Resolution time? No. I’ll keep doing my best to learn, grow, be kind, promote love and peace among my neighbors. I guess I resolve to keep going.
Let’s all bloom where we’re planted or re-pot ourselves. (Bad metaphor!)
I think the way 2022 differs from the last couple years is that the lows were lower and the highs higher. The family stuff has been particularly scary, between all the various sicknesses of many types and mental health challenges. But there’s been great growth and opportunities, too.
The year ended beautifully.
As for me, I experienced so much personal growth that I even impress myself! But I did hit rock bottom for a few weeks — like I said the lows were very low. Working with the horses has been so good for me. I’m so much better at trying new things, which I’ve been working on for years.
They keep me calm and seem pretty chill, themselves!
And my job has been great for me, too. I feel respected and empowered. And I enjoy what I do. Everyone deserves that kind of job at some point.
I’m as content as a turtle on a warm winter day.
And finally, I’ve gotten the hang of letting go of things outside of my control or letting the opinions of people outside my inner circle get to me. (Mostly) I’m still working on not letting people I care deeply about hurt my feelings, but we all need something to work on, right?
Butter is working on getting stuff out of this pot.
Let another year start. I’m not worried or excited. Years are arbitrary markers, anyway.
Weeks are arbitrarily marked by new manicures.
The arbitrary last day of 2022 was lovely, though. The weather was great for all activities and I got lots done. The only negative thing is that the stitch I’m joining the rug I’m trying to finish is so tight and twisty that my arm hurts. I’ll have to sacrifice for beauty, then rest a lot.
It looks good, though.
While horsing, I visited with Mandi the neighbor for a while. We need to visit more. Darn work messing with my visiting. Still, all day was pleasant. Here’s to a pleasant and peaceful future.
My gift to you for the new year is sunset and animal photos. Enjoy.
Look carefully. I have a mane accessory. Drew bothering Dusty. Bad teen. Dusty kicked him. Not a pretty hen, but she lays blue eggs. Chicken butt.
Right after I wrote last night, we had the most intense rainstorm we’ve had since before the drought started. Around 2.55 inches fell quickly as a narrow band passed over. The water came up high enough to require the backup culvert to kick in so our driveway/dam wouldn’t be breached. Whew. The new pond flooded for the first time!
Last night, the water was way over the treesThis morning, trees at the bank – you can see the auxiliary culvert where the water was up toNot as pretty a flood in the winter!The arroyo flowed all day.
When morning dawned, we were inside a thick cloud of fog. It was ethereal and made everything around here look better! I especially loved to look at the horses sort of looming in the distance.
Back pondBack pondFront pondFront pondloominglurkingFoggy views
There were puddles everywhere, and I had a hard time enticing the chickens out of the hen house. Leftover bean soup did the trick and allowed me to gather the egg of the day, which I believe came from Star. You just have to wonder sometimes what goes on inside chickens. Or, maybe it’s better just to not think about those things.
It’s sorta like a space capsule
A few puddles didn’t stop me from working with the horses, who dodged the threat of getting bodywork, because the direction the rain came in made even their covered area full of puddles. It was weird having big wind coming in from the south!
I know the bluebonnets appreciated the rain.
The best part was that my son joined me today and brought his new Christmas-gift helmet with him. He’s helped me groom and worked a lot on the tack room, but not ridden with me before. I lengthened the stirrups on Apache’s previous saddle so he could use it. Finally I figured out how to do that myself!
After practicing some groundwork skills, I showed my son how to mount and turn by demonstrating on Drew, which conveniently gave Droodles and me some time to practice our newest skills. We turned on the forehand and did some mighty fine side passes. Even my son could tell he was going sideways. I was so proud.
Apache was NOT stressed out about this. They both enjoyed each other.
Drew then had to stand petulantly as he was ignored in favor of Apache. He was a very good boy and patiently carried my son around and paid attention to his cues. First, I led them and practiced stopping and starting. Then we put the bridle on, and my son walked Apache in the round pen, trying to get the stopping thing correct. He did well with turning, though. When you’re on your first ride, I’d think it would be hard to relax and say, “Whoa” calmly. Saying, “Easy,” in a calm voice also takes practice.
We will do more practice next week! Now, of course, Apache had to test my son. He ignored the request to turn, and just marched out of the round pen. I got to channel Tarrin and tell my son to shorten his reins, spread them wider and get Apache to stop. And he did!
Thinking about nature helps deal with horse shenanigans.
Then I got to pretend to be Tarrin and take him back in that round pen and do some work. We did the square exercise and a lot of side passing and leg yielding. It was fun for me, because I didn’t have stirrups due to having much shorter legs than a 6’3″ person. I discovered I was leaning forward but fixed that and did well. Hooray, I got to practice something new, too!
I deserve more food.
I really had a lot of fun, even without being able to let the horses trot. I don’t think they wanted to, anyway. They’d been slipping a lot in their pens. Speaking of slipping, Fiona slipped into Drew’s pen as we were getting ready to feed. They began a mud fight, where Drew would go nip at Fifi and she’d kick him. I’m sure it was a ton of fun for Drew, but Fiona looked annoyed, so we got her out of there.
Can you see the birds flying by?What lies down the road?Still looks stormyPretty clouds over the horse area
Later, when Lee and I took a walk, there were Fiona and Drew, still picking at each other, but voluntarily, since they had the whole pasture at their command. I do enjoy watching the animals interacting. Thanks to watching them, our walk lasted until the sun (which had barely come out from the foggy clouds all day) started to go down. We got rewarded by some beautiful clouds, which helped me feel better after finding out how much my car repair was going to cost (YOW).
Lots of excitement here in rural Milam County today. Mostly good! This morning I got ingredients and made bean soup to use leftover Christmas ham. It was great. No photos. We ate it.
It made me feel on top of the world, like this hill climbing muddy-hooves guy.
I then ran into the mobile office bedroom where I laid out the squares of the blanket or rug I made for my son’s partner’s Christmas gift. I almost got it done in time!
One possible arrangement
The squares are very thick because it’s mosaic crochet. I enjoyed making the squares! I may do a mosaic border, too.
Happy mosaic star.
After a delicious sopapilla coffee and gossip with my friend at Cloud 9 Coffee, I got the horses ready and went for lessons. What’s exciting about that? I DROVE! I successfully pulled the horse trailer to lessons. I wasn’t even nervous, just cautious. I’m so proud of myself becoming more independent.
I was your precious cargo!
The lesson was just as successful. I’m making so much progress, even with Drew and his teen angst. Today I got to deal with his decision that he was done, and I lived! There were also moments of calm and learning. We made a square, turning on the forehand or something like that. It was hard. I DID IT.
When I was done, Tarrin explained how he should be acting. He’s getting there.
My big excitement was riding Apache today. He had us laughing as he tried to avoid trotting over poles. He had us gasping in amazement when he did the corner thing at a trot just like he’d always done it for years. We both were coordinated! I used my aids! I moved him around. It felt good.
I kissed him.
His reward for good work was getting to go through the cowboy curtain, which doesn’t intimidate him one bit. In fact, he seems to like draping the hanging cords across his face when he went through, like it felt good. It made me laugh.
Tarrin said he deserves a blue ribbon
It was just a great day for the spotted one. He even dealt with a scary new trash container like a pro. (It’s behind me.) We are becoming a real team.
What’s this?
More excitement happened on the way home. On our way out we saw a water leak. On the way back it was still blasting away. I wonder if people lost water pressure?
Boom
The final excitement of the day was the sunset. Gee whiz it was a spectacular way to end the day. Colors were everywhere in every direction.
Whee! I’m not supposed to work this week or next Monday (Dell employees get the week off paid plus a year-end bonus, contractors get six days of no pay…well, it’s a job at a good rate so I’m just stating facts, not complaining).
So, what did I do on a day with no mandatory activities? I cleaned my closet and hung clothes up, then cleaned the leftover dishes from last night, even though the house cleaner came today. I guess I don’t want her to clean bonus mess. I’m a wild and crazy kinda gal!
This gift tag from Lee shows I’m the wild and cheery one with a rainbow-farting reindeer!
Then I paid some bills. Whoa, responsible.
Okay. I then spent the entire afternoon having fun! I enjoyed cleaning my saddles and writing in my horse journal. Then I played with Drew for a long time. I made him all beautiful and had a nice time exercising him. We had our best solo ride ever. We are improving!
I’m pretty and so is my tack.
Since I was in no hurry, I took him for a walk around the property that ended with a chance to graze where there is still some green grass (frozen but still green). He seemed pleased with the treat and walked back happily.
I’m shiny!
Then I took Apache out. I won’t say I got him clean, but he certainly looks better. He was itchy where some of the mud was, so he got a lot of bonus rubbing. We had lots of fun, and then had fun exercising. His lateral movement is so much better.
Sara and I decided to ride around, so I bravely rode Apache off to her place. We did just great! We went into her wooded area, which is yet another of his scary places, and he did indeed get antsy. But we got up and down the hill there, and did some tree circles. I was proud of him.
I got to see my beloved Spice. I just wanted to go see her.
On the way back, along the exact same trail we took to get to Sara’s, he kept breaking into a jog and acting like he forgot I was there. So I repeatedly reminded him, just like I’d been practicing. By gosh, he settled down and walked to the gate and was calm once I got off to walk back. He’s making great strides.
I hope he didn’t do too much today, but I happen to know the horses have been running and playing a lot the past few days, so it’s not like he was confined to a stall the whole time it was cold.
I hope to get to do horse stuff every day this week. I think the weather will hold out. Today was great! All I needed was a long-sleeved sweatshirt!
I’m still cold.
Happy Boxing Day and first day of Kwanzaa or whatever you’re celebrating!
As the years pass and our circle grows smaller, the holidays have stopped being about visitors, travel, and togetherness. Television commercials keep saying that’s what we should want.
This one goes from lap to lap.
But Lee and I are happy to spend time with just each other these days. We have plenty of animals to stand in for friends and family, and they’re certainly entertaining. The dogs have been going all out to make us smile!
The horses have been playing a lot, as if the cold weather makes them frisky. They do have really thick coats right now.
Fluffy patchy. His coat is thickest. Drew is well insulated, too. As usual, Dusty has become a teddy bear. Mabel would not stand to be photographed. She looks way better this winter than last!
It was a beautiful day, though, so I did the usual bird watching (highlights were cranes and a butcher bird) and weather observation. All the ponds iced over, but melted when it got above freezing. I have new inexpensive base layers that made being outside okay. Nice!
Frozen IcyLoggerhead shrike
It was lovely spending time with myself, giving myself holly nails, watching football, cooking dinner, and working on a present. It’s important, I think, to be comfortable enjoying each phase of life, and each new situation. That’s the way to inner peace.
Holly jolly fingers.
Tomorrow and next week will bring more people to the ranch and that will also be enjoyable. You can’t hermit every day! it will be good to celebrate with people.
I’m hoping you find peace with whatever life hands you this time of year. Maybe you’ll find comfort in traditions and maybe you’ll try something new. Just remember that we’re all dealing with “stuff” and doing our best. I sure remember that and just want the members of my own circle to know they’re loved.
Today was cold, but the sun was shining, so I spent as much time as I could outside. It’s gonna get icky again, so I wanted to enjoy one last nice day for a while.
Ah, sun
The horses were out in the far pasture, where there is plenty of grass, apparently, since they’ve ignored their latest hay bale. Drew has been mowing down bur clover, which I’m ok with.
Mmm. Grass.
Apache doesn’t like clover, thankfully. It wound probably make him sick. He’s moody this weekend, anyway, and he managed to find more burs, but he was easier to groom than last week!
I’m ignoring y’all.
I looked at a lot of birds today, too. All the savanna sparrows were using the new pond as a bird bath this morning. It was so charming to watch them wading and splashing. Too bad my photos don’t show them well. It entertained me, though.
You can sort of see them.
It was frosty, too. I love the shiny grass. The winter here can be wonderful. I can see birds better in the bare trees, I’m not sweaty, and it rains some. Droughts are no fun.
Chilly!
You can’t miss the mistletoe in the trees, which is our main seasonal decoration this year. I laugh when people say they are looking for it. We have plenty to share!
The green stuff is mistletoe.
The moral to my story is enjoy your good days, and don’t take them for granted. Enjoy a few more pictures from yesterday and today.
Apache is jealous of my food Dinner is better on the ground
Ooh doggies, it was nippy today. It wasn’t that cold, really, but the wind was fierce. And it kept drizzling all day. What a great day for horse lessons, right?
That’s a big NO from both Apache and super-bundled Tarrin.
It hadn’t felt too bad in the morning, but it got worse and worse. By the time Tarrin got to my house, I think she was glad to go in the tack room and warm up a bit. I needed to defrost from scraping the layers of mud off Apache. He literally had mud balls hanging from his mane and scattered across his coat.
But look, I’m a magnificent steed, he says. There is still mud on him; don’t be fooled.
That was the least pleasant grooming session I can remember. And he was not a happy guy at first. As you can see, he was physically great. But mentally he appeared to be elsewhere.
Magnificent steed, magnificent steed, going where I please…
It was pretty hilarious when I rode him. The wind was whipping through my layers and my teeth were chattering, but I soldiered on asking him to walk briskly then stop, a thing he is normally fine with. Nope.
No one said it would always be fun. Here he’s backing up. Again.
He got to do it a lot until he deigned to stop like he should. Then he got to do something else. Hooray. Funny boy.
Drew would like it to be his turn. Note that I, too, am bundled. The wind whipped through even my heat-reflecting layer.
That’s Drew in his new fancy rope hackamore that Tarrin re-tied after I botched it. Knots are not either of our strong suits. It’s pretty, though! I now know how to loop it and stuff. What a cowgirl.
You HAD to buy a bit, Suna?
It was not ideal to learn to use the new bridle and two pairs of reins with frozen hands, but now I figure it will feel great when it’s nicer outside. Drew was very patient getting his chin strap put on (it came from my surplus collection from when I got the trailer, so it doesn’t match yet), then with me putting the bridle on and off repeatedly.
I’m tired of the fiddling, says Drew. I’m jealous of those mittens, says Suna.
Drew was way more cooperative than Apache, since he’s used to riding in bad weather. We even side passed better. I’m working on reins, but getting there. It’s fun learning with him. He tries and so do I!
The picture of endurance. Thanks for the photographic proof, Tarrin!
After Tarrin got to go home, we took a road trip to look at yet another potential mobile office for Lee. The weather was spooky. That’s what got “In the Bleak Midwinter” going through my mind. It was gray on gray.
Bleak
Nonetheless the day was saved by the treat of going to dinner at the famous German restaurant in Wahlberg. We hadn’t been in years. I sure enjoyed my Hefeweizen and the sauerkraut. Ahh.
Yum.
The place wasn’t too crowded, so it didn’t feel all germy and they had a huge fire in the fireplace. I even enjoyed the Wahlberg Band, which featured much excellent yodeling. No, honest, it was good! What a pleasant change of pace.
Time to yodel!
Tomorrow should be sunny, so it won’t be so bad riding and exercising. Maybe Apache will act like his mature self! If not, I’ve always got crochet and football.
PS: hi to my step-sister and spouse. Loved your card.
Today was a normal day. Nothing stressful other than software glitches, and repeatedly sending out the wrong minutes for a meeting, today was low key and calm. I love calm. I got all my to-do items done. I’m cooking dinner. Ahh.
This hairy monster got groomed, too.
I got to spend quality time with all the horses in the calmest possible way as they got their feet trimmed. So much time spent petting soft noses. Ahh. I love farrier day.
Contraption
I’m not sure what I think about it, but Drew’s new fancy bit arrived today. I believe we don’t use the chain part. It’s just like the one he already uses at Tarrin’s. Who knows if I’ll master it or not, since Apache is bitless and likes it.
My friends!
I got to enjoy the cranes flying by. These must be stragglers. Never a bad day if you see them! And I’m hearing all the winter birds in the woods. That’s the best part of winter!
And finally, my day was made by the arrival of a nail polish strip box. It was all gold and black, with art deco accents. I gave no idea why I’ve always loved nail polish, unless it’s just that it reminds me of my mom. My one ultra-feminine affectation, I guess. (Shut up, people who know me, don’t tell the readers about all my shoes and turquoise jewelry; guess I’m more femme than I think.)
Nail stuff
Happy Tuesday. There’s nothing wrong about normal at all!
I didn’t take pictures of the wonders of today, so check out my very silver nails. They nearly blind me.
Festiveness
I was wondering if the highlight of my day was going to be learning about a new kind of moth, the plume moth. These look like flies, but nope, they are weird looking tiny moths with small, plumed wings. I’m not sure what kind the one that flew into my napkin was, but it was cool.
I like it when new-to-me species just show up and present themselves.
It turns out, though, that I’m on a LOVE HIGH this evening, after feeling like my emotional roller coaster of horse love plummeted. After struggling with teen Droodles yesterday, I wasn’t looking forward to today’s lesson. Plus it was raining.
But, we showed up anyway, and I got lots of good information on how to deal with anxious and boundary-testing youngsters. Tarrin told me I had to be tougher and not let him do stuff just to try to get through stuff. That’s what I did at Sara’s, not wanting to delay her filming. I should have stopped and worked with Drew until he was calm. Next time!
Then we worked with him, and that’s when the roller coaster started heading back up. I got some stuff figured out during ground work, as Tarrin kept reiterating that if he messes up, nothing’s wrong with performing a reset and starting again.
She got on and repeatedly stopped and started as he fussed around. In the end he looked great, and she said he was much better than last week. My work with him had helped!
I wasn’t looking forward to getting on him and struggling to make progress. But I got on! And lo and behold, we calmly walked three barrels in small circles. Then we did bigger circles. Wow!
I kept stopping every time his head went up or he started to go off track. By the end, we were smoothly trotting the circles. Tarrin asked how the last one felt, and I said, “It felt like riding a horse!” I was thrilled.
After improving our hill climbing circles with me on him and doing better on side passing and leg yielding, we very calmly walked back to the trailer, even though one of Tarrin’s horses was in our butt. It felt like riding Apache in a place he feels safe. It was fantastic. What a roller coaster. Patience paid off.
We also made him much happier on the ride home with a longer trailer tie and hay to eat. He pooped less. I’m so grateful that Tarrin helps me problem solve. I want to give Drew and Apache good lives and that helps.
Sara and I had this great idea to film our Functionality test for the delayed Winter virtual show for Working Horse Central this morning. Yep, the day after Drew and Aragorn worked hard on the in-person show. Great idea. It’s a good thing we had no time pressure and good humor, because we had some challenges and neither horse was enthusiastic about doing more fancy stuff. Droodles had a lot to say about it, too.
At least I had another outfit I could wear. and Drew looks happy here.
To start things off, I went to the trailer to get Drew’s fancy halter and saw a saddle in there. Uh, was my saddle there all weekend? No. It was Sara’s. So she had to drive over to get it.
Drew and I had a calm warmup and nice walk over to Sara’s. But that boy just can’t settle down over by her dressage arena (no, nothing fancy, but it works great thanks to her creativity). My horses just don’t like their trees or something, because I’ve spent hours with Apache over there. Once Drew got wound up I could not help him settle down. He pitched a fit and tried to buck and spin. Joy.
We were also challenged by the fact that we didn’t have any place to tie whichever horses weren’t being filmed, so we had to monitor the Pevo filming software and hold two horses.
Sara’s two get along fine. They were no problem with Drew’s filming. He was the problem. He spooked at a tree and was not able to act normally. We tried once and I ended up cussing at him on video. He wouldn’t slow down, wouldn’t turn right, kept bumping me (he does that when nervous), and acted like a surly teen. It was no fun. As they say, you ride the horse that shows up (or lead it in this case).
But Drew and Aragorn aren’t overly fond of each other so Sully’s filming was not easy. She at least did her bit in one try. Blue ribbon time for her—no matter what little issues she had, at least she was compliant!
On the other hand…
The challenge when Aragorn was filming (which took three tries—Sara and Aragorn each had an oops) was that Sully and Droodles like each other, so Drew was hormonal and wanted to be in her face or nibbling on her. I could just imagine her getting irritated and backing into the arena, or him bumping the tripod and messing up the filming. But, we did it. Aragorn looked good for being tired.
Was that the end of Drew’s teen angst?
Oh, you wish, Suna.
So, no, Drew was not done. I had a heck of a time getting his normal halter back on, but he did walk nicely to the cabin. The problem is that there’s an old gate there we have get through. Cows have apparently been stomping by the cattle guard and pushing on the gatepost. The post now leans, so to unlock it, you have to push up with one hand and use your other two hands to open the rusty hook that locks it shut. Oh wait, I only have two hands.
Thus, when closing the gate, I turned Drew loose to eat grass, like he had done all day (he eats frantically when nervous). As I finally got it locked, Droodles decided grass was not interesting. Cows were.
Bye
He galloped over to look at the cows. Then Sara drove up, as she was coming to get the grooming bucket she’d also left in our trailer. Off Drew went with tail flying. He ran back and forth at the edge of our pasture, having spotted his buddies. Then he got tired and just waited for me at the gate. I hope he had fun.
You’re sure slow, Suna. I’m right here waiting.
Geez. But, I just laughed and took him back to his pasture…the long way. Yeah, I’m the human leader here.
I just wanted my dang hay.
Little does Drew know he has another lesson tomorrow. And there’s a chance we may have a chance to record the other part of the virtual show. Now, I’m thinking Drew’s behavior had reasons. He was NOT happy in the trailer yesterday. He pooped so much that even shavings didn’t make the footing good. He might be tired from the long trailer ride, too.
I’m sure I’ll hear lots of ideas for how I can deal with this better than I did! There’s always room for improvement.
The Hermits' Rest 