Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Blog Pictures

Just a quick note: if you cannot click the link to any of the pictures in the text box, just copy and paste the link. It does reallly work!!

Young Travelers - Week 2


We had a great time again with our Young Travelers boys. We talked about responsibility and wisdom while we were getting ready to ride. They rode by themselves this time and had to learn some things and take responsibility for the safety of their animal and themselves. Also, horses can teach us wisdom as they are herd animals and there is a pecking order. If a horse choices to follow the wrong horse he could get himself into trouble. A horse uses wisdom when he follows the alpha horse (boss) horse (number one uno!). He trusts that horse to show him the way to water, food, shelter, etc. We can relate the boys to this. We talked about who they go to to ask advice on a matter. Mom, Dads, and Sisters were the answer.
We talked about trying to make better choices.
We ended the night roasting hot dogs over the campfire and the boys tossed a football around for a few minutes before they left. They are looking forward to next week when they start their wood/metal project. Next week we will be talking about, taking action, and a decided heart.
take a look at the pictures on this web site: http://picasaweb.google.com/LazyBeesRanch/YoungTravelers72709#

Monday, July 27, 2009

Our First Weekend with Rodeo


Well, we had another great fun weekend. We had a small group of 6 teenage boys.
We think they had a good time. When you look at the pictures you can see a change in countenance from the time they arrived to the time they left. Chris's Mom and Dad came from Texas for a visit and they were happy to see Chris enjoying herself helping with the kids. Larry, Chris and I got a bucket of water dumped on us during the water fight. Larry and I did not retaliate, however, Chris did get the kids back!
They really liked the archery and the food!! During campfire activities, Andre was praised for his part in making sure Chris's parents got their meal. Andre even left his dinner, to "fetch" their meal and serve them. It was a very touching moment because Andre got off his seat at the campfire and gave Chris a HUGE hug. After that it was kind of silent for a few seconds! Nothing more needed to be said.
Wow, that scene was the ranch in a nutshell! Loving and respecting each other as people is what we want to teach the kids. Our first mini rodeo actually went well. All riders and horses performed with no incidents, (probably because Jan prayed for our safety first before we rode, God really favors her!) The "yuts" (kids) enjoyed the rodeo and commented that with practice it will just get better. Katie was our Indian and dressed Oreo up in Native American garb. The "yuts" (they didn't want to be called kids) all put paint on their hands and put hand prints all over Oreo. That was fun to watch. Anyway, take a look at the pictures on the link at the right marked July 25th and 26th.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Harley


A special thank you goes out to our new friend Harley. She has been helping us with kids on Mondays, and will start helping in August during our overnight weekend trips. She loves the horses and is very good with them. Harley has been on the mounted cadet team under the direction of Colonel Lapham for the Junior ROTC program at the Jackson Community Center.
We love you Harley!! Here's your picture. You go girl!!

Young Travelers


Our new Young Travelers program started this past Monday. Five teenage boys are going to be coming to the ranch from 3:30 to 6:30 for six weeks. We are going to be working on the 7 principals outlined in the book "The Young Travelers Gift", by Andy Andrews. We will be doing this by utilizing horses, archery, welding, woodworking, and leathercraft. Charlie has set up his shop so that 5 boys and 5 men can work together on a project as they share these 7 principals with each other. It is our hope that this will start a mentoring program for the teens in our community. We all had a great time and enjoyed getting to know each other. We are very excited about doing this, and we already have a waiting list of kids that want to attend another session if we do it again in the future. We have found that many kids have creative talents and these talents get buried because they don't realize you can be successfull in life with a skilled trade. Please pray for us for guidance as we work with these kids. They are our future!!!
Take a look at some pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.com/LazyBeesRanch/YoungTravelers0720091#

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Brightmoor Garden Club


Our very first overnight ranchers came for a visit this weekend. They came back in 2006 and there have been a lot of changes since then. For us and for them. Brightmoor has a youth garden club now. This is amazing to me! They have gardens planted in vacant lots on their street. They grow stuff and then take the harvest to market for sale. It's mostly boys too!! They really enjoy planting and harvesting and making their own money. Mark, Riet, and Sheila were their chaperones, and they had just as much fun watching their kids have fun!! All the horses did a fine job again showing the kids around the ranch grounds. Archery and games were a big hit again. Take a look at the pictures by clicking on the link to the right called "Brightomoor Garden Group.