My Weekend
So I actually had a pretty good weekend!
Friday night The Wife and I did some driving around looking at houses and one of them was actually interesting (more on that later). After that we stopped at a very nice Italian joint for dinner. They had a local microbrew that I love, but usually can’t find, on tap. We also had the most amazing plate of Carpaccio I've ever seen. There must have been an entire raw cow all laid out and sliced beautifully. She had the black pasta with lobster sauce and I had the seafood medley in spicy marinara. Awesome! Went home, watched some TV and called it an early night (ah, the simple pleasures).
Saturday morning we were woken up (well, I think we were both just lounging and being slugs) by a call from the Horsey Friends. It turned out that the hay guy had drought a wagonload over the night before and just left the whole wagon while the Horsey Friends were out. Of course, it started pouring at five in the AM and they both frantically tosses 70-odd bales of wet hay into the barn to try to salvage it. Of course, it continued to pour all morning and Horsey Friend wanted to get the babies completely soaked babies in so they could dry out. This meant moving the hay and figuring out a way to dry it out. So needless to say, they had already had the morning from hell and really needed an extra set of hands. So off I went. I really wanted to ride that day (see previous post about stressing out over Joust Clinic), but it looked like the weather was out to get me again. Getting the hay restacked turned out to not be terrible; we also had help from Horsey Friend's Husband's Brother who was in town with his family (My naming convention is starting to get out of hand). He's an awesome guy and we all spent the whole time being wet, dirty, and totally cracking up. When we were all done with the hay, got everybody in and fed, and headed back to the house we were greeted by a faboo breakfast from Horsey Friend’s Husband’s Brother’s wife. Mmmmmm... Bacon... Yes, after after doing farm work, the whole Big Country Breakfast makes a lot of sense. We lounged around, cursed the rain, and wrestled with the kids. I was cranky about the not-riding thing, but all and all it was a very fun day. After that I headed in to meet the crew at Mom's Sweat Shop and had a nice evening hanging, chatting, and eating. I actually got some work done on my jousting shield as well! So Saturday was a good day.
Sunday we got up and were greeted by a lovely day; bright, warm, and just a little breezy. We made a Home Depot run, had a diner breakfast, and headed down to the farm. The Wife and I split duties chasing horses and trying to put fly masks and fly spray on them. It's funny the amazing the different reactions horses have to that. The Mook, Cedar, and Val all seem to get that it's a good thing and they won't be tortured by the flies as bad and stand there like perfect gentleman as you spray them. Sooty and Ravait but were buttheads about it and there was a good twenty minutes of running and chasing. Oh well, I needed a workout. The babies are usually the worst, but with Horsey Friend's Husband's help we pulled a bit of a fast one on the two boys and got everybody sprayed and masked without too much incident. The Wife, on the other hand, had her hands full with Lacey. She was DEAD SET against being caught. It turned into an hour and a half ordeal. It was not pretty. Eventually The Wife won (she always does), and The Saga of the Fly Spray was finally over. I pulled out The Mook and got him all saddled up to finally get some riding in. I did come round pen work with him first with my metal leg harness tied to the saddle. They were banging all over the place and he didn't even flinch. He even paid good attention to me and did his warm-ups with no issues. Well, he did sandbag a little and needed a little encouragement to get going, but nothing too major. He did so wee with the leg harness that tonight I think I might be daring enough to put them on and ride 9something I haven’t done since the incident with Sooty last year). I rode him for a good 40 minutes or so. He’s getting better about the neck reining; not great yet, but I was able to knot my reins short and ride him with one hand (mostly). He did just fine with the lance as well. I rode him around the arena a few times smacking my lance against the flag pones right in front of his nose with no issue. We even did a few "tilt line runs" against the fence and he did great. It was a great ride and I am so happy he’s getting his brain back. After that we ran off to got an actual showing of the house we cruised by Friday night. It was actually really nice! The house is a completely renovated old farmhouse with a large addition. Great kitchen, vinyl siding, deck, the works. There is a gi-normous garage/workshop as well. The land is all grass/scrub that would make fine pasture. One oddity is that there is a trailer home on the property that is currently rented to a family of three. Sadly, they will have to go and their yard will be turned into pasture. As for the trailer; The Wife would just want to get rid of it, but I think it would make an awesome guest house/clubhouse! We would also have to build a barn, but the place is priced right so that would be doable. So, a very interesting option; one that we very well might move on. After that it was Dinner at Don Pablo’s for pseudo-Mexican (but still tasty), home to do a little laundry, and fall asleep watching TV.
All in all, a very good weekend!