Fishy/Moment Dies

  Five years ago, I wrote about a classroom pet I'd just gotten for my students - a little two inch goldfish. Since I had had goldfish as pets before, and all of them had had life spans of under a year, I thought that this fish would have a similar life span.

Never, ever did I expect Fishy (her nickname at home) to live five years and even come home with me when I retired. I became terribly fond of her and enjoyed her presence in our home. That three gallon aquarium and itty bitty fish net were outgrown the very first couple of months of her life and she thrived in an aquarium in the corner of our dining room, growing to be a whopping 10 inches long!

She passed away today and I am so sad at her passing.  

Here's a picture of her taken a year or so ago, and below is the post I wrote about her when I got her in October, 2015. 

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I read somewhere that goldfish can only remember something for three seconds (who on earth did research on goldfish intelligence??) So, when a thought escapes us during the school day, we sigh and say, "Goldfish moment!"

I thought it might be fun to surprise the students with a REAL goldfish... named Moment!

 She's an orange, white, and black calico.

And seems to even have some personality - Moment likes to swim up to the glass when being observed and look right back at us.

It's been a while since I had a fish for a pet so I am a bit rusty on how to care for her, but she's been with us for a week and seems to be thriving.

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We decided to bury her in our stepping stone garden underneath the Great Blue Heron statue. We felt it appropriate to have a water bird over her grave. 

The aquarium in the dining room corner seems awfully sad and empty.

Good-bye, Fishy. I will miss you.

My Penpal, Pepper: A New Toy!

 Dear Mom,

Oh, boy, just wait until you hear about this! I have a new toy and I am so excited because I absolutely love it. Can you guess what it is? Here are some hints for you.

First hint: It's round. 

I'll bet you guessed a tennis ball. Nope! It's not a tennis ball. They're fun, but this is funner. (Lynn says that "funner" isn't a word, but I had her look it up and she discovered that by normal rules of adjective formation, it is a word. She says she still won't use it herself but agreed to type it in for me.)

Okay, here is another hint. My new toy is round and flat.

I can hear you now - you think I got donut #5368, right? It isn't a donut! (Although I love, love, love all my donut toys. Lynn says the food donuts are even better, but she won't share with me when she eats one. She said that if I want to stay svelte for my sweet Nacho, then edible donuts aren't for me. Hmmmm...)

One last hint. My new toy can fly! Well, it can fly IF the person playing with me has a good arm. ::cough cough:: (Lynn needs practice; a lot of it. Just sayin'!)

It's a frisbee! Did you guess?

Lynn and I have been going down to the park every day to play with it. (Picture of me loping after a green frisbee. Lynn would like to point out that it IS FLYING despite what I said about her ability to throw. I say that she got lucky.) 

When Lynn pulls my frisbee out of the cabinet by the front door, I grab it in my mouth and carry it all the way to the park. (Photo of me carrying the frisbee in my mouth.)

I don't mind that I can't sniff at all the trees and things to see who has visited the park before me. It's more fun to carry my frisbee and worth missing out on the pee-mail.

Lynn has promised to practice throwing it, and she said that, in the meantime, I should be glad that she hasn't (yet) thrown it into the lake or someone's back yard by mistake. (Picture of me lying in the shady grass with my frisbee between my front paws.)

Call me one happy dog!

Flying high into the sky I remain,

Your Pepper

Suitable for School

  You know, if I'd won a mutton busting champion belt buckle, 

I might wear it on the first day of school, too! (And who needs belt loops?)

Pandemic Masks for Lisa

 Lisa asked me to make her some masks for school and went through my fabric stash to select the fabric for them.

Here they are in order of least liked (top) to most liked (bottom.) No surprise the yellow fabric is the most wanted - it's her favorite color!

Oops! This fabric wasn't in the photo. It was her least liked. It was also my practice one for size. It fit me fine, but Lisa said the elastic was too tight.

So I made this one out of her next least favorite fabric and she said it fit much better.

I was able to replace the elastic in the blue and white one so that it was more comfortable, and Lisa has seven masks to us at school. (So far. Haha!)

A Bit of This and a Bit of That

 Things have been hopping around here. Here are some bits and pieces to catch up.

Horsiemama's Haversacks & Mercantile is doing well and I am on my third round of ordering new fabric, getting it cut out, and stitching it into haversacks. I will restock in a week or two.

Trinity flew out for a visit and stayed with us for five days - always a treat! She's getting glammed up for her senior pictures here - Vanessa offered to do them while she was visiting.

When Trinity was little we started a tradition of making stepping stones to commemorate getting together. She was happy to do that again and helped her cousins, Ian, Mila and Lukie with theirs.

She also helped me make stepping stones with Pepper and Millie's paw prints.

Lukie insisted on adding an orange waterballoon to his stone. All righty then!

Trinity went riding during her visit. Her social media name, Horseyreader, reflects her two favorite things. This girl also has a small collection of model horses and has gone to live shows with me.

Anne Field is working on my circus doll ballerina and sent me in-progress photos. I was so happy with what she was doing that I cried. The doll is lovely! 

Ian, Mila, and Lukie have been over several times the past week. Lukie always wants to see my Autism horse,

Illumination,

and Carnivale. (He loves the unusual colors.)

I'm really excited to have been asked to join two other bloggers in a special project. We will be commemorating the life of another hobby blogger who passed away recently.

I continue to work on research for the Mares' Tales project and have spent some time interviewing Canadian hobbyist Beth Peart. (Was that ever fun! Neat lady!) She's put me in touch with other Canadian hobbyists so I can get more information about the hobby's inception and growth in Canada.

Despite the pandemic, life is full, and life is good. I am certainly blessed.

Back in the Saddle!

  It only took twenty-seven years, but this finally happened.

Totally unplanned. Totally unexpected. And totally wonderful. 

Horse Buddy Trinity is visiting from Colorado, and she and Teacher Daughter Lisa had gone out to the barn with me to check the horses. While there, we ran into Tim who was getting some barn chores done. He asked Trinity and Lisa if they'd like to ride, and I took a (very) deep breath, and asked if I might ride, too. 

The surprise on Tim's face at my question was comical - after all, I've boarded with him for eight years and never once asked to ride. But he immediately responded enthusiastically, "You bet!" and we rounded up Diablo, found helmets (I dug mine out of my tack trunk), and got her tacked up.

Tim invited me to ride first, but it was a real struggle for me to mount. Both my knees are artificial, and I just could not get into the saddle despite using a step stool.

Lisa brought in a chair from the barn lounge, and that gave me enough height to step into the stirrup and swing my leg over Diablo's back.

I absolutely could not believe I was sitting on a horse again. My heart swelled with joy. (You can see by my daughter's face just how excited she was.) After leading me around in a large circle so I could settle into the saddle, Tim turned me loose to ride as I wished.

It was absolutely wonderful.

I just could not stop smiling. Diablo went into a running walk a couple of times and I felt like I was floating on air.  (She is half Arabian, half Tennessee Walker.)

Unfortunately, dismounting was even more difficult than mounting had been. Not only have my knees been replaced, but my right hip is also artificial and has been very weak since the surgery in 2004. I was dismayed to discover that I did not have the strength to lift it and swing it over Diablo's back to dismount. I tried and I tried, but I just could not do it. Fortunately, Diablo is a tolerant mare, and she let me lean my body way over her neck for leverage and then drag my leg across her back.

I was teary with happiness, Lisa and Trinity were hugging me, and Tim had a big grin on his face.

Finally, after years and years of being unable to ride because of health issues and surgeries, I had made it back into the saddle again. (Truth be told, I should not have ridden. I didn't remember my post op restrictions from my June surgery until I was driving home. Oops!)

What a feeling to be on a horse again! I still cannot stop smiling.

Goal Achieved (I Guess)

Well, I seem to have achieved my goal. I've been hoping that some of the grands or my children and their spouses might find an interest in my collection and want it when I am no longer here. But I have to admit, this interchange with Mila was a bit unnerving.

She, Ian, and Lukie were here when a surprise box arrived in the mail from my friend, Liz Cory. (Theoretically we were all "napping" on my bed. Three kids, one dog, and a Grammy... Not a lot of sleep happening.)

Inside was Eire, a BreyerFest model I'd wanted but hadn't been able to snag from the Pop Up/Fling stores despite countless times of refreshing and waiting for the stores to restock. (I'd actually had one in my cart once, but when I went to pay for it, it disappeared. I was so disappointed.)

After I had passed Eire around for everyone to see, Mila asked for it back. And then she caught me by surprise with this question.

"Grammy? Can I have this when you're dead?" 

Oh, my! I certainly wasn't expecting THAT! When I didn't reply right away (I was trying not to laugh), she asked again. All righty, then! I seem to have achieved my goal to have a family member who wants to inherit my collection! (Hey, one piece is a start, right?)

Lukie wants that Eire, too, and ended up holding it while he "napped." Looks like Mila has some competition. 

Thank you, Liz, for surprising me with Eire! It looks like you can rest assured that your gift will be treasured for years to come, one way or another.