Mud Ranch’s Real Dirt

Well, I’ve been playing in Photoshop again and seeing what I can do to tweak.  But here’s a couple of opposites just to show you how completely whacked balanced I can be.  The first is something that may make you sick if you’re kinda sensitive. 

“Retro Daisy”

It reminded me of that old 70’s shag carpet and pea soup green appliances.  Eeeek!  But I kinda like what it did to the daisy.

But just so I don’t leave you with a queesy feeling in your stomach…

This handsome boy is a currently tamed, ex-wild Kiger gelding who lives about an hour from me.  He’s really handsome and has that to die for mane and forelock.

Until next time… Enjoy.

I have run into some of the greatest websites along my www travels so I thought I’d share a couple with you.  Both places are highly recommended by me, please visit!

Sunset Halters: I have ordered a few things from Karen at Sunset Halters a few times and each time her products are high quality, super friendly service, easily accomodates your wishes, fast, and very friendly.  I am currently in the process of ordering my second haltermore.  I love her tack!

Etsy:  What a marvelous find!  I actually opened shop there for Estrellita Photo and am listing some prints.  I’ve got a lot more to do but am hoping for some mild success.  Atleast enough to fuel my camera and horse tack obsession (okay, baby toys from Etsy would be great too!).  I absolutely love buying handmade goods where you know that love and time went into each item.  Definitely a big step up from ebay for things more personal, (how about these bonnets or these shoes, or these bags from South Africa?)

Enjoy!

Thank you to everyone who sent comments about the fires.  It is still a huge threat to those historical towns that are in it’s path.  They’ve been closing down the main highway that goes to the big city because they’re making a goal line stance there on the highway and actually back burning the hills.  We went to the Big City yesterday for church and almost didn’t make it home.  We had to rush and once we made it past the stopping point, we were safe but it was closed not too far behind us.  We did see fire up on the hills really close to the highway so the fire was slowly creeping its way toward us.  Thankfully there was no wind yesterday as that really helps the firefighters get a grasp on things and send the fire packing.  I’m not sure how well they did yesterday but know that today the highway is closed again from about 11:00 am to about 9:00 pm. 

Yesterday, however, hubby and I went trail riding with some friends of ours.  We had a great time! 

28+ year old Kahla, (the gray) with her buddy Joe (pinto) hiding in the bushes.

I was going to take my camera around my neck to get some trail shots but after I hoped on Sunnie in their round pen, he did a couple of crow hops and I decided that riding and taking my camera might be a bad idea.  I need to invent a riding helmet for cameras, that’d be a nice accessory. 

Sunnie settled in just fine though and was doing really well in to the ride.  Hubby was riding Cali and she did pretty good too.  She was pretty fresh in the very beginning and wanted to trot so hubby had her ride right up on Sunnie and he did a good job stopping her.  Once we got on the gravel road, they both slowed down and followed behind our friends.

Here Cali is being rude and starting to walk while hubby holds her back.  Fly spray is a must right now.

We went up a pretty steep logging type road at the back of our friends house and wound our way up the side of the mountain.  This part is heavily in to the old burn so there’s lots of brush to plunge through.  Cali and Sunnie both did great, never missed a beat and never spooked.  My eyes started to sting because of all the smoke and it would have been nice to see the view, but hopefully we’ll go back and take pictures to share here.  Needless to say, it was a lot of fun and something I’ve needed to do for a while.  I love my kids, and Sunnie and Cali are gems.

Off to get the baby out of bed…

Well one of our fires has really gotten out of hand.  We’ve had quite a few here in the North State that have gotten out of hand but now there’s one that fairly close by that is raging.  The highway we take to get to the Big City is closed down and my favorite lake has fire coming right at it.  There is a really neat 1800’s town that is in mandatory evacuation, and another 1800’s town that could be in danger. 

This is when I wish they wouldn’t have dinked around with the fires when they first started and just snuffed them then.  I do believe that a “healthy fire” is great, but when it is in the middle of July, there is only disaster waiting to happen.  Actually it infuriates me that roads have been closed, logging stopped (mind you, I do not believe in clear cuts, but selective logging), and other enviornmentally dangerous (that’s right, environmentally dangerous, you heard it here first) things have been done around here by the government, namely US Forest Service and BLM.  They’re on my list, both entities.  It is amazing how those entities are no longer managing the forests and public lands but actually locking the public out of them and letting the brush grow without reduction and therefore leading to ladder fuels that let the fires burn in the crown of the trees where it gets out of hand.  Yes, I’ve been there done that.  Did you know that my town actually had a out of control “control burn” back in ‘99 when the BLM thought it might be a good idea to continue with a scheduled burn to get rid of a noxious weed on July 2nd on a windy day!  Oh yea, my town lost 23 houses and thank God that no one was killed as the fire was very fast moving and utterly devastating.  What do we have now?  We have brush, and lots of it where the BLM has refused to come in and clean up their mess.  Yeah, you might say I have a bias opinion but really I believe they’ve become worthless. 

Here’s a direct quote from the BLM’s website: The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) might best be described as a small agency with a big mission: To sustain the health, productivity, and diversity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.

Interesting, then why the gates BLM?  Oh, and is a noxious weed (that grew back by the following summer of ‘00) worth the lives of people, animals, and land?  Our mountains are still scarred.  Do they care?  I really don’t think so.  And yes, I’m on a rant but this has happened too many times.  I pick on the BLM and other government agencies because they seem to think that the land belongs to them and not us as the people.  They shut us out, stop the logging which shuts down roads in which we could use to fight the fires and also keeps them in complete power which is what they shouldn’t have.  They are here to serve the public, not step on us.

Signing off for now… miffed and upset by the fires.  My prayers and thoughts are with those that are being evacuated and all the history that is about to go up in flames.

Yep, that’s the name of our mystery men band.  Here’s a photo that I caught of them at our local Independence Day parade and I knew that they didn’t belong, they just had to be in some sort of band.  Especially when the girls started bouncing up and shaking their hands. 

Here’s an older picture of them with the description below.  Thank you to Rachelle for finding out who these dudes are!  You have a year’s free access to my blog! 

In your picture, Mr. Purple shirt is wearing sunglasses, the next guy has the blond/black hair, the guy in the middle is in the blue shirt and the last guy has shaved and picked up a set of headphones.  I sent your picture to a friend “in the business” and she got back to me right away and said it is them for sure!  She was unable to confirm what they were doing in ___________.  She said this is an old picture of them.