A friend sent me a link to an account of the trip that he and his wife took around Australia. Jack and I visited with them on our trip to the Whitsundays in 1999. Another friend writes about touring South American in her aptly named weblog Connections.
Category: Life
Life (and death) in the country
I wondered why so many corvids, both magpies and ravens, had been hanging around the barn the past 24 hours. When I went out to feed the horses, I found the answer: an extensively cannibalized magpie. Following my accustomed procedure, I used a manure fork to pick it up, without looking at it anymore than necessary, and tossed it over the fence into the brushy area. I figured any risk of contagion had already taken place.
I know that when West Nile fever first moved into the area, the public health authorities were interested in collecting avian corpses, but I think everyone accepts that it is here now. One of my vets was quite ill from it last year, which she traced to one mosquito bite that she received in Pueblo county last year. I had been dilatory about getting the home horses vaccinated this year, but had scheduled an appointment a few days ago. I am glad he is coming this afternoon.
How NOT to start the day
I did something unprecedented yesterday evening: I decided to take a nap at 6:30. I almost never take naps. At 8:30, I woke up long enough to realize, “Good, Jack is feeding the horses.” At 12:30, I woke and realized I was still dressed. I took off my clothes, and went back to bed. Finally, I woke up again about 4:30, feeling completely refreshed.
So this morning I decided to catch up reading email and just relaxing. I felt more cheerful than I had since discovering Lily’s injury because it had gone down so much when I removed the wrap yesterday. The vet was quite optimistic when she saw it before she put the gel cast on it.
Then my neighbors called. They could see a deer hung up in my fence. Jack had just left for the office. We agreed to meet at the deer in five minutes and see what we could do.
Jack
I took this photo at the reception of a wedding that Jack and I attended on Friday. It was held at the Officers Club at the Air Force Academy which has very nice facilities. Jack and the bride’s mother used to go to elementary school together, so it is safe to say we are old friends of the family. We found seats next to one of the bride’s high school teachers and his wife. I told them that it had never occurred to me to invite one of my teachers to a wedding. His wife says it happens a lot. He must be a great instructor.
Rain
We are getting more rain today. You know you have been in a long drought when you keep hearing people in the store say something like “It’s been raining for days…isn’t it great!”
Another rainy day
It looks as though we will be having more rain today. Since we are still in drought conditions, this is a good thing, but I expect to start growing moss at any moment.
Hap goes home
From what I imagine is Hap’s point of view, I took him home to my trainer’s barn yesterday, after he spent five months with Rags and Smoke. The young woman who had a half lease on him last fall is leasing him again for the summer. In the ten years that I’ve owned him, he has spent less than a year at our place.
After we allowed him to work off some energy in the arena, we turned him out with his buddies in the gelding field. I’ve seen some horses quail under the curious attentions of a herd, but Hap seemed to enjoy the horses pressing up around him. There was remarkably little squealing and striking. It probably helped that Hap was the second most dominant horse when he left, and good friends with the dominant gelding, Havoc.
I always flinch a little when I turn a horse out with others for the first time after a break. I keep telling myself that it is good for their little psyches, but the rough and tumble can be very hard on their bodies.
Madeline
Madeline recognised me instantly from past visits: “She who takes small Australian Shepherds for walks.”
Chicken coop
I am writing this from a converted chicken coop near beautiful downtown Encino. I am briefly in Southern California to help with my mother’s move to Colorado Springs. Yesterday, my sister, her son and daughter, and I packed the items that will be moving. Today I will run some errands, and tomorrow we will do some last minute packing before the movers come on Wednesday.
My sister has converted an old chicken coop behind her house to an office which is where I am sleeping. She graciously granted me the password to her computer and I promised not to change anything on it. She says that techies always want to change her computer. I only have to suppress the urge to download and install Mozilla about once every two or three minutes. I find Internet Explorer so limited. I did find some problems with my weblog design under IE, but will wait until I get back home to try and address them.
Eye of the Galaxy
I’ve been cleaning house, doing a complete install of Fedora Core 2, Release 3, and playing with “gnofract4d.”:http://gnofract4d.sourceforge.net/ Of the three, playing with gnofrract4d, which produced this graphic, was the most fun, though installing Fedora wasn’t too bad either.