Labor Day Weekend

 I have two appointments at 11am today, one with a new dentist office and one phone call with the anesthesia office. I hope I can wing it for the phone call.

I have no plans other for the weekend, not even working, yet. This last 2 weeks I've gotten 15 hours of OT with OT the week before as well and that's straight back from surgery and extended medical leave. My check will be nice but it's exhausting working so much.

We had a shift bid for the Fall season (September 21-December 21) and I have chosen a 30-hour PT selling shift instead of being on-call this time around. I can sleep in every day, still feed all my animals and get home in time to feed them again. There is potential for a few more hours and I could potentially work another shift on my days off. If this doesn't work out financially for me, then its only 3 months and I can go back to oncall but I'll be expected to do graveyards a lot. If thats all I would have to do it wouldn't be so bad but mixing them up with 4am and 2pm starts is fucked up. I've offered to do the graveyard if they extend it to five 8's but 'we can't do that'. Well fuck you then, no one will do it.

Next Friday I have the procedure to remove the stent from my bile duct and there's probably no issues to be expected. Unless my stomach decides to over react to the non regulated bile or something?? That will be done on Friday September 6th. The following week we will need to go pick up Ambleside from her 3 months of training. I'll probably get a lesson with Wil at that time. I will FOR SURE ask them to help me fit the biothane harness to Amble so I wont be guessing.  I should ask what size shafts Amble will need so I make sure the ones on the cart are alright. I did tell Wil that they should sell me one of their marathon carts since they have so many. 

 Clay Maier is the trainer and I heard the other day that hes really sick and the lessons have been totally cancelled. He got sick in Boise and was admitted to the hospital where he had a stroke. I do hope that he's going to recover and continue as he had been before.

We drove 190 miles to see Amble and pay for her final month of training, the final $1,100. I've now got $6,600 paid into her for training, not counting the cash I paid Nina since she didn't do shit for/to/with her anyway. It was already 93* in Granger so I didn't take any lessons, we just gave her some loving.

Then we were on our way up north 200 miles to Leavenworth and beyond, to Index. There, we left the road and drove up to a gold mine and explored that. I don't recall the name of the mine but like all Washington mines, it had water in it, everything was slimy and it was chilly inside. We did see lots of Iron Pyrite so it had shiny stuff.

After we explored that mine we tried to find another trail to a second mine. We knew where the mine was but it was high up on the side of the mountain, only a mile as the crow flies but probably 2-3 with the downs and ups and switchbacks. It was already 6pm, it was only about 73* here but I was getting eaten alive by bugs so we decided to return another day.

That lead to another 100 miles to drive home. We had left at 8:45am and got home at 10pm. A long, nice day spent with Lan. 

My pay check showed up Friday and I was glad to see it was the full amount.  I have another procedure in 10 days to get the stent removed from the Gall Bladder issue and I'm hoping I wont have to miss any work due to that. 

Lessons?

Amble and I were supposed to have driving lessons with a guy flying in from the Netherlands Friday evening and Saturday morning, but they got changed to Wednesday evening and Thursday morning. I had to change work, had to use PTO, which I'm stingy with, and got a call that the guy has been sick and isn't coming yet. As of right now, we don't know when he might come over. As for work, I picked up two shifts, today and tomorrow 2-midnight and I'll end up having 8 hrs OT for the week. Last week I got 7 hours OT and I'm going to need to take it all as pay since I am so strapped for cash. 

I *might* get paid Friday and IF I do, I have all the money already going to bills and probably not enough cash to save towards our vacation in a month. Good news though, I *think* I might only owe another $155.

HORSE NEWS:

I have a $900 saddle I need to sell so I can get another one that fits Amble. This whole set cost me $1,250 and it's rare that anyone wants to pay good cash money for an XW saddle, rarer that someone will be selling one that is WIDER and God forbid, matches the accessories I've got. 

While in the tack room today I saw Joeys saddle, don't know if I can EVER sell it; there were a lot of miles with us riding together in the mountains. His is a cheap western Cordura that I paid $400 for in 2000. Once stolen, after I got it back I wrote my name on the cantle in thick sharpie so no one else will ever want it.  Wifi has a nice Bates dressage saddle and even though its got an adjustable gullet it will never be wide enough for Amble but I could probably sell it for $800 with all its accessories.  Theres also the Pessoa I rode Joey in but it needs cleaning up and I'm sure even clean I wouldn't get more than $200 for it now.

It's A Hot One

It's been hot today but it has been for a few days.

Summer, the weather I love, is here and I'm inside the house enjoying the A/C.

Don't tell anyone. 

Black Orchid Ambleside

This was the trucks maiden voyage with the camper and I'm happy to say it did OK.

We got a late start and arrived at the area we like to boondock well after dark, so it was a bit difficult to find a spot. We did check out Kaner Flats but it wasn't on the river side of the road, and they wanted $10 to camp and I almost paid $40 because it was dark & didn't notice till the next day that I had put two 20's into the payment envelope. It's a good thing we didn't stay at that campground.

So this is the view we woke up to.

Our morning lesson with Amble turned into an afternoon lesson so we had 6 hours to use. Lan decided we should go check out Boulder Cave (it's only $5) and after the Ranger said it's reservation only, he said there was an opening so took our money and let us go in. There were only 2 other families there the whole time. It's a short cave, maybe 100 yards long and pitch-black inside. Its got bats but we didn't see a single one, since we forgot to take flashlights and my phone light sucks. But we still enjoyed the trek.

This little guy was on the hand rail of a walkway and we're sure he was trying to not get eaten by the Garter Snake that was hanging out below him. We left them both alone.

And, at 3pm, we got to see Amble. 

I got to drive my own horse!!!!!

I have a long way to go with driving but I hope I don't do her, or me, any harm. I definitely need to begin to use weights, my arms and hands were sore after I was done. And my feet were tired after being on the back of the cart for most of the hour from leaning to the outside of every turn.