My Busy Life...

I still feel like I’m trying to recover from this summer!!! I’ve been going nonstop it seems since May. In May my step daughter graduated high school. We spent the week out in Maryland, luckily able to spend it in our friend’s house to save on hotel money. Our friends right now are stationed in Cheyenne so only their 19 year old daughter was there but she was a fantastic host. Steve’s parents also stayed with us there. It was a gorgeous house and so perfect for my childhood friend. I could see why it was her dream home!
 

 Cierras graduation was great to see and it was fun meeting many of her friends and family.  We went to Baltimore aquarium, saw movies and just caught up.  She is so grown up!  Starting college is one of the best times in life!  She is going to Salisbury University in Maryland and will be studying Marine Biology (I love aquatic sciences!).  It was so fun so see her again.  Hopefully we can attend some football games and cheer her cheering!!! We  also got a chance to chill with Steve’s parents at Dogfish Head Brewery in Delaware, a must for any home brewer!

 

I came home to find Loki with blistered type pustules on his face. The vet wanted $600 for a test of the face but for easier sampling we went with his belly where there were also outbreaks. Couldn’t justify the extra money when both outbreaks occurred at the same time, I figured they were related. The results were inconclusive and assumed an allergic reaction. To what I don’t know, the kennel he stayed at didn’t do much different than other kennels. The only thing was that perhaps he was exposed to those red ants since it was out in Falcon. Oh well, after several weeks of medication he got better and is perfectly fine and happy.
 

Then my brother was out to visit from Virginia. His wife, Brianne and their boy Bryson (only 8 month) also came with Brianne’s parents Lane and Donna. We did a lot of things after I got off work like dinner etc. Bryson even came out to see Dani at the barn. He was fascinated! It was great to have everyone out; we spent a nice day in the Black Forest Regional Park, grilling up brats and burgers. Steve and I made a big deal about collecting all the ashes for fire safety. The Tuesday following my brother’s departure started the Black Forest Fire.

The fire started west of the regional park we were at on Sunday but I was pretty sure the park must have burnt. I was activated for the emergency operations center and was busy for several weeks. Dani was moved for my peace of mind since I couldn’t easily have moved her while I was working the situation. You can read about that here.
 

After the fire was out I had a preplanned vacation where my freshman roommate and good friend Marie came out to visit for a week. I made sure my vacation was still a go and it was. We spent a good week in early July together chilling, doing some pony stuff, going to the pool and hanging in Denver for some fun exhibitions. It’s great to hang out with Marie, we always can just pick up where we left off and chillax. We even got to attend the 4th of July parade as pooper scoopers for the club! LOL.

 

 

I then was back to work and really wishing I could just take a week to do nothing. Housework is unfinished, the lawn is a wreck (though pretty green from the recent rains). My hubby constantly travels for work and most times I only get to see him Saturday because he has really quick turn arounds flying in on Friday night and leaving Sunday morning to head back to another job. Sometimes he actually gets a full weekend and that’s a little better. It gets old and I hate choosing between him and the horse but on the short turn arounds he’s usually just doing laundry and repacking and submitting his expense reports….

 

I’m trying to just get back into the groove of “normal” life and do a little at a time. I am trying to spend more time with Dani, working her on the Clinton Anderson method etc. I’m desensitizing her to the lead rope and stick and string. Whipping the ground near her is freaking her out but she is calming down. I’ll be getting to even scarier objects soon…like dangling noodles!! They’re gonna get her! She will benefit from a lot of different desensitizing. I really want to trail ride with her so all this is leading to that.

Right now I’m working on a co-op for buying hay, $11 a bale. That’s about $3.50 cheaper than this spring though some places are still charging that price. Hopefully it will come down even more next year but I’m happy with that price for now and it’s good brome hay. It’s taken a bit to get a hay co-op thing worked out for Kit Carson Riding Club, I’ll be discussing details with the board on August 7th and have a forum created already to hopefully help this along for the coming year. Can’t wait to launch it and get members on the forum!! Anyhow, that’s my life the past couple months!!