Happy Anniversary!

25 years is a good start!

We spent a few days in Montana and Wyoming to take time out for us.  A quarter for a quarter century together is the memento John has on his key ring.  We had an awesome time: perfect weather, issue free travel, good health and humor, and it was simply wonderful.

The cabin we stayed in at Parade Rest Ranch

We stayed 3 of the nights at this little dude ranch in West Yellowstone.  I think we expected to spend more time there and in that surrounding area but we ended up enchanted with Yellowstone National Park and spent most of our time at the park.  We did enjoy full breakfasts there each day and cribbage games on the porch.  We had the little creek right off the porch and enjoyed the soothing and relaxing sounds it made.  The air had a bit of smoke in it each day but early mornings the sun would come up and the sky would be clear so we could see the mountains off in the distance.  We did experience one small earthquake while we were there to remind us we were right near the continental divide and hanging out around a thermal area (read volcano) there.  I'm thankful for the quieter nature of New Hampshire...

The creek was right outside our cabin-a beautiful sound.

The Grayling Creek

John riding.  I think he's a natrual...

We did enjoy a 2 hour trail ride over the mountain to a "mountain lake" and back.  One of the other people on the ride shouted out at the small pond we arrived at "is this the lake?" to which our guide answered without missing a beat, "it was bigger earlier".  The banter on the ride was like that and we laughed and laughed the whole way along.  I loved riding through sage and seeing indian paintbrush.  The lodgepole pines are very different than what I ride through here at home. And at least while we were riding there were NO BUGS.  Very nice.  I'm sure that's not always the case but we enjoyed it.  

Beautiful View!!

Trail ride!!  John on a horse!!!

Elk in Madison River area of Yellowstone National Park

We really enjoyed the park.  It amazed us again and again.  Photos do not do it justice.  When we got home and looked through them we can remember how incredible it all was but we're quite sure they just don't quite cut it.  Everything was so big.  That elk walking across the road reminds me of a white tailed deer here.  Nope.  It's more the size of my little arab horse than it would be the size of a white tailed deer.  But in that landscape it does seem small.  The whole place is just huge.

Gibbon Falls

We drove in on the first day just through the middle from the west gate to Canyon.  I think in our heads we thought we might go to Cody but we stopped so often and took in so many sights that if we had continued on to Cody we wouldn't have made it back until midnight!!  This is sort of how things were.  Just not enough hours to get everywhere we might want to go!  We drove about 1000 miles in the days we were there.  One of the things I wanted to see was herds of "anything other than turkeys".  We were not disappointed.  Herds of bison, elk, antelope and small groups of black tailed deer.  It was such a beautiful experience to see so much wildlife in the park.  Bison jams would block traffic up and we enjoyed those traffic jams for sure.  Bison close enough to touch--not that we were silly enough to touch wild bison--but they were that close to us and other people/cars often.

Herd of elk

Herd of bison and one up close!!

Watching the eclipse.  We had a great view!

We didn't know about the eclipse when we booked the trip but my mom told us all about it excitedly one day at home and even brought to us these glasses she'd gotten at her local library.  I packed them in my bag for the trip and we were very glad to have them.  It was 98% where we were in Yellowstone Park.  The big hoopla was just down the road a bit in the Grand Teton park but we were heading for Bozeman that day so enjoyed the park--to ourselves nearly!  The huge crowds that were present on Sunday were all gone for Monday.  The roads were empty of cars and just the wildlife and a few visitors like us were there.  What a wonderful day to remember.  We drove the upper loop and spent the eclipse near Mammoth.  Then drove out through Lamar Valley to eat our picnic lunch out watching herds there.  We finished the park trip out with a stop outside of the NE entrance at Cook City.  From there we had a choice to either drive back through the part of the park we'd just come through and out the north gate to drive up to Bozeman or on the map it looked like about the same distance to drive up highway 212 and then west to Bozeman so we thought why not take the road we hadn't gone on yet.  Well.  This is what happens when you leave your guidebook at home and make such decisions....

August and throwing snow!!

Amazing highway.  

Highway 212 on the map said nothing about the elevation of the thing!!  I wanted my "this car climbed Beartooth" bumper sticker because I'm sad to say it but Mt. Washington's auto road is quite small compared to this 68 mile long highway that reaches the elevation of 10,947.  We took frightfully few photos on the drive because we were both white knuckled with curled toes for most of the drive!!  Crazy roads.  Crazy, crazy, crazy roads!  What a beautiful highway we got to experience.  

What a happy, happy anniversary trip we had.

Millie

Millie has been a good addition to our family.  she mostly sleeps when in the house and then has some varied behaviors when outside.  As I go about the work of the day of feeding the horse and doing barn chores she will go "on guard" and find a place to monitor what I'm doing while she is a pyranese or perhaps a german shepherd dog.  She finds jobs to do when she can.  For a very long time she had the daily job of carrying my plastic quart mug that I use to carry the horse's daily rations to him.  On the way back to the barn she would take the mug by the handle and head off to the barn to put it away for me.  Well.  As away as she wanted to anyhow.  But I'd reward her for her "work" and then we could go on our walk.  This is a short 15-20 minute loop through the woods on most day.  There are several brooks, streams and beaver ponds back there in the conservation land.  She becomes a labrador retriever as soon as we're on the walk.  Off she goes and chases rabbits, squirrels and basically anything else that moves.  We've had a few chases after deer and a few times when she strayed a bit farther than we liked.  And she ends up either back at our house or over at our neighbor's house to visit her and her dog, Fenway.  Millie is a very social dog...

Millie out on our daily walks through the conservation land next to our property

Strut Your Mutt fundraiser.  She loves this event!

We have been to this fundraiser with her now for the 2nd time.  Our boy raises money for the event to support the shelter where we got Millie.  This walk is on Mother's Beach in Kennebunk Maine.  We also returned this year to the shelter for their "Road Trip Home" reunion.  The ladies who fostered these puppies down in Georgia were there this year and I'm sure they enjoyed seeing Millie.  I enjoyed meeting them and thanking them in person for their generosity.  I also really enjoyed seeing one of the other puppies from the litter.  There were 6 of the 9 from that litter adopted on the same day and we saw all 6 when we adopted her.  They all looked so different.  So it was neat to see this puppy all grown up too.

See her brother from the same litter back at the AWS reunion.

Someone outgrew her bed....

We think she's all done growing now.  I think she's a good size.  Maybe around 70 lbs at this point.  We haven't checked for some time now.  But I think that's about right.

So this is where the legs go, right?  She loves to mimic.

She is an incredible mimic which has made training some of her tricks a little easier.  She will hold up a paw for "high 5" from across a room and if I hold out my other hand she will change the paw.  It's her desire to mimic that does that for us.  So naturally she needed to put her feet on the coffee table if we do.  

Check out the seagulls!  I love the ocean.

She travels really well, including camping with us.  I was so happy that she didn't turn into a very vocal dog at the campsite.  The only noise that I remember was when I stayed behind to "watch the animals" while my husband and son went off on their bikes to the pool to swim.  I maybe drowsed off in the reclining chair I sat down in.  I woke up to low growling by my side.  It was Millie.  I guess when I'm asleep she again goes on "guard duty" and noticed people walking by the campsite.  All the other times that people walked by she just wagged her tail.  But when I was asleep it was a different story for her.  We really got a gem of a mutt I think.

This foot makes an amazing head rest...thanks!

My father loves her too.  She knows it and cuddles right up to him when he's visiting.  I loved this head rest on his foot thing she was doing.  Too silly.

This is her favorite sleeping position.  Yes.  Really.  She sleeps "disassembled" like this every day.

She sleeps on her back a LOT.  And she will just stay there on her back and snore away.  I think it's because she gets hot.  We have radiant floor heat and due to this we've allowed her up on the futon to get in a cooler location.  Her fur is pretty thick.  Silly to see her all upside down and sleeping.  

A daily occurrence around here.  The walk. 

I guess it's been a good change for my health to go out walking with her every day.  Although there are days when I'd like to be in the truck and headed to work a bit earlier than later and my plans are altered by her wandering...most of the time it's just the best part of my day to be out walking and taking in the world.  I wouldn't be doing that unless it were for the benefit of the dog.  A good thing for me for sure.

I'm NOT a deer.  Nor am I chasing a deer.  Just a mutt sporting bells and orange.

Riding and camping

New to me truck!

I still ride but not as much as I used to.  I have had a very busy year with my 2 jobs and keeping up with the driving requirements of getting our youngest son to all his activities.  It's been very taxing on my time to try and balance all of these items.  I seem to be driving a lot.  A LOT.  But the good news is that I have a new to me truck to do all that driving in!  And the best part of that good news is that the old truck is still here.  It's going to be our youngest boy's first vehicle.
I did enjoy 3 camping trips this year for long weekends.  2 of them were with my friend Kathy and her horse Rio.  The other one was with family.

Still loving beach riding in the winter

Wearing our winter woolies to keep warm

Summertime ride at the pine river-so low this year!!

Fall ride playing in the Branch River.

Family camping for my Mom's birthday!  Strawberry Shortcake.  Mmm

Our campsite for family camping.  Horse, dog, boy and husband.  A real first!

End of the day while camping this spring

Old fireplaces at Myles Standish State Forest

Rio "sharing" his hay in the morning.  Amazing.

Yard remodel - phase four

Framing the building

Work in progress...

The next phase was to turn the run in shelter into a hay storage building.  This meant a sill, a floor and another wall.  Plus doors to access the building.
Then we could fill it with hay!  And fence supplies.  And shavings.  And buckets.  And off season items.  And trailer parts.  And camping supplies....We found "horse" storage items everywhere.  In the tiny barn.  In the hay tent.  In the cellar.  In the attic space over the shop.  In the shop.  How nice it is to find what we need now all in one place!!

Moving the equipment back to the tent

Move in day for the garage tent.

Next we moved the hay tent, er--garage.  I was not present to photograph that!!  I guess it was simply a group of people who all lifted parts of the frame and walked it on up to the location where the barn had been.  The location was the path of least resistance anyhow.  There already was gravel there.  And an electric feed which is now hooked up to lights and power outlets.  That makes the boy happy as he's tinkering on some lawnmower or other.

Can we knock it down?  Please?

That only left a few more things to do.  Knocking down the old chicken coop for one.  This job seemed to call out to the boys to get it done.  The old coop was falling in on it's floor.  It was time to go.  It served it's purpose well and then even did some extra jobs of storage for another couple of years.  But it really was rotted and needed to go.  I'm glad the 3 boys were here that day and wanted to take it down.  

Yard remodel - phase three

Need power!

The whole barn move project hinged on power.  Without wiring electricity out there we would choose not to move the barn.  Keeping water from freezing has been the hardest part of housing the horse out back during the winter.  That and nor'easter storms.  For some reason those would fill the run in shelter with snow.  The tiny barn can be closed up tight on a nor'easter so that wouldn't pose a problem but keeping water from freezing was an issue worth fixing.  The answer was power.  We had to run just over 450' of line from the house to the barn.  That meant a bigger service for the distance than what we already had in the ground to the chicken coop and the tiny barn in it's current location.  We had to go right from the house with a new wire and run that separately to the panel.  Trench.  Conduit.  Pull wire and install.  The first tool we rented for the job didn't work.  It was under-powered for what we were doing.  It was frustrating too.  First we brought it back to the rental place and they fixed it so we thought that was the only issue.  Then we learned better.  It would stop working after less than a minute of trenching.  So the next weekend we tried again only with this piece of equipment.  This was the right stuff!

So much fun to dig with!

Millie "supervising"

mini bobcat with trenching tool

Millie filling it in.

This tool got the trench dug in short order.  Next we had to lay conduit.  Once that was all installed and glued we could pull the wire and hook it up!  Nice to have a brother in law electrician to help us with supplies, advice and stuff!
Millie loved this project as digging is her favorite.  Except chasing rocks.  That is really her favorite.  But digging is a close second.  She was filling the trench in when we wanted it open and then digging the conduit up once we buried it.  She tries to help.  She really does.

Yard Remodel - phase two

Lining the trailer up

Barn Moving Day!

We bought the barn from Hill View Mini Barns.  When we discussed moving the barn one option was to roll it on large logs by ourselves.  We had to move it 400 feet or so and across that stone bridge we have.  Somehow that seemed daunting.  Another idea was to hire a tow truck.  They could drag it up on a ramp truck and move it.  $300 bucks or so.  I was soooo nervous about that--it would be so high we'd have to cut limbs on the trees at the bridge.  They were not insured for damages...etc.  So we called Hill View to see what it would cost to move it.  $450.  AND WORTH EVERY PENNY.  This truck and trailer is so specialized to the job.  We were floored.  The single man who arrived moved the barn in under an hour and without a hitch at all.  The barn moved easily and we were all impressed with how it has been aging.  The sill was in excellent condition.  

And up we go!

Crossing the bridge

The trailer on that truck could move side to side (as seen in the video) with this extra axle that dropped down and faced the opposite direction.  The driver didn't have to actually drive the truck to line up where he wanted it...he could move the barn side to side with his remote control until it was in the perfect spot.  Amazing.  The barn settled into it's new spot nicely.  I dare say the horse was thrilled.  He preferred to hang out in the barn when he had the choice of the 2 buildings for the next couple of weeks.  I think he missed his barn when he lived out back.

Here comes the barn, King!

My first morning feeding with all the horse "things" in one location!  Life is good.  

With the barn in it's new spot we decided to park the horse trailer back there too.  How nice it was for me to think, "I need a brush today to get that mud off him" and voila! there was a brush nearby to use.  In the last 2 years that usually meant a 400 foot trek back to the barn or to the trailer and then back again to the shelter...that is if the horse was still hanging out at the shelter, instead of running off into the next couple of acres...
I feel so grateful for the closeness of the buildings.

Leveling the floor

New counter and shelves.

One of our friends has hired 2 of our older sons in the past as farm sitters.  They both came home talking about the "apothecary" that she had.  I have one now too!  Another friend of mine wrote an article for Horse Illustrated and it had some barn ideas.  Well, we used several of them in the barn now.  I have a counter to do things at.  I have a magnetic strip on the wall for my tools to stick to.  I have a cabinet for dust free storage of some items.  It's all so awesome.  :)  And of course the actual tack is right there in the trailer nearby.  I love it.  I love it so much that I even spent one whole thunderstorm out there with the horse.  I sat in a chair in the barn and watched the rain and light show while I was knitting and listening to King munch on his hay.  Soooo relaxing.  I love this space.  Thank you John!