ARRRRGH...........

I feel like Charlie Brown - everything is conspiring against me!!!

Between computer crashes and extremely slow internet, I have been unable to post about last Friday's ride and I even had a picture. Now that I have a decent internet connection I have no time!

We (the Lazy Stars 4-H Hippology Team) leave Thursday morning for state competition in Juneau. I guess that the kids are ready. I have been holding weekly study sessions since October. I have two kids who are not interested in competition. They just want to hang out with their friends. I have three kids who are interested and knowledgeable and one who is the driving force behind wanting to have a competitive team. I think she's going to be disappointed. Last year one of my teams came in fourth out of fourteen. She was the captain of that team and upset that they didn't try harder and finish better.

If I can find internet in Juneau I'll post results Friday night for horse judging and Saturday for quiz bowl and presentations.

Our ride on Friday was great. Voosh almost dumped me when she spooked at the sun shining on the snow. Thank goodness my saddle has 16" swells and I can brace my knees against them like a seat belt.

Lyssa rode Dusty again and both of them did really well. They have made a lot of progress in a short time. We'll see how it goes next week.

When we got back to the barn, Lyssa untacked Dusty and put her in the paddock. Dusty's paddock is 10 feet wide and about 40 feet long. There's a freezer for grain storage beside it. Dusty laid down and rolled in a space 10' x 12'. She got cast. The good thing is....she didn't panic. Lyssa was outside the pen and caught Dusty's front feet. Her hindquarters and rear feet were against the freezer just past vertical. She was stuck. I grabbed a leadrope and got in the pen. I looped her bottom rear foot and pulled hard. Lyssa guided her front feet and Dusty rolled right back over. She stomped my feet pretty good when she scrambled up but not on purpose. So that is another plus on her score sheet.

This morning (Wednesday) we woke up to 4" of snow. It has snowed all day and we now have about 6" of the nasty fluffy white stuff. Yuck!! Can't plow it because the ground is thawed. At least the temps are in the 40*s during the day so it should be gone soon.

If all of that isn't enough............two ewes haven't lambed yet. All indications are that they will probably lamb while I am gone. Usually I have at least two backups. Of course, with the way things are going, my vet is out of state, my first back up is in Juneau with me, my second back up is in Florida at a conference and my third back up is at the hospital with her husband doing chemo. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they lamb tonight or wait until I get back.

So goes life in Alaska. I guess it could be worse. I could be living somewhere where there are too many people!!