May/June Recap

This being the product of the rare occurrence of Chloe having most of a weekday afternoon with no outside obligations.

stuff that happened:

I found a new job! It's up about fifteen minutes away from the college. It's similar work to what I was doing before Chickfila. The people are nice, and the facility is pretty awesome. God truly brought all the puzzle pieces together at just the right time! However, gas money has been kicking me soundly in the shins.

Dad dislocated one of his toes. He accidentally kicked a chair, but it didn't hurt until he looked down and saw it was way crooked. Mom reset it. He did eventually have to go in to see a doctor, and discovered that he had also broken two of his toes. The chair has only been there ever since we built the house ten years ago.

Our neighbors went out of town for a week, so I looked after their horses. That was a good and educational experience. One of them was especially curious when I took care of them after my first day of work. He wanted to know why I smelled different. It was hilarious. And then we had rain for two days in a row right before they got back, so they were all covered in mud when they got home.

I have a new car now, but she doesn't have a name yet. I lasted about a month driving it with the windows down before finally giving in and getting the a/c fixed after I spent one particularly sauna-like drive home after one particularly hot-as-the-biggest-oven day.

I accidentally adopted a classmate. I told her to go to sleep early and everything.

Classes ended. There was a banquet for the equestrian teams, and a cookout for Farm and Shop class. Our last ride for Horsemanship was to complete a pattern. The horse I had and I didn't do as well as some of the others, but we sure didn't fail. We got through it, and I'm grateful to her. I passed College Algebra by the skin of my teeth, though I have no idea how. Grace and Mercy were bestowed, that's for sure.

Mom and Dad went to Maui for a little more than a week. Lydia and I held down the fort.

I worked for a day at a horse show scribing for a judge and running buckets of ice to four different coolers in four different arenas. It was fun! (not so much the ice bit, though) I got to see a different side of a horse show, and that was pretty cool!

A person in charge at the horse show: "Hey, can y'all run this parking pass up to the gate for someone coming to work?"
Me: "Sure, what's their car look like?"
Them: "Well, it's a big diesel dually."
Me: "You realize that this is a horse show, and that everyone is driving one of those?"

We had two weeks of snakes. I found two (on two different days) rat snakes ('harmless,' as in, not venomous; can range between 3-6 feet, with the majority of them hitting the 5 foot mark) in the back of the chicken coop while Mom and Dad were gone; Christian was also gone, and so was Grandfather. I had to call a neighbor to kill it, but he only was able to scoop it out. I had to kill the second one the next day. It probably took me 30 minutes. I was mad too. Roaring at it. Was glad no one else was down there until after it was dead. A different neighbor got it out of the coop and disposed of it for me. Then Ava ran into one in the pasture. Christian nearly ran over one on our driveway. I startled a grass snake in the barnyard. A younger rat snake slithered past my foot, into the coop, and then right back out again. My nerves were pretty much shot after all that. I still open up the back of the coop holding a garden hoe in striking position.

*watching Thor 3 with Christian*
Lydia: "Enjoy your thor-y!" *starts laughing*
Me: "You just cracked yourself up there."
Lydia: "Wasn't it funny though?"

*trying to hurriedly navigate the crowded produce section of Walmart when a guy rushes by and says "Killer shirt, man!" (ma'am?) in reference to the Jurassic Park t-shirt I was wearing.

Gabe: "Heebie-jeebies. Hippy Gypsies?"

*Lydia comes home from her work*
Me: "Well, if your hair is any indication, then your day must've been busy." *gestures to her very frayed braid*

Christian and I went and saw Jurassic World 2. It was alright, but followed the second Jurassic Park a lot closer than we were expecting. We were able to call several of the scenes and plot twists. Though, I did almost cry at one bit, and if you've seen it I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.

We hatched out a few more birds. Two chicks: Guinevere and Lancelot, both of which should have switched names, as I believe that Guinevere is a rooster and Lancelot is a hen. And three ducks: Jane Lizzy, and Mary, all of which I have no idea if I named correctly. From the last batch; Curious, Edward, and Christiana are roosters. I named Darcy correctly, and he will be dark, but Bingley still has me confused; girl coloring (though the neck is starting to sprout darker feathers) but boy sounding. We shall see.

Lydia went to a friend's wedding in Colorado.

work things:

Horse spooks in the cross ties while I'm trying to wash a different horse's face because a cloud of mist is really terrifying. This horse also spooks at fly spray.

Horse logic: Perfectly fine with a vacuum being run all over them. Terrified of the sound tape makes.

Just turned a freshly cleaned horse out in a pen, and the first thing she does is go roll in the mud. The second thing she does is go berserk and freak everyone out because she was running full speed around and around and we were scared that she was going to slip and go straight into the fence. We didn't leave her out.

*goes to longe a horse on the long line that I had never worked with before even in the round pen* *picks up the longe whip* *horse freaks out and almost drags me to my knees* "Dude! You stole part of my handprint!" *blows and shakes hand from where the rope burned* He owes me a ride eventually.

Went down to Waco during the hottest weekend we've had this year (high 90s with the heat index getting up to 105). Discovered that I am a pain in the neck when I haven't had enough food. It was good though! We took 12 horses, stayed for four days, didn't eat or sleep very much, and came home barely awake. One time my coffee walked off before I got the chance to drink it. A lot of time was spent cleaning stalls and refilling water buckets. One time they left the hotel at 4 in the morning and I didn't even hear them leave, and so didn't wake up until 6, when someone called me to tell me to hurry up and get dressed because someone was on their way to pick me up. I got to watch some of the classes as well, and practiced seeing if I could place any similar to the judges.

After attempting to longe a few horses on the long line at the horse show: "We didn't happen to bring any longe whips with us, did we?" One of them wasn't wanting to turn and work her other side, and another was being just plain lazy.

Lady: "HGTV ain't got nothing on us!" *as we are hurriedly shoving mix-matched fabric flowers into flower boxes to decorate a trail course*

*horse is perfectly calm and serene as I lead her out to the turn out pen* *we get through the gate* Horse: "Oh look at that, I've turned into a pegasus."

*puts horse outside in the pen for six hours* *horse waits until I try to halter and bring her in before tearing all over the pen bucking and kicking*

While at the show in Waco, one of the horses discovered that his water bucket could move. By the second day, he was throwing his water everywhere.

There was the Appaloosa National Show in Fort Worth for two weeks. They took about 20 of the horses, while I held down the fort and looked after the remaining ones. They are still gone until the end of this week.

Of course, right after everyone left, one of the mares out in a pasture decided to have her baby. By herself. No help. The baby wasn't there when I got there at 8, but was already standing up and dry by the time I went to go check on the horses in the pasture at 1:30. He's the cutest thing!

Was asked three times in one afternoon if I wanted to try riding a bull. No thanks, I'd like to not break anything, especially while I'm the only one coming in to work horses, thanks very much. I watched though. The guys weren't too bad.



Well. That's that.
How was your May/June?
What are some of your favorite songs to listen to in Summer?