Beautiful Boulder City

I forget sometimes how fortunate we are to live in such a beautiful place as Boulder City Nevada.  Today I was out in the yard sitting on my bench with my face in the sun  finishing my book.  There aren't a lot of places you can do that on the last day of January.  I realize this is a mild Winter but it's this way most years. 

Boulder City is about 30 miles South East of Las Vegas and a world away.  It is a small, conservative town with a few thousand people and 11 parks.  We have more parks in our little town than most big cities.  We are also only a few minutes from Hoover Dam.  The dam is the reason our town is here and it is truly a wondrous thing to see.  The newest place to take your family and visitors to see is the new bypass bridge that traverses Black Canyon just about a quarter mile South of the dam.  It is one of the highest bridges over water in world and the view is killer.  Check out the photos we took on one of our visits to the bridge.

2011 High School Rodeo Championships

We are so lucky to have a great horse facility here in Boulder City.  It is home to over 400 horses, about 50 steers, probably that many chickens, roosters, dogs and cats too.  Boulder City Horseman's Association includes a three nice arenas, several round pens and even a snack shop with great burgers.  It is also where the local High School Rodeo Team practices and has their annual State Championship Finals at the end of the year.

We have set up a small booth out there when we can and have met some great kids and their parents from all over the state.  We run into parents and grandparents who came into our store in Bishop because we were the closest good store to places like Tonapah and Fish Lake Valley.  It is very low key and just great fun to see all the kids trying to do their best.

We like to get all of our tack and horse related items out for people to see as we know their is no substitute for seeing a product in person. We find a lot of the regulars come by to see our tack and make purchases or drop off repair work.

Even though the weather is cool in the late Fall it is wonderful to sit in the sun and be a part of this great event.

Bittersweet

Our wonderful son and his lovely wife are moving 7 hours away to Reno NV.  We will miss them so much!

We get along great with our kids and as far as our social life goes it mostly includes them.  We have spent almost every holiday together and a few unbelievable weekend camping trips in Northern NV. I can't remember having a falling out with our kids even once. 

Daly who is as smart as Einstein received an amazing job offer at UNR where she will be doing what she does best.  Don't ask me what it is as it is "technical" which leaves me totally lost. 

Johnny we hope will start up his bicycle fitting business in Reno and continue to do what he likes best.

You have no idea how difficult it is to see them go, but we are trying to be grown-ups here.  I know we will be going to the Reno Gun Show a lot more often and of course visit whenever we can.  We miss them already but wish them luck and happiness in their exciting new venture.

Fine Western Tack

If you are looking for really nice western tack you can find it on our web site WesternStarLeather.com.  Our main line of Tack is California Equine Specialties, formerly Champion Turf Equipment in Los Angeles CA.  The employees purchased the company last year and are continuing to produce the same high quality tack under the new name. 

If you like "fancy" as well as functional, we have beautiful rawhide reins and romals, quirts and even riatas.  Our silver bits and spurs include the entire Les Vogt line and also Garcia.  Les Vogt is 15 time Reining Horse Champion and knows a thing or two about bits.

Bling is not our thing at Western Star Leather as you can see by our leather products. We do appreciate fine quality hand engraved silver accents with function and reliability as our goal. 

I am looking forward to getting some photos of Chance under full saddle tacked out in his finery.

Zans Heath Bar (Chance)

Yesterday was an exciting day for us as we picked up our new baby "Chance".  He is a gorgeous five year old, sorrel quarter horse that is so sweet you fall for him instantly.  The poor guy had to come on the hottest day of the year and as we drove home we experienced temperatures of 115 degrees!  Poor Chance hales straight from Ventura CA where is rarely even hits 80.

Needless to say we spent some time with him cooling him down with a bath and a nice bran mash.  He seems to be doing fine although he is the only horse out at our barn that is sweating just standing there!  He is going to get a couple of days off to adjust even if it kills John not to ride him.

Fortunately we are coming to the end of summer and it should begin to get a little cooler next week.  I am going to add some pictures soon so you can all see what a handsome guy he is.

I can't believe I have a blog!

One thing I have learned in life is never say never.  I never thought I would have any kind of blog.  Who would have guessed that my son and daughter in-law would talk me into it. I see the wisdom in it and hope that I can keep it interesting enough so that someone out there might want to read it.

The thing is with John and I (Maggie) is that we are not techies at all.  In fact we are both hands on people.  John is of course an accomplished saddle maker and leather craftsman, but in addition he is probably the most "handy" person I know.  It is amazing the things he can fix.  Laugh if you want but we figure that we probably save tens of thousands of dollars a year not calling someone else in to do what John does.  He even fixed our air conditioner motor that was totally seized up.  I am really proud of his skills around the house and also with our vehicles.  He is an excellent mechanic as well.

I am a total homebody and love to cook and garden or any other thing that reflects on my love of home and family.  Nothing makes me happier than to have my son John and his wife Daly over for dinner and a movie or to have my Mom and sister Jan out for a visit.  Holidays here are the best but that's another story all together.


We love having Western Star Leather at our home and enjoy not having employees.  We did all that when we were young and so were internet businesses.  After having had a retail business for so many years we have no problem maintaining somewhat of a work ethic without the demands of regular hours and all the other "fun" day to day thrills of a business opened to the public.  (Unlike the folks you see on TV we don't work in our pajamas.) To each their own.


If you want to read more about our business and history you can log on to our web page about us: http://www.westernstarleather.com/about.html