May Horse Update

Saddle pads hung out to dry.

 So. Much. Progress!

I am blown away.  Having to rehab Camaro's knee, and everything that has gone along with that (like putting him on Legend) has made a huge difference in our riding.

Once we added in short canters up the long side of the arena, Camaro's trot got much more energetic.  Not in an uncontrolled way, just in a "I have so much forward!" kind of way.  So we've been working on rolling that energy from the hind end onto the bit and around again in an endless circle of impulsion.  Sometimes it's good, sometimes he wants to drop his back, lift his head and just go go go.  When he does stay in good contact, and lift his back, it's an amazing new level of trot for him.  

In the process of trying to contain our canter to just on the long side and not into any corners, I had to shorten the number of trot steps between walking through the corner and asking for the canter.  After a couple of rides with canter sets, Camaro surprised me with the ability to canter directly from a walk.  A beautiful, balanced transition.  Honestly, probably the best canter transition we'd ever done. So we now alternate canter from trot and canter from walk, so as he doesn't anticipate too much rather than paying attention to his rider (me).

And then, came a string of rides in which we had to deal with tension and distractibility.  For some reason, Camaro gets really worked up when he hears other horses trotting on the cement in the aisle that is on the other side of the interior arena wall.  Not that there's much trotting going on over there. But when there is, it's like the Apocalypse has arrived and Death is coming for him, or something.  Of course, the young Arab gelding that hates being cooped up pulled a suspensory (yet to be diagnosed) and had several days of being trotted down the aisle while morning turnouts were going on to see if he was still normal at a walk but oddly off at the trot.  And when that unofficial lameness test was going on, Camaro would lose his shit brain and I would have to drop what we were doing and concentrate on doing things that would get his head back in the arena with me rather than worrying about the bogeyman and/or four horses of the Apocalypse out in the aisle.  

Not to mention the day a student of the barn owner trailered in for a lameness exam with the BO's vet.  A day that included longeing in the arena (while Camaro and I were riding in there) plus LOTS of trotting on the cement aisle.  Tons of trotting because the horse was being nerve blocked to pinpoint the source of it's lameness.  That day I actually had to get off Camaro because he was getting himself worked up to the point where explosion was imminent, and proceed to hand walk him for ten minutes before he calmed down enough to get back on and finish our ride -- at a walk, focusing solely on getting him to relax and lower his head and swing through his back.  *Sigh*

Frustrating, to be sure.  But, in hindsight, that spell was also progress inducing.  He has become, over the last few weeks, easier to get back into focus when there's distractions happening on the other side of the wall (or the scary door).  When his brain starts to wander, changing direction, or asking for some steps of leg yield--or throwing in a random large circle, which we got vet approval to do--brings him back to what he and I are doing rather than worrying about potential doom lurking out of sight.

I also realized, during that time, that I'd let my posture slip and wasn't always stretching up through my ribcage and engaging my core muscles like I should.  Like magic, when I engaged my core and stretched myself up, Camaro responded by likewise engaging his core and lifting his back and not being quite such an airhead Arab.  Head smack moment, but one of those things that happens when you ride by yourself and don't take lessons regularly.

This month, I consulted with the vet (while she chiro'ed him) about the next steps in his rehab as, to me, he felt very good and strong and wanting to do more than just straight line trots and canters.  We have been cleared to slowly resume all normal work!  

Which means we've been adding in more walk circles, more leg yield at walk, some shoulder in at walk, trotting and cantering through corners, building up to an entire lap of the arena at trot or canter, and even short rides at walk in the deeper footing of the outdoor arena.  We've even ridden three days in a row and four days a week with no sign of any pain, weakness, or instability in that left knee.  Hooray!  Dare I say he's healed?

His canter, which historically seemed to be his least balanced gait, has become quite soft and balanced.  And so much more relaxed than it's ever been.  I truly think he's found an enjoyment of the canter.  I can't wait to see what this summer brings for us.

Patient Seeking

 I've been known to have a stubborn sort of patience that some people find annoying. Like how I didn't want a cement sidewalk at the front of our house when we built it, and I insisted we not put one in, but wait until we could either afford pavers or stepping stones to make our front walk out of.  For several years (maybe the first three?) we had dirt, and only dirt, as a walkway between the driveway and the front door.  But then DH found a great deal (something like 70% off) on pavers that I liked, and so we eventually got our non-concrete sidewalk to the front porch.  And once it was in place, he admitted that he liked the way it looked so much better than if we'd gone the 'quick and easy' way of pouring cement when we'd built the house. (Duh, I know these things. My pickiness isn't without good cause.)

When we built the house at this little place here, I had visions of a large hutch/buffet cabinet on the east wall of the dining room.  Did we own such a thing?  No.  Could we afford to run out and buy such a thing at the time? No.  So for many years I made due with other various pieces of furniture (that we all ready owned or inherited) in that spot.  But I still wanted a big hutch there.

I started looking, casually, in 2018 for a used wooden piece that fit the bill.  They were few and far between in my price range, and typically gone before I could even inquire about them.  I looked a little more seriously in 2019, missing out on a few.  In early 2020, I started looking at postings on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace several times a week, as well as hitting up various local thrift and antique shops on a monthly basis.  Still nothing.  It was getting discouraging, as I was seeing more and more painted hutches, but I wanted unpainted wood.  The few non-painted pieces I saw were way beyond my budget.  And then came Covid.  No more thrift or antique store visits.  Fewer listings on Craigslist or Facebook as everything was shut down and people were so worried about in-person anything let alone having a stranger come to their house for something that couldn't be left outside for a non-contact pickup.

Then, in the Fall of 2020, as people began to relax (and, in Michigan, get thoroughly sick of the whole Covid mania), I found a listing only 35 minutes away for a wooden hutch in good condition for what seemed to be an unbelievably affordable price.  It had only been posted for an hour, and I was the lucky first person to inquire about it.  The seller responded right away, and we set up a time that afternoon (a Saturday) for DH and I to go see it.  I have to say, DH wasn't too thrilled to give up time on his Saturday afternoon, especially when he might miss kickoff on the college football game of his favorite team.

We saw it.  I loved it.  I bought it.  For $65.  Can you believe it?!?

It's all real wood, no particle board. Original condition, no painting over scuffs and dings (which I never mind because life gives everything scuffs and dings).  And it is a perfect fit for that east wall.  Almost like it was always meant to be in that space.  DH even said it was worth the time and the drive to go get.  And it holds tons of stuff, neatly, mostly out of sight.  There's a lot of grandkid related puzzles and games hidden behind those doors and in the drawers, not to mention seasonal linens and small decorations.

Back in 2019, which searching for that elusive hutch, I began a search for a tall, narrow cabinet that I could put in the master bathroom.  Again, I wanted real wood, no paint, and it had to fit my budget.  

This search was even harder than the hutch search, as I was working with a really specific width.  Nothing over 24", and preferably closer to 20"-22".  A real unicorn.

Didn't find anything in 2019.  Didn't find anything in 2020.  Didn't find anything in 2021.  Occasionally I'd see something the right size, but it would be painted. Horrors! Not for me!  That is one trend I just cannot get into.  My brain will not accept it.

In 2022, I started entertaining the idea of getting something new, and (gasp) maybe not even solid wood.  After a month or so of checking online to see what all the new options were, and seeing how much they cost ($200+ for press board?!?  I don't think so.) I went back to my antique/thrift/Craigslist/Facebook/garage sale searching.

Guess what I found in early May this year?  A very cute cabinet.  Narrow! Made with real wood!  In great condition for it's age (1960s?), and all original with the exception of the drawer handles.

Again, I was lucky to see the posting shortly after it was put online.  And I was the first to ask about it and say I could pay in cash that day, if the seller was available (she wasn't, we set a time for the following afternoon once I was done at work).  DH and I drove 20 miles in the rain to see it.  I liked it.  The seller even came down $10 on the price.  So I bought it.  For $30.  Just $30, can you believe it?!?

Another good fit.  Patience pays off again.  DH's reaction?  "Where are you going to put the dirty clothes hamper?"  (In the corner of the bedroom, right by the bathroom door.)

Hopefully in the near future, I'll find a good deal on the other item (wooden, of course) that I've been looking for off and on since 2021: good sturdy bunkbeds that the grandkids can sleep on when they come to stay the night at this little place here.  Nothing pipe frame.  No IKEA. Nothing that somebody's teenagers have gotten too big/heavy for.  I want some good old fashioned sturdy wooden bunk beds that you could put average size adults on if you needed to. And they have to cost less than $200 (or else I'll just have to wait for DH to get around to buying lumber and building some once he finishes the bazillion and one building projects we've got going on around here).

What's Stitching Around Here--May

Whoops, this was supposed to get posted last week!  Lots going on right now, just not much sewing or stitching. . . 

I made a couple of quilt blocks for a forum quilt I am participating in.  There's a third block partially sewn, and a fourth in the 'concept' stage that I'm hoping to get completed in the next two weeks.  Since most of my waking hours are now spent outside doing farm/gardening work, sewing time has been greatly reduced.

Album block

Sunshine and Shadows block

I have managed to do a little cross stitching during the evening while watching TV with DH.  I'm still working on the Candy Cane Santa kit that I started back in March.  There's no rush on this one; it's intended as a Christmas present. Plenty of months to work on it yet.

Partially cut out is also a sundress for Faline.  I had started cutting out pieces for that right before K2 died, and I just haven't been ready to pick it back up again.  I do need to get on it, though, as Faline definitely won't be able to wear the same size next summer!

A Hiking Vacation Part 2: Sedona

We arrived in Sedona on the evening of the third day of our trip.  Thankfully, the weather had turned from gray clouds and rain, to blue skies with white puffy clouds (if any), sunshine, and mornings in the low 40s that turned into days with a high around 60.  It was gorgeous!  And the scenery was too.

On the fourth day of our hiking vacation, we had one particular destination in mind: Subway Cave.  We'd originally planned to hike Cathedral Rock, but the trails there were still closed due to flooding.  So we went with a main attraction with a trail that was muddy, but not underwater or washed out.

To get to Subway Cave, you first start on the Boynton Canyon vista trail.

You hike a ways, and then you start looking for a spur trail that is identifiable not by signs or trail markers, but by a "large alligator juniper tree".  When you're from Michigan, where there is no such thing as an alligator juniper tree, you hope for the best and keep your eyes peeled.  We finally found it.  Really large, and had bark that looked like alligator skin.  

We took the trail that lead off to the right, and picked our way through a wooded area, over a mostly dry stream bed, and then up, up, up.  (We learned, during this trip, that most caves weren't in the ground, they required climbing/hiking up to and were in the rock cliffs.)

A view of Subway Cave from the outside.

Some of the trail was rock scramble, and some was walking along narrow rock ledges.  DH tripped over a smallish yucca plant while climbing one of those rock ledges, and for a brief second, I thought he and I both were going over the edge to never be seen alive again!  Thankfully although he bumped into me, I wasn't knocked backwards off my feet, and he faceplanted into the ledge rather than falling off of it.  Another new catch phrase coined during this trip:  Beware the yucca!

Up in Subway Cave, looking out the way we came.

In one portion of Subway Cave.

We didn't go into the main part, as it had a very narrow entrance and we're too big around to feel like we'd get through safely.  There's only so much flexibility and balance in 50+ year old bodies, and big bellies combined with leaning around jutting rock walls while trying to balance and walk four to five feet on a 6-8" ledge over absolutely nothing just didn't sound like something we would be successful at that day.

When we were 'done' at Subway Cave, we climbed down and went back to the Boynton Canyon Trail.  We followed that to the very end, which included many small stream crossings.  Most of which were done by very carefully crossing on stones that weren't submerged; many spots were ankle deep, and sometimes we had no choice but to step on rocks that were underwater an inch or two.

It was getting late in the afternoon by the time we reached the end of the trail, the vista.  We sat on a large rock outcropping and ate a snack while enjoying the view before heading back to the trailhead.  I think that was a little bit over six miles of hiking that day.

Boynton Canyon vista left

Boynton Canyon vista right

The fifth morning, we were up early, as we wanted to hike to Devil's Bridge before it got too crowded.  This was a very popular hike, and all accounts said you could expect to wait at least a half an hour to actually get up on it if you weren't there first thing in the morning (like, at the trailhead by about 7 a.m.)

The trail was one of the most trafficked that we'd been on, and for many parts of it you had to wait in line for your turn to go up (or down) some of the steep narrow sections that were rock scrambles.  Boy, were we extra glad we'd done Camelback Mountain on our second day, as without that successful experience on a steep technical trail we would never have pushed on all the way to the Devil's Bridge.  This was some hard, hard stuff.  But oh, so cool to make it to the top, where you actually looked down at the Devil's Bridge, and could go down the trail a bit to walk out on it. 

The Devil's Bridge, a natural arch way, way, up in the air.

Confession: we didn't actually walk on it.  There was a line with a wait of at least 20 minutes when we got to the end of the trail at the bridge, and neither of us wanted to hand our phone to a stranger that long in order to get a picture.  Nor did we want to spend probably an hour taking up space there if we went one at a time on the bridge while the other took our picture.  It took long enough, and lots of maneuvering just to get a couple pictures of it between when one group or person was on it and another.  

It was really cool though, and while it was kind of an excruciating hike to get to it, we were glad we did.  And we didn't stop there.  We decided to hike part of the Chuckwagon Trail to get back to where we'd parked.  It was a different trail than we'd accessed the Devil's Bridge Trail on, and it was less crowded.  Which was sometimes disconcerting, as some intersections weren't marked and we were basically guessing which trail was which and hoping we would end up at our vehicle sooner rather than much, much later.

different aspects of the Chuckwagon Trail

After eating the lunch we'd left in our vehicle. we drove around looking for another interesting trail that wasn't more than about three miles long.  We ended up deciding to hike to the Birthing Cave even though the most direct trailhead for that was currently flooded and you had to park near another trailhead and then do some roundabout hiking to get to the trail for the Birthing Cave.  Thankfully hikers are a pretty helpful bunch, and we were able to get directions from people we met along the trail.  It made our hike a good hour longer than it could have been, but it was another neat hike with a rewarding destination and not too many terrifying rock scramble sections.

View from one side of the Birthing Cave.

Someone's dog looking down the rock scramble that was the only way up to or down from the cave.

That day ended up being about 10 miles, and an equal number of hours, of hiking.

The next day was our final one in Sedona, and our itinerary had us driving back to Phoenix for dinner, and sleep, before flying home the next day.  We decided to not do more than three hours of hiking, so looked for a trail that wasn't too long or too challenging, to fit into that time span.  We ended up choosing to do the Teacup Trail to Coffeepot Rock, and throw in the spur that has you summiting Sugarloaf Mountain.  

It was a great choice, as there was hardly anyone else hiking it that morning.  Which was really good, as the parking area only had space for about ten vehicles.  We got the second to last open space.  And when we came out, after hiking, the lot was full with a line of cars on the street at least a dozen cars long, waiting for a parking space to open up.

view from summit of Sugarloaf 

(opposite direction) view of Sedona from summit of Sugarloaf 

Coffeepot Rock

All in all, it was the best vacation DH and I have taken in a while.  Just what we needed to recharge.  There's so much hiking to do, especially in Sedona, that we can see ourselves coming back many times and still not hiking everything there is.  We can also see ourselves bringing the grandkids (at about ages 7 & up) there sometime in the future for a hiking vacation they would really find fun too.  DH even wants to do Camelback Mountain again.  

May Knitting Update

Knitting was inconsistent for me in April.  The death of K2 threw me for a loop, mentally, as well as there being so much to help DS1 with in the days since then. I did manage to finish sock #1 of my Quadrille socks, and have just barely started with sock #2.

I was supposed to go to a community book swap that a friend of mine was hosting on an April Saturday, but that ended up being the day of K2's funeral, so I was unable to go.  My wonderful friend did let me take a look, the day before the swap, at close to a hundred books that had been donated to her for swapping.  I came home with about ten titles, most of which had been on and off my radar for a number of years.  I was really happy to find them in the swap.

One of which is in the photo above.  It's what I'm currently reading: Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan.  I'm roughly 1/3 of the way through the book.  For me, it's kind of going slowly.  I am enjoying the story line, but do feel that it's written for a younger audience than myself (a 51 yr old woman who is decidedly low-tech).  So I haven't been drawn into it so much that I can't go a day or two without reading it. A cool thing I discovered last night, though, is that the cover glows in the dark!

Other books I read recently, all of which were from the library, not the book swap, are

--Chilled to the Cone by Ellie Alexander; another of the Bakeshop mysteries.  This one reads just as quickly as the others.  Always a good, relaxing choice of read.

--The Hidden One by Linda Castillo.  The fourteenth in the Kate Burkholder series, it was gripping and I didn't want to put it down.  I think I read it in three days.