Thank God for the Break!

It's been awesome having time off. From school at least, if not the barn!

Shane's hair is beyond shaggy. I'd love to cut it, but he wants to grow a 'man-bun.' There's a cartoon character who's a volleyball player with one and Carrie joked about me getting one, but it stuck with him!

Not that I can throw stones. My own pandemic hair is probably the longest it's ever been. Carrie attacked my hair one morning and then told me not to move for a picture.

I've trimmed the beard since then. I got tired of my mustache curling into my mouth!

No school takes some of the urgency out of barn chores. There's no planning or class lurking if we take too long. Carrie's been feeling better, so we've been going out as a family. That's let us tackle some of the odd jobs that can be overlooked for a while, but elevate the operation when done.

Like poopbusting.

I don't remember the last time we dragged the dry lots. Shane got a kick out of riding around with Mom.

Maddy has been her usual itchy self. Carrie tried switching to a different allergy medicine to see if it helped to no avail. 

Maddy will walk over and ask for scratches when we're around. She's got her favorites and we've learned a number of them.

She's very expressive!

The barn is a source of community and we hope a blessing to everyone who's part of it. Laura had a bit of heartache when she was walking Ernie. He spooked and stepped on her ankle. I found out when Carrie bolted inside to get ice. Laura found out she had a fracture on Sunday.

Barbara showed up while Amy and Carrie tended to Laura.

There was a riding party in the works. Carrie was on Eowyn.

Barbara was on Maddie.

And Gay was on a mule for the first time in her life!

"The ears are a hoot!"

Pockets hadn't been worked in a while and was reluctant to earn his keep, but Gay got him moving!

It was Carrie's chance to introduce Gay to Eowyn, too. The point of buying Eowyn was to ride, so I'm glad that Carrie's been active! 

Barbara tried out Maddy's new saddle and declared it a success. Maddy's been feeling good lately. A couple rides back, Barbara asked for a canter on the trail and Maddy offered to gallop....and gallop she did! We hadn't realized she was a speed demon and Eowyn couldn't keep up!

I took a few pictures to chronicle the fun before going inside to be with Shane.

The windows were up to get fresh air and I heard my name on the wind later. Abby was beside herself. All of her girl buddies were saddled up and she was all alone! The anxiety made her make a fool of herself.

Carrie asked me to stall here and close the curtain door.

I brought in Eddy to give her a buddy. He happily went to eating the remains of Pockets' hay while she marginally chilled out.

I went back to playing Legos with Shane. I was thrilled he showed an interest, so we made a concourse for his airport, a bridge, some mansions, and a bank, etc.

I went outside again when I heard horses squabbling through the window. 

The ladies stabled Pockets on the boy's side since Eddy was in his stall. They hadn't closed the curtain door and Magic and Pockets were acquainting themselves with each other!

Horses were a big part of the break, but we finally had board game time! Carrie and I finished Pandemic Legacy Season 0! It was worth the preorder. We played 5 Minute Marvel as a family several times, and Shane and I played a round of Horrified.

Shane spent a couple of hours looking at some of my Battletech stuff and asking questions, so we ended up playing a mission. One of my sourcebooks was for the animated series (that's canon as an animated series in the universe!). Shane was curious, so we looked it up on Youtube and watched some episodes. It's no masterpiece, but it was a shared moment.

The days blurred together, but Sunday rolled around. We saw highs of 70s early in the week and ticks became active again. The prediction for Sunday morning was mid to upper 30s, but it dropped into the 20s instead.

Laura was shambling around, so we did the majority of the barn chores. Carrie gave her 'das boot' to help and walked Ernie for her. Shane helped by playing announcer with Amy.

The sun warmed the air and it turned into a pleasant day with a high just over 60° F. Scott, Mark, and Hazel came over to grill and hang out!

We opened up a bunch of windows and the adults played 5-Minute Dungeon and The Crew while the kids curled up with tablets on the couch. 

And I didn't take any pictures. Can you believe that?

The one picture I have is from when we played The Crew. Carrie had a crazy hand and wanted to show us after the round.

I realized I didn't have any good kid pics as we were saying goodbye, but it was too late!

Landie came over an hour later. Shane 'babysat' her. They played hide-and-seek, Legos, and Shane read part of a Dogman book to her. There was a My Little Pony break in the middle, but Landie isn't the type to stay zoned out forever.

Carrie got jumped on by both kids multiple times! 

Shane got in a little trouble after his shoulder nailed her in the chest! "You're not that small anymore!"

It would've been nice if we could've had another playdate somewhere in the break, but double visits on Sunday was a strong finale. 

Have I mentioned I've enjoyed the break? Cause I did. I was productive, too. I wrote 22 blog posts over the span of 5 days! I didn't do any grading, but my students didn't do much over the break either. I'm as ready as I'll ever by for Virtual School on Monday and I hope they're in the same boat. There are three weeks to go until winter break. We've got to cover polygons, quadrilaterals, and basic circles before taking a couple of weeks off to forget it all!

Adventure Day with Mom

Wednesday was the first day of break. Shane and Carrie went on an adventure. Carrie wanted to find a saddle that fit Maddie better. She knew there was a cheap used one that might fit the bill.....in a consignment shop two hours away!

Yep, she went for it! She drove the truck down to the barn to collect a pair of old saddles that didn't fit she could use as comparisons and possibly sell. Carrie's skilled at that and normally manages to do a good deal of swapping and selling to pay for her horse gear habits.

Shane tagged along for the ride. I wouldn't have volunteered, but he's a good traveler. He likes to talk, listen to music, and look at the window....and Carrie bribed him with using his tablet. She also planned to get lunch out and Shane suggested Arby's!

Carrie's first stop was only 20 minutes away at Heidi's house. Carrie checked in and offered to drop off some of Heidi's old gear at a consignment shop on her way north. 

Shane got a surprise, too. Heidi gave him a large stuffed bear.

He loved it. He showed it off when he got home.

I'm trying to convince him to call it a bär instead of bear since it's German!

But back to the trip, Carrie hit up three tack shops on the journey. It took longer than planned and Shane took a nap on the way home.

I guess restrooms were limited, because he had to go in a cup at one point. I don't know who was more shocked: Shane or Carrie! She sent me home a picture, so I know it happened.

If she was trying to gross me out, it didn't work (Been there; Done that!). I commented that she needed to get Shane some water, because he was looking too golden to be hydrated.

Side note: Pay attention to when Shane's browsing cards for sale. He came home giggling about a birthday card for an older woman. "It said, 'I thought I was having a hot flash, but my boob was in my coffee!'"

Meanwhile, I stayed home. And blogged. A lot. I wrote 9 posts and set up the pictures and drafts of 9 more future posts. My goal is to catch up over break and the road trip really helped me gain ground!

Welcome Back...to Chores!

After over 2 weeks of cousins and play time galore, Shane returned home to chores. The mornings are cool out, too, so he had to wear a coat!

Scooping horse poop in the cool is a big change from Pop Tarts and TV time in the morning! 

Don't worry too much about Shane. We really don't work him that hard. If I get half an hour of effort out of him, it's fine. Chores are a good excuse to make Shane outside. He usually has to hang out for an hour, but he chases bugs, twirls in circles, or runs with the dog for a chunk of it. Shane likes to talk and be around people anyway.

Sometimes funny things happen if you're observant. We heard some odd noises while we were working. It was Maddy.

You have to be clever about scratching your butt when you have no hands! We got a good laugh out of it.

And then I sent Shane to run and collect the bucket before it got bent out of shape!

The cats were out while we worked. Aria kept Shane and I company from a hay feeder.

From there it became a normal school day. I went to work and Shane.....Shane's computer broke. 

A fan failed and there were all sorts of error bleeps. Thankfully, Shane doesn't do anything other than zoom and browse the internet, so it functioned for the day. We'll need to contact tech support and get a loaner at some point. It's a short week, so it won't happen until after break. 

Shane was in class until around 3 PM and took care of his Japanese practice. I got off work near 5 PM, we did evening chores, and then relaxed with electronics for the night. A much quieter day than he's probably used to, but normal for here.

Some of the cats may have gotten complacent while Shane was out of town. That's not a smart place to sleep, Moose.

I was talking in general, too. I gave in to temptation and his the start button on the walking machine...

It led to Loki showing off his treadmill skills. 

Loki learned, because of Shane! 

Shane ran with Loki some and it wasn't really all the quiet. You can definitely tell Shane's home!

The Barn Update

Where to start? The barn is part of the daily routine here.

Samwise has moved on to California. You can see the arid hills behind him. His new owners "Fed-Exed" him by air. I didn't realize there was a demand for flying horses!

It was a bit of a shock when he sold, because the first buyer fell through. It was nearly a done deal when it evaporated based on the opinion of a new vet who'd never actually seen Sam after the couple paid a well-known vet to inspect him.

A couple of weeks later he sold for real. Carrie misses him. 

However, she has "my" mule to keep her busy now. Pockets and Abby are quiet the bonded pair. They go everywhere and groom each other. Abby's even backed up towards him while in heat, but he had no idea what to do with it (to her chagrin!).

I don't ride the horses, so my view of everything is based on the work. I'm getting better at paying attention to how the horses walk to see how they're feeling. I spotted gash on Eddy's leg one day (the bright red helped attracted the ADHD).

How'd it happen? Not a clue. "Horses do some stupid things," Carrie said. She threw some clotting/first-aid powder on it and when it stopped bleeding when turned him back out. There's nothing but grass and other horses in the field, so it's hard to guess how he got a cut so high inside his leg.

Magic's been the recent high-maintenance case. He was walking lame with Carrie and Ellie suspecting an abscess in his front left hoof. He got multiple duct tape booties.  

He got the occasional epsom salt foot-bath, too. Carrie seriously impressed me. Magic didn't really want his foot in a boot and kept shifting his weight, but she wouldn't let him out of it. She was able to hold his hoof up and turn it this way and that to make him keep it up so she could treat him.

Normally a horse hoof looks something like this (pre-picking out the dirt).

When the abscess finally did start to drain it came out in two different places. You can see one of the gaps on the back left near the frog of Magic's foot here. It was very tender and he'd flinch anytime the area was touched.

The second drain point was under the hoof behind the hoofwall. The hoof looks grosser here since it was in a bath softening up.

Magic has had to stay inside or in the dry lot a couple of nights when it's been raining and he's hated it. He's a huge chicken and can't stand to be alone. He whinnies through the night even though the other horses can usually touch noses with him across the fence lines. 

When the weather dried back up, Carrie let him out and he took off. He was sprinting and squealing the whole way across the field to rejoin the herd!

In the mare's field, fly gear is en vogue. Abby had pink fly boots that didn't fit her right, so now they're further emasculating the mule. Carrie got Pockets and Maddie new fly sheets. 

Technically, Magic has a fly blanket, too, but Huck already chewed off part of the tail. 

Speaking of the little trouble maker, the rescue owner, Sarah, stopped by to check on his progress recently. Carrie groomed out his tail beforehand.

Carrie gave Sarah a full showing of what's he's learned since being with us. He recently master cantering on the lunge. 

Sarah was impressed. Huck's a smart boy and will make someone a good companion.

What impressed me is that Carrie and Gay backed Huck a couple of weeks ago. Gay was visiting and said, "You know what? Let's try it. I think it will go well."

They went for it and it worked!

I came outside when I realized what they were doing. Otherwise it would've been done before I got a picture.

I've been opposed to Carrie taking any big risks. She's thought Huck would do well, but didn't want to do anything without experienced backup, so when Gay offered to help....

It was a happy coup.

Carrie hasn't been riding as much since the hunt season ended.

She and Barbara went on one last weekend ride a couple of weeks back.

Barbara went out of town on vacation afterward. She's one of Carrie's main riding buddies, so Maddie got to take a vacation herself.

Carrie sent Barbara some "postcards" from Maddie. Barbara "wrote" back to apologize for any extra seafood poundage! 

This weekend (9/19) Carrie hopped on Maddie to get her back into work mode (and try out her new poncho!).

Those are the main bits, at least. There's always something going on around here. Even if it's just lots of poop shoveling.