gottawonder

Today I am grateful for:

Connections with lots of people on Facebook. That social app might not always be good for us, but it does help us remember each other on special days.

My Sweetie and I are planning to do something more festive next weekend, since we couldn't find anything we wanted to do this weekend that was appealing, other than going to a movie last night.

It's certainly not because of any lack of awareness of the occasion.

We did do some useful things today, which are things that I wanted and needed done, so that's good.

It was a beautiful day to be outside working, sunny and moderate. No bugs.

We looked at the garage to see if there was a spot we could set up the pottery wheel, and it would have to be the back corner, but there is a lot of crap in that garage that needs to be either thrown out, or moved somewhere else to make it happen. Yet, I think we COULD make it happen if we set our minds to it.

We put a large tarp over the quonset behind the garage (not the quonset slated to be replaced by a car port, one being used currently to house mostly fire wood) to cover a tear in the fabric cover.

Then my Sweetie and I reviewed the area around the compost pile, the makeshift walls I put up, and how to improve them. He made a much better version of my concept, and this is YEARS of trying to get this done, so I'm very happy with this. Now I can actually pile the compost in a contained area instead of having it spread and take over a huge area, and end up being difficult to actually dig out nicely composted material.

I pulled vegetables. I brought in another big pail of cucumbers, green tomatoes that will ripen indoors, and potatoes.

I did let the animals out into their larger pastures for a while.

Then we went to see River.

R was in the barn when we got there, and she did have another discussion with the owner of the mare I've been talking about, and I guess she's still determined that putting the mare down is the best path. R seems to agree with her more today, or maybe she's decided to be supportive of this person rather than fight it more.

R did say that the mare was continuing to be more sore, though I still feel that a week of soreness is not grounds for putting an animal down.

Yet, it seems that this is the situation I have to accept.

They have the barn closed for Tuesday, so that it can be done privately, and the owner can have a day with the mare without people coming and going.

River was crusted with mud since it rained yesterday, and that horse seems to love rolling after it rains. His mane was full of dried balls of clay, and he made a point of shaking his head to indicate that he was annoyed by it, would I please get rid of them for him?

I had to soak the mud to get it out of his mane. He seemed pleased afterwards.

His breathing and energy were good today, as it was cooler and it had rained (the air is cleaner).

We worked on our stationary and "away" circles, and keeping forward. Then worked on the difference between a trot vs. extended trot, spiraling inward, maintaining rhythm, trying for a bit of collection with just the neck rope. Then we did a bit of maybe collected work with the bitless bridle, and it's nice that today he wasn't leaning on the reins, but softer.

I felt that we had a good session today where he was listening nicely, moving out well, and everything was fairly fun on both sides.

I did spend a few moments saying goodbye to the mare in question, as I won't likely see her again before Tuesday.

Then we came home and my Sweetie pretty much had to go to bed after we ate.