Days are long in the sense of being tired. I'm fairly often thinking 'what, I didn't get much done yet.' But the months surely are flying by without me getting my riding mojo geared up. But I did take a short ride on Tanza yesterday in the small paddock. He is being sooo good for me doing the paddock work this year. Probably helps immensely that I am just having fun when I ride him in the paddock this year instead of thinking 'I'd rather be riding out but need to work on X.'
I got the pasture mowed last week and have sprayed pretty thoroughly for goats heads. I know I've missed some, they are good at hiding under the sunflower cousins and other flowering weeds I like to just leave be. The flies are starting to get thick. I think I'll need to start using sticky paper already as the bait stations are not making enough of a dent in the fly numbers. I also need to buy more fly spray and I need to buy some fly legging for CJ, he is getting some cracks in his RF hoof.
Lady is getting fat and sassy. She isn't moving very fast but every time she sees me outside she wanders over to see if I'm going to give her some pellets. She is getting over 4 pounds a days now, 6+ scoops from the little scoop that I think is between 12 and 16 ounces. Plus I've been giving Lady soaked alfalfa pellets or cubes and she gets to eat hay or grass free choice 24 hours a day. She isn't being destructive of the stacked hay, or too terribly messy with the loose hay I have ready to feed, so I can indulge her.
I am getting rid of some house clutter. If I tidied everything up nicely I don't think there would be much overflow on floors and various flat surfaces. I haven't managed to gin up the ambition to do that yet; but I feel like I'm getting close. I still need to cull some things and don't want to have them out of sight out of mind instead of actually deciding 'toss, keep, or rehome.'
Yesterday dad took a shower AND had me drive him to the neighbors to get his hair cut. He was so excited about it the aide couldn't convince him to wait for me to get in from riding before heading for the shower and she was a bit freaked out since I had told her to have him wait until I was done and back inside. (I had said that because I thought he might need more help getting to the shower, he had not walked farther than 1/2 the living room yet.) The aide was very helpful, dad requested ham and eggs for dinner and she cooked them for him, made me some ham and cleaned up the kitchen after I made myself a skillet ham and eggs plate. Plus did a bunch of laundry and made up the guest bed with the quilt from the basement I had her wash. I made the decision to throw away the bedspread that had been on that bed. It was ripping out where the top was quilted to the batting in a plate sized spot and there is no sentimental value to it to be worth messing around trying to patch it. I always have to convince myself to make the toss decision but I'm getting better.
Today I want to mow the ditch outside the pasture and clean the one mini pen. I got the fence panel moved on Friday so I can get some if it with the tractor bucket. Also I put in some fence posts and strung some poly rope where some bush morning glories popped up in the small paddock where I've been riding. I thought the horses had killed them all by always eating them off but these had been dormant and all the moisture this spring woke em up.
Ugh, waiting for it to cool off a bit. And I chewed dad out. FIVE! minutes after the aide left he takes a crap. I am sure he was politely waiting till she left so she would not have to deal with it. I told him they get paid to deal with it and I don't. I let go of my grudge and cooked him one of his gourmet burgers from Omaha Steaks and microwaved their scalloped taters and a dessert for him. And had one of the steaks myself. It was just okay steak, not super tender and delicious just pan frying it, Dad's dentures are so dull he cannot enjoy steak anymore even when it is awesome, fork tender steak like Sarah had sent over a few weeks ago. He did get up this morning while I was outside so at least he is ok with having the aides handle washing and new depends in the mornings. But I'm still a bit mad, feels like Dad and the rest of the family have more consideration for paid help and even random strangers than for me.
I should have made a 3rd pass on the ditch, but the tractor was getting hot or something, the PTO started stalling as I was making the return pass down the long side so I called it good. The mini's pen is not completely clean, I suppose I can stand to do a bit more on it now it has cooled off a wee bit.