Mountain Lions

My goodness, has it been a long time since I blogged! I'm not exactly sure why that is; maybe a combination of lack of creativity, too much going on, not enough going on, sometimes I get tired of hearing myself talk, summer is chaotic, and I've had a string of not so fun or interesting things happen lately. With that note, I've got a lot to write about now. Or maybe I have all along but now I actually feel like writing about it. For whatever the reason, I am inspired at midnight on a Thursday night to tell you what happened just last week.

About midnight (does anything good happen at midnight?) I heard the mountain lion right outside our window pacing up and down the road screaming its head off. I woke hubby up, too. I'm not sure why, maybe because I was so freaked out or maybe it was because I wanted to see if he thought it was a mountain lion, too. We were told when we moved in a couple years ago that if we ever heard what sounded like a woman screaming outside our house NOT to go outside and investigate because it would be a mountain lion. Evidently, that is their mating call. I am SOOO glad J.D. gave us the heads up because that was the absolute most eerie thing I've ever heard. I recorded it but haven't figured out how to upload it. It went on for about 20 minutes and echoed up and down our canyon. I opened the front door and stood with just the screen door between me and possible death and shook until I had thoroughly erased all chances of sleep that night, but I got it on audio, by George! MacGyver rolled over and went right back to sleep. Nerves of steel, I tell you, but not before telling me he was glad I woke him up because he wouldn't have believed me, otherwise. What? Thanks for the confidence, bubba! The kiddos were upset I didn't wake them but there was a good reason, which I will divulge another time. But I did promise to wake them if I ever heard it again. I'll have to warm up some milk and bake some cookies if I do, because there aint no way those puppies are ever going back to sleep after that, either! I know! Bad grammar! But this girl is NOT joking. That is the spookiest sound I have EVER heard.

It reminds me of the time we were camping in our camper up in Pike National Forest. MacGyver was at work and my mom had come up to camp with us for my birthday. We made dinner and played some cards and when it got late we snuggled down to get ready for bed. About that time Maggie started growling at the door and we heard what sounded like a mountain lion outside our camper. Boy I have never been more excited to have four solid walls in my life! Anyway, the more Maggie growled, the more freaked out the kiddos got. I think we all got the willies pretty bad. I finally decided to take Maggie and our gun outside and shoot it off. The idea was to make the kids feel better because the gun shot would scare away the mountain lion. I have to admit it actually worked. It made me feel better, too. That was just one time when I had to put my "Big Girl Panties" on, as I like to call it, and muster up the courage to do what it took to make those kiddos feel safer, if not truly safer. There were more "Big Girl Panty" moments still to come, but this was one of the more memorable ones.

Happy Anniversary To Us

Well, it was my anniversary, but unfortunately before knowing the date, I committed the kids and I to show sheep with our 4H club at the Colorado State Fair. So, 5 girls and Ian loaded up a bunch of sheep in the back of the truck, hauled them to the trailer, loaded them into the trailer and drove down to Pueblo. We then transferred them to their pens at the fair. Boy was that some fun! None of them were halter trained so we man handled them all the way into the fair. We got some weird cross-ways glances the whole way in!

Hauling Hay

Izzy hauling water

Ike & Dixie hauling water

Kelly & Izzy feeding Dudley

Waiting & waiting for the show to start

And waiting

Kelly, Ian, Shelby & Izzy taking Douglas for his winning picture

Kelly & Sundance posing for the winning photo

I finally was able to kiss and hug Mac and tell him Happy Anniversary at about 11:48 PM, with 12 minutes to spare! We learned a lot about showing sheep, finally were able to go to the state fair, and had a good time with our 4H peeps!

4-Wheeling Georgia Pass