HEADING SOUTH FOR THE WINTER

Our last sunset at home until spring.

Well it is that time of year again we loaded up our 2 Paint horses and are heading South for the winter. Keep posted for some new trails and horse camping areas along the way. 

First stop South will be visiting family on the coast for an early Christmas.

Then into the USA heading to visit our friend Alan in Alpine Utah then to maybe Bryce Canyon and on to St George Utah to ride parts of Zion Mountain. Then on to Nevada to ride "The Valley of Fire" and to stop in Vegas for "Cowboy Christmas" 

Rig is packed and ready to hit the rode.

We still have no snow but I think it maybe coming

We decided to take the Fraser Canyon instead of the Coq they say there was 18" of new snow on the Coq last night. So far no snow here. 

The drive to Spencers Bridge and then down the Canyon is beautiful

Once we got to Langley it rain for 2 days straight. Once we arrived and got settled we headed to our good friend Sharon's house for a turkey dinner. 

Tuesday we stopped and visited Zanda our mare and the foal they have by Hunter.

Tuesday night we went to my son Skylar's place to drop off Christmas presents and go for a nice Tai dinner. This kitten is Skylar's new family member "Jazz".

Skylar and Amanda with little Jazz. (Family photo) behind it one of the paintings I painted for them for Christmas. 

Amanda, Skylar and my Dad George at the Tai restaurant. My brother Greg was able to meet us too. 

Normally the US customs officers do not let you take pictures but they are all smiles here well US Fish and Wildlife stamp Duma's "Cities Pet Passport".

We managed to make it through the mountain passes in Washington with out seeing any snow on the roads.

 Our first stop will be the Hermiston "Rest area" just outside of Hermiston before Pendleton. They have 2 BIG drive into Corrals. 

We got up pretty early Thursday morning. It is Thanksgiving here in the US and the highways are very quiet. 

Love this area going through Oregon it looks like a mini train set.

We made it into Idaho before lunch 

Stopped for a break just after the state line. The first rest area even has free wifi.

I took this picture because the exit just past Boise has a hotel and gas bar but also has corrals for traveling horses. So mark this down exit 71 on hwy 84 it is called "The Stage Coach".

By the looks of things the corrals are covered too. (Picture above)

Here is another exit to mark down. In Idaho the Glenn's Ferry Fairgrounds are also available to overnight your horses. 

There is lots of stabling at Glen's Ferry Fairgrounds

 We crossed the Snake river a few times throughout the day in Idaho before entering Utah. 

Mean well back at home.. Ann sent us this picture.

Getting close to Salt Lake city 

 Alan our friend lives just South of Salt Lake City in Alpine Utah.

Arrived at Alan's just as the sunset. 

We took a drive to the mountain behind Alan's 

 This is the area Alan come to ride in the summer months behind his home in the mountains

These are the mountain behind Alan's place

Ok isn't this just the cutest Mule you have every seen?? This is Miss Foxy Alan's ride. 

Our rig was too big to fit in Alan's driveway so we are parked next to the house in his daughters driveway. Our horses are happy in a nice grass field at Alan's with views of the mountains. 

Alan's beautiful brick barn with all his cute Mules. 

Next stop Bryce Canyon. We are waiting for our friends the Mack's to meet up with us. 

WHAT A BUSY SUMMER AND FALL.

Sorry I have not been doing too many Blogs lately. Got home from Arizona and Utah in late April. We got pretty busy getting our farm fencing finished all the way up the long driveway. We did a bunch of other work around our property as well I have posted pictures below.

We also helped our friends open an exciting new horse camp just up the street from us called Hidden Valley Rustic Horse Camp. So once we got all our work done around the farm we started doing some great rides from the new horse camp. Taking our young horses with us on trail rides to get them us to all kinds of things out on the trail.

This was our driveway when we got home from Arizona before finishing the fencing 

This is the driveway after we finished the fencing 

Here is the gate Ron first put in when fencing was finished down by the barn

He then replaced the gate with this hand made one he did from some of our local dead trees. 

I painted all the large rocks coming up the driveway

More painted rocks all the way up the long driveway

More painted rocks

We built over 20 jumps from all the dead pine beetle kill. The old pine trees make for a good cross country course. 

Slowly making rock retaining walls all the way to the house up the driveway. This is lots of work. 

The next pictures are all of the bird house Ron built and I painted they too go all the way up the driveway. 

I love this bird house 

We had time to take our yearlings out on some rides this summer. Getting them us to traveling in a trailer. 

Our first trip with the boys to Lundbom Lake 

Riding the grasslands of Lundbom Lake area. 

These colts are doing so well. 

The colts getting a pedi

Had a friend come up from the coast with his Drone and Gopro camera. He took some great video and photos of our farm. You can see how much fencing we need to do up the driveway. Over 300 posts and 1200 rails 

Great shot of the house, garage and cat encloser

Another one of my bird houses

We spent some time through out the summer and fall helping local ranchers with there cattle. 

Crossing a creek by Hidden valley rustic horse camp

Riding from  Hidden valley rustic horse camp

Ron and I took a clinic in Oyama at a Extreme mountain trail course

Our stallion "The Huntsman" was willing to go over the sway bridge 

We helped with Back Country Horsemen of BC with the Lundbom Lake improvement project.

The old corrals where is dyer need of repair and replacement. 

Over 8 Chapters of BCHBC and 47 volunteers , close to 800 hours to complete in less the 4 days. 

The beautiful finish corrals

Replaced 12 broken down corrals with 28 beautiful pipe corrals. 

We are excited to say that we have now started a new chapter of Back Country Horsemen of BC here in Merritt. 

Our first ride as a new chapter was a "Christmas Toy and food Bank Ride". We also did a hot dog sale by donation that we made over $200.00 for the food bank. Thanks to the over 13 riders that came out and donated both toys and food bank donations. We thank you and the Nicola Valley Food Bank thanks you. 

The weather is starting to get cold so we are planning out trip south starting next week. Crossing the boarder on the 26th of November heading to Southern Utah first to ride Zion Mountain then to "The Valley of Fire" in Nevada before heading to Cowboy Christmas in Vegas and on to Wickenburg AZ for Christmas and New Years. 

Have a wonderful Holiday season keep posted for new blogs about great places to ride and camp with your horses.