Saving the birds

Yesterday was a pretty crazy day- so many incidents with wildlife!

In the morning I was working (as per usual now that I am working from home during the pandemic) in my living room, and BANG! A poor little hummingbird just splattered hard against my patio glass door. 😦 I was instantly up and looking for it, and it did not look good…It was flat on the ground, all its feathers splayed out, not moving.

Sitting up, but very dazed.

I yelled for my husband and we gathered the poor little hummer up on a book and I brought it some sugar water. I watched it (during a meeting for work, ha) and after about 15 minutes it started actually looking around at things, and then it perked up and flew off! 🙂 SO relieved. I was very worried about the little dude.

And then after work I had some time and the weather was pretty nice, so I went for a walk with my husband and dog, and I put my bunny out in my backyard for some fresh air. I went to check on him after the walk and to my surprise, a racoon was digging in our raised gardens!! I yelled at it and he took his sweet-ass time sauntering off, and I was pretty worried because my RABBIT was still out there too! Sheesh. Except…My dog saw the racoon and ran straight at it barking like Hound of the freaking Baskervilles…And scared the bejeezus out of my poor rabbit! He was terrified! He took off, so I had to chase the racoon off, catch the rabbit (thankfully contained in my yard) and chase off my dog from the raccoon. Chaos!!

There was fluffs of fur flying everywhere, so we were concerned that the racoon had somehow scuffled with bunny, but nobody had any injuries. Tucker bun did have a bloody spot on his foot, so we cleaned it up but there was no scrape or anything there today, so who knows?? He was exhausted after that, poor bun bun.

And THEN I had a jump lesson at the barn, which was great. I finished up and went to sweep out the crossties and found this:

Poor little thing!

Yeah, a baby bird kicked out of its nest. Not again 😦 I thought it was definitely dead, so I went to sweep it with the broom and it MOVED. OMG. I freaked out, called my husband, and put gloves on and picked it up. It moved so weakly… I couldn’t put it back into the nest it fell out of (in the window-well of a locked locker, behind a grate where the window was) so I found another barn swallow nest inside the barn, got a step ladder and kind of tossed the little baby up there. Hoping for the best for it!! I hope it survives.

So, that was a very exciting and emotional day for me. It’s so hard when it’s wildlife animals…I feel so bad for them. I want to help!!

Tucker bun

Living his best life when we pulled up the broccoli plants and let him enjoy them!

Before…

And after…He clearly enjoyed it!

Happy Easter weekend!

I did have a pretty fine weekend, all things considering COVID…and my injury, ugh.

We had our dressage lesson on Thursday, then on Friday it was Oaty’s day off, so my husband and I went on a hike to a local area (Cowichan) and got snacks at Tim Hortons after.

Cowichan River Trail

Saturday I rode, and it was….eh. I was really hoping to recreate the nice canter I had on Thursday in my lesson. WRONG. It was crummy, ha. Fortunately, the next day was another opportunity and I let things go by then.

Hiking with Gidget

Since we’re not allowed to visit family or friends, or eat indoor at restaurants, our entertainment options these years remain very limited. Sooooo we decorated our Easter gingerbread house, and dyed fake eggs that my husband picked up at the buck store. Fun! The eggs were kind of lame though and barely dyed, taking on a barely-there pastel effort, compared with the very vibrant dyes. Oh well!

Tucker as the Easter bunny with my loot!

Sunday we did our egg hunt and my husband hid 40 foil eggs! Yes! I missed a few hahah but in the end got them all. It was finally a pretty nice day for riding, and we worked on some calm lateral work at the walk, and a nice contact in the trot, and called it a day walking around the outdoor. In the afternoon we took a couple of beers to the beach and listened to music, which was pretty chill and nice.

The eggs could have dyed better…

Monday I had off but my husband didn’t, so off to the barn it is! I worked on some similar things to Sunday, remembering to keep my expectations in check- and Oats was pretty good! Left the shitty canter alone, ha. I headed to the beach after riding with my dog and we enjoyed the chilly sunshine that day too.

Then it was back to work, and a jump lesson, and then a truly horrible ride (yesterday) where Oats lost his brains again and had shit fits at every single corner of the indoor….I guess forgetting that absolutely nothing had changed in the less than 24 hours since we had our jump lesson the evening previously? I really got on his case for that. He is WAY too old for his BS shenanigans?! Plus the temperature had dropped quite dramatically and it was COLD at the barn, and a lot of the horses went crazy. I guess it was too tempting?? He was fidgety and nutty in the crossties, so I kind of figured he was reacting to the weather or something yesterday…HORSES! God. Let’s hope today is much, much better.

I would never do that: Wordless Wednesday critters!

Love my animals…and my in-laws animals too! 🙂 They brighten our days and hearts.

The incorruptible heart: Valentine’s Day!

Ugh, just some more weather-griping from me these days. It is cold, unseasonably so, with tons and tons of snow and ice. Yay?! UGH!! I hate it. I finally got out to ride Oats yesterday, driving very carefully. There is a lot of snow at the barn, but you can get to the barn, paddocks and arena- it’s a bit of a tough slip ‘n’ slide but I made it!

Tucker is OVER IT.

Have a lesson tonight, and the forecast is calling for more snow. Can it just be rain, please please? For me? Good lord, I’m not cut out for this winter- business. Not even close! I was commenting to my colleague the other day that when the weather clears up, what will I be able to complain about? I’ve had a lot of ”good” material this new year (really sick, pulled a rib muscle, the dog-sitting adventure from the depths of hell, sick rabbit to join in the fun, and now tons of snow, ice and freezing temperatures).

Oh 2019, you aren’t making it easy to like you!

Keeping in mind of course, these are all minor annoyances and small gripes. Thank Christ.

It looks pretty until there’s 2ft of the damn stuff! Photo courtesy of Sarah C.

Happy Valentine’s Day? I’ll meet you on the other side, when the sun shines and the sidewalks aren’t treacherously deadly.

 

Yes, I’m a witch too

A three-day week and where does it leave me? With a cold, UGH! I suspect the long-dragging weirdness from when I got back from Mexico has well and truly bodyslammed me. Ah well, I had it coming. The late night from New Year’s Eve did me in, and my virus decided to hop in!

Gidget dove into my rabbit’s cage while I was cleaning it for some tasty treats…Yuck!! 

That meant my jump lesson last night was …not great. I felt very nauseous with rolling waves of ‘going to puke’ feeling pretty much allll day. I couldn’t figure that one out? Sure I was getting a shitty cold (sore throat, swollen throat, coughing, body aches) but the waves of nausea? Wha?

Plus we had practically a monsoon over the past two days- no joke, apocalyptic rains. So, I ran to and from work in what can only be described as a ‘deluge’ while fighting some weird sickness. = success? Um, no. What was I thinking??

So I went into my ride fighting off the urge to puke. But I wanted to ride so badly!! Ha. Problems equestrians face eh? I had a jump lesson to get to, dammit! We worked on a small gymnastic grid, focusing on positioning in two-point. By the third jump, I’d have it! But, it took me three jumps each time to get it, soooo…Yeah. This theme basically didn’t change, ha.

Oats was feeling GREAT though!! Full of beans and energy, yay! Of course on a day where I feel terrible, he feels amazing. Life, amirite?

Ah well, at least I did it. Came home, felt sort of hungry for once and ate a reasonable dinner. Proceed to not sleep all night due to coughing and crushing sinus pain. Lovely… Feel kind of washed out and lame today, just in time for a work day and a dressage lesson. Yay? Kill me.

Merry Christmas!

One year of Tucker Bunny! 

Hah this year I am quite behind in Xmas- I didn’t do cookies this year! 

Ian and Gidget last Christmas! 

If you see me, say yes

Another long weekend for me! I love it!!

Piles of ribbons and awards from back in the day. Good memories!

Victoria Day weekend here, and it was fairly quiet for us. Lots of  yard work, house work, organizing, running, riding and family time. We put up a trellis, rabbit-proofed the yard (mostly) so Tucker could enjoy the outdoors with me, and we put up a rack so I could display some race medals and ribbons. I took a real walk down memory lane sorting through some old awards…Ah memories… I am planning to donate old ribbons and medals, just have to find the appropriate place to do so.

Riding was good, I mixed up my outdoor and indoor rides to keep Oats’ feet happy (he does get very footsore very easily). The weather could have been nicer, it was cool and grey on and off, cloudy as well and it rained on us on Saturday!

I ran on the weekend too, staying away from longer runs at this point, not ready to go long yet so ended up doing 11km on Saturday, a bit of trail running with Ian in Cobble Hill on Sunday, and then 7km on Monday mixed terrain (some beach, some grass, mostly pavement). We were able to visit with Ian’s parents at their farm on Sunday, which went well. I even found a decorative knife (kirpan?) that had washed up on the beach. Crazy eh?

The weather really cleared up on Monday late afternoon/evening and it was clear and so gorgeous! Chilly though, woah. We wrapped up the weekend by walking to the breakwater, and then enjoying a beer on the patio at the Breakwater Bistro. A great way to end the weekend.

Snow Day

And lucky for me, it landed on the day I take off from the barn!

Not so lucky for me- snow was sticking to the ground and coming down quite hard, in big flakes, blasting right into my eyeballs the entire way I was run-shuffling home. It was very cold, and slippery and the snow in my eyes was painful. ARGH.

The animals liked the snow a lot though! Gidget was tearing around in the field (I took her running in the field with me, since I could’t go for a regular run like I do on Wednesdays…the roads/sidewalks were slippery deathtraps). She does suffer from snoball feet though!

Tucker was unsure about the snow at first, and then he really got into it was was racing up and down the deck!

All in all, it looks very pretty today but I will be very happy for the snow to go, and for spring to come in earnest!

Simple Love: Riding/life update~

Had my jump lesson and we kept it pretty low for two reasons: my foot is killing me and is still killing me today (thanks, plantar wart treatment from hell… and I was working on maintaining two-point ALL the way around the course of jumps, instead of sitting my butt in the saddle 3 strides out.).

This was incidentally much harder than I thought and my legs got tired much faster. The psychological component is trickier- I want to sit and DRIVE the last few strides, rather than sit off the saddle and let the jump come to me. Hm…

I did run into this problem jumping in the field this summer, when the jump was placed uphill- when I SAT and got heavy, Oats took down the rail of the jump. When I focused on sitting light and off the saddle, the jump stayed up. Coincidence? I think not! haha.

So yeah, things to think about. Oh and the straightness…right drift that was actually horrible last night…ARGH.

Oh well, Tucker Bunny is settling in at home and we are taking down our Christmas decorations this weekend. Sad to see them go, but I am ready for spring!!