Tuesday September 18 2007

Horses in Field by Betty

Evening Shadows Taken by Betty

Joe went to the dump this morning and had lunch in town. He got supplies for the project he has going now - painting all the outside woodwork. He got back about 1:30 or so. Today we stayed around the house, taking it easy mostly. It seemed quiet time was in order for us both. I made us a chicken vegetable soup for lunch that turned out nice. Betty and Amigo napped and I did a little painting and finished up a small landscape, then worked on a couple of frames and will take four new pieces out to the Barn Show.

We took the dogs for an ATV ride and the purpose was mainly to go down to the creek and see if there was water in the water gap for the horses or if it had dried up there too. On the way down Amigo chased a little buck antelope that had been sticking around the pasture lately. This was the first time he'd run off chasing. We ran him down, which wasn't too difficult as he lumbers more than runs, and disciplined him right away. I had been using a regular buggy whip to fend him off from being in front of the vehicle where he gets more often than is safe, with the command 'back, back". So when we caught up with him, I whapped him a couple of times with it telling him "NO CHASING". He was quite surprised, but it may have made an impression. When he looked and started that direction again, it brought another whap. All the yelling and commotion scared Raven to death and she jumped up onto the ATV and sat in Betty's lap and wouldn't get down. Sparky cringed on his belly saying "I didn't do it - I'm GOOD". Later when we turned toward that place Amigo didn't want to go there, but not sure if he connected "trouble" with the antelope or not. It might take another time of being corrected.

The dogs all did get to chase a rabbit a few days ago, which is allowed, since they haven't got much of a chance to ever catch one. And mine do know the difference. We let them all out of the car at the gate to run 1/2 a mile up to the house. Amigo was alongside and my two were quite a ways up ahead when they flushed a rabbit out and it ran straight down the road toward the car. Neither Betty or I had ever seen a jack rabbit running towards us and it was pretty comical. Amigo was oblivious for a while until the rabbit was nearly upon him, and it looked like it would be a head on collision, but the rabbit veered in a quick zig zag and Amigo ran after him back toward the gate. He was one tired pup when he gave up the chase.....because he went twice the distance by the time we got back to the house. The rabbit was great entertainment for all of us.

Other than that the day was ordinary, cloudy and cool. The phone seems to be back to "normal", and I caught up making phone calls, appointments for Joe and called the local Dish Network company. The receptionist said they couldn't fix our TV for seven days. I pleaded that we had already been without it for four days and couldn't call, but she wasn't sympathetic. And it seems like the couple that had the business when we bought the equipment had sold it back in August so these are new people. Then the repairman called back and asked the symptoms. He thinks it is receiver software failure and said he would be here about noon Thursday. Thank goodness it will be fixed because Joe is pretty bored without FoxNews and football.

In the afternoon we put "Joe's Favorite Chair" into the back of Betty's van. (See the photo on August 29.) She says there is a very good upholsterer in Mesquite and contacted him to see if he will recover Joe's old chair he loves so much. Yes!..... and it can be done in a few weeks after he gets it in his shop. I will have to go to Mesquite when it's finished to pick it up and bring it home. So that trip might be my vacation time away this year. I had given up hope that we would find an upholsterer around here because the man who used to do that kind of work here has retired, and the chair was likely doomed to the dump soon. After buying two other new recliners we haven't been able to find one he is comfortable in. So we are grateful to have this opportunity to get it fixed up for Joe. It will be reconstructed from the inside out.

This evening we had a spectacular light show with the sunset, lighting up the fields and hills. Betty practiced more with her camera, so I've used two of the pictures she took for today's shots. I grilled thinly sliced marinated pork on skewers for dinner with baked potatoes and corn.