A New Lease On Life

"Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to
the interests of others." - Philippians 2:4. 

     I hope this can become by new modus operandi.  My selfish human nature always seems to get in the way but at least it gives me a goal.

      I gave my second exam on Wednesday, enjoyed an awards/retirement faculty meeting and came home to work on the farm.  Every job on the list seemed too energy and time consuming, so I just dinked around taking care of several small tasks.... none of which were on my list...so I didn't feel I had accomplished much.  

     This is the best our rose bush has looked....guess last falls pruning did a world of good.

      Thursday I gave my last exam, went to lunch with the science department, finished up all my grading and left school by 2pm.  When I got home, I sat wondering what I should do with myself.  I can now have a new lease on life.  I had a long list of things that needed doing, but was short on motivation and energy.  Luckily I had a riding lesson at Marj's to get me going again.  Courtney and I were trying out Roni, a rescue Paso Fino, to see if we could bring him home to ride since Zorro and Amiga are both lame.

After 2 hours of working through everything...we had Roni loaded and ready to come home.  I was so excited. Marj has given him a new lease on life...and now done the same for me by entrusting Roni to me for awhile. 


He unloaded great and we got him settled into the round pen for the night.

   Friday I spent extra time with chores and  getting the horses settled in.  On the way to school for year end check out, I went to Farm and Fleet.  I ended up staying at school two hours past what I had intended.  On the way home, as I moved from school days to summer days, I thought about what new routine I wanted to attempt.
I had lost Leo (a turtle) who escaped from his container on my way home from school.  I searched for him and figured he had gone under the back seat or gotten out at school while the car was standing open during loading.  Once home I had let the cows in to the paddock so they could get water.  I had put them out in the back pasture with a bucket of water, but they had knocked it over.  They were so hot and thirsty by the time I got home.  They like to splash in this short stock tank and make a mud puddle to cool off in...and it may also help with the flies.

     Once I unloaded all the green house plants and other stuff from school, I got the fish and Mr. T turtle set up in the duck pool.  I wasn't sure what to do about Leo.  I moved the horses back out of the barn and put Roni in...he had been in the paddock.

I opened the side pen of the chicken coop so the four chicks and three ducks could start exploring the yard.

They all stuck close to the coop, only venturing out a little ways from it.

                    I transplanted this red bud tree.  It is a different variety than the three I bought, so I moved it from the rock garden to beside the deck, replacing one that had died.
     I worked with Roni...brushing him and doing ground work in the round pen.  Next I saddled him up and gave him a try.  Our ride was great.  We quickly got bored with the round pen so I took him on my mowed trails.  He never ran away with me, as he has been known to do.  I worked on speed transitions but when going up to a gait, his front legs immediately went into over drive, so I did not have much luck at a slow gait.  He is a fun little horse.  After a quick shower, I sat out in the car reading a book while listening for Leo.  Nothing after about 15 minutes so I gave it up.  

     Sir Loin really likes to mother Norman who likes to stay close to his side.

     Saturday I climbed out of bed with sore arms and legs, didn't realize how out of shape I am.  The riding, tree planting and weeding really did me in.  I need to start exercising more... and eating less sugar.  Joe headed for Iowa mid-morning as I was heading out on Roni.  We had a great time,  well, at least I did and he didn't complain any.  He is a very sweet horse....not pushy or impatient.  He does spook at things (tree trunk, cat jumping out of grass, me throwing a weed  from the round pen toward the wheelbarrow, etc.)  He just jumps, tenses all his muscles and brings his head up high, but that is all it is....then he is over it.  He is getting used to cats and chickens under foot and quietly shared the paddock with the cows because I needed to let them in 

for water.  I cleaned out the corn crib, mowed a little, and moved gravel in front of Amiga's stall down past the green gate where there is high traffic and it gets muddy after it rains.

Then I scooped the manure pile back up (the chickens pick through it), checked on the ducks and juvenile chicks and removed the dividing wall inside the chicken coop, since the ducks and chicks have been out and about and getting  along with the older birds.  Below you can see the chicks intermixed with the chickens at bed time and the ducks nesting on the floor in the corner of the coop.

     Normally I have been putting Roni in the round pen over night.  But,
                                                      because of the forecast, I got him set

up in the nice clean corn crib.  We got a few storms Saturday night, so I was glad to see the cow boys had made it through the night out in the paddock.







There were more storms while I was working in the Nursery and at Church Sunday.   I went to school to look for the lost turtle.  I asked God to please reveal him to me if he was in need of rescuing.  No sign of him in the building, on the sidewalk, or in the parking lot.  Driving home I felt that he was okay and I no longer needed to worry.  And what do you know, Leo came out from under the back seat of the car just as I was turning into the drive on the way home.  Thanks to God, Leo got a new lease on life.  Once home, the sun came out.  It was still too muddy for digging around so I worked on my Blog Post.  With the sun out and the temperature climbing, it got very humid.

     Monday
     morning
     I woke up
     in a fog.

     And did
      chores
     in the fog.

     It burned off fairly quickly and I had a good ride on Roni before it got too hot.   I fly sprayed the 3 horses and both cows.  Filling or refreshing water buckets and bowls was necessary several times because of the heat.  I couldn't bring myself to do much else outside.

Today I started a ground training secession with Roni at 7am and then rode him for over an hour.  Then I worked with Amiga and fly sprayed all three horses again.  I also made sure they each had hay and water in their stalls out of the hot sun. I came in at noon for lunch and couldn't get myself
                                                     to go back outside. Later in the
afternoon I met with a student at school to go over the semester exam with them.  Ended up giving them a few extra points to boost up their grade because they are such a hard worker and deserving of the higher grade. 

     We are in the process of weening Norman.  He is down to 1 bottle a day (which is fairly watered down) that I give him in the morning.

As you can see from this photo, Norman isn't completely castrated yet.  Click on image if you need a close up.  The sac should have fallen off by now...we will give it a little more time before asking what to do next.

Tonight's dinner was to be hamburger, but we did not have any buns except hot dog style.  So Joe made hamburger dogs along with some regular burgers. They fit on the buns just right.

     Daniel sent another e-mail and pictures.  He has been moved into more permanent housing. Looks like he is pretty comfortable.  I'll include his explanations of the photos to give you an idea.

 This is a B-hut that is under construction.  There are 4 rooms in each half, 8 rooms total, but you have to walk around outside to get from one half to the other.

 This is Dan's B-hut and his window that is boarded and taped shut.   The sandbags are there to absorb any blast or shrapnel.  There are porta-potties 50 meters away and a real bathroom with showers about 200 meters away.         Here is his room.  It is about 12X12. 
                                                     He says "It's just enough room for the

stuff I have and I'm comfortable here."

They have ac for their half of the 4 rooms.  During the heat of the day the temperature is always in the 90's or even up to 100 degrees.  At night though, it gets real cold.

The 7 drawer unit is where he stores his clothes, and he was in the process of trying to set up some good string to get his hangers up so he can hang uniforms and towels.

 This is the bike he bought for 20 bucks. 


Biker Soldier
"Watch out here I come"
Dan's attire for riding to and from work.


The first time he rode his bike home from work it took him 20 min.  He said  "I was going at a pretty good pace so I think I'll slow down a little and keep it around 30 mins, cause I was quite sweaty and my legs were a little tingly.  Good feeling though."





He posted this sunset picture and commented:
"Pretty sunsets here too....
just ignore the barbed wire :S "