Dr. Dog’s Neighborhood

~

Today, while we were walking, I was thinking of a comment  Apolline had left on my Missing Strangers post about social movements and urbanization.  We turned a corner and here was exactly what I had been imagining loneliness all together to look like:

IMG_8033

`

Do you ever wonder what might have happened to people who are essentially strangers to us?   

Next door to my office building is a retirement & assisted living place -  it used to have the word "Alzheimer's"  in the name and we joked about just trading one place for the other as our minds went; usually with the assumption that too much work was going to cause such a decline.

Anyway - over the last couple of months every morning, as I've walked past, an elderly man has been outside hiding behind a pillar enjoying a cigarette.  Every morning I would say "good morning how are you?" and he'd respond with a loud and cheery: "Good morning to you and I'm great"   

The last few mornings he was not there and I wondered if he had died or been caught.  It crossed my mind that I might never know -  I don't think I would've gone inside to enquire about the health of a man having a forbidden cigarette.   

I was so relived to see him back this morning that I almost said "oh thank God you are ok"....    I really had been quite concerned about someone whose name I don't even know.

*******

The bike below used to appear near the office during the day and then be gone by evening.  Then it arrived and stayed.  And stayed and stayed.   If this had been anywhere near I live, it would've been stripped within a few hours.  After more than a month the rear tyre is flat but no-one has stolen the helmet or attempted to steal spare parts from the bike.  

So,  where is the owner?   Did they die at their desk?  Did they walk to the shops at lunch time and get run-over crossing the road?   Or perhaps they developed Alzheimer's and forgot they owned a bike.

I hate not knowing.....  and unlike the missing elderly man, where I could've enquired if I'd wanted to, there is no-one to ask about the bike's owner.  

IMG_0318

IMG_7724

If you are like me, you don't like your computer saving hidden files all over your hard drive. and if you're a Mac user and you use Safari, I reckon all of you will be surprised to learn that gigabytes of hard drive space is being used up without you even realising it.

Ok this post is mostly for A and other horsie minded friends, so you other....yeah just disregard :P

Here is a peek at my daily routine with the ponies, captions above the pics.
Between 7:30 and 8:00 AM I get to the barn and feed them their breakfast of grain(it's already set up)
Kirby and Holi eat fast, Risque' takes his time, he likes to savor his food, Holi is already done and wants out, Risque' is still licking his tub out LoL

While they are eating I set up grain for the next "day", PM and AM for all three of them, 6 buckets total, PM buckets have supplements in them, AM buckets are just grain.

This is Risque's feed, Oats (top right) beet pulp (top left) rice bran(bottom right) and Sweet Feed(bottom left) his suplemts are salt/electrolyte and Su-per Substitute Powder(which he LOVES) a pain managment supplement, it contains Devils Claw, Yucca, MSM, Grap Seed, Ginger, Black Cohosh, Bromelain, Salix Alba(willow bark) Vitamin B₁₂, and Curcumin

This is Holi's feed, beet pulp(left), rice bran(bottom) and vitamins(right) it's a blend of Calf Manna and Sprout vitamins from Fleet Farm(sprout is GREAT but not very tasty, calf manna is tasty but too energy/protein rich so I mix it 2-1)Her supplements are Salt/electrolyte(center) Anti-Hist(bottom right, she gets less than half a dose) and Cough Free(next to the pellets) which she HATES, but it's good for her.

Kirby's tub is much like Holi's, beet pulp(top left) vitamins(top right) rice bran(bottom) Supplements for him are salt/electrolytes(center) and thyroid meds(brown blob on right) it smells like a combination of instant coffee and molasses crumbles, he seems to like it :)

Once they are done the go out in the pasture with the rest of the herd for the day, our herd is 14 horses at this time, they wear blankets or sheets as needed, if it's nice they are nekid :) Then comes the fun of stall cleaning and setting them up for the evening when the horses come back in, but I'll save those boring pics for another post, instead take a peek at my tack/grain room! it's mostly clean right now.
This is looking in the door, grain containers with supplement buckets on top, tack hooks along the wall, saddle pads and drying polo wraps on the back of the door, my locker has grooming boxes and my good bridles in it( my evnting vest too)the grain I set up is stacked neatly and ready to be fed this evening and tomorrow AM, the buckets are color matched to each horse so if I'm not there people will know what to feed.

This is inside my tack room, saddle racks for the two western saddles, dressage saddle, jumping/hunter saddle and behind that one the "band-aid" saddle for teeny kids. The black bag on the wall has my two bareback pads in it(on ubber $$ perelli one and one cheap-o)they gray locker has random stuff in it(some step in posts and my solar fencer I think)the brown box in the center is my first aid kit, that box was a wedding present from my Great Uncle Lyle.

OK last one, the front of my tack/grain room, these bins hold the grain and such that I don't use every day, extra oats, sweet feed, oat bran, rice bran, beet pulp and vitamins, I re-fill my smaller containers from them. The fridge has condiments from our barn cookouts as well as some applesauce/syrup/etc for making meds taste better, having a microwave and hot pot is a must in a barn with no hot water, doing first aid with cold water SUCKS, plus my ponies get spoiled with hot mash once a week in the winter.

So yeah that's about it for now, a peek at my morning routine and how things are organized, or the lack there of heh :) I like my barn and I like doing things my way. I would much rather pay a small fee and do my own work then have a HUGE board bill only to have my horse receive sub-standard care.

http://chandramoon.efx3.com/2009/11/11/open-mic/

`

With us all diligently slapping hand sanitizer on our hands to kill 99.99% of everything that might make us sick.....   where do all the killed germs  go?

These have nothing to do with dead things on hands - I just thought they were pretty.  Taken on walk around the neighbourhood next to ours on the weekend:  

IMG_7875

2 comments

IMG_7876

IMG_7921

2 comments

IMG_7747

6 comments

.

There are some of us who still remember the sacrifices made by those who gave their today for us to have our tomorrows.

Every Bomb You Make

So Far Nov ember is starting out as a quiet month.
On Thursday Styles left for a 5 month deployment, nowhere dangerous this time and he'll be back for my B-Day/our Anniversary so it's all good, I may even go visit him around Christmas.
Friday myself, my Ma and two friends went to the Rocking R to trail ride for the day, it was freaking GORGEOUS! out, and we have a great time, but nobody warned us that Friday started deer season here in NoDak(in MI it's Nov 15th and you couldn't PAY me to take my horse in the woods that day) well I had on some bright pink and blue, Pauline has a neon green helmet cover and three of the horses are SPOTTED so we were safe enough.
Saturday was the last home football game of the season for UND, GO SIOUX!! they won but it wasn't a pretty win, they are close to a conference title tho, not bad for only their second year in a higher division.
Not much else to say, with Styles gone it's horses, horses, horses for me. I do some house work and I have some sewing that needs finishing...

~

I am scared of squirrels.   Irrational I know and I'm annoyed at myself for being afraid of such a cute looking little thing. 
I'd never seen a "real" squirrel until my first day here and when I saw them I raved over their sweet little faces and bushy twitching tails. 

My second day here I met a kamikaze squirrel.  Instead of running away from me it ran straight at me and stamping feet and noise did not deter it.    It only stopped when I ran away and then, looking over my shoulder,  I swear I saw it smile. 

This fear is especially pathetic as I come from the land of more than a few of the world's top 10 deadliest snakes, the small Funnel Web Spider and the Blue Ringed Octopus. I have a healthy respect for these but am not particularly terrified of them.

But squirrels...  I give way to even if it means walking onto the roadway; I give wide berth to trees where I spot a squirrel and I never stand still in a park!

We don't have any squirrels in our little yard;  I suspect because of all the pepper (chili) plants we have around but yesterday I noticed a neighbour is actively encouraging them ....   I would never be able to leave the house if this was at my front door!

This little girl was having a feast.  Of course this was taken from well back on the sidewalk! 

IMG_7832a

IMG_7833a

IMG_7835

I am writing this at a time that I would normally be driving to work. I can't get over this feeling that I am going to be late! I should have left the house 17 minutes ago....but my "work" is now just down the hall! Today is my first day being a "Home agent". After several hours of much cussing and crying last night, I Finley got the computer and phone equipment set up. They did give us a 6 hour training course that briefly skimmed over how to hook it up and use it....but it was not as easy as they made it sound. And thanks to a computer person with no common sense, we were given directions in "tech talk" that totally confused most of us!

I guess I will find out in a bit if I truly have it all hooked up right....if no calls come in I willo know I did something wrong.......Now I am taking my shoeless, sweat pant & sweat shirt wearing self to work!  It feels good to wear comfortable cloths and no shoes!!!!!!!!