They're All Stinkbugs

Brett went down the mountain today to get a prescription filled for controlling the pain with his shingles.  He has not slept the past three nights.  The pain keeps him awake and he alternates between walking around the dark house and tossing in bed.  I have been sleeping better than him, but not well by any means.  I dragged myself out of bed late -- past 7:00 am -- and felt tired most of the day. 

I made a batch of tomato jam - there were enough tomatoes for two jars; one for me and one for my parents.

Mid-afternoon, I started making a batch of chicken broth to use in the pot pie casserole I was going to make for dinner.  I needed to get a couple carrots for the stockpot so I headed down to the barn, picking some herbs on the way.

I was debating whether I would ride Winston in the evening when the weather cooled (we were in the 90s again today).  It was hot outside and I was tired and sore, so as I walked I decided that I would give my body the day off to rest.  Then I got to the barn.

See Winston's jolly ball?  He had tossed it out of his stall, down the barn aisle.  And that wasn't all...

On the ground outside his stall, he had neatly placed his grain bin, his fly mask and his halter.  The donkeys looked at me from the neighboring stall, looking innocent and adorable.  Uh huh.

The only well behaved equine in the barn was Mr. Flash.

Jackson, out in his paddock, was behaving as well.  I figured I had better ride Winston.  He clearly had too much time on his hands and was getting into mischief. 

At 5:30, I went back to the barn in my breeches and got Winston out to groom.  I didn't close his stall door, forgetting that the back of his turnout was open into the pasture.  No sooner had I gotten Winston to the tie rail than I heard hoof beats in the barn aisle.  Tuffy had gone out of the donkey stall, into the pasture, then into Winston's stall (no doubt looking for food) and then out the open door.  Oops. 

Tuffy saw me coming down the aisle and took off running.  Yee-haw!  Winston started prancing.  I got Winston back in his stall (with the door closed) before grabbing Tuffy's halter and going off to get him.  Finessa couldn't figure out what he was doing on the "wrong" side of the fence and she wasn't happy. 

Tuffy kicked up his heels and ran laps up around the arena and back again, jumping over the wooden bridge.  He's a little donkey and it's a good size bridge -- he cleared it, no problem.  Brett got the camera ready to get it on film... but he just went around the bridge the second time.  He was getting tired.

Tuffy waited for me at the wash racks, tired of being chased and ready to go back in the pasture.  I slipped his halter on and put him away.  Meanwhile, Winston was doing laps in the pasture.  Great.  

My plan had been to do an easy ride on Winston; just enough to get him supple.  But he had other ideas.  It was dinner time, Brett was mucking which surely meant hay was going to arrive any minute, he was in a stinkbug mood, and he was not going to listen to me or anyone else.  

Hey, Winston, did you read my tee-shirt?

"Warning!  I can only please one person per day.  Today is not your day.  Tomorrow doesn't look good either."

Winston was a real pill at first.  He started by "spooking" at the chickens -- an excuse to dive, slide and run.  Except that I felt him thinking about it and caught him at slide.  We went to work.  Work, work, work.   He was quite lovely at the end.  ...and my hair was plastered to the side of my head (to Brett's amusement) and Winston was sweaty too.

And then I made dinner.  We ate late.  Thanks to the stinkbug crew.