A Special, Nordic Side Trip

Tuesday, Carrie wanted to show me the Fjords. 

Yes, that 'j' is not a typo. 

Carrie went to visit a breeding farm while I picked up Shane on Saturday. She found it therapeutic, and wanted to show me. I was excited that she was excited, so, of course, I agreed to go.

We were just leaving as someone from a local farm pulled up to give Carrie flowers and express their condolences for Kit's passing. It was greatly appreciated. Carrie had to wait until her eyes cleared enough to start driving. "This is why I'm not ready to see anyone!" 

We did get underway, though. We had to take a pit stop for Carrie to get gas at Costco. I walked over to Qdoba for a burrito while she was in line (It was my bribe!). The fjord farm was a little over an hour and a half away near Culpeper. Margaret, the farm's owner, was standing amongst her herd as we drove up.

Carrie went immediately dived into the herd with her. I stayed outside at first, because (to Carrie's horror) I was in sandals. "This was for you to touch the horses!" she said. 

"No," I replied, "this was for YOU to touch the horses. I'm here for support."

Carrie cared but Margaret didn't, so Carrie got over it. I was unsurprised. I hadn't intended to touch any horses whether I was in sandals or not (and in summer, you wear sandals unless you have a specific reason not to!). 

It was a noticeably happy and healthy herd. I was surprised that the stallion was in the mix! Most farms I've been to with a stallion keep them separate. Margaret, however, used Blitzen as her babysitter. When a foal was weaned, she'd remove the mother from the herd and leave the weanling with him! 

Currently, there were three foals in the mix.  They were curious and friendly.

There was an abandoned barn that Margaret said the herd sometimes bedded down in (and could be packed to the gills!).

The youngest mare's hair was curly.

It would straighten out as she aged and eventually she'd get the distinctive mane of the breed. 
"The upkeep's easy!" Margaret said. "You buzz along the top!"

The little mare was the shyest of the bunch. Margaret said she keeps all her foals until they're 5 months old before she lets them leave the property (idyllic childhood guaranteed, I guess!).

The mother of one of the foals was so relaxed she'd let any foal feed from her that wanted! You can tell of the foals is a young colt by the fact he was poking around somewhere other than the milk region. 

And enjoying it (Pretty sure it wasn't his mom...). 

The herd munched and lunched around us as the women talked and I took my pictures.

Yes, I found the colt highly amusing.

Margaret took us around back to the pregnant mares' field next.

There, Carrie showed me the mare that she felt comforted her the most when she was at the farm on Saturday. "She came up to me, put her head on my chest, and I just cried while petting her," Carrie said. "She was the sweetest thing."

Her name was Josefina and she was a drooler!

But Carrie was smiling, oohing and ahhing, so whatever. 

She and Margaret trades stories about this that and everything.

The horses did whatever they could to scratch that itch (whether they did it themselves or had help from the humans!).

I amused myself trying to get a picture of the longest strand of drool possible. Quit a pool formed, as the ladies talked!

There wasn't a ton of direct talk about Kitsune, but that was fine. Carrie doesn't want to talk to anyone too close to her and too close to the barn about it, so I'm happy for her to talk to whoever she's willing to talk to! I believe talking things through is part of the healing process. 

Granted, in this case there's a little bit of a double-edged sword to the process. Carrie is determined NOT to breed one of our horses again to relive the trauma, but she, also, still wants to raise a foal again one day. Margaret supposedly has a wait list a mile long and only sells a horse to whomever she feels like because she can (She's found her niche and done well in it)......but you can tell she likes and feels for Carrie. Is that a good or a bad thing in this case? I'd tell you that I'm undecided. 

I got one quick pic of myself on the way out saying bye to all the horses. 

We went by Yoder's on the way home. Carrie got herself a sandwich (a club on tomato herb bread!) and I got a hand pie for my dessert.

Yoder's is a fun Mennonite run grocery store. We discovered it driving 29 and still make a point to stop in from time to time. If you like cooking it's great.

Or in my case, if you like your significant other cooking, it's great!

Everything is packed plainly. While they have some 'normal groceries' like cereal, I find many to be more expensive than a grocery store. But there's an exhaustive amount of ingredients. Notice all the premade piping bags!? 

Carrie picked up some crystalized ginger to try in an ice cream recipe. I requested natural peanut butter and we had a fun time picking out a few things. Carrie bought some dried soup mixes on a whim and thought they were fantastic (though a month later, she looked up the caloric information and lamented the amount of sodium!).

It was good to get Carrie out of the house. She's been so antisocial lately and I think she needs to get out there and talk to work through her grief. 

She may give me some grief if she sees I posted this. I can't recall what was being talked about, but I caught Carrie making the perfect face!

If Carrie kills me, look no further than here for the motive! Still, you have to take some risks, enjoy the simple pleasures, smell the 'roses,' etc.

WOOOOHHOOOOO!

4th of July

While the 4th is a holiday for most, it's a day to batten down the hatches and weather through for Carrie. Before darkness fell, we had all the horses in the barn, shutters closed, and fans roaring to drown out any nearby explosions.

The boarders like knowing their horses are taken care of, but it's a shame that we don't do any of the festivities as a family. We picked for Shane to go to camp this week in the hopes there would be some activities there for him (He'll certainly be closer to the beach where I'm sure there are some big fireworks!).

Our town seems to love the 4th. There's an abandoned factory with a parking lot in town...

...that was mowed and cleared to make room for people to park this year.

The bridge across the James is closed and there's a parade that marches through in the morning.

It's not big city big, but it's notable around here. Someone posted some drone photos online that I snatched to post here (Thanks!).

There are smalls bands playing off and on all day until it gets dark. That's when the firework show starts!

You can see the fireworks from the farm. Carrie hates the booms. She mutters about how people can make fireworks that aren't as loud, but I like to feel the reverberations (I tend to keep that opinion to myself while Carrie's in survive mode, though!).

This year was a simple 4th. None of the horses did anything crazy. We ate, we watched Ms. Marvel, and the time passed without incident. 

I hope that Shane did something special at camp, because I don't want to cancel the holiday for him. If so, camp this week will become a tradition for him! I used to drive Shane off to see things before we had the barn, but my priority has had to shift to taking care of the wife and animals. 

To camp!

Loki wasn't sure why we leashed him Sunday morning, but the cats enjoyed the chase!

We were on our way to Grandma and Grandpa's before Laura and Amy showed up for chores! Today was the day that Shane headed off to Triple R! He was nervous about camp, Carrie was nervous about dealing with people, and I was praying for things to go well for both of them! 

Carrie had almost not come. I'd been encouraging it, but it was Shane's request that she drop him off that persuaded her the most.  

It started off slowly, but turned rough after a little. Shane and I were talking to Grandma while Carrie was talking to Grandpa. The odds are he was more direct in addressing things than she was ready for. The result was Carrie went outside and I followed shortly thereafter to check on and support her.

Shane was playing Rummy with Grandma and Grandpa when I came back in. I switched back between the groups until it was lunch time. Carrie said she wasn't hungry and didn't want to come inside yet, so I suggested she could go gas up the car while we ate (She did - It often helps to having something you know is useful to do). 

After the meal, Shane and I packed up to continue on our way. We'd left a little bit earlier than planned, so we planned to stop off at a dog park in Williamsburg. Our timing was good for Loki!

Loki wasn't interested in playing with the other dogs, sadly. All he wants to do was sniff, lick, and piss all over the place!

At least he understands the Golden Rule.

When we got back on the road, we hit sheets of rain before we got to Newport News. Hazards were on and people were crawling!

Carrie actually pulled off the highway and parked in an office park to wait out some of it. Looking at the radar, I thought we could escape the edge of the storm if we carried on a couple more miles and hit the bridge.

Amazingly, I was right!

There was visibility to the north of the road where we could see the coal yards. To the south it was a haze. Normally, you can see the huge Navy ships. We just saw rain.

We were still ahead of schedule for drop off, so Carrie dropped by a GameStop. Shane and I went in to look around while she rested in the car. Unfortunately for the employee, I had no intention of buying anything. We just wanted to look around (I did take a few pics of oddities to send to Carrie!).

We arrived early, but apparently everyone else didn't bother to stop somewhere to pad their arrival time. Things were well underway. 

Shane was a Rough Rider Boy.

Carrie reserved Shane an upper bunk again this year.

It came with a log pillow?

Shane hammed it up while I tried not to sing The Log Song from Ren and Stimpy.

The cabins were basic, but very nice. There was AC and I was surprised at how nice the bathrooms were. Camp conditions have improved greatly from when I was a boy!

Loki wanted to know where Shane had gone as we pulled away. It was his first trip to camp, and he didn't like the idea of leaving anyone behind!

The storm had passed and we saw beautiful, clear skies as we crossed the bridge again.

I could see plenty of boats this time.

We did make one stop on the way home. Carrie hadn't eaten all day. She didn't settle for less and we stopped at Honey Pig BBQ near the junction of I95 and I295. She went inside and I entertained Loki.

Loki's to-do list seems to go as follows:

1. Find an interesting smell.
2. Huff it.
3. Huff it some more.
4. Possibly lick it.
5. Give it a final huff.
6. Urinate.

Loki spritzed all over the place. He spent most of the time we "explored" with his nose in the grass. I stopped counting somewhere after 20 markings.

We thought the excitement was over for the day, but our neighbors set off some large fireworks as the sun went down. Maddy spooked. She was by herself and roaming, because we hadn't done any preparations yet. We'd figured tomorrow (the 4th) would be the day for big noises! 

Maddy ran down the bridle path to the far ends of the field where the other herds were grazing. She wasn't frantic, but you could tell she was worried. Carrie fetched her while I put away Carrie's ice cream (very important) and got the dry lot ready for Maddy to spend the night in.

Maddy calmed down once there was hay in front of her and the fireworks stopped not too long after. Carrie continued to mutter about hating the holiday and how it was just an excuse to blow things up and scare animals for the rest of the night!

Still, we managed to get Shane to camp successfully. Getting Carrie out of the house and to her parents was a partial win (I think of it as a breaking of the grief-ice). That's good enough for one day!

He's Back!...for a night

Saturday, I drove down to SC to pick up Shane. This time I drove further, so that Nana and Pop would stay closer to home (4 to 2 hrs vs the normal 3-3 split). 

As predicted, Shane had the time of his life. I got pictures all week long and email updates of the non-stop adventures he was having!

We talked, went in for bathroom breaks, and then posed for some pictures before our final goodbyes.

I showed Carrie this one after getting home:

"Is my forehead really that big?" I asked Carrie when I showed her the photo.

"No. It's an odd angle," she replied.

"I look like a Klingon."

Star Trek references are normally good for a Carrie laugh!

Speaking of Carrie, she requested a side trip after getting Shane. She ordered some equine senior feed for us to pick up on the way home. It looked closer on the map to her than it really was. It added about half an hour to the journey back, but I got a picture out of it (and Shane got to poop in a clean bathroom!).

We stopped at Sheetz on the way home for dinner and a break. Shane kept dancing back in forth between me and the counter. I got flashbacks to Monty Python and the Ministry of Silly Walks. I stopped the game once he obliviously cut off one too many people.

There were some big storm clouds as we passed through Virginia. I got to hear (and refute) all sorts of predictions for a long stretch of miles (Nature is free entertainment, at least).

Shane ran over and gave Carrie a big hug once he got home. She held onto him for a while.

When she let him go, she went straight to his room with him to test out some things and pack for camp.

Boys who packed and men who drove got ice cream for their troubles!

Shane will spend the night at home, but we're going to head to Grandma and Grandpa's first thing Sunday morning. Carrie wants to leave by 8:30 AM at the latest! Shane's going from one trip to the next, but he's good for it!