Shoes! Shoes!

Farrier and Fetch

Scott called last night to tell me the Boys were due for shoeing and he could come this morning. So, I set up the appointment.

He arrived late morning, and I was busy in the house when he came. A bit after, I headed out to the barn, only to find Mic, Scott's Border Collie standing at the back door waiting for me. He looked so cute, just staring at the door, and then bouncing around looking for some kind of fetch toy as soon as he saw me.

Jean, the "dog toy." I knew what I was in for. It was Scott's first stop of the day and Mic was fully of energy. While Scott shod my three Boys, Mic and I played "fetch" with the tennis ball, the rubber hot dog shaped thing, and the multi-hot dog shaped thing. Mic would tire of one toy and in rapid fire Border Collie determination would offer me a new one for another seemingly endless round. At one point, Scott asked me to "tell" Mic to get a drink of water. Apparently, Border Collies get so focused on play or work that they forget to at and drink. Scott said with both Mic and Jack, his first dog, he would have to sit next to the dog and food until they started to eat and finally "remembered" they were actually hungry.

I am pleased to say that Scott told Tucker what a good boy he was this time as he stood quite politely the whole time without turning himself sideways on the crossties. And, he never even acted as if he might pull his foot away. Tucke seemed quite pleased at the compliment.

Chance and Toby were, as usual, good boys too.

By the time Scott was done, it was early afternoon and I wanted to make sure Tucker had some quality turnout time since it was sunny for the first time in days. Since the pasture had dried out, I put all three Boys in the arena/pasture turnout combination. Then I scrubbed the water tub in there, refilled it, and cleaned all three stalls.

That didn't give me much time before I had to head to the library for my witch storytelling session. The kids were really cute--probably 11-14 years old or so for the most part. This was an after school Friday enrichment program. They really seemed to enjoy the whole experience. After the stories and songs, we held a costume contest since 7 of them were dressed for Halloween. Then, in the few remaining minutes before the hour was up, they played musical chairs. The librarian awarded books as prizes for the costume contest and then game, and each child also got a little candy treat. Two of the little girls gave me a hug before they left which was really sweet, and one of the others asked me to come back next week.

I told the librarian I would think about some kind of program to do some other week, so if I can come up with a good idea, I will go back. I think it's a great idea to offer kids something special after school hours once in a while to stimulate their minds and have some fun. I'm pretty sure I can come up with a good idea or two.

When I got home again, it was time to feed the Boys and get ready to go to the farm market for my evening stint as a storyteller, and fortuneteller. Unfortunately, things were a bit too disorganized there for me to get very far. The area where I was was totally dark, and all I had was a flashlight to light things up. If I do go back tomorrow night, I will bring my own illumination and try to set up and "attracting" spot. Tonight, I had no one drop by for a fortune.

I might go over tomorrow afternoon in the daylight to ply my trade as a fortune teller, just to see how it goes. I will be interested to see just how successful I can be. The idea would be for me to charge people directly for a reading. I haven't "done" the cards in years, so I spent my dark evening doing pretend readings for invisible clients, just to practice.

Do I need to note here that working the horses once again fell by the wayside?

Here I am, retired, with the whole day and still.....

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