November Activities
Back to October 2006 • Forward to December 2006 1 November 2006 When I was tacking Zinnet up last night, I noticed the rather sad state of her mane. I'd braided it up about five months ago - and it looked it. It was kind of matted in big clomps - still braided, but had somewhat lost the "tidy braided" look (what with an entire plank of mane being able to be moved at the same time). So when we were done, I tied her to the outside of a stall in the barn, put a hay bag in front of her, and set to with ShowSheen and a hairbrush. Jack came in to see what we were doing. It wasn't the hay (he couldn't reach it), he just wanted to know what we were doing. Zini pinned her ears at him half-heartedly a couple of times, but then just ignored him. He stood and watched. Anyway, once Zini was all spiffed up again, long mane brushed out 'til it shone (well, kind of)(it's pretty long and below the bottom edge of her neck, though), I decided that maybe Jack could use some TLC also. So I went after him with the hair brush. He wasn't at all keen, so I ended up hanging off his neck while he did laps of the stall that I'd shut him in. Luckily, he's still small enough to muscle around and chunky enough to hang off and he finally he agreed to stand still and submit to brushing. He sort of reminded me of an annoyed schoolboy trying to avoid being spiffed up by his mother. Very fluffy he looks too. He has a thick, thick winter coat - with chunks missing out of it as the remains of his early discussions with Roo and with Provo and Zinnet the day they all got in together. I think he has learned his lesson, though, as none of us seem to come to blows any more - him with the others, or him with my eyebrow ridges. :) 3-7 November Friday: pft's taking the new truck to work, then driving back up as far as Auburn to drop it off at Sundowner to have the gooseneck hitch put on it. I'm to meet him there. They close at 5 pm - I'm not sure I can get there that early, since Farrier Ted doesn't come until 2:30.
Sunday: We got up early (kinda) and went and rode in the McDowell Mountain Regional Park about 20 minutes away. Rusty's putting on his new ride at the beginning of April on these trails. I rode another friend's (Barb) horse - Mickey - who was a nice horse - staid and solid - no nonsense and we had a good time. We rode part of the first 25 mile loop - 17 miles of it, anyway. The start was almost like groomed trails - smoothy gently undulating, with a footing of firm caliche. Looking at those first couple of miles, I figured the ride would be won in about 3 hours :) Anyway, after a bit we did end up going uphill and then working our way behind a mountain and clambering over some rocks and down into some gullies on a really fun trail. Rusty said the people would probably bitch about the rocks (they weren't *that* bad)(the people round here must be *really* spoilt).
Photos are of Kevin, Rusty, and their friend Clydea (and Mickey's head). Rusty’s explaining the trail and where he’s going to put the water stops, etc. We rode through a cholla garden, where Kevin and Rusty hopped off to push some cholla bobbles off the trail (they tried, anyway, except the things stuck to their feet). Rusty said he may try and drive up here on an ATV the day before the ride with a rake to get the bobbles off the trail (they disconnect from the main plants and lie there waiting for unsuspecting victims to walk past). Those things are a bitch to get plucked off your horse if they get them stuck on them, so they didn't want people having to resort to tweezers if they brushed through them.
Neat, huh? There was the end of a 100 mile foot race going on, so we passed a few rather tired looking runners on the trail - they started at 6 am Saturday and had until noon Sunday to finish (we started riding ~8:30 by the time we'd picked up all the horses). > Was it hot down there? Not ungodly hot. Hot enough to ride in t-shirts and be pleasantly warm, but not so hot that I ever overheated, even when we were going fast. It was actually a really nice temperature. Monday: pft and I drove out towards the east to see the countryside. Tuesday: Kevin and I got up early Tuesday morning and went for a quick ride out before he had to go to work. It was nice riding along in the early morning sun, winding through the washes, ducking below mesquite trees and avoiding scraping your legs on the cholla. We saw a couple of coyotes and a road runner. Short walking ride, but nice all the same. We had a most excellent time in Arizona and I would love to go again. 8 November It's damp. It rained over-night and I went out this morning and Roo was standing in the rain next to the "big kids’ " gate. I guess Jack just doesn't cut it, socially, since Roo seems to prefer the company of the others. Thinking that I need to geld Jack this month so I can throw him and Zinnet in together, since they seem to like each other. Or just throw all the horses in together regardless. The new supermarket in Cool opened yesterday and we dropped by there on the way home to inspect. Gail was working at the check out (yak, yak, yak) <BG> 9 November This morning it was the coldest it has been so far (a whole 41°F) and Roo was looking decidedly "hair on end". He wasn't shivering, but didn't look as comfy as he might. I've now dropped my "I will blanket" cut-off to "30s". To warm them up a bit, I opened the connecting gate between the "Big Kids" and the "Small Kids" and let them romp together for a bit. This was a success, with a fair amount of running around ensuing (including watching Jacklet racing down the long paddock and leaping over the big truck tyre that's lying in the paddock).
Watching the herd dynamics this morning was interesting. Provo is still boss, but when he wanted to come through the gate and Jack was standing in the way, he didn't bite his butt to move him the way I expected, he just stood there, waiting for Jack to get out of the way (which he couldn't, because *he* was waiting for Zini to finish drinking).
Then Roo came up, and Provo lunged at him (half-heartedly), so he wandered off down to the other shelter and ate the hay in there on his own. Good that tomorrow is Friday, as it's going to get spent riding and fetching gravel and sand and scraping it out of the back of the truck, and then collapsing in a heap. Rain on Saturday, so my real job work will get done then... 10 November
Zini didn't much like Ann's mare, Abi, and Abi liked Zini even less, so after half a mile of wrestling and snippy faces and uncooperative activity, we unclipped Zini and let her run along loose with us. This resulted in her racing up and down, leaping and flying, rearing and bucking, and doing drive-bys (which was a bit alarming).
Roo and I went first and were waiting on the other side behind some bushes, but when the others din't show up, he started to get a bit antsy and fidgety and finally did a little rear and then a quite big rear, which was a bit shocking. Bad pony. Hopefully this isn't a "neat new trick" he's learned.
It was really nice to see them getting along so well - and Roo was a good influence on her when he drank at the creek and she followed suit after a minute are so. A mile or so from the finish, we met a couple of ladies and sat and talked to them for about half an hour - which was good for Roo to deal with - having to stand around without moving. The miserable thing was, as we went along, I started to think that Zini was a bit off - sort of intermittently - and sure enough, when I lunged her at the end, she was *really* off - dead lame style. <grrrrr> This time it was left front, so at least it's not the same leg as back in June (that was right front, which was really left rear hock and just making the right front *look* lame). I can only assume she did it when she was racing around, leaping about. <sigh>. So back in the paddock she goes. Of course, maybe it's just a tweak and Zini will be fixed in a few days - she is a drama queen, so it could be something minor... When I got home, I rushed out and got gravel and luckily pft was home by the time I got back, so he helped me drag it all out of the back of the truck. I now have muscles I didn't know I had. Or I now have muscles that didn't exist prior to them complaining bitterly about being brought out of retirement. Since we din't want the pones pooping on the fresh gravel until I get the DG on top (which is tomorrow morning's project) they are all shut in the barn paddock together this evening. (The purpose of the gravel is promote drainage, not to be packed in solid with smooshed poop, so I had to scoop out the already-pooped-on-packed-down gravel and put it next to the shelter and replace it with fresh, ready for its DG topping) Anyhoo - all in together for the first time <gulp>. I'm hoping this won't result in: a) a pregnant Zini (not likely, since Jack's attempt to sniff her bottom
earlier nearly resulted in him losing an eye)
11 November The rain came in overnight and this morning Roo and Jack were standing rather sadly near the gate in the rain, having been chased out of the barn by the big kids. Roo was wearing a blankie, so this wasn't as pathetic a picture as you might think (Jack has so much hair the rain just dribbles off him like a duck).
Having noticed that Roo has dropped some weight since Lake Sonoma, I put him in the newly gravelled shelter paddock on his own (on his honour not to poop in it)(he's not very honourable) and stuck large amounts of food in front of him. Zini spent the day entertaining herself by lunging a Jack (who scuttles 3' and then ignores her) and waving one back leg in the air as a threatening gesture (never mind that she's 20' from the horse she's "threatening"). Farrier Ted came this morning and put 4 shoes on Roo and front natural balance shoes on Provo. Provo (who I used to have to bribe with 5 lbs of carrots to stand still and not kill the farrier) stood still and bored and I rested my cold cheek on his warm muzzle, while Roo fidgeted and wriggled. I produced a hay bag for him and after that he was a lot better behaved.
Truck and trailer on their maiden voyage It took him a
while to go all the way around the circle drive behind the house and I
was starting to get scared that he'd got stuck on the top sharp corner
(if you screw it up, you go off the edge of the bank and get thoroughly
stuck, as a delivery truck did once). 12 November Today I rode again with Ann and Jess out at Cronin. I doubt we went further than 6 miles or so, but we had fun. As we were leaving a bunch of riders came in and one of them was on a bay n' white pinto. Roo got all talkative and wanted to go back with them, it was funny (goodness knows why, since Zini has been a crab to him ever since Friday). He's getting better at getting in the trailer - mostly because I gave in and now get in with him and bribe him in with a carrot. I figure once he's really solid at that I can start teaching him to be sent in - but spending 20 minutes wrestling with him to get him in was starting to get old. Oh, and I drove the new truck with the trailer today. WHOOO! It pulls like a dream. Going up and down Marshall Grade (which is really steep and can get scary as there are several tight corners on it and you can really pick up speed on the downhills) was SO EASY. I put it in "tow" mode and it automatically slowed us down, instead of whooshing downhill faster and faster. And the brakes work and stop you where you want to stop, not several feet later. :) And as busy good-girl chores, we got a yard of DG down in the shelters on top of the rock, so Roo's allowed in there again and I don't care if he poops (although I will because I raked the DG so prettily). I've never dealt with DG before, so it was interesting. I hope it packs down really quickly so it's nice and hard in there. Already it was working, though, as the pones had knocked the automatic waterer the other day and it was hanging off the panel, squirting water out for goodness-knows-how-long - and it all went into the gravel and didn't turn the shelter into a sloppy mess the way it would have pre-gravel. The main trouble with the rain arriving is not the rain itself, it's more its ability to suddenly highlight all the tasks that I'd promised myself I'd get done before the rain - and they aren't. 14 November My phone line is up the spout at the moment (rain in the wires?), so I can only log on at 9.6 kb. We have leaves on the line, or water in the line, or mice in the line... sommat. Either way, our "computer" line wouldn't talk to foothill.net all and switching the wire over to the "voice line" resulted in connecting at a blitzing 9.6 kb. I could hardly contain myself. We *really* need alternative internet access. Did my good girl chores - fetched 22 bales of hay (long bed trucks ROCK!) and stacked them, then fetched another yard of 3/4" gravel and unloaded it into the squishy part of the driveway where the truck-n-trailer gets parked. That should help reduce the delightful orangey-red-paint effect that is plastering the inside of the new truck. Who needs a subscription to the gym? This morning Provo's back leg were filled. WHY?? Standing around too much from the rain? Did he overhear me say that I wanted him to be fit for Christmas? 17 November My plans to go to Fort Ord seem to be falling out of the window. Since Sonoma, I've only had a chance to ride Roo twice - maybe 6-7 miles (really *fun* rides, but not long ones) and I'll maybe get in a couple of rides this weekend, but not really what you could call "conditioning". I've been run off my feet doing gravelling (I'm on my fourth pickup load) and doing real-job work (didn't get home until 11 pm last night), and I'm still looking at the not-even-vaguely finished barn and thinking "hmmm". So just to keep me in sound mind, I think I'm going to stay home, ride my pones, play with gravel, finish the barn, fix my sewing machine, maybe even *sew*, and go to TG dinner at Ann's house instead :) Jack is still cute as a cute thing, though, so I am replete :) And Provo seems to like him and doesn't try to kill him the way he tries to kill the others. Oh, I got my WNV shots from the vet last weekend and am going to give them myself - saving a whole $12 or so ... I just have to get around to that too. <sigh> pft has been sick-as-a-dog all week. Went to work Monday, felt awful, stayed home Tuesday and sounded wet all day, went to work Wed., felt awful, stayed home Thurs and didn't sound any better than he had, really, on Monday. Today he went in, but said he'll only stay a half-day. He's not very entertaining. Just my luck, I'll get it in time for the holiday. Pones didn't get fed until 11 pm last night. On a good note - the rain stopped and it's drying out, and the leaves are really pretty :) * * * Hurray! Hurray! Our computer line is fixed and I can now connect at 26 kb again... yay. No idea why it suddenly came back - except that, mysteriously, the voice line stopped working around the same time <snort>. I'm guessing maybe someone else on Andy Wolf was affected by the fluffy line and complained, a man came and fixed it, and in the process killed the other line? So things will be very quiet here. 19 November This morning, the voice line still wasn't working (I thought maybe it'd just come back by magic, like the computer line had), and the computer line had gone fluffy again - resulting in pft's computer (different modem) managing to connect at 14.4 kb, but mine refusing to talk to the outside world at all. Result - no phone, no email. I could sort of look at my email on pft's computer, but not send, just look at it. <sigh> I finally gave in and called the telephone company about the voice line and supposedly they'll come and sort it out on Tuesday. Probably what'll happen is they'll fix it and in the process screw up the computer line. Right now they are on different kinds of wire, so the voice line never works at more than 14.4 kb on a good day... this is because last time they had to "fix" the line, they switched it to the "new" kind of wire which doesn't do computers. It's getting to the stage where we're going to have to shell out $300-$500 to get an internet satellite dish on the roof <grrrr>. We were going to see if we could see Casino Royale this evening, but didn't get sorted out early enough, so instead we just went and had fish-n-chips in Auburn with Ann and Jess (real fish n' chip shop). Jess asked me how it compared to English fish-n-chips and I told him it wasn't nearly greasy enough :) pft was poorly all week with flu (he was supposed to get a flu shot on Friday - so much for that). He's on the mend now, but I've picked it up a bit. I'm not as bad as him (he was awful), but was feeling out of sorts today, so slept most of the day. Hopefully things will be better tomorrow, as I've got so much work at the moment - they're having another round of emergency levee repairs, so I had to get a bunch of factsheets done for the different sites - that's what I've been working on this evening. 23-26 November Four whole days to ride, ride, ride.... but instead I spent most of TG sick, sick, sick. :( TG afternoon, I sent pft to Ann's for TG dinner and I stayed home and slept on the sofa. Didn't ride once <pout> (mostly due to coughing my lungs out every time I did more than move slowly). I did get to watch the dog show TG day - and the stupid fluffy white toy poodle won. <double pout>
And I got to visit the quilt shop Sunday and start the quilting season. A little late, but got there in the end. I've got two "fishie" quilts planned. The sewing machine still won't reverse properly, but I figure I don't need it to reverse to start with when I'm just piecing all the little bits together in a forwardly direction.
And lastly, spent Sunday afternoon completely rearranging the living room. It has never been quite right and was never quite how it should be.
I'm *really* pleased with the end result - the whole room is now much nicerer and brighter and more useable. It's a bit strange after six years to have a "different house", but makes me wonder why it took us so long. Sheila wanted me to ride with her Friday, Ann invited me Saturday and Sheila invited me again Sunday :( Instead, the pones stood in the barn and ate and ate (oh, I guess we did work on desensitising them to drill and circular saw noises <g>). The work with the gravel/DG paid off, for the most part and the shelters stayed dry and pleasant - even though Roo looked like a drowned rat this morning in his soggy blanket - quite why he was so wet is anyone's guess, given all the shelter opportunities he has. I wasted $20 of gravel that disappeared straight into the mud at the
first sign of rain, but it was an "experiment" 27 November On Monday I phoned "BlackSheep Satellites" in Georgetown who are the Wild Blue satellite internet installers in this area. We've finally given in. As soon as the rains started here, our phone lines immediately go south and internet goes with it. A week or two ago, I'd typed our zipcode in on WildBlue's website only to discover that they weren't installing in our area at the moment. pft tried again over the weekend and, hey presto, it's available again. Boy am I glad I called when I did. She said that the "Beam" (the satellite beam that's looking at Northern CA) had been crammed to the gills, so they weren't letting anyone else on it, but that they'd been doing some upgrading tweaks recently and opened up 500 new slots which will start to function on December 6th. We are #80 on the list, so we might not get it until after Christmas. :( (popular stuff around here!) She said they are also launching a new satellite on Dec 8th and that will be up and running in the Spring, so things will get better then too. So hopefully, sometime in January, pft and I will come out of the dark ages (maybe we'll have a DVD player by then too?) and have satellite internet, which is much better than having mice in the wires carrying our 'net stuff to and fro. I'm very excited about it. 28 November
The vets were crazy-busy, juggling numerous dogs and surgeries, etc.
so we had to wait a long time (waiting at this vets is always
interesting, since the whole place is open-plan, so you get to see
everything that's going on - very educational) Our plan had been to see if Skraels got any better at walking on the leg and once she was using it 75% of the time, take the pin out. Well, she hadn't gotten any worse and seemed content enough, but wasn't putting full weight on the broken leg all the time. Sometimes she'd gimp on it, other times hold it up while she ran - there didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason as to what she was doing with it. Anyway, we took another x-ray that showed improvement and then ummed and ahhed about whether to take the pin out. My main concern was that the pin was protruding out of the back of her elbow - albeit covered by skin and scar tissue - which would have to be uncomfortable, so I voted for removal based on that. The vet said "well, we'll have to sedate her, can you leave
her and come back tomorrow? [no, I have to go to work] ...can you
bring her on Friday...uh no, I'm not here then and the other vet
isn't comfortable with orthopedic stuff... what about Saturday...? I got to hold Skraels' head, the vet tech held out her arm, and the vet opened up her elbow and applied surgical pliers to the end of the pin (which looked more like a piece of wire poking out). The wire wasn't very cooperative and required a certain amount of twisting and pulling, during which, Skraels meowed only a couple of times, but didn't struggle and didn't yomp off any of my fingers, which I would have if it'd been me. I taunted the vet who's told me the story of how her daughter had broken a finger as a small child and when it came time to take it out, they just pulled gently and out it popped. Not so with Skraels :) Finally, out it came, a quick stitch was put in and Skraels was allowed up from behind her blue sheet. And that was that. She didn't seem terribly concerned - just wanted to get back in her box and go home. At this point, the vet says to me "Well, that was a first" (as in "I've never done that before"...). Now she tells me :)))))) Either way, it makes me realise that there is no real protocol as to what you do when you're "fixing" an animal, you mostly make it up as you go along and see what happens. This morning, Skraels seemed quite happy, may possibly be walking better (could be my imagination, though) and is happily playing with the poorly leg, so doesn't seem any worse for wear. We're to try and do "fisio" with her, bending her leg back and forth if she'll let us, to get the elbow working again. 29 November While we were working on the barn over TG, I remembered to measure
Jack in a highly scientific manner - standing next to him and figuring
out where his withers came to in relation to me ("about nipple
height"). |
