Tuesday Twitterdeedum

It's cold, cold, cold.  I have mad horses.  And, that's why I comment about the cold.  I went outside a few minutes ago without my coat.  Horses were complaining----any way they could---because I did not take them to the hayfield pasture as I have the past two days.

While taking them to pasture earlier (with a coat on), I told them they would have to graze from the front pasture today because John is coming.  They don't seem too impressed.

They usually get really excited when they see John's van roll in for their regular hoof care, but they're apparently not visionaries.  They have to see the real horse shoer, not just hear about him from me.  So, they'll probably keep on complaining and walking the fence.

John will put on eight shoes today---four on Lily and two front shoes on Heather and Lefty.  Hard to believe we've reached that point of suddenly having three semi-rideable horses.  I say "semi" cuz one ride does not constitute a fully rideable horse. 

Lefty and Heather will probably remain in the kindergarten mode of horseback riding this fall, with lots of workouts on basics in the round pen.  So, they're still semis, in my mind. They'll go out with Lily on a few trips down the road but nothing major.

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It should be a great day for Willie today.  His story about Jeremy Thielbahr made the front page of this morning's local paper.  Even if I'm the mom, my journalist mentality says to me that young Mr. Love did a pretty nice job with the feature too.  Jeremy is a Sandpoint High grad who played football at Washington State.  

He's been working as a college football coach ever since his graduation and now coaches at the University of Idaho under Rob Akey.  Willie's story provides some interesting details about Jeremy's coaching experiences thus far. 

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Today marks the last day of freedom for teachers.  They have to report for duty tomorrow---officially, that is.  As mentioned before, most of them have already been to school a time or two during this past month.  

Yesterday, I did empathize but did not stress out too much while listening to class numbers and stories about students who are supposed to be visible in certain classes but might give it a try taking the class without having to be in the class.  

That does happen, and it's pretty hard for a teacher to maintain much communication while playing the guessing game of when they're going to see said student.  My sister has at least one of those situations, and it's in a class where the student being present is especially helpful. 

Those are always the fun surprises at the beginning of the school year.  Sometimes they get ironed out; sometimes they don't.  

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I'm going to have pumpkins if anyone wants a U-pick pumpkin later.  So far, Mother Nature is allowing them to keep growing---just barely---but we've got some more warm weather coming.  I'll keep readers abreast of the pumpkin situation AND if anyone wants a garlic clove or two, I've got them too.  And, a couple of red cabbages and dill.  

Last night I removed a wheelbarrow full of lettuce that had gone to seed.  I just left it in the garden, and it was actually pretty as the plot of plants grew to about five feet tall.  Now all that lettuce is in the north compost pile, and it's likely there may be a few volunteer plants come spring 2011.  

The beans are finally coming on, and I've been able to pick a freezer packageful every day for three days.  I'm hoping the weather will hold out for the big bean patch on the manure pile.  If so, we could have beans coming out our ears.  

And, like my dad used to suggest, we'll have to avoid sticking any up our nose.  That way we can follow another piece of his advice:  to keep our noses clean.  So, to all readers:  keep your nose clean today.

Happy Tuesday.