Friday, October 18, 2013

Backyard Kayaking

 

During our generous New Mexico summer monsoon season this year, my friend Barb invited me over to kayak in her backyard. Her property was a part of a large ranch where they grew pinto beans, so the ranch owners had built natural water tanks into the ground to cache rain water so they could irrigate their bean fields.

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One of these water tanks is located on the back of my friend Barb’s property, and this year, due to our generous monsoon rains, hers filled up with water, deep and wide enough to enjoy some backyard kayaking.

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Barb’s husband Barry took some of these photos of us while we were kayaking in the pond. Barb and Barry were once the managers/founders of The Lucky 13 Donkey Rescue. Now they just own 2 personal donkeys, along with 2 mules and a horse, and a small pack of Boxers.

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Kayaking with donkeys!

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The equines were all very curious about the kayaks.

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Barb gave a ride to one of her Boxers.

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It was a lot of fun to watch the reaction of the equines to the kayaks and the dog in the kayak.

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Just hanging out…..

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Their mule, Jacob, tried to haul Barb’s kayak back onto shore using the handhold rope.

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See the fence out in front of my kayak? That’s the fence between Barb and her neighbor. As you can see it is underneath the water and we could kayak right over the fence and into her neighbor’s yard.

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Barb and I had a fun time racing one another, playing beach ball hockey and just relaxing on the water.

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Barb’s beautiful mare Alex is a seahorse and loves water. She often swims in this pond, when it’s not as deep as it was during the monsoon season. The middle of the pond was over 10 feet deep!

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I was thrilled to be in a kayak on the water. Who knew I’d be able to go kayaking just 10 minutes from my house…in my friend’s backyard?!

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The sky grew dark and we had a few sprinkles while we were out there on the pond, but we were able to enjoy about an hour and a half of kayaking, before another thunder storm moved in and dumped more rain.

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This was definitely one of the highlights of my summer!

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