Home At Last

Anytime we travel, I am always so glad to get to our destination, whether it took an hour or a day to get there.  And arriving back home is even a sweeter feeling, especially after a longer absence.  I know our pets are always glad to have us home too, because of their welcome.

The longer we've been away, the happier they are to see us.

I am so thankful I have a wonderful house, neighborhood, and place to come home to.  I wish everyone had a safe, comfortable, fun home.

Saturday 1/5 - Having arrived home at 8:15 (am!), the cats were on me like flies on... well, lets just say they were glad I was home and did not want to let me out of their sight.










Joe and I got the SUV unloaded, and then he went to get groceries and the dog while I finished up and posted the vacation blog.

After kicking Stevie off my lap (above), Monita moved in and was trying to sleep on my arm, making it tough to move my mouse.  When she switched to the other arm, it hindered my typing.





She would even bat at me, wanting my attention.




Eventually I shut my computer down and got to 'house' work.  It was so nice to have gotten home so early in the day.  This gave me lots of time to un-pack, do laundry, and start taking down and packing up Christmas.  All the stuff we had drug to Florida, and even more we had drug back, also needed to be sorted through and put away. 

Echo and Whiskey

I jumped at the opportunity to stop with the 'house' cleaning when Brian invited us to join him for a beer at Ken and Linnea's.  I was so tired, I was ready to go to bed, but Linnea was only going to be in town a few days. 








We had a nice visit and I especially enjoyed meeting their two rescue kitties.  Whiskey is the girl with the white star on her forehead and her brother is Echo.

We got home at 8pm and I went straight to bed.  I couldn't even get a page of my book read.

Sunday 1/6 - Eight hours of sleep and I was up at 4:30, but had a headache.  And actually, the cold sore I got in FL was worse, I had a swollen lymph node on my jaw near it, and my sinuses hurt behind my eyes.  

After Joe woke up, we opened Christmas gifts to each other.  I am not complaining because I have gotten my sunroom...




... which far exceeds the costs of all the Christmas and birthday gifts I will get the remainder of my life.  However, I just want to point out, I got Joe a 96 variety pack of single brew coffees and some socks.  He got himself a new Keurig and a new blender.  For me, he bought a new vacuum, except vacuuming is his job.  I guess though, because it is cordless, I may grab it to do the kitchen/dinning area and sunroom which I sweep regularly.  

I tried a sinus rinse followed by a steroid nasal spray as prescribed a year ago.  It seemed to helped relive the pressure, so I felt well enough to tackle Christmas decorations.  It was a beautiful sunny day, so after I got the Christmas tree down and all the tree lights and ornaments put away (seen right), I went to the barn.









Patty and Jan were going to meet me at the barn.  Apparently, we had had a lot of rain and many of the horses were fairly dirty.  Zorro was a filthy mess. 


While getting Amiga, and before Jan arrived, I sent her this photo of Cash rolling in the mud, telling her he was getting ready for her. LOL

There were a bunch of others at the barn, at different stages of getting their horses and horsing around.




Patty and Emily and I rode out while waiting for Jan to join us.  The trails were a muddy mess so we took it slowly.







On the way out, we met Steve who was just coming back from a ride.  He said the Holly Trail was very slippery.




Amiga and Zorro were kind of hyper, it had been a while since both had been ridden.  It was too wet to ride in any of the fields, but the sun was nice, the day warm (upper 50s), and it was pleasant being out on our horses.  My headache even went away.

We only rode to the bean field and back.  By now, Jan was ready to ride, as were Cheryl and a new boarder Yvonne.  She is on Sadie, the bay.










While I rode with these three ladies, in the big pasture by the road, Patty worked with Zorro in the round pen.


I had my hands full with Amiga, and was just trying to keep her at a walk, especially since the ground was still kind of spongy.


The little boy puppy has been adopted but the little girl returned a second time because she is just too hyper.  Somehow she got up on the top of the large crate and was napping while I put my tack away.

Monday 1/7 - I had gone to bed early, so was up early.
There was a morning visitor quite close to the house, looking for spilled bird seed.

After Ballroom aerobics and weights, I went to Food City to get salad fixin's.  The wind was so strong, it had their giant flag whipping straight out horizontally.
  













After lunch I cleaned out bird feeders and hung a new one I had gotten from sister Cathy for my birthday.








Then without delay, I was off to the barn to enjoy yet another warm winter day.

Karen was there, unable to get Levi from the winter pasture across the road, so I suggested she ride Zorro.  Yvonne joined us riding her other horse Monte.

In this photo, you can see Chester rushing past Amiga and Zorro.  He loves being out on the trail with us.

We rode past the bean field and on down the trail a little ways.  We were pretty well protected from the wind.

Once Jan was saddled and ready to ride, we took to the big pasture.  Again I had to really work to keep Amiga from getting all revved up.




Jan and I found relief from the strong wind when we went into the woods for a trail ride, going to the top of the hill on Holly Trail.

Once home at 5pm, I couldn't figure out where Joe was. He had gone to the gym to workout.  He is taking his New Year's resolution to lose weight quite seriously this time.  We'll see how long it lasts.

I was in bed and turned the lights out at an all time early record of 7:30.  I just couldn't keep my eyes open.

Tuesday 1/8 - I was wide awake just after midnight, so got up and onto my computer until 2:30am.  I guess I shouldn't have gone to bed so early.  I saw this poster and thought how true.  Ever since I came off Amiga (because of broken cinch, not necessarily poor riding) I get kind of worried when she starts crow hopping and spinning.  My confidence has definately been rattled.


I woke for my real morning at 6:30, getting a total of eight hours of sleep.  A few more hours of 'playing' on my computer and I was done with that for the day.  I needed to continue taking Christmas decorations down from the kitchen, dinning, entry, and mantel.



The day started cloudy with light rain off and on.  These photos were taken the day before when there was sunshine.  My three 'helpers' think Christmas clean-up is play time with fun and games and were underfoot again.

I vacuumed up artificial tree litter and pet hair.  Then Joe helped me move the table back in front of the large picture window.  My next plan is to start a 1,000 piece Christmas puzzle I bought at an estate sale.  Do you see what I see?  Not the golfer on #17 green, but Stevie hiding (or sunning) among more decorations that still need to be boxed up.






I went to Bible study and then proceeded to the barn.  My sinus headache was really hurting again, but Jan had convinced me to join her because cold weather was coming.





We rode out from the barn together but then I continued down Holly trail to the creek crossing (video).  It was slick going down so I decided not to go up the larger hill on the other side.

Coming home, I dismounted several times to remove branches and large sticks from the trail.  Amiga did very well with all this commotion.








Joe had made a concoction with his new blender to drink for dinner.  I had eaten a large salad for lunch so opted for beer and popcorn.  We watched two Jack Ryan episodes.

Wednesday 1/9 - Waiting for the sun to come up, our pets always hang out in the sunroom as I work and play here at my computer.  Maggie lies watch and the cats often try to get my attention.








It was a sunny day, but considerably colder (mid 30s instead of low 60s).  I lifted weights before Ballroom aerobics (instead of after) so then stayed for the stretch part of class.  After a quick shower at the gym, I went straight into Crossville to shop.


2:30pm, I was home at last.  By the time I got everything unloaded and stowed away, walked the dog, and ate a very early supper (I only had mixed nuts for lunch), I was too tired to work on Christmas decorations.  So I messed here at my computer, with the three critters nearby, and then sat in the recliner and read.

Thursday 1/10 - I woke with bad abdominal pain which radiated down my right leg while walking Maggie.  But as soon as my digestive system started moving, I felt much better.  It was going to be another cold day and I was bound and determined to finish up Christmas clean-up, which I did make huge progress on.  It involved lots of dusting, some sweeping, and I also did three loads of laundry.
Mid-day the sun was really pouring in through our windows.  It warms up our house so much.

I did 45 minutes of aerobic work at the gym, and then the one hour stretch class that Joe also came to.  I am always thankful for the physical things I can do, and continue to work at improving (or at least maintaining) my strength, balance, endurance, and flexibility.  Joe and I both made salads for dinner and later watched two more episodes of the Jack Ryan series.

Friday 1/11 -  Since I've been retired for five years now, I never get excited about it being Friday anymore.  But I can appreciate the working folks' enthusiasm for Fridays.

Early in the day, we had two different groups of deer come visit.  The first group did not leave much, if any, corn for the second group.  Below you can see the shadow of our house on the hill across the creek.

I was not happy that this squirrel was eating a bunch of buds off the dogwood right outside my window.  I have thought about putting an anti-critter device around the trunk.  The chipmunks have done a lot of damage in years past.  But, what fun to watch this furry creature up close.  And the cats were going nuts.





It ended up being a very productive day, although I would later pay for overdoing it.


I finally got every last bit of all my Christmas decorations down.  The cats were not helping with the boxing process, but were good, fun company.




I got all the bins and bags up to the balcony, but was out of time to stow them away in the bunk room.

At noon, Joe and I both drove to the barn.  We took Maggie with us, who met the little girl puppy and enjoyed racing around with her for a few minutes.  We got a second garden rake and piled into the SUV and drove to Stradford Dr.

Joe worked for about 90 minutes on the steep hill going down to the creek.  I had crossed the creek and went 2/3rds the way up the hill on the other side and worked my way towards the creek.  We were both raking leaves off the trail, picking up sticks, and removing lose rocks.  Maggie found a golf ball that entertained her for awhile.  

Once we both got to the creek, (right photo of trail Joe had cleared), Joe headed back to the SUV with Maggie and I continued clearing the trail up the hill towards the barn.  The rake was only used on the hill, but as I walked back to the barn, I continued picking up sticks and rocks.

It was already 3:30 when I got back to the barn, sore and exhausted.  But with more rain coming, I really wanted to ride at least part of the trail.  Haley was bringing in horses, so while Amiga ate her grain, I helped out Haley.  With time ticking, I quickly tacked up Amiga and rode out, taking the Holly trail down to the creek and back.  This (video) gives you an idea of the trail.  The hill doesn't look as steep as it actually is.  In this photo, you can see it was getting dark as Amiga and I emerged from the woods.

Home after 5:30 for a quick shower and bite to eat and then Joe and I headed to Reds.  We meet Ana, Patty, Yvonne, and her husband Jim.

Yvonne and Patty actually sang three or four songs and Ana and I were the backup dancers.  There was plenty of good singing and dancing to satisfy my dancing bug.  However, when I laid me down to sleep, I was completely exhausted.