Wednesday I went to play group. We had it on my side of town. I normally drive about 25 minutes or more to get to a lady's house and we eat lunch with a bunch of other ladies and their kids. It's really fun. But this week we met up at the alligator park by my house. This is Little Cowpoke's favorite place.
This is Ziggy. She is a baby alligator, and Little Cowpoke loves her.
He told the nice woman all about how he has a pet alligator at home and he feeds it and it bites. I love Little Cowpoke's stories. He is so creative. While he was telling the story I stood behind him shaking my head. Just to make sure the lady knew we were not housing any alligators.
Cowpokette tried touching the baby alligator. She was okay with it at first, but then she decided she didn't really want to touch it.
She would hold her hand out like she wanted to hold Ziggy, but then she would put it down when Ziggy got close.
But just look at this big girl standing. She was actually walking over to Ziggy and then she would stand and pretend to pet the alligator. She is getting better and better at walking. I kinda like this slow process she is doing with her walking. It kind of keeps her my baby just a little bit longer. After the baby alligator we headed over to play.
I love this bumble bee. It's so much fun. We played for a little bit while we waited for our other friends to get there. We didn't wait long. Then we went back to the alligator house.
I think this little one was not too sure about Ziggy. Or maybe she was not too sure about me. She did end up touching it, but I don't think it was her favorite thing. The little boy in the background would look at the alligators and say, "Chomp". He was too cute. We had a good time and it was great to have some adult conversation. Now, onto the new horse.
Here he is. When we went to pick him up, Dallas was giving him a bath. This gelding is really a sweet boy. He has a lot of white dots all over his body. They look like scares or something. But he has a lot of them. I will have to take some pictures of him today in the sun light. So, I can show you the white dots.
You can see how short the gelding is. I would say he is about 14 hands. If he were wearing shoes. But that is the perfect height for my Cowpokes.
He is a little underweight. About 100 pounds more and he will be perfect. Considering how skinny a lot of the sale barn horses are, he really wasn't that bad. He didn't mind being tacked up, and he loved to be brushed. It just makes me sad to see a nice horse like this be sent through the sale barn. Nobody cared where he went. What if the kill buyer bought him? What if Mr. Dallas had not bought him? Well, I can do all the "what if's" I want to. For now, this little gelding has not shown a bad side and he is a real gentleman. All I know is that he will be spoiled rotten by the Cowpokes. As, for a name, Big Cowpoke named him Peanut. I think it suits him. He is short and brown. I really tried to name his Vern and then Speagal. But both those names were vetoed. I like Peanut. I think it's a great name. Mr. Cowboy tried roping off of him again. He backed him up in the corner of the barn. And let me tell ya, little Peanut sat back on his hocks and waited for Mr. Cowboy to let him go. Peanut jumped out of the "box" and cantered over to the other side of the barn. The lady at the sale barn might not have lied when she said Peanut was a roping horse. All the Cowpokes took turns riding him. He would stop and turn and walk super slow with the kids. So far so good. This afternoon I am going to ride him in the pasture where I normally ride. I want to see if he is barn sour or if the kids can ride him outside. I will get some better pictures today.
I had pulled the weeds in the beds and realized there were more weeds in the rocks. Here in the south we put rocks in between the house and the flower beds. This is to keep termites away from the house. The dirt will hold moisture and we don't want that near our house. So, we put rocks down. Our rocks were really messed up. They had dirt and mulch and weeds in them. So, I had a brilliant idea that we would hose the rocks off in the wheel barrel. It seemed like a good idea at the time. 
I even got the kids to help me. It was quite the chore. It was taking forever. While we washed, Mr. Cowboy was getting the dirt ready for mulch. 
He gets all technical. I am not that big a perfectionist. I will try and then after a little while I get fed up and then quickly finish the job. But not Mr. Cowboy. It's perfect the entire way. 
He dug up little trenches so the dirt and mulch would run off into the trench and not the sidewalk. And guess what the Cowpokes and I were doing?
Yep, you guessed it, still washing those rocks. I was having to wash them one by one. I was getting a little fed up. So, I got the brilliant idea to dump them on the driveway. That way the dirt could just run off the rocks and into the grass. But oh, how I was so wrong. The dirt was more like clumps of clay and the water didn't just wash the dirt away. 
Mr. Cowboy was still moving dirt around. I was still washing rocks. I was about to quit when Mr. Cowboy came over. He was much better at it than I was. But I had already been washing rocks for two hours. At that moment I declared that I quit and that Cowpokette needed a bath and dinner. About two more hours later Mr. Cowboy had all the rocks washed. Didn't I tell ya he was great at finishing things. 
Just look how great those rocks look now. He did a fantastic job. Now all we need are some plants and we will be in business. I do have one plant that I am not too sure about. My Hydrangea bush. 
This summer the leaves turned dark brown. They looked like they were burnt. It didn't look like a bug did it. Mr. Cowboy thought that maybe it was because of the heat. But the bush is in partial shade. It used to be really bushy and now it is sparse. There is new growth, but I am no too sure what to do with it. There has never been a single flower on the plant. I do not know what to do with it. Then after all my planting and pulling and rock washing, Big Cowpoke and I found this.
He was up in our screen on our back door. Mr. Cowboy says he is a garder snake. But I do not know about that. 
Mr. Cowboy grabbed some BBQ tongs and grabbed the snake. We then relocated him to a "treasure" pile of metal in the backyard. There are a lot of mice and one rat back there. I see them when I feed Joe. I need to get rid of those rats. They creep me out. I will have to take pictures of the five mice I saw and the large brown rat that eat with my goat, Joe. The mice and rat are not afraid to come out while I stand there and watch either. I think it's time for some traps!! Poor Joe looks at the mice and rat while he eats and acts all disturbed. I think I would be stomping my feet around and trying to get those nasty creatures away from me and my food. So, when I go to the store, I will have to get some rat and mice traps. Too much wildlife here for me!
And I shook and stirred them up. Then I asked for my lovely assistant to come and help choose a winner. 
In when Little Cowpoke's hand. I felt it was fair if he could see what he was doing being that he does not know how to read. When he reached in he moved the names around and around. Then out came the name. 
Can you read that? Little Cowpoke is a bit cross eyed.
Can you read it now?
Well, I will help you all out if you can't read what the little paper says. Congrats goes to 
To win this fabulous prize, you had to try and come up with a name for our mare, Blaze. There were a lot of fun ones. Thank you everyone for your ideas. But the name that Mr. Cowboy liked the best was......"Lil Bit of Blaze." And the fun creative gal who came up with that name is 
Hubba hubba. I think I kinda like my workin man. 
Okay, I think he caught me. Poor guy, I think I would be so mad if someone always had their camera in my face. He is a good sport about it most of the time. Little Cowpoke thought that his Dad was the absolute coolest. He was so excited about his Dad being a "workin man". So, when we had some cement poured the other day. Little Cowpoke was so excited to become a hard workin man. 
"Look there Sis, those are workin men! I am a workin Man too!"
We are pouring cement at the end of our driveway for our mail box. Mr. Cowboy has this fantastic idea for a stone mail box. I do have to remind him we do live in the country. We also had part of our side walk broken out. It has cracked and sunk, so we had that fixed too. 
Move over treasures, here comes the cement. 
My Father in Law just jumps right in there. He was impressed that his leg didn't come off. I was impressed that he was up past his ankles in cement. 
Then Mr. Cowboy came over to help flatten it all out. They did a pretty good job. They even had to move more treasures. My Father in Law was so excited to get that much cement. 
You can just see those gears going inside that blond little head. 
And there you have it. Mr. Working Man himself. Getting in there and helping. Few, that was some hard work, it must be time for a break. 
Good work Little Cowpoke. You are such a hard workin man. 
Cowpokette even got her feet dirty. She kept wanting to crinkle her toes and feel the cement. She was hard to get to put a flat foot print in the cement. But mean while, back at our house, the cement was getting finished. 
This man was huge. He was taller than 6 feet. And he had the deepest voice. His voice reminded me of the really tall man off of the movie, "The Green Mile." I can't remember that guy's name. Anyway, while he was finishing the cement, he was telling us about his four kids. He was funny. I liked to hear him talk. 
He kept saying, "Your daughter is so beautiful. Look at that blond hair and those blue eyes." I wanted to say, "Back away from the baby!" But I knew he was just being nice. Cowpokette thought he was funny too. 
He was a really good finisher. I decided that I would not be a good finisher. I would have gotten fed up with it looking perfect. But our tall friend there did a wonderful job, and the kids and dog got to put a foot or hand print in. 
I am so grateful for my hard workin men. 
The one thing I do not like about new saddle pads are how stiff they are. See how the pad is so stiff on the top of his back. This pad surprised me and conformed nicely to my horse's back. It was not stiff at all. 
He loved it. Well, as much as a horse loves to be saddled and worked. I just wanted to make a quick before and after note. The above photo was taken two days ago. Look at the muscle on Ozzie's rump. I have had him home for about 6 weeks now. I have been working him for about 4 weeks. Now, look at the before picture below, this is Ozzie at 6 weeks at the "dorky Trainer". 
Now, he doesn't look too bad, but he is definitely thinner, and lacks a lot of butt muscle. I know he is half Thoroughbred, but he doesn't have to have such a pointy butt. Now that I have said this, I will stop talking about my loser "trainer" and I will move on. 
This is a wonderful example of how not to hold your rope while lunging. Oh dear. Little Cowpoke was sitting on top of the round pen panels taking pictures. He is so great to take pictures of me working Ozzie. He is also only three. 
He actually isn't half bad. 
Here I am, randomly standing in the middle of a pasture. Well, I am holding a rope, if you can see that?
Look and here I am riding. This is after Little Cowpoke went streaking across the yard and declaring he just went poo poo in the bushes. He was so thoughtful to take one last snap shot of my ride. I think I need one of those "shoulder back" contraptions. My posture is horrible. Again, if you can see from that far away. I zoomed in, and I don't recommend zooming in. But what I do recommend is that you try to win one of my fabulous giveaways!! 
This is a 4x6 faux leather photo frame. I think it's too cute. In order to win this beauty, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post. So easy right!! I know, I know. Now for the second prize that is up for grabs. 
This wonderful bag of sweet goodness is Burt's Bees Hand Repair Kit. It's for all those hard working woman out there, who are not afraid to use their hands and get dirty. This little bag has everything you will need to have softer, younger looking hands. Hmm....younger looking hands. But anyway, to win this prize all you have to do is leave a comment in this post and give this horse a name. She is 14 years old and is going to be registered with the Pinto Horse Association. She will need to have a registered name. We call her Blaze. But I wanted something more, a fun registered name. She is a solid paint. We don't know her pedigree. My husband bought her as a yearling and the old man got Alzheimer's and forgot who her parents were. But we do know she was supposed to be registered with APHA. Anyway, she needs a fun registered name. She has a flaxen mane and tail, and is 14.2 hands tall. She also is the smoothest ride you will ever ride. 
This is a horrible picture of her, but sadly it's one of the only pictures I have of her. But anyway, I can't wait to see some of your suggestions. That baby in the picture is hers and it's name is Ima Sonny Miss. She is by a Sonny Dee Bar Stallion. Anyway, the Contest will go on until 
