which_chick | Recent Entries

So DLB (my ongoing dressage clinician of eight years whose compassionate and thoughtful guidance has led us to... the depths of dressage skill that we currently exhibit) is in the hospital with serious pneumonia and she's been intubated. This ain't great. She's, I guess, some form of immuno-fucked-up because of Lyme Disease, so any time she gets sick it's worse than for the average person. So yeah, definitely not great and she's been in hospital for four weeks and she's gotta be over sixty years old. None of that bodes well.

Look. Intubation is a definitely not great thing for someone with a respiratory illness. If the medical folks want to intubate you, your O2 sat is probably shit. To be intubated, you have to be sedated, which further depresses your breathing and stuff. You are FOR REAL sick if you're intubated for a pneumonia thing. (I am not a doctor or a person in the medical field. This is just my take based on what I remember of covid era stuff.)

( Read more? Warning, it is all about me, as usual. )

That's what this reminds me of:

Like, it's exactly frustrated dog owner trying to summon Muffin when Muffin is not interested in being summoned. That's the whole fucking vibe.

LOL.

First off, it's bloody hot and we've mowed the hay. Horse updates are tabled until it's not 95F out and the hay has been baled, with a brief side note that the HayChix hay bag has survived the first week of deployment. (Birb feels the holes in a haynet should be a lot bigger than they are and he generally makes his dreams a reality on that front, typically in about an hour.)

But because we're in a shit timeline, it's not about me discussing fun horse things or showing you the amazing bruise I incurred during a cherry-picking accident. (Actually picking cherries. In an orchard. This is not figurative speech.) Nope, it's about Bounties For Illegals, a key plank of my wildly over-the-top "platform" for rounding up illegals in a cost-effective and efficient manner.

Damn it, Enrique Tarrio, I WAS BEING SARCASTIC... But I see that you're not. Does the app send you a complimentary brown shirt when you sign up?

One of the weak points (foreshadowing) in the dressage tests is that the canters are draggy and sad. (Lacking in impulsion and forward, sometimes shift into four beat, unbalanced, blah blah.) Was this news to me? No. No, it was not.

I kinda knew going in that the canters would be draggy and sad.

Is your horse defective, that he can't canter?".

No. It's more of a me problem than a him problem. He offers draggy sad canter and I ... accept it?

( Hunh. And yet you went anyway... Do you like setting money on fire? )

It was fine, which I am not saying in a mean or sarcastic way. Remember, we went in with lowered expectations and the actual target goals were totally unrelated to helping the horse be the best version of himself or Riding A Decent Test.

( Read more? A... a lot more... )

I took Birb for a spin after work yesterday, which was pretty entertaining because the hay is tall (so much snack opportunity) and because the boys had moved/rearranged the vehicles along the edge of the field in which we work. This obviously causes new locations of horse reflections (Birb is nominally "white" so he's kind of high-vis) against tinted windows and dark vehicle bodies and so forth. He does not like catching a glimpse of himself out of the corner of his eye behind him.

In preparation for the upcoming Dressage Schooling Show outing on June 7, we rode Training 1 and Training 3 a couple of times plus some additional canter work. There was a lot of spooking in the 20 meter canter circles. Like, half the circle (away from the relocated vehicles) was OK and then half of the circle (next to the vehicles) was a shitshow of spooking bullshit with skittery sideways, head in air, not a lotta brakes, sudden accelleration. Repetition did not improve things much. *sigh*

( Read more? )

The dressage schooling show for this Saturday has unfortunately been cancelled due to the excessive amounts of rain that fell on the area. (We got between 3 and 4 inches of rain this week. That's a lot. More is expected, off and on, for today (Thurs) and Fri. The show is for Saturday.) The problem here is the parking.

( Read more? There's a Newt Problem update, too. )

I currently have reduced pressure in the cold water at my house. The hot water pressure is fine, but the cold is at about 75% of normal. It's been like this for like three days and I'm getting a little irritated about the situation.

( Ooh, sounds like a mystery! )

Thursday, after work, I decided on a not-exactly whim to locate and dig up my septic tank so that it could be pumped out. I planned for this to be a fairly substantial undertaking because I had no idea where the septic tank was. People are always surprised about this stuff. How can you NOT KNOW where your septic is? The answer is "Look, it was the seventies." Also, it's not like you get a manual when you buy a house. You get the house and after that, you're on your own. Everything is an adventure. So I set out into the yard and commenced to digging.

( Read more? There's a lot more... )

Except this year spring also meant abscess, so... no DLB for me. Other people will be play dressage clinic, but I will not. *sigh*

I signed up early and got my paperwork and my check in and everything but Birb had other ideas, so...

( click to read more? )

About half of Arizona is technically "desert". It's not all the same desert, but about half of Arizona is desert, by area. Water is an issue in the state.

We visited southern Arizona (Phoenix, Tucson, and points southeast) which was mostly Sonoran desert. Bisbee and Tombstone are not "desert". They are "Desert grasslands" which are different according to the internet.) Anyway, water was A Thing that we noticed and thought about during our visit.

( Read more? )

I have a chocolate cake that I like. I like it a lot. It's this one, which in my world is Mrs. Weaver's Chocolate Cake because that was what it said on grandma's recipe card. I have no idea if it has a "real" name or where the recipe came from, but I love the cake. It is the best cake.

( This is an imperfect world. )

The horses are fine. They're still shedding out and with the optimism of spring I'm about convinced that I want to go to a (small, local) dressage show to feel bad about myself and my riding and my horse again. What fun!

( Read more whining? )

I went to Arizona to see the cactus. And cactus were seen, not just at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix but also at the Saguaro National Park(s), the West and the East. We saw A LOT of cactus. So many.

( Read more? There are pictures! )

One of the places we visited (I took this trip with Laur, who was mostly along for the Mexican-ish food and the margaritas) was Bisbee, Arizona. In Bisbee, the activity for the day was touring the Copper Queen Mine on trolleys with miner hats and lights and safety vests. (It's pretty safe. You'd have to work at dying on the mine tour. But still, miner hats and lights and safety vests because never underestimate the stupidity of tourists. People fall into the Grand Canyon and die, two to three of them damn near every year.)

( Would you like to know more? )

I am currently partway through the Trip to Arizona. I've been through the Desert Botanical Garden (very fun) and also the Musical Instrument Museum and the Heard Museum in Phoenix. This concludes the Phoenix portion of our tourism activities. Right now I'm in Tucson (which, for our foreign readers, is pronounced Two-Sun and not Tuck-Son).

( Read more? There are exciting pictures!! )

I am more or less interested in the natural world, the animals and plants and whatnot that live near me. It's a thing. I've seen a lot of the things that live near me, from porcupines to rattlesnakes to black bears to turkeys. Box turtles, ladyslipper orchids, red tailed hawks, pileated woodpeckers, etc. Just... stuff.

When I find things of interest, specifically things of the reptile/amphibian sort, I post them to PARS, the PA Reptile and Amphibian Survey. It's for ordinary folks and for research folks to report sightings of Pennsylvania's reptiles and amphibians, to help the state track stuff.

( Mostly I am not seeing exciting things, just normal things. )

I had a productive weekend of doing things. Lots of things got done.

I took the plow off the plow truck. I fired up the diesel pickup and drove it into town and filled it up and checked its tire pressures. I still need to hook it to the horse trailer for the April 4th Coggins clinic.

I swept out the chicken coop and moved hay for the boys. As it was over 70F both days and my horse still has an inch of hair on his body, he got the weekend off and I did my wood project instead of riding.

I fixed the wood splitter, which I posted about already, and then I used the wood splitter.

( Read more about my firewood situation? It has pictures! )

After work today, I went up to the shed to fetch out the wood splitter. (It'd been put away, tank empty, at the close of last year and parked in by the mower trailer and stuff.) Before I drug it out of the shed, I put in some fuel (about a cup) and tested to see if it'd fire up. No sense hauling it out if it won't start.

I adjusted the choke and the throttle and pulled the handle vigorously. Cough, sputter quit. (This is normal for first effort of the year.) I adjusted the choke slightly and pulled again. Cough, catch, die... and gasoline started pouring out of the little metal bowl tucked behind the air filter. Well, shit. That ain't good.

( Is *little metal bowl* a technical term? I am suspicious... )

It's been a month. I've been getting on my pony, which is fine. Had Finn out for some walks, also fine. Did some work on building the stud pen (for Finn, for later). Went to the doctor for an annual checkup so that they'll continue to pretend to be my doctor because if you don't go often enough they fire you as a client and nobody else in the county is taking new patients.

( And hoo-boy do I have some feelings about that... )

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Page generated Jul. 3rd, 2025 09:19 am

One a day, plus iron

I really should fill this shit out

Recent Entries

Can you just send thoughts?

You ever see someone try to call their dog and their dog ain't listen?

I hate this timeline.

Getting better by... practicing. Novel concept, I know, but hear me out.

So, how was the schooling show?

Birb for a spin after work...

Too much rain for dressage

Crystal clear mountain spring water

I have been Doing Things!

Spring means DLB!

Water, water, who wants some water?

Product review: Silicone smash cake pans

How are the horses?

Arizona does not look like a Roadrunner cartoon.

Let's Learn About Mining!!

In which some vacationing happens...

Also over the weekend, I saw a New To Me snake species

A weekend in which Things Got Done

An unexpected victory

So, March.