Sunday, April 23
Apr. 24th, 2023 01:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
Though it was windy today, it didn't feel too cold.
We let Roxy be without any neck barriers today, to see how it would go. She licks a little bit, but her incision is healed up other than one tiny patch where the skin tore that is a little pink, but otherwise not scabby or oozing. She's not really bothering it, so she can finally be without all the barriers. It has been almost a month to heal the incision.
I am very grateful that she is still here with us, and that she can go roam around in the yard and the horse pasture again and get muddy.
For a relaxed day.
My poor Sweetie never gets enough down time during his work period to really relax and probably never really gets enough sleep. People NEED to have some time every day to go for a walk, or do nothing for a while. He pretty much finishes work, goes to his apartment, eats supper, and goes to bed. Sometimes he walks or rides his bike, but it's not like he has an hour or two to just sit there and do nothing.
We did manage to get a few things done today, but it was not a high pressure situation. We took down the Christmas lights and put them away (this never seems to happen until the snow melts), and we took down the Purple Martin house and cleaned it out (not easy, it's on a tall pole and requires a ladder). There was a fair amount of picking something up on our way back and forth somewhere and either putting it on the truck to go to the dump or back in the garage.
I picked up a wheel barrow's worth of pony poop and took it to the compost heap.
We walked around the yard to see which shrubs are budding. A spring ritual.
It's actually quite a profound and widespread ritual. You think about it; how many individuals and couples go walk around the yard together to check on the shrubs, the trees, to see what is coming back in the garden and the flower bed. To pull away some dead grass and leaves to find the new shoots underneath. To look at familiar trees and consider whether to remove a branch, or to note the growth since you planted it years ago. To see how much water there is in various areas. To take inventory.
We went to see River, and we did not see the Sunday rider. I haven't seen her in quite some time. She must be coming quite early on Sunday now; she used to be there at the same time often as we were.
River's leg seemed good today, so that's nice.
We did our usual work. I've been trying to get him to walk and trot more boldly and confidently as he has a tendency to be very pokey. It means I have to really bring the energy too (this is all with me on the ground).
We worked on our pattern and had some frustration again with getting him to stay connected and fairly close on the circles in one direction. After a great deal of effort he did better, and I left it there.
He did well on our Liberty work/ground work.
With all the wind, the top of the arena was moving and making a lot of noise but it didn't bother him.
We did walk around the horse pasture with Roxy when we got home. This is also when we cleaned the bird house, and I hauled a stock pile of cat litter out to the area where we dump it (it's biodegradable).
Then we watched "Johnny Dangerously", which is a hilarious movie from the '80's starring Michael Keaton.
I learned that Fidel Castro had an enormous love of dairy products, especially ice cream. Cuba's native cattle were not big milk producers, and that meant that there was not a big local industry in ice cream and it bothered him greatly that the U.S. DID have a huge dairy industry. Fidel tried very hard to fund development of a stronger dairy industry in Cuba so that they didn't have to import dairy products, which was very difficult because Holsteins do not thrive there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidel_Castro_and_dairy
Though it was windy today, it didn't feel too cold.
We let Roxy be without any neck barriers today, to see how it would go. She licks a little bit, but her incision is healed up other than one tiny patch where the skin tore that is a little pink, but otherwise not scabby or oozing. She's not really bothering it, so she can finally be without all the barriers. It has been almost a month to heal the incision.
I am very grateful that she is still here with us, and that she can go roam around in the yard and the horse pasture again and get muddy.
For a relaxed day.
My poor Sweetie never gets enough down time during his work period to really relax and probably never really gets enough sleep. People NEED to have some time every day to go for a walk, or do nothing for a while. He pretty much finishes work, goes to his apartment, eats supper, and goes to bed. Sometimes he walks or rides his bike, but it's not like he has an hour or two to just sit there and do nothing.
We did manage to get a few things done today, but it was not a high pressure situation. We took down the Christmas lights and put them away (this never seems to happen until the snow melts), and we took down the Purple Martin house and cleaned it out (not easy, it's on a tall pole and requires a ladder). There was a fair amount of picking something up on our way back and forth somewhere and either putting it on the truck to go to the dump or back in the garage.
I picked up a wheel barrow's worth of pony poop and took it to the compost heap.
We walked around the yard to see which shrubs are budding. A spring ritual.
It's actually quite a profound and widespread ritual. You think about it; how many individuals and couples go walk around the yard together to check on the shrubs, the trees, to see what is coming back in the garden and the flower bed. To pull away some dead grass and leaves to find the new shoots underneath. To look at familiar trees and consider whether to remove a branch, or to note the growth since you planted it years ago. To see how much water there is in various areas. To take inventory.
We went to see River, and we did not see the Sunday rider. I haven't seen her in quite some time. She must be coming quite early on Sunday now; she used to be there at the same time often as we were.
River's leg seemed good today, so that's nice.
We did our usual work. I've been trying to get him to walk and trot more boldly and confidently as he has a tendency to be very pokey. It means I have to really bring the energy too (this is all with me on the ground).
We worked on our pattern and had some frustration again with getting him to stay connected and fairly close on the circles in one direction. After a great deal of effort he did better, and I left it there.
He did well on our Liberty work/ground work.
With all the wind, the top of the arena was moving and making a lot of noise but it didn't bother him.
We did walk around the horse pasture with Roxy when we got home. This is also when we cleaned the bird house, and I hauled a stock pile of cat litter out to the area where we dump it (it's biodegradable).
Then we watched "Johnny Dangerously", which is a hilarious movie from the '80's starring Michael Keaton.
I learned that Fidel Castro had an enormous love of dairy products, especially ice cream. Cuba's native cattle were not big milk producers, and that meant that there was not a big local industry in ice cream and it bothered him greatly that the U.S. DID have a huge dairy industry. Fidel tried very hard to fund development of a stronger dairy industry in Cuba so that they didn't have to import dairy products, which was very difficult because Holsteins do not thrive there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidel_Castro_and_dairy
