Five Acres with a View

Last week, I decided it was time to start working with Lily to get her legged up a bit, before I put her back to work under saddle. We’ve had a round pen to the east of the house for years, but I have rarely used it except for temporarily confining a horse where I could see it from the house. It seems almost odd to be using it for its traditional purpose.

I don’t want her to run around like an idiot in the round pen (and possibly reinjure herself) so I am using clicker training to reward her for trotting forward in a sensible manner. Since she likes to trot with her nose four inches off the ground, I click her (and give her a treat) when she carries her head with her poll slightly above her withers, as in this photo I took yesterday. (For the non-horsey set, the poll is the spot between the ears, and forward means energetic without rushing.) Eventually, I will only reward her when she lifts her forehand a bit more, and takes more weight on her hindquarters, but right now my reward criteria are sensible, forward, and poll above the withers.

She doesn’t seem at all upset that her nine month long convalescence is over.

The Duct Tape Guys have directions for making useful, and not so useful, items with duct tape, including a wallet.

For Christmas, a friend gave me a page a day calendar featuring origami models. (It is actually five models a week, but who is counting?) One day page mentioned the OrigamiUSA site as a resource.

The Generator Blog is not about those machines used to change mechanical energy into electrical energy. It’s about software that creates software. Software to play around and have fun with.

Else’s Bellas Artes shows some artistamps on her weblog. Click on the scan for a higher resolution view.

I took this photo in Manitou Springs yesterday. By my lights, this buck is far too tame for its own good, but it did allow me to get close enough for a good photo.

Jack and I took a walk to the west of our place yesterday. Jack found this stone bowl filled with ice and water in a boulder near the road. It looks too regular to be natural, but what else could it be?

I just upgraded this weblog to Wordpress 1.5 in an amazingly painless procedure.

Last Sunday, while my mother was at Mass, I took another walk along Cottonwood Creek. The creek bed is to the right of the path in this photo.