Enjoyed my day off

I did a bit of cleaning in the living room.  Made chex mix this morning, washed the coverings on Dad's recliner, sprayed it with febreeze and sprinkled some baking soda on the carpet and then vacuumed the traffic areas.   The carpet is getting so threadbare but with pets and dad I really don't want to replace it cuz pretty sure it would have to be replaced again to sell the place.   Gawd that sounds bad, but having pretty carpet doesn't mean much to me.

Dad had to run to town for prescriptions so I delivered cards and a bit of chex mix to 4 of the neighbors and had good visits with 3 of them.   Then I took Toby for a walk and it was still decent amount of light out and the weather was nice and mild so I burned some branches and weeds before feeding the horses.   

Ate a bit too much for supper and then wandered to next door neighbors looking for dad and Toby.  They are so nice to us, especially lonely dad.  I have taken to doing some goats head spraying in their yard in the summer as something I can do for them.   Plus we watch the dogs when they go on trips.   With the covid he has had more free time this year so they took a longish trip at thanksgiving and are going to take maybe 5 days to see friends that moved to OK and then attend another friends wedding in KS in January.  

I will bake a ham tomorrow for Christmas dinner.  I think I'll make dressing as well as taters to go with the ham gravy to have with it.  

I must get the Christmas cards out

 I was good and wrote up the letter a week ago, but have been slow getting cards addressed.  I'll probably have to really skimp on adding personal notes to get them done today.  Monday might be OK, but would be pushing awfully close for delivery before Christmas.    Perhaps I'm stalling because of reading online comments about the form letters being tacky.  I don't think its tacky; feels like almost everyone else puts crap up all year long on social media but the way the feeds are one misses a bunch of it and I've always enjoyed reading everyone's letters and I take some care to not just have a brag list or list of woes,  just give a 1.5 page overview of our life since the last one.  

I put up the tree and dad and I put up the usual outdoor lights.  I think I'll just skip putting out the extra stuff.  I have let the decluttering and cleaning slide so much, and I just can't find the gumption to tackle it when we aren't having anyone visit or anything.   I enjoy the lights and the Christmas tree, so doing them seems worth the effort.   

I need to go DO SOMEthing.

 I'm having  a hard time breaking away from the computer today.  Partly I am in a funk because B never replied to my text last week.  I should call her, its quite possible the text just never went through or she saw it, went 'well riding at IC with M and J, not barefoot or hoof boot friendly' and figured she'd just wait until some time she is at loose ends for riding and contact me.  But my autism spectrum side, or whatever has been going "she's mad at me or tired of my company for some reason, and I don't know why"   

I'm also pretty close to stalled on my decluttering, keep a cleaner house, efforts.  Almost all the super easy "just burn this or put in garbage" things are gone.  I'll figure something out in a bit and I have been doing a bit of laundry or yard work and crap and not just totally shutting down on cleaning and removing clutter but progress is slow and I feel like I need to get more done.   

I did go out with the pole saw and take a few droopy branches off the Elm, plus got a dead and detached branch that was stuck in the tree cut into smaller pieces and pulled out of there.  

I feel like 9news should lose their broadcast rights

 It is highly unlikely that they will.  Their contracted security guard that shot and killed a Patriot protestor was officially just someone from the local Pinkerton agency so the 'news' corporation can claim they didn't have any clue that they were providing cover to an assassin with the official security uniform.   But I'd certainly like to contribute to a fund to hire a private firm to fully investigate whether someone at the 'news' corp. knew the shooter, knew he hated honest American citizens and encouraged him to apply at Pinkerton to be available to be contracted to provide 'security' to the 'news' team.  

And I want to scream at the UK paper that is at least covering the story.  "Security guard fired point blank *after* the patriot protestor sprayed 'Mace' at him"    Its a lot more likely that the security guard was aiming at the protester first and protestor pulled the trigger on the bear spray as his only hope that it might disorient the shooter.   Sadly the *guard* maintained his aim and killed the protestor.   

But so much for "Antifa is trying to avoid killing people and only trying to provoke 'overly harsh' response to their tantrums."   Oh yeah *officially* this shooter was not part of Antifa.  But clearly he sympathized with their BS *cause.  

Coined a new term this morning.

 Doug Bug.   Trying to make a bit of humor instead of always going "AAARRRGHHH"  for the stupid bugs introduced by the *senior* software engineer who is too special to run tests on code changes before checking them in and even too special to coordinate with the software engineer who was specially hired to build code and make sure test cases work whenever buggy Doug puts in a code change.   

Doug Bugs tend to hit me when I think I'm trying just one new thing in a module but my svn update introduced a Doug bug and then some other code in that module starts breaking on a real-time system.   So far I have not caused an extended outage on an active system but I've had a couple of close calls, when I have been shooting from the hip and not strictly following our protocols myself even though I try to honor them.   My old 'absent minded professor' thing where I forget that "this is active" plus think "this is not realtime code that I'm messing with so I don't have to test on the dev string first"  

Oh well.  It is job security unless I cause an extended outage and the funding agencies penalize us.  

Spent the weekend at Winding River Resort in RMNP

 It is a very nicely set up campgrounds.   Of course I have enough of my grandfathers blood to feel like "yeah, but it needed to be a really really nice set up for >$80 per night."     Friday we did a lot of chatting around the propane fire ring that C and & T have and it was fun.   But between the cost and the drive *I* would opt to just camp at Indian Creek or some other NF undeveloped campground that was easier to get to.  

The trails were nice and dry in the non-rocky sections.   Saturday's ride got a bit scary.   Wind was gusting, not terribly hard/fast but the trees are so overcrowded and beetle damaged up there that they were coming down crack, boom right where we were riding.    Not good with an 8 horse group which is about 4 horses too many for the endurance pace riding we all do without extra drama from falling trees.   But there were no casualties.   We got to a trail split and M & J announced "its a pretty ride to those falls but we are heading back"   This got us split into two groups of 4 and things were better after that.  I won't say relaxed cuz M and Rocky were cruising through some trail sections where I would have kept the pace down to a slow to mid-pace trot so I was having to suck it up and go with the flow some.   

Then when we were back at the resort there is a river ford and Tanza got his feet tangled up in the rocks in the river and fell down.  Luckily the only damage to either him or me was tiny scrapes under our knees but we were both dismayed by the unexpected dunking.   Tanza was very unhappy cuz he got water in his left ear.   But fancy campground with unlimited hot shower so it was not too bad for me after I walked Tanza back to our camp spot and got him in his pen.   I got out of the shower and found I had not put my jeans in the bag.  I tied my towels around my waist to walk back to my trailer, rather than put my wet riding tights back on.  That was fine, the towels covered as much as a skirt would have.   

K brought over some flavored vodkas that she had got J and M for their birthdays.  I was a bit like "oh shit I didn't know I should have gotten a gift" but later when M was talking it came out that he had sponsored K's granddaughter at a ride, so she probably felt like she should get them something for being so nice.  I *think* J and M are good with not going to gift exchanges with B and I.   It isn't like they invited us to some mountain property they own and did extra work to host people joining the birthday camping trip.   

I hauled B's horse Taj up on Friday so she could work her normal day and just drive up after work and he is staying here until Tuesday night so she didn't have to rush home on Sunday, or skip shopping or whatever weekend errands to haul him home.  She drove her car up to RMNP, rather than burn all the extra gas to take her p/u.  She has bible study tonight and because I'm fine with keeping Taj  she will just leave him the extra night.  I am fine with this,  I can feed Tanza extra hay and feed w/o having to wait to put him back in the paddock since Taj also needs extra groceries and the two geldings get along so well together.  

I must remember my norms if ever riding with J again

I totally forgot my "I don't try to train/manage other people's horses" motto yesterday.   And J is no rookie although he was talking like it yesterday which contributed to my stupidity.  But he is like my mom, always doing that self-deprecating way of talking and then annoyed when people believe any of it.  I knew he has been riding for over 20 years and knows his way around all his horses but I just forgot for a bit since he was riding K's mare and not his gelding.  Sighhhh.

The day had a bigger "oh crap" element when L's horse tripped and went down on her foot.  Torqued her ankle good so it was a slow walking ride back to the trailhead after that.   Freak accident but I had been in front and picked up a trot so I am feeling like I should have been more cautious about where I decided to trot since her horse is 28 years old.  

I got home and was just wiped out and felt like I should not have been since I had not been working hard in the heat.  Oh well.  All the do list items can be gotten to eventually.   I need to resume progress on the cleaner house and de-cluttering.  I fear that I will never get back to it if I stop pecking away.  I should see if there is any local effort to collect clothes, bedding etc to ship to OR or WA folks who lost stuff in their wildfires.   That might be a good reason to sort through some excess blankets and mom's clothes.  

B is all moved into her new condo.  I drove her car over there on Saturday.  She still had a carload of stuff here, so after everybody left after toasting with champagne we stopped at Bass Pro for her to buy an air mattress since the one she bought to be delivered from AFW won't arrive till end of Sept.   The house seems lonely now.  I need to move some stuff back into the guest room.  Still have a bit of 'should I just get rid of this' decision tree stuff but it would be fine to just move things back in there for now.  

Tanza and I survived grueling heat at Basin ride Labor day weekend.

 There were 4 100 milers that showed TRUE endurance, riding 100 miles Saturday with temps that got to 100 degrees.   One got pulled at the last vet check, her horse was lame.   Another rider said the horse had been forging all day.    It would have sucked to have ridden all but the last loop and have the temps finally cooling off and get pulled; but she is an excellent horsewoman and I'm sure was on board with not taking the horse out for 12 last miles when it was not sound.    Because I was riding the next day and was wiped out after doing the 55,  I did not stay up to cheer for the three that finished.   I think the one from my state that I know felt slighted by that.   Oh well,  I know myself and I had to be able to function and take care of my horse the next day.  Its not like his 3 person pit crew (well 1 was riding the LD  on Sunday) came over and offered to help me if I stayed up and gave J a bigger cheering section.  

Only 3 riders did the 55 on Saturday.   Most folks had planned on only riding one day and opted to ride on Sunday when it was forecast to 'only' get to 90 degrees for the high.   We all rode the first 5 or so miles in the dark together and then G was moving out on her great fast 100 mile horse.  I did not want to go that fast when planning to go again the next day, plus did not want to leave L entering his 2nd 50, after having pulled from one 3 years ago all by himself.   L and his horse kept a pretty good pace.  We did the first loop in just over 3 hours, right on the 8 mph pace I had wanted.   On the 2nd loop L's horse was not wanting to go as fast and I didn't want to push past the mare's fitness level and kept Tanza behind her and we took almost 3 hours to go that 18 miles.   That was not what I had wanted but was not a big deal.  On the last loop when we turned off on cutoff and Tanza knew the loop was shorter he picked up the pace and I figured L and his mare would be fine or could slow down since it was the last loop.    L is TOUGH.  He did not have a camelback or pommel or cantle packs to hold water bottles so he was not drinking the whole ride like I was with my camelback.   Tanza looked good at the finish and I was wiped out,  took me a couple hours to summon the energy to take a shower.   J's wife convinced me to put Tanza in a now empty pen and move my trailer to the grass.  This was much nicer for Tanza on Sunday so I'm glad she talked me into doing that.   I had thought that the E family that had joined us at Happy Jack camping the previous weekend would come and ride but they never showed.   C may have been pressed into working OT as she is with the county health dept and I heard on the radio that the Univ. had 5 positive covid tests.   Seems like the rest of the family could have come anyway, but they did not. 

6 riders started on Sunday.   A did a fast ride,  3 of us did a fairly slow ride and Y and G took it even a bit slower, G was getting his decade award (10 years doing at least 1 50) with his awesome mare,   G is 80 years old; hats off to him to still be able to ride 55 miles.   Y was being a true friend and helping him get through the ride.   She got her decade award with her great gelding last year.   The 2, I ended up riding with on Sunday were not quite as good to ride with as L.   The one has been riding for close to 20 years but 'cant bring myself to drink from rubbery tasting camelback'  Picky little princess has to use metal water bottles and we couldn't pick up a trot when she was drinking because she couldn't get the tops screwed back on going faster than a walk.   I was good and tired of that by the end of the ride.   If it been been just the other rider, who is, like L fairly new to endurance I think she would have been on board with walking just a bit through rocks or whatever and then picking the pace back up right away.

Tanza was a bit off at the end of the ride.  Between that, and people helping G and Y out (well of course, cuz G is a hero doing endurance at 80 years old) but no other riders offered 2nd day me any help or any kudos all day I lost it for half an hour or so and couldn't stop tearing up.  Got over that finally.  Y was very kind to me after she and G finished.  She is such a great gal.   Tanza was fine Monday morning.  I cleaned out his pen; noticed with a good bit of "lazy slugs" judgement that J and his pit crew had not cleaned their pen before heading to Thermopolis to get a jump on the Monday drive.   Got myself and Tanza home safely, listening to radio warnings for the winter storm advisory coming in on Monday evening all the way home (after dealing with that heat all weekend!)  But that is not so rare for CO/WY weather. 

Not even halfway to Basin I was thinking "I am NOT driving clear to UT for Ant Island in 3 weeks."  So this wrapped up the season.  With Tanza needing Chiro (ride vet's suggestion) and to get his weight back up I definitely need to just call it a season.   He FINISHED the BH 100.   That is a huge we can call the year a success.   

Enjoyed a camping trip Aug 28-30 at Happy Jack with B and some HJ folks

 That trip is like a distant memory already.  But we had good rides and enjoyed good food and company.   K came up with her GD and GDs friend.   I like C, she is a great little rider.   K is a bit of a PITA.   "my horse HAS to be in front"   Of course he does,  heaven forbid you should teach him some manners and to deal with being in different spots in a group.   But it was good.  Tanza and I ended up at the back of the pack for most of the morning ride and I got to cowboy up and not get all angst that he'll get stupid being at the back of a larger group.   He had just a few mild issues and he and I got some good mental training to deal with something he was a bit bad about when he was more green.   Sat afternoon we got rained on.  Not a big deal except the leaders horse ended up chilled that evening.   She put on her hostess hat right away when we got back and didn't focus on getting him happy first.  Oh well, next time perhaps I'll tell her "we are big girls and boys and can wait or manage on our own for a while"  

On Sunday,  B's horse was a bit off,  T offered her his gelding and B, and myself rode with C and her grown daughter K.   That was a nice ladies ride.   We traded off who was in front a lot and it just seemed to click pretty well as a group.   K took the girls and did the other loop and  J and A had a guys ride on that loop by themselves also.  

Nice ride on Sunday with B

 It was just B and I,   the other folks we often ride with were camping at Mueller.   No spots available for us to join and I was on ops rotation at work so needed to get on the computer 3 times a day, so camping would have been hard for me to pull off.   B and I had a nice ride and then I helped her get a bed frame someone was giving away.  Its just a frame for a box spring but decent looking head and foot boards and B could always make it into a platform frame instead if she wants to go that route.   

Later I found the steel hanging tape so I could properly secure my propane pipe on my horse trailer rather than just having a twine string.   I could NOT find the screw to put my divider latch opener back on.  Argghhhh that was frustrating but it took me 1 minute at ACE hardware and .23/ a piece to buy new ones this morning so if I had been more zen yesterday it would have been a nothing burger.  I had to go to ACE anyway to get liquid electric tape as my solar panel to trailer battery is shorting and its too hard to reach to wrap with electrical tape.  I also got more fuses and the shoes that I like to use, then went to the co-op and bought a gallon of 2-4-D weed spray concentrate.  I had figured I'd only use 1 gallon this year but the electric company digging to replace the old power line made a huge goathead patch in the pasture.   The pasture should get weed control anyway but I had been going to leave that this year.  Oh well.

Dad had to take his cat Tommy to the vets to be put to sleep.   Tommy's back legs and tail were not right this last week,  first it was fecal matter in his tail and some on his back legs, then last night poor cat ended up with piss all over his back legs so I gave him an emergency bath.   He had pissed on his legs again this morning and was just not feeling great.   I suppose we'll get another cat in a few weeks.  It will take me that long to get the downstairs somewhat cleaned up from Tommy's misses and such.  

Got rid of a bit of garage clutter today.

 This is good bit of mental laziness.  Instead of getting down to real sorting in one of the rooms where I have gone through and burned or put in the trash the obvious crap, I move on to another room that has low hanging fruit.   The articles I've read on decluttering say to focus on one area to get the reward of having that clean spot or room but when I've tried to do that I just shuffled non-obvious stuff to another room.  I have gotten rid of enough stuff after adopting my "find a few things to deal with each day" that I am now getting the mental boost of "look how much of the desk in the downstairs office is clear" and so on and I have done some "ok donate this, this is trash", and I have put up a few things that I was saving, or mended clothes and put them in my closet.  But I have to go through a whole lot of stuff and decide "ok this goes in an album or something like that, this doesn't have any meaning to me so I'm trashing it"  And I gave myself permission to not mess with it until after riding season but I need to post stuff like mom's sheet music on eBay, and look into options for her accordion.   

Trying to limit my social media for my sanity

 Even with limiting myself somewhat the last year or so I'll see posts about what a horrible person I am for 'riding in FW with the waifs instead of my actual tacked weight'  or 'passing someone I had drafted on at the finish so she would get the turtle award'  I know that I should have summoned the energy to communicate the plan to her, but I was pretty groggy after being up for over 24 hours.  Loved how she thought it was just accidental that she got the nice turtle award though, but I forced myself to refrain from justifying myself on the social media.   I know I was wrong in not talking it out and I know folks that know me know that I am not in the habit of jumping in front at the finish if placing points might be involved.  (80 entrants and finishing turtle I was pretty confident that only completion points were going to happen for the last 2 people finishing on time at that ride)

I finally got some of the stuff out of my car dropped off at the ARC thrift store.  They have a good system of unloading cars behind their store with 3-4 employees.   After I get feed next I can start collecting the next batch of stuff to donate.   Still weighted down by a bunch of *stuff* but I have lightened that load considerably over the last couple of years and it feels good to be able to see desktops and floor space even where I have the last 20% of stuff still sitting around.   It is going to be HOT this weekend,  I am on call but may try to still go camping with Becca in WY and just run to a McDs or rest area for ops checks using their wifi cuz the smoke and heat are getting to me and Tanza is bored, plus fit as a fiddle.  No low weight issue this year only doing 2 rides plus me feeding him extra and not cutting back instantly when he gets to decent weight.  

Sleepy Sunday

 I have a long list of things I should get done, but my motivation level is in the basement today.   I did order some new hinges for my trailer tack door.   Now I need to decide if I can just install them or do I need to take the trailer to a pro to do it.   I think I should be able to install them myself.  If dad was his 20 years younger self I'd be totally confident that he could help me figure out how to do it well.  But he is not and I cannot wallow in angst that his mind is now joining his body in showing signs of age.  He IS 80 years old and I'm not some dumb bunny DNC voter being told that my candidate is fine, just fine.   Of course I think a lot of the DNC voters think its perfectly normal for the presidents' staff, largely picked by his donors to actually be in charge - but still the POTUS has to be competent to be the figurehead and I don't see how anyone can believe sundown Joe is.  

I feel like my goat head burr control is not too bad this year, but I will be battling the pasture fence line where the burrs got away from me before I realized "DUH,  I should have seeded some oats or something where they dug up that strip"  into the future,  lots of burr seeds there.   

OTOH I feel like the fly control is failing.  I ordered a different brand and maybe will order another kind with a sugar base if needed.   I hate feeling so inadequate in my horse keeping. 

Tanza is looking good a week after his huge adventure doing the BH 100.   I am battling some cactus spines or rash or something right where the bra bottom elastic hits.  I rode Sadie last night and it was "ouch, I guess its a good thing the riding gang thought that of course Tanza needed more time off and I can't take Razz with bare feet (I didn't even try to find hoof boots for Razz, I felt like they didn't want to wait on me to get boots on)"  I was invited to 'come up and hike or just do Happy Hour"  Thanks but no thanks,  I aint driving 3 hours to hike,  I hiked around spraying some weeds this morning and yesterday, and I sure aint driving that just for happy hour.   For me its not worth the trip unless I'm riding.

We did it, completed BigHorn 100 2020 with less than 5 minutes to spare on the time limit.

I rode a bunch of the last loop with the nicest young gentleman from California,  Jeremy Procopio.   In his early 20s, and is a farrier doing mostly composite shoes.  He was so kind to me and anyone else he was riding with in the hours I observed him and an excellent horsemen who looked out for other people's horses too so long as it doesn't interfere with taking the best care of his own mount.   It was good for this old fart to observe true endurance spirit in some young people.  

Tuesday I was still recovering from the ride and the drive to and back from Shell.  I am not feeling too bad physically, a bit of delayed stiffness from the ride and then the long drive is all and I'm managing to do some work on the computer.  However I was in tired and crabby mode emotionally.   I can't imagine the wreck I would be if Becca had not come along to crew for me.  I have no experience doing 100s so I didn't have a list of what I needed, all I did was prepare baggies of mash for Tanza so only water had to be added.  Becca, being an experienced endurance rider took care of having a cooler for Tanza, and having his mash and water ready; plus snacks and water for me and she took care of of his vet check ins, it was so wonderful.   Towards evening I just had to share, so went and got Tanza's portrait out of the trailer so I could scan it and put it on FB.

When I started riding endurance 30 some years ago one of the first rides I went to one of the 50 miler entrants had a BH 100 top 10 blanket on her horse.   So finishing this awesome adventure some day became one of my endurance goals.  But I had sweet horses that were staying in MY pasture, but were not 100 mile athletes, just horses capable of finishing, not competing, in most 50s.  As I aged I figured I just never would have a BH 100 mile horse as I was not going to become a horse collector or sell my sweeties chasing after a prospect.   Then Sadie, who was supposed to be the racing background, good bloodlines for endurance horse turned out to have not great legs and I was not getting to ride as much low level LDs, or 50s as I wanted so I went shopping for a second horse on Craigslist.

None of the Colorado horses I was seeing intrigued me and I'm less than 100 miles from WY border so I started looking at those listings and there was Kenlyn Tanzaknight, just in Cheyenne.   When I looked up his breeding and saw that he was out of Devosion as well as Kenlyn Awesome Knight I knew I really wanted him unless the test ride was a complete disaster.   He had an allergy issue, unknown to me at the time, and I had to wait to try him and I told the owner I would pay her original CL price after she had dropped it in case I was in a bidding war and didn't know it.    The test ride went well,  Tnaza passed the pre-vet fine with the vet making a note about his temperament being a 7 or 8;  I of course just went "DUH, he is an arabian."  

The first year or so that I had Tanza I did have times of wondering if I should just try to find a high level rider that was interested in him because he was a Lot of power and while he was usually good, any spooks were a much bigger deal than on little Sadie, plus I felt like I was on a coiled spring most of the ride.  But like him, I am a stubborn redhead and I really wanted to keep the good athlete and see if we could become a team. 

Cindy Collins had agreed to manage the BH but for only 2 years through the 50th anniversary and Tanza would be 10 in 2020 so I decided that I needed to enter this year, because it was possible that no one else would take on the huge work of doing the ride and I didn't want to regret having missed at least taking a shot at this beautiful but tough ride.  I mentioned my thinking to a few people and I think I inadvertently started the rumor that this was the last BigHorn that would be put on as I started hearing it was the last one from other folks this summer.  Oops.  

Then the COVID-19 bug and the way overblown response to it by the media and many state governors hit.  I didn't try to go to Mt Carmel because it was quite limited and I figured it was already filled up with loyal XP riders.   I was riding quite a bit with Mike and Jeanine Phillips and Becca Chisholm at Indian Creek so Tanza was getting good hill training at a good pace this spring and then Tenney bravely decided to put on the Spanish Peaks ride with 60 entrants and including a 75 mile distance in mid June.   A 75 seemed like a perfect springboard before doing a tough 100 so with very little specific planning for it, but knowing that Tenney and her vets, volunteers and parents are super supportive to riders I entered that 75.   Sue Basham and Dana Cernak, who had ridden a shorter distance that day jumped in and crewed for me at the final VC and then Jesse and Kelly and Cassy bailed me out when I had helmet light issues and they had wound up behind me instead of way in front as they would have normally been because of Jesse's horse galloping back to camp on loop 2 when something went wonky as Jesse was getting off to get a gate or I would have been lost in the dark but we made it, I could ride in the dark with no nausea or anything.   So I bought a light just for my helmet and added velcro so it would stay on before BH and figured I was ready to go.   Becca volunteered to crew for me so I knew I'd have great crew support without having had to write out detailed directions in advance.   My sister had volunteered to crew also and came down to Shell from ND but she ended up being one of the trailers for pulled horses.  

The ride itself:   I had gotten into the habit of carrying hardly anything on me doing 50s, but for a 100 decided I needed to have some supplies.  My old english saddle cantle bag will NOT go on my Synergist but I found some western saddle pommel bags we had worked fine and then I added the many pocket vest I used to wear with Cindy and Grey Moun when I was first doing endurance and I have gained enough heat tolerance working at home instead of the icebox office this year that I was ok with wearing the vest.  We started off at about 4:10 and before long I was passing a few folks because Tanza was wanting to do a faster trot then their horses and I was certainly wanting to make fairly good time on the first stretch before we hit the big climb into the Big Horn mountains.     He did not drink good right away at the 20 mile VC but after we had vetted through and I had given him some electrolytes I took him back to the water tanks and he did drink pretty good before we headed out on the loop.    Tanza drank well at the creek shortly before the trail starts the big climb and then did his awesome power walk up most of the steep climbing on the rocky 2-tracks up the mountain.   

When we hit the canyons we trotted the nice footing sections and walked where the fist sized rocks were thick.  I knew that this was the slow stretch and there was mostly good footing the last few miles to the 2nd vet check and then the 20 miles to the 3rd vet check so no sense risking a stumble or hoof bruise trying to hurry through the rocks.   Tanza dove into his mash at VC2 and I had some taco salad that Becca had made and brought.  Then we were off down the road towards hwy 14.   Tanza is blessed with awesome legs so I know I can take advantage of downhills and let him make decent time with a good trot pace and little stress on the heart and lungs when the trail is not too rocky.   Off of Hunt road and up the big climb to the fence and gate to drop down to the highway 14 crossing.    We made the 3 pm cut-off and then Holly Ulyate helped me keep focus by telling me I had to keep on pace, I had only made the cut-off by 10 minutes.   She is so awesome at distilling essential info into a short statement.   

The trail to Antelope Butte and then to the ranger station were nice this ride.  I had remembered hitting some rocky climbing for maybe a mile out of Antelope Butte 4 years ago riding the 50, but we were on a newly cleared trail and it was quite nice.   Tanza had good energy to the ranger station.  I was worried he would think he was done at that point since it had been the finish for the 50s the year we did the BH 50, but someone was offering water and he had a good drink and then did his power walk where we were climbing up a single track trail and a couple of riders whose horses were walking a bit slower were very thoughtful and got off trail to let us around.   When we hit VC3 my back was screaming at me and I was thinking "well if the horse is good I do want to see this lollypop loop section but maybe we won't do the leg down the mountain."  I got some arnica on my back and some Desitin where I felt I was getting chafed and took some turmeric and ibuprofen, plus swapped out my LS shirt for a soft fuzzy sweatshirt and then felt chilly so added my fleece jacket.   Tanza had pulsed at 57 at the check but then was trying to eat and was 68 when Becca went to vet him so it was a question if he needed to pull or the high pulse was just because he had been still grabbing grass.   Multiple horses at this stop had hanging pulses.  We took Tanza to Lyle 15 minutes later and he was 56/56 for pulse and CRI and good on everything else so I was off to see the new 'Shag Nasty' loop.  I'm not sure how new this is but the original BH course had a section through an area that was named Shag Nasty on the map I guess. 

So we were off on the loop.  I ended up riding with some nice California riders including Jeremy P mentioned above and a Molly who is a super talented young rider who did 6 100s last year and 'rode quite a bit with Heather and Jeremy Reynolds last year.'    I am amazed by the young prodigy riders with achievements like that and not even 18 yet.  We got through the boulder field? or whatever they called it section of the ride before it got dark out which was nice.   They had marked the trail super well, with duck tape arrows in a few places to direct the safe way around some of the huge boulders.   

Got to VC4 and my back felt much better than at VC3,  trailers could no longer get in farther than the ranger station so even if one was going to be OT might was well go the 14 miles back to base camp than the 8 miles back to the ranger station and we had enough time we should be back in time anyway and Tanza vetted through fine and was still eating like a pro.   So I went off for the final leg, and found that my helmet light battery was used up.  Oh well there was some moon and I lucked out and Jeremy's horse had been reluctant to pee which kept his pulse raised so he caught up to me and I had both light and an agile person to get gates and easily hop back on his horse.   We caught up with Molly and her mentor and rode to the slick rock with them.  I would very gladly skip the slick rock section if I ever do the ride in the future.  Molly's horse went down on its side and we were all trying to be extra careful after that, but then Tanza hit a section and thought he could just slide down like a reining horse.  Only his back feet went forward so fast he was sitting like a dog and I went off over his tail and onto my well padded rump.   Tanza seemed fine,  I led him quite a bit afterwards though and they went on ahead to make sure they finished in time.  Eventually I got through the slick rock, had another rider catch up and I drafted on her headlamp to the finish and I believe she and I were the last 2 to finish in the 24 hours.   With the new WDRA org I think all the folks that rode the distance but were just a bit OT will get WDRA credit for the ride.  A very nice thing IMO.   Tanza vetted through fine.   After a few hours of sleep, when we got up Becca noticed he was acting like a back leg was hurting and I found he did have a nasty scrape on his hock.  I put some arnica on it and later some triple antibiotic ointment and today it seems fine so I think it was luckily just skin and some stinging from air on the scrape was what Tanza was reacting to.  

Trying to switch to thinking about the BigHorn ride

I have been so pre-occupied with work and with trying to finally get rid of some of the clutter around here that I have not really been thinking and planning for the ride.  I have finally started that ride planing process but I need to give it more time and thought.  I don't need to obsess too much, but we only see crew 3 times in the 100 miles and one vet check no crew allowed where they say they will have water for horses and people.  So I need to carry some supplies.   I found the pommel bags will work on my saddle.  The english style cantle bag will not.  I can zip tie easy boots to the saddle.  I need to try wearing my mesh pocket vest and see if I can live with it and then tie it to saddle if I get too hot in the middle of the day.   We will be on the mountain for the hot part of the day.  

Need to pull extra empty supplement buckets I won't use out of my trailer mangers and pack comfy chairs and pillows and things.

May 10: Did some decluttering and burning in burn barrel, still a good ways to go

July 15.   Same status.   and I HAVE been pecking at the decluttering all those 10 weeks.  Just soooo much accumulated crap to deal with.  But doing it as finding  a few things to burn, put in rubbish or put in donate to charity thrift store pile every day has been good for not me not burning out mentally and emotionally and the guest room did get completely cleared so B could move in,  I cleared out the secretary cabinet in the project room and have made good progress on the clutter that was on the floor and table in that room too.  Plus progress in my bathroom,  in mom's downstairs office (quite a bit of progress) and in the kitchen.     Dr Mike told me he is dealing with his aunt's estate in Elbert county and the indoor arena was full of crap the neighbors who had been using it for free storage left behind and her 3-car garage was full of crap too.   "I have filled 2 rollaway dumpsters".     So some affirmation that it is good to be tackling this a bit at a time now vs having the "UGH,  everything must go ASAP so I can sell this place" when I inherit.   And Dr Mike noticed Tanza is thinner compared to when he did spring vaccinations and health certs.   Well Tanza is thinner after LaVeta, plus I had some cushion on him before starting riding.   But I guess I should ramp up the extra food for him even more in the 2.5 weeks leading up to heading for BigHorn.

YIKES, I am not on the list the BH 100 RM posted on FB

It better just be a typo in the list   I signed up and pre-paid back at convention.   She sent me, or I took from FB the survey about belt buckles.   I have asked sis and a good friend to crew for me.   Tanza rocked the tough LaVeta 75 and I rocked a quick recovery (back to getting stuff done) after the ride.

I know its probably just a typo, but I'm all angst that "she lost my check,  something was wrong with my check and she didn't tell me,  some A-hole lied to her that I planned to drop to only riding 50 and stole my spot (well I think she can expand to 101 riders if that were the case)

Addendum.    RM emailed me back thanking me for catching the mistake and stating that they are only worried about crowding at the basecamp.   This does not make sense in my mind but whatever.  I need to ask my friend how much I should pay her.   Since she couldn't get Thursday off and is planning on driving herself on Friday in her car I need to at least pay her gas but I would like to offer her at least part of her normal salary since PTO accrual gets paid to one when leaving a job and so on.

Busy 3-day weekend

No nice vacation at the Shamrock ride in WY.   Sigh,  I loved that ride, such hospitable landowners and ride manager and the setting just exuded peace and tranquility.   Oh well,  I did enjoy it most years while it was active.

This year it was hauling hay Friday morning, spraying weeds with the frustration of tow sprayer not working correctly and the goat heads from the power company dozer work already had set a TON of burrs, then unloading most of the hay we (mostly neighbor Paul) had picked up in the morning and I helped dad zip tie his flags to the 810 John Deere that evening.  

 Saturday I got up decently early and sprayed more weeds with backpack unit plus got the last bit of hay off the flatbed trailer.   I still have not swept the loose hay off the trailer.   Then dad lined up to be in the parade and I put on my patriotic t-shirt (eagle with flag "these colors don't run") that I bought in FL last year when I went to watch the C2 launch, plus my red MAGA cap with U.S. flag on brim and blue jeans.  It was a pretty good parade for couple weeks notice and just our mile square neighborhood of 10 acre lots.  I took pics with my camera phone,  they are not great, cheap ph and I have no practice with the camera feature but better than nothing.

Then Pauls friend A came over with his mom and sister and picked up the wood Paul had cut up from our downed trees of a few weeks ago,  Paul came over and cut down the Elm tree trunk that was still standing and I got the tractor out to load those heavy pieces onto A's trailer.  We got a little shower in the afternoon which cooled things off, then it dried up and the wind got low so I went ahead and burned some paper trash and branches  in the burn barrel while pork chops were marinading in the Teriyaki sauce that came with some frozen stir fry veggies,  dad grilled them up, and I microwaved some california veggie mix for our 4th of July meal.  

Sunday I rode Tanza from Sharptail trailhead, a tough 20+ mile loop in the heat.  The silver lining was getting a late start like I did and it being a hot day with threat of pm storms we met very few bicyclists.    I thought I'd do it quickly but Tanza was tired or a bit sore and didn't want to trot down the hills.  I got off and led him down one long single track stretch and he was more willing to move out when we got to the dirt road section.  Its okay,  I need the conditioning more than he does, and he seemed ok when we got done.  

My blog so I'm allowed to whinge

I don't know why I like that British/Aussie version much better than plain old american whine, but I do.

Sprayer saga.  Wed I went to use it, and broke a wire after I didn't get a turn made and had to unhook and finagle to get the 4-wheeler and sprayer where I could go again.   Thursday morning and noon I sprayed with backpack sprayer after siphoning out of the tow sprayer to fill it; the neighbor bought new wiring and put it in for dad that afternoon.  Friday we hauled hay in the morning.  I went to spray and sprayer wasn't spraying well.  I had been running pump in re-circulate mode.   Back to gate, ask dad to help,  he takes off the hose where the filter is.   It had some crud in it but was not fully blocked.  I rinsed it out, we re-assembled it seemed to work and off I went and again by I went to switch to spray from re-circulate the pump was not working worth a shit.   I dis-connect battery clip and back to house.  Complain to dad that he must not have rinsed crap out of tank and it keeps clogging.  He replies "Its not clogging"  fiddles, re-connects pump and it works fine.   He undoes battery for while I get to the burrs.   I go again,  start up,  it is spraying and after a couple minutes I notice 'just trickling again'.   I disconnect battery,  kick the pump and nozzles, re-connect and it goes.  Lather, rinse repeat about a dozen times, of running for a minute or two and then just a trickle until I figured.  'well I got spray on some of the burrs and I can't stand to keep on with this anymore plus the neighbor's 4-wheeler seems to be starting to run hot.'     Went in and and ate some lunch then drained sprayer and used backpack sprayer again 1 round.   I need to go at least one more time with backpack.   The bloody goats heads have set a bunch of burrs so I WILL have to hit this fence line again after we get July-Aug monsoons and again next spring I suppose.   I should buy some oats or something to try to plant this fall to reduce weeds next year.    What a PITA.    Oh and found the contractors for the electric company practically left a hole down at the end of the pasture and I should try to fix that with the tractor bucket at some point.    Argggghhhhh,  Not pleased with either the contractor or the neighbor along that fenceline who told P about the burrs but couldn't pick up a phone and let me and dad know?  For pete's sake we are in the phone book!@!

The horse I tried out was not really reactive.   He is fairly distrustful but seemed way more "ughh,  I don't wanna work in the heat than reactive, or spooky at all"   The owner free-longed him after I was done riding and he was eager to please her so maybe he just gets very angst if he isn't sure what the game plan is.    But not sure I can get along with that personality.   I did schedule to try him on trail on July 9 and told owner I really need to focus on Big Horn until after Aug 1.    Also he is 14 not 12 and seemed like he might be a bit foot sore or something even though I only rode him on the soft sand footing in round pen and arena.   I'd like to help B's friend out, but just don't know if my personality can work with this horses personality and I won't mess with an unsound horse.

Ah haha. "burrs aren't so thick I'm ready to go nuclear option"

TheyARE that thick in the one bottom corner,  plus where the electric company dug up along the pasture fence so I got dad to get the little 25 gallon boom sprayer working.   I don't know what I'll do when he isn't here.  I'll have to get a neighbor to help me with mechanical things, that won't be the end of the world but I'll have to adjust to planning ahead so I have time to ask them to fit it into their schedules and have time to to some return favor to them.   Thanking god I still have some time to make that adjustment.

I have mostly adopted "arrgghh I have to declutter" as my obsession the last few weeks.   I will soon run out of the easy "just burn or toss this in the garbage phase."  I'm hoping I can lean on B's communication and organizational skills for a bit while she is rooming here, and she will be able to find nursing homes or someplace to take some of the games and jigsaw puzzles and so on.  I want that from her much more than any yard work etc because it is so emotionally draining for me making calls trying to find places that will accept donations.   I may have to steel myself and just toss a lot of reasonably good used stuff because in these days of cheap chinese goods and Covid, bedbugs etc its just not that easy to get thrift centers to take things.

I lined up to test ride a horse on Thursday.   B's friend L needs to sell a 12 year old arab that is too reactive for her.   He sounds like a nice horse and if he is about like Tanza and not over the top like Sadie I'll probably find I like him just fine.   L is interested in riding Razz sometimes on trails and if she likes him, he'll at least get some occasional exercise which will be great for him.   I should try to find a job for Sadie where she wouldn't be ridden.  She is sweet and super smart so might be good as a non-riding therapy horse but in my mind I imagine folks doing that kind of therapy are bombarded with folks wanting to dump horses that they don't want to ride on them and won't be interested,  But if I don't ask I'll never know.

Trying to get stuff working again on the big processing cluster after its OS update has been like chasing a greased pig

And I'll be finding data that was not on the external raid system nor the long-term storage tapes for weeks I suppose.  Found one filetype yesterday that is going to be such a PITA to replace I may just not dink with it.  I really figured the cpu's internal raid would be fine after the OS update but nope, it got wiped out and the IT team couldn't find any way to restore it.

Then prima donna sr software engineer wanted the processing user's home area restored as well as all the normal user /home areas or at least his /home area.  Which wiped out the new .ssh area that allowed no password comms, kicking off jobs between the head node and the rest of the cluster so I had to ask for that to be restored by the IT team.   Then I was busy with other crap for about a week, went to tackle some processing last night and the slave nodes were missing a key system level rpm.  I did not catch that for a couple hours and was thinking I just didn't have a PATH env set correctly.   Hopefully now that IT has figured out that almost all the extra system level rpms needed for our stuff were installed only to the head node but not the slaves things will work tonight or tomorrow.   Turns out it was not just that one library file that I was getting the message for but 100s of rpms they have to get onto the slave nodes.  I sure hope the process goes much smoother when they go to start migrating our real-time cpu's to this new OS.

I finally got back to spraying some burrs this morning.  The burrs are not too horrible, definitely I need to spray but not so thick that I'm ready to go nuclear and spray everything with the mini boom sprayer.   The bad thing is there is such a lot of thistles.  I thought I had pulled up most of the thistles last year before they went to seed and would not have much issue this year but no such luck.

I rode 75 miles. Tanza is such a rockstar

Showing my age I'm sure.  But Tanza was a rock and rockstar on this 75 mile ride.  The RM figured it was equivalent of 90 miles under this WDRA mileage point system and may have bumped that because it took everyone a long time to ride it.  It was plenty challenging but that was probably fine overall.  Lots of sections that had to be walked meant Tanza got plenty of breaks from trotting/loping and he can grab a bit of grass as he walks.   I survived riding 18 hours and even got packed up and got home, did some laundry and made pork chops Sunday evening.  That was all the father's day hoopla dad got from me.  He got calls from bro and sis.

I am hitting the wall today.  Having a hard time focusing at all for work and no energy to do something else for a while and then come back to the computer.   Oh well,  I'm pretty sure I've been giving them lots of free hours per week with WFH so I don't sweat the days when I don't get much done, and I did clear clutter from some of the kitchen cupboards.  Much more should be removed from the drawers and cupboards but it was good progress.   B has tons of spices and cooking gadgets so room has to be made in the kitchen.   I am seizing it as an opportunity/incentive to purge old expired foods and cheap plasticware and stuff I never use.  

Damn I seem to have invited myself to a snipe hunt.

I felt like I was begging too much to join the fun group I have been riding with so reached out to someone else.   And  person A responded in a way that I thought I had a riding date lined up so I told my friend I was committed today.   She was working yesterday and it turned out I had to do an emergency fix as on-call person for work so it was good that I didn't have to do a last second cancel.

But A has now not responded back to me with a time, or even  "something came up and I won't be able to ride."   Sighhh.    If she didn't care to ride with me I wish she would have just said so or at least said she has other plans this weekend.  

This is a big part of the reason why I go to so many organized rides in normal years.   I'm not good at networking and I have a tendency to feel crushed by rejection when people bow out, especially if it is last minute.  Oh well.   I'll reach out to fun group and see if they are going to camp/ride in the coming weekends.  I want to get a mini vacation from the endless work of trying to keep this place up before I have a meltdown.

I actually enjoyed riding in the rain on Sunday after getting up early

I never would have went out to ride with rain scheduled and used to beg off riding with people who wanted to meet very early.  But riding with this group is SO fun that I knew it would be worth getting less sleep and was worth riding in drizzle.   One good thing happening this year is the expanding of my zone of when riding will be fun.  I had gotten into a bit of a rut.

Nice ride at IC yesterday

I think the extra sheepskin I put on my saddle is helping with comfort level for Tanza and the new longer Skito pad worked out well.   Tanza led most of the way.   He and I set a fairly slow pace, but it was still 14-15 miles of good hill work.  B's friend L was with us on her 28 year old horse.   Prince did well but aside from being 28 he is coming back from a long lay off while L was laid up with broken hand injury from her 12 year old horse spooking.  I guess she got a bad angle on the hand/arm on his neck or the saddle when she was catching herself from pitching over his ears.    I don't hurry through rocks and roots anyway, though sometimes Tanza does keeping up with a speedy horse in front of him.   L was not wanting to walk the whole way so we trotted the nice footing sections.   I got home, put the horses out on the downy brome to graze for a bit  and had beer thirty, then I barely felt competent to burn some branches afterwards.  No pole or chain saw work when I was feeling so fuzzy.  

Sigh, so many sheeple in the world

And many of them are nice folks that seem sensible in general but they can't or have not yet grokked that the covid-19 is not as dangerous as we feared at first so all the lockdown crap, wearing a mask, and contact tracing at this late stage and so on is not about preventing a lot of deaths, its about controlling people, or killing economy that the globalists and/or commiecrats could not control.   They hated having folks able to make a good living w/o having to beg and scrape to some mandarin for permission.

I had a good riding weekend

It was not Medicine Lodge, which is a fun AERC ride in WY, and it was not camping which was the original plan B but still managed to have a good weekend of riding.   Started rough on Friday when I checked my phone about 2:45 and found that I was missing a short notice ride with the gal that I thought I'd ride with on Sat and one of the can't go camping folks.  But I decide to ride by myself on Saturday.  Tossed and turned a bunch overnight with nerves about riding solo at a trailhead instead of just from home or from an endurance basecamp and then it took me an hour of asking before Tanza would let me catch him.  So that made it a good thing that I didn't have a deadline of meeting someone.

Tanza was quite good for me and it was really nice to be able to canter on the easy footing gradual stretch w/o having to 'slow down a bit,  T feels like he'll buck' and then go slower on rocky or technical sections that M goes.  I need more practice riding fast in rough country so I don't get out sync with Tanza but it was nice to be able to relax on Saturday and it was just awesome to be riding my horse,  the bluebells and violets were blooming and I found my way to do the loop I wanted to try.
I figure it was about 18 miles and we did it in 4 hours.

Today met B and her friend L at Barr lake and we did the easy flat 9 miles.  There was a nice breeze that kept the bugs away most of the loop.  Got home, let the horses out to graze and did a couple rounds of burning in the barrel.   I have a whole lot of decluttering left to do but made a bit of progress.

Must remember to share how-to's with team

I did do that this week.  It would have been a tiny bit easier for me to just edit and run my script but I get so annoyed with the adjunct team member who drags his feet on sharing HOW to run any of HIS scripts as though he needs the extra job security of being the only one who can do whatever.  Its absolute BS,  there are a number of things, especially dealing with binary data that only he can do and the leadership likes him and would work to preserve his job if we had a funding cut, even if he didn't have specialized skills that would be hard to replace.

But I can only control my own behavior.   I try to remember how annoying I find the 'oh I have to do this myself, when I have time' response; and share things with the team.

Yesterday I managed, just barely to remember that 'comfort food'  is not all the comforting and avoided just stuffing my face in the evening after my normal weekday eating window.   Yay me,  I actually got a fair amount of work stuff done late in the day after a frustrating mess of not being able to get onto the work VPN which is a needed step to do 90% of my work for 2 hours, and then dealing with the neighbor we hired to clean our pens.  I was very angst that he ripped huge areas of the pens because in the past working pens up has led to an explosion of burrs.   Hopefully all the spraying I've down the last 5-6 years will help prevent that.   Maybe we will get weeds the horses like to eat, but that's a long shot.  Even if I have to spray more I guess its not a big problem since the 'rona lockdowns are shutting down most rides I would have gone to this year.  I'm bummed about that and still don't know what rides may still happen.  

I think the virus theatre is going to end before too long

Evidence from places that did early antibody testing shows infection rates were 50-80 times higher than those that felt so sick they went to a doc and got the active virus test.  Which means the virus does not put 1 in 9 that get it in the hospital but 1 in 450.   And I was onboard with 'wear a mask to make other folks feel safer so they don't shriek and wail "NOOO, people will die' about re-starting the economy.   But yesterday I was just going through the motions wearing my dumb mask.  As summer heats up more and more folks are going to decide comfort is more important than reassuring the fearful and only employees mandated to wear masks will do it and they will be thinking 'this is a PITA, maybe I should quit and say I can't find child care or I'm worried that I'm high risk for severe case if I get cover-19 and just take that generous unemployment that congress set up'  so their employers will feel pressure to end the policy as well.

I am nervous with Trump saying he could use the war powers act to force packing plants to stay open after Tyson chicken was making noises about shutting down some production.   I don't want Tyson, and Smithfield and other outfits that are owned by the Chinese or home grown commie scum squeezing food supply to try to affect the election but I don't like the government saying they can force someone to produce food either.  I pray that god guides us through this mess and we don't end up spiraling into full on tyranny or a mix of tyranny with pockets of anarchy.

I need to increase my fitness level

I thought I was in pretty good shape.  But I went on a longer ride yesterday with friends.  Felt fine riding,  but I got home and had no energy all evening and still felt tired this morning.   Coffee is finally kicking in now at least.   I need to be able to play hard to make all the working pretty diligently worthwhile.    But at least our local authorities have not shut down outdoor recreation.  Some of the power drunk governors and mayors have been shutting down beaches even.  Like there is a virus risk with all that sun and salt.   People would have to be making out on the beach towels to be spreading shit to each other and anyone with half a brain knows that; shutdowns were just touting their authority.   Stupid autocrats.  I'm hoping its just stupidity and ego trip and not truly evil intentions to make people less healthy by telling they can't exercise or relax in the sunshine but must just stay inside getting fed mis-information by the TV media and DNC loyalists on social media.

Obsession, torments my heart

Sounds like a creepy stalker thought doesn't it.   I've been mildly obsessed with controlling goats heads burrs for over a decade.   And this has resulted in the yard and smaller horse pens getting just a few burrs that I can spot spray now versus the gross tangled mat of burrs when we moved here so its not a bad thing.

But with the neighbor making us a burn barrel plus knowing how to just get burn permits online I have also now gotten a lot more intent getting the neglected trees trimmed up.  Started with trimming a couple of elms that came up from old ones that were cut down to force them to grow upward more instead of just being bushes.  Then last fall I cut down a bunch of small dead trees and hired a pro with a cherry picker to take down 2 huge standing dead elms that were a danger to my vehicles and also paid him to do dead limb removal and some needed pruning on the remaining live elms.  He told me that cutting off dead and dying limbs helps the trees as they then put all their energy into the healthy branches.  Made sense and it also makes the trees look much nicer.  

But I'm a cheapskate so I've been pecking away at the russian olive trees and smaller elms applying a few things he told me for trimming the elms so they are not so thick that they are high risk from high winds or early and late snows.   Pretty much just cutting dead branches off the russian olives.  They are tough trees once established, but all 20 of them have been neglected for 10-15 years.  

*addendum:  Thank goodness the neighbor made us the burn barrel.  They are not issuing burn permits this spring.  Not because of fire danger but because of cover-19.   Blegh,  any increase in lung irritants from burning brush piles is surely offset by the brown cloud being gone thanks to the stay at home recommendations.   But bureaucrats have to enjoy their power trip.  

Just trying to keep on keeping on.

PITA boss moved the PITA twice weekly WFH web meetings.   They had been 12-1 which was not too bad for having a chunk of nice daytime to take a long break between working sessions.   Now mr Prima Donna or other coworkers have decreed that its tooooo hard to each during the boring meeting or wait till 1 so meetings are 1-2  and 1:30-2.       But the days are getting longer and mornings are getting nice again so I guess it will be OK.   Its just annoying that they seem determined to hamper the opportunity to do stuff outside in the middle of the day.   Bitterly clinging to their schedules set up for when we were mostly expected to come to the 'office' to work rather than typing at the keyboards from home.  

I'm having a hard time trying to keep riding goals in focus with the stupid lockdowns.  I suspect that some rides could be able to happen in May and June with entry limits of ~40  to keep  under the 50 person gathering size limit.   It seems like rides should be able to go on with more that that by declaring that each distance will stay under 50 people with separate start times and there will be no common  meals or meetings, but it seems to me like the national org is dominated by risk averse lawyers who are not trying to craft strategies to propose to local authorities to get green lights to proceed but are just gaming out how to avoid any potential lawsuit if a rider or volunteer got one of the nasty cases of cover-19 at a ride.  

But I DO enjoy my horses regardless of competing at rides.   I am not doing too badly at keeping up the riding and I have done a lot of tree pruning this last month and today finally remembered to put in for a burn permit.   I was never going to catch up with only using the burn barrel so I need to clear out all the build up.  Then I can probably get plenty of wood for including with burning household paper trash and remaining last years weeds.

I aint nothing but tired

I'm not real fond of Springsteen but that lyric line is so appropriate.   I'm so tired of dealing with people who are not stupid but can say stupid things like 'Rona is only as bad as a severe flu with 0.1% mortality for those infected and then say no way 100K people in the U.S. will die from it.   Ummm HELLO,  lets assume 70% get it and herd immunity kicks in.   .7 times 330 million is 230 million.    .1% of 230 million is 230K so if its ONLY as bad as a severe flu and we have no vaccine than 200K folks are likely to die.   Now a good many of those will be just a matter of a year or less off lifespan of someone with a chronic health condition but that is cold comfort to the family and friends of everyone who lost that year and some folks are going to lose family and friends who had just minor or even no chronic health condition. 

We still cant cower at home for months; but this covid-19 is worse than the H1N1 that killed 100K over 15 months or whatever the full period was.

madness, sheer madness

People are hearing baseless rumors that there will be a nationwide shutdown and quarantine and are panic buying not even just 2-3 weeks of supplies on this FNM fear mongering but 3-6 months worth and not just TP and people stuff but now pet food, kitty litter etc as well.

But I was able to get my usual horse feed this AM.   I updated my chewy order for the new pup and its fine if they are a week or 2 late with the normal scheduled delivery.    I've actually got somewhat less supplies than my normal this year as I've trying to declutter but still have plenty to get by for a few weeks and I can stretch dried beans and split peas after that if I have to but I passed bemused to 'point and laugh' a few days ago and I am nearing 'WTELFIWWY" already and people probably won't stop with the sudden prepper syndrome for another month.

Knocking wood,  so far,  my state is not trying to shut down the great outdoors yet.  Yes the poor souls in IL and MI and I think some others have had state parks and open space areas shut down,  WTH is wrong with those governors or their health consultants?  Don't they know that sunlight is a great disinfectant?

My nominee didn't get HOF horse

But I was relieved cuz the gal whose horse I had nominated wasn't at the convention.   I thought she had planned on coming but she wasn't there.  I was thrilled for the gal and her horse that did get HOF, but this is the second time a horse that was part of the Pardners award for the horse and rider that embody "team" has been nominated and awarded HOF a few years later and I'm torn on that.  Obviously people should not refrain from nominating someone for the Pardners award because of not wanting to hijack a possible HOF for the horse down the road a bit; but OTOH the Pardners award in my mind is supposed to reward riders who don't compete at the higher level to qualify a horse for HOF but have a really special bond with a horse  over many years of riding and I don't want it to become a thing where the same small pool of people is getting both Pardners and then HOF awards.    Most folks are going to have a special connection with a horse to get it to the HOF level, and not every one of those teams should get a  Pardners award as well as the HOF in my opinion because that would freeze out the Partner teams that enjoy the trail together for many years riding relaxed 50s and LDs.

I never heard if the HOF committee even got my email

So,  I'll be in as much suspense at the banquet as everyone else which is cool.   They probably got a set of last minute nominations including horses that are totally not on my radar and S's owner posted something about more to come with him on her FB feed so its quite likely he'll have to wait.  It used to be an unwritten rule that only retired horses were eligible but they have awarded to at least one active horse so I'll just have to wonder what horse might get it this year.

Sister FB messaged me this morning that they will probably come Thursday night from Hotchkiss, seeing B's dad first.  So I should suck it up to do the housecleaning and I will definitely not take the xmas lights down yet.   I was thinking they had decided they were just too busy to come since I had not heard from them and I could punt on the cleaning until a cold snowy day.  Well they'll suck it up if the house is not perfect but I'll get a few indirect comments about its crappy state.

Sure hope I don't get the bug that has been going around.  Last night I felt like I might be getting sick, my eyes felt itchy.  When I went to bed if was just the one that is always red -- I think I have a leaking blood vessel but its only on the white.  First time that happened I went in right away JIC it was an issue and the nurse and optometrist were nearly laughing at me as a hypochondriac.  I am overdue for the routine eye screening now, so I should call and see if I am still on the insurance or not.  I am going to be pissed with HR and our admins if I got bumped to  the high deductible plan because I didn't fill out the new workday form because they sure did not send out warnings and with the previous system if you didn't fill anything out you kept your last year's plan which is what I wanted.  I didn't set out to blow off filling out the form, which they did notify everybody 'needed to do' but our group ended up super busy that week and I ended up at 10pm on the deadline day going "oh I am so tired and this should be OK w/o me wrestling with this PITA system."  

Equine dentist is coming on Thursday.

I'm relieved he scheduled so quickly after I finally got him called.  It will be a great relief to taper Bee off the extra concentrates as I have a fear of giving him laminitis.  Now I just have to get myself scheduled for eye exam, dentist and routine health screenings I've been punting on for too long, but baby steps in the right direction are still steps in the right direction.

I may need to take a break from FB.  So tired of reading people who are done riding seriously whining that AERC shouldn't co-sanction 100 mile rides with FEI.   And a lot of the whiners  also whine that AERC doesn't give RMs ENOUGH control of their own rides as far as fudging distance if the ride is over tough terrain.  What a sorry group of people, they probably don't even have a clue how wildly inconsistent they are being.   I am with the 2nd group to a fair extent, but I feel kind of bad if a ride seemed significantly short.  Would be nice if AERC would just give the RM more leeway to adjust time to complete and sanction rides for 45 miles if RM requested it.  Then everyone that loves that scenic ride but wants to have 12 hours to finish it could still be happy (well some would still carp that 'this ride is tough so we should get a 10% add on on the mileage' for yearly records.)

I nominated for regional awards Partners the end of Dec, and yesterday the award organizer said on FJ "we received no nominations for HOF either person or horse" so extending the deadline to Jan 15. So I had some fun looking through some ride records, initially I was looking at a horse I nominated last year but the rider/owner while a nice guy doesn't come to convention so I was pondering and then  thought "how about Stu?"  Had some fun noting highlights of his career which is pretty awesome, he misses only the 3000 or more miles highlight but awesome little horse with 11 100 mile completions 5 of them on tough courses.  

I can think of some possible HOF people too, but for the one candidate I'd need to reach out to some folks for details of their riding career(s) before they became solid RMs as the online records don't go back that far.

Great start to the New Year

WooHoo. the tree trimmer came on Jan 1 and Jan 2.    The dead trees are not down to short stumps but they are not a threat to outbuildings or vehicles.  The neglected live trees that I had them trim up look awesome.   Wednesday I took some black plastic from the garden shed and spread where I still needed weed block along the Russian Olives and used bark from the cut trees to put over the plastic.  Today I asked them to put the mulch from the chipping they do in the back yard where mom had tried to start a mini orchard but the plum and apple trees died.

While they were cutting I cleaned out a big box of garden odds and ends with a couple boxes in it and put those and some other boxes in the shed down.   Then I spread  a few inches of the mulch over the boxes after they dumped the mulch.   Its an ibuprofen evening and I'll take an Alleve tonight but definitely moved the ball on the de-cluttering efforts.   Now I must work on contacting the equine dentist and catching up my dental, eye doc and health screenings.

The Holiday turkey is not consumed but I made my pot pie and rice casserole and soup last night.  I'll freeze up leftovers this weekend.  Not too bad.  I never did make haystack cookies that I thought I might do for the holidays, but I can make em anytime.