Clinic Tour - Plus Lots More

Sadie wanted to spend the night. Since she didn't have school on Monday, she spent Sunday night so I could Sadie sit all day Monday.  There was so much to do.  We played dress up, Barbies, 

and made banana bread. 

She wanted to do more crafts.  I thought this stain glass heart craft would be easy enough.  

It turned out great!

For lunch we had another tea party.  This time we used china Joe's father brought back from Japan when he was stationed there after the war.  After lunch we drove to town for a tour of the clinic.  I thought with Sadie's love of animals that she might like to see where I work. 

She petted Stevie, the hospital cat. 

She gave Phebe, Dr K's dog some treats.  She watched the groomer give a hair cut. 

And saw a dog dental.  She also walked through the kennel.  Later, she asked why the big dogs were so loud.  She wasn't use to dogs barking inside with all the sound bouncing off the cinderblock walls.  

After the clinic, we went dress shopping but ended up with pants and a sweater.  Then we went to visit Papa R at the Senior Care Home we just moved him to.  She gave him some banana bread, colored a picture for him while we were there, hung the heart stain glass craft in a sunny window in his room, and took some banana bread to another resident at the home.  

When I took her home she wanted to try the sweater on with different dresses and show me how her and Allie play with the Barbie house.  It was a very fun day. 
 

Paint Night

Our clinic sold enough flea and tick medicine that the sales rep rewarded us with a paint night.

 

 Eleven of us attended. Along with painting we also got a nice dinner.  But it was a little challenging eating and painting at the same time.

This was the sample that the instructor painted as our guide. 

We started with painting the background.  Then we went on to paint the flowers then the leaves.

 This is my finished product.

And everyone displaying all of our diverse take on the subject.  We had a very enjoyable evening. 

Small Town Parade

Jordan from the Clinic where I work suggested we have a float in the Christmas Parade this year.  The boss thought it was a great idea so Jordan took off and ran with the idea.  I decided to support the effort by waving when they went by.  (there was plenty of help I think)

 When J and I got to town we found out the Rock House Museum was having and open house.  Since I had never been in it we took the tour.  It was set up as Christmas in the 50's.

 Next was an open house at our financial adviser which is on main street.  Here we waited for the start of the parade in warmth with refreshments.

 Here comes the parade!  There was a big turnout.  Lots of kids.  It is sort of like trick or treating in reverse.  The parade people hand out and throw candy to all of the kids on the route.

 The town council had a good idea with the light show.

 I thought this igloo was cute.

 Rudolf was there.

 This one reminded me of a toy my sister had that I loved playing with.

You don't see the Confederacy represented at just any parade.

 Just in case you haven't seen a grader.

 This semi was really tricked out.

 There were a couple of local bands,

 and some old cars

 and even a few horses.  

 Then our clinic float!  I think they did a great job.  "Pets Light Up Your Life"

Merry Christmas Santa.
It was a pretty long parade for such a small community.  No Rose Parade but it did last about an hour.  Little Caesars was out of pizza by the time we got there so it was popcorn and frozen pizza for supper.  But I was pretty full after all of those open houses.  

Cattle Working Clinic

For our club's Horse Fest, one of the activities was a cattle working clinic.  I had signed up thinking it would be good for Otoelene and me to get some outside instruction and maybe I could get interested in this sorting thing.   But due to the weather (calling for more rain) it was moved from our show grounds to the farm where the trainer works an hour away. 

 These were some pretty nice digs.  This was all of the house that you could see from the driveway.  I had looked it up on goggle earth and told E that it looked like something from the Sims.  She said it was to architectural for anything she had made.

 How would you like to have that outdoor arena?

 There was also an electronic gate with a call box to have to get through.

 Anyway, back to the clinic.  I have never been to a cattle working one and had no idea what to expect.  There were 12 riders for an originally scheduled 2 1/2 hour time slot.  We started off working a flag.  This is a feed sack on a pulley system that the horse is suppose to track back and forth like a steer, stopping and rolling back to keep up with it.  Neither Otoelene or I have ever worked a flag before plus Otolene hates plastic.

 Consequently, we didn't start off working very close to it.

 But by the end she had moved in better.  The instructor said some horses take a long time and some not so much before you get to a good stopping point with them.  He said Otoelene didn't take long.  Which translated to we got about 2 minutes while it felt like everyone else got 10 or more.  Granted, a couple of riders needed help with which rein and leg to use while turning the horse.

 Three hours later he brought in some calves to work on.  I thought we would do more sorting but instead it turned out to be more like cutting.

 Otoelene had no problem going in to get one.  This is where she is so calm and quite.  He called her "and old soul"  because he thought the calves picked up on her calmness and naturally wanted to follow her out.

 The keeping the calf from going back to the herd was a little harder.  We definitely need to work on our stopping a lot more.   As it turned out we were there for over 5 hours and I did the flag once and the cattle twice.   He also recommended a twisted snaffle, German martingale and spurs.  Since I am not competing at this for me and Otoelene I don't think any of that will be necessary.   I was pleased with how Otoelene did and I think I'll just practice out in the field with our cattle.  Don't guess I'll take up sorting just yet.  And thanks to J for driving me and being so patient with such a long day.