We're Heading Out of Town

On Thursday morning, we're going to pile into our Toyota Tundra truck and head North.

First stop will be Fort Collins, Colorado for a five-day visit with our son, Wade Daniel, daughter-in-law, Marie, and granddaughter, Juliet. I'll have my laptop with me so I will be able to do posts on what we're doing with them. Part of the fun is celebrating Birthdays. Wade Daniel's birthday is tomorrow, August 13 (see Wednesday's post) and my Birthday is Saturday, August 16.

Next Tuesday, we'll drive North again through Wyoming and into Montana for a couple of days sightseeing as we've never been to Montana. Then we'll drive into Southern Alberta, Canada to join friends from Canada, England and the Netherlands to do some horseback riding. I have scheduled posts for each day as I'll leave my laptop with my son.

So, everyone be good while we're gone and stay out of the cookie jar.

I'll close with this photo from two nights ago when it looked as if our Sandia Mountains had become a volcano (at least to my imagination):



Today is August 12 and if today is your Birthday then you share your day with: Pete Sampras (tennis champion), George Hamilton (supposed actor, ladies man and tanning promoter), William Goldman (screenwriter - "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"), John Derek (actor and husband of Bo Derek), Jane Wyatt (actress - Mom on "Father Knows Best" - oh, the good old days), Cantinflas (Latin entertainer), and Cecil B. DeMille (director - "The Ten Commandments").

Saddle Cleaning Time

Betty and I are headed out of town in a couple of days (more about that in tomorrow's post). We'll do some horseback riding at one of the places and, since we're driving our truck, we're taking our saddles.

But, they needed cleaning so that's what I did most of this morning and early afternoon. Both of our saddles are Steele Endurance saddles - just slightly different styles.

Here's a picture of Betty's saddle in process.

Now here's Betty's saddle all done.

My saddle in process.

My saddle all done.

We even cleaned and conditioned our riding boots.

When we lived just outside of Cincinnati, Ohio we often visited an Amish saddle shop about 30 miles from where we lived. The shop was owned by an old Amish gentleman and his two sons. They made saddles and leather tack and goods for their local Amish community. I asked him once what they used to condition their leather goods and he said they used Bickmore Bick 4 Conditioner. I bought some from him and I have been using it ever since as it works very well.

Saddle cleaning and conditioning is not something I enjoy doing but I'm always happy with the way the saddles look when I'm done.

Today is August 11 and if today is your Birthday then you share your day with: Hulk Hogan (pro wrestler), Steve Wozniak (founder, along with Steve Jobs, of Apple Computer), Rev. Jerry Falwell (Liberty College president and minister), Arlene Dahl (actress), Mike Douglas (daytime TV talk show host), Alex Haley (author - "Roots"), Dik Browne (cartoonist - "Hi and Lois" and "Hagar the Horrible"), and Cato M. Guldberg (Norwegian mathematician).

Our Second Home

It's Sunday and every Sunday, unless we're out of town or sick, we go to our second home, Destiny Center, our church.

Destiny Center is a non-denominational church in Rio Rancho on Northern Boulevard. When we first started attending over four years ago it was about 125 people meeting in a strip mall. Today, over 1,000 people call Destiny Center their church home. We have three services on Sunday morning and a Sunday evening service. God has been good.

Betty and I serve at Destiny Center as volunteer associate pastors with responsibility for the pastoral care ministries. We have people in our ministry who cover the hospital visits and other hands on ministries so Betty and I can focus on pastoral counseling with individuals and couples. We're not professional counselor, but for almost 25 years we have been helping people see where God is in the midst of their life situations and helping them understand what he might want to say to them through His word.

We want to share Destiny Center with you so here are some more pictures from this morning.

A closer view of the entrance with our pastor Jerome Wade greeting people as they arrive.

The children's playground is on the side of the church and every Sunday School room has a door that opens to the playground.

The patio is in front of the children's playground on the same side of the church and it has a beautiful view of the Sandia Mountains.

The lobby is just inside of the entrance. The children's rooms are straight ahead, the offices are in the glassed area to the right, and the auditorium is down the to the right.

Looking across the lobby through the cafe area toward the offices.

Looking into the auditorium as the worship band begins to lead worship.

Jerome, in the white shirt, greeting people as they leave after the service is over.

If you're in need of a church this is a good one.

Today is August 10 and if today is your Birthday then you share your day with: Nicole Bass (champion female body builder and wrestler), Antonio Banderas (actor - "Zorro"), Rosanna Arquette (actress - "Desperately Seeking Susan"), Ian Anderson (singer/musician - "Jethro Tull"), Rocky Calovito (Cleveland Indians outfielder who hit four home runs in one game), Jimmy Dean (country singer and sausage magnate), Eddie Fisher (singer and rotating husband), Rhonda Fleming (actress - "Spellbound"), and Herbert Hoover (31st US President).

The Saga of Chloe

Due to an overwhelming demand from our friend Michelle at Galloping Grace Youth Ranch, we're going to share with you the saga of our Shetland Sheepdog (Sheltie), Chloe.

We got Chloe from a Sheltie rescue shelter in the summer of 2000. When she was a puppy she was adopted by a family with no children and everything was great. Then they had two babies in fairly short order. Chloe is skittish around little children and the only time she howls is when a baby cries. So, you can imagine how much howling was going on in that house with two small babies.

They decided that either Chloe had to go or the babies had to go. I suspect that wasn't too hard a decision and Chloe wound up in the rescue shelter. When we contacted the rescue shelter they said they had the perfect dog for us. We met Chloe and she went home with us. The only problem was she weighed over 26 lbs. and, for a dog that should weigh about 20 - 21 lbs, she looked like a little barrel on four small legs. Between some exercise and low-calorie dog food we managed to get the extra weight off.

Then we moved to New Mexico and not long after we discovered some lumps on her sides. The vet said they were probably benign, but to be safe they needed to come off. That means that Chloe got both sides shaved and she got to wear one of those very fashionable cones on her head....

One extra outcome from her surgery is they spotted a hypo (low) thyroid condition through her blood tests. Thus, we started a regimen of thyroid pills twice a day for the rest of her life. The vet said that her hair should start growing out in about six months.

Well, after a year and no hair growth we asked the vet, "What's going on?" He said that she might have Cushings disease, but he still thought that her hair might come in.

However, six months later we noticed that not only was her hair not growing in, but more hair was coming out. She continued to lose more and more hair and all the vet can tell us is it's some kind of metabolic problem. Here's a picture taken just this afternoon....


Yes, that's the same dog as the one in the picture at the start of this post. Now, she's our little, neurotic, hairless (almost) Sheltie. We figure that God gave her to us because He knew we wouldn't give up on her.

So, that's the saga of Chloe.

Today is August 9 and if today is your Birthday then you share our day with: Gillian Anderson (actress - Scully in "The X-Files"), Eric Bana (actor - "The Hulk"), Deion Sanders (only athlete to play in both the World Series and the Super Bowl), Whitney Huston (singer), Melanie Griffith (actress - "The Working Girl"), Sam Elliot (actor - "The Shadow Riders"), Robert Shaw (actor - Quint in "Jaws"), Doug Williams (first black NFL quarterback), Rod Laver (Australian - pro tennis player), and Izaak Walton (author - "The Compleat Angler").

Quail Explosion!

We have had a quail explosion this summer. We suspect it may be due to the fact that we don't have as many coyotes as we did a few years ago even though we see one or two periodically.

We have two species in the area, Scaled Quail and Gambrels Quail. The Scaled Quail is a mostly gray quail with white spots on their breast and wings. I had a few pictures of them in our courtyard awhile back.

The Gambrels Quail has more brown, both dark and golden brown, and they have the distinctive little topknot protruding from the tops of their heads. The picture to the left is a female Gambrels Quail.

We have seen probably up to a dozen family groups with the parents leading as few as one chick and some with up to 12 chicks in tow. It's interesting when they cross the street. One of the adults will stay in the middle of the street until all the chicks are across - kind of like a quail safety guard.

Here are some more pictures of the Gambrels Quail that were in our courtyard this morning.

An adult Gambrels with some of their chicks on the courtyard adobe wall.

The family feeding in the courtyard. We have two sunflower seed feeders for the finches. The quail, along with the doves and pigeons, are ground feeders.

An adult Gambrels searching around some of the rocks. Betty and I think they just want to get away from the kids for a few moments.

A couple of Gambrels adults in front of the rocks.

We also had a hawk around this morning, but he/she didn't stay around long enough for me to get a picture.

Today is August 8 and if your Birthday is today you share your day with: The opening of the Beijing Olympics, Roger Federer (tennis champion), Dave "The Edge" Evans (guitarist/singer - "U2"), Donny Most (comedian - Ralph on "Happy Days"), Keith Carradine (actor - "The Long Riders"), Connie Stevens (actress - "Hawaiian Eye"), Dustin Hoffman (actor - "Hook" and "The Graduate"), Mel Tillis (country singer), Esther Williams (actress/swimmer), Rory Calhoun (actor - "The Texan"), Rudi Gernreich (designer - creator of topless bathing suit), Dino De Laurentis (director - "The Bible"), and Matthew Henson (explorer - first to reach North Pole with Matthew Peary).

Thursday Ran Out of Time

This was one of those days where I didn't do that terribly much, but the day just got away from me. So, the best I can do today is wish everyone well in the midst of whatever is playing out in your lives. We have learned that there is much in our lives that we can't control. Either we believe in a God who still has our best in mind even though we can't understand it, or we despair. We choose the former.

Today is August 7 and if today is your Birthday then you share your day with: Charlize Theron (actress - "Mighty Joe Young"), David Duchovny (actor - "X-Files"), Garrison Keillor (radio host - "Prairie Home Companion"), Carl Switzer (actor - Alfalfa in "Our Gang"), Stan Freberg (comedian), Louis Leakey (paleontologist), Billy Burke (actress - Glenda the Good Witch of the East in "The Wizard of Oz"), and Mata Hari (WWI spy).

Book Report 4 - Animals in Translation

Here's another of the books that had an impact on how we think about our animals - especially our horses. It's "Animals in Translation" by Temple Grandin.

She's a professor at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. She's also functionally autistic. The subtitle of the book is "Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior."

Over time she discovered that people with autism can often think the way animals think and see the way animals see.

She has used these learnings in her work with various animal enterprises that 'process' animals so that the work is done in the most humane way possible.

The two key things that I took away from this book that changed my relationship with my horse are: (1) People are verbal and animals are visual. That sounds obvious, but her descriptions and experiences make that statement a profound one in our understanding of animals. (2) People see "the big picture" and animals see details. We tend to take in details and our brain functions correlate them into a generalized view of what we're seeing. In so doing, we often 'miss' details as they are merged together. Animals, on the other hand, see only details and their brain functions cause them to focus on each detail as each detail may be a matter of life or death. A butterfly which to us is a part of a beautiful scenery as we ride is a sudden movement to my horse who may be convinced it is a sudden attack.

The book is an easy read even though she is repetitive in places. It was also a fascinating read with some learnings if you can apply what she says to your experiences.

Today is August 6 and if today is your Birthday then you share your day with: Jon Benet Ramsey (child murdered in Colorado), Geri Estelle Halliwell (Ginger Spice in "The Spice Girls" singing group), M. Night Shyamalan (director - "The Sixth Sense"), David Robinson (San Antonio Spurs center - former Navy academy graduate), Michelle Yeoh (actress - "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"), Andy Warhol (pop artist - "15 minutes of fame"), Robert Mitchum (actor - "GI Joe"), Lucille Ball (comedian - "I Love Lucy"), Clara Bow (silent movie actress - "Wings"), Hoot Gibson (cowboy actor), and Alfred Lloyd Tennyson (English poet laureate).