Final post of 2013...

After spending two weeks in California with family and friends for Christmas, I am back on the ranch with my beloved animals.  The past two weeks or so have been wonderful...

Ranch event at the Purdue Ranch in Phoenix with roughly 50 inner city kids...

Return to California to visit family and my girlfriend, Emily...

Visit to Fresno including gifting my horse Caesar to a good friend...

Christmas in Sunnyvale with family...

All in all, a fantastic Christmas, but I'm glad to be back.  Cannot wait to see what God has planned me and for AYR in 2014.

Progress Update!

So I only have a few minutes, but I wanted to post some quick news: in the past 3 weeks, we have had 4 separate inquiries from parents of perspective students!  Please be praying for wisdom and guidance for the families as they fill out applications and pray about whether or not this is the right place for them.  We are so excited about the possibility of getting our first students here, and have kicked everything into an even higher gear. Praise God!

I will keep you all in the loop as things develop.  Keepin my fingers crossed!!

Fall Photoshoot...in the rain

 

The Joy of the Lord...

So I am going to take a break from my "Dear Diary" entries, to share about a very fulfilling weekend in our Ministry.

On the weekend of 11/16, I was blessed with the opportunity to head to Agape Youth Ministry's smaller ranch up in the Phoenix area. Upon arriving in Phoenix, I was picked up and driven out to the Purdue Ranch in Buckeye.  For those of you familiar with the Madera Ranchos, Buckeye is almost identical.

The reason for this entire trip, was to assist with Agape Youth Ministry's other outreaches...working with inner-city kids in the Phoenix area.  Roughly 25 kids were supposed to arrive at the ranch on Saturday afternoon for a trail ride and bonfire.  My responsibility was to help with teaching horse safety, basic riding, show these kids the love of Christ and to help lead a trail ride.  We set things up on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, then exercised the horses and prepared for the arrival of the group around 3PM.

Seeing the joy and excitement in the eyes of these kids was truly inspirational, and watching them overcome fears and become more confident was such a blessing.  It was a very special weekend, and being able to assist on the Purdue Ranch every so often will make my time in Arizona even more meaningful.

And arrive they did...the kids and their mentors...  Since pictures are worth 1,000 words, I will let pictures tell the rest of the story.

 

Dear Diary... 11/04/2013

Dear Diary,

November is upon us, and before we know it, Thanksgiving will be here.  I cannot believe how quickly 2013 has flown past.  So many things have happened, and so many big changes!  Looks like I will, for the 3rd year out of 4, be missing Thanksgiving with my family and, all too likely, Christmas will prove the same.  I am planning a long trip home in the spring of 2014 for probably two weeks, which will allow time to visit my family in the Bay Area, spend time in Fresno AND attend one of my favorite Civil War reenactments.

Recently I switched from an iPhone, which I have been using for the past 3+ years, back to a flip phone... I know, crazy, right??  It is a lot harder to do certain things, but much simpler overall! And more cost effective.

This past Saturday evening I attended country church over at Sunizona First Baptist Church, which is always a good time with dinner at 6 and service at 7...this month was "Soup Month" which was really neat.  It was great to be able to get to know some more locals too.  Sunday morning I took my bike up to Tombstone for church at Tombstone Cowboy Church, and got caught in a downpour on the way back - felt good though. :)

Halloween was a fun time here, not because anything particularly interesting happened, but because I dressed up my animals. :)

Apollo dressed as a firefighter:

 

 Tacoma as a slick biker

And the newest addition to the family, Cherokee, dressed as Jim Harbaugh

Dear Diary....10/28

Dear Diary,

Another busy week come and gone, and I'm back to my days off yet again... There has been so much accomplished, yet there seems as though there isn't much to say.  I spent time working with the horses, fixing sprinklers, attending church, cleaning the hay barn and stable, and many other chores.  It has been very windy today, which has come out of nowhere...made for a gloomy, overcast day...  Waking up this morning and walking out the door, coffee in hand, to feed the horses, I could feel and smell Autumn in the air.  First morning like that so far.  The leaves on what few trees we have are beginning to change and float softly to the ground...  I have taken time this week to take a few extra pictures...

The colors of the sunsets here never get old...

I also took time this week to rearrange the furniture in my house...I was very pleased with the result )

This is our classroom

L - R...Brio (not a ranch horse...just here temporarily), Badger (Steve's personal horse), and Shalom (our first and only program horse)

New yearling colt...I haven't named him yet.

SMILE :D

The progression...."hey, look at how big THIS fish is...man I'm good...that was too easy...can I keep him? PLEEEEEEASE?"

 

 

Getting to know each other...

What? Treat? OH YES! (Apollo dwarfs the lab and Blue Lacie)

Just try to say no to THAT face....