Muckety Muck

Muckety muck - a variation on muckamuck- a person of great self- importance.  Muck-raking -  trying to discover unpleasant information about people so that you can tell the public.  This cartoon made me think of the possible presidential race of Trump vs Clinton.  I am not political because I don't trust most politicians.  They are full of muck, and once elected, they run a muck, and usually muck things up.  I do not side with one party or the other.  I just want what's best and what's right for our country and all of mankind.  There is no way America will come out smelling like roses if we have to choose between Trump or Clinton.
Come on people, let's find better candidates!

I mucked about in different ways this week, and thus came up with this blog title.  When looking into the meaning of muck and it's different nuances, I came up with several forms of usage for this word, as I have shown in my first paragraph.  My week of muck was not related to all the negative connotations for the word.  I just had good clean fun in the mud, a little mischief, and mucked about- doing whatever came to mind.  Sometimes I completed random, unplanned work or activities; but other times I was lazy, and did things that were not thought out, and had no goals or accomplishments.  

Saturday after I posted last week's blog, I mucked about with laundry, dishes, hard boiling some eggs, and catching up here on e-mail and Facebook.  Then... oops, I forgot about the eggs and steamed them for almost 50 minutes.  Fearing I had mucked them up, I ate one, as usual for a mid-morning snack, and it actually wasn't too bad.  Phew.

I do muck about with photography, but am not a serious photographer, so the results are mediocre.  Flowers tend to catch my eye, so I try to catch their beauty.


Seen above, the rhododendron out front is now in full bloom.  What a beauty.  Seen left, some of the many iris we have, that are now blooming. 
   








I did outside work before going to paid work at the CC.  Not having time to cement, but rather than weeding, trimming, or planting flowers... I chose to work at desilting the pond entrance.  Every pond is in a dying process (succession) the moment it is created.  Leaves, weeds, algae and other organic matter travel to the bottom of the pond, taking the form of MUCK.  Not only does it contain toxic gases and harbor nutrients that cause excessive weed and algae problems, it deteriorates the pond ecosystem and gradually fills in the pond.


While I was, dredging out much of the sludge, I ran a-muck and decided to dig a canal from the creek over to the stagnant end of the pond near the bench, so water flow will keep it fresher.  I think there used to be a channel through here until it filled up with muck.
















The above photos show my work, at various stages, looking towards our back hill.  And, the series of photos below, show my progress while standing on our back hill looking towards the creek.



 
















It was a quiet night at the CC for Wendy and I, so we had to entertain each other.  An hour before closing, we had four guys, who had been golfing (and drinking) all day come in to use the hot tub and pool.  They had the potential of running a-muck, but mostly were just funny.




I was running late when getting ready for work, so did not have time to make my dinner.  I also hadn't made it to the grocery to pick up some needed things, so I had Joe go for me and also asked him to bring me a carry out salad from Food City.  He brought me dinner and also surprised me with flowers and a card for Mother's Day.


Once home, Stevie couldn't keep her grubby little mitts (mouth) off this pretty flowering Italian Heather.






Sunday, Mother's Day, was cool and cloudy, but did warm up nicely.  Courtney arrived before 11 am.  We enjoyed big toss salads for an early lunch and then went to the barn to muck around.

It is hard to get both horse and person looking good at the same time.

 Courtney took Zorro out into the round pen to work with him for awhile, and I tried to help Kayla with her new rescue horse Patience.




We had all afternoon, so were taking our time, just having fun, and enjoying the day.
I took several videos of Courtney riding. 
Video 1,  Video 2,  Video 3.












She and Zorro both did well, especially considering it has been since October when Zorro was last ridden and Courtney has last rode. 




Relaxing on the back porch was our next item of business.  Maggie is a master at this.  Courtney knitted and Joe joined us for  snacks and chatting.  Courtney even had time for a power nap while I watered all the house plants.

 The Mountain Laurel (seen right) is blooming out back, along the edge of the pond.

We got cleaned up and went to dinner at Ruby Tuesday's.  Courtney headed home and Joe and I went shopping on our way home.  We lost an hour of time in a traffic jam, another accident in the construction zone.  Ugh.

Monday morning I mucked about and started this blog.  Realizing rain (April showers bring May muck) was now in the forecast for the following day I headed out to do a little cementing before the rain would muck things up.


I worked an eight hour shift outside, moving and cleaning rock, cementing several into place, and then moving the paivers and more rock around.  Seen left, the plastic over the wall I had just finished.  I moved about half of the rock from the big rock pile and used them to kind of make a retaining wall farther down the hill.  Seen right, a photo I took just after a down pour on Wednesday morning.

    
Maggie does not like golfers in "our" backyard.  When they are back there looking for their mis-guided golf ball, Maggie seems to think they have run-a-muck and need to be barked at, and warned to get a move on.  I have been teaching her the word "friend"... and refer to it when I want her to stop barking at people, dogs, deer, garbage truck, mail car, etc.  I like one warning bark, but then that's enough, they are our friend, it is okay they are near our house, and no more barking is necessary.  We are making progress in this training process.

After an early dinner, I took Maggie on a long (two hour) walk, wanting aerobic exercise.  I really felt it in my legs from doing "squats" all day as I had moved rock and got down on my knees to work with the cement.


Tuesday I only spent a little time here (at my computer) since I needed to clean house to prepare for guests, Dan and Lana Hanson, friends from B/N, who were our neighbors for almost ten years.

Stevie has to investigate everything I do, like the empty laundry basket while the loads were in the wash.





Dan and Lana were running later than planned, which gave me added time to clean.  So, after the usual dusting of all rooms and cleaning the three bathrooms, I mopped all the floors after sweeping them.





It was threatening to rain shortly after the Handons got here (about 3 pm) so we put the pontoon boat ride on hold.  They brought their dog Sully, who Maggie had fun playing with.  This is the best photo I got of them because they were constantly on the move.  We relaxed on the back porch with some cold brews and chatted away, getting caught up with each others lives.  It was so good to see them after so long.



There were a few quick rain showers, but before dinner, it was clear and we had time to go look at the Tree House on our way to town.

I hadn't remembered this set of crosses, so took this photo.  The base was made out of an extension of one of the crosses that looked like root structure that kind of curved around and helped support the whole thing.  It was really neat.

Two other guys showed up while we were there, and for a minute, I thought we were busted.  As we were all leaving, we had them take our photo.

Brian and his two brothers, along with their wives, met us at Vegas.  We enjoyed good food, good drink, and good fellowship.


We had a big storm overnight and I went out to check on the water way wall.  The plastic had been partially washed off so I removed it because another big storm was due to hit.  Look how full the pond entrance was.




Around 9 am Wednesday we got another big storm and gully washer.  Later I heard that we had gotten almost six inches in under 24 hours.  Once it let up to a sprinkle, I went out to get some photos and videos.




Look at this video of the raging water way and flooded creek.

The water was moving so fast, it washed some of the rocks down the hill, but the ones I had cemented in held up great.

I went upstream along the back of Allen's yard and was amazed at the amount of water rushing through the creek bed.  It was going over and around his little bridge.  We were under a flash flood watch, and I could see why.  I took this video of the creek.







The water was running a-muck and was full of silt, sludge, sediment, and mire.  I hated that the water had also gotten high enough to dislodge sticks and leaves and carry them away.



While we waited for the weather to clear, we ate a Farmer's casserole I had made for breakfast.

Then we took a driving tour of Fairfield Glade, hitting the barn, Overlook trail (seen below), and both marinas.




We ended at the Conference Center to go for a swim and mostly just sat in the hot tub.












Finally, the sun came out and we went for a pontoon boat ride on Lake Dartmoor!  It was perfect boating weather. 


Not only did we enjoy looking at all the beautiful houses...



... but we saw lots of wildlife, including this wood duck and her nine ducklings (video).






Later, near the end of our voyage, we saw what we thought was a small duck, struggling in the water.  It turned out to be a dove, drowning, but we rescued her (video).  She was completely water logged when I pulled her out.  She just laid on my towel all the way back to the marina. We put her in a safe spot to dry off and rest.  We all hope she recovered.   




To end our visit, Hansons treated us to a late afternoon / early dinner at the Legends restaurant.  We mucked the Chicken Pasta Buffet... oh so good and filling.

We said our good-byes, Maggie and Sully had one last play session, then Dan, Lana, and Sully hit the road.

I took Maggie for a nice long walk, getting home after dark, and then Joe and I watched Survivor to end the evening.

I tried working on this blog post Thursday morning, but ended up wasting a lot of time mucking around on Facebook.  I had lots of videos to upload and many photos to select from, which also consumed a lot of the time.

The day was partly sunny, but the promise of afternoon rain would soon change the pretty skies.  Seen left, Stevie watching a chipmunk outside the front window.  About 10:30 I decided to go get in a ride and later work on my blog when it was raining.  I put on barn clothes, ate an early lunch, and walked the dog, so I didn't get to the barn until 11:30.

By the time I got on Amiga to ride out, the rain came.  It was a little pop up shower so I rode around inside the barn until it cleared off.  Then I hit the trails.  I had cleaned Amiga's fly masks, and put this one on because the flies were so bad.


The wild blackberry are in full bloom right now.  The power lines were really loud, sizzling kind of (video).  I think they do this when it is really wet or humid outside.

During our 90 minute trail ride, we got rained on three times.  I did canter or gait quickly back to the barn while it was lightly raining, but the thunder and lightening warned that heavier showers were on the way.  Seen right, and below, just before we started our race back to the barn, Amiga and I look over the gelding's pasture and can see rain clouds approaching.

Amiga and I got back to the barn in the nick of time, before the torrential downpour hit.  Her tack was a mess because we had been riding fairly fast through wet sand, so I worked at cleaning it up while it poured.  She got to hang out in her stall and eat grass while I waited out the storm.  Seen right, the gelding's pasture from a stall window.






Below, there was a garden meeting in the gazebo, and they had to gather in the middle because the rain was coming in, in all directions.





The sun came out as I drove home, so I chose to get some work done in back, to clean up the muck, mostly sticks and leaves, that had washed into the pond near the bench.  More rain came, and it looked like it would be steady into the night, so I came in for the day.  I debated going to the gym, but ended up sitting here, in my PJ's after a warm shower, with a cup of hot tea, because it had really cooled off.  Facebook and e-mail time took away from blogging.  I napped and still went to bed early.

It was cold out Friday morning, but at least the sun was finally shining more steadily.  One of our little squirrel friends took advantage of the warm rays, and sun bathed for a bit.


Maggie had the same idea, but Stevie was fiddling around, making rest difficult.  They always eventually work things out and will then rest together.


I wasn't close to finishing this blog, so quit and took Maggie for a long walk before I had to go into work.  I also dropped in to play with Shirley's little Miss Kitty for her while she is away.








It was a very busy night at the CC since Trivia was there from 7-9 and it was the last day to buy Music Festival tickets.  Sabrina worked Concessions in with the Trivia crowd and I manned the front desk on my own.