Pumpkins, Soccer and Fall.

It's been one of those absolutely delicious fall days here in Maine. The sun has been shining, the temps mild but not hot and with rain last night everything is green and dewy looking. I rode Lil' (Little Bud) Bud and he went like a well oiled machine for me in the ring. He is such a good horse and wants to please. His ears are always up and forward, eager to go. I only rode about 25 minutes and then cooled him out and took him for a walk down the back road to a field that has some nice clover in it. He snarfed that down as fast as he could and then we walked back to the barn and I hosed him off with nice warm water, well except his feet, I always do those first with cold water and work my way up. We've had some hunters on our property so I am a little nervous about going too far out in the woods now.

Carol Anne over at Carol Anne's Boutique is having a wonderful give away with all kinds of pretty fun things. Take a hop on over and sign up, maybe you'll be the one to win! Of course then you will have to share with me! Not really, but it sounds good. :o)

Saturday morning we went to Mr. D's soccer game. You've all heard the term that it's like herding cats, well this was about like that! It was so much fun watching all the little squirts learning how to play and putting their all into it. Some times they kicked the ball into the wrong net but were praised for having a good kick. They don't keep score as this is an instructional league.

These pictures are in backwards as I am still having my Blogger issues..........grrrrrrrrr......... This shot is when the game was over and they were all saying "good game" to the other team.


Getting ready to play goalie. Is that what you call it in soccer? I have a lot to learn as Son played football not soccer.

Miss T was doing some handstands on the sidelines and wanted me to get a picture! Is that nice and straight or what?! Now I want all of you to do one along with me.........

Good kick and it was going in the right direction!

Me and Miss T. Once again I have porta potties in the background! Sigh.......

That is her other grandparents to the right, Mimi and Bampie.

After the game Miss T had a birthday party to go to so D came home with us. We had some lunch and then decided we would go out and get some pumpkins. They aren't as plentiful this year, the man at the veggie stand told us that half the crop was lost due to all of the rain we had in June and July.

It's hard work picking out just the right ones!

The trunk was full! :o)

Saturday is our Paws On Parade fund raiser that we have each year for the Humane Society. We have been working on it for months and I think we have all of our ducks in a row plus are just keeping our fingers crossed that we don't get rained out like we did last year. We had it a couple weeks later so all was not lost but when you are already to go it's disappointing when you have to postpone. We have lots more to do there this year with more vendors and more demonstrations. I will be there, camera in hand ready to catch all of the excitement on film! :0)

After that we will be getting into Disney mode. We can't wait to head down to Florida with the kids, grand kids and DIL's family. We are all staying at the same resort right next door to each other so that will make it much easier. There will be 13 of us going together this year. My camera will be just a clicking for ten days!

The farrier was here tonight to do Little Bud's feet. He didn't have to patch his hoof this time! (doing the VERY happy dance!) He broke a big chunk out last month and had to have some bondo put on to fill it in. It stayed in place perfectly which was nice. I didn't know he was coming but looked out the kitchen window and the lights were all on in the barn and there was his truck.

I made a pumpkin pie today out of a different brand of pumpkin, Libbies, and it was excellent. If I didn't know the difference I wouldn't have known. I still like my One Pie brand but if you can't get it you go with next best. Everyone is scrambling for their pumpkin this year due to the shortage. It just wouldn't be Thanksgiving without a pumpkin pie now would it?!

Random Friday

I haven't done a Random Friday in a long time so decided today was the day to get back into the routine. Fall has arrived and I am in hog heaven! Love the cooler days and cold nights, love not having to run the air conditioner at night to be able to sleep. Love the sounds of the wind blowing through the trees as the leaves start to turn in color. Yes, fall is my favorite time of year by a landslide! :o)

Miss T has decided that Kipper pony is not as exciting to ride as Lil' Bud. She has been riding him for the last month or so and really enjoying it. We all know that ponies aren't as easy to ride and love to be naughty and stubborn sometimes so I can hardly blame her. Lil' Bud is so easy to ride, smooth and at age 22 has gotten all of the foolishness out of him. Not to say that he doesn't have get up and go as he still is frisky and ready for a good run when you want to. Taylor's riding instructor is coming here now to give her lessons so she hopped on Lil' Bud and took a few runs around the ring and commented that he still has a good engine going. :o)

One day when the Hubs and I were watching the grands we decided to take them to visit the petting zoo/farm that is nearby. They love to go there and see the animals that are so well taken care of. Everything is clean and neat, the animals all look good and are so friendly especially when you have a handful of grain in your hand. We always take a lot of quarters with us so they can buy plenty of grain.

Another favorite time of year for me is hay day. I love seeing that big hay wagon pulling into the drive way. (Do I need to get a life or what?) We also get our shavings for the year that day and put everything up in the loft on the conveyor. It always smells so sweet with that nice fresh hay and the scent of the shavings.

Nick was watching them pull into the yard.

First go the shavings.

Then the hay wagon pulls in and that is loaded into the loft. I just love looking at a hay loft just packed full!


I've been decorating for the fall season. Another reason it's my favorite time of year, l love to decorate. I'll be adding and changing things around all season. I have orange and brown little lights in the decorations over my kitchen cupboards and on the mantle. It looks so pretty at night.

With the shortage of pumpkins that we have this year I won't be putting as many around the gardens and on the steps. Waaaaaaaaaaaa! I do have the artificial ones that I use at Halloween and they are pretty realistic looking so I will just use those. The pumpkin crop was a disaster this year due to all of the rain we had in June and July. Everyone is scrambling for canned pumpkin for pies at Thanksgiving and Christmas, myself included. I think I may have an 'in' though, my brother works nights at Shop and Save and will be there if and when some comes in!!

The wind is howling here today so the horses are running through the pasture kicking up their heels. I love watching them. They will be going back to the stable around the middle of October when we go on vacation and I dread it more every year. I love having them right here so I can see them and go out and pamper them any time I want. Darned old neighborhood restrictions! Maybe some day we will take on City Hall again to see if we can have them here year round. Other then that we would have to move our house, barn, etc further out on our land and that isn't even plausible. I'm blessed to be able to have them here as much as I can!!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!!

Texas The End

The days were flying by much faster then we would have liked. We headed back to Fort Worth as there was more to see. I found myself in jail quite soon after we arrived but thankfully Hubby bailed me out. Wouldn't be the first time. Just kidding! Really!

Seeing as I have no pride here is the picture of me on Big Jake. (I don't know who is bigger but that's another whole post!) He was a very docile longhorn and seemed to like the attention. The cowboy liked the $5.00 he got for letting you set on Big Jake long enough to take a picture.

These orchards were in the lobby of the hotel. They were just gorgeous!!!

George Strait, need I say more......

This was the pool area that we did not get to use due to the rain but it was nice to look at each day when we walked by.

One night we went to a Mexican restaurant called Papasitos. It was very good even for someone who isn't very adventurous with their food. Mine was the shrimp hanging over the plate. The desserts were out of this world. I had chocolate bread pudding with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I would make the trip back to Dallas just for that!

We wore jeans and boots that night so I snapped a picture of my boots while waiting in the lobby.


This guy was holding the menus in one of the restaurants.

We had ribs one night and they were delicious. I could only eat about half of this serving as it was so huge. It seemed like we did a lot of eating on this trip!

We were quite anxious to see the Kennedy Museum in downtown Dallas. (We weren't allowed to take any pictures.) They put headphones on everyone when you walk in and you stop at each exhibit and listen to what the pictures were all about. It was very moving to say the least and almost brought tears to my eyes on more then one occasion. It gave us a very eerie feeling standing by the window where Lee Har*vey Os*wald stood when he assassinated President Kennedy and to drive past the plaque along the street that marked the spot where it happened.
If you ever go to Dallas don't miss this museum that so vividly shows that tragic part of our history.

We left there and went to the Thomas Kincade Gallery. If you like his work this is the place to go! I drooled over each and every picture and finally decided on one for our foyer. It arrived the day after we got home but was damaged slightly on the top edge of the frame so it left to go back this morning via Fe*d Ex. I hated to send it back but another one will be shipped out as soon as they get that one back and then I will post a picture.

We loved the Frederick Remington gallery and once again couldn't take any pictures but believe me if you have an interest in western art this place is amazing.

It was a fun trip despite all of the rain. The locals were rejoicing as I guess it's been very dry there this summer. We certainly saw lots of beautiful places and things and I would love to go back again. The shopping was wonderful, I had to sit on my suitcase to get it closed when we came home!

Guess that's it for my Texas Saga. I think next year this board meeting will be held in San Antonio! Yippee!

Texas Part Two

Day two of our trip was as rainy as the first but it didn't stop us from doing some looking around and visiting some legendary places. We went to Billy Bob's to check that out and to see what all the fuss was about. We got there when it opened at 6 o'clock, we aren't seasoned clubbers and didn't realize the action didn't start until at least 9 o'clock!

The food was not the highlight of the visit. My arteries were screaming for help!
There is a lot to see there and it looks just like it does in the movies only a lot bigger! They told us on a busy night it can hold 6000 people! Yikes! I get claustrophobic just thinking about that! There were pool tables galore, arcade games, dancing, a band which started at 9, Clay Walker was the featured singer that night, gift shop, the obligatory mechanical bull and believe it or not real bull riding inside! Lots of memorabilia to look at, tons of hamburger buns sighed by different celebrities and somehow preserved and in frames on the wall. We looked around at everything and being the high rollers that we are left about 7:30! :o)

Earlier in the day we drove around out in the country to get off the highways for a while and to see some of the horse ranches that were in abundance. This is the barn at one of them with a wing on each end of the main building with stalls for the horses. It was a little private community where you could live and board your horses in this facility. It was very fancy and the homes looked to be very pricey. It was fun looking at them though, didn't cost a penny.

This big statue was one of two that was at the entrance. Lots of beautiful horse statues around, I would love to have one on my front lawn!


This was our 'water view' from our hotel room on the 18th hole of the golf course. One morning there was a man out there fishing. I don't think he caught anything.

This looks up from our building towards the main part of the hotel. We were in one of those two story buildings across from these. It was very nice, the room was nice and big and the service was impeccable. It's fun to come back to your room at night and find the bed turned down and everything tidied. I could get used to that.........sigh.......


Here are some more pictures of the Cowboy Hall of Fame. They were scenes from cowboy days and it was very realistic looking.

I really liked the display about the rodeo clowns. This is not an occupation for the faint at heart!

They actually get inside this barrel and the bulls sometimes roll them around. Yikes! I'll pass. It's such an important job though as it keeps the cowboys from some really serious injuries.


There were lots of saddles in the different booths. I liked this one but can't remember who donated it. It looks really comfortable doesn't it?

We decided we should try to find the ranch where we were going to go horseback riding so that we wouldn't be late on the scheduled day. It was about a 45 minute drive from the hotel and we found it quite easily. It wasn't what we expected, it was in a housing development! I think what had happened was this place was there first and then got built around until it was almost surrounded. It looked from the road like they had land in the back sort of like our situation here. As it turned out we didn't get to ride. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! I know, it was tops on my list but it wasn't safe for the horses to be on the trails even if it had stopped raining. There was just so much mud it would've sucked the shoes right off their feet and we all know how we hate that. We had a nice talk with the owner the night before and understood perfectly why he didn't want his horses out under those conditions. Made me respect him for not grabbing the money and going for it as some would do. Will definitely try to go back there when we are in Dallas again sometime.

Hubby and Son are on their way home dragging their tails behind them tonight. They went to New York with the Patriots team yesterday and to the game today which they lost. Sad but true. They went out to dinner last night and even ate sushi!!!! Gag! People from Maine just don't eat stuff like that! Well most of us don't anyway. Well I don't.

Guess that's it for tonight. Will post Part Three in a day or so, I know you are just on pins and needles waiting for the next installment..........heehee!