hectic

It was a busy day. I picked up slides from my photographer this morning, so now more of the Standard drawings are ready to be shipped out (I have to get them photographed first). There was a flock of wild turkeys walking around the neighborhood there, and it seemed so odd to see them "in town!" I'm used to turkeys all over the place here, but it was really entertaining to watch them fly onto the roofs of the houses. I'm sure plenty of people hate them.

I got a lot of work done on SOP drawings over the weekend, though not (yet) today. I will be up late though to work on them... I started cleaning coops today, and am attempting to get rid of a rat problem that I'm having in one coop. I very rarely have any problem with rodents but then from time the time the rats set up camp and are very hard to get rid of! They won't touch the poison bait, and haven't wandered onto the trap yet (though some time this afternoon something did manage to spring the trap and then eat all the cat food I put on it...hmmm). I am not a big fan of rats.

I had a great impromptu training session with the horses today. I was working on the chicken pens when I noticed the three horses suddenly became very alert, looking at something in the far pasture. There was a half-deflated mylar Valentine balloon drifting along out there. Uh oh, that's just the sort of thing Shylah would eat! So I walked out there and grabbed it, with Shylah right behind me. She arched her neck and snorted when she first got near it, but it took all of about a minute before I was able to rub it all over her, crinkle it and make lots of noise, drag it all over her by the string, etc. I think she thought it was fun. Sampson wanted to eat it, he couldn't seem to keep his lips off it, but after his initial spookiness he had no problem with it either.

And then there's Gwen, the big tough mare who used to be named Harley... the biggest weenie in the universe. Gwen would not be a good parade horse. She was totally freaked out by it, running around farting every time I got near her. By the end of today's session I could approach her while holding the balloon, pet her with one hand while holding it, and touch the balloon to her shoulder. That was significant progress. Needless to say this balloon is going to stick around for a few days until she decides it's not going to eat her.