dancinghorse | Fun With Water (Reply)

And so the adventure continues. I'm playing with the new book, but the horses have been rather neglected, between vet, 35mph wind that hasn't stopped for three days, and yesterday's contribution to the cause: a water leak near the paddock. My water system is a kludge, with a lot of misbegotten pvc connectors that eventually realize they were not done properly and faint dead away. Usually they do this under the arena, leaving a sinkhole. This time the earth started bubbling by the paddock faucet.

So, I have spent two days digging. I will never make an archeologist. Or a paleontologist (which would be a good thing to be on this property: most of the mesa is a dinosaur graveyard, and many of the rocks are fossilized bones and dragons' teeth). I have wielded two shovels and sacrificed two large kitchen spoons since the garden trowel is AWOL and there are multiple pipes down there. The leak is fairly straightforward and parts are coming, thanks to my dad, who is bringing them along with his expertise. He ran a water district in Maine for almost 30 years. He knows from pipes.

Meanwhile there is no water in the house, though the leak, with all the digging and jostling it's had, is benign enough that I can turn the water on briefly to shower or water the horses.

Life in the country.

I sincerely hope that next week the horses can go back on their regular training schedule. Camilla is ready, I think. She's a different horse since she had her teeth done.

In other news, confirmation just, as in while I was typing the above, came in from one of the Bereiters that the SRS, in addition to Columbus and Washington DC and Montreal in November, will be performing in Houston in December. This is not the traveling show, this is the real thing, which is to the roadshow as premium chocolate is to a stale Mars bar. If you can get there, GO. I will probably go to Columbus because the Lipp registry meetings will be there, but the Houston gig should have some regional Lipp association action. Another advantage to Houston is that it's not in conflict with World Fantasy.

Aaaand...from the USLR comes a further update: six cities including the above. The registry meeting may move from Columbus--if it's in Houston, Woooooot!

There is much excitement in Mudville, as you can imagine.