Slowing taking care of the things that need to be done before leaving on Thursday morning. Most of the tack is now clean – all that remains is Pete’s saddle. Amazingly, I now really don’t like cleaning tack. It’s right up there with cleaning the stove top or scrubbing the moldy shower curtain. But like these other things, it must be done. I wish that I was the sort that gave everything a quick wipe down after riding, but I am not that sort. I am the sort that altogether too quickly moves onto the next thing.

I cleaned the saddle pads today – brushed them and shop vacuumed them. I also cleaned one of the two leather halters and put Neatsfoot Oil on both.

And I cleaned Tinni’s bridle and reins. All that’s now left is Pete’s saddle – he can do this because tomorrow I have to groom the horses and clean up Stormy who got all bloody in doing a head butting session with Ranger.

I also cleaned the upstairs – have gravitated back to working in here instead of my cabin because with so much going on, I have temporarily abandoned my Bones for Life work. After we get back next weekend, I will resume doing this.

Yesterday I went for a long ride on Raudi, so I did not ride her today although she seemed to me to be just fine. Instead, I rode Tinni, Pete rode Hrimmi, and our friend Laura who is in my Bones for Life class rode Tyra. Tinni was moving fast – it could have been that Laura’s two city dogs, Goldie and Scooby, were making him nervous – they darted around a great deal and at one point one of them nipped at Tinni’s heels.

Tyra did just fine with Laura – she is now getting used to being ridden – she is the happiest horse we’ve ever owned. Tyra stopped a few times when Pete rode her but in general she has maintained an upward spiral.

Pete and I (with Laura watching) got in one final agility session with Raudi. The videos of the last session didn’t seem to me to be all that good. This one was good. The best video is of Hrimmi doing liberty work. I tried to do this with Raudi this evening, and she just ambled off and walked up hill, and began eating ferns.

Tomorrow Heather’s coming over and we will pack all our stuff. We are also taking Hrimmi and Tyra over to the La Mays. They will hang out together in a round pen. Our friend Bill Schmidtkunz is going to come over and feed Ranger and the chickens, and maybe, just maybe, water the garden. Today it rained and tomorrow it is supposed to rain. So we will see what happens.

Laura mentioned that she will be going back to school in two weeks. Hearing this, I realized that summer is drawing to a close. How did this happen? This has to be the shortest summer ever on record.

Next: 203. 7/26/17: Keep on keeping on