Mini Vacation - Gymnastics Regionals Level 9 Competition

Our youngest daughter invited me to join her and her two daughters for a short trip this weekend. It was Autobot's regionals competition of level 9 gymnasts.  It sounded like a fun 3-generation trip.  Billl was going to drive me down to their house early Friday morning.

This is what it looked like that morning:  18 inches of new snow.  Bill and I spent an hour shoveling to locate the car; shoveling to feed the horses; shoveling for guests who were booked that night.  Good exercise, you say?

Us girls finally got on our way just to discover we were in the midst of a huge traffic jam outside of Denver.  Due to poor visibility - which had caused several bad accidents - the highway we needed was closed and traffic was being routed around in circles!  We weren't allowed to continue east, and after being sent back west, were told we could not get back to Denver.  Thanks to having traveled some of the back roads in that area to visit a friend who used to live there, I recognized one of the county roads.  We headed south, picked up a road going east and managed to skirt the whole mess, returning to I-70 about five miles later.  We continued on our way for a great drive.

This is where we landed in Wichita, KS.  Sure looks different!  It was a condo complex converted into 'hotel rooms' - a very nice place to spend the weekend.

Granddaughter Asset located a new friend, Jack (alias Flappy).  When we arrived he was inside the pool area standing very awkwardly.  Turns out he has a broken leg, which does not deter him in the least from his normal routine.  A lady Nebalie spoke to said she had worked there for 10 years and two ducks, Jack and Jill came every year.  They laid eggs at the river and took turns 'babysitting' them.  She didn't know how Jack had gotten injured, but hoped he would survive.  Asset did her part by toasting Jack a piece of bread every morning.

It was planned to spend the day at Cowtown Living Museum on Saturday, but when we got there it was pouring down rain, so we opted to wait until later.  Asset and I stayed at the hotel while Nebalie and Autobot went to the meet to watch a team mate compete.  Three members of Autobot's team qualified to attend this meet; quite an honor.

Asset and I walked around the neighborhood when the rain quit, puddle jumping and various things.  She started noticing the tiny, tiny flowers that were popping up and wanted to make her mom a bouquet.  She also found a nutshell to use as a vase.  This child is quite the problem-solver.

Finally made it to Cowtown, a living museum, meaning you literally walk into the life of the people living in that time.  This was civil war reenactment weekend, so soldier's tent cities were set up in several locations, with women tending cooking fires, men cleaning weapons, and kids playing various games of the time.

Two 'enemies' discussing the working of the cannon.

Several people were teasing this sheriff about his hard job.

Apparently it was this one's turn to patrol.  This was the complementary horse; an 18 yo who worked the museum a couple times a week.  His owner said he enjoyed it, especially the end of the day/dinner time when he got to graze on the grass at the edge of town.

You were able to walk into most of the buildings.  This one was the first house built in Wichita and reconstructed at the current location, then set up like it had been.  It was used as a bed-and-breakfast, with the guests staying in tiny rooms upstairs.  It's a lovely wood stove but glad I don't have to cook our breakfasts on it.

In the late 1800's the town had a pump in the middle of town for water.  Asset learned it took a special technique to actually get a trickle of water; she decided it was hard work.

Show time!  The cannon has been moved onto the battlefield and we get to see it in action - a noisy thing it was.

Here come the opposing soldiers.  They spend a good deal of time firing from behind a row of logs, but when it looked like they were making progress they started moving forward as a group, kneeling down to fire their weapons, then moving forward again.

Here's the cannon again as it is moved back toward the farm houses.  These guys had been firing from  behind a couple of large dirt burms and got routed out.  I didn't quite understand how it was safer firing from behind a large fallen tree than dirt mounds, but hey, it was a re-enactment, right?  My days of cowboys-and-Indians or war games came a little later in history, when better strategy had been developed.

Of course, you have to have the crowd cheering on the winning soldiers as they march through town.  I do have to say they play fair; the opposite side had won the morning battle.

Here's the real reason we were in Wichita - the Level 9 Regional Gymnastics Meet.  Girls from seven states all lined up (this is maybe 1/6 of them), and this is the last of three sessions.  Autobot is about midway, with the turquoise on her leo.  To qualify, they each had to accumulate a certain number of all-around points at their respective state competitions.

Here's our girl setting up for her spin on the beam.  It's the only shot I could get to turn out.  It was not one of her better meets, but she put forth a valiant effort against awesome competition.  To make it this far the first year of competing this level is pretty awesome in itself.  We are very proud of you, Autobot!!!

Bionic Cowgirl - playing grandma this weekend.

This Time of Year

This time of year, Juanita and I are pretty much tied to the lodge.  At least one of us has to be here at all times to check in guests, answer the phone and generally do "lodge stuff".  We can only leave one at a time to do errands and such.  And I can get the innkeeper version of cabin fever after just a week or two.  Out!   Let me out!

So this morning Juanita took a call from the oldest daughter:

"Hello? Oh, hi dear!  What are  you up to today?  Oh, you took time off work to install in your kitchen cabinets?  That sounds like a lot of work for one person. How's Skeeter, your horse?  Oh, That's nice.  Okay dear, we'll talk later"

"Bill, she may need some help putting up the kitchen cabinets they just bought so..."


I'm pretty sure she said something else, but I couldn't hear 'cause the front door slamming shut behind me cut her off.

ROAD TRIP!

Kitchen Before

Base

By the time I got to the farm house she and her husband are renting, she already had the base cabinets screwed together.  She told me she was glad to see me as she had just gotten her last long screw STUCK halfway into one of the cabinets.  I got it out, and had brought some more screws, so in no time at all, we had the base together and leveled.  Soon the wall cabinets were hung and ready for painting.  I am not a big fan of painting, and she seems to like it, so we decided to go play with her mustang "Skeeter" and she could paint later.

She done good

Skeeter is coming right along in her training.  Today we visited the chickens, walked down the farm road a quarter mile or so, inspected a large tractor tire.  We also looked at the large irrigation pipe feeding the corn field.

You can't see them, but they are there...

And there we saw toads.

Millions of inch long toads.

Here they are, Bill

Skeeter the horse didn't seem to care about the toads, but it kind of creeped me out.  It was just a day or so ago I was talking to one of our guests at breakfast about the plagues that have hit Colorado in the last few years.

Huge fires.
Floods.
A plague of insects (Okay, they were pine bark beetles rather than locusts, but they still did a huge amount of damage.)

I said it seems almost Biblical.  All we were missing were frogs raining from the sky.

Toads.  Millions of them.

On the bright side, they may be taking care of the plague of mosquitoes that have been gnawing on Skeeter the horse.

We soon walked back into the corral and did  just a bit of trailer training.  Man, that is one long horse.  She can reach the front of the trailer and eat the hay out of the bunker while keeping her back feet firmly planted on the ground outside the door.

Then she got hosed off, and went for a nice roll in the mud.  It's a horse/hippo/pig thing.

It made for a fun day with the oldest daughter and her horse.

Except for the toads.

Bill

Welcome 2014

Well, for all of those who have not heard through the Facebook gravevine, I have to announce that we have added a new addition to the family.  Bill and I are now officially great-grandparents!  At 6:40 this morning, "The Girl" presented Deejo's family with a grandson, weighing in at 7 lbs, and 19 ins. long, with a full head of hair!  Way to go Grandpa Deejo (get used to it, kiddo).  Congratulations to all.  Babies are such a joy!

We had a good gathering last night for our Candlelight New Year's Eve party; lots of pics taken but none with my camera.  Sorry.  Maybe if I beg real hard, some of those will show up on Facebook pages or we will get an email.  It was low key, laid back, and totally enjoyable, ending with champagne, shrimp, cocktail weiners, fruit plate, cheese and crackers and a myriad of cookies and fudge - plus singing by the great maestro, Bill, at the stroke of midnight.

We woke to a new inch of snow on the ground, bright sunshine and some blue skies.  Welcome 2014 - and happy birthday to all our horses.  Jesse and Washoe really were born at this time of year; Ranger just gets to claim the 'regular horse birthday of Jan. 1st' since he was 8 before being 'captured' and nobody can even guess what time of year he was born.  I'm not sure where the time has gone, but I am having a difficult time accepting that none of our herd are youngsters now.

Happy New Year!
Bionic Cowgirl

Juanita wrote the post, but she let me caption the picture of the baby blanket she made.  Do you suppose the root for the word "crotchet"  comes from the base word for crotchety? Bill

Bill is off to a real good start for the New Year!!!  BC

Pasture Prime

Wow!  I got lost with the time (lack of sunlight doesn't help either).  I kept thinking of all these great blogs, but just couldn't seem to sit still long enough to write them.

Let's backtrack to Thanksgiving:  I hope everyone enjoyed theirs.  We were lucky enough to have most of the kids and grandkids spend lots of time with us - and my mother made it up the mountain, too.  Last week was actually really nice weather - and I still didn't manage to get on either of my horses.  GunDiva and hubby came up on Tues. night last week; I hoped to drag her out for a ride the next day, but alas, she had a book to rewrite and get published.  OK, so Bill and I are now enjoying reading the e-version of "Hunted Lyon" and I have to forgive her for not riding with mom.

Thanksgiving dawned warm and sunny and we ended up with 18 for dinner.  I've decided keeping up with 18 family members is much more time consuming than 18 guests.  There's always so much to catch up on, even though we stay in close touch.  We had the traditional turkey and everyone brought lots of yummy stuff to add to the table!

Friday, most of us went to the Catch the Glow Christmas parade in Estes Park, to start off the holiday season.  It's been a couple of years since I was able to go and we had a grand time, including the traditional pizza at Bob & Tony's prior to the parade.  We didn't even freeze our toes and fingers this year!

We had some fun guests over the weekend and had planned on fixing fence on Sunday afternoon, then moving the horses on Monday.  We spent three and a half hours at it and still had only gotten about half done.  We just hadn't realized all the damage from the winds and flood.  We ended up spending another three hours fencing on Monday and decided to wait until Tuesday to move the horses.  I had not been watching the weather, so when Nebalee called Tuesday morning to ask if we were ready for the big snowstorm, I was caught totally off-guard.  Looking out the window, we decided we had better move the horses right now!  We gathered them up and didn't even feed them breakfast.  Being the great travelers they are, they loaded right up and off we went.  We did take a couple of bales of hay with us, even though they were going to some great pasture.  We had planned on staying in Ft. Collins for the night so we could go to a grandson's Christmas band program.

It wasn't very exciting when we dropped them off this time; since they hadn't had breakfast, they just trotted the short way to the grass and started eating!

We laughed and left them there.  The next day we stopped by to check on them and found one irritated grulla horse and two racing white horses!  There was 10 inches of new snow on the ground and -4 degrees.  I thought maybe they had heard the car and were coming to tell us they wanted to go home.  Ha!  See what I know?  When we got to the gate, Jesse came charging out of the trees, barely stopping at the fenceline.  The look on her face told the story:  something had been in their pen.  We checked the hay and decided they had indeed had help with the hay pile.  The ground was so torn up from their hooves, and the snow was dry and didn't make good prints, so we could only surmise the visitor.  However, while fixing the fences, Bill and I had run across quite a few moose tracks and some fairly fresh moose droppings.  My guess is there might be an unhappy moose thinking we brought in some nasty neighbors!  Look at this face!

Biggify this to see the real dragon face!

That is definitely her "you had better get out of my pen" face.  Washoe chases dogs out of the pen; I think he had a lesson in how to chase bigger game because he was having a great time trying to keep up with Jesse.  Ranger was just 'staying out of the way'!  Bill pulled out an apple for them to share and they calmed right down.  Ranger had to show off his snowy nose.

We checked back again today and found them happily grazing the pasture, even in the deep snow.  Their hay was scattered but hardly eaten.  We called and they came a runnin'.  (We have a really cool video, but after multiple tries, we can't get blogger to load it.)  Fed them a couple oat granola bars, got some good hugs and went on home.  Sure do miss them here, but it is far better for them where they are; they get to run and dig and act like the wild ones they are!
Bionic Cowgirl

Deejo Has a Birthday!

Well, my little daredevil's birthday is today.  OK, so he's not so little any more; dare I say he is a thirty-something?  With a wife - and a couple of kids.  But he IS still my daredevil.  I am sure he has lost count of the times I threatened to lock him in a closet and not let him out until his next birthday - often on the afternoon of his birthday!  I think he was 13 then.

At that age he was a competitive gymnast - but he couldn't jump off a kitchen stool without getting his feet tangled in it, landing on his face ... and ending up in the ER.  The gymnastic competitions didn't always go so smoothly either.  He managed to survive some pretty fantastic spills...and earned some high ribbons.

Then there was the time he took a jump on his dirt bike at the impromptu dirt hills at a park being constructed behind our house.  We insisted the boys never go alone to those hills, just in case someone got hurt, they had to go together.  So one day, Bill and I had just gotten home from work when little brother comes screeching up the driveway hollering, "He's dead.  He's dead!"  Not what you want to hear at the end of your day.  Turns out Deejo had landed wrong on a front wheel, come down face first and managed to knock himself out, but fortunately they had listened and the messenger found his way home.  Another trip to the ER.

At one of his own birthday parties, he was showing off more bicycle skills.  You guessed it.  He caught the  jump a little wrong and catapulted himself into the front of the neighbor's car (okay, it was parked).  By this time, the family was used to his 'stunts', and just said, "He'll live."  No ER this time.

Let's see, we had an exacto knife through a finger one time.  When this one particular friend of his was visiting, you KNEW there was going to be excitement.  Ask me why I ever allowed this friend within the confines of our home.  There were scraped up bellies from climbing trees that were off limits, and I can guarantee there are a lot of things I have no knowledge of - yet.

It didn't end when he went to the Marines.  I'm pretty sure his DI could tell you some hair raisers!  Imagine my fear when he came in one day and said he had a  job working steel:  you know, climbing all over steel rafters hundreds of feet in the air - in the winter, when they are icy!  Good thing they wear harnesses, 'cause I'm pretty sure he tried his out.

Now he has added motors to his bikes and dirt races.  (And he tells me my horses are too dangerous!?)  When it comes right down to it, I am amazed he has gotten this OLD, and he was soooo cute when he was little!  Deejo, we all love you, even though you caused me my share of heart stoppages.

Love,
Mom

Merry Christmas, Mom and Beel!

So, I changed their header.

I did.

You see, in November we went out for a ride and it dawned on me that it's pretty rare to see pictures of both of them riding together.  You know, because one or the other has the camera.  There's not much opportunity to catch both of them in the frame at the same time.

As we were crossing the highway, I glanced over at them and saw the cutest picture develop in my mind and then I was determined to get a good Christmas picture of them.

But I'm a terrible photographer.

And the header's the best I could do.

I tried to add some text to it, but I'm not nearly the graphic artist my husband is and I got all pissed off with the attempt and said, "screw it".  So that's why there's a lousy picture of Mom and Bill in their header without the Christmas greeting I wanted to put on it.

But they say it's the thought that counts.

So Merry freakin' Christmas, Bionic Cowgirl and Bill.  I hope you enjoy the blankity-blank thought.

--GunDiva

So Jealous

I answered the phone at the Lodge the other day and it was the Bionic Cowgirl.

Calling from atop her horse.

From somewhere in Kansas (I think).

I have lots of mean, awful things to say about that.  But mostly, I'm just jealous.

I don't think I like this role-reversal, me up at the Lodge and Mom and Bill off gallivanting around on their horses.

Hmpf.

A Little Night Music

Last night, the eldest daughter and I threw bareback pads on our horses right at sunset and we went out for a short pre-father's day ride.

We had gone a little over a mile, and the dusk was deepening.  We had just begun to circle back, when off in the distance, we could faintly hear a siren wailing, far, far off.  Suddenly a family of coyotes joined in the song from a couple hundred yards away, back in the deepening purple shadows across the meadow from us.

All sang their mournful tune together for a minute or two, but the ambulance finally faded into silence.  The coyote family sang for another moment or two, then faded into a disjointed chorus of yips and finally lapsed into silence themselves.

Daughter and I just stared at each other.

Best father's day ride ever.

Bill

Escape from Paradise

A group had rented the whole lodge for the weekend.  A scrapbooking group.  We love these groups, 'cause most of them have been here before and know the drill.  And the groups bring their own "mommy".

When the last of the gals had packed up and gone home this morning, Juanita and I looked at each other and said "RUN AWAY!".  And we did.

We went down to our youngest daughter's (Nebalee's) house where she and the oldest daughter (GunDiva) were going to make technicolor cupcakes.

Creating Cupcakes

Cooking Cupcakes

Cooling Cupcakes

Consuming Cupcakes

We also met Nebalee's newest family member, Dante, a one year old Great Dane mix.

  And we went to the park with the youngest grandkids.

Wow!  Cool!

Umm, so what is it we're looking for again?

And we had soup for lunch.

With pumpkin pie when you finish.

By the time we got home, it was 20 minutes after dinner time for the gang.

They almost starved to death.

Almost.

Bill

Eggs, Spring Break, & Pedicures

I guess it's time to catch up here, too.  Last Sunday, the whole crew met at Great-Grandma's house for the traditional egg coloring.  It's one of the looked-forward-to events of the year, along with pumpkin carving .... so you have to start with the basics - cups of many colors ...

... then you add the newest fads, such as teeny paint rollers ....

... and 'candy apple paints and fuzzy hair to turn some into 'monsters' ...

... to finish off the paint wars, our newest DIL made Clyde the Bunny - almost too cute to eat!

This week was spring break for some of the grandkids; Autobot asked if she could come stay at the lodge and have some horse time.  Well, we all know what happens to the best laid plans of mice and men - Mother Nature happened and we had eight inches of snow two of her three days with us, so we made the best of it by tearing down all the tack and between a little elbow grease, a bar of saddle soap and some leather conditioner, we now have shiny, clean saddles and headstalls.  The big plus was the great horse epics we watched while we worked:  The Man From Snowy River, Return to Snowy River, The Young Black Stallion, Cloud-Wild Stallion of the Rockies, and Cloud's Legacy.  How much better does it get if you can't get outside to ride?  Well, you have to catch up on your reading, too, and it's hard to beat a dog cushion...

I promised her mom she would at least come home smelling horsey!  The last day came up sunny, so we headed out for a short scouting around town before the farrier arrived.  Pedicure day ... it turned out to be 54*, sunny and NO wind, but you can see the remnants of the snow.

Anton decided to start with the toughest horse, Ranger, who turned out to be the jewel of the day.

Washoe, who was trying his darndest to stay awake.  Part of the time he would rest his head on my shoulder; he looks like he's going to fall over.

And Jesse, who rests with her right rear cocked with no weight on it while she gets her left front trimmed.  She was goofy the whole time, but now they all have great looking feet and are ready for the year.  I'll get foot pictures soon.

Time for work ... we have a wedding party for the next three days, so we have to pretend our real job is running the lodge.
Bionic Cowgirl

Wow

It's baking weekend.

Mom and Bill have left the building.

I'm not sure if that means: A) after thirteen years of baking weekends, they finally trust that we won't burn the lodge down; or B) they can't stand to watch us messing up the kitchen and they just had to leave; or C) they can't stand to watch us messing up the kitchen and they hope that we burn the lodge down so they don't have to see the kitchen.

I'm an optimist - I say it's option A.

Bionic Cowgirl Update

Well, when Mom does something, she does it big.

Why have just one hip replacement when you can have two?

Why just fracture your arm when you could totally obliterate it?

No half-ways for Mom, no siree.

She got out of surgery shortly after 7:00 pm our time.  When I heard that she had broken herself not into two pieces, not even three, but seven pieces I wasn't too terribly surprised.  I'm pretty sure they coined the phrase "go big or go home" for Mom.

I didn't even ask how many plates and screws are holding her arm back together, but I'm sure it's an astronomical number.  Remember, she has 2 plates and 17 screws in her left wrist.  Certainly an obliterated elbow warrants more than that.

I didn't even ask when she's coming home because they'll kick her out for being too ornery in short order.  Expect a real update from Mom or Bill in the next day or so.

Bionic Cowgirl's Getting More Bionic

Just talked to Bill.  They were out on a ride with a friend and her horse.  They stopped for a picnic and two of the horses started tussling.  Mom, unfortunately, got caught in the middle and shattered her arm (she got lucky, because apparently she's got a graze to the face).

Since they were all prepared, there was a first aid kit with them that they could fashion a splint, pack her arm/elbow in ice and get her mounted back up for the five mile ride back to where she could get in a vehicle to go to the hospital.

The Bionic Cowgirl is one of the physically toughest people I know.  I can't imagine having to re-mount, ride and dismount (apparently that was the worst) and then go to the hospital.

Because of her new hip, they have to do surgery within six hours of the accident to avoid infection moving throughout her body.  She's being wheeled into surgery as I type.

We'll keep you updated.

2:47 p.m. update:  Talked to Bill again.  It was a compound fracture - the bone broke through the skin - which is why they are so worried about infection.  Took an hour and a half to ride back out from their picnic spot.  I'm assuming (being in medicine and all) that they've started her on IV antibiotics already to decrease the chance of infection.

Nuthin To Say, Really

Our oldest grandson (19 years old) came by yesterday to introduce us to his fiancee.  She is a really nice young woman.  But I think there may be something very wrong with her if she wants to join THIS family.  Our neighbors German Shepard had just crossed the street and actually knocked on the front door to ask if our dog Sophie could come out and play.  It made talking a little difficult, having a couple big dogs tearing around with ropes, balls and big sticks.

Our oldest granddaughter came up with them (she's 18 now).  She was baking cookies in the kitchen and when I walked in she told me "Grandpa" (actually when she says it, it sounds like Ger-AM-paw.  Probably has something to do with how much I tease her).   "Grandpa, this will probably set the woman's rights movement back 50 years, but when I'm cooking in the kitchen, I feel more like a woman."

Oh my.  Our daughter, GunDiva, has birthed and raised June Cleaver.

Later that evening when they had all left, I went into the kitchen to get Juanita and I a bowl of ice cream.   All we had left was "cookies and cream".  I'm not too thrilled with the stuff, so I looked for a way to disguise it.  I found some pecans and sauteed them in an iron skillet with some honey and poured the caramelized honey/nut mix over the ice cream.  I thought it was quite good.

That may be one of those "Mars/Venus" differences between the sexes.  Many women seem to enjoy the nurturing side of preparing food and feeding people.  Me, I cook so I get food the way I like it.  I just don't like lousy food.




This morning I went out to see how our horses were doing after last nights 6 hour 50 mph+ wind storm.  Juanita's two grays wandered up to the fence to ask me "What's up?"  but Ranger came up to the fence kind of bug-eyed and on full alert.  "What's wrong 'ol buddy?" I asked.  He told me there was "A BIG MONSTER DOWN BY THE WATER HOLE!"  I checked.  Our 20' by 30' brown tarp had blown off the big hay bale on the trailer and had wrapped itself around the buck fence by the stream.  I gathered it up and stuffed it under the trailer while Ranger carefully watched me from his hiding place behind ALL of the other horses.

He was still a little bug-eyed, and probably still thirsty, when I left.  It's hard to drink if you're looking over your shoulder.

Bill