This past week, in pictures.
Saturday, at a small old-fashioned (no agri-tainment, only cider and doughnuts) cider mill with most of the grandkids.
Monday, sugar maple leaves getting bright.
Tuesday, Jedi loving his after-ride itch-relieving roll, and the last of the flowers from the garden.
Wednesday, beautiful weather could it be Indian Summer?
Thursday, sunrise looking like another great weather day.
It's been a long (but short; fast, busy) week.
We've had some hot humid weather, several rainstorms, and a 15-ish hour power outage.
We had Faline, Buck and Sixlet for about 7 straight hours on Saturday while DD1, Honorary Son and his parents went to a Detroit Tigers game.
We went out to eat several times, which is unlike us, but happened to work out that way. Once was meeting Honorary Son and DD1 to hand off their kids after the baseball game. The other due to being too dang hot to cook on the stove or the oven and the one meat store that I can actually eat their lunchmeat (without my body protesting) being all out of said meat when I went to buy it in order to make (the planned) sub sandwiches for that night's dinner.
I rode bareback (the first time in over a decade for me on any horse) on the Little Black Mare when one of her scheduled training days ended up being a light but steady rain and I didn't want to get my saddle soaking wet. I'm fairly certain she's never been ridden bareback before, but she adapted to it well. It felt weird for me too, and the first five minutes I was trying to get my own bearings, but after that I'd say we both enjoyed it (minus the uptick in rain in our faces that made me cut the session short after a bit).
I rode a lot (2-3 horses) on days that the weather was cooperative and only one horse or even zero horses on days that it wasn't. Like the day that was 70-something degrees and 90+ percent humidity at sunrise and I was heat sick practically from the moment I got out of bed. No riding that day; I didn't want to pass out and fall off a horse. Instead, that day, I did only necessary horse chores (feeding, turnout, cleaning stalls bringing in, feeding) and slowly with frequent breaks. Well, plus cooking and laundry, and housekeeping (but you know, depending on who you talk to, those don't count as work 😠).
K3 came over on a not-rainy morning (original day had been rescheduled due to weather) to ride Jedi with my helpful instruction. (aka had a riding lesson). They are starting to mesh a bit more as she learns the similarities and differences between him and the LBM (who she rode off and on the past two summers) and he tests her a bit to determine if she's the boss or if he is (and, with my guidance, she wins those challenges).
I assembled the new 'bistro set' I had purchased on sale on-line at Mother's Day (which had been super delayed in shipping) and installed it in its intended spot on the deck. Even gave DH a haircut out there while he sat on one of the chairs ("It's very skinny. And upright.") Given that all of our other outdoor seating is extra wide and tends to make you sit slightly reclined (which I find uncomfortable), yes, yes it is skinny and upright. It's just what I wanted for that space. That space happens to be the 8-10 feet between the sliding door in the dining room and the sliding door in the living room and needs something that doesn't sprawl too far onto the deck or too close to either door. Skinny. And upright.
DH got my little tiller running--it had needed a tune-up--and between the two of us we got all the tilling done between rows of vegetables in the six planted sections of the garden. I hand weeded around the tomato plants in four of the seven rows of tomatoes (and then a storm hit).
I found a nice rock in the garden, which I had to take a picture of so I could text the pun to DD2, whom I knew would get it. Geology and puns, two of my favorite things. Which are also two of her favorite things.
The peonies have been in bloom, and with the heat are wrapping up very quickly. It's been nice to enjoy their cheerful pop of color and wonderful smell this week.
Also blooming are the spiderwort
Later, after it was dark and we had gone to bed--with the front door open as well as all the windows to try to get a breeze through the stuffy, very warm (80-ish degree) house--we were woke up by what sounded like something hitting the screen door at the bottom of the stairs (bedrooms are upstairs, the flight of stairs lines up with the front door, great for getting airflow into the bedroom area on a summer night).
DH grabbed a flashlight and looked down the stairs, to see a raccoon on the porch right at the door.
Well, that wouldn't do, we'd been trying to catch a lingering pesky raccoon in our traps with no luck lately. So I hopped out of bed too, to be the flashlight bearer while DH grabbed the .22 and we went out coon hunting!
The coon had fled up a cottonwood tree between the house and a corner of the garden when it heard us coming down the stairs and out the front door. With me standing near the trunk shining the flashlight up into the tree, and DH a few feet out from me, we were able to spot that raccoon and get a successful shot that brought it crashing down (sounded like, in the dark, as it bounced off tree branches, it was going to land on my head!) to the ground. Luckily it was not on my head, but about 6 feet from me. So that was an exciting evening and night!
I hope this coming week is a little milder with both more catching up on tasks and a bit more time for sitting and relaxing. And uninterrupted sleep!
Is this a happy things on Friday post? Is it a May recap post? Who knows? I'm not sure. Let's find out together!
My irises are beginning to bloom. I added quite a few new-to-me varieties last year, through trading rhizomes with a friend and through buying some from local and online nurseries.
The trap has been rebaited and set every night, and we have caught five adult coons near the barn, plus one more in the (smaller) live trap I set near the front porch after finding coon manure right in front of my front door. Rude little buggers!
On the way to Faline's graduation the other afternoon, I had to drive a different way than I usually take due to a road construction detour. I spied this happy stump on the edge of a field and just had to pull over for a quick photo.
Grabbing on to the regular Thursday theme over at Frugal Girl of things I am thankful for this week. It's been a busy week, where I often have felt like I'm just not measuring up to all the tasks at hand. But, as I need to remind myself, that doesn't mean it's been a bad week. There's been lots of good too even if the good is easier to forget right now than the list of haven't done it yets.
This week I am thankful:
*For several sunny mornings. Waking up to sunshine puts an extra dose of energy in my tank.
*That I went to the podiatrist and had three spots scraped off my feet. I have a tailor's bunion on one foot, and several calluses that slowly grow to the point they are causing uncomfortable pressure spots when I walk around. A few years ago my primary care doctor referred me to this podiatrist for removal of a tiny piece of glass that had gotten into the ball of my foot (and caused a callus where the skin grew over/around it), and that was where I learned that problematic calluses can be trimmed very easily in-office. Doesn't even require anesthetizing the foot and I really don't feel the careful cutting out of the callus as the doctor is doing it. After months of gradually building discomfort from said bunion and calluses, it feels so wonderful to walk out of the podiatrist's office with (three little divots in my feet and) zero pain. This is an experience I highly recommend: if you have feet with painful hard calluses, and you have insurance, get yourself to a podiatrist!
*All the blooming trees and flowers right now.
