Tuesday, June 25
Jun. 26th, 2024 02:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
A very nice day, weather wise.
Waking up in a good mood. Nice not to be angry for a change.
No dire hurry to do anything today specifically, so I got to eat and feel relaxed.
I let everyone out into their pastures, and mowed for a while, doing some of the areas in the yard that were newly cleared yesterday. The grass was quite long in some of those areas.
My Sweetie got home just as I was getting ready to leave for the barn, and he decided to come along so that he could meet his bike riding buddy who lives close to the barn.
It was just a gloriously perfect evening, perfect temperatures, beautiful light, not much for bugs.
River was even in a decent frame of mind.
We ended up working in the outdoor arena while another person was having her lesson, and I tried not to get in their way.
It was good though, to work with River at Liberty and to ride with only the neck rope with another rider/horse pair, to see if it would be distracting.
He did well, paying good attention to me, not worrying about the other horse, and paid attention to my cues well today.
I thought he was doing pretty well overall, making some progress with doing smaller trot circles at liberty and turning on his forehand. I was really happy with how calm and relaxed he was today.
I didn't work on our freestyle pattern today, since I didn't want to burn out on it.
The barn cat, Ruby, that was presumed dead was back! R says she has some small wounds that make her think that something was trying to catch this poor cat, and I guess she managed to hide or something and made it back home! Poor kitty. I hope she stays inside at night where she's safe.
We got home and watched an episode of "Justified".
Mozambique is on the East coast of Africa, with a lot of coastline on the Indian Ocean.
"Between the 7th and 11th centuries, a series of Swahili port towns developed on that area, which contributed to the development of a distinct Swahili culture and dialect. In the late medieval period, these towns were frequented by traders from Somalia, Ethiopia, Egypt, Arabia, Persia, and India.[10] The voyage of Vasco da Gama in 1498 marked the arrival of the Portuguese, who began a gradual process of colonisation and settlement in 1505. After over four centuries of Portuguese rule, Mozambique gained independence in 1975, becoming the People's Republic of Mozambique shortly thereafter. After only two years of independence, the country descended into an intense and protracted civil war lasting from 1977 to 1992. In 1994, Mozambique held its first multiparty elections and has since remained a relatively stable presidential republic, although it still faces a low-intensity insurgency distinctively in the farthermost regions from the southern capital and where Islam is dominant."
While the nation was "decolonizing", a lot of it was more or less still ruled by private companies, and even though slavery was officially outlawed, the practices of these companies of conscripting labor was still more or less slavery. This was taking place in the 1800's into the 1900's basically until those companies ceased to exist.
It's interesting to note that "In 1995, Mozambique joined the Commonwealth of Nations, becoming, at the time, the only member nation that had never been part of the British Empire.[48]"
"The country is divided into two topographical regions by the Zambezi River. To the north of the Zambezi, the narrow coastal strip gives way to inland hills and low plateaus. Rugged highlands are further west; they include the Niassa highlands, Namuli or Shire highlands, Angonia highlands, Tete highlands and the Makonde plateau, covered with miombo woodlands. To the south of the Zambezi, the lowlands are broader with the Mashonaland plateau and Lebombo Mountains located in the deep south."
Since it has so much coastline, it has an amazing number of bird species.
The people of Mozambique are mostly very poor, and there is not much in the way of human development. Once again, what wealth there is tends to flow into the pockets of very few people. Human rights isn't awful, and same sex activity has been legal since 2015, though there is still a lot of discrimination.
The rates of HIV infection are fairly high, the education system is not great, and even basic needs like clean drinking water are not being met.
There are policies to create more privatization to shift away from everything being run by the state, and attempts to bring in more foreign investment. There are reserves of natural gas that they are hoping to develop.
A large part of the economy as well as the cuisine is based on fisheries.
There are about 30 million people, mainly of Bantu origins, but because of it's history of colonization the official language is Portuguese.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozambique
https://youtu.be/ZDo7RwB0Zdo?si=oclibjeOVXyGWxfs
A very nice day, weather wise.
Waking up in a good mood. Nice not to be angry for a change.
No dire hurry to do anything today specifically, so I got to eat and feel relaxed.
I let everyone out into their pastures, and mowed for a while, doing some of the areas in the yard that were newly cleared yesterday. The grass was quite long in some of those areas.
My Sweetie got home just as I was getting ready to leave for the barn, and he decided to come along so that he could meet his bike riding buddy who lives close to the barn.
It was just a gloriously perfect evening, perfect temperatures, beautiful light, not much for bugs.
River was even in a decent frame of mind.
We ended up working in the outdoor arena while another person was having her lesson, and I tried not to get in their way.
It was good though, to work with River at Liberty and to ride with only the neck rope with another rider/horse pair, to see if it would be distracting.
He did well, paying good attention to me, not worrying about the other horse, and paid attention to my cues well today.
I thought he was doing pretty well overall, making some progress with doing smaller trot circles at liberty and turning on his forehand. I was really happy with how calm and relaxed he was today.
I didn't work on our freestyle pattern today, since I didn't want to burn out on it.
The barn cat, Ruby, that was presumed dead was back! R says she has some small wounds that make her think that something was trying to catch this poor cat, and I guess she managed to hide or something and made it back home! Poor kitty. I hope she stays inside at night where she's safe.
We got home and watched an episode of "Justified".
Mozambique is on the East coast of Africa, with a lot of coastline on the Indian Ocean.
"Between the 7th and 11th centuries, a series of Swahili port towns developed on that area, which contributed to the development of a distinct Swahili culture and dialect. In the late medieval period, these towns were frequented by traders from Somalia, Ethiopia, Egypt, Arabia, Persia, and India.[10] The voyage of Vasco da Gama in 1498 marked the arrival of the Portuguese, who began a gradual process of colonisation and settlement in 1505. After over four centuries of Portuguese rule, Mozambique gained independence in 1975, becoming the People's Republic of Mozambique shortly thereafter. After only two years of independence, the country descended into an intense and protracted civil war lasting from 1977 to 1992. In 1994, Mozambique held its first multiparty elections and has since remained a relatively stable presidential republic, although it still faces a low-intensity insurgency distinctively in the farthermost regions from the southern capital and where Islam is dominant."
While the nation was "decolonizing", a lot of it was more or less still ruled by private companies, and even though slavery was officially outlawed, the practices of these companies of conscripting labor was still more or less slavery. This was taking place in the 1800's into the 1900's basically until those companies ceased to exist.
It's interesting to note that "In 1995, Mozambique joined the Commonwealth of Nations, becoming, at the time, the only member nation that had never been part of the British Empire.[48]"
"The country is divided into two topographical regions by the Zambezi River. To the north of the Zambezi, the narrow coastal strip gives way to inland hills and low plateaus. Rugged highlands are further west; they include the Niassa highlands, Namuli or Shire highlands, Angonia highlands, Tete highlands and the Makonde plateau, covered with miombo woodlands. To the south of the Zambezi, the lowlands are broader with the Mashonaland plateau and Lebombo Mountains located in the deep south."
Since it has so much coastline, it has an amazing number of bird species.
The people of Mozambique are mostly very poor, and there is not much in the way of human development. Once again, what wealth there is tends to flow into the pockets of very few people. Human rights isn't awful, and same sex activity has been legal since 2015, though there is still a lot of discrimination.
The rates of HIV infection are fairly high, the education system is not great, and even basic needs like clean drinking water are not being met.
There are policies to create more privatization to shift away from everything being run by the state, and attempts to bring in more foreign investment. There are reserves of natural gas that they are hoping to develop.
A large part of the economy as well as the cuisine is based on fisheries.
There are about 30 million people, mainly of Bantu origins, but because of it's history of colonization the official language is Portuguese.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozambique
https://youtu.be/ZDo7RwB0Zdo?si=oclibjeOVXyGWxfs
no subject
Date: 2024-06-27 05:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-06-27 07:50 am (UTC)When I was a kid, we had a cat colony more or less on our place, and there were always TONS of kittens. When they got old enough to start hunting, a lot of them just never came back.
There are just so many things that are dangerous. We had a mama pig that ate cats (got rid of her soon after discovering that, as it's a short distance to attacking kids from there), they got ran over or wrapped up in the fan belt because they would get up inside a vehicle sometimes, cat killing dogs, coyotes, hawks, and so on.
Generally, if a cat goes missing for more than a day or so, misses feeding time, you do tend to jump to conclusions.
I'm glad she's back. I don't know that she's left her bed for the last two days.
no subject
Date: 2024-06-28 02:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-06-28 05:52 am (UTC)The other thing cats sometimes do, is crawl up underneath, which isn't going to be easy to tell if they are there, or sit on the wheels, which is easier to see.
If you at least make some noise and maybe slap the hood a couple of times, that might scare them out.
Unfortunately, sometimes scared cats also prefer to stay hidden. We once had a cat that got somewhere non-lethal in the truck body ride there for over an hour, and jumped out in the city (when I was a kid). Lots of people have had that happen.
This article also says another way to discourage cats is to clean up anything that might attract rodents, since cats are sometimes after the rodents themselves.
Another article said that cats don't like citrus, so if your car is parked a lot, spraying orange essential oil around it might help.
https://www.miamiherald.com/living/pets/article260417602.html
no subject
Date: 2024-06-30 02:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-06-28 04:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-06-28 05:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-06-27 06:08 am (UTC)