Horse Update, May

 In the last horse update, I mentioned we were cantering pretty much every ride.  Well, soon some tension issues came up and I backed off the cantering.  Still cantering about every other ride, but more focus on suppling, listening to me, not anticipating the depart (because then he didn't listen and just wanted to drop his back.). . .

So, I've been changing things up just about every ride.  Depending on the day and the atmosphere, sometimes we do canter in the warm up.  Sometimes we canter near the end of our ride.  Sometimes we don't canter at all.  The focus has been on asking Camaro questions in varying and sometimes totally random orders based on the day.

Questions like:

Can you halt from the trot?  

Can you walk to this letter, trot for two letters, walk for one, trot for two?

Can you march into the halt, then stretch down, then come back into contact and walk off?

Can you halt then back two steps?  Four steps?  Four steps and then trot off?

Can you leg yield in walk to B (or E) and then trot to A (or C) where you walk, then turn up the next quarter line and leg yield again?

Can you turn up the centerline and give me 4 steps leg yield off the left leg, then 4 steps leg yield off the right leg?

Can you give me any steps of leg yield at the trot?  (The answer to this one so far is not really, he's kind of confused why/what I ask at that point)

Can you do a serpentine where we do a transition from walk to trot or trot to walk every time we hit the centerline?

Can  you do a 10 meter circle left off centerline in trot, then a 10 meter circle right when you reach the centerline again?

How about half-10 meter circles in trot from wall to centerline and back to opposite wall with a change of rein?

Can you walk a 10 meter circle, then give me some steps in shoulder-in when we get back to the wall?

Can you give me 1 step sideways off right leg at walk and trot where ever I ask for it?  How about the left leg? How about in canter?

Can you not assume we're going to canter if I ride sitting trot?  How about if I do transitions between rising and sitting all around the arena?

And the newest question, in our most recent ride, which was a very good ride: Can you trot a 10 meter circle at this cone, then go right into a canter as we reach the wall, then at the next cone, canter a 10 meter circle?

It's been a lot of directional changes, a lot of suppling type stuff, a lot of transitions transitions transitions, halt halts, and just plain trying to rapid fire come up with the next move I want him to make.  I've found that he's more confident, pays way better attention, and is greatly less apt to spook if I'm asking him a new question every minute or so.  

This week, I also had Camaro chiropracted.  Not for the first time; I've had him done twice before by two different people.  This time, however, he was done by a vet I used to know about 10-15 years ago (who had since left the practice she was in at the time and started her own, as well as got very into equine chiropractics).  She was highly recommended to me by the barn owner where Camaro lives, who, last fall, set up a once a month standing appointment with her to do whatever horses in the barn needed special vet work.  

I decided to put Camaro on her list for the May visit, and I'm so glad I did.  We'd been dealing with some tension issues in his left jaw and shoulder the last couple weeks, and I wanted that especially to be checked out.  

Camaro, after being worked and awaiting his turn with the chiro vet.

She didn't find anything out of alignment, just a few tight spots, which she adjusted.  (And he was so much looser in those problem spots the next ride!)  It was really good to have her evaluate him and give feedback on his condition and his attitude.  Interestingly, she remembered him from having done the pre-purchase exam when his previous owner (the one I bought him from) bought him about 5 or so years ago.  After working on him for me, she said that what I was doing with him was very good for him, that he seemed much calmer than he was years before when she saw him, and that the muscling discrepancy between his right wither and left wither (he has a slight club foot) had become much more even with the way I was riding him.

So, overall, it's been a really good month for Camaro and I.

Sewing and Stitching Update, May

 Sewing done: zero, although I have fallen off the "not buying anything new" wagon and added about 15 yards of fabric to my stash.  All with good intentions, of course!  4 yards of backing for a planned quilt that might be a Christmas gift this year if I get to it.  5 yards of backing for some future unplanned quilt because I loved it and it was on sale.  2 yards of fabric that matches the main fabric in Faline's baby quilt in case her new sibling is a sister. . . About 3 yards of various fabrics in 1 yard cuts that would work for a boy quilt if the new sibling is a brother. . .  

Help me! LOL.  Using up stash and only buying more fabric if absolutely necessary was my plan for 2022.  But, new grandbaby coming this fall--that apparently necessitates some impulsive shopping.

I have been cross stitching though.  The Sew by Row piece I've been working on is finished.  That is, all stitching is done.  I would like to get it mounted, framed, and in my new sewing/crafting space sometime yet this year.  We'll see.  Now that warm weather is here, indoor projects such as creating my sewing area in the basement won't get much time unless we have a rainy spell or a too hot to work outside spell and my housework (which also is fairly neglected in summer) gets caught up.

Last week, after I finished stitching on the above cross stitch project, I picked a new, small, project to be my 'take to Faline's house' item for the remaining (seven!) days left in the school year that I will be babysitting.  

No picture to share, but I did get it sorted out, started, and a few rows stitched so far.  I'm making the Mill Hill Jim Shore Early Morning Santa ornament.  This one will be for me, rather than a gift to be given to someone else.  It's a small enough project that I might, if Faline naps at her scheduled time, be able to finish it before school gets out in a few weeks.

Knitting Update, May

 My Destination Unknown socks are finished! Like all of verybusymonkey's designs, it seems like the knitting just flew along.  While the yarn I used (Knit Picks Hawthorne in Mississippi) might not have been the best colorway choice for this complex pattern, it just seemed to fit the theme of "I don't know where I'm going or what's going to happen". Which is sort of the state of mind I was in when I began them in March.

Despite the yarn sometimes making the pattern hard to see,  I'm very happy with them.  Will most likely knit this pattern again in the future with a solid color yarn.

On the theme of "I don't know where I'm going or what's going to happen". . .  

What's next on the needles?  

I'm not sure. 

There are several projects on my To Knit list that I made up at the beginning of 2022.  But, unexpectedly, I need to knit a Christmas stocking to match these that I made last year:

DD1 and Honorary Son are expecting again!  Faline will become a big sister right around her second birthday.  So, it has been requested that Grandbaby #5 has a stocking ready to use for his/her first Christmas.

I'm in a bit of a quandary on how to go about knitting this up, with this new grandchild's name, and have it done on time.  If DD1 and Honorary Son find out the sex and have a name chosen for sure in advance of the birth, say by the beginning of October, I will have no problem getting the stocking done by the end of November.  If it's going to take them as long to settle on a name for this new one as it did for Faline, I should probably rework the pattern to start from the toe and work upwards, doing the name and cuff last.

In which case I should probably start this month, before I get crazy busy with the garden and canning (and hopefully going to couple horse shows) (and picking fabrics for a new baby quilt!!) this summer.  Summer has so much going on that I don't get a whole lot of knitting time.

Plus, toe-up is not my preferred way to knit socks (or stockings!)  I can do it; I have done it, but I struggle with the toe part when it comes first.  Especially getting it going in the Turkish cast on.  My fingers and needles and yarn get so jumbled up, and finding the right tension isn't natural to me when I start that way.

While I ruminate on that idea for a few days, I will probably grab some socks that need darning and get those mended so they can go back into the dresser for wearing.

Reading:

Since April's knitting update, I finished reading The Secret Life of Anna Blanc by Jennifer Kincheloe, which was an entertaining fun read.

Then I read Gated Prey by Lee Goldberg. This is the newest Eve Ronin mystery and is just as fast paced as the previous ones in this series.  I'm hooked!  I just found out there's a fourth one due to be published in June; that's definitely going on my To Read list.

Next up was Dead Wrong by Vannetta Chapman.  This is the first of her Agatha's Amish B&B series.  While I have enjoyed her other three Amish mystery series, this one sort of fell flat to me.  Even so, I will probably read the other two books in this series at some point.

My current read is Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer.  This one's been on and off my radar for a few years and I finally decided to request it from the library.  I'm about two chapters in so far.  Not enough to know if I'll like it, love it, or perhaps not even finish it (which I give myself permission to do if it's just not striking me as what I want to read at the time.)

What's currently on--or freshly off--your needles this month?  What books have you enjoyed reading?

See How They Grow

 My broiler chicks are nearly a month old.  Today, they moved out of the brooder and into the grow-out pen.  Ideally the weather could be a little warmer, but they really needed to get outside where they have more space and more ventilation. All those hot little bodies in the brooder was really making it unbearably warm and stuffy even with the heat lamp off for the last five days or so.

They have gone from these cute tiny fluff balls the day they arrived. . . 

To these gangly larger birdies growing more feathers their second week. . .

To round birdies in a huge growth spurt and entering what I refer to as the 'naked stage' where their bodies grow faster than their feathers for a week or two. . .

To four weeks old (and now in the poop machine phase), moving outdoors to the great expanse of the grow-out pen, where they will eat both grower ration and whatever greenery grows in each spot that their pen will be moved to daily for the rest of their short lives (approximately another month).