angry clouds

The gray clouds are racing across the sky this morning. Unusual to see them moving so fast, it is one of those GRAY days- good Irish hunting. Breezy and cool and damp. We needed the rain so bad and it feels lush, this wetness. Had a very busy weekend, Sarah and fiance Kevin visiting and Sam and fiancee Stephanie were moving in for a money saving sojourn. And Will was helping move everybody! Lots of young energy and noise and love- two young couples starting life together. Very fun to watch.  Now back to "routine"- yearlings to groom and walk, all the babies are weaned- no more broken fences. Think the moms were definitely ready to take a break from nursing. Bob and Chessie are being excellent babysitters. Hope the yearling sale goes OK, I don't even hope for major success, just hope they all sell! All the weanlings are selling in December, papers in and all named. Spring will be very busy, so I am so glad that I did not breed any mares back. Will just have to reassess this spring, maybe send two to Kentucky- maybe.

Misty, moisty morning

The fog is thick and low this dawn. It's like being in a cloud. Summer heat is back for another day anyway.
I will try to wean one more baby today, hopefully both by next week. Need some rain badly, the stream is dried up in back field where I would like to keep mares. Sarah and I went wedding dress shopping yesterday. It was soooo much fun and we both burst into tears when she came out of dressing room in the first gown. What a mother-daughter moment! I think that moment is a once in a lifetime. She took my breath away with her natural beauty. Her look of happiness and amazement as she saw herself in the mirror was  priceless. The salesgirl casually slipped a veil and jeweled comb on her head and transformed my little girl into a princess. All the love and care and heartache and hopes for the future stood all grown up, walking away from me and I was smiling with joy.  I am so blessed, both Sam and Sarah are ready to love and be vulnerable and truly trust another soul to love and care for them.  Wings are spreading and I am so proud of them.  

Summer's end

Summer is going out with a heat wave. 90 yesterday and again today, maybe higher.  As I sit and watch dawn( at 6:40 am nowadays) the cicadas are as loud as ever, the humidity is rising off the ground like warm air from subway grillwork and the mist is rolling across the fields. One weanling keeps whinnying in the pasture. I can't quite see them , but hope it is on the right side of the fence! We had a tremendous lightning storm last night. I had just picked up daughter and her charming fiance from airport and was telling them what a lovely full moon there was tonight. We walk outside and the heat lightning is rumbling and strikes are snapping down in the distance- no moon. This is the California fiance who visited Maryland for the first time last winter and whose trip heralded 48 inches of snow! I am looking at him out of the corner of my eye as we head to car , thinking " I hope he is not some kind of lightning rod". He is exclaiming that they never have lightning like this in LA and I am hoping my horses don't die tonight from lightning strikes! It was spectacular and the rain chased us all the way home. Sarah and I are going to be girly and go look at wedding dresses and wedding books and maybe even get a pedicure.  Love my kids.

Ladies night

My book club friends came to dinner last night and it was a lovely evening. I really like setting a nice table and then spending an evening with good friends, a bottle of wine ( or 2), great food. Paula brought her bread pudding- which is to die for and left the leftovers  with me too ( score!!) A friend who is going through a very tough time with husband's illness came and it was nice to see her laugh and have her mind taken off her own struggle for a while. The ladies are wonderful women, we all love horses and have become dear friends through our equine connection. We all very different but share a common love which in turn has revealed to us  our many similarities. We all laughed at the fact that we all still look the very same ( all horsewomen are fit) but we all are 10 lbs heavier than we were 5-6 years ago. What happened?
 Cubbing this morning was warm, but we ran several fox, actually we may have run one fox,  but we viewed several which is heartening to know they are around. It was very dry but this fox ran a huge circle  - horses are getting fit. Did you all see the moon this morning? Very beautiful and our friend from last evening told us all , that for the only time in our lifetimes, Neptune is visible about midnight right beside the moon. It is at it's nearest apogee or perigee (forgot which)  to Earth. Apparently, with binoculars the rings are visible!! I tried to stay up last night but fell asleep, but will try tonight. Once in a lifetime!

foxhunting, football and......

Cubbing was fun this morning. Everyone was a little high, Lily was thinking she was going to whip (she wasn't, Tanya was riding first flight), it was Mike and Bob's first hunt of season- both trying to establish dominance over when and how much eating on the side was going to take place, and Red decided he didn't like the whip cracking in his ear. Spinning and jumping while cracking a whip and looking out for the million groundhog holes in that one spot was a pain to say the least. But he calmed down and everything chilled out. Hounds crossed the branch by treatment plant, that was a drag for awhile, but all the puppies came back to huntsman very quickly which was nice. Some older hounds, will remain nameless 'cause I usually like them, tried to howl that they could not swim, except they were sitting chest deep in the river! -so I wasn't buying it and I left them.  Day got very warm very quickly but it was nice to be out.  Now football- GO 'SKINS!!  We are tailgating with friends at Fed EX. Couldn't ask for a nicer day!!

Can I start today over?

Weaning babies sucks. I have had both colts go over the fence, busting rails on the way down on both sides, leaving their field and going into the mares' field! One cut, hopefully not too bad,  but upset mares and babies all around. I put the babysitters in  and everything was OK until I was about to put the gator away and have breakfast, then all hell breaks loose. Those two colts can jump now, three rail fence from a standstill. Back to square one with two and the one that was weaned days ago also sailed over the fence, found mom, who wasn't exactly thrilled to see him. She had been studiously ignoring the shenanigans, hoping he wouldn't spot her. After I retrieved all the hot, sweaty, upset moms and babies and repaired the fence rails, I decided to put already weaned mares and friends in the very back field. This means the stupid colts will have to jump six fences! If they are successful I will sell them as jumpers! Fingers crossed, everyone stays put for the rest of the day (and week). So I will try again next week.

Football

Football is back. I love it. Took me years, but I now love the sounds and sights of Sunday night/Monday night football. I even know a quite a few of the players now ( maybe not enough for a fantasy league, but a lot), which makes watching the game much better. For years I sort of watched with the men in my life, but I was really just watching beefy guys in tight pants. Then, I fell in love with the Redskins, maybe it was the "hogs", maybe Joe Theismann - actually, maybe it was Howie Long  (even though he was a Raider)- anyway I really got into the game. It is an awesome sport of very athletic men, that takes great skill. As I appreciate a great racehorse and the heart and drive of an athlete that a super horse  represents, I appreciate the tremendous amount of training it takes to get to the level of fitness and ability in professional football. We all get to "participate" in a way, with televised football games and our love of the players. We cheer and cry and groan with them, but we don't have to really hurt with them. And they hurt! I cannot imagine the feeling after those games- they probably can't get out of bed. We just go to work, arguing the next day about who played better. They bleed and sweat and ache, for us, the fans  the next day as well. And then go right back to training for the love of the game. Awesome.

Blue dawns

The summer dawns were all shades of pink and gold, spectacular and fiery most mornings. I am noticing that these September break of days are blue. Blues, ranging from the palest, almost white-blue where the sun will come up, arcing back to the deepest indigos behind me. There are moments of pink , if there are clouds, but mainly they have been clear blue skies. The cicadas still thrum, softer  like a white noise in background. Two of the funniest looking woodpeckers just landed in the treetop beside me. I just realized, they sort of look like miniature pterodactyls. It is definitely cooler, the yearlings are already by the gate , waiting for breakfast. Too cold for baths today. The sale is in three weeks and I am now planning for the December mixed sale. A friend is having a difficult time and I think we may put several of our horses in the sale. Time to reorganize and plan for next step. Life is all about change, that was knocked into my thick skull recently. Just when you think you might coast along with a plan that looks smooth, you are sure to hit rapids. Now, my rapids are not bad. Just fast moving, lots of bumps and exciting. Two weddings, two college courses, new directions in writing. I always feel like I have forgotten to do something! But, I remember I am blessed and I give silent thanks - these changes are wonderful to behold and to be a part of- kids growing up and getting married. I am happy. Murph, I just heard the sound of Fall. The geese!! The first big vee just flew high overhead, honking loudly, just to say "We're back!!!"  Of, course, how did I forget the geese.

Exciting news- another engagement in the family!!

Yesterday, my daughter Sarah got engaged.  So wonderful, I am so happy for her. Kevin, her fiance called to tell me news also and sent flowers- so sweet. Good son -in -law! Sam is getting married in May, here , and I was very happy about one wedding- now I am double happy. Probably gonna get kinda crazy- but right now just double happy. Then my brain kicks in and I start asking a million questions, when, where, how ...... I am going to make us all crazy!
Cubbing started this morning and it was a lovely morning, down along shores of Patuxent. The corn is still high and it was warm, but it felt good to be out on horseback. We had some runs and nothing bad happened, this is good! Hounds were tired by 8:30Am and we all came in- good start to new season.

Labor Day Weekend

I did not want to get up this morning. I labored too hard this weekend, wanted to sleep in, but Leo, the lovely Lab had other plans. His internal clock never fails. At 5:50AM that cold nose plus a big foot go into my face! I groaned this morning, but like a good Mom I opened the eyes, then the front door and decided to get up. As I sit here with the first cup of coffee, listening to late summer cicadas I am wondering what will be the first sound of Fall. The spring peepers herald in the first days of Spring, these cicadas hum the warmth of summer, winter is silent, but what about Fall. You can't hear leaves fall or change color, so I am waiting to find out as I watch the dawn this year. I'll let you know if a sound of Fall becomes obvious. I have an owl that welcomes the morning with me, but I hear him all year.  Labor Day was a busy weekend- are we supposed to labor or rest? I did both just to cover my bases. These two college courses are kicking my butt. The Writing 101 I can do but the Emergency Management is a lot of reading! I have now finished two FEMA courses that make me more qualified than Mr. Brown ( the Brown of Katrina's Fema fiasco). Mike is doing a War College Masters course on the Strategy's of War or something like that and I realize I am learning how to clean up after war, so we make the  perfect pair.  He makes the mess and I'll clean it up!

Post Hurricane Earl

Earl brought nothing, no rain, no wind, not even a great sunrise- so I hope the surfers on the East Coast caught some great waves, because otherwise it was a big bust. I am afraid that all this media attention on "exciting" wether is going to inure us all about real disasters. We will stop believing the hype and warnings and then when "the real one "comes we will have stopped listening. I feel bad for all those people who had to leave vacations on Outer Banks. Years ago, those were the best walks on the beach when the wind was whipping and the waves were huge. You knew not to go with just common sense, but it was exhilarating to watch Nature's power. Now they want you to run and hide. Boring. On another subject I can't find my glasses. I think the dog ate them again, it is so maddening. I watched "Marley and Me" the other night and our Leo is a dead ringer for Marley, maybe not quite so bad , but then again , my glasses are gone! The old pair are missing both ear cushion pieces and poke me in the eye every time I put them on- aaargh.
The trees are starting to change, the first yellow leaves look like little yellow post-its all over the green . Funny how are description of things evolves. It is a welcome cooler morning and I am about to go work yearlings. Only a month until the sale,  I hope they sell. The market is still depressed. I go back and forth about selling weanlings in December, I think that market is even worse than the yearling market. My filly is shipping back from Fl this weekend I hope. Good timing because my other mare has been trying to founder I think.  I am afraid I upped her grain too much and then the grass had a spurt of unusual August fresh growth and wham- she is walking on eggshells. Hope I caught it soon enough. She is off grain, in stall, in deep sawdust and seems OK- fingers crossed. Still debating Field Hunter Championship. I would love to do it, just have to watch finances .