November 30, 2007 – Click on image for higher resolution version.
Today we had installed a new double oven to replace the approximately 22 year old single oven that was no longer maintaining an even temperature. (And yes, we do have a lot of appliances.)
Today I had a cup of cold Borscht from the deli across the street. I had forgotten that borscht can be served cold, and it was a freezing day. Once I got over the shock of cold soup when I was hoping for hot soup, I enjoyed it. I am fairly certain that I had borscht before and liked it, but can’t remember if I had the cold or hot version.
November 28, 2007 – Click on image for higher resolution version.
November 20, 2007 – Click on image for higher resolution version.
When Google Maps first became available, we noticed that the entrance to our drive way was shown as being near our northwest property line, instead of near the southwest corner. Google now allows you to move markers. In this satellite photo found on Google, you can clearly see the difference between our main horse field and the one we enclosed several years later and still call the new field. You can also see the track that leads through the new field to the gate to the old field. I am surprised that it is so clear because it only gets driven on one or twice a month.
November 10, 2007 – Click on image for higher resolution version.
Last Saturday we had a pot-luck with a German theme. I had always wanted to make sauerbraten, so I made what looks like a traditional Sauerbraten recipe from the Food Network. However, I also decided to try a much simpler version (skipping the marinating step) called Crock Pot Sauerbraten (the first of the two recipes at this link).
Although the traditional recipe turned out well, my guests and I preferred the Crock Pot Sauerbraten. The only change I made to the recipe at the link was to brown the meat in a little olive oil before putting it and the rest of the ingredients in the crock pot. The ingredients (including a 3.75 pound roast) almost over-flowed the crock pot, and I would use a larger size next time if I had one.
Updated 11/10: I’ve posted the recipe with my changes at Crock Pot Sauerbraten.
In the year Hap lived elsewhere, I’d manage to forget several of his habits. The least objectionable of these is the “empty the stock tank on a warm day” habit. Now, mind you, he doesn’t drink the water: instead he uses his head to scoop the water over his forelegs, chest and neck. It is very entertaining to watch but makes a muddy mess around the stock tank. Fortunately, the hydrant is over the stock tank, so it doesn’t take much effort to fill it.
I am less fond of his habit of pinning his ears and attacking Rags over the partition between the two stalls as I put Rags’ horse chow into his feed bucket. Hap looks more like a velociraptor than a well-bred Thoroughbred when he does this. Rags pays no apparent attention to these attacks, although he is careful to stand just far enough away from the partition that Hap can’t actually connect. Or perhaps Hap doesn’t really want to risk retaliation by connecting since Rags is the dominant of the two horses. I try to remember to warn my critter sitters since it is a bit startling the first time one sees it happen. I think it is akin to dogs’ fence fighting, which is also very annoying.
I seem to have three tons of hay the horses don’t like. It looks like good, nutritious hay and presumably the horses will start eating it before they starve to death. In the meantime I am getting tired of going out to feed and finding the hay from the previous feeding arranged in artistic drifts.
October 24, 2007 – Click on image for higher resolution version.
I took this photo of the Denver Public Library from the pedestrian bridge of theDenver Art Museum. I love the mix of various colors and shapes in the facade.
I brought Hap home this afternoon from where he had been boarded at my trainer’s for almost eleven months. I started leasing Hap to a young woman last December. We originally expected it would only be for a couple of months while she and her father looked for a horse for her, but the horse search took lots longer than expected. (I remember when I was looking for Hap I felt as though I had seen every horse 16 hands high and over in Colorado. And most of the ones that were even vaguely suitable were obviously lame. Why would anyone try to sell an obviously lame horse?) The young woman found her horse not long after this photo of Hap at Aspen Ridge Horse Trail in July. However her father, who is a nice rider, had fallen in love with Hap in the meantime, and leased Hap to ride himself since then. He can’t ride him enough in the winter to be worth the lease, so Hap comes home for the winter.
I’ve felt occasionally guilty about a 24 year old horse working for his living, if you can call five hours (if that) under saddle a week working. However, between Hap’s extreme athleticism, my conservative care for him over the years, and plain good luck he is still in great shape. This past year I’ve gotten a bit of a kick over watching peoples’ jaws drop when I tell them his age.
Magic, the old mare I am boarding for a friend, seems to have taken fifteen minutes to transfer her affections from Rags to Hap. Fortunately Rags, the dominant gelding, doesn’t seem to care.