Did I tell you about the rattle snake?

So a couple weeks ago TLC came downstairs while I was doing some laundry and announced there was a snake on the porch. I said No there isn't. He said Yes Mamma! There is. I asked him if he was jokin me. He said no. Ok says I. I was thinkin it was probably just a lost gopher snake. We have lots around the house. I stuck my head out the screen door and there, poking out from behind the dog boxes was a little dimond shaped head. EEEK! Everybody in the darn house. Hmm. Now what. The snake was between me and a shovel. So I did what anyone would have done (after deciding that shooting it on the porch might not be such a good idea) I called Papa M. He just lives one door up. I told him to bring a shovel. It was pretty funny watching him try and kill it. He's kinda afraid of snakes. I almost felt bad for the snake. We are pretty lucky around here. The snakes are very docile. This little snake didn't even rattle till we chopped his head off. Sorry little snake. If you come I my porch, you gonna die.

Sickness and in health

So lots of stuff has been going on lately. The biggest is the disability of The Hunter. Who, by the way, I have also started referring to as "The Honey Badger". About 3 weeks ago he started having some back pain flare up. Not really surprising. This usually happens if he works solid for over a year. (He is in the HVAC business) He took a week of work. Not better. Then his Chiropractor put him on disability. Not better. Then his back spasms escalated to the point he had to be hospitalized. Of course that happened while I was at my sisters wedding in Tahoe. I raced home to find him admitted to the hospital, where he (and I) spent the next two days. We brought him and a hospital bed home. Along with all the other fun little things you need when you can't walk. A walker, bedside camode. You get the idea. Just when I thought things might be getting better, Whamo! Another ambulance ride back to the hospital. People let me tell you, I have seen some folks in pain. I have seen women push large babies out of their vaginas. This made everything else look like a tickle. First I thought he was going to pass out. Then I thought he was going to break his teeth he was gritting them so hard. When the medics came they gave him some morphine (on top of the pain killers and muscle relaxers he was already on). It didn't even touch the pain. That all happened on Monday night. We had only been home for 6 days. They let us (kicked us) out of the hostpital on Thursday. Now I am Nurse Lil Momma again. I remember that whole, for better or worse, sickness and health thing. I just thought I would have more time before that ticket got cashed in.
I don't know which is worse. Being in pain, or watching someone you love in pain and not being able to help.

How bout a little update

So I have been purty busy these days. At least that's how it feels. TLC finaly started pre-school and loves it! He just had his forth b-day and is already riding on two wheels! I am so stinkin proud of that kid. Now if I could just get him to leave that darn dog alone for 5 freakin minutes, we'd be in business. I haven't killed the Hunter yet or lit him on fire with white gas, so I got that goin for us. It's July so he's about to start huntin pretty soon.  He got drawn (huntin talk for picked) for a an awesome deer/elk hunt in Nevada. Killen stuff always makes him happy.


Last week my BF, my friend Mrs. M and I took the kids to Columbia CA. It's an old mining town that was turned into a State park in the 30's. It was pretty awesome (even if it was 105degrees outside). The kids got to do a little gold panning, old timey bowling, candle dipping and we all rode the stagecoach (surprisingly enough it was my first time in a coach).

                                                 Here is TLC doing some gold panning.

                                           All the kids at the Wells Fargo Staging area.

                                  My BF getting ready to board. That's Mrs M in the window.

TLC

Group lesson

Today I have a group lesson with some friends of mine. I feel like I should be excited. I am to a point. However, I feel like there are other things I should be spending my money on. I also get nervous the night before I trailer my horse anywhere. I always have horrible macabre thoughts about all the things that could go wrong. So of course I didn't sleep well at all.  I feel queasy from the time the horse go's into the trailer till the horse come out of the trailer.  Jeez! Sometimes I am such a "glass is half empty girl". It doesn't help that all of a sudden my darling Bar Hoppin Bob who has hardly in the 12 years since I have owned him pulled back has decided that he is now going to try it. He's so freakin big he barley sits on the rope and pops the clips.  I don't know if he's going goofy in his old age or what? I am trying really hard not to dwell on that one. 
Oh well. Hopefully I'll get some pictures for you from today. Then everyone can see Vaquero Girls new cute pony. I really like him but I worry he's not to bright. When we brought him home and put him in his new pen, he hit the hot wire about 5 times in 3 minutes. I have personally seen him hit it since then just nosing around the paddock.  He's kinda like a super model. Pretty but I don't know if there is a lot goin on up stairs. He seems to be pickin up what mom asks him pretty easy though. So maybe I am wrong.

Crazy bitch neighbor and one angry hunter

So  for those of you who don't know, I have two adorable little Heelers. (Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn pictured at the bottom of my blog home page). Any one who has heelers knows they tend to bark a little. Mine do but not to the point I think is totally obnoxious. The Hunter will tend to disagree a little with that. I think he would be happy with a mute dog. A while back we put up an 8 foot privacy fence because we live so close to a VERY busy road. Unbelievably this made the dogs bark more because they can't see whats on the other side. So they bark when the neighbors pick up the mail or at the mailman, ups man, weirdos walking down the street, etc. Well yesterday I was downstairs doing laundry when I hear barking, no biggie I think. Then I hear yelling so I run like mad up stairs and out side to find the neighbor. So I very pleasantly say Hi Kathleen what's up don't worry the dogs are all bark. She (obviously drunk at 3 in the afternoon) says (and very rudely I might add) "I just can't take your dogs barking all day. You need to beat the shit out of them.
Well this just throws me for a loop I tell ya. Before I met the Hunter she got all pissy with him and threatened to sue and what not, She even went so far as to slash tires, break windshield and (we never proved it but) poison his dog so he ended up having his dog de-barked. Well we had liked her husband who died about 5 years ago, after which The Hunter has helped her out immensely.  So now all of a sudden she starts freakin out about the dogs again! Mind you this women lives in a house at least 200 yards away with double pained windows. The only time she hears my dogs at all is when she has to get her mail or stop to open her gate.
Well  I very calmly talk to her and tell her I'll try and keep them quite. I turn around to go back in the house and see a big rock out of place. TLC I say. Did you put that rock there? No says he. That lady threw it at the dogs. OH SHIT says I.
Well when The Hunter gets home TLC tells him the crazy lady threw a rock at the dogs and so I explain. MY SHITTY HUSBAND blames me! Can you freakin believe that? It's apparently my fault the dogs bark. Instead of freaking out on him for being such a douche bag I just went and rode my horse. When I got back. I explain a little more of what happened. He's still grumpy so I went up to my cousins house. While I am up there he calls and says that I should stay for a while because the cops are on their way over and that the crazy neighbor is out in front of our house making an ass of herself. (This is basically his way of saying he's sorry and I am not the one at fault here)  Well I guess he had called over to talk to her. When she didn't pick up he went over. No answer even though her truck was there. When he gets back to the house there is a message from her on the phone crying to me how sorry she is blah blah blah. Well then he hears screaming out side. It's her screaming at him about his message on her machine. So he calls the cops. The cop comes over and basically tells her not to be crazy and not to come on our property that she is lucky she doesn't live in town because the dogs in his neighborhood bark all damn day and there is like 15 of em. Legally there is nothing she can do.
Now I am just a little nervous about leaving my dogs home alone.
Other then that it was a nice day.

Trip to the Kings Canyon Sequoia National Park.

So we decided we would try and take a family trip. This is the first time it's been, The Hunter, TLC and Me and know one else. (usually we have a buffer) It was awesome. We drove down to the Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Forrest. It was unbelievable. The trees are so big it's more then awe inspiring. I could have spent a week there just hiking and looking around. The really amazing part is that the park is usually closed at this time of the year because of snow. Well we are having a very dry winter and they opened it up for the weekend. The weather was beautiful. This forest is home to the General Sherman tree as well as the General Grant tree.

Me and TLC in front of the General Grant.

This is The Hunter at the base of The General Sherman Tree.You can get an idea of how big it is.
It's said to have the greatest volume of any tree in the world.

The park is also home to Morrow rock and Mt Whitney. (The largest Mountain in the lower 48)

This is TLC and The Hunter at the Top Of Morrow Rock. TLC climbed the over 400 stairs by himself. I was so proud.

While we were in the Grant Grove we had a couple (sounded like from the east coast some where) come up to us and ask us they could ask us a question. It go's a little somethin like this.

Man: " Excuse me, do you know, is there any redwoods in this forest"?

The Hunter and I look at each other.

Me: " Yes the Giant Sequoias are redwoods."

Man: "well aren't there other ones"?

The Hunter: "Yes, there are two types, the Giant Sequoia and the Coastal Redwood".

Man: "Yeah, so are there any here"?

Us: "yes the Giant Sequoias"

Man: " What's the difference"?

The Hunter: " Well the Giant Sequoias are giant and the Coastal get taller but not as big around and live closer to the CA coast".

Man:" Well what about that tree"

The Hunter: "That is a Ponderosa Pine"

Man: " How can you tell the difference"?

Me: " Well there are a couple ways, the needles are different, the bark of the red wood is "softer" and the Pine trees have a hard bark".

Man: Ok so there's no red woods.

Us: "No coastal Redwoods".

Man's wife: " I told you, I told you.

The Hunter and I walked back to the car and just laughed our butts off.