A Nice Fall Day

My friend and I were picking up apples for her pigs in my poor, neglected orchard, and we serendipitously stumbled on a plum tree I didn't know I had.  Well, I knew it had had a few plums when we moved in, and I checked it every year for a while, and it had none, so I gave up.  This year it looks like we have a bumper crop.  I am going to make jelly.

I've already made blackberry jelly, which was supposed to be syrup, but it set up a bit too well.  And I made Mountain Ash berry jelly, which is disgusting.  Ever since I heard you could make jelly out of mountain ash, I've wanted to.  There's something magical about free food gathered in the forest, and these berries are loaded with vitamin C.  Now that I have tried it, I won't do it again.  Even with half the recipe made up of sweet crab apples, it is just plain bad.  I might try it after 6 months or so to see if it mellows.  It does have one thing going for it - it's very pretty.

I don't have a picture of the jelly, but the berries are very pretty too.

This evening I finally got Dakota out on a trail ride, with my sister and her Lakhota. 

I had so much trouble getting her into the trailer that I would have bagged it if my sister wasn't already waiting for me.  So once Dakota was in, off we went.  I led her a ways to see how she'd do, then mounted up and rode a bit.  She's not spooky, she's very responsive, but she's pretty emotional & herdbound, and got pretty antsy on the way back.  I think once we know each other better it will go better.  A longer ride would probably be beneficial.  Trailer loading practice has got to happen more often.  She's very afraid (butt rope and possible abuse in the past).  We'll get through it.  Oh, and she already threw both of her shoes somewhere in the pasture.  She did fine barefoot tonight, but we were careful to stay on soft ground.  My sister's spotted pony has soft feet too. 

Hasta. I am off to ride a different horse this morning, in search of some half wild horses in the trees. I know I said I'm not looking for a horse anymore, but it turns out I lied.