Weekly update - March 29, 24

It's felt like a busy week, but I was home enough to finally get ahead of things around the house.

• We spent a good part of two days to get some real cleaning done to be ready for Easter. It's nice not to have to battle entire armies of dust bunnies to move through the house. 
• Today Y. decided to make dessert steamed buns. These were something she had enjoyed in China and wanted to have some. She put chocolate chips in half and butterscotch chips in the other half. They turned out very well and were quite good. R., though, excited to offered a steamed bun after the main meal, happily to a big bite. The chocolate was a big surprise and not a pleasant one based on her tone of voice. H. also felt a bit cheated. We decided that they did not have a chance to enjoy this particular type of steamed bun when they were in China. 
• Another thing that happened today was that J. and L. began work on a treehouse. This is something that L. has been wanting ever since we moved here. They still have a ways to go, but the first beams are up and that always feels like the trickiest part. 

• I realized that I did take one picture from last week's birthday bash. This is what the parking area looks like when everyone is home.

• One of our hens is laying some really pretty speckled eggs. 

• Today I saw Vienna trot! Her joints have continued to be rather sore as she recovers from being so sick, and I was beginning to wonder if I should start to worry. The big horses were in the dry lot for a while and after I turned them back out into the pasture, Vienna was not happy. She spent some time yelling at them and trotting up and down the fence line. It was a heartening sight. (The trotting, not the unhappiness.) 
• Emmy, the horse who was a little bit hot and reactionary when she first arrived has really stepped into Bristol's shoes. She has spent the week being the calmest, sweetest horse with young children who have never been close to such a large animal before. 
• Nearly all of the seeds I planted have sprouted.
• There is a lot more barn news to share, but I need to wait just a bit longer to be able to share it.
• I am nearly finished with the book, Last Bus to Wisdom by Ivan Doig. It was his last book before he died and it is every bit as good as the others by him that I have read. If you haven't read any of his books, they are very much worth giving a try.
• A.'s cats are still living with us and they have become brave enough to roam the house. That puts us at four cars at the moment. It feels as though the house is positively dripping with cats. Every room I enter seems to have a cat in it. Since we have more than four rooms to our house, I'm not sure how that works.
• G. learned to use a spinning wheel this week. It took all of ten minutes for G. to learn. It helps when you are already adept at spinning with a spindle.
• It looks as though all of the fruit trees we planted last fall have survived the winter. 
• Finally, if you're curious about Equine Assisted Learning, here is a great interview with the people from Athena whom I trained with and for whom I now do some training. This is where I was when I was England last spring. They will be here at our farm doing an in-person certificate training next October.