Yesterday I woke up grumpy and slightly depressed. The events of the last week at work and missing my family took its toll and I haven't been riding, my mare is lame.... its all too much. So I did what I do when faced with a weekend and not in the best frame of mind. I started hauling out the projects.
At least then, even if you stay grumpy all weekend, you've gotten some stuff out of the way and who knows? It might even turn things around.
But first things first - I had to go care for the mare.
I expected to see her doing better. Thursday she had been ridden and in the round pen prior to her ride, she's had an episode of high spirits and kicked out at the wall of the round pen. At least, that's the story I'm getting. I wasn't there but I don't have any reason to think that it didn't happen just like that. I've watched the team training Rhea right now and they are both great at handling horses, and they both really enjoy Rhea. Anyway, she nicked the outside of her left hind at the coronet band. She didn't show any sign of lameness, was ridden and was fine... then when I arrived several hours later she was obviously, definitely lame.
She got some Bute and a cold water soaking of that leg and I fully expected to be back on her in a couple of days. Friday she looked a little better, still lame but better. Cold water, no Bute. Saturday... swelling was back up, lame again.
Bute, more cold water, and,
an ice pack bandage. She took it very well, cracking us up as she spent a little time trying to kick it off, then settled down to eating, resigned. She took her bute very well yesterday too - as if she realized we were trying to help.
I'm heading there this morning to repeat everything and I hope to see some improvement, otherwise I'm going to take her in and make sure there's no splinter or infection going on tomorrow. She's my baby, she's my girl and she's got to be sound.
Back home as it started to heat up for the day I pulled out the rocking chair I've been working on forever - with the stuck-on blue paint that has resisted me each time I've tried to finish this project. I found the dremel with the brass brush worked well, but it wears the brush down very quickly. The whole thing is still a work in progress and it was too hot for sanding. I also pulled out the black wicker loveseat and table / footstool we bought at our neighbor's yardsale last summer. JC had done some necessary structural repair on the loveseat and it was ready for color.
I glued down loose wicker around the legs and a couple of other places before I started painting,
and set up my painting shop on a tarp in the shade. It was hot. The paint dried very quickly.
I just dry-brushed the wicker down first, to remove any debris or flaking paint, and used this Rust-oleum Ultra Cover spray paint, in slate blue, from our local Ace Hardware store.
It covered quickly and smoothly. I think I could use one more can to finish both pieces, but I was very happy with how easily and evenly it sprayed on.
You can see on the right side I didn't cover it as thickly - that's where the one more can would come in - to sweep across the whole back and tie it in. I wanted to get that shot of half painted, half original so this is all on me. These two pieces and this amount of coverage was 2 cans. 3 cans would be perfect,
but the whole thing is lookin' pretty good. A vast improvement.
On a roll, I looked over at our cocktail corner and spied the other black wicker chair. I had one more can of Ultra-cover - this one in aubergine. It looked good on the can.
Same thing, some gluing first, a good sweeping second and then the painting.
Hmmmmm, still not sure about this color. I'm going to live with it for a few days but it stands out now as the only piece of color in our cocktail corner. Either I need to paint another piece and introduce some more color, or I need to tone this one down. And find a new cushion.
What do YOU think?
