Trail Riding Photos

Photos from our trail ride today on the Umatilla Rim trail. Cathy Gentner went with my mom and I on the ride with her horse Diamond. It was a very nice day.
Cathy and Diamond getting ready to go.

A scenic view of the distant canyons.

An old windfall tree. The branch on the far left looks like a gigantic elk horn sticking up out of the trunk. I like this tree - there is almost a natural abstract look to it.

Cathy and Diamond, happy campers. =:)

My mom and Lena - (with Tommy's gigantic ears taking up most of the picture...) Lena is a very nice horse - and is for sale.

One of my favorite pictures. It's REALLY nice to see some small green patches in eastern Oregon right now. It's the end of August and the lower lands are dry and look more like a desert. When we went further along the trail into the forest, there were some nice wild flowers that started cropping up.
Indian paintbrush.
Some sort of fuschia or purplish colored flower. Not sure what it is....
Little blue daisy looking ones.
It was a very enjoyable and relaxing ride. A nice day.

Go "No Limits"!

The final night for "Expedition Impossible" is on T.V.! Go team NO LIMITS!!!! =:) For folks who haven't tuned in, the three guys on team "No Limits" are truly an inspirational trio. Eric is blind and his friend Jeff leads him along the rugged expedition terrain in Morocco - fording rivers, kayaking, jumping off of cliffs, climbing mountains, zip lining, and horseback and camel riding. To make their team even more challenged - their other team mate Ike has suffered a broken ankle along the way and hobbles along with a cast and two walking canes. Yet the team just keeps going through the challenges mile after mile.... it's amazing! Wahoo!!! Love this show. Kind-of an endurance race for people. I know that the Gypsies will probably win it, but I'm rooting for the underdogs...GO TEAM NO LIMITS!!!!

Squeaky

Meet "Squeaky", the newest member of our Jacobin pigeon family. He's in a phase where he's so ugly that he's almost cute right now....

I've been calling Squeaky a "he", but he could also be a "she" very easily. Jacobins are notoriously difficult to sex - so I have no idea what gender Squeaky is right now. It will be interesting to see if my first hunch for a "he" turns out to be right, or if he ends up as a "she". Either way, Squeaky is a good name. =:)

I've been hand raising Squeaky for about a week now. In the past year, we've had some bad luck in our pigeon loft with the older Jacobin males killing the young hatchlings - (it is because I don't have enough room in our tiny loft to separate everybody into individual breeding pens.) So this has become a bit of a problem when it comes to brooding the youngsters out. I will eventually need to make the difficult decision to cull out the big adult aggressive males and just keep the younger more docile ones. I hate to do that, because but there are so few birds in our little loft and I have a soft spot for each one..... But reputable breeders like Clint Robertson have some good articles and insights on raising and weaning Jacobins on their websites:

http://www.jacobins4sale.com/jacobinlinks.html

The Fall

I LOVED this movie! Watched it the other night, and when it came on again I recorded it. The artistic vision of this film is fantastic!!!!!! For anyone who loves adventure movies with a childhood type of twist - this is a good one! (And it doesn't hurt that Lee Pace is easy to look at as well.....)
http://www.thefallthemovie.com/

For horse lovers, they recruited some accurate exotic horses in it too. I am a huge fan of films that will go the extra mile to incorporate native specimens into their pictures. The "story" that the two main characters came up with revolves mostly around east indian culture, and wouldn't you know it - there are Marwaris in it! Fabulous!!!!! Their unmistakable curved ears and elongated skeletal structures set them apart from the other movie horses. There is also a buckskin "Teke looking" horse in the film as well. Not sure if he's a purebred or not, but he looks very close. If you haven't watched the movie yet, the buckskin can be seen in the trailer on the website.

I give this flick two thumbs up!!!! Totally awesome. =:)