Turkey!

Monday Bunday

But, harsh! what disapproval through yonder window breaks?
It is the east and Juliet is a bun!

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mvo168/

Also on Monday Bunday, Silver offers a bit of financial planning advice on her blog Buns-of-Silver.

Driving

Here are pictures of me, driving! After nearly ten years on the pain/surgery/recovery carousel, it feels great to be moving off the circle!
That's Mt. Diablo in the back. The area around Roger's place is flat! Not like Milpitas and Indian Hills Ranch. It takes me about an hour and 15-30 minutes to get here.
You can see Spunky likes to bend to the left, even on the right rein. The tricky part is getting the right bend without turning right, just like riding.

I like the last picture that shows him suspended(nearly). It looks like he is really moving. Believe me, this pony really moves out. He is ALWAYS willing to go faster! Sort of like Janow. Well, exactly like Janow..

The morning these pictures were taken, my head was not really in the right place. The previous evening, Joseph took a ride on the bipolar pony and Dave & I just grabbed a hank of tail and hung on. This time he stayed in the ring, avoiding dragging us over rocks and through thistles, and managed to dodge most of the manure. He's getting control and I am proud of him.

I had these pictures arranged so the the back of us was the last photo. That was just tooo much, so I changed it.

Money Saving Idea

I did this to Dave. If you look closely, you can see that the toilet paper is only a printed photograph of toilet paper. He was confused. Joseph and I were laughing and he said "I don't see how this is funny."

Monday Bunday

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Last week you saw Scamper of Santa Clara Humane Society. This week I tell you that a rabbit is not an impulse pet, not a great children's gift, but the most glorious companion for the right person. You have to decide if you are that person. This picture illustrates the perils of being that person. (BTW if you look closely at the pic, the wires look photoshopped. The rabbit was not endangered. But, this could really happen if the wires were left hanging)

Today on Silver's blog, Buns-of-Silver, she tells about an unexpected pitfall of being a house rabbit. She had one morning where she would not have anything to do with me, hiding and making the danger sound by thumping her hind feet hard on the floor. My friend Diana of The Qi Papers asked me
"What were you wearing?"
"Jaguar pajamas."
"She thought you were a predator."

The two links below will help you find more rabbit information, including some stories about real life rabbits. You can also get connected with the Rabbit Rescue Orgs in your area. They hold regular adoption fairs where you can see the buns and talk to the bun people. There is one that calls itself the Bunderground Railroad. Rabbit people love bun puns!

House Rabbit Society

Interactive Bun

Saddle Pads....almost

Here are some of the in-progress saddle pads. These are the ones I batiked this summer. I have been sewing cotton foundations for the denim pads. This takes a long time and is a very boring task, but it makes these pads great. Even without the batik design, these would be nice pads. I was nearly done with this batch when I ran out of bobbin thread and did not have any others wound. That's enough for me today!

I have three pads currently on ebay. They and others can be seen on the Doublecatbatik website.

If you want a sample piece to see how nice these pads are, let me know! I can get one to you.

Driving

For the record, there was crying at the shelter. I was holding on when a cat volunteer tried to comfort me, then I lost it. There was sobbing.

Dana has asked me, through Facebook, to tell more about my driving. I thought is would be sedate and a bit boring, but it’s been very exciting!

I decided to do this driving thing several months before I actually did anything. I gave myself lots of time to learn and choose a course of action. Then I attended some driving events and chose an instructor and started lessons.


Now I have had four lessons. I’m still a beginner. Roger Cleverly is a fun and knowledgeable instructor and I am happy with that choice. He has a Welsh pony, Spunky, that he uses as a school horse. I have learned how to harness and put to, although the wraps and hold-backs are complicated and I still get confused. I have driven in the ring, and cross-country.


In our cross-country drive, Roger sat beside me in the cart. Spunky was trotting and the ground was getting rougher and rougher as we went. There had been recent rain. Horseback riders leaving deep footprints, along with farm equipment, had left ruts in the mud which was now drying and becoming hard. We were bouncing along at a good pace; I was beginning to catch air under my seat…. I was wondering when Roger would tell me to slow down. Finally, when I couldn’t take it any more, I told Spunky to walk. Good choice, says Roger. You’re letting the terrain tell you about the pace. Gaah!


Last time, Roger set cones in the ring and I drove solo in patterns around the cones and through the “gates.” It reminded me of jumping courses ages ago at L.O.V.E. Farm in Los Osos.

Spunky is getting easier to rate and lighter in the reins. I was worried a first that if Spunky was difficult to rate and slow down, Janow, with much larger size, would be impossible. I’m not worried anymore. Now that I have some driving under my belt (wow 4 whole lessons) he is much lighter. According to Roger, Spunky is getting to know me, so it works two ways.


Here are some pictures of Roger driving at a playday. I don’t have any pictures of me yet.

There is also a picture of the cart I bought, and I will try to get a picture of the harness I have ordered. It hasn’t come yet, so it has to be a stolen picture from the Carriage driving Essentials web site. The picture on the horse shows the empathy colar, which I did not get. There is a picture of the standard colar that I got. The picture with the horse also shows marathon shafts, which I don't have either. The shafts on my cart are wood and they are straight.

When the harness comes, I will get Janow super used to wearing it. When we are both ready, I will take him to Roger’s in Knightsen to actually put him to the cart. That is an hour and fifteen minutes by car, sans horse trailer. With Janow in the trailer, it will take longer. He will probably stay there for a while and I want to get him as ready as possible so he is there a shorter time and I have to drive back and forth less.

So there you go, Dana.