Lord keep me alert driving today

Ugh, I have been draggin this morning, good thing I know I do this and did final packing last night. I went out to replace Grey's fly mask with a clean one and Shade walked away. She doesn't feel up for this either. L and I rode Lady and Sadie yesterday and they were ouchy on any gravel, especially poor Lady. I sure hope D left more sole on Shade but I will plan on using easyboots over top both days now. Rats, as they do make Shade bang herself just a bit so I was going to leave them off till the expected rocky section 2nd half of sundays ride but if she might be tender for any bit of gravel she goes across I can't do that. Oh well time to refill tea, catch the reluctant horse and get going. I sure could enjoy being rich and only working 50% or less time. So much nicer to be able to take an extra day to pack, get going late and then just hang around camp the day before riding. Oh well at least I have a job that supports 4 horse mouths and allows fuel money to do stuff with them as well.

remember to buy camelback thursday

Last time I used my camelback bladder it leaked all down my back. I have not tested whether I just had the cap mis-theaded or its hosed but my spare bladder bit the dust recently so I want to buy at least one new bladder anyway. Nothing like waiting till the last minute so I'll have to remember to get it from car to trailer etc. I am going to have to focus thursday morning to get trailer packed, hitched etc so I can get on the road decently early on friday and get to the ride in good time to register and vet in.

slogging slogging slogging

Cue tune from Rawhide. Politics: total slog. I had this notion that I would make a serious effort to elect conservatives in 2010 and if it failed I'd start making plans for going Galt. Well, it did not fail, but it seems like we are very bogged down. It would have been darned hard to get the senate and in hindsight perhaps we should have gone with the party insider long time politician for senate in CO. But Buck was not some shyster who was just taking advantage of the tea party sentiment and I am still Pissed that Norton painted him as a chauvinist in the primary with a heavily edited quote --thanks bitch for handing that ammo to the commies for the general. But at any rate the GOP only took the House and some of the old-time GOP don't want to rock the DC beltway boat. I sincerely wish *maverick* "nothing to fear from Oblabla" McCain would get cancer and have to resign immediately, and that something would strike down Lindsey too. With *friends* like that who needs enemies? It also feels like many many other people are in a similar bog: Are we going to be stuck with I like big Gov. but I'll choose competent adults to run things Romney, or is there a strong candidate who will help fight to shrink some of the recent tumorous like growth of Federal and "executive" powers? What, if anything can we do right now to try to keep Barry from sinking the country?

Home: total slog: I cannot find a way to mount my solar garden lights solar cell to my trailer. I'll have to order a proper solar shed light from Amazon. Dang I wish Lowes would have had what I wanted in stock. Oh well. I guess I'll have some outdoor lights I can use somewhere or other. Sure feels like the goatheads and flies are winning lately. I do see some evidence of the weevils in the mini's alleyway and runs but I think the goatsheads are still going to set plenty of burrs. See what happens I am determined to not touch the goatsheads in there and just run this as an experiment. If the weevils take off in Aug/Sep and seem to prevent a good # of burrs maybe I'll order as many next year and only put them in big horse pens.

Riding: Well last times I was on a horse it was fun. Rode Sadie a few miles by herself on Sunday. I got off and led her past the trees and then mounted up and gave her lots of time and she went past them with me mounted on the way home. I think I have a good mount there. Riding Shade at White Ranch with L and Lady on saturday was fun but my memory was poor and it was way more technical and slow than I would have chosen for the 1 week before an endurance ride outing. Oh well, I'll see how Shade does. I did do some faster flat work a couple of mornings last week. I cling firmly to "don't train the week before a ride" but this week I've just felt too busy to saddle up and have been turning the horses into the pasture to stretch their legs and enjoy whatever grass grew with the early July monsoon rains we had,

Farrier: NOW I think I overly panicked and would not have needed to get Shade done (but I think her clinches were a bit loose) and all 4 horses had enough hoof to be able to trim -course I still thought I was going to tack on the 1.5 weeks gone for trail ride on after the Fort Meade ride when I made the appt but the endurance was the driver for Shade. I am now leaning towards trying to go through the Turkey Creek ride in 6.5 weeks and then skip shoeing until Grey needs done for hunting (unless I go to Moab but I think I'll pass this year, be nice to have Sadie and Shade both going and be able to feel confident that I can ride all 3 days between the 2 of them) I am toying with the idea of trying to get Sadie ready to to the Kenlyn 25 the first week of October instead of doing 50 on Shade. I could punt down to the fun ride if I think Sadie isn't legged up or it makes it easier to get someone to buddy me on Lady which I think I would like to do.

work: I should be running some statistics, writing some docu. and debugging something and have just been doing routine things instead. At some point I need to do more than the routine. Oh well enough whining, must peck away at some things.

New plan. Trail riding trip starts before Labor day

Probably the monday before. Sisters SO has motorcycle rally the last weekend in August. If mom still aint ready then we go anyway. We can try to repeat it next year if she can't do it this year. I'll have to let L know that Lady will be available until then. I am tired but I guess I did a fair amount today in small pieces with breaks. It was not super hot or humid here. 92 or 93. Pulled a fair amount of goatsheads, rode Sadie, put out fly bait, should have got that going quicker but the horses will live. Let the horses out to graze, topped off the bigger stock tank and dumped and refilled the smaller one.

Figured out how I can mount my solar panel for the solar lights I bought to put in my travel trailer which is intended to be towed up to WY just for storage. I decided I did not want to try to get it rewired or the propane lines checked out and redone if needed. It will be just be storage, I'd like to get it up there this year and kind of mark where I'll try to put in the actual homestead. Still have to call a plumber and see if they have a std recommendation for setting up well pump,cistern, pressure tank etc for seasonal use. I know I'll want to be able to easily drain things but I think I'd like to get a well and hydrant now that I could power with a generator.

I found wasps nest(s) in the frame where the window I was mounted the solar panel so I did not complete that project. Went out to kill them when it was almost dark and dad was just finishing up knocking the nests down after he sprayed them (my hero.) Unloaded the hay cubes and horse mineral I bought on friday. That turned into a mini-project as I ripped one of the bags of hay cubes getting it out of my car and it split wide open right as I went to step into my trailer so I had to get some empty supplement buckets and put the cubes in those, I guess fate answered my "should I risk the bag getting wet just putting it in my stallion stall" with "no don't" LOL.

I should go outside

I think I have a harder time switching gears to from surfing the web when I can't find any content I enjoy. Like I keep refreshing wanting some entertainment before I go do something and feeling cheated. I used to have this problem with snacking/general eating too, and have learned to somewhat compensate and also be more picky and plan a bit better usually so I have something that I will really enjoy and won't be left feeling cheated and eating more volume in a counterproductive effort to compensate.

But I don't really know how to do the same thing with the internet. Have to expand my number of sites perhaps and just be smarter about avoiding a sometimes favorite for a while if it it doesn't resonate, or else just learn to walk away and figure content may be better that night or something.

Stupid mom is trying to sabotage the trail riding trip by having cramps/spasms in her butt muscles. We CANNOT just skip the trip this year but I am a bit wavering on sticking to starting it next week because waiting until the first week of Sept could work for me wrt to endurance rides I want to attend timing wise; might be better weather wise; and might be better or should not be any worse for work timing and the relatives the folks want to visit not being busy trying to put things back to normal after Minot flooding the end of june and not wanting to mess with visitors. I guess I should call sis and sound her out if dad doesn't have labor day plans --maybe, I am really tired of the "oh my health wont allow this" card; it is nearly as overused as the racism card from the prez she voted for. Damn liberals.

rats, I hate when conservatives aren't

It seems almost everyone has at least one issue where they go liberal. Trigger today is actually indirect but its like buying the AGW crap. The gal buys into the "additives Oh Noes" talk. Apparently they put a general dust control in many low carb feeds.


Lignin Sulfonate. What Is It?

Lignin sulfonate is the glue that holds three rings together. It's been used for 60 years to control dust and stabilize gravel on unpaved roads. For dust control, you can spray it on the surface. For stabilization and dust control, it's better to mix it with the top few inches of road surface. It's water soluble, environmentally friendly, easy to handle and apply, and very cost-effective.

Okaaay - so there is an organic substance that can be applied to roads to control dust and some feed companies add it to horse feeds to control dust. Well this description doesn't sound so scary to me. Oh also its scary when low carb feeds include "forage products" YEAH, so scary using alfalfa and grass as a base in a feed to hold whatever vitamins, minerals, perhaps oil if its a higher calorie feed ...., to a feed product. Now it may be a money eater buying these products -- but anyone who pushes Dynamite products is not worrying too much about cost/benefits ratios.

Sadly I will not post these thoughts to the board where the otherwise conservative shared the scare monger info she got from her horse chiro and Dynamite products dealer because the board is barely continuing to function; with only a handful of posters so I feel like it can't handle any in-fighting amongst that handful and I really would like to see it grow instead of dying -- its the only horsey board that nurtures conservative thinkers instead of them getting attacked and the moderators always taking the attackers' side and scolding or blocking whoever 'disturbed the peace' by posting something conservative.

Heh, horse addiction claims another one.

I think Lady has turned L into another horse addict. Her stepdaughter's wedding was last weekend. So she came out that thursday morning to get a break from all that stress. Then she was out again on this tuesday and thursday. Brought her visiting nieces on thursday. They fed horses carrots and helped brush Lady and then brushed the mini's after we rode. I was wanting to get going as all the gals in the office were going out to lunch as B is at the end of her one year scientist visitor term so I did not suggest the nieces could ride Lady + they were in shorts and I think they were a bit timid of the horses anyway. But definitely seems that L is finding that riding is a good therapy from mild stress of too much dealing with people :)

odds and ends

I need farrier search vibes. I kept waiting because I was thinking I might be able to wait until after the trail riding trip to have Shade trimmed and reshod. But L did not get her balanced real well and lots of hoof growth for Sadie and Grey so I should get R done before the trip now if I can, it may be impossible to get someone on such short notice.

I got a pulled over yesterday for speeding. Cop only gave me a warning thankfully -- I did not make my case real well but he must have garnered that I was not deliberately speeding but just hadn't watched the speedometer close enough. THank goodness my old insurance cards were still valid until midnight and it reminded me to get the new ones in my wallet and the p/u console. I'll have to print out an extra copy for the car's glovebox.

Mom asked me for rent through the rest of the year yesterday. Well that is not exactly why I didn't let the cashier talk me into moving most of the checking funds into the mutual fund version but at least I could just write the check w/o having to log into the bank and move things around and no worries about penalties. I just hope that this is just buying all this hay which should be more than enough to get to second cuttings next year. I added $30/month to what I had been paying. Hay is actually cheaper this year, maybe I was underpaying a bit last year but I buy all my own grain and all the supplements that every horse on the place gets - even sandclear for the pesty mini's that no one messes with. They do make me grin sometimes so I guess that is worth what I spend on them but I don't know what the parents are getting out of them. Oh well, I think this means I can just give them cash for anniversary and christmas this year. WooHoo a good excuse to avoid shopping.

I cant decide who to ride today, but leaning towards taking Shade again. Yesterday I rode RazzMo and went with L on Lady. I'm in a rut of not getting to bed very early and moving way slow in the mornings, hate when I do that, I was thinking I should take Sadie by herself but I want to take a fun quick ride with more speed bits. Sadie will survive her slow start, heck I didn't send Shade out to be started until fall of her 4 year old year. ** I did take Shade, she was a bit non-enthusiastic but a good girl. I should figure out the adequan (how many doses left, when to time for the Fort Meade ride etc)

I think its a sign of spending too much time on the internet that I now find myself thinking "concern troll" in real life situations, but it is such a great term. When we were headed out for the last loop of the 55 back on the July 3 ride someone said something like "Oh, do you still have to do that last loop, poor things, I just looked at my p/u thermometer and its 95!" I just airily said, 'well at least there is lots of water on this loop' ~20 creek crossings and two stock dams up on top so talk about a loop with plenty of water for horses to drink and lots of sponging opportunities to help them cool down - but what a perfect example of a real life concern troll, trying to make me feel bad about riding my horse who was doing GREAT that last leg of the ride, and plant a seed of worry to nag me the whole loop. She had been riding there, not sure if LD's or the 55s but either way she knew the loop had lots of water and it was not like she was some lay person who had no idea what horses are capable of, just being a concern troll for no reason.

They're coming to take me away

They are not, but this is one of those days when I wonder if they should. I felt lightheaded and a bit nauseated a bit after getting to work today and could not think why. Best guess is I chugged my shake too fast that I ate in the car and I was a bit overheated. I rode this morning and it was FUN, but I was sweating pretty good after I got done so it was a hot day, hot enough to overheat the office that usually runs cold just from escaped air from the AC ducts. Eating something cold does sometimes mess up my inner thermostat. But I hate when I feel off and have no idea why. Not that I'm any sort of Pollyanna when I have a cold or whatever and know exactly why I feel crummy but 20% level symptoms bug me almost as much when I can't account for them. So I was feeling out of sorts until the opened AC vent cooled me off &/or I got over the wee tummyache from drinking the milkshake too fast.

Then late this afternoon I received an email to remind me I have a dental appt wednesday. Me "I have a dental appointment? ?? I don't remember them finding a cavity to fill and I know my next cleaning isn't until November" Oh well I guess they must have found a cavity and I forgot it because of the minor fuss of "oh dear you have some pockets in your gums, its like pre-peridontal disease ....yada yada.... I was inclined to just dismiss this as them drumming up a bit more business/being over cautious but I did have them schedule me in 5 months rather than 6 because I thought of mom and all the sickliness she has been going through the last few years that she thinks stems from not quite right dental implants -- I can pay for an extra dental cleaning per year out of pocket if it reduces the chances I'll go through that.

Life is not all gloom and doom

Dad put my new tires on my gooseneck yesterday and he and P (neighbor) got the third high tie installed on it. I think dad is really looking forward to the trail riding trip. I am trying to keep a positive mindset about it, it IS cool that the parents still want to do such a thing and it will not be a big deal to be acting as the unpaid outfitter along with sis, handling most of the horse care and food prep. (sis usually does most of the cooking, she actually enjoys camp cooking, and I usually do more horse chores when it is just the two of us)

Lynn was out yesterday morning also and we rode. Sadie was askeered of puddles twice (that she didn't even have to cross, just step around them) I just got off and led her and she was fine with me on the ground though. The first puddle was not going to happen with me on her back because I was nervous that she would get into downed wire if she went too far off to either side and she was picking up on my nerves in addition to her own bugaboo about it.

Funny, the second puddle was two puddles in the two track road with dry spot on the higher middle that I was asking her to go on instead of going around the whole thing. When I led her through the dry spot she reverted to her curious water baby days and veered into the right hand puddle to splash with her front feet and nose. I was almost wondering if she was thinking of lying down in it so I asked her to keep on moving.

As long as she will lead calmly through things and stand nicely for me to get back on I am fine with getting off to go past or through scary spots these first few months of riding her. Heck I still get off Shade for some things she thinks are scary (like garbage trucks going by) I jumped off of Sadie yesterday when the garbage truck was coming but neither she nor Lady batted an eyelash about it. I can probably stay on Sadie for most any vehicle passing by on the road, she just doesn't think they are any big deal, I'm going to enjoy that, Grey never thought vehicles were a big deal either it is just a Shade thing.

How depressing

Perhaps I need to stop informing myself via internet. The SEIU thugs who beat up Kenneth Gladney were found not guilty. The Dems proposed just 2 Billion in cuts to discretionary spending wrt to debt ceiling talks - and on and on it goes. Why are we letting them kill this country? Just because there is a historical precedent of democracies imploding after about 200 years do we have to follow this? We should have been immune to this by being a REPUBLIC with actual rule of law protecting property and civil rights for the little man who can carry all his worldly possessions as well as the very rich merchants and land owners but bit by bit the marxists have chipped away at the rule of law, I don't know if we can ever restore it enough to retrieve American liberty and prosperity; damn those plundering grasshoppers, they will achieve misery for all but a handful of connected 'elites' if they cannot be sent packing.

Pbtttt

I carefully avoided food all morning and had only black tea before going in for sort of annual mammogram and blood tests for cholesterol and blood sugar and the lab tech said "oh, I'll take the blood sugar test off and you can take that later" when I told her I would go to Starbucks afterwards because I had only had black tea in the morning. One can only have water for 8 hours before the blood test.

I swear when I did the bloodwork for health fairs at work they never said we had to avoid tea or coffee, just that they could not have any sugar or cream in them, and I thought it was 12 hours of 'fasting'. Well I don't think I have any blood sugar issues that I have to worry about so I am not going to be in any hurry to not even have morning tea before I feed horses and drive myself to Boulder. I'll wait until things have slowed down; still what a waste; I always have caffeine, every single day so if my blood sugar is ok with caffeine on board then its ok IMO.

My new cpu at work is frustrating me. I cannot figure out how to set the default font size big, nor how to set the xterm windows to be a different color and the black and white is frustrating me because the black text seems too faint. At least I did find a way to increase the font size in each xterm window with a google search. Also my ssh connections to the actual working computers keep getting dropped. I will have to get the sys admin to install VNC next week when he is back from his vacation or something. I had quit using the VNC on my old desktop MAC because it stopped dropping connections and it was always a pain to set up the VNC windows when I had to reboot it after a software updates and so on.

Target was out of sudafed again. I don't need it immediately, but the fact that they are running out makes me think I should stockpile as far out as the expiration dates go; these manufacturer shortages and things will only get worse as the Obaconomy continues to drag this country towards ruinous levels of debt and spending and the hostility to any company or person that makes something well enough to turn a profit deepens. SIGH.

Tomorrow I should try to take the tires I killed off my trailer and try to get some solar shed lights at Lowes to put in the travel trailer I bought from the neighbors to take up to WY for storage and as a bit of a marker for where I want to put buildings later. I keep feeling so overwhelmed when I think about getting the well in and stuff up there but I also worry that if I don't act soon inflation will eat away my savings. Darn it, the Carter years were only 28 years before the MarxSpewMedia and "I have a duty to lose" McCain got the first TellyTubby president elected . It gets hard to keep consoling myself with McCain would have been going along, trying to please the MsM anyway and the tea party might not have happened -- lord I hope you will send this country the leadership and spirit of "take care of ourselves" we need to get through this. Oh and Romney would not have been much better IMO so I won't even beat myself up about not being involved in the primaries but sheesh the country/world seems to be in a tight spot now.

Great centered riding clinic this weekend

And it was a great bargain only $75/day and a fairly short drive. Unfortunately I turned it into quite an expensive weekend by hitting the driveway gate hinge with BOTH passenger side trailer tires and putting holes in the sidewalls. UGH. I wonder if I should put the new tires on the front or back trailer wheels?

Sadie killed my favorite halter today

I had left Shades halter (not that I have hard fixed halter A for this horse rules) next to Sadie and Lady's pen so I just used it this morning on Sadie. I suppose I should not be doing things in my typical style with the green horse but I had the halter just tied around her neck to bridle her and was walking off fetch something and Sadie set back. She had the halter pulled almost over her ears and it was tight under her throat. I got her to take a 1/2 step forward but then she set back again so I grabbed my scissors from the trailer tack compartment and cut the halter since it was too tight to unsnap and I either didn't have a quick release knot like I thought I did or it was overwhelmed by wet cotton lead rope.

Sadie can be scar face for a few days but I'm sure its nothing deep, we went ahead and rode. She did give a couple of strong crowhops one place after a big snort that sent Lady speeding up in front of her but was a fairly good girl. Then at home I didn't take her to the tie spot but was just unsaddling her loose and didn't keep hold of her and she ran off with the saddle uncinched but still on her back for several steps. She let me put the pad and saddle back on so she is not traumatized by this but I MUST remember she is GREEN next time I go to ride her. I have to get moving to make sure I am not late to my private lesson before the centered riding clinic but am very sleepy now that all the adrenalin has worn off. Oh well couch sitting is not helping things along, must pack a few last things and GO.

Sadie's turn yesterday

Tuesday L came out to ride Lady. I decided to take Sadie out since I'll be gone this weekend at a centered riding clinic. I would love to take Sadie to the clinic but I think she is too green for the group riding and I'm not comfortable having her camp out the first time there --the camping area is right next to a paved road.

I sure enjoyed my ride on Sadie. Ole was splashing in the irrigation ditch and Sadie couldn't see that it was just him making that big racket. Sadie did a few rollbacks and stepped off the road into the CRP a couple of times but whoa'd and let me reassure her and then walked on. I am so having so much fun with her, she is still a greenie but it is not as painful I remember the green stage being with Shade or even Grey Moun who was easier.

117 miles this weekend.

Went to the Shamrock endurance ride this weekend. Last year I did the pioneer ride, 55 miles each day 3 days in a row. I was so exhausted I decided I would not try to do that again unless I had a faster, stronger horse or a crew.

This year I did the 55* mile ride on friday, rode the 11 mile poker ride with my dad on saturday, and then rode the 55 mile ride again on sunday. Much nicer. I have ridden this ride over a dozen times and never noticed until dad pointed out that some of the barbwire fence strands on that loop were really old. Old fashioned metal star barbs on it, not the modern wire points. On the collage, as blogspot is cutting it off it would be in the most right column and 4th down --not counting the wire strand example on the top. Guess I should try to take a picture next time I got to this ride, it was not easy to even find an image of that kind of barbed fencing.

Only trouble on saturday was RazzMo kept losing his easyboots. We are planning to do a family trail riding trip around the first week of august. Razz will be shod for that, the appt is for July 20th. I have used boots on him before and never had problems with them coming off, but he kept popping the RF off this time and the last time it rolled down a bank or something and we could not find it. But he didn't seem to get footsore so no big deal. Weekend was easier for me with the easy day in between, and dad and RazzMo look like they'll be ready for the trail riding trip.

* My math is not wrong, AERC sanctions rides to the nearest 5 mile point. This ride is about 53 miles by the odometers of the vehicle(s) they use to mark it.