Because They Said So

I mentioned before we have had poop shortages. Strange, we know. Still, if you're the one with virtually no piles of poop yet have several children longing to scoop away, it becomes an issue. I think I mentioned how the weed chore is really a chore. Crushing cans is fun, but there are not enough of them.

I told Max we need to start letting the children help clean saddles. He liked the idea. However, sometimes what we want is not necessarily what's going to happen at GGYR. Others just might have a contrary opinion--a strong one at that!

I was walking by the tack room when I happened upon De and Maddy cleaning saddles. I said, "Oh wow, Max and I talked about letting the kids do that as a chore."
I must take a pause from this riveting narrative and give you a little background on De pictured above. Let's just say she has taken this whole make the tack room orderly project her baby. That lady runs a tight ship. Shovels can now be seen residing with fellow shovels. Rakes are hung in an orderly fashion. Fly spray here. Dewormer there.

We laugh about it.

We obey!

When I mentioned this potential chore as a dandy ol' idea, De barely looked up from her saddle soap when she announced, "Nope. I clean the saddles." Well, OK then.

Maddy is De's understudy. She takes her orders from De. She learns from De. I think De earned Maddy's eternal respect the day she taught her to put up a fence. It's a safe bet Maddy will not be handing over any rags unless requested by her sensei.
I guess I'll let them be for now. As if I had a choice anyhow. Just great--now I need to think up more clever chores to occupy those willing little cowboys and cowgirls.

I always do have piles and piles of laundry to fold. . .

On the criminal scene, Max chatted with the code enforcement officer for the City of Rio Rancho. He let Max know their office has dropped the criminal charges against us since the water line construction has begun!! Oh happy day! Happy things are rolling along and happy that we were lucky enough to get a code enforcement officer who has shown patience with us through this long process. He didn't have to been as understanding as he's been. Our court date should now be cancelled.

Crushing Blow

In the winter, we have it coming out of our ears. Now, we don't have a pile to spare. What you ask? Oh, just poop. Galloping Grace Youth Ranch has a severe shortage on steamy piles of equine excrement. Who would have thunk it?! It has gotten to the point where we have kindly asked our volunteers not to scoop, rather to save it all for the kiddos. It's a pretty comical problem. If you look in our horse pens, they are sparkling clean. I bet there are a lot of horse owners out there who would love to have our woes.

Because of the rough poop economy, Max has had to get creative when assigning work for the participants and family members. One job, helpful yet torturous, is pulling weeds. If I did a poll of the children, I would bet almost all of them would vote weeds are the worst job on the ranch.

On the other hand, we have found a real crowd pleaser--

crushing cans!

Thanks to all who have donated cans to the ranch. Not only are you contributing to a fundraising project,

but you are providing hours of "work" for the masses.

Wild Horses

We had another work day out at the ranch this weekend. I'll post more about that later.


Yesterday, Angie and Renee came to help us with some chores around the ranch.




While the kids, Max, Renee and Angie were working, I noticed these "wild" horses running loose outside our fence.

Our equines were very intrigued!

Our neighbors, Mike and Stephanie, came out to identify the horses. They thought they belonged to some friends of theirs. The decision was made to go ahead and catch them. It was shortly after that when we realized that they truly were WILD horses! Mike and Stephanie went after them on foot. Max quickly saddled Red and galloped out to help.

Mike was able to catch one of the ponies who happened to be wearing a halter. He handed him off to Brooke, who did a nice job holding him until the horse yanked the lead rope out of her hands. Back to square one!

Mike was able to catch him again while Max herded the other two onto our property. That wasn't the end of it. Max was able to rope the pony. (Renee had the privilege of holding two very rowdy ponies while the action was taking place.) However, the mare proved to be much more elusive! It didn't help matters that it was really dark by this time. That horse ran circles around our horse pen. Boy, were our horses excited seeing a mare on the premises!

Max eventually got her over to Mike where he was able to get a rope around her.

Mike and Steff decided to keep the horses at their house until they could find their owners. As of this afternoon, only one of the horses was claimed. The other two were picked up by animal control.

We didn't get home until almost 8:00 PM. The kids still had homework to do and baths to take. Maybe next time I'll keep my discoveries to myself!