Spring Things

So may things I want to write about and so much time spent doing everything but.

We are ripping up our kitchen carpet! I have hated it for years, kitchens and bathrooms should never have carpet. The filth of it finally became more than I could handle. Underneath we found the same beautiful linoleum as is in the library. In way to bad of shape to use.

Under that we found the same wood floor as is in the bedrooms. Covered in glue.

The glue it turns out is water soluble! With lots of back breaking labor we are washing the floor clean and will, someday, have beautiful wood floors in the kitchen!

Unlike some poor people who I understand have hardly gotten to ride yet this year we have been spending a fair bit of time on poor long suffering Coyote. The Goblin Child is finally getting big enough to hold onto on horseback. Coyote is a dream and a nuisance. He maneuvers so light and easy I don’t need my hands for steering and can concentrate on holding on. He steps up to the pickup so nicely for us both to get on and puts up with her leading him very patiently.

He likes to look at things and get a little spooky. I am realizing how extremely important exact control of my seat is. We are, of course, bareback. I can feel the second his back tenses, if I allow my backside to tense in response, even just griping to hold on,  he stays tense. If I make sure to relax my seat muscles he immediately calms and his back softens. This is a very important lesson being driven home to me.

I put up these next pictures having read enough Fugly and Snarky Rider to know what they would say about letting such a small defenseless child so close to a big dangerous horse. To their voices inside my head I say, you just don’t know my little Yoder. She is about as cute as this darling girl and her equally trustworthy horse.

Most of the plants are started for the garden and they are coming up beautifully. We transplanted the early starts into bigger pots this week and are hoping to get the rest started this weekend. My darling husband bought me some more Petunias, these are supposed to be climbers. I can’t wait for warm weather and mature plants.

I am hoping to do some fun things in the garden for the small Goblin Child this summer. She may be too young to appreciate growing things but I am going to try a sunflower house and in the pumpkins I thought a wire panel for the vines to grow over would make a pretty cool fort. I am picturing a cool, shady tunnel all the way through the center of the pumpkin patch with tiny pumpkins and gourds hanging from the ceiling.