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 |   A Journal to impart knowledge and facts |
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July 22, 2015 I'm going to start today to record on a daily basis whatever happens to strike my fancy. So, it is a very cool breezy day. I just posted 5 short book reviews to The Monthly Reading Challenge. I'm suppose to put away some winter wood today from the woodpile outside but I'm playing hookey from work to write so starting this blog will get done. I'm having a daily fight with a flock of English Sparrows that are trying to take over my barn. They are making a terrible mess so they have to go. I have destroyed several nests so far they don't leave but they get out of the barn when I am around. I'm just starting the fight so I guess I don't know how far I have to go to discourage them. I'm trying not to spread myself to thin on WDC because I find so many things that are interesting here and I am trying to work on a new story. I really enjoy sitting at my desk with a cup of tea and reading blogs on WDC. |
Motivational Monday! Former US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, born on this day in 1882, once said "I'm not the smartest fellow in the world, but I can sure pick smart colleagues." How important to your success (in any part of your life) is it to surround yourself with talented, knowledgeable, and/or fun people? President Roosevelt may have been smarter than he thinks. When people share knowledge it helps when making life decisions. At times in my life I have had knowledgeable people around me. I was able to gain small amounts of success. At other times, finding knowledgeable friends to share with was like fighting my way through a dark cloud. Then, I had to rely on the written word or earlier friendships and sharing. I live in a very rural area. Many of my real family members have vanished from the area. They only return when they want to run up and down the road in cars to look around. I'm not acquainted with some of the second cousins. And, only know a smattering about any nieces and nephews. If you are born around here and stayed here permanently you may have grown up with members of one sisterhood or another. Or, members of one or another brotherhoods. This assures you of many reliable people who will know you and all about you. If you never joined this type of group you are an outsider most of your life in Northwestern Pennsylvania. This can mean low paying jobs, bad educational opportunities, low opportunities for group participation and other life experiences. I took a college course where the first week one boy got up and walked out. He said he would not be back because the whole class was Greeks and he wouldn't get a fair shake. I stayed. I learned a lot in that class. When they divided into groups they wouldn't pick me to be a member. So, I stood my ground until out of desperation one girl in the sister hood stood up and said, "I don't care what they do to me I'll let you work with me." I passed the class and I was grateful for her support. But, I always wondered what they did to her for letting me study with her? Don't let the pack separate you from the herd. Always keep your armor and weapons ready. When Roosevelt was President of the USA he had to have advisors to count on because he was making decisions that would affect a nation of people. It's not a job one person can do alone. Quote:A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education. Theodore Roosevelt Read more at {link: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_knowledge.html}  See Ya! |
The Sunday News! Please, I don't care what you want to talk about today, just no politics. Find a story that makes you feel good about the world and tell us about it. http://www.chronicobserver.com/2017/01/25/palaeontologists-discover-collagen-in-... The Chronic Observer indicates on their front page the reader should not take them seriously. However the link will take you to an amazing story about dinosaurs that will leave you with more questions than answers. If you need some encouraging news about the world take a moment to follow the link. It is a short article.   |
| Pick one of the following scenarios and expand on it: 1) An animal you can humanely wear while it's still alive; or 2) A house you can live comfortably in that is made entirely of edible materials. Warbling Along In The World by Apondia Tim was in the attic of his house. He was climbing around in the upper rafters looking at small holes that had what appeared to be sawdust caps on them. The house was built of untreated hardwood from the deciduous forests near his home. He had purchased two by four wood from a nearby Amish Sawmill. "I should have taken their advice and had the wood treated before I built the house. " Tim retreated to the main living floor where he brewed a cup of Gunpowder Green Tea from the singing kettle boiling on the induction cook-top. Tim had worked hard over the last few years to purchase a 15 acre lot in the country. He purchased the acreage and paid it off before he started his home. All his permits were in proper order when he started building so he was thrilled how the work developed. It was a small home. He built it with his own hands. Everything was just the way he wanted it. He filled it with the most modern types of appliances. The roof was covered with solar panels. His kitchen was filled with induction cooking devices. He had WiFi and a large screen TV. The back porch ran the entire length of the house and was screened with weather screening that would not allow the snow in winter or rain in summer to blast through. Now he had found little beetles chewing perfectly round holes in the upper rafters. They were eating his special home. Laying larvae in the holes so the larvae would eat it. Rocking in a wooden rocking chair on the porch drinking his tea Tim figured he should stop by a local exterminators shop in the morning. There must be some way to stop the beetles before they ruined his beautiful new living space, mused Tim. The next morning bright and early when stores were just opening their doors in the small town of Wishesville, Tim pushed hesitantly through the screen door of Herm's Extermination. An old man behind the counter looked up. "Well Hi there young fella what can I do for you today?" Beside the man sitting in a cage on the counter a small bird with sky blue and white markings began to screech in a most excitable manner. Its feathers had black markings like he was wearing a necklace. It's wings had bars. "shush up." The old man shook the cage a little. The bird shushed. Tim was a little startled by the commotion the bird made. He was even more startled by the sudden cage shaking the old man had done. " Are you Herm?" "Yes. I am! Do you need something exterminated." The bird shrieked, Herm shook the cage again. "Well yes. At least I need some advice about how to exterminate wood boring beetles." Tim went into detail and told the old man about his new homestead and the problems he was experiencing in the attic of his home. "Oh. Sure we can fix that. I can bring out the truck. You can move out of the house for a couple weeks. I'll encase your house in a tent and blast the critters with some gas that will kill every living thing inside that tent. Nothing will dare live in your wood ever again." "A couple weeks? That seems kind of drastic and maybe expensive. How much would it cost anyway? Herm rubbed his chin. The wrinkles on his chin seemed to slide back and forth as he rubbed. "It wouldn't be much. I could probably give you a discount of about fifteen hundred dollars since you just finished building you probably don't have a lot of cash laying around. How about I do it for about ten thousand." "Ten Thousand Dollars? How about advice instead of going to all that expense? Isn't there any other way?" "Well? How much was you hope'n to spend?" "I don't know but not that much. Besides I don't have anyplace else to live for two weeks. I have to be back to work on Monday." The bird shrieked. Herm shook the cage. "Tell you what young fella, this here bird in this cage is an insect eater. I can let you have his cage n all fer about fifty dollars. You just take him home turn him loose in those rafters and I bet he'll clear out your problem in no time at all." The bird started jumping up and down on its perch screeching and howling in a shrill birdy voice." Herm shook the cage. "You shush." Tim was kind of suspicious of this deal but fifty dollars sounded a lot better than ten thousand so he decided to try it out. "Your sure he will eat the beetles?" "Yes sir its his favorite food." Herm then added, "I think." "You don't know for sure?" "Well I know it eats wood boring beetles but I never asked it if it's his favorite meal?" Herm reached out and touched the cage before the bird could shriek. The bird turned his back to Herm and let loose a spatter of white birdy poo in Herm's direction. "OK, It's the cheaper way to go, I'll try it." Tim pulled out his wallet and thumbed out five ten dollar bills. Herm wrote him out a receipt and shoved the cage toward Tim. "What should I feed him now?" "You just take him home and turn him loose he'll find dinner." Tim left the store. He loaded the cage into the passenger seat in the front of his new Renegade Jeep. He fastened the seat belt so the cage couldn't move. From the time Tim handed over the money to Herm, to the time the cage was fastened into the seat of the jeep the bird never made a sound or moved, from the center of the perch, in the center of the cage. Tim started the jeep. He drove down the street out of town and turned down the lane that led to his house. It was a quiet drive with little traffic moving because it was very early in the day. It was a good thing too, because of what happened next. A small screechy voice spoke up. "You know what you are doing in illegal don't you." Tim was startled. He reached down to turn the radio dial off. but it wasn't on. There were no other automobiles on the lane and the windows were up. "Me, Me, talk to me." Tim looked at the cage and slammed on the brakes. The bird was hanging on the bars of the cage with his beak sticking through. It started to sing in an almost hypnotic warbling voice. "Blue bird,  ,Blue bird sitting in a cage,.set me free set me free. Blue bird blue,bird sitting in a cage, call the police, ,call the police. Help, Help I'm being hijacked!!"Fortunately Tim wasn't usually surprised by unusual events because he was an investigative journalist and he was used to reporting about odd occurrences around the area. "How come you can talk?" "How come you bought an illegal bird to do your dirty work?" "What kind of bird are you? Birds don't talk I must be losing my mind. I knew that last job was too much stress. Too many crime waves can stress out any reporter. What do you mean illegal?" "Ha. You think you have stress. How about me. I've been captured, thrown in a cage and sold as a slave labor to eat bugs." "What kind of bird are you? I thought only parrots talk." "I'm Setophaga cerulea you can call me Cerulean for short. I don't talk I warble. Do you know what they do to people who use birds vulnerable to extinction for slave labor?" "Sorry I never talked to a warbling bird before. I never even heard a warbling bird before at least, not one I remember hearing." "Well, for your information there are people who listen when they are outside. Don't you ever listen to the sounds of Beethoven or some of the other music masters that wrote down the sounds they heard like bird calls and wind sighs?" Tim tried to turn the conversation his own way. "I guess the question is do you relish a meal of wood eating bugs?" "What's in it for me?" warbled Cerulean. "I guess I can't really force you to munch all the bugs in my rafters away. What do you want to do the job?" "How about my freedom? You can start by opening this cage. I promise I won't fly away. By the way, cool car. Herm didn't feed me to well so I'm low on energy. A few bugs would solve that problem." Tim had been driving down the road all this time and now he turned into the long drive leading to his house. He stopped the car and opened the cage practically all in one motion. Cerulean jumped out with a flash of his blue and white feathers landing squarely on Tim's shoulder. "Just don't leave any of that white stuff on my jacket, O.K.? Cerulean spent a lot of time riding around on Tim's shoulder. He kept the rafters free of wood eating beetles. Actually, the rafters were up high enough so he felt like he was in the natural canopy of the forest. He flew in and out of the windows as much as he pleased. Tim and Cerulean had lots of conversations over the years about music, philosophy, journalism and other important subjects. The End. |
Fun Fact Friday! On this day in 1926 a Scottish inventor named John Baird demonstrated a pictorial transmission machine called the television. Do you remember seeing your first television...the one your parents had when you were a kid? What were some of your favorite shows? Do you still watch any of the old programs you enjoyed as a teenager? The first TV I watched belonged to my Uncle's Family. They owned the farm down the road. I remember walking down the road a couple times with my Grandmother to watch "Lawrence Welk". Grandma was a music teacher in her younger years. Probably in a small country school house. She would sit and sometimes exclaim about some thing a singer was doing wrong. Later in High school I would remember and try to do it right when I sang with the high school choir. Many people had Television before my family. I grew up reading library books and old books that were kept in a big book case in our home. After my Dad remarried, we visited my stepmother's family every night. They had a TV. There was always baseball, boxing, and Dragnet. Another show I remember was about the FBI chasing gangsters but I don't remember the name. At some point my Dad bought a TV for our home. Children's weekend entertainment gave us Gene Autry, The Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers, and Sky King as our Saturday entertainment. Even then, I spent more time reading or in the barn or hunting for crayfish in the stream flowing from the pond. I don't put the next series of shows in any time place. This summer NBC picked up Me-TV from Chicago. We are re watching Roy Rogers, Gunsmoke, Perry Mason, Colombo, Chips, the original McGuiver,The Hulk, Mash and other shows from the past. We are getting to compare Emergency with Chicago Fire. Both are excellent shows but the social aspects of these fire men are generations apart. They both agree about the need for people who care about rescuing the public from disasters. If I had grown up watching CSI would I have become a crime scene investigator instead of raising 4 children, milking goats, riding horses, and grooming dogs. Maybe, thoughts like these are what make people believe the soul comes back to earth to live in another body. Things change so drastically down through generations. Makes me wonder what's next. It is fun to watch the old shows but sometimes they bore me. This week I skipped McGuiver to watch "Charlie Rose" and read a good book about cyber crime. Life Moves On! |
| Plug time! What are some of the WDC events you'll be taking part in during the month of February? February, 1. I would like to do some WDC reviews during February. 2. I want to work on my basement and put it into order. I started this job in November but was too busy over Christmas to finish it. There are a lot of books to find homes for and other things that need rearranged or thrown away. 3. I will continue with reviewing a couple of books for "The Monthly Reading Challenge" . I have some heavy reading to do. 4. I want to work on a story that is not getting written. 5. I want to rearrange my portfolio on WDC. February is a short month. If I accomplish some of these things and keep the daily living under control I will be amazed and pleased with the progress. Snow is flying today. I guess January thaw is over for awhile. Happy Trails |
| War Chest Wednesday! From a previous challenger... Do you believe in miracles? Speculate on your idea of a miracle you'd like to see happen. I do believe in real miracles. But, I'm old enough to know that many things that happen are reminders of the ingenuity of human kind. Or, the gifts hiding in our DNA passed down through generations. Reference found in a Yahoo search: From the Oxford Dictionaries: Definition of psychology: the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those affecting behavior in a given context. synonyms: study of the mind, science of the mind Definition of Miracles: a surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divine agency: "the miracle of rising from the grave" From Funk and Wagnall's Standard Dictionary: Definition of psychophysics: N. The science of the relations between mental and physical phenomena Socially and specifically I believe world governments have let down the people of the earth. Education on this earth has not allowed the public to keep up with time. If you stand still in a place of quiet and contemplate miracles, science and history you will see what I mean? The trouble on the earth erupts from hunger, ignorance, and greed. They interact to cause war, riots, murder, drug overdose and groups like ISIL. Real miracles are the result of a combination of desperate need and God given Faith. "The Little Train That Could" won't succeed at a real miracle. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can will work for possible expressions of power based in Adrenalin. Real miracles are fashioned from the power humans don't hold and don't really understand that pours from God at the most unusual times. Through Science we can medically raise the dead in some situations. But, it does not explain the story of Jesus raising Lazarus, the daughter of Jairus, and the son of the widow at Nain from the dead. There are historians, journalists, scientists who continue to spout theories but they really never came up yet with one that truly works. Real Miracles are so random they can't always be proved. You have to pin down all the facts first. I cannot tell you what Miracle I would like to see happen. It would have to be inspiration brought on by the Holy Spirit. Anything else would be physical brought about by proper knowledge applied in the right context. I will be interested to see everyone else' s opinions of this prompt! It is a real zinger to think about. Maybe we would have different answers if we thought about it for a couple day.  |
| Talk Tuesday! If you had a "spirit animal" that wasn't an animal, what would yours be? (Pretty sure mine's a burrito in case anyone asks, but no one is and I could be totally wrong *Laugh*). And what would you think some of your fellow bloggers' "spirit animals (that aren't animals)" are? Reference: http://www.spiritanimal.info/animal-meanings/ Duh! I wanted to answer this but I am stuck on "what would yours be?" The link has a lot of information including books on the subject. I like a variety of animals. When I was in college I couldn't afford a class ring. So, when I was at a craft fair I found the most unusual ring with an Eagle landing in a nest. There are 5 eggs in the nest. That is the ring I wear the most. Spirit animals are suppose to be guides and symbols of personality. I once thought I would like a totem on my porch of a bird, a horse, and a cat and dog to decorate but since there are people in the area that would be offended I did not put one up. "That wasn't an animal" What else guides me, adds to my personality, takes me to places I've never been with or with out electrical involvement, educates me, gives me pause for thinking new thoughts or analyzing old thoughts. Has to be a book. So, my spirit animal that isn't an animal is probably a book. (Which One?) All of them. Now I'm thinking of books falling through the air tumbling ever higher in an unending pile.  Bloggers kind of draw pictures of themselves as animals sometimes. So, I have to translate to not an animal and you get: Blue Moon (light shining into the dark night), Panda Paws (roller skates flying around everywhere), Brother Nature (reminds me of the forests I see out my window. For some reason I always think of Canada as an unending forest probably from Daniel Boone stories), Mind the Shark's teeth (an open door with fangs attached that speaks to intruders), Stevie (Thomas the Train). Wake Up and Live-Winter Lore (the lock on the museum that lets people enter to explore the ancient personalities that brought all the treasures into being), prosperous snow (a building that houses light which can never be contained), Lyn (the Machine that creates the wonderful Magical Ship) Angel (The fog that blows across the back field when the weather change is blowing in) I hope no one is offended. These are just off the top of my mind as I sit here watching red squirrels and birds at the feeder on a cold winter day. That is enough psychology today. Now I have to find a way to climb out of this book pile that continues to float around me. https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/anatole_france.html |
Actress Tiffani Thiessen, born on this day in 1974, once said "When you interact with someone you always take something from them." What is something you've been able to take with you from any of your fellow challengers so far this month, and how have you been inspired by each other? The reactions and comments on prompts help me realize how many people have experienced similar problems in life. I have noticed in other places, TV news and Internet research, that many people this month are commenting on the similar problems being experienced in different countries. One person who was interviewed said yesterday while I was watching the news, (it does not matter that we have different languages, different climates, or tragedies, or beliefs we are all people finding ourselves in the same situations.) That is what psychology and a knowledge of sociology does; it helps you get passed the difference and try to change the tragic, in every place for every person. There are a lot of answers to the prompts this month. I try to react to as many as I can read in each of my sessions. So far this month Angel reviewed my blog, I received a bowl of dumplings from Blue Moon and Samberine everbluerose, and lots of comments from everyone else: Prosperous Snow, Eagle Eye, Coconut Stevie, Schnujo-Quill Awards Nominee, Jay O Toole, SB Musing. I know there are others and I appreciate all your comments. 5-Sixer seems to be to be finding some inspiring prompts lately to challenge us. Reactions to comments are always welcome. The results is some in-depth sharing that causes us to learn more about the reasoning we use to develop our answers to prompts. When I log on it feels like going to a community block party just to catch up on the news and toss around ideas about a new subject . After blogging so many months I think it has caused me to have a better view of what writing can achieve in our lives. I don't want to leave out just how much encouragement everyone receives from WDC. It is a special environment for writers. ![Merit Badge in Blog Camping
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Thank you for your participation in the [Link To Item #30dbc] 's December 2016 Australian Tour! We hope you had a great time! *^*Bigsmile*^*
- [Link To User flamebreather] & [Link To User fivesixer]](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/group-Blog_Camping-1788309_13.gif)  ON!How am I inspired? I write more stories. Try to read better books. |
The Sunday News! Seven WDC authors were just promoted to Moderator status! ("Note: Congratulations to...") Visit one of their ports and review one of their items...and in your entry here, now would be a good time to tell us what your goals are for being with WDC (whether you're a newbie or someone who's been around the block awhile). Make sure you include your review, using the Invalid Review  tag.  I reviewed
I'm not sure everyone who writes with WDC has goals for being with the website. When I joined I was looking for a place to keep the articles I was writing because the things I write seem to come up missing. I like reviewing books. My first Blog was with Google. I reviewed a few books for that blog. WDC has given me a place to keep my short reviews and incentive to continue reading and reviewing through "The Monthly Reading Challenge." I always wanted to write a novel of my own and now I am working slowly on one. I have written several chapters. So, far I am keeping it safe. It needs a lot of editing. Someday I will post the chapters in my portfolio. (There is a red squirrel just hopped into my view through my window. He is watching me type and eating a black walnut for breakfast. I'm morning entertainment for wildlife).When I found New Horizons Academy I was happy to know I could continue my writing education. There are some more classes I would like to take but find myself swamped with odd amounts of busyness the last two semesters. Right now my goals I would like to achieve are to do more reviews. Write some more stories about the Adventures of Bea, Meagan and Neil, and work on my book (the short one I just wrote for the 30-Day Challenge needs to be lenghthened). I need to organize my portfolio. I would like to find a subject I like and write a news article about it. News is entertaining. I will continue to blog. I give out the URL to my blog once in awhile. This spring I am going to finish organizing my basement which will give me more control over the house again. In turn, this gives me more time to write. When I first started traveling on the internet I wrote a column for a bird club about pet parrots. The bird club has disbanded. But, I still have the gifts and awards I won while I was writing for them. So, I have been writing things regularly since the 90's. I think if you want to write well just getting involved in WDC helps that goal. Happy Writing!  Write On! |
| Creation Saturday! Describe how any personality trait would/could look as a physical characteristic, and create a character who embodies or uses this to his/her advantage. I introduce Megan in this story. Megan exhibits traits of extroversion through her energy, excitability, and assertiveness. She also shows openness traits with insight and an adventurous nature. Energy, excitability, and an adventurous nature show up in her physical nature as she is tall, lean, muscular. These physical traits are brought about as she works in her chosen field as a horse master. Competition and exercise fulfill her personality and physical needs as she works for Bea's stable and exercises horses daily. It keeps her physically fit and mentally alert to daily adventures. The Adventures of Bea, Megan and Neil ( adventure 2) Megan sauntered to the back door clothes rack. Her black riding boots were well shined. She reached up and pulled her riding crop off the coat hook. She paused to look out the screen door at the stable yard, while lightly slapping the crop against her boot top where it rested just below the knee cap. The boots were high enough to accent the length of her slim calves but stopped enough below the knee to give her knee joint flexibility as she posted to the rhythm of what ever horse she was exercising. "Where are you off to, I thought you finished with exercising today?" Bea appeared in the doorway of the coat room with a cup of chocolate cinnamon tea in her hand. "I haven't ridden Hustler today. Neil is saddling him for me. It's such a nice day. Eva is out somewhere on Copper. So, I thought I would warm up Hustler then take him out on the beginners course, Eva is suppose to meet me there. Maybe, after I work off some of Hustler's energy We can ride back through the woods trail together. Copper is still a bit skittish in the back cross country. A long ride with another horse along may be just what he needs." "You're well turned out for just an afternoon excursion on the back country trails?" Bea had noticed the Sharp riding jodhpurs and black shiny boots. "The clothes are new. I needed them for the show in March. You know, I need to break everything new in before I use it in a competition." "Good Idea. I'm glad you are taking the March Cross Country meet seriously." "Neil just came into the yard with hustler in tow. See you later." Megan strode out the door letting the screen bang behind her. Bea pushed the screen door open and yelled at Megan as she walked briskly toward the waiting horse and Neil "Take it easy on the course, no adventurous, crazy stunts." Megan turned and walked backward two steps looking toward the house and Bea. "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. I can ride." She walked over to the horse shaking her head and laughing at the advice flung by Bea. Neil handed her the reins as she approached. He walked to the left side of the horse and held down on the stirrup as Megan swung up from the right. Hustler danced slightly to the right as Megan settled into the saddle and slid her fingers into the proper place on the reins. "Where are you going?: "We're riding up to the beginners cross country course." "That's where Eva was taking Copper." "We are meeting up at the end of the course. Then riding home the long way across the back along the Woods Trail. It'll take at least One and a half hours before we get back." "O.K. I'll finish mucking stalls and set up feed and water. That way it will be easy for you to finish the feeding when you return." Megan slid a rein straight out to the side, leading Hustler's nose in that direction with a squeeze on the reins. She turned her head toward Neil "See ya later." Neil waved and headed back into the stable to finish the daily chores. It was a normal part of the routine to let people know if you left the stable where you would be riding. Safety was a part of the atmosphere being cultivated at the stable. Megan began to lengthen Hustlers stride by pushing his sides with small squeezes as he walked. Right, Left, right, left, right, left. Pretty soon the gelding was pushed into a working walk. They followed the trail west then turned up the hill south to the beginners trail which started on the east hill away from the stable. Halfway to the beginners course Megan pushed the gelding into a trot. He began to enjoy the pace and settled into a quiet trotting rhythm as they worked their way up the gradual incline to where the beginner fences started. Megan's mind wandered some at this pace. She was experienced enough so the consistent training of her reflexes and muscles over several years were used to giving the automatic signals the horse needed to maintain a very constant rhythm. She was going over some of the advice from Bea as she reviewed her riding instructions. Bea was always working Megan's mind to use good impulse control, and thoughtfulness in her riding habits. Megan's traits leaned toward the extreme extroversion and Bea wanted her to develop conscientiousness in her riding habits. Thoughtfulness, control, always being present in her mind as she rode would keep her safer on the back of her horses. The course started on a level piece of ground. Several very small 2 foot 6 inch jumps were strung out before her as she approached. Off to the side were cavaletti posts set in a row for warming up horses and sharpening the horses concentration. She brought Hustler back to a walk as they approached the course. After they took a couple turns around looking at the fences they picked up a trot and moved smoothly through the cavaletti. After they left the cavaletti behind the second time Megan squeezed Hustler into a smooth canter. She made a large circle and held it for a couple rounds using slight squeezes to gather the horses energy under her saddle. Then she aimed at the first fence. Hustler loved to jump. Even though these fences were small he sailed quietly over each fence, tucking his feet high. It felt like flying to Megan. There was a string of 3 fences and they continued gaily down the row. After this, there would be two more fences 3 foot high. Next, there was a short gallop through a piece of wooded property. When they came out of the woods a Cris-crossed rail would be the next immediate jump. It was 3 ft 6 inches high in the center. The rail was very solid most horsed judged it and crossed it easily because it looked so solid. It was built of two telephone poles. After that, across the clearing a slightly higher fence 3 foot 6 inches high was set. It was a solid wall built as wide at the bottom as it was high. The form was triangular so the top was only one foot wide. Hustler was used to even higher fences than this and today was just a fun course for exercise and enjoyment. As they came to the fence, Megan brought Hustler in facing the center squarely which would mean an easy leap across. As the gelding rose into the air Megan's sight was straight through his forward tipping ears to the woods beyond the clearing. Startled at the sight of Copper unmounted grazing across the clearing Megan felt the rise of Hustler under her. Instinctively, she gripped his sides and yelled with a hoarse voice, "up, up." Hustler's immediate response was to lengthen in mid air, sailing three times more forward, with extra force, than he needed, to clear the fence. As they landed on the other side Megan, turned in her saddle. There lay Eva on the ground Sprawled below the fence they had just jumped. Because hustler had obeyed her instinctive command to sail further than usual they had missed landing on Eva by only inches. Megan slowed Hustler to a walk then a halt. She slid to the ground and holding Hustler's reins she moved over to where Eva Lay. She was able to see that Eva was still breathing. Megan pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. As she dialed she whispered, "Bea, pick up, pick up. This is Megan, Eva is on the ground we need paramedics. If they can't bring and ambulance up Neal will have to bring them up with the 4-wheeler as fast as you can. She is unconscious but breathing." Bea closed her phone and dialed 911. Megan stripped off her jacket and lay it across Eva. Then, she stripped off Hustlers saddle and laid his blanket across Eva as well. In a few minutes Eva began to stir. "Don't move I don't know if you are hurt?" Bea arrived in 10 minutes. She came out of the woods in a hurry on a deep green 4-wheel drive ATV. When she saw Hustler being walked and cooled by Megan close to the jump without a saddle she slowed to a quieter speed. As she pulled up she shut down the engine. "I brought blankets and water. How is she? " "She's awake but I wouldn't let her move." "How is copper?" "I didn't want to leave Eva so I haven't looked at him yet." Megan turned to look toward Copper to find him practically standing behind her near Hustler. "I guess he got lonely over by the woods." Bea ran her hands over Copper's legs, taking his reins and leading him a few feet watching how he moved. Eva stirred and asked, "Is Copper O.K?" "Yes. Don't you move." "A Dog came out of the woods. Copper shied left, dumped me. Ooh. It hurts to talk." "Well don't do it then." Neil came out of the woods with a group of people and equipment riding a small trailer pulled behind an ATV. Things moved quickly then. Eva was checked out and loaded onto the trailer. Megan resaddled Hustler, remounted and taking Copper's reins started back the trail toward the stable. The ATV's ran in front, the horses came last. When they reached the stable Eva was loaded into an ambulance. Bea and Neil helped Megan groom the horses and finish the evening chores. Next day Eva limped in the back screen door. Megan jumped up from the kitchen table with extreme excitability, where she was having lunch almost dumping her drink. She ran over to give Eva a hug. "Easy there. I have lots of bruises. But, I'm all in one piece. They made me stay over night and took lots of x-rays but nothing seems broken." Bea was setting at the table. She laughed at Megan's lively welcome. "Yep that's us, never a dull moment." Happy Trails |
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