That little donkey of ours is always up to something. This morning I stayed in my room drinking coffee for a while, then realized I needed to go feed the chickens. I looked out the front window and had a start!
Why yes, that’s the fence behind me.
Fiona was being herded back onto our property and the gate was being shut behind her. That little escape artist! I threw on my clothes as fast as I could but everything was under control before I got down.
Yep. I’m on the short grass.
The horses were in a kerfluffle but Fiona was just standing there, looking like she was thinking, in donkey thought.
Oh, we’re fine.
I went down to her and said hi. I asked if she wanted to go back in with the horses. She answered by trotting right behind me as I headed to the gate.
I’m coming!
I realized why she was following me: she was thirsty! I guess she hadn’t found the wet area.
Mmmm
It was easy to see how she got out. The fence wire is pretty high near the gate. She left “evidence” of where she got out, so that confirmed it. I’m told that’s the only way she could have gotten out.
We don’t want to see a poop picture.
She’s staying in with her buddies now, so maybe she’s gonna stay with the water. Drew and Dusty didn’t care. They’ve been happy hanging out today.
What’s Fifi doing? Let’s stay on this side of the fence. He’s behind me, isn’t he?We’re thirsty too.
Meanwhile, I went to feed the chickens and found our creature of the day, a very lumpy rat snake. I hope the bumps in it are mice. It was awful early for the chickens to have laid many eggs. Go eat rats, snake!
Not much time to blog today, because I’ve been busy seeing people and doing things. I DO have friends in real life! My friends are darned interesting, too. Plus, two horses have trimmed hooves. That’s it, other than a few random ranch pictures.
Today’s creature is NOT poisonous! It’s a damselfly. I saw four different colors today: blue, green, tan, and white. My spotted buddies. One standing in poop, one rolling in it. Aww, a sweet nest hiding in the stock trailer. Flowers some dear friends sent. Enjoying their new space. Can you find Fiona?
I have some, but most are online friends. I have some local ones, but the only one I’ve seen for the past month is Tarrin, and she got paid to show up. Just kidding. It’s my fault as much as anyone else’s!
I had a nice chat with this friend today. She said it was hot outside. (Obscure bird grasshopper)
My car has had a flat tire since before we left for California. At least it got me home. There’s been just too much going on to get the tire off and take it in to get fixed or replaced. So I have gone nowhere except to the hospital to see Kathleen.
This friend and I chatted while I fed the horses. He said he appreciated the shade. (Differential grasshopper)
Yeah. I’m also working my butt off. No time to galavant around Cameron. Work is good though. I feel appreciated!
You know who is no longer my friend? The UPS driver. She’s stopped dropping off by the garage and now dumps heavy boxes buy the road. Today I had to wrangle a 45-pound bag of coconut stuff for the horses. I was glad I had a wagon!
My wagon is a great friend! These are the boxes huge feed containers came in. The wagon also helps with all my hay moving.
I have no idea what’s up with UPS but I’ll just deal with it. No time to fume and fuss. I’ll just be grateful for good things, like Kathleen being back again and looking better.
Wine, yarn, and a white dog friend will keep me positive, too.
I read today that what horses want is peace. No wonder I like horses. I, too, crave peace. And calm. It’s been my goal all my life. I do not crave excitement, uncertainty, or the unexpected. But, guess what? That stuff shows up all the time. What to do?
I found a moment of peace when the afternoon sun visited my bathroom.
I’m relieved that my anti-anxiety meds have kicked back in. They are really helpful for me. They don’t make me calm, but they do give me a better attitude about uncertainty and the unexpected. They help me detach a wee bit.
Knitting is something that has kept me calmer my whole life. Today I put this sweet knitting corn husk doll that my sons gave me on my little display shelf someone I used to know made me.
Calm and peace. You do have to work on them, but it pays off! For example, my work laptop has been a bit off since I got back from this trip. Just little things were happening until yesterday afternoon, when my webcam stopped working in the middle of a fun meeting. It didn’t work today, either, but because I didn’t get all upset and pissy, I was able to patiently wait until the Logitech help person found a solution. Yay! I stayed calm and didn’t just order another one.
Goldie was doing this while I was fixing the webcam. Distracting!
And just as the camera was fixed, I had another meeting. Throughout the meeting the sound of the Zoom phone ringing kept playing. For an hour. I just laughed and tuned it out. What else could I do? I cultivated calm and just dealt with it. Go me.
I’m calm, too, even though I have all these gangly legs.
There’s so much going on here that keeping on an even keel is important. My vacation helped. The horses help. Having great conversations with my son helps. Lee helps. All of you help. Keep spreading peace, calm, and lovingkindness. The world needs it.
I have to say my horses make me proud. Today was another lesson day for both of them, and you could really see progress, even since last week. Drew. Damn. He just loves to learn new things, so it’s easy to sneak new knowledge.
The goal today was to work on turning right without crowding. He thought it was working on stopping and starting, then going in and out of cones without me following. I walked in a straight line and he had to weave. He didn’t get it at first with Tarrin but got great at it with me. Proud!
He’s a winner.
He also is now jumping higher jumps, which is really going to help his muscles. And today he did it calmly, so he didn’t have to re-do anything. He was cool as a cucumber. In fact he drifted off a couple of times when we were talking. Maybe he will learn to turn more straight and I’ll learn to turn correctly, too. We’re getting instructions!
Q2 Virtual Show ribbons
I’m also proud of these ribbons from the virtual show we did in May. It’s the first time he ever had competition. And I was very proud of both Drew and Sully. They were very close in their scores. This was a great show for Sully’s first one! Sara has done such a great job training her. I’m proud of her, too!
Dog play break
As for Apache, he was moody at first, but he got really excited and seemed genuinely happy when he managed to jump over the high jump twice, in each direction. I think he surprised himself!
And that boy worked his butt off today. His goal was getting under his haunches and stopping properly. He has really been reluctant to stop when he’s anxious. Well he practiced stopping a LOT. He did many of the things Drew was doing, but including lots of stopping. To his credit, he got the idea!
By the time we were doing the “approach the scary trailer” ordeal, he was paying attention and stopping on a dime. Screech! That’s real progress. The whole trailer approach is improving. It’s not there yet, but Tarrin says he’s starting to trust that I’ll keep him safe.
I’m also doing better with my ability to be calm and deal with his stuff. I’m proud of our progress, but feel bad for how wound up he gets. I did give him a nice bath, and I can assure you he had a nice roll later.
Practicality
I thought you might get a chuckle out of how I decided to organize all those Color Street nail polishes I have. I found that one of my shoe boxes fit them perfectly.
Ta da
I felt like decorating it, so I found my 2020 calendar of donkeys and used it to cover the shoe box. It’s certainly cheerful.
Howdy
The donkeys make me smile, and now it’s wY easier to see what polish sets I have. I also sealed the used ones in hopes that I can use them later by warming them up.
Ok. Fun.
And there ya go. Something random and not depressing! And because I want to reward those of you who read to the end, let’s enjoy the dogs on a pleasant evening.
Today I was walking around the property wishing it would rain again. I looked down and saw this ray is sunshine.
Hello!
The rain lilies always surprise me. We only got .6 inches of rain a few days ago, but these copper lilies popped right up for their yearly visit. Glorious.
Get out of our way, leafy plants, we’re blooming!
It’s so dry and parched here, which matches many of our moods right now. But the strength of these plants, which just need a wee bit of encouragement to push through and be their fabulous selves, gives me hope. I hope that our efforts to bring forth love and peace can push through like these lilies.
These rays of hope nourish others, too, like these sugar ants. Can we?
The copper lilies brought a smile to my face and planted a seed of hope. Well, technically I guess the hope is a hidden bulb full of strength. That metaphor will do, too.
I’m feeling better about some things and I know Vlassic is!
Suna loves me
We had a good night last night. He slept straight through the night next to me on the couch in the future in-law suite. It’s a comfy couch that makes a bed.
Happy little doggie
I did okay. There is apparently something living in a box that makes occasional noise, so I kept hearing it. I wish Vlassic were more of a vermin eliminator. He’s great at eating grasshoppers!
I’m glad I did this, though. He can run again today and isn’t shivery. He’s recovering.
It’s all about ME
But I made it through work just fine and even got out to ride Apache. It isn’t as hot as it was, so we both did fine.
I guess I have to get to work since I’m wearing all this tack.
We did well. He even came when I called! We practiced all our homework and even did leg yield. But best of all, we made it down the paddock and back with no meltdowns. I did it!! So did he, of course.
We’re a team. In neon.
I think not only I am feeling better, but so are my dog and horse. We all feel safe with each other. I’ll sleep with Vlassic a few more days, so he will know this is his new home. It’s where his food is, and there’s a doggy door! And one day soon he’ll have his human buddy back!
It’s thoughtful not to bare your inner torment then just drop the subject. People worry (at least two of them!). So, hey, not only did I get in some quality talk therapy and encouragement from people I rely on, I bravely ventured to a new health-care facility to get my medications back (or see what other alternatives there are).
Hey, look, my tack room has a horse sign now. Thanks to Lee for hanging it!
Cameron is not overly full of health-care options, but a new one opened last month, and I tried it rather than stressing myself out by going to my old neighborhood in Austin to see the doctor. More self care, right there! The facility is nicely renovated and conveniently located on the same road we live on (only in the city, not the country). I had a rather negative first impression thanks to the relentlessly cheerful Christian radio station (complete with phone number I could call to get the staff to pray for me!) that clients have to listen to. But, at least it was positive in focus and not a certain television network I would have walked out on.
A cricket frog also cheered me up.
Good news! The PA I met with was just great. We talked a half hour, at least, and he both listened and shared information with me. I went ahead and got the same thing I was using before, but he gave me some ideas to look into, including a kind of progesterone treatment I hadn’t thought of. If it would help my hair grow more, maybe I’d like it. But, I’m going to read up on it a LOT before trying anything hormonal. I am really susceptible to hormonal flux.
Great blue heron says, hey, the pond got a wee bit bigger
Anyway, I’m hoping I’ll feel more like my easy-to-live-with self soon. That will let me be helpful to others, including animals. And oh my. Poor Vlassic needs help. Last night it rained, and of course rain is good, right? Especially when you are in an intensifying drought.
Better than no rain at all
The rain came with thunder and lightning, and poor Vlassic was over in the RV alone. He didn’t cope well. When I came to get him this morning, he couldn’t walk right, was screaming in pain and was unable to bark. He must have panicked. Well, that is NOT going to happen again.
I need love.
It looks like his companion in the RV won’t be home for a while, and Vlassic won’t come in our house because Penney traumatized him soon after we got her. So. Lee and I have all his stuff set up in the new apartment, even though it isn’t quite finished yet. There’s a couch in there, and I’m going to sleep in there with him until his buddy comes back. Then it will be plenty busy and he will be happy again.
I’m tired from being scared.
I can’t let my animals get all messed up. I’d been thinking Vlassic would only have to stay alone for a few days, but that isn’t the case. He needs to be with people at night as well as during the day (we’ve been spending a lot of time with him during the day). So, wish me luck, knowing how many nightmares I’ve already been having! But, Lee will have the other dogs and I’ll have Vlassic, and we will all have the care we need.
Sunrise after rain.
This will work until next week, when we had planned to go out of town. I’ll have to see if I can get some help after that if Vlassic’s companion isn’t back yet! Or stay home. I can also do that, because my little buddy’s more important than a vacation!
I guess this is good news. We apparently have an aviary in the porch. The former ceiling fan fixture near where the swallows live has just morphed into a gigantic sparrow nest. Mrs. Sparrow seems so happy about it. At least we lived here quite a while before those English immigrants found us!
Now, I have to say, it is hard to not be grumpy about some things. Some dog ate my crochet hook. It was a nice wooden one. Now I know I have many, but they are all packed up still. Damn. Back to knitting until Friday. Um, let’s look at more photos of more cheerful things…ish.
My former crochet hook. I thought they’d eaten a walking stick bug. No.
My spouse is trying his hand at book binding. He needed a needle he could thread dental floss through to sew the binding in. So, I went through my unorganized craft stuff to find something. I found a needlepoint needle, which was good. But I found many other things.
Found!
One thing I found was this pouch I made to test out felting an entrelac project. I ended up using it more than the very nice purse that was my main project back in the old Bluebonnet Yarn Shop days. Believe it or not, I stored tampons in it.
Mama bear
The necklace is one my therapist made for me back in the Very Bad Old Days when my marriage was painfully ending, as were the marriages of many of my friends. On top of that there was a horribly toxic woman who showed up at our UU church who ran around ruining marriages, breaking up friendships, and rampantly spreading rumors and suspicion everywhere. Many of my friendships never recovered, and though I stuck around a while, I never again felt safe at church. Victoria was making jewelry at that time, and she made me the mama bear necklace to protect me.
My spouse found these journals. The top one covered 6 months of this time in excruciating detail. I feel so bad for my kids. And I can’t believe how doggedly I insisted people had good intentions in the face of evidence to the contrary. I’m sure glad my ex and his dogs and super-fit wife are so happy. We paid for it.
I needed it. My son was struggling, too. It was the start of so much stress, struggle, and growth. All that hit me when I saw the necklace. I’m sick to my stomach. No wonder it’s a good idea not to live in the past!
This is actually slightly more organized.
On a happier note, I found this UFO (unfinished object) in the knitting bag where the necklace was. It’s another entrelac project. I think it’s a table runner? It’s made of leftover sick yarn. Maybe I can work on it later.
Speaking of the past
The other UFO I found is this very warm shawl. I’m on the border of this one, too. What is it with me and unfinished borders? I should finish it before I start the other project. Sigh. It is very soft, too. Fancy yarn.
Hey, I remember this.
But wait, I found something else. I was in the Hen Haven or whatever I want to call it, and realized I didn’t know what was in a box under the work table. So, I opened it. Wow! Leather tooling supplies!
They must have cone with all the horse stuff.
I immediately knew what to do with it, too. I ran to get Drew’s fancy leather lead rope. After practicing on an old belt, I got to work.
Custom lead strap!
It’s Drew’s now! He fancy. I’ll see what else I can whack with a mallet. By the way, if the nephew is reading this, I did put the mallet back.
Bonus content: how many hens are at this chicken conference?
And it came out great! This shawl is what I was working on before I started making all those baby blankets.
Knockout Round shawl with large sawtooth border
I started on January 15 and was almost finished in February when I sat the project aside. I knew I had to finish it, though, because both yarns were delicious. The tan yarn is baby llama. Baby llama! It’s called Frog Tree Llambrosia. I used up every bit of that. The second yarn is a hand-painted yarn, whose name is a mouthful: Knitwhits Freia Handpaints Freia Ombré M/S Sport (Refined) – Gradient (the links are to their Ravelry pages). That Freia feels so good to knit with. It’s a silk/wool blend.
As you can see, it’s a simple, triangular shawl, but I did use a pattern to do the tabbed start, so credit goes to that person. The border is based on a classic sawtooth pattern, but I messed around with it. Since I had a lot of Freia left over, I added some plain stitches to make it wider. (Want to learn more? Here it is on Ravelry.)
Border up close
The big surprise was that when I got to the end of the triangle, I was at the end of a border repeat, which made turning the corner easy. Then, today, when I got to the end, it was EXACTLY at the end of a border repeat! It looks like I did a bunch of careful planning to get the pattern to come out right. I wish I could say I did, but nope, it was total luck.
I’m happier than I look. Just tired from horse lessons. That is why my shirt is dirty.
And no, I don’t have a border pattern. You cast on some stitches, and declare some number your sawtooth and the rest the plain part. You knit some, yarn over, K2 together, then knit to the last stitch which you knit along with a border stitch. Then going back out, you knit 2 together at the end. When there is only one stitch before the hole for the yarn over, cast on some number and start again. I believe my number was 12. You see, I’m a technical writer by day, and it’s the weekend now. No technical writing.
I actually DO have something interesting I want to make after I use up all the Mandala yarn from the baby blankets with my overly colorful crochet ripple afghan. It will be a garment! A sleeveless top! With yarn I have been saving! It’s from the latest Interweave Knits (Summer 2022) and called Morellet. Let’s see if I can do that!
I’m so glad that there are at least a few knitting magazines out there. I can read patterns much better on a page than online. And no way am I sitting through someone yammering on and on for some online pattern. I know I am old, but I don’t have time to sit through endless promotions, background information, videos on how to do a stitch…I just want a pattern.
Vlassic would like to thank me for the very pink chair he can sit in to watch me in the tack room.
Don’t get me started trying to find the actual recipe for anything online. I have no sympathy with people’s needs to cram more and more ads in their patterns and recipes. I hope they get rich from it. Wait, don’t I have ads? Yes. And I have yet to hit the magic $100 to get paid.
Heat apparently makes me grumpy. I did drink my healthy supplement o’ magnesium and potassium when I was running around with the horses though, honest. Tarrin made me do it. (That’s her tag line, too.)
The Hermits' Rest 