Its Coming…Warm Days And Crazy Summer Nights!

It’s coming…

Warm days and crazy summer nights!

We are popping green here!

With more rain than usual…and weird to see moss growing on top of the soil under my log fence and moss on the trunks of trees…

This is Eastern Oregon…we are always dry here except for the last few years…crazy!

Dasher agrees…its time for crazy warmer days…

With green hills of wheat and incredible sunsets!

I Miss My Sweet Kiah…she would have loved both Ellie and Fly Bear!

An Aunt to one and a Great Aunt to the other…I miss you so much girl!

For now we have warmer spring days…

And my smart alack horse smiling at me as I snap her picture:)

Love you My Sweet Melody…you are a song to my heart!

Summer nights are coming….

With Doves sitting on top of my house looking at me as I snap a picture…hmmmm?

Its coming soon…warm days and crazy summer nights!

In The Golden Light Of Life…I Fall Forward Into Fall!

In the golden light of life,

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I fall forward into fall!

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Each year I go through a time of transition between the glorious long days of summer…

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Into the golden surreal days of autumn.

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Memories wash over me…as time passes on…

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We do what we ought of instead of doing what we want…

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Time passes by and people pass on at the drop of a tear…

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And as a warm fall breeze washes over me, it stirs,

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My heart with sentimental memories…tears flow easily as I ponder the whys, whats and woulds…

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Quietly my wind chimes call me back to the present…

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As I fall forward into the season of fall…with a heart full of both grief and gratitude.

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Wishing You A Beautiful Fall, Full Of Autumn Colors Wherever You May Be!

Surviving Storms Of Winter As Life Flows On.

Life flows on like a river, as winter takes hold of our lives in Juniper Canyon.

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Surviving the storms of winter can be tough if you are caught without warning…

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Life can change in the blink of an eye.

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And yet if we persevere with hope…our faith is strengthened in a deeper, stronger way.

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2012 ended with the physical pain of WB’s surgery and the emotional pain of loosing Kiah. Dealing with pain itself can be a life storm…a war that you fight for healing and the return to your normal life.

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Loosing our animal family members is equally hard, as truly our animals are part of us, part of our hearts and part of our humanity. I grab hold of my camera every second I can to capture the ever changing life around me…now if I can find the words to express my heart.

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I do know that we live life everyday, never knowing what each new day will bring…having “faith” to believe that no matter what it brings we will survive.

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God never planned for us to have a perfect life as He wants us to depend on Him.

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Each day the road is before us as we keep our focus and walk on. Life is full of adventure…hard times…exciting times…sad times…learning times, but mostly good times.

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Where ever you are I hope that tomorrow or today or tonight is blessed with perseverance that develops your hope which will deepen your faith…no matter your circumstances.

Kiah Sweet Kiah, Yippee Ki Yi Yay…God Bless You And Keep You Always!

Every once in a while when you grow up living on a ranch…you will own a special dog, a once in a lifetime dog, a dog filled with heart and love for you…and your heart fills with love for them and they become your forever friend…the best dog you have ever had. When we lost Kiah December 30, 2012, we lost one of the best…she truly was our heart, our girl, our silly Ki Yippee Yi and we loved her so much.

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Many of you who have followed my blog have been introduced to Kiah…looking at her face, you can see her heart in her eyes…she was so smart and intuitive as she seemed to know what you were thinking!

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Kiah came to live with us in June 2011…turning a year old in September 2011. A good friend of ours mentioned to us that he knew the breeders were looking for a new home for Kiah and he told them about us. I called them and drove a 400 mile round trip to bring her home:)

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Is she not beautiful? I fell in love with her the second I saw her…her cute face and her beautiful coat of colors. When we got home and she got out of the pick up behind me…my hubby, Wild Bill fell in love with her too. I knew God blessed us with Kiah as we needed her and she needed us:)

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Kiah was immediately part of our hearts…she was full of love and so full of spirit. Our other three Aussie’s loved her too…Auz, the oldest in front just grunted at her and that was it. Dash liked playing with her and she loved to playfully grab his ears in her dog game version of “Speed Runs By Dasher To Grab Ears Hee-Hee.” Tucker in the back was not a huge fan at first as she had been the only girl for several years.

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But Ki loved Tuck anyway and Tucker eventually loved Kiah too but, she was a bit jealous of this new cute doggie girl, who liked to take her toy or stick of the moment away, see it between them? Tuck is daring Kiah to try it. And if Ki managed to get it away from Tucker she would bounce around the yard with the stick doing the dog style of “Neener Neener”…while Tucker would try to keep up barking at her the whole time…it was funny and quite cute to watch as eventually Ki would drop it and let Tucker have it back:)

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Kiah was very very human…she knew what you were contemplating and she understood your emotions in a very uncanny way. I don’t know how to explain it other than to say God made her different. She was a part of you and you immediately connected with her and she with you. She loved to crawl up into WB’s lap as she loved to cuddle…she was a large part of life here, our Kiah girl.

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“Don’t forget us Barn Lions!”  “We loved to watch her torment both Tucker and Dasher with “The Neener Neener Game!” “We just meow-laughed with hee-haw meowsy chuckles…plus we had a good view!”

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I loved her silly smiles and grins when she bared her teeth…and I loved her eyes when she squinted them into little slit eyes that were so cute!

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“Mom…I can squint my eyes and smile showing my teeth too!” I know Minnie and you are my baby too…my kitty angel that I love very much.

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And I know you loved Kiah and she loved you…she sniffed your nose through the window and would smile at you…at first you were sort of like Tucker but then you warmed up to her too.

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“Uh what?” “I didn’t kill the bird Mom really!”

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How can you be mad at a face like this? Kiah had so many expressions, and she was so cute:)

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But she could look mean too…she loved her family as all protective dogs love their family. I just miss her. Everyday I find myself looking for her as she would go hang out in the shop for a while to be sure WB was ok and then she would run up to the house and peek into the windows to be sure I was ok and all was well…then once she knew both WB and I were ok.

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She would do a speeding bullet run up the hill to survey the ranch below circling back down to make sure the horses were ok too.

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My Yippee Ki Yi Yay…

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Who loved sleeping in my dirt flower pots like a curled up colorful doggie flower…ahhhh…make that muddy doggie flower:)

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The day we buried Ms. Kiah…it was getting close to twilight time and I noticed out my kitchen window that the light looked sort of an odd color of gold on the hills…so I grabbed my camera and headed out the door in my socks no less as the light was changing quickly and I wanted to capture a few shots.

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After a few landscape shots I looked up and saw the most incredible golden skies above. None of the following pictures have been photo shopped or light roomed or manipulated…just my eye and my camera took the shots capturing it well…I love my camera:)

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Clouds with all kinds of layers and odd shapes…filled with golden swirls and colors of ember golden light.

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I felt that Ms. Kiah was sending us a message from heaven saying she was well and happy…playing in God’s glory and all was well:) That she would see us again someday when we get to heaven and she plans to be in the greeting party with our parents and family members, along with various horses, kitty cats, and dogs.

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I shot 44 pictures of this amazing sky…the layers of clouds with the incredible light and colors were truly not normal for this area…like Kiah who was unique and full of beauty.

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God is good and I do believe He said something like this…”Ms. Kiah, welcome to heaven you cute little girl:)”

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“Now come over and let Me have a look at you…oh you are so sweet and cute…we are going to send your Mom and Dad a message and you get to pick the colors as you are a colorful little girl…and I made you too:)”

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I could keep going as I have so many more special moments to share with you but, I know having a ton of photos can be boring to your readers at times and I need to learn better how to pick and choose. With Kiah, I wanted to share her heart with you all, as she was so special, and we were so blessed. I hope you have enjoyed seeing parts of her very much loved life with us.

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However, I do have to show you one more short set of a true “Kiah Moment”…a photography sequence that will make you smile…she was good at posing and looking adorable:)

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“What?”

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“Huh?”

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“Oh, yeah I totally agree Mom.”

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Our sweet Kiah may you rest in God’s arms and heaven’s peace…we LOVE you and hold you tightly in our hearts forever.

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We will never forget you…we miss your sweet spirit everyday and night.

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Our Sweet Kiah, We Love You Forever And We Like You For Always. Forever You Will Always Be Our Kiah Girl:)

Psalm 36:6 NIV

Morning Chores On The Juniper T With Fresh Snow And Artic Cold!

Last Sunday, on a typical Juniper Canyon morning the end of  December, we had fresh snow, loverly foggy views and crispy, cold, frigid temps!

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I was out and about doing the usual feeding chores for our dogs, cats and horse’s morning breakfast buffet, while loving on each one of them:) It’s really not a chore, more of a love fest for all my animal kids:)

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As I went out the garage door first, feeding our doggies was top on my list….Ms. Kiah got to eat her breakfast in the garage as she has so much energy she has no fat so she needs lots of calories to keep her weight on. Ms. Tuck and Mr. Dasher Masher both have to watch their figures…so they eat outside.

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Ok guys I’m a coming…hang tight…love you Ms. Mel and Mr. Buck:)

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But first I have to go through the hubbies massive shop and into the century old barn that I love…

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Then upstairs to check on Pat and Jack, our monster orange Lion Cats….and to get Annie’s hay for her breakfast…

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“Did someone say hay?”

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Annie’s horse condo…auto water set up….and hay feeder….cushy rubber mats….nice lights to see and safe…I need more sawdust on the next trip to town….she likes her stall and so does Pat the cat sitting behind the trough…and often Melody stays in the stall across from Annie. You can’t see it but we have a hay chute that feeds her hay from upstairs into her feeder….nice and clean.

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My winter round corral….resting and waiting.

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Annie is waiting too:)

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And, I’m sure she can hardly wait!

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Coming back through “Wild Bill’s” shop…this is one of our latest projects…very cool huh? Every time I see this pick up I hear “ZZ Top” playing “Sharp Dressed Man.”

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Tuck is waiting patiently for me to come out of the shop…

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So is Ms. Melody. She really likes her food…she enjoys every morsel:)

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And Buckaroo Buck looks rather dapper this morning…I’m hurrying guys…trying to not fall on my hind end as it is super slippery today!

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“Ahhhhh…finally…munch munch munch…I love my yummy nummies”. “Life is good again!”  “Wait, Mom, put that camera down…don’t take my picture when I am eating….geez…Buck will think I am being a piggy or something!!!”

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It is dang cold and dang foggy too…the fog can get on your nerves if it hangs for several days and every once in a while that happens as the fog drifts up Juniper Canyon from The Columbia River which is about 20 miles or less from us.

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“Wild Bill I hope you have the coffee on and ready….Good Morning Sunshine:)”

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Last Sunday in a freak accident, we lost our beloved Kiah. She ran to greet me when I was across the road yet feeding horses and she did not see the slow-moving vehicle in the fog. I will share more of her wonderful photos and life in a post soon…right now I have too many tears. She was so gallant, so brave and so loved.

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“I miss you Ms. Kiah…I will carry you forever in my heart. I will like you forever and love you for always. God Bless You My Kiah…My Yippee Ki Yi Yay.”