First pic is Shadow and Teka, second pic is Velvet's baby Rasta, and the third pic is Ginger with her little girl that needs a name.

I am going to publish these 2 pics before something goes wrong.  Here goes.  The first is up at Ralph my neighbours sugar shack.  It is a beautiful picture again taken by Jodi.  I took the second of all four kids in front of my Mom's house at Thanksgiving.  I love this shot of the kids too.

So here is Danza the gentle giant giving Chupee a massage and he seems to be totally enjoying it.  The horse and cat are great pals!  Jodi took this photo the first of October and it was a very hot day for that time of year.  We went for an amazing ride in my neighbour's maple forest.  I will post a few of the pictures that Jodi took.  They are lovely!  

Here is a shot of Jessica on Cinnamon when Jess was about 12 years old. 

The horses are happy and finally getting some work taking the tourists out around the ranch trails through the fields and forest.  Everyone loves their horse by the time they are finished their trail ride.

We are getting rain regularly and everything is lush and green.  The wild fruit is just amazing this year!!  I have made probably 50 jars of wild strawberry jam and now the wild blueberries are ready.  This farm is so bountiful, unbelievable!  The next big thing will be the wild raspberries - they are coming!

Have fun - enjoy the summer - we will too!

Ian and Dakota

It has been a warm spring with lots of rain and warm weather.  The dandelions are growing as you can see and the pasture and hay field are growing nicely.   No frost for over a month so the wild berries will be great.  We love picking wild strawberries and judging from the blossoms there will be lots. 

The flies are out now too though and are bugging the horses and us.  They don't last the whole summer though.  The blackflies will soon be done.  Thank God for that. 

This picture was taken of Jenny and Dakota and Jodi and Danza last week before they rode in to town. 

Comet and Flash have been eating together all winter long.  They are like peas in a pod.  They are both pintos and really jazz up the barnyard with their colour.  Comet has a pony mom and will never get big but will be a pal to many kids in the future.  He will be staying here at Riverside Ranch as long as I have anything to say about it.  He is adorable, friendly and beautiful. 

I'm not so sure about Flash.  He is skittish and being 3 years old this summer, he needs some training.  I am not so sure about that.  I am getting too old to risk getting bucked off anything any more.  Flash might have to leave Riverside Ranch - for a price of course.  He is an intermediate sized little horse.  He would be perfect for a young person or small adult.  He is a very gentle animal and just loves horse treats.  He follows me all over the yard. 

This was the day the kids rode the horses in the maple sugar bush at the neighbours farm.

Jodi on Firefly, Jenny on Dakota, Jessica on Shadow, Ian on Danza and Jeremy on Taz. 

A couple of pics of Comet last summer.  He was sooo tiny and such a cute little guy.  The beauty of a pony is that he stays tiny and cute his entire life.  He is still very cute and was such a little fur ball over the winter. 

Here is a beautiful summer shot of the horses, (courtesy of Jodi's photographic eye!) from left to right:  Firefly, Swirl, Flash and in the foreground, Dakota.  We are looking forward to days like this again.  The grass is turning greener every day and soon feeding hay will be a distant memory!

The horses crossed the river yesterday for the first time this spring.  The water is very high and they all had to swim like crazy.  The current is swift as well and I was really worried about little Comet and his mom Cinnamon who are ponies.  The current did take them downstream a little but they made it.

Dakota, Mai-lee, Taz and Buckie stayed behind and eventually the rest came back across the river.  Firefly, a big boy, entered the river and went completely under the water!  Jenny, Ian and I were watching him and he totally disappeared!  It was frightening for a couple of seconds when he came back up and swam for the shore.  The river is going down daily now.  Normally they can cross the river without having to swim but at the moment the river is 6 or 8 feet above summer level.

Shadow - daughter of Mai-Lee (pure bred Appaloosa) born 1999 in May. Shadow is the little one. 

Spring has finally arrived with a frisbee game yesterday in the yard under sunny skies.  Today the kids rode up to the neighbour's maple sugar bush where he has been making maple syrup for the last 3 weeks.  Horses behaved well and Jessica, daughter #1 rode Shadow, 5 year old mare who needs to be ridden and trained.  This was good and she behaved well.  Great!

Next blog will show a little of Shadow's history.  Shadow is Velvet's mother.  Velvet is one year old now.                                                                          

Wolfie loves it when Ian, 19, musician, plays his guitar or violin.  She lies at his feet and just soaks in the music. This was taken during the summer of 2005. 

Somehow Riverside Ranch lived without a dog for 26 years but for the last 3 1/2 years we have had a German Shepherd named Wolfie.  I got her as a puppie.  She was the runt of the litter and didn't cost very much but she has been a real addition to the farm!

The kids weren't too keen on her in the beginning - mainly because she was chewing and eating all the shoes she could sink her little needle teeth into.  3 years later and they all love her to bits.  She is a great companion on a walk or a ski around the farm.  Of course she loves it too.  Her favourite game is chasing sticks, which she will do for hours or until your arm is so tired you can't throw any more.  Oh yeah, for shore.

She tries very hard with the horses.  Of course she thinks they should all be in a tight little group.  If any of them try to break out of the group she does what she can to get them back.  I'm sure the horses aren't as pleased with the dog as we are.  She must drive them crazy sometimes.  But the cool thing is that they actually play with her.  When the babies were small last summer she would chase them and then they would turn and chase her.  They are used to her.

Here is my hockey picture.  I was playing this weekend in a tournament for the last hockey of the season.  I play on a women's team called Chaos which kind of describes the way we used to play.  We are a little more under control 6 years later.  We ended up 3rd in our league out of 5 teams.

It was a great season.  I am the oldest member of the team but I did get a couple of goals and a bunch of assists so I guess I am not ready to be put out to pasture yet.

I have a pic of skiing during the winter.  I will post it at the end of this blog.  The style doesn't look that great but it is hard when the snow is that deep.  That is Wolfie my German shepherd behind me.  She doesn't help when she runs in front of you when you are going down the hill.  It just makes for added excitement!

I will take a couple of shots the next time I am out there for an up to date picture of SPRING SKIING!  I love it!