Hoofprints in Arizona

After living at Tatum Park in Scottsdale for about 18 months, and boarding the horses up in Cave Creek, we decided to move away from HOAs and cul-de-sacs and buy a house on a dirt road on Windstone Trail in Cave Creek. Sounded and felt kind of wild, or wilder.  They changed the city to Scottsdale a couple months after we moved there. Oh well. At least we tried. A neighbor let us keep the horses in their barn until Gary was able to build the "mare motel", a pretty more than adequate structure, esp. once the rubber mats were added (thanks to Krista).

 Jessica with Grandma McCaleb

 Gary and his dad, "Pop"

 We woke up one morning to find buffalo in the back yard...escapees from a training facility a few blocks away. With a lot of effort, we were able to locate the owners and after corralling them in the one pen (apparently they like alfalfa hay), with tarps and much patience they were finally loaded in the stock trailer brought to rescue them from their own folly. Billy was SO curious!

Hoofprints in Tennessee

Krista and Eryn took Billy and Fancy with them to Bryan College in Dayton Tennessee. They went there for their junior and senior years. The horses were boarded at a "nearby" stable. Billy was always low man on the totem-pole out in the pasture, but fared well enough.

 

Jessica on Bill when we went out for graduation.

Hoofprints Leaving Virginia

 This day was as foggy and sad as my heart. After Gary finished law school (graduating 8th in his class, despite full-time clerking for ACLJ and being on law review), we headed for Phoenix where he took a position with ACLJ. I could've stayed in Virginia forever. I loved the grass, the trees, the incredible ocean, and more than anything else, my two very special friends of the heart, Heidi Larum and Martha Lupton (who lived across the street.) But alas, women seldom get to choose the local where they spend their lives (if they are married anyway), so after I had a dream wherein Gary's boss, Jay S. asked him what he would think about Phoenix and 3 days later, he did just that, we headed off for the dread domain of heat and cactus, dust, desert and a huge loneliness that has lasted 13 years. This photo still brings melancholia to my spirit. I left behind more than I realized. I do not even remember the journey to Arizona. It was apparently uneventful.

Hoofprints and Cartwheel Prints

 Gary and me and Angus...in our back yard :-)

 Krista taking Pastor Davey and family for a cart ride.

 Krista and Johanna Ehlers, a dear friend from our home fellowship.

 Krista, Eryn and BeBop

 Thanks to all the experience that driving Billy gave her, Krista was able to pick up a gig driving a beautiful white carriage at a mall around Christmas time. Quite the privilege for her, and a lot of fun. This is the lady who owned the business. The play house in the background is the one Gary built and we brought all the way from Nutrioso.

 

 In the pasture with Jessica and Elizabeth Larum

My sister Teona came to visit for a couple weeks and we gave her 

the grand tour of historic Virginia...

starting with our front pasture and Billy :-). 

In this last pic, check out wee Jessica to the right of Fancy.

Hoofprints in the Sand at Cape Henry

Once a year, the powers that be open up the Cape Henry beach for equestrians, so Krista (I think Eryn was in California at the Master's College?) and I had the awesome experience of riding on the Virginia beach at sunset. I will never forget it.

Billy and me

When we lived in Oregon, I don't think we EVER went swimming because it was way too cold and way too wild, but the Virginia beach is totally user friendly. Oh, how I loved it. We only lived about 4 miles away, so we often went there. The waves were generally placid, as you can see. One our favorite places to go was Back Bay. Jessica actually found a huge conch there, even though shells were a novelty.

Hoofprints in the Virginia Pasture

This is the pasture in front of our colonial style Virginia home. It was about

3 acres and even with 3 and 4 horses grazing all day, still had to be mowed with a riding mower.

In summer, yellow flowers vied for dominance.

If you look closely, you will see Heidi the cat...

I think it only really snowed once during our 3 years, but there was enough to go skiing in the back 300! It was SO beautiful. Jessica and I found a bush with prickly balls completely covered with hoar frost and kept them in the freezer for months just to periodically pull out and feel wonderment again.

Krista, even tho she did not especially like the cold, never let it prevent her from getting in her Billy time. She is wearing her Daddy's (ie:Bill's) old down jacket, 

probably the warmest thing we owned.

Hoofprints in Virginia

In August of 1996, we packed up 6 years of life in the White Mountains and moved across country to Virginia Beach so Gary could attend Law School at Regent University. We left pulling a 4 horse trailer (and 4 horses), (a canoe roped to the top) with a surburban that lost it's transmission in Knoxville, a white volvo, a Ryder truck with a flatbed carrying  Jessica's playhouse, the horsecart, the wheelbarrow and various other "grapes of wrath" accoutrements and a smaller ryder towing the other Volvo. The trip took us 5 days and provided unceasing fodder for the truckers and their CB radios. Every night the horses were snuggly bedded down in a horse motel, while we found the cheapest motels we could. The first night, we arrived in Armadillo, Tx at 2:00 am and just slept in the field next to the horse motel. When we lost the transmission, we had to leave the Suburban behind and hooked the horse trailer to the smaller U-Haul, which had no trailer brakes OR light hookup. We were totally illegal for the last leg of the journey, both Krista and Eryn having had their license only a few months, but made it safely, despite Va Beach rush hour.

We started out with the canoe strapped to the top of the Volvo, but changed the next day at the horse motel. Kurt Johnson, a friend of the girls, came with us to give us an extra driver. He was great comic relief. 

the smaller Ryder

We arrived late at night. An old friend from college and his wife helped us unload as much stuff as we dared. The next day greeted us with a beautiful pasture for the horses 
and this quaint little barn.

 It looks drastically better with this new coat of paint a few months later. Virginia is so hot and humid in the summer, each stall had a huge fan running all the time.

 Jessica in the backyard.

 dito

 Looks like a lesson about to begin. Krista was a wonderful instructor, although Jessica always had a good "seat" (equestrian speak for good riding position).

Krista on Jasi and Jess on Bill...about to hit the trail to the back 300 (uninhabited acreage belonging to the city) that lay directly behind us, given a creek to cross, etc.