Junk Drawer - August 2026.

It has been a busy month, so I have had to be intentional about slowing down and taking a minute to look up.  

I try to wake up early each morning and exercise.  On the mornings I stretch or do yoga, Willow loves to join me.  She really gets in the way, but I love to have her and manage to find a way to work around her.  Besides, her auto feeder usually goes off about halfway through, so she runs off to eat her breakfast while I finish.

Tired animals.  They love my gear down evening routine as much as I do.  In fact, if I am not in my room in time, Bella and Bailey are laying in their kennels by the time I get in there.

Such a cutie!

Willow has even sucked my dad into her orbit.

Bake Sale for DTS.

Sidney and her friend Delaney have been hard at work fundraising for their mission trip next summer.  They planned and executed a very successful bake sale.  The girls stayed up baking and packaging goods.

They setup shop at Terrell's old house, as it is a great location.  One of the neighbors even posted on the local facebook group, so they had a ton of people coming to donate and pick up a treat.  They had five things left at the end.  As they were packing it up, a man pulled up and said he would take what they had left and gave them a generous donation.  They were super encouraged, by not only the donations, but all of the kinds words of encouragement and promises of prayer that people gave them.

Sidney Enjoying Life to the Full.

Sidney has been making the most of the shrinking daylight with lots of walks to watch the sunsets and sunrises.

Jayde and Sidney also went to watch the Hardy concert at the Boise Open.

More sunsets, ranch style.

Another Adult in the Family.

Sidney celebrated her 18th birthday.  This is so hard to believe.  My mom had bought this crumble brownie and I had picked her up some of her favorite flowers to surprise her when she woke up in the morning.  I cannot fathom how fast the years have gone by.

We celebrated both her and my mom's birthday at Texas Roadhouse.  They both really enjoy this restaurant.  It was a lovely evening (with no singing).

This Episode of National Geographic.

It has been so much fun keeping an eye on the hummingbird nest this summer.  That being said, we left for San Diego and with Levi leaving, I had been a bit distracted.  One Sunday afternoon, I was out on the patio cleaning of the tables when, what felt like hundreds, of wasps came out from the patio umbrella.  I started screaming and shooing the dogs away.  The wasps were swarming.  I chased the dogs into the house and ran into the house myself, and unbelievably, none of us gut stung.  

I did what any normal grown woman would do, and I called my dad to come get them.  While i was waiting for him to arrive, I was staring out my back window and noticed these poky things in the nest.  They were not moving at all.  I thought, oh no, the mom must be belly up.  At that moment, I thought, "I hate this episode of National Geographic."

After my dad arrived and took care of the wasps (yes, I hid behind him), I carried the ladder out and had him climb up to check the nest.  I was not brave enough to do so, as my tolerance for loss was waning and I had come attached to this nest.  He started to poke the nest and peaked in and the poky things started to move.  It was the two baby beaks.

That began my vigil of watching for the momma bird.  I was certain that something had happened to her and the babies would starve.  I made sure all the nectar was fresh and watched like crazy.  I kept a close eye on that nest.  I even googled how often the mom would come back.  Apparently, she return often, but only for seconds, as they cannot all fit in the nest.

My diligent watchfulness paid off, as I caught her in the act of feeding several times.  The kicker is...about a week or so later, I was out in the backyard chatting with a handyman, when the momma bird buzzed by us.  We both looked up, as I pointed out the nest above his head.  The two babies were perched on the edge.  He pulled out his camera and started taking pictures.  He left, and I ran inside to take a call.  I came back out shortly after to find that the babies had vacated the nest to no longer return.  I was so happy to have witnessed the whole evolution, but so sad to see them go.

Back to the beginning of this story.  Check out this crazy wasp nest.  It was one of about five nests in my patio umbrella.  Sheesh!

Trip to Diego's Family (and Noah Khan)!

Kendall and Diego took a trip to California, which was packed full of meaningful moments.  Diego celebrated his birthday while they were there.

Diego's mom is a school teacher and had the kids make cards for him.  This one instigated a good laugh.  I think this boy meant well...he just forgot to finish his thought:).

Diego's sister had her first baby.  Little Joaquin.  They had to show Diego how to hold him, since it had been quite some time since there was a baby in the family.

Diego reunited with his cat from growing up.  Sadly the cat passed away shortly after they returned to Boise.  It was good that they got to spend some time together while they were able to.

...and, drumroll please, they went to the Noah Khan concert at Oracle Stadium.  They both had been really looking forward to the concert.

Kendall did not make it very far into the evening before shedding a tear.  They said the concert did not disappoint!

They each had planned out their swag purchases before getting there.  Diego had scoped out the nearest place to purchase once they entered the stadium, and they beelined there before it was sold out.

Of course, what is a trip without good food!

They also planned a day to visit the Monterey Aquarium.  It was the first time Kendall had been there, and she said it was amazing.

Oh, I jumped right in and forgot to mention the delicious pumpkin bread my mom made for their plane ride down.!

My Sweet Boy.

Before Levi left, Sidney offered to take some pictures of us.  She also made me a beautiful key chain with some of his tail hair.  After all, he ate enough of Pigeon's tail that it only seemed fitting to cut off some of his for a keepsake:).  The smoke and weather was not super cooperative, but we managed to get a few nice pictures.

A New Home for Levi.

This was truly one of the hardest decisions I have ever made.  You see, when we first got Levi, we were planning to gentle him and re-home him.  Sid specifically, because at the time, I was terrified of horses.  When we first brought him home, Noel noticed that he had some conformity issues, to include one pretty extreme club foot.  The BLM was going to have us return him.  We decided to keep him.  He was such a gentle boy that I decided to begin working with him.  We learned together.  We took lots of lessons, attended lots of clinics and made a lot of mistakes together.  It was such a thrill and a challenge at the same time.  

I kept asking our vet, as well as Noel and Shelby, our trainers, whether the club foot would be an issue.  The general response I got, was that he would let me know when I have gone too far.  Sadly, I think we hit that point a few months ago.  I was spending an exorbitant amount of time and money trying to keep him comfortable, just so I could do some basic riding and training with him.  In these situations, I do not believe there is ever a clear right or wrong answer, but I knew that for both of our interests, there needed to be a clearer path forward.  

I dove into researching long term horse sanctuaries and made a lot of calls.  Some of the initial calls led me in directions I was not satisfied with.  It was discouraging.  Noel and Shelby were both very supportive and continued to explore new avenues with me.  In early July, I called a wonderful sanctuary that seemed like an absolute perfect fit.  So much so, that it seems too good to be true.  During my first call, the lady said, 'So what you are saying is that you want a forever home for Levi, where he will not be adopted back out, and he can live a wonderful horse life.'  My response was 'yes'.  This is the part in the conversation where I am usually told all the reasons that is not possible.  Instead, I was told 'Well, this is the place for him'.  I cried.  I was literally in the middle of an airport, making my way home from a work trip, and the waterworks just turned on.  The level of relief was insane.  

The catch, they did not have an opening until late fall.  That was okay.  I was not in a hurry.  I just wanted to find the right home.  The following week, I received a magical call that they had an opening and he could come mid August.  Shelby and Nate volunteered to take him down.  The sanctuary is located in Northern California.  I trust Nate and Shelby immensely.  Shelby had never actually been to this sanctuary, but did have a client that retired a few horses here.  She and Nate agreed that if they got there, and it was not all it was advertised to be, they would bring Levi back.  

Once we had a plan, I spent the remaining time just enjoying Levi.  We would take walks.  I would brush him.  We also practiced trailer loading and unloading for a nice challenge.  Once the day came, I hauled him over to Shelby's.  He stayed the night at her place.  The next morning, they all woke up early for the 9 hour journey.  Levi did great on the trip.  Shelby has a trailer camera and was able to keep an eye on him along the way.

Once they got to the facility, they were greeted at the gate and escorted in.  Shelby said the place is beautiful.  They had a spot waiting for Levi with his picture on the sign.

He was placed next door to a gelding that walked right over and greeted Levi.  My heart is happy and sad.  I feel as if I said goodbye to my best friend of three years.  Yet, I know that this was the right decision to make.  I do  not know what the next steps in the horse world are for me, but I will just take one step at a time.  I think I will start by making sure Pigeon is not too sad and helping Sidney out as she heads into a busy senior year.  From there, we will figure things out.

The one beautiful thing is that I can go see Levi.  I believe next summer I will try to do that.  I have no idea whether he will remember me or not, but I would like to take a visit to see him in his new home.