Cold, gray, windy, with frozen precip on the way. We’re kinda busy with keeping things that mustn’t freeze unfrozen, checking on the horses, checking on pipes, and (in my case) keeping hot food ready when we need it. Just came in from a check in the barn, scooping horse poop, putting out another flake of Read More…
Category: life beyond writing
A Long Way to Owl Pavilion: There And Back Again
Admittedly, nothing on 80 acres is really that far from anything else. But thanks to the terrain and vegetation, some things *feel* like the far end of everything. Used to be more that way, when no one lived on the property to the west and all the neighbors there were bovine (the farmer occasionally brought Read More…
Ride 21: Validation
As some of you will remember from posts on Facebook (when I could still get there)…the concussion I had in 2018 came from being bucked off by Mocha, a mare I had recently bought but not yet ridden (except that first brief ride with her former owner there) on the day she tossed me head Read More…
Ride 20: Reverse Circumnavigation of the East Grass: No Deer, No Drama
It was a day of seconds and one first, but we’ll take it in order. A day of perfect weather for a ride, whether long or short (this was short, under a half hour, more like 20 minutes, but somewhat strenuous for the rider.) Rags is improving steadily at accepting both halter and bridle and Read More…
Ride 19: When a Calm Horse Spooks Hard
An interesting ride. Instructive in multiple ways. The goal today was to ride around the East Grass, not right on the perimeter but in clear sight of all of it, for Rags’ awareness of place and routes. To start with, mounting went much better except for one little glitch (mine.) I was able to mount Read More…
Hockham Road Level Crossing: Example of Accident Investigation
This was just one of the accident/near-miss investigations I read from the RAIB site, thanks to Mike D sending me the link. It’s an excellent example (so were others, but this one had colored images enough to really “feel” the whole accident and its precursors on both the train side and the signallers’ side.) Read More…
Ride 16: The Other Half of West Grass
Last week was a cold, wet, muddy, colder, icy mess. This week was lovely, but the horses had a hoof trim in the middle of it. I was still trying to get all the caked mud off their coats and out of their hooves…once it dried neither horse felt I should be tugging at the Read More…
Sunny Week Ahead: But Will It Last?
Climate change right here has *generally* made winters less severe, warmer, but has also shifted the dates of first and last freeze, and first and last 100F days of summer. When we moved here, just over 40 years ago, the first cool break came in late August–not much cooler by day, but “crisper,” with a Read More…
Winter Storm 2022: Still Here
We’ve had the first burst of sun (about half an hour ago) and though clouds covered again within a minute, they were thinner. I see occasional streaks of blue as they blow past. We’re fine (but gee whillikers is it cold outside with the wind…!) It’s up around 20F now, but if the sun does Read More…
The Hard Question: How?
I’ve mentioned before that my mother was trained as an engineer–architectural, mechanical, and–later–aeronautical. As a result, my childhood was shaped by, among other things, her engineer-brain, which operated across domains usually thought of as engineering (machinery, buildings) and usually thought of as “women’s stuff” (needlework including designing garments, slipcovers, curtains, etc., storage of household things, Read More…