Landie

There's been one person who has regularly been allowed in our house this summer: Landie.

She's a big fan of Shane. He's really good with younger kids. 

Though he tries to pull the "Do you want to watch me play a game?" and the "Do you want to watch this with me?" tricks.

Sometimes it even works for a little bit, but I enforce some limits. Then there's the fact that Landie just turned 4. She's happy to watch for a little bit, but then she's ready to run around!

Loki's a nutcase when they visit. He smells other dogs and he wants in. I have to pen him from time to time to give Landie a break! 

Landie's first time in the house was out of necessity, but she's grandfathered in at this point. It's nice for Shane to have someone else to play with. Carrie and I can't keep up!

Not that we're always sticks in the mud. Carrie introduced Shane to a new idea one morning.

If you assumed it was my idea, I don't blame you. In the house, I'm normally trying to preserve peace and sanity for all (Outside of the house where neither of us can get in trouble, though....). 

It was a loud, raucous time!

So naturally Shane wanted to show Landie when she showed up that night.

Landie laughed as Shane did it, but she felt safer sitting on the treadmill herself. Carrie and Ellie were playing with horses, so the kids and Loki got to be as loud as they wanted.

I recommended they try the "Don't Break the Ice" game after a while....

...but it didn't last. Wild and Crazy Kids resumed.

I pointed the kids outside when they hit my limit. I locked the door behind them, too. Landie hadn't played the password game before! Ha!

Landie doesn't come in or even come with Ellie every time Ellie visits the barn. She's a single mother and it's not always possible to find child care. She appreciates the chance to de-stress and horse-nerd with Carrie while Shane enjoys the chance to see another kid.

That leaves me on observation duty.

One week, I got a call....from Carrie. Someone forgot to latch Pippin's stall. The ladies noticed as they were riding out on our path.

I shut the barn doors in case Pippin bolted when I approached. Not that I needed to. She wanted to get back to her hay! She just wasn't sure how she ended up on the wrong side of it.

There must be something about me trying to rest that draws kids over. Landie grabbed my neck to "tell me something" and screamed in my ear.

I saw it coming......all three times. She couldn't understand why I wouldn't fall for it a fourth time!

UPDATE: Ellie and Landie dropped by the barn today as I was writing this. I had been going to do evening chores, but Carrie tagged in. Landie ended up in the wheelbarrow. I drove.

"Faster! Faster!" Landie said. I know just how out of shape I really am now.

Shane played turtle. He nearly got run over by the wheelbarrow a few times (to his chagrin and Landie's glee).

I would've loved to let them stay outside for longer, but they ended up watching Pink Panther cartoons on Shane's computer. There was only a little bit of treadmill play.

Pandemic Dentist Visit

Pandemic or not, summer is a time to take care of appointments. Shane had a 12:00 PM dentist appointment.

It's not like we could just walk right in, though. Times have changed.

I pulled up to the dentist, turned off the car, and called to say we'd arrived.

It was hot.

Really hot.

In retrospect, I wouldn't have turned off the car if I'd known it would take them so long to walk out (I was trying to save the environment!). Shane started to complain he was melting and I was probably saying, "Suck it up, buttercup" when the hygienist came out wearing head-to-toe, bio-hazard gear.

The woman in the hazmat suit pulled out a thermometer gun and pointed it at my forehead. "Your temperature is too high to come in."

I had to turn the AC back on. We sat around another 5 minutes. We passed the second try (The studying helped). I asked the nurse what my temperature had been the first time she came out. "102." It turns out sitting in a hot car makes you hot.

The office looked different on the inside. The toys were gone. The chairs were few. There was a little sign noting, "You're on camera."

The biggest change for Shane was his mask. This was the first time he had to wear it.

He's a fan of fiddling with it, at least. Keeping it in place is a little harder, but he did okay.

The hygienist had Shane gargle with mouthwash while she donned a plastic shield (with a kitty-cat nose!).

Other than being in a near empty office with bio-hazard clad personnel in a closed-door side suite while wearing a mask it was a standard dental visit.

No x-rays and no cavities. Or if there were, they didn't think they merited the extra look at germs.

The one new bit was Shane was prescribed fluoride chews. We're on a well and not city water now. It never occurred to me that our water was no longer fluoride treated. Maybe I'll need something myself?

It was a long enough drive into town, so Carrie had me stop at Southern States and Tractor Supply on the way home. I want to say 90% of the people I see in town wear masks. There was a woman and her two teenage kids without in the Tractor Supply line and it struck me as interesting that I noticed who wasn't wearing a mask as much as those who were. A year ago the reverse would have been true.

Shane has an orthodontist appointment later this month. I'll know to keep the AC on until we get scanned this time! I probably need to reschedule whatever appointments for me got cancelled at some point, too.

Going to Work

We don't have enough of a barn to make it a full time job, but it keeps us busy enough.

Mainly Carrie. She's the only one in the family who really knows how to ride!

She pops on Magic once a week to exercise him for Ellie.

She works with Eddie to keep him in shape for Heidi.

Heidi's knee prevents her from riding, so her visits have just been to check on her boy, hang out, and have fun rather than exercise herself.

Micayla, Abby's owner, has been showing up every day. Her medical school doesn't start for a while yet, and if you bring a horse you may as well work with the horse! Carrie's joins her on occasion.

Same managed to tweak himself again, so I don't have recent pictures with him. He trots around fine, but Carrie says there's a lack of impulsion when she pushes him to canter. She added a new supplement to his feed and he is NOT a fan.

This is the horse equivalent to choking it down. The big baby knocked his food bowl over twice before we switched him to the bucket.

Not that it stopped him from finishing.

Sam cleaned the bucket and hated every minute of it! He's truly stomach-driven.

Sam's on a week of rest. Alex, Laura, and Carrie all ride him from time to time, so he'll probably enjoy the break.

Huck has adapted really well. He really likes to place bitey-face and has proven dominant over Eddie and Ernie. He doesn't leave Magic be either, but Magic puts him into his place when he's had enough.

Huck's super friendly with people. He's got a great personality. Whoever owns him one day will love the little guy (and that's me saying this...).

He's shown an amazing amount of trust and willingness to work. He came along further than Pippin in just a few sessions. "He's a blank slate," Carrie said.

Carrie was shocked when she put the saddle on him and he acted like it was no big thing. He went up banks and jumped over ditches the first day she introduced them!

She was so excited she had me film the second day she took him out to the obstacles. If he wasn't tiny, Carrie would probably want to keep him!

Huck's owner stopped by to check in on him one day while Carrie was out. She plans on coming by for a training session eventually.

There's all the usual chores and horse care mixed in. It could be something as simple as braiding Maddy's mane....

...or fixing a fly mask! How do they do these things?

Pippin's a character. She farts and laughs.

Really, it was a yawn. Just like the shot where I caught Maddy.

It looks like they're making noise, but the yawns were silent.

We try to do most of the work in the mornings before it gets too hot. We end up sweaty messes regardless. There's no rush, so I work at a more leisurely pace. Some of it's still pretty tough: I weighed the bucket of Sam's poop the other day and it was 72 lbs! It was also the first bucket. If I take a day off he starts to stack his piles....

Happy 4th!

The 4th of July is one of Carrie's least favorite holidays. She hates fireworks. 

It can be tough on her, because Shane and I love explosions, bright lights, and loud noises.

This year Carrie was dreading the 4th more than usual, because horses. She didn't know how the animals would react. I figured they hear gunshots and other loud noises so they'd be okay, but we wouldn't know until it was show time.

The morning started with most of our boarders showing up to ride around. 

I said it was tradition to grill and Carrie put her own twist on the burgers (Asian style: Teriyaki marinade and an Asian-slaw on top!). Carrie thought that Thor would be the most child-friendly of the Marvel movies and we watched while we ate dinner.

We held off evening chores until the light was waning. Carrie wanted everyone in and happily eating when the first round of fireworks went off.

We heard some activity, but saw little. The horses startled once or twice, but only a little. They seemed fine.

Shane and I wanted to see some action, so we went to find a vantage point.

There was not much.

We saw some fireworks to the south and east. We heard far more than we saw and sometimes we'd see a flash only to hear the boom later. Every now and then lightning would flash to the southeast and put all fireworks to shame. Despite Carrie's wishes, it never rained.

The house animals weren't bothered. Loki barked a couple of times, but went on being Loki. Bucket was probably the most terrified, but since she's perpetually terrified it was status quo. She hunkered down and slept.

Shane stayed up late and we went outside again when it was dark, but there was nothing to see; Only to hear.

He went to bed and then Carrie fell asleep next. That left me to tend to things. Sam was a little on edge when I checked on him, but once he had some extra hay his stomach took over.

It was a memorable 4th in it was a 1st: Our 1st 4th on the farm (during our 1st pandemic). Nothing bad happened to leave a sour memory, but my burger was awesome. I want Carrie to make those again!

Next year, I'll take Shane somewhere to see fireworks. I have to balance out his explosive exuberance with being around to tamp down Carrie's anxiety to meet everyone's needs, but I'm sure God will make it happen somehow. 

Happy 4th to all!

Ear Worm

It took me a while to get back to the blog writing. 

Part of it was I had to go through a ton of pictures and write this behemoth. It probably over 4 hours with uploading, sorting, writing, going "Wasn't there a picture of...," finding the picture, and then finishing writing. It's much easier to write the shorter posts where I can see my vision and pull it off in one sitting.

The other part was Shane. He likes to sit next to me and talk.

And talk.

And talk some more.

I've tried to coach him on asking people questions, pausing to give people time to speak, and listening when they do so, but that's still a work in progress.

I feel bad when I tune him out, but maybe I shouldn't. He doesn't seem to notice or care as long as there's a warm body near by. I could probably be deaf and he wouldn't stop talking.

So one time I was sitting on the couch trying to read and Shane plopped down next to me. He started to talk and I listened at first. When it was clear he wasn't going to stop I phased him out. I've set a timer before to see how long he'd talk, but I had a new idea this time: "What if I recorded him?"

So I did.

Keep in mind that I didn't have a recording app on my phone. I got the idea, downloaded, and ran the app while Shane was talking. As part of the experiment, I then sat stone-faced and as still as possible to see how long he'd talk if I didn't give any feedback.

I did say something between the 3 and 4 minute marks, but otherwise the file is nearly 8 minutes of Shane.

Yup. That's my boy.

I like that he's using his imagination and keeping his mind active, but there are times I just want quiet to read a book or write a post! I'm sure he gets the talking and the imagining from my side of things.

After all, writing is basically a more methodical (but quiet!) thought dump.

NOTE: Shane is sitting next to me at the table and humming songs from from The Messenger game really loudly as I write this. I'd tell him to knock it off, but it's proving my point with every keystroke! I'll try to address it more when he's older. Until my patience runs out, I'd like him to feel loved and valued.

WoT's Going On?

My book club met Tuesday night. It was a month since our last meeting! We met on my back porch instead of at the brewery this time. We stayed outside the whole time to keep it socially distant enough.

Too bad it was 90 degrees out. This July is looking to be a scorcher!

Carrie was kind enough to grill burgers for dinner. Shane thought everyone was there to visit with him until Carrie took him inside and turned the TV on. I would have been happy to break out some of my board games, but we talked the whole time instead. The three of us went for a walk around the property and Scott and Mark started to make grass whistles at the end (Gotta respect the simple pleasures of life!).

The boys left a few things behind that we'll have to remember for our next meetup.

I finished Book 5, The Fires of Heaven, shortly after their visit. I'm going to take a break between books to let Mark catch up with Scott and I. We're off for the summer (teachers), but he was not!

Auction Rescue Special: Huckleberry

Our newest boarder arrived Wednesday afternoon.

A chain of observers came to see what the trailer brought forth.

It was a quick unload. Rain was working itself up into a storm.

Huck was a good boy and came off quickly.

He's a four-year old auction rescue. As Carrie calls it, "He's a blank slate." Someone had him, put a halter on him a couple of times to lead him around, and then forgot about him.

A local woman who runs a rescue operation picked Huck up at an auction to prevent him from going to a meat market. She knew Carrie through Ellie and an impromptu trailer rescue and asked what training board would cost.

Huck is our 8th horse on property. We are FULL!

Carrie brought Ernie in to be the babysitter. He's calm and has a history of looking out for other horses.

Once they had a chance to smell each other and Huck settled, Carrie stalled Magic and Eddy. She let Huck and Ernie into the field and then introduced the others one by one.

There was huffing and squealing. 

Huck looks to be a mouthy git. Ideally, we would have let the boys hang out in the barn longer, but there was only so much daylight left for Huck to learn the field boundaries.

It went well enough the boys all went for rolls in the field together!

The ladies watched the mayhem from afar. Sam looked like he wanted to get out and run with the boys, but he was stuck in his pasture-lite. Huck ran over to introduce himself in the same hyper, mouthy manner he did with the other boys.

Odd as it sounds, Carrie and I were rooting for Huck to get shocked. He kept straying closer and closer to the wire....

"Wait...he touched it. Is the fence on!? Mike! Go check!"

The fence was OFF! Who knows for how long? Sam knew to be wary and refused to risk a shock, but Huck had never seen our fence before. We needed him to figure out it was a barrier so that he didn't run through any lines and into trouble!

I never saw him get shocked, but we haven't had any incidents of note. Huck is a high-energy guy and likes to push other horses boundaries. He's a lot like a teenager. There was a mark on his side from where he pushed Magic too far and got put in his place, but that was good news. "He needs to learn manners and to respect other horses boundaries," Carrie said.

So Carrie has a new project. Horses are the gift that keep on giving (work!).