Badger Blog

We got up ridiculously early on May 17 to haul the horses down to their boarding stables at Gibson Ranch. The drive was long and mercifully uneventful, with one stop at the halfway point just north of Weed California to get the horses out for a walk and offer them food and water (fear not rest stop patrol: they were on leads and confined to the pet area). Needless to say the horses were very insecure  once they arrived. Everything smelled different, peacocks were flying about them and screaming, other horses were calling out. But oh, look at this, you have your own grassy pasture! That certainly helped but they spent the first forty eight hours tied at the hip and where one horse went the other was right there by their side. We unloaded the horse gear and supplies from the trailer and truck and then drove to our hotel for the night, stopping at a suburban Indian restaurant for dinner along the way. They next morning we were back at Gibson Ranch to reassure Taylor and Topaz and feed...

  As I predicted last month there were periods of time with little or nothing to do but wait punctuated by short bursts of running around like crazed weasels. Our house went on the market in early April and within a few days we had a serious offer and the buyer accepted our counter offer. This triggered the usual flurry of activity with inspections, appraisals, addressing any issues on from the inspection report the buyer identified as important, having the septic tank pumped, having the well water tested, and finishing off some title work. The sale is set to close around mid May (a week from the day I am writing this). And during this time of busyness the water pump on the tractor (which we are selling to the buyer) broke and so I had to replace that too. April was my last month as an active employee at Oracle (I am still an employee, but on a personal leave of absence for the foreseeable future). This was not a secret and I had been reminding other groups with whom I work about i...