Cute now, trouble later

Summer fun

Okay, here is a little update post.
we got a hen that had six unhatched eggs 'attached" to her. All but one egg hatched. They will be top hat chickens. They are soo fun and lots less work with a mummy to take care of them.
Sad story alert: We lost a chicken. She was a giant black and a good layer. She was pretty good natured. Snowflake must have known she was easy pickings. We found her body picked clean on top of the loft in the barn. That cat is asking for trouble!

We went to Jumpin'Jacks in Springville last night with our ward. It was so fun. Ronnie was a crazy little monster going on the biggest slide there about a million times. It is about a story high and you slide down to a bump that launches you into the air where you proceed to free fall the rest of the way down. Fun stuff. Needless to say, Ronnie has no concept of lines and slithered past everyone to make it down a million times. It was fun to watch him, even as he got scolded numerous times.

My Little Oasis

Have you ever felt like you are floating? That's how I felt after riding Romy bareback. I don't remember the last time I did this with her. Since I have been so busy and the thought of expending energy to rastle another being has been so intimidating, I haven't ridden my horses but three times this year. Awful!
Having a bit of motivation (Rebecca's Laurels coming to ride tonight), I went out this morning to draw a bit of excess energy out of the horse's systems. I had forgotten the halters up in the van (see next story) so I grabbed Shadow's bridle, the longe line and the longe whip. I proceeded to catch Shadow, whilst the baby curiously investigated the goings on. After he was listening satisfactorily, I told Trey to get up top and gave him a mini lesson. He even trotted bareback! What a great job Trey and Shadow did.
Sooo, then I told Trey to give me a leg up and I proceeded to ride. Well. What a stinker horse he can be. He wanted no part of riding. Just give him food up to his belly and he is a happy camper. He tried to rear!!! Since I didn't have a saddle on there was no way I was getting in a fight, so I asked him a few more things, not pushing him too much and calmly got off. (meanwhile, Romy and Junior are tearing around the pasture) I figured there was no hope catching Romy, but they all settled down and I caught her easily at the gate.
I bridled Romy with Shadow's gear~thanks chum~ and proceeded to work Romy. She listened right from the start and I tried to get some walk to canter to walk transitions. She did fairly well for never really doing those. Then I bravly got on top. She was wonderful. Even when Comet kept whinnying at her. We did circles to the left and right at the walk and trot with good connection and giving. Her trot is seriously heaven.
So now I am floating from exhilaration at accomplishing a good ride and expending positive energy. I need to remember the good feelings I get from this type of work-out!

On to story number two: So last night, six horses escaped from their pens onto the highway. On this hwy, people drive 60 mph. I have nightmares of my horses escaping onto this roadway. Since we have lived here two years a horse has been hit by a car. So as I was driving Michaela to a meeting I saw these horses running down the road.
After I dropped her off, I drove back home and checked the escapees location. They were still on the loose closer to my home now. I grabbed my halters and drove back toward them and by now they were in the neighbors yard. A man stopped and helped catch these rogues. There was a sad looking, ribby mare with a foal on her side which we caught first pretty easily. The others tore deeper into the property. We slowly worked our way over to them. They pranced merrily back toward the road but luckily there were two guys that blocked their way with some mechanical Mules.
We secured them with a belt, bungee cord and the rest of my halter and ropes. We paraded back down the highway to their home. I prayed that the baby didn't skitter out into the oncoming traffic. After we figured out who went where, they were placed back into their haphazard pens. I hope this doesn't happen again, a least not for a while. But I can only hope as the owners didn't seem to worried. . .

Well, we are officially into summertime freedom. It still feels like spring as the weather has been stormy and cool. I am okay with that. My grass is growing!
All the kids have jumped into summer chores very easily. Michalea says she has 16 "jobs" to do every day. I told her prayers and scriptures aren't a job really. So she changed her phrasing to things to do on her list. I thought that was cute. Anyways, she is done by 12 noon usually and is free for the rest of the day. Freedom after chores is something I wanted the kids to know about. When I as growing up, I didn't ever feel like I was free to go play. It seemed as though there was always something else I had to do.
We also pick out of the reward bucket on Friday if they did all their jobs for the week. We have had fun so far. I tell you what, though. I can barely keep up with the dishes generated-lol!