Ranch Life – Page 86 – The Hermits' Rest

In Love with Mr. Robotto

One of the last Pool of Dreams things is to get the robot pool cleaner up and running. Thirty days have passed, so Austin the pool guy came by to hook it up.

Lee and I enjoyed watching the robot as it sucked up debris on the floor, then climbed up the walls , turning around when it got to the top. We love Mr. Robotto.

As we watched, so did Goldie. After it came up and made a noise, she decided it was her number one enemy.

So, while we were marveling at the amazing prowess of our new friend…

…Goldie was running around barking, staring, growling and pawing at this strange aquatic beast.

In good news, Austin was able to get the jet covers to stay in the spa. Now I’m really looking forward to some hot tubbing tonight after my evening training class!

A long day means I’ll really enjoy my spa. Time to put it on party colors!

Lee wanted me to share Mr. Robotto in action. Here he goes.

The Hay Bar Is Open

Whew, I have trained a lot of people and been in a lot of meetings and written a lot of job aids. I feel like Super Traininggirl. I am so glad I have a job I like and feel good at.

After work, I got in my usual two hours of chores/exercise, but the good news is that I have a little help now for some of the harder things, like lifting bales of hay. The horses had finished yet another round bale of hay, and it occurred to me that I could enlist my resident offspring to help me get some square bales, and I wouldn’t have to ask anyone else for help.

Have I mentioned that my kid always poses for photos? He looks good in those work gloves.

We had a good time fetching hay, and I taught him all the hay manipulation tricks and how to handle baling wire. I also gave him a pair of gloves as a welcome to ranch-handing.

The horses had all been hanging around the pens hoping for dinner, but when they figured out what we were doing, a parade of hungry equines arrived. We really enjoyed watching them chow down.

This buffet only has one option but we LOVE it.

Of course, T ran around trying to chase everyone away. We just had to laugh.

I’m sure glad to have my new community members.

And hey, we finally found a simple, inexpensive trailer to get for the horses, one that maybe I can hook up and tow myself, so I don’t have to rely on others to drive me around. It’s aluminum and not at all fancy, but it does everything I need: tows horses and their stuff, without the need for a giant pickup truck.

We tried to get a used one, but it was snapped up before we even got a chance to call. So we are looking for new ones.

I’m becoming a grownup. One with a family, a life, and fun. I guess it’s about time.

Day Is Done. Not Work, Though

Yeah, the sun has set, horses are fed, and it’s my usual relaxing or educational time. But I have classes to teach every night this week. I don’t mind a bit, since this isn’t a frequent occurrence and I think Asian people ought to have a chance for training during their work day!

I haven’t had much to write this week because I’ve been productive at work, which is fine, right? Since I’m working in the evenings, though, I took a few hours off this afternoon to get things done.

Actually, Trixie did all the work on the horses. Drew got a little body work and was medium well behaved for his hoof trim. Apache was good as gold, though, and we are happy to say his hooves are perfect.

Also, very clean, unlike the rest of him.

I had to leave Trixie to finish Apache so I could go help the resident offspring move more things from the church. We managed to get a heavy dresser and a bookcase loaded into Lee’s Tahoe ourselves. That church sure has lots of stairs.

I was busy working and trying to avoid electrical sparks (workers blew a transformer and knocked power out on us), so no photos of that. Instead, look a the cool door the resident nephew found hiding at our Ross property! It fits the cabin, and will sure be a cool entry.

All I have is some happy flower images from the arrangement I got for Kathleen (the rarely resident niece) for her birthday. It was not too bright of me to assume she would be here that day, knowing how plans change so fast!

But flowers are cheerful from afar, too. Sending love to all who are struggling. You’re never alone when I’m around!

Who’s a Pretty Chicken?

I’ll tell you what, Peeper, the one we hatched from a chick, has blossomed into a great beauty. She’s almost full grown, and could start laying in February.

She inherited a lot of shiny feathers from her dad, Bruce. Some of the ones on her wings are bluish, while the rest glow green. She also got a really pretty double comb from her dad. And I guess she got his height.

She also got her dad’s ear tufts. They are so cute. With her white feathers at the base of her tail, she is spectacular

From Buttercup, her mom, Peeper got the beautiful patterned brown feathers on her head and body. She should also lay dark eggs, and I’m hoping Bruce will have made them green. In any case, I’m happy with her robustness and tenacity. She handles the cold well.

Click those images to see her glory. By the way, photographing chickens is hard. They are busy animals.

Spiders are a little easier. This is a dark fishing spider who was living in the chicken food box. I emptied the bag, but put it back so she could go home.

I just wanted to share the happiness raising just one hen from an egg. Thanks to Star for setting on her.

Fine. All Fine.

Gosh, folks, I’m too tired to write. It was a busy and fun day, though, and since I’m trying to write every day in January, I need to say something.

I had a fun lesson with Drew today, after he violently rejected a blanket and pooped all over it. I learned lots of new skills to practice, and we both had a blast.

I now know what we can do “in hand” in the Working Horse Central competitions. We did a bunch of things that were fun to try to work on perfecting.

I am pleased to get to progress. I came back off cloud 9 when I got home and spent an hour cleaning poop out of the trailer so we can use it to move my son. Mmm. Fun. Then I re-set the playground and made it look good.

I rode Apache again today and dealt with him pretty well. We were able to do quite a few of the playground activities, but he knocked over my little jumps. He was not into stepping over the PVC pipe I set out.

Next I walked over to see my kids setting up their household and saw a cow who’d just given birth. Aww.

There’s an exclamation point above Aragorn.

I then wandered over to Sara’s to watch her filming herself and Aragorn. Wow. He has really progressed, as has she. Cantering is happening. Balanced, good cantering. I was as happy for her today as she was for me yesterday! Quite a good couple of days, horse wise.

The things that needed doing at the cabin got done today, so we’re ready for tomorrow. I’ve doubled my usual exercise but I feel good.

There, I blogged.

Horse Heaven!

Blog readers know that I’ve been struggling with my goofy and issue-filled Paint horse. He gets better, he gets worse, I do better, I do worse. He goes lame, he feels better, he gets adhesions, Trixie works on him…

…and by gosh, he gets better. Last weekend was a big step. I’ve been doing what I can with him with it so cold. Today, though, it was so chilly Sara and I decided not to go to our lessons.

Still we wanted to do something, so she came over with Aragorn to work on things. I got all our horses put away, and even managed to move Drew and Apache at the same time.

But the best happened after I mounted. Who is this horse? We walked, we trotted, he tried to misbehave, I corrected him. He settled down and started doing everything I asked him to like a normal horse. It was so nice.

So we went out of the round pen and lo and behold, he acted like a normal horse. Round and round behind or in front, walk or trot! Comfortable trot!

Ta-da – this may look boring but that’s what we want!

I asked Sara if she could lead us to the barrels! In the direction where he used to get squirrelly. Aragorn didn’t want to, so WE led! Straight to the barrel and around. We went all over my messed up playground, including over the little jump.

When I figured we’d had enough success, we stopped and grinned and got emotional at each other (the humans). This was such a great point on our journey. Sara knows how hard I’ve been trying, so she was happy with me. It was great to have a friend and witness to our progress.

Aragorn says he’d have been a leader if Suna’s pieces of metal by the gate hadn’t unnerved him.

Like she said, the horse is feeling much better thanks to Trixie, he’s understanding what we are asking thanks to Tarrin, and I’m doing so much better with the support and wisdom of Tarrin. It takes a village. I’m so thankful for this. It’s really helped me through the other challenges.

Now on to new skills, or a setback. I’m ready for whatever. I’m in horse heaven with both my guys. It sure makes up for working so hard.

Fine Workmanship on My Firepit

One thing is for sure: I can’t complain about the guys who did the stone work on the swimming pool. The two main masons came by today to fix the mess made by digging the ventilation holes in the fire pit.

They dug out a pretty big ugly hole and ended up with lots of missing stone. They were not sure they could fix it, since there was no extra stone laying around.

They called the office, and the poor assistant had to drive all the way from Waco with some stone tile. It was not the same as ours, but it was the same rock. They said they would try to figure something out.

Lee said they were out there sawing the tile into smaller pieces. When I was done working they were gone. I found this.

They made a lovely grate that looks like it was there all along. It’s absolutely perfect. I was blown away. This was true craftsmanship. And it’s so good that no one will realize it was hard to achieve. Just wow!

That’s where the key will go when it’s set up.

Yep. All we need now is the mechanism to turn on the fire pit and instructions on using the vacuum robot. Sooo close. And tonight I’m getting in the hot tub. It’s cold but not so windy.

I’m the Hero

Yes. Thanks to ME the pool dreams are coming true. The show of poop came to an end today, to much hilarity.

Yes. Other than a minor adjustment, the pool is working. It is a miracle, sort of. First, the pool guys showed up bright and early with a new heater. This one worked and was not too bad to install. However, they’d been unable to find the missing mechanism for the fire pit. Bummer.

Then I worked a lot. Work, work, work, meet, meet, meet. Oh, did I mention we had our first “meal” with the kids at the cabin last night? Yes! Dairy Queen drive through! Official move-in date is this weekend.

Anyway, mid afternoon the propane guys came back. They got the heater hooked up, and now we’re cooking with gas. Yep.

We were all sad that we could not get the fire pit going. They got more stuff attached, and we’re looking around at the inside of the pit. It was all dusty and full of plastic stuff that appeared to be trash.

Ha. That was not trash. I picked up a bag and there was some copper stuff in it. Hey, is this the thing you we’re looking for?

Well. I was the hero of the day. In fact, everything they needed was under the dust from drilling the holes. Sheepishly, the guys set off to hook everything up. And soon, as you saw earlier, fire occurred.

Glorious reflection of fire pit, and Lee’s beloved vacuum hose.

So yes. The pool is a pool! Other than needing something to brace the fire pit mechanism against and covering the new holes, we are set. Just in time for a cold front. I do think we’ll get to try the hot tub, though.

I know the lady at the pool company got a good laugh out of me finding those parts. She no longer has to try to buy one and get it rushed here. As for me, even though I work 7 am to 8 pm tomorrow, I’m seeing nothing but blue skies. Quarantine with hot tub is way better than without.

Hot tub inaugurated. Still not hot and the cold front blew in!

What a Poop Show

We were all excited yesterday, because the propane people were supposed to come hook up the hot tub and fire pit, since our swimming pool is just a large water dish right now.

Let’s start with good news. The guy from DIRECTV showed up and stood the satellite dish back up so we can see television. He was unable to do anything about getting things set up so we can put a set in my office, because we have the COVID in the house. But, now he knows what we need, so he’ll be prepared in case we ever get the all-clear to participate in society again. This disease can make some people so sick. It’s horrible. Yes, that was the good news.

The rest of the stuff for the day did not go well for anyone involved. First, the pool company sent a young fellow out to “fix” our fire pit, because it apparently needed ventilation holes that they didn’t know about before. They’d started it last week, but not gotten very far.

So, the young fella drilled and drilled, and repeatedly said, “Oh, snap!” which I thought was charming. Pretty soon, he’d burned out the drill, so he had to go all the way back to Waco to get another one. That thrilled him to no end.

Where’s the pool guy? (Even the dogs are looking)

Before he came back, the propane guys arrived. Let’s just say they weren’t thrilled to find out that a) the pool heater was not functional, so they couldn’t hook it up, and b) they were supposed to install a line to the fire pit, which they had not been informed about. There seems to be a lot of miscommunication going on around here.

Fine. We at least brought enough of this yellow stuff.

They went ahead and attached the gas line to the propane tank, which was the thing we were most concerned about, then grumbled a lot as they got pipe to the fire pit.

Speaking of grumbling, the nice pool kid returned with what had to be the biggest drill I ever saw. I think it’s an impact driver or something. He couldn’t even lift it! He also couldn’t change bits until our resident tool person showed him how in a rather graphic fashion that I will not share here.

The giant drill is on the ground. That’s our medium-sized drill he’s using. The young man has shed many layers.

I finally suggested that maybe we’d have a drill bigger than the first one and smaller than the second one, and sure enough, we did, and he finished after five endless hours of drilling and being complained to by the propane guys about sending them here with none of the stuff ready (like some vitally important key to turn the fire pit on and off, which I swear used to be there). None of these workers had a good day, though they were all perfectly pleasant to us, and we did get in a few laughs.

I was told that a new heater was coming today and that they would get the hot tub going. It’s afternoon already and I see no workers of any sort. I’m not surprised, since the propane guys have other clients. But, where is the pool heater?

I’ll just sit here and wait, says Vlassic.

I pity the poor young woman who works for the pool company and had the bad timing to email me asking how the propane went. I told her. Many excuses later, and we still do not have a fire pit, a hot tub, or a covered trench. I think the Pool of Dreams will just have to remain a dream a while longer…another cold front is coming and the wind’s picked up again!

I’m sure glad I have all those horses to fill me with joy!

Why Yes, I Have Joy

Earlier today when I was writing about the Phosphorescence book, I said that being with horses was the exercise that brings me joy. Yesterday and today certainly proved it to me. After my lesson with Apache yesterday, I was so happy that I smiled my way down the dirt road, and when a big ole roadrunner ran across in front of me, I laughed aloud, all by myself in the car. What makes me so happy?

Yes, making progress with my riding skills and relationship with Apache does make me happy, but I think it’s hard not to be happy when you’re outdoors, surrounded by the trees and water Julia Baird talked about as bringing joy, and with people who are full of positive energy and care for each other. Even though I’m not able to be around people much, I can be with Sara and Tarrin outdoors (masked near Sara) and working on something with friends is another thing that lifts my mood.

For more cheer, I brought out my very happy steel-toe boots for the day.

Yesterday’s work with Apache was really uplifting. He made it very clear that he feels much better after the bodywork he received last week. When Tarrin was riding him, he almost floated at the trot, with no head tossing or making of faces. He seemed happy to be working with her. He even started learning how to walk with his haunches in.

And when I got on him, it felt as good as or maybe better than when he was younger and following Spice around. I guess it was better, because he followed my instructions at a trot, even, and not a scary trot. I think he also feels better about trotting than he did before.

That’s me under the giant (warm) coat on a calm horse.

THEN, I got invited to go out of the round pen and do something he wasn’t expecting. First, I was supposed to turn left and walk around the outside of the round pen, rather than going into the arena area. Ooh, he wasn’t interested in that, but I was able to get him to do what he needed to do pretty easily. After three times doing that, we were supposed to turn right and head toward the trailer. Oh my, he did not want to do that.

I have no pictures of Apache battling on the turns, but here we are trotting, thanks to Sara.

However, Tarrin coached me on how to deal with his shenanigans and I kept at it. Much backing up on his part and much calmness on my part led to him eventually doing what we were asking him to do. By the third time, by gosh, I was in charge. I was so dang proud of him. We then went back in the round pen, circled, then stood nice and quiet. This is the kind of progress I’d hoped to get from all this training.

And Today

Today it warmed up pleasantly (though there was a LOT of frost this morning), so I made time for both of the horses.

Drew was so happy to get to do stuff. He is like a little doll sometimes. I managed to get the Western saddle on him (I’m supposed to saddle him for exercise, but last week was too hectic for me to do it) and off we went. He ran in circles, did his jumps in both directions, then went on a walk, where he was surprised to find out that he had to do more work. I finally found a spot to do his hill climbing, next to the arroyo. He circled up and down in both directions then reluctantly backed up the hill, so his back will stay okay. He is so much fun to work with. I love our time together and am so grateful for his training!

He went back and I got Apache, who pretended not to want to come to me, but then did. The scamp. He’s so much happier still. I didn’t plan to do much with him, since he worked hard yesterday, but I wanted to build on the success. Sure enough, we had a good ride in the round pen with lots of controlled trotting, turning and changing directions like we’ve been doing it forever. I felt a lot more in control using the Western saddle, which surprised me. And I figured out that the leg aid I was trying to use to move him to the side of the pen was an invitation to trot to him. I figured out what to do with my leg and after that all was well.

Then comes the funny part. I was trying to leave with the tack and grooming supplies when the gate opened up more than I intended and both horses, who’d been bonding and breathing into each other’s noses and rolling around (Drew), both took the chance to dash out into the yard. They seemed so happy. I said to myself, fine, enjoy yourselves. I got the food bowls, took the tack back, and then came to find Apache and Drew.

Drew was happily grazing in his favorite spot by the RV. I just walked up to him, asked him to raise his head, put on his halter, and off we went. He seemed just happy to be with me. He exudes joy.

Of course, Apache was hiding. He was behind the chickens, I guess thinking no one could see him. I went over to him, and he bolted in a most spectacular manner, wheeling, and flying (see he, feels good). I just watched to see where he was going. I just started laughing. He ran straight to the gate leading into the pens. I walked over to the gate into his feeding area and opened it. He came over and just walked in. Obviously, dinner is more important to him than freedom. What a guy.

No matter how irritated I am that we still have to be confined to the house and that none of the pool projects that were supposed to be finished today were finished, I have the joy that comes with being around the spirits of horses. Life is good, and I’m reminded of that repeatedly these days, even though they are dark days in many ways.