Sunday, August 28

Today I am grateful for:

A much cooler day than what we've been having. A great relief.

I wonder where August has gone. Really, this month has roared by.

I got more sleep today! I have such a huge backlog of dreams to get through that the sleeping felt busy.

My Sweetie continued working on all the electrical stuff in the basement, replacing some old wires and labeling others, and so on. Funny, this all could have been done last winter, when we were doing little else.

I cleaned the litter box and the water filter for the turtle tank.

Then we went to see River. I allowed him at least half an hour to graze on part of the yard before we got started, since I thought that was only fair.

We chatted with R about the "actual" show she went to today, and about the complications with trying to download videos to the virtual show. She's not real happy with that organization for the inconsistent work done on the site, but she needs that group because there is so little Liberty work being done in Canada. She is just about the only person training and showing in Liberty in Alberta, and without that online group there is no connection with any governing body that she could show with.

It is extremely difficult to be seen as legitimate in an equine discipline without some kind of community that sets standards.

Another rider was around. I feel like I haven't seen her very much this summer.

River did well on the ground work, and well with the work done with just the neck rope.

Then I rode with the bitless bridle, and it seemed like all he wanted to do was bring his head up in it. So strange, since he hasn't been like that for a while, and this thing shouldn't be causing him discomfort. Oh well.

It was nice to work with him in cooler weather. He had much more energy.

We came home, and my Sweetie went back down stairs to finish a few things (so that I could have power back in a few outlets). I washed dishes and made supper while he did that.

Then we watched a bit more "Picard". It isn't easy to follow. It keeps introducing characters and new subplots at a very high pace, and you end up not being sure what the heck is happening, or who these people are, but you also end up caring less because they come and go pretty quickly.

Today I learned that there was a ship during WWII whose entire purpose was to make ice cream for soldiers:

"An ice cream barge was a vessel employed by the United States Navy in the Pacific Theatre of World War II to produce ice cream in large quantities to be provisioned to sailors and Marines. The craft, a concrete barge acquired from the U.S. Army and worth $1 million,[1][2] was able to create 10 US gallons (38 l) of ice cream every seven minutes, or approximately 500 US gal (1,900 l) per shift, and could store 2,000 US gal (7,600 l).[3][4] It was employed in the USN's Western Pacific area of operations, at one point anchored at Ulithi.[5] These ships were intended to raise the morale of U.S. troops overseas by producing ice cream at a fast rate."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_cream_barge

The concrete barge had no engines of its own, and had to be towed around by tug boats. It did not have a name.

The tradition of making sure sailors had ice cream on ships to boost morale began in WWI because of Prohibition, and continued after that.

This is mostly for Ratty

A fun, silly song! https://youtu.be/1B1RJiOGPUI

Monday, August 29

Today I am grateful for:

My Sweetie got more done with the wiring.

He also tinkered with the horse waterer again. There his been something leaking. We already adjusted the float etc. Today after taking everything apart he found a pebble where there logistically should not have been a pebble, and that might be what was going on.

We also got some fluffy insulation moved out of the basement. We were using it to insulate an area under a deck that is hard to explain, but it's directly over the basement and is kind of like the roof there, but otherwise not weatherized for cold. We removed the fluffy insulation and will be putting in a spray foam insulation.

We've been chasing this pile of insulation all summer, as my husband moved it here, then there, but never OUT of the basement.

The contractor wanted it all out of his way, and I told my Sweetie that if WE didn't get it out, the contractor would move it, and we'd end up paying him for an hour's work doing stuff we should have done.

Alas, he was so flustered with everything that he forgot his work laptop here. He says he can likely fake his way through work tomorrow, but I will have to meet him half way after work tomorrow, about an hour and change for each of us. I might miss my riding time.

I went to pick up a set of what looks like wooden Ikea shelves that a neighbor was giving away. It is also a horse breeding facility, so I chatted with the owner for a while (I've been there a few times now, she's really nice) and looked at a couple of her foals from this year. They are just old enough to be weaned from their Moms.

I folded clean laundry, washed some more, and then tried to have a nap. I didn't really nap, but rested.

Then I talked with my Sister E for a while. No one has heard much about how Sister S is doing. The conversation drifted around for a while, and she was talking about how there is kind of a destination area that was one of the homesteads for the Ingalls family, or at least the real family that the books were based upon.

My sister, and lots and lots of other people, really LOVE the whole mythology of the gritty pioneer who came to tame the wilderness, etc. etc. She was getting into that a bit, and I said "I read those novels as an adult, and I couldn't see it like that anymore. The way the Ingolls family in their wagon were passing all of the native people who were likely moving as a nation to a reserve in the other direction. It really glossed over the whole murdering a nation of people so they could come and have their gritty little adventure."

My sister responds with impatience "Well, that isn't what the books are about! They are about Laura and her family making a start in the New World".

Well, that does kind of sum up the colonial mindset, doesn't it? Yeesh.

I wonder if we shouldn't be writing a companion novel to the "Little House on the Prairie" books that at least describes the other side of that narrative, from the perspective of the remaining people who were being moved onto reserves? What THEY thought as they watched the wagon trains arriving, the land being tilled, the houses and the railroad and the end of their freedom? Something written at the same level for young readers?

I used to love those stories, and others like it. There is something very appealing about people with a dream, coming to a land of endless possibility where they could escape the hierarchies of the old world, where a common family could own land and have equality. Everyone except for the people they stole the land from, of course. They don't frame it like that. Those people were "dangerous savages".

Anyhow.

Today I learned that humming birds are the only bird that can fly backwards.