes everything. They bite! But aren't poisonous. I'm scared to walk across the floor at night. Both Nate and I jump if anything brushes against us in bed (though we've only killed them in the bathtub and family room so far).

How would you like to deal with this thing?

We call them scorpion spiders, but aren't actually a true spider - though they are an arachnid they are more closely related to scorpions. They are also known as sun spiders or camal spiders. Those are big mandibles to chew on you with coming out of their head. They eat small rodents.

I think I'm going to set off a bug bomb under the house.