Winery - Hog Roast Cancer Benefit TrailRide

Mr Ron on the wagon.

Jessica and Ashleigh trying to catch up with us.

Young and old trail riders having fun along the way.

April 25 was a warm day. We did a trail ride down Little Indian Creek RD from Lonedell to Richwoods to the Bardenheir Winery. All was for a good cause to raise money for the Siteman Cancer Center. I estimate about 50-60 horses were there. We left our horse and wagon at home, and it was a good thing.
There were three water crossings and Wolfie is afraid to get his hooves wet! Also there were three huge hills, and he is too out of condition to pull that distance. It was supposed to be 6.3 miles each way, but it felt more like 25 miles. One person did bring a horse and wagonette. It took them forever to make the trip. Ron and I rode in a wagon pulled by a truck. Not bad at all. Made some new friends, and saw some old friends. It was lovely looking at all the blooming dog wood trees, and the spring wild flowers. We stopped at the winery and had appetizers and cool drinks. When we got back to the ranch, the hog was roasted and we had dinner.

April JCTR Horse Show

We finally had our first horse show of the season. It was a rain date, but we had 70 horses. Ron and I had to leave early so we could get to Hoofed Heroes Trivia Night to work. The storm blew in just after we left, raining out the last few classes of the show. Jessica and Wolfie made their debut in the flag race class. Wolfie wasn't too sure about what he was supposed to do, but they made it around in about 100 seconds!

I wonder what Wolfie is thinking.... If looks could kill.

Been all night at Bonnie's working on her computer. Forgot how aggravating dial up can be. This should have been 20 minutes.... Not 3 hours.

Back home from Virginia

Leo & Josie

We had a wonderful time visiting Karen and Tim and our grand-dogs in Virginia. The drive out and back was grueling, but the scenery was beautiful. Spring was popping out everywhere we looked. We were planning on doing a little site seeing out there, but after the long drive, we just wanted to stay at the house and visit. Ron stayed busy assembling things... BBQ grill, closet organizer, and I did pretty much of nothing.

The kid's have a beautiful home. I really like their floor plan, minus the steps. The kitchen is quite breath taking. While we were there, Karen invited some friends over for an open house, and we got to meet some of their buddies they spent time with overseas. Everyone was very nice. We were also invited to a friends birthday party at a very good restaurant called Maggionos Little Italy. They served family style great Italian food. The best tiramisu I have ever tasted! I just found out we have one of these restaurants here at our own St Louis Galleria. Maybe we will have to try out the food here, too.

I met Leo, the blonde cocker spaniel, for the first time. Leo is somewhat shy, but he seemed to like Ron pretty well. Leo is Tim's dog. Josie and I were still bonded from her stay with us several years ago. She is still the cutest little dog. She slept with me a couple of nights while we were out in Virginia. I really missed our dogs, and it helped to have Josie close by.

All of our animals survived our trip away. Jessica took good care of everyone. The cats and dogs missed us a lot, and Wolfie was glad to see Jessica go home. She rode him every day. He is not used to so much attention. Well, as they say, there is "no place like home". We sure are glad to be back home, sleeping in our own bed.

Leaving for Vacation

Today we are getting ready to go on vacation. We are washing and packing up everything. I have a line of stuff in the hallway so we won't forget anything. No matter how organized we are, we always leave something critical behind. I even have a list!

What a week! Yesterday, Ron and I volunteered to work at the Mastodon Art & Science Fair. I sold tickets to the dinosaur egg hunt, and poor Ron was hauling buckets of water for the outside plants. The college where this was held is not easy to traverse. It is on a hillside with steps up and down everywhere. We were worn out by the time we left four hours later. It was all for a good cause.

We went to a fund raiser last night for Mid America Horse Rescue (a group out of Millstadt), that rescues former thoroughbred race horses, and gives them a second career. They held a trivia night, and boy was that ever fun. We came in fourth place and didn't win anything, but we made a pretty good showing. It was so loud my ears are still numb. It was a late night for us. We are too old to stay out late at night anymore.

Jessica is coming over later today. She will housesit for us while we are gone, and tend all of the animals for us. She is a good kid.

I am looking forward to seeing Tim and Karen in their new home in Virginia. I am not looking forward to two days of hard driving to get there.... We will be going through states I have not seen yet. We are going to Indiana and Ohio tomorrow. We will then go to Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Virginia on Tuesday, before we arrive in Woodbridge, VA. We should see some beautiful scenery on the way out there. Hopefully, we won't get lost anywhere.

Virginia, here we come!

Snow in DeSoto

The snow finally ended today. We were lucky and only had about 6 inches. Some people had 11 inches, like our friends over in Illinois. Ron has been 'digging out' all day. Tomorrow he plans to hook up the tractor and blade and clear the driveway. Our car is still stuck in the garage.

Our dog, Oreo, enjoys the cold weather. He is such a nut! He goes outside and lays in the snow and looks at us through the patio door. I took this picture from the inside of my living room.


I am getting a severe case of cabin fever. Tomorrow I plan to go out one way or another. I have been inside for four days now, but I am afraid I will slip and fall.

What a day for the USA!

I feel that I have been part of history in the making today. We watched the entire inauguration as it unfolded today. I will remember this day for all the rest of my days. Watching Barrack Obama becoming President today makes me extremely proud of our country and how far we have come. I truly have hope for our country. Now it is time for all of us to pull together and get America out of the mess we have put ourselves into.... We now have a leader for the free world. One that I can be proud to stand beside and behind. Congratulations and welcome aboard!

The Wolfie Wagon

Last year we found a little wagon called a 'people mover' for sale in Oklahoma. We drove up on a weekend to buy the wagon, and it was a memorable experience. We decided we were never going to pull a trailer through Oklahoma again. For that matter, we decided we were never going to haul our trailer long distance any more. Anyway, we bought the wagon in February, and it sat in our horse trailer until October of last year. When we finally pulled it out, we saw it had to have a lot of work before we could hitch it to our horse, Wolfgang. He is called "Wolfie" for a nickname. We had to have a set of shafts built to fit Wolfie, and then the brakes had to be repaired. The wagon made it's debut in Belle, MO at the Hoofed Heroes Fall Festival. Wolfie gave rides to raise money. On November 1, we drove to Kaskaskia Island for a wagon meet and pot luck dinner. I think that was the last warm weekend of the year!

Day in Sullivan

We spent the afternoon with our good friends, the Emery family, at their home in Sullivan. We tormented their teenage daughters (always good fun) and had a nice chili dinner.