My Play Days....

I head over to my friend Lou's house after work a day a week and on Saturdays. I have Chase at her house. So we head out and drive all the time. Her horse is just green and Janet is just learning how to drive. So Chase can use the work. But we have fun playing around each time. The Palomino is Lou's horse. This was his first time driving at home. So I volunteered to drive him. He'll be a blast when he gets moving!

First Snow!

Well, we got a nice storm go through today. We've just got rain, but in the mountains across from us, it got snow. Wish I had gotten a picture yesterday of the pretty fall colors. Oh, well. Sad to see, but nice to see fall finally arrive!

Cowboy Carver...

Here's some pics of what Carver does best...riding his horseys.

Mike's Project

Mike worked on putting the dog kennels together nicely so that he had space for all his dogs. Here's the results of his work.

Carver and his horsey movie...

I bought Carver Spirit the movie about a month ago. It has turned into his all time favorite. He watches that movie daily (if not more than once). But he's funny becuase he can't say movie. He always calls it his horsey poopy. We get what he's saying, but its kind of funny. Here's a pic of him watching it the other night.

What was he thinking???

Carver kept bugging me to put his winter beanie on (which is getting a little on the small side). So I put it on and go back to folding laundry. Then he drags his horse out and proceeds to ride it up and down the hall. Had to take a pic! I'm thinking he thought his hat was his helmet (he's required to wear his real riding helmet when we do ride horses). But needless to say, here's Carver being his usual self! Hahahaha!

Dove Dinner

So really...who takes pictures of their food? Mike does! He was so excited about how well his dove kabobs turned out, that he just had to share. He said they were awesome. I had pork instead, but I believe him. He may share the recipe if you guys want. Not sure. Hahahaha!

Field Burning

There was a wheat field behind our house this summer (it was an alfalfa field last year). But they harvested and baled the straw a few weeks ago. They came and knocked on our door yesterday afternoon and just told us they were going to burn it. It was amazing! They ran a line of gas (or some type of fire starter) along the rim of the field. Then lit it. It moved so fast. I think the entire field was burned in less than 5 minutes. Then they came in with a tractor and plowed it under. So now we wonder what will go there next year. But it was cool to watch.

Soldier Hollow Sheepdog Classic

I've always wanted to go over and watch the sheepdogs perform. So this year, I talked Mike into it (its always a busy work weekend for him being Labor Day). Carver was being a pill, but we got to watch some of them. The dogs had 24 minutes to work. They had to go blindly up a hill and gather a group of 8 sheep and take them through 2 panels. Then leave them and go get 8 more sheep and take them through the panels too. Then gather them and take them to their handler (into a red circle). Then they were required to take the group of 16 sheep back up the hill and through 2 different panel courses. Then back to the handler and into the circle. And then with the handlers help (not touching the sheep), they had to separate the 5 sheep with th3 red collars and then put those 5 sheep into the pen. The dog was commanded only by different whistle pitches. It was pretty amazing. The dog in the pic was from South Africa. So it was neat to watch and I think we'll definately go again next year.

Splash Dogs

We went up to the Soldier Hollow Classic. They had a splash dog competition. This was the amatuer competition. Some of the dogs were good. I bet Mike's lab would do awesome at this. But it was fun to watch. :)

Sunday Pheasant Hunt

So off for more hunting this weekend. Mike and his friend got invited to a pheasant hunt on a private ranch. Birds were paid for. And the guy wanted everyone to bring their wives. I was a bit more successful at this hunt. The targets were bigger. Hahaha! But I managed to kill 2 pheasants and only shot 5 times. It was a lot of fun. We also got a new dog. Penny is an english pointer and fully trained. So it was neat to see her work. She did awesome. Skeeter is still learning, but he did good. Here is a pic of our successful hunt. Mike got the other 2 pheasants and the chukar I missed. :D

Saturday Dove Hunt

Mike and I went up to Snowville to go dove hunting with some friends. Mike had gone the day before with this guy and they were quite successful. So they decided to bring back their wives on the second day. Guess it was a lot slower. But it had also been about 8 years since I've shot a shotgun and had only been bird hunting a couple times too. So my hurry, aim and shoot skills weren't fantastic and the dove are small. But I managed to kill 1 bird. So here's a pic of my first dove kill. Mike managed to get 9 out of the 2 days hunting.

Ride Horsey

So now that things have slowed down, I started trying to get back into riding again. Carver saw me with him and was screaming, ride mommy....ride horsey. So I got out his helmet and we rode. After that, he comes up to me and asks to ride. He has a blast. He had to wave to Mike every time we passed. Eventually I'll get Indian back up to speed and we'll be able to go out on the road for a longer ride. Its been about 3 years since he's been ridden. But he picked right back up and was a good boy.

Parker's 3rd Birthday Party

Parker turned 3 on Sept 1st. Mindy threw a party for him. Crystal and Rob brought the big blow up toy. Carver was scared to death of the thing. Wouldn't go near it and screamed bloody murder everytime someone even held him while in it. So that was a no good on Carver enjoying himself. But he had a blast with the balloons.

Family Party

Mike's mom's side of the family gets together a few times a year. This year, they gathered at the West Point park for a dinner. Here's pics of Carver enjoying himself. :)