OK (Boomer) Corral

 

So here is the original structure to the round pen, with only side "bars" to be added. Don't tell the horse that the "rails" that will run along the side are only electric fence tape (2" wide) that are (obviously!) NOT electrified. The appearance of fence will work because she's not a young, crazy horse and isn't going to be throwing herself at the fence like a mustang fresh off the range. Nico/Neko is a level-headed 9/10 year old who just needs tweaking and bonding (with me!) through ground work.

Here I am on Nico/Neko who is listening to me and saying, "Whaa?!??!" She didn't get that I wanted her to just stand there so I could take this photo; this is yesterday where she's still at the horse farm. Just wait until she gets home! She has no idea how nuts we are!!! Hahahhahahhaha!!

And here's the (almost) completed round pen:

Looks pretty good, right? All I need to do is make a gate that fills this OK Corral-type opening:

Maggie (remember her?) seems to get that this is a somehow horse-related intrusion into her grazing area. She's been flirting with walking around the edge, grazing and giving the fence the side-eye. Just wait until SHE sees me and Nico/Neko playing in it!

Visible From Outer Space: Part 1

 

OMG! So we have finally decided to erect a full scale replica of Stonehenge and invite our Druid friends to a festival celebrating the return of the autumnal equinox! NOT!!

We are actually constructing a round pen. This is in anticipation of the arrival of Nico/Neko (still don't have that spelling established...). My riding instructor/trainer Sabina has suggested- and been backed up by many, many equestrian experts- that a round pen is an excellent training tool that promotes bonding with your horse and emphasizes proper groundwork and improves their ability to physically improve and carry themselves correctly.

Of course, I turned to Bob and solemnly intoned, "Round pen..." to which he (correctly) responded, "Huh?" So we found a way to approximate a round pen for a fraction of the typical cost. Home Depot is an absolute boon to artists and artist/horse owners who want training facilities at reasonable price. A real metal gate constructed round pen averages about $1200-1600. It consists of 12 foot panels of pipe in a circle to create a pen of about 60 feet across and about 188 feet around (circumference). Ours cost way, way, WAY less!!

So  I found a site on the Internet that had instructions for casting concrete no-dig footings. And then Bob (smart man that he is) suggested that maybe pre-cast footings were available... which they were! So then I said I had pre-priced plastic PVC pipes that could be used as uprights and cross pieces around the top. The above picture is the 2" PVC pipes affixed to the cast concrete bases. They worked great; we did have to get 20 of them to go around the perimeter. And we did have to return 10 of them that turned out to be an inferior, crumbly cast. Hey! Loads of fun; they each weigh 50 pounds!!

So with new, better castings, we proceeded to erect the 10 foot cross members. And quickly found that 10 foot PVC does not like to flex to accommodate the bend of the ring. So we attempted to weight them, hoping to provoke a curve.

We carefully piled logs on boards and weighted them down in the sun, thinking that maybe the heat of the sun would help cajole them into a bend. Nope! Next morning, when we rolled all that weight off, they promptly shrugged off our attempts at bending them so back off to Hope Depot to return 9 of the 2" pipes and to get nine 1 1/4" pipes instead. (We alternated 2" pipes with 1 1/4" pipe... which worked! There was enough "give" in the smaller pipe to compensate for the bend.)

So here's Bob and the uprights for scale. Look at the middle left and there's Bob picking up rocks, because of course, wherever we put an upright, there were rocks!

Rocks: need I say more?

Anyway, once that had been accomplished, we sort of sailed along; measuring from the center point out 30 feet and establishing the outer edge. Today we finished erecting the top cross members. Essentially, that's the top picture. I have thanked the inestimable Bob and his dedication to a cause he will never share in: Bob will never "round pen" Nico/Neko the horse, or even ride her in it. But he's so game!! Willing to assist me in the above crazy project. I will post the pictures of the completed round pen in my next blog posting. It's been an interesting side line to all the other wacky things we do...

To Catch a Thief

 

Yes, Robin is casting her eyes heavenward as if to proclaim her innocence. This dog is responsible for most unseemly heist!

Yesterday, we socially-distance visited with our friends Roberta and Hanneke. In preparation for their visit, I made chocolate eclairs... a three part endeavor that does require time, patience and quite a few bowls. Robin- who does enjoy helping me in the kitchen- was very interested in the whole process. 

They did smell good and I had to set them up high to cool in order to avoid unnecessary temptations to a certain overly active canine nose. Robin didn't want to leave the kitchen.

I then made the filling and stored it in the refrigerator as I don't like to make the shells soggy. (I like to fill the pastry as close to consumption time as possible.) But after the pastry had cooled, I carefully slit along one side and removed some of the extra filaments of dough that remain soft. I offered those to Robin who was confirmed in her expectations of how good they tasted. She scarfed that down!

Our friends came and we had a lovely time, touring the garden and admiring Bob's sculptures and then sitting down to iced coffee and those splendid eclairs, now filled and iced with chocolate. We happily wolfed them down. As I had made a bumper crop of eclairs, we had plenty left and I suggested that Roberta take three of them home for her and her partner (hello Phillip!) to have later. We secured two in paper plates together by clips to protect them on their way to Roberta's house. Roberta set them on the picnic table.

 

In the ensuing excitement of Hanneke deciding to purchase (yay!!) one of Bob's scholar rock sculptures (a wise choice) and us all gathering around to beam at the sculpture, I unthinkingly turned my back on Robin (typically called "the Good") and the eclairs resting on the table.

The next thing I see is Robin hunkered down on the lawn, devouring what I thought was probably one of her bones... until a light bulb erupted over my head and I realized that Robin has succeeded in sneaking the eclairs off the table, spilling two onto the ground while she assaulted the third. She was rushing back to snatch the other two off the grass, but I intercepted her.

It was pretty funny but also worrisome as chocolate is poisonous to dogs, not to mention she had inhaled a large dollop of cream filling and puff pastry- very rich stuff for a dog's belly! I was concerned that she'd awaken us at 3:30 am with a stomach ache and the need to go outside and evacuate, but fortunately, she was fine.

We all had a good laugh over Robin's criminality, but I had to go into the house and restuff and frost three more eclairs for Roberta, leaving us only two. We kept an eagle eye on these!

Hanneke had thoughtfully brought us a "host/hostess" gift of some cookies and a bar of dog shampoo (apparently useful on horses, too). I briefly considered washing Robin's mouth out with the soap- only kidding! Here's another shot of the thief. Doesn't she look non-plussed?!!??

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Birthday Present

Fairy Land! Little did I dream when I asked Bob to make me a gate for the "new" shade garden that he'd out-do himself and make this marvelous creation! What a great birthday gift! The gate leads from the path (that used to end abruptly at a section of non-descript fencing) to the greater wild woods beyond. Enchanting.
The new gate transformed the entire area. Bob maneuvered the elephant ears (Colocasia) closer to the base of the large pine tree (to the right) and he even installed a new drive-through gate farther to the right. That opened up the entire backside of my lilac area and gave us even more room to play in. I now feel inspired to "finish"* the Shade Garden, complete with a path up to a higher private area that affords a lovely little view down into the rest of the garden... Magic!!
Here's another, closer shot:

It's ethereal and sturdy at the same time. The quartz rocks float in such an enchanting way in front of the gate; Bob is so eager for the mesh fence to rust up so that you'll no longer see the grid lines. I kind of like them, but it will look even more delicate...
And here's a detail of the center top of the gate: Loads of tiny quartz rocks spiraling upwards...

The other morning, I walked down with Robin to check on the Shade Garden. I was delighted to see that a spider- no doubt inspired by Bob's gate- had constructed a web to the left of the gate. It was sparkling with dew and made a wonderful visual accompaniment!

Alas! I tried to take a picture that captured the beautiful rivalry of web and gate but didn't succeed! Could it get any better than this?!?
 *Is any garden ever really "finished"?!?!?

Candy Candy Nico Neko

 

 (Bear with me: I'm learning a "new blogger interface" and there are some glitchy things to sort out!

Above, is our new horse Nico. Or is that "Neko"? And as mentioned, her name was "Candy" so now I'm transitioning her my chanting "Candy Candy Nico Neko" to her as I ride... no wonder she looks confused! Everyone at the barn has been so complimentary about how pretty she is (and she is!)  So far, so good. She's had her feet and teeth attended to and I'm contemplating a saddle fitting as she's much broader around then Maggie or Crispin, my two previous mounts. 

The farm where she is temporarily residing is entertaining. They have (in no particular order), chickens, ducks, ferrets, sheep, goats, donkeys, and most entertaining of all, alpacas.

Several of these individuals reside in a stall near Nico/Neko and utter otherwordly space alien sound effects:  a cross between purring, humming and Chinese. They're friendly in an odd way, more like they're observing us to report back to that other planet.

The farm is a bizarre petting zoo. Sue, who is alpha-mare and Dr. Dolittle rolled into one crazy lady multi-tasker, keeps adopting animals from nasty circumstances. That's a good thing! Most of them are very sweet and have made the horses utterly bomb-proof around a menagerie But some of these animals are dodgy four-foot juvenile delinquents- the goats in particular. I have been warned that the goats will consume EVERYTHING including tack (saddles/bridles/straps and general horse-related gear for you non-horse individuals) and horse's tails. (There are several unfortunate equines sporting brutally chewed off stubby tails!) I warned Sue that if my horse's tail goes missing, there'll be goat stew. Never a dull moment!

Thus far the new horse- call her what you will!- is in general a good egg. I hacked her around the farm yesterday, after I had ridden in the outdoor arena and she was great. Didn't spook once, even though a trip around the farm passes not only the aforementioned mammal menagerie, but huge dumpsters, abandoned trucks, functional farm equipment, gargantuan piles of manure and spent bedding, random discarded tires, lawn furniture and general havoc. I'm having fun!

 

 

Storm A 'Comin! And A Goin'!

We are awaiting a Tropical Storm today (with a name that I seem unable to pronounce; maybe that's just as well as if you give things names, they gain power!). High winds, lots of rain (which we need!) and possible trees down, power outages etc etc- which we don't need! Last night we had an unexpected fore-taste of Isaias- sudden thunder, lightening, downpour and excitement out side the bedroom and then quiet. We were able to reopen the windows afterwards. This morning is drizzly but mostly quiet; the quiet before the storm.

And speaking of quite, check out my new piece, above: in this day and age if you're not paying attention or speaking out then you're part of the problem. Thank goddess that people ARE speaking out! And yes, I sewed around all of those little points...

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It is now a full 12 days later... where have we been??!?!

The electricity blinked off for a couple of minutes during the storm and then our Internet went down. I called Frontier (an altogether evil and ineffective company!) and received vague generalities as to "uncertain when Internet would e restored", "widespread problems" blah blah blah. I called and recalled Frontier (did I mention what a vile and totally useless company they are?); I must have phoned them up seven or eight times. Each time I encountered what could have been "humorous" had it not been so infuriating: they insisted that we only had a phone account through Frontier, not Internet- this with me staring at a screen that gave me the number to call to report problems with our FRONTIER Internet. Finally one semi-alert service representative figured that it was because our bills are not bundled and one is listed under Bob and the other is listed under Robert. With that cleared up, I was handed over to yet another representative who finally spewed some weird explanation about a cut wire on our road.highly technical explanation, that!

And I still have their inane and potentially mind-damaging muzak stuck in my head. I implored the last person I spoke to to please, please NOT put me on muzak; he demurred and said he couldn't do that. So I sat, and sat and sat... I finally hung up. (And need I mention that they requested a phone number in order to call us back should we be disconnected? This from the company that we have phone service with, which seems to suggest it's on the computer screen in front of them!??!? And did they call us back?!?!??!!? NO!!!) Have I suggested what a truly awful company Frontier is?!??!?

So later that morning, I called my riding instructor to just touch base. I mentioned that our Internet was till down. She was horrified and said, "Well, maybe try what my son does when our Internet is acting up. Just shut everything off and unplug the whole system. Let it sit for a few minutes and then re-boot it." I did just that and hey presto! My eighty year old riding instructor did what Frontier couldn't- she got our Internet back up and running!

So here we are, 12 days later and I have over 400 emails to delete in my inbox. Welcome to modern-day America!

Sundries, Heated to a Crisp

That's Bob standing next to a gigantic self-sown squash plant that is swallowing the compost pile. The leaves are like three feet across. We sure hope the squash itself is edible after all the energy expended in the prodigious growth!
I'm not going to post and re-post the pictures from the many days that the thermometer registered well over 90 degrees and frequently topping 100. The last two weeks... ay!!Suffice it to say that a day of mere mid-80 degree weather would feel cool and lovely. Don't expect any original thoughts until such time.

Another angle of that man-eating squash... Sus-Squash! It grows about four feet a day.
So I've been rendered stupid by the heat (and I know I have company!) and this blog posting will reflect that. I could continue to rebuke the current administration at every turn, (and they deserve active rebukes when you consider Federal troops being deployed the West Coast, the continuing surge of  COVID 19, rethuglican members of Congress refusing to extend increased unemployment compensation... the list goes on and on) but might sick up all over the keyboard. I will not even add more as steam will begin to billow from one ear and blood will trickle from the other one. (Although on a happier note, the ringing in my left ear that has persisted for a million years now is suddenly... GONE! Even if this is temporary and it returns, having a few days off is heaven!)
Oh and I bought a horse:

How's that for a non-sequitur?

My good friend Laurie (Hi Laurie!) bought me this inflatable horse last year for my birthday. I blew it up and installed it in my studio and promptly freaked Robin out; dogs can be very conservative! Bob observed that this particular horse is very well-behaved and low maintenance!
More on the actual horse in my next post! I am starting on that string of polo ponies I threatened to buy!