This Weekend in Play-Dates

I wanted to drive to Northern Virginia for the long weekend, but it didn't work out. John was working Saturday, Sunday, and Monday night. I asked if he'd have time on Monday morning and heard, "Dentist appointment" in reply. Sam got everyone in Megan's family sick and Matt stays busy, so I called it off before even calling him.

Shane got to see kids at TKD Day camp on Friday (Teacher workday), at soccer on Saturday, and at Sunday school, but we didn't have anyone visit our hours until Monday.

Dylan and Eli came and saw the farm for the first time.

Eli immediately started to rev up Loki.

Dylan joined in and Loki was running in circles and barking like mad.

Neither of the boys accounted for Loki tripling in size from when they last saw him. There was no outrunning him now! Eli thought he was safe on top of the 'hill,' but Loki exposed the flaw in his plan.

No one listened to my advice. The boys kept running and hyping Loki up until they weren't sure they liked a dog running wild and barking at their heels. Loki's good about not being too rough, but he is (annoyingly) mouthy which can be scary to someone not used to dogs.

Dylan tripped and the dads called a halt to the wild festivities.

We went inside and Minecraft came out. Dylan was still curious about Loki.

Shane, on the other hand, felt the siren call of electronics.

Eli remembered how much fun Kirby was the last time he visited us. Eventually, all of the boys joined in and worked on their 2-controllers-for-3-kids diplomacy skills.

The adults managed to get some conversation in, but John had no voice. He had the flu last week and the doctor told him he had developed pneumonia! He was deemed non-contagious, but John sounded like a long-time smoker who'd come back from a jog.

The kids did really well and we were able to enjoy some rest while the going was good. John had to return the kids to their mom's house, so they cleared out before dinner.

Tuesday, Henry came over after his school let out (private schools don't close for election day). 

Loki gave the kids a workout again.

Henry is used to animals, so the running around lasted longer.

I played amateur photographer as usual.

I enjoy watching and taking the pictures, but looking back at them I wonder if I should have run out, too.

I can barely outpace Loki nowadays and I suspect that's partly because he doesn't really want to run me down. Loki enjoys running along and barking madly. He looks like he's tempted to nip at heels, but so far has refrained.

Shane gets his own "ideas" like throwing gravel dust that seem good in his head (or he doesn't think about at all), but aren't father approved. If the ideas are goofy, that's ok, but if they involve a risk of injury or extreme mess they can get him in trouble.

In this case, the game ended because the boys were tired. They ran around for half an hour before Henry wanted to show Shane some games on his iPad. The boys holed up in Shane's room until it was time for horse chores. Henry came bounding out and wanted to help. Shane wanted to curl up inside on the couch with his "precious," and skipped out (the turd).

It was time to put the iPad away when we got back to the house for obvious reasons.

Dinner was a hit. Carrie cooked spaghetti for everyone and the boys shared some Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans for dessert. They both agreed that grass tasted decent. Henry shared that he liked boogers, so booger flavored would probably be good, too!

The boys finished out the night playing Kirby together from what I saw. Carrie and Grandma held down the fort while I left for a final trivia night, but that's a different story.

Gardener General Granny

We had a guest stay with us this week. A guest with a master plan.

Grandma had her house just the way she likes it and was itching for a new canvas.

Grandma showed up Sunday with a car full of plants and put Shane and I right to work.

That would be a theme for the week! Grandma found a landscaper who'd work for an hourly rate. He was supposed to show up Monday, but delayed until Tuesday.

Grandma put on her foreman hat and started to direct right after she got off a surprise business call. She had gardens installed, drains run, and made future plans for future Gardener General activities.

I came home to a changed landscape on Wednesday.

There's even some posts up to place our sign.

I thought construction was temporarily over, but I greeted a new guy when I got home on Thursday, Wendell.

Wendell is an erosion specialist. He had been on property changing topography and runoff flow and it was clear he'd been busy.

He was at it Friday, too.

"It's all smooth," Carrie said.

It's hard to see through pictures, but he sloped the hill down the barn and the edge of the arena into a channel for runoff to go off property.

Grandma said that Carrie was out with Wendell trenching lines for drains!

Including one that wasn't run long enough from the initial barn construction.

Grandma went home Friday afternoon after spending the better part of six days with us! Shane was sad to see her go.

Wendell didn't leave, though. He was back on Saturday. Grandma was debating rolling sod after Wendell finished. She'd gotten some decent quotes in and Wendell asked what she was quoted.

"That's a good price," Wendell said. "But I can do you better."

The ladies had been so impressed with Wendell's work ethic the past couple of days he was hired. He did some of the prep work on Friday. Then he came on Saturday with a couple of other guys to seed and straw. 

It looks fantastic. We won't know how effective everything was until it starts to rain.

I'm ready to hit maintenance mode. There are still other projects in the works that I am thankful for....but I still want to hit maintenance mode for a bit.

World of Warcraft

WoW has stuck around. It's been hot and cold. Carrie played more than me whenever she was stuck on hold with distributors, etc. I enjoyed leveling and exploring, but once that was done I only logged on when there was something new or I was needed for something. I didn't even log in some months, and thought about cancelling.

The situation has changed, though.

Right now, we're playing two to four nights a week. Everyone hops on between 8 and 9 PM and we play for a couple of hours give or take. Shane's usually earned electronics by then, so he's on Pokemon and I hop up to put him to bed at 9 PM.

It started easily enough.

Carrie, Genevieve, Chris, and I tried to do a Mythic+ dungeon as a foursome and failed (It's typically done with a 5 person team). They're all in to collecting and gearing up. I have no interest save helping them. But running challenges? That seemed more fun to me.

Or it would have been if we had five players. We seemed to be perma-capped at four. We didn't know anyone else who played and who'd want to be #5 with a pair of married couples?

And then Bill showed an interest.

I had been playing a game a couple of times a week with Bill, John, and Dan. Dan moved to Vegas. John lost interest. Bill and I were still interested, but frequently busy. The game itself wasn't enough to hold our attention, either. It had been running as a group of four that made the magic happen.

WoW classic came out around then. Bill and I had played for a few months nearly 15 years ago. Carrie and I tried it out and I related the experience to Bill.

Nostalgia kicked in.

Bill decided to do a free trial and things changed. Carrie was thrilled and offered to help fly him around and smite anything that bothered him. We tried to get John to play, but he wasn't interested. Bill wanted to run around more with us, so he upgraded his account which gave him a level boost. We introduced him to Gen and Chris, he joined the guild, and everyone got bit by the mythic+ bug.

We had our five! That gave us a chance at running mythic dungeons. Everyone was hooked and Carrie and Gen started making plans to meet on certain nights. Everyone helped Bill here and there when he needed it to get him up to speed.

Ironically, around this time Carrie made a new friend online, Emily. Emily was in college in NC and played the same type of character as Carrie. Carrie and Emily had the best gear in the group and Carrie invited her to join us on a run Bill wasn't big enough for yet.

Our too small group of 4 changed to a too large group of 6.

Thankfully, it's worked out most nights. There have been a few times everyone was on and ready, but there were only five slots and someone was temporarily left out. Chris is the healer and I'm the tank, so we're required for each run. I would be willing to bow out, but that would be like playing soccer without a goalie or football without a defensive line. Gen, Emily, Bill, and Carrie are the four DPS trying to fill three slots.

I wrote a lot more about that than I planned. Just feeling wordy, I guess.

TLDR; Bill started to play WoW. It's more fun now. We met another friend and we're playing several nights a week which is much cheaper than eating out.

Active Saturday

It felt like forever since Shane had been to TKD. It also felt like forever since we did a recycling run.

Why not combine the two?

10/10. Would recommend to do again!

Maybe next weekend.

It's not the furthest drive, but being 20 minutes out encourages me to try to knock off as many items on the to-do list as possible whenever we're in Cville.

TKD, recylcing, and picking up dog food make for an efficient trip.

Shane found a cute kitten who really liked to play and climb.

I sent Carrie some pictures and, in retrospect, I'm lucky we didn't end up with a third cat. I asked some clarifying questions about the dog food I was supposed to buy, but she didn't answer. She'd put down her phone to resist the temptation.

I bought the wrong food, but it worked out. Loki liked it better than his old brand!

Carrie had me lug jumps down to the arena when we got home. She set things up the way she liked it and dragged the arena for pictures.

Loki tried to eat plastic flowers from the flower boxes.

Carrie appreciated my help more than his.

Shane had a soccer game that afternoon we made it on time for! Shane's bonded with the tree beside the field as much as he has with his team.

Shane actually ran some today! Normally he runs more off the field than on. His team was 2-0 in a few minutes when he was on the sideline. When he popped on as a defender they were 1-0, but lasted a much longer time. He had some good stops and actually played like he wanted to play.

Shane was the goalie for the second half.

Despite being distracted at times, he played a good half. His team went 1-1 while he was in the goal.

I keep wanting to practice soccer with Shane and then never do. He's not exactly raring to go, but it would be great if he had a few more skills he could access in a game. He's had no direct instruction in anything goal related outside of advice during games.

The coach gathered the kids for a team picture at the end of practice.

We may not have been the most reliable about games and practices, but I'm still glad we played this season.

There was more work to be done when we got home. Carrie needed all the jumps rotated. I did one by hand as proof I could do it if I really wanted to...

...and then we got smart.

Carrie and Shane rode backed up the gator to push the jumps I rotate closer to the fence line.

Then I hopped in and they gave me a ride to the next set of jumps!

We used a combination of mechanical power and Michael power to turn the last few. Nibs showed up to supervise.

For the record, the last jump was definitely too heavy for me only. The gator saved us a lot of effort and creative problem solving.

The sun was going down by the time we finished.

Carrie hit the gas and we completed the circuit before calling it a night. Shane didn't get his playdate, but it was a far cry from doing nothing.

Carrie has an active listing for the barn up now, too. Hopefully, she's feeling better and jumping Samwise over some of the jumps we rotated before too long.

Our First Boarder! + The Forlorn Pony

Our first boarder arrived today! Eddy is a 21 year old gelding who will be sharing a pasture with Sam.

Eddy's owners are Heidi (78) and Misha (90). Heidi likes to work with Eddy daily! 

Heidi and Eddy used to board at Carrie's friend Theresa's barn. Theresa decided to get out of the boarding business and recommended Heidi check out our place.

Grandma and Grandpa were on hand to greet everyone.

Eddy is an interesting addition to the mix. He's the old man of the group and nowhere near as food driven. He was lying out in the far reaches resting one morning and didn't want to get up for breakfast. Carrie had to walk out with a crop and shoo him in or he would have sauntered up long after breakfast was over!

Heidi was working on lunging Eddy the other day and Carrie went out to help.

Eddy is with Sam in the far pasture, because A) horses need a buddy and B) Heidi said that Eddy has trouble with mares. 

That means Nibs and Maddy are on their own in our pastures. Nibs misses Sam something fierce!

I took this picture after I got home on Eddy's first day with us.

Several hours later...

...and off in the middle of the night. Nibs stays looking out into the field where Sam is.

The following morning Nibs was at her post looking for her friend.

Maddy could care less. She'll leave Nibs pining and go off to forage. If anything, Maddy is probably happier this way, because Nibs has left her alone in her vigil.

Sam doesn't seem to notice Nibs staring after him longingly. He's too busy eating.

Poor Nibs. It's better to have loved and lost than to never loved at all (or so they say). When there's more boarders we may rotate ponies again based on personalities, but for the moment Samwise and Nibs will have to graze with a field between.