Another Good Ride

Hugo could be described as an "odd duck."  He is still difficult to catch.  I cannot walk up to him in the field and touch him.  But once he is in the barn and has lunged for 10-20 minutes, he lets me do anything.  

He seems to be pretty much the same horse if I ride him every day or once a month.  

Today, after a few minutes in the barn, we headed outside.  

He did fine going down the driveway.  

Then I took a hard right and headed up the hill.  I am holding the camera straight, it is just that steep.  

We went by the little cabin.  Here, Hugo did start to get just a little tense.  I still think this could be a nice destination for a tea party for Sadie and Allie.  

We rode across the hill in front of the house.  (love the clouds)

The crape myrtles in front of the house are bloomed better than ever.  Sometimes they don't even start to bloom until frost.  

Then back to the barn for a little more work so he doesn't think the barn means he can stop.  Another good hour and a half ride.  
 

Welcome To The Jungle

Things are growing crazy big this year. 

The garden is out of control. 

The rows have completely disappeared. 

It is a stretching, yoga game trying to pick anything. 

But I have managed. 

Some produce is more unusual than others. 

The record growth isn’t confined to the garden. The pastures are jungle like also. 

Joe turned the cattle into the bottom the other day and the plant growth was over their backs. 

This is what the bottom looked like last year without bush hogging.  It’s just a jungle out there this year. 

Paint Night

We had another paint night at work. It was a drug company reward. This time it was a little different. Instead of painting on canvas we did doormats. 

It started with a stencil. I picked the flamingo. 

After peeling off the backing the stencil was placed on the mat.  Using a stiff brush and a stippling technique, the stencil was filled in with paint. 

Tada!  I like how it turned out. 

Everyone had a good time. And now I have something the replace the “all cats are welcomed” mat. Because as we now know, all cats are definitely not welcomed. 
 

In Bloom At The 4Rs

It has been a fantastic season for flowers. 

I planted cosmos for the first time. I remember grandma use to have it volunteer around her garden. Who knew it would grow so tall?  I love the variety of pinks, my favorite color. 

The butterflies like them too. 

This year the black-eyed-Susan’s have been spectacular. Usually the Japanese beetles eat the petals but that is the one pest that hasn’t been bad this year. 

They will survive me digging them up for another year. 

I planted this Dalia last year but the rabbits ate it.  It never got big enough to bloom. I thought it died and didn’t even dig it up.  I was very surprised when it came up this year.  The blooms are not as large as I thought they were supposed to be but they are pretty just the same.

The vinca is doing great. About half are ones I planted and the other half are volunteers.  I have been digging up the volunteers and planting them around the yard.

I ended up with a good mandevilla this year. 

And the impatiens are just wow!

My waddle fence is working just as I had hoped. It is holding back the salvia in an unobtrusive way. 

I just love the yard this year. 

 

Something Old Is New Again

I had a thought the other day about riding Otoelene in a different saddle.  I had change a few years ago to one I thought was a little wider for her. But since I don’t ride for very long or hard anymore I thought I would see if my old saddle might suit me better now. 

My sister had this one custom made for me when I was around 16. It is an equitation saddle. You can see how build up it is in the front. It makes for a very secure seat.  It also sets my legs back under me instead of in front.  

You can see how much flatter the saddle I have been riding in is. It is also about 10 pounds lighter than the custom saddle.  This is my Circle Y trophy saddle for winning the Arabian National horse judging contest in college. I didn’t use it for a long time. But then I decided, what am I saving it for?  It is pretty comfortable but it is also the one I was riding in when I got thrown. So maybe the secure seat of the equation saddle would be better. 

I rode in the equitation saddle today for the first time in years.  Emily had taken it over when she was showing Pep in 4-H.  Otoelene didn’t seem to care one way or the other.  

And guess what, I even cantered for the first time since the accident.  It took Otoelene a couple of minutes to realize I really meant it when I asked he to lope. But she finally came around and behaved for the most part. There isn’t much moving around it that saddle.  But I can really tell how stiff my back is at the lope. I did both ways several laps going from a walk and trot both to the lope. It has been 9 months.  The doctor said the bones would continue to strengthen for a year so I am still trying to g to not over do. I think I had another successful step forward. 

 

Wonderful Weekend

Sadie and Allie were on vacation last week. They came home Friday and called me wanting to come over and spend the night. Of course you can!

The weather took a turn from hot to cold.  So we ended up doing mostly indoor activities. 

There was a visit to the barn to feed the calf and dogs. Sadie wanted to pet everything on the way.

She remembered Gold and petted her too. 

Saturday’s exercise was playing in the garage. Ball, hula hoop, bad mitten, balloons, balance beam

And tricycle. 

And if that wasn’t enough activity, we came inside and did gymnastics.  Allie is showing me how she can do a handstand.  

We need to work more on arm strength and flexibility. I am pretty sure that they had a good time. 
 

Goat Work

It had been a wet July.  Everything has been growing like a jungle.  Joe said he felt like he was living in a rainforest.  I read where someone said the humidity was so high that they were having to drink the air.  All that to say, it was time to deworm the goats.  Goat parasites love wet weather and this is the time of year that we have started having problems.  

We got them all up Thursday night so we could get an early start Friday morning before the temperature got too hot. 

We dewormed the kids and a few of the thinner nannies.  The eyelids I checked were mostly ok, a couple of pale ones but nothing too serious.  I think it was good timing and should help the kids to keep gaining well.  

They were all glad to get back out on pasture.  I feel better now that this job is done.  I hate losing any to worms.  

While we were working, we could hear a helicopter across the creek.  They were spraying the corn.  You can just see it between the two barns.  Thankfully, the wind wasn't too bad and usually doesn't come this direction.  There has been a lot of controversy about this outfit and how much helicopter spraying they do with their Christmas tree operation in a neighboring county.  About 30 minutes after they finished spraying I could see it raining over there.  The rain never made it to our side of the creek.  

Anyway, this showed up on my Facebook page the other day...

I thought it was appropriate.