State Horse Bowl Champions!

Cathy coached two teams for a Michigan State Sponsored 4-H horse knowledge competition called Horse Bowl. RiLee was in the junior team and Gentian was in the senior team.

Each team met weekly and studied topics such as parasites, genetics and nutrition. Steve built a full powered game timer box for the teams so that they could practice competing with timers just like they would in state competition.

Regional competition was held at the end of February. RiLee's Junior team (RiLee was the team captain) won first place and was eligible to compete at the state level in April.

The team held a variety of fundraisers and raised $1,500 towards the trip to Michigan State University in Lansing, MI. This determined bunch of kids also increased their practice schedule to twice weekly. They won again at the State level (nearly unbeaten during the entire competition). Read all about it here.

RiLee’s group is meeting again this winter and is determined to win State again (their 2009-10 nickname is “Domination Station”).

Music

Gentian and RiLee have formed a two-girl band and arrived at a name “Goldmine Girls.” You can find the Goldmine Girls on You-Tube. Gentian plays the dulcimer and guitar and is the primary singer, while RiLee backs her up with vocal harmonies, her Taylor guitar and strum stick.

Besides several acoustic music gigs over the course of the year, they dared to be the first ever female band participating in a local “Battle of the Bands” competition. Veteran high school bands were in the competition, playing many different styles of music such as rock and punk. Some of the bands were college age, and were older and more experienced. Gentian and RiLee had a great time with the "band" atmosphere and enjoyed meeting some other teen musicians in the area. They went home with 3rd place in the competition!

Other Activities:

Gentian had several big events this year: entering the 4-H State Award competition for her work developing the U.P. Riders 4-H club website. She participated in interviews and had to pull together a portfolio listing her 4-H experiences. After three months of work, she got to walk across the stage at Michigan State University and received an honorary mention plaque in the area of Communications. It was a great experience all around and she looks forward to competing again next year. She won an award in the Michigan Congressional Art Competition (check out her Pet Portrait website), and completed driver’s ed.

We survived all of these, although there were late nights spent editing her resume and matting her artwork; and now she has her driver's permit...

Gentian with Gentians

Horses

As for DJ, he has learned a lot of new things this year and has become more versatile, trying english riding and new classes while showing. Gentian is struggling to re-learn how to post, but is enjoying the journey and new challenges. They tried to participate in a Versatility Award this year, but neither one was quite ready for the English portion of the competition and Gentian was un-horsed twice during a single class. We survived that too…watching her fly in the air twice within 30 minutes!!!

Our other horse, Trouble, is RiLee’s show horse. She decided to branch out and try Western Pleasure in addition to her English Pleasure classes. Her 4-H gang of friends also show their horses and they have dubbed themselves “The Posse,” and ride together inside the arena and all around the grounds.

While Trouble is not the fastest horse in the barn, he is consistent, and that consistency won RiLee and Trouble a year-end award from Upper Peninsula Horsemen Association in a specific speed event called “Pole Bending”.

RiLee the Reporter

RiLee loves devouring books, but she has been kept quite active this year after being elected her 4-H club's Reporter. A group of her friends campaigned and got her nominated and elected. She is doing a fabulous job writing stories and taking pictures which then get posted on the U.P. Riders.com website.

Homeschooling

We are into another year of home schooling: Gentian is a sophomore and RiLee is in 7 th grade. Cathy has become a bit of a legend because she is one of the few homeschooling parents still educating through the high school years. There so many resources available that makes the academic portion manageable albeit extremely time-consuming.

This year, we are tackling the usual high school topics like Health/Human Anatomy, Spanish, American Literature, and US Geography& History.

Home schooling has allowed Cathy to progress at the girls levels, and math for RiLee has come fairly easily. So this year, as a 7th grader, RiLee is working on Algebra I. Next year, she will complete Algebra II. The path for high school is unclear. If she liked it more, she could progress into some fairly high level math.

Cash for Clunkers

Steve could not resist the “Cash for Clunkers” program. Our 1995 Isuzu Trooper was on its last legs but met the program requirements for a $4,500 rebate - barely. The Trooper's wipers, heat, passenger door, tail lights and dash lights didn’t work. It got 18 mpg on a good day. Our mud season car was traded in for a shiny new fuel-efficient (36 mpg) Honda Civic (above). When mud season comes, we may need to walk.

The Garden

Both Steve and Cathy entered produce in the County Fair and Cathy got “best of show” for her garlic. We had a bumper apple harvest which has packed a refrigerator with apples and a freezer with pies, and filled shelves with applesauce, canned apples, and dried apples.

Steve finished the super-duper garden watering system this past summer. When we turn it on, five (yes FIVE) oscillating sprinklers soak the entire 50 X 50 garden and the girls 15 X 15 garden all at the same time. It has streamlined Cathy's watering from something that took all day, to only consuming an hour.

The last week of October was unseasonably cold, so we picked the last of the apples during a very wet snowfall. It was so cold that Cathy had a fire going inside the cabin to warm very wet, cold fingers. Now we can enjoy the fruits (and veggies) of our labor.