Little Miss Sunshine

 

When this mule was born hubby thought we should sell her right away. She never got big but mom was only 14 hands. I wasn't impressed with her at first as she wasn't super striking to look at. I didn't feel that she had the best confirmation in the mule world. She inherited her mom's barrel body but did not inherit her mother's attitude.

At the time, I was working with her half brother who was 15 hands who was an incredibly handsome dark bay mule.

Rich put her up for sale and a guy came and looked at her. He wasn't impressed with her looks either so we decided to keep her and make her a grand kid mule. 

Thing is, she became our all around trail mule.

What I never realized in the years I worked with her is that she was absolutely beautiful, kind, sweet, and just like her half brother...she would do anything I asked her to do. I lost Badger when he was 16 years old due to an illness. It broke my heart and I couldn't bear to think of even loving another mule.

In the face of difficult situations in the forest, Sunshine will look at it, assess it, and then deal with it. She thinks, just like most of the mules I've worked with over the past 30 years. 

Sunshine's mother was reactionary. 

A deer would step out of the forest a quarter mile away and she'd generally spin and then stop. Sunshine points her hears, slows down, observes, then walks on. 

When I was working her as a 5 yr old I'd sing from her back, drop her reins, flop around in the saddle, and pull branches off trees and wave them around. I'd cry out, whine, complain, and carry on.

Rich laughed and said I was acting like a 4 yr old and I agreed. If a kid were to ride her, they'd probably do all of these things. 

But she did end up being an incredible mule to carry grandkids.

For whatever stupid reason, she still was not my 'favorite' heart throb mule. I was still lost over losing Badger so I rehabbed Opal the people hating mule. I fell for Siera with her good looks and her incredible gaits.

Time and time again, I returned to riding the Little Red Mule. Each time I discovered more reasons why she was so good.

My friend who has horses had invited me to bring a mule to her place so we could ride together. 

Kristi just wanted to ride and have someone to go with.

My first thought was to take Siera. She is 14.5 hands and a very striking bay mule. She is calm and easy going too. Siera developed that weird lameness so that left Sunshine.

I struggled with that decision because she is 28 but in great health and no issues. But I've never ever been apart from her for 28 years. I didn't know if I could wake up in the morning and NOT see her in the pasture.

This week we finally made a date to move her. My anxiety level went through the roof. How could I let my red head leave the farm?

Another thought struck me. I have raised this mule from birth. I have overlooked her time and time again but always knew in my heart that we have a special connection that normally doesn't occur between equine and humans.

When I took her photo in the pasture the other night I was again struck by her poise and beauty. Plus the fact that I could not step out on the porch without her spotting me from across the field. Always, always, she knickers and watches to see what I am up to.

Was I really that dumb to not appreciate the plain colored red beauty? With my heart in my throat, I took her to Olive's house where we transported her to Kristi's farm.

I put her in the paddock next to Johnny Cash [Kristi's new horse] and observed. Sunshine walked around the paddock while the horses checked her out. The horses bounced around and whinnied. Sunshine gave them the once over and then got down and rolled. Apparently she wasn't too impressed.

Kristi sent me a photo of Sunshine this morning so I wouldn't miss her too badly.

So Sunshine and Johnny Cash got along just fine.  She must like his songs.🎶

I went there last night and we rode for a bit in her indoor arena. 

Sunshine had never been in one and didn't care for it at first.

We then headed out and down her road which is a dead end. The wind was blowing pretty hard but the two equine didn't seem to mind. We traveled through a gate and rode through a large pasture. Sunshine was on a mission and did her best mule walk which is fast.

Johnny is a Western Pleasure horse and walks slow and easy. 

Eventually we went to the outdoor arena and practiced some figure 8's at a trot and just enjoyed the evening.

The kids went by in a UTV, the Amish neighbor was moving sheep and they were making a lot of noise. Tyler the handyman was using a skid steer just outside the outdoor to spread dirt and do landscaping.

Both equine took it all in without batting an ear. Though the crappy shot below shows my long ear watching the Amish Sheepdog.

So.

What does it feel like riding after such a long hiatus? 
Sweet.

I will commend my Little Miss Sunshine for taking it all in at a strange place and not being a butt head. She did everything I asked her to.

Saturday morning we are going to trail ride at Kristi's.

My decision was the right one. Serendipity chose Sunshine and Sunshine once again proved exactly why she was the one mule I've always wanted.

What can I say. Except that I haven't felt this stress free in years. Yes, riding is magical.

Success

Because I can, I am going to drop a few flower shots on here first.  My morning glories are starting to bloom. The flowers are so brilliant this one was partially open in the downpour we got on Wednesday. Thank goodness for long lenses.

I've planted morning glories in about 4 or 5 places and am enjoying their colors. 

The next two are Love in the Mist.

I really adore the odd shapes of these delicate flowers. The delicate fern like leaves

are just so beautiful.

Meanwhile the moss roses are doing so well. This is my first success at growing them. I spread the seeds in a very large container and waited.  They have not disappointed me at all this year.

Here is a young katydid, I think that was hiding in the moss roses! I almost didn't detect it as it was so well camouflaged.

Well, with the plumber coming any time on Friday, I stayed home for my 'Respite' time. It actually worked out well. When Tammy came [early!], we sat down at our table and we got to know each other for a bit. I told her about the hot water issue.

I decided to do a project that I couldn't do when she wasn't around, like cleaning in the basement. The shop vac makes a lot of noise and I couldn't hear if hubby needed help.

When hubby woke up, she took over and I headed to the basement to purge and clean. Tammy cared for Rich and made Snickerdoodle cookies. 

I helped her familiarize herself with where things were in my kitchen and any other questions she had about cleaning, the commode, laundry, etc. She changed the hospital bed for me and then I showed her how to operate our washing machine.

I lugged 'stuff' out of the basement and dumped it on the porch. More purging. I took out old beat up hunting boots that would never get worn again, cheap snow pants that hubby used ages ago with holes in them.

 
I finally got rid of the chunks of wood that hubby had been saving for 'something' too along with some odd cut small pieces of particle board and plywood. I tossed old hunting sweatshirts that had seen much better days.

 Things that were hanging on pegs in the basement that he'd never use again were purged. None of it was in any condition to be passed on.

I slayed cobwebs with the ShopVac and made sure the area around the questionable water heater was clean and accessible. It was quite the job. I had no interruptions and was able to get the work done efficiently with many trips up and down the stairs and to the back of my Subaru so I could take boxes of stuff to the dump.

Tammy made cookies and did all the things that I normally have to do. Get drinks of water, get a snack, help with this or that. It was like we were working as a team. She had the 'patient' and I had no interruptions.

Her snickerdoodles were amazing. She cleaned up as she went and even changed hubby's bed and made him lunch.  

I finally got to do some of the all the important things that I couldn't get done while caring for hubby.

After lunch, she helped Rich to bed and then asked what else she could do. It was almost her quitting time.

I asked if she could have a seat so we could visit and get to know each other. I had this feeling that she could have a lot of helpful things to share.

She and I are of the same generation. We both grew up in similar ways. We don't let things go to waste. 

She is a grandma that legally adopted her grandkids. She cared for her 'kids' and her husband while he was in Hospice. She had been certified as a Caregiver and has worked in different areas as well as a local Senior Assisted Living place not far from her home. 

We talked a lot about Hospice and our shared experience, also of what she had gone through. We ended up feeling more like kindred spirits. What a relief to know that my feelings, my experiences, my doubts, angst, frustrations, and emotional ups and downs are very normal. We found a sister like bond in our lives.

We had a very interesting conversation that I'll write about later. 

As she was leaving and the Plumber was arriving, I said to her that the most important part of our Respite time together was her support, her experiences and our talk. I didn't feel alone in this journey any more.

It is one thing to read about or share experiences virtually, but to sit down face to face with someone else who has been there and has gone through it is much more valuable.

Paul the Plumber came and tested the heater. He measured the water temp still in the heater at 140 F! That after it being turned off for 24 hours.
He changed the thermostats on the elements and emptied out the scalding water so we could make sure that the water heated to the right temperature.

Charlie adores Paul and sits in the basement to watch Paul work. 

By 2pm, my day was done and I was ready to sit down and read a book. The yard mowing could wait another day.

I considered yesterday as a good day.

Winning

I called our farrier because the girls needed trimming and Mica was limping quite badly. Mica is our elderly mule who is 27 years old. She is retired due to her other health issues.

She was a header and heeler in her day, along with team penning. 

As the guys said, 'She's been there, and done that.'

Mica had an abscessed frog, it went up her frog and split up her heel bulb. 

In the shot below, we are soaking Mica's foot in Epsom salts before we wrap it to keep it clean.

They were able to figure out what was wrong with her right away.

Holding Mica is Gracie. Her mom is also one of my CrossFit coaches. Her girls have been to my place to spend the day with me a few times. They were out last month for riding. 

I asked her mom if she could come and help me with catching up the mules and taking them in and out of the gate. I also thought it would be interesting for her to learn a bit about hooves from our farriers. Dan and Danny. Dan is an Licensed farrier and belongs to the International Farriers Association. If I have a hoof, leg problem, I call these guys.

The Diaper Boot. 

We made a diaper hoof boot to keep the wound clean. The guys taught me a new trick of adding a layer of Duct tape to the bottom of the diaper. I'll have to pull this off and soak her foot once a day for about a week until the abscess hole heals.

The diaper offers protection and cushioning for the sore frog. I've used this before with great success.

The guys said that Mica was such a good patient. She never offered to pull away or act up during the time we worked on her. 

When the farriers left, Gracie and I saddled up for a ride off the farm. I suspected Gracie would be just fine riding like this since she has friends that have horses and she goes to ride with them quite often. She tells me that they canter, trot and do all the kid things I used to do on horses.

I try to recall all the crazy stuff we did as kids on my uncle's horses and in some ways, I think we were better riders because we were not supervised most of the time. 

When Siera tossed her head around a little in protest of leaving her pasture mates, Gracie just ignored her antics and told her to behave. 

To Siera's credit, she is a very calm animal who doesn't really spook [unless she sees a bicycle!]. Her normal reaction to the unknown is to freeze and then relax and go on. 

We rode for about 40 minutes and checked out the neighbor's fresh round bales and then headed home. It was a good first ride away from our place for the season. The two mules together act much better than taking one out at a time.

Since it was so hot and humid, we gave the girls a quick little sponge bath so they could go roll in the dirt.

I have to admit, we really enjoy these chances to have Gracie and her sisters visit.
Rich literally lights up like a Christmas Tree when the kids are here.

And that is a win for everyone.

We rode

Molly came out to work with Sundance. When I first met Molly we worked with Sundance and she was ready to start under saddle. I'd mounted her in the round pen and she was very ho hum about the whole thing. Her training was about as exciting as watching paint dry.

However with things changing on our place and my husband's health issues, saddle training with Sundance pretty much just stopped. 

Molly had moved away and started her own life. 

When she came back, she asked if she could work with Sundance again and I said "Go for it!" 

Sundance was not happy about being removed from her sister and confused about working in the open. She didn't want to listen or pay any attention to Molly at first. Molly was persistent and calm. 

They went off to find their groove again. And by the end of their session, Sundance had decided that Molly was just the human she wished to be with and remembered most of her manners. 

She had been used to working in our shed in the round pen. So this was a new experience for the mule. She had  to concentrate on a different human with distractions on the other side of the fence.

We saddled up Sunshine [Sundance's older sister] and Siera and headed out for a ride in the woods. 

I nearly called it off. I started thinking about things like: 

What if Sunshine spooks?
What if I shouldn't do this?
Wait, I have 'bad' bones, is this okay?
What if...what if... 

Hmm. What IF I enjoy it?

I hadn't gone on any long rides in the woods for a couple of years. The trespassing 4 wheelers were always a constant for the past two years. There was this thought that I shouldn't go alone. And then this last 10 months there was this thought that due to my osteoporosis diagnosis, I should never ride again.

All of that was going through my head.

Molly chatted as she saddled up Siera and I just kept quiet. 

I took the lead and headed our through the neighbor's big meadow and off we went. Sunshine walked as if on eggshells. Weird.

We went up the hillside and had to brush bust to get around some fallen trees. We dropped down the steep hill into a hollow and crossed over logs and ducked branches. 

Molly kept up a conversation and I kept thinking Sunshine was behaving strangely.

Then.

I started to laugh and I relaxed. I started reaching up and breaking branches as we ducked under them.

"Mallard!" I yelled over my shoulder and laid over Sunshine's mane [Mallard means DUCK! in our woodsy rides ... something that we started so many years ago]. The branches slid over my helmet and I heard Molly say, "Oh Sh-t!" Molly is 5'8" and was riding the taller mule. She didn't negotiate around the branches and 'ate' some of them. 

We stopped and checked our cinches before entering the valley. I remounted and noticed that Sunshine was flopping her ears as she picked her way through the stream crossings.

Sunshine had listened to my tense body. Once I stopped thinking of "What IFS" she chilled out and became the excellent riding partner I'd always had. Granted, we hadn't ridden this valley in over two years and ... I hadn't really ridden Sunshine since??? Well, a long time.

Here we were laughing and riding. 

Molly on Siera.

Me on my little Sunshine mule.

Molly said, "Put your ears up Sunshine!"

So I helped her.

If you are wondering what kind of saddle I am on here is a link that shows it. Lucky me that I ended up with this saddle!

Stonewall saddle.

Siera decided that she was not going to cross one part of the tiny stream. I'm sure that the shadows on the grass and water were MULE monsters. The shadows only ate Fat Gaited Mules. After a bit, Molly got her through the Monster Shadows, rocks and water. Phew. The Monsters did not Eat the Fat Mule.

We really had fun making up reasons why after about 10 stream crossings, that one seemed to be so scary.
So we decided to just ride right up the creek for a bit.

Yeah. 
No mule eating monsters appeared and all was good. 
Sorry about the messy manes, we just haven't clipped them yet.

Siera with Molly standing in the Mule Eating Stream.

We headed back up the ridge road which is also an old snow mobile trail. Once we got into the wide open area I turned to Molly and started telling her a story about how Sunshine's mom was a great mare that always rode well in the woods.

"However," I said, "If a deer..."

A doe jumped out in front of us and darted away. Sunshine did a hop quarter turn and stared hard at the disappearing white tail.

"...jumped out of the woods," I continued, "Cheyanne would do a 180 leap and be off at a gallop."

Funny. The worst had just happened and I didn't even react except to sit the little spook and continue on as if nothing had happened.

I didn't hurt.

I didn't fall apart. 

I had a most excellent time.

Just.

Wow.

Siera? What was her reaction? Well, fairly normal for Siera. She is too lazy to spook at wildlife. She would rather spook at Combines and Tractors.

One of those days

Here is the crockpot soup pot. I'm leaning towards a potato soup. I started the morning by looking up recipes. And then decided to follow one sort of and add my own touches.

Shredded fresh carrots, shredded onions, and celery. Chicken stock, whole mini tators...cook all day with seasons. Add milk, cream of mushroom soup, and shredded cheese later. It was good!

I was waiting on a delivery that needs a signature. FedEx. I don't know if they can find my house. 

Through the Red Cross I signed up for Facebook Portal and they were going to deliver today.

That meant I had to stay near the house all day watching for the truck.

So I decided to try out the new fangled tool and go at the Elderberry trees that are crowding the wooded pasture west of the house.

First I picked up dead stuff. Then I went after the elderberry trees. Some people love them. Mules don't eat them so it is not pasture friendly to me. They grow and kill the grasses, they spread by seed and root. What a pain. Lovely to look at the flowers, but a pain.

The pile kept growing! I added boxelder shoots and dead branches. I even added a couple of busted up logs that I could pick up. This area of the pasture never got cleaned up after the 2007 storm. 

I hope I can burn small piles next to the large old logs this winter and burn up the old logs.

We shall see.

It is close enough to the house that hubby can open a window and holler at me if he needs my help.

That was fun! There was only 30 minutes between the first photo and the second one!

Love this tool!

I wore the battery out and decided that I'd better go ahead and burn a little pile before I let the mules back in this section. They would just re-arrange my burn piles for fun. Those mischievous long ears!

Both of those piles are gone this evening. There will be winds the next few days. So no brush burning for a bit.

It is a handy tool.

Friday is a day off I think. My friend Bill is doing much better from his hip and sciatica problems and we are going to meet up at the Reserve. I'm going to show him the trails to the Ice Caves.

Time for a break from all the work in the woods.

Oh.

The soup was great! We have enough so I won't have to cook Friday and we will have some to freeze too.

The warm homemade bread was a bonus also.

It was one of those days where I won all the way around.

The FedEx guy did show up after supper. 

He was a bit hesitant about coming down to our place, but I'd left lots of lights on so he could find us.

Good Day!

Yesterday was one of those days that started off where I was tired, grumpy, and just not a very nice person.
The day was dreary and ugly.

I skipped CrossFit since I was so tired and decided to do some other things. I thought I'd try going with the Christmas Cards again to the Nursing Home to see MIL. Perhaps she would be in a better mood and want to sign a few so I could send them out for her.

I'd contacted Rich's doctor and we exchanged thoughts through Secure Messaging. Doc is going to think on things and talk to some others. He feels depression is a huge issue but since the stroke Rich has become hyper sensitive to medications. Plus he'll see the results of last week's brain MRI are and what neurology has to offer.

So I did my errands and headed over to the Nursing Home. I was armed with Hershey Kisses and Cards and addresses. MIL was in a much better mood than last week and agreed to do cards. I think the candy bribe helped.

I put up the 3 cards she had received and talked to the staff. They said I could decorate her room more if I'd like. I will do that too.
MIL and I sat together for over and hour as I went through a list of names of people in her immediate family.

At one point she grabbed a card and handed it to me. She said, "This goes to Rich and Val...you will mail it for me, right?" I nodded and took it, telling her 'of course I will!'

We had quite a nice little stack by the time we were done and she was tired out. So I helped her to her easy chair and packed up. Rich was napping when I got home so I took time to take Sven and Charlie for a walk.

After supper I settled down to address all of the cards and write notes in them. I even posted on FB a request for MIL's relatives to PM me for an address so we could fill up her bulletin board with pretty cards.

I don't understand the way so many people in a nursing facility seem to be the hidden and forgotten people.
It just makes me sad.

However, MIL and I really did have a nice time.

And she is well cared for here.

I texted a this photo of her doing cards to her daughter and grand daughter. I got a huge thank you from the grand daughter and the daughter started asking me in short bursts of texts...
Did you get ... so and so?
Did you get ...
and after 8 texts of names [of people I don't know but who are relatives]...

I texted her back that no we didn't, but SHE could contact those relatives and ask them to send her mom a card as that surely would make her day and help decorate her room.

I really felt great after finishing those cards up. And I even slept all night last night!
I'm ready for this new day.

And I will go back Friday to decorate MIL's room a bit more.

Tomorrow we have to be up and out the door before daybreak to meet with the neurosurgeon regarding the results of the brain MRI.
Rich was feeling a bit more himself yesterday and even sat down to watch something with me before going to bed early.

I slept on the couch with Charlie and it was a nice sound night of sleep!