Cupid Shuffle

They got a brand new dance, you gotta move your muscle

Brand new dance, it's called the Cupid Shuffle

This is a dumb song, but came to mind today.  Happy Valentine's Day.

    I  got these beautiful flowers from a sweet, loving husband almost two weeks ago.  They weren't meant as a Valentine, but were a great addition to my February decorating.  They successfully lifted my spirits as intended, and helped me through some gloomy winter days.  And it was really more the thought of the gift that perked me up than the flowers themselves. 

     The long 5 day week at school actually went pretty fast.  Nothing too remarkable occurred at home or at school.  I had to leave here at 6am Wednesday for an early morning meeting so Joe had to do morning chores. I just kind of shuffled into school at 6:30 am, 2 hours earlier than normal. After the meeting though I was able to accomplish a lot.

    
     Last weekend Daniel got home from his week at Ft. McCoy in Wisconsin, and then this week had to drive every day to Decatur. 
    With his MOS, it sounds as if he is an important man in his unit.... he has been given quite a bit of responsibility.  
     Dan doesn't shuffle...he marches....except maybe when it comes to house keeping with his bed.  But Abbey thinks it's a swell place to hide.

Camo  Kitty

  Kaput  Kitty










     It was very cold for several days....didn't get out of the teens, and was actually down to -11 degrees Thursday night.  This made it all the harder to get out there to do chores.  One afternoon Hercules got tired of waiting for
                                                      me on the deck railing, and tucked
Headless Hercules?                       his head under his wing and went    
                                                      to sleep.   When I first put the heat
lamp in the coop to add hours of day light (comes on from 4am to 7am) and to warm the coop up some, egg production went up a little. (Actually, it nearly doubled....from one a day to two a day)  But with the extreme cold, there have not been near the number of eggs again.  Many days the nests have been empty.  I have not seen the chickens come out of the coop much at all this week.  The few times they have, I have had to carry them back to the coop from the barn in the evening.  It seems like it is usually Floppsie and Baby.

     Come on girls!  The sun is setting and it is time for bed. 
     Britney and I have been home bodies as well, shuffling around in our warm house slippers, not wanting to leave the comfort of a warm house.
     The wild birds have been eating me out of house and home.  I do get out to fill the feeders daily.












     Britney continues to work at raising money to fund her missionary work in Guatemala. She hopes to have enough to be able to leave here in May for a two year stay down there.

     Courtney rarely comes out here anymore, because Zorro is at Marj's barn.  I do see her over there on Saturdays for our horse training class.

     The barn kitties continue to look for trouble.  Brother has been leading Missy higher and higher up in the trees.  It makes me a little worried.  Don't know how my Mom could stand it when I got so high up in the tree tops as a kid. I was usually able to get down without fanfare.

     Britney and I got home late on Friday because she did a presentation in two of the Spanish classes at school 7th and 8th hour.  She thought she would probably talk for 10 or 15 minutes, but ended up talking almost the whole hour.  Go figure....wonder where she got that from?  I just wanted to veg out with a cup of tea when we got home at 3, but knew I had to go out and chisel through some frozen snow to get the barn door open so Saturday morning I would be able to get Amiga out to load her to go to Marj's.  The only possible way to get her from the back paddock to the front of the barn is to walk her through her stall and the middle part of the barn.  Once bundled up and out there working, I got too hot.  The hardest part of farm work this winter has been getting out the door.  Since I was warm and feeling good, I decided to try walking Amiga, and work with her a bit.   Every time I bring her out front it is to load her on the trailer.  Today I decided to just walk her around....switch up the routine.  When I brought her in to her stall, she got all nervous.... she has a way of knowing something is going
on.  She had scraped some

skin off her eye brow earlier this week, and I have been putting wound cream on it twice a day.  So I did that.  But how she knew I was planning other things, I do not know.  Once we started walking, she calmed right down.  Even sighed a few times.  Her head was down and her eyes soft.  She really trusts me to follow right by me with out tugging, pushing/pulling or getting nervous.  I was thinking she needs to be able to be walked through some exciting situations when I get her to the Horse Fair March 4th, so I wanted to start practicing.  Where there was a fairly clear path to walk, we went. Around the house, around the garage shed and garden shed, and  up and down the drive.  She did so well and it was so nice to walk with her.  I am really getting hooked on this horse.  She is so precious.

     Saturday's horse training class was great.  It is so fun to ride with others, and Marj is so good at helping us with basic techniques in working with lightness. 

     She also is great at spotting our weaknesses and helping us to correct them.  Amiga was really throwing her head up and out for some reason. (At least she wasn't doing her hopping thing though.)  Marj got on and worked with her for a bit and then Amiga was so much better.     

     I need to tighten up my reins and keep my elbows in at my sides, and stay steady....not let her have her head when she is pulling on the bit, but get her to take the bit and hold it with vertical flexion.  Courtney rode Amiga and Vinnie for awhile.

  

     After most were done and people and horses cleared out of the arena, Courtney brought Zorro back out to work with him.  She had started the training session with him, doing ground work for a while, but then he needed a break.  She walked him as usual, and then sat on him bare back while I lead him around.

     He has really lost a lot of muscle mass standing in a stall for 6 months.  Look how scrawny he is.  The next big task is to muscle him back up so that he will be strong enough to run with Amiga and not re-injure himself.

     Courtney still has her work cut out for her.  She will be increasing Zorro's walking time, jogging with him some, and riding him at a walk for increasingly longer periods of time.  For now, he gets about 10 minutes of "riding" time.  The exercise has been beneficial to Courtney as well.

     Zorro really is a cute, playful boy, but man does he need a lot of muscle building.  His favorite trick is to grab the lead rope and hold it, as if to take charge.  In the photo above, he is swinging it around like a lasso.



     Sunday was warmer than Saturday, and the snow really started melting.  I worked with Amiga again in the afternoon.  We were both doing the ice shuffle which was on packed snow with a layer of water on top all the way down the drive. After making the rounds on foot, I got on and rode Amiga bareback.  She was much better with her head, but did not want to walk through the water, probably because of some slippery snow beneath.

     Also, at the end of the lane she did not want to walk on the asphalt part of the drive, which was clear, clean and dry.  Go figure.  When I was done riding, I got off of Amiga at the asphalt and worked on walking her on it.  She was very reluctant, but I kept insisting, and eventually had her walking, standing, backing, and circling on the asphalt.  Once she got over her fear of it and relaxed, I took her to the barn and gave her a treat.

     Well, I know Valentines Day can be depressing for some folks.  Just remember....if you can't be with the ones you love, love the ones you're with. 
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