Mommy

I do not have any kids but I have Autumn.  Autumn lets me assault her with all my maternal "mommy urges" that come exploding from my 33 year old body.   Like a mom, the clock ticks for my Autumn.  I'm up at first light to feed her breakfast, groom her and go for a little ride before I turn her out in the pasture with her friends for the day.  On my lunch break I'll run to the feed store and pick up her groceries.  When I get out of work I head back to the ranch to clean her room, pick her up from the pasture, with a cookie in hand, and take her back to her stall where I have her dinner waiting. I then proceed to clean her hooves and groom the mud, sticks and adventures she collected throughout her day with her buddies.

Daycare

Then I'll sit with her quietly and read a chapter from my book before I tuck her in for the night.  Sometimes, I'll sneak out of the house in my pajamas right before bedtime and drive up to the barn just to give her one more goodnight kiss. And sometimes, I'll climb up on her back in her stall and just lay on her back and give her one great big long hug. 
This week I  got to buy her her first pair of sneakers.  Her feet were having trouble adjusting from the soft wet mud to the dry hard summer ground so I got her a pair of protective boots.  At first, she walked around like she was stuck in a tar pit, pulling her legs high up before being afraid to put them down.   Once she realized she could walk in them and that she could walk over the sharp rocks in them she became a huge fan.

Baby's First Pair of Shoes

When she grows out of them I don't think I will be able to hang them as a memento from my rear view mirror but I could use them to...to...rest a bowling ball in or something. 

She must have her dad's feet

Well, now that this story has come to it's end and even though it's my night off from all my ranch duties, I'm excited to get home and hike out in the pasture to find my Autumn.  When I find her I'm going to give her a big hug and kiss goodnight...just because I'm her mom and I love her.

Copyright (c) 2011 Jacksonhillhorseygirl.com

The Tales of The Metropolitan Redneck Sisters Part 3-Milk, Cookies and Dance House Club Music

Time was kicking the days right off the calender to the date when Katy was set to make her way back across the country.  I was exhausted but determined not to waste a single minute while she was still here.  With Easter being such a huge success (check out http://jacksonhillhorseygirl.blogspot.com/2011/06/tales-of-metropolitan-redneck-sisters_08.html), coming up with something to top it was going to be a tough one.  How do you top shooting pink plastic flamingos and pegging the forest with Easter eggs?  You add dance music and Double Stuffed Oreos, that's how.
Katy was ready, like I had asked, when I rolled into her driveway.  She had no idea what my plan was and before she could ask I said "Take a look in the back seat."  Her face beamed like I had a pony on Christmas morning shoved in the backseat for her.  Piled behind us were two jumbo cartons of of eggs, a box of Double Stuffed Oreos and two milk juice boxes, one was chocolate because she loves chocolate milk.  We drove out of town and headed up over the mountains opposite the ranch.  We pulled over at a sound-of-music spot and whipped out the milk and cookies. 

All this place needs is some milk, cookies & some babes.

We, shamelessly, pigged out on cookies and sipped our milk as we watched a bike rider huff and puff his way up the road.  We talked and ate until we said we would never eat Double Stuffeds ever again and then we double stuffed ourselves back in the truck. 
When the scenery was lost to the shade of the trees we rolled down the windows and turned on the "Dance House Club" play list on the ipod. Katy pulled the eggs out of the backseat and let them ride shot gun.  The song "I Wanna Go Crazy" came on and that's when we went crazy (here's the link to the song if you want to go crazy for the rest of this blog  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vigA7yWue58 ).  So we pumped up the volume, took a shot of milk from our juice boxes and let the eggs fly from the nest. 


Oh yeah, we pulled over and brought the game to this mountain's face.

No sign was left unmolested...unless we missed.  We chucked the eggs in front of the truck, at stumps, the yellow lines on the road and at the sun.  We bopped around to the music riding a milk juice box, Double Stuffed Oreo high until the cartons were empty.
Katy stopped her dance bop when she saw the eggs were no more.  That's when I pulled out one last surprise for my little sister... a bag of over ripened California avocados.  Once again, my sister looked at me like I was truly the most amazing sister in the world.  She threw those avocados against the "No Trespassing Sign" with a careful calculation adding up to making her big sister proud.  And she did.  I am and have always been proud of her. No one can chuck an avocado like my sister.  No one.  

Thanks for reading!  If you would like to be added to my email list or if you are unable to leave a comment you can send it to me and I will post it for you at jacksonhillhorseygirl@gmail.com.

Copyright (c) 2011 Jacksonhillhorseygirl.com

Piglet in a Blanket

I watched the as they got out of their car and proceeded to the passenger side.  They opened the door and pulled out a cat carrier.  I headed to the door to tell them that the small animal veterinary hospital was down the road but when I opened the door I could hear little oinks coming from the carrier.  That's right, we had an appointment with a baby pot bellied piglet.  The owner placed the carrier on the counter and that's when us office girls went into full fledged baby talk mode.  The owner was leaving him with us for his morning appointment and we were more then happy to piggy sit him until they returned. 

And this little piggy went to the veterinarian's office...

This was the first pot bellied piglet any of us office girls had seen so we immediately wanted him out to cuddle with.  We set the carrier on the floor and opened the door.  As we did this the veterinarian walked by and said I wouldn't do that.  Do what?  Leave this cute, innocent, harmless, cantaloupe sized piglet in that horribly confining box?  We tilted the carrier and he gently slid out the door.  He sniffed around shyly and let us touch his little snout a million times and squeal little "awes" and "he's so cute"'s a million times to him.  None of us girls, I think, knew if the phones were ringing or if customers were out front...all we knew was that there was a little bundle of cuteness roaming around the office. 
But the fun had to end.  The doctor was ready for the appointment and he said "Okay, now catch him".  There was a peculiar tone of challenge in his voice.  One of us went to scoop him up and that's when the record scratched, nails drug across the chalk board and the alarm clock started screeching all at once.  That little bugger was squealing at a decibel so loud that it made us abandon any idea of picking him up and sent us into a retreat covering our ears. Our withdrawal brought his protesting to a halt and he became quiet and cute again. With our ears ringing, we tried again but the same thing happened.  At this point, the veterinarian went in to his office and shut the door. 
When the doctor left I think the little sucker realized the game had been kicked up a notch.  Not only did he start to squeal but he took off running and... peeing.  He was darting around the office like a pin ball on speed.  The three of us couldn't touch him.  Then one of us came up with the idea to throw a towel over him.  We found a towel and tossed it over the little guy and then...we had a running, squealing, peeing purple towel bumping into things.  This was it.  This game was in overtime and we needed to score.  We went in for the dive.  We snatched that little purple, peeing, squealing, towel got him into a cuddle hold and then...he settled right down.  We uncovered his face and held the swaddled baby piglet-in-a-blanket as he softly oinked to us and melted our hearts.  All was forgiven.  We passed him off to the doctor who had an I-told-you-so look on his face but we didn't feel conquered as we cleaned up the little puddles on the floor. We were still melting from those soft little oinks.

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Copyright (c) 2011 Jacksonhillhorseygirl.com