Isaac delivers...we got rain!

We really needed the rain, but I wish that Isaac didn't cause the floods he did.  Everyone is in our thoughts and prayers.

We ended up with about 3" of rain here, and the first night we got home this is what I expected to find - bit I didn't!  Everyone was clean and slick as you please!  I guess the warm rain just felt good, and it felt good washing the old dust away.

All so they can make new dust!  Both Red and Wyoming had rolled in the mud and looked quite pleased with themselves.  I don't blame them...it has been a long hot dry summer.  It felt good just looking at them!

Until later....Karen and Tripp who wants everyone to know HE rolled in the mud too!  It just isn't these two...geesh!

I am Hemi and am hacking the blog! Woof woof!

Hi, Hemi here and I think I deserve to have my own blog post.  I should not have to share with hay hauling, a pirate girl, or a boy throwing hay bales around.  Oh, don't forget the old guy on the tractor who made me walk around the field instead of riding with him!  And the tractor, I had to share a blog post with a tractor!  A TRACTOR!  REALLY???

Here I am with two of my family members who love me.  I am a lucky dog because everyone loves me!

Here is my serious face...

Here is my "Dang it is hot out here and where is my ice water?" face...

I have the girl wrapped around my little dew claw!  Okay, my dew claw really isn't that little...but she is wrapped around it anyways.  Woof!  Look!  I got to swing and had so much fun!  Once I got used to the movement I was good at it.  I think surfing will be next!

This is my "I am watching the world go by" look when they take me for a ride...

This is my "Don't move because I am comfortable" look....

This is my "It is raining and a perfect time for a snooze" look...

This is my "It is raining and a perfect time for a snooze" look...but with a little bit of leaf drama from the wind...

This is my "LOOK!  CAR!" look....

This is my "Zzzzzzzz snort snort" look while sleeping on the girls leg...

This is what I would be doing if I was a human man....sleeping on the couch with the remote controls close by...

This is me in the back seat of the truck wondering why I can't sit in the front...

This is me happy to be going for a ride in the truck, and the girl let me up front for a picture.  Not really...I just pushed right up there and she thought it was funny...

This is me being a HAPPY DOG HAPPY DOG!!!

Are you impressed with this one?  I am!  I am in the car looking out, and the boy is taking a picture!  If you look closely the girl is in the seat next to me.  Yep, I am an artistic dog...with out me, this would just be another picture of a car window...

Mmmmm, tastes like butt!

This is me and my girl...self portrait time.  See how serious I am?  Yep, I am a bad butt dog...I am not allowed to say "ass"...snort woof!

I am Hemi, and I am an awesome dog!

Until later...Karen and Tripp Hemi who is TOP DOG around here!

I am lucky...I have horses...

I have loved horses since I was a little kid!  I remember when I was little, some girl my parents knew had this big bay Arabian who was a firecracker!  He was awesome!  She was selling him and I still remember the night the girl let me ride him bareback.  I rode down the dirt road, towards a lot where someone was working and they had a dumpster out there.  The other side of that, the dirt road split into a Y and went up a hill to the left, and up a hill to the right.  I was headed to the right.  We rode by the dumpster and cats jumped out of it.  Sultan spooked and I held on!  Whew!  That was scary!  Then we headed to the road that went up the hill and he TOOK OFF!  Oh my gosh, what a rush!  I was so happy riding that big bay horse named Sultan!  We came back to the house and Mom and the girl were freaking out - was I okay?  YES!  I WAS SO HAPPY!  She said she forgot to tell me to stay away from the hill because he always runs up them.  I am glad she didn't remember to tell me...
It was also a sad day...I was the oldest of a bunch of kids, and Mom and Dad needed something that we all could 'play' with.  We got a freaking piano instead!  Ha ha!
They were right...I was the only one who would have benefited from having a horse like that.  :-)

Since then I have taken a lot of hard knocks along with a lot of great times.  I have never lost the passion of horses, even when I went thru my scaredy cat stuff after taking a few hard hits off Boom.  The passion was still there...I still pictured myself riding....I just had work to do to turn into that little kid I once was.  I am not that little kid who was fearless and never worried about hitting the ground.  I am much more cautious, but I still have that little kid passion and picture myself riding fast in my head!  :-)

I am lucky...I still have horses in my life.....

I ride almost every day, even if it is just for a few minutes.  There were a lot of summer days like that this year.  I just wanted to get on, so I would mosey around a while, then go cool off.

Brian caught me and Tripp riding the other night...

I always thank Tripp for a great ride and also for not so great rides...whether it was long or short...I am always grateful he let's me get on his back.   I am always grateful he trusts me enough to go the places we go.

This is a repeat picture from a previous post...but it is one of my most joyful moments.  When I can sit out there and they come to explore.  Treat or no treat, they always hang out with me.

Tripp is curious with that weird thing Brian is holding... 
Tripp is very social, and we have one other that will be like him.  That is Joker, the mustang Brian got when we brought Tripp home.  Joker is very social and is just plain funny.

Tripp always has smooches for me...and I love it!  He lets me blow lightly into his nostrils and sometimes he will make faces, while other time he doesn't move at all...

Here is another one I have been hanging out with.  Wyoming.  I will need to do an entry about Wyoming and the journey he took from the moment we picked him up to now.  Anyways, Wyoming was ready for me to start riding him again - it was me who was not ready for a while.  :-)
Once I started, I have kept up with it, and like Tripp, it might be for a few minutes here and there....but it is still almost every night.

Red is another one I ride a few minutes here and there.  As I write this I feel bubbly inside....I have 3 horses that I don't think twice about getting on!   A few nights I also rode Nevada, so there were some nights I got to ride 4 horses!  Wow!  How cool is that?
 

Red and Wyoming get along pretty good.  Red is the dominant one, but he is not at all mean.  He is just the leader with this group.  Horses understand this better than people do.  When I get on Wy, Red has been tagging along.  :-)  He is another very social boy and loves to be close. 

I still have a little phobia about leaning back and touching rumps...that is what freaked Boom out and I have not completely gotten over that yet.  But lookie here....I am touching Wy's rump!  :-)
I make a point of doing this every single time I ride, no matter who I am on...it is the only way I will get better and more comfortable and it is good for them too.

 Batman wanted a picture with us....SMILE!
See Tandee thru the barn door?  She was nickering letting me know she was done eating, and she was not happy that she had to wait. 

Yep, I am lucky...I have horses....

The weather seems to be changing a bit and we have cooler days mixed in with the hot ones.  That will make it easier to stay out longer to do what I need to do with each of them.  We are also going into shorter days - ACK!  Don't like that at all!  It is all good tho...because I have horses.  :-)

Until later...Karen and Tripp who says he is lucky because he has his own girl.

Brian threatened to take this picture to my chiro...

Aw man, you all know how it is!  You get a favorite pair of something, anything, and you don't give it up until you absolutely have to.  The toes of these have holes, but water doesn't leak in the bottom so what is the problem? 

Oh, look at those shapely wear patterns on the heels!  Brian threatened to take this picture to my chiro if I did not retire them.  Brian didn't understand why I still wore them - I have other boots to replace these.  Well yes I do!  But I didn't want to get them dirty!  Plus these are more comfy.  :-)

I took the threat to heart and have not worn them since...I am going to turn them into flower pots!  :-)

Until later...Karen and Tripp who can finally take me out in public without being embarrassed by my boots. 

Little bit of this and that...

I LOVE BATS!!!!  They are so fascinating...even when they are outside of the entrance door at a hospital.  Brian's Mom was in the hospital and we went up to visit (ended up taking her home!  Yay!) and when we walked out, Brian noticed this cute little thing at the top of the wall.  You can tell how small it is comparing it to the wasp nest next to it.

I was out feeding and watering and Brian hollers at me...and hollers again.  Of course me being me is thinking "I AM COMING ALREADY!  (insert mumble mumble here about how there better be bone showing!  GEESH!" 
I come around the corner and this is what I see!  HA HA!  This is great!!!  This is Rico, and he has the conformation of a well, I really don't know.  Sometimes he looks like a giraffe because his head is always so high, other times he just looks like something I can't explain.  But it doesn't matter...just because he doesn't have the perfect conformation others would like doesn't mean he won't make a nice little trail horse.  Plus, he lives here so nobody else should care. 
We think part of it is because his Mom was sick when Rico was a foal, so he had a rough start.  It took him a while to mature...he is a love bug!  A very pushy in your space love bug.  :-)

Brian was having fun jumping all over him.  One of these days I won't be surprised if I don't come around the corner and see Brian up on him!

This is an evening of storm clouds that went right by us.  Areas around us got some rain....but not us.  It sure was pretty tho, and I am always glad to hear someone got the rain.  :-)

Red, a.k.a. Romeo, is waiting outside of the door for Tandee to be done.  He is one of the 'Equine Hoover' critters we have around here.  Whatever Tandee doesn't clean up in the barn, he gets.  And if there is enough I take some to the rest of the bunch so they all get a nibble of the good stuff.

 Views like this touch the soul...

ME:  Awwww, they love me!
THEM: Treats?

It has been a dry, hot, long summer, but a good one.  Brian and I always have something to do around the place and don't seem to get very much done - but we love our life! 

Until later....Karen and Tripp who loves our life too!

Hay Hauling Day in the Field...

Brian and I have a hay field with his Dad...well, the field is his Dad's but we are in on the hay part of it.  We were not sure what we would get off it, but it needed to be cut...we went up one day to cut/bale/haul.  We got about half the amount we usually get, but it was enough to get his Dad almost set for winter hay for his horses.  We already have hay ordered in our area (2 hrs away from his Dad's place) so we will be okay...altho I will feel much better once it is ALL delivered and in the storage lot. 

Anyways....here is an account of our day, in no particular order. 

Brian's Dad was backing the baler into the shed.

Check out the sky and clouds...it was such a beautiful day!  Oh wait!  Who is that handsome man stacking hay?  

 Hemi and I walked around the perimeter and thought this was a neat view.  Brian and Madison are at the trailer to the left and Brian's Dad is on the tractor on the right.

Brian and Madison at the trailer waiting for bales.

Brian and Madison...

There was not much room on the trailer for Madison and I, so we watched them go around the field baling and stacking.

Funny faces from funny people...

I like this picture...what a pretty day!

Another shot of a pretty day!  It was so peaceful out there.

Scary girl getting ready for a horror movie ....

"What?  You want me to WALK?  Will I have to walk far?"

Okay, I will suck it up and walk...let's follow the tractor as it rakes hay.  Hmpf!  Why can't I ride up on top with that guy?

Oh my gosh, we finally made it around!  I see the hay trailer up ahead!  Whew....that is a long ways!

Finally!  My shade spot under the truck!  I think I will rest.

No thank you, no more walks for now.  I am still resting.  Please get my water bottle... (and of course I did because when Hemi says "Jump!" I ask "How high?"  Ha ha!)

"Can you see me?  I bet you can't because my eyes are closed!"

Brian's Dad...

Another picture of Brian and Madison...

National Swing a Bale Hook like a Pirate Day!  Aye Matey!

Moment of laughter.....

Madison on hay trailer before we got kicked off.  :-)

Self portrait!

Daddy Long Legs....

Brian and Madison...

The End....of a great day!

We had a fun day and the weather was gorgeous!  Like most areas right now, we need some rain...but it could have been a lot worse.  At least we got some hay put up.

Hang in there everyone...we are getting closer to Fall and hopefully we will get some Fall rains.

Until later...Karen and Tripp who thinks we should have brought a couple of bales back with us as a treat!