The Horse Show

    My son  takes lessons at a therapeutic riding stable  in our area.  It has helped his confidence, his balance, and firmly solidified his love of horses. Last weekend was their second annual Horse Show.  This is an exhibition, not a competition.  Alex and his horse, Buckwheat, were the first team out.

 They were great.  I was surprised that they did not have him trot like last year, but it may have to do with Buckwheat's size.   He is much bigger than Alex's mount from last year, Marilla, so they may have decided on caution.

   It was wonderful to see the rider's and how they had progressed from last year.  The stable accommodates riders with many disabilities from ADHD to cerebral palsy, autism to recovering from auto accidents. This year's surprise for us was that after he rode, Alex was the commentator for the show.  Anyone who knows Alex has seen his talking into his hand as if he had a mic in it, and this time, it was real.  It was very lively.

Alex has a wonderful rapport with the horses, but there are two he gravitates towards, Buckwheat and Pip.  He rides both of these animals in his lessons, and just loves them.  Pip is a former racehorse who has been trained as a therapeutic horse. He has a wonderful demeanor. 

You can See Pip's tattoo from his racing days

Alex and Pip

Buckwheat and Alex

    This stable is a wonderful place - and has great people working there. (I have no scientific evidence, but I think horse people are always good people!)  Our state senator came out to see the show and pass out the ribbons.  He is a good guy.

State Senator Seward distributed the awards

Abby, Buckwheat, Alex and Daddy

Pip and his pal, Alex

While it may not seem so, the entire family was at the show.  Nicholas, however, seemed much more interested in the chicks than in the horses!

I'm Dyeing not Dying

   When  I work on anything with pigments - paint, dyes, markers, etc.,  I generally do not worry about gloves and such.  I can wash.  Yesterday I was dyeing some sample pieces for a show I am designing.  Separation Rapid is a world premiere of a play about the final journey of Bessie and Glenn Hyde in 1928 when they ran the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon in a homemade scow and never returned.  Some of the characters need to be wearing the colours of the canyon so they can fade into the background when needed.
     I wore gloves to prep the fabric with soda ash, then I mixed the fiber reactive dye colours.  I lay the primed fabric pieces out on the lawn and using various squirt bottles I placed the colours in a loose pattern on the fabric.

After the colours bled together.

After the dye application, the fabric needs to be kept damp for several hours, so I covered the fabric with a drop cloth, weighted it with logs and stones and left it on the lawn. Today I wash it and see how it looks when dry.  We are aiming for a darker  look, not all the tans and yellows - but I fear this may have gotten too hot in the reds and oranges.  If I do not like it for the show it can be a great "something else."
    Last night when I ate dinner I realized that although I had covered my hands, I was wearing flip flops to dye in.  My feel were covered in red, brown and orange spots.  I looked like I had been in the spatter field of a messy homicide.  Just another reminder to wear shoes!
   

busier and busier

    We are in exam time for the older two kids.  New York state has a series of Regents exams - required for graduation.  No other state in the country cares what you got on your Regents, no college  gives two toots - except those in NY.  sigh.  It is a lot of extra pressure for the kids - they start studying and being taught for the tests about a month and a half before they  take them.  So we are all in study mode as we quiz both of our HS students on Earth Science, Global Studies, etc.
    On top of this we are having the water drainage problem around our foundation fixed.  We are having the  foundation re-surfaced since much of the old surface cement was dropping off.  The retaining wall along the driveway is also being replaced.  Lots of work, one pick up, a dump truck and a backhoe are all in the yard - as well as LOTS OF MUD. (Oh, did I forget to mention that, per Murphy's Law, as soon as the work began so has the rain? ) We have moved some shrubs, removed others, and, oh joy! oh elation, finally gotten all the nasty, deer-chewed yews out of the front beds.  They were ratty looking and planted, not as a grouping for a border or hedge, but as specimens.  Sorry folks, but no yew is that pretty.
  Here are a few before and, well, not after, but shall we say, during photos so you can follow the progress.

Trimming the  evergreens  so we could move/burlap the roots more easily

Where do you store plants that have no home?  Why the wheelbarrow, of course!

The front shrubs all in their temporary holding space

Trenching the front of the house.  Gravel and perforated pvc,  and so far, even with all the rain, the basement is dry!

What the retaining wall and the foundation looked like

Close up

What the corner looked like.  The guys assure me this is nothing and they have seen worse - I have to trust them.

The same corner by this afternoon - we are getting there!

The Great Fish Mystery

   We have a fish tank.  Our fish tank is full of freshwater fish.  We have three neon tetras,  no less than 4 dozen over-sexed fancy tail guppies, a very lost looking zebra danio (all his other danio friends have died), and an algae eater - not a plecostomus, just an ordinary algae eater.  Or we did...
   Yesterday I noticed that the algae eater - who is named Great White due to his enormous size - was not in the tank.   It is a ten gallon tank with nowhere to hide. Now we have a little hollow tank ornament - a Shinto tower - that he tries hides in,  but due to his large size, his tail always hangs out the top or bottom by at least an inch.   We have been fooled a couple times by this fish - we thought he was dead due to complete lack of movement - until we tried to scoop him out and the darn thing shot across the tank faster than greased lightning!
    I called my youngest son, the one who named the fish, to help me look.  Where does a fish hide??  All the family assured me they had not  seen him dead and surreptitiously disposed of him.  We checked the filter - which, let me tell you, would have been a trick for him to get into as it hangs above the water off the back of the tank.  No Great White.
   We started looking  suspiciously at the cat.  She loves to sit on the arm of the couch and watch the tank. She seemed as perplexed as we were.  Since the tank cover had not been disturbed and there were no kitty prints in the dust, we let her off the hook.  We looked behind the tank - maybe he jumped - but again - the only open space is that which leads to the filter and he was not in the filter.  Curiouser and curiouser...
    We finally decided that  there are some things in life we are just not meant to know and  left it alone.
    Until this morning.  I cannot leave things that make no sense and accept them without investigating.  As I was feeding the fish, I checked on the shelves below the tank - had he  flipped out and gotten caught on the table? No. Finally moved a package of my sons water colors which live under the table - don't ask why, I have no idea.
    I admit it.  I screamed. Just a short yelp, but louder than an "inside voice."  There was a somewhat desiccated Great White - lying flat on the floor as if he were trying to eat the algae there.  My husband and son came out and got a plastic bag to wrap him in. (We no longer flush big fish after an old roommate tried to flush our dead pleco and a plumber was needed to extricate it!) There was no sign of violence to the body of Great White - no teeth marked fins, no injury.  Yet we still cannot figure out how he got out of the tank.
   The mystery continues...

What is this weed/plant?

   Several years ago I got a couple of blueberry plants from the Home Depot, and along with the  blueberries there was a small weed.  I did not think about it much, just yanked it out of the pot, planted the plant, and forgot about it.  A few weeks later, it was growing again, so again, I yanked it out.  Well in the ensuing seasons, this one plant became a virulent pest - I cannot eradicate it.
  Here are some photos.

As you can see it has a runner root.  It is not unlike mint in that it runs and the plants grow up along the root.  Apparently, if you do not get absolutely every bit of root, you will get more plants.   It does not have an unpleasant smell when crushed - sort of a cross between mint and monarda.  The leaves are bight green on top and silvery on the underside.   Anyone who has a possible solution, please leave a comment.
Thanks.

Slowing Down (a little)

     Memorial Day weekend is  probably one of the trickiest for us.  We have a daughter who participates in the General Clinton Canoe Regatta each Memorial Day weekend.  We are done with school, but usually in the middle of rehearsals for the first summer show, and often, my husband is  either getting ready for or leaving for NYC to teach workshops in vocal production/Fitzmaurice  technique.
    This weekend was no exception.  We opened our first show, Broadway Bound, this Friday.  I designed the costumes and my husband directed.

The Susquehanna River Raiders

On Saturday, our daughter paddled in a six girl relay - three boats each paddled five miles of the race and made the boat exchange midstream.  No one waits with their boat, you give them yours.  It was a lot of fun and we all were there, following the river in the car and stopping at certain points where the river was visible from the road to cheer the teams as they paddled past.  Then, back into the car to find another good spot until they got to the finish line.

One of the few spots on their leg of the race that was not dead water!

 Our six girl team got 4th place - a great job on a hard river.  The water was VERY low this year due to lack of  rainfall, and we saw boats getting stuck on rocks and sandbars which were not a problem in years past.

Abby in the stern, Kimmie in the bow - heading home!

     It is a wonderful race - on Saturday it is the youth races (read Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts) and the true spirit of Scouting shines through.  One of the girls boats got stuck in some rocks, and one of the girls in that boat was caught on a tree branch and unable to extricate  herself.  A Boy Scout  canoe team stopped, helped to get the girls  out of their jam and headed out, but lost at least two places in the race because of their  kindness.  
       Now all of this fun  is not to be had without a few bumps and bruises.  My daughter's partner in the canoe somehow smacked her face into the boat when they were portaging over a low spot, and when she came in for the transfer, she had a swollen lip and blood crusted all over her lips and  down towards her chin.  She looked like she had been in a prize fight!

After the transfer
Another girl got smacked in the face by her partner's paddle as they were making the transfer.  My daughter is very  bruised on the thigh  - again, something to do with the  transfer. 

 

Kimmie and Abby - FINISHED!!!!

We have been celebrating the 100th Anniversary of Girl Scouting all year, and this event was no exception.  With everyone wearing their 100th Anniversary shirts, we had a flash mob of  about 200 singing at the  carnival which happens on the park grounds during the Regatta.

Gathering the Flash Mob!

Before the Awards Ceremony, my husband headed out to NYC and  it was a very tired group that drove home.  

Tired paddlers waiting to receive their trophies!

Paper Cranes

    Tonight my youngest son and I made a paper crane.  I have no idea why.  He just walked into the kitchen and asked if I would make him a paper crane.  I told him I did not know how, and to ask his sister, who had been interested in origami a few years ago.  No luck.  So he said, "Why don't you just type in how do I make a paper crane?"   DUH!  Sometimes I am amazed at how he is positive he will find anything he needs on the internet - and then of course, he does.  So here is what we did.  Try it with your kids - it's fun.

How to Fold a Paper Crane

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit
The origami crane is perfect as a gift or gift tag as a decoration, or as the first step to making a senbazuru. The cranes are delicate, but surprisingly easy (and fun) to fold, so don't hesitate to give this craft a try.

 Steps

1. Start with a square sheet of paper.  The front of your paper (the side you want to show in the end) corresponds to the blue side of the paper in the photo. The hidden back of the paper is white in the photo.
   
2.  Fold the paper in half, into a rectangle. Be sure to crease your folds crisply.
   
3.   Unfold, and fold in half the other way.
   
4.   Unfold your rectangle. Turn the paper over and fold in half into a triangle.  You should see the back of your paper.  Unfold and repeat along the other diagonal.
   
5.   Unfold your paper and turn it back over. You should see the diagonal creases create "valleys" and the perpendicular creases create "mountains".
   
6.   Bring the corners together. Allow the valley creases to meet in the middle.
   
7.  Align the square. By flattening two opposite sides, you should find yourself with a square that is open on the bottom.  Make sure your square is rotated so that the opening is on the bottom, as shown in the picture.
   
8.  Bring the right corner of the top flap to the middle crease, so that the lower right edge lines up with the crease.
   
9.  Repeat this action on the left, so that the top looks like a kite.
   
10.  Fold down the top corner to make the crease lie along the horizontal line created in the previous two steps.
    
11.  Unfold. In doing so, you return to having a square with an opening facing down.
    
12.  Take the bottom corner of the square and start to fold it up along the horizontal crease you made in the previous two steps.
    
13.   As you fold, note the four diagonal creases on the inside that you made earlier.  You will need to reverse the two creases on the upper flap.  To reverse a crease, fold it in the opposite direction that it naturally folds.
    
14.  Bring the outer edges to the middle and flatten, so that you have a diamond.
    
15.   Turn your paper over, and repeat the previous five steps.
    
16.   Fold the edges to the middle crease.
    
17.  Repeat on the other side.
    
18.  Fold the right flap over to the left (in the same manner as turning the page of a book).  Turn over and repeat on the back.
    
19.  Take the bottom tip of the top flap and fold it up to the top corner.  Turn over and repeat on the other side.
    
20.   Fold the right flap over to the left (in the same manner as turning the page of a book).  Turn over and repeat on the back.    Now the head and tail are nestled in between what will become the wings.
    
21.  Fold the wings down so that they are perpendicular to the body, head and tail.
    
22.   Fold the tip of the head down.
    
23.   Pull the head and tail out so that they line up with the outer edges of the body.
    
24.   Create 3D volume. If you want a three dimensional body, you can grasp the opposite corners on the bottom of the body and gently pull to create the desired volume.
    
25.  Give away, hang, string, or simply enjoy!
    

 Video

 Tips

• Thinner paper and paper made specifically for origami work best. Tissue-thin paper is hard to work with, but creates beautiful translucent cranes.
  
• Experiment with patterns and textures. The scrapbooking section of a craft store is full of paper for any occasion. Other stores in which to find paper include newsagents, stationery stores, dollar stores and toy stores.
  
• The best way to hang a crane is to place a string through the hole in the bottom and the middle of the body, where all the creases cross.
  
• This is a popular origami design. If there is a step you are having a lot of trouble with, try searching for "origami crane" in a search engine.  Sometimes a new perspective on the step is all you need.
  
• If you are planning on taking your crane somewhere, save the last step until after the trip in your backpack, pocket, purse, etc.  Flat cranes pack better, and you don't have to worry about them getting crushed.
  
• For a neat trick to impress your friends, fold or tear a Starburst wrapper into a square. Then use it to make a crane.
  
• Consider using recycled paper; it's better for the environment.
  

 Things You'll Need

• A square sheet of paper
  
• A flat surface
  
• A ruler or bone folder to crease the folds (optional)
  

 Related wikiHows

• How to Assemble a Semba Zuru (1,000 Origami Cranes)
  
• How to Make Origami
  
• How to Make an Origami Flying Bird
  
• How to Make an Origami Jumping Frog
  
• How to Make an Origami Swan
  
• How to Fold the Ship of 1000 Cranes
  

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