A very full day

Many hands make light work

We've been wanting to do this all summer and a storm a few days ago forced the issue. Our Siberian elm died this spring and the wind blew a huge branch down, just missing the LP tank. So this morning, Art and his boys and Bob and I with Dan and Sam, all pitched in. Within an hour, we had the downed branch cut up, the rest of the tree felled, the cut wood piled into Art's truck and the debri hauled to the brush pile.

Gigantic grubs

The stump was filled with the biggest, fattest grubs I've ever seen. We had to get them out of the garden before they moved to the flowers, so Bob picked them up and threw them out in the driveway. They rolled when they landed, like tires. Alex wanted to take them home for the rooster, so we got a baggy and got rid of them.

Riding Gil

Randy and Sally pulled up just as we were finishing (good timing), to see Gil. So after Art and his kids left, we got Gil and saddled him up. The saddle seems to fit well. I tried Sparkler's sweet iron snaffle bit and he took to it without any chawing or head tossing. This was too easy! So I took a deep breath and jumped in the saddle. He's used to neck reining, but not the arena, so there was a little hesitation here and there going around, but he listens and obeys.

Sally took a go at it and thought we was good as gold. He backs up extremely well and stops with a whoa and a tug on the reins.

Then, surprisingly, Dan asked to ride. Dan has never expressed an interest in the horses, although he's always loved to feed and pet them. So he got on and did very well. I was hesitant to take Gil outside, but Dan wanted to try, so it was out to pasture 3, just freshly mowed. They did some trotting and Dan handled that well, slowing him easily when he got a bit fast. Now we're riding!

Barbeque

We had a few hours, so next we got busy cooking and cleaning. Randy and Sally had other things to do, but Art and Vicki came back with the kids at 6:00 for burgers, brats, potato salad and pie. We topped it off with a huge bonfire. I don't know how we could have crammed much more into one day.