Snow King Hill Climb & Horses

Hard to believe I need to post a new entry already, but two things worth mentioning happened this week.

1) I worked the Snow mobile hill climb for the Ski Patrol at Snow King on Sunday. This is a crazy event where snowmobiles are run up the mountain, remember Snow King is the steepest mountain in the country. In general they go up until they can't go any more, then they jump off and try not to let the snowmobile tumble down the hill. Maybe 20% make it to the top. It's a busy weekend for the ski patrol, mostly helping drunk people down off the mountain, and yes, I had to help take one guy that was too drunk to stand up down in the toboggan.


2) Yesterday we got a new horse , Lady. She has been an outbackers horse for a number of years and now at 22 they think she is too old. So they were giving her away. Lila (my office Manager) knew that our horse Jane has lots of problems, health and things that make her a "difficult keeper". So she suggested us to look for a replacement or Jane. So we got this horse , Lady, and now will have to find a home for Jane. I'm sure we will have to give her away, because of said problems, but that is ok, since we got a horse for free and we think we traded up. Luckily the girls were here this week while this was going on so they could help with the decision. Kelsey is kind of unhappy about giving up Jane, but she understands that this is a good trade.


3)Also of note I guess is that last Friday was my last day at Hawtin Jorgensen. Now I am a consultant on contract. This week has been a kind of slow start because the girls are here, but it's going fine.

Cracker Jack & Pepper Fire

These two are our new aquisitions today. We want to grow our alpaca herd in 2006 and thought we ought to keep our eyes open for good deals when they come by. So although we thought we would probably wait until later in the year we found a great deal we could not pass us and with the incredible tax return we will get (due to alpacas) and how well Mike's business is going, we decided we could purchase more alpacas now.

We of course in that past had focused on bred females, but now we were considering finding a boy so we could start participating in showing and learning those ropes. I was first attracted to this black girl (Pepper Fire) but turns out the same ranch had this very nice little boy (Cracker Jack) with great genetics including a rose grey father whose color shows in the boys face. (Click on the photo to enlarge). She made us a good deal on the two of them. They will keep her for most of the rest of the year because they are keeping the cria (baby) she will have in the next month and she will keep her until the cria is weaned, but she will send the boy on over in May when we recieve the rest of our girls.

Climb to Tower 9

Sunday was my first day as official ski patroller. I requested that no one get hurt and everyone complied ;-).

After the ski day we had our final hazing.. I mean test. We had to climb 3/4 up the mountain with our skis on and side stepping the whole way (no skins, no carrying the skis). For fear that I would not be able to complete the test I decided to take it slow and steady and it took me about 2-1/2 hours, finishing just before it got too dark to ski down. And after a full day of skiing then this, I was completely wiped out. It did turn out to be more of a mental challange than a physical one, but either way it was no fun... One more milestone passed.

Mike was great, watched with the crowd offering moral support, then took me out to dinner, drove me home, and tucked me in. Good thing, because I'm not sure I could have driven home!

Beaurocracy

My deal this morning... I went to the dentist to get my cavities filled. She ended up saying she could do all 4 at one time, that sounded good, rather than coming back, so when I left my whole face was numb.. finally getting better now. Anyway, that was $120 (Even though I had thought my insurance would cover it, they covered some $400 of it!). Then I went to the county building to get my car registered, they sent my to the sheriffs office in the court house to get a VIN inspection.. $5.. cash only. Then since I was in the court house I decided to pay my tickets. I paid the speeding one ($180), but they told me the registration one would be knocked in half if I got the registration first. Since I was halfway through that process I decided that was good advice. So I went back to the county building and had to get a new title issued ($9... Cash only), which she almost wouldn't do because I bought the car as Phyllis Grubb.. but luckily I found an old credit card with that name so she believed me and LUCKILY Mike Grubb didn't have to be with me since his name is on my original title.. Then I had to go over to the registration place, where she typed all that in and charged me $120 for registration... Yeichs! (That is when Arne interrupted the story to remind me that we don't have state income tax). Of course this money she wanted in cash! Oh she would take a credit card, but it would cost me $10 more, or I could use the ATM and be charged only $2.00 more. I left and went to the bank. Back to the county building paid for the registration, back to the court house to pay for the registration ticket. But when I got there I found out that it was issued for Lincoln county and I'd have to take that one to Afton, and who knows about the fee being reduced from $60. At this time, although my face was looking better, I decided not to get my drivers license renewed as originally planned on this trip, because I found out instead of being in one of these buildings I was currently visiting, I'd have to drive to the department of transportation building, 8 miles South of town. I'd probably get a ticket going there!