If I had a horse farm, and this still is within the realm of possibility, I would call it Second Wind Farm. This is because the animals would have high endurance, and if you have high endurance, well then at times you catch your second wind.

If the horses were rescue horses I would call the farm Second Chance Farm. But I would not have rescue animals because I would not be experienced enough to deal with them.

I sometimes get a second wind because I do have a lot of endurance. But lately, at night, like tonight, I was tired early on and did not get a second wind.

Nevertheless, Pete and I did go horseback riding tonight. We took Raudi and Tyra on all our trails. Raudi cantered nicely, meaning she’s getting back in shape. After, she was very pacey, which means that she’s not in shape.

The horse of the day was Hrimmi. We took her to town, to the Colony Days Parade. Pete put her pack saddle on her, filled her saddle with books, and walked her. They first went through the crowded Farmer’s Market and then to our parade wait space. We were Number 31. I think there were about 100 entries. We had thirty-or-so volunteers, all people who at one time or another have helped us in one way or another.

It was sort of a party and could have been even more of a party. Linda Jo came as “Bee a Reader,” and led the chant, and Sharon Peek had her speaker music and some dancing. We could have danced more.

I told everyone that at first the going would be slow, when we’d come to a minimal amount of kids, but then in turning onto Alaska Street, come to many, many more children. My goodness, this was the case. We had books in the back of the truck, in wagons, and on the horse. We had approximately 1,000 bags containing 5,000 books total. And it turned out this was not enough. There were between 1,500 and 2,000 children.

I realized this and ran back and got more books from the hotel. First, though, I went and hailed down our car driver, who was at the parade’s end. Then I went back and got four more boxes of books, which I passed out to those near standing on the curb in the front of the former banquet room of the historic Eagle Hotel.

That was it for me for this year. I made a lot of mistakes, one of which was that I didn’t tell everyone to reconvene at the parade’s end point.

None of our volunteers thanked me. I did try to thank all of them. But rather, they passed on “useful information for the future,” which included, next year have two cars full of books. Don’t pass out books in bags but rather books themselves. And have some kind of radio set-up with the driver.

Lots of good advice. Right now I do not know if in a year’s time, we’ll again be in the parade.

Next: 162. 6/14/26: A Day at Home