More fun with Jake the Farrier...

So on Friday I had an unplanned day off and went in search of a good place to take some pictures of Jake's "fun and adventures".  I decided to head to the Lower Salt River because I could kill two birds with one stone; make Jake happy and maybe see some wild horses.  I don't know if I succeeded in making him happy, but I did see some wild horses.  Unfortunately, none of them were where I could take pictures due to surrounding vegetation, but it's see exciting to see them.

After driving around a little bit, I found what I thought would be a neat little spot at the equestrian staging area (ie: trailer parking) at one of the recreation areas.  There were a couple of spots with some nice greenery and places to park.  As I attempted to find the perfect spot, however, something caught my eye...smoke.  Not a lot, but enough to notice.  So I went in for a closer look and saw that someone had dumped a (Christmas?) tree in the back part of the lot and had set some wood planks below it on fire...

At first I wasn't sure what to do.  It was only smoke and there wasn't anything else around it that could catch fire so should I just ignore it or should I call it in?  A lot of people use this parking area for trail rides and hiking plus the horses come through there on their way to the river so I was concerned they might get hurt.  Using my cell phone, I found the non-emergency number for the sheriff's department substation that was about a half mile away and called them.  The gal was real nice and took down all the information, then asked if I would call another number so they could get an official report on it, but she would let the guys know.  During this time, I started to see flames and not just smoke.  Just little flames.  Something a fire extinguisher could put out.  Anyway, so I called the main non-emergency number she gave me and told the whole thing again.  This lady was a little less friendly, but not rude.  She said she was going to transfer me to the fire department.  Great.  I get to repeat the whole thing for a THIRD time.  At least the fire guy I spoke with was pretty nice.  I don't know which agency I was speaking with, but he wasn't real familiar with the area I was at apparently.  He couldn't find the trailer parking on their map at first.  Maybe it isn't marked as a staging area on the map.  I just looked on Google and while it isn't marked as trailer parking, there's two trailers parked there.  Oh well.  So, he told me to keep everyone away from it and they'd send someone out.

So I sat in my car and waited.  And waited.  I didn't wait long, though, maybe 10 minutes?  A sheriff's vehicle drove by, but he didn't see me right away since I was at the back of the parking area and there were a couple of trees partially blocking his view.  He came back, though, about a minute or so later.   He asked me some questions like how long I've been there and when did I notice it and if I'd seen anyone else in the area.  I told him a larger sedan had been parked there a little earlier but the deputy didn't think they'd been the ones to bring the tree out due to the size of the tree.  It was pretty wide.  Another deputy showed up and they moved the tree then used the dirt from the pile to put out the fire and make sure it was good and out.  It's kind of hard to see, but both deputies are there, one with a shovel...

The first deputy said it looked like someone had set some wood planks on fire then partially covered it with dirt.  Anyway, he wrote down my information, probably ran my license and then I left.  I still wanted to take pictures in that area so I came back a little while later, just in time to see a forestry truck driving away with the tree in the bed of the truck.  The deputies had left, but there were now two new vehicles parked there.  Grrrrrr.  So I went down by the campground at the end of the road.  There was a lot of nice lush greenery there, but there was also a lot of people.

Now what?  I decided to leave and head east.  Towards the Superstition Mountains.  So I drove.  And drove.  And drove.  For the longest time, Jake was afraid this was all the excitement he was going to see...

Ho-hum

and...

More ho-hum...are we there yet?

Finally, though, we arrived at Canyon lake...

It's about time!

Don't look at the lake, look at me!

Who knew Jake was such a narcissist?

Then we found a spot where he could do a little riding...

I'm so talented.  I don't need a saddle or bridle!

but then it was back to...

Ho-Hum...

All in all, it was an interesting day, but not the kind Jake was hoping for.  Sorry, buddy, maybe next time will be more fun.  Can I help it if you chose to move to a region with so much brown?

On a different note, I FINALLY unboxed my Minstrel (as seen above)  Getting the costume off was a bit interesting.  It was attached by these little rubbery string things and just when you think you had it, you'd find another one.  How annoying!  And I also, FINALLY unboxed Khalid.  WOO-HOO!

I apologize for the overall junkiness of the photo, but the cats were making it difficult to get a better shot.  Figures.  Looking at him, though, I'm not entirely sure I like him.  I like the color and I like the paint pattern, but I don't like the white that goes down the sides of his mouth...never been a big fan of that type of marking on a horse.  I also don't like the new mane and tail.  The tail is okay, but there's too much mane.  I thought maybe I liked the original style more, but on the show side, the lack of mane makes him look nekkid...

Maybe if they flipped the shorter mane to the show side it would improve his looks.  Who knows?  Either way, I still like the mold and I will continue to buy it, but they need to go back to the Marwari look with the turned ears.  I hope they haven't decided to re-design it and the Khalid style is what we're going to get from now on.  Yes, it's more versatile, but...

I guess that's it for now.  I hope everyone has been having good week so far.  Breyerfest tickets went on sale January 2nd, but I haven't boughten one yet.  I want to see what the SRs are first.

Til next time!