Riding Through Life One Horse At A Time…Courage Is Being Scared To Death But Saddling Up Anyway!
03 Apr 2019 10 Comments
in Hot Rod Cowgirl, Life, Photography, Writing Tags: Heritage, Hot Rod Cowgirl, Landscape, Life, Lifestyles, Odd beauty, Photography, Surviving, Wild Bill, Writing
A writers life is about those who write words from their heart….
Words that tell our story…
words that share our emotions and our drama…
We can write words to the moon and back…
And this writer loves to capture interesting shots of life with her camera…
I strive for those pictures that tell the story without words…
it’s my way of sharing…
and describing what I hear…
and what I see or experience…
it’s a writer’s heart filled…
with the life I see…
Stay tuned….
10 Jun 2017 32 Comments
in Australian Shepherds, Gratitude, Hot Rod Cowgirl, Photography, Wild Bill Tags: Australian Shepherds, Custom Cars, Dogs, Heritage, Holton Secret Lab, Hot Rod Cowgirl, Landscape, Photography, Surviving, Wild Bill
In a nano second, a blink of life evaporates…
as it trickles through the hourglass of time.
Sunday dawned a typical day for us..
Wild Bill and I had a list of stuff we wanted to do around the ranch…weekends are our only time to catch up on ranch stuff since we run the shop Monday through Friday…
Summers here are my time to shine outdoors….I love working in the yard, watering, spraying weeds and planting more and more flowers…as well as messing with my horses and of course my camera:)
I love being outdoors every chance I get, carrying my camera along to grab photos during magic time light…
Early Sunday afternoon we were formulating our plan of attack, when I noted I felt light headed…and I noticed life around me was spinning out of control…
I told WB that something was wrong and I needed to sit down…aa I sat, I grabbed pictures of our very loved dogs:) From the far left Dasher, the only boy…then Dottie, Fly Bear and Ellie Belle. Fly and Ellie are full sisters…a year a part. We love our dogs, they are protective, ferocious and loyal…and lots of fun…so full of love for us, as we are their family..and they are ours too!
As much as I tried to shrug it off, I felt sick to my stomach…breaking into a clammy sweat, WB called for help as he thought I was having a heart attack or a stroke.
The paramedics arrived shortly and each one of them took extremely good care of me and also took good care of WB. Once Life Flight landed down at the end of our horse arena, I was loaded into the helicopter, WB was already on the road to the hospital to meet us when we landed. My biggest grief was that the dogs did not know what happened and were scared…I tried to get them in the helicopter with me but…that was not gonna fly so to speak!
The rest is history…lots of tests and luckily for me it was not a heart attack or stroke…instead I was diagnosed with severe vertigo. I saw my Dr. Monday morning, she noted how severe the vertigo was and again she thought I was having a cerebral stroke. She sent me back to the ER for another MRI and more tests, it was vertigo but an intense vertigo…it began Sunday afternoon and as of today it is still going…life continues to spin and I am hanging on tight.
I am very thankful it was not a heart attack or stroke…and very thankful for my Dr., our paramedics, the doctors and nurses who took care of us. And all of our sweet dogs are fine too…just glad to have us home. Ellie is glued to my side:)
As life slowly trickles through the hands of time…
it trickles with prayers of thanksgiving for my life!
“Gwen Shoemaker captured the professional photos of us and Ellie…
With Lola, our red 1955 Ford T-Bird for our article in the Oregon magazine “1859.”
May you be blessed with a wonderful weekend! As always…Ellie and I will be back…so hang on!
18 Apr 2017 9 Comments
in Hot Rod Cowgirl, Landscapes, Photography, Summer, Uncategorized Tags: Clouds, Horses, Hot Rod Cowgirl, Kiah, Landscape, landscape views, Photography, Sunset, Wild Bill
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!
21 Feb 2017 12 Comments
in God Bless America, Grief, Hot Rod Cowgirl, Photography, United States Tags: America, Family, God, God Bless America, Grief, Heritage, Hot Rod Cowgirl, Landscape, Photography, Surviving, United States
Last weekend, we traveled to a small community to attend the funeral of a young man who died too young.
The graveside service was packed with all ages of the community where he was born and raised…
They came to pay their respects and to remember this bright young man, who touched their lives with his can do spirit, his fight and determination to live and his heart of gold.
He was an intense part of their lives, as he belonged to the community and they claimed him as theirs, with open hearts of love and compassion for his family and for those of us who knew him.
In a time when America is struggling with civility, honor and respect for their fellow-man, we stood together as a community, remembering and sharing our thoughts while we celebrated his young life.
America whispered hope to me that somber day…there’s still places in America where people are united with honor, truth, civility and respect with Almighty God involved in their lives!
We are one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.
I saw it first hand in the heart of a small community burying its young and I saw it in the eyes of my fellow Americans, as we struggled to understand why his young life was cut short.
As we came together that day, no one said anything about republicans or democrats or Obama or Trump or war or retaliation. Instead we stood together, like Americans do, when we’re faced with something we do not understand.
I pray and hope this young man’s family knows how much they’re loved and their son, grandson, brother, uncle, brother in-law, best friend and friend was very much loved…as we grieve with them.
God Bless Small Town America…God Bless Their Native Son!
11 Feb 2017 17 Comments
in Australian Shepherds, Ellie, Hot Rod Cowgirl, Photography, Wild Bill Tags: Dogs, Ellie, Hot Rod Cowgirl, Landscape, Photography, Sunrise, Weather, Wild Bill, Winter
Juniper Canyon Crazy Snow Dazzle
Happens every few years…
It’s been a long time since we had a normal winter here…
And this year we have a fun winter!
With crazy dog daze play!
“Hey you…I’m the boss and I need to be in the lead!”
And “Who the heck are you anyway?”
You have lots of Dots…and your name is Dotty…and you are my new fur-sister!
And we leave you tonight with wishes for a Cool Crazy Week!
And “Snow Daze” will be continued…stay tuned:)
14 Nov 2016 24 Comments
in Grief, Hot Rod Cowgirl, Landscapes, Wild Bill Tags: Family, Grief, Heritage, Landscape, Life, Odd beauty, Photography, Surviving, Wild Bill
Moments of sometimes…moments of life slipping by…moments where time stands still…moments of life…(written almost four weeks ago)
The last few days my mother in law has been fighting for her life…
We wait and hope….pray and know that God is watching over her.
We don’t know what tomorrow may bring…but we know that today, life is precious and Mom’s life means the world to our family…
Mom Holton not only became my mom in-law, she became my friend. She taught me how to make spaghetti sauce and how to cook calf fries! She was a special lady with a heart of gold…she was a walking life-book to me and I loved that!
We celebrated our 25th anniversary in Hawaii with my sister in law’s family and my in-laws. The last time Dad Holton was in Hawaii was a few days after Pearl Harbor was attacked.
We made special memories with Dad (he is on the right) on that trip, seeing Pearl Harbor through his eyes was bittersweet, as we listened to his recollections of what he saw and what he experienced…
Mom joined Dad Holton in heaven October 23, 2016 with a big celebration to welcome her home. God gave me an image of Dad reaching for Mom’s hand as she stepped into heaven and they began to dance to 40’s music! They loved to dance and I was told they knew how to cut a rug!
I have learned that time is fleeting…life is in the moment and if you miss that moment…I am sorry for you.
Time is much shorter than any of us realize whether you are young or old.
Death knows no age limits…life is precious as every second of time and every memory is eternal…don’t miss it!
04 Oct 2016 10 Comments
in Gratitude, Hot Rod Cowgirl, Landscapes, Photography, Survivor Tags: Heritage, Hot Rod Cowgirl, Landscape, Photography, Sunrise, Sunset, Surviving, Weather, Wild Bill, Wisdom
There is a season, turn, turn, turn…
And a time to every purpose under heaven!
A time to be born,
A time to die…
A time to plant,
A time to reap…
A time to kill,
A time to heal…
A time to laugh,
A time to weep…
To everything, turn, turn, turn…
Stay tuned…much more to come…
Three more verses with photos synced to “Turn! Turn! Turn!” by “The Byrd’s.”
“Pat the cat also likes the Byrd’s…I mean the Bird’s!”
HRCG is over and out with a swish of a very well known tail…my sweet Melody:)
Along with my Aussie’s sweet picture! I love my girl!
Have a wonderful “Fall” wherever you may be!
15 Aug 2016 17 Comments
in Barn Cats, Ellie, Hot Rod Cowgirl, Photography Tags: Barn Cats, Ellie, Hot Rod Cowgirl, Landscape, Photography, Wild Bill
Of a warm summers night in Juniper Canyon…oh how I love this time of year here!
Its heaven on earth to this cowgirl…the sounds of various birds and critters…in the distance I can hear neighbors yet harvesting…and the magical light is soooo pretty!
I’m outside every summer evening and then some to not miss anything! WB likes to watch TV so he does that to relax but for me it’s being outside as much as I can! I love it!
We just got home from a trip to Portland, 550 miles round trip, whew!
As soon as we got home I took off the city clothes and put on the country girl clothes that I will forever be me in…
I do love getting dressed up for special times and things but its hard to take the country cowgirl out of me for very long before I need my jeans or crops this time of year, a simple tee-shirt and of course one of my various cowgirl belts…and I’m home:)
Once I made the change it was Ellie’s turn to play, she usually goes with us but today was going to be a long drive for her as in boring…
I watered my many flowers and also watered my water dog…Ellie loves loves loves water! So we be playing…she is such a good good girl:)
And for reasons unknown Pat the Cat, (he’s the orange one), one of our “Lion” barn cats likes to hang out with Ellie, so he comes up from the barn to visit and he also brought his companion, our other Ellie, named Ellie as she was found in an elevator as a kitten someone abandoned, am so glad that she is ok and doing well! We have Ellie the Cat and Ellie the Dog:)
Sun has set and its getting dark…Stone Coyotes singing on my iPod…love them! I have many fav’s from Outlaw Country on XM radio…love that station!
Same ol’ blah blah me here tonight…I hope you are all enjoying a wonderful summer evening…an having a perfecto memorable summer too! God night all:)
And remember God has the night shift with all your worries…over and out from HRCG, brought to you live from Juniper Canyon on an incredible summer night!
Yee-Haw!!!
08 Aug 2016 32 Comments
in Harvest, Hot Rod Cowgirl, Landscapes, Summer Tags: Clouds, Ellie, Hot Rod Cowgirl, Juniper T Ranch, Landscape, Photography, Wild Bill
Sometimes, I simply take life in and think on it…
absorbing the incredible views of life itself all around me
the beauty of open skies and land you can see without end…I have lived here forever and it still takes my breath away!
fans running as our room is always hot in summer…husbands dozing, Ellie too…windows wide open,
smells like rains a coming, like a nice warm bath in winter…it smells incredible:)
an owl hoots somewhere close to the house as he flies by my window looking for dinner…
my horses are dancing in the moonlight…
night moves…night sounds…Juniper Canyon on a warm summers night…
24 Jun 2016 28 Comments
in Ellie, Hot Rod Cowgirl, Photography, Sunrise Tags: Clouds, Custom Cars, Ellie, Hot Rod Cowgirl, Landscape, Photography, Weather, Wild Bill
I’m back…I’m back…yep I am!
From the adventure of surgery and I’m feeling like me again!
And I hate this part as I feel good enough to do more but my body says “yeah right gf, go ahead and try”…so I’m taking it slow.
But doing more each day…grabbing life and as usual hanging on tight for the ride of my life! It always feels dang good too…that ride thing on my horse’s back:)
I am truly sorry for being so long in posting a new post…I have thought of you all daily but I have been too tired to do much of anything.
And last week we had a severe weather alert…and a tornado warning….scary yes and whoa…tornado?
Here in this corner of Eastern Oregon we do not get tornadoes…ever…and now it is becoming a common experience each year with a tornado alert!
OK Kansas., now quit that…you can keep the tornadoes and we will keep our peaceful fluffy white clouds along with the man in the moon each night!
And we have hit over a 100 degrees already…unheard of in June here…another record and a first…not good for the wheat at all!
And I’m back…all is well and all is ok! I have tons of pictures to capture to make up for lost time and posts! Hang on and know I am not going anywhere! Wishing you all a wonderful evening with good stuff from me…
HRCG, Ellie, Melody, Dasher, Tucker and Wild Bill we’re over and out for now…but not for long!
Hang tight and enjoy the daily delights of summer once again!
Hot Rod Cowgirl 
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