Hot Rod Cowgirl

Foggy winter days descend on Juniper Canyon…ranging between gloomy gray days and more gloomy gray days!

Between freezing fog, icy roads…cold temps and snow…winter has arrived in the North Country!

This year I decided to fight the gloom instead of succumbing to the dreariness at hand. Thanksgiving week reminded me to make my yearly list of gratitude and blessings to share at dinner on turkey day.  The day after Thanksgiving, I thought why not keep my gratitude list going…remembering good stuff and good times while adding them to my “Christmas Cheer and Twinkle List.”

 “And I’m making my list to see who was naughty or nice..and I’m checking it twice!” Ok I’m snickering and I hope you are too. It’s more fun to remember the silly times, the good times…and the heart of your memories that only you can share…I love it! Makes me laugh and cry at the same time while keeping a heart full of country cowgirl gratitude.

I’m thankful for my life and the many blessings in my life…ten years on 2-9-2016…get your mammogram!

My first blessing of gratitude is my hubby….I love “Wild Bill” and appreciate him everyday. I am blessed to be his and to call him my soul mate, husband and best friend:) He always makes me smile:)

“I’m coming Melody…hang on”…as I am slip sliding down the hill to feed her breakfast. I love each of my horses forever, once they come to live with me, they are my forever horse…and I love my Melody. I am thankful for all my horses and having the privilege of riding horses all my life while growing up on a cattle ranch.

I thought everyone had a cattle ranch as a kid…eventually, I came to realize how lucky and blessed I was to experience life on a remote cattle ranch. Without radio, television or any kind of civilization, ranch life taught me a lot of life skills of survival. You learn to think outside the box…when its you and often you alone…you learn how to problem solve as you have to figure it out.

During the summer and fall months, I grabbed on to each day to ride for cows with my Dad…and almost everyday we did just that…25,000 mountainous acres and 800 head mama cows with babies and several head of bulls…kept us busy all summer and fall.

Each day that I look out our windows, I love our log fence…yup it’s a keeper…its great for capturing interesting views year round! I love the look and it fits this old ranch house!

I love my 60′ round corral with nice sand footing…and our barn cats give it a four paws up on their 60′ litter box!

And then there is our “Tucker Watch Girl”…she can be very serious! She is such a blessing to us as she is always waiting for us and follows us where ever we go!

Tucker is in the back of the Aussie pack and bashful…then Kiah as she is in front of Tucker…then Dasher who is in front of Kiah…and in the lead is Mr. Auzzie….all four of our dogs in this photo are rescue Aussies…we love them each individually and as a pack…they are amazing dogs, super smart and so loved:) By the way, Kiah is half-sister to Ellie, our sweet two year old girl!

And then, there are horse’s soft noses:) Nothing like their breath mingling with yours…and their smell is truly heavenly…sounds silly unless you know this horse owner fact too that, cleaning a horse stall does not smell bad at all! Horses are blessings to the heart and soul…and they give me peace with lots of happy smiles. When I get on my horse, WB says I get this little girl smile on my face of pure joy:)

And my Minnie Mouse…she was beautiful in heart and spirit…she knew when you were sad and she knew when it was time to celebrate…she was with me for almost 20 years. She crossed the rainbow bridge a bit over a year ago…it was incredibly hard. I am thankful for every year of her sweet life and for everyday that she was with me, she was my kitty girl and wherever I went she was with me. She was an incredible kitty girl…I was blessed beyond imagination:)

Back to my round corral…I seriously love it! I appreciate the hard work WB and our cowboy son Curt put into building it for me. I will do a post on that someday soon!

I am thankful for the blessing of Ellie…she makes me laugh every day and is full of love with lots of heart. She walked with me through sad times and grief when I lost Minnie…she was gentle and loving during our hard days. I’m sure Minnie asked God for a helper knowing how hard it would be for us when she crossed the rainbow bridge and Ellie Belle is my helper and so much more…she is my buddy, my joy and my heart:)

The gloomy gray days of fog can only be gloomy, if we choose them to be. Instead I smile, bundle up in my Carhart’s grab my camera and head out to find something to photograph. Whether I am inside the house or outside, I seek to do things that make my heart sing! Inside the house I often crank up my tunes and dance…wood floors make it super fun too:)

Smile…click click click…gotcha!

We are blessed to call this spec of earth our home…especially with shots like this:)

Being grateful is one of the best gifts we can give to ourselves…loving what we have instead of what we don’t have…if we can focus on the positive instead of the bad…the good more than the bad…we’ll find peace and smiles…

Wishing you all a warm week and weekend ahead…we have snow, freezing rain, winds are blowing and its cold! I need some tea or eggnog to warm up:)

It’s time to decorate the Christmas tree…Ho Ho Ho…HRCG Over And Out For Now…But Never For Long:)