Camping

Last weekend we took a break from all of our projects and went camping at Mingo Trails saddle club.  On April 6th I am hoping to do my first competitive trail ride at the same campground.  This will be a first step towards later doing endurance rides, something I have been dreaming about for years. 

 

In case you haven't read up on your horse competitions lately, competitive trail riding involves riding a specific distance through the woods where you are judged on various skills.  Rides can be anywhere from 15 to 30 miles per day and may be up to two days long.  Riders are judged on equitation (position of legs, hands, etc) as well as safety (correct fit of equipment, using safe knots when tying the horse, etc.).  Horses are judged on their fitness (including pulse and respiration rate) as well as their willingness and attitude towards the rider and other horses.  These competitions are not a race and there is a 30-minute window for completion. Points are deducted for time, poor fitness, poor riding, etc.  Endurance riding, however, is a bit more intense.  These races are anywhere from 25 to 100 miles per day and may also be two day competitions.  Riders are not judged but the horse's fitness is, to some extent.  Horses must always finish the race "fit to continue", meaning that they can't be lame or otherwise compromised after finishing.  There are vet checks along the way to insure the health of the horse.  Endurance races are mostly scored on who comes across the finish line first and all horses start at the same time.  It is a lot more hectic when you have 50 horses full of 100-miles worth of energy all running off together!

 

Needless to say, I am starting off with an easier competitive trail ride.  I have also decided to ride my older horse, Rabi, as he is much more well-behaved and should make the experience more enjoyable.  We have been training for three weeks now and have ridden over 75 miles.  Our camp out this weekend was a great opportunity to further our training and check out the competition site.  We will be (hopefully) completing a 20 mile, one-day ride on April 6th.  I am starting out at the entry level and we will have about five hours to complete the 20 miles. We have three more weeks of conditioning left and should be right on track.

 

 

Here is our campsite at Mingo.  They were also hosting a Frontier Days and Pow Wow during the camp out so it was very busy.  As far as I know, this was Mow's first time camping and he was great.  There was a lot going on, including wagon rides, gun fights, cow whips, and loud music - all very scary things to a horse!  We ended up with a campsite at the edge of the campground which was very nice.

 

Rabi is in a portable corral but I used a "high line" to secure Mow.

 

Mow and I on the trails.  Matthew and I rode together on Saturday and Sunday.  I also rode both horses Friday and rode Rabi a second time on Saturday - a total of about 23 miles for the weekend.

 

Matthew on Rabi.  It was beautiful weather and we both go a little sunburned.  Matthew is using a t-shirt to keep the sun off his neck.

 

We haven't been camping in a while, but we finally used our collapsible dish washing bins!  (well, actually just Matthew used them...)

 

Matthew roasting a bratwurst for lunch.

Kitchen Renovations, Part One

Last weekend we finally decided to bite the bullet and start the renovations on the kitchen.  We have been putting it off as long as possible because we knew it would be the most time consuming and irritating room!  But, my new fish tank stand and tank have motivated us (well, me, and I've motivated Matthew, haha) to finally start.

 

A couple of "before" shots in case you forgot what the weird little wall and the lovely wallpaper in the kitchen looked like.

 

Before removing the wall we wanted to be extra sure that the ceiling was well supported.  Matthew added a couple of 2x6's to the attic that span the distance of the wall below.

 

Let the demolition begin!

 

 

While Matthew took down the wall, I started removing wall paper (you can see part of the remaining wall in this photo is free of that hideous stuff).

 

The moment of truth...yay, the ceiling didn't fall in!

 

The wall had a rather tenacious hold on the rest of the house, but it was no match for Matthew's collection of power tools.  Here he is using the dremel to cut the nails out of the cement floor. 

 

Viola!  The wall is gone and the room looks so much more spacious!  We now need to patch the corner and the piece of top of the wall that was left.  I see lots of drywall mud in my future!  We will be patching the floor with a piece of wood (and a rug) for now until we can lay new flooring in the entire room.  Note that the wall paper is completely removed from the remaining wall.  I still need to scrub the wall, patch it, and re-caulk the trim before it is ready to paint.  After that, we can move the fish tank to this wall and I can remove the wall paper and paint the rest of the kitchen.

The Keys

Matthew and I spent last week with my family down in the Florida Keys.  My parents and brother drove down from Michigan, picked us up, and then we drove down to a hotel on Islamorada where three aunts, three uncles, and one cousin were also staying.



The rented SUV was packed full of all our gear and food!

The first few days were cool and cloudy so we mostly relaxed at the hotel.  We did visit the History of Diving Museum on our first day and really enjoyed all of the information and artifacts that they had crammed into the museum.




















The second day we spent at Windley Key Fossil Reef Geological State Park.  We saw the quarries where they dug out fossilized coral to build railways and bridges.  My mom and I also counted birds because it was the last day of the Great Backyard Bird Count for the Cornell lab of ornithology.

Nate and I in one of the quarries.














A gray catbird came down to check us out.














A yellow-rumped warbler also came for a visit.














The next day we drove up to the Everglades to see more wildlife.  The first trail we walked was packed with animals and they were all very used to visitors so I was able to take some great photographs.

A female double-crested cormorant.




















Matthew and I standing next to a double-crested cormorant.




















A green heron fishing.














A pied-billed grebe.  The water was so clear that we could watch this guy dive for food.














There were also many American alligators along the trail.














Their favorite hang-out was just beyond this boardwalk.














A little blue heron.














A black-crowned night heron.




















A male anhinga showing off for us.














An endangered wood stork foraging.














We drove down to a marina in the Everglades where American crocodiles often hang out.  We were lucky enough to see two crocodiles (which are also endangered) and two manatees at the marina.  Southern Florida is the only place in the world where crocodiles and alligators can be found in the same place in the wild!














Our hotel looked out on the ocean and we found this guy crawling along the sea wall.  This is a spotted sea slug that is about 8 inches long, the biggest sea slug I have ever seen!














On Wednesday we took an "eco" boat tour around the mangroves and then went snorkeling. 














There wasn't a lot of wildlife in the mangroves, but our guide showed us this crocodile that likes to haul out on someones sea wall.  He was quite impressive!














I did manage to find one bird among the trees, this is a yellow-crowned night heron.




















After the eco part of our tour, we went out about three miles offshore to a light house where a ship had wrecked many years ago.  The ship was burned but all of the ballast rocks remain and have created a nice reef full of fish.  The waves were pretty big for snorkeling (2-3 feet) but we had a great time.

Matthew diving down for a closer look.
















The reef is mostly composed of soft corals.














Despite the warmer air temps, we all rented wetsuits because the water was still chilly.
















The following day my mom, dad, and I rented kayaks and paddled out to Indian Key State Park.  The weather was sunny and calm.
















We hiked around the island and then my mom and I snorkeled around some of the "beach" (which is actually just fossilized coral).  We saw many urchins and conchs as well as a nurse shark that swam right under us!
















After visiting the park, we decided that we weren't done yet so we paddled around the mangroves.  With smaller boats we were able to explore more of the forest.
















The roots of the mangroves provide a surface for algae, sponges, and hydrozoans to attach.
















For our last day in the Keys we visited Bahia Honda State Park.  This park had a real beach and we spent some time walking along looking in the water for crabs and other critters.














Matthew and I in the clear water.














Matthew, Nate, and I took a boat out from the state park for another snorkeling trip.














We went to Looe Key, also named for the ship that wrecked there, about 12 miles from the park.  The waves were much higher this time (3-5 feet) but the visibility was still great.
















We spent about 1.5 hours in the water (well, I did, everyone else got out before me!) and saw some amazing things.  This hawksbill sea turtle went gliding by underneath us.














This reef shark appeared a couple of times.














And this huge (6+ foot wingspan) spotted eagle ray glided by so fast I could hardly catch up.














There were also lots of beautiful coral and more fish than I could count.  An hour and a half still wasn't long enough for me!

















We left the keys on Saturday and stopped in Ruskin and Ocala on the way home to visit family and friends.  We arrived back in Georgia Sunday night and my brother and parents drove straight though to Michigan on Monday.

Rain, Fire, & Birds

Over the last three weeks we have received about 10 inches of rain - great for the plants but bad for outdoor activities!  The horses' pen is quite soggy but luckily Matthew installed boards along the front of the stalls just before the rain so the stalls stayed nice and dry.

 

Here is what our yard looks like during heavy rainfalls:

 

After the first five inches (and with a forecast of more rain) we decided to burn the largest pile of pine branches left from the logging operations.  The pile burned for days and now it looks like a war zone.

 

A pretty sunset in Savannah on a day without any rain.

 

 

Three weekends ago was Super Museum Sunday in Savannah and all of the museums are free.  Matthew and I decided to check out the Savannah-Ogeechee River Canal Museum near us and the Audubon society scheduled a bird walk around their trails.  We didn't see too many birds but it was nice to finally go and check out the museum.

 

Matthew's first birding outing with me.

 

A view down the canal.  It has a lot more water in it now!