My Journal 2004

Mary · My Journal 2004

These posts are taken from the archives of
The Day's Happenings: - The Gathering Place

Horseplay
Sep 02, 2004
I took this picture a few days ago of my horses playing "chase me" in the field. They were excited about being in a different pasture. I use my horses for endurance riding, a sport that is like doing marathons on horseback. That is Patch in the lead, with Can Do and Breezy following.

Mary

Sep 02, 2004
They are Arab and Arab crossed with Quarter Horse and Paint (same thing almost). Patch, the one in the lead is the instigator, gets the rest of them going. He is the snack food guy, likes bananas but no peeling thank you, and cookies, crackers, etc. Hasn't been introduced to Pizza. Two of my retired endurance horses are in another pasture, one of those is an Anglo Arabian, the other a Saddle bred. They will still take a run along the fence at times but are definitely the old men now.

I've only got one mare, Can Do. She and Breezy are half sister and brother. Their dam was also one of my endurance horses, she died a couple of winters ago of colic. She was also trained to pull a cart and I had a lot of fun driving her. Maybe one day I will get Can Do trained to harness, but right now she earns her hay doing endurance. Your experience with a variety of horses gave you a good look at dispositions and abilities. In general QH have a good disposition. Breezy's sire was a QH, they used him for all kinds of ranch work, he was broke to drive and the kids could ride him. Mostly Arabs and Arab crosses are used for endurance. They have the flatter muscles and recover quicker from heat stress and long duration work than the heavier breeds. If you look at human athletes, you see the same type of thing with runners, the sprinters are very muscular. The distance runners are lighter and lean.
Horses all have interesting personalities and even a sense of humor.

I am getting ready to leave for a 3 day endurance ride series with Breezy and Can Do, and won't be back until after the long weekend.

Sep 08, 2004
Yesterday I got home from my endurance ride series and started watering the gardens immediately! There were about 60 riders at the ride camp at a ranch were Army Remount horses were raised when the cavalry was on horseback. I can see where that country would produce some tough horses! The first day we made a 50 mile loop out through the desert and back to the ranch. The second day we went out across the desert in another direction and climbed up and over a 6800 ft mountain, down the other side a ways and then back up and over on a different trail and back to camp for a total of 55 miles that day. Breezy was my mount for those two days. Can Do got the job for the last day when we did 50 miles more of the desert, starting and finishing at the same ranch. The ride manager had hired a cowboy chef to provide dinners for us every night, some people liked what he fixed but it was too spicy, herby, and fancy for my taste. I was wishing for roast beef and mashed potatoes. I sure work up an appetite riding an endurance ride even though I eat quite a lot during the day, it gets burned up as quick as it digests. The scenery is great out there. You can see 50 miles or more.

Mary

Oct 04, 2004
Today's main tasks will be to drive to a meat cutter's place about 90 miles from here and pick up 100 pounds of breakfast sausage, then work on cleaning flower beds when I get home. The sausage came from some crippled calves my sister raised and had butchered. They were crippled because of birth defects from their mothers eating lupine during the first trimester of pregnancy. This causes some to be born with a partial upper palate and they have trouble eating so would not have lived through a winter but they were able to drink some milk. Poor things. Anyhow, they make good sausage of various kinds when a bit of pork fat is mixed in, spices added, etc. I just wish I didn't have to go so far to pick up the sausage.

Actually the drive was very pleasant, country roads and very little traffic, warm day and beautiful scenery. The meat is all in the freezer now. I do wish I had cleaned the freezer before I got this meat, but did pull out a few freeze dried things to add to the compost pile. Nothing goes to waste here.

Oct 05, 2004
Hi everyone. Today was bright and sunny again, and middle 70's for a high temp. It was 36 here at my house this morning but it was 27 at the airport just outside of Baker City. No frost here yet so hopefully my winter squash and tomatoes will continue to ripen for a while.
This morning I collected our recycle stuff into some feed sacks and took them to town to the recycling center, had lunch with my sister and then we went thrift store shopping. I got a nice king or queen size comforter for 35 cents! It was in the pet bed box because it has a stain on it. Otherwise it is perfect. So that side will be down or it will be covered with a light spread and who will care?! I also got a candy thermometer for 35 cents and a meat thermometer for 25 cents, a Pyrex mixing bowl that goes with some others I have, (the colored ones that were popular in the 50's) and a flower pot with a snap on saucer for about 75 cents. Sometimes I go in there and come out with nothing but today was a good day. My sister bought a few things too.
After the fun we went our separate ways. Mine was to the laundromat to use their big machines, then a couple of grocery and discount store stops. At the discount store I checked the membership numbers on the prize board and won a box of candy, which experienced some shrinkage on the trip home. By the time I got home it was almost time to start dinner.
I hope all of you had a good day. Remember to count your blessings.

Oct 06, 2004
Good morning! It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood..... well, not as pretty as yesterday but the sunrise was glorious! After I eat the second part of my breakfast and hang up some laundry I will go out and start on the flower beds.
Our son is not happy with his job. He was hired for swing shift, but worked until about 6 am. He drives a big truck and gets paid by the load, not by the hour. Some days he goes in at 4:30 or 6am, some days anytime they call him in the middle of the day, sometimes he goes in at midnight. It's not swing shift!! Every day is different hours. So he is sleeping now and probably will sleep most of the day and that means I have to be quiet. I'm leaving the computer connected so the phone won't ring and wake him up. When my husband worked these horrible hours we lived this way for months at a time, it gets really old.
Anybody want to share some of this oatmeal? Why did I cook so much?
Off to dig in the dirt. Gonna have some plants to give away, mostly Iris which are sort of a maroon and mauve combination and pretty tall. Anybody need a few? Count your blessings.

Here is the sunrise.

Mary

Oct 11, 2004
The average where I live is about 9 inches. I live over on the east side of the state where the weather channel doesn't even know we exist! Everybody thinks all of Oregon is wet like Portland, but the Cascade Mountains stop most of the rain from coming over to 2/3 of the state. We do have a lot of sunshine, more cows than people, and a population for the whole county of about 18,000 people. Baker County is one of the larger counties in the state, and one of the least populated.

We got our first frost last night. Sad

It's always a sad thing for me to see those black leaves and know that winter really is coming, no matter that I was working in short sleeves yesterday. I relaxed and got a lot of weeding done. The bees were still working at the gaillardia blossoms so I had to be careful weeding around them.

I just processed the last 2 jars of elderberry juice, so now it's off to the great outdoors to see what veggies I can salvage. The things that were covered with blankets might still be ok, but I might have a lot of tomatoes to can right away!
Count your blessings everybody!

Oct 12, 2004
Here's a cow with a very distinctive face.

Mary

Oct 12, 2004
Here is a cow with a punk rock hairdo.

Oct 12, 2004
The frost only got one squash plant in my lasagna garden and burned some leaves on others. My veggie garden appears to be ok. The squash are in the lasagna garden (flower area) because I buried my kitchen compost there all winter and they volunteered. The ones I planted from seed and set out in the veggie garden didn't look as good when the decision was made to let 3 nice looking volunteers grow in the lasagna bed. They helped shade some newly planted perennials and shrubs so that was a plus. Yesterday I got one more picking of green beans, that is the 3rd "final" picking from those plants this year! No frost here last night although the weather report from Baker City says 30 at 8am and it is 37 here. We are about 14 miles from there as the crow flies, and on a hillside where the cold air has a place to drain down into the valley. Baker City is in a valley. They get colder air and fog, we get more wind and more sun.

Today the fall clean up continues with more work on the iris. There is so much to do and I know I won't get it all done this fall. That always happens.

My farrier is coming this morning to put new shoes on my horses, the last shoeing of the season. I have a week of endurance rides coming up soon, a rocky place that will wear out a set of shoes quickly. I have them shod about every 8 weeks from March to October, then the shoes are pulled off and they are barefoot for the winter.

Time to get out there with the plants. Have a great day and count your blessings.

Mary

Oct 14, 2004
Good morning! It's 5 am here and still dark for about another hour. I see bright stars, the temp in town is 32 but we have 38. It's gonna be another pretty day.

Today or tomorrow I need to take my trailer to the rv place and get the furnace fixed. I discovered it was not working when I was camped out for my last endurance ride. This coming week I'll be going to a 5 day series in Idaho so it will be needed. The furnace is a luxury first thing in the morning when there is ice on the horses water buckets and I have to saddle up and leave about daylight. My trailer has space for 3 horses, a small tack room and a small living quarters for me. No water, no potty, no refrigeration, just a place to put some water jugs, ice chest, a storage box to sit on, some cabinets for storage that my hubby built, and a bed to put my sleeping bag on above the goose neck. Very basic but adequate.

Yesterday my young mare got her first session of Cows 101 and did quite well. She needed to be ridden and this job was just right, gave her something new to learn and a light workout at the same time. We moved some yearlings and a bull to the corrals and sorted them, then brought in cows and calves and another bull from another pasture, sorted off 2 cows and their calves, then took about 60 head and one bull to another pasture about 5 miles up the road. Moving along at the speed of cow, it took us 2 1/2 hours to get them to the new pasture. Along the way one cow got into a neighbors field and followed us along the road until we came to a gate were we could get her out. Other cattle along the way wanted to join our little party. That always makes it interesting, especially when there are bulls. Sometimes they forget the fence is between them but this time all we had was a couple of playful ones that made me wonder what might happen. The trip home took less than half an hour.

About the only productive thing I got done here yesterday was to dig the rest of the onions out of the weed patch called a garden. It would have been easier a month or so ago when I could see the tops and just pull them up. There are still some potatoes to dig but they are easier because they shaded the weeds and are mounded up.

Have a great day everyone, count your blessings.

Oct 14, 2004
Endurance riding is what I do in my "leisure time". Yesterday I had hoped to get more flower bed cleaning done as well as finishing up my iris transplanting project. The laundry didn't get done either, so I have the 2nd load of wash in right now. By the time I got home it was 6pm and time to feed critters and people. My leisure time is something I have to make rather than just letting it happen. I've got far too many irons in the fire. The rides are mostly on Saturdays, so I hurry all week to get ready to leave on Friday to drive to wherever the ride happens to be that week, ride most of Saturday and come home on Sunday. Most 50 milers take us about 8 hours depending on terrain, how hot the day is, how muddy the trail is, etc. This 5 day series starts on Tuesday and runs through Saturday. Each day is a separate event but there are awards for finishing all 5 days. I'm always glad when I can find a Christian station on my way home so I can listen to a good sermon, teaching or some great gospel music.

Oct 14, 2004
My hubby has always said he believes everyone should have a hobby. When we were raising our family there was always too much month left at the end of the money, therefore I never had a hobby because I couldn't afford one. Now I'm going for it and taking whatever time it takes to do it because it is something I love to do. It gives me an excuse to ride and ride and ride because I have to get the horses in shape on the hills here at home to have them ready for the events. Things like laundry, weeds, housework all take a back seat to riding.

Mary

Oct 15, 2004
I was busy even if the rest of you were napping! Today was what I call a productive day. After breakfast (blueberry pancakes and sausage) I dug up all my beets, cleaned them off and cooked them. Garden stakes were picked up and put in the shed for winter, and a lot of notes taken for next year's veggie garden. I always think I will remember what I wanted to plant in a different place and what mistakes I made, new varieties that did or didn't work for me, and other things I want to try. By the time April and May get here and I start planting the early things I've usually forgotten most of it. More iris got planted, some other plants moved around to new places and some dry flower beds watered.
This afternoon I took Breezy my half Arab half Quarter Horse, and went for a 2 hour ride out in the hills. We covered about 15 miles, most of it at a trot, a nice workout. He gets to rest now until the 50 miler on Tuesday. On the other hand, I don't.
For dinner my son barbequed chicken that I had put in marinade this afternoon, ummmm, it was really good. Two of the monster carrots I dug up yesterday fed 5 adults with some left over, they are nice and sweet and not woody at all. I pickled some of the beets and cooked some spuds to go with all of it. My Daughter-in-law is doing the dishes, good system, I cook and she cleans up the mess. When she cooks I do clean up or my son does.

I hope all of you had a good day and remembered to count your blessings.

Oct 17, 2004
Yesterday I worked some more in my flower beds, got the volunteer squash picked up out of part of the lasagna bed, but only took the ones where the frost killed the vine. The other 2 volunteers are touched by frost but still can help ripen the squash. I stood in one place and counted 25 more butternut squash, that is in addition to the 8 others I already brought in!! And I have more growing the veggie garden! This lasagna bed is really a flower bed, but then these volunteer squash came up from the kitchen compost that I buried out there all last winter. Since they were looking better than the ones I started in the greenhouse and planted in the vegie garden, I let them grow. Some of the small shrubs were looking stressed from too much sun and not enough roots so I decided they needed shade. Big squash leaves to the rescue! Yesterday I got 1/3 of that bed weeded after removing the squash and vine.

Another flower bed got some attention, leftover daylilies were dug out of it for my neighbor. These are the common orange ones that I missed digging out last fall, a whole bucket full of them! I think every little piece of root grew. Anyhow, I am going to transplant some tall purple phlox into that bed, then plant some purple allium to go with the burgundy drumsticks I already have there, and add a couple of iris in complimentary colors. Next spring I will move some Dusty Miller in there along with some white Alyssum and it should be a pretty spot. I'll work on that some more today.

Monday I will be leaving for a week of endurance rides, so I have some packing and organizing to get done today and tomorrow morning. Looks like another busy day.

Have a great day everyone, count your blessings and be a blessing to somebody else.

Oct 25, 2004
Hi everyone. Today we cut 3 cords of firewood. A neighbor couple went with us, also our son and another friend. We had 3 chain saws, a wood splitter (wonderful invention) and 3 pickup trucks. I drove the first load home and unloaded it, then went back for another one. All the splitting is done and it just needs to be stacked along the fence to be a windbreak for the horses. The weather is getting colder. Snow is down pretty low on the mountains but not on the roads or in the area where we were working. We get a US Forest Service permit and can take dead trees or blown down trees. We still need to get another cord on Saturday if the snow doesn't stop us.

Last time I posted here on the Happenings forum I was getting ready to leave for a week of endurance rides. I took two horses, Breezy my half Arab half Quarter Horse gelding, and Can Do, his full Arabian little sister. I rode Breezy on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, riding 50 miles each day. Wednesday and Saturday I rode Can Do. One of her days was 60 miles instead of 50. Our total for the week was 260 miles, some of it in sun, some wind, some rain and wind, the last day being the worst. Yesterday morning I had to defrost the truck windshield before I could leave camp, arrived home about noon, dried out saddle blankets and stable blankets on the fence in the sun and wind, unpacked the trailer and did some laundry. Today while we were unloading the firewood the horses were running around in the pasture with their tails up in the air like they still have plenty of energy. As for me, well, I'm a little tired.

Last night we finally got our killing frost, it was 25 degrees this morning at daylight so all the squash leaves look black and very sad. The forecast tonight and tomorrow is for rain and snow showers, then they are saying rain showers the rest of the week. I was hoping for more pleasant weather but will have to see what I can get done toward fall clean up and salvaging what is left of the garden which I have not looked at since I have been home. There might be a ton of good tomatoes out there under all those blankets, and for sure I have an awful lot of butternut squash.

I hope you all had a good week and remembered to count your blessings.

Oct 26, 2004
We heat our house with wood and almost always let the fire go out at night unless the weather is below 0, and almost always have the bedroom window open a bit. Maybe we should start a thread about wood heat, I'm sure I am not the only one with a wood stove.

Oct 28, 2004
Good morning. Our day is looking chilly and damp, no rain and not really foggy but sort of both. Get that? It's the kind of thing that penetrates into your bones. Thankfully there is no wind. Yesterday was nice and sunny, I worked in the flower beds all day digging out the borders and weeding, planted a few more things, and left a tarp with dug out sod to dry a bit and get the dirt shaken out of it today. This bed is on the north end of the house near the front gate and gets morning sun and very late afternoon sun. I have an arbor there and want to plant a purple clematis on the sunniest side of that. I have transplanted some purple and white phlox and some bee balm, a few iris that I think will look nice there, and a few other things, trimmed all the sprouts from a lilac, dug out the edge where the quack grass grows in and am still not finished with it. Today I will work on it some more. It's time now to feed my horses and get busy.