A work in progress

I have started series of western paintings depicting women in the western world. This is the third in the series and one of my first figurative oils. It has a long way to go, but I am having a good time on the journey. This is AmberLeigh, a horse trainer in South Dakota who is also in school to become a vet. She is an amazing rider and seems to have a second sense with her horses. A painting I did of her and her horse, Pony Boy was on the cover of the Paint Horse Journal. I will put it up again when I am done.

Dakota

A new pastel of my corgi....

When Deep Snow Happens to Short Dogs

We have been hearing since Monday that we were going to be hit by a huge storm on Friday. Well, I have not lived here long, but I know that the weather guys here are almost never right. Well, on Friday...nothing, but on Saturday we got socked! We got over a foot in a day!!!
You try to explain this event to your short legged friend, but they just dont understand.


If you ever doubted that a dog could laugh...look at Loki's face in this picture. Not bad for a 12 year old, hmm?
Dakota, on the left, is trying to show Zoe that she has the stuff!!!

Happy Birthday John

This weekend, I took John to Ely Minnesota for a weekend "away from it all". I rented a beautiful cabin on the lake. It was charming and perfect for two. What we did not expect was the cold front that moved in and made our plans for snowshowing and hiking...well...not possible. Saturday night saw temps as low as -15.

We were fortunate to be able to take all three of our children. Unfortunately, at these temperatures you can experience "paw freeze", and rescue is necessary.

This is basically what we did all weekend. With no phones or TV, we sat and talked, read, played Trivial Pursuit (I won) and watched the deer run across the lake. It was perfect.

No--he isn't passed out. He layed down on the floor and fell asleep like this.

Our view out the back doors was just beautiful. We loved our weekend there so much, we made reservations there for our anniversary. This time in the fall...no snow.

Goodbye Barbaro

Today, Barbaro lost his heroic battle against a broken leg after an abcess developed in his hoof. After 8 months of surgeries and rehab, the owners decided to humanely euthanize him. He was a brave and strong horse that will be missed.