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.
What’s up, burro butt?
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.
Get our of here, Fiona.
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.
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!
Sun setting over scenic Walker’s Creek
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.
Ooh, that feels good.
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.
Other cabin addition
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!
Yesterday, we hauled the stock trailer over to South Austin to pick up the large items that my son and his partner could not fit into their tiny car, so that they can be officially moved to the ranch community. Wow, we’re pushing double digits!
Happy young folk getting ready to organize all their stuff.
There was a bit of a challenge getting to Austin. Right where we have to make a sharp right turn, there were two immense storage tanks being moved down the road. These tanks had quite an entourage. There were lead cars, following cars, plus utility trucks to move power lines out of the way. AND, in a first for me and Lee, each tank had not only a big truck pulling it, but also a big truck pushing it! That had to be mighty hard to coordinate.
It was big
I wonder how long it actually took the tanks to get where they were going!
So many people to do this!You can see the push truck
The moving out was a lot harder than the moving in, exacerbated as it was by dust and cat dander rendering half the people unable to breathe, and recovering from coronavirus doing in another helper. That left me and my son to do most of the climbing up and down stairs (I did 27 flights yesterday).
Staging
But, everyone pulled their weight and did the things they were best at. Lee did a LOT of the heavy stuff, and is paying for it today. We were mighty glad for the hot tub last night.
Working hard
All in all, it wasn’t too bad, and they now just have to go back and get a few items and clean up. We’re also giving them some of my old things that are in the church, but we must wait until it’s not raining to do that. Then they will have a dining table, nice couch, and a chair or two. Oh, and a dresser, since the one my son had been using since…uh…birth, finally split in two after many years of threatening to do so. Since that dresser was at least 65 years old, I’d say it had done its job well.
Happy new neighbors by the poopy stock trailer. It got everything in it, though! With room to spare. So glad we could use it!
This week is going to be challenging, since it’s the busiest one since I started this job, but I’ll try to find some time for fun, horses, and oh yes, knitting. My shawl is coming right along and is very soft.
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.
Watch me shine.
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.
I’m a tall one.
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
Check me out.
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.
With her buddy Blanca
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.
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 love to try things.
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.
This is complicated but I can do it.
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.
Showing me how to do the “gate.”
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’ll mess that up
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.
Look. I had a baby.
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.
Another lovely cabin sunset.
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.
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.
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.
Can I help?
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.
Making the hole.
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.
Penney liked it.
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.
All I have time for today is to share a recipe, since it’s one packed-full-o-stuff day today. I don’t even have a photo to share of this porky/beefy noodle dish, because we ate it all. Even Lee, who “doesn’t really care for pasta.” Who doesn’t like pasta? (Rhetorical question.)
Butter beans
I had a leftover hunk of pork loin and wanted to be sure to use it, so last night I sauteed a big onion along with that pork loin and two thick slices of ham, all cut into cubes. I used olive oil and a bit of lemon olive oil. Then, I added two cups of beef broth, (and I know this sounds weird) a few leftover potatoes that were just cooked in butter and garlic, and a can of butter beans. These were the giant seasoned ones, which imparted a smoky flavor. I added a teaspoon of lemon juice to add some flavor.
The key to all this is that I mashed up the beans and taters so it didn’t look like it was full of vegetables, and the sauce thickened a bit. I then dumped a package of rigatoni in there, turned down the heat, and simmered it covered until the pasta was cooked.
My pork loin resembled this, only smaller.
I opened the lid to see some brownish noodles that didn’t look spectacular at all. However, when we went to eating it, all we did was say how good it was. All the seasonings from the leftovers melded together into a huge dish of deliciousness. Now at least I know how to satisfy two hungry men, one of which just got his appetite back.
I said I’d make it again, but we all laughed, since I’ll never be able to exactly reproduce that again. However, the mashed up beans and potatoes as thickeners is something I’ll use again. You know, sometimes I try to make fancy food and it’s just okay. Throwing leftovers into a pot ends up spectacular!
Yes. Thanks to ME the pool dreams are coming true. The show of poop came to an end today, to much hilarity.
Cutting to the chase: we have fire.
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.
Glad to have this out of the way.
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.
We kept our distance. Safety first.
Anyway, mid afternoon the propane guys came back. They got the heater hooked up, and now we’re cooking with gas. Yep.
Thrilled.
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.
Looks like 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?
Yes.
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.
Hot tub is heating!
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.
Success!
Hot tub inaugurated. Still not hot and the cold front blew in!
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.
We love our water dish.
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.
Standing tall again.
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.
Early in the drilling process
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.
Hope nothing escapes that sewer line!
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.
Waiting for something to hook up to.
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!
The Hermits' Rest 