Friday, January 17
Jan. 18th, 2025 12:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
Though the weather isn't GREAT, it could be worse, and I feel like we are reasonably prepared.
I got some decent sleep last night.
When I went out to do chores, you could see we got a fair bit of new snow, and there is some wind still. Not horrible, but you have to be aware of the changes. It's supposed to get VERY cold tonight, so there are things we need to do for that.
I went to see River, and was respectful of the road conditions, though it wasn't too bad if you aren't an idiot.
River was already in the barn, R had brought him in and took the blanket he had off so it could dry out. He seemed pretty cozy.
What's nice, is he'd been eating in the barn, so he could be more relaxed in our work. I hate working with him when he's hungry, and it seems unfair.
A lot of the time, the food is put out when we are working, and he's aware of that. It can be distracting.
We had a good session, and he was focused, even though the wind was making some noise. It was a nice, connected session, and we made some progress on the side pass while mounted, as well as on the ground, getting him to keep his distance while doing the Spanish Walk so he's not kicking me.
H, the girl with health challenges, is still not sure if she is coming back after being upset last week, but another person I know filled that time slot today. R said I could still come and work with Maverick, since he could use some "spa time" with the Surefoot pads.
These are firm foam blocks that you put under one hoof, or more than one hoof, to work the small muscles that promote balance and proprioception. I use them with River too, and the horses seem to LOVE using them. They get very relaxed.
The rider getting a lesson was really giving off high anxiety energy, not necessarily fear, but jittery "alert" energy, and I wasn't enjoying it. Everything she was doing, talking, gesturing, and working with the horse, felt edgy.
I was trying to focus on being with Maverick, who was very relaxed and comfortable working with the Surefoot pads, and we had a nice connection today. I was only supposed to do the therapeutic work with him, since he'd had a chiropractic treatment recently, so when we were done the therapy stuff, I just sat down and let him process it, and it was so sweet. He just kind of nuzzled me and I kissed him and played with his lips (horses love that if you do it right).
The whole time, the other rider is just kind of going bananas and not even hardly able to steer, for whatever reason. It's not like this isn't a good rider, so I don't know what was going on there.
Anyhow, it was fun to be with Maverick with some time just to be with him.
Then I drove home carefully, and it was fine.
I needed to put a warm liner on Wonder under her blanket, which I did, then put Dandy back with Ursula.
My Sweetie got home, changed out of his work clothes, and got the goats into the garage for me, which was fantastic.
Then we came in and ate, and he went pretty much straight to sleep.
My husband's day: He had the opportunity to have a paid after noon to help at the local food bank, because the company he works for supports it.
He helped make hundreds of sandwiches for kids' lunches, learned a lot about the organization, and was blown away by the great facilities, the number of regular volunteers (sixty!) and the huge scope of the work they were doing there.
This kitchen/food bank gets an enormous amount of food donated now from Costco, who apparently donates not only food, but all kinds of stuff like sporting goods and clothing and so on, which the director of this group takes upon herself to direct to all kinds of places like kid's camps and jacket drives and local chapters of Scouts, any charity that can use this stuff.
The catch is that Costco doesn't want ANY of it to be resold, only used. That seems fair. This is all because apparently Costco does not have "sales" or put things on sale. If it's not selling, or it's seasonal, or if it's food about to expire, they don't put it on sale, they probably used to throw it all out, but now they donate it to this place.
I don't know if ALL Costcos try to donate their stuff, but I guess this is what our local one does.
This one woman has somehow made the connections to do all KINDS of things with food donated from local grocery stores, NOTHING goes to waste. She made a connection with a worm farmer to give them the food that is completely rotten, she made a connection with a pig farmer who takes mostly bread they can't use, and in return he donates pork.
She sometimes gets pet food which goes to rescues, and on and on.
I have never even HEARD of this woman, but she's some kind of local hub for waste reduction and resource distribution. She's been doing this for 25 years and I don't even know if it's a paid position.
She has likely single-handedly transformed lives with her work, and is probably doing more for the environment on a local level than any other person I've met.
Wow, there are some amazing people out there.
My husband is pretty jazzed by his experience, and who knows? Maybe we'll try to volunteer now and then.
I'm thinking of connecting the horse rescue that R supports with this woman, and maybe they can be part of the resource distribution.
Thursday: I didn't post for Thursday because our internet was down. We had a squall with high winds and snow.
I was home, mostly catching up on laundry and dishes, took out the compost and the recycling, and when the wind picked up I put a blanket on Wonder and made sure things were put away outside so they wouldn't get blown away.
I talked with Trainwreck and it was actually fairly positive. We talked about "nothing", just for the sake of talking, which was pleasant for a change.
I also talked with Sister E for a little while, and she was making meat balls with a friend. She said that she and this friend sometimes cook together, to make big batches of things that they can freeze and use later. That sounded like fun.
My Sweetie did more work on the area we are putting the cabinet over the sink, patching the areas messed up by removing the shelf, and putting up the rail that will hold the cabinet.
I finished a nice drawing that I was working on, and I'm pretty happy with it.
Though the weather isn't GREAT, it could be worse, and I feel like we are reasonably prepared.
I got some decent sleep last night.
When I went out to do chores, you could see we got a fair bit of new snow, and there is some wind still. Not horrible, but you have to be aware of the changes. It's supposed to get VERY cold tonight, so there are things we need to do for that.
I went to see River, and was respectful of the road conditions, though it wasn't too bad if you aren't an idiot.
River was already in the barn, R had brought him in and took the blanket he had off so it could dry out. He seemed pretty cozy.
What's nice, is he'd been eating in the barn, so he could be more relaxed in our work. I hate working with him when he's hungry, and it seems unfair.
A lot of the time, the food is put out when we are working, and he's aware of that. It can be distracting.
We had a good session, and he was focused, even though the wind was making some noise. It was a nice, connected session, and we made some progress on the side pass while mounted, as well as on the ground, getting him to keep his distance while doing the Spanish Walk so he's not kicking me.
H, the girl with health challenges, is still not sure if she is coming back after being upset last week, but another person I know filled that time slot today. R said I could still come and work with Maverick, since he could use some "spa time" with the Surefoot pads.
These are firm foam blocks that you put under one hoof, or more than one hoof, to work the small muscles that promote balance and proprioception. I use them with River too, and the horses seem to LOVE using them. They get very relaxed.
The rider getting a lesson was really giving off high anxiety energy, not necessarily fear, but jittery "alert" energy, and I wasn't enjoying it. Everything she was doing, talking, gesturing, and working with the horse, felt edgy.
I was trying to focus on being with Maverick, who was very relaxed and comfortable working with the Surefoot pads, and we had a nice connection today. I was only supposed to do the therapeutic work with him, since he'd had a chiropractic treatment recently, so when we were done the therapy stuff, I just sat down and let him process it, and it was so sweet. He just kind of nuzzled me and I kissed him and played with his lips (horses love that if you do it right).
The whole time, the other rider is just kind of going bananas and not even hardly able to steer, for whatever reason. It's not like this isn't a good rider, so I don't know what was going on there.
Anyhow, it was fun to be with Maverick with some time just to be with him.
Then I drove home carefully, and it was fine.
I needed to put a warm liner on Wonder under her blanket, which I did, then put Dandy back with Ursula.
My Sweetie got home, changed out of his work clothes, and got the goats into the garage for me, which was fantastic.
Then we came in and ate, and he went pretty much straight to sleep.
My husband's day: He had the opportunity to have a paid after noon to help at the local food bank, because the company he works for supports it.
He helped make hundreds of sandwiches for kids' lunches, learned a lot about the organization, and was blown away by the great facilities, the number of regular volunteers (sixty!) and the huge scope of the work they were doing there.
This kitchen/food bank gets an enormous amount of food donated now from Costco, who apparently donates not only food, but all kinds of stuff like sporting goods and clothing and so on, which the director of this group takes upon herself to direct to all kinds of places like kid's camps and jacket drives and local chapters of Scouts, any charity that can use this stuff.
The catch is that Costco doesn't want ANY of it to be resold, only used. That seems fair. This is all because apparently Costco does not have "sales" or put things on sale. If it's not selling, or it's seasonal, or if it's food about to expire, they don't put it on sale, they probably used to throw it all out, but now they donate it to this place.
I don't know if ALL Costcos try to donate their stuff, but I guess this is what our local one does.
This one woman has somehow made the connections to do all KINDS of things with food donated from local grocery stores, NOTHING goes to waste. She made a connection with a worm farmer to give them the food that is completely rotten, she made a connection with a pig farmer who takes mostly bread they can't use, and in return he donates pork.
She sometimes gets pet food which goes to rescues, and on and on.
I have never even HEARD of this woman, but she's some kind of local hub for waste reduction and resource distribution. She's been doing this for 25 years and I don't even know if it's a paid position.
She has likely single-handedly transformed lives with her work, and is probably doing more for the environment on a local level than any other person I've met.
Wow, there are some amazing people out there.
My husband is pretty jazzed by his experience, and who knows? Maybe we'll try to volunteer now and then.
I'm thinking of connecting the horse rescue that R supports with this woman, and maybe they can be part of the resource distribution.
Thursday: I didn't post for Thursday because our internet was down. We had a squall with high winds and snow.
I was home, mostly catching up on laundry and dishes, took out the compost and the recycling, and when the wind picked up I put a blanket on Wonder and made sure things were put away outside so they wouldn't get blown away.
I talked with Trainwreck and it was actually fairly positive. We talked about "nothing", just for the sake of talking, which was pleasant for a change.
I also talked with Sister E for a little while, and she was making meat balls with a friend. She said that she and this friend sometimes cook together, to make big batches of things that they can freeze and use later. That sounded like fun.
My Sweetie did more work on the area we are putting the cabinet over the sink, patching the areas messed up by removing the shelf, and putting up the rail that will hold the cabinet.
I finished a nice drawing that I was working on, and I'm pretty happy with it.
no subject
Date: 2025-01-19 08:46 am (UTC)