SO WHAT'S NEW?

Well I'll tell you what's new. It's been a while since my last blog. Rosie was two weeks old and we were about to go on vacation. Now Rosie is 5 weeks old and vacation is long gone. Above is a pic of Carolina on the beach. Vacation week was a nice week. It took me a couple of days to get to where I could relax. I didn't know that I was so wound up........I guess Denise could have told me that! Panama City was a really nice place. Denise and I didn't go to any of the 'touristy' places.....but we did enjoy the beach and salty air. The weather was nice all week long. We did have one storm come up....but it didn't last long. Denise spent a lot of time on the beach sunnin' and in the water. I got to do a lot of fishing. Marnol (my bro'in-law) and 'A' (nephew) went to the pier a couple of times, but no luck. We ended up fishing on the beach at the hotel. The beach was private......so there weren't many people. Plus.....we did our fishing at night. Some nights we had a good catch and some nights...nothing! Here's an example of some of the fish we caught. We had a good catch of baby sharks. Marnol caught a couple of catfish. Most of the time we fought the crabs....who would strip the bait off the hook.

What a ferocious looking shark! This one was about 10 inches long.....I caught another shark that was about 14 inches long. Nothing too big. People were still amazed that we were able to catch sharks from the beach...... nobody really wants to think that there are sharks on the beach....would you want to ? Still....these were small.....give them a few years!

Here's a pic of a sand crab.....it's only about 3 inches long.....looks bigger in the pic. One of the children caught this one night. People would get a net and a flashlight.....walk out on the beach at night and catch these little guys. Besides fishing on the pier and the beach......I was given the opportunity to go deep sea fishing. It was a fun trip. The trip lasted 6 hours....most of which was travel time....about 2 hours out and 2 hours back in......and 2 hours of fishing. Most of the catch was Red Snapper.

The red fish is Red Snapper......the long one on the right is a King Mackerel and the other long one on the left is a shark. These are a lot bigger that what they look. There's almost 80 pounds of fish in the pic! The snapper was easy to catch....basically.....bait the hook.....drop it in the water......the hook was weighted.....let it hit the bottom.....wait a minute and BAM.....you got a fish. They put up a fight. The snappers in the pic are all over 20 inches long each. The guy who caught the mackerel had a huge fight on his hands. All of the fish was cleaned and prepped. We had a huge feast back at the hotel that night. There was enough food to feed everyone. The guy who set up the trip is a chef in Mobile Alabama.......so needless to say........I didn't have to cook and the food was awesome!

When we went deep sea fishing, we had to leave out really early that morning. So I tried to get a pic of the sun coming up as we went out to sea. It was a really nice trip. I didn't even get sick.

Last, but not least.....Rosie. When I came back from vacation, I could tell that she had grown. She getting bigger and getting used to me. She's a lot easier to handle now.....but she still has her moments. It was a huge help for me with her training when I learned to keep the lessons short and sweet. I get her out everyday for about 20 or 30 minutes. I brush her down....groom her... and walk her around the yard. She's coming along.

Now that things are back to normal.........Denise and I are enjoying life.......and back to work. Carolina was baptised yesterday. That was nice. I was able to video the whole service. She'll appreciate it one day when she's older. She had a birthday while we were on vacation.....she's 6 now. It was nice....because we were all together in Florida on the beach. I'm sorry if this entry was a bit discombobulated.........there was a lot to try to write about. Until next time -JGR

TWO WEEKS GONE BY.......

Well, it has been two weeks since my last blog entry. A lot has happened since then.

Rosie is doing well. She's now 17 days old. She's turning out to be a really pretty horse. I've been working with her everyday for the past week and a half.....trying to get her used to me and being led. First time I took her out.....I practically had to drag her from the barn to the house(about 200 feet). Aaron, my father in law, had to push her from the rear while I pulled from the front. Needless to say, we were both wore out by the end of that struggle. It was the same fight back to the barn. Next day, it was a bit easier. She still resisted. Our trip from the barn yesterday took about 30 minutes....well this day it only took 15. By the 3rd time out with Rosie, she must finally decided that I was no threat to her. I think she even began to like the attention she was getting. Now.....I guess that I've had her out about 9 times. She still resists when I initially take her from her mother, but she quickly straightens up. She's able to be led now. Our trip from the barn to the house only takes about 45 seconds now! She likes being groomed. She's still on 'mothers milk' but occasionally eats grass and drinks water. I've learned to keep her lessons down to about 20 to 30 minutes now. Over the past 2 weeks I've read about 4 books on horses. Colts (baby horses) have a very short attention span.....their need to feed will overtake them and they lose attention. One book I read said that Chestnut(red) colored horses are like red-heads(human)......full of fight. I'm seeing that a little bit in her. I'm hoping that since I've started so early with her that she'll tame down. I did see something new yesterday......she has started 'bucking'. We'll see where that goes.

FED 5000. Years ago I was in a music group. David Finlayson (www.finlaysonconcept.com ) created the above logo for us. That was about 6 or 7 years ago. I'm thrilled that he found it. What I'm in the process of doing now is creating an video/musical anthology of the group. I have about 28 hours of video footage (provided by Sherri and Shaw Williams...parents of one of the Fed 5000). Next week I plan to begin editing down the footage and transferring it to DVD....thus creating the anthology. I'm hoping that goes well. I'm still rather naive about the DVD editing program I purchased........practice makes perfect.

My nephew Andrew fractured his foot in several places. This happened a few weeks ago. He's on the mend now.....and from what I hear he's doing well. I'm sure it's been a battle for the pre-schooler to get used to a cast and being mobile with it.

Basically, the last two weeks I've been working a whole lot. I'm looking forward to an upcoming vacation on the beach......well actually the fishing that I'll do on the beach. The beach is nice. Denise and I went to the beach last year for a couple of days....I really enjoyed it. It was my first time.........Denise had been before. I was really surprised at how beautiful it was. Anyways, I'm looking forward to that.......hence, all the work. I've been working on a car deal for a guy in Orlando. I'm hoping that goes well.

I really enjoyed the Drive-In the other night. Pirates of the Caribbean 3. I like the movie. Years ago I rented the first Pirates movie.... I didn't care for it that much. Just recently on Stars movie channel I saw the 2nd movie.......I liked it. Naturally....I wanted to see the third. Denise, Carolina and I joined the Finlaysons up at Sand Mtn. Drive-In. We had a good night, although we only made it through the first feature. It was a pleasant night.

I'm sure that I've left out some stuff....but in a nutshell....that's the last two weeks.