Case Study Thoughts and Herd Dynamics

Poor J.J. hasn't had a massage for a few weeks since our first one but I'm hoping to be able to do that again soon.  I strained my back a couple weeks ago trying to move one of those 100 pound black rubber stall mats.  I was taking it across the property and had it folded and had hoisted it onto the wheelbarrow, when it started to fall (and take the wheelbarrow with it) and I dove to catch it and wrenched my right QL, external oblique and bicep.  It was a very impatient week for me while I couldn't lift anything waiting for my muscles to heal.

Even though I haven't had a chance to work directly on J.J. I have been thinking about him and have had some ideas.  My old trainer, Kellie posted this article and I found it helpful at explaining why pelvic injuries are so hard to identify and diagnose hind end injuries.   I also took a review course over the weekend in preparation for taking the national equine massage therapist certification test through NBCAAM, and while talking about nervous system pathologies I had an idea.  There is a pathology called Sweeney Shoulder that I had not heard of, which presents with a rapid and severe atrophy of one shoulder and is caused by damage to a nerve.  I did just a little research this afternoon to see if there was anything written about a similar outcome if a nerve in the hind end were damaged, but I couldn't find anything yet.  But I wonder if the injury affected a particular nerve and that is what has caused so much of his problems?  Right now what I would love is to be able to find a vet who would be willing to do this case study with me, but I'm not sure anyone would be willing to do that at no charge.  I'm thinking I may have to ask around though because I am very curious as to the diagnostics of the situation and I am not qualified to form them myself.

I am going to do some research on the physical therapy aspects of treatment for Sweeneys and see if that is something to incorporate into my massage sessions with J.J.  Hopefully, I'll be able to work on him again this weekend and get into a once a week routine.  That is if I can manage to not hurt myself again doing barn chores.  This weekend is going to be busy with removing layers of mud from the paddocks and replacing that with layers of gravel.  My husband and I did some of that today and I made a conscientious effort to use my legs and my core more than my back when shoveling wheel barrels full of gravel from our several ton piles in the driveway.

Speaking of mud, we have a new horse in our heard.  My new friend, Kathleen recently moved off the island and her horse, Raven came to live with us.  Raven is about 27 years old and a very sweet, friendly mare.  We played musical horses throughout the pastures but finally found that keeping the girls on one side of the property and the boys on the other keeps things the most peaceful.  Geir (the Fjord), Frosty (the POA) and Girlfriend (my elderly mare) had really settled in well with each other and all felt like they had their places.  Girl and Frosty lived full time in the three adjoining south pastures and Geir lived with them during the day and then went home to his own paddock across the driveway at dinner time and stayed there through the night.  Geir can be a little bossy and I didn't want to leave him with the other two horses all night, especially not at dinner because he'd chase them away from their food.

Then Raven came last week and it was a madhouse when she first got out of the trailer!  Girlfriend started screaming her head off and tearing around the front pasture at a gallop, and at one point actually kicked her legs way up in the air behind her while running.  I'm sure the poor old girl was really sore the next day.  I tried putting Raven and Girl in the front pasture with Geir and Frosty in the middle pasture, and although initially Raven kicked at Geir through the fence, they quieted down quickly with each other so we opened the gate between the two pastures.  That was a mistake! Within minutes Geir was chasing Raven in and out of all three of the adjoining pastures at a full gallop with the other two horses following in blind excitement.   Raven was working up way too much of a sweat, Girl was slipping in the mud and Geir was completely ignoring me.  So, I caught him, put him across the driveway (amidst much screaming from Girl and Raven) and locked them in the front pasture and Frosty in the middle pasture.

They stayed that way for about twenty four hours, with hopes it would help them all calm down, but that didn't quite work out.  Girlfriend stayed glued to the fence as close to Frosty as possible and if Raven came anywhere near him, Girl would pin her ears flatter than I'd ever see, bare her teeth and charge Raven.  She definitely didn't want Raven playing with her toy pony!  So after twenty-four hours I decided to put Frosty across the driveway with Geir and see how things went if I just took the pony completely out of the equation.  It didn't go so well for Girl.  She ran up and down the fence that runs along the driveway screaming for Frosty - who just wandered off into the woods with Geir and didn't even look back.  She stopped screaming after awhile, but continued to pace, then I think she quieted down for a bit during the night but by the time the sunrose was pacing again.  That was a couple days ago and she has finally relaxed a little bit and is actually interacting with Raven more than just to pin her ears at her.  Yesterday I actually saw them grooming each other!

I think they're finally readjusting to their new herd dynamics and I'm going to keep things the way they are for awhile now.  Girl is so old and her sensitivity and spookiness is much more pronounced than when she was young and I feel like she's very emotionally fragile and it's not good for her to change up her herd very much.  But I also want to be able to take Geir and  Frosty places together and leave her home alone and have her be ok.   And now having Raven here I can do that.

A couple days ago my trainer, Audrey came over and we took both Frosty and Geir down the street to my friend's arena and it went so much better having both of them than just taking one.  I've taken one at a time before and the whole time each of them has been very wound up, and easily distracted and prone to stopping and calling to the other horses just to make sure they could hear someone and know who was around.  But with both of them, Geir paid attention to Audrey and they were both much calmer and easier to work with.

Audrey has started teaching me longlining which looks like it will be beneficial for Geir in helping him engage his hindquarters a little more and use his body correctly.  He has a tendency to pull himself along with his front end and drag his hind legs behind him, but the longlines help him remember to pick up his hind legs a little more and engage his back.  Kind of like when I'm at pilates and Beth will touch my shoulders to remind me to relax them and put her hand on my waist (or wherever) to remind my body to engage those muscles.  It's really interesting how a tactile sensation can activate the part of our brain to help engage a muscle, when just conscious thought is not really doing the trick.  Here's a short video from the other day when Audrey was demonstrating longlining.  Probably good there is no video of me trying it, much like how I felt when I started riding with a double bridle, to go from using one line for lunging to suddenly having two lines, I felt like I was all tangled up in lunge rope and fumbling and dropping stuff everywhere.  But I did start to get the hang of it by the end of the lesson.  I'm looking forward to getting better at that and it got me thinking again how I want to learn driving eventually also.

Case Study - Jasper Junior - Day 1 ... and welcome Rosie!

Before I get into my case study notes, I wanted to say that I'm very excited to have my first ever very own horse transport!  I've been wanting to get a truck and trailer for a long time now because it gets tiresome having to rely on my friends to haul my horses around (I'm sure it's tiresome for them too!).  But it's just not been in our budget to buy both those things.  Yesterday my husband and I went out to look at a horse van and although I - in my impulsive way - wanted to buy it even before the test drive - my husband shockingly also liked it!  There are many upsides to a horse van for me instead of a truck and trailer.  For one thing it will be a smoother ride for my horses and the learning curve to driving one is much much smaller.  I did a test drive yesterday with the seller and my husband and other than almost going in a ditch on one sharp turn off Vashon Highway, I handled her well and felt very comfortable driving her after I got the hang of it.  She's a stick shift so I'm the only one in the family who knows how to drive a stick so I'll be the only one driving, but I'm ok with that.  Her name is Rosie and the seller (who is going above and beyond) is doing some pre-sale repairs and a full maintenance check before she turns her over to me.  So, I will be tootling around the island with her in a couple weeks!

Now, on to Jasper Junior (or JJ as is his nickname).  I went out for his first massage last Tuesday and unfortunately, a lot of things have been happening the last week that I had to deal with immediately so I didn't have time right away to make my first blog post.  First of all, JJ is just about the sweetest guy out there, and so are his friends who were practically right up on top of me the first part of his massage, apparently, wanting to get some of that great back rub action.  We ended up having to lock them out of JJ's pen so that I could focus completely on him and not bump into other mules (literally) ever time I turned around!

This session was mostly a get-to-know-you session for both him and I.  He'd never had any bodywork before so it was a chance to introduce him to what that entails and that it is a nice thing, not a thing one needs to be afraid of or on guard against.  It was also a chance for me to palpate all around and see if I could feel what is going on with him.  It really made me wish that I had a device to look under the skin and see exactly what is going on under there.  Like just lifting the skin and seeing everything exactly as it is.  But then that would be too easy and where would be the fun in investigation, right? (or at least that's what I'm going to keep telling myself  :)

The big thing I noticed that I will investigate further is that he has a very hard lump about two inches in diameter just below his Ischial Tuberosity.  His owner, Dick, said he believes it is scar tissue and I think that is probably an accurate assessment although I couldn't say for sure without veterinarian diagnostics.  Upon initial palpation, the lump felt like bone, and I wondered if it could be his Greater Trochanter, but it doesn't seem like it is in quite the right place to be, and it did start to "melt" a little bit under my hand, which leads me to believe is it some sort of soft/connective tissue. 

Here's a photo as best I could get of that spot on his hip.  It is on the right side where he has so much muscle atrophy.   I'm not sure how well you can see it but it is right below the Ischial Tuberosity which is fairly well visible because of the muscle atrophy.

The other thing I noticed when standing directly behind him looking across the top of his back is that his spine down in the lower Thoracic through Lumbar looks like it has been slightly rolled to the right, as though something has been pulling on it from the top and it still goes straight down his back (mostly) but it looks like it is slightly rolled to the side.  My guess would be this is from the last seven years of compensation movement.  I would love to get a chiropractor out to see what they thought about that.  But I worry that moving his spine back into alignment suddenly would cause a lot of pain in other areas after years of compensation - I guess that is a good question to ask a chiropractor, how that affects the body when making adjustments like that.  Definitely outside my realm of education.

What's interesting is that for range of motion (ROM) on the right leg, JJ walked very stiffly and looks like he is having a lot of trouble bending at the stifle and hock on both legs,  But passive ROM on the right leg showed that it was completely within normal limits.  My education has told me that if passive ROM is within normal limits and active ROM (when he is moving it himself) is not within normal limits, there is a good chance the problem is soft tissue.  Which is good news because that is something I can address over time.

For treatment on Tuesday I mostly just did strokes to increase circulation and in the area where he had the most atrophy I used a light tapotement (tapping) to help increase circulation and stimulate the muscles.  I also worked a little bit on his supraspinous ligament around T14 through T-16 and got an enormous release from him with lots of yawning and stretching and farting.  And I worked out a Stress Point in his Longissimus Dorsi at approximately T18.  JJ was pretty relaxed and happy after the first session and followed me to the gate after it was over (along with all his friends after I opened up the pen again!)

Case Study #1 - Jasper Junior

I finally got around to talking to my neighbor about using one of her mules for a case study and she agreed! Yay!  First off, it turns out the mule is a "he" not a "she" so I'll correct those pronouns right away.  I had to tell her up front, and I will say this here too - I am not in any way saying I can do anything for sure to really change whatever is going on with Jasper Junior that has caused his issues on his right hind end.  Since the vet doesn't have a definitive diagnosis I can only go in and see what I can feel in the soft tissue and see if I can change anything to make him more comfortable.  But I'm not expecting to work miracles and I don't want anyone to think I'm rushing in saying I can fix what a veterinarian can't because that is not the case at all. 

This is Jasper Junior - or JJ as he is often called.   He is twenty-two years old, a gelded male or John mule and he's been retired for seven years after coming up lame after a hunting trip.

His owner, Dick had him out on a hunting trip about seven years ago along with several of his other mules and they were packing an elk off the mountain.  Dick's nephew was riding JJ and when they were passing over a cut JJ decided he was going to jump the cut, and Dick believes that may be when he did something to injure himself.  He said he was a little off the next day, then seemed to be ok again, but then was off again after going up the mountain.  The vet never found out exactly where the lameness was coming from, so they retired him and he's currently got a very pampered life in the pasture with the rest of the mules, well fed and good shelter and they give him a mild pain medication from their vet so he is comfortable.

Let me preface this by saying it is not unusual for a veterinarian to not be able to identify exactly where a lameness is coming from.  This is not because of lack of education by any means, but because lameness is different for every single horse and the causes could be a large number of things that need to be ruled out, and often are only ruled out after extensive, incredibly expensive tests.  I've seen some of these tests and they are fascinating and sometimes extremely informative, but the average horse owner is not going to spend thousands of dollars on ultrasounds, CT scans, X-rays or surgery to pinpoint the cause of lameness in a family horse.  It's just not feasible.  So, I don't by any means think it is odd that there is no definitive veterinary diagnosis in this case.

What I first noticed with JJ is that his right hind end is severely atrophied and his left looks fairly normal.  My first thought is to check his back and his illopsoas area for stress points and scar tissue.  My concern is that if he had some sort of disk injury that compressed some nerves there is nothing I can do to really fix that, but even if that is the case, massage can help the atrophied tissue with increased circulation and if nothing else improve his comfort level.

Here is a photo of JJ from behind.  That isn't shadows or light making it look like his right side dips down dramatically, it really does.  I wanted to take a "before" picture so that I have something to compare to as I work on him.

I didn't do a lot of palpation to start, mostly I just gathered some history on JJ from his owners, Dick and Beth, but I did feel along his back and palpate some of his neck and body, just to say "hi" and get acquainted.  The right side of his neck is very tense and the atrophy seemed to spread almost all the way up to his shoulder.  I didn't have the time to get video of him walking, but I hope to do that before I work on him the first time.  He does have a lot of stiffness in the stifle and hock with that right leg and drags it a little when he walks.   Beth is still waiting to get the refill on his meds from the vet after about a week of not being on them, so I got to see him "at his worst", which really wasn't too bad, but I definitely want to see if I can get him to an even better place with some ideas of what to first try to work on.

I hope to head back over on Tuesday and this is my plan for our first day:  Try to get some video of him walking, take some notes on where I'm seeing the most tension and where he seems the most stuck, and do a full palpation so I can note what I feel.  Then I will make a plan for treatment - either once or twice a week depending on what I find that I can work on.

Not Knowing What You Don't Know ...

There's an expression I hear a lot from instructors in the horse world that a hard place for people to be in when you're teaching them is when the "don't know what they don't know".  I used to not understand that expression because when I got back into horses after several years off I was fully aware of how much I had forgotten, and since I had mostly ridden hunter/jumper and never above training level in dressage as a kid, and suddenly I was hanging out with Grand Prix riders, trainers and judges, it was very obvious to me there was a lot I didn't know.

But as I continue to learn, I am realizing more and more what that phrase means, because there is so much about riding that is complex and non-intuitive when you start getting into the higher levels of riding (no matter what the discipline) that as I look back, I realize I would never have figured a lot of this stuff out on my own.  I was thinking about this while reading this article in Dressage Today about half halts.  Half halts are apparently a big mystery to a lot of people and I do wonder if I just don't understand them as much as I should because at this point they make sense to me and thus I wonder if I just don't know enough for them to be a mystery ...  but that's not the point.  The point is, I realized that I would not have understood what they are talking about in this article two year ago.  I would've wondered what the heck they were talking about "driving with your hips - what???"  You mean like when I see people trying to get their horse to go faster by forcing their hips forward so they're bearing down on the horse and pushing their hips up - which does kind of the opposite because it pushes down on the horse's back in the same way that you use your seat to ask for a stop, but then pushes on their back too, which can't feel good.  But no, they aren't talking about that, and I know that now, but two years ago I would have had no idea what they're talking about.   I imagine from the credentials of the writers of the article that they work mostly with upper level riders, and that is who the article is written for, so the writers weren't thinking of dumbing it down for folks like me two years ago.   It's a different world when you're used to working with beginners (and are still somewhat a beginner yourself in the grand scheme of things).

Speaking of being a beginner, I had a riding lesson with a new instructor last week and since I don't have an arena yet and don't have a trailer to haul my Fjord to the instructor, I rode her horse, who is a beautiful, sweet Friesan trained to fourth level.   I have never worn spurs (riders where them at the higher levels for more precise queues and I have so far not been advanced enough to need them) and the instructor said she would like me to wear them.  I have also never ridden in a double bridle, but that's what she rides her horse in so I got the opportunity to try that too.  It went much better than I expected.  My legs were much quieter than I had anticipated, but still when we were doing the free walk at the end of the lesson I felt the horse twitch a little a couple times and I think I may have let my leg stray a little and touch her with the stirrups - it seems awfully coincidental that a fly would land on her and cause her to twitch right by my right ankle  - twice during the free walk nonetheless.  The double bridle was less of a problem because I just kept contact with the snaffle portion of the bridle and left the other reins loose.  Of course, trying to take up contact with one set of reins while leaving the other set loose while walking or trotting was initially a huge challenge that ended up with me flailing around, reins flying everywhere (ok - it wasn't that bad, but it felt like it).

The thing that was so cool for me was that she's such a well trained horse that she responds to the slightest touch and movement.  For instance, I just needed to tighten the muscles in my butt and inner thighs and she'd stop - without any use of the reins or anything.  And I just needed to move my hips in a slightly faster "driving" pace - I'm not sure how to describe that yet - and she'd speed up without any leg aids or with just the slightest little squeeze with my ankles.  That's the kind of thing that makes it feel like you're dancing with the horse, your slightest movement affects their slightest movement and everything becomes fluid.

In other good news, I met with my neighbor today and she agreed to let me use her outdoor arena to work my horses so I don't have to just try to work them in my backyard until we build our arena.  I took my daughter's little POA, Frosty out for his first session on a lunge line and he's obviously had a little practice with that.  He's had more training at it than my Fjord, Geir had when I got him.  But his "I'll do whatever I want!" attitude did come out on the lunge line a few times where he'd suddenly spin and go the opposite direction or decide he was going to bolt and buck and kick out and then take off at a run.  Thankfully, after over a year of dealing with my OTTB doing that, this little pony doing it was nothing and I didn't end up having to do any water skiing around the arena like I did occasionally with Tuff Toad back in the day when she'd suddenly have a case of the yahoos.

Tomorrow I have plans to go ask my neighbor if I can use her mule for the case study.  Fingers crossed she will agree to it.  I'll update with photos and some history and what I'm going to be working on with her soon, if her owner agrees to it.

Upcoming Case Study

We are settling into our new little farm quite well.  I've been meeting my neighbors, going for hikes in the forest at the end of our road and riding my Fjord, Geir around the yard for lack of any formal arena to ride in at the moment.  

I had the opportunity to donate a gift certificate to the Vashon Maury Island Horse Association's Annual Competitive Trail Ride and I enjoyed meeting lots of horse folks from around the island.  I am excited to say that the woman who won the event whose prize was my gift certificate also has Fjords!  I'm looking forward to working with her.  I also met a neighbor who may allow me to temporarily use her arena until we get our built so I may be able to teach some riding lessons sooner than I'd expected.  And if not that, then at least I will have a place to work my Fjord and my daughter's little POA, Frosty.  They are both in need of a little regimented exercise other than rides around the yard and running around the pasture together.

I have found a neighbor's equine who I am going to ask her if I can do a case study on her.  She's an older mule and has a bad hip, but they don't know why.  The vet did not have an answer for them, but I haven't gotten all the information yet about what tests she did and what ideas she may have had.  It's very obvious that something happened in the mule's back or hip because one flank is severely atrophied in relation to the other.  I talked to my neighbor about working on her as a trade, but I think I'd like to ask her if I can do a case study, working with the vet of course, to see if we can help the ole girl.  I'm at least very interested to see what's going on with her muscles and see if I can bring her some balance and relief.   She appears to be quite happy and not in pain, but it must still be uncomfortable to have one side hyper-developed and one side atrophied.  I'm very curious to hear what the vet thinks and what she's investigated.

Meanwhile, my daughter's love of donkeys has now spread to a love of mules since we have five living in the pasture across the little dirt road in front of our house.  When I let our horses all out together in the morning, they head up to the end of our third pasture out by the street and talk to their mule friends.  The mules are so sweet and so incredibly cute with their big floppy ears and their delicate little donkey hooves!

Here is a photo of the three amigos hanging out in the front pasture together.  Geir (my Fjord) has been keeping Frosty (the POA) in line.  Frosty can be a real butthead about food and attention and left with just my elderly AQHA, Girlfriend, Frosty will threaten with bites and kicks to keep her away from me and food.  I put him in his place, but Girl seems to appreciate it (and follow the lead) more when another horse puts him in his place.  All Geir has to do is twitch an ear and Frosty knows now he's out of line because Geir is so much bigger than him - and so much more dominant than him.  It's been a surprisingly good dynamic having them together.

And now for the science!

The dogs, cats and horses are all settling in well.  My daughter's new little POA, Frosty and my elderly AQHA, Girlfriend are completely herd bound now.   I think they were herd bound the minute they met.  Girl hates to be alone and having had to be alone for about a month before we moved here she has been a bit needy with Frosty but he doesn't seem to mind at all.  Geir is settling in well too and lives in his own paddock across the driveway although today I opened up all the gates in the three connecting pastures and turned them all out together and they seem to be doing fine.  I'm only going to do that for a few hours a day because Geir and Frosty are very (ahem - let's use the polite term) "food motivated" and I don't want to tempt fate having them live together 24/7.  Plus at night I put Frosty and Girl in the front pasture where there are no low hanging branches or large broken branches on the ground, to avoid clumsy horse night time injuries.  And it's just not big enough for the three of them (or Geir and Frosty specifically). 

Other than cursing nature every time I have to pick poop in the grass in the pasture everything is perfectly set up right now.  I realize it's healthy to be able to munch a little fresh grass throughout the day but every time I pick I find myself wishing for a nice two acre gravel pasture which is soooooo much easier to pick poo out of.  That said, it's been nice and summer dry but in the next couple weeks I'm going to need to re-do the footing in the sacrifice areas before it starts to rain and my pastures turn into a mud bog.   I've noticed that you can ask five people about sacrifice and arena footing and get five completely contradictory opinions.  So, I've taken to reading everything I can on bases and footing.  What I've come up with is a plan - now whether or not I can afford this plan for our arena is another question.  But here is the plan so far:  Geir's sacrifice area still has some hogsfuel left in it (most of it has been broken down to dirt after lots of years of use but it's still not as bad as the front pasture) so I'm going to rake out the last of the dried grass tumbleweeds and clumps of dead weed roots, put down a geotextile fabric, then put two inches of 5/8 minus gravel covered with 2 inches of pea gravel.  After reading several different articles that seems like it will work best in this area.  I'm going to do the same in front of the shelter in the front pasture too although I may have to dig it out a little and put in 3 inches of 5/8 minus because it is pure dusty sand back there.  We'll see.  But at Girl's last pasture I boarded her at in Woodinville the ground was the same and they put down geotextile fabric and two inches of 5/8 minus and within a couple months the fabric was all torn up and the gravel had sunk into the mud.  I'm not wanting that to happen.  Sure, it's better than pure mud, but it also feels like a waste of gravel to watch it get squished into the mud.

The arena is a tougher proposition.  For one thing we have to take down some small trees which also involved pulling out their stumps and refilling those holes.   Then flattening it out.  Then I was thinking three inches of 5/8 minus for drainage then add on top of it this stuff - which adds both cushioning and drainage - then I'm wanting to do a sand/rubber combination but I may not be able to afford that.  So, if not then a couple inches of pea gravel.  But it has to be *real* pea gravel, not just small gravel - "hard" or "quartz" pea gravel, because the other can just be broken down to dirt and dust quickly.  

I'm ancy to get started on this project because I want an arena to ride in.  But honestly, at this rate it may be cheaper just to buy an old truck and trailer and haul a couple miles to the equestrian park and use their arena!

I've been slowly starting to put the word about my equine massage business but haven't done much marketing yet.  I've gotten some similiar feedback here as when I was in Woodinville  that the market is already saturated on the island, but then my massage instructor reminds me there are 1100 horses and there is plenty of business to go around for all of us so just keep looking for my niche.   I've donated a prize to this event so I'm hoping that whoever wins it will appreciate it and I'm also looking forward to meeting lots of other local horse folks.  And next year I think I will enter.  I'm also thinking of talking to Cafe Luna and asking if I can come in one afternoon for a couple hours and give some complimentary 5 minute on-site massages to promote my out-call massage business.

Eventually, I am going to make one of our outbuildings into a massage studio but at this rate that may not be for awhile because the mud-abatement strategy is far more important at this point.  But it's a great little building - just the perfect size, with a cute little loft for storage and everything.  At this point with all our projects it would behoove me to get a part-time job to save money to afford all of it but so far I haven't seen anything in my skill set.  For a moment I did consider applying as a school bus driver and my daughter said she thinks I'd make a great bus driver because I'm "so calm" (this is news to me!) but I'm not sure about that.  It would certainly be a fun new experience I suppose and completely outside of anything I've done before.

The New Farm Learning Curve!

We have officially been at our new farm for two weeks now!  I absolutely love it, although I have to admit I do not absolutely love unpacking.   Hanging curtains, putting together shelving and trying to figure out where everything will go after moving into a house that is 210 square feet smaller than our last house and has no garage at all, after the luxury of a three car garage (which is great for encouraging hanging on to stuff you don't actually need).   I am a little behind where I'd like to be in unpacking too because last week I subbed at pony camp for the last time (probably not the last time to be honest but I'm pretending) and that took up all my time.

The first three days of subbing my daughter (who was attending the volunteer camp for kids who had been volunteer workers during the summer) stayed at my parent's place on Mercer Island because it was much easier to commute to Redmond every day.  But Wednesday night we had to come back to the island because my folks had friends from Colorado coming into town.  So, Thursday morning we got up early to catch ferries and sit in rush hour traffic and Thursday night it took us almost three hours to get home, so Friday (since I didn't have to work) my daughter opted out of going into the last day of camp because the commute was too much.   Yesterday I told my new neighbor who has lived here for several years, "That commute was so brutal. I'm never leaving the island again,"  and she laughed and said, "I know that phase.  Yes, I know that phase well!"

To be honest, the ferry portion of the commute was the easiest.  Even though we waited almost an hour for the ferry, it is much different sitting in your car reading a book or closing your eyes for a few minutes that trying to negotiate a freeway full of cars so packed together you are parked for minutes at a time (but can't read or close your eyes cause any minute you might have to inch forward). Then the bonus is when you get to wait on the ferry dock and then you can just roll down your windows, shut your eyes and relax and smell the salt water and listen to the seagulls.  I think that is pleasant for everyone, but having grown up two blocks from Puget Sound for me it is the sounds and smells of the happiest part of my childhood.

Having the horses at home has been really nice.  My Fjord, Geir won't be home until tomorrow though because he stayed for the last week of camp at the school.  Girlfriend, my elderly horse, and Frosty, my daughter's little POA love each other though and spend most of their time standing close together while grazing and grooming each other.  Although Frosty has become quite a bully about stealing Girl's extra tasty senior grain, so I need to lock him in a stall while I feed them their dinner.  Chasing him away while she ate became an exercise in futility because besides spending over a half hour in the pasture standing between the two of them, even after I chased him away, Girl would walk away from her food as though to say, "But he really wants it ... I just feel too guilty to eat it ... I'm just going to go ..."

I also found out that Frosty's favorite hobby is trying to get into the grain room in their shed in the pasture.  We've got it all rigged up so he can't get in now but it's a pain in the butt so today I'm moving all the grain supplies to the small barn/storage shed outside the pastures.  Geir is going to have to be in a separate pasture anyway because he and Frosty don't get along very well.  They're both too food motivated.  Yes "food motivated" is the nice way to put it for my little Fattie McFattersons.

Picking poop in a pasture full of grass (some quite long) is a horrible, thankless and back-breaking task.  I already knew that but of course the allure of having my horses at home made me not really think about that.   Luckily for me, much of Geir's paddock space is going to be pea gravel because it's in a spot that has much more potential for mud,  but Frosty and Girl are in a small pasture so although I'll be putting pea gravel in front of the shed to avoid too much muddiness, the rest of the pasture will remain grass.  Urgh.   I did learn that if you try to scoop of the poop going the direction the grass is growing, you are more likely to get the pitchfork out with the poop still on it and not break the head off trying to pull it up from the tangle of grass.  And be less likely to jerk the pitchfork trying to get it out and fling horse poop everywhere in the process.  Still, it is not a pleasant type of exercise and I thank god for the last couple years of doing pilates.  Although my shoulder muscles are still sore from it.

I also discovered that you can have good solid fencing with electric fence running along the entire periphery of your just shy of five acres property, but leave an opening at the end of the driveway (which is quite a ways from our house) and your pitbull will still automatically gravitate toward that one small opening at the end of the driveway, instead of the rest of the fully fenced acreage as the place where she wants to go.  Especially if there is a mule across the street who will put his head down to the ground so my dog can stick her head through the fence and lick his face.  So, she's been taking herself for walks and coming home covered in cow manure she's found to roll in, and God knows what else.  Yesterday a black SUV roared down our driveway and who should be sitting in the very back but my pitbull, looking very excited.  My neighbor hopped out and said she had been meaning to come introduce herself anyway and saw my dog walking down the road and figured this was good a time as any.  Guess we'll be putting a gate across the driveway this weekend.  Especially as both my new neighbor and my friend who has lived here for several years have pointed out, people don't know my dog yet and if they see a pitbull roaming around their livestock they're likely to freak out and she runs the risk of getting shot.

We have some apple trees and a plum tree in the front yard that are going crazy with fruit.  I'm thinking I need to learn how to make applesauce and I may try drying some of the plums.  Yes, I know those are prunes but honestly, prunes taste really good and get a bad rap.  So, I'm just going to call them dried plums because they taste good enough to have a better name like that.  So far my attempts at drying fruit hasn't gone to well and it's ended up a weird, unpleasant texture without a lot of taste, so another learning curve.  But I'm going to conquer it - there is no way it is that hard to dry fruit.   I have a dehydrator, I just need to figure out exactly the right way to prep the fruit beforehand and make sure I'm doing it for the right amount of time.

As soon as we're settled I'm going to start trying to promote my massage business.  I've sent out one notice to an email group here on the island and I figure after my daughter starts school and we've gotten fully unpacked I can dive in a little more to promoting myself.  (yes, there is a little procrastination in that sentence - you did not imagine it!  As promoting myself is probably my least favorite thing to do!)

In all, I am over the moon happy with our little farm.  It took years before this property sold and my new neighbor yesterday said she was pleasantly surprised to see it had finally sold and I am amazed by that.  It really is such a wonderful place and the house itself is just so beautiful and comfortable.  And the property is just lovely, with so many trees and deer that come into the front yard and eat the plums and apples off the ground, and so many cool "fairy and gnome dwelling" type areas in the woods on the property.  I like the think the house never sold for years because it was meant to be ours, because I don't see how no one else fell in love with and had to have this place before us.  Regardless, I'm so glad it worked out as it did because we are amazingly lucky to live here.