I have been taking a break from journaling. I guess you can see that. The summertime is very busy here. I have to get out in the morning before the temperatures reach the nineties, which they have, for days on end now. The animals need fresh cool water and to be fed early to be ready for the heat of the day. Once I get done outside, there is the inside to do, always something to do. I haven't felt very creative in my writing lately either. I have just been drawn to doing other things lately. I know I will pick it back up at a regular pace eventually.

I hope everyone is doing well. I haven't been to many journals lately either. Most of us are busy in our gardens, or mowing, planting, just enjoying the outdoors, at least I hope that is what everyone is doing. :)

Anyway, I just wanted to drop a few lines on the page here to let anyone that stopped in know that I am fine, we are all fine...just enjoying the summer.

Shelbys Horseback Riding

It seems Summer is coming in early this year. We are having temperatures in the nineties already and the heat index went up to 104 yesterday. If its this hot now, we are going to be sweltering by August. I guess I had better get busy freezing 2 liter bottles of water to put in the pails of water to keep the animals water cool for drinking. I am thinking of installing a sprinkler hose for them to cool off in too.

I woke up at 3:30 am, and I think I turned off the alarm while I was half asleep. I woke back up at 5:38 and panicked, waking Ian up abruptly and getting his clothes for him. He didnt hardly get to wake up, much less shower and he was out the door. I hate when I do that to him. I have never turned off the alarm like that, but the more I thought about it, the more I think thats what I did.

Today Tip is going to the vet for her annual check up and shots, then we will be off to go and visit with Mama and Daddy for awhile before coming back home.

I thought I would try and keep up with my journal a little better and make more posts. So today I am going to post pictures of Shelby riding Patches at the neighbors. Laury has been very good with Shelby in teaching her how to ride, how to control the horse. Patches is an older girl, so she is really sound, and I trust Laury to keep Shelby safe. They have gone on several rides now, but it is already getting so hot, so I don't know how much more riding they will get in unless its in the early morning or late evening. Even in the late evening the heat has been hanging on.











Some grooming first

Then Laury got Patches saddled up and got the stirrups adjusted just right for Shelbys feet....




Shelby and Patches took a little walk around the back while Laury finished getting her horse ready to go...













A few of their other horses look on...




and their off to hit the trails...





My Shelby girl, she is growing up so fast now...but I know that is the way its supposed to be. One minute they are toddling around in diapers, the next they are hauling themselves up onto a horse to go riding...sigh.

Here is a video of Shelby riding Patches around while waiting for Laury to get Midnight ready to go. I am going to leave now and get ready to go. I hope everyone has a nice day today. :)

The Visit With Ray and Mary

By now y'all should be used to my lateness of posts. I am always a day late and a dollar short. Maybe one day I will be on time, though I doubt it will be anytime soon. I did enjoy reading Hollie and Dads entries before my own though, I must admit. :)

Here we are at Jim n' Nicks BBQ. I was, as usual the last to arrive. Now before you condemn me, I was not actually late. The meet up time was supposed to be noon, but everyone got there a bit early, at around 11:15. Just for the record we got there at 11:40, later than I wanted to be, but not late, technically. ;)

We were greeted with open arms and many smiling faces. The feeling in the room was like old friends or relatives meeting up that hadnt seen each other in quite a while. Sometimes things just click into place and feel right. This was one of those times.

There were lots of hugs of course, we southerners, well, most of us are huggers. Thats just our nature. Once we got settled down and sat down in our spots the waitress came and started taking our orders. We have our lunch sitting there in front of us in the picture above as you can see. Dad thought it would be good to wait to take the pictures til we had our food, I thought that was a good idea too.

The manager came in asking what the occasion was for the get together. I told him we were honored with the presence of Ray, the oldest blogger in the U.S., that he had come down from Tennessee to visit us. Everyone handed around their cameras for pictures of all of us at the table and the manager and waitress obliged.

After all the picture taking was finished we got our food soon afterwards and for a few minutes all conversation stopped because the food was really really good, and we were all ready for lunch. After a few good bites the conversation picked back up again. Dad insisted on paying for everyones lunch, but Hollie and I snuck in the tip to the waitress at least. It sure was sweet of him to treat us like that. It was already a treat just having him and Mary there in the first place.

After we ate everyone followed us on back to the house and it was trying to rain on us, but soon as we made it up into the porch it stopped. Not too long after that the sun came out and it got kind of muggy, but not before I could show everyone all the animals. Dad understood my passion for keeping animals, especially the chickens. Some people like to grow flowers, some gardens, and like Dad, tomatoes. Its all about what you like and it keeps your mind and body busy, which is what Dad pointed out. Some people see this kind of thing as work, but it is a labor of love, and so its not really work at all.

Ian and Tony really hit it off, and Hollie and I too for that matter. We felt like we had always been close friends. Even our dog Tip enjoyed seeing everyone, she loved Colt and they got into a playing match...it was too funny. Hollie has a picture of that on her blog of Colt and Tip playing if you would like to see it and havent yet.








We were laughing pretty good at something here above...this is one of the pictures taken on the couch inside at my house. We took many combinations, but this was what was on my camera. I think that Hollie has the ones of Ian, Shelby, and I with Dad on the couch on her camera...Hollie, send me those if you would when you get a chance and I will post them here.

Everyone seemed to really enjoy everything about this day. I know I did. Dad started to get a little wore down that afternoon and it was time for them to head out. We all said our goodbyes and they took off headed for home. I asked them to please call me to let me know they got home alright. Around 7:30 that evening I got a phone call from Mary saying that Dad had decided they should stop in Chattanooga and ride the incline at Lookout Mountain the next day! Can you believe this man, he is just an inspiration to all for sure. I am sure he will have more about that in his blog sometime this week. I am looking forward to hearing about it.

I am going to submit pictures to our local newspaper. In our little tiny town this is big news to have Ray here. I hope they will run a story about it, wouldnt that be something?

Big Day Today

I know I have been lax in posting this past week, but it is only because I have been busy making things look nice around here for my special company coming today. I have the honor of blessing my home with Ray White from Tomato Gardening With Dad today. If you are not familiar with his blog you can look on my sidebar of blogs I read and see him there. He is the oldest blogger in the United States and he and his daughter Mary are coming today to visit little ole me. Hollie and her family will be meeting up with us also...her blog is Life in a Small Town if you want to visit with her sometime. She has a great blog.

We had some rain last evening so I am hoping the ground is not going to be too soggy out there to show Dad and Mary around out back. Lets hope the ground has soaked it all up and its not muddy back there.

Thats going to be it for now. I am going to have a lot of pictures and things to tell after their visit. I am so excited this morning I can barely contain myself! See y'all when I get back!