Update

G'day to ya'll from a very snowy Idaho!
I hate it when websites aren't updated for ages on end and then I found out that we're doing the same thing with this blog. ::oops:: So, I thought that I'd update you on what the Panhandle Roughriders have been doing. By the way, this is Lydia who is writing. :-)
In November we had friends down from Alberta, and when they went back home Naomi and Ellie went with them to help out on their ranches there. The house felt really empty. ::grins:: We could all fit around the table at mealtimes, wow! LOL!
Then Dad, Mom, Uriah, and Ruth, went up to 100 Mile House B.C. to look at land. They were gone for 4 days, from the 21st to the 25th, and man, I thought the house was empty with Nomi and Lellie gone, it was really empty with Dad and Mummy and the kids gone! :-)
On the 23rd we had a potluck dinner at church for Thanksgiving. Us kids walked to the church building which is about 2 1\2 miles away. Means how we didn't have any snow at the time, it was a nice walk.
On the 29th we went and picked up the girls from AB (they went up on the 10th). We stayed a night and did church with them on Sunday then headed back home. Hannah held the fort while we were gone, and did a swell job of it! :-)
We've been riding off and on, usually once a week, sometimes sooner, sometimes later. I was able to get a nice bosal/headstall/horsehair mecate setup. Alpache is doing great in it! One ride we had a bit of a mishap. We had cut out from Riffel's place (where we keep our horses) on a logging road, and when we reached a gravel road (Camp Nine road, off of Meadow Creek road) we decided to gallop. Well all was fine and dandy until Red and Kid saw another logging road that would take them home, they cut that way at a full gallop! Muckers, a little ways before, decided the bush/trees on the other side of the road looked good and hit it! She came up short!
I had managed to keep 'Pache on the main road and soon had him slowing down, Dad and Zeke on Coyote and Al caught up with me and then we went back meeting Ellie on the way. Soon Jesse and Martha came out of the logging road, Martha none the worse for wear, but Jesse was bit sore. He told us that Red was, after diving through some tightly growing trees to get on the road, (he missed the approach), slipping and sliding as the road was all frosty, then he stepped just wrong and took a 10 ft slide on his side. Dad asked him if he was still on at the time. And Jesse said, “Me? I was about 6 ft in front of Red!” He had landed on his wrist and hip, so he was pretty sore, thankfully Red and the saddle that he was wearing (my aussie saddle) were not hurt. Muckers came up limping after her dive into the woods, she had heat in her left knee. So after going for a ways and eating lunch of mashed egg salad sandwiches, we headed home. I managed to get Pache caught up in a rusty barbed wire fence on the way there, but his lessons on ground tying were a help as I got him out of it. He stood quietly with his head down as I lifted his legs one by one out of the fence. Ground tying can help a lot!
On the afternoon of the 12th of December we finally got some snow, I think we had about 13in by the next morning! And it hasn't let up yet, we now have about 2 -2 ½ ft, and believe it or not, it's snowing again! We don't get very much wind, not anything compared to Saskatchewan! So we'll get about 12 in of snow piled up on the porch railing, and it stays there until the kids knock it off.
We've made offers on two different houses but both were refused. So we're still waiting for God to show us which place He has for us. I'm hoping it's around here because I don't want to leave all our friends, but I'm working on trusting more in God's guidance. Sometimes it's hard.
We celebrated Martha's and Hannah's birthdays last month. Martha turned 12 on the 25th and Hannah turned 21 on the 31st. It's hard to believe that it's a new year already!
I've been practicing guitar, and am having great fun with new Steve Kaufman instructional books. I set up a new music program for Naomi, Ellie, and I to practice. None the of the rest of the family seem to want to do singings. We've practiced it once and found that we definitely need a lot more practice before we perform for a crowd. Naomi is giving keyboard lessons to Martha, Zeke, and Cilla, and Ellie is giving fiddle lessons to Zeke and Cilla. They are doing quite good, especially on the fiddle. Means how Ellie and I share a room, I get to hear the fiddle lessons! ::grins:: ... ::or maybe not::
We drive out every other day and feed the horses, on the 31st, Martha and I and Zeke went for a little ride. It was snowing quite hard while we were riding but quit as soon as we put the horses away. :-) It sure was pretty! I miss the big snow drifts and the prairies, but the mountains have their own kind of beauty too. We have four seasons here not just two.... I finally found out what spring and fall are like when we moved to ID! LOL! In SK we had winter, and it was a real winter, and summer! It would go from 0 degrees F to 70 degrees F in a couple of days, and then it was summer time. I found what it's like to be able to go out side in the summer and not have a waving/slapping fit! It made me realize why people around here don't go waving to everyone in sight, and just being plain friendly, what this state needs is a good dose of mosquitoes! Just kidding!
I found that I missed diving under fences this spring! Scrambling away from an unhappy cow dragging her new calf by a leg so that we could ear tag it. And I haven't once walked out to get the milk cows when it was -40 degrees with the wind whipping. But I have read an awful lot of Louis L'Amour books this year! I just love the Sacketts! We joke about the Holters, instead of the Sacketts! If you are planning on making trouble for one of us, you'd better bet on having at least half of the family after you! “You was lookin' for a Holter? Well you got your self 7 o' em!” Nobody has tried anything yet! :-) We must look scary! ::growl::
So long until next time,
The fourth, trouble making, musically inclined, joking, book reading, horse crazy, frisbee fumbling, child and daughter of Kirk and Heidi,
Lydia Rose Holter