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October 21, 2007
Daddy's Pumpkin
We took a trip out to the Pumpkin Patch to find a pumpkin for Daddy. This is the one we picked out. Derek and I had gone to the pumpkin patch last week while Brian was out of town at a convention, and had picked out our own pumpkins. (I forgot my camera that day.)
This time, we went through the mini corn maze that the farm had set up. Very enjoyable!
Posted by Jessica at 08:20 PM | Comments (0)
Derek playing at the Pumpkin Farm
The Pumpkin Patch Farm had set up a bunch of round bales of hay for kids to play on. It was fun!
Posted by Jessica at 08:18 PM | Comments (0)
October 13, 2007
Derek visits the orchard!
Derek and I visited a local orchard (the same one Mom used to take us to.) Derek has grown quite a bit taller since the last time he had his photo taken here!
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Choo-choo!
Derek played on the wooden train in the orchard playground. It was fun!
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Old orchard truck.
I had Derek pose on the running board of this old truck right before we left the orchard. (After I took the photo, I saw a sign on the truck that said, "Please don't touch!" Oops!)
Posted by Jessica at 11:02 AM | Comments (0)
Pirate Boo!
At last, Derek is allowing me to take his picture again! Here he is pretending to be a pirate! Arrrr! (Note the treasure map on his t-shirt!)The pistol is a non-working replica, not a real gun.
Posted by Jessica at 10:59 AM | Comments (0)
October 02, 2007
Kai's first trail ride
Kai had been a very sheltered horse before I bought him-he'd lived in the same pasture for 10 years. Now he's getting to see a bit of the world!
I had wanted to go trail riding ever since I bought Kai, but circumstances always arose which made that impractical or impossible for quite awhile. I had always ridden down the back roads near where I had boarded my first horse, and had ridden extensively through farmers' fields. However, that was many years ago!
Kai was unaccustomed to riding on roads or trails or fields, in fact he hadn't been ridden much at all when I bought him. So I wasn't prepared to just trot on down a busy road with him right away.
Cheryl and I had spoken of riding down the roads on our horses (her horse had some experience with trail and road riding), but then she moved her horse to another barn and we never managed it.
Finally, this summer two women brought their horses to board at the barn, and they both ride down the road often. I just had to find the time to get together with them and go riding.
I finally found the time on Sunday, September 23. It had been a very long week, and I was exhausted. On Thursday night, I had gone to a movie premiere in the local theater, it was standing room only and I had to stand! I stood from 6:30 p.m. until almost 9 p.m. but the presentation was worth it. The short film was about Duane Zemper, our local historian and a World War II photographer, and was extremely interesting.
Friday, I had a friend visit who was helping me with the Pirate-themed model horse show. I didn't get finished assembling the model horse show string until very late.
On Saturday, September 22, I was on my feet all day from 8 a.m. until about 7 p.m., and was quite exhausted at the end of the show.
Sunday, I just wanted to sleep on the couch! Brian took Derek out for a bit so that I could have a nap. Then my cell phone rang.
It was Linda, from out at the barn. She wanted to go riding. It was a beautiful day, the sun was out and it was warm but not too hot, with just enough of a gentle breeze. I couldn't pass up the opportunity.
Linda is quite an adventurer. She is hoping to move south to Texas, and had applied for a job as a park ranger. When I arrived at the barn, Linda was already mounted on her horse, a chestnut Tennessee Walker named Buddy.
I tacked Kai up as soon as I could, and went out to join Linda. She hadn't put a bridle on her horse, he was just wearing a halter and lead rope. She said, "I don't think I'll bother putting his bridle on!" She is a very brave woman! (I needn't have worried, Buddy did very well without the bridle. I had also ridden that way when I was much younger, though Linda is 12 years older than I am so youth is not an excuse! I wouldn't be brave enough to attempt that now.)
I explained that Kai was quite a novice trail horse and that he'd never been ridden in traffic. We agreed to walk a short ways down the road and then turn off and ride on the edge of some school property that bordered some old farmers' fields.
Kai was just wonderful, although he was alert and aware that this was not his usual routine. It helped a lot to have another horse for him to emulate.
Just as we got to the school property, we heard hoofbeats behind us. Two people rode up on some Quarter Horse mares. Fortunately, they were not in heat, so Kai was mildly interested, but didn't get out of hand.
We explained that Kai was a stallion, and I guess they elected not to ride with us, because when we started off again they didn't follow us.
Linda said, "let's go off in this field!" and all of a sudden she was making a trail where apparently no one but deer had ventured in many a long year! The brush was up past my knees while mounted, you couldn't see the ground at all. As we went down a small hill, Kai stumbled into an unseen ditch, nearly falling down. He was more careful after he realized the potential footing challenges.
Linda just kept right on going where no horse had ridden before. Onwards and upwards, and away from civilization we went. When I turned to look, the school buildings were tiny and remote.
The field may have been an old orchard at one time, there were ancient apple trees dotting the landscape everywhere.
I worried about running into old barbed-wire fencing, which had long been the fence of choice amongst Michigan farmers. I warned Linda to look for remains of fence lines at the corners and edges of the fields, and we did see quite a bit of it, but it fortunately didn't cause us any problems as we just avoided it.
After awhile, we could hear a repeating chorus of gunshots, and we seemed to be getting closer to them. We turned aside and rode up to a marshy area. It seemed to be getting quite swampy, so we eventually headed back the way we came and found the school once again. We rode around the school (being Sunday, nobody was there) and Kai met an asphalt driveway, which he had never encountered before. It took only a small nudge and a word of encouragement from me before Kai braved the road and followed Buddy and Linda.
There was just a short ride down the road before we reached the barn. I hoped for light traffic, and was rewarded with my wish.
We arrived safely back at the barn, after having had a marvelous time. I hope we will be able to do it again soon!
Posted by Jessica at 02:12 PM | Comments (0)