Well That Was Exciting
A week ago Saturday I had a rather exciting encounter. I was watering my parent's horses and felt something cool against my leg. I didn't think too much of it at first as I had accidentally sprayed myself at one point. I looked down, didn't see anything, but didn't feel entirely reassured as the leg with this odd sensation was not the one that had been sprayed. Keep in mind that I was wearing long pants. I look down again and this time raise the pantleg. This revealed something blue-green, plump, and segmented wrapping itself around my leg.
Needless to say I freaked out a bit, lept in the air, shook my leg, shouted quite a bit, and startled Chris soundly, who was standing just a little bit away. Once I managed to recollect myself I went to investigate. It turned out to be a centipede, more than six inches long and a little less than a half-inch thick, blue-green in body with a red-orange head. The centipede scrambled about until it settled in some pine needles and was probably about as traumatized as I was. Chris asked if I wanted him to kill it, I replied "no."
I'm just glad it didn't bite me. I hear those buggers hurt.
I saw him again last Monday, but haven't seen him since. I suppose maybe a chicken (or three) found him and made a good meal out of him. I do believe that what happened was when I overturned the bucket I disturbed it from its resting place and it was merely seeking another cool, dark place to rest at. Unfortunately that cool, dark place happened to be my leg. And yes, it had crawled up inside my pant, not just on it.
In other news the horses received their Spring shots on Wednesday and Panda also had a dose of prostaglandin to jumpstart her heat cycle. We took her over to the stud on Friday and she stayed over until I picked her up on Monday.
I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but Panda is the quietest mare ever. She can be in full-swing estrous, right ready to ovulate with a stallion giving her all sorts of nickering and nuzzling and all she'll do is lift her tail. That's about it. Most mares would be engaging in all sorts of inviting behavior, even begging for further attetion, but Panda? Just lifting her tail. That's it. I told the stallion owner that the advantage of her essentially silent heats was that she wasn't "mareish" at all. The unfortunate thing about it is that it's nigh unto impossible to tell when she is in heat.
So Panda has been bred and we'll be setting up a vet exam in the beginning of May to check to see if she took. And if all goes well, in about 11 months we'll have a foal running about.
Back-tracking a little, Saturday we had a man come out and look at Jinjer. He brought along a couple, friends who were more experienced horse-people. All three seemed quite impressed with her manners and responsiveness. The man purchased her and we'll be delivering her in the next week or so. She'll be the first horse for a 7 y/o girl who is incurably horse-crazy. It seems like it'll be a good match, but I do plan on asking for first right of refusal if they ever want to sell her. Jinjer is of a size that she won't be easily "grown out of" as is the case for smaller ponies (a tragedy, I think) and she has the attitude and manners that will make her good for less experienced horse people. The man said he was a capable rider, but as a youth he did the riding and his father did most of the work, which is something he's hoping to both remedy and not allow to happen to his daughter.
Until Jinjer's delivered I'll keep using her for lessons and the like. It is kind of nice knowing that I'll get to see the place she's going to.
I can't think of much else terribly notable going on other than the fact that I am not two and a half weeks away from graduation. It's coming up fast!
I've been going to my painting class early and plan on continuing the trend until I get all of my paintings done. I have heard that the fifth painting is optional, but I hear others saying that it is required, which means I'll have to re-check with the professor to be sure which is true and decide whether or not I really need to stress. I'm just shy of finishing my Vanitas and then I need to pound on my Self-Portrait.
To be sure the final painting will be much smaller than all of the others I've done. It has no size requirement, which is wonderful so I'll be doing just a 9X12", much, much smaller than the 34X34" canvases I've been tackling. Heh. I wonder if he'll take into consideration the size of the images we've been working on. I think most of mine have met or exceeded the size requirement, while many other students have done works considerably smaller.
Anyway! Time to get to work!
Needless to say I freaked out a bit, lept in the air, shook my leg, shouted quite a bit, and startled Chris soundly, who was standing just a little bit away. Once I managed to recollect myself I went to investigate. It turned out to be a centipede, more than six inches long and a little less than a half-inch thick, blue-green in body with a red-orange head. The centipede scrambled about until it settled in some pine needles and was probably about as traumatized as I was. Chris asked if I wanted him to kill it, I replied "no."
I'm just glad it didn't bite me. I hear those buggers hurt.
I saw him again last Monday, but haven't seen him since. I suppose maybe a chicken (or three) found him and made a good meal out of him. I do believe that what happened was when I overturned the bucket I disturbed it from its resting place and it was merely seeking another cool, dark place to rest at. Unfortunately that cool, dark place happened to be my leg. And yes, it had crawled up inside my pant, not just on it.
In other news the horses received their Spring shots on Wednesday and Panda also had a dose of prostaglandin to jumpstart her heat cycle. We took her over to the stud on Friday and she stayed over until I picked her up on Monday.
I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but Panda is the quietest mare ever. She can be in full-swing estrous, right ready to ovulate with a stallion giving her all sorts of nickering and nuzzling and all she'll do is lift her tail. That's about it. Most mares would be engaging in all sorts of inviting behavior, even begging for further attetion, but Panda? Just lifting her tail. That's it. I told the stallion owner that the advantage of her essentially silent heats was that she wasn't "mareish" at all. The unfortunate thing about it is that it's nigh unto impossible to tell when she is in heat.
So Panda has been bred and we'll be setting up a vet exam in the beginning of May to check to see if she took. And if all goes well, in about 11 months we'll have a foal running about.
Back-tracking a little, Saturday we had a man come out and look at Jinjer. He brought along a couple, friends who were more experienced horse-people. All three seemed quite impressed with her manners and responsiveness. The man purchased her and we'll be delivering her in the next week or so. She'll be the first horse for a 7 y/o girl who is incurably horse-crazy. It seems like it'll be a good match, but I do plan on asking for first right of refusal if they ever want to sell her. Jinjer is of a size that she won't be easily "grown out of" as is the case for smaller ponies (a tragedy, I think) and she has the attitude and manners that will make her good for less experienced horse people. The man said he was a capable rider, but as a youth he did the riding and his father did most of the work, which is something he's hoping to both remedy and not allow to happen to his daughter.
Until Jinjer's delivered I'll keep using her for lessons and the like. It is kind of nice knowing that I'll get to see the place she's going to.
I can't think of much else terribly notable going on other than the fact that I am not two and a half weeks away from graduation. It's coming up fast!
I've been going to my painting class early and plan on continuing the trend until I get all of my paintings done. I have heard that the fifth painting is optional, but I hear others saying that it is required, which means I'll have to re-check with the professor to be sure which is true and decide whether or not I really need to stress. I'm just shy of finishing my Vanitas and then I need to pound on my Self-Portrait.
To be sure the final painting will be much smaller than all of the others I've done. It has no size requirement, which is wonderful so I'll be doing just a 9X12", much, much smaller than the 34X34" canvases I've been tackling. Heh. I wonder if he'll take into consideration the size of the images we've been working on. I think most of mine have met or exceeded the size requirement, while many other students have done works considerably smaller.
Anyway! Time to get to work!