Saturday, November 1, 2008

Saturday Report

Today has been hectic and frazzled, hence the AFTER report rather than the BEFORE.

Hay has been purchased and unloaded into our loft. Now we just need to fill Alphonse, our outside-the-barn hay storage tent. The name? Well, we have "the chicken coop," "the barn," "the lawn mower shed," and "the garden shed." We shoulda called it "the hay tent," but we were dicey about calling it a tent, (although it is) and someone who had been reading something said, "Let's call it Alphonse." Must have been after some literary character, but the name has stuck. This year Alphonse has needed some repair and maintenance, so that's been being done. Just in time, because we really needed to get hay in there!

Mary had a riding lesson, and was offered a horse. She looks lovely, but there were enough questions about her to cause Mary's instructor, Jackie, to say, "Take a pass." There's another horse out there.

We visited Grandma. She's not doing well, and we're worried about her. If I hear one more person say some permutation of, "Well, you can't get your hopes too high. She is 96," I think I'll cause bodily harm. But we were able to have a short conversation, and I cleaned up her nails a bit. She likes them neat and tidy.

John and Mary took Arya, her yearling doe, off for a "date." Yes, it's that time of year, when the daylight shortens and the thoughts of goats turn to reproduction. Arya woke up today in full heat, so she's off to Mrs. Landeck's barn for a rendezvous. We'll be looking for kids at the first of April.

I'm trying to continue the process of getting the house under control. Two weeks of being torn up to put in the flooring took it's toll. Not to mention that I realized, in the chaos, that we were more than well-stocked with toys. I'm trying to weed through them and whittle us down to about 10 "classic toys." That should be good for the JP4lings, don't you think? But it does seem like an impossible task right now.

Dinner is up for grabs. I had planned on having Kris and Sean over, (Jay is at drill and the JP4lings are with mom this weekend) but John and Mary aren't going to be back in time for a nice dinner, so we're postponing it until tomorrow. And with that, I think I'll head off for more toy sorting.

I'll see you Monday!

3 comments:

Elephantschild said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Elephantschild said...

I'll follow up w/ email, like I said.

Sorry about the delete!

Kim said...

If there are lots of questions about the soundness of a horse it's a good idea to pass, that said be careful that you aren't looking for a horse that's too perfect.

I'm speaking for experience. Both of our kids horses are ones that their trainers would have passed up but have become great horses. Dd's horse had trust issues and threw her a few times, the last time we were told by a number of people who saw it that we had to sell her. Dd kept trying and she has turned out to be a wonderful horse. She has gone one to win her high points in her gymkhana division last season and she no longer bucks when dd gets her into a lope. Ds's horse was one we picked up really cheap because the owner died and her grandkids didn't want him. We noticed that he had problems with one of his coronary bands and the hoof was growing out strangely. Ds's trainer would have told us to pass on him had she been there but now she thinks he's turned out to be an awesome horse. We've had very good luck with horses that others told us wouldn't be any good. Many times problem horses just need some love and a good home.

Here is a site that we recently found that might help Mary in her search.