Testing, Testing…

This blog post is really just to test and see if I have figured out the “Subscribe” notification.  It is very humbling to try to find my way through the forest of technology.  I am tempted to turn to typing and copying a newsletter instead of blogging!  But then, postage prices are significant now, ever since they raised the price past $.50 and two letters cost more than a dollar!  With all my readers, mailing a newsletter could cost almost $10!!

And speaking of expenses, I wrote checks for horse show entries today and am in a state of shock at what this sport costs now.  But you do get what you pay for, so I am totally psyched that I will be riding in a little over a week, first step toward showing in Ohio and then – Omaha!

A day in the life of recuperating at Bronze Fox Farm…

I watch Marianne do morning chores, helping with anything that requires only the use of a left arm (that means almost nothing).  But I remember that I can take some pictures for the blog!

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The sleet and snow arrive and I watch the birds feed.

I spend ages on the phone with mailchimp.com, the Subscribe button provider.  Thurston helps me via live chat and despite my frustration, he charms me, calms me, and, eventually, I HOPE, fixes the problem.  Needless to say, my ineptitude was the cause.  I strongly recommend mailchimp now that I know them so well, if anyone is in need of their service!  AND they are sending me a T-shirt for being such a hopeless client.  I will be wearing it when the weather allows.

That will not be for a while!  There was snow and sleet all day.  In the afternoon, I go out to feed Licorice in the woods.  I am extremely careful making my way across the driveway!  She comes through the snow to enjoy her dinner.  I have no idea why she chooses the brush piles in the woods over a nice shed full of hay, but she is a free creature.  Meanwhile, the other cats are ensconced in a heated tackroom day and night in weather like this.  Except Tom Morris.  He, too, likes his freedom.  He spends his days in warm comfort, but at night he wants to be out and about.  True to his name, Tom acts like a tomcat, though he hasn’t really been one since I trapped him (but don’t tell him that).

I am able to bring the horses in and feed them without help, another indicator of healing in progress.  Best of all, I am able to pick out snowballs from feet, which I could NOT do before the stem cell treatment.  I am feeling pretty optimistic now.  I pick out Stone’s feet, too, but he has to stay out in the shed.  Life’s tough for some, but he will have plenty of stall time when he moves to Griffin next week, and will miss living out full time.

I make cookies, which is harder than I expected.  I did have to enlist Harry to stir the batter.  My left arm isn’t strong or coordinated enough, and my right protested, so I rested it.  I really don’t care, though, if I can do domestic work, only barn chores really matter.

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Harry comes out with me for night check, where Bart and Oisin are happy in the barn, and Stone is munching hay in the shed.  Harry cleans stalls and I hold the hose and top water buckets.  Good night treats are handed out in the barn and in the shed, too, of course.  Tom Morris leaves for his night out as we turn off the lights and head back to the house.  End of another day, one more week of rest…