A Good Morning

Yesterday, I went to the office and sat in meetings until the early afternoon which meant my foot was down that whole time -- and it didn't care.  In the evening, we went to a wine pairing dinner with Brett's sister and her husband.  The food was wonderful, the wine plentiful and good, and the time at the table long.  Again, other than a bit of headache from the wine this morning, no ill effects from sitting with my foot down for hours. 

My foot was fine all night.  Other than some weird sensations like the toes are made of cotton, and the fact that the toes don't bend anymore, the foot was fine.  I put on my socks and my sandals and went down to the barn with Brett to do morning chores.  I did my full share with no trouble at all.  I fed the goats their morning hay and then gave the rabbits their breakfast.

I gave Jackson his bucket of vitamins and then got the muck cart and rake and began flinging manure into the cart.  Once Brett had hay out in the pasture, I let Flash and Winston out of their stalls.  Everybody enjoyed the morning sunshine and mild temperatures.

A boy and his horse

A girl and her dogs

Brett helped me finish up the mucking and then we headed back to the house for breakfast.  I have to do something about the cherry tomatoes.  They are out of control.

The apples are coming along nicely.  We will have a good crop of big, juicy apples this fall.

I even have my first pumpkin, amongst the weeds in the garden.  I need to work on that too.

After breakfast, I settled on the couch to catch up on everyone's blogs.  There is a confused bird that has been hopping around on the railing, screaming at me, and occasionally flying over the window where he perches for a nano-second and pecks at the glass.  Then he flies back to the rail.  He has been doing this since early this morning.  I think he's confused or lost or both. 

Getting Things Accomplished

This morning was warm and sunny again.  After breakfast, I took Jackson into the arena and worked with him on the longe line.  I like working with him on the longe, in side reins, so that he works correctly and keeps his core strong even with just the walking we do.  His topline has come so far and I don't want to lose all that marvelous muscle.  We worked for 10 minutes at walk, and added in three minutes of trot.  Woo-hoo!  At trot, he stretched his neck down, took the contact, lifted his back, and motored around with a very happy, relaxed face.

After that, I wandered around the front of the house while my coffee was roasting.  I have to do my roasting outside as it smokes something fierce.

The eaves along the front of the house are lined with birds' nests. 

We also have bats living in the eaves.  They are very messy eaters leaving bits and pieces of dinner below.

My lilac is not very robust.  Most years it doesn't even flower.  Look what I found this morning!

More good things: the peach tree looks like it might make it after all.  New growth!

I spent most of the day down the mountain with Camille shopping for her prom dress.  We were successful finding a dress but shoes are still needed.  We'll head back down to the mall (ugh) tomorrow morning. 

We got back home just in time to start dinner and do barn chores.  I turned Jackson out in the arena so he could roll, stretch his legs, and give his brain a break from the barn.  When I went to bring him back, he saw me coming and ran to the gate to meet me. 

While we finished up chores, the dogs had a good ol' time in the mud. 

Dinner tonight was Skoog Farm soup and focaccia.  Yum!  I tried to take a picture but Brett and Camille were messing with me.  They think it's funny the way I take pictures of dinner.  Harumph!