Little celebrations

The riding mower needs a new inner tube or a new tire ... well let's say filling it up every time we used it last year was a pain. 
Hubby actually got out there and took it off! Three years ago I had to have the neighbor come down and help me do it. 

I worked on the pasture weeds and since we were waiting on rain, I couldn't burn the piles of elderberry, sourdock and burdock. It seems as though it is an never ending battle and around the middle of May I generally give up and resort to just weed whipping the plants in spots. The heavier woody stuff gets the machete. However, I have made progress over the years.

My afternoon schedule was to run to a place in town where our local Dept of Health had set up a clinic for vaccinations. I'd scored an earlier vaccination by juggling different sites. My neighbor and I were signed up for the same time. We drove separately and stayed in our seats for the 15 minutes, then we were done. 

I took the flat tire to the guy we have always purchase our mowers and chainsaws from. I like shopping and supporting local people and this guy was a kid when he started out.

He'll fix the tire, get a deck belt for hubby's big ol' zero turn and I purchased an early gift for myself. A nice self propelled mower. I was tired of pushing that old crappy mower up the side hill. Happy Day for me.

I walked out into the pasture and stood. Pretty quick Sunshine walked up and I took her out and saddled her up. I told hubby that I was going to ride our land and just head on down to the creek.

What an ugly shadow of us! 

She was pretty sure that she'd rather not leave her buddies so she just stopped and waited for a bit. Every mule offers hesitation the first time in the year when they leave their pals.
Sunshine gets over it quickly. 

No photos of us following the trails we went through the woods. I was too busy watching out for branches to duck. She took a deer trail instead of the nice wide ridge trail the bulldozer had made for us.

We came up on that group of male Tom Turkeys. They came walking and strutting through the leaves sounding like a heard of elephants.
I love this mule.
She perked up, ears forward and nose flared. I could see the Tom's bright red heads as they walked through the brush. I was hoping they all didn't take off like thunder.

Sunshine took a huge sigh and then we carried on zig zagging down the steep hill. When we ended up on the ridge trail, I dismounted. Always the first time out with a crupper she gets a bit tail swishy. Just her way of saying she would like me to know that the slight tug on her tail head was a bit bothersome.

By midsummer, she ignores the crupper. I may put a britchin' on her saddle this summer to avoid tail swishing and ear twitching.

For a job well done we stopped in our creek bottom and I let her grass on some of the good stuff in the creek. She thought she was in heaven.

Then I tried something no one has tried before. I wondered if I could ride her upstream and around all those boulders and downed trees to hunt for morels later this year.

There is no easy way out of this creek unless you are willing to climb. 

Blurry shot with my pointy shooty camera.
I asked her to negotiate a deep pool of water with a boulder on one side and a tree on the other with no other way around it.

I have to hand it to her. She looked at it, sniffed it, then stepped into it and walked through it. She has all the calm of her donkey dad, Bruce. And lots of the thinking of her mom a scatterbrained arab/quarter mix. Her mom when faced with a difficult situation would stop and think in the woods.
In a field or wide open space ... she'd just go bonkers.

I like an equine who thinks. Sunshine thinks hard all of the time and misses nothing.

Below we check the forest fence above the creek. Wow, it is easier to ride her than walk it!

I counted two insulators that need replacing.

We then climbed out of the valley and headed home. That was enough of the rough stuff for the day. I told hubby that I may take nippers and the machete and clean up the trails the mules made last year in the woods.

I said I could ride much more right at home than trying to figure out if the 4 wheelers were going to be out on the neighbor's land.

Above...one of the Bell Necklaces my mules wear. It alerts slumbering wildlife to get up and move before we get there. Never have any of my mules freaked at wild life, but they do get startled when a herd of gobblers suddenly come out of nowhere and thunder overhead. Most of the time they get stiff legged and stand still.

Then they sigh and we move on.

[The strap is hanging off her side...I'd started to unsaddle her. And yes her mane is wild yet. I will roach her mane once the weather stays warm.]

Many little celebrations for my Wednesday.

Color me happy.