October 31, 2018

porch notes, mmxviii-x-xxxi

Malcolm kicking a hot teacup as PJ takes a selfie.

October 27, 2018

mule notes, mmxviii-x-xxvii


Poor Cora is more dusty brown than flea-bitten gray after two months of rain - the tv weather guru said we've had rain on 76 percent of the days since the end of August. The last couple days have been nice, though. I knocked off about 80 percent of her mud clods and then gave her a break. She's gonna need some borax.

October 26, 2018

October 25, 2018

ranch notes, mmxviii-x-xxvi



the sun only came out for about three minutes this morning but Holy wow

October 23, 2018

October 22, 2018

trail notes, mmxviii-x-xxii (ii)



a young bull snake

trail notes, mmxviii-x-xxii


wood sorrel and uh a super tiny something

October 19, 2018

October 14, 2018

October 10, 2018

October 9, 2018

ranch notes, mmxviii-x-ix




The last one makes me sad. Cora always knows exactly where I am while I'm working; every time I look she's watching me, but I haven't been able to spend much time with her lately because there's been so much work to do.

October 8, 2018

ranch notes, mmxviii-x-viii

Red in the morning - should have heeded the warning. A couple minutes after I took this picture I took a hard fall on the feed shed steps. I wish I'd been wearing a helmet. And oh hey there, sacrum!
on the way out, a giant swallowtail on morning glories

October 5, 2018

trail notes, mmxviii-x-v

ranch notes, mmxvii-x-v




Cora had a rough morning. We had to get the new boarder, Sahara, out of her confinement stall and into a paddock. We also had to get JB out of the geldings' paddock (the other geldings weren't letting him into their clique), so we turned Lady and Cora and Scud out to graze and moved Sahara and JB into their paddock. Sahara and JB got along fine right away, so we moved Lady in with the mean-girl mares and put Scud and Cora back into the paddock. Scud went nuts. He bit and kicked JB and then started chasing Cora around - I think he was treating Cora as his harem, you know, as part of his way of showing JB who was boss. Cora defended herself but in all the running around they worked up a sweat, so things were not going well. We decided to put Scud in with the other geldings, who chewed their hay and shrugged their shoulders and said, "whatever." With Scud out of the picture, JB and Sahara stayed on one side of the paddock and Cora stayed on the other. Sahara made a couple charges but Cora stayed out of her way. I hung out with her a while and brushed her dry while they were all eyeing each other from a distance. I just hope they can learn to get along.

October 4, 2018

ranch notes, mmxviii-x-iv



Cora was a jerk today - she kept running away from me after I'd turned her out - so here are some other horses: new boarder Sahara, then Rumor, Chief and Koby, and Diamond trying to catch her hay as I'm tossing it, which she does every time.

October 3, 2018

ranch notes, mmxviii-x-iii

You'll have to zoom in to see it, but we were privileged to watch as Willow's trainer Calli got on her for the very first time. Willow was excellent - her whole reaction was to sniff Calli's boot when it appeared on her right side. (Cora and I had a minor epiphany of our own today regarding "contact" through the reins. We'll have to see if it holds true tomorrow, but for today it was super duper cool.)

October 1, 2018

garden notes, mmxviii-x-i


mule notes, mmxviii-x-i

Cora's in a bigger paddock now with Scud still and Lady again.
She has lived with Lady before but they don't get along too well -- Lady is bossy. Scud's the big guy in the paddock this time around, though, and he's pretty laid back, so we'll see how it goes.