The Lavender Ewe

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Baby Guinea Pigs are here!!

Posted by Shannon at 08:01 PM on April 02, 2009

We got home from work today and found two beautiful, adoreable, fluffy piggies! I'm really not sure I will be able to give them to new homes...they are now FAMILY! Not sure what gender they are yet. One is a dark red and white and the other a tri-color or dark red, a lighter red and white. Sooooo adoreable. Here are a couple pictures for you to enjoy.

The proud mommy (Pretty) and babies

The little ones venturing alone at the "other end" of the cage.

UTMHC Pioneer Classic Live Model Horse Show RESULTS!

Posted by Shannon at 12:50 AM on October 04, 2008

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On September 20th, 2008 several of my horses were shown at the UTMHC Pioneer Classic Live Model Horse Show in Utah by a dear friend of mine for the 2nd year in a row. I was able to sent 10 of my best horses . . . well 9, the 10th one belonged to my daughter and she wasn't aware that I had sent it along, I wanted to suprise her. Which I did, especialy when her little horse came in 5th place and she got a ribbon!

Here are the results from the show. All the models sent were custom models so were shown in the

MINI AR/CM classes.

* The Sun Emperor - 6th - Arabian

* Icky Thump - 1st / NAN card - Appaloosa

* Chevota - 2nd / NAN card - Mustang

* Front Row Seat - 3rd - Coaching

* Highland Triumph - 2nd / NAN card - Draft / Pony/Draft/Other Division Reserve Champion

* Highland Supreme Legacy - 4th - Draft

* Shavanos Sun Spots - 1st / NAN card - Light Foals / Mini Foals Division Champion
* Shavanos Heiress - 2nd / NAN card - Light Foals / Mini Foals Division Reserve Champion
* Summer Rain - 5th (Jessicas little Appaloosa) - Stock Foal

Adventures in Camping!

Posted by Shannon at 10:52 PM on June 22, 2008

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**NOTE: Pictures at the bottom of the story**

We just got back from our "vacation", basically an extended weekend of 3 days. But still a vacation. We headed up to Paradise Lodge on Fletchers Floodwaters near Hillman, MI about the same time we did last year. This year we opted to take our eight foot 1982 model slide in camper instead of renting a cabin.

Going back a year for a moment. We took our Dodge and boat to Paradise Lodge for an extended weekend. We about 30 miles from the Lodge, the Dodge decides to run out of gas. The gas gauge was broke for the front tank and we thought we were on the rear tank. WRONG! After 40 minutes on the side of the road, John crossed fuel lines and tadah! We have fuel running to the thirsty truck.

Ok . . .forward one year.

The week before our trip we discovered that the entire front half of the camper had a leak, a leak that had been there for at least 3 years . . . well on top of the leak there was also a carpenter ant problem . . . soooooooo, we tore the entire front half of the camper apart, replaced all the rotted wood, new plywood and replaced the aluminum skin. A week of hard work done FINALLY on Wednesday night. Good as NEW! Well as new as a 26 year old camper can look.

About 9pm Wednesday night, John decided he wanted to load the camper on the truck, a 1979 olive drab Dodge Powerwagon. We soon discovered though that 2 of the 3 camper jacks were frozen and wouldn't go up or down. Soooo, we jacked up the side with the one jack with a 3 ton floor jack and jack stands, removed the cmper jack and over an hour later of heating with the torch and beating on it, it came loose! Woohoo! Only one more to go!

Midnight came and we just finished putting the second frozen jack back on the camper. It was now ready to load on the Dodge in the morning.

Thursday morning, we loaded the camper, hitched up the boat (a duel purpose duck hunting/fishing boat). We were planning on leaving home around 10am . . . but that soon turned into 4pm. UGH! Oh well, we were on our way UP NORTH. NOTHING was going to stop us now. We had a 3 hour drive ahead of us and the prospect of some good, relaxing fishing and a weekend of being child free!

We arrived at Paradise Lodge right around 7pm Thursday night. We picked out our camping spot. There had been a lot of rain the week before, so it was a bit muddy back where we wanted to be. The night before a 40' motor home got bogged down in the same spot so it was completely tore up. NO problem . . . we have FOUR WHEEL DRIVE! We unhitched the boat and decided to go ahead and unload the camper. After all, it is a slide in and we didn't want to be driving all over the place with a camper in the bed.

John than tried backing the truck up . . . no problem . . . pulled forward a few feet to straighten up and into the ruts that the whale of a motor home left. NO PROBLEM he says, we have FOUR WHEEL DRIVE! So he locked the Dodge in 4x4. The only problem . . . there was NO four wheel drive! UGH!! Now the dodge is stuck! The tires were completely mud slicked and couldn't get traction if we had to run for our lives.

The lodge owner comes over, looks at our predicatment and gets his old Chevy and a tow rope. 5 minutes later we were FREE of the little mud hole and had the camper unloaded. FINALLY we were up North and RELAXING!

We decided to hitch up the boat trailer again, so we could launch the boat and dock it for the night, that way it would be ready first thing in the morning so we could go find those record Pike we love fisihing for. While John motored the boat over near our camp, I drove the Dodge back and parked in front of the camper, that way noone would be tempted to peek in the cab window of the camper . . . it's a girl thing . . . sheesh!

Anyway, we wandered the campgrounds, went to the Lodge talked to several people and caught up on the last years goings on at the Lodge. Around 9pm we went back to the camper and ate dinner and got ready for bed, as we wanted to be up around 5:30am so we could head out on the lake for some morning fishing.

Well, after getting into our "pj's" for the night, I climbed up in the overhead bed and cuddled up into my corner . . . which by the way is kind of tight . . . John stepped towards the bed and went to climb up, when in SLOW MOTION I may add, the damn camper decided with the weight shift to take a nose dive toward the truck! It must have been every man for himself, because John (in his birthday suit) was diving for the door which was now facing up at the night sky. He claims later that he was trying to "counter balance" the camper.

Holy smoke! The entire campground came running, trucks were circled around the camper, headlights shinning on us, and here I am in MY birthday suit trying to get into some kind of clothing, my neck and back hurt from the impact. The camper is sitting on its nose and the stars were shinning brightly in through the now open door. John jumped out the door, I'm TRYING to get to the door above me, people are yelling to be careful, cause it looks like it might flop over onto its side, I'm freaking! Tears streaming down my face, thinking I'm going to die. I'm scared to death that the entire drivers side fender of the Dodge was wiped out and we wouldnt be able to drive home. UGH!!! But I managed to get out, with Johns help.

WOW! What a sight! THANKFULLY the camper came to rest on the antelope bumper (the truck was a WY ranch truck until we bought it, so they needed the BIG bumper for antelope)on the Dodge. The brand new work we did on the camper was now crushed. The only damage to the Dodge was a bit of paint rubbed off the bumper and a little tweak to the driver mirror and a small dent in the door from the mirror getting hit. All that is fixed now though.

The Lodge owner opened a cabin for us for the night and instead of fishing first thing in the morning, we were trying to figure out how to get the camper upright, and on 2 camper jacks that were bent. John was ready to load the camper and just go home. But everyone talked him out of it, thankfully. We are UP NORTH dang it!

8 guys and a couple ropes and come-a-longs later, the camper was upright and sitting SOLIDLY on railroad ties.

A little ductape later, the holes in the front of the camper made it water/whether tight, at least for the weekend.

On Sunday morning, with the help of 4 guys, John managed to slowly jack up the camper and get more rail road ties under it to get it to the height where he could back the Dodge under it.

Even though we didn't catch any real fish that weekend, we sure caught some good laughs and good stories and still had a good time! We were UP NORTH dang it! ALL the new campers that came to the Lodge over the next couple days heard about our mishap and offered their condolences! LOL

Since our return home, we have aqquired two more camper jacks and we will be putting FOUR of them on the camper. Three jacks is just the dumbest design. I'll NEVER, EVER sleep in the overhead bed again though!

Below are a few pictures from this ADVENTURE. The 5th one down is of John FINALLY getting to relax and the final picture is of the beautiful sunsets that I so love about the area.

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