Saturday, September 29, 2020

Yesterday, I finished at work an hour early and rushed home to feed the horses. I was hoping for enough daylight to take them to the forest, to have a ride before dark. We’d be out long as needed to walk only a few miles, so I invited along all the dogs, including my Border Collie, Miles, who for a week has been taking arthritis-easing meds.

While the horses were eating in their stalls, I fed my other critters, prepared dinners for the dogs’ return, and readied the horse trailer. The animals loaded easily and we took off into an approaching dusk. I felt some trepidation about entering the forest on horseback just as dinnertime was beginning for wild animals. But my day’s short working hours offered this rare opportunity for an evening ride.

As hoped for, this outing had enough daylight, the weather was perfect, and our surroundings felt comfortable and non-threatening. The horses traveled on both of the forest trails that we recently had discovered, but this time, we managed to ride on one and at its end connect correctly to the other. The two trails gave our entire ride a “forest experience” by taking us from the trailhead and back with minimal road travel.

In waning light, as we approached my rig, periodically both horses’ heads turned and focused intently toward the west. That’s the direction where our trails lay. From way off, I heard bits of barking, and judging from the horses, the sounds probably were from coyotes beginning to hunt.

Those two trails together go for about three and one-half miles. Walking both takes a horse only about an hour, just right for short outings. Best of all is that lovely environment, riding totally in the forest.

Dear Friends: The dogs loved that outing, and dear Miles did no limping! Diana

Friday, August 28, 2020

After work yesterday, while hurrying to my car and hearing my name, I turned and saw Todd trying to catch up with me. He’s a Costco employee of many years. After returning to work, I’d had not seen him in the store. Turns out, he’s gone–has moved on–six months ago, to Manhattan, Kansas! He’s fit and suntanned, looks terrific and happy.

It’s rare that someone long associated with Costco simply picks up and leaves, but Todd did. He explains that his son, recently retired from the Army, came to Bend and invited Todd to join his family in Manhattan. Just like that it happened. The son is in a second marriage, and between the two there are five children, from age seventeen to five. The five-year-old is the only girl-child, and Todd (who’s very close to his adult daughter) says the little one is a delight.

Well, maybe the Universe is speaking to me. First, a surprise-contact from my long-time friend Jan who lives in Kansas City, and now, Todd hailing from Manhattan. He says that, in Manhattan, one could buy a 1700 sq. ft. home with a yard, for about $90k. Or, a brand-new 2200 sq. ft. home on 1-1/2 acres for $190k. I’m not interested in moving but really do like those home prices.

And more about The Universe. I must consider possible meanings after so many years of forgetting, to find myself re-experiencing sudden feelings of closeness to a far-away place that once figured mightily in my background. Please don’t misunderstand, I’m not a woo-woo type in any way, shape or form. But I enjoy toying with ideas, and attempting to comprehend the mysterious ways that a past may interact with one’s present moments.

Dear Friends: It’s a fun mental exercise for one who’s in-place, hawking food items. Diana

Thursday, August 27, 2020

We working in Costco and serving food samples or just talking about products are being scheduled to work five days weekly. We’ve no choice, for the demonstration organization wishes to return to action and food manufacturers are pushing more for sales. The Corvid-19 environment isn’t safe for cooking and distributing unwrapped foods so it’s a Catch-22. New hiring is curtailed just as product promoters push hard for visibility. We on the payroll must accept more working days.

That doesn’t bother me except that my animals and especially the horses need some exercise. Daylight already is shorter, horses beginning to shed. Before and after my work, too little light-time remains for hauling, riding, returning, and organizing for the next morning.

Organizing ahead is essential if I’m to arrive at work on time. Morning horse feedings require that stalls be clean, with hay in feeders and water in buckets. My chores are to bring horses inside to eat, and to set out hay to keep them busy for awhile after release. Later, after arriving home and while Rosie blares for attention, I clean their stalls, fill water buckets, allot hay amounts, and bring in the horses to eat. Meanwhile, I organize for the next morning.

It’s unending work to keep big animals, but definitely rewarding if there’s adequate daylight and free time to play with them. My changing work schedule has me striving toward more efficient horse-keeping. It’s about working smarter. Squeezing-in evening exercise might mean saddling a horse after it finishes eating and cruising neighborhood streets.

Dear Friends: Changing time and commitments force us to reorganize normal activities. Diana

Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Today, I’d love to load the dogs, drive up into the mountains, and for awhile just tramp aimlessly. Something about these days, warm and somewhat overcast with smoke, calls me higher. Alas, it’s a working day, maybe also bringing that calling. Yep, I’ll be inside, standing and hawking a food item, I think it’ll be hemp seeds.

The products we “demonstrate” are standards from Costco’s shelves. Few passer-by shoppers are interested, unless they decide to make a joke. Yesterday, I was responsible for speaking about a dog food and got teased by many who asked to taste-test before buying it. Like, come on folks, that’s not funny.

No matter how often we demonstrators show Costco’s hemp seed product (and we’ve done so bunches!), we find ourselves on the receiving end of jokes, like, “will this make me high?” To worsen the situation for demo types, askers pause and watch us waiting for a laugh! Well, I’m impolite and stay quiet, simply returning their stares.

Most would-be jokesters are men, but some women pick up on the hostility thread and try being funny. Please, folks, let me stand here wearily doing my repetitive job. Don’t joke about it. If you must try to joke, don’t seek my participation.

Anticipation. That’s why those mountains call! But I gotta go to work, and funny enough, also want to. It happens I look forward to reading t-shirts, and by the way stash humors from the good ones.

Anyway, if anyone local shops today in Costco, visit me wherever the hemp-seed might be hiding. Hey, I know you’ll joke, and it’s okay. With friends, I do laugh.

Dear Readers: It’s a perfect example of a situational love-hate relationship. Diana

Tuesday, August 25, 2020

Yesterday’s smoke from the nearby Green Ridge Fire made it seem rain was on the way. This morning, my weather app says there’s light rain nearby and coming this way. Soon, I’ll leave for work, hoping any moisture is too light to worry my Border Collie, Miles. He panics during thunderstorms, attempts to enter the house by ripping apart window screens. Ah, some joys of living with pets!

Speaking of having pets, yesterday the horses and I went into the forest to work on developing a horse-trail loop. I rode Rosie who wore a bit-less bridle, and we ponied Sunni. That’s my first time ponying off Rosie, she in a minimal-control device, and there was a price. Rosie jigged and jogged, rarely settling into her lovely long-striding walk. Okay, I did expect this unpleasant behavior.

Rosie recently was introduced to a bit-less bridle. She’s been wonderfully cooperative, needing little guidance, moving casually, staying relaxed. A horse in a bit-less bridle could have “the say” in a serious disagreement with its rider. Maybe one could steady a horse about to take-off by having it turn and circle. Anyway, my well-seasoned horses aren’t worrisome, but Rosie does jig and jog when she’s unhappy.

I chose to use an easy bridle and would suffer Rosie’s unhappiness, because our trio must learn to accommodate a “new normal”. These days in riding alone, I’m usually on one horse and ponying another. Sunni who’s nearly unflappable easily will lead Rosie. But Rosie’s another story, doesn’t appreciate having Sunni closely behind–or Oh Dear!–right beside us.

Yesterday, we tracked over forest trails. Rosie jigged, jogged, sometimes walked. Okay, we’re in a learning mode. I practiced sitting relaxed in the saddle, allowing freedom for her head and neck. In the end, I had to admit that, reasonably, Rosie had cooperated.

Our teamwork is in a new-beginning. It’s true, adjustments aren’t quick processes and practice makes perfect. And there’s Rosie, herself. She’s mature, has been around the block, is very-trained, sensitive, and smart. As will any horse given time, opportunity, and patience, she’ll settle into our new routine.

Dear Friends: This trio for learning–time, opportunity, and patience–benefits us all. Diana

Monday, August 24, 2020

My Border Collie, Miles, went to the veterinarian yesterday for medications to control his arthritis. Fortunately, his case isn’t devastating, it’s not rheumatoid arthritis! His issues, discovered early on, are controllable. Unfortunately, Miles won’t anymore be invited to run with my horses which too much would aggravate his arthritis. This dog lives to run, is a wonderful trail buddy. I’ll start taking lots more on-foot hikes with the dogs so Miles may have running opportunities. For sure, we both (and all) will benefit from climbing occasionally up and down Horse Butte.

Actually, I’ve begun itching again to tackle climbing Horse Butte. I’ve explored for easier ways to hike up and down that butte, to avoid having to cope with unending loose scrabble on its main steep access trail. I’ve seen hikers with leashed dogs descending from an easier-looking side trail. I’ve partly followed a faint walking trail that circles the Butte and might wind up at or near its summit. The next time I’ve only several free hours, the dogs and I will head for the Butte.

Yesterday, I rode Sunni and ponied Rosie into the forest. I’m still trying to connect two horse trails that recently I ran across. Both go in the same direction but they’re totally separate. Connecting them would create a loop, with one trail going from the trailhead and the other returning to it. This would create in a beautiful part of the forest about a four-mile riding loop, allowing one on horseback to avoid dusty roadways.

Finally, I grasped where to connect these trails as a loop. Yesterday, Miles’ vet appointment limited my playtime in the forest. Today and again, the horses and I hopefully will travel the loop. I’ll record our time and distance, and when we’re next there will capture trail coordinates for mapping.

This has been a summer of wonderful fun. It’s almost unimaginable, having found nearby a beautiful forest, with free time to go there and play with my equines and canines.

Dear Friends: August ends to introduce fall and our most beautiful months ahead. Diana

Sunday, August 23, 2020

My reading of the works of past authors has taken me down a long road, and finally, to the works of Olive Schreiner (1885-1920), a South African, an intellectual, and one of the first feminist writers. She had a fascinating life story, as one of twelve children born to missionary parents living in South Africa and most often impoverished. Schreiner forged a way of her own, thinking through her personal religious conflicts, managing to gain some formal education, and becoming eventually a published writer. Her best-known work, a novel, “The Story of An African Farm”, is in the public domain. Recently, I began reading it.

She published this novel in 1883 under the pseudonym, Ralph Iron. I’ve been interested in how writings from that time might have expressed a newly-evolving awareness of feminism. I found a copy of “The Story of An African Farm, and began reading. It’s very serious and slow-going. The descriptions of situations in the story are serious and written very carefully. I’m having a problem in that her countings of people and their thoughts offer visuals that are comical by today’s standards. But I’m a student of pioneers of social thinking, who also are early activists, and will plow on to read with determination. After all, this novel still is viable after 127 years!

Most of us hope to gain a viable understanding of what’s around us, and for the skill to explain well what we see and experience. I’ll be trying to discover in Schreiner’s work the lines of thought lending themselves into a direction that has led to modern social development. Maybe she’ll become one of my heros.

Dear Friends: We musn’t take for granted today’s freedoms of place and thought. Diana

Saturday, August 22, 2020

My farrier is coming today. I considered having him put shoes on one of my horses for driving, but there’s a new reality of now-limited time to play with the horses. I’ve begun working part-time. This is trashing some “play notions” for the time-being.

My work requires only a few daily hours, but they’re aside from the pre-work of preparing to be away, and exclude after-work time of caring for waiting animals. On scheduled working days, regardless of my wishing and planning, time is too-squeezed, even for a quick horseback ride. By now and for too long, the horses have been just hanging around, unexercised.

Today I’m not working and early will try to get away with them. We’ll have to return ahead of the farrier’s arrival. I’ll take all three, will ride Sunni, pony Rosie, and let Pimmy follow. It’ll be slow-going but that’s okay for I’ve missed having outings with them.

And, I’ve a brain full of concerns, about people wearing masks incorrectly and refusing to cover their mouths and noses, about politics and ahead a complicated race for president, about whether or not to explore refinancing my mortgage, about books I’m reading that offer points of view to be considered, and a big stack of books waiting to be read. Such a list goes on, and riding horseback while managing an entourage will consume my attention and energy.

It’s a fine way to ease those accumulated muddlings in my head.

Dear Friends: Please while out in public and for all our sakes, correctly wear a mask. Diana

Friday, August 21, 2020

I’m off to work again, today as a breaker. I’ll be a stand-in for workers taking their breaks and lunches. This role lets me show up for work a little later than usual and leave for home a bit earlier. Even on days with short working hours, I can’t do much with my animals besides feeding. The horses especially need exercise. I’m eager to be out riding them.

Tomorrow afternoon the farrier is coming. I’ll try to escape early and ride awhile.

Not much can compare to working with a horse when it comes to clearing one’s mind. Handling a horse means focusing totally on the animal. One needs a sense of its energy level, attention span, willingness to respond, and probabilities of its amenance to guidance. For a rider on horseback, everything shrinks to awareness of the duo itself and the terrain.

Horseback makes one forget outside worries, such as money too short, bills too many, work not done, people not called, and realities needing to be faced. Riding is a postponer more than a therapy, although getting-away, forcing other thoughts into the background may somehow reveal solutions. On dismounting, one might be thinking creatively from mental background processing–like a nighttime awakening and an “Ah-ha! moment”.

Today at work, unless we’re really busy, I’ll make the hours pass quickly by thinking about my horses. I’ll start making plans for our next outing, deciding which trails to cover and why. I’ll consider where we might go simply for fun, looking around and discovering. I’ll think about how to improve my skills as a rider, to collaborate more fully while on horseback.

Dear Friends: All creatures are therapists, if we pause to spend quality time with them. Diana

Thursday, August 20, 2020

I’m running a bit late this morning, got caught up thinking and writing about some old days. I’ve been doing some retro-reading and renewing my acquaintance with great writers. I’m focused now on Tillie Olson and Zora Neale Hurston.

Recently, I ran across an article about Olson’s writing skills and remembered long ago reading a story in “The New Yorker”, by her and entitled “I Stand Here Ironing”. Her writing was deceptively simple, very powerful, and created a story that blew me away. Recently, remembering, I sent for a retrospective of Olson’s works, offered by her daughter and granddaughter, themselves fine writers. Olson was born in 1912, her stories are perspectives from America’s tough Depression years, and are breathtakingly fine art.

I already was re-reading Hurston’s, Their Eyes Were Watching God, one of several several retro books I selected from a used-seller. Hurston was an amazing writer, her prose is sparse and clean, and like Olson’s was formed much by the Great Depression.

There are many reasons to think 2020 may be a “woman’s year”. In following #metoo and current politics, it’s impressive that women are speaking out, moving up, being publicly acknowledged as intelligent, productive, and professional. In contrast, those women who matured during the 1930s, and survived the Great Depression, had fewer opportunities to stand away from cooking, cleaning, ironing, and trying to reassure husbands and children. I don’t dismiss the problems men faced during this period, as for them it was similar. Many individuals we remember today are those who learned how to write, and knew how to express themselves with clarity and meaning.

Reading Olson and Hurston has slowed my brain, made me recall my growing-up days with a mother who matured during the Great Depression. It offers my mom’s eye-view and helps me understand better her personal needs and family decisions.

Besides, these two fantastic women were highly-intelligent, wonderfully talented artists. They’ve given us their experiences and ideas in stories that mesh interestingly with today’s worldviews.

Dear Friends: Their writings keep my brain active in slow periods of my part-time job. Diana