Star Valley Ranches House

Some of you may know that in January or so Mike got a call from a guy who was an American working in Iraq. He had been there 3 years, was getting ready to come back stateside and had bought a vacation house online (sight unseen) in Star Valley Ranches ten miles south of us. The house was finished on the outside but completely unfinished on the inside and he wanted someone to finish it before he got here in May. He got Mike's name from our mortgage broker.

So this was a great winter job for Mike and a pretty big job for him to do by himself, but all in all it was perfect. Last week was the deadline. The Guy was coming to town on Friday and going to lay eyes on his finished house for the first time. This was pretty stressful, especially to pick out all finishes and colors by ourselves. And truthfully Mike could use another 2 weeks. When I was in Albuquerque I could tell Mike was stressing out pretty bad so when I returned last Wed, Thurs, and Fri, I put all else aside and we both cranked on the house.

We got it reasonably done and cleaned about 1/2 hour before Lee showed up with the moving van. Lee was thrilled. Mike still has finish up work, which unfortuately includes gyp.boarding the garage, which will be difficult to do around all the stuff. But did I mention Lee was thrilled?

AardwolfAlpacas.com

Our Website is live! Check it out at http://www.aardwolfalpacas.com. Comments and feedback welcome.

Alpaca Initiation

Well, I've been initiated into the alpaca world. We had a happy hour this week. Thought we might do that regularly to introduce people to the alpacas. We've been advertising for people to "touch the alpacas", so obviously they would have to be caught, something we hadn't done since bringing them home two weeks ago. When the first few guests arrived we went out to the alpaca corral, Sophia proved to be the easier to catch, although she wasn't too happy about it. So we decided to catch Serena when the others got there later. Serena is much less friendly and with everyone making a fence and giving her very little room, I successfully caught her, only to be tripped up against the fence and thrown to the ground... feet flying through the air, dress torn, glasses flying.. guess it was quite the entertainment for the guests. Then with more resolve I headed back for her, but Serena is the kicker. Her aim was true (I should have known better than to get behind her) and she gave me two swift kicks, right in the spot that was scraped up from the fall! Finally we used the horse panel and penned her in and got the halter on through the panel, so she did not get away with it. On the brighter side the secod time Sophia just stood to be caught and I caught her again today and fed her hay out of my hand, Serena's just not as friendly. Sophia is the spitter though, and so I guess you can say Lila was initiated too!

The girls come home!

Well once again too many weeks and too
many events have gone by since my last post. In the last month we went to Oregon/Washington for Alpaca training and Tulip viewing (visiting seven ranches, some of the most successful Alpaca ranches in the country); we went to Missoula to see Mike's son, Dan, in a Lumberman competition (unfortunately he came down with the stomach flu and could not compete); and I took a business trip to Rhode Island (where I have never been before). I'd love to tell you more about those trips, but I'd rather talk about the trip to the big Alpaca Show in Denver.

We were invited to help a ranch near Denver that we are working them show their alpaca at the Great Western Alpaca Show, one of the largest shows in the country. We were also taking the opportunity to take home our alpacas from this show. While the first of April still found 3+ feet of snow in our yard, April brought the summer. Last weekend we persuaded a neighbor to clear all the horse manure out of the corral and shelter, and then we put up our fences for the Alpaca yards. Wednesday night after work we headed for Monica's house getting there about midnight.

At the beginning of April we had an alpaca shipped from GA to Denver to await our transport home, unfortunately she lost her pregnancy on the trip, AND broke her toe getting out of the transporter's truck. The break was at a joint and had a large chip broken out. (Click on the photo to enlarge.) The chip was the part of the bone that all the ligaments connect to and so things were bad enough that the vet (and the five other vets I consulted) thought surgery was necessary. Thursday morning we ferried one of our alpaca from the hotel the couple who brought her from Albuquerque were staying at to the Tapply ranch for safekeeping during the show. Then we took Crescendo to the veterinarian hospital for her Surgery. The rest of the day was helping the Tapply's load up, transport to the show, vet check all the animals, color check the animals and get checked into the show. Then we went to the evening seminar on Fleece, which included dinner.

Saturday morning we picked up Crescendo from the hospital and took her back to Tapply's ranch where she will stay until she is healed and perhaps until she is re-bred. She is apparently doing great. The surgery will protect her from excessive pain as she gets older, and hopefully prevent her from becoming barren (yes, from a broken toe), a possibility without the surgery that we could not afford.

Friday and Saturday were show days. We met a lot of contacts, went to a few educational seminars, shopped for alpaca products and needs, and watched some of the show ring. We thought we might help take an animal into the ring, and so were prepared but the opportunity didn't really come up. The Tapply's had a great show with a fourth place, a third place, and two first places on their animals and a first place on their fleece entry. It was great seeing many of our other new friends doing well in the show also.

Loved the opportunity to visit with Monica and David as well and to see the operation of their new Dog Boarding Kennel first hand. Sunday we had breakfast with Monica and Dave before going to the Tapply's to load of two of our females and head for home. The boys (Cracker Jack whom we bought in March (see previous post), and Ko-Chise, a companion gelding for Jack that we bought at the show) will be delivered to the ranch later in May. Pepper Fire will stay in VA for the rest of the year and Crescendo will stay at Tapply's until October or so.

Now that I've passed out a lot of business cards at the show with our web address on it, guess I'd better get my Webpage live soon. Maybe in Albuquerque when I go there this week!

A foal is born!

The girls were here for spring break last week. I think her had a nice relaxing time (as spring break should be) and luckily they were here for the arrival and decisions about the new horse (Lady) and placement of our "old" horse (Jane), whom we put up fliers to say we'd give her away free to a good home and within 3 hours she was spoken for, problems and all. Anyway, we got through all that. Kelsey did some driving practice and otherwise the girls relaxed and played with friends, played in the snow, watched movies, etc. We did try to ride Lady one day but unfortunately we had too much snow to get over to he trailer where the tack was, and we were not about to ride her bareback.. Not to mention by the time we gave up trying to get the saddles we were soaked to the skin.

Friday afternoon they went over a friend's house for the afternoon. About 1/2 an hour after they got there Sara called to say the horse that had been expected to give birth for about a month was going into labor and did I want to come over to watch.. Which of course I did. The colt was born within about 1/2 an hour and apparently about 10 minutes after I left to get back to work, (after being there about 1.5 hours) he got up and nursed.. So all is well. It was a great experience for the girls to get to witness.

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!

Big week in our house.

This past week was a big week in our house.

First thing Monday morning I quit my job. Yep you heard right. I haven't been completely satisfied with my return to architecture and HATE the commute. So I have been pursuing getting back into the Facility Management Database Support world, preferably on a contract basis. This week I also signed a contract with Gilbane for 20 hours a week, that no doubt will blossom to more than I want! I also am going to be doing some work for Washington Group on a contract basis that I hope will also grow to be steady part time involvement.

Mike got full-time busy this week on a contract he got for finishing a house about 10 miles south of us for a man that bought the house sight unseen off the internet from Baghdad. The house has a very nice layout and is completely finished on the exterior and only rough framed on the interior, so this is the perfect winter job for him and will keep him busy for 3 months or so, not to mention how this will help out his financial situation. He has a number of other small jobs in line as well, so he feels pretty good about his workload right now.

And if that is not enough big news, I finished my Ski Patrol training and am now a full-fledged, card-carrying member of the Snow King Ski Patrol. Of course I will only have two patrol days before the ski area closes for the season, but I feel much relief to have completed it. Now it only remains to be seen if it was all worth it in the years to come! I really hadn't realized when I joined that it would mean an entire ski season that I could not ski with Mike. (Of course there was that day three weeks ago in Deer Valley... Nice! But I digress).

A visit from Irvin Perry

One of the bigger events of the year in Jackson is the Dog Sled Race, especially noticable if your office manager is an ex-professional dog sledder, volunteers on the committee as race secretary, and generally kind person that cannot say no to anyone. This race started last Friday in Jackson for an evening short 4 mile kick off race. Then they tour around with a race in Lander, Pinedale, Alpine, Kemmerer, Evanston and Park City. 300 miles total. We went to the festivities on Friday evening and then volunteered to house a musher on the night they were in Alpine. That got us invited to an excellent pot luck (fun) and we were assigned to house Irvin Perry.

Irvin was travelling with his wife, Yoenne, and Dog Handler, Christie, and they were from Inuvik, Northwest Territory. If you don't know where that is, it is at the end of the road, literally, where the North American Highway system ends in the North. We stayed up late with them chatting and enjoyed a big breakfast before they were off to run the 60 mile leg Wednedsay. A very interesting evening and morning. Their 23 dogs stayed in the truck! (They left the other 22 at home.. and they do this "just for fun!").


I guess this race hosts the best dog sledders in the world. Irvin said there was no way to touch the top 5, but since up to 12th place pays out more than the $1000 entry fee, the other 15 teams were competing for those 7 spots. They were fairly disappointed with their showing so far.

Ski Patrol

The ski patrol is dragging on. Since we finished our Outdoor Emergency Care training in November, we have been doing on-hill training, learning to run the Toboggans, Snow King protocol, working on our skiing skills and practicing mock scenarios on the hill. It is an exhausting day of skiing and I have been going one day a weekend and one evening a week throughout January, hoping to get checked off and become an active Patroller. Well ski season ends at the end of March. Not sure any of us will finish by then. It has become quite tedious to keep up the enthusiasm and quite the bummer because I can't ski with Mike, so he skis alone or not at all. I won't be going the next three weekends though because it's time to head to Albuquerque again.

On the bright side I found a deal to ski free at Park City any day you have a boarding pass for, so I quick changed my Sunday evening home ticket for a Monday morning ticket (I LOVE SOUTHWEST) and when Mike picks me up we'll go skiing for the day before driving home.

The snow and cold has been relentless. I want to attach a photo, but there have been so few sunny days. I'll just illustrate by saying that we almost can't see the frame of our trampoline, because the snow is too deep in the backyard!

Tuck in the holidays... and on to 2006

Well the holidays are over. Time to get down to the business of 2006, and it promises to be "lots of business"!

We spent the weekend in Ogden with Mike's family on Dec 18th to pick the girls up at the airport and do a bit of shopping. The next week the girls slept in, made cookies, and played with the horses.. That was their jobs. Christmas eve they went on a long dog sled ride, Christmas Day was quiet, presents, games, movies, and then on Boxing Day (Dec 26) we had a big party.. Well at least we planned for big.. Invited about 50.. had 3 attend. That was kind of a bummer, not sure what the trouble was, some people were sick, some forgot.. Of course lots were traveling and we knew they weren't going to be there. I guess the bad weather that day took care of the rest.

The next day Mike's son's Josh and Dan and Josh's girlfriend, Rachel, came up from Ogden where they had spent Christmas. (Josh is from Albuquerque and Dan from Missoula). The house was clean and we had days worth of food (thanks to the party) so they did some shopping in Jackson and general visiting.

Wednesday, while they were in Jackson, I took off the afternoon and took the girls and the horses to the indoor arena near our house. This turned out to be very nice, since there is too much ice near the house to consider riding. I think the horses appreciated being warm or at least dry for a few hours in the last few weeks. The girls got to practice some of their skills and I got to see that they need to get a lot tougher with the horses, who were getting away with everything! Jane was doing her usual tripping routine, which made Kelsey uncomfortable to risk cantering, so I encouraged them to take turns on Sonny so that they could practice cantering in this ideal conditions. But another problem these two horses have is being separated, so with Jane tied up and throwing a FIT, you could hardly make Sonny canter away and not try to turn right back to her. (Again see note above about girls needing to be more forceful). Guess Mike and I need to get in there and work with these horses, who in reality are very good.

On Thursday Mike, and all the kids rented snowmobiles and played all day. A great time was had by all. Mike says we created a monster in Sara, who took no time to tell me she drove the snowmobile at 55 mph! Mike rode with her driving most of the day. She's hooked. Fun stuff. This was one of the highlights of the holidays, too bad I was working.

Friday Josh and Rachel took off for home. The rest of us went skiing at Grand Targhee (back side of the Tetons). They have nice terrain for intermediate skiers and the snow was very good, but the weather has awful, fog, wind, snow storm. The morning for the girls and I didn't go to well as they remembered how to ski, but the weather made us all cranky. After lunch we skied the easier area and didn't get up so high into the wind on the mountain, and improved the experience.

For New Years Eve we came up to Jackson and watched the torchlight parade at Snow King and Fireworks, getting home by 9pm and promptly falling asleep in front of the TV (story of my life!).. We did shake ourselves awake at 11:45, gave a "Woo, hoo" at midnight, and fell off to bed.

Sunday Mike and I took the girls back to Salt Lake to fly to Albuquerque. An eventful and nice visit for sure. The drive to Salt Lake and back took ALL DAY, with not much else taking time, although we did have a quick dinner with Mike's parents.. Oh yeah and spent an hour looking for an open fast food restaurant in Idaho Falls.. weird.

Dan is still here, probably leaving this weekend after another day of skiing and a day of dog sledding. He and Mike have been getting some stuff done around the house and doing a bit of other work. Mike had hoped to get a couple of jobs going that Dan could help him on for a week, but too close to the New Year I guess. In another month he should be really busy. At any rate, Mike has sure enjoyed having the boys here.

So back to life, back to work, back to ski patrol (which has been neglected the last month), on to alpacas (maybe March). Hope your holidays were fun-filled. Take care until next blog!

Happy Holidays

Just a quick note to say Happy Holidays!

My sister Nancy and family came for Thanksgiving and the kids all had a great time out in the snow riding horses, etc. It was even warm enough to put up the trampoline.

Immediately following, I went for my week in Albuquerque. Coincidentally Nancy was in town too for a house hunting trip, since they have plans to move there this month. And my sister, Monica, made it down for a night to join in on the mini-reunion! Incidentally while I was in Albuquerque, Mike was having a week of all out blizzards in Wyoming.. Snow 24" high. (He says "Why bother to build fences, the alpaca will be able to walk right over!")

And then the week of the 19th the girls come back up to Wyoming for 2 weeks for Christmas. We are hoping Mike's son, Dan, will join us for one of those weeks. And just today I heard Josh and Jed might come as well. But other than that we intend to stay home and relax through the holidays! Hope you can do the same.

November

Lots of progress this month. First milestone was to pass my Ski Patrol (Outdoor Emergency Care Certification) class. I passed with a 96, although walking into the test I still was not sure I'd get the required 75.. It was tough stuff. Now there is still lots of hours ahead for on the hill training, but no stress there. I feel a great sense of relief having passed that.

Mike and I spent last weekend in Denver, driving Saturday, visiting Monica and Dave (my sister & Husband) for the afternoon and evening. Then Sunday Morning we went to see our alpaca at the ranch we bought her from. We spent the rest of the day "in training" at that ranch before driving home that evening. We trimmed some nails, gave some shots, bred our alpaca (unfortunately she is still not pregnant.), and picked up lots of other helpful alpaca tips. On the alpaca front, things are progressing a bit slower than we would like due to transportation and apparent difficulties getting pregnant. After trying to buy three pregnant females it seems none of them are confirmed pregnant at this time. They are all still at their original farms. The Georgia one turned out not to be pregnant and so is there being bred. The Missouri one is still trying to get to New Mexico to be bred (after losing her baby last month) and the Denver one is just being slow getting pregnant... Oh well, practicing patience.

I spent a quick week in Albuquerque with the girls but due to Ski Patrol constraints there was no associated weekend. December will be almost as bad but I do get in 1 weekend. I find myself scrambling to get in the agreed upon days in my parenting plan with Kelsey & Sara, guess the summer was shorter than I thought. Anyway, I'll plan better next year. On the upside I am in Albuquerque in November and in Dec, and the girls come to Wyoming in November and December, so we get lots of time together.

During my week in Albuquerque I turned 43 and got glasses, which was a surprise. I thought it would be the typical trouble seeing close that people develop, but it turned out to be a problem with distance, that then made my eyes more tired adjusting to close vision. Still not sure if I understand or believe that I need them, but they do help.

Mike's workload has been steadily increasing and he is busy full time for the next month or so, which is great. He has gotten one job caretaking a house in Jackson, which means paid to drive by once a month and flush toilets and look for maintenance issues and then he will be paid to fix what he finds. This is big business in Jackson where such a large percentage of the houses are occupied only a few weeks a year. He was thrilled at this contract and hopes to get a few more.

Mike did expand the horse shelter at our house and we loaded up on hay for the winter. We still have some fencing and a bit more shelter work to do before the Alpaca come. We had hoped to pour concrete for our garage, but can't get any concrete (perhaps ya'll are aware of the concrete shortage in the country). Now that the snow is on the ground we may have to abandon the project until the spring.

I did tell the waitress at Dinner on Sunday that I had broken my fingernail while trimming the toenails of an alpaca.. she said she thought nobody had ever said that to her before (and probably wouldn't ever again)... Imagine!

Peruvian or Chilean

We bought alpaca this week. After 2 years of planning and dreaming Aardwolf Alpacas is born. We hooked up with a woman (Ellen) in Albuqueruque who helped us find a starter pair of Alpaca. The question of the week was Peruvian or Chilean... Ellen had built quite a nice little business for herself in 3 years and was strict in her discipline to breed only Pure Peruvian Alpaca. Most other breeders don't do this and tell us just follow your instincts and buy quality animals ad you can't go wrong. Our trouble.. we don't have "experienced instincts" just yet, so following her advise did not seem like an unreasonable thing to do.

On Thursday, when we were working the deal to buy Alpaca two (Serena) she had a baby (Bonus). She was female and black (double and triple bonus). The baby was not Pure Peruvian.. but easily worth $10,000. So we decided to buy a third animal, that my instincts told me to buy.. 3/4 chilean, and bred to a 1/2 Bolivian.. But I think she is really a nice animal. Now I guess we will see 1st hand how much difference it makes to stick with Peruvian.

Unfortunately, the baby died on Saturday. She had been pre-mature and the owner hadn't known she was born for some time I guess, and she was born in the freezing rain. She caught Pneumonia and never recovered. So.. Bonus snagged back! Our first blow. We are sticking with the three anyway, and now are trying to arrange insurance, shipping, breeding, visits, not to mention fencing. Fun stuff. With all the logistics it looks like we will be lucky if they are on our property by New Years, so I am practicing my patience (tough for me). in the mean time there is always fencing to keep us occupied (right Monica?).

Another month

Well another month has gone by, too much activity to write much. Today at work we finished the big project (Flying Saddle Lodge) that we were supposed to finish by August 1, so I have a moment to breathe. In the mean time along with finishing this project and another one (Teton Literacy Program), this month has included...

* Getting a fishing license, two fishing trips, including a visit from Mike's Brother-in-Law, Joe and his Dad. And.. I caught a fish!

* Rafting one last time and taking the Romanian Students that are working this summer at the office... and giving them the whole experience.. Yep dumped the whole boat. It was quite a shock since we had to go at 7:30 AM to get Teo and Alin back by noon, so it was COLD. Teo had not considered the possibility she might get wet, and so was quite shocked... We recovered though, and got back into the raft, only to pass search and rescue 20 feet downstream looking for a dead body! The mood before we flipped and the mood after the flip was remarkably different!

* My September week in Albuquerque - Lots of parenting responsibilities during this monthly visit. Saw Sara's new school. Got the new activities underway, Worked lots on Kelsey's driving skill, although not a real road yet! Not to mention that September is the birthday party visit when both of the girls have their birthday parties... So Kelsey was an overnight Friday, Sara was an overnight Saturday, and we all parted company exhausted.

* Hiking the King - Snow King Ski Area which comes right down to my office. I was shocked the first day I walked with Randy, a co-worker that is 12 years older than me and had knee surgery 3 months ago, at how out of shape I am. I began a daily regiment of walking at lunchtime. Maybe I'll make it to the top before the snow flies! (HA)

* Joining the Ski Patrol - Something I've always been interested in doing.. So I did. Thought it might be something fun to do with Mike and although he wanted to do it in the past with me, this year he is not too keen on it. Thinks his skiing isn't up to par. So after much debate I decided to go for it. It should be good exercise, and a fun way to get involved in Jackson. What I DIDn't know is that the training is so intense. I will have the same training as an EMT-Basic when completed. So it will be hard-core study from now until Christmas.

* A few very nice horse rides - the latest of which (last Sunday) was a 16-mile (8 miles each way) ride to a Ghost town. Fun until Jane jumped over the creek and I flew off the saddle and connected in an unnatural way... After that (10 miles or so more) it became more of an endurance/torture ride for me. Mike was also hurting pretty bad by the time we got off the horses (7 hours of riding later). Our muscles have recovered, but the Deep purple/black/green/blue Hershey bar sized bruises on each of my inner thighs are still interfering with my Ski hill hiking.

* We did think the Farrier had hit on a good idea to have a chiropractor come see Jane and perhaps help her foot problem and maybe other problems too. We did have the guy come, and it was very interesting seeing him make adjustments with Rubber mallets. She did seem to have some room for improvement, but in the end her foot problems have not ceased...

* Mike spent the month fishing and finishing the barn job he had.

* This coming weekend we are heading off to Coeur D'Alene, Idaho for an Alpaca show. We are quite excited to see Coeur D'Alene, and enjoy the drive through the fall forests. We will be having dinner with Mike's son, Dan, in Missoula on the way. And then of course there are the Alpaca... I had a dream last night that this is the year I should buy! ;-)

Paradise

Well, time to get this blog entry off because life keeps happening! The trip to the VirginIslands already seems so distant! We had a great time. The girls and I spent two days in Orlando (Universal Studios and Sea World) on our way to the Caribbean. It was very hot and humid.. Almost unbearable, if not for the occasional air-conditioned ride! As it was our first trip to Orlando, we all thought there was SO much to do there, and thought it would be fun to come back for a week, but in the winter!

Then off to the Virgin Islands, our delay in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and at Customs on Tortola was long enough that the first thing we did was change plans and stay on Tortola for the night, hung out at the beach and had a great dinner. Then the next day we were on the boat. If you haven't seen the boat, it is pretty nice and can be viewed outside and in at http://www.cuanlaw.com. Kelsey, Sara, and I shared a room and the other 17 of the Swenson party all shared double suites, filling the capacity of the boat. There were also 7 crew to attend to most every need, a 24-hour open bar, plenty of snorkeling, kayaking, diving (for the 6 people that decided to participate, including Kelsey), a theater room (for those with stomachs of steel!), jumping off the boat, shore trips for shopping or beach, card playing, and two hobie cats at our disposal. Not to mention 3 gourmet meals each day, surprisingly well portioned, as I didn't feel like I over ate at all. The trip in general was better than expected. We didn't have the usual family spats, which looking back must have been because the crew made all our decisions for us. That has to be the best investment of all! The first thing the crew said when we got on is that this boat was their home and they considered us guests in their home, and truly we felt that hospitality, they did a great job and the it was a very pleasant atmosphere and experience.

The next best investment was the diving. Since we hadn't gotten Kelsey certified before we went, we expected the "resort course" (for non-diving first time tryers) to be one trip in the water. All the divers were surprised when it turned out the resort course included a dive every day. The $75 investment was well worth it and Kelsey feels like she has picked up a new hobby for life. This is fitting well into her aspirations to become a marine biologist/marine wildlife photographer. She thinks she will spend a year someday working on the Cuan Law. She had her 15th birthday while we were there and she felt properly recognized as the crew threw her overboard in celebration.

The weather was perfect (a bit hot but very pleasant on the boat and in air conditioned rooms!). We were on the boat 7 days. The girls and I went home that last day. It will be a trip we won't forget soon. A proper celebration of my parent’s 50th anniversary (even if the crew did NOT throw them overboard). I've included a few photos here, and in the future will provide a link to imagestation for those who are interested in more, once I have everyone's photos and can select a "best" set.

The girls are now back in Albuquerque, and I'm back in Jackson to carry on life. It somehow feels changed. The girls started school last week, Kelsey as a sophomore, Sara in Middle School. Those are stories for another day.

NOTE : CLICK ON ANY PHOTO TO ENLARGE.

Rafting, riding, and work.

I mentioned our rafting last blog. The day turned out perfect weather and perfect water. The rapids were better than when the river was higher. Mike took Jackie, Marc, Jonathan and Benjamin down. They dumped at the big kahuna rapid and rode through the next rapid in the river. I picked up the girls and then we met them at the take out to hear their adventure. Benjamin (8) did not want to go again.. So he and Marc went home. Mike went fishing (excellent) and I took Kelsey, Sara, Jackie and Jonathan for another trip down the river. Jackie tried to demonstrate the first trip to us and fell out again on the same spot as before, but we managed to save the boat upright and pull Jackie back in before the next rapid. Well they left the next morning for LA with storied to tell!

Jackie, Marc
Benjamin, & Jonathan Zev

Mike has been working on the house. The downstairs is almost finished. The Zevs stayed in the new family room with a working bathroom (even if it didn't have a door!), but progress is being made and we hope to start the additions soon. Mike has also been taking some time for fun and went out fishing both Thursday and Friday last week while the kids were at Riding camp. The fishing has been great. Better than I ever heard from him. The kids also enjoyed the riding camp last week. They got to do "poles" (whatever that is), barrel riding, cantering, and trail riding. And the best part for them was that they got to take our horses Wed, Thurs, and Friday, riding to the lessons and back. Wednesday we were a bit unsure and so we trailered the horses over. I wasn't paying attention, and the girls were being slow getting the lead ropes, and Mike was just working on getting the horses out.. anyway the back got opened up before the horses were detatched and Sonny tried to back out. When he couldn't get out he FREAKED, which is exactly what we were told would happen if we did this... Oh well, we will try not to make that mistake again. We also were a bit concerned about them loading in the trailer again. But we decided to give it a try on Sunday. We went to a canyon near us and Mike fished and the girls did some trail riding and I worked. It was a beautiful day and the horses loaded without incident, and even though I was a bit nervous sending the girls out on their own into the woods, they did great.

So now that the Zevs are gone I am on the home stretch for our Carribean trip. Wednesday (after I got back to work after my play day) I was told that my main client expected the drawings for his building to be done by August 1 (in other words before I leave on vacation). This is laughable! Anyhow, I agreed to crunch as hard as I can in this two weeks and see what we can accomplish. It won't be done, but I'll do what I can. Maybe this means getting organized so someone else can work on it while I'm gone. The office doesn't do real well at teaming up on projects.. This has advantages and disdvantages. This time it's a disadvantage. So rather than writing this blog I should get working. Now we are 8 days from leaving for vacation, and I still have three more sewing projects. Don't think I'll need to write another blog cause you know what I'll be doing!

Well we rode the horses!

We had to get the horses shod before we could ride and couldn't get that until yesterday, so while Jackie Zev (aka Jackie Schuster) was visiting we found an opportune time to get out. She and I went for an early morning ride and then after breakfast her kids rode a bit around the yard, first time on a horse not in attached to a pony pole. Then Jackie and her husband Marc went out for a ride. The horses did beautifully, we were really pleased. Beautifully that is aside from the one interesting incident when Jackie wanted to take an extra jaunt around the block and lope a bit. Sonny, whom I was riding did not like being separated from Jane, even for that brief few minutes and started SCREAMING and screamed and screamed until she got back. Jackie also had an interesting ride on a particularly prancy horse... My girls did not ride because they were off to horse camp this morning.

In the mean time Lila (my office manager) has given the girls chores to do at her house in exchange for lessons with the horses, that are mostly (at least until this point) ground work so the girls have things they can do when we are not around. They love the arrangement so it works good for all.

Jackie and Marc are visiting during their summer trip across the West and to Yellowstone, etc. Last weekend we were able to join them in Yellowstone. We appreciated the opportunity to go to Yellowstone and camp and of course are thrilled to visit with them. They saw lots of wildlife including a grizzly. Maybe next time for us.

This afternon we are taking the Zevs white water rafting, another activity weare happy to be able to provide them and another chance to get out on the river. Mike might even do a bit of fishing today :-)