Saturday 1/22 - Jean was outside de-icing water for the horses and taking them warm water at 6:30am. Later in the day she took this photo and commented "Keeping water buckets thawed is a big job, but then these two really prefer the pond!"
Joe and Jean were off at 7am, headed towards Knoxville. Joe dropped Jean off at Horse Haven (https://horsehaventn.org/) a horse rescue near Lenoir City, for her meeting and tour and he went on to the Men's Warehouse in Knoxville to shop for a new suit to wear at Dan and Val's wedding.
I hit the gym to workout and then shower. Joe was home (with a new suit) when I got back. After lunch, Maggie and I (followed by Patty) went to the ranch. Jean took this photo of the dog on Mama's memorial bench.
Maggie and Parm were introduced. The stool was to block the hallway to keep Maggie out of that section of the house and allow Parm to retreat when he needed.
Parm was pretty quick to tell Maggie who the house boss was, and Maggie, knowing that cats are NOT to be messed with, was happy to come visit on Parm's terms.
Jean and I did some more sorting (through towels this time) and had five piles (Jean's house, our FG house, barn, family giveaway, and thrift store) by the time we were done.
Patty had gone down to the barn to take Wanda some extra cat food and give her some loving. Wanda had two dead voles she was quite proud of and playing with, when Patty got down there.
Maggie and I helped Jean with chores. We took some towels to the barn and checked on Wanda.
In this photo, Jean was trying to get the horses to the heated water bucket, so they would know it (thawed and actually warm water) was available. So far, they hadn't been using it.
We did some mucking of the loafing shed, pasture area around it, picked up some sticks (with Maggie's help), and filled in an area of holes out in the field we had discovered when looking to see what the neighbors dogs had been doing out there. It was a cluster of many little animal holes in the ground (like a chipmunk village) but two big holes existed where the dogs had dug, probably trying to get to the burrowing critters.
Jean took this photo as we finished up chores.
It was feeding time when I got home, and first I took care of Rose before it got any darker. After we all ate, I settled into bed early, to read, but I only lasted till 8:15pm.
Sunday 1/23 - The 5am rude awakening of a cat barfing started my day. I was going to wait and clean it up after the sun (and Joe) had risen. Well, Joe ended up getting up (in the dark) and stepped in it. The poor man. He sure puts up with a lot, with me and my four cats.
The moon lit the sky in the pre-dawn hour.
It was a cold morning. Rose stayed in bed until I went out to feed her and the deer. She is a lot like Wanda, really wanting affection, but is also a lot more friendly (lets me hold her). This is her new cat bed, with an old coat in it, under the porch on the SE side of our house. You can see that the morning sun shines in which helps warm the space.
She is a sweet cat, and quite fat and happy I think.
Waiting for the day to warm up, Joe and I didn't go to the ranch until 11am, driving separately. I swung by Shirley's to pick up her un-needed fireplace tools I wanted to try, and that we really need at the ranch.
Joe got Jean's TV hung on the swivel/tilt bracket unit that was already mounted on her bedroom wall, and then we had lunch together.
Replacing the light bulb in the hall fixture was quite the challenge. We couldn't get to the burnt out bulb, and then we discovered it took circular florescent bulbs. So we will need to order those. I helped Joe load recycle and trash from all our out buildings and he headed home.
After other little tasks around the house, organizing still, Jean and I went out to do chores together. We went down to the barn after our Paso Finos were fed and set for the night.
This is a close-up and a lighter copy of the photo below, so you can see Jean and Maggie.
The sun was setting and it was getting colder as we walked back up to the house from the barn. And you can see how mucky the drive was (and still is).
I did the trash and recycling collection at home; added to my usual evening pet care and kitchen chores.
Monday 1/24 - If ever a whole day could be wasted, today was a good example of it. I sat here at my computer much of the morning. Can you see the buck rubbing his antlers on a little shrub across the creek?
Glad he chose that one rather than one of the ornamental trees I have planted. The black drain pipes around the trunks of the little trees has really helped deter the rubbing on them, and saved them. Buck have killed more than one of our trees down back.
I spent probably three hours working on this thousand piece puzzle. Finally at 2:30, I made myself stop so I could get a workout and shower in at the gym. I was so close to being done too.
Susan sent this photo she took during the last snow, of Amiga and Zorro greeting Maslo, Cowboy, and Rio. That is the electric fence between them, going east from the machine shed towards the back pasture gate. We did well getting it built straight.
Susan took this photo today of our two Pasos, saying what a difference a few days can make. Zorro is in the foreground.
I got home at 5:30. Poker Joe was gone so walking Maggie was added to my evening chores. I went to bed at 8pm to read, but didn't last long.
Tuesday 1/25 - This was the morning of our Thrift Store Dash (like a bar crawl, only faster). I made a map of the seven preferred stores to hit, out of all of these choices.
We dropped off a lot more stuff than what we bought, and both came home with something we were looking for.
I picked up Britney's bridesmaid dress from the seamstress. I finished my novel I had started on Christmas vacation, and dropped it at the library on the way to the gym. An hour on the elliptical helped me justify popcorn during our evening movie on TV.
Wednesday 1/26 - Jean sent this photo of her morning view while she computerized. Britney had sent a video as well. We early birds like to share these kinds of things (and also photos of our cute kitties) during our morning routines. Jean had also shared this (video) of our Paso Finos racing around yesterday morning. Yikes, someone might get hurt.
It was an 18° cold morning and I could see frost on the golf course from my view.
Driving home from the gym yesterday, this is the view I had of the mountains (from Lakeview by Druid pool). I was wondering if it was cloud shadow, or snow, or what? This morning, Wiley Cyotie posted this photo on 'Watchable Wildlife in Fairfield Glade' and commented that it was the frost line. So now I know.
We unloaded the mattress in the garage.
Jean came out and we re-organized the garage, putting all the Restore stuff in one pile right in front.
Our first job was to move another round bale up to the side pasture for Amiga and Zorro. The bottom of the bale was moldy, so I was removing that hay to dump in the manure pile.
We cleaned the floor of the machine shed where the round bales had been, and hauled some
hay down to the barn. Joe gave Jean a quick lesson on how to operate
the tractor.
Joe left for an appointment in town and Jean and I hauled some manure to the pile behind the dam of the lower pond.
We stopped for a lunch break, walking up through the front pasture to check on the holes I had filled in. In this photo, Maggie is honing in on something. She is pointing with her front right leg.
Entering the sun room, Jean spotted a tiny Anole, missing half it's tail. We tried to capture it, but it escaped from me and went under the sectional. Later, we saw it sunning back behind the sectional and Jean gave it some water.
After lunch we tried fixing a broken shelf bracket, did a little more organizing, and hung a few pictures. I love this one I had brought from our dinning room wall (where it didn't really go with my safari theme). It looks good on Jean's living room wall, but I wish it was larger.
The running horses with the mountains in the background go perfect with our Mountain View Ranch theme.
I took this photo with my back against the opening between the sun room and living room. We have found spots for Jean's furnishings and she has gotten all her belongings from these two rooms organized and stored away. The plants really add life and tranquility to the sun room, as does Mama's little water fountain.
Jean continues to work on the process of getting Parm and Maggie to befriend each other. Maggie is willing but cautious (cats are unpredictable) and Parm is aloof and unbothered (dogs are on a lower hierarchy than cats).
I was trying to get a photo of all three looking at me. In the last one, they were, but Jean had a funny expression on her face.
We headed back outside to walk the back pasture, looking for any breaks in the fence. Two of the boarded horses had gotten little cuts on their legs and the day before it was discovered that Billy's electric wire had broken. He fixed it immediately after I notified Terry. All looked well with our fence, although barbwire is not a great choice with horses. It didn't appear that any of the boarded horses had been getting into it.
Zorro pawing impatiently at the feed room door and gate to the run-in shed while I was pouring a new bag of feed into their food container.
Later Zorro was enjoying the new round bale after I had fed and was finishing up chores.
Amiga usually hits the salt and mineral blocks after she eats. It looks nice and sunny in this photo, but was actually quite cold and the wind had picked up so it was getting colder.
Joe arrived back at Jean's house (the poker game was cancelled due to lack of players). He replaced the odd circular hallway light bulb, and I put the cover back on the fixture. Joe also fixed the shelf bracket, as we continue to try to help Jean get settled in so she can get into a routine.
Thursday 1/27 - This is several of my crazy, silly, fun saddle sisters. We met for lunch and to celebrate Karen's birthday.
I had gone to the gym before going to town for Karen's party (and Jean, back at the ranch, supervised the guys from Restore who came to pick up a bunch of furnishings from the garage).
I hit Walmart and dropped more stuff off at a thrift store on the way home.
Once the car was unloaded and items stowed away, I got the guest bedroom ready (making the bed, moving two paintings and adding a third one). That is the bed spread Mom made that I can’t use on our bed because with four cats there’s a lot of hair and throw up. And that bedspread is very difficult to wash.
Just before Jean arrived, I threw the frozen chicken Alfredo dinner into the oven. Jean looked over some of my dresses, selected a few, and did some 'modeling', wanting my input on all of the possibilities.
It was spitting snow when I went into the gym. As you can see, the place was quite empty. I did the elliptical, and rowing.
Ninety minutes later when I left the gym, there was over an inch of snow on the ground and my car. I scrapped the worst of it off and took the most level route home, making it without a problem. The snow was pretty coming down, there was very little traffic, and no cars had been up or down Flossmoor Circle (in this photo). Jean had sent this (video) of Amiga and Zorro enjoying their hay while the snow started.
Snow is becoming a little too routine for my liking.
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