Prom Season,

Prom Season!  Okay, this post is REALLY late.  I am talking about prom season from last year, Kumiko's junior year.  It started with her wanting to go dress shopping with her friends but she needed some money.  Now this is kind of a big deal.  Kumi does not wear dresses as a rule.  She hasn't worn a dress to school since 1st grade and the last time she wore a dress before prom was her cousins wedding that was over a year before.  I certainly wanted her to find a dress but I really, really did not want to go dress shopping with a bunch of high school girls.  So, being the crafty father that I am, I gave her my credit card and told her what her limit was.  It was a low limit.  It was so low I was fairly certain that she would never find a dress for it.  So off she goes with her friends.  (Remember back to the very first post in this blog where the crafty father ended up owning a horse in spite of all his best craftiness.)

A short while later I get a call.  "Dad, I found a dress but its expensive."  Uh hu.  So I ask her if it is "THE" dress.  She thinks for a moment and said, "No, not really." So I told her to keep looking.  A little while later I get another call.  "Dad, I found a dress but its expensive, just not as expensive as the first dress"  Uh hu.  So I ask her if it is "THE" dress.  She thinks for a moment and said,"Um..."  I asked her if she liked it better than the first dress.  She said yes.  So I asked her if was "THE" dress.  She wasn't sure so I told her not to get any dress that was not "THE" dress.  She needed to love the dress before I would say yes.  She decided that it was "THE" dress so the only think I could do at that point was say yes to the dress.  Here is what she came home with.

 So how did Dad feel about the dress?

Kira's Boyfriend Moves In

In March of 2013 our fourth horse (Yes, we really have four now!) moved in.  It was an interesting move.  The day we went to see him it was windy.  Very wind.  45mph guesting to 60mph.  We had to drive from Arvada to Yuma, roughly 160 miles one way.  On the way to Yuma the wind was at our back.  I burned less than a 1/4 tank of fuel.  On the way back to home we burned the remaining 3/4 of the tank.  That was some serious wind!  Here is Boyfriend.

This was just before their first parade together.

Kira gets a new Boyfriend.

In the last nail biting installment I relayed the bad news that Ebony developed arthritis and we retired her.  Well, there was a little time that passed between the time she was diagnosed and the time we actually retired her.  Before Ebony came to live with us we had two horses, Beamer and Mariah.  Only one of those horses was well enough trained to do Westernaires.  When Ebony came to live with us we now had two horses that were well enough trained to do Westernaiers.  And the girls took advantage of that.  Kira joined trick and Kumi joined Horse Romans.  (Sorry for the blurry picture)

That is Beamer and Ebony and Kumi doing Romans.

Bad News about Ebony

Ebony was coming along fine as a Westerniars horse.  Her big problems was that she was a bit herd sour so taking her off the trailer was tough.  She was hard to lead because she kept trying to turn around and go back.  Riding her was better but once she stopped, she would start dancing and calling and be a general pain.  Once in the arena, she was perfect, best trained horse we have (Thanks to Carly Davis).

RAIN!

CAUTION!  This post contains dirty pictures.

Last Christmas I got a weather station from my daughters.  Its been fun to see the wind speeds and temperatures through out the year.  Monday morning, September 9th, the total moisture that we have had since December was 6.41".  Friday night, September 13th, the rain gauge said 12.53".  We doubled our entire rainfall in 5 days.  The change in barometer made Beamer colic on Saturday night about 10pm.  As I sit here Sunday morning, its raining.