Star Is Moved

Yesterday I moved my new horse, Star, to a new location. This was after some thought and the invitation from my sister.

She had two horses, Lincoln, and his mother Nikki (I'm not sure how she spells it). My sister kept her horses boarded at the Robertson's facility which is on the east side of town and borders the Kern River. It is owned by Billy and Roberta, and Roberta is one of the bloggers I read on a daily basis. She has the "Life At A Boarding Stable" blog.

A few weeks ago Lincoln got sick and at first they thought he had caught a flu that was going around. After three days came and went and he had not shown any signs of improvement they thought maybe he had contracted valley fever. After being very stiff, sore, and tender all over he was still not getting any better when he started limping. Then it was discovered that he had foundered badly, most likely as a result of being so ill. The prognosis was not good and she had the vet euthanize Lincoln last week.

My sister wanted to keep the large pen Nikki was in and invited me to share it with her. It's only a twenty minute drive from my house, it has a private tack room where we can put our saddles, bridles, brushes and miscellaneous equipment, and it has easy, immediate access to miles and miles of trails. If I want to ride out from my house I have to first traverse city streets to get to any trails. I figured it was a great deal easier than hitching the trailer, loading the trailer with my tack, loading the horse, and driving to meet my sister for a ride. I accepted her offer.

To the right of this picture is our tack room. Behind that haystack is the pen for our horses.

Here's Star and Nikki sharing a little dinner. Don't worry. That's not a heavy blanket on Star. She is wearing the fly mask and fly sheet that she came with. You can see how large the pen is, much larger than anything I have at my house.
Here is their pen from the opposite side. It was getting dark and I shot this through the window, which is why it's a little on the not-so-focused side.

Now it should be an easy thing for me to hop in my little car and drive to the stables for a ride, whether I meet up with my sister on the weekend or just go myself during the week.

My only wish is that it would have happened under happier circumstances.

Not For The Faint Of Heart

Neighbor Dean, who is currently in Nigeria for a couple of months, recently sent these photos along. It seems one of the natives had found and killed a rather large python. They decided they were going to turn it into soup, like the goat soup he had been having on a regular basis.

Dean thought he might be able to get the skin to save as a souvenir, perhaps, but when he got to the "kitchen" he discovered the "chef" had cut the whole snake up, skin and all.

In spite of that he said the snake pepper soup was even better than the goat pepper soup.

Whatever you say, Dean. Whatever you say.

Teach 'Em While They're Young

I figure that if I'm babysitting for free I may as well get some free labor, one way or the other. In order to get started in that direction you have to teach the kids how to do it when they are really young, something I failed to do when my own kids were this age. Live and learn.

So under the guise of "fun" and "helping Gramma" we start off with the laundry. Here is the baby taking the stuff out of the dryer and putting it into the basket. You'll notice she gets every last piece out, even if she has to climb partially in to get it.

The last piece is out.
Now we she takes the stuff out of the washer and puts it into the empty dryer.
Yeah, sometimes it takes a while.

But eventually it will all be transferred. It doesn't matter if some is dropped onto the floor.

Now to wait for the next cycle.

Maybe in another six months she won't even need any supervision! ☺

Picnic At The Lake

Today my husband and I took the baby for an outing to nearby Lake Mung Ming. We decided to have a little picnic.

The baby was ready.
We found a nice table in the shade overlooking the lake.
She enjoyed her pickle...
...and boiled egg...
...along with some juice to wash it all down.

We were going to stop and feed the ducks and geese on the way home but she was getting sleepy.

Very sleepy.
Over and out.