I Can FLY!!

Had an absolute BLAST at the Coulter Parade today. A few different people asked us if we'd been in the parade before. I told them .... yep, we've been here before a couple years ago. They all said -- I thought so! We remember you!! :o) That felt good.

I was a little disappointed this trip ..... we usually have a full parade team with us everywhere we go. Complete with riders, paparrazi (photographer), truck driver, and sometimes pooper scooper (we like to call these guys 'security' :o) ....but lately it's been hard to put our 'parade team' together each weekend. We had to cancel the Sturgis parade because we couldn't get all the people together that we needed. .... but that was ok because we got to lead the Ellsworth Parade instead last weekend. This weekend we took off without a truck driver or a photographer. We had three riders ...... no picture taker ...... no truck with flags. No truck is ok. Especially in a small parade like this one. but no picture taker really sucks. I love pictures. ....and this time we had some really neat outfits. We decided to do our best and try to get as many pictures before and after the parade that we could. Plus Dani and Krystle had their cell phones on them and they clicked some pics with their phones -- the one above was taken with Dani's phone. :o)

Well, we didn't lead this parade like the Ellsworth Parade last weekend. We brought up the very end. Last. I almost like that better than first. Then all the people are warmed up for you. Plus you kind of get to see the rest of the parade that way. I wore my new Isis wings that i got on ebay. Cost me $11. with shipping. :o) I love them!! The girls have decided that they each need some and we need more colors. :o) I just love dressing up. :o)

...but the bad news -- no photographer. Great outfits and no photographer. Crap. but what started out as a negative turned out very positive. It, once again, showed me that we can do this. We can't get discouraged .... we just need to keep moving forward. I keep forgetting that we live in the Midwest .... where people are always ready to help you no matter what. Just when the girls and I gave up hope that we would get a group picture together without a photographer ...... here walks over the Meyer family. We've never met them before. They saw us in the parade and their two daughters wanted to come and pet the horses before we left. I asked them if they might do us a HUGE favor and maybe grab my camera out of the front seat of my truck and take our picture together?? She laughed and said, "I was going to ask you if you'd mind if I took your picture with my daughters!! Well, it turns out that their girls just got back from a horse camp in southern Iowa where they took riding lessons. I told them that I was going to be starting riding lessons at the farm. :o) How convenient!! They said they had driven by our place many times. So ....yeah ..... we ended up getting a bunch of group pictures AND met a great new family who doesn't live far from us. I learned from this that you may start out alone but there is always someone around who can help. People are great. I need to have more confidence that if I do get out there by myself somewhere and needed a helping hand to do something -- I can find one. I need to be brave and when I'm too scared to go somewhere ..... I need to suck it up and just GO. I need to remember that it's always better to TRY rather than sit at home and keep going over all the reasons why you CAN'T do something ..... It's better to get out there and DO whatever you can. Just Go. Everything will work out and you will meet more people and even more doors will open up for you.

Wednesday (the 4th of July) we've been invited to ride in the Humboldt 4th of July Parade at 7pm. Krystle and Danielle Lease are going with me to ride Huck and Tess. I have a photographer -- just no truck driver yet. This is a big parade so I really would like the truck leading us with the flags out the back. ....but if we can't find anyone, it's ok. We'll just go without the truck. The Humboldt Chamber and Fair Board have shown an interest in having Gato and I do something at their fair the end of July so we're going so they can see us. Then, if nobody asks us to go anywhere else, we may just travel to the big town of Buckeye on the 7th and ride through their little town parade. Krystle, Dani, and I rode in their parade years and years and YEARS ago. I think Dani was like 10 or something. She rode Ebony. Krystle was on Starfire and I was on Lacey. That was seriously a lifetime ago if seems. Not sure who all is going with me to that one but I'm not going to worry about it --- it'll all work itself out and it'll be a fun day no matter what happens.

Other than the parade, I'm afraid not much work got done today. It was SOOOOO hot outside!! I feel like I was incredibly lazy. I made lunch for the girls after we got all unloaded. Then they took off to go take care of things they needed to do. I downloaded all the parade pics then laid down and took a nap. Got up and headed outside in the heat. Let Gato out for a little while. Went to get a round bale in Aredale. Got home and got all the minis and llama in the top pasture and locked them in there while I dropped the bale in their bottom pasture. Then let them all back out in there once I got the duelly out of there. Worked on cleaning up the barn (looked like a tornado went through there after getting ready for the parade :o), then gave Gato, Huck, Tess, and Reymond their supper and now I'm back inside. The puppies are all out cold laying on the floor all around me. They can't take this heat either.

I'm lined up to go get square bales tomorrow morning early and then i have the nasty job of unloading. I'm getting used to doing it all myself. I'm actually getting into pretty good shape doing all this farm work myself. I usually only get a few bales so I don't completely kill myself but I think I'm gonna go for a full truckload tomorrow. I have all day to unload them. I think I might attempt to build a gate for the little run off the top barn. Never done that before but I have all the stuff I need to make one ...... just gotta try. If I don't at least TRY to make one, I'll never know if I could.

That's all that's happening around here today. I'll be back tomorrow. Hopefully with a picture of a brand new gate hanging on my pen. ?? We'll see ........