A clean horse

This here is a photo of Oscar's butt. See how much cleaner the right side is? The pic was taken mid-wash. Amy and I were cleaning him up for his first clinic and trailer ride in the new trailer. He was not a fan of the sponge bath but tolerated the half hour or so it took to degrime him.
He did great in the clinic and earned a lot of sweet praise from the instructor and the audience. Mostly things like "wow, he's awesome " or "he's so adorable!"

Amy put him through his paces and he was a hard and honest worker-Sara, you would have been proud.

And here for Barbara is a photo of the kitchen floor going in. It'll be finished today and I'll get another photo of that.
So last week I was in shock about getting sh*&t canned and this week I'm starting out angry.
Stay tuned for more on that.
b

Autumn

So last weekend Amy, Jon, the dogs and me went up north to celebrate. What were we celebrating? Well, grouse season for one but also me entering phase 44B of my life.

The photo above is looking outside the window of the Dad cabin. Sydney dog parked herself on the couch (she was clean, Dad!) and stared out at the spectacular view. Amy and Jon went hunting and got a few birds. For my part, I did some drawing, wine drinking and contemplating of how it feels to get sacked for the first time in one's life. Harumph is all that comes to mind at the moment. Dad gave me a lesson with pastels which was very enjoyable. It's the opposite of watercolor...one starts dark and goes to the light. Watercolor (my usual medium) is the other way. I smooshed up some color in an approximation of the image of a horse...but darn, it's hard to get used to the chalk. Dad is really good at it and I'll have to practice for about 10 years to be half as good.

Here's a nice shot of Amy with Sydney out in the field.
Does she look tough (yet kind) or what?? And here's a photo of Jon with both dogs...little Fonzerelli and Sydney. Amy cooked up the birds on Sunday night and we feasted on them and wow, grouse is good!!! YUM! Here's hoping you all are enjoying some fall color.

Winterizing

That's the name of the day. Even though Amy and I had a fantastic trail ride yesterday the rest of the day was devoted to getting the house and grounds ready for winter. Where's the groundskeeper?? Oh right, I fired him.

Anyway, yesterday Cooper almost ate Pot Pie, my best laying chicken. Fortunately I caught him in time to save the chicken. I threw some rocks at Cooper and didn't talk to him for two hours. I think he showed no remorse. He has no idea how close he came to being a listing on Craig's list. Amy saved him.

The photo is of Oscar's eye. It's hard to get a photo of his blue eyes without him wiggling around. In this image his expression is: "Whatchoo doin' with that silver thing bubba?"

Today I made some jalapeno jam so I could make my favorite appetizers and did some quality phone time with far flung friends.

Toodles for now.
b