I wonder how spousal equivalents that lose their mates continue to get by? I think about this often. Pete isn’t here much during the day because he teaches and always seems to have errands to run. So I’m here a lot by myself. He is here at night. Now Pete is in California for six days and I’m alone day and night. I know he’s going to return, I mean this exists as a distinct possibility. There are people out there who either lose their mates to death or they just decide not to return.

I am dealing with temporary loss by adhering to my current routine. It makes time go by faster. I worked for a while on my eBook, and wrote up my interview with Bill Schmidtkunz. I then did my image-

based body awareness work, focusing on the flashlight exercise, which involves shining an imaginary flashlight at various angles, throughout the body. I felt quite rested afterwards.

It was still pretty early in terms of daylight when, finally, I got out with the horses. Time is now of the essence, it’s now dark by 6:30 p.m. I first took Hrimmi for a walk up and down the bench, via Pete’s trail. She was fairly lively, especially on the way down. I let her off-lead on the way down and she ran off but returned to me for a treat. I only had to chase her through the brush a few times.

I next got Tyra out. I decided to do the entire loop because she’s less balky than Hrimmi. It was slippery in places on the way down, but we made it down the hill okay. She wasn’t as lively as Hrimmi because there was plenty of green grass on the far trail. The bottom trail that connects to our trail system was a real mess. It’s now all torn up and rutted. I would not be able to ride it. Tyra though, did an excellent job of navigating it. The high point of this trek came when we got to the pond. I would not be able to cross it, which was why I went around it. There was a creek at the base of it – this creek has proven to be the undoing of all our other horses. However, Tyra put her weight back on her haunches and then jumped it. I clicked right when she was in mid-air, and after she got a two-fer – two treats, so I think she knew that this was a good thing to do.

At dusk, I saddled up Raudi and ponied Tinni and we went down-road to Pat and Ray’s trail. It was getting cold, but I’d wisely put on my down barn coat. So as always, this was a nice ride.

I spent more time than usual with the horses today for two reasons. The first was that I knew that I needed to take advantage of the nice weather, and the second reason was that I wanted to keep myself occupied. If Pete had been home we might have instead done the same old same old short ride and focused on doing projects around here. But he was not. So I did what made me most happy.

I am thinking that I’m going to put myself on a schedule and no matter what get at least one horse a day on a walkabout. I hope the no-snow weather continues. I won’t be able to go as far as I’d like if it does snow.

Next: 299. 10/29/17: Raudi Puts in Yet another Request for a Baby