Aug. 4, 2003

Hello again farmers. I just washed a frog! A little green one that was in the washing machine and did not survive the hot water and soap. Poor froggy. We have a lot of little frogs this year, I counted about 16 yesterday. They sometimes find their way into the basement and a couple of times a year I wash one. Usually I remember to look into the machine before I load it, today I forgot. When I get my greenhouse a few frogs will be moved in there for bug control.
We got a little rain over the weekend, just enough to settle the dust and clean the air a bit, it didn't last long and might have been about 1/10th of an inch but we are still thankful for it. Along with it we got 2 cool cloudy days that felt wonderful after all the hot ones we have had in the past 2 weeks.
Yesterday I took Can Do, the filly, and turned her over to a trainer to work with for a few weeks. She will have seen it all when I get her back. This trainer is one of my endurance riding buddies so she knows just what I want and will ride her on mountain trails, across footbridges, through streams, over rocks, through brush, over logs and on roads with some cars. Can Do might be ready for a couple of endurance rides this fall but more likely I will wait until next season and go for the rookie horse award.
Last evening friends came over and we got to telling rattlesnake stories, they killed a 48 inch snake in their yard a few years ago, cooked it and had it for dinner. Shudder. NO THANKS! He said it tasted like stringy chicken. I'd have to be starving before I'd eat a snake. Another neighbor of ours has killed about 30 rattlers so far this year, the one that scared him the most was in wet grass and it's rattles were wet so he didn't hear it buzz but when he saw it the snake was coiled to strike and he could see the tail moving. His dog growled at it and that was what saved him from a bite. It was right next to the irrigation pipe he was about to pick up and in a few more seconds he probably would have been bitten. Scarry things. Stories like that don't make me sleep very well.
Today is a coolish sunny day, the laundry is on the line to dry and I'm going riding. Watching for snakes.
Have a great day everyone, count your blessings.