Virtual Brush Box

Awareness of the outside world. Malaria vaccine!

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Virtual Tevis Cup 2023
100 Miles in 100 Days
19 April to 30 July

Rodney – 15 miles this week, 25 miles total
Milton – 13 miles this week, 20 miles total
Tues 25 April to Mon 1 May

Both horses – 7 days, 15 or 16 outings. Multiple short walks each day. Rodney did a 5K around the pasture that Milton sat out.

Handwalks with halters, except two under tack for Rodney & one for Milton.

The GSP Giveth, The GPS Taketh Away

Our morning route is three laps to the far corner. It can be anywhere from .97 to 1.07 miles. The elevation gain runs from 30 to 42 feet.

Virtual Tevis Posts [Last week], [Archives]

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Salt: A World History, by Mark Kurlansky, Penguin 2003. “Until about 100 years ago, salt, the only rock we eat, was one of the world’s most sought after commodities. Wars were fought over it, other wars were financed with it, colonies were settled to get it. It secured empires and spurred revolutions. Then, fairly suddenly, it lost its value.” MK>Books>Other Non-Fiction>Read More. In my TBR pile, along with Paper by the same author.

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We have decided to work on Milton’s water intake. He’s never been a stellar drinker. While we’ll won’t know what specifically ailed him two weeks ago, we wonder if constipation played a part. [Poop Watch]

Plus, a horse who has had colic surgery has an elevated risk of recurrence. Can’t hurt to do these things. All good things to do anyway.

Here Milton, want a drink of nice, fresh water? Sure you do.

Things We Already Do

Buckets of water in the barn, despite a perfectly good trough in the field. Previous Horse and Mathilda did fine with the trough. The current two have always preferred water in the barn. Of course, when they were kept up, that’s what they got. We’ve stayed with it.

Spit bucket. At vet clinic. Milton got used to a low bucket near the food service area. We gave him one while he was stall-bound. Now he has one in his corner on the wall in the run-in area. Yes, this is in addition to the perfectly good buckets 10 feet away that are in addition to the perfectly good water trough that is 50 yards away. Oh well. He seems to enjoy dunking his hay.

Soak feed. Mush not soup.

Plain salt block & a mineral block. Previous pair preferred the red mineral block. Milton likes the plain, white salt block. He will often go have a lap after work.

Hot water. Tea service continues. [Winter Protocols, Tea Service Has Begun & Stall Rest Chronicles 29 March, Changes]

Things We Have Added

A second, shiny new salt block over where Milton likes to stand.

Started summer electrolytes early. Able to do immediate. Had some from last year. Good thing about salt, it doesn’t go stale. That’s kinda the point of salt.

Rigorous dumping & cleaning of buckets. Easy to let an extra day or two go by, particularly if it means dumping a three-quarer-full spare bucket. Now, out ya go!

Carrots & apples instead of commercial treats. We were feeding small, inexpensive treats. We figure they were likely to be mostly filler.

Commercial treats sparingly. One at a time, not handfuls.

Not

Flavored water. Tried apple juice. Big nope. Even though liked it on dinner & from bucket by itself. Never touched the water with juice in it. I keep reading about this. Have never seen or know someone who actually does it. May try again, may not.

Wet hay. Do not want to go there unless necessary for health reasons. A complete PIA and changes the hay nutrition.

Future

Better treats? Once we are done with the current stockpile, We may upgrade to fancy treats, especially if we are feeding fewer of them.

Second smaller trough near barn? Closer. Smaller so easy to clean more often.

Any other ideas?

❤️

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Roll for initiative, Roll a D20 – Roll a Die.

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Visual for earlier post [Muse & The Earth Day Movie]

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Admin note. You may have seen another graphic that was posted briefly. This is a redo. The first version had Never Give Up rising in the smoke from the flame. Looked great on my desktop. When posted, the “Never” was too dark. The resulting message was not the one I intended.

TIL. One, graphic design across platforms can be tricky. Two, I will get up at 3 am to fix a blog post. Insomnia for the win!

Onwards!
Katherine

Explanation. A) I need a place to put this so I could link to it & B) Never let perfectly good text go to waste.

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Photo by Ginni Bush [No Stirrup November, In Which I Complicate An Introduction]

Hello! The program asked for, “either a bio or a link to a website with information about you.” Here ya go.

Me

I am a semi-retired freelance writer, currently living in the Southern US. 60 years old, white, cis female, married, no kids. Husband & I live on a farmette with horses, cats, & dogs. Pronouns, she/her/hey you. At this point, mox nix. The incidence of being called Sir or Mr. has gone way up even since I wrote a post about it last October. [Hello Sir]

My paid writing was mainly back in Ye Olde Print Days. Most of it missed the Internet. [My Professional Presence Online]

I have a daily blog. Makes Vanna White gesture. The main topic is horses. Over the years, I have managed to wedge in all manner of other subjects, such as science fiction conventions, see below. I’ve been blogging for 11 years. There is always a post about it. [Blog Milestone]

When we meet, I am likely to be excited. I don’t get out much. On the level of, ‘If a global pandemic doesn’t change your lifestyle, maybe you should get out more.’ Therefore, I might suffer from a super-abundance of interaction and go hide in my hotel room. Or I might bounce off the walls bonding with my new best friends. It could go either way.

I used to have people skills.

Really.

They are around here somewhere.

“Whether I talk a lot or too much depends on how amusing you find me.” [Learning My Lessons, Or Not]

You

Tell me about yourself. Seriously. One of my strengths as a journalist is to be completely fascinated by the topic at hand. I spent seven years calling up people and asking them about their jobs. [Clips: USDF Connection]

Random interest? Weird hobby? I wanna hear it.

Will I do a blog post about the convention? Mostly likely. Will I use your name? No. I will not use your name nor mention anything we discuss without your express permission. I am phobic about other people’s privacy. [The Song of Me]

Us

I came here via the History of Science Fiction class, taught by Jo Walton & Ada Palmer via UChicago Graham School. Intro video, UCGS: The History of Science Fiction, A Conversation with Ada Palmer and Jo Walton. [Winter Protocols, Blanket Adjustment]

I look forward to basking in the ambiance of being with like-minded folks. I live in the polar opposite of an echo chamber. [Life in Alabama, Being a Bad Blue Dot In A Really Red State]

Although I have lived in the Deep South for more years than I care to count, I have never successfully repotted. I always got more work nationally & internationally than I ever did locally. Smart ass Yankee does not play well around these parts.

With luck, my scintillating wit will play better at a science fiction convention.

Them

Convention Posts

Alabama Phoenix Festival
2012
[Foto Friday: Push-button Horse]
[Ghost Who Walks. Horse Who Racks.]
[New Yeller]

2013
[The Horse in Comics I, II, III, IV]
[Balloon Art]
[Spotted Who?]
[My Confidence Has Increased] Title, blame Alabama Phoenix Festival.

2014
[Foto Friday: Rodney Is Awesome!]
[Off Topic: The Upside of Negativity]
[Text Art: LEGO Business Card]

DragonCon
2012 [Monster Alphabet Book] & [A Plea for Hobby Tolerance]
2014 [T-Shirts for the Barn]
2016 [Guest Dragon Art]
2021 [Flying Low, Walk Report, DragonCon Virtual 5K]
2022 [Slow Flight Around The Park, Dragon Con Hustle Virtual 5K 2022]

We

Posts & links that might amuse this crowd

Season 12 scarf [My Doctor Whooves Scarf, The Origin Story, Guest Post]

“Science fiction and fantasy get it in the neck for being shallow. Critics have it the wrong way round. The lack of depth is not a bug, it’s a feature.” [You Say Escapism Like It’s A Bad Thing]

My beta reader (waves hi!) said I should include this. While it is not science fiction, it is the only fiction I’ve had published. Bending Genres: You Had Me At Blue Hair. The rest of my fiction – mainly bit & pieces – has been posted on this blog. [Fiction archives], [Moon Rats]

Oh, and I wrote a book. Sorta. [Writing Life]

Favorite work by Jo Walton, Visiting Friends, Or, What I Did On My Summer Vacation, Green Iguana 2020. Day One on JW Patreon.

Favorite work by Ada Palmer, YouTube: “Recovering a Lost Classic in the Renaissance” – Paideia Institute Public Lectures. Book history with examples.

Most eye-opening work, “Think you know about censorship? You probably don’t. The inquisition wasn’t a single organization, Orwell mostly got it wrong, and the most important change in modern times mostly went unnoticed. YouTube video, stay for the Q&A. Tracing Censorship of Radical Ideas Across Centuries: Historian Ada Palmer, U Chicago, Jun 29, 2021. The more I ponder this & watch the news, the more I think everyone should see this video to better understand how censorship functions in the world.” [Changing the Blanketing Protocol]

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Update.

I read “program”, as in the thing that is handed out. Oh cool, they will have introductions for all the attendees. Hence this post.

No.

“Program” as in the schedule of activities. As in speakers and panelists. For which this introduction makes no sense.

Oh well, at least I got a blog post out of it.

Onwards!
Katherine

Galloping

Through

Clouds

As

Graceful

As

Swimming

Through

Oceans

*

*

*

Yogmantra Bali
April 2023

🦋 Photos by Kelly Mellon. Watermarks & borders added by VBB.

🦋 Kelly’s Newsletter, Substack: Traveling Butterfly

🦋 Previous Kelly post [Between The Ears, Camel View, Guest Photos]

Full disclosure. Family member. I have joined her Substack community.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Alabama News Center: Our Town: The wonders of Wetumpka, Alabama’s River Region respite, Chandler, photos by Meg McKinney, 2017.

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January.

“Lately, whenever I make plans to spend more time at Stepping Stone, shit goes down in my life.” [Other Horses, Whither Saddle Seat Wednesdays, Or How Wednesday Became Thursday]

Ha. Ha. Let’s make dramatically dire statements in pursuit of an amusing blog post. In the post, I recognized that correlation is not causation. A perceived connection is an artifact of pattern seeking.

Then.

April.

I finally set up a lesson. [Lesson Scheduled, and Thoughts Thereon]

We end up back at the vet clinic. [Poop Watch]

I never did get a lesson. (Milton is fine, btw.)

I want to believe we live in a rational universe.

The universe is making not making it easy.

Onwards!
Katherine

Remember a few weeks ago, when I misread an email? [Stall Rest Chronicles 10 April, On Being Bleary]

It worked out. I was just a bit annoyed with myself.

Ha!

I ended up having to cancel the interview with that person. It was scheduled for the afternoon of the day we took Milton to the clinic. Even if we got back in time, I figured my brain would be sludge. [Poop Watch]

Again I say, Ha!

I wasn’t as worried as I would have been if the interview hadn’t been for an equine magazine. I figured a horse person would understand.

Milton came home. We all got some rest.

Over the weekend, I went over the information to date, took the horses for walks, started a rough draft, got some sleep, made notes for the interview on Monday.

On Monday morning, I rereaded everything. My rough draft, my notes for the interview, the emails. I doublechecked the phone number.

Five minutes to go. Recorder plugged in and tested. Paper and pen to hand. Called up a website with a clock. Watched the numbers flick to exactly 1:00:00. Dial.

No answer.

That’s odd. Person has been prompt all along. Left message saying I would try again in 5 minutes. It happens.

Dial. Interview. Went okay. I felt a little stupid here and there. Had a good list of questions. Person was charming and informative. Got information I needed. We said goodbye.

Sigh of relief. Back on track.

Now that’s out of the way, I can make my To Do list for the week. What’s this. Oh, yeah, my reminder note, INTERVIEW 1:30.

1:30?

1:30!?!

You have got to be kidding me.

Remember when I doublechecked the phone number? I always send a confirmation email with day, date, time, secondary time if time zones are involved, & phone number. The phone number was right under where it said 1:30 CST.

Actually it should have been CDT, but that’s a minor issue at this point.

Being half an hour early may seem like a small thing, but I find it screamingly unprofessional. I have no idea what their day is like. I have no idea what they had to arrange to make a specific time.

Screamingly unprofessional. Also, screamingly not me. Or, I would have said not me.

How could I miss so badly? I was deeply, utterly, truly convinced that the interview was at 1.

Strike 3.

Fortunately, it’s not baseball.

Sent email to explain my sorry self. Actually, I said I was sorry and that I had no explanation. Seems like all I do is apologize to this poor soul.

My brain is one of the few things I trust. Now I have have to write up the article while I wonder what other stitches I am dropping.

At least I have the editor to make sure that the final text sounds good.

Onwards!
Katherine