May 2021

Indy, I am a list maker. I write down all the jobs that need to be done, big and little. It gives me an unreasonable amount of satisfaction to cross them off the list.

I'm somewhere in between about making lists. I make lists all the time to remember to do something while I'm out, or lists to get stuff. Not so much with lists of projects to do because the list is so long that it becomes over whelming and frankly kind of discouraging. That's my (insert sarcasm) "Joys of Homeownership" category. The project that falls in that category that I am slowly working on spraying weed and brush killer along fence lines while keeping the horses out of the areas I'm working on. On top of that I am finding that I can't deal with the heat and humidity like I use to so it takes FOREVER.

We put up 136 bales of hay into the new hay building. We have about 50 bales left from last fall in there, so we are on our way for next winter's horse food. We put moved it out of the field on Sunday, then spent Monday being slugs. Donnie is doing very well this summer with his bionic knee! He is moving better than he has in years. If he could get that second knee done, he could probably leap tall buildings in a single bounce! We had the best weather for getting the hay up. I hope we get another week like that so we can get our upper field done.

So it POURED rain this afternoon. Areion, the grazing muzzle escape artist, was confined in the dry lot in front of the barn. When it rained she went out and rolled in the mud and coated herself completely. So she got a bath late this afternoon.

We have a new farrier coming on Thursday morning to trim Trinket and Cactus Jack. She is a young woman who lives not very far from here and seems to like doing ponies and donkeys. She does big horses, too, but we will see how she does with Trinket and Cactus before turning her loose on our bigger horses. Donnie re-trimmed Ivan's feet not a week after our now former farrier did him, Ivan wouldn't fit into the boots that fit when he is trimmed properly. We just haven't been happy with this fellow, so we are easing him out. He lamed Daisy last year, lets toes run out and heels run under, and doesn't do anything about flares that cause bruises. There's no getting him to trim differently, so we are done with him. I hope the new young lady works out well, finding farriers isn't much fun. Daisy and Areion are still going to Virginia Tech for trims. Donnie will do Ivan until we find a new farrier for him. Donnie does a good job on Ivan.

TRUDY:
I can't believe how fast Ace has aged. It just isn't fair that pets don't have much longer lives. Big hugs for him....

ELLEN:
You are so lucky to have a good handy man around! We have a million projects we need done that we'd love to find a good handy man to do some. Let me know if he moves south!

INDYAPP:
Lists are good. I am bad at making them, though. We have talked about making a priority list since Donnie has now retired and wants to get long neglected things done. It might push us into finishing some things!

GRAYMARE:
How's the gang? Will you be camping in the mountains this summer?

ARK, we don't go to the mountains anymore.  The altitude is too high and it's become too much
work.  I'm tired with what we have here. I don't even miss it, oddly.  It was great for years but we're
too old now.

Congrats on your hay.........bet it smelled good.

I don't have any probs. with shoer here. I've had the same one for 20 years but AZ has a lot of them.........
the question is "how good is he or she?"

No news here.  Just busy with house stuff and occasionally a meal out.............

We've got RAIN! Yeah! Nice steady fairly gentle cold rain. Would have been nice if temps hadn't dropped like they did, but not so low to cause problems. Forecast makes for a pretty dreary Memorial Day weekend, but we need the rain so I won't complain. Sunday is suppose to be the best day. I'll go to the cemetery and visit family then.

I hope everyone has an enjoyable weekend.

Indy, we got the same rain and temperatures that you did. It is only 50° now, at noon.
Yesterday, Travis and I got everything mowed so rain is welcome. It rained for several hours, but not enough to raise the water level quickly.
In all the years we've been coming to the lake (and living here) we often have great weather in late May and then in early June. Memorial Weekend is very often awful - cold and rainy. Not good for playing at the lake.

Brrrrrrrrrr. 50.............here it's 97 so far.........sunny, breezy.

Horses are gorgeous out on green green grass.

We're having a picnic this week end on Sunday........I told everyone if I have make a main dish, it has to be
meatloaf..................easy.

Good grief.  I went to Wendy's and picked up our meal yesterday........a bacon burger (the fancy one)  Wendy's frostee, fries, Diet Coke.......it was $19.00.............I choked.  LOL. So much for fast food.......I'm not up with the current
fast foods..............Oh, and a Wendy's jr burger, plain. The store has baked chicken for 5.99 and it feeds two...........

I'm sorry America is focused on vacations rather than what Memorial Day is really about. We have been too
spoiled over the years To many have no respect anymore. Im waiting for our town's celebration.

On to the horse races...................which is on June 5th...........

Nothing going on around here except neighborhood gossip..........neighbor complaining of cars racing
in her neighborhood.  I've not seen them around here...........So far the hood is on top of their kids.

Here at the lake, all the flags will be flying. Just guessing, but I think about 50% of the houses around the lake have American flags. Along my immediate shoreline, all of our houses have them. On the special holiday weekends many boats fly them too.

Oh, we fly the flag proudly in our neighborhood, many this side of town do............

But America has changed drastically over the years..........

And, don't forget Taps Across America at 3 P local time on Monday............

Graymare:  Thanks for the reminder about Taps Across America on Monday.  We will have our flags at half staff until noon then do the Taps.  Taps just tears my heart out whenever I hear it.  We have lost so many great Veteran friends this year.

Ace is still with us but I fear his days are getting short, then he has a great day with the help of his pain meds.  I keep praying he will just leave us in his sleep and we won't have to make that terrible decision.  He will be 12 on July 31.

Our weather is back to the 50's too and rain, lots of it, but we need it, so not complaining.  We were getting worried about the well.Rick planted more corn yesterday.  Hope some of it grows.  This is our 3rd planting.

Have a safe holiday weekend.

Neighborhood gossip: One of the neighborhood seemingly wealthy has applied for a helicopter
pad & garage...........I got our copy in the mail today. WOW. I wonder why & what for..................

Neighborhood gossip:  One of the neighborhood seemingly wealthy has applied for a helicopter
pad & garage...........I got our copy in the mail today.  WOW. I wonder why & what for..................


oops, sorry

Graymare, the answer is 'because he can'. The owner of the Colts wanted a heli-pad in his elite neighborhood. His neighbors didn't think it was such a great idea. He probably bought them off and got it anyway.

Didn't have a clue we were/are elite.............we've lived here 37 years except for the 10 yrs we leased it
out when we were in RI.

As the properties have been sold off people have built new huge homes.  I don't know the people, just "hi"
as they drive by...........

The Irsays live on the north side of Indianapolis in the ritziest part of the whole area, if not the state. Lots of super high dollar mansions. If your new neighbor wants a heli-pad, your property value just went UP.
I don't know if she's still riding or not, but Mrs. Irsay used to have dressage horses. In addition to big homes, that area also has lots of high dollar horses.

Hey, Ellen, how's the girls' team doing in the Indy 500?

Graymare, I was only watching bits and pieces of the race. Angie and Matt and the boys were here for the day. I know it was a hardship on Alex to have to launch the jet ski. (snicker) Little Brother thought it would be funny to get the big squirt guns ready to squirt him when Alex got back to the dock. So, as Alex came in, he fired away with the water cannon. Little did he know that Alex had a bigger squirt gun with the rooster tail of the jet ski. Little Brother was standing near the end of the dock when Alex spun and gunned and sent him running for the other end of the dock.
I had made some brownie bites yesterday. By the time they left this evening, there were none left. It was an easy relaxing day with near perfect weather.
After watching some of the Indy 500 race, I'm now watching the Coke 600 from Charlotte.
It's been a very very good day.

Rooster tail vs squirt gun would have been fun to see. Probably kind of cold to experience though. LOL

Very somber weekend here. Bill and I went to my parent's graves. We were down on our hands and knees weeding around the stones and the flowers when Bill tried to get up and fell over. Fortunately he didn't fall on the flag or flag holder on my Dad's grave, he could have gotten seriously hurt. Instead we were able to laugh that he still bounces. Unfortunately this happened in front of someone else who was there visiting their relatives and embarrassed Bill. He really hates getting older.

Monday went to the viewing of a good friend who was my riding instructor when I was a kid. The flowers on the casket surrounded a model horse that looked like the one he showed at Quarter horse congress years ago. I want someone to do that for me when I'm gone.

GRAYMARE:
 I went to the funeral of a young lady who rode Paso finos several years ago.  She had a simple wooden coffin topped with flowers surrounding her saddle.    Elegant, but sad.  

We had a low key, chilly weekend.  I tried out a potential new saddle on Friday afternoon, meant for Areion.  It didn't come close to fitting her, so tried it on Ivan.  It was pretty, but when I got on it, it was like sitting on the edge of a concrete block.  It caused actual pain in my thigh.  It also hit Ivan in the spine at the rear of the saddle.  I returned it.   Oh, well.




Time to change the calendar.  June has arrived.  Go to:

https://horsefriends.forumotion.com/t118-june-2021#13500

or click on Basket and then click on June 2021.