Boze

I got my new horse today.  This is Boze.  :)

Annual Pilgrimage to Georgia

Usually, I get to Georgia two or three times a year...this time it was a full year before I got back down here.  Ugh.  Too long!!

I would have bought this to bring home, but the thought of getting thru the airport with it was daunting.

The house has an amazing array of brilliant colors!  If I'm a colorful girl (purple walls), Penny is downright ELECTRIC!

Penny says "draw something".  SO I drew home.  I miss the farm!

Her cat Huckabee is massive.  A Maine Coon Cat.

Allatoona Dam.  Day trip during the one 2 hour break that it didn't downpour (it rained 10 out of 11 days).

Penny's son is eying this river with significant hesitation.  It's flooded, the current is raging, and we (Penny and I- NOT the kids) were about to haul the kayaks over the steep edge, jump in, and careen down the river to the lake.  We made it.  But it rained heavily.

At one point we sheltered under the trees from the rains.  Then we decided we might be there for hours if we waited for the rains to end, and that wouldn't do for us to meet her husband for our 4pm pickup time at the lake.

Girls night out with Penny and her sister Catherine.

I discovered margaritas and martinis on girls night out.  No excess of drinking, but fun to try new things.

There was one other day that the rains didn't open up...and we went for a great hike and swim.  Such a nice spot!  Lots of forest, water, and wildlife.And the kids were pretty good sports about hiking.  I think we went 4 miles in the Georgia heat.

Ooh what a wonderful bug.  A couple of inches long!

Milo, the steadfast family dog.  Well, one of them.

If I were to read this mushrooms color language, I'd guess it's POISONOUS.  Whaddya think?

You can't see it, but there's a really fuzzy, small deer in this picture.

All of us were in braids.  It was too cool to NOT take a photo.

Even today, the last day, we got hit again by a huge storm that came thru as we were running errands.  The weather has been bizarre.  10 minutes after I took this, it was raining so hard there were flash floods and you couldn't SEE down the road.

Aaaaah.  Fish tacos!

The gardens are terraced.  I shot this from the tree house.  Great perspective.

Great swimming spot the day of the hike.  I loved the water.  Then, I stopped actually moving, and discovered that the fish nibbles on your ankles.  At least they weren't piranhas. 

Mrs Olsen trained me well

Many moons ago, when I was 19 or 20, and the Olsens had given me my horse, Jake, I got some valuable lessons in how-to-clean-tack.

Mrs Olsen was a stickler, and in her usual loving, yet abrasive, way, she told me that I needed to learn how to clean the tack in the barn if I was going to use it.  But not just CLEAN the tack...I had to take it all apart and then clean it.

Of course, this struck me at first as a waste of time and why bother?  Besides, how in the world would I get it back together again?

But, as is with all things that she taught me, she was absolutely right.  Not only did it get every part clean...it taught me how they are made and assembled.  It's a lot easier to understand a thing if you know how all its parts work.

And so, by adding to my confusion and frustration initially, she gave me a window to understanding so much more than just tack.

I think about Mrs Olsen a lot, and the next time I see her, I'm gonna give her a big hug.



The saddle photos above are my project for the morning...for the barn I am currently volunteering at.  I haven't done this in awhile, and it's great fun.  :)

The Wee Beasties

Since all of the horses can be put out now without their blankets (warm weather finally!), I decided to try my hand at some equine photography today.  I'm rather pleased with the results.

Modie

Midas

Joe

Romeo

Maggie

Modie

Maggie

Nezzy

Jazz

Simba

Nezzy

Aries

Aries and Bronzen

Aries

Bronzen

Bronzen

Nezzy