My drive to work

cool ice on a new house

We made it!!

On orchard ave

Old barn and feild

View of Black RD

On the way to work

Day after Thanksgiving

Well instead of hitting the mall my friend and I went for a trail ride. It was so much fun! We went out to Shelton to the her moms house that backs the Simpson tree company land and we rode for hours. Kim's mom has two nice horses that we rode my guy is a great big quarter horse named Dan he was so much fun to ride. I had a heck of a time getting on him I had to climb up on a flat bed trailer to get on him. Once on we rode right out the back yard and on to the trails no gates or anything. I cant wait to take Figi out for her first trail ride. It has been a long time since I have been on a horse that long and I'm still feeling it. Just one more reason to get the extra weight off. Well here are a few pictures from my ride.

Gooble Gooble!!

Me and Figi would like to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving!!

Figi has a new look thanks to Auntie Shanni

Figi came with me on my walk

All warm in her blanket eating dinner.

Down to One

Well lots has changed in the past few days. Asia has moved down to Olympia for a few weeks and Zipper went to a new home. The Zipper thing has me very upset and I will talk about it later I just hope that he is ok. Figi has never been here all by herself but is doing good. It will be good for her and I to bond. Ok I will take some more pictures and try and be better about updating this. On a side note I have to have a liver biopsy next week :( Not looking forward to that.

Moving on

Well I have been out re fencing my fields and getting just three horses set up. Zipper will be leaving at the end of October to go live with his old family. I'm hoping that she will take better care of him if he is closer but I be able to check up on him every month by email. I'm will have him up to date on everything and a few extra pounds on him.

Figi has moved on just fine, she looked for Doobie a few times that day but is having fun with Asia. I'm sure the next time she sees a pinto she will call for it. I have started putting a blanket on the Fig at night it has been cold and I don't want her to get real hairy. I has a nice ride on her the other night. We have been working at the mounting block. She is kind of a bitch when you get on. I have been working for months to get her to nicely walk up and stand. The other night she was doing great I was up and down several times and she was great. I thought to myself what is she going to do if I just get on, buck, take off? So up and over I went and what did she do? Stood still!! I was very tense and so she was too but we walked up to Shanni and Asia. Shanni said we could play follow the leader but Asia is a very slow walker so Figi lead the way and Shanni talked me through some breathing exercises. I road for about five minutes and got off and went back to the mounting block and she was still good so I stopped. I'm excited to ride again and feel this is a great start for the two of us.

Well I'm off to go feed breakfast. We got some bad beet pulp the other day. It was not bad as in spoiled but bad as it had molasses in it. Figi liked it but no one else ate it. I had to take it back yesterday and go to a different feed store and get some more. The horses were still not sure it was safe to eat.

Farwell old friend

Doobie passed this morning very peacefully. The weather was sunny and calm just like him. Figi and I are heart broken but know he is running free with his friend Sage.

Brenda

My old man

At the age of 33 (a year old then me) Doobie has seen more of Washington state then I have. He was born to Dave and Sue and was there child for 30 years. They retired and deiced to travel so Doobie came to live with me. I rode him the first summer I had him and then he went into semi-retirement just giving the kids rides and this last year he has only had to give a ride or two. He is the rock of the herd grounding my silly mare Figi and keeping everyone safe. Over the last few years his body has grown tired and he is starting to look his age and feel his age. After talking the Dave we deiced to have the vet come and look at him and see if maybe it might be the best choice to have him put down before winter comes. I'm torn in this as I see his beautiful face and eyes and I see how youthful he is but then I look at his poor body that is just on keeping up. I love how he talks to me every feeding and makes my hurry with his meal! I know that if the vet feels its time I will be fine with the choice but I almost want him to say he is fine and Doobie booby will get to stay. Wednesday is the big day with the vet I just hope it comes fast.

Pictures of Figi

Adventures in hay

So in order to save some money I went to a local farm and got some grass hay at $4.50 a bale!! I went with Cecil (my boss ) and his son in law (a New Yorker). We took Cecil's truck and my dads car trailer. We got 56 bales on the trailer and 21 in the truck. When we pulled out of the farm the trailer was making a squeaking noise but Rob thought it was just the axle and would be fine. We got going down the road and I look out the window and see smoking tires we pull over and decide to go just a little way down the road the the gas station very slowly. We leave Rob and the trailer of hay and run home and unload the truck and pick up my truck and go back and get the some of the hay off the trailer and headed home. Thank goodness we found hay in Poulsbo (45 minutes away) and not Chehalis (2 hours away). Anyway we made it home we have 21 bales for the horses and I'm hoping to go back after payday for some more (With out the trailer) and best of all the horses like it!

Big red barn

Tree growing out of barn


Old logs used for roof

Around Grandmas house

New purple and green family room
Green house that we built and then moved
Tomatoes in green house
Flowers from green house
Sadie taking a nap

New $800. door my dad got for $50.
Out side of door
Pictures my mom and i put up
Goodwill desk I found

Attempting bareback!!

So last night we hauled out to Clover Valley Riding Center to work the horses. Well I hauled Figi and Shannon worked with Lenny. I lunged Figi and she was very good but I decided not to ride but did a little work at the mounting block. She was very good not pinning of the ears or trying to walk off. Since she was standing so nice I tryed to jump up and just lay over her. She was so good I tryed many times and then Shannon tryed. She did pin her ears at Shannon but then I went and held her head and she was fine. I never could get up and stay up just not strong enough. I think we are going to haul out again Sunday and I will ride her if she has the same great attitude.

Kisses from Figi

Its been a while

Well its been a few months since I wrote last. Since the last time I wrote I have got a food sponsor (for my OA) lost 10 lbs in a week got off track and stopped calling my sponsor. Still have not tried to find a new one. So I'm still struggling with it but its getting better.

Figi is being very pretty out in my field! I have got a new horses shoer so she has nice new feet. It was a hard choice for me to change I have had the same farrier for over 20 years. I will still use him for my old guy but thought Figi could use a new look. I will have to get some new pictures of her. She also got implants to help control her heat cycle. I have not had a chance to ride her yet but on the ground she is very loving and kind so I hope that will transfer to the saddle.

Picture of the last time we rode after a good roll!

Doobie is really showing his age and I'm going to write Dave his past owner and talk with him Doobies future. He is just not doing as well this summer as I would like to see.

Zipper the horse I found this spring is going to go back and live with his owner. He just is not fitting in to my herd very well. He is mean to Doobie and studish to the mares. I also have just not found the time to ride a second horse. I did get his feet done and got some weight on him so I'm happy I was able to help him.

Well I'm hoping to ride this week or at least work with Figi so I'm sure I will have more to write about.

About my weight

Hi my name is Brenda and I'm a compulsive overeater. I am a cook at a drug and alcohol treatment center. My weight became a problem for me as a young adult. After I got married we moved to town were fast food was just down the street and my husband could not say no when I asked him to go to dq for ice cream. I did nothing about my weight until after I had 2 kids. I went to my first weight watchers meeting in April 2006. My youngest son was almost a year old. I did very well on ww in a year I had lost 69.8 lbs. It became very hard for my I stopped going to meetings gained a few lbs and then some one said "it’s ok to take a break." That was all I needed to hear. So here I am I have gained it all back and a little more. I have tried to re-join ww 3 times and just don’t have it in my heart to do it again. I'm so mad that I gained it all back and that I could not see what a good job I had done. All I could think about was that I had not lost more weight.

I remember when I first realized food was my problem. I was at work and we had a guy come in for treatment he was very over weight. He come to us and asked if we would just make him a salad for lunch and dinner and he would just have grapefruit for breakfast. He would walk every break and never complained. One day I was sitting outside as he was walking and I remember thinking how can this man have a drug or drinking problem but can just give up on food. FOOD is MY DRUG. I don’t know how much weight he lost but I will always remember him.

Most recently a good friend of mine had a baby boy that had a heart problem but they thought that after he had a surgery he would be fine. He only lived for 17 days. My heart is still broken for that family. I feel so selfish because god gave me a healthy heart and strong body and two wonderful boys and a loving husband and here I sit overweight unable to do the things in live I love. I have been an avid horse rider all my life and I still ride but it is so much harder with extra weight.

I have joined OA I have only shared a few times but I’m happy to be with people that understand me. I know that the weight will come off I have don’t it before and will do it again what I don’t know what I can do is keep it off. I feel OA will help he keep it off it will help me see why I over eat.

New Beginnig for me and Figi

Last night my friend that I ride with brought out one of her friends that I have met several times. She is a parelli person and a student of Chucks Krafts. She was so nice to came out to the barn and watched us normal people ride our dressage horses. I have been struggling with my horse. I have been trying to do what everyone wants and thinks I should be doing with her not what I want and more importantly what my horse wants. I love the parelli stuff but I feel so dumb when I’m doing it only because it is new to me and I’m not very coordinated with the stick and rope and horse! Anyway Karen watched me ride my horse she seen my fear she saw my problem she offered my help. She gave me great words of advice and comfort. We worked on all kinds of things had huge break through. She then said lets take off all this crap (dressage bridle with flash and my martingale) and let’s ride in the rope halter. I was sure she was trying to kill my so she could have my horse! She then told me she only wanted to take on tiny step out side my comfort zone and if that meant just sitting on her that was fine. She also put the lounge line on so she could help me. We went to the mounting block and worked on getting her to stand nicely I got my foot in the stirrup a few times we worked on a few things. I never did get on she was just not in the right frame of mind. She left me with lots of tasks to work on. I feel so rejuvenated to continue on my parelli journey. I’m going back to the barn to PLAY with my horse tonight I’m going to bring home all my dressage things clean them and put them away for a while. Anyway thanks for letting my share I’m sure I will share a few more times!


~Brenda