Nice

Sometimes its just the little things the unexpected things that can be huge. Yesterday I threw some hay in the barn for the horses, I placed it in the isle so I could clean the stalls. I walked by Quincy who was eating and you all know how food oriented he is, nothing comes between him and his feed, without thinking I reached out grabbed his tail ever so slightly and just pulled toward me, not even pulled just a slight tug and guess what, he backed up!!!! Granted he was chewing he has his month full but wow ! Now I know that might seem silly to a lot of folks but to get a horse to back by tugging on there tail takes some doing, to get them to do this with just a slight tug not much more than a thought is awesome, to get Quincy to do anything much less backing, well all I can say is wow.

Site for the new arena

Barn before the storm

Barn after the storm, it seemed to move daily

All gone!!

Well the old barn is not only down, its gone and although this was not what we wanted mother nature had different ideas and we were left with no choice but to tear it down. When we got the property we knew there was a possibility that it could not be saved but we were hopeful. Then the storm came and left us with no choice but to take it down. We hired someone to do this for us and even paid extra to have it taken down in parts in order to save the wood, but, some genius had tied cables around the barn ( in an attempt to keep it standing)and when Ron, he’s the one taking it down, when he cut a cable and just gave it a little shove the whole thing just collapsed. Yickes that was not good.

We were also having the ground from the one barn to the old one leveled so we could put up the round pen, as we watched all this happening Joel and I were talking and one thing led to another, why not put the arena here ! Ron has the equipment he has the time lets just go for it. The reason we were not going to put it here in the first place was one it’s a very windy spot and two we were going to build a shop there but since we were not able to save much of the wood and since we cant put an arena in our chosen spot for two more years, ( its under contract with crp) we thought lets just do it!

We have not figured everything out as this truly was not something planed but hopefully in a few months we will have our arena. We are hoping in the future to have a covered arena but that has to wait till we hit the lottery, in the mean time this will work just fine. We are close to the barn so easy to tack up and ride. Visitors will be able to just pull up and use it. It will be a great spot to warm up the horse and rider then go for a trail ride, I’m thinking this is going to be great!!!!!.

I will post pictures when the arena is done but in the mean time you can all see the latest changes  here at Barking Dog Ranch. .

 

 

Happy New Year

Well it’s a new year, I’ve l made my resolutions, oh the dreaded resolutions, , still have my trees up, just been to lazy to take them down, and now I am really contemplating what to do next. I think this is the week for me to really think about some changes, to figure out what I want to do and to just get to it, wow 2010 !

So...If I don’t call them resolutions instead if I call them goals then maybe I will actually keep some of them. Lets see, I plan on calling home more, emailing more, writing more letters and card, I love getting cards and letters in the mail so maybe if I send more I will get more.... riding more, playing more, creating more , painting more, writing more and reading more. That’s a lot of mores but none of them are very hard and all of them will make my world a better place. That’s the plan lets see if I can stick to it.
Well then, I have a full week ahead of me, I will make my list but, and this is a big but, I will get done what I can and not worry if something prevents me from getting it done, there is always next week, I mean as long as I am accomplishing something, anything, then all is good and I will just continue the list.

So this week.... I really do have to take down the trees and put the decorations away, I cant believe I am admitting this out loud but do you know I still have most of the original boxes for most of my ornaments and some of them go back to high school, each ornament comes off the tree, goes in its original box then gets put into a container, that my friends is why it takes me so long to put everything away, and why I always put it off....why do I do this to myself ? I have a long list of things to get done this week, but I don’t wont to bore you all with it, I just need to get to it.

I do want to wish all of you a very happy, healthy, wonderful new year. I hope your dreams and wishes all come true. Stay positive, laugh a lot and do the things you want to do. Stay in touch with loved ones, find old friends, make new ones, let the past go and move on. Have a great 2010 everyone !!!!!

Facebook

I have joined a few web sites, social networks, blogs etc... I belong to art sites and horse sites and sites that I am really not sure what we do. The internet has been a powerful tool for me, I have my own web site for art, I sell on different sites, I buy on some, I talk on some, I learn on some, I hover on others. I have joined and quit, gotten confused and lent a helping hand. Its very frustrating at times and very very fun other times.

Well I am thinking facebook has become one of my favorite sites. I started there out of curiosity but it has turned into the most wonderful way to stay in touch. I have friends and family all over the place and now I can see what everyone is up to with a click of the mouse, its been just great. More recently I have been able to connect with people I went to school with and that’s been a blast.

Now some of my “friends” don’t understand that they actually need to write something in order for all of this to work but that’s ok they are just behind the times, perhaps they will catch up. But everyime I see a new face I just love it. I even have friends that I have never met in person but we “met” on other sites and just followed each other.

Well I just really wanted to thank all my friends and let you know I am loving being there and although I might not talk to everyone everyday I am thinking about all of you. If you have not yet joined what are you waiting for you will be so surprised how quickly and easily you will connect and reconnect with family and friends. Go on join!!!!

Tittle Change

Well ok then I decided on “I’m Just Saying...” Its something I say almost daily and usually in a sarcastic way, LOL but the title now covers just about anything I may want to write about. Briefly I changed it to Life at Barking Dog Ranch but decided I wanted it a little lighter. Not to say I wont change it back....

Thanks fo the input everyone !!!

Name change

Well as you all know I cant sit still or leave well enough alone. The title of this blog has been bothering me, I did it in a hurry and at first I thought I would use it for everything, art, horses and life but as it turns out I am using a separate one for my art so I need to get rid of that in the title. I have been agonizing over this for a bit and still cant come up with anything I really like so I am going to list a few ideas

I keep going back to Life at Barking Dog Ranch since that name has been a part of my life for many years but I have a few other ideas as well let me know what you think good or bad

Life at Barking Dog Ranch

Fragments

This end up

Just me

Its just me

Over here

I’m just saying

Thanks talk to you all soon

Backing out of the stall

Had a great ground work session with Quincy, it was short but oh so wonderful. Yesterday Quincy knocked Vicki over barging out of the stall, my fault I have not worked with him and he is starting to do the old Quincy things again. So I have decided that everyday no matter what I have to do something of him, even if its only for 5 minutes, no exceptions!!! Yesterday was really good, I did some back up and some circling, he went twice around at the walk before I had to encourage him, for us this was really good. I also made sure he was at my shoulder when I led him, not a few steps behind like he has been doing. Don’t get me wrong leading him has become a joy in fact he leads better than the others but always a few behind. I was very happy with the out come.

Today I thought lets do something different. I decided to back him out of the stall, now I know what you are thinking, that’s easy and you have done that before, but wait, this stall had a drop down of about 8 inches so what that means is that he has to step up 8 inches to get out. I asked him to back and had to work on getting him straight and keeping him that way, this became an added bonus for us to work on. Once he was straight I asked him to back and as soon as he hit the board he stopped. No mater how I asked he just stood or came forward or stepped to the side. We just started over again and again and again... I was getting to the point that I thought maybe this was to much for him but just as I was thinking this he turned and looked at his back end and started to lick and chew. Ok we are getting someplace, I asked a few more times before I thought maybe if I lifted one hoof up and out, I walked to his back end lifted a hoof and placed it out of the stall then walked to his head and asked him to back.( Should have thought of this sooner) He walked forward, I tried the other hoof and this time he just stood licking and chewing, he did not walk backwards but he did not walk forward either and he licked and chewed. I gave him a minute to think about it asked again and he tried then stopped but still did not bring the hoof back in. The next time hooray he backed out !!!!! I told him what a good boy he was and let him stand part way in part way out. He licked and chewed again then I asked him to back he went right out.

Fixing the stalls in on the top half of our to do list, now I am thinking maybe not so fast this is kind of cool, LOL.