Overnight Trip

Joe had never been to Brevard to see Emily and Keiran’s house. This weekend he finally got there. 

Parts of the drive are really beautiful. 

After getting there, touring the house and yard, we went for a walk around the neighborhood and to downtown.  We stopped at an outdoor store and Joe tried on some hiking boots and backpacks.  No purchases were made.  

Emily took my picture at the White Squirrel Shoppe.  

It was a very pleasant town to walk around.  

On the way back, I spotted this unusual shaped flower.  Apparently, it is a gooseneck loosestrife.  They look exactly like geese.  

Emily and Keiran have a passion flower plant.  It is lovely.  It is making me consider trying one.  But they said it spreads, so I'm not sure I want to deal with that.  

Emily had asked Joe to bring a chain saw.  He was able to cut all of the unwanted trees and limbs.  Homemade pizza was for supper and Carol joined us for an evening of Scrabble.
Saturday morning we headed to Pisgah National Park for a 6 mile hike.   

Joe carried Emily's backpack for practice.  Are you wondering yet why all this hiking gear? 

Anyway, it was easy hiking. 

With a beautiful view at the top.  This is a view of Looking Glass Rock.

We got a togetherie. 

And a nice picture of Emily and Keiran.

And even a decent one of me and Joe. 

 

Joe spotted this damsel fly,

and Keiran saw this Click Beetle.  I have never heard of one before. 

And there was a very cute squirrel eating a mushroom. 

                                                 

There were lots of huckleberries.

I ate a few handfuls.  

It was a very nice hike. 

Back at the house Keiran wanted to show Joe how light and easy his tent was to set up.  

Then we went to REI and Joe made his first purchase towards his hike, a pair of hiking shoes!

I found out a couple of years ago that he was wanting to hike the Appalachian Trail.  Keiran suggested that he start smaller, The Long Trail in Vermont, 272 miles.  The plan is for Joe, Emily and Keiran to do the hike in August.  We are still trying to get Mitchell to go too.  I get to stay home and take care of the farm. It is starting to get real now. 

Moving and Blow Out

Just our yearly cattle drive from the rented farm to our farm at the house and our farm up the road. 

Once again Joe had done all the prep work and I just had to show up.  Ten cows headed down the road to the house farm. 

There was a little bit of roadside grazing. 

And six went a mile up the road to our other farm. 

 Then on a different subject, Mike borrowed the trailer to take his beef to be processed. On the way there one of the trailer tires had a blow out on the interstate. He was able to change it and made it to the processor.  But it looks like we might need four new tires.  Sorry that happened but glad no one was hurt. 

Saddle Woes, or Whoa

I gave Sadie and Allie the saddle for Christmas.  

"It's a saddle Mimi, it's a saddle.  For what?"  Allie is so cute.  For Clyde of course. 

Saturday, the weather was beautiful, temperature in the 60's and no wind.  Allie and Sadie came over to ride Clyde in the new saddle.  It fit Clyde and I even found a 28 inch girth.  But the rings were pretty rusted and it was difficult to get attached.  The problem was more of the stirrup length.  This is as high as I could pull up the fender and as high as the holes could be punched. 

And it is a good 12 inches too long for Allie.  I did use the over the horse stirrups but they slid back and forth a little too much for my liking.   

But I think Allie appreciated having a horn to hold on to.  

However, she still did not want to trot.  

I don't know was was wrong with Sadie.  I think she was getting over a cold and not feeling her best.  She was being very contrary.  I told her it looked like she was trying to sit in a recliner.  But you can see the stirrup issue.  

The over the horn stirrups also set their legs too far forward.   By the time they get big enough to reach the stirrups they will have out grown Clyde.  

I even got on to try out the saddle.  I am pretty sure I could lower the stirrups enough to ride, but the stirrup is too small for my boot.  I have options.

1. return the saddle and try again (not a problem as I got it locally from a friend that said bring it back if      it doesn't work)

2. just continue to use the over the horn stirrups

3. teach them to ride without stirrups.  

4. remove the fenders and replace with more of a hunter type strap and stirrup.  

I may try option 4 before option 1.  But with the temperature now in the teens, I don't expect to do too much riding for a few days.  

 

25 Days Of Christmas, Day 22

The time has been flying by.  But I finally managed to find one before Christmas.  

A pony saddle that is.  I have been looking on Craig's list and Facebook market place for one but nothing has been showing up.  Then I checked on-line tack stores.  But I don't like buying something like that without seeing it.  Then I thought to ask a girl I know that gives lessons if she had a pony saddle she would part with.  And she did!  She thought it was a 10 in seat, but when I measured it, it was 12 inches.  I think it will fit Clyde and if the stirrups are too long I still have those that go over the horn.  So, hopefully it will work out.   After we had dressed Clyde up a couple of days ago, Allie said he needed a Christmas saddle.  I hope they like it.  

And just because the sky was so beautiful this evening...

 

Surprise Replacement

Some may remember the failure of my Birdfy camera this summer. After the loss of that brood, I cleaned out the bird house and discovered ants were nesting in the camera.  I eliminated the ants but the camera would still not work.  I spent an hour on chat with technical services but had to stop once my phone charge ran out.  I set the project aside until I had time again.  Last week, I plugged the camera back in to start with a full charge and contacted technical services again.  They never asked if it had been invaded by ants and I didn't offer up that information.  After trying all of their solutions, taking pictures of the camera and providing the original sales receipt,  they decided to mail me a new camera.  

What I wasn't expecting was a brand new bird house to go with it.  

The first bird house still works as a bird house.  I can also open the side and examine the nest and take pictures with my phone.  I was very pleased with the service and the warranty.  A definite win, win.  If anyone is wanting a birding camera, I can recommend Birdfy.  
 

Outside Time

I have gotten tired of walking around inside the house.  So I have started walking around outside. 

I was pleasantly surprised that Hugo actually let me walk up to him without running off.  

The other horses were up on the hill. I didn’t attempt walking up there by myself yet. So I just said hello from a distance. 

One thing that has happened that I just now got to see were the truck racks that Mike made for Joe.  Now he can haul things without worrying about it falling off the bed. 

I had a little visit with Ricky and Lucy.  Ricky looks like he is growing well,  but Lucy not so much. But she is cute as ever. 

Then today we were finally able to get Otoelene’s shoes reset, 4 weeks overdue. She seemed to be back to her old calm self.  I still don’t know why after 14 years, she decided to buck me off. 

 

Vacuum Sealer

Virginia and Mike got me a vacuum sealer food saver for Christmas a couple of years ago. I finally decided to try to figure out how to use it. YouTube was a tremendous help. There was a detailed video with the same model. One of the comments said, "I was about to return this to the store because the instructions were so bad."  Thank goodness for YouTube.  But even with that, there was still a learning curve. 

My first attempt was with broccoli.  I had 3 1/2 heads from the garden.  I cut it up and rinsed it all.  I only had a couple of worms.  

Next came blanching, 

followed by an ice bath.  

Then after drying, I packaged and vacuum sealed them. 

Normally, I use freezer zip lock bags and suck the air out with a straw.  Once I got the hang of it, the vacuum sealer is the way to go.  After the broccoli, I grated 6 zucchinis and froze that too.  I might have to do some blackberries soon.  

 

End Of An Era

Oh no! What is Joe looking at? 

Could it be a new truck? 

Well, maybe not totally new, a 2020 Silverado 3500 with a Hillsboro aluminum flatbed. 

Our current truck is a 2004 Ford F250.  We have had it since 2007.  We got the extended cab so we could take Virginia and Emily to horse shows.  It was a good thing they were small.  There really wasn’t much room back there. 

You can’t really tell from the pictures, but it had rusted out.  Joe was afraid to drive it too far from home.  He waited a day… 

And look what I caught heading around the barn.