A little goes a long way.....

This swallow was sitting, but the camera scared her away. I think this is the female. I suppose I could look it up and find out.
Five eggs is a pretty good number. The nest is so close to the ceiling that I can't see in except to take a picture and look at it.

You can tell a lot about something from it's smell. Like if you can eat it.

D was at the indoor arena banding a horse for a show. She has braided for dressage, but this was different, for western pleasure competition. She had a mouth full of Braid Binders (that's what it says on the package). They are little rubber bands that come in different colors for different colored horses. I just needed to talk a bit after trying to ride Janow in the indoor arena.

He had so much energy that it was impossible. There were two beginners in the ring, so the outer edge by the fence was unavailable to use as a brake, and I couldn't ride him in a straight line because he would have just taken off, so I did lateral work and 10 and 8 meter circles and transitions. After a brief demo of how a dressage horse should NOT go, I decided to leave before I endangered the beginners. The beginners didn't seem to know enough of be afraid of us. I had gotten a round of applause from someone who hadn't had her first lesson yet and thought we were wonderful. That's OK, everybody starts there.

C was just finishing tacking up when I walked in after putting Janow away with his beet pulp and mucking out. I told D I had given up, Janow was just too pugnacious to ride. D was trying to talk, but had put too many Braid Binders in her mouth. It's the easiest place to put them because you don't have to reach or look for them when you have a teeny handful of hair attached to a figgity horse. C said "Be careful, don't swallow them! They're very.........non-nutritious? What's the word?"
"They're binding." I supplied. D tried to laugh around the rubber bands. C just gave me a blank look. So I just looked back. She finally figured it out. I don't know if she didn't laugh because she was embarrassed that she didn't get it right away, or embarrassed because it was SO OBVIOUS and she hadn't thought of it first. Or maybe she had but was too tactful to say it. I decided it didn't matter.
She rode up to me the next day and asked me "What was that word you used yesterday?"
All I could think of was 'binding' but she's a nurse and should be familiar with the term, so I just looked at her.
"You used it to describe your horse....pugnacious? Does that mean cheeky?"
I smiled and said it does. She smiled back.



One thing you learn with chickens as pets...a little regularity goes a long way. That's Chica Chicken in front, Paula Pullet in back. Sometimes they sit quietly for petting. Getting them both to do it at the same time is a little tricky. The amazing thing is that they like people.