Thursday, June 19

Today I am grateful for:

More rock solid sleep.

That our kitchen walls are such a happy color. I'm enjoying them. Such a nice change from the drab grey.

My back is still sore today, and that made everything suck a bit.

I did the dishes.

I sorted out the dates/times of some upcoming events vat the barn so that I am mentally ready for those, and I made an appointment with a physiotherapist to see if there's something to be done about the back pain. I've had back pain on and off for a long time, hip pain that is probably related to the back issues, and I would like to try to DO something about it.

Yes, usually whatever pain I have resolves, but sometimes not for a week or more. If I can get to the root of it, maybe I don't have to go through these pain cycles.

I went outside and did chores, spent about an hour working in the barn moving some old square bales that might be too musty to feed to animals, raked up some old hay off the barn floor, and then went after weeds in the mulched area on the East side of the house. Sigh. Our brick walkway looks nice, but it too, is full of weeds.

So that was a large part of my day.

My Sweetie got home, and helped me with the weeds, and he put together the metal enclosed fire box (?).

We sat for a while outside in the evening, with a happy little fire crackling away (thankfully we got good rain earlier today, finally), sitting on the swing. It was lovely.

Friday, June 20

Today I am grateful for:

More solid sleep.

The rain we've been getting. It was SO DRY!!!

My Sweetie spent some time with me before he left to spend a few days with his bike riding buddy. They're supposed to be doing an MS ride, but the first of two days is already cancelled due to predicted heavy rainfall. If nothing else, he'll get a good visit with his friend. His other bike riding friend that he rides with here is also going. It will be the three of them.

Two weeks ago, a stranger pulled into our yard, saying he represented a high speed rural internet company. I took his information, and he left. Today, another guy from the same company pulls in, has the same thing you hang on a doorknob with the company information on it, but COME ON, am I going to have these guys just driving into our yard all the time now?

I got his I.D, told him I did not want any more representatives from his company coming to our yard, and also called the company and told THEM to stop sending people to our house.

I let them know that if they wanted to target rural people, sending strangers to drive into their yard is probably the worst way to do it, since NO ONE likes strangers driving into their yard and looking around the place.

This is because sometimes thieves do this; pose as a sales person so they can gather information like if there's anything worth stealing, if there are people at home during the day, if there's a dog and if it's mean, if the door is locked, and so on. Then, those scouts go back and get a truck and some help and go back and steal tools or big things that sell easily, like a motor bike or a quad or a snowmobile.

So even if this is a real company, and the sales reps were legit, it's not going to win anyone over having them come into the yard uninvited.

They said I would be flagged as "not wanting sales people", but who knows. It sure didn't look like the guy today was working his way through a list of people who wanted sales people, just driving into every yard on our road.

I wonder if I can press trespassing charges if they show up again.

I didn't do much before going to see River. The wetness and rain meant I didn't need to be trying to pull weeds or anything outside.

Back pain is still present. Sigh.

I did go see River, and he was in a good mood and his breathing was good. We worked on elements of our freestyle to keep up with that, since we might end up doing it for the show at the barn.

We also did our homework from the lesson Wednesday, which is to lighten the cues for backing, as well as the turn on hindquarters work.

It was nice just to be with River, and pleasant to have the rain falling on the tent-like roof of the arena.

I stayed to work another horse (Ferrari) during the woman with health issues' lesson. Ferrari is so different from River, almost over eager, and doing more than I ask, which means he's still not listening to what I want, just doing too much. He's very sweet though, and he's looking really good since he's lost weight being worked regularly.

The walking in deep sand wasn't helping my back, so I was happy to get home.