my son had his first opportunity to ride a horse un assisted. he did fine till he and his father got about 40 feet from the edge of camp. the horse my son was riding stepped in a hole and lost its balance. the horse stumbled and scott jr slippped off and then the horse fell too. right on scott jr. the whole camp watched it in horror as it seemed to be happening in slow motion. we all ran as fast as we could to get the horse up off the ground and off of scott jr. of course scott jr was crying and scared and we were all worried he had a broken leg. over to the side, my daughter, fia, was crying and scared for her brother, tender soul that she is. we got the horse up. she was led to the pin where the other horses are kept and is being looked over to see if her leg is ok. in the mean time, we are looking at scott jr to see if his leg is, in fact, broken. it doesn't appear to be, but only time will tell. we have made a pallet for him to lay on by the fire.the pallet has long handles on it so, with a little rope, it can be pulled behind a horse if we need to move suddenly. my father smells smoke on the wind and is calling for a posse to ride to the ridge to check it out. they return with panicked expressions and report that the forrest is on fire. and that it is headed our way and should reach our location in about a day. that means, not only do we have to pack up camp quicker than we've had to in a long time, but that we also have to travel at night in the cold. thankfully the furs ready to be used and we can all bundle up in one. scott jr will use two woven blankets and a fur underneath him. fia will lay on the pull cot with him to sleep and to comfort him. she has been given beef jerky, bread, and a bottle of water for them to use if they need it. the horse's leg is not broken and she seems to be fine. its a pitty we cant let her rest longer. we are looking at the trail map to see the best route to take to go into canada. we dont have a choice. there will be different wildlife to contend with in canada. my son is sleeping peacefully thanks to the headache powders and the whisky with honey we gave him. we are attaching the pull cot to a horse and loading up camp. now we have to fill in our dugout and cover our tracks here. another hour and we should be good to go. we decide not to fill in everything just yet. we all talk it over and decide to leave at first light. we will sleep for six hours. or we will try to.

problems i ran into while riding....

well, first, i got on the horse and started off...someone called out my name and when i turned around, the horse stumbled inot a hole, lost her balance and fell. with me on top. so now my leg is bruised. ok, fine. i hobble the horse back to camp and we all check her to see how badly she is injured. we detect no broken bones, but she will rest for a few days anyway. then, my husband got stung on his ass by a bee.....(trying not to giggle and failing)he sat on a flower that had a pissed off bee inside.though we were all sympathetic to his pain, we all also laughed our asses off when it was all said and done. not to worry, his rear is on the mend. its funny. i'm sorry. he kinda stands when he rides now. our dogs have been killing things and bringing them to camp recently. we received a squirrel, a bird, and three rats. of course we threw them away when the boys took the dogs to play with them, but even the dogs contribute to the food pile....sorta. i am currently watching my son and daughter walk into camp with the catch they made. my son caught three 12 in. crappy, my daughter caught 4 keeper trout and my husband caught a boot. it doesnt belong to any of us and looks old and grody. i offered to cook him fillet of sole for dinner. he threw the boot at me. sheesh...no sense of humor anymore.....the whole rest of the camp found it quite hilarious. well, gotta go. i have to hobble my self to the little girl's bush.

where to begin?

so many things have happened since i last wrote. our family grew, the dog chased a bear, we saw the northern lights at a time and place they shouldn't have been seen. then we finally made it to wyoming. i am still sore at scott for convincing me to try that horrid medicinal whisky.....the thing is, he did this to me when i was learning to shoot a gun....."no, it wont hurt that bad...you've shot several already....this one wont be any worse than those...." NOT!!! that damn gun about knocked me on my ass!!! AND HE LAUGHED AT ME! he said "sorry honey, but you needed to know how it felt to shoot this rifle..." thankfully, i am not that bad at shooting anymore. the kickback doesnt bother me as much as it used to. i can control my horse and shoot at the same time. im a real calamity jane...the last outpost we came to, we traded them some jerky and a thick blanket for some cream and some honey. the cream we kept in a two litre bottle attached to the wheel of the cart we made. that night when we stopped, it had churned into butter. we had bread and butter with our chilli and rice. we used some cinnamon and some sugar in the bread. it was sooooo goood. it was warm, buttery and sweet. i gotta go, im helping ride securty tonight. dont worry, i am not going too far away.