Stupid Internet

Well, I'd love to post all the stuff I have lined up to blog about...but the internet is on and off, I can't even access my dashboard, I can't upload pictures, and I'm typing this on a Blogger Widget. I have been trying all week and this is my last resort. The space to type is about 1.5 inches by an inch - kinda hard to proofread! So I can't keep anything updated, including my stuff for student's. I'll try and get to another internet source this weekend and post!

Do You See What I See?

Right there.......on the right of the wheelbarrow....near the middle........it's gray and black and white.......(excuse the mess, we're spring cleaning the yard).

Meet Mac. He came home to be Nate's new dog a few weeks ago. He's purebred Border Collie that was gifted to us, and it a great little pup - calm, quiet and gets along really well with the other dogs. He already has laid claim to Wyatt. I just wish he had Maverick around to show him the ropes, but he has helped in easing that loss a little - though he's definitely no substitute - that and he's not even my dog.

I also brought home this bugger a few months ago. He's from my vet after I lost Rebel last spring. I also lost Smack to West Nile last fall, not something I've wanted to talk about at all, but that did it for my Barrel prospects and I needed a new project. As I had pick of the herd and didn't have to spend a dime for him, I figured what the hell. He's Poco Bueno bred, so if nothing else I could probably sell him if he didn't work out for me.

I've been trying and trying to get a good picture of him, but the light always sucks, and he always has to be facing me almost up in my face no matter where I move - so it makes it difficult to shoot a picture.

Meet Ringo

So I've given up and this is what you get. He's still really shaggy from his winter coat, and his muscle tone isn't what it should be since I've had him penned up to make him learn who 'loves' him - but it's been paying off. When he was born he was messed with some and halter broke, but then he was tossed into the field for 3 years. I picked out 4 geldings from a herd of 42, round penned them and tossed a rope over their heads. All responded in some manner to being handled again, but this bugger seemed to take it the most in stride, and had the nicest build. He's quite large though this picture doesn't do it justice.

He likes to pretend he's worried about being caught, but he always faces me, and I can always coax him to me to be caught. Once caught he's a dream to work with. I sacked him out and cinched him up in about a 10 minute period one day. If this darn wind ever quites blowing for an extended amount of time I'll have him saddled and probably ridden around the round pen.

So that's what's been going on around here in my spare time. Hopefully I can keep you all updated with his progress.

Maverick

I'm not sure I wanted to post about this. I have had so many things I needed to catch up on - horses, dogs, life - everything good - until now.

Maybe blogging will make me feel a little better, maybe not, but I have to do something because all I'm doing is feeling bad.

The wind just blew like crazy yesterday. It's been bad for the last week - blew chickens out of the coop, rolled straw bales across the yard, kicked up so much dust it turned a clear, sunny day dark as night.

Maverick is my escape artist. He is always getting out of the pen, but I never mind so much because he never goes anywhere. I finally managed to block up the kennel (top and bottom) so he couldn't escape on these lousy days so he could stay warm and not get caught in a storm. We brought home a Border Collie pup last week - and he hangs out in the yard and since the weather was a little nicer out I turned out Maverick with him. This little pup is Nate's first dog, and though Nate takes him with him during the day to train, I had let Maverick take him 'under his wing' so to say, each evening.

At about 2:00 a knock came on the door. It was a little old lady. There was a dog up on the road, right in the drive, dead. Her husband was watching over him. He'd just been hit but they didn't pay attention to the vehicles that were in front or behind so didn't see who did it. It was Maverick.

We live on about a 6 mile stretch of unimproved road. A mile down it turns to dirt. There are about 8 houses total from the country highway to the dead end. So needless to say there is little traffic, and we all know each other's vehicles. My neighbor's dogs and my dogs walk down the side of the road to visit with each other all the time. It's also open range, and even though people do keep there cattle behind a fence, they are always out wandering around anyway. The road is completely straight and flat, and you can see a cat cross the road from a mile away.

I walk down the road with the baby and dogs all the time, but have been getting nervous as there is a truck and an SUV that has continually passed me, without slowing down, definitely going faster than what is posted. Since the road is unimproved, it's very easy to lose control at high speeds, and I have this horrible image of these jerks losing control while out walking. Seriously, who doesn't slow down when they see something, or somebody on the road? I've stopped walking on the road and walk in the fields instead. And what really pisses me off is the driver of the truck totalled another truck about two years ago when he flipped the vehicle hitting the dirt from the pavement. Has that slowed him down? Not at all.

And Maverick paid the price yesterday. It was obvious he wasn't in the way, and it was obvious he was hit at a very high rate of speed. And all that aside, because yes, my dog was where he shouldn't have been, the jerk didn't even stop to see if he was dead, or let us know what had happened. Instead, a little old couple stopped and knocked at our door with tears in their eyes because they are animal lovers, ranting that NO animal, especially one of this size should be hit on a road in broad daylight such as this because you can see forever, and what kind of person doesn't stop anyway? Though I didn't see it happen, I believe it was the red truck, as so does every other neighbor near me.

I'm understandably upset. Maybe more because the driver didn't have the decency to at least stop.

Maverick was the best. He was gentle and smart. He was my 'take-everywhere' buddy. He was my escape artist who always met me at drive each day. He took care of any puppy we brought home and kept the coyotes out of the yard. He listened better than any dog I've ever had. Though I almost lost him as a pup to a twisted intestine, he became closer to me because of it. He was my protector and stayed between me and anything he wasn't familiar with. He would move cattle with me, and would 'tree' anything in the yard for fun, but not to kill. With Dixie getting on in years, he was the dog that was going to make eventually losing her to old age easier. As a Coonhound/Boxer cross he turned me on to hound dogs, and I now love the breed, and was looking to one day get a Redbone Coonhound puppy for him to train.

I just really can't believe he's not going to be there when I get home today. That he's not going to load up to go get the mail and stick his head out the window and let his ears flap in the wind, or hop into the back of the truck because he 'want's to go too!'. It just wasn't supposed to happen this way. He already was Wyatt's 'big dog' - and now my son isn't going to have his hound around anymore either.

I'm sick about it. I called the police and asked if they could please be a presence in the area more, because one day somebody, either someone out walking or a driver, is going to get killed when passed by these jerks going 70 or 80 on an unimproved road. I shouldn't feel terrorized everytime I take a walk down the road because it's evening and people are coming home from work. That's all I could do. They asked if I knew who hit the dog, but since I'm not 100% sure I couldn't tell them anything more than my past observations. It didn't make me feel better to call, but maybe I've kept people and animals safer. Even the driver's themselves - If they hit a cow going that fast at night, it would probably kill them as well.

See ya buddy. You really were the best (and we won't tell Dixie so we don't hurt her feelings). Keep being good.

Home Again!

Italy was beautiful, but is was good to return home a week ago. I've been busy with school and standardized testing, so haven't had much time to post! Check the last post for a link to pictures (coming soon!) and our doings while in Italy! Here's some random pics of the little guy while I worked at school before leaving for Italy, at the gas station in Denver before I left, swimming last weekend and falling asleep at Walmart!