Monday morning I drove to school praying about getting Chuck to load on the trailer (among other things). I spent the day working in the classroom, moving stuff and hanging posters. This is the 4th room change I have made since I started working at NCHS, and it is the room I originally started teaching in when I was first hired 7 years ago. Answered prayer...
Joe got Chuck completely on the
trailer when feeding him Monday afternoon. Shut the door by pushing it against Chuck's butt and called the meat locker, which said he could deliver him a day early. Whoot Whoot! He was in a holding pen until morning, and that's all the more I want to think about it. Makes me kind of blue, thus the previous Blog on his behalf. I went straight to Growth Group from school.
House cat (Abbey) and barn cat (Bro) working out their differences. Bros nails are lethal weapons, but Abbeys attitude and hissing convinced him to keep his distance. I think they wanted to be "friends".
Another answered prayer, we got rain Monday night. Although I was running through it at 2am with two horses in tow to move them from the front pasture to the barn, I was very thankful. Myth Busters proved you get less wet when walking through the rain...but I couldn't bring myself to do it, especially with the lightening. And I wasn't actually towing the horses.... they were practically running me over. They were as anxious to get to the barn as I was.
Joe hung a "new" door down in the storm cellar. Actually it is an old door from the house that was out in one of the buildings and was the correct width. It needs painting, but will never be seen, so that is low on the list.
Tuesday we got a load of top soil for the garden, the extra of which we are moving to holes, dips, and low spots in the yard, paddock, and fields. We are
also putting the extra dirt around the
storm cellar so water drains away from it. The main reason the walls were giving way was because of all the water sinking in all around them. Before adding the dirt though, I had to transplant the Rose of Sharon and some Iris and Day Lilies that were around the foundation. I still need to tackle the Forsythia seen here. 
Even though Abbey is a house cat, she loves being out and about. A girl after my own heart.
The tile and culvert repair men were here all day Wed. They ran into various difficulties....the biggest was that one of the culverts under the drive was actually broken tile.
So they had to call for more supplies and it took longer to fix. I am sure the bill will be higher than quoted also. But, the good news is that 4 tile holes are fixed (safe for the horses now) and the culverts are visible.
I worked outside Thursday morning and then went to school for a few hours. I cleaned and filled the 20 gal. fish tank, but still haven't done the book work that is hangin' over my head. Shopped on the way home and then went for a much needed ridding lesson along with Courtney. We rode from 7 to 9pm when it was a bit cooler. We both had to work pretty hard because our horses need to learn to keep their heads tucked (vertically flexed). This helps them round their back and get collected, so they can gait better.
I ended up finishing the rock garden by using old concrete chunks in front of the last Red Bud. You can
see here in this photo that they don't look too bad, so I may just leave them. I still have unfinished work on the north end of the garden, so the rock hunt continues. Next I moved the Day Lilies I am transplanting from around the shed, to another bare area in the rock garden. I also moved some phlox and sedum to various spots.
I had to buy more phlox to fill in better, and while I was shopping I couldn't help but buy some mums ($1 each). I know it is not a good idea to be planting in this heat, but time is of the essence. And, since I am watering grass seed, Red Buds, and earlier transplanted Day Lilies, why not have some more flowers too?
After finishing the rock garden by lunch time Friday, I went in to my office with the hopes of really getting some school work done. I ended up spending 2 hours (with Dan helping me) trying to figure out how to edit my web site. We also called (3 different times) fellow teacher Jeff, who is an expert on this. Unit 5 had changed the software program and then come to find out I was also being denied access because my site is over the 512 MB limit they put on web sites this summer. Sheesh! Finally getting it figured out, I was able to organize my thoughts and do some planning, but by dinner time I had had enough. I headed out to work since it was cooler, but the rains came by 7:30. I hated quitting in the middle of a job, but I was thankful for the much need rain.
Saturday I worked with Amiga in the round pen on her vertical flexion,
fastening her reins to the saddle so
she doesn't nose out. Then I watched for a half hour, weeding the near by garden. She mostly stood in the round pen, but after awhile I convinced her to walk around. Once she had a good feel of the correct head position, I rode her a short time, quitting early to reward her good efforts. Joe and I worked together outside a good part of the morning. We fixed the bottom of the rotten chicken coop door and
After Church Sunday I "worked" at my computer. It didn't last long, because as usual, the outdoors beckoned me. Joe and I transplanted the Forsythia and added more dirt around the storm cellar shed. We will need to add still more after it settles. Kaysha likes lying in the cool dirt, while the chickens think it is great to dig through. In fact, they are great excavators, if I could just get them to move it to the correct location.
The baby chicks continue to thrive
and grow. One is so much larger than the other, I suspect it is a rooster while the little one is a hen. Time will tell. Here Flopsie is watching them eat some over ripe cucumber. 
Courtney came out at dinner time and we each worked with our horses. Zorro tends to tuck his head too much while Amiga does the opposite. Here Courtney is putting him through his paces while Amiga is again standing with her nose tucked. Our trainer Marj continues to be great help with
these two young horses and us two novice riders. She has a good eye and a depth of experience that are invaluable. She is also extremely patient.
While we were horsing around, the
cats were all over the place, running, chasing, hunting, and watching us. Here Sissy has climbed the peach tree by the round pen to get a bird....or a bird's eye view.During the week I also finished a Robin Cook novel I had started in Michigan, thinking after that I could then concentrate on school work. Not true. There is the usual mowing, watering, picking up sticks, weeding, cleaning and filling bird baths, etc along with daily animal chores of feeding, watering, waste removal, and moving livestock and pets in or out of their respective "houses". I did work and ride Amiga four times this week in spite of the heat. Going before nine or after five seems to work best. I have also noticed that the sun is setting earlier these days.
The white sheet in this photo blocks the sun from the newly transplanted Rose of Sharon. Some of these little bushes aren't doing too well because they baked in the hot sun before I realized I should give them some shade.
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