“John – I kinda have an emergency situation I need you to work on,” Jinene said as I passed through the farm, hammer in hand to address another problem.
She described the need to take one of our double wide stalls and divide it in half by re-inserting the wall that had been removed several years earlier. Our horses are divided by a plank wall using 2x8x12’ tongue and groove boards. They’re thick, heavy and cumbersome to work with at that length. They do slide into a groove at either end, in theory, and stack one on top of each other with ‘in theory’ being the operative phrase. Justin and I shouldered four such planks and walked to the stall in question. After digging out the base where the new wall would divide the double wide into two individual stalls, we began the insertion.
“It’s short,” Justin said as we pushed it into place.
It was. It did not fit in the groove at either end, which would mean instead of a wall, the horses would have an adjoining room. Not ideal.
We found half the wood we’d carried in to be too short as it had been cut off by some previous Facility Manager after being nailed, instead of slipped, into place.
“It’s all useless…and I’m wondering if my brother would have cut off the ends a bunch of years ago just to piss me off at some point in the future,” I said. My brother Jim had once been the Facility Manager for the farm until he’d died five years earlier.
“That would be bone-headed, so I don’t think so,” Justin said. And he was right.
We spent two hours putting the wall back together, having to climb up the sides of the stalls to insert the final pieces in the puzzle. We could have gotten a ladder, but I like to think I’m Clint Eastwood in ‘The Eiger Sanction’ whenever I get the chance.
It was a reasonably clear night, so I picked up Dakota and headed for the park after work. We didn’t start the walk to five, so it was dark for the final half hour, but I stuck to bridle trails and didn’t trip too much. I truly like walking in the dark. My sense of hearing is accentuated by the lack of vision and I pick up sounds in the woods that normally would go unnoticed. For me, there has always been a certain level of fear walking in the woods in the dark going back to childhood and worries about animals and monsters or whatever existed out there that wanted to eat a juicy, little boy. I worked then to overcome that anxiety, but still feel the pulse rise ever so slightly in that situation.
I baked some salmon and had more of my rice for dinner. I know I need something with a little more fat to it if I hope to stay ‘full’ for longer periods, but I do feel better and so I’m sticking with the diet.
Hike duration: 60 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 75 bpm.
Calories Burned: 350
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