March 2010
- Balboa Peninsula
- Iditarod
- New House Postponement
- Sunday 14th - A Long One
- Tuesday 16th - A Short One
- Friday 19th - March Babby Chooks
- Camera Injury
- Necklace disintegration
- Trench Digging
- Sunday 21st - A Hard One
- Saturday 27st March - Cardiac Bypass (Roo Injury)
- Monday 29th - Roquero Cerro House
- Wednesday 31st - Best We Insure the New House, eh?
Back to February • Forward to April
Thursday 4th-Monday 8th
Balboa Peninsula
So what do you do when you get all weepy in February because you're so tired of slop? You check the South West Airlines website and find out where you can fly for $59 each way.
Our choices were San Diego, Portland, and various LA airports, so we opted to spend the weekend at the Balboa Inn on the peninsula just south of Newport Beach.
Orange Co. Airport smells of oranges, go figure.
In the interests of keeping costs down and hassle to the minimum, we didn't rent a car while we were there, so were limited to walking about on our feet and taking a taxi to and from the airport. And walk and walk we did. Poor pft suffered some from sciatica, so we took frequent breaks along the beach path on the thoughtfully provided benches and spent contented time critiquing the varied architecture of the beach houses and selecting which we'd buy.
View from our balcony:
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I can see the sea!
(sorry for the bluey cast - apparently I didn't have my cell phone on the correct setting... didn't even know there were settings).
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 Our
room
The Courtyard
The breakfast area |
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 What
we did a lot of while we were there...
The Balboa Inn - our
balcony is
Rare view of the San
Bernardino
Mountains |
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Looking east along the beach towards the Balboa Inn |
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The object of this mini-getaway was
to do little. We were reasonably successful in this endeavour. |
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Balboa Pier (Balboa Inn at the beach end of the pier) |
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The walkway along the back of the beach - we walked and walked... |
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Walkway looking back towards the Balboa Inn |
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Balboa Ferry which takes you over to Balboa Island ($1) |
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Grand Canal on Balboa Island |
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Grand Canal on Balboa Island |
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Interesting sights along our wanderings. |
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The public toilets on Balboa Island. No, really! |
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pft thought these people were a
little ostentatious with their house sign. We know people are rich in this area, you don't have to rub it in...
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Twisty eucalyptus tree on Balboa Island |
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Lucy getting blown away on the
beach up towards Newport Beach
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Real, live lifeguard station, as seen on Bay Watch |
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Pterodactyl |
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Bizarre stone sculpture up towards Newport Beach |
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Getting rid of sciatica, Newport Beach |
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Newport Beach - so it wasn't as
warm as they show on TV, but it was bright and shiny all the same. |
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Lone palms, Newport Beach |
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This was actually on the way down - Half Dome in Yosemite |
Iditarod—While we were at Balboa, the Iditarod started, which immediately did away with any spare time I had for the next two weeks. It was an even-more-than-usual excellent race, with twists and turns, aided by the addition of GPS coverage of all mushers. Lance Mackey managed to win again for the fourth year in a row, taking the lead after a more or less non-stop 18.5 hour/140 mile stint from the Yukon River to Unalakleet. Cim Smyth got the fastest Safety > Nome (2hr 21 mins), despite only having 6 dogs, but it didn't count because he wasn't in the top 20.
New House Postponement
We were supposed to close escrow on the Roquero Cerro house on Friday 19th, but due to the bank's contractor's inability to figure out how to turn the water on, our inspections were delayed so closing was put off for a week.
The house inspections revealed very little, other than telling us that the roof was "poor but serviceable" (good enough), some of the plumbing was a little peculiar, most of the faceplates on the electricity outlets were missing, and the dishwasher and fans didn't seem to work. There was some deterioration on parts of the outside of the guest house, but fairly minor stuff.
Unfortunately, when they finally did get the water turned on, it looks like they didn't properly winterize the travel-trailer thingy and several of the pipes under it had burst. At least they are reasonably easy to get at. There was also a comment that the water pressure in the guest house wasn't great when taps were turned on in the main house. Since that sounds totally normal to me, it wasn't really something we'd worry about. Oh, and the therapeutic tub in the guest house didn't seem to be working... ? what therapeutic tub? Apparently there is one. Hmm.
We went over there at the weekend and discovered that after the inspections they'd neglected to lock the back door of the main house, so we were able to go in and have a really good poke around and actually see what we were buying.
It's a lil' house, but nicely laid out and very spacey with big windows - all of which open wide. I like that it has numerous doors to the outside. My biggest complaint is the cheesey cardboard, hollow-core doors (can we steal the doors from Andy Wolf when we leave?).
Our current plan is to "camp out" there for a while, so we can get to know the house's quirks and fix any minor problems. Neither pft nor I are ready to leave Andy Wolf permanently, so we'll stay for a while then rent it out to someone. We're still wondering what to do with the guest house? Maybe leave it empty so that it's available to be used if we need it?
Sunday 14th
A Long One
Leslie, Pamela and I went for a 'long one' - which is what we always say but don't always manage. But in this case did - we went 15 miles, not fast... in fact so un-fast that we stopped at Ann's half-way through for some coffee/wine/snacks on the porch.
While tied to the trailer at Ann's with a pile of hay in front of him, Roo decided to roll while fully clothed. I wondered why my GPS (on the pommel of the saddle) had mud all up the side of it.
We met Judy Carnazzo down by the oleander and she followed us back up, past the Roquero Cerro house, to Ann's, then down the Miracle Lane singletrack to Sliger Mine, to Green Gate, and back to the bus stop.
Roo has been barefoot all year, but was a little
ouchy going down the Sliger Mine part - that or he decided we were heading
away from home so he'd better be miserable. Funnily enough, he felt
lots better on the way back from Green Gate, but it could equally have
been the footing. Leslie and Eagle led the way and maintained an
excellently paced trot, Roo felt strong on the way home and was plenty
cheery.
Tuesday 16th
A Short One
For once I had enough work to be able to book myself out for the day and work in the evening - we had to sign house papers in the morning, so I took Uno along in the trailer and returned home via Cronin.
It was hot-hot-hot!
We
managed the same 10 mile loop that I ponied him on with Roo last month and
he did really good. Still out of shape, but getting there - I asked him to
trot almost the whole way. Not fast, but he did it and did it with good
humour. Best of all, he was good and steady and only did a couple of small
scuttles (for which he got whupped). He was filthy when he started, and
filthier by the time we were done. He needs to start shedding *soon* or
it'll be clipper time.
March Chooklets!
The good Mumma Hen was sitting on five
six seven eight nine
eggs and I'd been checking all week to see if they'd hatched because I
forgot to look at the date she started to sit but knew it was "about
time". In the event, she managed to hatch five chooklets over three
days and I threw out the rest of the eggs - they were laid a lot later by
impostor hens and I figured she had her hands (wings?) full with the five
and probably wouldn't continue to sit.
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Here are the first three, hatched Thursday and Friday. |  |
| There are two like
this, with fluffy leg feathers.
The only leg feathered chook we have is the millefleur and these guys don't look much like her, so we'll see how they turn out. |
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Second round of eggs starting to hatch. I was surprised just how long they took - 24 hours. |
| The small black one hatched while I watched on Saturday: | ||
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| And look how cute he was once he dried out: | ||
I think he might be the
product |
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| The baby of the group didn't hatch out until later that evening, even though he'd been waving a foot out of the hole for hours (see photos above). When it looked like he was close, I took him indoors for pft to hatch out in his hands: | ||
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| The babby was
returned to Mumma Hen almost immediately and was toddling around
happily the following morning.
I'm glad they ended up hatching during the first bout of warm weather. |
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Shock Horror—having foolishly mentioned to pft the other day how well my camera had held up to the abuse it gets, being dragged along for every trail ride and taken to work each day, I was mortified to discover when trying to take chooklet pics that the LED display had gotten crunched and now displayed an interesting starburst effect. :(
The camera still works fine, you just have no idea what you're taking and what setting you might have put it on by mistake. So, not the end of the world, but a big bummer all the same.
Similarly, my jade necklace that I wear permanently burst its string, showering my desk and floor with small jade beads.
The Breaking Things Gods must be displeased.
Saturday
20th
Trench Digging
Every
winter we say "When the ground stops being soggy, we'll dig that
trench to put electricity up to pft's garage" - and every spring,
as soon as the sun comes out – la-la-la –
off we go to play in the sunshine and don't remember the digging part
until the ground has turned into concrete.
This year, it would be different. This year, as soon as I detected a drying trend, pft began to dig.
(I was supposed to be helping but didn't manage to, although I did rasp his horse, so I'm not a complete dud).
  My
intention had been to rent a DitchWitch and have Fun With Power
Tools, but pft said things like "what about the tree roots?"
and started to dig with a shovel and a pick. He got a huge amount
done in Phase I and hopes to finish the job in Phase II next
weekend.
Chili thought the trench digging exercise was most excellent and proceeded to lie in the nice cool hole at regular intervals. |
Sunday 21st
A Hard One
Leslie, Eagle, Roo, and I rode the White Oak Flat/CA Loop backwards/Todd Valley loop - haven't been over there in an age and it was a splendid opportunity to ask Roo to do some proper work.
He got to wear boots for the first time this year, which caused some angst since his feet and pasterns were coated in dry clay and no amount of scrubbing seemed to help remove it. I was concerned that he'd rub for sure and a bit bummed since we were trying out a pair of new, non-rub gaiters. It didn't really seem fair that these things were guaranteed to rub first time out because I couldn't get his legs clean.
As it turned out, the new gaiters worked fine and he finished the 16 miles with no rubbing at all. The gaiters themselves didn't seem to fit quite as tightly, but the boots stayed on. I was very pleased.
Except for some early tripping, he seemed to adjust to them nicely as we hand-walked down the first couple of miles to Francisco's. My quads let me know loudly for the next week that they didn't really appreciate this activity and I was hobbling pitifully - also not helped by having rasped Fergus and Provo (who was at 18 weeks or something stupid) the previous day..
Once on the trail, Roo was rejuvenated in his new boots. I don't know if it was general cheeriness (he seems to enjoy the pace Eagle sets) or being comfortable in foot protection, but this was one of the best conditioning rides I've had on him, performance-wise.
After
tiptoeing along CA Loop (neither Leslie or I are terribly happy with that
section), we began to trot after leaving Ford's Bar - and we didn't really
stop until we came up into Todd Valley - that's about 3.5 miles with 1400'
of elevation gain - and best of all, when Leslie pulled Eagle up at
Peachstone to give him a break, Roo shot past and continued to run up the
hill - maintaining a 9 mph burst until finally the cantering over ruts
made Eagle's torn-gaiter boot come off so we had to stop. Last time we did
this section with Leslie and Dionne, I had the distinct impression that
Roo was in over his head.
Even on the last stretch along the lil' creek in Todd Valley, Roop was still bombing along. Leslie let us go in front and apparently my "holding him back" muscles are non-existent (due to lack of use) and so he ran along, spooking every 200 yrds at whatever item happened to be there (my "stay on the horse while spooking" muscles are very well developed)..
Rides—In light of Uno's puffiness-of-breath and lack of conditioning as yet, NV Derby has been cancelled for him. Roop still gets to go and my entry went in the mail yesterday:
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Rides colour-coded
for Roo
and Uno
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27 March
Cardiac Bypass
<sigh>
Remember the comment about "the Breaking Things Gods being displeased"? Saturday we took Fergus, Roop, and Uno in for their spring shots and Coggins and afterwards rode down from Auburn to the bottom of Cardiac Hill on the bypass trail, then up and back down to where the Coffer Dam used to be.
Down at the bottom of |
^ All goes well ponying Uno... ...until he
has to stop and poop. > |
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river looked totally different than when I was last down here a
few years ago. It might have something to do with them removing the Coffer Dam and tunnel
the river used to go through and restoring the American River to
its original bed.
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Uno likes to walk on the very
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pft and
Fergus watching the killer geese: 
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At the bottom, by the Coffer Dam, pft commented that Roo was holding up his left rear leg - a fact I just put down to "he's resting it".
At the top, when I was pulled ticks off him, he was quite ouchy on that leg.
Sunday morning, the leg was quite filled from below the hock to fetlock and very tender to prodding.
Of course, I freaked out and decided he'd bowed the tendon from doing too much the previous weekend, and then overstressed it going up and down the hill on Saturday.
Renee talked me down and after trotting him out late Sunday night and seeing that he was completely sound - and indeed quite cheerful, which is how he felt riding on Saturday - we're currently going with the theory that Uno clonked him in the back of that leg when we were ponying during the ride (and I think I know when it happened - Roo cut Uno off and he had nowhere to go. I felt Roo hop and he pinned his ears - and I told him off for squabbling with Uno).
Sunday I let him out to wander around for the day in the hope that it would reduce the filling - no luck there. :(
Monday morning the leg was more filled, but when I poked and prodded it after icing, he didn't flinch as he had been, so I'm assuming his leg isn't going to drop off and he will eventually return to normal.
But I don't think he's going to NV Derby this coming Saturday :( which means no Triple Crown for us <sniffle>.
Of course, Uno's sole purpose in life is to step up to the plate when #1 Horse is injured, and as the perpetrator of the crime I've decided to take him to NV Derby instead, despite the above statement about him not being ready.
Hopefully I can ride with Crysta who's
sponsoring a Junior and do a nice slow completion..
Side note: apparently Jackit isn't on the verge of colicking either - it's just nice to lie down in the dry right now.
Monday 29th
Roquero Cerro House
As of Monday, we became Wealthy Landowners. ...or something.
In reality, we have furnished ourselves with a place to move to when we're old(er) and creaky(er), but in the meantime it will require attention... like a new roof, f'instance. So all the rent money goes in a bank account for that purpose.
Monday evening after work, we grabbed some supplies from the supermarket in Cool and had ourselves a quick celebratory picnic at the new house:
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Wednesday 31st
Best We Insure the New House, eh?
After
work - when it was still light - we made a dash for the new house so
we could see what we'd bought in the daylight. This is what we found:
Apparently there was a freak wind-storm at the top of Sliger Mine, which blatted this mature oak (with seemingly wimpy roots) onto the fence, smooshing it flat, along with the gates into the horse paddock. Note to self: put more than one gate to the horse paddock - if they'd been in there, there'd be no way to get them out.
The new house only has a wood stove for heating, so at least this will provide a substantial amount of firewood.