What an absolutely glorious weekend! The weather couldn't have been more perfect!

On Saturday, Ed lifted the tarp on the hay baler to replace a couple of small parts, and what did he see?? A SNAKE! It was just laying there, not moving. Ed poked at it, but it didn't move. I picked up a 2 foot long stick and was going to lift it off the hay, but it MOVED!!! It was alive! Turned out to be a 4 foot long black snake. (not poisonous). But...it was a snake and I dislike any snake. Well, it slithered into the baler, and he went ahead and replaced his parts. Said it wasn't bothering him, so he didn't see any problem with it being in there! Yikes!!

As he called me to come see the snake, I walked past a post that we have a bluebird house attached to. There was a lot of fluttering and banging coming from it, so I lifted the front (it opens to clean it out between nesting seasons) and there was a fledgling bluebird inside, trying to get out. When I opened the box, he sort of just dropped like a rock onto the ground. Then I could see why he couldn't get out himself. His feet were so caked with dried bird droppings that they looked like he had boxing gloves on his feet! I picked him up and it was as dry and as hard as concrete. The weight of it had kept him from getting out on his own. The parent birds were still feeding him, and were dive bombing my head as I held him. The week before, Ed had mentioned that there were babies fluttering in that box, but I didn't look into it then. Just figured they were ready to leave the nest and were moving around. But now I think it was this same one, just couldn't get out on his own.
I took him to the hydrant and tried to wash it off of his feet, but it was just too hard. So I donned some rubber gloves, and took him into the house where I could use some warm water from the fawcet and went to work. It took me 15 minutes to work all that stuff off of his feet. Then I took him back out to the box area and set him on a fence post to dry. But he just fluttered into the tall grass at the bottom of the post. About an hour later, I went to check on him and found him in the same place but he was dry. I caught him and held him in my hand a minute, and when I opened my hand he flew toward a maple tree, and both parent birds were about 10 feet above him, calling and squawking. So he was being looked after. I was glad I could help, I hope he made it on his own out in the big world.

I rode Katie back on the Conservancy property later in the afternoon. She has not been riden back there for over a year, and other than being in a hurry, (to come back to the other horses) she was a good girl.

Today, Sunday, E and I went down to English and picked up a load of hay from the barn on my parents farm. While we were doing that, I thought I heard a bleat, from a deer? But...then...a goat popped its head around the workshop door! A goat? Mom and Dad don't have a goat!! They don't have any animals at all!! Well, it turns out it has been there for several days and no one knows where it came from. The neighbors haven't lost any goats, didn't have any to start with. So it is just there. Running loose. Some one needs to put a 'found goat' ad in the local paper. Since it was wearing a new red collar, it surely belongs to someone!! I hope the rightful owner turns up.

I rode Katie again today, and I think I love her more every time I ride her. She is an absolute love! She is willing to try anything and is so trusting, and I just love riding her. Am supposed to go riding with friends at J W Jones this Saturday. After finally hauling her myself a couple of weeks ago, maybe it will be easier this weekend. We will see.