Down To The Wire

Down to the wire is a term that comes from horse racing, where it was (for a long time) the practice to stretch a wire across and above the race track at the finish line. 

So this phrase can mean the outcome isn't determined until the last second.  It also is used in reference to waiting until the last minute to do something, which us procrastinators are familiar with.

Even for people who plan their time and keep working toward a goal, it often isn't known if it will be accomplished by the deadline, until you are down to the wire.  If you are lucky or wise enough to be ahead of schedule, tell me your secret.  I think my biggest problems are that things take longer than expected, I run into hurdles that slow me down, I am indecisive about the task, or I'm just not motivated enough to work toward the goal.

Friday 2/3 - The sun finally was shining without much obstruction from clouds.  It was a pretty day, but still only got up to 35° and with the wind, was just too cold to enjoy being outside.

I took my 20 minute walk with the weighted vest at the gym and added an hour on the elliptical also (without the vest). 










Stevie eyeing Rose who was seeking the warm sun beams, but the clouds were spotty in the morning so she wasn't having much luck at first.

Later in the day, Babe was watching Rose who was right up against the house where the sun's warmth is magnified.  The reflection of the ivory fuzzy pad is obscuring the view of right where Rose was napping outside the window.

I did actually make more packing decisions and added to the pile of things to go in the suitcase.








I loaded up Maggie and we headed to the ranch.  I decided she needed her 'jacket' today. 

Maggie enjoyed playing with the jolly ball while I mucked out the sheds and around them.

By the time I was done feeding, Maggie was at the front door looking cold and ready to go inside.

Jean and I had planned to enjoy our last Friday night together having dinner and watching a movie.  We usually have libations together every Friday night.  Jean had started a fire in the fireplace, and it was very cozy watching Forrest Gump together. 

Saturday 2/4 - Happy Anniversary to my son and daughter in law, Dan and Vale.  It was a beautiful ceremony a year ago, and an enjoyable reception with a wonderful couple and all their family and friends.

The day ended up being a lot colder than predicted, but nothing like the snowstorm a year ago.  Jean and I decided to hold off another day for a ride.  I did go out to the ranch early though, to meet and come up with ideas on how we would handle the work load once Jean is gone. 

While at the ranch, I also helped Jean with moving hay and did some neatening up down at the barn and tack room.

The only thing I accomplished towards my packing deadline, was to get one last load of laundry done.

I barely finished my workout at the gym before they closed at 4pm.  Then, by the time I did daily household tasks, including dinner, I was ready to call it a day.  Joe and I watched the light hearted movie 'You People.'
 

Sunday 2/5 - I got so much accomplished from 8 to noon, I felt certain I would be ready to throw my suitcase in the back of the SUV and be ready to part from here early Wednesday morning. 

Re-homing Robbie is another task we need to accomplish, and with the coming of spring, we are preparing to advertise her. 

Jean and I went for a nice leisurely ride (a little over 3 miles in one hour) and worked at getting some videos of Robbie on the trail.

 

These three photos I got from our videos. 

It was in the upper 40's but with the wind, we were feeling a little cold by the time we got done.  The sunshine was very nice however.

Jean only took this one photo of Amiga and I once we were back to the barn.  

Poker Joe was gone all afternoon and evening, so I didn't hang around long with Jean after getting chores done and feeding the horses. 

I played around here on my computer since I had gotten so much done earlier in the day. 

Monday 2/6 - It was another beautiful day and since I was well ahead in the 'race' to be ready to put my suitcase in the SUV Tuesday night, I decided to go for another ride with Jean after my aerobic workout at the gym.

Maggie enjoying her Jolly ball.  And you can see two of the many hoof pock marks in the yard from the night the horses were out there, walking/running all over it. 



Jean and I rode a little farther today, going 3.8 miles in just under an hour and a half.  Maggie went with us, and at one point when she was running through the woods, we heard a yelp.  Then she acted odd the rest of the ride, lagging behind and acting frightened. 

 


Once back to the barn, we examined her and found a small scrape on the inside of her back leg.  I later treated it once home. 

This is the Christmas gift Joe got Jean, that she gifted back to the barn.  If you look closely, you can see that it was 59° when I took this photo at 3:30pm.  Joe had been moving manure, and helped me hang it in the barn.  It is now part of the wall collection of horsy things. 



I was home by 4:30 and started in on more tasks. 









I had brought my very dirty, thick wool saddle pad home, and spent a good amount of time cleaning it.  It will take several days to fully dry, so I timed it for when I would be gone, and not riding.   

Tuesday 2/7 - Jean took this photo a couple of mornings ago, when we finally had sunshine but it was still rather cold and frosty.  Our horses love the hay Jean throws them at the start of each day. 

It was a beautiful day (up in the mid 60's) which I spent cleaning house, getting pet care notes, food, litter, etc. ready and finishing packing.  I picked the smaller suitcase, and everything fit! 


I had a good workout at the gym, except now both elbows are bothering me.  After a shower and very late lunch, I suddenly felt exhausted.  I had finished the book I was reading, and wanted to get started on the one I am taking on vacation.  Sitting in the sun, on the floor in the living room, Stevie and Monita were both quick to hop on my lap.  The pillow between them is usually one I use to set my book on.

I had some other loose ends to take care of and was all done and ready to go by 8pm.  And then I played on my computer too long.  I never got sleepy, so took a sleep aid and read till after 11pm, and then still tossed and turned part of the night.

Puddle Jumping

It is such fun for kids to jump in puddles.  Robbie however, does not like puddles, and usually tries to jump over them.  The first day of this week started sunny, but it was to be rainy for six days straight after Saturday.  It isn't near spring yet, but we seem to be getting plenty of rain, so there were several chances for some puddle jumping.  The problem is, January rains are too cold to play in.  Jean has mentioned that we didn't do the 'polar plunge' this winter, but I am not planning on ever doing that again. 

Along with singing and dancing in the rain, puddle jumping is also a choice.  Might as well splish/splash and have fun, but good luck keeping warm this time of year.

Saturday 1/28 - It was a beautiful, warm, sunshiny day.  Stevie, up on the wall hammock was also able to catch part of a warm sun beam. 

I cut back 10 pounds on some of my arm exercises and was able to get through my workout with a lot less pain to my elbow. 





After the gym I hustled to eat, change, and get to the ranch.  But first I had to take photos of these characters.  Babe is trying to get Stevie (who is doing her best to ignore this young cat) to engage in play. 

Also, I got an update from Jean about her travels.   

Jean made it to Strong Cemetery in Albany Indiana, and decorated Mom's gravestone, sending this photo.  The wooden LOVE sign was carved by Patrick and gifted to Jean.  As Jean says, she is sharing the love, which I can definitely feel when looking at this. 







When I brought Amiga down to the barn to tack up, Wanda was there, enjoying the sunshine. 





I had a wonderful 90 minute ride on Amiga, probably going around four miles.  I always get the map and mileage from Jean who uses her riding app. but she was not with me today.  I really enjoyed being out with just Amiga for a change.  She connects with me much better (and I with her) when there aren't other horses or people to distract us (video).








Here we are on Hathaway, looking down the power lines towards Wildwood Stable's back pasture, way off in the distance.  I was cold off and on, depending on when the sun wasn't out or I wasn't in its rays. 
 

Sunday 1/29 - It was a very rainy day to start out a rather rainy week.  The rain had actually started up in the middle of the night.  I got to the ranch at 7am to do morning chores.  After opening the back pasture for our horses, giving them hay, and opening the chicken coop, I went down to the barnyard area to ask Susan and Bonnie about the game plan for Cowboy. 

Since it was supposed to rain almost all day, they decided to leave Cowboy in his paddock with Rio and Maslo so we could leave the gate open from the back pasture to our paddock.  This would give our horses access to their shelters if they wanted to get in out of the rain.  When I left, Zorro was in one shed and Robbie in the covered aisle way, not letting Amiga in.

It had been raining, quite hard, the whole time I was out doing horse care.  Also, I discovered that my jacket wasn't really waterproof.  So, my pants and shirt both were wet, and I was chilled to the bone by the time I got home.  I got back into my warm pjs, had a second cup of hot tea, and sat in front of the space heater here at my computer. 

 


Before long, I got sleepy, even though I still hadn't completely warmed up.  I decided a nap on the couch was necessary, and before I could even get covered in my Snuggle and blanket, Mama Styx was on my lap.

The rain finally stopped at 2pm, so I went back out to the ranch to muck and do evening chores. 





The horses came trotting up to the back gate when they saw me out there closing it.  But they stayed out of the puddle they have to walk through to get back into our paddock.  I let Cowboy out into the back pasture and eventually our horses realized it wasn't feeding time yet.  Here is Amiga coming to greet him.   



It was 4:30 by the time I got done with cat and chicken care, mucking our shelters and paddock, and hauling water.  I fed our horses, put Cowboy back in his paddock, and as I was coming up the drive, Jean arrived home.  After touching base with her I headed home to do household and pet chores.

A big salad for dinner, TV time by the fire, and reading in bed were a great way to end the day. 

Monday 1/30 - I liked today's calendar quote.  And I hope I can live by it more often.  It is difficult to be selfless and put others first.  For competitive people like myself, I tend to compare myself to others (yup, family and friends) with the usually unconscious mind set or unintentional thinking of trying to be 'better' in some way than them.  Life is not a contest.  We are all in the same boat.  How much nicer it would be if we always looked at the positive, the good in others, and brought those things to light.

Before sun up, I got word from Jean that she had been woken up at midnight by loud horse neighing.  She decided to go check on them because it was unusual.  They were agitated so she looked around but saw no reason for their angst.  She threw them some hay, which quieted them down, and luckily she was able to get back to sleep.

At daybreak, she saw this outside her bedroom window.  Rio in the yard.  What in the world! 






Come to find out, all three boarded horse were in the yard.  Jean grabbed the 'emergency' halter and rope we keep by the back door and went out to get the three boys back down to their paddock.  Thankfully our front gate across the drive was closed so the horses did not escape the property.  Maslo and Cowboy followed Jean and Rio down the drive.  Cowboy followed Rio right in through the gate (that was wide open) but Jean had to get food to entice Maslo to get where he belonged.  Thankfully Jean was there to take care of the problem, but I feel bad that all of this extra horse wrangling made her late for 7am work. 



It was gloomy and rainy, and even though it wasn't that cold out, without the sunshine and because of the dampness, I was cold.  Even Maggie and Stevie thought they needed to be in front of the space heater. 

I had gotten a response from the vet late Saturday, regarding Wanda's tail.  She said it is called "dead tail".  She said amputation is an option because the dead part of the tail poses a risk for getting caught in/under things. But there is also a chance it may just fall off on its own.  So I had a decision to make, but needed more information.  I called the vet office and had a lengthy conversation with the receptionist who was going to relay the questions to the vet, and I would get a call back.

While waiting for a call back from the vet office, and while dealing with issues at the ranch, Joe had gone out to 'look things over,' I decided to at least try and start packing.  First I needed to pick out luggage.  I had three different sized suitcases open, on the bed.  Of course, the cats thought this was great fun and that they could check everything out.  They weren't puddle jumping, they were suitcase hopping. 

And this is what I got from Stevie when I tried to shoo her out of one of the suitcases. 

Needless to say, if on formal night on the ship, I arrive in my fine attire with cat hair all over it, ya'll will know why. 

I tried to get a photo of Babe cuddling with Maggie, but she got up too fast.  Finally getting down to some decision making with packing, the doorbell rang.  Joe was on the phone, so I answered it.  Travis, a worker from our water company, said we had a water leak.  What in the world!  They watch our meter readings and ours had gone up from the usual 2,000 gal/month to 22,000 gal/month.  So I went out with him, and we crawled around under the house in the crawl space (which thankfully wasn't wet) He found and shut off the water coming into our house.  Back out near the street, he checked our meter and there was still water running.  The good news, it wasn't a leak in the house.  The bad news, it was somewhere between the meter and where the line enters our house.  After much discussion with Travis and Joe, a decision was made.  He would return later, after he got off work, to start digging from the meter, and see if he could find the leak. 

After closing suitcases, Stevie settled for napping on this pile of possible beach bags.  I had called the vet back to see why they hadn't called yet, as they had said they would.  I had to explain everything to a different receptionist, was told the vet was almost out of surgery and I would get a call by the end of the day.  At this point, I decide to go to the gym.

My workout went well, with arm weights again being ten pounds less than usual.  I showered there, not knowing the status of our water at the house. 

When I got home, I saw this hole from our water hydrant leading towards the house. 




Travis was gone, but soon returned.  He said the leak was fixed.  He had been waiting for the pipe sealant to dry.  When he filled the hole back in, there was very little mess left because he had piled the dirt and rock up on the orange pad you can partly see.  I paid him $250.00 and off he went.  Phew, I felt like we got by easy on this one. 

Poker Joe was gone but I was too tired/distracted to accomplish any packing.  By day's end, I still had not heard back from the vet office.  So Wanda remained on hold for the time being.  I definitely feel like I had an unproductive day.  At least we got our water leak fixed (so there would be no puddle jumping in our yard) and I got in a decent workout.  But I did not make any progress getting packed for the cruise.  I lost myself in a book for almost an hour before sleep won out. 

Tuesday 1/31 - I need a vacation!  But there has been so much on my mind, I haven't had a chance to even think through what to pack for our cruise.  I have one week to get ready!  Much of the day was spent waiting, or discussing, or deciding on various things... but mainly two big decisions... one about cat surgery and the second concerning our boarding business. 

I called the vet around 9am, once they were open, and maybe not too busy with their usual morning rush.  I still needed to know the cost (and necessity) of amputating Wanda's tail.  I got the same run around as the day before, and was told I would get a call back today.  I finally called them at 4:30pm (just before they closed at 5:00), waited on hold for 15 minutes, and then got a price.  But still no helpful advice on how necessary amputation was.  I made the decision to go ahead and have Wanda's dead tail removed since the price was reasonable, Patty and Jean were willing to help with cost, and it would prevent possible troubles for Wanda in the future.  However, they couldn't do the surgery until March 6th.  Maybe the dead part of her tail will fall off before then.  

The other more difficult, and bigger decision was to terminate our boarding agreement with one of the boarders.  I don't want to go into details, but just say that she was not working out for us or for the best interest of our business and ranch.  We knew it would greatly affect her and she would object to our decision, so that was also handled today.  But the situation has been on our minds for weeks, and unfortunately a resolution had to be made.  I was feeling really bad about us having to do this, but also I felt great relief, and some peace of mind. 
 

Wednesday 2/1 - I had taken a different sleep aid, which really did the trick, and woke after nine hours of sleep.  I was feeling relieved by the decision we had made the day before, and mostly at peace.  But I (and I think Joe also) feel bad to have to put our boarder in the position of finding a new barn.

I made a trip into town to pick up my dress at the cleaners, that I am taking on the cruise.  I drove into a dense fog on the way home at 1pm, and was feeling foggy myself.

After an hour nap, I went to the gym and did 80 minutes worth of aerobic work on the elliptical and rowing machine.

Poker Joe was gone, and I tried to gather more clothes for the cruise.  I was thinking this suitcase was too big, and when Patty texted to offer one of hers, I decided I should give it a try.

Thursday 2/2 - Happy Groundhog Day. 
I was out shuffling across an icy deck the second morning in a row.  Fortunately, Tennessee winters aren't near as long (or bad) as those up north.  But they can often still feel too long.  And the coming of spring, like an awkward kid going through adolescence or an ugly bug metamorphosing into a butterfly, the change from winter to spring can be a difficult transition with so many wet and gloomy days. 

My usual morning time was spent here in front of my computer.  This is Babe trying to cuddle with Maggie in front of the space heater before the sun came up.

For today's computer jigsaw puzzle, I picked this one.  I liked the colors and the theme. 

A week from today I will be on a cruise ship, and hopefully my suitcase will make it there with me, and miraculously contain everything I need. 


The weather continued to be cold, damp, and dreary.  But at least the little bit of ice we got melted.  There was fog off and on, and this is what it looked like when I pulled into the gym parking lot.  The photo doesn't make it look near as foggy (dense) as it was.

Rose showed up for dinner for the first time in over a week.  She is fat and fairly happy, except she really wanted food and lovin'.  To end the day, Joe and I watched three hours of Tusla King (finishing the season) in front of a cozy fire, with most of the fur babies joining us.