Chickens and Unschooling

So, my daughter's friend's soon to be ex-landlord is moving out of state and can't take her horse with her.

After exhausting all other options, they asked if I could take her.

I had thought I'd be done with horses after Ezra aged out, but I couldn't stand the idea that this horse's only other option was being put down.

Thus, enters Maggie into our lives. Our best animals are the ones who find us, after all. She is a 24 year old quarter horse, who may just be more buddy sour than Ezra, which is an impressive feat.

Horses poop a lot.

The end.

Junior is having tummy troubles.

I had an oddly satisfying day of social isolation today.

I chatted with H on the phone for 20 minutes.

I called to check on a friend from out of state and even though the conversation had to be brief, she sounded cheerful.

With the use of technology, S and C from our house, H from her apartment, and the 2 other members of their Saturday D&D group from their house, played a reasonably fun installment of their D&D campaign together.

M and I took Pete on a long walk. I've been playing PokémonGO again, since the quarantine started, so we walked down to a pokéstop in our neighborhood. It was a longer walk than I usually take him on, so poor Pete was really worn out by the time we got back.

Since Consonance was supposed to be this weekend, and old filkers tend to be reasonably tech savvy, they managed to live stream several concerts performed on many different livingroom couches. I got to listen from the comfort of my bed full of heatpads.

Interspersed through most of my day, I used the magic of iheartradio to stream an oldies country station out of Houston. Oh yeah, R.I.P. Kenny Rodgers; throughout the day that radio station was playing a tribute to him followed by a different one of his songs each time.

We also ended up having to bury a duck today. The one C started calling Spackle, because while she was supposed to be a brown duck she grew a very large number of white feathers instead. C and S chose rocks to put on her grave. They were trying to make them look like a runner duck.



Earlier in the day, I freshened up the hay in the chicken laying boxes and started on the insurmountable task of cleaning up the horse poop in the yard. Weird thing, someone threw a large bag of trash in our garage can. I wouldn't have minded if it was last garbage cycle, my container was nearly empty then, but I really needed the extra space this time around.

After coming back in from my evening animal stuff, I discovered M in the midst of a virtual filk circle with more than 40 participants. Oh, I didn't mention that Consonance is a filk Convention.

C had a great day, yesterday. At S's teen park day he managed to find a perfect slope for trying out his Christmas present from H - an old skateboard of hers. He quickly mastered staying on the whole way down while standing and crouching. He even went down once laying on his back - a trick he said he learned from one of the skater computer games he likes to play. C let me and S have a go before we left. S crashed on her second try and was done, but after I successfully made it down, she decided she would go again so she could defeat the hill.

Later C, H, and I went for a walk/ride. C rode on Junior, and H and I walked on our own two feet. C made Junior canter for several long stretches. Near the end of the ride, C was sore enough to be done, so H took a turn on Junior.

H.

I'm glad she did something fun, since she had a rough morning. She took her first stab at the driving test, and was defeated by the three point turn before she could even leave the parking lot. They had some weird cone set up we weren't expecting, thus H had no experience navigating. We had her practice 3 point turns on the road in real world situations, not in a freaking cone maze.

After dinner, M took C with him to a local park to Poké hunt. They defeated several gyms (C's favorite part of the game) and C caught enough Exeggcutes (thanks to the special event for Valentine's) to evolve two Exeggutor.

A couple of hours before bed I helped C get into a new game - Naruto online. Last I heard he had Shikamaru in his group - he came out of a card, but isn't very strong yet.


ETA: Good thing yesterday was such a good day; today, C and I have come down sick.

You never know where a Pokémon will spawn.

H, C, and I each took a turn at riding junior today.

C actually took several turns. He was having a particularly fun time riding, because on one of his runs towards the hay pen, Junior decided to canter for C. As C told me afterwards, "Junior decided to level me up."



C can now consistently canter Junior, as long as he has him pointed at the horse pens.

It's been a tough couple of weeks, most of the details of which I will not got into here. The one aspect I will mention is the kids are sick. This seems to be a whopper of an illness, too, so I expect a couple more weeks of sick kids before they work it out of their systems. We're talking missing karate class sick.

In the meantime, I do realize I have been woefully neglecting my livejournal of late. So to get back into the swing of things posting wise, and to tide you over until more of my emotional energy returns, I give you Lazy Ass Horse:



About a month ago I let the horses out on the grass. Ezra proceeded to roll on the grass, as is often his way. The difference being, this time he didn't get back up right away. Instead, he started nibbling on the grass while still laying down. Thus giving me time enough to snap the above photo.

A few months back, I realized one of the reasons I hadn't been riding as much, is getting our thoroughbred ready to ride is a colossal pain in the butt. Well, I already knew that was why I wasn't riding as much, but the real breakthrough was understanding that it was okay to just ride Junior instead. Junior, who does not have thoroughbred withers. Junior who is just fat enough to have a nice round shape perfect for bareback. Junior, who once I catch him, generally acts like a well trained cooperative animal. I did not have to take the harder route, just because it was there.

I have gone on several, very enjoyable rides since.