Story Time

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 . . .