I somehow missed it, October 12, Columbus Day/Indigenous People ‘n all. There is now a gap in my memory. There may be more coming up. These combined gaps are black holes of sorts; there is something and nothing in them. They are very dark, and extremely quiet. They actually are much like a womb, except for the fact that nothing grows in them.

It is not hard for me to imagine this. And I suspect that I’m amazingly accurate.

I am not worried about memory loss, at least not yet. I have never been good with names – I get nervous when people introduce themselves to me. I hear the name twice and then I got it.

Farrier work on a trip

I woke up feeling very anxious today. This is nothing new. If I don’t resolve issues to my satisfaction, then I go into the day tired and overwhelmed. Today was such a day and tomorrow will be like today.

I was, as I always am, apprehensive about the day’s farrier visit. But the horses are now quite used to Josh and the way he does things. In fact, if Raudi, Hrimmi, or Tyra acted up, this would mean that they were in pain or something was majorly amiss.

It would be interesting to see how they’d react if they were now trimmed and/or shod by someone else. We’ll be doing a trip next spring and summer, and I’ll bet another farrier shoes/trims them. We’ll see.

Pete went and got 96 bales of hay today. 40 of the bales were stemmy and 53 of them were grassy. The stemmy hay cost $18.00 a bale, and the grassy hay $20.00 a bale. We paid for this hay with our combined Permanent Fund checks. This is oil revenue money – every man, woman, and child who is a state resident gets a check. There are no under or above age 12 checks. It’s all the same. It’s been said that some have kids knowing that they are going to get a yearly check.

The amount varies every year. The Alaska State legislature bickers endlessly as to how much each Alaskan resident is going to get. The year Sarah Palin was governor we got checks that were well over $3,000. We also got a federal rebate that year. This was the year in which hay was $13.00 a bale.

So if we move, we will not get a PFD and therefore pay more for hay.

You can’t have your hay and eat it too.

I waited for Pete to return with the hay on the wagon. I had to get to town in order to talk with Maryann, the owner of Fireside Books, so I was not around to assist with taking bales off the trailer. So Pete had to do this himself. Me, I went to town before the interview, and before and after distributed books.

My anxiety level went down after talking with Mayann. We are going to partner up. So really, today things could not have gone better.

Next: 282. 10/14/23: Let’s Go