Estee's Temper Tantrum

Had a great ride today, but had to have a Come-To-Jesus meeting with little Miss Estes. She was being a little brat about staying on the trail, just pushing it a little bit - "Can I walk over here?", "How 'bout over here?", "Really? You want me on the trail?". Finally I'd had enough of her stuck right rudder and decided that if she wanted off of the trail she was going to work for it, so off we stepped and started working (that is, circling at a trot until she came around to my way of thinking). It didn't take too long for her to decide that maybe staying on the trail wasn't so horrible after all, but I could practically hear her cursing me out in her mind: "Fine! I'll stay on the trail, but I'm not going to like it! I'm not going to have fun and you can't make me! Man! You never let me do anything!" Her ears were back and she was stomping along like a sullen teenager - I just wish I had a video camera to catch it. I'm sure that if she'd been able to stick out her bottom lip and pout, she would have done that too.

Just like a teenager, ten minutes later it was over and I managed to not laugh about it until we got back to the lodge, but it was freakin' hilarious!

The GunDiva's Perfect Present

RCC has it all figured out...he's got his project Jeep and now I've got my project shotgun. A few years ago, as a birthday present to myself I built a tactical shotgun from the receiver up. It started out super ugly and ended up as my "12 guage flashlight". Then a couple of years later I had to sell it, but I promised myself I'd build me another, better one.

The one thing I wanted to change when I built my new shotgun was that I wanted the receiver to be able to shoot 2 3/4" as well as 3" rounds, which RCC must have remembered because my new 870 can do just that. Also, I don't have to start with just a receiver this time, RCC bought me the whole gun; I just get to customize it with whatever I want. I'm envisioning it being very similar to my original shotgun, just matte black. I'm so excited I can hardly sit still; I've already looked up most of the accessories I want and I can't wait to get back into the shop and get started. I know exactly how he feels with his Jeep!

What a great birthday present!!!!

A Good, Good Day

Yesterday after my Dean's call, I picked up Ash and her boy d'jour, CJ, to head up the hill. Ash and CJ stayed at the Lodge with Mom, while Bill and I saddled up for our weekly ride. On Mom and Bill's last picnic ride, they came across a freshly killed young doe, so Bill and I headed out to the kill site to see what we could see.

When we got to the kill site, the doe had been drug off by a large-ish animal and "hidden" in a small stand of trees thirty or forty feet from where they had found it a few days ago. Obviously something had been gnawing on it and trying to camouflage it by covering it with pine needles.

After checking out the dead doe (yep, she's still dead and half eaten, now), we headed over to the Beaver Ponds and it was beautiful. With all of the rain we've had the wildflowers are going crazy and the mountain meadows are just lousy with them.

Feeling adventurous, I put on my big girl panties and suggested we do the Goat Trail. The Goat Trail is not for novice riders as it's essentially straight up the mountain and there is a section of trail that is quite a scramble up and over a rock. If the horse mis-steps or slips on the scramble, it's not pretty for the horse or rider and a hell of a long way down into Rock Creek. The last time I did the Goat Trail was three or so years ago and I was on Estes' daughter, Meeker, who was shod. The problem with shoes is that they don't allow the horse's frog to act as a natural suction cup and it's a lot harder for the horse to get a grip on the rock to climb. After doing the Goat Trail on Meeker, I swore I would never do it again on a horse with shoes. Well, Miss Estee, is as barefoot as the day she was born and has been up at the Lodge since April, so her hooves have hardened and her feet are as healthy as they've ever been, so why the hell not? I promised Estee treats when we got back to the Lodge if she got me up and over the Goat Trail without killing both of us.

This is what the Goat Trail looks like from about 3/4 of the way to the top. While it doesn't look that intimidating in the picture, it certaintly induces the pucker factor when at the bottom looking up. Estee climbed it like a champ and I felt kind of like a wuss when we got to the top in one piece, but then I looked over my shoulder at the hill we'd just climbed and got over feeling like a wuss. Feeling embolden and invincible I suggested we head back home over Pinky's Wash. Thank God I have a strong horse with a willing heart, because she worked her ass off for me yesterday. Any one of the trails we took would have been a hard ride, but putting the three (Beaver Ponds, Goat Trail, Pinky's Wash) together in one ride was probably not so nice to the horses, but they seemed to enjoy it as much as we did.

Christmas in July

Last year, RCC and I joined the Christmas Caravan for Kids as a part of the Colorado 4x4 organization. Christmas Caravan collects toys for the Marine's Toys for Tots program (www.toysfortots.org) and we had a great time with our small donation of toys (I think we spent $10 each on our toys). At last year's Caravan we saw cars full of toys and watched the Marines' duece and a half vehicles fill up. When we got married, we decided that we'd start building our Toys for Tots stash. Our dream is to take a large bounty of toys to the Caravan this year. So, each payday we each take $10 out of our personal accounts and go shopping. Today was shopping day and we found some great deals! I thought that we'd found good deals last payday at Target, but today at ToysRUs, I managed to buy for four kids on my ten bucks! I found a couple of jewelry making kits for $2.00 each and a couple of MagneXT kits. I slid in just under my ten dollars.  RCC bought a larger MagneXT kit and a Speed Racer car for his ten bucks (he came in sixteen cents under). With $20, between the two of us, we managed to buy Christmas presents for six kids!
I can't tell you how good it feels to get started on this. Especially after years of wondering how on earth I was going to buy Christmas presents for my own kids. Because it feels so good, I've told the kids that once they have jobs, they will join us in building our Toys for Tots stash, but they only have to contribute $5.00 of their paychecks to the cause. I'm sure they'll have as good a time with is as we are; they love to buy for other people as much as I do.

Mud Day Clean-up

Well, the downside to having all of the fun we did on Saturday was the cleaning up of the Jeep on Sunday. We both knew we'd gotten a good bit of mud on her and we were a little sad that the rain/hail storm that we drove through on the way home washed away a bit of our "proof" of all the fun we had. We shouldn't have worried about the little bit of mud that was washed off in the storm.

Sunday morning we got up and drove over to the car wash. The Jeep really looked like we had just towed it out of a swamp. In addition to the mud caked all over it, we had grass and weeds hanging off of it.  RCC wanted to run the Jeep through an automated wash first to get the majority of the mud off and then figured we could just finish it up with the power washer and avoid getting muddy ourselves. You know what they say about best laid plans...

One automated wash and $7.00 later we drove out of the bay just as muddy as we went into it. So much for all the pre-soak and rinse cycle. So into the power washer we went.  RCC used his debit card so that we wouldn't be feeding coins throughout the whole wash; the instructions said that the card would be charged until the wash was complete. What we didn't know is that the computer decides when the wash is complete. But, then, after twenty minutes with a power washer, we should have been complete, right? Wrong! We were mostly done, but still had to clean out the engine compartment.

We took turns with the power washer forcing the caked on mud off of the Jeep; we had mud packed in the tires, wheel wells, bumpers, mirrors (why would any Jeep designer think that hollow mirror brackets were a good idea?), springs, undercarriage - you name it, we had mud in it. I'm pretty sure that we had doubled the poor girl's weight with all of the mud we had packed in.

Once we finished with the power washer, it was vacuuming time. That, at least, went smoothly and we were on our way home in no time.

We had knocked the majority of the mud off at the car wash, but still had plenty of washing to do once we got home. And someone, who will remain nameless, still had to clean up the interior of the Jeep. Bummer. The mud came off the inside pretty well, except for the cloth seats. The nameless person will have to get some spot cleaner for that. It looked like the mud came off the seats until the seats dried, then it reappeared again. Blast it all!

To be honest, cleaning up the mess was almost as fun as making the mess. I couldn't help but smile the whole time. And I can't wait to do it all again!

I love the skinny pedal!

On Saturday, RCC and I went to Colorado Off-Road Extreme (CORE) in Deer Trail as part of a Colorado 4x4 thing. What a freakin' blast! CORE has a little bit of everything for off-roading: a desert rally track, ATV track, MX, rock crawling, 4x4 obstacles and mud pits. Since we were there with Colorado 4x4, there wasn't an admission fee, but their normal admission fee is only $20 per vehicle anyway.

RCC's Jeep is pretty much stock, no lifts, no over-size tires, just a Jeep, but we still had a ton of fun! We did the rally track, which thanks to all of the rain we've had lately, had plenty of mud pits for us to play in and get really dirty.  He took us up over some small obstacles, which didn't feel so small when we were going over them. If we had a lift kit and bigger tires, we'd've eaten up those little obstacles. After lunch, we played around some more and then RCC handed me the keys. Oh, big mistake. I was having a good time riding shotgun, but once I got those keys in my hand I had a GREAT time!

We did learn one thing - GunDiva likes the skinny pedal. Now, that may not be news to many of you, but maybe when 4-wheeling a little less skinny pedal may be called for. I had so much freakin' fun on the rally track. The mud and I had a good time.

Except for the time I forgot to roll up my window before hitting the mud/water and I got drenched. Nope. Had a good time then, too.  RCC had a good time, too, laughing at me getting drenched as I negotiated the mud puddle. I managed to get mud all over the inside of the driver's side all the way to the back window (guess who spent a really long time yesterday cleaning mud out of the inside of the Jeep?) and splash the passenger side in the process.

I really need my own Jeep. One without carpet or cloth seats so that I can just take a pressure washer to it, inside and out.

Estes the Ninja Horse Slays Ghosties

Yesterday, Estee and I went out with Mom, Bill, and a friend of theirs, Dawn, for a three-hour tour...well, ride around Olive Ridge. Estee was super excited to get to go out and play and was her usual spitfire self for the first hour or so, then she calmed right down.

Just after an hour into our ride, I was riding, typically, with my feet out of the stirrups (they just get in the way, really), enjoying the ride, looking at the scenery and having a grand ole time in the sunshine. Not Estes the Ninja Horse, though. Out of nowhere she half-reared and struck out with her left foreleg. Then it was over. She didn't spook or shy away from anything. She just kicked the shit out of some imaginary ghostie. In the process of her being an equine BA (bad a**), I managed to slam both thighs down on the pommel of the saddle. Ouch. Glad she killed whatever it was she set out to kill and didn't feel the need to go after the ghostie any more.

The rest of the ride was uneventful, including the picnic at one of the meadows on Olive Ridge, but I have to tell you, I am S-O-R-E today from the long ride without stirrups and I'm waiting for the colors to develop on my thighs from the pommel.