If I wrote this dispatch this morning, it would have been about being overwhelmed. I knew this. This is why I did not write it. It’s too common a theme and my meager readership of three has heard my all too common lament too many times.

It’s now close to the day’s end and I have instead chosen to write about how this day unfolded. I leapt out of bed early, put on clothes, ran outside, tended to the horses, and then raked the area in front of the horse paddock. I next did agility with Raudi and Hrimmi, and then went for a ride with Pete. He rode Hrimmi and I rode Tinni. After, I took Tyra for a walk then Pete rode her from the arena, to the yard, and up the

Hrimmin in the Scarry Corner

road. I concluded the horsey doings by taking Raudi for a ride up Pat and Ray’s trail, over the bridge we constructed for her. Ryder accompanied the horses on all three jaunts.

I am next going to shop-vac my cabin, the saddle pads, and the tack room. This is the plan, but I am wavering. I was looking forward to doing these mundane tasks, but now I want to kick back. But it’s all got to be done, and done soon.

I often look around our meager 2.5 acres and wonder, how is it that others with even more property manage to get so much more done? And furthermore, have time for vacations and outings. For instance, our friends Frank and Claudia spent the day riding their horses on the Knik River. And right now our friend Ruth is driving her horses on the beach down in Homer. What gives? Seems like when we ride, we ride around her because we don’t have time to go elsewhere.

Why this situation is the way it is, is a mystery to me. Sort of. I suspect that we are getting more done here than is apparent to us because we have done so much over time. For instance, in looking out my study window I see that Pete’s garden expansion project is taking shape. He’s taken the posts that Dick Stoffel gave us and fastened them to T-posts that he’s pounded into the ground. And he’s fastened top rails to the posts. He is soon to attach wire mesh to this fencing.

The garden space has been clearly delineated – he moved the brush that was created when the arena space was cleared. Pretty quick here we’ll go and pick up the fruit trees that we will plant in this new garden site.

Adjacent to the garden is the horse arena/playground of higher learning. The obstacles that constitute the May course include a water crossing, a May Arch, a Scary Corner, a Bottle Crossing -- and a few others. All are visible, a sign that horses are being worked in this area.

I just realized that there is never going to be a time in which we look at one another and say “I guess we don’t have anything to do here. I’m going to kick back and read a book.”

Next: 144. 5/26/17: Hither and Yon