Roller Coaster Day!

Today had its ups and downs, but in the interest of time I’ll just share ups. You’re welcome.

Look!

The turkeys are happy to share that their hit is finished. According to my son, they were VERY helpful while he was moving it into place and getting it painted. They really wanted to help him paint and kept trying to grab the brushes.

We’re not shy. We also appreciate our water dish being put on a level surface!

I love how well the hut matches the henhouse, tack room, and horse pens. It’s so classic barn red. And it has a nice metal roof with few sharp edges to give me tetanus.

I hope the dang turkeys use it. This evening I went out to check on them and the only occupants I saw were the chickens in their area and this guy in the backup coop. He is not a turkey.

You interrupted my rummaging through chicken feed!

Oh well. It isn’t going to hurt anyone. The turkeys would peck it to death first.

Other good stuff? Lee and I did a non-hermit thing and went to a friend’s house for dinner. We had a wonderful time in an old farmhouse laughing and telling stories with our friend and the other guest. He was also a hermit. We had a lot in common. This is the kind of thing we should do more often. It’s great to meet smart, funny, like-minded folks out here.

This painting was on the wall. It’s by a friend I miss very much.

When I got home I had a long phone call with my former professor, Doc Shenkman, who just happens to have spent many years training law enforcement officers in ethics and acting within the law. As you can imagine, he had interesting things to say. He’d called so I could cheer him up, but I don’t think the stories I shared from my friends in Minneapolis did that. But, it’s good to hear the perspective of someone trained in law enforcement on recent events.

And as always, we both noted that there are many agents acting as they should, doing a hard and unpopular job. I just want us all safe, treated with respect, and able to express ourselves without fear.

Rock for today.

I hope I didn’t veer too far off the cheerful, but all the conversations today (family, work, friends, and new friends) made me feel less alone and a wee bit more hopeful.

Drew Makes a New Friend

A quick note about some fun we had today. My neighbor Vicki is looking for an energetic horse to ride, since she hasn’t had a horse in some time. Today she came over to meet Drew, who was quite happy to meet a new human.

Re-enactment

He was a good boy and came running when called and walked up to be haltered. Of course, he showed Vicki his pushy side, but she handled it just fine. We groomed him all up and I did some ground work to show what he can do. He was extra perky, having not worked in a while, and really seemed to enjoy himself.

Look how pretty he got.

It was a very positive first meeting! She’s hoping to lease Drew and do lessons on him.

Later in the afternoon, Vicki came to watch my lesson on Apache, which was good for all of us. We hadn’t had a lesson in a while, and not much practice thanks to the rain and my job’s hours. But we learned through his stiffness and had a good time. I’m glad Vicki got a chance to see a lesson before she has hers with Drew next week.

Hoping some fun times are ahead. I need encouraging horse experiences! And Apache needs more exercise with all this green grass around.

Who me? Chubby?