This is it. The shortest day of the year. Because of COVID, we won’t be having a holiday bonfire. This could be for the best – I suspect that there would be a lot of doom and gloom. Heck, all of London is now locked down because the virus has mutated. If this all were a movie, reviewers would say that there is too much emphasis on the obvious.

There is no sense in getting up around here before it’s light, so we slept in. Today, as usual, I got up and tended to the animals and Pete did the same shortly thereafter. We ate breakfast then trimmed the goat’s toes. I used the clicker and treats. This worked really well.

Sleepy Time image on side of a friends storage trailer

I next got Raudi and Tinni out. We did our trails. I smelled two-stroke exhaust, so I knew the bilers were, even at 11:30 a.m., out and about. There was some activity going on up at the Snowmobile Ranch, but we beat themto the base of Jim’s Road. Tinni, now on the verge of being 32 years old, easily kept pace with Raudi, who when she heard the snowmobilers, did get a bit antsy. Yes, she who reads me very well picked up on this on the walk home.

I came home and Pete and I took Tyra and Hrimmi and the dogs on a trail outing. It was every bit as good as the first outing.

We’re still working on Tyra’s saddle fit issue. Pete’s been doing a lot of research on cinches – we now know more about cinches than we ever previously imagined. So, who ya gonna call? Pete found online a video of an old guy, Dennis Moreland, in his spanking brand new white cowboy hat and his freshly pressed shirt. He passed on a few useful particulars to us. And so, we are going to order a 26-inch roping cinch with 31 strands of mohair. If this doesn’t hold the saddle in place, nothing will. And if the saddle doesn’t fit, it is not going to be a loss. Tyra has her heart set on going to college, in which case she will be busy studying and therefor have no time to go on outings. I’d then sell her, but what good is a pony with a Pee Ache Dee? I will continue to support higher education, even for horses.

I just hope that scholarship funds are available for Tyra. I never started a nest egg because I didn’t have children. Yes, I was somewhat limited in my thinking.

I fear that in time Shadow is going to make a similar request. She’s also quite intelligent and learns things really quickly. I have a few more years before I have to think about this.

So it’s 4:30 p.m. and dark out. Pete went outside to first do a saddle/cinch measurement and finish putting the winter tires on the pick-up. He’s had so much to do that he put this off until the shortest day of the year.

This evening I will, among other things, write out holiday cards. We didn’t order cards this year; rather, we are going with what I found in a recycling gaylord full of books, a gaylord being a chest-high cardboard box. The note, this will provide a much-needed context.

Short day, short dispatch.

Next: 351. 12/22/20: The Bright Lights Book Project: A Mixed Blessing