In which we go riding and it's good. So what else is new? (not a thing!)

Blue skies above, so we assembled the Usual Suspects 

earlier-than-usual this morning.

The Very Bright Colors are the clue: endurance horses here!

We have horses in all levels of maturity and fitness in the gang right now, so we divided into logical groups and headed out. 

Oh!  What a beautiful morning!

We split up and rejoined groups a couple of times during the ride.  Dean mostly rode solo on Horus, who is getting prepped for the National Championship ride this fall, so he took the longer, faster trails.  

We weren't the only ones out enjoying the day--
note the hikers at 10 o'clock!

Ariana's shoes are at the end of their usefulness, and Flower 

Our little Flower is growing up fast!

has been under saddle for less than 4 months, so they took the semi-short route.  

There must be a song somewhere about a pretty red horse and a pretty little daisy.
Anyone wanna try to sing?

Hana is ready for a bigger challenge, so (with flowers jauntily woven into her mane) she and Duana partnered up with Fiddle and me for the middle part of our ride.

We did a nice, long, loop of a trail--about 15.5 miles in all.  Lots of hills, but also

Fee's favorite trails are twisty-winding trails through the woods

lots of trails.

And at the end of the trail (right before we rejoin the group back at the trailers)

"Foooooooooooood!"

LUNCHTIME!

It's good.  

You know I'm right about this.

In which this isn't a horsey post, but it's full of smiling people

It doesn't seem like much time has passed 

since Lisa arrived here at Haiku Farm.

Santa Jim fluffs up his younger child
before the ceremony begins

And yet, it's been nearly three years!  

In that time, Lisa has gained language skills, an academic work ethic, a bunch of muscles, and a Whole Lotta Attitude.

There were a lot of people smiling today,
 including my mom, Lisa, and Santa Jim.

Those are all things we value around here, and today we celebrated her accomplishment: graduation from high school.  

The entire Motley Crew smiles for the camera.  L-to-R:
Uncle Larry, Some Random Pirate, Will, Grandma Ellen, Lisa, Santa Jim, Uncle Dave,
Granny Barbara, Mister Stormy, Grandpa Richard

And, of course, I lied about there not being any horses in this blog post.

During slow parts of the ceremony (graduation ceremonies generally have 2 gleeful outbursts per family--everything else is dull as room-temp swampwater) I checked in on Team Fixie via Facebook.  Here's Funder's photo from the 50-mile point:

There's not much that would keep me away from crewing Funder's first 100-miler, but I guess Lisa's graduation is one of those few events.

Ah, well.

After the party was over, we stopped at the store to pick up a few essential items.

Yep, the shoes have stupidly high heels, but
she can still heft a 25-lb bag of carrots while wearing them!

Like carrots.

Because if you really want your life (with horses) to be good, 

you really need to have a lot of carrots.

You heard it here first, folks:  it's good.

(and tomorrow, I'm going riding!)

In which we all desperately need to get out and ride, so we do

Patty sent out a Facebook message to the Usual Suspects last night:



Dory led the way on some trails we don't use very often



"We need to get out and ride!  Where?  What time?  Who's going?"



It's difficult to tell, but we've had a dry week here in the Swampland.
A lot of the mud was not muddy.

 Blue-er skies were forecast for afternoon, but we saddled up in the morning and headed up some steep hills.


Spot:  "Follow me!"   Flower:  "Oooof!"  Ariana: "I'll push you!"
Fiddle:  ominous silence.

 Flower is new at steep hills, but with practice


Patty slid down on her bum, but everyone else stayed upright



she got the hang of both downhill and


Flower:  "Ooooof!"

uphill



Everyone:  "Foooooooooood!"


We visited the monument, and took pictures (as usual).

Photos from the monument hill are more impressive on blue-sky days, but the view is still nice to look at, and it's even nicer to be there IRL. 

Dory led us down a sidehill trail just in time: 




Super-long logging truck!


I've seen logging operations and log trucks my whole life, but even I was impressed by the length of the load on these rigs.

The horses were interested in the racket made by log trucks, but they weren't bothered by them.

It was a good day.




Riding with friends.  It's a Good Thing.



Because riding?  It makes things Good.

In which I've fried my voice (and my brain), so here are some pictures

You maybe didn't know that some librarians have an annual equivalent of "Hell Week."

In the next ten days, I'm scheduled to present booktalks to promote summer reading in 5 schools.  I also get to drive the bookmobile one morning (yay!) and spend an entire afternoon conducting a "library scavenger hunt" at a middle school.

Don't get me wrong:  I love this part of my job.  It's probably the most fun I have at work all year.

But...

it's exhausting.

It's not like talking to friends for 10 hours.  It's more like being onstage in front of an audience for that length of time.

It's hard on my voice, and it sucks up all the extra "go-juice" in my brain.

My brain, as anyone will tell you, has a LOT of "go-juice."  But the supply isn't unlimited.

That's why this blog post is pretty much just pictures from recent training rides.

The weather has been medium-to-good,

the horses have been full of happy energy,

and the trails are growing in greener every day.

Just so you know:  even during Hell Week

my life is Good.

p.s.  my Other Book now has an official release date:  July 1st, 2013.  Yippeeeeeee!  If you want a preview, there's a list of chapter titles HERE.  I know chapter titles aren't usually very amusing, but we think ours are pretty funny.

p.p.s.  Yes, I'm still working on another horse book.  This one is a novel, and it's about endurance and magic.  Watch for it before Xmas this year.

In which our usual Sunday plan is out, so we make a new plan

Sunday is a day for fun for the Usual Suspects and me.  

Usually, we ride trails.

Apparently, it's *probably* a cable within the emergency brake housing.
Temporary solution:  don't use the e-brake unless absolutely necessary.
(At least the temporary solution is inexpensive....)

But my truck is in the shop (again).   

And Flower got kicked in the pasture.  

And Crystal was visiting from Texas.  

And we wanted to have fun.

So we made a new plan:  

Show up at Fish Creek on Sunday, and we'll do...something.   Something fun.

The first task:  Go up the road a mile and retrieve a former FC horse who is now retired and coming home to finish his days in Area 54, the huge retirement pasture.

This is Classy, a retired international-level endurance horse.
He's 28 years old, but he doesn't remember that most days.

Second task:  Go to lunch.  Make sure the drive is fun.

Dick has been working on this 1923 Model T touring car all winter.
Happily, it now has steering *and* brakes...and it's really fun!

Third task:  apply healing laser to broken parts of horses, dogs and humans.

Crystal is visiting for a few days before moving to Tennessee (from Texas) so we
pressed her veterinary skills into service:  she got to hold the bag o' cookies

Flower:  "Apply laser, insert cookie."

Fourth task:  Ride.

Aarene on Shade, Duana on Hana

Everybody ride!

Duana on Shade, Crystal on Hana

Allamande left, and bow to your corner, and take that pretty miss round the room.

In other words, we had four riders and two horses

Duana is accustomed to a much smaller saddle

Patty on Shade.

and everybody got to ride everything!

Aarene on Hana

Yes, I know this saddle is too small for my bum.  

Part of the fun was working with horses and equipment we don't know very well.
(But we all missed our own gear, I think!)

It wasn't the day we planned.

Patty demonstrates some useful stuff to Crystal

Shade wasn't convinced at first that Crystal was worthy of his "show horse trot"

But it was a good day anyhow.

"Oh, THAT show-horse-trot.  Well, since you asked so nicely, okay."
Shade is looking for a new show-pony home, BTW.  

We had fun.

And....it's good.

But you knew that.  Right?

In which things are growing and getting pretty, (except the Eleanors)

It's looks like a real farm!

Blue sky over Haiku Farm

Here's what is absolutely astonishing to me about the picture (above): almost everything in it has been added or changed since we moved to Haiku Farm.

Out in the distance:  horse, goats...and a fence!  Closer in: barn, chicken tractor, and Pickle's tree.  Up close, the garden and the chickens' Winter Palace.  All that stuff, we brought here.  Amazing.

The garden has seen an astonishing transformation.  Back in the spring of 2009, our neighbor Herb came over with a rototiller, and stirred under a big patch of the back yard.  We didn't have time, that year, to amend the soil or add organic matter and fertilizer.  The lack of preparation really showed:  the "soil" was poor and gravelly, and the "crops" were pathetic.

We found these compost bins in pieces under a tree when we moved here.
 Will and I reassembled them.

Fast-forward to 2013:  we have REAL DIRT now!

The garden soil is now more than 12" deep--my shovel no longer hits the old layer of gravel on the first "shove."  The soil is a combination of rotted leaves from the landscaping trees and the orchard,

Plum tree, cherry trees, apple trees, pear tree

plus years of stall cleanings and garden scraps and compost. The chickens live in the garden during the winter, and spend the colder months sorting and sifting through all the vegetation and organic matter we throw in there during the warmer months--adding their own special fertilizer to the mix.

The result is garden soil to make a farmer proud.

The tomato bed.  I don't go here.

This year I've planted potatoes and peas, spinach, carrots, beans, cucumbers, zucchini (of course) butternut squash, pumpkins, and GIANT pumpkins.

As usual,

See the pretty tomato plant?  This is as close as I get.

Jim planted the tomatoes.  It's been demonstrated scientifically, in a double-blind experiment, that any year in which I plant tomatoes, it rains all summer.  I'm not messing around anymore.

My contribution to combating climate change:  I refuse to plant tomatoes.

But I'll tend the rest of the farm

Pretty floofs, here to help.

...with a little help from my friends, of course.

Strawberries continue to spread through the upper garden

The herb bed is a little weedy, but pretty!

I've never had rhubarb "bolt" like this before!

Speaking of helpers, can somebody convince Luna not to eat bees? At least it makes a pretty picture when she does it.

Luna poses for the camera beside Pickle's tree
and the bee-attracting lavender and rosemary plants

And speaking of "pretty," look who isn't:

Eleanor GothGirlz, complete with ragged outfits and piercings.
It's not a good look.

The Eleanors are almost a month old, and have halfway grown feathers.  Soon they will be pretty little hens...but not yet.

Ah well.

It's still good.