Dripping Fog and Mr. Roo

It's almost 11 pm and I just came in from checking on the animals.  The fog is so heavy it feels like a light rain and my hooded sweatshirt is damp.
Our oldest horse is agitated out there in the dark.  He's been calling for over an hour now so I figured I'd best go talk with him and see what's up.  He hates being alone and his 'mare' must be down at the end of the pasture with the cows and calves.
I checked on Mr. Roo again :( He's still breathing and I just wish he'd peacefully let go.  I've shed tears over losing him a couple of times in the last few days.  His sweetheart (yes animals have sweethearts) died last week.  They're 8 years old and both began struggling with walking the last few months.  I think he misses her company.  The last week he's lain right outside Rowdy's kennel for company and just seemed to give up.  Yesterday he let me pick him up right in the middle of the day and carry him to a horse stall to get him out of the wind.
Mr. Roo was such a magnificent rooster, and such a polite and wonderful guy to have around.  I'm going to miss him a lot.  He hasn't crowed for a couple of days and I really miss that. 
He used to peck at my doorstep to get me outside to let the hens loose.  He has quite the personality.
I'm not sure I'll get another rooster.  Might just have a big flock of hens.  But I will sure miss his magnificent feather tapestry.  He has been my walking, crowing art.
I'm just sad :(

Beautiful Morning and I have lots to be Thankful for....

I occasionally need to stop and THINK and realize how greatly I am blessed and how thankful I need to be.  My life might have it's ups and downs.....which is life.....but I am definitely blessed and I am truly thankful for this.
My kids have grown into absolutely awesome people and my grandkids are pure joy for me. How blessed can that be ?!?!?!!!!!
My husband and I enjoy ranch life and it keeps us from feeling our creaks and pains most of the time :) We will always stay young and work and play through our aging because we WANT to have fun doing what we love......riding and roping and helping others......we don't want to sit down and take it easy and retire.  We want to PLAY at what we love to do. 
I think that's probably the secret to better health.....don't slow down.    '
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving week!!!!

Granny Nails a Heel Shot :)

SITTING AT THE GALLERY ENJOYING THE PEACE AND QUIET

What a beautiful Fall day here in Elk Grove and Wilton.  Leaves have turned yellow and gold, and pink and crimson.  The air is chill and the breeze swirls the falling leaves down the street in front of our little art center in Old Town Elk Grove.
I have the doors open and a sweatshirt on so I can enjoy the ecstacy of Fall.
I've warmed up a spiced apple candle to fill the gallery with the fragrance of Fall and the holidays.  In December I will fill the gallery with the fragrance of Christmas trees and Pomegranate :)
I enjoy my days at our little gallery.

I AM LEARNING TO TRUST MY MEMORY :)

I've spent a lifetime second guessing the answer to everything and think it to death.  One of my daughters recently told me to listen to my 'memory' and allow it to TELL me :)
Now when I log onto a website, for example, and it asks for a password and since I didn't think years ago to use the same password all the time and now have over 30 passwords I'm supposed to remember....NOT LIKELY.....but I've begun to hear it  lately.   It's a tiny, fleeting thought and I go with it.......and it's always right.  Who woulda thunk!

So here's the REAL DEAL with photography

10 hours of driving, hauling horses and living quarters and food for horses and self and also hauling water.  Having a flat tire on a stretch of dark, one lane potholed rocky road,  jackknife the trailer to get the spare out, unload all the horses in the windy, strange, black of night... change it....reload anxious, exhausted horses, arrive just before midnight.  Riding horse 9 hours a day, covering many, many miles across the desert, eating dirt sandwiches with a little meat and cheese, running out of water before the day is over, working cattle horseback as I do my photography....my camera hanging around my neck or tucked under my left arm....leaving bruises on my chin and my ribs after 4 days of  gathering and sorting errant cattle out of creek bottoms, bogs, and gullies, getting sparse meals and sparser sleep, loading back up and driving 10 hours home.  Cleaning the desert out of my camera equipment, uploading a few thousand photos to my computer.  Backing up a few thousand photos.  Editing a few thousand photos.  Uploading MANY beautiful images to my photography website.  Cost = $ THOUSANDS for me.  Cost= $245.00 for a 16x20 metal print to hang on your wall.  An image that is the REAL DEAL ...not some made up, fantacized painting :)  .... Don't get made you artists out there!  JUST SAYIN' .............   AND all of my art is created from my original photography.

it's STILL October and I'm Back :)

So, I just read a blog post on depression of a non medicated person with ADHD.   Laughed hard!!!!