It was a beautiful day followed by a beautiful evening – warm, sunny, breezy. So Pete and I got Raudi and Tyra out for a jaunt on our trails. It’s that time of year when the grass is green and lush – the horses are easily distracted by the foliage. I call it the “right to chews”; if it were up to them, they’d remain with their heads down indefinitely.

Tonight, though, we moved right along because the mosquitoes were so bad. Pete said that they seemed to be the worst they’d ever been. I said that I recalled a few times in which they were this

bad, but of course, no particulars came to mind. I did put a smidgeon of Cutters on the horses, on a sponge. If I hadn’t done this, the bugs would have been worse. As it was, they were swarming in small numbers. And my hands I wasn’t (as was Pete) wearing gloves.

It was such a beautiful evening – the sun at the horizon line – the varying shades of green, everywhere, the distant mountains with a smidgeon of snow – that it took my breath away.

It’s supposed to rain again tomorrow. If the sun shines, well then, I’m going to stay put. If it’s raining, I’ll go into town and resume sorting.

I hit a low point today with a resounding thud. I knew, and was dreading the fact, that a load of books would be coming our way from VCRS. Also, I knew that some of the boxes of books were still at the Meeting House. Grr, grr, grr.

I first took two loads of mailing boxes and whatnot to U-Haul; then I moved the middle wall of books to the far wall. I knew that momentarily Pete, Bill, and Robert would be bringing the weekly haul from VCRS. I wanted to join them, but I wisely decided to focus my energies on taking care of things in the distribution area.

Bill came in first – didn’t say much, except that he would be going for a bicycle ride, so he would not be doing the distributing on Sunday evening or Monday morning. The fact that he was getting a vacation and I was having to do his distributing sent me further down the spiral. I was not only overwhelmed, but I also foresaw that there would never be any respite from sorting, categorizing, and distributing books. I don’t think he understood. He had concerns of his own to deal with. This is what he said to me. Had he commented on how great the place looked, or that I’d done a considerable amount of work, I would have felt better.

Pete and Robert were both in a much better frame of mind. In fact, so much so that they sent me again spiraling upward. Both did give me an assist. And Pete went and got the logo put on the car. Upon his return, I felt better – for I could now see the end in sight.

174. 6/25/23: Cow Parsnip