I did it. It was an accident but that doesn’t change the outcome. I took the life of a beautiful living thing.

My flower basket had worms. We discovered them one day. Hundreds of tiny worms devouring one of it’s leaves. I was in a panic, what if they continued to multiply? What if they spread to my other flowers? I picked the leaf off then searched frantically for any other leaves bearing the destructive intruders. Finding a couple of other infected leaves I smashed them under my heel on the sidewalk.

Still worried I wanted something else I could do to prevent further desecration. Vinegar I thought, vinegar cures every thing. So I grabbed my handy dandy spray bottle of vinegar and squirted the flower thoroughly hoping it would kill the bugs. My Mom recommended a systemic bug killer so I picked up a bottle and dispensed it liberally. Shortly there after the plant began to wilt. I poured the water to it thinking it was getting dry like my gigantic flower baskets are prone to do. Nothing helped and I moved the very wilted flower far from the others so it didn’t spread.

I blamed the chemicals I must confess, isn’t that the current mode of society? Chemicals are evil, systemic insecticides are of the devil. Now, much later with the dead browns remains of the formerly glorious flower laying in a heap in the yard my grandmother mentions using vinegar as a weed killer.

“That can’t work” I thought “I just used vinegar to kill bugs on my flower basket”. Oh how the mind hides in denial. Doing some Googling I finally came to grips with the sad truth. I murdered my beautiful plant. This article said it best. Vinegar works by drawing the moisture from the leaves, thus the wilting that no amount of watering would fix. I learned a good lesson the hard way. Next time I will do a little more, any at all, research before I go taking drastic measures.

It’s that time of the summer again. We had just been discussing how mid June is prime time for hail. Then here it came, all kinds of warnings for South Dakota but nothing for us. We watched it coming on the radar but as the clouds came over we could see day light under them. So dismissing the threat I proceeded to wash dishes.

Then something thunked hard on the roof. I thought at first that one of the floor pots had blown over but upon examination I found huge hail stones falling almost gracefully from the sky. The sun shown the whole time and we were lucky not to have much wind with it. What a great  Fathers Day, I’m not sure if it was a good present because it didn’t do near the damage it could have or a bad one because we got hail. Either way happy first fathers day dear.

If the fields are any thing like the garden they should be fine, same for the pastures. Like the horses the cattle probably just stood there and enjoyed the back rub.  This was as good as something as bad as a hail storm can get. For us at least, I hope every one else was as lucky.

It may not have been the best of conditions for his first ride outside but he took it all in stride. After a handful of uneventful rides in the indoor it was time to change it up a little. Paula got a couple of circles inside at a lope, his first, then they headed out to the round pen.

The nose flies were out full force but a thick coating of Swat on his muzzle deterred them long enough to get a quick lesson in. Out of the deep sand he looked like he had a little more go to him. Paula didn’t comment to much but she didn’t cuss him to badly either. All in all they looked pretty good.

And it was light enough outside that my camera didn’t take blurry pictures.

I rode Nevel!!!!!!

I’m not sure I put enough exclamation marks/points ( dang what are those things called?) behind that to properly convey my excitement. He was awesome. Paula is doing an excellent job with him. He was light and responsive we did at least one beautiful rollback. Paula even watched The Small Goblin Child so I could ride. This is full service training.

But that was yesterday. Today she called just as I was getting ready to head over that way to say that she wasn’t going to ride him. She was going to help Allen move cattle instead. I was sad.

However, they had an extra horse if I would like to come along? I would of course love to go ride but, I explained, I had to child to watch. That was alright she said Sandra would baby sit! I was delighted and rushed over. I knew which horse they would put me on, Trouble is the grand-kids horse and I had borrowed him before for my mom to ride and gone riding with him being ridden by Sandra. He is a great horse for my skill level quiet and dependable but surprisingly responsive, a joy to ride.

And I broke him.

Not broke as in broke to ride, broke as in broken needs fixed.

Not to far down the road he began the tell tale head tossing that means nose flies. I hoped I was wrong, maybe I was holding the reins to tight. I tend to ride with contact. So I loosened them and he tossed harder. Allen suggested tightening them and it offered a little more control at least. He was still nice to ride, very upset but not offering to buck or bolt and we made it maybe two miles out before he could not handle it any more.

Nose flies, for anyone who doesn’t know, are large flies that look some what like a bot fly only black that buzz around a horses nose trying to fly up it. I can’t imagine it to be pleasant. It can be distinguished by a very stiff stance with head and neck extended and lips compressed tightly. Maybe a wild half crazed look of dread in their eyes. Horses will gallop madly around their pastures trying to get away. Or stand at their tanks dipping their noses into the water to keep the flies out. Riding a horse with nose flies is nearly impossible. They spend the whole time frantically shaking their heads, pawing and striking. My gelding has thrown himself to his knees and walked on them pushing his nose along the ground.

Trouble finally had enough of a  fit that I hopped off. I no longer claim to be the big time trainer person. I gave that up many moons ago, before I became old and crippled up and had a small child cut out of my stomach taking any stomach muscles I had with her. Now I am humble and even less of a brave rider than I ever was. So he and I walked back to the house. I did get on him once we got there so we didn’t end on such a bad note. We rode around the arena a little and he was back to his usual great self. At least I didn’t break him permanently.

Oh well. I guess I tried and it was a nice ride as long as it lasted. It was so nice to have someone to babysit so I could ride a little. This has got to be the best horse training ever. I hope they didn’t think I was too big a baby and decide never  to ask again. It’s so embarrassing not to be able to ride the kids horse.

Plus a few outside of the wagon, but rest assured it is near by

It slowly became apparent to me that I lacked the time and place to start riding Nevel. Once I accepted this sad realization I began looking for someone that I would be willing to have do it for me. I was not interested in letting him be “cowboyed”. I wanted someone gentle and knowledgeable in training, not someone who would buck him out and break him. Out here that is a lot to ask for.

I was thrilled when the first person I asked knew  of a woman who might be willing. I know it is prejudiced but I would so much rather have a woman train my horse than a man. I would be so offended if I heard that said in reverse.

Anyway, she agreed to take him with some reservation being a four year old stud and all. I understand her doubts, when people told me their horses were ready to ride it usually meant they were spoiled rotten and needed twice the work. She even, very nicely, stopped and picked him up. Now that is service. I was very proud of my boy he walked right into the trailer. It’s a little thing but so embarrassing when they wont load.

She even allowed me to come watch today when she worked him for the first time. It always surprised me how seldom people ever, never, came to see their horses in training. I have seen good trainers and I have seen and heard of horrible things done in the name of breaking horses. So we, the Goblin Child and I, watched as she put him through his paces. She asked him to yield his hind quarters and longed him asking him to turn and stop. Then she saddled him, his first time with a rear cinch. After a little ground driving she decided to get on.

I couldn’t believe it, it was so exciting. She called Allen in to hold the long line and hopped on. His first step was a bit unsteady but then he moved right out. All in all it was very uneventful, they walked and trotted in both directions then got off. I couldn’t have hoped for a better first ride. I can’t wait to see what they do tomorrow

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I inherited a once beautiful flower garden that has long since grown over with weeds and grass, mostly grass. It is full of bulbs Hyacinth, Daffodils, Iris (not technically a bulb) and a fall blooming flower that looks like a Crocus. Then there are the Hollyhocks, tons of them around here they are considered a weed, infested with colonies of earwigs. Nasty little creatures, the earwigs not the Hollyhocks. I for one like Hollyhocks.

I have slaved over the small bed of flowers until I have blisters and don’t seem to make a dent. Last year I dug grass and mint all summer. This year you can’t tell that any was missing. It might be easier to dig the whole thing up and start fresh but I just can’t bring myself to do it.

A friend gave me some wild flower seed packets last winter and come spring I spread them through out. They are fighting their way up through the thick carpet of grass and some have even managed to bloom.

Then there are the flower pots and hanging baskets. It has been so fun to watch the petunias blossom from such tiny seeds. I got some surprises. Mostly the huge double blossoms in pink and purple, I really don’t remember ordering anything like that. I have a new favorite color. I always loved the dark magenta, and still do,  but the heirloom in purple with a faintly pink center and distinctly star shaped petals is stealing the show. It helps that it smells heavenly. Kind of like a Lilly but with out the cloying sickly sweetness.

A couple of weeks ago Karen at Lil’ Ladybug told me how to start Osteospurmum from cuttings. After visiting with her I continued my search for a big beautiful orange Osteospurmum in vain. Finally as we visited the last greenhouse in town we found a huge orange Osteo beautifully potted and marked sold.

The lady working there said that they had quite a few of the orange ones earlier in the year but yes this was their last one. I persuaded her to allow me to pinch two tiny starts that surely nobody would ever notice. I stuck them into the dirt of our other purchase thinking they would be well dead by the time we got home many hours later.

Despite the miserably hot day they looked down right perky when I put them in the greenhouse. Immediately after putting each one in its own pot they looked mostly dead. But in a Princess Bride moment they were truly only mostly dead and without even feeding them any chocolate covered magic pills they came back to life.

Now we wait and see what happens.