Macro Monday "THE FINAL ROSE"

Macro Mondays is part of Sunday Stills.

Today is my first Macro Monday pictures, and can viewed on my other blog, Pictures by Brenda

Caden’s Dedication

Caden was 11 months old on Thursday, Thanksgiving Day. Today, he was dedicated at his church.

Caden was all dressed up in khaki pants, long sleeve turtleneck shirt, and a striped sleeveless sweater. He looked like a miniature preppy college boy!


Caden is leaving babyhood fast behind him and has quickly become a toddler. He is crawling all over the place. He is beginning to pull himself up at anything, the couch, pant legs, chairs. He walks as we hold his hands.



Today, Caden was full of smiles. He was a very happy boy today. He look astonished as he sat on my lap in church, looking all around him. As his Pop held him when we stood to sing, he gazed at the high ceiling, the people around him, at the people playing instruments at the front of the church.


He was a good boy as he was held by his daddy at the front of the church, with his mommy standing beside them. The minister said a lovely prayer for him, asking for everyone to care for him. The minister reminded Jacob and Amber to raise Caden with love in a Christian home, showing him how to live by their example. That lesson should be followed by all of us.


Afterwards, we enjoyed snacks at Jacob and Amber’s home. Caden played on the floor with his cousins. He had a very special day, with both sets of grandparents, a great-grandmother, 2 aunts, 2 uncles (1 brought a friend), and 4 cousins enjoying the day with him.


Caden, we pray that you grow up to be a very fine man, with Christian love in your heart. We love you very much, Grandma and Pop

Sunday Stills: THE LETTER "T"

THE LETTER "T"

This week’s word for Sunday Stills is the Letter “T”. As I took pictures today, I tried to think of different ways and angles that I could shoot the photos.

Spruce Trees are beautiful. They remind me of my childhood. We always had a Blue Spruce Christmas tree lit for the holidays.


My Trailer takes me and my horses where I want to go. Our rides are in all kinds of terrain, from the flat prairie to the windy hills.


Our old, brown, F250 farm Truck,


And our old Tractors. One ancient yellow tractor,

and one green, an older John Deere.

And our old tractor Tires.

These are the “T” pics that I took as I walked outside today. The day is sunny, but cool 40’s. My hands were chilled as I came in, so I wrapped them around a hot mug of coffee. (But I couldn’t think of a “T” word for that cup of coffee!)

Thanksgiving Meal

This year, I have had 2 Thanksgivings.


2 weeks ago, my daughter Sara, son-in-law Jake, and granddaughter Makenzie came home while my parents were in town. We had 11 people around the table for our first Thanksgiving as grandparents!



Yesterday, my parents celebrated Thanksgiving with us again. Sara and her family and Jacob and his family were at their in-laws and Micah went to his girlfriend’s home. With only 4 people, we still had a Thanksgiving feast! We had a few substitutions though.

9.17 pound turkey instead of a 22 # monster turkey. Tom said it looked like I was cooking a chicken.


Sweet potatoes instead of mashed potatoes, even though I did cook a potato in the microwave for Tom. I tried the Pioneer Womans Sweet Potato recipe with canned sweet potatoes. I think I needed more potatoes! They were very sweet!


1 loaf of bread cut up for stuffing instead of 2 loaves.


½ recipe for the green bean casserole.


But lots of turkey gravy.


Warm rolls right out of the oven. Yummy.


No homemade egg noodles this meal (we had them at the first meal with the kids. Everyone loves my mom’s homemade noodles!)

Instead of jellied cranberry sauce, I made a delicious cranberry salad.
I large package of Strawberry jello dissolved with ½ the amount of water. I mixed 1 can of whole cranberry sauce, 1 can of crushed pineapple, 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, and 3 chopped apples. Delicious!

Fried Apples!


Pumpkin Pie for dessert.


Jacob, Amber and Caden came later in the day for dessert. Amber brought an apple pie too. Everyone was stuffed except Caden.
He enjoyed leftovers!

Playing on the floor with the 2 darling grandbabies is a great feeling.
Watching them beginning to stand and learning to walk, with that look of bewilderment on their faces, is priceless.


Even though Makenzie was home in Colorado this past weekend, I’ll always remember my “first” Thanksgiving with both of them!

Happy Thanksgiving

Front Row: Jake, Sara with Makenzie, Amber with Caden, Brenda
Back Row: Tom, Jacob and Micah

I am Thankful this year for my family, and my growing family of 2 wonderful grandchildren.


CADEN BRENDA AND MAKENZIE

I am thankful for many, wonderful memories of Finny.



I am thankful that I am going back to what I truly love, which is riding horses and helping people with their horses.

I am thankful for:

H Horses.
A All my friends and family.
P Pleasing sceneries of the many colors of the sunrises and sunsets.
P Play time, riding the trails and CTR’s.
Y You! My friends. Thank you for understanding how I feel.

T Tom, My loving husband of 28 years!
H Helping people to learn and understand horses
A And for the new career choice of teaching Centered Riding, and for teaching people about horses.
N Needing this time of year to always being thankful for what we have.
K Kind people and kind horses in my life, and to be kind, honest and trusting.
S Sara, Jake & Makenzie, Jacob, Amber & Caden, and Micah, all of my children.
G Being a Grandmother this year.
I Being an Individual and learning who I want to be and what I want to do.
V Thinking of Valentines, which is all about love, and reminds me to be more loving.
I For becoming more Insightful about life. Seeing life for what it has for me.
N For seeing all that is Nice in my life - family, horses, my desire to teach, and for all of the opportunities that are in my life today.
G And, finally and always of, God, who is loving, peaceful, and understanding, and patiently waiting for me.



And I am most thankful that I have had Finny, a wonderful horse in my life for the past 8 ½ years. I am thankful for all of the wonderful rides and times that I have had with him. He has taught me so much about the wonderful ability to ride and to feel. Without him, I wouldn’t have learned what I have learned, and for that, I am eternally grateful to him. He has taught me to appreciate all the horses in my life, because I’ll never know how long I will have with them. He has taught me to be kind to the horses that I am involved with, because I’ll never know how long I will have to teach them and for them to influence me. He has taught me to enjoy the movement, as each horse is eager to go. He has taught me to enjoy the ride.

I will always miss you, Finny. I am so thankful that you were part of my life this year.



Blues Grand Finale, “Finny”
May 26, 2001 - October 10, 2009

HT Photo Challenge “FREE”

MANURE



This week’s Horsetales Photo Challenge is “FREE”. My first thought was not much is free if you have horses. But that’s not true.



The total enjoyment of having horses is free. Watching their frolics in the pasture, running back and forth, chasing each other. Watching my children enjoying their horses, preparing them for competition, riding them with excitement.



Riding my horse for the pure joy of riding is free. Going to the field, the feeling of the warm sun on my face, the feeling the cool breeze against my checks, and the wonderful views of the changing colors on the horizon as the sun sets, is free. The smell of the warm horse scent that fills the stall after a workout, the sights of horses resting and laying in the sun, the sounds of their soft nickers as they see me come with their evening meal, the feel of their soft coats after a rain, and talking to them as if they understand my concerns are all free.



Another wonderful aspect to horses is all of the manure. Piles and piles every day. Overnight, there could be 6 piles waiting at morning chores to be cleaned from the stalls. At least 6 more piles could be cleaned during the day, and that much more in the evening. I really should count some day!



So…with the bobcat work that I had to do the past week and a half, the manure pile was gigantic. After 10 horses in a lot for the past year, you can imagine the mountain. This photo is only a 1/5 of what it could have been, as we kept loading some into a dump truck as the pile continued to grow.

And, this is what it started with….many, many piles of these turds.



And this is what started the turds.



I wonder what each pile of manure costs? How many piles of manure come out of a round bale? Then break that down into each turd? Any guesses? I can feed 4 horses a week on a round bale. Each horse makes at least 15 piles of manure a day. How many turds in a pile? 40?
My best estimation to the cost of each pile is….
$.13,
making the cost of each turd …
$.003, 1/3 of a penny???

Maybe manure isn’t free after all.



But the enjoyment of watching Tom having fun on the bobcat is free. And the looks he gave me as I took his pictures are priceless. I could see him thinking, what are you doing? And I laughed at him. Laughs are totally FREE.

Bobcat Work

I had fun snapping some pictures of Tom yesterday.



We had rented a bobcat, and he wanted his time to “play”. I wanted him to finish some other odd and end jobs around the house while I finished the work with the bobcat, but he said he wanted to spend an hour on the bobcat. An hour turned into 2 hours.



He filled this hole with dirt, then smoothed out that area in the lot, then moved some stones. Then he wanted to smooth the driveway. Then he spent an hour cleaning all the manure and mud off. The bobcat sure needed that wash

And my Wednesday Photo Challenge picture will be about why we used the bobcat in the first place! lol