Wow!

Here is a photo of a little friend that visited me this morning :-)


Well, it sure has been a long time since I've updated, so I guess I'll throw a few random things out here in cyberspace.


September has been absolutely crazy. Something weird is going on with the world or something, because nothing is quite right. It reminds me of that Dr. Suess book, now I can't think of the name of it, where there are shoes growing on peoples heads and alligators walking down the street. I am hoping that it straightens out soon, and we can all get back to normal around here. I'm not going to write much about it all now, because I'm trying to keep a positive outlook, and keep positive energy flowing by not focusing on the negative.



On a positive note, we are finishing up the work on the barn. Its coming along nicely, and I am in a lot of pain from painting! I get a pinched nerve in my right shoulder when I use that arm for much of anything. Now the muscles are so knotted up and pincing the nerve, that its difficult to sleep. Hopefully I'll have it finished in another couple of weeks, then I can work on getting this arm fixed, but there is no point doing that now when I only need to keep painting and getting it finished.





















Hay in the barn is like money in the bank (well, mostly the opposite, but you get my drift)






It sure is nice to have a tack area for a change and not have to drag it all up from the house anytime I get a chance to ride. Plans are to put a wall up here and separate it from the hay, to keep the area as dust and dirt free as possible. The window should be installed this weekend.








I also finally got the last, most difficult area of the paddock cleared out and seeded a few weeks ago. There was a lot of brush that needed to be cleared from trees the horses killed in order to keep us warm in the winter. And of course, my resident lumberjack takes what he needs and leaves all the brush behind for yours truly to clean up. I spent most of the summer on that, clearing the areas nearest the fences first and tossing it over the fence, then I had the center left to do. I finally decided to just stack it up into 3 brush piles to let it rot where it lay, otherwise I would have killed myself. The hill is at about 30 degree angle, and with oak trees and thus a ton of acorns, its like walking on marbles uphill. Its very exhausting and tiresome, and my legs and back always ache for days afterward from working on that hill.



I was thrilled when I finally finished it, and seeded it. So we should have some grazing next year, even if its only an hour a day, I'll feel better with them getting something live to eat.







And on the top of this hill is my "flat area" for riding. Flat, of course, is a relative term around here. But its larger than my roundpen, and I think will be a good transition area for Lakota and I to work in. She is very comfortable riding in the roundpen ,but not elsewhere. So we are working on having confidence in my leadership abilities in the saddle while out of the safety of the pen. This also gives us a bit more challenging terrain for her to learn to balance with me on board. Our first time proved that she was very unsure if she could carry me over varying terrain.











And here is my girl modeling her new saddle. I sold my Torsion Treeless, and bought a Barefoot London Treeless. Its a dressage model (for those that don't already know), and it fits both of us a bit better than the Torsion. It can still use a bit of tweaking, and we're working that out. But its comfortable, and puts me in the correct position, and fits Lakota better. I just need to work out the fact that it (and all saddles) tend to ride up on Lakota's withers, and her huge shoulders, and that I can feel the stirrup leathers under my thighs which is quite uncomfortable.







I just had to throw this photo in, of her mule-face. It cracked me up. She was being a bit stubborn!