The Three R's

Not to be confused with Reading, 'Riting and 'Rithmatic. But rodeo, rain and recuperation. Everyone at church put so much into our ranch rodeo for the church kick-off and now we're all pooped! I didn't explain in my last post about the WRCA..my sister called and asked me what that meant. It is Working Ranch Cowboy Association. The events in the rodeo are similar to what a working cowboy would typically do on a ranch..bronc riding, team sorting, branding, cow doctoring and wild cow milking. Each team is made up of 4-6 members and these teams came from all over..some from Nebraska and Kansas. They were qualifying for the world this past weekend. As soon as I get some pictures, I'll be posting. Should have some pretty good ones.

With all the rain we've been having lately, which by the way is wonderful, it has made the grass just start popping up. It's not so good for Bridget, the little horse we have for the grandkids, because she founders so easily. That's a term for laminitis, which is really too much blood flow going to the horses feet and it's very painful for them. So we have her put up in the round pen to keep her off the grass and out of the mud, which irritated them more but with the rain this morning, she was in more mud than the others. Poor Bridget, she's such a sweet little horse.

Then there's Jess and Cinch...see how clean they are? They are two compadres and are always leaving out Bridget. It's funny to watch the hierarchy with these animals.

Speaking of animals, have you ever seen such an ugly dog? He's got eyes like a mule.. very sad eyes. I hate to admit it, but he's so ugly, he's kinda cute. Gosh, did I just say he was kinda cute?! Living in the country near a college town, we are the ones that end up with the critters that someone has no use for anymore and they dump them. This is some kind of chow mix..not quite sure what he's mixed with though! Haven't had the time lately, but this guy has to find a new home. He's on the unpredictable side. We've had three dumped out here this year.

Remember when this one was dumped last year? Yep, this is Jasper. We ended up keeping him. The second dog dumped out here, my neighbor ended up keeping. So this new dog will have to go somewhere. I'm not trying to be cruel but we are not a rescue and cannot keep taking in these animals. It makes me angry when people dump them out here to let us deal with the guilt and the feed and vet bills. If I could, I would keep them all but that's hard to do.

Now that the rodeo is over, I'm looking forward to getting back to normal around here. As soon as I get the pictures, I'll be posting again.

Happy Trails...

This old gray mare is still pluggin' along

I have no pictures to share but only an update. First of all, thanks to those blogger friends for emailing and checking in on me. It really means a lot to know that so many of you truly care. Yes, it's been a long while since I posted. My reason? don't know...no umph to blog. Most of the time, I feel like what I do is not so interesting to others.
I have been busy working because there are some things that we want and, I figure, the only way to get them is with cash in hand...duh!..amazing how that works. Buddy and I are also involved in a new church. It seems like a year now that we've felt in limbo with a church and have prayed for direction. I think the path God led us on gave us a clear picture as to the end of our search. Let me tell you... we tossed around the idea of visiting a newly planted Cowboy Church in our area and decided it was time to visit. The preacher and his wife just moved from Alpine in west Texas where they had started a church and were there for 6 years. They were then sent to our area to start another. They moved here with all their struggles and a huge pile of faith. The church had only been meeting a few months and still in the baby stages of getting started. Let me tell you how God works... we walked up one Sunday morning and the preacher's wife saw me, reached out for me and gave me a big hug and said "You're here. I've been praying for you". She and her husband had been praying for us specifically to come. At that moment, I knew the reason God led us there. Wow, what a ride!
Let me tell you... even for those of you that might not know Christ, someone is out there praying for you right now just waiting for you to open your heart and accept the Holy Spirit and share in the peace and joy of salvation.
Our church is getting ready to have it's big launch the weekend of the 26th and 27th so we've been hustling to get ready. We're having a two day ranch rodeo with a sanctioned WRCA on Saturday and Sunday with breakfast, church service and then an open ranch rodeo.
We know now that God is using us to minister with what we know - our horses. Buddy will be roping with several of the youth on Wed nights after Bible study. I don't rope so I'm just along for the ride on that one. As a side-note, I wonder if I'm along for the "ride" because the other night I took a tumble off my horse and landed right on my tailbone..yep, I do believe it's cracked or broken. My git-up and git-down is a bit on the slow side but I am still gittin' it! YeeHaw! Praise God is wasn't worse!
Anyway...that's pretty much what's been going on. Whether I've been at work or busy with church activities, I've been on the go. I will try and stay motivated to blog and, hopefully, add some pictures in my next post.
Happy Trails...