I'm IT and I'm Not Worthy......

Bad blogger, BAD, BAD blogger......quite awhile back, Jan 19th to be exact, Lisa at Laughing Orca Ranch tagged me and awarded me. Then on the 31st she awarded me again. Yesterday, Shannon awarded me and then today Michelle at Boulderneigh awarded me too.....I'm really not feeling very worthy!!

I will try to cover it all in one blog post...so bear with me.

From Lisa, I was given the Lemonade Award AND the Fab Award
. Yesterday I received it from Shannon at Kenleigh Acres and today Michelle at Boulderneigh gave me the Fab award too!!
:) Thanks to all of you! (and if I have forgotten anyone that has bestowed an award on me, my deepest apologies....my memory is not as good as it used to be!) Can I just blame it on all those glasses of red wine and beer? The Fabulous Blog award comes with a request....5 things you're addicted to....and of course, to pass it on to 5 other bloggers. :) I'll spill those beans at the end of the post.

Now as far as my addictions......I have so MANY!! :) However, even though three people gave me this award and I COULD post 15 addictions I will limit it to 5. :)

The top 5 being....

1. Animals, of course, tops being dogs, horses, donkeys, cats, sheep, chickens, guineas, turkeys, peacocks, mountain lions, wolves, wild birds....sheesh I better stop there.

2. Books, a person can never have enough books. I have gone through, thinned out, donated and I swear they keep multiplying......these pics don't even include my recipe books or my arts/crafts book which are in another room! (or the stack on my nightstand or the ones on and under the coffee table.....)


3. Photography.....been addicted to that since I was a child and got my first Kodak! :)

4. Travel....I love to immerse myself in local culture, I don't like visiting other countries/states as a "tourist"...I want to experience places as they are meant to be felt/seen.

5. Blogs! I love reading other peoples blogs, even though I sometimes don't get a chance to post a comment. It is with blogging that I realized I would like to visit Niger, and how wonderful the people are there (thanks Esther,), my cravings for visiting Australia are someone satiated until I get to see the real thing (thanks Bush Babe ), I realize I should look closely at New Mexico, as it looks like a place I could live out the remainder of my days (thanks Lisa at Laughing Orca Ranch and Linda at the MSN Ranch), I have laughed, cried and lived thru many of my other favorite blogs.....which would take to long too list them all.....see my Blogs I Love to Visit for other wonderful blogs....they are all worth taking a moment to enjoy. All these people have a great sense of humor, a keen eye for photography and a love of life and animals.


Now, the interview from Lisa had some very interesting questions. Once again I'm sure my memory has failed me to come up with the perfect answers, but these were the first ones that came to mind......

Question 1:
Talk about your proudest moment.
Making it thorough the rigorous training for Mounted Search and Rescue and being accepted as a member.

2. Talk about your most embarrassing moment.
being chosen at VERY packed Cajun bar/restaurant in New Orleans to get up and play a washboard with the band. (There are pics.....somewhere) :)

3. If you could travel anywhere, where would it be?
Back in time, to see who my real mother and father were (I'm adopted). In "real life" I would like to go to Australia...but for no less time than a month.

4.Have you ever swam naked? Where? Yes, Skykomish River, in the summer (yes, it was cold), with no one else around (that I could see....) and NO there are no pics of that! :)

5. How many pairs of shoes do you own? I used to not have many shoes at all.....then I got hooked on retro sneakers....., I also have a couple pairs of Ariats, a couple pairs of hiking boots (from Search and Rescue), a couple pairs of snow boots (for home and in case I have to walk home), a couple pairs of barn shoes, a couple pairs of clogs/mules.....the one thing I don't have any of is dress shoes or heels....


6. What is the most daring thing you've ever done?
Hmmmm toss up....either flying to Miami by myself and being dropped off in the Keys to try and surprise my Mom, who was traveling down there, and not even being positive if the hotel that I was dropped off at was the one she was staying at....and it was a little run down place not a fancy resort! On the way there I saw a body floating in the water with police officers wading out to it....I was told that it was probably drug related as most of the deaths down there were......(and yes, Mom and I did manage to meet up and the Keys became one of my favorite places):)

The other thing was when I was riding my horse, Blue, on the mountain behind my house and came face to face with a mountain lion on the trail. I was so fascinated all I could do was stare and that is exactly what he/she did back. I guess it was the most daring thing Blue ever did too!! :)

7. What is the funniest thing you've ever seen?
I'm sure there are all kinds of things in my past that would have ranked right up there, I just can't put my finger on the one thing. I find myself amused on a daily basis, at life in general, but the things that really bring a smile to my face is when Kylie grins at me when I'm mad at her for something (yeah, that doesn't exactly convince her that I'm REALLY mad at her when I smile and laugh), Jasmine, the donkey, braying at me when I get home, the sheep running towards me and leaping and baaing, the turkeys, chickens and guineas competing to see who can be the loudest and get my attention. :)

I'm thinking this post has probably gone on long enough for one night, so I believe I will finish it up tomorrow. I have some pics to post (4th/4th, 6th/6th, 8th/8th folders), and some lucky people will get chosen for an award from ME! :)

Chickenheads in Leavenworth

Thanks to Joan, at Mud Ranch, I have been tagged with the "sixth photo tag". Now I will have some friends of mine that will be pooling their money for a hit man.

I have a couple of friends from Horseback Search and Rescue, and a friend of theirs who is now my friend (well at least until now....). We try to get together every year, at least once, and two years ago we got together for some frolicking in the snow at Leavenworth. We rented a cabin, went on a sleigh ride, danced the chicken dance.....and to make sure they were prepared for that bit of fun, I brought chicken hats for everyone as well as a recording of the chicken dance music so we could practice.

Well, my friends are nothing if not good sports and sporting their lovely chicken hats we took Leavenworth by storm. The pic that was my 6th/6th is one where I asked them to stand by the back of a motorhome and look confused as to where they were and where they were going......here it is......my friends, Tara and Erika.....



Seeing as I am in trouble with just revealing that one, I might as well really "get their goat"....or "chicken" as it might be :)

I think this guy with the carriage was just glad that she didn't want a ride.....

This is Sandra and Tara shopping in one of the many fine stores in Leavenworth....


Here are Tara and Erika preparing for a delicious meal......



One thing you may notice is there are no pics of me in MY chicken hat. Well, I didn't get away from that weekend unscathed. Erika managed to get a vid of me dancing the chicken dance with my chicken hat on in the middle of town.....and post it on Youtube. Fortunately I don't know how to retrieve that or I might feel that in all fairness I would have to post it as well. Whew. :)


Now as far as tagging others, I know a few people have already had this tag, or just don't like tags at all....though this one is kind of fun.....if you would like to play along: Go into your photo archives and pick your 6th file and then the 6th photo in that file and tell us about it.

Two times the things you didn't know about me

Hi all, I was tapped two times (that I remember....I "think" there was one other time), anyway they are kinda one in the same, one was things you didn't know about me and the other was to tell more about myself.....so I'm combining them all. :)

1. I was adopted as an infant. In CA they seal the files so you can't find out anything about your birth parents other than non-identifying information. Two years ago I sent for that information (I turn 50 next month). It was interesting, my birth mother who was 16 at the time (REALLY unacceptable in the 1950s) was 1/2 French, 1/2 Norwegian, brown hair, brown eyes. My birth father was in the military, Irish and had red hair and blue eyes. The most interesting thing I found out was that she loved horses and swimming. Horses have always been a big part of my life (neither my adopted Mom or Dad had any interest in them) and I was a competitive swimmer in my youth.

2. I hated having red hair and freckles (guess which parent I got that from!) growing up, now that I actually LIKE having red hair and freckles, my freckles are starting to fade and I'm starting to see gray hair. sigh.

3. I grew up in the deserts of So. Cal. Palm Desert (13 miles out of Palm Springs) to be exact. I didn't have many friends and spent most of my time hiking in the desert with my dogs.

4. I worked at the Tamarisk Country Club as a waitress, it was one of the stops on the Bob Hope Golf Tournament and also had many stars that were members. I was lucky to meet so many of them and see how "human" they all were. One of my favorites was Zeppo Marx (Grouchos brother)he used to call my Irish and was a really funny man.

5. I was a horse wrangler for White Sun Guest Ranch, part time and then full time for most of my teenage years.

6. I learned to play the piano and guitar in my youth but could play either right now if I tried....sure wish I had kept it up.

7. I'm a night person even though I get up at 3am to go to work each day.

8. Even though I have trained dogs since I was three years old and could have titled many dogs I never had the nerve to compete....(hoping to change that with Kylie).

9. I did Search and Rescue for 6 years, first with the Horse Unit and then with the Dog Unit.

10. I took a class in Animal Communication.

11. I am wealthy in friends which I have learned is one of the best things in a persons life. I am really enjoying the blogging and meeting new friends. I was starting to be really disheartened with the human race but through blogging I am thrilled to see what wonderful people really are still out there!

12. I planned to only work at Boeing for 1 year (wanted to get a job animal related)......I have now been there 27 years.....

13. I took a 3 week Biology/Geology field trip to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons put on by a local community college. I was 45 at the time and even though there was one other 40 something person taking the trip the majority were 17-18 year olds. Oh wait....other than the two 70 something women that also did the trip. :) They were extremely inspirational to me and made me realize you didn't have to slow down or stop learning no matter how old you got!

14. Even though I have lived in WA state for 30 years I have never really developed web feet....and hope to retire into a dryer climate.


That's probably more than ANYONE would want to know about me, but there you have it! Now I just have to figure out how to tag other bloggers! :)

Toy Free Zone

Here I am recuperating, and now poor Kylie has joined me.

She had been limping off and on for about two weeks, usually it wasn't too bad and other days she didn't want to stand on her left front paw.

I initially thought she had something embedded in her foot, not unusual because nothing stops her from plowing over or through anything.

I couldn't find anything, trimmed the hair out between her toes, checked her toenails for any splits, there didn't seem to be any swelling and she didn't seem overly sensitive to being touched anywhere. I finally gave up and took her to the Vet.

Now, being a good blogger I would have remembered to take my camera with me....but I didn't. :( We went to our "local" Vet. My dogs have a group of Veterinarians....we have our Holistic Vet, Dr. Larry Siegler of the Animal Healing Center(which is 45 minutes away), Pilchuck Veterinary Hospital for our late night and weekend emergencies (Dr. Taylor Wallace performed Kylies emergency spay when she came down with pyo at 9 months), and for the everyday visits, Alpine View and Dr. Blake Murphy.

Dr. Murphy checked her out good, and Kylie really likes him....constantly trying to slip him the tongue when he gets his face too close. We did a flexion test like what you would do with horses...and she recovered quickly with just a minor limp.

Hmmmmm could be elbow, could be shoulder, could be ligament.....could do x-rays but not really sure that would show us what was going on. We decided (Dr Murphy and I....Kylie just thought she should hang out there longer and get more treats) that we should put her on an anti-inflammatory and keep her from running around. No small feat with a little over a year old working bred Belgian!

So, back at home we try to take it easy. At this point I want to apologize for any poor housekeeping....I haven't been much in the mood lately (like I ever am......)

Kylie got tired of just laying around and decided to try and engage me in some play. She tried one toy after another to see if something really appealed to me.....


Hey Mom, how about this one?


C'mon you know you wanna.....


Ok, Ok, I'll play a little tug....don't you know "I'm" supposed to hold onto the handle though??


I had to quit after awhile, so she figured it must have been I was tired with that toy........

How about this one?


Pretty please???.....


OK, this one is a nice color, and it has all kinds of things to hold onto.....


NO?? Well, what about this one? It grunts AND squeaks!


Ah! I knew I could get you to play with this one....


I decided to change locations for a change of scenery, into the living room where I can see the valley.

Time for new toys! Ah! Here's one, you know you love the wiener dog, even though it now is missing an ear....


OK, how about one that you can play with by yourself? Is anyone familiar with Egg Babies? They are a toy that had squeaky eggs that you can stuff inside the different toys...Kylie has a platypus, a turtle and an alligator. The problem is that it doesn't keep her busy for very long....once she figured out how to remove the eggs it's down to just seconds to extract them from their "mother". The plus is she likes playing with the eggs almost as much as removing them from the toy. :)




I would like to think there is a "toy free zone" in my house but with all the opportunities how can I really think such a thing would exist??? :)


And now just a little "shout out" to the people that have tagged me...I recently was tagged by Melanie, Our Wee Farm, and over a month ago I was tagged by Joan of Mud Ranch.....(oops)and it seems to me I was tagged by one other person...could you please refresh my memory? My challenge to myself this weekend is to complete the tagging task and pass them on to some other deserving people! :)