Jaxon!

Jaxon is coming home today! Check back after this weekend for pics, hopefully he and Hannah will get along and we will have a team up and running!

Patricks Ranch

We went to the Patrick's Ranch Threshing Bee with the Draft horse club last weekend. It was a ton of fun & we learned a lot. We got to do quite a bit of driving, mostly with Cressie & Gibb and Jarrett got to skid logs with them (I haven't uploaded those pics yet). Then on Sunday we both learned how to operate a sulky plow while test driving a prospective new member to our herd... This is Jaxon (Chestnut Belgian) and Able (Brabant), this was the first day they had ever met each other, much less worked together. They did really well. I'm learning on the plow...

And a few videos...

And a video of Jarrett on the plow...

And yes, we will be picking up Jaxon later this week so we should have a team up and running soon!

Ok, one more quick video of Jaxon:

Jarrett and Jason got to cut down a few trees too...

First tree going down...

First tree on the ground, it measured 4'3" at the widest point.

Staging up the next tree, this one leaned over backwards (It needed to fall right below where I was standing to take the picture) so they had to do a lot of work on it, the rest of the video & pics are on another camera that I haven't uploaded yet, but I will get those up soon.

Click on the videos to get to the photobucket account for lots more pics and videos.

Busy Summer so Far!

So we have been really really really busy tha last month and a half since I have posted, so here are some pics of the fun! (Out of order though)

These are from our weekend trip up to the Lava Beds, we had taken the boys to a little local cave and to the Natural Bridge and they loved it, and kept asking to go to more caves, so we spent a day in the Lava beds...

Climbing out of Merrill Cave

They were having a blast! Again coming out of Merrill Cave...

Hyram heading off to explore...

The boys in a sub room of Golden Dome, the gold color is from a bacteria that grows on the ceiling and then beads of water gather ontop of them and it truly looks like the room is filled with gold when the light hits it.

All the boys posing in Thunderbolt...


We actually got to go riding once in all this time... It was a gorgeous day and a great ride.

Jarrett got to use the new reins he braided out of kangaroo leather for the first time. He did an awsome job and they worked really well.

Jarrett showing Renee the Barrel pattern.

I got Jarrett to ride an Arab that he actually liked! He said she may be his saddle horse for the summer... I may have lost my girl :(

The boys at Natural Bridge next to where their (I don't rememeber how many Greats) Grandfather carved his name into a rock. This was a site of a big Indian Massacre by the Calvary in the 1800's. Jarrett and the boys had relitives on both sides of the battle. A little more of the story can be found here http://www.trinitycounty.com/stnf-nb.htm however it is very innacurrate as to the history passed down through the family by those who were actually there.

Jarrett and the boys are also related to Captian Jack who was the leader a small band of indians who held off over 1000 calvary until the calvary tricked them out with a truce and killed them all up at the lava beds, another reason we took the boys there. Here is a story of the event however also innacurate according to the stories passed through the actual families. http://www.trinitycounty.com/stnf-nb.htm. I will have to get Jarrett to write out the actual stories one of these days.

Anyhow, lots more pics are at http://s39.photobucket.com/albums/e184/murrini/

and we are headed out to a Draft Horse event this weekens so should have more pics up soon!!

SFJ Pics

Phone is working, so here are the pics!

A nice little high hitch wagon getting auctioned.

Some of the vehicles waiting to come through.

Another wagon going through. 

We stopped here on our way through; a really neat, really deep gorge! 

The boys went for a ride on Heidi today!

Heidi getting her umm... belly scratched. She is actually holding her leg up herself so I can scratch far enough back. She will be heading home in a little over a week, she is starting to bag up and change her shape pretty drastically so we decided she should head back early in case she took on one of her earlier breedings and is going to foal soon than expected.  Her mom really wants her to have the baby at home, and it looks like I will have plenty of foal fun of my own up here this year anyhow!

Jarrett brought Black and Renae home last week.

Renae is horribly fat, but her belly is a bit suspicious looking too... 

Especially from the front... She would be at most 246 days along. 

Black and Rae playing.

This is Nomad, the new horse that Jarrett just picked up. 

SFJ Auction

I have to hold off on pics for a few days, our phone lines are out at home. We made it to the auction in Madras. Jason had a family emergency so couldn't go so instead I got done with my class Friday at 5:30pm in Santa Rosa, drove home, picked up Jarrett and the boys and headed right back out for Madras. We drove all night and got there about 8:30 in the morning on Saturday. One of the wonderful people there at the auction bid for us on Friday since we couldn't make it, and we got a great set of steel running gear to build a wagon on, but we are going to put a removable deck on it so we can use it as a log hauler too. We got a few other things too so it was a great success. On our way home we spent the night in Klamath Falls and went to look at a horse in Bly the next morning. Jarrett is on his way back to pick him up right now, he will be staying with us for a few months for a bit more training then is going to one of Jarrett's friends. He is really well broke, I rode him bareback in a halter when we went to look at him, but Jarrett's friend wants to be able to take him hunting and shoot off of him, so we will just have to make sure he is gun broke. Still not sure on the suprise, haven't had much in the way of change there so I dunno... could still happen, or not. I'd prefer not!
Black and Renae came home last week also, I'm hoping Rae is pregnant so they will be staying up here so I can keep a close eye on her. She shouldn't be due until July or later. She was pastured with Black so I don't have an exact date. So pics will come as soon as our phones are back up! Sorry!

Upcoming events

Sorry I haven't been posting, I see everyone has been checking in. We had a bad tradedy here in the valley 2 weeks ago and have been helping everyone through it so we haven't been doing anything with the horses. This weekend Jarrett and Jason are headed to Oregon for the Small Farmers Journal Auction, they have some stuff to buy. Unfortunately I have to head south for training for work, but we are going to try and meet up and head over to the Draft club meeting on Saturday, it was postponed a week. It is a day long wagon train out in Paskenta again so we are really hoping to make that all work. So look for pics next week!

Wagon train

We had a wonderful trip last Saturday on the wagon train with the Draft horse club. The weather cooperated and didn't rain, and I think we even saw the sun and some blue sky for about a minute! So it was a bit chilly but well worth it. We brought our wagon, and our Friends brought the Boys to pull it. We went in for lunch to a huge ranch that was kind enough to host us and had a big fire ready for us to warm up at. Our wagon worked perfect, and the wonderful gentleman we bought it from even rode with us on the way in. He and his wife (he's 89 and she is 91) used it for 4-5 wagon trains a year until last year when they decided that they just couldn't do that many anymore and wanted the wagon to go to someone who would make use of it, and we definately plan to! We have all kinds of trips planned for it this summer, from camping to bear hunting and some more wagon trains too hopefully!


Heading out...
Almost a group pic.
Trying to look like some steep ground.

Another group pic, we had to take a time out, an evener broke on the 4 up so we got some good group pics while they fixed it.
A 4 up of Shires pulling a stagecoach
Group pic at lunch
Unpacking at lunch
A clue to the suprise that we are about 95% sure of...