I write like
Leo Tolstoy

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Fair pictures

Well Aunt Litbit, I said I would get those pictures of the other drawings up. I haven't. I am sitting here on this Wednesday evening waiting for YW to start. I haven't downloaded the pictures to the dropbox yet. I don't have them on my laptop.
But everybody in our family got a ribbon, and everybody did great. Beckah had a cool technique of making watercolor flowers by making drips of paint run across her paper. It was very cool, and my YW president said she liked that one best. She thought it should have gotten higher than it did. I do to.
Sabrina painted a very tightly realistic and acrylic  peach, perfect circle, perfect shape, perfect color. It is Sabrina's painting style. :)
Joseph painted a acrylic bunch of grapes, but was disappointed that they placed higher than his dragon drawing. I thought the dragon was pretty cool, but I would have done it with a little more color. But because his grapes are a current work of his, it is a better piece than his dragon. I told him he needed to do something new, not use the same drawing from last year. Which, is okay, as long as it had been done in the last two years.
Benj entered a crayon drawing on black paper. It looked pretty cool. It was a picture of Benj in the back yard in the sun. Jessa did a similar picture. The sun was the prettiest part, with many colors of yellow. With that picture Jessa won first place in her age category. And that sums up  most everything. Pictures...will be coming. ;)

I won Grand Prize at the Fair!

 Mine is the one of two horses, of course. It is Titled, "Fritz and Prince".
The other is the Best Of Show of the adults category.

I think this is one of my best examples of shading so far, but not my best as far as a horse drawing. the horse on the left has a chest that is far out of proportion. But it looks beautiful nonetheless. Before entering, Mom fussed a little about the way I had just tore my picture out of my sketch book. she wanted me to cut off all the little fringes.
But I suppose the judge looked those little fringes over. I have entered many other times in the fair before and never got first place. It was quite a surprise. The lady at the desk in the art building pulled me aside and encouraged me to enter in another art show that will take place soon. I think I will.
Getting Best of Show, or any ribbon at all is fun, but the best thing is seeing my work up there.

2012 Puppies

Aren't they all adorable? These are younger and older pictures all together. Mom has written excellent descriptions on her ipad, and I will have to see if I can get them on here. These are Sabrina's puppies, and I know there doesn't seem to be many tri-colored in these pics, but there are about five.

Third year of seminary has been completed.

Time is going too fast.

One hundred and one dalmatians---or rather, English shepherds

Okay, moving on.
 Puppies!
Yesterday morning at five! fourteen little sable colored babies. There are...um, you ready for this number?
I hope you are, for here it comes.
No, it's not one hundred and one, thank goodness.
There are twenty six English Shepherd puppies---in all--- at our place.

NOTE: We are not a puppy mill.

Twelve were born a few weeks ago and are ready to for their first set of puppy shots and fourteen were born yesterday morning. We are going to get their parents registered so that we can give these puppies to new homes for about $350. each.
Except, the older puppies may be gone before we do that.
I have a dog blog---(I know, one blog is enough, isn't it?) And when it is ready to be presented, than I will post the address here. I will post stories and things of my experiences with these dogs, and my dog, Emma, will be the main star.
I love English shepherds. :) And puppies. They are all SO cute!

Prom

Ah, yes. Surprise! 

I know, my dress is not black and gold. Oh, I still miss it. But on the very morning of the day on which the prom was to take place---(and that place was five or four hours away depending on how fast you drive so we would have to leave early to get there on time,) we realized my all finished dress, (obviously except for the zipper,) was too small. Nevertheless I went to the mirror wearing my too-small-dress and mourned the loss. It was elegant and very formal. It would fit perfectly if a zipper was not needed.
So.

I had two choises.
Well, really three.
1. try to sew in a extra strip of cloth to make it a sinch bigger and hope that my hair was long enough to cover it.

2. borrow my friend's dress, and scour the stores for a jacket to fit over the top.

3. Run to the store and get more cloth, a brand new and less mean sewing machine, more thread, and sew a new dress in less than five hours.

Well, we picked number three.

Mom and I scrambled to the store a few minutes after seminary and bought my second choice cloth,
(which I still prefer my black rose brocade to,)  and worked a solid four or five hours.I tell you, after all that work to get a prom dress sewn in two days and then another one in four hours, I was ready for this prom thing to end.
We finished it just in time to run over to my piano teacher's to get the zipper sewn into place. My prom driver met me there and I was whisked away.
However, there was a consequence for that fast and quite rushed sewing.
Of course my Nana  will know.

A lot of mistakes. For one, this cloth we bought frays like  sack cloth. ----does sack cloth fray? Maybe not. Well, this stuff frayed like crazy. Mom joked that I'd better move slow, so that my dress didn't become rags like Cinderella's.
It actually wasn't so funny.
Because  I was trying to sew the edges of my pieces so that they wouldn't do that. My friend called the sewing machine decided he was hungry. He thought my new pink cloth was Delicious. I guess I couldn't blame him. It was pretty.

But no worries, he didn't eat it to nothing. But if he ate a little more, then maybe it would be perfectly my size. The waist measurement was a little too big. Just a little. Not too much to notice. It was a precaution to make it not so small this time.
Better to wear something--- than than nothing because you can't fit into it.   ;)

the only other problem that was somewhat important, is that the pink gauzy on my back side was left undone. No time to sew it.  :(

So enough about that. I'm sure I looked well in the dress anyway. I had a gazillion complements. What else does someone want to assure them that they are pretty?
Oh, and if you could see their faces! when I told them I had sewn it---and then when it had been done in four/five hours. Of course however, with Mom's significant help.

This is turning out to be  a long post, and not just because. This is getting to be fun.

I shall include a short piece of the ride there. Nothing about the ride back---there's not much to tell. Except I went in and out of a light sleep, and arived back at like...four am? I was too tired to care to look at a clock.
On the ride there I was quiet.  At least for the first part.
I can hear a few of my out-of-state friends gasping.
"What?! You? Quiet? Never heard of such a thing! ...who's writing this? Get out of Tali's blog stranger."
Well, my fun friends, I have been practicing on my expressions. They have become very expressive and often talk for me. Or I hope so. They aren't always that effective.
Towards the time of our arrival, ( Yes, I did talk- how could you not imagine me saying at least one word?) we, (our driver and  the two other friends that came with me,) had a lot of laughs and fun playing car games. An interesting version of what I play with my siblings is a word/story game.
In the version that we played, we each took turns telling a story. Each person said one word on his/her turn. Until it ended.  They would result in funny short little stories.
 With my siblings this game is only slightly different. We go as far as we want in the story, and then when we run out of ideas we give it to the next person to add their ideas to. In my opinion it is a better way of making an interesting story because the person has more time to build plot and setting. And then when they're out of ideas the next person is ready with fresh ones to continue the story. the only problem is when the other players fall in love with what you've said and want you to continue the story by yourself.

Any way, I'm getting off subject. The drive up was fun.

When We arrived there, late, but in time for the dance, I walked in.
"Hi Tali!"
Oh I was so glad my trek brother recognized me in all my splendor.
"Hi Captain!" (that's his name on the blog,)
And then I went to sit for a while and hunt down other friends.
Okay, -I had a particular one in mind. I had good reason to believe that he was here, but things can happen, so I did have my eyes peeled. But lo and behold what do you know but he suddenly appears and sits right next to me. Now did he recognize me, or was he just sitting down in the nearest chair because he was tired?
I decided to let m=him speak for himself.
He did.
"You don't want to look at me?"
I smiled, and turned to him. " I was admiring the ceiling. You can't blame me when there's stars and planets projected all over it, can you?"
"Aw, yeah, I guess it's pretty. Are you on a date with someone?"
"Nope. Are you?"
"No. So do you want to dance with me?"
"Of course."

So yeah.

The music turns on...he leads me to the middle of the room....we danced with the lights of the projector overhead....he spins me...

---just kidding. xD

 How am I to spin in high heels anyway?
I was not romantic. How could I be?             ;) 
    I teased him, just a little, about the ceiling as his competitor. Then we talked of how things had been     going since last time we met, our siblings, and played the old tag game while dancing. I don't think anyone else but us were very interested though. Oh well. It didn't matter. We had fun.
I think all my friends had fun, even though some may say otherwise, I'm sure they did enjoy some part or another.
The last hour of the prom was my favorite.

I also danced with Captain as I always do. He asked questions like how I was doing, how my blog was coming along, how far on my story was I, and talks about my  facebook post about a green spider that turned out to be a strawberry top. I ought to ask him if he'd like to read my book. But maybe not. He's getting ready for collage.

When it ended, we all said our goodbyes and changed out of our prom stuff and got back into our street clothes. But I had a little difficulty. One of my friends that I came with helped me make a simple pink sash look beautiful. the picture does not do it justice. However, she had sewed it on my dress, and it was too tight to take off without having to cut it off. So we did.
Prom was really fun.
But if that's what public-schooled kids go crazy about every year I really don't see why. It was fun, and I loved wearing a princessy dress, but college proms--as far as proms go, have got to be better.
And I could definitely survive missing out on a school prom. ;)

Until next time, ---me.

this is when we came out of prom and changed back into our regular clothes. I am in the middle. We are all that came from our ward.

CUT!

Sorry to pause on the list of fishing tools, but I have to post and say to all my family---I am sewing my own prom dress. It's the priest and laurel prom, and it's taking place this Friday. And I haven't started sewing until yesterday!  :O
Ugh, and I have really truly have only tonight to finish it off...tomorrow is the day where we all have piano lessons and our piano teacher kindly volunteered to sew on the zipper since neither I or Mom can. But that's tomorrow and piano lessons start too early to do anything in the morning...don't know how I will wake up for seminary tomorrow, but I'm staying up all night!
But I will find a way. Even if I don't finish my dress I have a good friend who would like me to barrow her prom dress. It is beautiful, but I really want to ware mine, especially because I picked everything.
My prom dress is black with gold accents. Yeah, I know, teenagers should wear colorful stuff. That's what  Mom says to. But I am sticking to black and gold. It will go nicely with my liahona necklace form my grandparents. :)
I will post picture when I finish it---or actually, after prom. Wish me luck because I need it.
Your grandaughter, your niece, your cousin, your trek sister, your real sister, your daughter, your cousin, your friend,
Tali. ;)

Key number one: Observation

Observation and the question Why.

When I used to fish in the fishless ponds around my house, I didn't know they were fishless.
People don't fish in fishless ponds, if they can help it. And How could I know that the two beautiful ponds in front of my house had no fish? No body told me they didn't have fish.
In fact, a friend's dad was told that one of those ponds had big fish some years ago.
But---that was years ago. And he'd never fished the pond himself.
When I slapped a red base ball cap on and grabbed a five gallon bucket, all my fishing stuff, (four tackle boxes with every artificial lure available under five/eight dollars, two water bottles, snacks, beads, butterfly net---you never know just what you might need, lots of hooks, bobbers, weights, a few fishing books and all things considered,) my brothers and sisters knew where I was going.
Many of them always begged to come along, and while I was grateful of the company of one or two, I didn't want all of them to come. After all, the books say you should be very, very quiet.  ;)
And that's exactly what my siblings were not.
They were more interested in exploring and splashing then waiting for me to catch an folklore animal called a fish.
Many times I'd have to take whoever wanted to come, as long as they'd finished their chores.
The pond was a short walk away. We could see it well from our kitchen window.
Once there, my siblings would go to one side of the pond, and I the other. I was determined to catch a fish, and every time I went I saw myself , (in my mind,) lug a huge Large mouth bass home. Loud noises, if they must travel with me, were not to be near me when we reached the actual pond.
When I reached my favorite end of the pond, I turned my five gallon bucket over, and sat on it.
It would be about five-thirty. The sun would be casting goldish highlights on the upper parts of trees, and drawing darker shadows below. Little Spring Peeper frogs would begin to sing from all sides of the pond. Sometimes, a wood duck pair would come and fly around the pond before seeing us; many times they'd land in the water and swim a while without noticing us, and yes, sometimes my sibling could be that quiet.
Now this particular pond we have named Raccoon Pond for all the racoons tracks we find on the banks.
As I sat on my bucket, I tied a hook on my line, and many times strung a few beads on the line as well, before tying the hook on. Then I would put some bacon fat, a live worm, a cricket, or even a plastic worm, and sometimes power bait of dog food on the hook. Not all at once of course. But I tried everything in our food cupboards and out. Then I would cast, and let it sit on the surface, or sink in the water. Waiting, I would keep my eyes on the bobber for the for the first few minutes, then get tired of it and watch the water.
How still it was.
How plant-less.
How clear.
And, all the cow manure around the pond...could fish live through that? 
And, how still. Only the breeze disturbed the surface.
The only living things I could see were tadpoles. Lots of them. Little black things with big heads.
Frog babies.
Since long before moving to the Ozarks, my brothers and sisters and I have been naturalists.
 Each in our own ways, of course. At that time I knew was the name of that little frog, that was so abundant in this pond. But I didn't know anything about it. This little frog, about the size of your thumb, is called a Spring Peeper. Others may know them from another name, but this is what they are called in the books I have read. A few months passed, and my mom got a audio tape about frog calls. So we would listen to them and learn to identify each one. The first time listening through it, one thing stood out. Spring Peepers breed in fishless ponds. That is the first thing I learned about fishless ponds.
And yes, the tad poles in Raccoon pond were Spring peeper frogs. However, I continued fishing there. Resulting in other findings of clues.
Other little animals that live in peace without being eaten by carnivorous fish.
The still water.
The cow manure. That is noxious to water creatures such as fish. The fact that cows themselves, (and they weren't our cows,) were allowed to bathe and hang around the pond banks, was bad.
Cows are heavy enough that when they walk to the pond, they push the dirt into the pond, causing the pond to, over time, become too shallow for fish to live.
 Raccoon pond is owned by one of our neighbors, who keep land only for beef cows and their care, and does not attend to ponds that other wise would be a favorite to the neighboring little girls who he gave permission to do so. But fishless, Raccoon pond is a pretty pond, and for the while that it is, we still go there for picnics and to look at the raccoon tracks.

I found the same to be with other ponds around our house. There are about ten, and only two of them have fish. Those two are as we named them, Discovery Pond and Bass Pond.
We do not own either, but have permission to fish in both.
I do not pretend to know everything or even a great deal of fishing, but I value the knowledge I do have, and am eager to try out another fisherman's advice when it is given.  :)
Another thing I have found through observation is how to read signs in the water. First, the most easy things to notice are the big swirls of water that are made when a particular fish called a Large mouth bass strikes at something like a grasshopper stranded on the water surface.
Bass Pond, is named for those fish.
It was a favorite thing to do in July and August on a fishing trip to catch a few homegrown grasshoppers, (not homegrown on purpose,) and throw them out in the middle or deep end of the pond. Within seconds, there would be a swirl of water, and the grasshopper would disappear under water.


And I didn't need to bring so much stuff. Not everything in the store will work everywhere and every time. I discarded a few things in my tackle box, and then took what I found best and took and put it into a smaller tackle box. No need to carry a big box. All I needed on a single fishing trip was about two of best for the season lures and four hooks or so, a few weights, some extra fishing line, and a bobber.
Here is my list of months and what baits and lures are best.
But first, you need to know what I fish for. :Large mouth bass, White Crappie, (It's said, Craw-pee) and Blue gill  whenever it strikes.

On a warm February morning: Spring peepers are excellent Crappie bait in Discovery pond and a Bluegill favorite in both ponds. Live worms work as well for those two species, and in Discovery pond i like to put them on a hook and throw my line out, (it doesn't have to go far,) without any weight or bobber and let it just sit on the tension of the water's surface. For that your worm has to be small, preferably the Redworm that I find in Mom's garden, and your line should be about 8lb. When the line twitches, or, of course, if it goes down, you have a fish. But if you don't have a bite within two minutes, throw it out again, and try a few feet away from the last spot.
For me and thease ponds, I find that live bait works best in the colder months. But I have never caught a fish in December. I think they are just too lazy. I wonder at people who go ice fishing.

April and June: Fish feeding frenzy! Fat night crawlers are chief here, as well as small plastic grubs or even a fake fish egg. I was given a little packet of fish lures for my birthday two years ago, and there was a foamy little yellow and orange ball. the size of your pinky nail. I thought it was weird, but Discovery Pond's fish love it. As for the plastic grubs I think that the ones with tails about an inch or more work best and in lighter colors.But not yellow. When fishing with a night crawler worm I either put a bobber six inches to two feet from the worm, or just cast and reel the worm in---slow or fast, depending on what the fish like that day. And during these months you have to be careful in the way you put the worm on because fish are suspicious little snatchers and some are professionals getting away with the worm without ever being hooked.

July: Possibly my favorite month for fishing even though a fishing day in July is quite lazy and can be catch-less. But this is big fish month. In the hot sun a plastic worm six to ten inches long is like magic. You can cast out, let the plastic worm sink a bit, reel him in, let him sink, make him do acrobatics in the water, and then wham, you have a Large mouth bass. This is my favorite lure for this particular month. And though some people don't think the colors of the artificial lure matter, I think they do. Not all fish are curious. Some are terribly shy.
For curious or aggressive bass, I like sparkly blue, green or dark purple worms. For the shyer ones I think green, green and black or brown colors are better. You know, more natural.
Shy fish think a sparkly blue worm is terrifying.
Nightcrawlers are still in the menu. And fished with the same way as in June and April, but waiting is more important. Grasshoppers and crickets are hot-topic. This is because it is the natural time for grasshoppers to be clumsily falling into the water anyway. There are different ways to fish these guys. Sometimes fish like them struggling  on the water's surface with no weight or bobber.
After all, grasshoppers float.
But other times you may want the grasshopper to sink below the water's surface but not too much. use a weight and bobber.
Spinners are flashy and pretty lures, and I like them because of that. I haven't caught as many fish with them as I have with plastic worms, but I keep one or two. Those and the peanut-butter like power bait are the things I've caught my rare trout whenever we go to a trout hatchery.

August and September: End of fishing season. It's not illegal to fish in any month here, but it's just that  these  months that fish just get lazier and lazier. Frogs are great if you can catch them, and best fished at night along the banks. The same is with July. Plastic worms and night crawlers are fun, and grasshoppers for as long as you can find them. I have caught fish in November, but this is pretty much the end of my fishing season.

But why some good baits just don't work on the days they're suppose to is not for me to answer.
It's for the fish.
The person sitting next to you isn't always going to know weather you feel like pasta or pizza. Or carmel. Or would you rather have chocolate on your ice cream?
So that's that.
Oh, and my favotite weather for fishing is either after a rain, or a clear warm day where it isn't.
Rain gets in my way. I still fish in the rain though. But just imagine holding an umbrella at the same time as a fishing pole, and not being able to let anything just "sit" on the water tension. and comming home all wet. :(
It has been rain for the last couple weeks. But today is clear, and it is said that it will be beautiful weather this week. Let's see.

The Keys to be a good fisherman

When my parents decided to move to the Ozarks, they told us of all the fire flies and wild animals we would practically be living in our backyard, the forests, rivers, ponds, lakes, and camping. To a couple city kids, that sounded like paradise. Well, to these city kids.
It sounded mystical, to live in a forest where it would rain and snow and hail and have silky mist drifting over and through the hills, as well as actually be able to see stars in the night sky. Where it would storm and have real lighting, and thunder that could shake you house. A magic place.
Those were my thoughts of where we live now. To a girl who had grown up in the blazing hot, dry, dessert-like place near Fresno CA, that's what the "Ozarks" was.
And still is.
When we arrived it proved to be all I thought it was.
A tiny disappointment about fireflies, though. I had thought that they would be steady little lights. Instead, they are little blinking lights.
But, lo and behold, I discovered that they are much more beautiful as flickering lights. In the evening of a warm spring, it is almost easy to believe in fairies. It is no wonder they were invented by imaginative and appreciative  human minds.
 At dusk fireflies will will gather in the billions, all across the open pastures and collectively around the ponds, and light will wave and flicker from one side to the other as you watch. Much like sea waves.
Many times we have wanted to capture the sight for our friends and relatives that don't live near us, but we find that no camera we own can  assist.
So we must simply wait for them to come visit us.   ;)
One thing that interested me very much, which was not so possible where I had lived before, was fishing. I had gone once with some friends and my mother when I was about six or seven, and we fished for trout. I caught seven. Believe it or not.
Since then, I wanted to fish.
But there was no place for it.
The place I'd caught trout was some hours away, and I could only go if someone would drive me there, being incapable of driving my six/seven year old self.
After that venture, I would get out my fishing pole and fish in the carpet in mom's living room.
I caught many things.
A couch, lots of carpet fuzz, shoes, and stuffed animals that were difficult to unhook. Sometimes the carpet fuzz would be so obstinate to be pulled up, that I lost hooks to it.
Which I got in trouble for, of course. That was all when I was seven. And I'm sure I remember sneaking my pole and doing the same when I was eight, only in my own bedroom.
Well, carpet fuzz wasn't enough, so when we moved to the Ozarks in a house with a pond right in back, I was fishing in it the next day with a stick that I broke off from a near by tree, and I believe some yarn for line. And a safety pin for a hook.
My old fishing pole never made it on the trip with us.
Shortly after that, we moved to another house. Much bigger, with a pool, ( that is now a duck pond,)
and a basement, and a real chicken coop and barn. But cooler to me then that, was that it was on the same road that a Saddle club was. And, it came with a pond. There were also two larger ponds in front of the house. So, I went fishing. But it took me two years to learn how to really fish and actually catch something.
Not carpet fuzz.
Real fish.
In those two years, my siblings and I discovered other ponds, through our roaming in the pastures and forests around us.

I checked out books from the library, and learned from trial and error. No one in my family could teach me just what I wanted to know, and all my friends here had fathers or grandpas that took them fishing every once in a while, and taught them, if they wanted to learn.
Perhaps I could have asked if I could come with some of them, but I suppose I was too shy to ask.
Never the less, I learned. I taught myself. Through observation, a great teacher in my knowledge of fishing, I learned what different signs on the water meant. There were different kinds of fish, and I came to know all that swam in the ponds around my house.
I also learned, how to tell if a pond even had fish in  it.
Two of the ponds I used to fish, for hours in the evening, when my family first came to live here, were only home to frogs, ( there is a type of frog that only lives in abundance where there are no fish.)
It took me a while to learn that.
Now, I am considered an expert by my family and friends. I bring home fish every time.

From of course, the ponds I have learned to know.

And now, Keys I have found.
1. Observation
2. Perseverance
3. Patience.
4. Books.


The next post I will be discussing about these keys. ;)

Tragedy has struck!

I hope I didn't scare you too much there...but my Dad's blog has been removed without warning.
All his posts are lost. And we were not notified. But he doesn't seem too sad, I will have him make a new one and will put the web address up. ;)

But apart from that, I can't say there is a tragedy. We have kittens, and two of them are calico, a rare color of cat to see at our place.  The most rare would be gray, and the common color is orange. We have lambs coming in about June/July, and two litters of planned puppies. One is going to be due by the first week of February, and the other in April. My brothers and sisters are starting to learn the piano. My Grandparents are doing nothing but good in Ukraine, and are undoubtedly happy.

Last night the phone rang. Dad mentioned that it might be Grandpa. I don't know why he thought that, but I believed him and picked up the phone. The greeting was very much like Grandpa's.
"Hello!"
I thought; wow, Grandpa sure sounds happy and energetic! And with a big smile I asked if it was Grandpa on the phone. I didn't need to, because I knew it was Grandpa.
But then the speaker on the phone laughed.
And I could imagine my Uncle M. throwing his head back and his face attached to that laugh. I suddenly knew, that it wasn't Grandpa. It was Uncle M.!
But Uncle M. told me it was a complement. I told him that it was good that he liked my complement.

Horsie designs and russian hats

 So, There's my whole collection of paper on wood signs, ones I still own anyway.
And below left is one of the laptop skins I designed, on www.cafepress.com/blackponydesign
And left is just for you Nana and grandpa, see, I don't know if mom sent you the pictures of everyone  else in the Russian shop key you sent us, but there's mine. I wore it to church the following Sunday after Christmas. My Young Women's leader said I looked like a Russian princess. :D
It's not a super good picture, I think mom has a better one...but it's better then nothing!

My first trail ride at a real horse camp

Yes, I know this is really late, you can tell by the pictures that I did this in October. But I never got around to posting it, and believe me I had full intention----enough that I don't care that I'm blogging about something I did last year. ;)

You might think that because I worked at the Flying-R-ranch that I would have been trail riding more then I did. Well, that was my first time. Sure I'd been on the trails, but I wasn't riding horses on the trails....
Clip, clip, chop-chop-chop, saw, saw, saw----I was making them.
As I did with the sign above. It looks a lot better finished, but it needed a little more highlighting, which I never got to do. Pity the picture is blurry, but you can still see my little trademark stick horses.

Saddling up. This palomino's name is candy, one of my friend's friend's horse that she borrowed for the ride, while I rode her horse, Lady. She is an Old fashioned Morgan, one of my three favorite breeds.
 My other companion for the ride has a paint quarter horse named Zoey.

And so we went. Me, Friend 1 and friend 2. You can't see it, but I'm wearing a Flying-R t-shirt. I had bought it a few weeks before and I thought this was a cool time to wear it, even though it was crazy cold. When we started anyway. 

We didn't have any trouble at all on our trip, but as we started off a horse belonging to someone we invited to come with us, broke away and kinda got into a freak-out state. Friend 1 caught him, I think, and returned him.

It was different to actually enjoy the trails, then to cut them. I'll admit it wasn't as beautiful as it was in the summer, the hill in the picture top right with Lady's head, that hill is covered in Daisies in about june, and the river is blue and green and clear---and warm. But Candy wasn't daunted by the freezing water, she was all out for taking Friend one for a dip. 

Winter is finally here!

It has snowed, which makes it a real winter. And what's even better is that's it's the good kind that is best for sledding and snow ball fights. Pictures will be updated later. ;)

Books, Christmas and ice

So, life goes on. I hope you have had a chance to read the summery of my story before I removed it. Mom says it's time to move on to another story, and she is probably right.
But I'm not finished with this one yet. I have to finish this one. It's my favorite, and I've only just begun to fill it up. You know, flesh it out. Or, at least I think I am fleshing it out. It is probably just  fine the way it is, especially for someone's first all written story, but I keep coming up with ideas, connections and plot. Not changes, improvements. ;)
I have others, many others, ideas  that take up pages and pages. The next book I will work on is going to be a science fiction. And it has a lesson in it.


So any way, Christmas.
We caroled to more people than last year, made less Christmas treats than last, had no snow, but all together I think it was great. What Christmas wasn't? My grandparents are serving a mission in Ukraine, and sent some pretty cool stuff. My favorite, was my dad's shop-key. I wouldn't know how it's really spelled, but it's the big and tall fuzzy hats that we would call the Russian hats that are sometimes on nut-crackers. I wore it to church the next Sunday and my Young Women's president said I looked like a Russian princess. The only thing was that it was way too big for my head, but I didn't care, it was authentic. And it looked very nice with the outfit I was wearing.

But we had no snow. Not enough to count, that is. When winter comes the other thing to look forward to is sledding down the gigantic, steep hills behind our house. Fast and fun. It isn't unusual to wear out several sleds a winter.
However, there is a pond near the base of the best one, so, you have to be careful.
(And a creek at the bottom of the one that would have been better,)
But, most always it is frozen, (the pond, not the creek,) if there's enough snow to sled.
Except once.
Joseph thought it would be fun to sled down and then skid across the pond ice, so he went, belly on a sled, all the way to the bottom, but he didn't skid on the pond ice. We saw him stop in the middle of the pond. Nothing happened.
"Hey Jo, get back here with that sled, it's my turn." we said.
Still he did not move.
And then, we heard a  "Whoa-yikes!" And he jumped up---and that's when the ice cracked.
It is funny to think back on that. It is only a shallow pond, four feet deep at the most, but he was sure cold. Joseph and ice. There are a lot of stories of the two.
He told us when he reached the top of the hill that he was stuck. That where he stopped was less than an inch thick. He was afraid that if he moved  it would crack. Don't know how long he was planning to stay there before the ice broke.  ;)
There are other times when we dare each other to belly crawl on pond ice like polar bears, to see who can get to the thinnest ice possible without breaking it, and of course, we are not always as brave as we want the other to think, and at the first little crack, sometimes it's a good idea to scoot for your warm and dry clothes sake.

But no ice contests this year. It was too warm a December. But there's still February. It's suppose be the coldest month of the year by west plains.