Falling Oaks Ranch

Why Work

2010-12-30T08:59:00.000-08:00

Has anyone noticed the change in the workforce in the last 30 or so years? It is odd that when folks are working two weeks out of four and continue to complain about having to be at work when they are there, and then complain loudly when asked to work overtime often turning the extra time down. It's disturbing to me . . . Dad taught me to work when I was very young living in New Mexico while he was employed by the El Paso Natural Gas Company. We lived in company housing up and away from the small community of Kirtland. Dad was doing shift-work at the processing plant and in his off hours he would voluntarily work on my Uncle Roy's ranch and on my Uncle Grant's apple orchard. Many nights he would get up in the middle of the night to go to Uncle Grant's orchard to reset the water lines during irrigation season. After the picking season was complete, Dad would often go the orchard and prune the trees to get them ready for the next season. When we were big enough to go with him it was our job to collect the prunings and bring them out of the orchard. I was always excited to go help with the work, maybe not always that much help but definitely happy to be there. It was exciting for me to be in the orchard working. In the summers there was always hay to pick up and put up. I was too small to handle the bales, so they put me in the cab of the truck and gave me the job of keeping the truck headed down the row of hay bales without hitting any of them. Someone would put it in "granny" and I would sit there in the drivers seat and steer it down the field while the men moved around picking up bales and throwing them up on the flat bed to a man up there who had the job of stacking the bales neatly on the truck.

Later on I always wanted a job. I had paper routes for a while. In the afternoon after school I would hop on my bike after school and head down to the La Grande Observer office to collect the papers for my route. I had to stuff and roll all the papers before I could load them in my paper bags on my bike and deliver them. In the morning before school I would be up and delivering the Oregonian. Mel or Mom would spot the papers along my morning route because the Oregonian was so big I couldn't haul all the papers for my route in my bags. The paper routes didn't pay very well though and I didn't make much money, so I was looking for something more lucrative.

I had a friend the worked for the DelMonte cannery in Pendleton during the summer harvesting peas around La Grande, and I thought it would be good if I could get on with them one summer. At the end of the summer harvest the harvesters were driven back to Pendleton to the cannery and my buddy convinced me that the company had a sign up list back at the cannery and that anyone that showed up could sign the list and work for them next summer. We concocted a plan to get me back to Pendleton to sign the work list. The plan was for me to hop on the harvester he was driving as they passed through town and ride along with him. I hopped on as the parade of harvesters made their way through La Grande on the truck route. I managed to climb up and into the grain storage bin up on top of the machine. I ducked down so I wouldn't be seen as we made our way east on highway 84 to Pendleton. Everything went well for a while until we were about half way between La Grande and Pendleton when the crew boss saw me as I popped my head out of the bin to see where we were and how the trip was going. He pulled up alongside the harvester and stopped the parade right there on the highway! I crawled out and got into the back of his pickup at his insistence. I suppose I was lucky he didn't leave me there on the highway to make my own way home. I rode the rest of the way to Pendleton in the back of his pickup and tried my dangest to talk them into signing me on for the harvest next summer but nothing doing. Not only were they mad at me for jumping the harvester but I was a year too young to participate in the harvest. Eventually we all loaded up in the crew bosses rig and made the trip back to La Grande. Once again lucky they didn't leave me sitting in Pendleton to find my own way home.

I learned a valuable lesson that summer . . . There is no easy path to success!

2010 Christmas Morning

2010-12-24T18:30:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to all! I couldn't sleep so I'm up a bit early this morning. Delaine and Anna are snoozing comfortably in their nice cozy beds. The weather has been very nice the last couple of days with no rain to speak of and temperatures in the 50's most days of the week. This year it's just Delaine, Anna and me for Christmas. Devin and Ryan stayed home in Wyoming and Tara and Zach stayed home in Las Vegas. It's really quiet in the house without the grand kids here, they always bring so much energy where ever they go! Mom stayed in New Mexico this year even though I tried to talk her into coming up, and she is at Uncle Darrel's house with his family and I'm sure having a great time. We opted out of traveling too, partly because of the weather but mostly because I have used up all my vacation time earlier this year. I'm thinking of saving a few days next year to take around Christmas time. Anyway, it certainly is nice to have Anna here with us! She is out of school for a couple of weeks then heads back on the 4th of January to begin her second semester. She's in her freshman year and so far is doing very well at BYUI. She changed her major from Animal Science to Speech Pathology, so she will have to transfer to a different college at some point to get her degree. She is hoping to transfer to BYU Provo to continue on that path, and so far her grades are what they need to be to qualify for the transfer. We just have to see if it can be done.

I can't help but think about past Christmas mornings when we were young living in our old two-story house on X avenue in LaGrande . . . the three of us boys would get so excited about the coming of Christmas morning! We usually had to go to our rooms early so Santa would be able to the come, but we rarely got right in bed. We would sit up talking and playing and waiting for Mom and Dad to go to bed. We would watch out the window for Santa to fly over and swear we saw him in his sleigh! Some years we would sneak back down stairs after Mom and Dad were well asleep to inspect our Christmas presents. Every year Santa would bring us some nice presents and leave them by the tree and we could hardly stand not knowing what was there. At times we were even naughty and would use a razor blade to open our presents so we could see what they contained, then we would carefully tape them back up so we could open them on Christmas morning. We were always excited to get up early and rip and tear! Once all the presents were open we usually had a nice big breakfast then spent the rest of the day playing with our gifts. One year we got an HO road race set, and I remember Dad and our uncles spent more time setting it up and playing with it than we did. Not that we didn't want to mind you, but they were having so much fun with it we couldn't get close.

One year I remember a small gift under the tree that came from Granddad Fuentes. It was small and had a question mark on it. It was mysterious in its size and the way it was wrapped with just plane white paper. I remember looking at it every day before Christmas trying to figure out what it could be. Christmas morning that was the first one I wanted to open up. When I opened it I discovered it was my pocket knife I had lost the summer before! All at once the memories of that summer came rushing in. We had been at Grandma and Granddad's place in Luna and Mel, Dale and I were playing out back around the grain storage building as we normally did. I forget what game were playing but I had gone into the storage building and Mel locked me in. I couldn't open the door from the inside and nearly panicked! The door had a screen window in it that let the air in and I had a pocket knife, so I pulled it out and cut the screen so I could unlock the door and free myself. I spun around and stabbed the knife into a bag of grain and run free promptly forgetting about the knife until that Christmas morning. Guess what? I never used my knife to damage anyone's property again and I remember it to this day?

I love Christmas! Maybe next year we can all be together again . . . may we always remember the true meaning of Christmas and my we work to keep "Christ" in our lives this time of year and all year long!

Merry Christmas!

091114 Saturday Morning

2009-11-14T09:15:00.000-08:00

We sat out in the cold, foggy evening yesterday and witnessed Roseburg bury Barlow 47-8. The Indians were on their game last night and look very good though at one point in the 3rd Quarter and fight broke out between a couple of players and one from each team got ejected from the game. Thereafter every holding penalty resulted in a loss of 15 yards for offending team. Other than that it was a clean game. Roseburg moves on in the playoffs to go up against West Salem next Friday. Since it's an away game we won't go but it ought to be a good one.

Now that I'm up, I'm doing this a bit and paying the bills. It's one of those necessary evils of life. Once that's all done . . . I'll be out working on the horse stalls a bit then no doubt make a run to the dump. If there is time left and if the fair grounds are available we will take the horses out this evening for a work out.

Have fun today and be safe . . .

Here we are - Saturday Night

2009-10-24T22:38:00.000-07:00

Anna went to a party at Kylie's house today after our horse ride and is still there. They are watching movies. We watched a movie this evening - The Proposal. It was a funny movie :) I'm not sure it is a movie I would want to watch twice but it was probably worth watching once. I like Betty White and Sandra Bullock.

Oh, did I mention the horse ride. We took the horses out to the Mildred Kanipe ranch today for a trail ride. This is the last weekend we will be able to ride there this year since it will be closing next weekend. The weather was great with the sun peeking out between the clouds most of the day. I didn't even have to wear a jacket. The horses all did very well today with no big surprises. Pretty good considering is been several weeks since we've been on them. One little issue with Dustie and Lacey while going down a fairly steep decline into small valley. There was a ditch in the very bottom and neither horse wanted to go over it to the uphill side. I worked Dustie for a while next to it and finally got her to cross and Delaine took Lacey down the ditch till they found a spot to cross. It was good to have them out.

Mom and Tara, thanks for responding to my I'm curious posting. I've been wondering if anyone reads my blog. I know it's very dry but that's all I have. I'll keep it up and try to post more regular but I can't promise anything

Just Curious

2009-10-23T04:05:00.000-07:00

Does anyone out there still read this blog?

Home Coming Dance

2009-10-10T21:24:00.000-07:00

Remember when you were in High School and you got to go to the home coming dance? I don't . . . but Anna got to go to the dance this evening. She is still there probably dancing and having a great time with her date Oliver. The play saxophones together in the marching ensemble and in the wind ensemble and in the jazz ensemble. Even though she is 17 now and only a few short months away from 18, I worrying about her being out on a date. I guess that's just a dad thing. :) Devin and Tara, you may be surprised to know I had the same feelings when you were out like that. Like you two, Anna is a very good kid and I trust here completely, just worry by nature I guess. Here is a photo of the two of them on their way out the driveway:

Looks like they are already having fun, doesn't it . . .

I'm still here . . .

2009-09-13T10:45:00.000-07:00

I know it's been a while since I posted to this blog, but just wanted to let you all know we're still here and still doing pretty good. Anna is back to school and is very busy with band and other activities associated with going back to school. We've managed to volunteer for the band parents organization so that keeps us occupied when we aren't working and when we aren't doing horse stuff. Once we're back in our groove I'll start posting a bit more often. In the meantime my flickr site is still up so you can enjoy looking at our photos and I log into face book daily.

I hope all of you are doing good . . .

Some of my current concerns:

Health Care/Socialism
9 trillion dollars debt
Mortgage foreclosures
AH1N109

To name a few . . .

Another Fair Coming Up

2009-08-01T17:49:00.000-07:00

We are hardened county fair participants as we have been doing 4H and FFA with the girls since around 1989. Devin and Tara started the whole thing with those dang rabbits. Actually the truth of the matter is that Delaine started it by bringing home a rabbit named Apricot that she picked up for free at the girls swim lessons in Medford. So here we go again for another year. This year of course we're in the Douglas County Fair Aug 4th through the 8th and we will be there from the 2nd through the 9th with the animals. Anna's steer is finished and ready for market and she has delivered 20 buyer letters to misc. businesses throughout the Roseburg area. Of course one went to all previous buyers and then she added several letters to folks that have bought but not from her. We know the economy is in tough condition and the odds of getting a good price at the auction are slim but she'll do her best anyway. Then there is Brazo . . . he'll go in Monday afternoon and Anna will compete in events on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. She will compete in western equitation, showmanship and trail on the three different days. Brazo is more mature this year and more settled so she hopes to score higher than she has in the past with him. I'll try to get off long enough to watch at least one of the events, but I'm not taking the week off.

Along with Anna showing her steer and competing with her horse we will be working the gates a couple of evenings during the week with our Posse group. It's one of our main fund raising events for the year so we need it. Delaine will work in the 4H kitchen at least one day and maybe more if needed.

I scored tickets to the Josh Turner concert on Thursday evening and since I'm not a big fan of Josh Turner I gave the tickets to Anna and Delaine. They will get to go back stage and visit with him and have their pictures taken with him and maybe the band, who knows for sure. I think it will be a good relief for them. Then Friday night is the auction . . . I'm sure we will be there late for that and of course we hope Anna sells early so most of the buyers will still be there.

Anyway . . . wish us luck . . . I'm sure we'll need it.

Story Time

2009-07-11T09:20:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago on Sunday evening Delaine and Anna wanted to go down to Rob Estabrooks arena and ride the horses. Rob lives just down the hill from us and owns and runs rough-stock with his son-in-law, so his place is set up pretty well for riding. I debated on whether to ride or not because I was still a bit sore from our trail ride the previous weekend. My leg and back were still hurting a some. After some kicking it around, I decided I would take Maverick down and work with him and ride him a bit. I've ridden him a couple of time in our round pen so I figured it might be good to get him out into a larger area to see what he might do. Well we rode around the arena a couple of times slowly while stopping next the several bulls Rob had in pens next to the arena. He was perfectly okay with standing there looking at the bulls and showed no signs of excitement really. He seemed pretty well settled after the walk down the hill and several minutes of groundwork so he was doing what I expected him to do. I rode him back to the end of the arena where Delaine and Anna were parked talking with Rob's daughter Amy and her two sons. We set there and talked for a few minutes then I decided to make another lap. As Maverick and I took off and were about 20' from the group headed across the arena at a walk a gust of wind blew up in our faces and it must have caused some sort of reaction in Maverick's brain when all at once he started bucking while standing in place. I stayed on for about three bucks then lost my balance and went over the left side of his neck head first. Luckily I thought or reacted to tuck my head to my chest and roll with it as I hit the ground on my left side shoulder and arm. Amazing my glasses stayed on. My reflexive reaction was to hang on to the reins and Maverick was backing away from me while I was laying on the ground hanging onto the reins. I guess he dragged me a ways until I heard Delaine, Anna and Amy hollering at me to let go of the reins which I did quickly. When I got up I couldn't breathe well because of the blow from my arm and elbow into my ribcage. Amy told me to raise my arms and breathe which I did and that helped some. I walked around a while catching my breath then got back on Maverick and rode him in circles for a while. I got off and we headed home after that. I didn't go to the doctor because I had full range of motion with my arm and shoulder so even though it was extremely sore I figured there wasn't anything broken inside except maybe a cracked rib or two. After two weeks I'm just now getting to where I can blow my nose and cough without extreme pain in my left side ribcase. It still hurts quite a bit when I sneeze though so I try to avoid that when I can.

Lesson learned? I'm not sure . . . maybe if I had recognized quick enough that he was starting to buck, I could have pulled his head around and stopped him from getting too carried away by throwing him off balance. Rob's suggestion was to add a "dog collar" to the saddle next to the horn to give something to hang onto while he bucks. He said he uses one and has never had a horse put him on the ground when he has been using it. I think I'd rather figure out a way to keep him from bucking, so he is going to get plenty of ground work before I get back on him. Then when I do if he raises his head or rear end I will promptly pull his head around to through him off balance before I lose my balance.

Happy Birthday Ron

2009-06-06T22:01:00.000-07:00

Today was a good day! I heard from Dale, Tara, Devin, Mom and Mel (twice). Thanks for singing to me Mel. Delaine and Anna both wished me a happy birthday too. The weather was near perfect today too with no rain! I got up at 6:00am after laying awake in bed for about an hour. With the nice cool morning and overcast sky I figured it was the right time to mow the grass around here. Delaine went to town, Anna went to the school to take the SAT test so I was here all alone so mow I did. I got all the lower area around the round pen mowed and all the area between the driveway and the road mowed as well as all around the goat pen. It looks pretty good right now. Delaine came home from town and planted some flowers in the yard while I finished mowing then we went down town and met Anna for lunch. We had Mexican food . . . it was good. Delaine and Anna stayed in town after lunch and I came home. I laid down on the couch and took a nice long nap. It felt good! I can't remember the last time I took a real nap. That's one of the simple pleasures I really enjoy. In the evening Delaine and Anna took me to Anthony's for dinner. Fox and Mary went with us to help with the celebrations. After dinner we came home and I opened presents and we had carrot cake and ice cream. Now Anna is off baby setting for Ben Tatone and Delaine and I are vegging out in front of the TV.

It's been a good birthday . . .

Everything is Okay

2009-05-23T21:42:00.000-07:00

Just a quick one to let you all know I'm still here and that everything is okay around our place. It finally dried out and warmed up a bit here in Roseburg. I've been busy working out around the place. Today I managed to get two piles of brush burned, these two piles have been bothering us for quite some time now and it's good to get rid of them. Delaine got a bunch of her plants in the ground today too. With the long weekend we may actually get our deer fence up around the garden spot. If we get it up then maybe we will actually have some vegetables later this summer. Anna and Delaine have collected a bunch of plants to go in the garden. Delaine plans to put in a small flower garden behind the fence too.

Anna went to prom last weekend. She had a lot of fun and she looked very pretty. I got a photo of her in her dress. I posted it on flickr if you want to see it. Monday evening Anna was honored a UCC for outstanding performance in her math class. They had a night of excellence and she was one of about 50 kids from high school that were honored.

I hope you all are doing good . . .

Progress on the '95 GMC

2009-05-10T20:48:00.000-07:00

I got the fender and the hood on the GMC today before church. I noticed the '89 fender is just a bit different than the '95. There isn't enough difference to make me want to look for another one but right at the top next to the door the '89 tapers back toward the front of the pickup, so there is a little bit of a gap. It's only about 1/8" in 1" so it's not very noticeable really. I snapped a couple of pictures of it. You can't see the gap but you can see the difference in the color.

Now all we have to do is get the new grille in and we'll be able to start prepping for paint. I have a new grille coming from Clint Newell, it should be here this Tuesday. The grille is coming white so we won't have to mess with painting it. The bumper I got is a little rough and should really be re chromed. I suppose I'll put it on the way it is for now then after school is out I'll take it off and get it cleaned up and re chromed. All the side body molding is glued on and will get ruined when I take it off, so likely I'll order up body molding kit from Clint Newell too. The old pickup should look pretty good when we get done with it. Before Anna starts driving it to school I'll take it in and have the front end aligned since it got jarred around during its trip into to the tree.

The Jimmy is Home

2009-05-04T18:51:00.000-07:00

We picked up the Jimmy from Clint Newell this afternoon and drove it home. Mind you there was no bumper, grille, hood or right front fender on it. The lights all work but some are hanging from the wires on the front end. I'll clean a spot in the shop and move it in tomorrow so we can still the reassembly process and prep it for paint. It will be white still and get a pearl treatment then clear coat after that. I'll get some pictures of it later and post them up for all to see.

The work begins . . .

The Frame is Straight

2009-05-01T20:12:00.000-07:00

Okay, we decided to go ahead and get the "Jimmy" fixed so Anna would have it to drive. We got it for such a small amount that we figured we could spend some money on it so we took into Clint Newel's body shop and they put it on the frame rack to straighten the frame. Well they were successful and it is straight again. Nick the technician did a very nice job and he painted the two spots that he had to straighten. You can see the end in this photo. When he took the inner fender tub, and core support out he found them to be too bent to put back in so I had to scurry around and round up the parts. Luckily for me our neighbor Rob has an '89 Chevy setting in our other neighbor Larry's driveway and they visited me the other day to tell me I could take whatever I need off it. Also luckily the '89 was clean on the front end and all the parts interchange perfectly so I got the inner and outer fenders, the core support, the hood and the bumper. The parts are silvery blue instead of white so Anna and I will paint them and we'll also repaint the whole pickup. It ought to be good project for us. I though Nick would be done with today but he didn't make it so we won't get it back till Monday. I was a bit disappointed because I was hoping to work on it this weekend. Now it will be next week before we can get into it. Here is another shot of it on the rack:

It will be nice to have it back . . .

Time Marches On

2009-04-26T20:42:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry I haven't updated you for a couple of weeks but we've been busy and I've been lame, sorry Devin . . .

Since I last wrote we've closed the deal on our refinance. We managed to land 5.25% fixed rate for 30 years. We set ourselves up with bi-weekly payments though and that will cut 8-9 years of the life of the loan. It was quite an ordeal getting the loan put together. It took about a month the close.

Also, we bought a car to drive while the GMC is broke down (wrecked). I have the pickup in the frame shop this week to get that bent frame rail straightened out. We replace the bent fender, hood, bumper and grille and then repaint the entire pickup. It was in need of a paint job anyway so now is a good time to do it. The car we bought is a black 1996 Mustang GT with 85,000 miles on it. The car is in premium condition so even with that many miles it should be a good car for many years. After all the '89 Mustang now has 250,000 miles on it and it's finally ready for an overhaul. I posted a photo of the '96 on flickr if you want to take a look at it.

This weekend I rented a tractor and did some work around the place. I leveled a spot to the west of the our existing horse shelter so we can add a couple more stalls on to it. Also I rototilled the round pen and got it into shape to use now that we are getting fewer days with rain and I rototilled the garden spot so Anna can plant her vegetables this spring. It will be nice to have small garden again. We even got some popcorn seeds! Devin and Tara you may remember the home grown popcorn from our gardens in Central Point. I love home grown popcorn, it's so much better than the corn you get from the store.

Today we played hooky from church and stayed home and worked around the place. It was stake conference this weekend and we can never get there in time to get a decent place to set. We're usually way in the back and have to watch the speakers on the monitor that doesn't really work that well. Anyway I managed to get the tall grass knocked down around here and it looks a lot better, not the mention it makes it safer around here. Also, we worked with Maverick, our rescue horse, and took several new photos of him. I posted some of them on flickr for you all to see. He is certainly making progress and is actually growing hair now. We think he is going to have some black hair mixed in with his sorrel color. He is starting to fill in, but he still has a long way to go to be in fit condition. Of course we a getting attached to him . . .

The EWP business is still very slow right now. We are going to take next week down which will make the second week in April with no production at the plant. The sales forecast has us taking another week down in May. So far we've been able to keep the maintenance crews working as we have an extensive list of work that needs to be done. In a way we are lucky to have the time with the machines down to get the work done. Eventually we will get caught up and then if we are still struggling with sales we'll have to take time off. We currently have four millwrights on lay-off but fortunately for them, they are all working. Three of them still with RFP and the other on a big construction job in Eastern Oregon.

I hope your week went well and I hope everyone is well and happy . . .

Parking Lesson

2009-04-16T20:42:00.000-07:00

Okay, so this is only funny if it doesn't happen to you. When parking on an incline always remember and never forget to put the parking brake on. If you don't this may happen to you -

It was raining really hard and it was cold and I had an arm load of stuff to get out and take in the house so I was distracted and in a big hurry to get out of the rain. I had all my stuff in my arms and had just unlocked the front door when I caught the movement out the corner of my eye. When I looked around there went the jimmy, right down the driveway. I couldn't move quick enough to stop it so I could just watch. Now I have some work to do.

Rescue Horse

2009-04-13T21:05:00.000-07:00

We took on a new project this week (as if we don't have enough to do already), a rescue horse from a neglected herd of horses in Burns, Oregon. The herd included 60 horses on the ranch and by the time the humane society got to them there were only 11 still alive. We volunteered to foster one of them and feed him back up into adoptable condition. We will probably come up with a name for him at some point but for now he is rescue horse and this is what he looks like:

As you can see his hooves are in desperate need of trimming and he is very rough. We hope to have him up into condition in 4 to 6 months. There are still nails in his hooves from his last shoeing. We'll have the farrier up soon to get them taken care of and for now we are feeding him alfalfa hay to put some meat on his bones. He's been under control of the humane society for the last 3 weeks and has been eased into the alfalfa and is ready for regular feeding. I'll post a couple more pictures of him on my flickr page if you would like to seen more.

Wish us luck in our endeavor to help one horse . . .

Week in Reveiw

2009-03-28T17:40:00.000-07:00

You all know we were in Albany last weekend for the annual Equine Fair & Expo. We went mainly to see the extreme mustang makeover and Craig Cameron's "Extreme Cowboy Race". It was definitely worth the time spent. We watched part of the cowboy race on Saturday evening and then went back Sunday morning to watch the finals. Here is a photo of part of the course:

The guy in the wheel chair there and the guy in the red jacket standing next to him were the judges for the contest. Craig Cameron is the guy to the right with the blue denim jacket on. You can see he is holding the microphone in his hand. He was having trouble with his voice because of a cold or something but he made us hear him alright. It was a kick watching the cowboys and cowgirls make their way through the course. The fastest time was around 6 minutes and they were scored 0-10 for each obstacle with 30 seconds on each of the 13. We don't know who won the contest because they didn't announce it while we were there

The extreme mustang final was on Saturday and we were able see most of it. The program is that 90 horse trainers are selected from applications and 1 of 90 mustangs are assigned to each trainer, then they have 90 days to work on them before the finals. At the finals they bring the horse in and demonstrate their success or lack of success to the judges. They are scored and placed according to the way they perform. I believe the winner gets some money, but I don't know how much. Once the competition is over the horses are all adopted out at auction. We saw the last three go through the auction and the third to last brought in $300, the second to last brought $5000 and the last one brought $1500. Kind of all over the place. They all did a very nice job training their horse and it was a good show. Most of the trainers claim they would rather train a wild, untouched mustang than a domesticated horse.

Anna had a lot of fun during the weekend too because of all the vendors there selling their stuff. She came away with a cool yellow denim jacket (you would be jealous Tara) and a couple of Tee shirts. She was a bit disappointed that there weren't very many boots because she was hoping to buy a new pair. Like she really needs another pair :)

We got home from Albany on Sunday afternoon and immediately loaded the horses up and headed for the fair grounds for our ride with the posse. Even though we were tired from messing around at the show all weekend we enjoyed the ride then went to Subway for dinner and got home late.

The rest of the week was fairly typical for me but Anna was off for spring break and Delaine was off several days during the week. They both worked on Friday. I got a call from Anna on Friday during my lunch break while I was talking to Mom on the phone. I got off my call with Mom and called Anna back to see what was up since she rarely calls me during the day. She was a little weepy on the phone and finally told me that the pickup wouldn't start when they went to go to lunch. Turns out she had left the headlights on when they got out of it Friday morning and the battery was dead. She wondered what to do. I suggested getting someone to come and give them a jump start. It wasn't an emergency so I didn't want to drive the 35 miles back to town to get the pickup running. One of gals at the office talked to her boyfriend and he volunteered to come and give them a jump. When he got there the jump didn't work so he took the battery out and took it down to Les Schwab to have it charged. I knew the battery was good because it is practically brand new since we replaced it when we bought the truck last summer. So they skipped lunch and worked the rest of the afternoon until I got off. I went into town and picked the battery up and put it back in the pickup, and it started just fine with a freshly charged battery. That was around 4:00pm so they were pretty hungry from missing lunch. We went home and snacked some because there was not time to eat since we were taking the horses out to Dodge Creek for our Friday evening ride. After the ride we stopped at Subway again and had a sandwich with the posse group and got home around 9:00pm. I think it will be a good while before she leaves the lights on again . . .

The Friday evening ride was sort of interesting because we all brought and obstacle to work our horses with. One of the gals brought a bunch of balloons and tied them all around the arena, we brought a blue tarp and made a "pond" on the ground, there was an umbrella and a lariat. I couldn't get Dustie to go over the tarp though I certainly spend a lot of time trying. The highlight of the evening was when I tied the lariat to a big orange highway cone and drug it around the arena. It spooked every horse there including Dustie! She was fine with it for about a half revolution around and then she noticed it following her and got a bit excited. She spun around like she has never done before and start moving back and to the side and the spun the other way and was backing and starting to loose her balance so I let go of the rope. Then I did it again and she repeated her excitement again. Then the third time I did it she was pretty good about dragging it. It was nice to find out she could move like that . . .

On Thursday Anna took her first private lesson on her saxophone. We found an excellent instructor we hope can help her improve her playing. The instructor is a lady that comes from Chicago and is a professional. She has played with some very highly rated symphony groups as the lead oboe player. She also plays and teaches the piano, saxophone, flute, bassoon and clarinet. She is very nice . . . she and her husband moved to Roseburg last summer to get away from the rat race in Chicago. She has been playing three gigs a day most of the week and was just getting burned out and wanted to slow down a bit. Roseburg ought to be a good place to slow down. Anyway we're excited for Anna to be able to take lessons from such a high level professional. I've been kicking around the thought of taking piano lessons from her, do you think a 55 year old man can learn to play the piano?

Today we worked outside some and I increased the size of our round pen to around 50'. I decided to get the tarp out again and see what Dustie and I could do. I worked her around the tarp for around 20 minutes when she finally decided run across it so I worked her that way for a while and she finally settled down and walked on it, then I walked her back and forth across it and turned on it a couple times then put her back in her stall. I'll do it again tomorrow and maybe I'll ride her across it too . . .

Week in Reveiw from Roseburg

2009-03-21T05:44:00.000-07:00

We're really looking forward to next week as it is spring break and Anna will be out of school. Delaine will be off several days next week too. Maybe we can slow down a bit and relax some.

This week has been typical with something cooking almost every evening. One of the highlights of the week was Anna's spring concert at the Rose Theater. We spent the evening there listening to the bands play. There are four band groups at the high school that usually perform at the concerts. Morning Jazz Lab, Symphonic, Jazz Band and the Woodwind Band. Anna plays in the Symphonic band and they did three pieces, none of which I recognized. Their band instructor generally chooses music from the 20's or 30's for some odd reason. I would love to here them do something contemporary. They have one more concert this year before school is out. I really enjoy listening to the kids perform even if the music is out of date. We are considering enrolling Anna in private lessons with a local instructor. The instructor is a gal from Chicago that worked as a professional horn player for many years. She finally got burned of the entertainment so she quit it and moved to Oregon to set up a shop where she can schedule her private lessons. We've yet to talk with her but I've heard a lot of good things. We should know more next week as we get to make contact with here. I'm excited for Anna to get lessons because she really enjoys playing but hasn't gotten much out of her high school instructor. Not to mention we just had her horn rebuilt and it sounds great.

On Tuesday, Anna went to Medford with the band to compete at North Medford High. They didn't place but I think they all had fun. She got home around 9:30pm and I was already in bed and asleep. While she was gone Delaine and I went to a special Posse meeting at Ten Down Bowling alley to discuss our connection with the sheriff. The lady that is the new liaison for volunteers met with us and went over the action from the sheriff's department. We were supposed to be getting applications to join the sheriff's posse but she didn't have any. They aren't quite ready to take applications and the sheriff has named another group as the "Temporary Official" sheriff's posse. Most of our group is upset because we do so much community volunteer work the the other group does very little of it. They mostly do gaming and have little interest in community volunteer work. It's an ongoing saga and we'll have to wait and see what the outcome is. In the meantime we still plan to do the parades and Camp Millennium and child ID and the drill presentation for the retired folks and security for the half shell this summer and all the other volunteer work we normally do. We will do it until our group disbands or they tell us to stop.

Anna is still tutoring Cody and they had two session this week, one on Monday and the other on Friday. It turns out the Cody's mom is our home owners insurance agent. Roseburg is really pretty small. Also Anna had a Spanish club part on Thursday evening, they had fun.

This weekend we are spending in Albany at the annual Horse Fair and Clinic. Craig Cameron will the there doing an extreme cowboy competition all weekend and they are having the extreme wild horse makeover finals. We'll be spending most of our time at those two events with some time in between to shop. Saturday evening and night we'll spend with Sheridan and Mark in Woodburn. (We're looking forward to spend the evening with you.) Also, Sunday we will celebrate our 34th wedding anniversary. We may go to dinner after the we leave the Horse Fair.

What do you all think about Mr. Obama's gaff on the Jay Leno show? And what do you think about the A.I.G. bonus scandal. I think things are getting out of hand and a little dicey . . .

More to the steer chasing story

2009-03-21T05:27:00.000-07:00

I didn't mention this when I posted the episode with Anna's steer, but as we were in the heat of the chase I lost my glasses. My phone popped out of my pocket and I reached down to pick it up and must have not seen my glasses or they came out at a different time. I often stick them in my pocket when I'm not trying to read something. So I got my old pair of glasses out to use until I could either find mine or get another pair. These were and older generation prescription and the lenses were so cloudy and scratched I couldn't see that well with them. I figured I wasn't going to find my good ones so I went down to the vision center to get a new pair. While I was in there I couldn't find any that I liked better than my originals so I talked to them about just replacing the lenses in them with my new prescription. They said no problem and took a pattern of the lenses. It took a week and a half to get them in so I've been wearing the old ones all that time. What a pain! Well the new lenses came in this past Thursday and now I can see clearly again! Made me realize how much I depend on my glasses. It also makes me think I should have a spare pair of glasses . . .

Roseburg Weekend . . .

2009-03-16T18:47:00.000-07:00

I must follow up with a comment on our weekend. Delaine was sick Saturday and Anna went to the high school and worked at the "Battle of the Books" for the elementary students. In the evening she went to Winston to attend the church dance. It was a sock hop . . . they had a good time. Saturday I spent most of the day burning slash and cutting firewood. I did take some time to set up the panels into a round pen so we can work Jazzy effectively. She is a pain when there are no boundaries.

Sunday we went to church and then took the horses out to the fair grounds to ride with the posse. I had ridden Dustie on Friday evening at Dodge Creek and really gave her a work out so she was pretty attentive of Sunday evening. I've been working on her trot and her lope and working to get her to slow down a bit. She's getting pretty good at the trot to lower her head when I ask her and now she is learning to drop her head at the lope too. I notice when she drops her head she slows down and is a bit more relaxed. All in all she is doing very well for being such a youngun' She has a great attitude even when I work her into a sweaty mess.

Something Different this Week

2009-03-14T16:53:00.000-07:00

I thought I would do something a bit different this week on this here blog. Maybe a bit self indulgent but what the hay anyway. Here you go:

A day in the life of Ron

Weekdays:
3:45 am - slowly get out of bed because it is so dang early in the morning. Go in and shave and take my daily multivitamin (yum), put eye drops in both eyes because I notice as I get older my eyes are very dry and scratchy when I wake up. Get myself dressed to my socks. Give my lovely wife Delaine a kiss goodbye (I'm not sure she know I do this) for the day and head down stairs.
4:00am - Eat a banana (if there is one there) and drink about 8 oz. of orange juice if it's in the fridge. If my joints and back are kind of sore I take and naproxin and down it with a glass of water.
4:05am - Check my email and the stock futures quickly before heading out into the dark, cool morning air.
4:10am - 4:15am - Morning prayer - Leave the house and head for work. Sometimes I have to stop for gas on my way out of town so I leave a few minutes earlier. The drive is 35 miles and takes me about 40 minutes to travel the distance. I usually set the cruise control at 55 mph to help conserve fuel.
~5:00am - Arrive at the plant. Go to admin and check my inbox for anything that could have been left from the day before then head on over to the plant and to my office.
5:10am - 5:30am - Check daily production and downtime reports to alert myself to any issues that may have come up overnight. Check the order file and look for any safety grams or announcements or market information that can be shared with the crews and posted on bulletin board in the shop. Collect the previous days time sheets and read over them to alert myself to any issues that may have come up overnight with the crews as well as ensure the guys did the work we left for them.
5:30am - 6:00am - Meet with the night shift crews as well as any of the day shift guys that have come in early. We usually set in a circle and it's share time. The guys share with me their successes and issues from the previous shift and I share with them the order file and any news related to market condition and shift scheduling that has come up. Also I share with them any successes or issues that may have come up the previous day. This time is very useful in guiding the ship and lavishing praise on those that do well and discuss issues and concerns with those that need the help.
6:00am - 6:30am - Take the time sheets I've collected and update our computerized timekeeping system. Seems odd that we have a computerized time keeping system yet I still have to spend a minimum of 1/2 hour a day updating the information. Seems like there are some opportunities for improvement here.
6:30am - 7:00am - I generally make a complete round around the plant. I head to the finger joint building through packaging and past the residual system and circle back through the I-Line, Rip Saw and Cold Press areas on my way back to the Lay-up Lines and Hot Press areas, then on around to the Dryers (even though they aren't running) and back through the Thermal Oil building past the air compressors back to my office in the shop. I think it's about 3/4 mile around the building. As I go I make notes of anything I observe that may need attention, like housekeeping, guarding, worn parts. It's a pretty quick trip but necessary.
7:00am Check in with the day shift crew all days except Wednesday as we have a maintenance meeting at 7:00am on Wednesdays. This meeting involves all maintenance leads and department leads and supervisor. You can imagine what we talk about . . . a few things are issues with equipment, project work per department, up time per department . . . and so on. Sometimes we try to solve the world problems too, but so far not much success there, so we generally try to focus on those things we actually have some control over.
8:00am - Senior staff meeting every day except Tuesday when we have a project meeting where we update each other on progress on our Finger Joint and Cold Press projects (they are both nearing completion so we will soon drop the Tuesday morning project meeting). The staff meeting is general supervisors and plant manager only. That is six of us when we are all there. Here again we go around the room and update each other on the previous day and any special projects or personnel issues we are working on. The plant manager updates us on sales and marketing and gives us direction on anything else that affects us.
~9:30am - 12:00 - We're usually all done with daily meetings by 9:30am or so and this is the time I get to work on work orders and address any maintenance issues within the plant. I also use this time to work on special projects that have been assigned to me or that I've come up with on my own. One thing that has recently been occupying my time here is our energy conservation project. I generally go online to energy profiler and look at yesterday's usage and plot it and share the information with all those that can help our quest to cut our energy bill. You get the point I'm sure . . .
12:00 - 1:00pm - Lunch break . . . usually hit McDonalds for chicken selects or a fruit and walnut salad then park and read (Ensign, horse journals, trade journals) , make phone calls to family . . . you know what I mean because sometimes I call you. If nothing else I will take a short (10 - 20 minute) nap in the car.
1:00pm - 2:00 pm - Scheduling meeting at the admin office. The plant scheduler gets an update from all the department leads and plant supervisors. Again, we spend some time during this meeting trying to solve the world problems with little success. Too dang bad all the politicians won't attend our meetings. We could straighten them out for sure. Maybe we should run for office (Ha!).
2:00pm - 3:00pm - make another quick round around the plant and meet with the swing shift crews to share information on market and order file and issues that have come up during the day. Check in with them to ensure our lead man has given them plenty of meaningful work for the evening. Talk about safety too while we are together.
~3:00pm - I head to the admin office to do my final check in with my boss where I pass on any pertinent information regarding the day then off I go . . . I hop in the car and head for home. Most days I'll stop at the Chevron station for a quart of water and a "take me home" snack then the 35 mile trip back home.
~4:00pm - 4:30pm - Arrive at home to begin our evening family activities which I normally write about. You know the stuff - Anna tutoring, tending to the horses, attending posse meetings, attending animal neglect meetings, attending search and rescue meetings, attending band concerts, watching American Idol . . . Blah, Blah, Blah . . . and hope you all enjoy.
~9:30pm - off to bed . . . nightly prayer then sleep . . . ummmm

One thing we did this week out of the ordinary was to go the high school play Oklahoma. The kids did a very nice job . . . there are some very talented kids going to Roseburg High.

And the weeks roll by . . .

2009-03-06T21:00:00.000-08:00

How was your week anyway? I hope you all had a very good week and did something fun.

Delaine's birthday was on Tuesday and her folks wanted to fix dinner for us so we went over there for the evening. Mary fixed pork chops with grilled potatoes and carrots. We had birthday cake afterward and visited with Sheri, Fox and Mary for a bit then went on home. I got Delaine some flowers and had them delivered at her office for her birthday. The flowers are pretty. Since Wednesday Anna and I have been here without Delaine because she went to San Francisco for a nursing convention. We'll pick her up in Eugene on Sunday and bring her back home. We've missed having her home and will be glad when she gets back. Okay, here's the rundown for the rest of the week . . . Wednesday Anna and I went to the Posse meeting without Delaine, everyone missed having her at the meeting. The meeting went okay for us but some of the folks are a bit disturbed because it looks like the new Sheriff isn't going to include us in his posse group automatically. If we want to be part of the sheriff's posse we will have to go through and application process individually and he will decide if he wants us or not. Delaine, Anna and I really aren't that bothered by it because we're not sure we care to be involved in all the politics of the sheriff's posse. All we really care to do is have something meaningful to do with our horses. We'll have to see how it all washes out in the next couple of months. On Thursday there wasn't anything really pressing so we stayed home and watched American Idol. There's only one singer I like and that is Lil Rounds, who do you like? Anna did have a Spanish club meeting after school but that was it. On Friday I took Anna to Winston to tutor Cody after school then on our way home we stopped for Abby's pizza. It was good! In the evening we took Brazo and Dustie out to Dodge Creek for a workout. I decided to try Delaine's saddle on Dustie but it didn't work very well. The saddle is too wide for Dustie and wound up pinching her at the withers so we didn't have a good ride. I won't do that to her again. My saddle (Uncle Donald's saddle) fits her perfectly and she never complains a bit with it on, so I'll stick with it for a while longer. The old saddle is in need of repair but I haven't found a good saddle repair shop around here yet.

So that brings us to Saturday (today) . . . Anna and I had our day completely planned out. We were to take Curtis to the weigh in then bring him home and turn around and go to Subway for lunch on our way out to Dixonville to get a load of hay. Well the weigh-in went pretty well to begin with. I got the trailer hooked up while Anna got the halter on him and got him ready for the trip. She lead him from the lower turn-out all the way up to the upper driveway and we got him loaded without much trouble at all. "Piece of cake", we told each other. We got to the scale and waited our turn to weigh . . . everything going well so far . . . our turn came so I backed the trailer in and Anna got Curtis out . . . took him to the scale (he weighed 605) then on to the squeeze chute for ear tagging. Still going very well. She brought him back around to the trailer and he loaded very nicely. We were congratulating ourselves on how smoothly the whole thing went as we drove back home. I backed the trailer part way down and Anna got in with him as I held the trailer door and waited for her to be ready to lead him back to the pen. They hopped out and down the hill they went. Still doing pretty good even though Curtis was a bit reluctant to lead. When they headed down the little drop off on the way to the pen Curtis decided to run and jump a bit and try as she could Anna could not hold onto the rope. He broke loose and headed down the road. For the next hour we chased him around our neighbor's places and our place through the blackberry bushes and poison oak and scrub oak and you name without any success of getting him herded back to his pen. Finally our neighbors came to our rescue and helped us herd him into the neighbor's arena where we could get him corralled. It took a tractor, and Suburban and the Jimmy to get him herded into the arena. Anna and I were bleeding from the blackberry vines and we were filthy and sweating too by the time it was all said and done. Once we got him in the trailer we brought him back up and put him into the stall for the night. We both breathed a sigh of relief and hopped in the pickup and headed on out to get the hay. We did stop at Subway on our way out and had lunch. We got to Dixonville and got the hay loaded and I grabbed the check book to write a check and danged if there weren't any checks left. So we left with a promise to return later with a check to pay for the hay. We drove the 20+ ,miles back home and unloaded the 45 bails of hay. We got ourselves cleaned up and headed back out to Dixonville with a check to pay for the hay.

After all that messing around and blowing our plans we decided to treat ourselves to some fun and dinner. We went to the benefit car show at the fairgrounds and drooled over some of the cars there and later went to Kowloon for Chinese food. It's so nice to be home in the house and relaxing a bit before going to bed.

What a week . . . what a day . . . Maybe next week will be a bit calmer.

White Chili - Very Yummy to the Tummy

2009-03-02T17:31:00.000-08:00

Prep Time: 50 minutes

1 small onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
2 cloves minced garlic
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 Jalapeno pepper, minced (wear gloves when handling Jalapenos)
4 ounce can chopped green chilies, drained
1 teaspoon powdered cumin
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups low sodium chicken broth
2/3 cup cooked white kidney beans (could be plain white beans), rinsed and drained
8 ounces cooked chicken breast, cubed (about 2 cups)
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Saute onion and garlic in olive oil in soup pot until tender. Add Jalapeno, chilies, cumin, oregano, cayenne pepper and salt, then saute another minute. Stir in chicken broth, beans and chicken. Bring to boil. Cover and simmer for 25 minutes. Stir in cilantro and cheese and serve.

Makes 3 (1-1/3 cup) servings.

(Per serving): Calories: 300, Fat: 14g, Saturated Fat: 5g, Protein: 25g, Carbohydrates: 19g, Fiber: 4g, Cholesterol: 13mg, Sodium: 647mg

Weekly - blah, blah, blah 2/28/09

2009-03-01T16:29:00.000-08:00

We finished burning another week here in Roseburg . . . (Random Tara)

Anna kept us busy again this week. Tuesday Anna played on the pep band at the last basket ball game of the season. It was the first game we went to this year where Roseburg won. They were over Grants Pass 59-55 and actually played a pretty good game. The pep band has dwindled to just a few kids as the season has gone on. Just the die hard band members I guess . . . unfortunately their instructor is pretty bad and has managed to run most of the kids off.

Anna tutored the little girl in Winston a couple of times this week and then was out of school on Friday for teacher in-service day. She worked at the doctor's office for most of the day. Friday evening we took the horses out to Dodge creek for a workout. I got Dustie all sweaty from loping and Anna got Brazo all sweaty too. She got on Lacey at the end of the evening and loped her a bit but I never saw Lacey break a sweat. It was fun!

We managed to watch American Idol this week but no movies or any other TV. Maybe this evening we will set home and vegetate and watch movies. We're all tired and we aren't taking the horses out so we can relax and rest a bit before next week starts. Next week ought to be interesting since Delaine is going to San Francisco for a medical convention and Anna and I will have the ranch most of the week . . . just the two of us. Delaine's birthday is this next Tuesday by the way so we will have something to celebrate this week.

Saturday I went in to work for a while to do a last check in with the three millwrights we a laying off. I wanted to be sure they had everything they needed from me and I wanted to make sure I had their current phone number so I can stay in touch with them. It's pretty sad that we are having to lay off millwrights . . . this is the first time in my history that I've seen this without actually shutting operations down. The plant was down this past week but will be back up next week and we are planning 8 days down in March. All based on market pull. I got notified that all admin employees are getting a 20% cut in vacation time this next year and we're losing our two floating holidays as well as our 401K match and the ability to carry over unused vacation days. Tough times . . . The cut in vacation will mean I have 12 days instead of the 17 days I had previously earned including the floating holidays. It might make it tight for time off this summer. Aside from the negative there we are going to start producing thick LVL in the new cold press this coming week. Must of the debugging is complete and we are ready to start using the equipment for production. That is when there is any demand for product out in the market place. We won't produce to build inventory just as needed for orders. I know we will make it through and it will get better . . . just don't know what it will all look like when we come out on the other side of this down turn.

Mel, I'm glad you started to post on your blog again, I was wondering if you had given up on it. Have you ever read about the affect of periodic fasting on diabetes? I read an article in the Eugene news paper that was touting the good things periodic fasting can do for the human body and human spirit. Funny really that our church leaders have known that for many, many years.

Rick Lamb on Goal Setting

2009-02-23T20:34:00.000-08:00

Super Visualization One simple technique experts recommend for improving your performance is visualizing the outcome. People do it all the time. They visualize their goals vividly and begin living into them. Before long the dream becomes reality. Kirsten Farris coaches world class riders on maximizing their performances through a sort of super visualization technique that involves not just seeing, but hearing, smelling, feeling, and tasting success. She explains.

"The more of your senses you can pull into visualization, the more believable it is to your brain. And the interesting thing about our brains is that they don't know the difference between imagined and reality."

Positive affirmations play on the same quirk of the subconscious: The inability to distinguish between images gathered by our senses and those recalled or fabricated in our minds.

Another Week Gone By

2009-02-21T21:41:00.000-08:00

Here I am again, reflecting on another week gone by. We were very busy again this past week, every day was a work day for me for Delaine and school for Anna. Anna has begun working at the doctor's office with Delaine. They hired her to come in after school some days to do filing, stuff recall letters and other general office work. This is a great opportunity for her to learn what it's like to work in an office and to interact with people in that environment. She is doing a very good job. Once again there was something to occupy or time every evening this week. There was pep band a couple of evenings, Anna started tutoring a little girl from Winston that is struggling with math. Anna also had and Honor Society meeting and a 4H teen leader meeting this week. We worked around the place all day Saturday while Anna was working at the Boys & Girls club. I spent most of the day working on the Jimmy because the brake lights quit working. I have it narrowed down to a problem with the switch that I'll have to get parts for. Oh yeah Saturday we broke down and replaced the tires on the Ford and on the Jimmy too. Both sets were worn to the cord, in fact the Ford had rubber pealing off the front tires. And to think we were pulling the horse trailer around with those tires! I need to pay closer attention to the wear. It's seen the time goes by so quick that before I know it the tires are worn out. Finally on Sunday evening we got to take the horses out for a workout . . . first time this week. Hopefully we will do better next week.

I sure like the progress Dustie is making. She picks up on things very quickly and is turning out to be an very nice horse to ride. I still love her lope, she's so smooth and has a great head carriage. I'm about ready to go take some riding lessons from a gal that rides and teaches western pleasure. She has won a lot of shows and her life is training horses so she ought to do a good job. I haven't given up on the thought of showing in a western pleasure class this summer. For sure we will do a few parades and the drill as well. Lots of fun . . .

Things a really slowing down at the plant . . . the market is off so much that we are struggling to keep the plant running. We are down this week and no doubt another 8 days in March all related to the slow housing market. We are laying off 4 millwrights and looking at the electricians too. We are taking advantage of the down time to complete some work that is in the backlog. As long as we can keep the folks there we will do what we can to make the place better and more reliable. Our thick billet processing line it complete and setting waiting for commissioning and debugging. It's tough out there . . .

Web Log

2009-02-19T18:51:00.000-08:00

Okay, this is for Devin and anyone else on my list of email that are wondering why the heck you are getting this weird email that references Falling Oaks Ranch. I set this blog up so I could share with all of you what is going on in our lives here in Roseburg. I chose the name "Falling Oaks Ranch" because our place has many, many white oak trees that tend to fall down unexpectedly. I think it's because there is so much moisture in the ground most of year that they just rot off. I'm sure one day they will all be gone and we'll have just Laurels left standing. Anyway, just so you'll know it's me, here you go . . .

Love from Dad/Ron Fuentes

Whew!

2009-02-16T17:44:00.000-08:00

I'm cooling off after working with Jazzy . . . she got all sweaty and I got all sweaty too. She's figured out that if she backs up I can't control her feet! Smart little horse. I plan to set up the round pen and work with her in the pen so she can't do that. One good thing happened though during our little playtime. She is learning to side pass . . . this is something I've yet to get Dustie to do for me. I got all muddy and she got all muddy too but I believe we made some progress. If we get her out again tomorrow I'll see if we can get some fresh photos of her. She's a pill!

Last night we finally started practicing our drill routine. Dustie did fairly well, Lacey did very well and Brazo did well too. This is the first practice so we will only get better from here until we perform.

Week in Review 2/14/09

2009-02-14T05:18:00.000-08:00

We had another busy week . . . Tuesday Delaine and I attended a meeting at the courthouse where County Councilman Joe Laurence had brought together the state water master and the state director of human services from Salem to address the question of whether it is legal for us to use the water from our local water association for domestic purposes. It came into question because one of our neighbors complained that folks on the loop were using the water as drinking water without filtering and treatment. We were afraid the state would come and turn the water off. There are 58 households on the loop and we are one of them, so we figured we better get involved. There were about 15 people from the association at the meeting and we had a very good discussion with a good outcome. The state said they would not turn off the water and the resolution of the issue and to resolve the complaint, the association will assign a person to ensure that all homes connected have the proper filtering/treatment system and their water meets the state health requirements. This individual will keep documentation of inspections and have it available for the state to review if they want to. Everyone in the room on Tuesday has the proper system on their home, and that includes us. We have had our water tested several times and it falls well within the safe drinking water standards. We were happy with the outcome . . .

Later in the day we attended two other meetings at the courthouse, one being our monthly horse neglect meeting and the other being the search and rescue training meeting. At the horse neglect meeting we were assigned to monitor a small herd of cattle in our neighborhood that are looking pretty poor. The lady doesn't feed her cattle adequately and they are going downhill. At some point we may have to round up the cattle and take them someplace where they can get proper feed. We will have to have regular contact with the lady and try to help her figure out a way to feed her animals to keep them healthy. The SAR training was map and compass reading. It was a two-hour class where we learned about the compass and how to use it to orient ourselve out in the woods and then how to apply it with the right map to identify our location and navigate through the woods. Reminds me of boy scouts . . . in couple of weeks we will meet out the forest and practice our skills and take a test to prove we understand it. We will have to take a bearing and arrive at a specified location within 2 degrees to prove we know what we are doing. I'm looking forward to it. While we were at our horse and SAR meetings Anna was at the high school playing in the pep band for the basketball game. We got home late and got to bed around 10pm.

Wednesday and Thursday, believe it or not we had nothing outstanding so we set and watched American Idol. A couple of years ago, I swore you could never get me to watch that program but I've become hooked on it. We record it and watch it every week when we get a chance. If you are watching, what do you think of Norman Gentle?

Friday evening we loaded the horses up and took them out to Dodge Creek Stables to ride. We had a good ride. Delaine road Lacey quite a bit . . . she is getting good at keeping Lacey at the jog and they've been working on side passing with some success. Brazo and Dustie worked up a sweat and both did very well. Dustie just keeps getting better. I'm doing a lot of work on the transitions from walk to trot to lope to trot to walk. I'm also working on her backing under saddle and yielding her hind quarters under saddle. She's doing well backing but has a ways to go on yielding her hind quarters. I'm also working on her haunch turn and she is starting to get the hang of it. Next will be a full side pass.

I didn't take any pictures this week :( I hope to get the camera warmed up this weekend and next week again.

I hope you all had a good week and were warm and comfortable.

2009-02-07T06:41:00.000-08:00

I finally got the last piece of documentation for our 2008 taxes and now am able to complete them. We own again this year so I won't file until April 15th. I'm taking a look at my deductions and I'll make sure they hold out enough this year so we won't have to come up with it in 2010. I just read where Obama wants to give us married couples a $1000 tax cut this year that would be tied into the $827 billion stimulus package they are debating.

Last night we hauled the horses out to Dodge Creek Stables to ride on open ride night with the posse. They have a nice arena but there was about 20 people on horse and the dust was so thick in the air it was like a thick fog. We debated on riding for a little while then finally got the horses out. After about and hour most of the folks had left and it was down to just the posse group. We had eight or so people riding. The next couple of hours were pretty comfortable but still we were all covered with brown dust. I'm still getting it out of my eyes this morning. We're hoping they fix that be next Friday so it won't be so dry. We plan to ride out there most Friday evenings. I need to put a lot of miles on Dustie to get her ready for the drill and the summer parades. The girl is doing very well and learning fast. I worked a lot on transitions last night and she is picking right up on it plus it's helping her to slow down at the trot and at the lope. I'm still amazed at how smooth her lope is even as fast as she likes to move. So we got dirty and sweaty but we had a good ride. Soon I'll be taking her out on the trail. Delaine rode Lacey the whole time while we were there too and they are improving with time in the saddle. She spends a lot of time parked at the rail but that's good for Lacey because she is so antsy with the other horses around at times that Delaine isn't comfortable on her. Lacey finally settled down a bit last night and they worked a bit on side passing. Anna and Brazo did good as usual. He tried to crow hop and act up a bit at first then settled right down into his work mode. Afterward we all stopped at Subway in Sutherlin and had a sandwich before going home. We frustrated the poor gal at Subway because all eight of us showed up at the same time and I think she was ready to start cleaning a prepping to close plus we're kind of loud and silly when we in a group together like that. But she fixed our sandwiches anyway and they were good.

This morning I'm off to work for a while. While I'm gone the hoof trimmer will be here and trim the horses hooves, then later this afternoon I'll do some more clean up around the place here. Maybe I'll build a fire . . .

Sun's Down

2009-01-31T18:04:00.001-08:00

Well it was a nice sunny day today . . . we didn't ride the horses, instead we hauled hay and set up another stall in the shelter and move the animals around. It was fun and now we are headed to the church to enjoy the talent show. Anna isn't showing her talent, I couldn't talk her into playing the saxophone, but we'll watch the others perform anyway.

Enjoy the evening . . .

Time for the IRS

2009-01-31T08:10:00.000-08:00

It appears to be time to work on taxes again so that's what I'm doing this morning. I think I have all the W2's and 1099's I need so off I go.

Providing I get the taxes done early enough today we will likely take the horses out for ride. They haven't been out since last Sunday and it's time. We had something going on every evening this week that kept us from riding them. I have been doing ground work with Dustie though almost every day. She is definitely showing improvement every time I work with her. I think the sun is going to come out today again and if it does I'll give her a bath. She is filthy from laying down in the mud and in the manure in her stall. Even though I clean her stall every day she still manages to make a mess then lay in it. Sometimes I think she is part pig. :)

Friday evening we went to the Roseburg/Sheldon basketball game to watch Anna play in the pep band. Anna is doing well with her saxophone though right now she is using a borrowed horn from the school while hers is in the shop for repairs. Her horn should be done at the end of February. It needed new pads and some general adjustments so we took it to a repair shop in Eugene. The price tag on the repair is around $750 (ouch) but that is much less than buying a new instrument and besides Anna loves that horn. When we get it back I'll post a close up shot of it. We bought it from a from of ours about 30 years ago and it's set in the case most of those years until a couple years ago when Anna started playing it in band.

I hope everyone has a great weekend and don't forget to get on your taxes, if you haven't already.

Posse Fun

2009-01-25T07:32:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we got to work at the Bulls and Barrels rodeo at the Douglas County Fairgrounds. It's always fun to do these types of events because we get to be involved with all the action and meet face to face with several hundred Roseburgites. It always amazing me how many people with try to get into the place without paying for admission. For sure it's a very small percentage of the folks that go but still . . . come on people it's only ten bucks to get in and it takes a lot of work and a lot of folks to make it happen for our enjoyment. Anyway it was fun. The top bull rider last night was a man from Washington and scored 86 points! The top barrel racer ran the barrels in 14.03 seconds and nobody else even came close, I forget where she was from but I know she wasn't from this area. They had team roping going on too but I didn't get to see that because I was out in a corner of the building. It ended around 10:00pm and we headed home for some popcorn and relaxation.

Back Home

2009-01-22T18:42:00.000-08:00

I made it home safe and sound . . . It was nice of Zach to take me to the Salt Lake airport and drop me off. My flight was on time and the 2 hour trip was uneventful. I had to wait at the Portland airport for Mom and Anna to pick me up since I was about a half hour early getting in. On the drive home we stopped at Burgerville for lunch, I had a pepper bacon, Tillamook cheese burger and fries. I love the burgers there, they really know how to make a good one, it may be equally as good as a Benny Burger in its own way.

On Tuesday evening we took the horses out to the fair grounds to ride with the posse and Dustie did a good job once she got in her thinking mode. I really enjoy her lope because she is so smooth. I've been working on slowing her down at the trot and at the lope . . . she hasn't quite settled into that nice slow motion I want yet. We are going to do our drill routine again this summer and I really want Dustie to be able to participate so we've been working hard to get good control.

This Saturday evening we are going to help with the Bulls and Barrels at the fair ground. Last year I was one of the rakers and worked from behind the bull riders gate. It was fairly interesting working back there with all the bulls and the riders. They have a different mind set than most of us. It's a kick and we're looking forward to it.

New Mexico

2009-01-15T21:23:00.000-08:00

I got some things done that Mom needed help with today. She is going to get rid of her king sized bed and bring back in the full size as soon as she gets a new mattress so I got her full size bed frame down from the top of the shop. I also got a huge box of Irish pictures down so she can start looking through them. I'd like to go through them too, but I don't have time this visit. I'll be flying out tomorrow evening to spend the weekend with Devin and Ryan and attend the Clinton Anderson clinic in Ogden. I did something I've been wanting to do for a long time now and that was to get rid of the switch box on the side of Mom's TV. I got all of her components connected directly to her TV and it's a whole lot cleaner now. Tomorrow before I leave I'll look to see if she has the right gear to receive digital signals come February.

Road Trip

2009-01-15T08:40:00.000-08:00

Okay, so we made it all the way back to Peralta. Got in last evening around 5:00pm. We spent two and a half days on the road and spent two nights in motel rooms. We stopped to visit with Tara and Sami for about and hour on Tuesday afternoon and ate some of her chocolate chip cookies. Yummy, they were good Tara and thanks for sharing . . . We spent Tuesday night in Green River, Utah where it got down to 5 degrees. brrrrrr . . . Yesterday we stopped to visit with uncle Darrel and aunt Jackie for a while and they took us out to lunch at the "64" Mexican cafe. After eating enchiladas we headed down 550 to Peralta. It was a good trip with no outstanding incidents, though it was very cold all the way and we saw multiple spots of ice on the road as we traveled. We were protected from harm the whole way. It was very nice to have the sun shining the whole time too, I got a chance to wear my sunglasses.

Now I'll work around Mom's place for a bit the fly out Friday evening.

First Entry

2009-01-10T18:46:00.001-08:00

This is my first entry into this blogspot. Maybe I'll write more later . . .