Turtles, Self Portraits and Ropes....

We had some crazy storms here today! When it is raining sideways you know it is doing bad stuff somewhere! I read in the paper that it rained 4 inches in 10 hours. No wonder there is mud.....again. It could be much worse tho!

Brian and his daughter Madison found this little snapping turtle in the front yard. We have seen all kinds of them on the roads - but not here. Some people would have wacked him on the spot, but not us! I think they are cute and amazing creatures. Notice the bug on his shell - I think it is a filled up mosquito!



This is the beginning of week #6, and Tripp and I have not done a self portrait since the first couple of days! I am slacking off...I am usually the Self Portrait Queen! We took so many of them because he kept trying to smell the camera. We laughed and laughed....okay, I laughed. :-)




I am not a roper, but tonite I made like I was one! Brian's Dad got an old lariat rope at an auction and I have had it hanging on the fence waiting to play with it. I had forgotten it was there until tonite. The sound of the coils hitting eachother didn't even phase Tripp. He listened, but that was about it. He is still kind of buggy with his rump, so I made a big loop and looped it over his rump, then put the coils over Tripps head. I walked around and he followed me, even with the rope hanging down his back legs. SWEET!




Then I pulled the rope off his neck and tugged on the rope that was still on his rump....just to see if he would follow me. He did, and I almost didn't get this picture of him coming over the bridge and timbers with the tarp as a distraction on the bridge. No worries. Then I took the rope off him and started swinging it over my head. I have the basic wrist action to rope, I just have never officially roped anything. I need one of those fake cows. OH! I need to get a Hydra Bull like Tracey's neighbor has! Now that is a neat deal! It is a little out of my price range tho. Oh well...I will have to make a cow head of my own! Anyways, I walked around swinging my loop and he followed the end of the rope dragging behind me. He could care less about that big clumsy loop flying over our heads - what got his attention was the hairy end of the rope! He kept snorting at it. Okay, new thing to work on. I have a feeling I will find little quirky things for a very long time!




I worked with all 4 feet tonite - YAY! I remembered to do it this time! He is a doll with the fronts, but the rears are a little tougher. He was still good, but I have to work at it. We will get there.

We also worked on trailer loading. This time I walked around the trailer and was hitting on the side making all kinds of racket. I opened the little side door and played with the latch, then I slammed it shut. It is only a 12 ft stock trailer so there is only so much I can make noise with. At first he was snorting at the side of the trailer, then walked right up to it to check it out. He is a very curious fellow, and if he is nervous he will look at me. Almost like he is asking me to help him be brave.
We then opened the big door and it didn't phase him. I walked up to it and walked away a couple of times, then he followed me up with both front feet. I stopped him and backed out - we did that a couple of times. Then we went for it again - he followed me right in! I planned on doing the in and out 3 times (I like odd numbers) but while he was standing outside of the door after #3, he stepped up there again. Okay, no arguments out of me! Which of course meant that we had to do it again to keep the numbers odd. Well, that time as he stepped off that popping noise happened and it startled him. So we decided we had to go in and out at least twice more. No problem at all! We think we found the source of the popping noise. At times when he moves, it shifts the trailer and the metal is hitting the cinder blocks we have all around the thing.
This was the first thing we did for the evening, and I didn't have the camera out there. BAD KAREN! My Arab mare was hanging out with us - like she was cheering him on. They would touch noses, have a short conversation, then she would turn away and he would proceed with what we were doing. I think I might take her along for his first ride. They are friends, and it is sweet to watch them. I have even started feeding her next to him.

We have a 5 mile loop that I used to ride all the time. It is all dirt road and will be perfect for a short ride, plus a way to get him used to the tin can sounds. As long as it isn't too muddy to get the trailer out, my goal is to take him for his ride this weekend.

It was a good night in spite of the mud - we made the most of it. The mud is easier to deal with now that he is more comfortable with things. Early on it made me very nervous.

Thanks for checking in on us! Have a great day/night!

Karen and Tripp