the year gone by

YeeHah! Here we are again at the end of a year thinking about the year to come. All in all it's been a pretty good one.We've been back in the States now for 18 months and have achieved lots as far as getting the ranch and our lives here back together. We have over fifty horses here now. There were only 15 when we returned from Australia.
My biggest personal achievement this year was giving up alcohol.It's been almost a year now! I've never in my adult life done this before. It's great!A lot easier than just cutting back. That never worked!Of course I still like to watch people drink. It's fascinating
January was a month of glad and sad. The glad being; we purchased Flambeau, the horse i had been training for several months (figured i just had to have him); and the sad, our good friend and horse boarder Roger, a beautiful, big, gentle giant of a guy, died unexpectedly of a heart attack. He was not much older than forty!
The winter was wicked with temps way below zero. Some weeks, when the merc rose above zero we declared it a heat wave. Anything that could freeze and break,DID!
In April we escaped for a week with a trip to California to visit Corky, Cindy, Mernie's Mum and of course the new grandson little Finley. Very nice relaxing time. Put on 5lbs!
The warmer weather when it finally came,was much appreciated and savored to the limit. Flambeau and I completed our first endurance ride in Denver; 21 miles of strangling my horse and 4 miles of pleasant riding. The Kenlyn Challenge takes you over and along streams, on paved walking and dog paths and under I 25 several times. Of course Beau was too nutso to notice any of this.
The following rides in Wheatland, Laramie, Nebraska and Denver were much better. He figured it out pretty quickly and has become a fantastic endurance horse. We ended the season with our first 50 ( a real endurance ride)in Denver.
Rod and Beth got hitched in May. We attended the wedding which was terrific. Lots of happy, fun loving people;A good start for our best friends and a lovely couple .
In Sept Mernie's Mum came to visit for a few weeks. Although her memory is not good, she is such a dear and an expert folder of laundry. I never did quite get the hang of that and now she's back in CA. we have reverted back to scrunched up clothes.
I turned 51 in October. Yikes!
Did lots of riding with my riding buddy Michael even at night under a full moon. Life doesn't get better than that!
Great news, BETH IS HAVIN' A BABY! Rod wants to call it Fritz regardless of the gender and there's lots of discussion going on about that in the Keller household right now! Oh Rodney!
In November I spent 3 lovely weeks in Australia with my family in spite of the fact that i got a nasty cold. I've been told its not good to fly with a cold and now i know why. I've been home for a month now and my ears still haven't popped.I'ts left me with some hearing loss in my left ear.Maybe it will get better and maybe not. We'll see.
Dad turned 87 while I was there! He's still going strong although he still whinges a bit; especially when his horses are losing.I got to spend a lot of time with Dad and with my sister Julie and that was precious. Spent some nice time with my sister Kaye. She is looking great and doing really well. I also got to see and ride our horses which was fortunate as in December, our 8year old standard bred Forrest died of a severe bout of colic.Our good friend Graham called to tell us but got the horses mixed up. He was sure it was the older of our two horses and so I assumed it was Fonzie.Although he did say Forrest to begin with.For those who don't know them well they were something like bookends. So now we have done some grieving for both horses.
Mernie has finished a wonderful addition to the house; a mud room at the front that i can't image how we did without. It's a place to come in out of the cold and unload those 10 layers of clothes and shake of the 2 bales of hay you've collected in them.Not to mention the boots with the huge globs of mud and horse poop on them! Mernie is so clever!
Mernie and Rod are finishing off the year with some serious beer making so you can guess what their new years resolutions WONT be!
Take care everyone and make 2008 the best year ever. Luv ya all.
Happy Trails from Ronnie and Mernie with the world On A String at the Ranch.
Don't forget to go back into previous blogs for more roodroppings!
(It would be lovely to have some comments so i know that I'm reaching some of you out there.)