Sorta Do Nothing Saturday

Preoccupation Consumes the Day

I did go get feed in the morning, so that took some time. I was so cold last night the water trough froze. I put the heater back in for tonight, so all should be well. Although I knew it was coming, the cold was still a bit of a shock considering that for the last few days the temperatures have been up near 70F when the sun was out.

When I got home, I navigated the tree maze and backed the truck up to the barn so I could unload the feed. Then I came in and had some lunch.

Back outside, was once more distracted. The truck was covered with muddy cat pawprints on the hood and roof, where the stray kitties have been using it as a launching pad to get up into the rafters of the garage. So out came the bucket and car washing brush so I could at least rinse off the worst of it.

While I was working at that, my cousin came over from next door where he was picking up his boat--stored in my Aunt's garage for the winter--and we had a nice long chat. I haven't seen him since Christmas, so we had a lot of catching up to do.

After he left, I kind of kicked myself because I probably could have enlisted his aid in unloading the grain. But I did fine by myself. I put the truck back in the garage and covered the hood with a blanket, came back into the house, and picked up my phone messages which included a reminder from one of my friends that we were meeting for dinner later. Shortly after, the phone rang again, and it was my friend Shelley and we ended up having a rather long and vigorous conversation about education and politics. As usual, we didn't manage to solve a single world problem, but we certainly had some great ideas.

Then, I realized I needed to find Tucker's Cavallo boots, just in case I ever decided to ride again and he needed some hoof protection. I had one, and thought the other one was right with it, but had failed in my last cursory search, so I was determined to put the pair back together today.

That inspired me to open the tack cabinet for a good look. Error!! A pair of rather frisky rats had made themselves a comfy little nest in the bottom section of the cabinet, chewing up a leg quilt for bedding. As soon as I moved the first item in there, the first rat leaped out and dashed past. A moment later, the second rat darted out, skimmed across my lap and headed in the opposite direction. Fortunately, it didn't stop long enough to make eye contact with me, which was just as well. I'm not sure who would have won a staring contest at that point.

Needless to say, I was rather cautious emptying the rest of the gear out of there, but suffice it to say that when I was done, I had a feed bag full of stuff to throw out. Some things had been chewed, some things looked contaminated, and some things were just not of any use any more.

I also cleaned a bit more around in the feed/tack room, but it wasn't quite a full spring cleaning, although it was a start. Then I put out some rat poison for my furry invaders, although I am a bit skeptical that they will eat it, and straightened up the place a bit.

I finally found the second hoof boot in a storage bucket right next to the first boot, exactly where I thought I was when I looked for it the first time. It was no where near the tack cabinet, either. So I ended up completing a three-fer...one cabinet sort of cleaned, the rat couple evicted for now, at least, and the two hoof boots reunited at last.

By then it was time to feed the Boys and go take my shower so I could be clean for my dinner out.

Somehow I managed to preoccupy myself for the entire day without riding a single horse...again.

Ah, darn--fox and the grapes--it was too cold anyhow........