a little fun in the sun

it was shiny sunday morning and my sis and i had to go to rapid city to buy more wall stones; so we decided to go early to the the local dressage show. there were about a dozen horses, but more riders. i am sure that when students learn dressage they share school horses.

we saw two beginner classes and one more advanced class. some classes only had one entry, but it is a good way for the rider to see where they are as they are given points.

the little buckskin to the left is half connemara pony and half thoroughbred. the rider had a very nice ride.

the black in the practice ring is a Hanoverian stallion. for the class the rider put on a top hat and tails for riders. very classy. the horse looked like he floated across the ring. i almost cried watching him move. the horse....not the rider. the rider moved very little.

the grey is an eighteen year old arabian and still frisky. in the practice ring he bucked a couple of times in protest to the rider's commands. he did okay in the ring except for pretending to be afraid of the judges stand right at the beginning of the ride.

more rain

usually when the weather stations forcast rain...it doesn't. we have had rain for the last forever. the poor plants aren't getting enough sun to spurt into summer growth.

but the rain didn't stop the grackles from stealing all the food from our bird feeder. we have seen other birds intermittently; a blue jay, a pair of asian collared doves, a downy woodpecker and some finches. can't decide if they are rosy or house finches.

today we bought some nesting material (straw), floor covering (w00d chips), and some osyter shell for the chickens and ducks. they are quite tame because my youngest niece and nephew handle them. the ducks are a little wild.

they were all inside but one duck which the kids had to chase down and put inside so the coop could be closed for the night. the white chicken my sister is holding is thought to be a rooster. we will find out. he gets picked up quite often. you will notice that he has green legs. he or she is an aracauna (they are the easter egg chickens).

more water

june rains

it has been raining forever...well, almost. i just finished reading a trilogy about Noah's flood. we have a backyard flood because the builder didn't quite get the plan right. we are just at the edge of a flood plain, but the houses in the flood plane seem to be okay. the slope of the ground causes the water to puddle between four houses. the builder did put in a drain from the middle of the low ground ( it goes along the little cedar trees ) but the drain tube was obviously not big enough.

the fire ring in our yard in now a pool inside a pool. the last picture shows the view outside our basement door with the water creeping up towards our basement. we went to the plumbing supply and bought the last sump pump and some caulking. we thought we could caulk the doors closed. by the time we got back it had gone down some as the water dug a trench between the two houses so it had someplace to go.

i had been up since around 3 in the morning trying to train sam not to meow to get out. it was a water method....squirting water at him whenever he meowed. while i was up a looked out and notice that there was a pond out back with little waves. but the water was not yet visible in our back yard. by the time sis was up it was starting to show through our tall grass that we haven't been able to mow because it is always wet. she was on the phone right away talking about lawyers etc., if something didn't happen.

someone who turned out to be the owner of the building company showed up shortly and ordered a trencher to come in and dig a trench from the puddle pond to the street to let the water out. he left and it hasn't shown up as yet but a second man has appeared and has at least shoveled a little trench to let some more water out. he is standing in the rain in his poncho talking on the phone. the rivers and streams are up to the top of the banks and in some places over the banks. i hope the trencher makes it because we are scheduled for four more days of rain. we will have to hire sheep to mow the lawn if it doesn't all wash away.

the threat of water in the basement reminds me of the time there was water in the basement of the house of at cheyenne court in boulder. our house was lower than the one next door and during a down pour the water was high enough on the patio to run over the rims of the guards around the basement windows. i was left to deal with the problem myself (and was pregnant at the time). there wasn't much i could do but pick up what i could off the floor. fortunately there was not too much down there and the floor was tile. we finally had to get a sump pump to clear the 2 to 3 inches of water on the floor.

ps. from somewhere the builder's man found some sandbags to put up against our basement door! :)

lines

God has all the lines
silky ribbons
strong cables
kite strings
guy wires
shoe lacings
railroad tracks
woolly yarn
basketball netting
laser tracings
package twine
an arrow's path
a map's pattern
the beaten path
the secret wanderings
heart beats
clothes lines
telephone wires
apron strings
fence wire
fishing line

all knit into a healing cradle
waiting for my collapse into his grace
how can i miss being caught in his love

-mll

noah weather

friday was another rain day which was nice for our newly planted trees. when it wasn't raining pellets, it was solid mist. kind of put a stop to the yard improvement projects.

so since i had the urge to order things and i didn't want to work in the dark chilly garage or in the dark chilly basement, i worked on cupboards. one is the before and one the after thought it is really not all that clear which is which. i had everything out on the kitchen island, washed the shelves and did try to order things as they went back in.

now my sister can truly say, 'my sister changed everything around and i don't know where anything is.'

two old lady gardening

you ask your sister to ask her son and his wife, her ex, and her neighbor to help .... you take pictures and she holds the water hose while they dig and plant.

bird and cat

not much needs to be said. we bought a heated bird bath last winter for the birds. so far we have only seen one grackle use it ....and sam. we also have a bird feeder on the other corner of the deck. lots of birds come. the bird sitting on top is scolding sam on the deck. sam didn't pay any attention to what was being said. he was on his way to the house for a nap.

the egg story

while i was away from home my sister bought chickens...baby chicks. her granddaughter bought two chicks and her grandson bought to ducklings. mallards. so last weekend her two sons loaded a little chicken house on a trailer and tooled ...well it was probably more like inched down the road to the far end of the property. they were on interstate part of the time---the scary part is the trailer was not licensed(probably the tail lights were not working) and the chicken house was to wide to be legal. no red flags either. but they made it. there are posts dug for the chicken yard. after they get used to their new home the chickens will probably be allowed to run free part of the time. there is a garden just to the right of the chicken house. the flock will help keep down the bugs, but i think they really like tomatoes also. they put up a water tank next to the chicken house. it is about two feet high and about six feet across. it has a chain link enclosure around it now and they take the ducks out to it for a swim. they are so excited to be in the water.

in the small half of the house a barn swallow built a nest using blue and silver ribbons. quite fancy. but since the house moved and she didn't, she will have to build a new nest.

our chickens are going to lay white, blue, brown, and green shelled eggs.

mishmash

my nephew who is 40 something was over the other day and wound up playing with dennis. dennis must have been in a really good mood because he allowed himself to be dressed in a baby hat and one baby slipper.

he usually bites when people try do things like that.

i swear i turned that picture, and now i cannot seem to get it deleted. anyway we worked on the front lawn this sunday. it was worse than the sideways picture. this is after we added a rose bush and some columbine. the pictures are out of order... there is a picture after we put in the edging...as straight as two old ladies could do with rubber edging that had been in a curl for a year or maybe two. we put down newspapers then covered it with the mulch. both will dissolve into the soil. we will have to keep adding mulch of some kind.. i think there is a place in town where we can get some free. we ran out of mulch and ....i forgot ... we also put rock under the deck...we ran out of that also!.

we changed our snowflake for the winter welcome to a metal butterfly we found at pier 1. the rapid city journal today said that there are only two seasons in south dakota....winter and yard sale season. we decided that was about right. we are just going to have the two decors. flowers and butterfly for the yard sale season and the snowflake and fake pine trees (weighted with rocks) for the winter season.

we decided it was safe to plant the flower pots for the summer. we bought yellow pots at the end of last year's season for the porch. so now we are color coordinated. sort of. we are using white. yellow, and a touch of purple for the front porch. the deck is going to be restained a brown as are the adirondack chairs. the little fold up chairs might wind up lavendar and dark purple. we are doing red and orange in the back. we will have blues somewhere, just don't know where yet.

just to top things off the nursery called and said to come and pick up our bare root plants. we called my sis's sons to come and help dig the holes. actually both sons came and their sons...one just out of high school and the other in kindergarten. it was very nice the way they worked together to dig the holes. the older cousin is very patient with his young cousin.

all the cats had to come out and help us with our work. it was the first time out for cc. at least the first time she was allowed to be out and run around. her eyes were big as june bugs and her tail was continually twitching. she checked in with her master every once in awhile to make sure it was safe and consulted with dennis...about what i don't know; but they were talking.

mother's day

my daughter bought me my mother's day gift when i was in california, a pair of capri's. they are tan and have little strings and ties and pockets which i really like. she made me feel still wanted--she called and asked for advice about curtains on mother's day.

neal called me on mother's day and bought me a itsy bitsy jump drive when i was in california. i hadn't been to fry's electronics before so we had to visit the store. they don't have them in this part of the country.

my sis was invited to her middle son's for barbecue on sunday. she was a little worried because she hadn't heard from the youngest or the oldest son. but they came through. the youngest one was at the barbecue and the older one called from maryland.

the younger ones played horse after lunch. bordy was the youngest but he held his own. there were no real basketballs involved!

at about five the baby chicks and ducks were checked out and then everyone migrated to our house to help my sis put her new grill together. she forgot to read the whole instruction for each step...ie.. the part about star washers... so after about 10 steps her son had to go back and add the washers. but with everyone's help it was put together and initiated with hot dogs, hamburgers, fake hot dogs and veggie patties. it was a good thing there was some salad and cut veggies in the refridgerator! everyone had their fill. it was really the first time we could set out on the porch in the dark and be comfortable. it would be nice if the porch was bigger, but i am glad that we have a porch and plenty of chairs.

snow again

woke up sabbath morning to a complete opposite of last week's sabbath. snow! again!

last week i experienced three different kinds of meetings. friday night i went to the college vespers which was very spirited. there was a small choir of kids, a pianist, four song leaders, one guitar, one bass, two trumpets, three violins, and one sax. they sang for quite a while. then the youth pastor gave a short homily that involved a wii demonstration regarding what was real and what wasn't very good.

sabbath morning we went to a liturgical service that the church has been doing for at least 15 years. it was quiet and meditative. loved the pipe organ. the worshipers were able to participate through group reading and hymns.

then the sabbath school was taught by an elderly man who was really good. the class was mostly older people except for my daughter and son-in-law. it was very thoughtful and open. it was a wonderful worship weekend for me since i belong to a very tiny church.

california trip - last day

i spent my last day in california with my son and his wife. we went to fry's electronics and poked around for awhile. i found some really small in size jump/thumb/usb drives. my son bought one for me and i bought one for my sister.


we decided we needed to go to ikea where we found some desks that did not take up a lot of space but had space for stuff. ikea is very good at designing for small spaces. i wish there was a store like that around here! fat chance! installing the desks meant taking down the the old ones which resulted in a pile of cords. they are little house snakes slithering around. the desks had a little nook where most of the extra cordage could be hidden.


we probably should have stayed home. my son was up all night the night before recovering data from a crashed server.


it all came to an end much too quickly, but i was glad to be back home in my own room with my books, my cats. glad to be back home with my sister, too! --she has her own room and books and cat.!!!!

california trip - next to last day

one afternoon my daughter and her husband took me to the wild animal park. my camera batteries were almost dead, but my son-in-law managed to coax out another 128 pictures. lots of turning on and off! too many pictures for a blog, so i just picked a few of my favorites.


the bonsai forest was my favorite of the bonsai exhibition. there was also an ephyphyte exhibition which at first did not look all that interesting, but a closer look revealed many beautiful flowers. the colors ranged from white through dark red. no blues or purples.

we managed to catch the condor spreading his wings. i don't know if he was cooling off or just dreaming of floating over the hills on an updraft.

several places in the park had fans blowing mists of water down on the hikers. you did not actually have to walk through the sheet of mist, but it did feel really nice. it was fine enough that it cooled without drenching you.
it was a rather warm day for someone who just came from snow country, so frequent rest stops with a few snacks thrown in made the day enjoyable.

i especially liked the birds at the end of the day--flamingos, assorted ducks and geese, and a kingfisher up close (and african birds in a separte cage).