gottawonder

Today I am grateful for:

Lovely weather.

My old horse Hollywood is looking sleeker with all the grass. She has a hard time keeping on weight over the winter, even with extra mash.

For finding the oomph to try harder to get something done today. I did two loads of laundry, vacuumed, put away the clothes from my trip home, found a rug for my husband to put under his stationary bike, found the pump I need to pump water from the big rainwater tank to the garden and the hoses to hook it up, took the hay cubes out of the car and put them into a big bin, and the normal chores.

I took the box of no longer needed kitchen stuff from sorting things from the sea can a few days ago, and dropped it off at the thrift store in town. It is actually a woman kind of selling things for herself, and now is doing commissions, but I don't care about getting money for this box of stuff. We don't need it, and it just needs to go.

I went to see River, and his breathing wasn't great again (it is chronic, from bad hay a few years ago. Whenever it is warm, dusty, or smokey, his breathing is poor). We did some ground work, and then rode in the pasture. I did work on softness with the bitless, turning off of his hindquarters, soft halts, backing, and bending. All things that can be done at the walk without stressing him.

Talked with R a bit, and with another woman that I've seen a lot this spring because her daughter's lesson time is around when I come in to ride. They are now taking their two ponies home (the ones in the picture I posted recently), but will still be coming for lessons on one of R's horses, or trailering their own.

I came home and dug deep, and found a bit more ambition to plant a bit in the garden, on the side that I got tilled yesterday. I got that side about half planted, with carrots, beans, peas, lettuce and chard.

Today I learned that the inventor of Coca cola developed it to overcome his morphine addiction. I did know that it used to contain cocaine, but I didn't know that it was developed as a medicine, and that it was right after the Civil War.

John Stith Pemberton, a Confederate Lieutenant Colonel, served in the defense of Columbia, Georgia, during the Battle of Columbus in April 1865, where he sustained a saber wound to the chest. During his recovery from the wound, he became addicted to morphine, which he used to dull the pain. Seeking a cure from his addiction, Pemberton, in 1866 began to experiment with making painkillers that were opium-free alternatives to morphine. Eventually he began experimenting with coca and coca wines, creating a recipe he dubbed Pemberton’s French Wine Coca. The medicine was sold and advertised in Atlanta to war veterans suffering drug addiction, depression, and alcoholism, and to “ladies, and all those whose sedentary employment causes nervous prostration.”

https://www.historynet.com/civil-war-created-coca-cola/