Thursday 7th April Snow Radar <sigh>

	Saturday 9th April  Getting Roop Out of Mothballs Finally got my girlie out of mothballs today. pft and I went to Magnolia, whereupon pft and Fergus went out for a "proper ride", while I spent the requisite amount of time trimming Roop's feet, fitting him for boots and scraping crud off. Once that was done, I hand-walked him along the meadow with Chili, towards where Fergus would be reappearing (pft had been sending me regular photos of their progress as they went along).
	Photo pft took from the top of the Big Hill, looking down on the parking area (white blobs on left-middle) and on the singletrack that Roop, Chili, and I walked along (center).
	It was really nice to have Chili along. She's getting more and more crunchy in her old age, so where she used to be able to come with us for 15 miles, she's now limited to slow, short excursions. This day we did ~4 miles and she did great and wasn't even too stiff the next day, thanks to prophylactic aspirin.
	Roop screamed for a while until Fergus (across the valley) finally answered, turning Roop into a raving lunatic. We continued along the trail, coming across a couple of concerned dog-walkers who were convinced "there's a horse in trouble over there - can you hear it?". I explained that no, that was Fergus yelling for Roo (roll eyes).
	The whole time this was going on, Roo was leaping and twirling and rearing and generally acting the idiot <scowl>. Fergus demonstrating the space between his front legs - about the right size to park a car in. Still, once reunited, we continued along the backside of Gerle loop, just walking, with the occasional short 20' of soft-trotting from Roop.
	It was so nice to have my pone back - he fits me so well and is so responsive to legs. I've missed him.

Sunday 10th
Trim Those Pones! Read That Book! Knit those Rows!

The sun shone and I got to spend most of the morning sleeping-sleeping-sleeping. One day soon, I'm hoping my life won't involve having to play catch up every weekend when it comes to sleep. Despite the need to get extra sleep, I still managed to get Fergus, Jackit and Provo trimmed up, finish a library book and get some knitting in.

Friday 15 April
Chook Roll Call

Yesterday we spotted the culprit for our dwindling chook supply - a fat, healthy-looking coyote streaking through the yard. I did my best roaring and Chili went out after him and once she picked up the scent, she was quite fierce-sounding.

As of this morning we have:

• Tiny Rooster
• Barn Rooster
• Golden Sebright Hen  :(
• Buff Hens x 3 [from the original "9"]
• Orange Hen [from the original "9"]
• Red Hen [from the original "9"]
• MilleFleur/Sebright Hen
• Lil' Black Hen 
• White Baby Hens x 2

It's laying time of day (early morning), so I'm hoping that maybe there's still someone busy in the barn/chook house/trailer manger (I'm still getting six eggs a day). pft's working at home today, so he's going to keep an eye out.

Elfin Hood

I'm very excited to be starting my first "complicated" knitting project. Following a chart is a new one for me, along with several of the stitches involved: 

LLI: Left-lifted increase - you grab the stitch two down from the right hand side and knit it, adding a stitch (assuming, of course, you grab the right part and do it in the right direction. Thank goodness for internet videos where I could finally watch and see what I was supposed to be doing).

T2F: Cable knit to the front, knit the stitch on the main needle, then purl the stitch on the cable needle (this required quite a bit of needle juggling to start with until I got the hang of it). There's a "cable to back" variation too, with purl the main needle, knit the cable needle... or do I have that backwards? This is the main problem, trying to remember how each stitch goes, so I have 

CL: This one always fills me with dread when I get to it, although I'm getting better - grab the stitch two down from the right hand side and then do a SSK (slip knitwise, slip knitwise, then knit). I still haven't figured out the different between just knitting two stitches together and doing a SSK, but I'm sure it's important (apparently it mades a left leaning decrease).

	This was the result of an hour's worth of knitting - I ripped it out twice and the third time around noticed a stitch that I'd completely missed the first two goes around. This was good practise in learning to follow a chart, single stitch by single stitch.
	Starting to get the hang of it - this is how far I got by the second evening - 16 rows completed (woo!). You're supposed to see a leaf with a vine winding up the right-hand side. It's a bit lumpy as I was figuring out the new stitches, but I'm hoping it'll even out as I get better.
	Here I've done Chart A nearly twice. Definitely getting better as I go along - witness the

	Sunday April 17th Bees Again! After last year's sad end to my bees, I was very happy to get a new 4 lb package + queen from the same bee guy - Randy Oliver - over near Nevada City. This time it was a lot more relaxing because I knew what to expect and wasn't having to deal with the situation as a complete newbie. Apparently a bear had gotten into Randy's bee yard overnight because there were some overturned hives, but generally not as much damage as I'd expect to see (although a few frames had claw scrapes in them, which was interesting). Bee man said this was the second visit from the bear (this time he'd forgotten to put up the electric fence). On the last visit he trashed a bunch of hives, then lost interest in favour of their big outside chest freezer. He bent the lid and stole some frozen meat out of it. But having seen the damage a bear does, now I'm wondering if indeed last year's overturned hive was the product of a bear visit. Bee man said that the young bears don't tend to eat much - just overturn the hives and poke through the debris.  Wanting pics of the event, I waited until pft and Fergus got back from their ride before installing the new package.  Installing bees on a slightly drizzly afternoon was different than installing them on a balmy June evening. Getting the bees in was much less stressful than last time, but I can't say I was any more refined about it. I still managed to forget to take the stupid plastic cap off the queen cage and had gotten everything closed up before I remembered and had to open it all up again. And I forgot to put the feeder in before all the bees overflowed into that area, making it hard to get it in without squishing bees. There's more for them to eat out there (everything is in blossom), but the cooler weather makes it much more difficult to pop in and check things out.  More Photos on Facebook

Here we have Uno, trying to look innocent as to why there is now a small lake in the previously dried out paddock/shelter area. I came out to find the trough down off the bank, pouring water out (the automatic waterer still working well) and all the mosquito fish from the trough now in the muddy puddles.  Lucy then spends the next 30 minutes with a fishing net, scooping them out and back into the trough. (p.s. I know it was him, because while I was fishing, he grabbed hold of the trough again with his teeth). In the meantime, I opened up the gate allowing Jackit into the adjacent paddock and he slipped through the gap in the fence for some playtime with Hopi. I think he got a bit more than he bargained for, finally going with a well-aimed double-barrel before running back next door, leaving Hopi wondering why his play-mate left.:

Monday April 18th
Full Moon Already??

Looking up at the full moon over the weekend suddenly brought home the realisation that - yes - that means you only have 12 weeks left until Tevis. 

My current idea is to wait until just after NASTR 75 before sending in my entry (I think I have until June 10th to avoid late fees - and am gambling that the ride won't be full). This is to give me time to see how Uno's shaping up and make sure he has at least enough mental and emotional control of himself to have some likelihood of being up to the task. 

Also to make sure he's fit and well. Up until the last trim (couple of weekends ago), he'd been "uncomfortable" about having his right rear foot trimmed and would wriggle around. I took this to mean that he had "something" brewing in there - not bad, but enough to bother him, so have been watching it carefully. Anyway, last trim, I was encouraged by the fact that he stood quietly with no complaints - hopefully this means that the extra time off has helped and whatever it was has resolved.

Anyway. Here's the plan. 

Three things I want to preride: 

• CA Loop 

• Robinson Flat > Foresthill (tricky, since it's still snowed in). 

• Foresthill backwards up the trail to El Dorado Creek and back (maybe up to Deadwood, but that trail scares me, so I'd rather not <g>) 

I'm most interested in ensuring that Uno is cheerful about the idea of coming up into Deadwood (up the long hill), up into MB (up the long hill), and coming into FH (up the long hill) when he's all floppy, hot, and tired.

However, if I do decide that we're a "go" (and I'm hoping that to be true), we need to get in some advanced WST training. With a limited number of weekends available, I figured out the following "schedule". The idea is not to do WST training on every orange weekend, but more those being the weekends where WST training was possible:

• 30/1 April May - easy ride
• 7/8 May - Washoe Valley x 2
• 14/15 May - rest
• 21/22 May - CA Loop? FH > Deadwood/El Dorado Creek > FH?
• 28/29 May - easy ride
• 4/5 June - NASTR 75
• 11/12 June - rest
• 18/19 June - ?RF > FH/CA Loop?
• 25/26 June - ?RF > FH/CA Loop?
• 2/3 July - ?RF > FH/CA Loop? 
• 9/10 July - easy ride
• 16/17 July - Tevis

The spanner in the works is because the Sierra have had so much snow this winter, they may have to go with an "alternate trail", possibly starting at Soda Springs and not crossing the river. Not sure what impact this will have - and won't know until much closer to the time. Hmmm.

Friday April 22nd Pollen Coming In, Queen Cage Out Although it's hard to see what's going on in there, this morning they were bringing in pollen so they must have cupboards to put it in. I can see some comb on the first two bars, but can't tell if it's small or obscured by bees.  They might also be staying away from the front wall because there's quite a bit of condensation in there. This is a bit worrying, but it has been raining on and off all week, so hopefully will dry out once that stops.  There was a dribble coming out of the left-most door this morning  and this guy was fanning like mad to dry things out: Suddenly concerned that they would weld the queen cage on the third bar to comb, I asked pft if he would be willing to remove it since he was working at home today. He did so, but initially tried to take it out without any protection - not a good idea, lots of pissed bees. Once he got the veil in place, things went more smoothly. The queen cage wasn't welded in, but she wasn't in it either, so that was good (the bees eat through the candy-fondant plug to get to her and it was mostly poked out when I put her in there).

View showing how many bars they've got.  They drank through the 32 oz jar of sugar water (1:1) in the first three days, but have speeded up and were taking 16 oz a day, so for now I need to refill it every couple of days. I'll probably stop feeding in another few days, based on what I did last year.

Riding at Cool 

For my new "get ready for Tevis" regime, pft met me at Cool after work with a filthy Fergus and Uno. After scraping as much crud off as possible we rode down into the canyon and up Pig Farm, did some 'splorin' around the top area, and then trotted back via the singletrack (well, off on the grass next to the singletrack) to the trailhead. 

We only did 6 miles, but pft wanted Fergus to not feel put-upon after a couple of good rides last weekend (Training Hill, followed by 20 miles at Magnolia/Cronin/South American River). As it turned out, Fergus did great going up Pig Farm - acting like it was nothing, while poor Uno (the "100 mile horse") was puffing away and struggling a little. Seems that Fergus' extra rides have done him good. Hopefully Uno will catch up soon because he's going to need all the climbing skills we can instill in him.

That said, while we were exploring Uno impressed me no end by not having a complete melt-down when we had to push through branches and bushes, and waiting quietly while Fergus and pft went on ahead. A year ago he couldn't have managed either of those things. <proud>

They were both barefoot and both ouchy, possibly from all the rain we've been having and therefore having squishy feet. Spring is obviously also here because they both looked like they could use a trim, even though I only did them last weekend. Good and bad.

Saturday 23rd April Steps By popular demand, pft has been working on some steps at the end of the lawn as an alternative to going around by the usual walkway. Not done yet, but they are roughed in and can already be used. Today Fergus is 9 years old!

Sunday 24th April Dummy Hands up who's the dummy who tried to check the new hive without putting on any protection beforehand <roll eyes>. The sting part doesn't hurt, it's the part where you have twice as much "stuff" inside your finger skin that hurts (and itches like crazy)(hand currently inserted in horse ice-boot).

Ridin' - After waiting most of the day for the rain to stop, and after the fun of being stung we did get out to ride at Magnolia > Connector > Big Hill > Hidden Valley > Long Valley > Down Up and back for slightly less than 10 miles. Pones did good, especially considering we asked them to trot all the way from the end of the Connector to the top of the Big Hill - 500 feet in 0.7 mile. After we came down again, we zig-zagged our way down up and down again, trotting as much as we could.  Good training ride.