that's just about as funky as you can be

Yesterday morning our sweet neighbor Winne, rang the doorbell to deliver hot, sticky buns that she had just baked. Her yummy gift was to celebrate Brian's 49th birthday! Maizie, Brian, and I lingered over coffee and the delicious goodies until 11 a.m.

Winnie herself is going to be 93 years old in April and her husband, Ralph, just turned 95 a week ago. They celebrated their 73rd wedding anniversary earlier this month! Here is a photo of them with Pie taken in May of 2010.

They are amazing and an inspiration. They live alone and fill their days baking for lucky people like us!

After our Sunday-morning-Brian's-birthday-lingering, I went to the barn and had a nice ride on my Sovey boy. We were bareback and bitless and both sleepy and relaxed so I just let him graze in the sunshine for most of the ride. I didn't want to get too far from the barn because I was waiting for someone who was interested in buying two round bales of hay from me.

This is a wiki photo, but I had two bales of orchard grass and brome like this in my barn that I had purchased a few weeks ago. My spoiled boys nibbled it a little, but were not interested. They have a taste for alfalfa. I enjoy good things too, so I hear them. I advertised my round bales on Craigslist and a woman arranged to come yesterday afternoon.

Her husband couldn't be there so I enlisted Brian and Maizie and my mom to help us roll the bales out of the barn, down the bank hill, and into her trailer. Brian is allergic to hay, but he said he thought he could handle it for such a short time. When she pulled in the driveway, she jumped out of her truck and explained that she can't back a trailer. She asked if Brian could do it for her. He jumped in and slowly lined up the trailer with our barn bank hill. He had to negotiate the apple tree and tennis court and was in there for a while doing a nice, slow job. As soon as he finished, he put it in park and jumped out laughing loudly and pointing inside the truck. Here, in the backseat, sat two little boys, about 4 and 5 years old! They never said a peep the whole time Brian was in the truck and none of us, including Brian, knew they were in there. Brian must have had his head out the driver's window to steer and didn't use the rear view mirror in the truck. As soon as he shifted it into park, one little kid said, "Are you going to roll the hay now?" and Brian jumped straight up in the air! Very funny!

Our bales rolled right down into her trailer with zero problems. Perfect!

Last evening I went back to the barn around 7 pm to ride Pie. I wanted to go at 6 pm, but Brian got into a long philosophical conversation about graph theory vs. his own chess model theory. Since it was his birthday, I thought it was only right to sit and listen. I could see the sun falling lower in the sky over his shoulder as he described the seven bridges of Konigsberg to me in detail. I saw my bareback Pie ride disappearing before my very eyes, but I stayed and listened because Brian listens to my horse stories until his eyes are crossed.

When I finally got to the barn at 7 pm the light was like this:

Times like this are tricky with horses, because naturally you are a little rushed and adrenaline is flowing to hurry before it gets too dark. I have to exhale long and slowly as I bring the horses inside and act like I do not anticipate anything. I clean Pie's feet and pretend that I am not excited or trying to go fast. I slip on his bitless bridle and we go outside the barn and it was really dark! He isn't the best about seeing things in that light. Sovey would definitely be my Moonlight Ride boy.

Pie was wonderful last night though. We rode until 8:15 all over the big field. I was only scared at one point when I saw three sets of deer ears in a wooded section. They either decided not to jump out or went a different way. Pie never saw or heard them, thank goodness. 

Two bareback rides, Brian's birthday fun, and sticky buns. It was a good day!