Promotion

Here are some pictures from the Promotion to High School. It was a fantastic day, about 68 degrees with a nice breeze. Everything went smoothly.

I have ground driven Janow since our breakthrough where I found whip does not equal leg, whip equals seat bone. He was very happy to get his bit and eager to get going. I am happy with that.

Whiskers the cat has been ill. She has been to the vet three times and received several different meds. She seems to be much improved. Yesterday's afternoon trip was for sub Q fluids. We are hoping it holds.

Here is the fence at Possum Lodge during the caterpiller plague. They were everywhere. There was a gentle sound, almost like rain, of caterpiller poop falling from trees. The week after that, the whole place was transformed into cocoonville.

A Bigger Nut and a Better Septic

It's been a busy week, I don't think it will fit in the nutshell. I need a pretty big nut.

Joseph was promoted from Middle School to High School. He is on a career path. I'm impressed. Dave took pictures. They are still in the camera. I am still overcoming technical difficulties.

More leach field testing at the Possum Lodge. We need a better septic. Who doesn't?

Whiskers the cat has been to the vet with irregularity. They are testing her poop. I hope it turns out fine.

Janow is recovering from his spider bites. There have been no new bites since the premise spray. His neigh-bor off and on for ten years, Cherokee, crossed The Bridge. Janow stood with him while he was dying. Now I'm going to cry again.


Physical therapy is helping, but my new therapist is not trying very hard to contact the old one who was familiar with my history and knows what to do. Anthem Blue Cross PPO does not pay enough for the old therapist, nor enough for the new one to take any extra time.

I have been able to start ground driving Janow again. Things have not gone smoothly but we have been able to work through them well. That is good. That is when you learn the most. Janow thinks it is fun, if slow. I figured out with Janow that I use the whip in place of the seat bone. They all say, in driving, that the whip takes the place of your leg if you were riding. Janow likes to be ridden with less leg and hand, more seat. When I tried the whip as if it were my butt, the response was good. He seems relieved that I am finally making sense.


We had an incident when a TB mare in a round pen spooked at the harness. Janow just stopped. Immediately. Me, following behind, plowed right in to his hairy self. It could have been bad, but Janow has always looked out for me when things get truly scary.

Invented scary is another story.


More pics from the tower project.

Monday Bunday

More Pictures

Here are more pictures of Lookout Tower 13. If you've ever seen The Red Green Show, you may remember that Red's friend Ranger Gordon mans Lookout Tower 13. If you haven't seen it, it's in re-runs a lot on dish and cable. We get fewer stations since we have an antenna on the roof. Who'd have thought they'd figure a way to get TV right out of the air?

I survived the birthday gathering at Golfland. He wanted a more grown up kind of party, just a get together with friends. That's what he got. He was hoping some girls came. Not this year, I'm afraid. Four boys came. They blew through $73 of tokens and pizza in two hours. Everybody got enough to eat and they pooled all the tickets they won and everybody got a Nerf football except for the skinny kid who got candy instead.

Today is the 8th grade trip to Great America. We expect our own personal 8th grader to be home about 4:30-5:00. We expect him to be pooped. Hungery too. Don't forget hungry.

Jane wrote about her wack being out. I can understand the feeling. Here is an example of having my wack out:

I had an analog watch, which I don't like but it was the only kind they had at Target when I got it. I got it because the battery in my old one died and I couldn't find the right kind.

Then the battery in the analog watch died. I couldn't find a battery for that one so I bought another one! The watch and watch band were one piece. I snapped it off after about 3 weeks.

Time again to buy a new watch. No analog watch. No watch and watch band in one piece. All they had in the store that matched those criteria had fabric bands. Perfect at the barn to grow smelly bacteria in. So I thought I'd just buy an extra band for when that one got smelly. They didn't have any watch bands.

I bought a pack of gum and a Diet Pepsi.

Smiling On and On

I like the smiling animals, so you guys have to live with the ads a little longer.

The tack swap, looking for items to sell in the tack swap, has lead to more trailer and tack room cleaning that I really wanted. Stuff is going through the washer and there is a lot of white winter hair in the laundry. Not THIS years hair, but hair of years ago.

Janow is even more spider bites. I think it is one of those funnel spiders that live in holes in the ground and he sleeps on the hole. I am waiting on the premise spray to arrive.


Work on Tower 13 continues. I think I can upload some pictures from this computer. This one that is not mine.


My computer is supposed to be running, and it is. The mouse was broken. I have two ports for it and it didn't work in either port. I thought. Then the camera wouldn't work to upload. It uses the same ports. It wouldn't work in either port. I think my mouse is fine. It is in my computer. I think it is a software problem. Dave doesn't.


I am not pushing the software theory. The harder I push it, the more convinced Dave will be that I have to be wrong because he knows more about computers than I do. The more he thinks it can't be what I think it is, the longer he will take to fix it.

Why are women manipulative and cunning to get what they want? Such a question! If men would just do what what they are told..........

Physical Therapy is poopy. I have had 4 visits and the real problem has yet to be tackled. They are working on the secondary problems-- like the ones from limping and the asymmetrical tension from the pain. If you just bail water without fixing the hole in the boat, eventually you will sink. I have mentioned my concerns. One more visit to see if they are being addressed in the treatment plan. If not, I bail and find a new place.

Circle Song

Janow's girth bites are terrible today, more than yesterday. Oozy, hot, puffy, itchy. Madeningly itchy. Snob Hill market had cortisone cream on sale, 2 for $4. I bought a bunch.

I longed him today since I can't ride him. I will not put a girth over those bites! He went slogging sround, less than spirited. I sang him songs. He listened without critisizing. I sang Bicyle Built for Two, She'll be Commin' 'Round the Mountain, and I've Been Workin' on the Railroad. I changed the lyrics to I've Been Working on the Railroad for him:

I'm so bored from doing circles
All the live long day.
I'm so bored from doing circles
as my life dribbles away.

Can't I do a serpentine or
halt at X proceed?
Can't I go out on a trail ride
and spook at things I see?

More Bites, More Rain

It rained again today. It's not supposed to rain here(San Fransisco South Bay Area, CA) in May. I thought there was a rule.

The stirrups turned out not to be the kind I really needed after all. So it's OK.

Janow got more bites! His whole sturnum area is covered with swolen oozy bumps. I have increased his antihistamine to max dose two times a day. He wants me to scratch them, but I don't want to make them itch more. Since they are under the girth, I am not riding.

I asm still having problems with my laptop. I should be started on the solution to this one by tonight.

It was OK

We had our tack swap last weekend. Tack Swap Day is usually a warm sunny but sometimes windy. This time it was overcast and cold and the wind was cold. I shivered for three hours. I sold some stuff and bought some really nice hind boots with two Velcro straps. I can put them on with less bending.

There were some safety stirrups which I wanted but did not buy. The kind with hinges. I regret it. I am trying to find the person to buy them from her. At 150.00, they were out of impulse buy range.

The decision to sell my show clothes was a big one. They didn't sell, of course. They were also priced out of impulse buy range. But people know I have them and they have seen them. I think I could make this decision because I am enjoying driving, so I don't feel that the loss of dressage and the limitation of riding is like death.
Today it the second day of having a sick kid home from school. Ew.

And I feel a little headachy, so I took a Neurontin. Now my space/time is feeling screwy.

My computer is up and running now, but I have to download HTML-Kit again and do that first. Boring.

Spring Chickens and Bird Brains

What a day! Planned for May when it is sure to be warm but possibly windy, it was not warm and it was windy! I think I burned a week's worth of calories just shivering. I came out $36 and a pair of hind brush boots ahead of the game.

Janow didn't need brush boots when he was young. Now he needs them. His attitude improved with brush boots behind. Now that he knows about them, his attitude without them becomes impossible. He is no spring chicken, but he's not a bird brain either.

Yesterday Dave had the car and we had moved my saddle from the *trunk to the garage. I took the truck to the barn and forgot my saddle. Not wanting to go back home and get it, I settled for a thourogh grooming followed by all the massage techniques I have studied so far. Then a walk on the longe line and some trot. Since I have been learning and practicing my massage techniques, Janow has become more and more enthusiastic at greeting my arrival. I guess he likes it. He seems to sleep through most of it.

Money Bags has aggreed to one of the anti-virus softwares that I proposed. Now only implementation needs to happen.

Now, after spending 4 hours shivering, I have turned up the spa and am waiting for it to heat to 100 degrees..........



*The tack storage I have at Indian Hill gets too hot in summer to store leather, my saddle stays in the trunk where it is cooler, but not in the truck cab.

Smiling Animals

I added the widget of smiling animal pictures that you see on the right. Unfortunately, it comes with ads. I will probably take it out soon. Well, I will take it out, probably soon. No promises.

Task for the day: IdiotsTrafficSchool-dot-com. That is because I got a speeding ticket in Byron. Where is Byron? I think it's the Gas Station/Quicky Mart between the two stoplights when you go from Mountain House Parkway to HWY 4. Twenty years in Milpitas, notorius for speeding tickets, and I get a ticket. Not in Milpitas, in BYRON!

So, I have completed the registration for online traffic school and the screen says:
"A ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR YOU!"

I hope it's all that easy.
------------------------
OK! OK! I wanted easy, not inane. So, at the end of chapter one, there are questions on the material in chapter one. Like this:

2. In Chapter 1 the topic "Classes of Licenses" has a picture of a _______next to it.
A a blue bus
B a red bus
C a yellow bus
D a green bus
E none of the above

This is not hard, unless, maybe, you were expecting pertinant questions.

Life Has Things In It.

"Life has things in it."
This is a Barbi Breen-Gurley quote. She said this when Frix was pretending to be scared as an evasion. Frix had a lot of evasions. We found out why later.

One of the things in my life was a 13 year old who snuck onto my computer and found it wasn't password locked. So he want to MySpace. Going to MySpace is forbidden. Going to MySpace is like sharing a hypodermic needle with all the homeless people in San Francisco. He got a virus. The laptop crashed. "Does this mean I'm on computer restriction?" he asked.
I replied: "Do you mean you can't use the computer? Of course you can't use the computer. I can't use it, Dad can't use it, you can't use it. It's broken."
"But Mr. S put the homework questions online."
"Oops."

Cheap(free) anti virus doodad does not help. I think we need the kind you have to pay for. Money Bags has a hard time with this. I have reviewed many and read up on consumer report stuff and have suggested two. It will happen, but not soon. In the meantime, the computer with my pictures and photoshop and html editor is working but not going on the net.

I started physical therapy Friday. I don't know if it will help or if this is a good place. So many PTs have dropped my insurance because they cut the payout for PT by 35%.

I got a book on horse massage for Mother's day. I am practicing on Janow. He doesn't have any problems with it except, maybe, I read too slow.

Work on Fire Lookout Tower 13 is proceeding. Pictures one day, but computer power is limited still. Waiting on the anti virus doodad.

Silver had been moved into a new rabbitat. She likes it. It is roomier. I put the new water bowl and the new bigger litter basket and the new rug out in the family room first so she could investigate each one. Then I leaned the folded up rabbitat against the sofa for investigation. Then I set up the new 'tat around the old 'tat and opened the door so she could go out of the old into the new. She went in and out a lot. I waited for her to move out of the old, but after three days I gave up waiting and took the old out. She was very distressed and thumped the floor. I put the old standby bunnel in the 'tat and let her get used to it. She did. She likes the new 'tat.

I have ordered a treat ball and two Oxbow Timothy Hay Bungalows. They should come by Wednesday.

The Indian Hill tack swap is next Saturday. I am deciding if I should sell my dressage coat and boots. I'll never be able to use them again. Maybe I should offer some of the bit collection too. I need to get a carriage house. I will see if I can get a good set of brush boots and a folding saddle rack.

Calgon, take me away!

Stuff is piling up. Big time.

I just finished reading The Elephant Keeper, a novel by Christopher Nicholson. A first person narrative about an elephant keeper in 18th century England. It's also about choosing your truth. The truth I am choosing for myself right now is not the happy one, this book didn't help. It is very good. It is potentially very beautiful or very dark.

Seven doctors and appointments into my sore foot, I have a diagnosis. There is scare tissue irritating the sympathetic nerve where is comes out of my spine between L5 and S1. It really hurts. The treatment is cortisone injection into the nerve root. Very Very painful, additionally, the narcotic they administer to get you through the process gives me a migraine that makes me throw up. It's scheduled for 6 weeks from now. I'm checking out some ways to cope with or avoid that.

Janow is really doing very well with his Adequan. Jay rode him in the park again on Friday, walking only. He says he is a great ride, very light and responsive. I had a migraine and spent all day Saturday in bed. Sunday, Janow would not let me clean his butt, which I do every day. An aging horse butt needs a little bit more care. He usually likes it. Not on this day! He clamped his tail down so hard and was tense and tender over his entire hindquarters. I messaged gently for an hour, maybe more. A passing fellow boarder said "Whatever you're doing, he sure likes it."

Monday did not show any improvement. I found, however, six or so crusty yellow scabs on his inner thigh that were so itchy that when I rubbed them with my fingers he actually held his hind leg in the air. Spider bites. I didn't see ticks nor the bloody smears where I had brushed them off. Diana walked him for me since I can't.

Tuesday, bites appear better but still sore. Emmett's vet was giving him his Potomac shot and I had him look at Janow. He found soreness over his lumbar area only. How old was this horse? "Twenty." Did I have papers on him? "Yes" Well, he said, it was pretty easy ti fake papers on a grey horse. Somebody had misled me and sold me a 25 year old horse. I think not. I have known Janow since he was three. He is not aging well. Neither am I.

I went back later in the day and found bites on his tail dock. I looked because his tail was frizzy from rubbing. That explains the tail clamping and sensitivity there. Today, there was blood in his tail from more rubbing. I don't know what to do to help him. More Tri-Hist. More sympathy. It is cold and rainy without flies. If is were hot and dusty with flies, his tail would bother him more.

I am tired of the cold, just cold enough to be uncomfortable, and I am tired of the rain. I am tired of the pain.

The truth that I am choosing for myself is that the good fortune that was in the future for this great horse and for me has almost but not quite yet happened for us for 16 years. Now we are both biologically old and have long histories of pain and illness and hope for recovery that never lasted.

Pinky

Here is the microwave picture, as promised. Dave wants credit for installing it. I want credit for living a week without a microwave and not complaining once.



I rode Janow yesterday and he was definitely improved. He felt like he was moving easier from the start, and it didn't feel like the right side of the saddle was higher. I gave him another shot of Adequan.

These bell boots were easier to reach so I put them on instead of the black ones. They were Frix's, so they are about 18 years old. EVERYBODY commented on them! Someone even called Janow "Pinky!"

I couldn't ride him on the small circle and compare times because the recent rain turned the back part into snot.

a little behind

I am behind, way behind. Dave made a salmon dinner and wanted the photos on my blog so he could get credit. Finally, here is the dinner. It was good.

Our microwave stopped heating food, choosing instead to emit a very bad smell. An electrical fire small. I put a piece of masking tape over the controls. Joseph wrote "Does not work" on the tape. For most of the history of man, man has lived without microwave cooking. I didn't think it was an emergency. Joseph felt differently, "We can't have hot food until we get a new one." It took a week to find the time to buy one and install it. Dave did the work, Joseph refused to help. I will take a picture of the new one so he can get blog credit for that too.

I went to a presentation on rabbits by Save-a-Bunny at the Milpitas animal shelter. My foot hurt and I had hard time walking in. I learned a lot about rabbits. I decided Silver needed a cuddle up. Shopping for a cuddle cup I got discouraged. $20.00, which doesn't seem like a whole bunch, but the materials to make it add up to 2.50 at most, if you buy them at retail price. Those things have a 300% mark up and that 2.50 includes that markup. SO I made one. It took me an hour and 10 minutes. I got the fleece scraps from Denise, I had the thermolam scraps myself. Silver was suspicious. I don't know it she'll like it or not.

I also learned how one person can restrain a rabbit for nail clipping. Rabbits HATE to have their nails clipped. You can also use that grip for cleaning anal glands. I didn't know you had to do that. I showed the new grip to Silver. She showed me that it doesn't work on ALL rabbits. Guess we are not cleaning anal glands.

For the Birds

Hers s a picture of turkeys that Dave took up on Mt. Hamilton. This is how they look in the spring when they are trying to impress the lady turkeys. They don't look like this at Thanksgiving.
We had some nice warm sunny weather here, then it got cold and cloudy again. Everybody was pretty disappointed because we had enjoyed the warm sun. Even the birds. They had cold feet so they were warming them in Janow's fur. They pooped while they were there, but it comes off easily if you let it dry.

It got warm again. We are all relieved.

Janow was pretty muscle sore after Jay rode him in the park. Janow can get very enthusiastic and over-do. I had Julie massage him and that helped. Still troubling s that he needs to walk 30 or 40 minutes just to loosen up. Yesterday we made the small loop that we used to do in 8 minutes. The first time around took 15 minutes. The second loop was just under 10. The third loop was very close to the old time.
I gave him a shot, IM, of Polysulfated Glucosaminoclycans. I have to look up how often I can give that. I'll see if it helps.

It's hard to get old.

Monday Bunday

A lady opened her refrigerator and saw a rabbit sitting on one of the shelves.
"What are you doing in there?" She asked.


The rabbit replied:
"This is a Westinghouse, isn't it?",
To which the lady replied "Yes."
"Well," the rabbit said,

"I'm westing."

Roger Cleverly suggested this. Thanks Roger

Green Batik Dressage Saddle Pad

This needs a better name, but I can't think of one. Anybody have any ideas?

A rabbit story of happiness

Today is April 3, 2010, the day before Easter.

Rabbit rescue groups and bunny advocates have been campaigning for Make Mine Chocolate. It means the rabbits are not good Easter gifts for children.

Regular readers of my Doublecatbatik blog will know I have a bunny named Silver. Some know that there is a Silver blog called Buns-of-Silver.blogspot.

Today, I will tell you about a remarkable experience that I had with Silver just last evening when Silver actually chose to remain sitting on my lap. She rearranged my shirt, snuggled briefly into my stomach, requested petting posturaly, meatloafed and teeth purred. It lasted about 10-15 minutes. Twelve hours later I am still thrilled.

Silver and I have our regular sessions each evening after dinner. I wash my hands and brush my teeth first, in case I have been eating meat. I do this in respect. I go to her cage* in it’s place on the family room/dinning area floor. She has already had a fresh litter basket with new grass hay and some pellets, sometimes freshly washed green leafy vegetables. Sometimes she gets her evening greens later. She boxed me with her front claws as I did a quick housekeeping in her space. I have a scratch on my hand that will need Neosporin and a Band-Aid later.

I came back after she had time with the new basket, and manually extracted her. Extraction is often difficult and involves growling, but she won’t come out by herself. The ‘picking up’ place in her cage that she has chosen is the most difficult area for me to reach. She can’t understand that, she has a brain the size of a walnut and a perspective that is four inches from the floor.

I held her under my chin where she likes to snuggle. Chin rubbing has social connotations for rabbits. I never hold her there longer than she wants. It can be anywhere from 10-15 minutes to 10-15 seconds. A minute is a long time for a rabbit. Last night was about 3-5 seconds. OK. Often, I stay by the cage and pet her while she is inside. She doesn’t like it when I talk, so I ignore other people who talk to me. The past 6-9 months she has sometimes snuggled into my wrist. I have seen videos and photos of rabbits doing this with other rabbits. Sometimes I am there for 40 minutes to an hour. The floor gets cold, I take a blanket. Last night, she said: “Leave me alone.” So I did.

But I came back.

About an hour and a half later, I came back. We had a very brief snuggle against my neck and she said she wanted down…..but she stopped in my lap on her way back home. She paused, she looked around, she rearranged my shirt, tried to remove the button. She snuggled her head into my stomach. Then she stretched her head out in the ‘dominant bunny requests grooming’ posture. I gave her nose pets and rubbed around her jaw. She made the meatloaf posture and ground her teeth, rabbit people call this ‘teeth purring,’ horse people call it ‘licking and chewing.’

And she sat. Just sat there, while I pet her. She is so soft.

She has been with us for 2 years, since December of ’07. She came from a stainless steel cage at a shelter, about 1-4 years old. She DID NOT like to be picked up, she would NOT be held! Not unusual for rabbits.

Not all rabbits are like Silver. Some are easier, some are harder. But it was over two years before she requested picking up and she has only requested it that one time. More than two years until she voluntarily stayed in my lap.

Two years of daily fresh litter baskets with fresh hay, twice daily 1 tsp timothy hay pellets, two to three times daily washed leafy greens, two or three or more times daily personal attention sessions(sometimes we sit together at lunch time. I don’t have meat at those times) and regular nail trimmings which are really hard for her and the two people involved, and lots of new toys. (….and a trip to the emergency room for a cut finger while rabbit proofing the lamp cords-- which didn’t work, she chewed them anyway and luckily didn’t get electrocuted. We did it all again with new cords--no emergency room this time--and she chewed them again, now the lamps are purely decorative because they have no cords.)

My point today is:
CAN YOU DO THIS?
CAN YOUR CHILD DO THIS?
DO YOU WANT TO?


*Cage is a dirty word. She spends as much time out of her cage as I can get away with. The Mr.is fastidious. His Mom trained him well and thoroughly. I have plans, I will not divulge them.

Grumpy Old Men Remodeling

Janow and Emmett Kelley.

They have been neigh-bors for years. About 6 years, I think. Hard to remember. Emmett is eleven years older than Janow, who is twenty. Sometimes they pretend they will bite the other's pastern. Sometimes they pretend they are going to kick the other one through the fence. Often they just stand together.


This is the swallows' nest in Janow's stall. It gets remodeled and updated every year at nesting time. The swallows have returned this year and there has been some activity around this nest.

When these newer stalls were built in place of some old ones, the new ones did not have any nesting places. I hung a piece of wood here for them.

I remember the tearing down and building new. Ranch management was frustrated because they planned it for the spring, which is nesting time. These swallows are a protected species, so they had to wait until the nests were abandoned before they could tear down the old stalls.

McDonald's on Grimmer in Fremont is also tearing down and rebuilding. The sign says "remodeling." The old building has been totally destroyed to make room for a new one, before the swallows could nest!

Baboon, Chicken, Cat and Ponies

I took my camera to to the ranch yesterday. Janow and Cherokee next door were sleeping in the sun. Janow got up before I got out of the car. He had an itch that he couldnt reach. Cherokee stayed where he was.

The park was closed because of yesterday's rain and the mud. Jay postponed his ride in the park. Good thing, Janow was pretty muscle sore. I got on and walked him around so he would limber up a little. Hand walking would be better, but I can't do that.

Here, also, is the view from Janow's stall.

And, of course, pictures of the herbs I planted for Silver.


Mary Shelley followed me, she was all squinty in the sun.

Paula Pullet wanted to know if I was going to pick her up and carry her, or give her a piece of bread.


Paula likes to be picked up and carried, but not picked up and held. You have to keep walking. I can't do that.

Soon Baboon, I may be mobile again!