Hadjo gets a new sweatshirt, Al gets a little more peace of mind.

Hey, check this out--I actually started and finished a project in the same afternoon!  Bella, I'm embarrassed to admit, is a bit of a bully at feeding time and has been harassing poor Al Capony while he's minding his own business in his stall.  It seems the 5-foot stock panel between them isn't tall enough to keep Ms. Giraffe Neck out of trouble, so I had to make an extension.  I used 1.5" PVC pipe, which is lightweight but strong enough to stand up to her curiosity.  It won't hold up to a determined assault, but she's pretty good at respecting visual barriers so it has worked like a charm so far.



I may look a little drunk in this picture, but I assure you I wasn't.



Seems to do the trick.

Now everyone can eat in peace.

Hadjo knows he's supposed to stay on the other side of the gate,

But he hates it when I talk nice to the horses!

Yesterday Hadjo's new sweatshirt came, finally!  The temperatures have been hovering between 55 and 65, so my little wiener dog has been shivering for a couple weeks.  His old sweater finally disintegrated and it's been a real challenge finding a new one that fits him.  This one is--ahem--a bit tight, but will keep him warm enough to get through the fall weather.  Now that I know this company's size range, I'll order him a slightly larger sweater for the winter months.

I feel so much better!

 

This property protected by Hadjo T. Dog.

Better get back to work.  It's been raining for the last 7 days straight, so I've been working on the little 9x8 foot bedroom that will house my office and the smaller loom.  The bottom of each wall is painted now; next I'll put up the wallpaper I bought five years ago for the office I never finished in North Carolina.  Maybe I'll have better luck with this one!

Odds and Ends

Here are a few miscellaneous pictures and the occasional odd thought bouncing around inside my head:

Fall has arrived!

Any other person, walking down our road:  "Gosh, those trees sure are pretty!"

Me, walking down the same road:  "Oh no, oh no!!!  Winter's almost here!!!  I don't have the stupid milk house down yet!!  I don't have the west barn wall reinforced!!  I need to put in a supply of shavings and straw!!  There's no pump in the barn well yet!!  We never got a wood stove or a generator...etc, etc"

Sigh.

A couple views of a strange-looking cloud floating by

According to the TV commercials, I'm supposed to tell my doctor to prescribe me the latest drug.  I'm also supposed to tell him what allergies I have and if I have a history of bleeding ulcers.   Then, I need to tell him about the other drugs I'm taking.  Apparently, my doctor is a total moron who should not be allowed to practice medicine.  I should start seeing my television for all my medical care instead.

Everyone here is on a diet lately:

Sasha checks her weight

 So I've started walking with Hadjo a little at a time.  The vet said to start out slow,  let him set the pace according to what's comfortable for his poor knees.  We have gone 1/4 mile so far.  He prefers to walk himself, though:

A pit bull pulling on a leash that's held together with tape.  Not reassuring to strangers.

And he's gotten to where I can just drop the leash altogether and he'll take himself inside:

The pasture is looking a little ratty so late in the year, but the Barn People are still getting plenty of snack time in.  As a matter of fact, they are putting in way more time there now than they did all summer--the frosts and the one freeze we had pretty much killed off the damned bugs.  Most of them, anyhow...

Aaaaaah!!  I didn't get that hayloft closed up over the summer!!

Whatcha doin', Mom?  Got grain?

I just trimmed Bella's bangs and she's irritated because she thinks she looks stupid.

I realized the other day that we could probably eliminate the entire national debt and balance the budget if we just declared a 6-month moratorium on personal injury and class-action lawsuits...

The apple tree is so full of ripe apples now that it's broken off a large branch.  Bad management on our part, but we were distracted by other things.

LOTS of apples!

They are baking apples, not eating apples--they're a little small and pretty tart, but really good.  So far I've picked 2 bins full.  We'll preserve some and pack several bins in straw to give to the Barn People over the winter.  They'll like that.

Well, time to go do something before winter gets here.

Back to Work

It's been a couple weeks again since I last posted.  As happens in late summer around here, the weather has been swinging rapidly between hot/humid and cold/windy; when that happens, I live in perpetual flare-up and spend lots of time in bed.  I think we're finally done with summer, though, and hopefully I'll acclimate quickly to the steadily cooling temps.  This is my very favorite time of year, and I'm looking forward to being able to work and play outside without having to deal with millions of insects.

Last weekend was the 10th anniversary of 9/11.  How could so much time have passed so quickly?!  Tony came up to visit for a couple of days and while he was here he helped us raise the old flag pole that had been broken off about a foot above ground (probably by a snowplow).  Thank God he was here--this was one of those projects I had thought would only take an hour or two; turned out the pole is made of cast iron and was a royal pain in the ass to drill and to set upright! 

Tony makes sure the pole is plumb

He got it done, though, and we were able to fly the flag at half-mast on Sunday.



Our flag flies for Patriot Day

 It was nice to see Tony again--we really miss having him drop by every afternoon on his way home from work.  We also miss having him come running when something scary is going on.  Thanks for making the trip, bro!

Over the weekend I watched some of the television programming related to the 9/11 memorial, parts of which opened on Sunday.  At first, I was annoyed to hear they were building another World Trade Center, but when I found out it was going up on the periphery of Ground Zero I felt better.  The actual site of the original twin towers is being left untouched, a very big deal when you consider that the business community considers this to be some of the most valuable real estate on the planet.  The "footprint" of each tower has been turned into a waterfall memorial, with the names of each person who died in the attacks engraved into the surrounding walls.  In between is a memorial museum and they are building a new transit station that has been oriented in such a way that on every September 11th at 10:38 a.m. (the time the second tower collapsed) a shaft of sunlight will shine down the middle of the station.  Very cool.  Also, very American--business as usual on one hand, respect for the fallen and a fitting tribute on the other.  It would be nice if the corporate community would operate with that kind of empathy on a regular basis.  We can always hope for that, I suppose.  While we're at it, let's hope and pray that a day will come when innocent people don't have to pay the price for the religious intolerance, xenophobic arrogance and plain old greed of a few.  That's just my humble opinion, of course...