Spike takes a Walk

Spike hasn't been wanting to walk with us for a while now. Granted, the weather has been bad until the last few days. On Saturday, however, we grabbed him before he hid in the closet and took him out the back gate. Once he was out, he was happy to go along and sniff his way on the trail around the ranch. We always have to look back to be sure he hasn't been distracted by a squirrel or intriguing aroma. Mostly, he keeps up and sometimes even passes us. When we get back home, Spike expects and gets a cookie. He's such a good boy.

How to Buy a Car

Okay, we decided to buy a Prius; now what? Dennis and I approached it from two sides: I called Cars Direct and he visited two local Toyota dealers trying to find the car we wanted at a price we wanted to pay. Sounds easy, right? We found a good price rather easily, but we wanted the solar roof/navigation model and I wanted a Barcelona red color. Ha. We almost settled for silver because there were no red ones available anywhere. At first, Cars Direct found one in Santa Margarita, but that didn't pan out; then they found one in North Hollywood, but someone else beat us to it. At the same time, Japan suffered a devastating earthquake and stopped exporting any cars at all. Then Cars Direct found a Barcelona red Prius with solar/nav in San Jose, apparently the last red one on earth. We are in the process of buying it (Cars Direct will FedEx papers to us to sign and have notorized). Then, if all goes well, they will deliver the car to us for $500. Stay tuned.

Trail Ride on Thursday

Now I really feel we're back on schedule. Lesson on Wednesday and Trail Ride on Thursday. That's the name we've given to our trail riding "group" of two: me and Joyce. Others may join us from time to time, too, but it's usually only Joyce and I. This was only the second time we've gone to Cuyamaca since my accident last August. Last week we also rode in Cuyamaca because the Lagunas had quite a bit of snow from the last storm. Horses can ride in the snow (Doc likes it), but ice is problemmatic. No one wants to be slipping and sliding on ice riding on horseback, not to mention falling and being crushed by a 1,000-lb. horse.

Even Cuyamaca was somewhat challenging due to all the rain from the storm. Trails we've ridden easily before the storm were running streams last week when we rode. This Thursday's ride, however, was uneventful except for the tree on the trail incident. We were almost back to the parking lot on a narrow trail with a cliff on the right when we came upon a fairly large v-shaped tree limb that the horses would have to step over twice. It was too much for Doc and he balked and started to back up toward the cliff, which was too much for me. Joyce got off her horse and tried to move the limb, but it was too heavy, so she walked her horse over the logs and I did the same. Then, because of my stupid knee and my short legs, I had to hunt down a big rock or tree stump to use as a mounting block. We found a large stump at the mounted patrol's camp so I was able to climb up and mount from there, and we were off riding again.   A good day.

Finally, a Riding Lesson

After several weeks of bad weather or absences, Betsy and I finally got together for our regular Wednesday horseback riding lesson. Doc was ready. He is such a good horse, stands like a rock for mounting and dismounting. That's very important now that my left knee (the mounting leg) has a missing ACL after the electric bike incident last August. I wear an ACL brace now when riding or doing any other exercise that might strain or tweak the knee. Riding with the brace is not excellent but I'm giving it a try and Doc is very accommodating.

The lesson went well. The wind was blowing fairly hard, but horses don't seem to mind it as much as we do. Just another day for them. Doc and I are practicing roll backs as a way to get him to use his rear legs and muscles to push him, rather than his front legs to pull him along. At least I think that's what we were doing. Of course, Doc already knows all this; I'm the one who's learning and, luckily, I have the best trainer ever to help me. :)

To do a roll back, we ride close to the rail in the arena and, as we get to a certain point, I turn my head toward the rail while applying pressure with my leg back from the girth (button 3). Turning my head causes my body to apply pressure along with my leg so that the horse turns toward the rail and pivots (if we both do it right) on his rear leg so that we are now going in the opposite direction with a push from his rear instead of a pull from his front. Ta da!

Is that right, Betsy?

Movie Tuesday

We all (Angie, Gary, Mom, Dennis, and I) went to the movies today to see Adjustment Bureau. It was surprisingly good. The previews gave the impression of a much harder movie, but it was really an adventure fantasy tinged with romance. Two thumbs up.

Prius

In our search for a new car, Angie and I went to several car dealerships in El Cajon and made a list of the possible vehicles to take out for a test drive. The next day, we brought Dennis and Gary to see the cars we selected. First, we went to the Ford dealership and looked at the Edge suv. We determined it was too large and the gas mileage wasn't very good. So that one is out. Then we went to Honda and looked at the new CRV, the same car as I drive now. It's a nice car, but not as fuel efficient as we hoped. Then we went next door to the Toyota dealership and looked at the Prius. We all really liked it. It was comfortable, had some nifty features, and listed up to 50 mpg. Dennis drove the car to Grossmont and I drove it back. The car handled easily and we both liked it. But to be sure, we went on to the Nissan dealer and then to Kia. We didn't see anything that came close to the Prius and didn't drive any other cars.

Rented Prius

The next step was to rent a Prius for a couple of days. I drove it home with Angie and then we took Mom for a ride around the "block." We parked the car in Mom's garage so the turkeys wouldn't get on it. They have a fetish for cars. The next day, Sunday, Dennis drove all of us to breakfast in Barrett Lake. We three women sat in back. It was a cozy fit, but we has plenty of leg room. The two guys sat in front and fiddled with all the gadgets. After breakfast, we drove back to La Posta and took another drive to the Desert Tower past Jacumba. I had never been there so it was interesting. It's quite a place. We climbed the stairs to the top and looked over the Imperial Valley. Not much to see, actually, except a lot of rocks and dirt.

Two hours later we finally arrived back home. Quite a day, but we were all impressed by the Prius. I took it back on Monday and now we're mulling it over. Looks like a good possibility, though.

Photos from our Prius Adventure are now posted on the Prius Adventure page.

Snow!

Dang! While we were in Washington, the best snow storm in several years deposited 4-6 inches of snow on the ranch. And we missed it. Click on Photos under Menu to see some snow photos.