Juliet's Birthday Celebration

Today, Sunday, October 30, is Juliet's 4th birthday. However, we had the party for her yesterday. It was held at Jumpin' which is one of those indoor jumping places with all the blow up slides. It's also one of those places where the noise decibels exceed the take off noise of a jumbo jet - at least to my old ears.

Juliet's cousins were there as long as several friends from her day care. Despite the noise, it was a lot of fun.

We'll give her our presents today so she'll have another mini-celebration.

Here are a few pictures from yesterday.

Juliet in her princess dress - a gift from one of her day care friends.

Marie's brother Michael gave her some large building block mats. He and Wade Daniel made Juliet a little house.

Nana and Leah.

Heading North

Betty and I hopped into our Toyota Tundra this morning to head North to Fort Collins, Colorado. We were going to take the Mustang, but with the heavy snow in Colorado a couple of days ago we decided it would be safer in the 4-wheel drive truck instead of the rear-wheel drive Mustang.

We're going up to celebrate Juliet's 4th birthday on Sunday, October 30. They'll probably have her birthday party on Saturday and, the last we heard, it was going to be at one of these jump places with all the inflatable slides and jump areas.

I'll post when I can so be good in the mean time and stay out of the cookie jar.

Electric Blanket Time

There are the regular seasons of the year - Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer. We also enjoy the holiday seasons - Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Easter, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Veterans Day, etc. if you're a Christian you may be familiar with the seasons of the church - Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, Pentecost and some I'm probably forgetting.

For me, I also note the seasons that are perhaps related more to my comfort and that of our horses.

We note the horses' change of seasons through the addition and shedding their coats. They're both heading into their wooly bear season. Next Spring, we'll celebrate the warmer weather and longer days by being covered in their hair as it comes out in bunches and constantly spitting it out of our mouths as we groom them.

Today, we put the electric blanket on our bed as we expect colder nights in the next few days. I don't know who invented the electric blanket, but there is a special place in heaven for him or her as far as I'm concerned. The season of the electric blanket means clicking it on about an hour before we go to bed so it will be nice and toasty when we jump in. We refer a dual-control as Betty prefers her side to be a little warmer than I like. With independent controls we're both happy.

The next change of season will be noted by me putting on my mad bomber hat when I go out in the early morning to feed Sugar and Morgunn. This is one of those hats with the large side flaps and are insulated with rabbit hair. I look really stupid when I wear it, but I don't care as it keeps my head and neck toasty warm.

I'm sure there are more changes coming up, but that's enough for this post.

Stay warm everyone.

Monday Video–Northern Lights

We’ve all seen Northern lights in pictures and videos, but have you ever seen the Northern lights from space?  Neither had I.
Enjoy.

Sunday Reflection - Pottery

My morning bible study over the past few weeks has been in the book of the prophet Isaiah - it's a long book. One of my favorite passages from Isaiah is: Isaiah 64:8 (NIV) [8] Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.

Pottery has been an important part of our lives. Neither Betty nor I have ever turned a pot, but our nephew Gary has and he's pretty good. No, pottery has been a part of our life because Betty has always appreciated good pottery. She has a good eye for pieces that are unique and well-made.

For many years she collected pottery pitchers and we had/have some neat pieces. As we've gotten older we no longer collect things like that as we're trying to cut down on our material things (without much luck, but we're trying).

When we moved into our house here in Corrales, New Mexico, we soon learned that our house sits on what used to be Indian land. There was a Pueblo community along the Rio Grande when Coronado first visited this area in the mid-1500's. Sure enough, after a few rains and wind storms, we started to find pottery shards in our back lot where Sugar and Morgunn live. A lot of it has been plain, utility ware shards with no decoration. But, we've also found pottery pieces with black and white decoration on them and a few pieces with a red ochre stain.

It's neat when you first pick up a shard knowing that the last person to touch it lived over 500 years ago and might even have been the potter who created the piece. I like to think that all the pottery pieces were works of love because they required so much time and work - and each piece was unique and well-made. This is especially true of the decorated pieces because they required so much creativity and skill. Even now, when they're broken, they're still beautiful and it's easy to see the love of their maker in each piece - even the utility ware.

I like to think that God is like that. Each piece/person he creates, he does so with love. And, even when we're broken, we're still beautiful in his eyes and we still reflect the love of our maker. Some times we just need to open our eyes to see.

Friday Funny - Dog Plays Fetch With Himself

This is the perfect dog for a lazy person like me.

Enjoy.

Horse Exercises

As I mentioned yesterday, this morning Betty and I worked with Sugar and Morgunn on some groundwork exercises. We're using exercises from a trainer in Tennessee named Larry Whitesell, a gaited horse trainer as opposed to a baited horse trainer. You have to read yesterday's post for this to make sense.

We did four basic exercises from his first DVD. The goal is to build balance and relaxation. First, we flexed their heads holding our hand on their Atlas joint which is the first cervical joint right at the poll. After a few moments they began to relax and lower their head. Second, we asked for them to lower their head by flexing at the Atlas joint while we gently massaged the rein. Third, we circled them around us while pushing the cervical joints along their neck from their poll to their withers. Besides relaxation, this encourages them to engage their hind ends and step forward with their hind legs into our hands. Finally, along the fence we asked them to move forward and back with our hand on their nose. Again, this encourages them to relax and learn how to move into our hands without pushing through with their nose

Here's a short video of parts of our morning. I didn't get video of every exercise and I included some of the desensitization we do every time we work with them. I also included Morgunn's favorite after ride/work exercise. Sugar just walks up to the tack room door waiting for some hay. Also, there is no sound or music - just lazy, I guess.