Archives for November 2011

Spent the day on the computer catching up on my blog. There are some boy scouts in the field next door, and we heard a generator running most of the day. Scouting isn’t just what it used to be! At one point, a stray beagle wandered into the camp. I managed to catch him and find a phone number on his collar, which I called. Turns out the dog had gone missing two weeks earlier while on a hunting trip, and the owner was happy to get him back. I asked him about any of the locals that might sell hay, and he gave me a name and number that I called later on. Looks like we’ll be able to find hay locally, which I’ve been searching for for several days. Nothing on craigslist, which is unusual. Wrong time of year, I guess. Anyway, an early night trying to relax a bit this week.

Slept late (as we had expected), packed up and headed out right at the noon checkout time. Met up with my old friend Steve at a local IHOP for brunch. He had just been around the globe in the last few weeks, first to Germany then to New Zealand, so his body clock thought breakfast at 12:30 was a good idea, too. After a pleasant meal, Hubby and I headed back to the stables where we unpacked our suitcases and prepared to pack up and leave the next day. The weather forecast had been calling for rain today and clear skies and cooler tomorrow, but they’ve been wrong about this rain for some time, and we’re concerned about getting out in the morning. We decided to hook up the horse trailer this afternoon and pull it out onto the driveway where it had better traction, but the van slipped and slid all over the place even WITHOUT the trailer behind it, so we decided to do something we had been planning on doing but hadn’t gotten around to; rotating the tires on the van. Last year, we had bought to huge honking Wrangler tires with giant tread (which look really MEAN on the van!). We put them on the front because the other tires had worn unevenly (for a long list of reasons too boring to talk about), and that made a loud thunking noise on the front, so we put the loud tires in the back and the new Wranglers on the front, figuring once the bumps were worn down that set would be quieter later on, which is exactly what happened. But the tread on the old tires, naturally, weren’t too great anymore (not bad enough to get rid of, just not great in certain circumstances, like soft, wet grass on a hill with weight behind it), so we headed out to the Wal-mart Auto Center, and two hours later they rotated the Wranglers to the back and the now smoother old tires to the front. Though it was dark, we decided to go ahead and try to move the horse trailer, since the newly revised forecast was calling for more rain during the evening and overnight hours. Fortunately, everything worked our perfectly. The Wranglers had no trouble gripping the grass, even with the added weight of the horse trailer behind it, and we managed to pull the trailer up onto the gravel driveway easily, with no damage to the yard. Moments afterward, it started drizzling again, so we congratulated ourselved on a job well done and headed inside to the warmth of the trailer and a hot meal of leftover Indian food. The rest of the evening was quiet, and we headed to be early in preparation for our early start tomorrow morning.

Another great day of workshop, running right up to our schedule 5:00, then hanging around for another hour or more just chatting with some interested attendees on other matters. Had dinner with our seminar organizer at the hotel restaurant before getting to bed, satisfied with a good training camp.

Conducted our workshop all day, with a great group of folks from all along the Eastern Seaboard and the Midwest, had dinner in our room delivered from a local Indian restaurant so we could relax for the evening, then to be asap.



Pentagon-DC in background

Spent the day getting ready to move over to DC tomorrow, with the added fun of taking the dogs to Petco for a bath and grooming, something they’ve never done before. We just didn’t have the capability to do it ourselves today, because it’s too cold and water is too far away, and I’m still in serious pain from my fall, so we decided to splurge and let the dogs have a “spa” day. After careful instructions to Billy’s handler (he tends to get aggressive when he gets scared or pushed or pulled around because of his abusive puppyhood), Hubby and I ran a few more errands. Came back a few hours later to some very happy, clean and nice-smelling dogs. She even managed to attach a couple of tiny bows to Marina’s short hair, which were cute and ridiculous at the same time. Job done, we headed back to the RV for a relaxing evening.

Set the alarm so we could get off to an early start. Spent the day running errands, first going down to the Tidewater Animal Hospital south of Waldorf, MD because all of the animals, horses and dogs alike, needed their annual vaccinations. First time ever we’ve managed to get them all on the same schedule! (Dogs were due last month, horses aren’t really due until next month, but this will make things easier from now on!) Did some shopping and made a few other stops before finally arriving at our host stable, run by Anna Solan. Very near Rosaryville State Park, where we had intended to go riding before my unfortunate fall, but still very convenient for getting to DC for our next job. Horses went into a round pen at the back of the property, and we parked the RV right next to it, getting settled in quickly. Too late for the satellite dish tonight, too cold and dark by the time we got set up, so we just relaxed for the evening with the PVR after our hectic day.