Fantastic fig, and dental detective work

I love our new house in Texas. Among the many things I love are the pecan tree in front and the fig tree in back. The pecan was in great shape, but I had my doubts about the fig. Lubbock has been suffering from a drought for a couple years, and this house had been empty for a year; the fig was looking pretty pathetic. I took this picture in early May when we had all the truly dead branches trimmed down. The tree trimmer assured us that it would bounce back.

I've been setting the hose at the base of the fig and letting it drip a few hours at a time several days a week. Look what happened in ten weeks! We've even got a bunch of fruit ripening. I never would have predicted such a quick recovery.

I've suspected a burgeoning mouth issue with Dakota for a couple weeks now. He's been giving me some subtle signals that something isn't right -- a little bit of head tossing on the lunge and under saddle. I've been using a loose-ring French link snaffle with him, and the first thing I suspected was that it was half an inch too wide for him (not thickness but width between the rings) and pinching. So I ordered an eggbutt French link snaffle a half-inch narrower. It seemed to fit him very well, and in any case he has been willingly opening his mouth for the bit when bridling, so I thought I might have fixed the problem. But he still had some uncharacteristic head tossing even with the new bit. I thought maybe it was just him getting used to a different feel, but I was planning to get a vet out just in case. Today I was planning on a quick ride, but when I got Dakota in place to attach the cross ties, as I reached for the halter to hold it steady for the cross tie, Dakota threw his head up and to the right. He absolutely didn't want me near his mouth. I took a closer look, and I think it's swollen on the left side. Poor man. I bagged the idea of riding and will get the vet out tomorrow. Dakota had his teeth floated in November, so I'd be surprised if he needs another float, but we'll see.

Home improvement

I spent all of today putting in a raised garden bed in an untamed area on the south side of my house. Oregon summers are very cool, and I've had little success with heat-loving veggies in my small garden plot in my north yard. I can get grape tomatoes to do well, but not full-sized tomatoes or bell peppers. I think the soil stays too chilly for the roots of the heat-lovers. I'm hoping that on the south side of the house, the soil will get a lot of reflected heat and stay warmer.

This is the unappealing corner of the yard that I had to work with.

I hacked and hacked and trimmed and trimmed. I broke up some very, very hard top soil. I carted ten bags of soil, one bag of peat, and one bag of compost. And six hours later, I had my raised bed.

I also have a bunch of stuff to take to the dump. Lola supervised the entire project. She also helped out by eating the last of the ripe Marionberries that kept falling to the ground.

I saved two garter snakes during the course of the project. Both times I lifted up an old board and there was a little snake curled up, all sleepy. The first one was about eight inches long and the second only about four inches (at first I thought it was a worm, it was so small). They were both so drowsy I worried that they wouldn't wake up enough to get away from my dogs, so both times I grabbed them behind the head and re-homed them next to my pond, outside the fence. I know it's a snake-friendly area because this summer I kept surprising a garter snake swimming in the pond on warmer days.

Signs of spring

The great outdoors, part deux

The construction on the outdoor arena has been done for several weeks, but one thing or another has kept me from using it. Today Willow and I finally schooled in it. To get there, you follow a little path through a woody area. It's very secluded from the rest of the property. Willow had the snorties at first, so I had hand-walked her around the arena a few times until she settled. Then I mounted up, and off we went.

Willow sure does love to work outside. Her gaits were big and bouncy. We're still working our up-and-out-with-the-inside-rein exercises, and she felt great. My web reins have stops, and we're now easily working at a stop I was beginning to think we'd never get to! And I've been sneaking past it, too. To the right, she felt awesome, especially the canter. Y'all will be happy to hear we executed several balanced ten-meter canter circles to the right!

Working on the shorter reins to the left has exposed a lack of straightness on that rein. Once upon a time, I would have found that frustrating, but nowadays I'm always happy to discover the truth, so to speak. What's been happening is Willow doesn't want to step far under herself with the left hind (too hard!), so she tries to either go on the circle in travers, or else she swings her haunches wildly outside and tries to leg yield out of the circle, or else she canters.

After it happened the first few times, I had to stop and think about what was going on. I was pretty sure she was just trying to get out of something that felt hard for her. So, first of all, I kept very aware of how long I was working her on the left, and made sure to give her plenty of breaks. When she'd swing her haunches inside or outside in trot, I'd go to low and even on both reins and push her forward on a twenty-meter circle with almost no bend. If she cantered, I'd push her very forward in canter. I think I'm on the right track with these fixes, because the crookedness is cropping up less and less. Today in the outdoor she only tried her left-side shenanigans twice.

A big benefit to working in the outdoor is the awesome new footing. It's a sand mix, and it does make them work. I could hear Willow puffing more than once.

When we finished, I rinsed her off (for the last time this year? maybe), banged her tail, and went to town on her overgrown mane. I took it down to about three inches, and it looks very nice.

On my way home, I stopped by a friend's acreage. She's out of town for two weeks, and she told me to harvest her vegetable garden as much as I wanted. I think I picked thirty or forty pounds of tomatoes today. I blanched and froze seven quarts, and will take the rest to work to share.

Various and sundry

I'm off to the barn in an hour or so and just realized I hadn't posted in a week. Bad blogger.

Yesterday the sweet siren call of the double was just too much, so I rode in it. I think I may switch to a Baucher bit in the snaffle bridle. I'm realizing just how much Willow isn't respecting her current French link snaffle. She's always been a heavy, pull-y girl. In the double, so many new things are possible! Even a couple strides of pirouette canter to the left, although I'm not pushing it because she's really not there yet.

Overall the ride yesterday was most excellent, but Willow did throw one temper tantrum when she tried to blow off a half halt and I really took hold of the curb. I think she may have done a capriole; all I know is I wasn't expecting it and I have a little bit of whiplish halfway up my spine today. But she came back to me quickly, with a new-found respect for the curb bit, and I was actually kind of thrilled with the pure athleticism of her antics. She caught some serious air!

I have another question for all you gardeners out there. What are these?

Lastly, I cannot believe I have neglected to post a picture of the latest bundle of fluff at the barn. This is Lucy the border collie puppy. I think she's about fourteen weeks old now. Specialties: tormenting Rocky, the other barn dog, and making off with wraps and gloves.

Mystery solved

My not-daffodils are indeed alliums:

"Allium siculum (reclassified as Nectaroscordium siculum) (Koenders unofficially calls them Hanging Bells) – Not a globe shape, looks like an umbrella, bell shaped florets hang down in colors of mauve, purple, green and white in one floret, strongest onion smell (good to deter critters), 2 ½ - 3’ tall, 3-4” pretty flower."

Thanks to the Dave's Garden blog.

Dad's visit

My dad's here visiting from Nebraska. I had all sorts of home improvement projects lined up for when he came. The biggest one was helping me install laminate flooring in the living room. I had already ripped out almost all the carpeting before he came. He helped me rip out the rest and pull up tack strips and staples. Here are a couple before pictures. The flooring underneath the carpet was apparently the 1950s version of laminate. It was sort of like wallpaper with a wood print on it. Very cheesy.

The flooring project took us about nine hours total. I think it looks gorgeous! So much more practical with three dogs running around.

My awesome friend Erica, the Inch-by-Inch Gardener, says she thinks my mystery plants may be alliums, which actually are members of the onion family, but look like Dr. Seuss flowers. Here's what the blooms look like today:

They're sort of like little upside-down tulips. Does anyone know if these are indeed alliums and will eventually puff out in Dr. Seuss fashion?

Coming soon: new videos of Willow! My dad has agreed to serve as videographer. I was hoping, for his visit, that we would have some sunny weather, but holy cow! It's hot! We're going to wait and go to the barn this evening. I'm sure Willow would agree that's a good plan.

That's not a daffodil . . .

Last fall I bought a bag of daffodil bulbs at a gardening center in Eugene. I had lots of lovely daffodils in March. I know you're supposed to leave the foliage alone after the blooms are gone so the plant can store up energy for next year. So, I haven't been paying much attention to the leftover daffodil foliage by my fence. Until yesterday, when I noticed something . . .

What the . . . ? Those new pending blooms are three feet tall! Can somebody tell me what they are?

In other news, the lilacs in my backyard smell terrific. And my little Japanese maple is booming.

One final question. I have a grouping of three trees in my backyard. They're just starting to put out shoots. I found a "treefinder" on the internets that suggests the trees are some kind of ash. I'm thinking maybe Oregon ash? If so, those are gonna be some BIG trees someday. One probably would have been enough. Why three? So close together? Oh well, I'll worry about it in twenty years.

I'm off to the barn in an hour or so. I'm back in the saddle today. (I don't expect to fall off, but if I do, I'll make every attempt not to land on my mouth.) Today's focus will be shallow counter-canter loops and canter lengthening. I'm also going to focus on smallish canter circles. Smallish being, like, sixteen meters. Someday, when we're doing canter pirouettes, I'm sure it will be hard to remember just how difficult Willow is finding small canter circles under saddle. She just has to figure out how to lift her shoulders up and over. And I have to figure out how to help her without holding her up, which she'd really like for me to do.