Independence Day!

This year the fourth fell on a Monday, a three-day weekend! As usual, we had plans, made a list, got things together, groceries, caught up with laundry, changed sheets on the beds, etc., in anticipation. As usual, things did not work out as planned, but I did get the laundry done and we ate pretty good.

Our plans centered around my Godson, Mario, coming for a visit. It has been far too long since we last saw him and we were anxious to have three days with him at the farm. We made a long list of activities that he could participate in or help us with. Everybody gets to work around here if staying more than an hour or two.

Tom had off that Friday and my job promised to leave early. He got a lot of things done during that day, running errands. Tom also bought a window air conditioner for the ‘cowboy room.’ He put it in the window, set the thermostat for 86 degrees and the unit ran, and ran, and ran, and ran. By the time I got home you could hang meat in that room. The unit was still running. Thermostat is defective, has to go back. Argh! Hate when that happens!

Tom mowed well into dark, a chore on the list where Mario could have helped.

I didn’t leave as early as I had wanted to, but early is early and I was on my way to pick up Mario when I got a text from his mother saying she was sick, had been sick and was too sick to get picked up. I circled back home.

On the list was getting hay. We need hay, wasn’t going to last much past the weekend, so we have to move on this. Two hay vendors are located in our immediate neighborhood. This year’s first-cut is pretty nice, coming out of a wet spring. Saturday morning I texted her again.

I also needed to go to Mt Airy to get grain for everybody. SouthernStatesCooperative closes at 7:00 p.m. Skip now has no grain left. I could pick them up, circle back and get grain. I don’t hear from her, so I text her again and cancel the whole weekend visit. Hated to do that, but we had so many things that needed doing, inserting two three-hour round-trips in the weekend would prevent some things from getting done.

Now we drop back to Plan C. On the long list was trail clearing. We each routinely carry a hand saw and clippers on our rides. The trail clearing we have been working on started on Day One of ownership. Because our place borders on the Patuxent River State Park we want direct access into the trail system located there. We want to ride out the back, circle through the park and come back onto the front lawn. All this is possible. All this is not easy.

Out the rear of our place is a decent entry into the park, but in between our sporadic trail work someone has placed obstacles in our paths. Aircraft cable is not something usually found in nature. We did find a hunter’s encampment near there, but we don’t ride there on the days the hunters are in the woods, and this is not hunting season. We scouted out several different ways into the park, but the presence of someone putting barriers up between the trees is freaking him out.

Out the front is a far better way to reach the other end of the loop. The terrain and the downed trees make it a serious challenge to meeting up with the well-established loop, but the distance is shorter. Sounds like it would be easier, but scouting it out can have its own challenges. Deer paths can be a good start, but time is wasted clipping and sawing, and then it turns out to not be a good way.

As usual, I had packed horse treats, NutterButters and apples for the boys, a couple bottles of water. No lunch because we weren’t going to be gone that long. Famous last words. It is getting like ‘Lucy and the football.’ I must be an idiot to fall for this, time and time again. I need to work on taking care of my own interests, not assurances that don’t work out. SouthernStatesCooperative closes at 7:00 p.m. Skip has no grain.

We get to an impasse in the trail, so many large downed trees, we can't get around them in the trajectory that we need to go in, our choice is to turn around and go back or go straight up the hillside. We eat the NutterButters and the apples, sharing some with the boys, but eating most of it. Beats starving, right? Up the hillside we go. It is rocky, rough and this path would cause erosion. Not a good idea, but we gain the top of the hill and can see where we need to go. We pick our way around more downed trees and rock outcroppings and find another deer path. This might have been a viable path at one time, but the Multi-flora Rose has taken over and it is not good. KC hates stickers and will stop him dead in his tracks.

We finally get out onto the Power Line right-of-way and decide to go home from there. We are back in about 15 minutes, but have no keys to the house, they are in the trailer where we parked it earlier in the day. We untack and put the boys in the pasture. It's now after 5:00 p.m. SouthernStatesCooperative closes at 7:00.

The weather lately has been delightful. I don't know where we are stealing this weather from, but it is unusual for the humidity to be so low, the nights almost chilly. We've been sleeping with the windows open. The living room window over our bed is unlocked. I get a ladder out of the unlocked shed and Tom does a somersault into the bed. April is like, "Whaa?" We get the keys, drive down to the trailer parking lot and now I'm on my way to Mt. Airy for feed.

The next day we work on clearing out the garage/shed. There is construction debris stored in there from the demolition of the apartments, 2x4s stacked up with drywall screws and nails. We haul lots of stuff out of there and onto the patio. A dump run is going to be in my future, but there is still more on the list that we need to get to. He also had picked up two new shelving units. We put those together, one for the garage/shed, one for the basement.

The day heated up and we literally hid from the sun. I did laundry, changed sheets, vacuumed, scrubbed the floor, and all those wifely duties. Waiting until later in the day to venture out again.

Got up early on Monday, the Fourth of July! and made arrangements to pick up hay. Literally around the corner is a hay vendor that was selling for $4 a bale, if we picked it up. We got the flat bed hitched up, meet him over at his barn. The hay looks nice, fresh first-cut, the bales are lighter in weight than the bales we got earlier in the year in Hanover.

The hay elevator was wrapped in its tarp and getting those knots undone was not easy. We hadn't used it in a while so a wasp nest was being constructed under the tarp. Tom got stung before we knew they were there. We used the Bee/Wasp killer and that stuff is effective. 25 feet spray, shoots them out of the air, dead before they hit the dirt. A bird's nest was also inside, cleared that debris out. Now were ready to buck some hay into the hayloft!

Didn't take long to empty the trailer and the truck bed, now on to our next adventure. More trail clearing! This time, Mr. Weed Whacker is invited to join us. We went out the front, meeting up at the same spot that failed us on Saturday - and now we're through! We have to go back to clean it up, pretty it up, but it is done!

I put everybody in for dinner and left them in until almost 10:00. Skip had been stall walking/weaving for most of the evening; his stall looks like the tide came in then out. He was hot and agitated, and I honestly could not catch him in his stall. I got Tom out of bed to help me get him out and into the pasture for the night. The other three didn't care about the fire works and bottle rockets.

The weekend blew by, not getting to the bonfire, the groundhog eradication, window washing. We could have gotten more done on these items if Mario had been here.