Life's little surprises

Last night Rick and Brian got home late; I didn't know they were going out to Rick's draft horse client's again so Brian could practice driving for the State Fair. Then Rick surprised me with a request from his client: would I be willing to ride in two classes? Rick's client needs someone for the 'Draft Horse Bareback Equitation' and 'Draft Horse Riding, Walk/Trot' classes, so I said “Sure!” So tonight I'm going out with Brian so we can both practice with our horses for our classes, and this morning I rode Lance bareback just to make sure I still can. 😉 As an adolescent in Texas, most of my riding was bareback, but now I'm convinced that a properly fitting saddle is more comfortable for a horse than a person's 'pin bones' digging into the muscles on either side of the spine.

While riding Lance in our arena, I noticed a big, nasty plant down in our woods. So after riding, I went down to investigate – and found two burdock plants, no doubt seeded by deer bearing burrs.

Fortunately, I also stumbled upon a missing spade leaning against the big maple holding Brian's old treehouse. Brian is notorious for taking tools and not putting them away; in this case it was fortuitous, because these suckers have long, tough taproots. I dug them out and deposited them in the trash bin; we don't need another noxious weed trying to establish itself on Boulderneigh.

I also spotted something else in that maple. At first I thought it was a piece of white plastic, maybe a lid from a plastic bucket. But when I got closer and stood on my tippy-toes, I could see it was a huge fungus of some sort!

my big fist for scale

Speaking of Brian, he surprised me Saturday evening by wanting to drive me around to some of his favorite hang-outs near the Willamette River. Of course I took advantage of the offer for some rare bonding time with my near-man:

It is warm and dry, but that's summer for you. Earlier this month we got the barest hint of precipitation, just enough to bejewel the grass spiderwebs scattered around the yard and landscaping: 

We'll be watering the garden and landscaping plants for awhile yet. Seems like the rainy season is arriving later each year. This morning it looked like the new neighbors on our north side were having their well tested; I hope and pray their usage doesn't affect our low-output well.

Off to move the sprinkler and pick some more cherry tomatoes!

That's it for now from . . .