Killer Robot Clan

We are tearing up the bathroom. The floor was rotting through in a few places, so it had to be done. I put it off until summertime so that we would be able to establish an outdoor shower without the kids telling all their friends at school about it.

So far the floor consists of linoleum on top of plywood, on top of two more layers of linoleum, on top of another layer of plywood, under which we expect to find the original floor. Rights now our sink is in the front yard and the bathroom door is on the back porch.

I am glad that I marked day one of Jake’s training with a blog post.  After checking last night, I was surprised to see that I have only been working him for a week.  It feels like a month.  Although he is technically a gelding, the benefits of the operation haven’t had time to take effect.  He still acts like a stallion; bossy, aggressive, and downright offended that I refuse to let him be in charge.

We have made some progress, though. He comes to the stall door when I open it, though he still fights me when I halter him. He leads fairly well now, without stepping on me, leaning into me, or trying to drag me where he wants to go. He is getting better about keeping his head away from me, which has greatly reduced the biting attempts. He still tries when he thinks I’m not paying attention. He’s learned decent gate manners, which was a big victory. He yields his hind quarters without me having  to touch him, he fairly reliably yields the forequarter given a hard enough shove, and he is starting to back up on command.  He is learning to move off and forward on command, the foundations for the lunging work we’re starting. I even gave him a bath in the cross-ties without a complete and total meltdown.

The cowboys at the barn are itching to ride him just to prove a point. I have no doubt that they could ride him. I could ride him, if I wanted to pick that fight. They can’t understand why I keep messing with him from the ground, and its eating them up with impatience. What good does it do me to have a rideable horse if I can’t get him from his stall without him trying to bite my face off or run me over? First things first.

Andrews parents bought the kitties catnip infused cardboard scratchers. They came with a bag of extra catnip for refreshing the scratchers. Guinness now lives on her scratcher, just to prevent any of the other cats from getting near it. She doesn’t even like us to get near it. Meanwhile the rest of the kitties raid the cupboard every night, trying their best to get that catnip bag open.

I am still way behind on general paperwork. I am coming to loathe office time. It doesn’t matter that the pile is shrinking. Regardless of the fact that it is smaller, it is still there.

The boys are home this weekend, a rare occurrence. We are getting ready to sit down for a Star Trek marathon. Tomorrow we are heading to Florence to visit Andrew’s parents, and they will get to go swimming over there for the first time. On Sunday we are visiting our friend Doug, who had a stroke and is living in an assisted care facility.

I was warned not to read Robert Jordan’s “Wheel of Time” series because he died before finishing it. I didn’t listen. I have just finished the tenth and last book. There is no conclusion, nor is one forthcoming. Sometimes I have to learn things the hard way.

We’re having to rethink the Burning Man trip due to gas prices, which is a big let down. I’m not sure what the outcome will be. We have discussed hiking a section of the Appalachian Trail instead.

I now have everything I need for canning except for a pressure canner. I am itching to can stuff. I am trying to see if my old one can be retrofitted with the new safety features.

Ok, last tangent…

I have never made much use of Google Library, although search results have led me to it a few times. Today I found an awesome book that combines my Confederate roots with my love of poetry, a collection entitled “War Poetry of the South“. It was worth logging into the Google Library service in order to save it. I have to say that this is a pretty awesome service, something I will be making a lot more use of. You can download any book in text or pdf format, create libraries of books, and write reviews. This will help me get back into reading the classics, something I’ve been putting off because I didn’t want to allocate money to buying print editions.

Night ya’ll!