I went away for awhile, but now I'm back.

Because of my glacially slow internet connection, I just gave up on blogging for the last few months. I ended up having to change mobile service providers, as I wasn't even using ATT's towers from home, only when I was elsewhere. They don't like it when you use more than the allotted mega-bytes of data on someone else's tower - they have to reimburse them. I found out that I was hitting Verizon facilities, and was able to get out of my ATT contract and switch.  I now have a mobile WiFi connection (it's very cool), and it's very fast.

So, I won't bore you with too much, except that the turkeys are getting big (a couple of the toms will be ready way before Thanksgiving...), and the chicken peeps are looking much more chicken-like, and the roo has started experimenting with his voice. The peafowl have decided not to sit on their eggs, so I'm eating them (the eggs).

I've been taking dressage lessons, and have taken Tang. My instructor really likes her, and deems her to have potential. The big news is that I went horse camping over the 4th with Michelle and her family at the annual Adventist Horseman's Association Cowboy Camp Meeting. It was held in the Ochoco Mountains, about 40 miles from home - how could I not go!!

Camp 

 

 

Tang in her pen

 I resurrected an old fence charger that I had for the sheep, which worked marvelously well to keep Tang in. I moved her pen every day so she had fresh grass - she was in heaven!

I also took Lyra, my pit bull; having had to put Harry (the border collie) down 2 weeks before, I didn't want to leave her home. She was pretty good, except that she's not quite ready to step in to the responsibilities of the "Beta" dog in the pack. Consequently, she barked at people alot, protecting me. Since Tang doesn't really care for dogs, I didn't take Lyra with me on rides.

Michelle, Rick (her husband) and I rode together on Friday. It was a little longer ride than we anticipated (about 3 hrs), but Tang did well. Ok, except for the time she bucked and I had a foot and a half of air between me and the saddle and lost my stirrups. Fortunately, she didn't move, so I came right back down where I was supposed to be (in the saddle), and we kept going.

I think we compliment each other!

(some of these pictures were taken by Michelle, so they're different sizes than what I took.)

After that ride, Michelle rode Tang for a bit. She had her doing serpentines, circles, etc., which I have a very difficult time getting her to do. Turns out that my legs don't actually touch her sides below the upper part of my calf. So, I need to work on "connecting" so that she will stay on track. Tang is good at playing the "village idiot" - pretending she doesn't understand what I'm asking, but sometimes she slips, so I'm getting a handle on what she does and doesn't know.

There were lots of flowers, fungi and other interesting things, such as horse-eating cows (according to Tang), deer and creeks (which Tang would have liked to swim in...):

wild violet

fungus amungus (no, I didn't touch it...)

Michelle's family also brought their dogs, Jackson and Dozer:

Lyra and Jackson never really got to where they'd play - he was rather insistent about sniffing and she was being rather insistent about him leaving her alone. Dozer was in Dozer-land, and not participating in the kerfuffle.

I was invited to participate with Rick in singing at one of the meetings. I don't get to sing much, and it was really great to find that I could again. I've been on the dry side for almost a year, and my lungs and breathing are much improved.

When it came time to pack up, Lyra was taking no chances at being left behind:

It was a wonderful weekend - great memories, good fun and now I want to do it again!!