In the past few weeks, I have wasted way too much time cruising CB2, West Elm, Wayfair, and other such furniture sites online for pieces for our new place.  Amazingly, none of them had the exact furniture that fit what I had in mind for the house.

Our entryway has a nook that’s the perfect space for an entryway/console table.  For B, who parks out front, it’s a drop off point for keys, mail, and whatever else he keeps in his pockets.  However, it is a bit tricky as the width of the space is smaller - we found - than the typical entryway table.  After one evening and searching for three hours online together, B and I gave up and decided to just build one.  We built a headboard in three hours, how difficult could a little console table be?  I quickly found a few plans on Ana White’s site, and we modified one of them for the dimensions that we wanted.  Both B and I wanted the table a little shorter (to fit into the nook) and a little taller than Ana had hers.

We spent over 30 minutes on the cut list and mock up to make sure there wouldn’t be multiple trips to the hardware store and that we had gotten the measurements and dimensions correct.  At Home Depot, we learned from our previous experience and looked for the least warped pieces of wood and also bought a higher quality New Zealand pine than the plain pine boards we bought last time.  We appropriately christened the project our hobbit table.

At B’s insistence, we cut our wood pieces to size in the front yard, which was admittedly way easier to clean up than sweeping sawdust from the garage (a lot hotter than the garage as well).  Again, instead of using proper sawhorses, we used a step stool and the handy dandy Yeti cooler.  Someday we’re going to get the correct equipment (probably when we have a storage space for all that crap).

#1 most important tip out of the entire project: 1x2, 1x3, 1x4 and 1x12 boards are NOT that width.  Measure those pieces and take that into account in the dimensions for your furniture.  We had to tear apart the legs because they were set too wide apart for our 1x12 table top, which didn’t end up measuring 1x12.

Before we tore them apart to make them skinnier

Tip #2: Get your grubby DIY mitts on the right equipment (this doesn’t mean you have to buy all the equipment).  We bought a skill saw for the headboard project in January.  The most critical component is in the name.  Freehand sawing a straight edge requires a lot of skill.  Needless to say, our hobbit table was wobbly after it was all put together.  We did a LOT of sanding and finally B went at it with a metal file and evened out the legs.  Chop saws and table saws are more expensive and more importantly, we don’t have room in our one-car garage for a complete woodworking workshop, but they would’ve made everything easier and more precise.  I plan on borrowing a chop saw from my dad for our next project.

Maybe we should get an orbital sander too?

Tip #3: “A little wood glue goes a long way.”  Listen to your boyfriend when he says that right before you start to glue pieces together.  The mistake I made last time and the first mistake I made this time was using too much wood glue.  It leaked out the edges and created a goopy mess out of the first piece I glued together (one of the legs).  We also made the mistake of not sanding the glue off so the wood stain looks funky on that particular leg.  Default to less glue, rather than more and you won’t end up dripping it all over the place.  Also get a tarp (or use an old shower curtain liner).  It saves a ton of time in clean up.

B and I cobbled the hobbit table together in a single Sunday afternoon.  And were sore all over the next day.  Who knew that woodworking was good exercise (or that we are so out of shape)?


The table has one single coat in a medium stain to match the rest of the furniture.  We are also planning on clear coating the table to make sure it survives the inevitable scratches from keys and other random junk.  And there you have it - voila!  An entryway / console hobbit table built by yours truly for less than a quarter of the cost to buy one!


Next project: Adirondack chairs for our yard???

For the Labor Day long weekend, I took a few days off work, but we didn’t go anywhere and instead spent our time finishing setting up the house, hanging the last few pictures, and following the wake of Hurricane Harvey with fascination and horror.

There are a lot of things that I want to say (and some things that I don’t) about the destruction from that storm on the Texas coast.  For now, I’m grateful that my friends that live in Houston were able to escape the storm and have little to no damage on their homes.  I was truly expecting the worst, particularly when I saw the pictures from the flooded bayous, but luckily they’re all okay.  Unfortunately that’s not true for a lot of other people who live in Houston, Corpus Christi, and the surrounding areas.  The generosity and outpouring of donations and care is something I was able to witness firsthand and gives me hope for the future.

Texans helping Texans at the Trusted World donation drop off

In Dallas, we really didn’t see any impact from the hurricane except for some heavy rain that flooded out our front landscaping.  A few days later, we experienced an awkward, media-fueled gas shortage that still continues even today (only regular unleaded gas available at gas stations).  Instead of fueling (ha) the fire, B and I spent the week walking almost everywhere.  I found a library branch less than a mile away from our new house, which we walked to, and we also explored the neighborhood trails that take us all the way down to the lake.  The last time I had walked to the library was oh, maybe 25 years ago.  Now that the weather is finally cooling down, exploring trails is no longer a desert death march, except it only serves to remind B how much he wants a dog.  Maybe not just yet...

During the long weekend, we also hosted a tiny housewarming for a few friends that live a block away from us, went to brunch with one of B’s college friends, and spent an afternoon at a pool party.  September has felt like it’s been here for two months already, not because of the weather or football, but simply because I’ve been looking forward to B starting in his new job and living in the new place for the entire summer.  Now that we’re here, I’m attempting to pick up the projects that I had earmarked for After The Move and trying to remember what it was I was trying to accomplish with them.  You may see some more DIYs here on the blog as well as a few additional experiments in writing.  All in all, not a half bad plan to kick off the tail end of the year.

In all her pigeon-toed, sun-bleached glory

“Don’t worry, you’re not alone,” I consoled my trainer a few weeks ago.

During a training ride, Mae had acted lame, which she had never done with Trainer before.  Luckily, our vet happened to be at the barn, and she called him to the arena to diagnose.  He thought that Mae might have a bone chip, which I thought was absurd but crazier things have happened.  Remember in December when we did her pre-purchase and ordered over 20 x-rays?  No bone issues seen then.  A bone chip would have had to happen in the last 6 months.  Admittedly, my heart did stop a little when I got that text at work.  In any case, he took two x-rays of her feet and surprise surprise:

NO BONE CHIP.

Clean!

It seems fitting that she’s fooled all of us now.  Our vet did ask the question “So Ruth’s had to have spent more on this horse’s care than the purchase price, right?”  To which trainer responded “Many times over.”  It feels like this year I’m single-horsedly keeping my vet in business, which isn’t the best feeling.

The x-rays did show that her hoof is growing so rapidly that it’s setting her foot off at the wrong angle.  We’re going to ask the farrier to put pads in her front feet to help them angle correctly as they grow.  She also pulled a back shoe last weekend - sigh, those crumbly thoroughbred hooves - but it hasn’t seemed to bother her at all.  The farrier’s coming on Monday to put it back on but I’m hopeful that means someday she’ll be able to go without her back shoes.

Funkiest foot ever, it looks like it's melting

Her other completely different front foot that needs an angle adjustment

The silver lining to all of this drama is that during August, after our dramatic lesson a few weeks ago, Mae has been perfect for me.  Zero fakery, backs up like a dream, no spooking, and no other bullshittery.  I still have to ask several times for contact in the bridle, she’s still hyper on her first canter around the arena, but otherwise she’s a much less dramatic ride.

Also, this week we had another jump lesson - yay!  Trainer set up two jumps in a three-stride line.  First, we trotted in the first jump and then waited to see how she would take the second one.  Slow and steady was the name of the game.  The first few times, she was lazy, didn’t pick up her feet, and knocked rails on the entire line.  We let her knock them, and trainer suggested that I not put boots on her next time so she learns that it hurts when she knocks a rail and she needs to pick up her feet.  When she was trotting in calmly and steadily to the first jump, we began cantering her to the line.  Again, slow and steady except that after the first jump, everything would fall apart.  She tried to wiggle out of the second jump and then she flat out ran at it.  After a few times, I finally got it right by closing both my legs and holding the reins evenly and firmly against her neck.  There was less wiggle and she bopped over both jumps with less drama.  I’ve been two-pointing her at the canter to the fences, but I need to learn to sit BACK at the fences and not jump ahead of the horse.  We kept the fences pretty low - around 2 feet tall.  Height is 100% not a problem for her, and she is so soft on the backside of the fence.  We still plan to free jump her through a jump chute so she can figure out how to lift her legs / knees.  One of the things I’m very happy with is her flat work to the jumps.  Her canter is adjustable and a 180 degree difference to the bouncy, choppy, very excited canter Ryon had to the fences.  She also has a typical long Thoroughbred stride and the three-stride line was no problem for us, which for Ryon would have been a four-stride.

On the ground, I’ve been working on having her move laterally away from pressure.  She’s starting to be more and more responsive at it, but I have to keep up the practice with her.  Her dark bay coat has become lightened in the Texas sun, but she’s gotten TONS of compliments on how she looks.  Since she was a rack of bones this spring, it’s not really that difficult to spot the improvement, but I can see the muscles in her topline growing.

Remember a few months ago when I darkened my saddle?  A few weeks ago, Mae and I were caught in a rainstorm while hacking in the outdoor arena.  Instead of heading indoors, we kept it up while it started pouring outside.  Thoroughbreds are impressively any-weather horses.  She shook raindrops out of her face when they were too much but otherwise she stuck with it.  However a sad side effect is that my saddle is now splotchy and discoloured from the rain.  I’m using hydrophane to try and even it out.  Anyone have any tips out there or is it time for a new saddle??

I’ve also been listing Ryon on Dreamhorse and Craigslist with little success.  There have been a few nibbles but nothing concrete has come through.  I know my boy is happy and healthy out in pasture, but I still need to get him working again so he doesn’t lose all of his muscle tone.

September KISS goals:

MOAR lessoning

Jump chute lesson

Fix her hoof angles

Old place, ready to move out

True to my word, one week after the move, all of the boxes are unpacked, things are organized, and new furniture has been purchased and put together.  A move-in also somehow always requires several obligatory Target runs to buy things that you didn’t know you needed but now we have new towels, a shower squeegee, multiple shoe racks, and plastic bins upon plastic bins.  Looking back on over four years ago when I last moved, none of this should be a surprise to me, but my memory is short (good thing blogger’s is not).

New place, pre-move in

Unpacking

Mostly unpacked

The new place is quiet, especially in the mornings and evenings.  The Dallas skyline has disappeared, and it’s disconcerting to walk out of my home and not be surrounded by tall buildings on all sides.  Even more disconcerting is the five minute drive to work, which reminds me that I should go home for lunch from time to time since I find it impossible to pack and bring a lunch to work.

Even though B was loaded up with work trips dispersed throughout the last week, we managed to get his crap things moved in as well.  Thank god for the bonus storage closet in the basement garage or else we wouldn’t have been able to find a home for most of our rando-belongings.  For two city-dwelling people, we sure do have a lot of outdoor hobbies that require a lot of equipment: two tubs full of assorted horse “stuff,” golf clubs, tennis rackets, hockey equipment, etc.  Note to self: no new hobbies until old hobby accouterments have been purged.  Since the unit’s a new build, there’s a thick layer of concrete dust covering the garage floor and he’s spent the last two days mopping it out (better him than me).

The new place has a tiny yard in front of each unit, the convenient side effect of which is that I can spy on my neighbors as they enter/exit their units and walk their dogs.  And boy, are there a lot of dogs around the neighborhood.  Our current complex is surrounded by older condos, and everyone who lives there must own a dog.  Just yesterday, we saved a pup from certain death.  His owners put him in the tiny yard along with a full garbage bag, and he had ripped a hole in the bottom, dragged the trash out, and was eating it.  After knocking on their front door with no reply from within, we pulled the trash bag outside of the fence and removed the litter scattered around their yard.  The pup hid under a chair while we did this, naughty boy.

The biggest difference between the old place and the new place is that the new place is multi-story and has stairs.  A lot of stairs.  More stairs than I cared for when I was moving in and then unpacking.  Stairs down to the garage and then stairs up to the master bedroom and master bath.  I suppose the additional exercise never hurt anyone but my knees and back are killing me.  At least the washer / dryer are upstairs with the bedroom or else I’d be throwing dirty clothes down the stairs as a makeshift laundry chute.

I will do a photo tour sometime soon - maybe when we finish getting the rest of the art up on the walls.  Until then, I’ll keep myself busy by spying on the neighbors and asking to pet their dogs.

The new digs

How do people move in and out of houses?!

We have more than enough boxes.

We do not have enough boxes.

People should move more often, just so they’re forced to throw away things that they don’t need or use.

No one should ever move because this is unnecessarily stressful.

The amount of horse supplies and tack that I keep in my apartment is absurd.

The number of jackets and coats that I own for living in Texas is absurd.

How many sets of sheets and towels is a healthy amount to own?

Let’s not mention how many pairs of boots I have.

We are seriously going to empty the entire fridge so that we can move everything five miles north...

It’s so cool that we have an upstairs at the new place!

Stairs are the worst.  Let’s never live anywhere with multiple stories again.

The sass is strong with this one

To recap on with our summertime saga of Miss Fake Lame Mae, the vet had come out and drained a small infection in her hoof.  The farrier came out a few days later and replaced the shoe on said foot.  Both professionals proclaimed her to be sound all over.  So what happened when I rode her the next day?  Lame.  Lame lame lame for the entire hour long ride.  I wasn’t going to let her get out of the hack and reward her behavior.  And then of course, the next day with my trainer, she was perfect.  Trainer even sent video of Mae under saddle.  Zero lameness, zero issues.


To which I responded by immediately scheduling a lesson.  Work schedule be damned.  My patience had run out, and we were going to nip this in the bud.

So when I saddled her up and walked to the large outdoor arena with my trainer, I wasn’t surprised when Mae didn’t take a wrong step.  There wasn't even the slightest hitch in her step.

We had a lovely flat lesson, and my trainer showed me a few tricks that she had been working on.  I could engage the outside rein, inside leg (softly) to make her body completely rounded along my inside leg.  I could also engage the outside rein (quite hard) to make her drop her head and lift her back, then immediately softening my hands, she would work, by herself, with her head held in a lovely position.  We also worked on my body positioning and balance during the canter.  At this point, we’re continuing to two-point the canter, but Mae’s body is strong enough to balance both of us during a steady canter.  I have a long torso and tend to tip forward, and I have to work on not leaning on her neck.

And then the pièce de résistance of the ride.  Asking Mae to back up.

My Ryon would back up willingly with just a few taps on the shoulder with my leg.  Mae freezes in place.  All the veins in her neck and chest bulge, and she plants her front feet and locks her joints.  With me on her back, she wouldn’t take a single step back until my trainer started poking her in the chest with an umbrella.  The trainer had not gotten this type of resistance from her before, so she hopped on board with her flip flops and work out shorts.  Again, Mae froze and then seeking to dodge contact, spun and bunny hopped.  Trainer again asked her to back up, and when she finally figured out who was riding her, she acquiesced and did as she was asked.  My turn again.  I hopped on, sat back in my seat, and fluttered my outside rein.  No movement.  I tried again.  Mae dodged contact, reared up and spun on her two back legs, one direction then the other direction, which was the highest any horse has ever reared with me on board.  There was most certainly a moment where I was nervous she was going to fall backward and land on top of me.  I stayed on (practice your no stirrup flatwork!) and asked her again - fluttered outside rein and sat back.  This time she listened and backed up with no resistance.  We backed up for a dozen steps to reinforce the lesson and then called it a day.

Dramatic reenactment

We intended on doing jumps but after the exercise backing up, plus the 100 degrees temp, we ended on a good note and with both of us soaked in sweat.  Takeaways from the lesson?  Number one: a professional is there to help you.  They may not be right all the time, however they typically have more depth and breadth of experience than you do.  Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it - that’s what you pay them for.  Number two: Mae was treating me like mom and not as a serious rider.  In the arena, she would listen to me, when she wanted to and on her terms only.  After the battle yesterday and after she failed to ditch me, she settled down and really started to listen and respect me as a rider.  My trainer said Mae hasn’t pulled shenanigans like that with her before, ever.  “She is one sassy b*tch,” was the comment after the ride.  We’re going to take lessons more consistently to reinforce my status as rider AND mom.  Number three: Mae is five and an immature five.  She’s still very much a baby, still learning, and still throwing temper tantrums.  Patience and consistency is key.  If that doesn’t work, try beating her with a putting iron (note: it doesn’t work, you don’t get enough leverage).

Author’s aside: I didn’t get any pictures from this ride, even though I would have loved to have captured her rearing up while I was on board.  She’s still developing and growing really nicely.  We measured her a few weeks ago and she is 16.3 hands at her shoulder and 17.0 hands at her butt (for context from the other pictured I’ve posted with her, I’m 5’7).  And here I thought I was getting a small horse.

Almost everything is in boxes and I have less than a week left until I skedaddle from my old place and into the new one.  Plus I’ve been sick (which is the weirdest during the summer), so let’s look at some happy things, shall we?

Southern Bastards graphic novel series - Football, murder, and a Southern town of pissed off rednecks.  Both the art and the writing is gritty, just like I like my graphic novels.


The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu - I’ve read a few books by Ken Liu but this short story collection is my favourite work of his by far.  It’s a mix between science fiction and Chinese folktales.  I’m twenty pages from finished, and I’m already dreading the end.


Tailored Sportsman breeches - This is my second pair, and I got them in the Green Horn colour.  I love how these fit and received loads of compliments the first day I wore them.  I’ve even worn these to work on Casual Friday; they’re fancier than some of the jeans I own.

Homecoming King by Hasan Minaj on Netflix - I’ve watched this stand up special by Hasan Minaj three times, once by myself, once with B, and once with my parents and sister.  It makes me laugh and cry every single time, which is what good comedy should be about.

When the Toast came back for one day - Gosh I’ve missed these ladies.  Catch up on their day of goodness here.

Pasta from La Dolda in Austin - You know you’ve got good pasta when even the pasta water is delicious.  The worst part about this pasta is that they make it and sell it in Austin only.  If you’re lucky enough to live in Austin, go to Bee Caves and pick up a few bags!


The Mazzy Show - I love this little Asian girl and her cooking show.  I love the different food she makes, how she snacks constantly while she’s cooking, and how enthusiastic and patient her parents are.  And I mainly love her because she reminds me 100% of my sister when she was two years old.

What are some of the things you’ve loved lately?