Showdown Ranch 2009 in a nutshell...lol

Going to try and give you and idea of what we have been doing this past year.

We may be adding to this a lot as we am getting older and memory is not one of our high points! lol

We got another Golden Retriever, her name is Amber and she is 2 AKC registered. Thinking about Breeding her to a poodle and making some Goldendoodles. I am working with her and Maggie on becoming Therapy dogs. Maggie has a one track mind when it comes to food or we would have tested her already.

My Very good Friend Laura came down for a while and stay with us. That is always a good time. The good bye's 'til next year are always hard on me. Mike comes down and stays with us in the fall. Randy enjoys that. I walk out of the room when they start talking about buying airplanes.

We went to Alaska again this year and we got to go Halibut fishing. That was a blast. We caught out limit with a 75 lb, 47 lb, 45 lb and others ranging 30- 40 lbs. We also caught alot of cod, which we ended up using as bait for the Halibut. We also caught two Skates. Which we cut the line as we got them closer to the boat. The captain of the boat estimated one weighed about 200 lb. and the other 100. We were in about 225 ft of water and 25 miles out. No, I didn't get sea sick but it was close. I quit looking at shore when the trees were about a half inch tall. We used 4 lb sinkers on our lines.

I Went King salmon fishing with the girls. I out did my King from last year. Which was my goal. lol I love being on the Kenai River. All the boats with fisherman and Dogs. If I look like I was grunting while hold up the Kings.... I was! They were heavy and both full of eggs for next fishing season!

As I was off fishing Randy went above the timberline four wheeling a few days. They seen lots of wildlife and wolf tracks that were HUGE! He did say he thought he saw a bear but didn't want to stay and find out. Yes they were packing iron! They did see a herd of Caribou and almost got in the middle of them as the herd changed direction and came towards them.

Randy and Jose went out to play cowboy this year in South Dakota. Herding up the cows and calves at Orlos and bringing them to the Winter pastures. I Was busy with Auditors at work so I couldn't go.

 

I got to donate my long hair which is something I wanted to do. Now I am back to short hair.

 

We also went to the AQHA WORLD SHOW with some very good friends. It was a blast! they are so much fun to go places with. We met some new friends in Texas and stayed with them a couple days. They took us around and showed us some of the BIG names in the Quarter Horse world. We did get to see Carol Roses Ranch. Went in and got to see her Trophy Room. WOW! We went to the barns and I got to see, touch, and hug some of the horses that they were competing with. Of Course there was Shinning Spark and his Daddy who is a whopping 32 years old and looks great. We got to see how they keep of all the horses and talked to the gal who keeps track of the mares, when they are due and bred to which stud. I also got to see Carols "Rocking Chair"! This is her favorite horse that she takes out and goes for a leisurely ride. Of course I have pictures of all of this. But the best is I have pictures of Carol and us!

 

I dusted of my dobro and went to the bluegrass festival and we played all night long. I have lots of fun with that. Randy was even keeping time by tapping his foot. Well, some of the time anyway! lol I watched an older man with a dobro and was amazed at what he could do with it. That is my goal but I don't think I have enough years in my to get that good. He sure could make some nice music with it. I was even brave enough to sing this year, center stage as some people would say.

Well that's all the highlights I can think of right now. We did have some lows. We lost Brandy and Max this year. Brandy was a mare we had that we figured we would have until she was old. But someone else had other plans. Max our old Faithful friend and protector, who was getting up there in age, left us during the night with faithful friend Maggie next to him.

This is all I can think of for now, I know we must of done something more. We were busy with lots of things/ events. We did sell a few more horses. Randy did sell Soldier which surprised me. But the new owners did promise that if it didn't work out they would bring him back to us. So far he is working out and that was Months ago.

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2010

Randy & Tc Peterson