Another Full Week – October 13

The weeks collapse one atop the other, and my intentions to blog regularly fall by the wayside. Even this morning, which appeared open, was derailed by a mountain of bookkeeping items that required attention. Then, the weather was so beautiful I just had to do some outdoor work. Eddy agreed. There were many holes to be investigated!

For much of the week, Jane and I built fence. Of course Eddy helped. We are very proud of our Old Ladies Fence Building projects. Here, our horses are very happy to have delicious north pasture grass again, even though their time is still limited on that lush forage. Jane’s herd is similarly happy on her east pasture, also for limited time. Too much good grass can spell disaster. Soon enough, frost will put an end to that worry.

Before breakfast, Harry and I have coffee in bed, while Wordling and playing Connections. We are not alone.

At breakfast, the dogs await their share. I had a plan to never feed Eddy from the table, but that idea did not work out.

Harry and I applied ourselves to riding in preparation for the Saturday Poker Ride. On Thursday, we stopped in at The Tack Trunk for a new, more comfortable helmet to go with Harry’s new, more comfortable saddle.

Saturday was beautiful, albeit quite warm, and we set off with Oisin and Stone to Elsberry, a little less than an hour north of here for the annual Poker Ride at Double Eagle Ranch. Katie Young Bos sent us a link to sign up, and we arrived early for the 10 AM start time. We were completely stunned by the beauty of the farm, and the turnout. There was a steady stream of trailers arriving, and hundreds of participants! One particularly fun thing was running into an old friend from our Pike County days, Cyril Heintzelman. Apart from Cyril and Katie (who boards her horse, Levee, at Double Eagle), we knew nobody! It was fun to see many different kinds of horses and unusual equipment – I saw quite a few people riding in halters instead of bridles!

The Poker Ride is basically a fun day of trail riding around the 1600 acres (!!) as a fund raiser for an Equine Therapy program. People go out alone or in groups and explore the many trails in search of five buckets set at horse height along the trails. The buckets contain cards in envelopes and the best Poker Hand wins a prize. There are two sections – The Leisure Ride or The Challenge Ride – based on trail difficulty. Harry and I opted for Leisure, and being unfit, we did not stay out to find all five cards. Katie showed us the way toward easy trails (they are all marked like ski trails, according to levels of difficulty) as she and three friends went off to the Challenge trails. We just had a blast on our own, staying out for an hour, and departed before the crowd returned. We are already looking forward to next year!

Marianne helps with barn chores, which frees me to have more fun. Of course, she also rides, and her homebred Liam is truly magnificent. She showed me a picture of Liam taken recently off a morning video.

The deck is finished, but we have not yet decided what to do about feeding birds. In the meantime, they are enjoying a temporary station east of the house. Not a great place for getting bird pictures!

Meanwhile, cat pictures are easier.

A few other creatures…

Morning autumn light kindles each day. We need rain, but we feel very fortunate to have avoided storms during this frightening time of hurricanes to the southeast.

Be safe, be well, be mindful, be grateful. Slava Ukraini! Peace.