Virtual Brush Box

Horsekeeping

Awareness of the outside world. “It wasn’t just a cute, spontaneous wedding at a horse show. It’s about more than that; it’s about being visible. A courthouse wedding would have been silent, and this was public.” The Chronicle of the Horse: Get Me To The Barn On Time: Riders Wed During Dressage At Lexington, Clawson, Jul 19, 2022.

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[Annoying Shortages Not Related To The Virus, But Of Course The Current Situation Makes Everything Worse, 2020]

Hay buying. You wouldn’t think it would be quite so varied. Not the hay, the actual method for purchasing it.

Years ago, we used to stock the barn for the winter from a wonderful hay supplier a few counties away. Good prices. Great hay. Delivery. Full barn. Yay. This is the best method.

As a side note, Previous Horse and Mathilda used to cut way back on their hay consumption come March. We’d feed it but they wouldn’t eat it. The current team, not so much. All hay, all year. End side note.

Sadly, the gentleman in charge of the hay farm passed away and the family left the hay business.

After that, we ran in quality inconsistencies with local suppliers. Some loads were great, some less so. Don’t want to load up on what would turn out to be mediocre hay.

Second side note. Previous Horse and Mathilda were more generous about what they would eat. These two, not so much. We are now even more concerned about loading up on hay that that our picky petunias won’t eat. End second side note.

So we turned to feed stores and bought hay in smaller loads as needed. They were often able to get better hay from farther away. We are rural enough that we have several feed store options. If one didn’t have hay, the other would. Expensive, but it’s easy to pay a bit more with two horses than when you have a herd of 20. We’d run low occasionally, usually in late winter. We’ve been able to find hay somewhere. So far. See above.

Now, between supply chain issues, uncooperative weather, and high prices for tractor fuel, we are concerned about finding hay next winter.

Therefore, we will be trying a new hay acquisition theory. Used to be we brought hay, fed it, bought more. Start at the top, work our way down. Now, we will work side to side. Buy a load, feed this half of the stack, restock, feed that half of the stack, restock, and so on. This gives us time to scout out the next batch.

We’ll see how it goes. Already I can tell you that it is weird opening a bale at waist level when there are still bales at head level.

Anyone out there have hay finding magic?

Onwards!
Katherine

Images

Awareness of the outside world. LEGO.com: Charities we support.

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Magic City LEGO Users Group display at Homewood Library, in keeping with the Oceans of Possibilities summer reading program. None of the MOCs are mine. I’m still a member of MCLUG but more in theory than in actual brick building.

Floor Display

Wall Display

Monsters

The Minifig Life

Chillin’ on the rooftop.

View from the rooftop.

Signs

Onwards!
Katherine

Words

Illustration by AJ/The Errant Moon [The Errant Muse]

As part of my orientation, I have to convince my corporate-assigned therapist that I will not suddenly become homesick once I get to the moon.

So I told them about my last visit home.

~~~

Mom: “Do you have to go all the way to the moon?”

Me: “I don’t have to. Mom. I get to. It’s a huge career boost to work on the lower gravity experiments directly. I’ll be doing my own research not just working with other people’s data. I’ll be first author on any papers that come out. That’s a good thing.

Dad: You’ll be living with Them.

Me: You mean the lunar residents?

Dad: You know exactly what I mean. Those Moon People.

(I love my parents. I really do. But some of their attitudes are stuck in the worst part of the last century.)

Me: You like the Moon Rats comics. You asked for their collected works for Christmas.

Dad: Well yes, but that doesn’t mean I want my daughter living with them.

Mom: They have sex orgies.

(What other kind of orgies can you have? Food? Multi-channel vid bingeing?)

Me: I doubt they will ask me to join in.

Mom: Don’t sass me, young lady.

(Sass? Who says sass? Were my parents ever young?)

Me: Actually, I’m not sassing you. I will be working with residents, but probably not socializing with them. Residents keep to their own tunnels when they are not keeping the rest of us alive.

(I’m told Moon Rats find yo-yo society to be too bright, too loud, and too cold. Yo-yo, as in Go and Come Back.)

Mom: Won’t you be lonely? You’ll be so far away. We’ll miss you.

Me: I’ll be really busy with work. I won’t have time to be lonely. Besides, it’ll be just like when I’m in the city. We can talk every weekend …

(oh joy)

… All of the lunar companies have the latest in video conferencing. When we talk, it will be so clear it will be like I’m in the room. Remember when David was on submarines? You couldn’t so much as message him for weeks at a time.

(My brother was based out of United Korea. I always wondered what my parents would have done if my perfect brother had come home with a Korean bride. From what some of his war buddies have let drop, it was a close play at the plate.)

Dad: You should be more like your brother …

(Oh, where have I hear that before?)

… He came home. Married a nice woman. Had kids. When you get over this career fling, you can finally settle down.

Mom: There’s a wonderful young man who volunteers as a deacon at church. I could introduce you.

~~

Maybe it’s no surprise that I am willing to move 238,900 miles away.

~~~ curtain ~~~

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. “Half a century after Dartmouth College first admitted women, a female scholar and college administrator for the first time has been selected to lead the Ivy League institution, ending the hegemony of men who have filled the role for 253 years and through 18 presidencies.” Valley News: Dartmouth College names next president, Lippman, Jul 2.

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Greg has been experimenting with various hackamore/bit combinations for Milton.

In Sunday, he used a simple side pull hackamore WITHOUT a bit.

(What?! Greg pointed out that Milton will stop or hop when disturbed. In the time we have know Milton, speed has never been his friend. They were both fine with the idea. I hyperventilated a little. But I digress.)

Milton loved it.

He walked with a gorgeous, swingy walk.

Rodney can usually outwalk Milton with little effort.

He could still outwalk Milton, but now he had to work at it.

He was not pleased.

Onwards!
Katherine

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. Surprise filling earlier this week. 😦 Wasn’t too bad. Worst part was epinephrine hangover.

~~~

I don’t know how Rodney does it.

Before the show, I was deliberately keeping our work at Falcon Hill Farm to a trot. Now that the show was over it was time to move on. Take the next step. Canter. Grids. Poles. Dare we say jumps? YOLO. Just Do It. Reach for your dreams.

Or not.

The following weekend, Rodney was juuuuust tight enough somewhere in his hind end to preclude activities that loaded the hindquarters, i.e. jumping & cantering. He was fine. He was sound. Maaaaaybe a step or two at beginning of the trot. Noticeably tight in the left lumbar. Deeply disinclined to lift the opposing foot. Warmed out of it with activity. Lingering tightness for a day or two.

“Learn how to maximize inconvenience to your rider with minimum inconvenience to yourself! Sign up for my class now!” Rodney (probably)

That’s okay. He’s still resting on his laurels from the show. [Crossrail Contender]

Onwards!
Katherine

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. Alabama NewsCenter: Alabama Dam Ride pedals for a cause, White, May 13, 2022. Photos by Meg McKinney.

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Group order from Custom Ink. Each year everyone gets a new shirt in a new color for the summer fun shows.

Wasn’t gonna order one. Have so many Stepping Stone Farm shirts (so! many!). Just gonna be the old gray mare in an old gray shirt.

The shirt is at least 6 years old. The photo will never get old. [NE GA Charity 2016]

However.

Looked at a local jumper show prizelist. Between this fee and that fee and that fee over there, the money adds up before you even start entering classes. That’s for one show.

A new shirt for the summer shows costs slightly less & I hope to do two of the three summer shows. So, 50% per show.

If I’m paying for the hunters, might as well pay for the Saddlebreds. Plus, if I’m gonna do the shows, might as well do them right.

Ordered fitted version and smaller size than usual for closer fit. 😦

Whether or not I get to the shows – she adds superstitiously – at least I got blog post out of it.

Onwards!
Katherine

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. NPR: Michigan medical students walk out on an anti-abortion keynote speaker, Sullivan, July 25, 2022.

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Having finished doing everything, and writing about doing everything, time to recap this year’s Virtual Tevis. [Dance Card]

Started on Thursday, April 7 with a 1-mile ride. Finished on Friday, July 8, with a 1.84-mile ride. All at walk. All in home pasture. Going around the pasture instead of going around the ring area counts as “trail miles” for this crew.

We rode 55 times in 92 days. (Or so, spread sheet lists 54 rides. I am going to be mature and NOT track down the missing ride. Let it go. Let it go.) Longest ride was 3.15 miles. Average ride was 1.8 miles. Sounds about right. We usually rode for either 1 or 2 miles, depending on time available.

This was our third Virtual Tevis. It felt like the hardest one to finish.

100 miles in 100 days is easy – if you keep at it.

I took a week off. [I’m Bored Already]

My horse took a week off. [Playing Catch Up]

Milton and his rider were kind enough to wait and finish with us.

When it was looking dubious, I made the claim that I wanted to finished because I liked this year’s shirt. It was an excuse. I wanted to finish.

Before we started, I said I would be okay with not finishing. [Virtual Tevis Announced For 2022]

First off, when I said it, I meant not finish because we were so busy with shows and lessons and trailering to exotic, exciting showcation destinations.

Second, pfffft, who am I kidding. I want it all. Busy show schedule AND time to do the VT. I didn’t say it was reasonable, just that I wanted it.

This year, props to the horses for being amenable about all the pre-breakfast rides. In truth, I think they prefer it. [Let The Summer Hours Begin]

Next year. More gaits. More places. More milestone photos. I said the same about this year. Something to work towards.

[VT archives]

Onwards!
Katherine