Wild Donkey Training and Dancing

The Cowpokes in these parts are really good Wild Donkey Trainers. They can tame even the wildest of beasts. You can not even tell that two weeks ago neither of those donkeys would let you touch them. Now look at those little burros. Big Cowpoke can give Stormy hugs. (Note, I did not name the Donkeys). Little Cowpoke can give Misty hugs. They can even get the donkeys to put their heads down and follow them. Stormy and Misty really just wanted some scratching. Little Cowpoke had to do some convincing, to get them to follow. "Come on Donkeys! Follow me!!"Misty turns to Stormy and says, "Do you think we should go? Those two legged animals are weird.""Yeah good idea Stormy, we will just stay back a bit and watch those two legged animals. They are sure different.""What is he doing?" "How does he get his hoof to go up that high? Can you do that Misty?""Umf....Nope, I can't get my leg up that high! I am telling you those two legged animals are very weird and bendy.""Whoa, whoa!! What is this. It looks like the Hokey Pokey. You put your right hoof in you put your back hoof in and you shake it all around.....""You do the Donkey Pokey and you turn yourself around........." "Few....I am tired. Lets go back to the barn and wait for some food. I am not sure I can keep up with those two legs."

Going Up

Oh the Joy! I got home the other day and this is what I found in my back yard. It does not take much to bring me some joy. Just some old rusty pipe and some tilled up dirt. The Arena is almost all framed up. We entrusted the help of our good friend Freddy. I fed him some lunch. The man ate 5 hot dogs and some mac and cheese. I am doomed when my boys get older. I also brought some lunch out to the crazy bunch. They were having a blast. I think I might just get these kids some brown boxes and some dirt for Christmas. They all really had too much fun. Cowpokette worked up quite a thirst. She was working very hard. She is such a ham. I could just squeeze those cheeks. But enough babies, back to work. We only had the machine until 4 o'clock. It had to be back before dark. So, our arena is now in a horseshoe shape. Which is alright. The end that is not finished is the end that will have the roping boxes. I would love some advice on the roping boxes. I know they are supposed to be 16ft deep and 10 feet wide. And the left box is supposed to be 40 feet off the right fence. But we are having some talk about the holding pens and how they should work. I guess it would help if any of us were ropers. Mr. Cowboy has only been in a box a handful of times, and me, yeah never. We have looked up a bunch of arenas, but we still are not 100% sure on what we are going to do. I guess it will all work out, somehow. While we were all hard at work the Cowpokes were hard a play. They Cowpokes went and got their Rodeo play set and brought it into the arena. They are so cute. And look at those Donkeys. They are trying hard to look like they don't care what those Cowpokes are doing. It did not take long for the donkeys to sucker the Cowpokes into scratching their necks. These donkeys were wild about a month ago. Now look at those tame things. They will let the boys climb all over them. I wonder if those donkeys will still be my Cowpoke's friends when they start tracking them on Peanut. They sure are sweet. I am so excited about our arena. Mr. Cowboy had big plans on riding a bunch of horses. I can't wait. I told him I could be his assistant trainer and tack them all up for him.

Freddy

We have made a new friend with in the past few months. His name is Freddy and he is from Del Carmen, Mexico. He is working as a pipe fitter in the small town near us. He goes to church with us. We pick him up every Sunday. I love talking to him. Well, I try to talk to him. My Spanish is really rusty. But he is very forgiving of my poor Spanish. With in the last three Months, Freddy has really come a long way with his English. He can carry conversations and he is getting better and better at understanding what we are saying. Here we all are after Church last Sunday. I love Little Cowpoke laying on the bottom. This wasn't supposed to be a "sexy" family shoot, it was just a regular family shoot. Big Cowpoke was trying to get in on "bringing Sexy back" too. Boys are so silly. Cowpokette really likes Freddy and Freddy really likes her too. He keeps telling us that he wants to take her to Mexico. I just smile and say, "No way Jose!!" Freddy just laughs. He loves her blonde hair and her blue eyes. He wanted a picture of her that showed her eyes, but it was way to sunny out. I will have to print one from a while back that shows her blue eyes. Freddy has six kids of his own. He said he also has three grand babies. Freddy is going to be going back to Mexico in a few weeks. But he is only going back for about three months. Then he will come back and work some more. Freddy is a hard worker and we will miss having him around. While he is gone I will have to get some Spanish tapes and listen to them. That way I can impress him with my eloquent speaking when he gets back.

I Heart Peanut and Joe

I bet everyone is so tired of me talking about Peanut, but I just can't stop. I really love our little sorrel horse. Yesterday the kids had off school. Which I think is a plot to make all the SAHMs not go vote. Because really, who is going to drag all their kids to go and vote. I had to wait until Mr. Cowboy got home from work. Okay, well, I will get off my soap box. Now, since there is "never anything to do and life is so boring" says Big Cowpoke. I got Peanut out for the boys to ride. Little Cowpoke had to go first. He always has to go first. I think it has to do with him being a middle child. So, Little Cowpoke went first and Big Cowpoke went inside to play online at PBS kids. So, here is what Peanut and my Little Cowpoke did. They practiced whoa. And trotting. They were so cute!! Little Cowpoke loves to ride. I actually let him walk away from me and around a cone and then back to me. I was nervous, but Peanut and Little Cowpoke weren't. So, I got them on video. It's not the best video, but Little Cowpoke is sure cute!!I think Little Cowpoke did an awesome job. He even rode around the cones I put up for barrels. He trotted in between the cones. Peanut was so good at stopping when Little Cowpoke wanted to stop. I am so excited to finally have a really good kid's horse. I have been searching for ever for a really good old gelding. Oh, and because I have not posted a picture of Joe in a long time. I must. I have to show everyone how huge he is. Here he is with Little Cowpoke. Joe is all fluffy for the winter time. I love it. Here Joe is walking around the yard with Big Cowpoke. They played outside for hours. I swear Joe sticks around the kids better than the dog does. Just look at that rump. He sure has grown up. He will be one year old in January. We will have to have a birthday party for him.

We're Going to the Bazaar!

The day after Halloween we went to the Bazaar. The small town where Mr. Cowboy grew up in, has this annual bazaar. It is so much fun.

Despite their faces, they did have fun. They both get grouchy when they don't get enough sleep. And the night before was horrible. But how can someone not have fun when there is so much food to be had?This is the giant Jambalaya pot. The man told me that they used 28 pounds of dry rice. That is a lot. And let me tell you that pot was huge. It was so cool. Then there was the enormous corn dogs. Those are the kids' favorites. And all of Mr. Cowboy's Aunts made some home made ice cream.

The ice cream was the best. I love home made ice cream. So did the Cowpokes. I really love the funnel cakes. They called them fuddles, or something like that. I am not sure? But it was sure good. Now for the real Bazaar fun. There were the traditional bounce houses. The boys always love those. The energy levels that kids have. It's crazy. Then there was the train ride. This is Little Cowpoke's favorite thing about the bazaar. Big Cowpoke just chilled out. It's a really long train ride. The boys did it twice. Then there were the 25 cent games.

You had to stand back when Little Cowpoke was throwing the darts. He would blindly chuck the darts. Big Cowpoke did a bit better. But neither Cowpoke got any balloons popped. This is a fun game too. See that boy standing there. Let me tell ya, that green bean bag, yeah, it hit that boy right in the face. Sorry! My Cowpoke's don't play baseball. But he does rope. You would think he had better aim. Here is Mr. Cowboy watching the boys play. Hubba Hubba. I love it when get dresses all nice. Mr. Cowboy thinks he is fat. I think he looks perfect. There was also a silent auction, where I tried to win some tall pots. I could really use some of these. And there was a live auction. They were auctioning off 20 acres of crop dusting. We could use that. But it went for like 800 bucks. Those people in that small town sure had some deep pockets. Mr. Cowboy told me that they were all "oil money". I guess that is what you get for living on the Gulf of Mexico. I sure wish we could have one of those oil thingies in my back yard. The Bazaar was a lot of fun and the Cowpokes all had a wonderful time. Now, all I have to do today is get out and vote. What a day, what a day.

Tick or Treating

Since we don't live in town, we drive to a place to go trick or treating. For the last two years we have gone to Grandma's house. We meet up with some cousins and jump on a trailer with bales of hay and head out. For our adventures this year, we have a variety of characters. First we have the Cowpokes. In the left corner we have a Gladiator and in the right corner we have Batman!Oh so scary. They were so excited about their costumes. Then we have Mr. Cowboy. I say he dressed up as an NFR judge. All he needed was one of those light blue vests and he would be in business. Mr. Cowboy said he was just dressed up as himself. Oh, well. Then there is the Princess. And we have Cowpokette. She was something else. She was a bumble bee. I guess so was all the other little toddler girls her age. We saw a lot of them out and about. She was being really unruly about getting her photo taken. All she was worried about was her candy. She didn't even mind if there were wrappers on the candy. She was going to eat some. Here are all the kids together. I couldn't get them all looking. They were too excited. We had one cousin missing. He was dressed up as a mummy. His mother was fixing his costume. We met up with him later. Big Cowpoke wanted a shield and a sword. So, I made him a shield and we got a stick for his sword. I am sure grateful that he has an imagination. He thought he was so cool. And the princess found some more candy. They went to a scary house. The boys loved it. I think they would really love it if I decorated my house. But then nobody would see it, except for the little old lady across the street. The kids would love it. So, maybe next year. The kids jumped back onto the trailer, and what did Cowpokette do? Candy thief! She would take her brother's candy and put it into her pumpkin. She only looks innocent. Here she is with her Great Grandma. I think they look a like. And Cowpokette loves her "Big Grandma". We all had a wonderful time and we got way too much candy. But that is the point of all the madness right?