I Say It Best When I Say Nothing At All.....

Ever since I was a child, I am absolutely terrified of escalators.  Yes, escalators...those moving staircases.  I feel much safer in an elevator and I guess I would be more comfortable with the idea of an elevator cable snapping and then falling to my death inside a box than be sucked into the rolling mechanism of the moving staircase. Did you know 31 people died after a fire that began in the undercarriage of an MH-type Otis escalator in 1987?  In 2003, 30 people were injured on an escalator at Coors Field in Denver when it malfunctioned.  One of those individuals had his leg amputated.  In 2005, a dude in Massachusetts was strangled to death when his sweatshirt was caught in an escalator. Yup, escalators are scary.  The steps look like razor sharp teeth.  The handrails are large rubber bands that could snap at any moment.  It is easy to get a finger or thumb stuck in those large rubber bands and what happens when you get to the top an...

Yesterday was our Stake Lagoon Day, or in other words, a date set aside for our local church group to take a day and spend at an amusement park, called Lagoon, which is located in Farmington, Utah.  There have been times we've had season passes, but in other years we usually make an annual trip with our church or with another function that may provide discounts from the current admission price of $45.95.  With six children, this will add up quickly.  Let's see, take $45.95 and multiply that by eight people.....yes, that's right it is about double the cost of what we spend to fill up our Ford Excursion. I find myself justifying the cost of almost anything with how much we spend to fill up the gas tank on our Excursion.  If we buy country/western attire for our kids, that's about the cost of an Excursion fill up.  If we go out to dinner as a family.  Yup, that's about the cost of an Excursion fill up..... you get the idea.  It makes it less painful ...

On Friday and Saturday night, we attended the Rodeo.  I love everything about it.  The rodeo is my Christmas.  I believe when I leave this earth, the Good Lord will let me spend eternity in the bleachers (although I hope he gives me a la-z-boy recliner).  I'm not sure Cora or some of my kids share the same enthusiasm, but a few of them do.  Even as I write this, my youngest three are still dudded out in their western attire and hats.  You can't peel it off of them.  In fact, I missed a photo opportunity yesterday when my youngest son was vacuuming the living room floor in his church suit and a cowboy hat.   It really infuriated my oldest.  He's a teenager and has an anti-life attitude at times.  He called us all out and said, "you're not cowboys.  Nobody in this house is a cowboy.  Stop pretending to be one......ugh!  This family!!!!" I immediately broke out into a country/western song and tried to get him to squa...

We've had bees for a few years now.  We used to keep the hive between the shed and the fence at the back of our property.  This was a good, sheltered place for the bees.  Our neighbors planted some raspberries at the back of their property, close to the fence and thereby, close to the bees.  I'm not sure how they really felt about having so many bees near the raspberry patch and as their berries flourished, they sprouted up next to our shed.  I LOVE raspberries and decided it was time to move the beehive so we could access and keep the fruit. This is the beehive, surrounded by raspberries.  Time to move the beehive. My bee suit is only a jacket with a cinching hem.  It goes just below my belt and hugs me tightly so bees are unable to get into my jacket.  The cuff of the sleeve also cinches tightly and long gloves are worn prior to putting on the suit.  The top seals up with a mesh mask to allow me to see what I'm doing, but to also...

On days where I don't particularly have time to ride the horses, I'll take them over to my neighbor's round pen and lunge them for about twenty minutes.  What is lunging you ask?  It is more than just letting the horses loose and running them in circles. Lunging is a great way to build fitness for your horse.  It can improve your horse's movement, balance and flexibility.  It also teaches a horse a lot of basics.  It teaches her to move forward at the trainer's will and to change gaits at the trainers command.  There are good lessons in obedience from lunging.  It is great exercise and develops muscles, lungs and heart. Ebony and Kachina being lunged in the round pen. It has been fun to do a lot of ground work with my horses and to witness their recognition of verbal queues.  I typically get them started with a click of the tongue.  To increase their gait, I'll say, "pick it up" and they'll move out from a walk to a trot to a canter ...

After finally crossing the third ford and passing the Sorrel Mule Mine, the route was no longer confusing.  The majority of the tamarisk trees were behind us.  The more difficult part of the rest of the journey were the river crossings.  By this point, the horses were charging into the water without much hesitation. A mile below the Sorrel Mule Mine we crossed Salt Wash.  This is a wide, sandy bottomed wash that enters the San Rafael Gorge from the south. Ebony is a gaited horse and can go long distances.  She doesn't tire as easily as the others.  We had spent several hours getting to the Salt Wash and the day was quickly passing and it was time to pick up the pace.  This is where my horse shows why she is special.  When she leads out, she sets a pretty fast pace causing other horses to trot frequently to keep up.  Ebony and I led out for most of the remaining ride to Virgin Spring Canyon and also on the return to camp. Just a fe...

After reaching the valley floor, we approached several tamarisk trees.  These are everywhere.  There are also so many cattle trails throughout the valley floor that it is sometimes hard to know if you're on the actual trail.  The trees are often very close together with branches hanging low and barely enough room for you and your horse to pass through.  I quickly learned how important chaps and a long sleeve shirt were.  I was also very grateful to be wearing a hat. In a particularly narrow passage, I knew Ebony would want to keep up with the horse in front of her and her anxiety of passing through those trees would be done swiftly.  I could either wrestle with her or just tuck my head in close to her neck and hold on.  I chose the latter.  A branch still managed to take my hat off. Todd on his horse, Pedro.  This is early into the ride just as we descended into the valley.   Shortly after we had reached the valley floor an...