| Shirley's
Diary August 23rd, '98 Dear Diary, It has been quite a month! July and August are always busy, but this August has been busier than usual, at least in the "weird department". I have been feeding for Woody and Nicole a lot this month. Usually, their place is fairly easy with all their horses being really mellow. Well, along with the horses the first weekend they were gone, I had to do some irrigating for them in a huge area where they turn a lot of the horses out together. They irrigate with this huge sprinkler rolluppullasitwaters thing that you have to hook on a quad and use the quad to pull out the length of the hose. This sounds fairly easy for the normal person, but then there is me! The first time with this I couldn't get it to let the hose be pulled out. Then I couldn't get it to release the water when it was all set up. I resolved those problems, so I guess the last time I fed for them and had to irrigate, I was a little to cocky about hooking it up and zooming off. I had on my carpal tunnel braces and it got hooked on the sprinkler's metal bar as I put the quad in first gear and hit the throttle. One moment it's "easy rider on the quad", the next I am flat on my back still hooked to the sprinkler while the quad drives through the pasture…I had forgotten to press the disengage thingamajig to release the hose! The dogs all gathered around me, vigorously washing my face and arms with their tongues as all the horses stood snorting in a huddle, with breakfast sticking out of the sides of their mouths as they stared at me struggling to get up, entangled in the hose, sprinklers, and 6 dogs. My entire backside was coated in mud! The next day I show up in the morning and ALL of their horses are standing at the haystack munching away. Further inspection revealed that the gate chains had been broken! What the hey??!? I rummaged around and found some more chains, fed their breakfast, grabbed a couple of halters and sorted everybody out. When I got there that night, all the horses in the huge turnout were standing in the turnout, but a quarter of a mile of three strand hot wire was down. They all stood in a group and watched as I inspected the fence and then rewired it. Funny, they did not move until I got back with their dinner…as with my kids, they're only good like that if they have been up to something! Now while in these few days all the above was going on, I have not told you about the events transpiring in the house with the house animals. They have four cats, need I say more?? Because of the coyotes, they were all supposed to stay in the house all the time except for Alley, who got to go out during the day. Well, the other three cats did not take that lying down, let me tell you! In the course of the ten days that Woody and Nicole were gone, the cats tore up and out all of her cacti, in like eleven different pots and settings, and there was dirt all over the house and counters and sink and furniture. Every day they attacked a different set of foliage. They also knocked over every trash can in the house. One morning, I got there a little early and settled into the bathroom with my coffee and Equus magazine for a brief respite. With all of a sudden there was a clatter and a bang and then their bedroom phone went flying by the bathroom door! They had ripped off with the phone next to their bed, cords, receiver and all! They also have all these exotic fish that eat exotic things like other fish, huge worms, etc. They have three huge tanks and all the fish have names. Well, fish in general usually do not get into trouble like cats, dogs, and horses, but not at this house1 I still think the cats had something to do with it, but I opened their front door one evening and the horrible smell knocked me back out onto the front porch. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what it could be! I finally walked in gagging and discovered the source of the smell after 10 minutes of looking…one of the heaters on one of the tanks had turned itself up and had killed and boiled all the fish in the tank but the one eel and one catfish! I shut the door after opening the window and turned up the air conditioner. It was two more days before it had lessened enough to go in and fish out the fatalities to bury them outside under some pine trees. (I have Woody's employee to thank for that - he is taller and bless his heart, he fished them all out for me at 7 am in the morning - mumbling, "Thank God, I didn't eat breakfast today!" under his breath.) The room still reeks but the tank's clarity is improving daily. Now then, in the middle of trying to remove the fish and air out the
house, the solid black cat has disappeared. I know that he likes to hide but I sure hope
he didn't get out. Tonight is the night they come home so I sure hope their aren't any
surprises my last trip out there! |