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.

Sucker!

Wyatt got a taste and then wouldn't leave me alone until it became his own.

Been busy! Riding everyday and getting ready for rodeo. Super crazy hot here and no relief in sight! It's rained twice in 6 months. Hay is so expensive I have two horses up for sale. It makes me sick. However, because there has been no rain my landlords didn't have their pasture leased for cattle and let me have it cheap for the horses, so maybe I don't have to sell afterall. It's still up in the air.

HOT!!!

The weather here continues to be bizarre. It went from sand storms and miserable wind almost every day to unbearable heat and wind part time. And it's humid to top it off, which is weird for here - especially since it's rained once in 6 months. We're looking at another drought and the hay prices are going sky high because of it. They've almost doubled from lat year. I know come fall they'll drop again but it's not looking good right now. I'm looking at selling a few horses. I'm sick about it.

So I'm hot, miserable, sick of the wind that keeps me in the house, and I've had cabin fever for over a year. To ride I get up at 6 am to beat the wind and heat and BUGS. Even working at the pool isn't a relief because it's a hot water spring that feeds the pools so you actually have to get out of the water to cool off.

Even the animals are suffering. Dixie and Wrigley have dug crazy holes to lay in, and the cats are getting up under the horse trailers in the weeds where it must be cooler. The horses stand in the ditch with their backs to the wind and Mac does this:

Those are the water tubs for the round pens; His own private swimming pools. He hops from the short one to the the tall one and back all day long.

Buni lays in anything plastic, and since Wyatt can't stand anything actually being in his little toy bin she thinks this is perfect. The two are conspiring against me I think.

Zapata Falls

We hiked up to Zapata falls a few weekends ago. I forgot my camera - sorry for the low quality pics from the phone, but I couldn't get away without taking any at all! When I got back to the truck I realized I had the school camera with me all along - oh well!
This baby backpack keeps rockin'. We use it all the time. Wyatt fell asleep in it on the way down. He wasn't real impressed with the sun shade though and kept leaning out the side to get a better look at everything.
He totally crashed out afterwards. Didn't even 'burrow' to sleep and had to make due with his hand over his face instead.