Sunrise brought these two clowns over to the fencing wanting to know why I had a camera instead of alfalfa hay and grain!! Love the sunrises and sunsets here. The sky does some beautiful things, and the wide open spaces and mountains in the distance add to the moment. The flies here are pretty bad in the evenings, so the horses have had their sheets on in the evenings. Tonight it was cooler, so I left the sheets and masks off. For those who haven't met our two ponies, Ernie is wearing the shades. The black one is Lucy. A little history: I snuck around behind my parents' backs and took out a loan to buy Ernie while I was in college. A riding lesson student's dad, and still dear friend, Don, co-signed for me.....totally on the hush!! How funny is that!?!? Only after I paid the last payment...early, I might add, did I tell my parents Ernie wasn't just another horse I was training during college but one I owned. We purchased Lucy over a year ago for Addie. Then Addie broke her arm coming off Lucy last November. She couldn't ride for several months, and although she has ridden Lucy a few times since, she isn't in love with her like she was before the accident. I have "bought" Lucy from Addie, and we will start looking for a good ranch gelding for Addie soon. Ernie was Addie's for a few barrel racing seasons, then when we bought Lucy for Addie, Ainslee took Ernie. Now Garrett is riding Ernie some....this horse is worth an endless amount to us as he has taken great care of the kiddos!!
Here's another shot of the sunrise this morning. It was much prettier in person, but still, here it is! And those sprinklers you see in the forefront are wheel line irrigation. It's a long pipe with sprinklers along it, but the pipe is elevated off the ground a few feet by what looks like wagon wheels that roll the pipe along the field. As Grouchy stated last week, "Man, these people don't farm out here! They just chase water all day!!" And the latter is true. All you see the farmers do here when they are not picking or harvesting something is them out in the fields in rubber overalls moving pipes and lines. It really is a testimony to how much water means to this area.

Everywhere there is land in this area, it is used for farming, and these irrigation systems run 24/7 right now.

And here's Garrett's bus leaving the house this morning, driving past the big hay bales in our yard. He LOVES riding the bus!!

Blessings to each of you tonight. Come out to stay anytime!! Oh, but the bookings for the guest house are filling up, so call ahead and make your reservation!!! HA!!!

Godspeed,

CL