Author: Elaine

Stored sunshine for a gray day

Sunflowers
Today was unseasonably cold and wet: a good day for helping my friend set up the new PC which will replace her ancient Pentium Pro. I am almost as happy as if I had received a new computer myself. I am her main computer support person, and I would flinch everytime I had to do something to help her out. I was practically purring as I set up her Internet access and tested the smart card reader installed in one of the bays.

Lily

Yesterday, I put a saddle on Lily for the first time since she injured herself. It is too soon to be riding her, but after having handwalked her for several weeks, it is time to start longing her at a trot. I rarely use side-reins when I longe a horse, but they do give me a little extra leverage and control if the horse decides to play on the longe line. Since I don’t have a surcingle, I run the side-reins from the bit to the billets of the saddle.

So far, Lily does not seem tempted to play. However, I only asked her to trot five circles in both directions the first day, and eight circles in both directions today. So far, she looks blessedly, beautifully sound as she trots, with no strain apparent afterward in the injured leg.

Chicken update


In the past week, the chickens have moved into their permanent home: a large room at the end of my friend’s lower horse barn now known as the Chicken Palace. Martha, Cassie and Sunny now have a nesting box, multiple perches made of branches and an old wooden latter, and a heat lamp for winter nights. There is a large run off the Chicken Palace for daytime activities, though we still take them for walks and watch them hunt grasshoppers. Although they look quite large in this photo, they are still extremely light weight so we keep an eye on the cats when they are outside. I would never have believed I would some day pick up a chicken, but these hens are so clean and gentle that I enjoy petting them.

More about the storm

More storms
I was right that the storms happened late enough on Tuesday evening that they didn’t make it into the local paper. This morning’s paper reported funnel clouds, hail, and wind storms all over the area, but there doesn’t seem to have been any injuries or major property damage. As I learned in this comment thread, my photo yesterday was of clouds known as “mammatus.” In my explorations of the topic, I found Kitty’s Tornado Terminology, a good glossary of terms related to violent storms.

Stormy skies

Stormy skies
In eleven years of life in Colorado, I have never seen skies like the ones I saw yesterday evening driving home from the barn. I was so entranced, I drove by the entrance to our driveway and had to back the car. Jack called to ask if I was taking photos, and said that a funnel cloud had been reported in Briargate. The online morning paper doesn’t seem to mention any storm damage, but it might have occurred to late for their press time.

The Road Home


The lines on our road were repainted today. I was trapped behind the truck doing so on my way out this morning.

I arrived at the barn just as my trainer was preparing to set out on the trail with a group of kids. I briefly considered grabbing Hap (who does not get ridden on the trail by the young woman who is leasing him) but my trainer suggested I take Magic, a friend’s horse. (Magic’s superior quality is indicated by the fact that she is one of the few horses I ever had the guts to hunt. Back when we were both a lot younger and fitter, of course.) I was happy that I didn’t take Hap because two of the other horses on the ride became quite rude at one point. Hap’s response to other horses’ rudeness has always been, “Look at me: I can beat that!”

We rebuilt a few old brush jumps so that the kids could start getting a feel of what cross country is like. The horses were kind enough to jump them even though most of the jumps could have been trotted.

I saw an amazing variety of wild-flowers considering how late in the season it is, probably due to the afternoon storms we have been having. The meadows through which we were riding looked as though they belong on a postcard titled “Colorado High Plains.”