On Sunday, the big mare and I trailered a few minutes down the road to hit the trails with a few of our buddies. As we wondered the woods on a 3.9 mile trek, Nighthawk was followed by Rascal, Ranger Bob and an adorable Icelandic pony who's real name escapes me but it was the Icelandic word for "volcano." Big mare was tired by the time we were done. We didn't do a lot of trotting or anything but the trails were kind of technical for the big baby horse. She was a real trooper though! The weather held out just long enough for us to have a great couple of hours in the saddle and we can't wait to go back!
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We had our official gourd harvest the other afternoon. The weather's been so wet for so long that the vines were starting to rot on the ends so it was time to pull them up and clip the gourds. We had a light harvest this year- only 60 gourds- which is OK because I didn't know what I would do with 300+ like we've had other years. We took the official gourd photos (this one and one with the girl in it) and now I'll get to giving them away, decorating the house and deciding which one's I want to keep seeds from for next year: We *might* be riding on Sunday with a few girl friends if the weather holds out. Just in case it does I've been alternating between riding the big mare and taking her for walks on the back roads around the construction. It's the perfect thing to do right before dinner on these crisp fall-ish afternoons! We've been dog sitting for a friend's lab and Brenna's REALLY enjoying having a "little brother" to play with. She mostly chews on his neck and barks in his face. Zeus doesn't seem to mind. . . the rest of us do. Zeus is a very good boy (except when he eats my floor mat, chews up 4 towels, pees on the sun room floor and drools on my couch!) For putting up with Brenna's barking and gnawing Zeus is a good boy.
It's always like this in September and we pretty much expect it at this point! We've been going nonstop since the end of August fixing things, like the barn steps and landing: There was a hole on the horse side of the fence and I did some exploring, it was discovered that the steps were totally rotten in some spots. Turns out the first set was made out of old pallet wood so they held up pretty well for a lot of years considering! The hubby redid the steps and landing in the morning and then I came in and rebuild the rock wall behind them against the horse area. I had a few rock left over (in THIS town?! Shocker!) so I added walls in front and on the sides of the steps. It was a Saturday well spent! Big mare does not appreciate the fence being moved back 18 inches farther from the tack room door though! We finished the back porch and there was sand left over from the whole process. The kid and dog were thrilled! My potted sunflowers finally bloomed! After all this time they ALL bloomed facing AWAY from the house . . . I let them get away with that for a day thinking they'd follow the sun before I turned the pots around so I could see them. The chickens have been enjoying a lot of supervised outside time roaming the yard and the woods!
Bring on the second half of September!
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I'd like to leave this world just a little bit more beautiful than I found it... Archives
February 2023
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