M and I drove to Santa Rosa today.  We went early and picked up the new hood for my stove.  Then went up to Kaiser for my eye appointment.  I got a flue vaccination, M got both flu and Covid. He usually doesn't react much but this time he definitely did. 
It rained today about 1/4 of an inch.  Got the windshield cleaned and back on the Gator.
Chopped up the 14 ft 2x6 lumber to make 10 foot pieces plus three 15 inch pieces per board.  My waste was about 2 1/2 inches of each board, which is pretty good I think!!  We will use those chunks as kindling. 
Did a short lesson with Firefly. Trotting when I trotted, a bunch of yeilding and then some work with the reins.  She is getting better and better about understanding rein cues.  Overall she is a delight to handle.
In addition to the bridges I'm building I need to build what we used to call "apple boxes" at work.  That is a term from the world of film, and I'm certain the original items were indeed wooden apple boxes!   Apple boxes these days are rectangular boxes with plywood on every side. Usually there are handholds cut into the ends.  They are endlessly useful, they could be a step,  tucked under something to raise it up, shoved under a heavy floor unit to hold it up until legs can be attached, as a seat for stagehands and so on.  I want to make several so I can use them for an obstacle.  Think of a really giant beach ball. Like the office balls that people sit on instead of a chair. There is an obstacle where the horse has to push the ball through a U shaped track.  In order to keep the ball from rolling away we put poles up about 1 foot high.  Those poles have to be supported without sticking out into the open pathway. I think apple boxes would be perfect to hold the poles up.  Light, easy to move, and I have tons of scrap plywood to make them out of.  I'm really glad I've got the shop up and running!  It makes building this kind of thing easy. 

I rode Elly today.  She is a small pinto mare, about 20 years old, that Carol brought along for me to ride. Carrie, Carol and I went out and did a 5 mile loop, first up to Post A and then an extended Waddington Pond Loop.  We were scouting for a good route for my ETS event in October.  I began my ride by doing about 2 minutes of ground exercises, asking Elly to yield to me.  She was good, and it really did bring her focus to me.  On the trail it was clear that Elly had babysat a lot of kids. She really walked out and wasn't very good about responding to my rein cues to slow down. She was fantastic about weight and leg cues.  I did my very best to demonstrate to Elly that if she responded I would instantly stop my rein cues.  As the ride went on she got better and better.  Carol had apologized and said she would fuss and jig the whole way home. Nope, she only fussed for a couple of steps on two or three occasions. The rest of the time she was on a loose rein. I was quite pleased.  It was a nice ride only spoiled by quite smokey skies. We are getting smoke from the Oregon fires.  Hopefully tomorrows storm with help put them out, I hear that Oregon could get two or three inches of rain. 

I've been searching for my pickle recipes. I knew I wrote them down last year.  Could not find anything, no paper, nothing in the computer.  Eventually it was DW to the rescue. Found the recipes posted in August of last year.  They are now also on my computer. 

Got my Covid shot day before yesterday and spent most of yesterday asleep.  Arm is still a little sore.  Next week is the flu shot.  Hopefully that won't be as big a reaction.
M is back from Alaska, which is nice.  
The electrical for the shop is finally done.
Still no one signed up for my event in 2.5 weeks. Sigh. Maybe cancel? 
The garden has a very fall like look.  It is still producing, but has slowed way down. Cucumbers and tomatoes are still doing fine, but the okra is about done. 
I'm off to teach a lesson in a few minutes.  Looking forward to it. 

This morning the tanks were half full, which is respectable for this time of year.  However, the water at the house was still trickling out of the faucet indicating there was virtually no pressure.  I opened the faucet at the base of Tank Hill, which is about 40 vertical feet below the tanks.  The water ran out with a distinct lack of enthusiasm. Water flow was even more anemic at the faucet on the hillside.  The faucet at the garden, which is lower than the one at the base of Tank Hill, ran reasonably freely, but not the way it should have.  I got out the new hatchet and hammered open the valve for the 2 inch Fire Hose pipe.  A LOT of water poured out. The flow from the garden faucet increased.   After a minute or so I hammered closed the 2 inch valve, closed all the faucets, got a bale of hay from the Iris Barn and came back to the house.  Low and behold water comes flowing easily out of the faucets.  I'm still not entirely happy with the pressure, but further "blowing out" of the water pipes can wait till the tanks are full and the garden is watered.  For now I can at least take a shower!  My guess is that dirt has accumulated in the bottom of tank 1 and partially blocked the flow of water down the hill. This is a real problem because there is no effective AND safe way to clean the tanks.  It is possible to climb into the tanks and bucket out dirt (dirty water) but doing that requires a supplied air source.  No one installed a "cleanout" valve for the tanks so there isn't any way to drain them and clean them.  On top of all of that there is no way to isolate one tank from the others so cleaning can be done without draining everything. If I drain everything there will be no water for a couple of days while the tanks refill.  So it has been about 20 years since the tanks were cleaned last. Plenty of dirt and tiny stones get washed down from the springs despite my best efforts.   As soon as I've finished paying for the new stove I'll hire someone to help re-plumb the tanks and fix this issue.  Maybe next spring when the springs are running fast and the tanks aren't doubling as  a source for water in case of a fire.