Thistleblooms Rambles

[thistlebloom]

I've been reading around on BYH for awhile and am so impressed by the gold mine of knowledge here and the members depth of experience. Also everyone is so friendly!
I don't expect to add anything to the knowledge base, but it might be pretty handy for me to have my ramblings in one spot., to refresh my own memory of events.

To introduce myself, my husband and I live on 10 timbered acres in north Idaho, 70 miles or so south of the Canadian border. Our kids are grown but not too far away, each of them about 30 minutes away, one north, one south. We have animals, but I will not pretend that I do anything close to farming.
I raise a vegetable garden, keep a few hens, a couple of dogs (Bernese Mtn. dog and a Australian Cattle dog) two horses and a miniature mule.

To pay the feed bills I have a garden maintenance business. I work in the town 20 miles south of us, taking care of landscapes during the growing season. One of the reasons I love winter is because that's when I am not taking care of landscapes.
We have four seasons, the longest is winter. Our growing season is fairly short so we have to grow short season crops, or use season extenders.

I always wanted to be a farmer, and do come from a farming heritage. My great grandparents homesteaded and raised sheep and potatoes in the eastern part of the state, near the Tetons.
Many relatives on both sides of the family farmed and family reunions were often on one of their farms. My cousins were marvelously fortunate in my estimation to be living the life I admired.

We love where we live and wouldn't trade it for anywhere else.

Here's some random photos that I just pulled up in no particular order.

Riding my old guy in the State Park near me.



Our Kid#1 and my cattle dog on a hike we took on the day of the eclipse (whenever that was, I can't remember...) It took my knees weeks to recover from hiking back down. Ugh, I am so old!


My girls, left to right, Wren, Larka, and my mare Syringa.


My 21 year old gelding Luke, and my 4 year old mare Syringa. This was last winter, we don't have snow yet.



Huckleberry the little mule with a neighbor buddy.



My main squeeze with our new bikes. We've mountain biked for years, but this is the first winter season with fattys. We're excited to be able to snow ride this year.



A visitor in October.

 

[Baymule]

I'm really glad that you joined BYH, what took so long? As always, love the pictures!

 

[Beekissed]

Thistle, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the pics!!! That one of Luke and Syringa is magazine quality! I also love to see pics of your place and area....simply lovely country!

So glad you are here!!!

 

[thistlebloom]

I'm really glad that you joined BYH, what took so long? As always, love the pictures!

Hah! I know right? I don't know what's the matter with me?

Thistle, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the pics!!! That one of Luke and Syringa is magazine quality! I also love to see pics of your place and area....simply lovely country!

So glad you are here!!!

Thanks Bee! Better late than never!

 

[Baymule]

Hah! I know right? I don't know what's the matter with me?

I do, but I'll keep your dark secret...…..

 

[thistlebloom]

Bwahahaha! and I'll keep those checks comin'!

 

[thistlebloom]

Today was a drizzly sprinkly wet day all day. I had hoped for a dry spell earlier so dh and I could get a fatty ride in. Back when we were made of tougher stuff a little rain wouldn't have slowed us down, but I'm afraid I'm turning into a sissy.

So to make myself feel like I could still be useful I brought the two borrowed western saddles in, and my endurance saddle to clean. Set them on a sheet in front of the fire to warm the leather up and got to it.


The little borrowed one will go back to my neighbor tomorrow, and the bigger one that actually fits my mare will go back when the saddle I'm having built is finally done.
I was hoping to have it by now, but it looks like maybe not till the first of the year.

Meanwhile I am planning on getting Syringas first ride in sometime this week. I don't want to keep putting it off, waiting for her saddle to get done.. My round pen doesn't have good footing and I'm not craving a horse laying on me, so one of our neighbors told me to bring her down to their little arena. They just spread a load of arena sand and it's ready to go. I'm committed to this plan now....since several of the neighbors have heard the news already. No secrets around here, haha.
For the first few days I will just take her down and do groundwork, see how her mental attitude does, then when she is settled into being there I'll throw a leg over and pray like crazy. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and I can make it happen.

Backing up a bit, Syringa is a 4 year old mustang I have had for over a year. She was a wild one, defensive, extremely reactive, wary , snorty , blowy, the whole enchilada. We have established a great relationship and mutual trust and she has come a long, long way. I'm very proud of her and love her to pieces.

After I finished the saddle cleaning I had cabin fever so called my neighbor up and we messed around on her obstacle course with our horses. It was soggy but felt good to get out and Syringa did well, she was a little sassy at first but did settle down and listen to me.


Well, looks like the pizza dough is raised and dh is making hungry sounds, so I'll get up now and make dinner. Not supposed to rain tomorrow so maybe I'll get a ride in on the old guy (Luke). Not to be confused with the other old guy (dh).

 

[Baymule]

I sure hope you have someone there taking pictures of your first ride and possibly your attempt at flying. I don't recommend the flying part, you won't go far before crashing to the ground--and it hurts. You can't back out now, it has spread around the neighborhood and you have announced it on the internet.

 

[thistlebloom]

Oh yeah, the neighbor whose arena I'm using is a former nurse and paramedic. Pretty handy I guess.
I will also press her into service as photographer, lol.

 

[thistlebloom]

Looks like we got some sticking snow finally. About 1" according to my finger meter. Just enough to practice seeing it, but not so much to be brutal. It's actually the third snow of the season, but this one I think is planning on staying. Predicted to be getting a little every day, like an inch each event. Maybe it's good to go gradual so all the nincompoops can start driving like it's really winter. That probably won't really happen though.

I practiced shoveling off the patio and taking it off the vehicles, just in case I couldn't remember. Yep, I still have the technique down, lol. The Bernese dog loves snow, lives for winter and was squirrelly and overjoyed to run around in it when I let them out of the dog run. The cattle dog is not so excited, but it does usually mean she comes in the house with me when my chores are done, so that makes her happy to see it.

The two new barn kitties get kicked out of the house every morning so they can learn to be outdoor cats (they will still always be inside at night, I hate to lose these two to coyotes as they are such personable funny characters) and they actually seemed to like the snow. They scampered and leaped and attacked it. Tomorrow is a big day for them as they are going on a field trip to town to be separated from certain parts of their anatomy.

I couldn't wait to try out my new fat bike in the snow, so the dogs and I took a spin around the gravel roads of our neighborhood.
It's much easier to handle in snow than my old standard mtn. bike, even with 4" wide tires, or maybe it's because of the 4" tires.
The snow gave some rolling resistance but not too bad. We'll see, but I don't think this girl will be pedaling in untracked deep stuff. Not unless I ride with someone who knows CPR.
Fortunately our local State park has a fat bike trail system that they groom.