Frecker Saddle Shop

This spring I happened upon a saddle shop listing on a website.  When I went to the website of the saddle shop, I saw it was in Idaho Falls.  "Wow! What a great field trip idea!"  I called the shop and the man was so generous and kind and told us to come up.  We had no idea the treat we were in for, and absolutely no idea that this saddle maker is one of the best in the world.

Mr. Frecker took us all through the shop:  the room where he keeps the rawhide and stretches it over the wood tree, the outside shop where he makes his own trees, and the main shop where they build the saddles.  

Most saddle makers buy their trees, so he is very unique.  He also has the original "Wade Pattern" from Dale Harwood... the real deal.

He was part way through making a saddle so he showed us how he attaches the rigging and 

sizes a saddle.

The boys got a case of leather envy when they saw his tools!

All his leather work is unique.  When he first started he copied patterns to learn.  But now he goes on trail rides in the mountains, takes pictures of flowers, and then comes home and incorporates them into his saddles.

This is a rough out style that was finished and waiting to go out the door.

 When his children turn 21 he gives them each a saddle for their birthday.  This one was for his daughter.  It was almost too beautiful to touch.

It was an honor to visit Mr. Frecker.  He and his apprentices were thoughtful, kind and so interesting we could have stayed there for days.  

We did go back a week later, but only to drop off thank you cards and pecan carmel rolls as a thank you. 

Someday, we will have a Frecker Saddle.

Horse Riding Update

Finally!  The weather is nice enough to ride outside again.  The first good news is that Nova Spy found a nice used saddle to buy so now the Spy twins both have saddles, even though only one of them has a horse....

Since Nova Spy does not have a horse yet, he gets to ride whatever extra horse they happen to have at the arena.  This winter he rode at least 6 different horses including Paylee, Dot, and Cisco.  But the three main ones were Mariah, Jack, and Beau.

Mariah was a barrel and rope horse.  She was a good horse with a lot of energy.  She knew her leads, but needed help being soft and rating her speed better.

Jack was a powerhouse whose biggest problem was that he was trained English style, which meant he was trained to lean on the bit and pull with his front feet instead of pushing with his back feet. Nova Spy spent several months trying to get him level instead of downhill and to get off the bit and be softer in the mouth.  Basically trying to re-train him western style!

Beau was a fun sweetheart of a barrel horse.  She was not confident and would "ball up" and so Nova worked on getting her to move forward.

Here Nova is with Jack one of the last times he rode him.

Prairie Spy spent the winter with Nikita, his gray mare who just turned six.  She is doing great and getting more solid all the time.

When Braeburn got home from BYU, he wanted to ride, so Prairie Spy sat on the fence and let him ride Nikita for a bit.

Braeburn looked good.  But the boys laughed at how long his legs were dangling down past Nikita's Belly!

The Mission Call!

Lots of excitement at our house this week!

Braeburn's mission call came last Thursday morning.  Braeburn paced around the house all morning debating back and forth about when and where to open it.  Granny Smith said, "when does the mail come in?"  And Braeburn said, "I think it will be here at 11:00" then glances at the clock, drums his fingers on the kitchen counter, wanders around some more, and then says, "I'm going." and walks out the door.

We watch the car go down the lane and wonder if he's coming back to open his call or heading for the hills or somewhere private.  Knowing his dad.... and how Mr. Bechtel retreated to the wilderness to open his call and compose himself before making things public knowledge, I could understand how Braeburn wanted to do this his own way.  His first theory was that he was going to open his call in the bathroom, text Golden Delicious and have her tell us!??  Then he changed to opening it with one of his buddies who's struggling with whether he's going on a mission or not.  We really had no idea what he was doing. 

But, here he came, back down the lane again.  Granny Smith, the spy, raced out to see what was going on and came flying back in saying, "it came!  It came!"  Tanner came in and handed it to me.  I thought I should probably have special gloves on or something to hold it.  So much suspense over one sheet of paper!  More pacing and thinking. "Well, from watching guys at BYU open their calls, if they are heavy it usually means they're going foreign.  And this is pretty heavy.  Still, I am not getting my hopes up.  I am absolutely fine wherever I go."  

Mr. Bechtel came up from his office at this point, looks at Braeburn and the call, and says, "Braeburn, this is like taking off a band-aid.  You just need to rip it off."  So Braeburn takes a deep breath, whips open his pocket knife and slices the package open while Granny Smith jumps around yelling, "he's opening it  He's opening it!"

Everything went totally silent.  I was watching Braeburn's face for some clue - where was he going?  Braeburn's eyes scanned rapidly down the page and then his face contorted and he shut his eyes - either agony or absolute happiness, I couldn't tell, and then he starts whooping and jumping around the room, and thumping Mr. Bechtel on the back, and giving him a big hug, and so I thought, "ok.  it's good.... But where??"  Finally he reads us the call.   England!  He quickly sent a text to Golden Delicious, who was at school, and her immediate response was, "Are you kidding?"  Then she called and got the whole story.  No one even let themselves hope for England, because we all know how much Braeburn adores Brittania, and so we knew he was NOT going there.  But look, he is - on  August 9th.   And all is well.

Six Baby Lambs!

We were able to go up to the Sheep Experiment Station again this year and get 6 lambs.  They are all females. The boys have strange names for them like 165, Smutty, Orange Nose, Blue Nose, etc.  And  Tea Cup. She is tiny, tiny, tiny.  But so far the boys are taking really good care of her, and she is doing fine.

They feed every 4 hours during the day starting at 6 am.  Then 10, 2, 6, and 10 pm.  Then they set their alarm and do it again the next day!

They follow the boys around the yard investigating everything and baaahing.

Very Cute.

Happy, Happy Birthday G.S. Dear

Wow,  Granny Smith is 10!  A whole Decade old!

He decided he wanted pecan pie for his birthday so that's what we had.

I hope your wishes all come true!

G. S. got lots of loot: puzzles, $$, and Legos.  He played an online game of Risk with his brother Braeburn who is down at school, and scheduled an outing with Golden Delicious to the pizza shop, and got several very cool patches and The Swamp Fox of the Revolution.

Happy Birthday!

Baby Goats

Happy Spring!

Golden Delicious has 4 baby goats this year, all girls.  They are adorable!

Kyra's babies are Felina and Rita (short for Senorita).  We said to the boys, "Did you pet the babies so they'll be gentle?  How was wicked Felina?"  And the boys said, "Wicked Felina nothing.  It's Wicked Rita!"  So I guess Marty Robbins got it wrong.

Maggie's babies were born 2 weeks later.  They are named Robin and Lady.

And they are all wonderful and not wicked at all.

The Rest of the Trip

Unfortunately, the suburban broke down about 50 miles from the Nevada border.  Mr. Bechtel and the Spy Twins were able to push us off the freeway to a little gas station/towing station.  

There were hundreds of people just standing in line for something.  I thought they were on a field trip or something.  But it turns out they were all standing in line for the mega lottery.  Uggh.  I cannot imagine driving across the state line to spend money on a lottery ticket.  So strange.

So Mr. Bechtel finally got the car to go again (saving us the $500 tow fee, and saving his cousin P. from a long drive to come and get us.) and we limped into St. George.

The next day the Spy Twins and Mr. Bechtel got to go to Priesthood Session at the Conference Center.  They had a wonderful time.  And Golden Delicious, Granny Smith and I explored the new City Creek Shopping Complex and Granny Smith got to sit on a policeman's motorcyle, which he thought was very cool.