A Promise is a Promise....And I Always Keep My Word!!

About a week ago Rachel over at "Once Upon A Miracle" posted a "True Story Tuesday" post about "Glamour Shots", oh yes you remember the place....Right?! I mean everyone went there didn't they? Or was that just me...and Rachel of course... Well in case you don't know Glamour Shots was a place you went and got those GLAMOROUS pictures taken.... *I'll just put this in Rachel's words* "The ones that make 14-year olds look like 21-year olds, and 65-year olds look like… well… like some really mature kids trying on makeup for the first time". BAHAHAHA LOL!!! SO True!

So Rach and I had a little discussion about this and vowed if she would I would...Post those pictures...Oh yeah, she did it! Here is Rachel's Link to "The Glamour Shot Promise", or you can click on the Glamour Shot button on my side bar! Thanks Shana!

So just how did my Glamour Shots session come about? Well a dear friend of mine had them done and then purchased a gift certificate for me to do some as well! So that I did after Christmas in 1993, I was all of 15 years old! So here they are without further ado!!



OH and I should mention that my Hubby carried these 2 pictures of me in his wallet until they were almost unrecognizable LOL!!




Yep that's me in all my GLAMOUR glory!!!! Now come on if you have some of these shots link up and share them with us!!

It Still Takes My Breath Away....

I remember after moving out here to my little piece of the prairie and witnessing my first field burn! Well I should say unexpected field burn...It was probably around 9:30 at night and all of the sudden I see this massive fire straight past a pasture next to my house! This thing was HUGE! I definitely panicked and called 911, please don't judge...I wasn't sure this was a controlled burn as it appeared to be way out of control and headed straight for my house!

I promise it appeared to be just on the other side of those trees in the distance of the pasture!!



Needless to say 911 dispatch wasn't to keen on me bothering them with something so trivial! They informed me that the person doing the burning had notified them earlier in the day that they would be burning. Which is all they are required to do, except for earlier in the day it wasn't windy out and now it was! But all was well as it turns out this burning field was probably 1/2 a mile away LOL!!! It's crazy how it can appear so close!

So tonight as I was driving home I see that unmistakable glow, that roaring fire in the distance. It always catches me off guard! I mean what if this was actually a "real" fire and it was burning someones house down! Or maybe their barn like we had in 2007! You are basically expected to ignore these fires and go on about your business! After I arrived home the Hubby was outside and looks off into the distance and says "Oop field burn", I looked and sure enough that glowing orange lighting up the distance! So for tonight I just enjoyed the view and hoped someone's house wasn't on fire!




I lightened this one so you could see the smoke better..

Interesting Finds!!

Living out here in the middle of no where is just SO awesome!! I cannot even find the words to say how blessed I feel to enjoy this beautiful peace every single day! So last week while I was out exploring my country side I decided I wanted to get a closer look at this barn that sits on a dead end road parallel to my house. This barn has always struck me as odd...There is nothing else in it's vicinity other than some antique cars and a truck sitting on it's side by the road! There is also a pond or swamp is more like it right behind the barn..
















After maneuvering many tree branches and such to get close to the barn I finally get up to the window and find these...

If you click on the picture you can see that the year these were published was 1962!



Seriously these are stacked in a pile in month order next to this open window. It seems kind of odd to me, and I am shocked that the weather elements haven't destroyed these by now! I'd like to take a closer look at the barn but I was getting a bit nervous with all of these mysterious noises all around me and I was by myself! I kept waiting for a mama bobcat or coyote to come out and eat me LOL!! Next time I'll look closer...



This truck is sitting on it's side?!

Wordless Wednesday

Country Roads....

Testing a New Lens and LOVING It!!!

My brother's wedding is approaching fast, coming up this Saturday! For his special occasion I decided to rent a lens! SOO after much deliberation on what I wanted to try out I finally decided on a Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8G AF-S DX IF-ED, and boy do I LOVE it!! I was a little leery about renting a lens and really hoping and praying that my experience would go well...I put in my order on a Sunday night and requested it to be shipped right away so it arrived the following Wednesday! So far so good! I am absolutely LOVING this lens!! The bad part is I think I will actually be sad when I have to send it back...Now I'm trying to figure out how to convince the Hubby to buy me one ;)

So I thought I would share some of my deserted country road finds! You can see the awesome detail by clicking on the picture!!

Diablo....Seriously Do You Know What That Means?!?!

So I am here because I must ask do you all know what Diablo means?! Well I do but I'm thinking my Hubby has missed the memo on this!! Not really, but he is seriously a pushover or sucker for lack of a better word...Have I shared this with you before? Do you know that this man will do whatever he can to help someone! Even if it means taking ownership of "Devil" aka Diablo?!?!

Well yep that's it we now own a "Devil" and I must call him by his name because that's what he is!! OH so you want to know who this is and why we now own him?! Well the lady that bought Ebony owned this 4 yr gelding that she needed to sell because she can't afford board for 2 horses. Well but that's not the only reason, the real truth is this horse is a mess! I don't know how long she owned him but she didn't make a smart purchase when she actually paid money for this horse, and from what I gather he wasn't cheap.

Anyhoo, the Hubby comes in today and says "we're going to take a trip to the city to pick up this horse"....Me~ "what horse"?! Hubby~ "oh you know the one that the lady that bought Ebony owns". Me~ "WHAT?!?! You mean the BAD horse"?! Hubby~ "well he's not bad.....He just bites and kicks and, and, and etc...." UHHH yeah seriously Peeps somebody better get over here and intervene before I knock him in the noggin!!! Of course only to try and knock some sense in there!! And please don't get me wrong this is one of the reason's I LOVE my Hubby so much! He has a heart of gold, but this time he's just plain WRONG!!!

Well of course we went to the city to pick up the Devil and when we pull up his owners are standing there being knocked around and pushed by this horse! I wanted to fly out of the truck and give him a lesson in ground manners right there!! Much to my surprise he loaded right into the trailer, however I was worried because it's a slant load and I wasn't sure if he'd ever been in one! So he was good for about a millisecond, then whats he do?....He rears! In the trailer! OMGosh he is gonna get stuck over the divider!! So we end up tying him both top and bottom (we couldn't leave his head loose as he was trying to turn around in the stall)! He threw a fit most of the way home...






So as expected we stop off at our good friend and horse trainers house Cowboy S so he can take a peek at this little bad runt we have. Devil got a little mini lesson on ground manners because when Cowboy S grabbed him he thought he would just mow him right down! Good thing is Devil learns pretty quick he just forgets after a few minutes...So Cowboy S hop's on Devils back to see how he responds to that and he wasn't bad at all. So for now Devil is in a pen all by himself and the Hubby will figure out what to do with this little project. UGHH!! Men!

Bye, Bye to My Black Beauty

The final sale in the purge of our herd will mark number 8...Ebony is a mare that I bought in 2007 and was in foal to my 2 yr old filly Ellie that we sadly sold a couple of weeks ago... Ebony was originally purchased with intention of her being DD's horse but being in foal D obviously didn't ride her for very long then she was off after she had Ellie so by the time she was ready to be ridden D had such a strong bond with Pete that her and Ebony just didn't click!




Ebony is a very particular horse, she is picky about everything in her life! What I have found with her is you either hate her or you love her and vice versa, she either hates you or she loves you! When we sent her to a friends for her tune up last summer they fell in love with her and she was a perfect angel while she was there! After we took her home she did great for a little while but she is a horse that requires being ridden every day!! But with my back and 14 horses we hardly had the time to devote to her. When we purchased Krissy a few weeks ago it was part of our plan to sell Ebony along with the others, but her sale was going to be a bit more difficult as we were asking more for her and she also requires a more experienced rider who has time everyday to devote to her.





So last week the Q's came out and had every intention of focusing on Ebony as they had been checking her out on my website. We had taken her back to our friends as he was riding her everyday and we were pondering the idea of a possible trade out with him for Ebony because he and his daughter LOVE her!! So we showed up with Pete and the minute I got out of the truck I could see her in the stall about to come unglued! She was pacing in circles whinnying like crazy! But we took Pete and Krissy into the arena and left her till the Q's got there and when we went to bring her in she was SOAKED!! I thought it had been down-pouring outside by the looks of her! But no, no rain...It was sweat! She had herself all worked up! So we got her saddled and rode and she was doing good, so buyer Q decided he wanted to try and ride her and instantly she froze...Wouldn't move, being absolutely stubborn! I could not believe her!! Our friend was talking to Q and coaching him through what to do to get her to go and everytime it worked but he had to work at it for a minute...I was SO annoyed with her behavior, this is why we don't get along! I don't want to deal with a horse that is this finicky!! So Mike (the trainer) gets on her and gives her a good attitude check and of course she rides out perfectly smooth! Buyer Q gets back on her and dead-lock! So obviously they then rode Pete and realized he was the polar opposite of Ebony and then decided Pete was the horse for them!





After the Q's left we were chatting with Mike and he said he could not believe how Ebony was acting he had never seen that out of her and I told him well that's how she is at home! Very stubborn and an out right chore to ride! He said he felt it from the moment we pulled Pete out of the trailer that she was being buddy sour, it was funny for him to say this because I have never thought Ebony to be "barn sour" but yep buddy sour she was!! So Mike finally got to witness the side of her that we've been explaining LOL!







The next day we had a gal and her husband come out to ride Ebony and this lady too loved the way she looked, she has a 3 yr old gelding that she's been riding and I guess he's not what she's wanting hence her horse shopping. So she got on Ebony and there was a slight moment of hesitation on Ebony's part then she rode out perfectly fine! This lady rode her for about 1/2 an hour and never had another issue with her at all! Of course Pete was not there...So she came back again the next day and rode her some more and decided YEP that's the horse she wanted! So Ebony will be going to her new home soon! She is still at our friend's while the new owner gets her other horse sold as she boards and it's outrageous to pay for more than 1 at a stable.