HUNT SEASON IS OPEN!!!

Today was the first day of cubbing with Independence Foxhounds, the hunt that we ride with. Despite incredibly dry weather and the fires in central Texas, a good group of people made it out.

We started out second flight since the boys aren't in great shape. It was the hubby's first time hunting on Saga and they did really well together, although both Saga and Red were ON as soon as we left the trailer - they were actually both pretty fussy, but eventually settled down. Here's second flight crossing a dry stream bed (Exmoor this isn't!)

First flight gallops off after the hounds.

Passing around the flask during a break. We decided to move up with first flight at this point - they had better alcohol. ;)

Apparently, if you want to ride first flight (pictured here with hubby and Saga in the foreground) you need a large bay gelding. Who knew?

Post-hunt, with bugs stuck to our teeth! Unfortunately we saw absolutely no game - due to the dry weather the coyotes haven't been breeding and the deer population is way down - but we had a fabulous time riding with great people!

After two hours hunting, Saga's Easyboots were still on tight! We were very impressed with their performance. Red hunted barefoot all around.

On the way home, we encountered this classy vehicle. It's a John Deere riding lawnmower with a garden cart hitched to the back... the husband is driving and the wife (in the garden cart) has a huge pastel-striped golf umbrella. The occupants appeared to be on their way to the grocery store. I think I need one of these...

Don't DO that to me, my nerves can't take it!

With all the fires in central Texas the last few days, I'm jumpy. The greenbelt behind my house is a tinderbox, and I really do live in fear that someone will start a fire back there and we'll have to get the horses - and all the other animals - out very quickly.

So you might understand why I freaked out when I turned down our street today on my way home from work and saw a FIRE TRUCK PARKED IN FRONT OF MY HOUSE.

After leaping from a still-moving vehicle to see where the heck the fire was, I realized that the two firemen attending the truck were just standing there, and there were no smoke or flames to be seen. The other vehicles that were there appeared to be utility trucks... and then one gentleman told me that the utility company had been digging and broken our gas line. The firemen were there as a precaution.

Well why didn't they say so in the first place?!?! I think I just lost several years of life!

(The gas was finally reconnected at 10:30 p.m. Not having any way to cook put a certain crimp in our dinner plans, but was otherwise uneventful. I did thank the firefighters for everything they and their compatriots have been doing out in Bastrop and across the state, though. They're doing an amazing job!)

Hot and cold

Thank you everyone for your thoughts about the fires here. They seem to be getting things under control since the winds have died down. However, there are new fires popping up daily (there were three in our area yesterday, but fortunately were all small and put out before they damaged anything other than brush) so fire remains a very real threat. Please keep sending your thoughts to the folks who have lost so much, both here in Texas and along the east coast.

In spite of the fires, we had a cold front come through yesterday! I actually wore a sweatshirt and a JACKET out to feed the boys yesterday morning and again this morning!

Yes, it really was 58 degrees outside this morning at 6 a.m. Break out the parkas!

Last night I went for a short ride, and it was shockingly pleasant - 89 degrees at 7 p.m. For the first time in months, I didn't feel like I was inside a hair dryer. How nice! I could get used to this... except that the weather forecast has it back up to 100 by Sunday. Sigh.

Where there's smoke...

... there's fire.

There are dozens of fires in Central Texas right now. There is one about 15 miles to the west of us, and the huge Bastrop fire, which is making national news, is about 20 miles east. We are currently out of harm's way since the winds are carrying the fires south, but there's smoke every where you look. We could smell smoke in the air while feeding the boys this morning, and the drive into work was quite hazy.

A group of folks we know have mobilized to get horses clear of the blaze - the retirement farm where Cash used to live currently has 30 evacuees. All of our horsey friends in the area have evacuation plans, and so do we. Our local police and our neighbors know where the horse's halters are and have instructions to just open the gates and let them out if there's no time to rescue them in a more controlled manner. We have one rig hitched and the other will be hitched and loaded tonight. We have a bag packed. I'm not terribly worried that one of the current fires might reach us (unless the winds change), but new fires are starting all over. The biggest concern would be a fire starting in the greenbelt to our immediate north - if that were to happen and the winds are from the north, we might very little time to get out. The thought is frankly terrifying, and I can only begin to imagine what other folks are going through.

There are many organizations taking donations at this time, so if you find it in your heart to help, there are thousands of families who would be very grateful. If you're in the thick of things up north with the flooding, or in the drought or in the fires, then my heart goes out to you. These are challenging times - please reach out and help a friend or neighbor in need.

Holey hoof - Taran update

Taran is two months into his rehab and continues to do fabulously well. He's still on stall rest, except for 2 hand walks per day. We should be able to set up a tiny 12x12 "run" for him just outside his stall sometime this week - we just have to find time to do it!

He continues to have a hospital plate on the injured foot and a regular "supportive" shoe on his other foot. We change out the gauze packing in his foot every 4-5 days, per vet's orders.

Here's the surgery site. His sole and frog are kinda orange due to the rust on the hospital plate - it's plain steel, not stainless. The holes in his shoe are for the bolts to hold the plate on.

You can see the huuuuge event line where his hoof wall (especially near the heel) has a big indentation. It will be interesting to see how that grows out, but for now it's contributing to his heels being underrun.

You can see what poor condition his heels are in here - but hey, he's healing well from surgery. One thing at a time!

Several weeks ago, he was starting to be a little short on the injured foot, which the vet diagnosed as DDFT pain. This is not surprising given his long toes and underrun heels, not to mention the fact that the nail may have damaged the DDFT. The farrier moved his shoes back and is working to better support his heel and shorten his toe, and Taran is doing much better now. I suspect this will be an ongoing battle until the hospital plate and shoes come off and we can get more miles on his feet to engage the caudal hoof - but for now, we're working with what we have.

Otherwise, Taran is in good spirits and enjoys daily grooming sessions with Cash and Saga over his stall door. He also makes sure to stop by the water trough as often as possible to go "snorkeling" (this is what we call it when he submerges his face up to his eyeballs in the water. Weird horse).

Painting needs new home

My husband and I are having a tiiiiny argument about a painting in our living room. I hate it; he has an incomprehensible fondness for the thing. I want it gone, he's currently lobbying to put the damn thing in our bedroom, since we now have antique maps in its previous home in the living room.

I told him if it went in the bedroom, I'm sleeping on the couch in the living room. He's decided that it's not going in the bedroom.

He asked the kiddos if either of them wanted it for their bedrooms. Shockingly, they said no, so I guess taste isn't entirely genetic.

I even called his mother about this painting. After all, it came from his parent's house, so I figured they had some sort of attachment to the thing - or maybe it was painted by a great-grand-aunt and it was a family heirloom? The conversation went something like this:

"Hey, I have a really important question for you about that painting in the... yes, the brown one... yes, with the stream... So your mom and dad bought it off some street painter on a trip? .... And foisted it off on you? ... Hanging in the guest bedroom, huh? And then in the attic? ... So you were glad to get rid of it? ... No, I guess there's no accounting for taste, is there?"

I knew there was a reason I love my mother-in-law so much.

At first glance, you're probably thinking, "Oh, a nice woodland scene in the fall. What's wrong with that?" And then you look closer and notice that the stream is actually higher than the path. That is impossible - water always flows to the lowest point. Maybe this is an early attempt by MC Escher to mess with the viewer's head? If so, it's working. (P.S. Note that I even tilted the painting slightly to the left in a desperate effort to make the stream lower. No dice.)

And those "rocks" in the painting? I swear that close-up they look like a herd of armadillos. See? IT'S AN ARMADILLO!

Too bad I don't have a guest bedroom or I could torture my guests with it. We do, however, have an attic...

(Note: At this moment the husband is saying how mean I am to his painting. He says that it will melt in the attic. Oh, the HORRORS! But I've gotta get it out of my dining room... anybody want a slightly strange painting of a herd of armadillos? Free to a good home!)

Mid-week critter - It's true what they say

You know how they say if you cut your hair, you look 10 pounds thinner and 5 years younger?

Here's Anie, pre-de-poofing.

And here she is, de-poofed. I'm pretty sure we got at least 10 pounds of hair off her! We left the hair on her legs, belly, and tail, for protection.

It took nearly a week to completely clip her. I tried just using the clippers, (Andis with #4 blades), but she had so much hair that it wasn't working very well. I ended up trimming her with scissors, then brushing her out, then trimming and brushing again, then perhaps one more trim/brush routine, before finally taking the clippers to her. I did this in small sections on her body, because she would get tired of me messing with her, and because after about 15 minutes the clippers would get warm. Despite daily brushings, she had some mats deep down in her 4-inch coat, which I felt really bad about.

She's also more active now without the poof. Her abscess has healed well and she's back to her old self! It's also amazing how quickly her coat is growing back in - even just a week after being clipped, she's got an inch of coat that needs daily brushing.