The Pumpkin Cheesecake Diaries - 1-25-2020

Rat Balloons and the missing Shepherd

It's amazing how many days you can get out of a pair of jeans to avoid going to the laundromat. My personal best so far is four days. By the third day they are just getting comfortable so you want to shake another 24 hours out of them. Literately...you shake them like a rug and your good for at least another day. Fortunately – I didn't have to try for a record of five days; Lynn lent me her washer and dryer while we set up a couple courses for practice.

I am no horse trainer and I'm certainly not qualified to instruct somebody in mounted shooting. With that said, Lynn's shooting horse DJ reminds me a lot of Jack. He's big, powerful and on the muscle more times than not. I figured it wouldn't hurt to try some of the things with DJ that Kitty taught me to use on Jack. It seemed to work great. DJ relaxed and was loping around fairly smooth and calm while Lynn shot.

I ran a course on J'Lo and 2 on Jack. I don't feel like I have to warm Jack up as much before shooting. He did great. I can probably ask for more speed now but I'm in no hurry with him. We are just loping around, shooting balloons and having fun.

I had a bit of a hard time focusing on killing balloons. Lynn's home made lemon bars kept diverting my attention to the approaching lunch hour. I think Lynn would have shot all day. She seemed immune to the siren song of the enticing lemon bar. I had to do some talking to convince her that DJ had done so awesome it might be best to put him away on a good note....besides...there are LEMON BARS waiting in the house for Pete's sake!

We put the horses and gear away. I couldn't find Shade anywhere. She is not afraid of gun fire..mostly because she can't hear well anymore. She wasn't in the house, the tack room or the bunkhouse. I looked in all the trailers and barns. No dog. Peter and I walked the perimeter of the property. She never leaves me – always keeping me in sight. I was about to put out an APB on her when Lynn found her locked in the round coral. The round pen is solid wood top to bottom. She had gone in and the gate shut behind her. I canceled the APB and went in search of lemon bars.

After lunch, Lynn pulled out one of her bows for me to try. She shoots competitive archery at the national and world level. I haven't shot a bow for years. I was a little hesitant at first – mostly afraid one of my shots would go wild and I'd hit somebody or a horse! I did manage to keep it in the target. Like DJ, I quit while I was ahead. It was a lot of fun and inspired me to get my bow out when get back to Idaho.

I never like leaving Lynn and Peter's place. We have a lot of fun and Peter is still teaching me sign language. Today I learned all of the alphabet and the signs for apple, red, and hungry. I think he gets frustrated with me though when I mess up spelling a word. Like when I kept asking for “rat” balloons. Apparently I stutter in sign as well.

I made it back to Aguila before dark. As I drove down Hwy 71 toward 60 past the giant Maricopa Indian (that no body but me has ever seen) The giant Eagle Eye overlooking Aguila pointed the way home.