• Friday 3 -  Pone Antics
• Saturday 4 - Interesting 18 Hours
• Sunday 5 - Getting Ready
• Monday 6 - Latest x-rays and Dr visit
• Tuesday 7 - WHEEEEEE....
• Friday 11 - Riding Again...
• Saturday 12 - Hay Shed Floor
• Tuesday 14 - Yet More Riding
• Friday 17 - Final PT Appointment/Rasping/Sewing Machine/External Hard Drives

Back to September 2008 • Forward to November 2008 

Friday 3 -  Pone Antics

On Wednesday I fed the last bale off the hay trailer (there's still a bunch in the barn, but we feed off the trailer first). All around the trailer was a large amount of strewn hay which needed to be whiffled up before the rain came in today (and it did come - first proper rain since April).

Farrier Ted came and trimmed Roo, Hopi, Uno and Provo this morning and after he was gone, I left Provo out to start the vacuuming process. He had been wearing a halter which I took off for fear of him hooking it somewhere on the trailer and getting in a mess.

	Later on, pft went out and put him away and let Fergus out to do his duty. Later still, I looked out and thought "that's odd, I didn't know pft was going to let Jackit out as well..." ...he hadn't. :)
	Jackit escaped from his orchard (where he has been residing for the last week or so, cleaning up the strewn hay in there) and he was now helping Fergus clean up. Here's Jackit's "gate" (a plastic gutter) which he totally ignored. We tried reinforcing it a few times this weekend, to no avail. He has discovered how to slither under it, no matter what we do.
	Note the way Jackit's head and one front leg are threaded through the tongue of the trailer - he did manage to unthread himself without pulling his leg off, unlike the way a real horse would. And also note the fact that there isn't any foreshortening in this photo, making it look like Jackit is much smaller than Fergus. He is much smaller than Fergus. It is going to be so much fun when we start riding them together.

Saturday 4 - Interesting 18 Hours

Then I decided to check on her aviary. The aviary contains a bunch of budgies and cockatiels and two rabbits. She had emailed me this on Thursday:

okay, here is a surprise. I discovered a skunk has been living in my bird aviary and eating my birds, little cheeky bast&#@. I got it out and hopefuly closed up the holes where it was getting in.

Finally I got him moving - but it was tricky. The rabbits didn't seem to care about him and finally I maneuvered him over by the door ... the door that I'd latched and somehow had to get close enough to unlatch to let him out - with him between me and the door. Awk. That was a little fraught to say the least. Finally got him outside, where Chili was cheerfully waiting. <sigh> Managed to call her off before she got skunked thank goodness.

Fast forward to this morning.

It rained all night long, so I worried about poor pones getting soggy and cold (never mind that I fed in shorts and was OK). Just as we were getting up, there was this weird "BANG BANG BANG" noise that sounded like pipes. Couldn't figure out what it was.

pft agreed to feed our pones, while I went down the hill to do the neighbour's. As I walked outside, I heard that uneasy-making sound of running water.

Turns out Jackit had slipped in the mud and got his foot caught in a hose and ripped it off the hose tree. Water was gushing out. I turned off that tap and looked. The hose tree was at an odd angle. <big sigh>

The only way to stop the water coming out of that particular hose tree is to turn the well pump off (= no water to the house at all).

So pft started work on fixing that, I hopped in the car with Chili to go down the hill. Did the back loop of the driveway before remembering that the car I was in was the one with the slow puncture which, last night, was fully inflated but was now completely flat and I'd managed to pull the tyre off the rim, so now it wouldn't hold air at all. <sigh>

Decided to abandon the neighbour's pones for a bit and start on ours instead (pft still working on the hose). I scooped out poop from where the pones stood inside their shelters all night to stay out of the rain and then fed copious amounts of hay and got them settled and took the truck down and did the others.

So now I'm back inside with an achey leg, pft just finished fixing the broken hose and says it needs two hours to cure. Perhaps we'll go out to "breakfast"?

Sunday 5 - Getting Ready

I overdid it just a tad yesterday and today my ankle was pretty sore so I took it easy.

This afternoon, pft took Fergus for a spin around the neighbourhood and while they were gone Uno and I did a short walk around the top of the property to see how he seemed. I dragged him through a bunch of bushes, past tarps (which I flapped) and in tight spaces (where he decided to stop and pee). He seems quite relaxed which is encouraging.

In anticipation of tomorrow's Dr visit when I hope he's going to clear me to start riding <oh please, oh please>, I scissored off Uno's mohawk bridlepath, so now he's ready to get ridden.

Fingers crossed.

Monday 6 - Latest x-rays and Dr Visit

(Photo shows comparison of today's x-rays and those from six weeks ago).

This morning was my latest x-ray-n-Dr-visit - the last one was six weeks ago.

The x-rays weren't as promising as I'd hoped - my bones are still visibly broken, but there are definite signs of mending which is a relief. It has been 15 weeks since I broke.

As pft and I waited in the consulting room peering at the x-rays, I concluded that my Dr probably wouldn't clear me to ride, so was pleasantly surprised when he said "oh yes, no problem, go ahead - do whatever you can tolerate". 

That said, I don't have much confidence that he has any idea what "riding" entails when it comes to the type of riding I do, so I'm still a little hesitant to just leap on and get on with it.

First things first - I'm going to practice getting off the horse (particularly getting off the horse in a hurry) without hurting myself.

I'm less worried about doing damage from the actual riding part - that will definitely go along "as tolerated" - it's the sudden exits that worry me more. That said, I'll have to see after I actually get on a horse, hopefully tomorrow...

At this point, my Dr didn't think that running was a great idea - better to swim and bike - but that I could walk as much as I could tolerate.

Next x-rays will be at the beginning of February in four months.

Tuesday 7 - WHEEEEEE....

Had to wait until pft came home for supervision purposes, but I picked the least energetic horse (Roop was doing laps the other day, bucking excitingly, so I opted not to ride him ) and got to ride Uno for about 20 minutes out back this evening. Uno wasn't really sure what's going on, but I got to trot a few laps and that felt pretty good. The only thing that didn't feel good was kicking his fat sides when he didn't want to go.

At one point, Uno did a scuttle spook (exactly the same place that he spooked with pft the last time he rode him about ten months ago, when pft came off and got his foot stuck and hurt his ankle), but I rode it OK and it didn't feel too bad.

I worry a little at this stage that if he were to do an exit stage left with any degree of rotation, I might not be able to stay with him, but suspect the strength in that leg will come back very quickly (esp. since she had me leg pressing 70 lbs in PT today - ack).

Look at that girl's nice slim leg!

At the end of my 20 minute ride (pft played grown up and wouldn't let me ride longer, even though I could have cheerfully done a few hours)(and not been able to walk afterwards) I hopped off (left side instead of my preferred right side, like Jeanette said I must)(and will, since it lands me mostly on my left leg) and landed kind of two footed but it was OK. No jarring there which I'd been afraid of.

I think I was more worried about my leg being discombobulated and non-functioning, but it was actually fine.

I feel like a human being again, nearly!

Friday 11 - Riding Again...

For some variation, I went to Dave's Hay Barn in Shingle Springs - they are definitely closer than Penryn and a tiny bit cheaper (especially since she nearly only charged me for half my hay ;-) ). I got 22 x rye grass for $13.50 and 20 x orchard pasture for $14.50.

And then I was a good girl and went and rode Uno tonight, despite the sub-arctic temperatures. Put on far more clothes than I needed and couldn't hardly move (plus my scarf was pushing my helmet over my eyes). We went out completely without supervision, like a grown up rider (pft had to go down to Sac) and rode for about 45 minutes out in the woods.

Uno is still convinced anything behind him is going to "get" him, so scuttles forward at regular intervals - particularly when Chili's out with us. I figure eventually he'll settle down and realise "yup, that's still Chili [who has been there for three hours]" (and that time it'll be a bear).

Anyway, none of us died, Chili did not get skunked by the skunk we saw in the woods off to the side, Uno did not get eaten by a bush, and I did not fall off.

Saturday 12 - Hay Shed Floor

Ankle's a bit sore this morning, but I worked it pretty hard at PT yesterday afternoon.

My hay shed floor is all disintegrated. When I first put it in, I put down a few inches of 1.5" rock, then a big tarp on top of that which went up the walls about 3-4' and was stapled in place to keep any moisture out, then palettes on top of that, then the hay. Periodically, I'll take out the palettes and sweep all the dead hay out.

So today, before unloading the hay that's what I started to do having not done it in six months or so. Only apparently the gophers got under the tarp, munched their way up through it and erupted all the rock into the space under the palettes, so I had rock/rodent droppings/hay under there <sigh>.

As a result, pft and I spent most of the day redoing the floor - palettes, then tarp, then plywood. And because nothing's ever simple, we decided to also line the interior walls with plywood too, since some moisture still seeps in and hopefully this will stop that.

Then we unloaded hay.

Then I cleaned out the chook house <eurk>.

And as pft pointed out, I forgot to eat today. :-(

What we were *supposed* to be doing today was buying and erecting another panel shelter in the "non-worker's" paddock before the next rain comes, so that four of them aren't "sharing" a small 6' x 12" shelter (fat chance of them "sharing"). But that didn't happen. Maybe next weekend.

Fergus was getting a bit bully-like with the others in there, so I swapped him with Provo who'd been in the single-horse paddock and that's actually working really well - Provo's a bully, but also has laid out all the ground rules years ago. Plus he and Jackit like to play together, so that's good too.

The only bit which didn't work well was my bad worker-boys breaking the snap on the gate between them and Fergus and invading him yesterday morning. I went down there and there wasn't a single horse in the paddock, which caused minor heart palpitations until I saw them all stuffed in with Fergus (who was standing in the corner looking a bit bullied with a new hole in him - hah - that'll teach him - a taste of his own medicine!).

Tuesday 14 - Yet More Riding (is this getting dull yet?)

Did you ride today?

Actually, he did very well - I was very pleased with him. He still has his scaredy moments (mostly involving a log and Chili jumping over the log behind him and making a "noise"), but we worked through them.

We also worked on "I will not walk the speed of a slug" and he seemed quite willing provided I continued to shovel peppermint treats in his mouth at regular intervals.

He was a brave scaredy.

Friday 17 - Final PT Appointment/Rasping/Sewing Machine/External Hard Drives

Final PT Appointment - Today was my final PT appointment. I was sad because they were very nice people and I liked going there to have regular exercise that I never would have done on my own (it was hard). But on the flip side, it's wonderful that I'm mended enough not to need it any more.

pft met me afterwards at Cool with Uno and Fergus and we rode down to Pig Farm, via Paige Harper Springs / cut-off trail, then up the end of the the Training Hill and home via the Indian Grinding Rocks lake.

Chili came with us and had a great time (although she now smells of pond mud, despite me hosing her off afterwards - it was nearly dark and apparently I didn't get as much of the mud off as I thought.)

Both pones did great. Uno's being a good boy. He's still very worried about stuff behind him, but settling down and you just have to keep on your toes.

We're trying to work out a good pace that the pair of them can go - it's hard because most of Fergus' gears are just a bit faster than Uno can go in the same gait and if he switches up a gait, then it's too fast for what Fergus was doing. We might have found a medium-fast (for Uno)/medium (for Fergus) trot that might work. Uno has to learn to extend a little, something he's mostly too lazy to do.  I've been insisting that he "pick it up" instead of slug-walk and he's getting the idea.

We're training with DVE in mind

After some people tried Uno out a few months ago, I think Uno's bridle got left at Ann's house, so he's been wearing Hopi's green one - and very Christmassy he looks too in red and green, so I've decided that's what I'll ride him in.

Rasping - I also rasped Fergus today - that's the second time I've done a horse since I broke my leg. The first time was too soon and a mistake but this time it went OK - despite pooping me out and graunching my back. He was *way* long and pft has been given strict instructions not to let him get that long again.

Sewing Machine - Having acquired the GIANT quilting frame a couple of weeks ago, the rest of my new quilty-stuff finally arrived. On Wednesday morning I drove up to Williams (about an hour north of Sacramento) and met the Bradley Quilt Frame lady who stashed a big Juki box in my car, along with a lamp and a magic thingy that makes the stitches all the same length when you sew.

Since it was ludicrously busy at work all week and we kept not getting home until 10 pm, I hardly got to do anything except unpack the boxes and admire the foreign objects.

Finally today I got to set it all up. The man said "it's just a couple of bolts" - how hard can that be? Turns out (of course) it was a little more involved than that - not least because I had no idea how it was supposed to work. I got all the wires plugged into the right places, but the sewing machine wouldn't sew. Turns out (predictably) I didn't have all the wires plugged in to the right places, so once I swapped two wires - hey presto - sewing machine runs.

Unfortunately, it then took me another hour of wrestling, breaking the top thread every ten seconds before I finally figured out how the little bobbin holder whatsit worked (who knew it had a latch on it?) and got the stupid thing to stay in place instead of falling out in a rather sad manner every time I tried to sew.

All the while, I was suffering from knowing that all my troubles were entirely caused by operator error, which makes you feel really dopey.

Still, once I actually got it working properly, I discovered that this sewing machine is wild - it sews at 1500 stitches a minute, which equates to something like the speed of sound. Scary as anything - I'm convinced I'm going to sew my fingers to the table by mistake.

And tonight I tried it out for real on a practice quilt sandwich. The "Cruise Control" (the magic thingy that makes the stitches all the same length) is supposed to make everything lovely and easy to do - you just sew away without a care. Only I don't like it and can do a nicerer job on my own with my freehand hands. It takes time to adjust allegedly, so I practised for an hour or so and did make some headway although it gives me cramp from being uptight because it won't do exactly what I expect it to do. I guess it'll come...

External Hard Drives - another casualty of the late nights this week was not being able to do anything with the spiffy new external hard drives we went and fetched from Fry's on Wednesday.

My work laptop is completely full to the brim and only had 4 GB of space left on its 100 GB drive - it was getting a bit out of hand and embarrassing given that the laptop was starting to gag..

So we're now the proud owners of a 1TB (which, contrary to what one might think, isn't a Trilobyte, which I believe is a type of fossilized sea snail) hard drive which will hold the entire computer world on itself and can be stored at work to prevent our house burning down (on the understanding that if we have an entire backup safely at work, we'll never need it).

We also purchased a "small" external drive - a mere 320 GB - upon which I intend to store all my "Lucy stuff" so I can then cart it around with me without having to stuff my laptop. It even has a little cloth draw-string bag to live in, almost like a barbie. It is extremely spiffy, being bronzed so it matches my outfits when I wear brown...

On to November, since I forgot the rest of October, evidently...