Michael needed to be at CiCi's Pizza, where he works part-time, by 7:30 am so he could march with the CiCi's float in the parade...so Richard left at 7 to take him down, while I started the laundry.
John was coming over to weld on the horse stalls where Destroyer of Barriers (otherwise known as Bananaface, Boyo, the Yellow Peril, and Illusion) had broken the welded cattle panels away from the pipe framing. This meant we needed to get the horses fed, watered, and completely out of the barn well before he arrived, so we could remove large amounts of flammable material from where welding would be done.
Richard got back; I got the first load (pillows) out on the line and put the second load in, and then we moved the horses out of the barn, put water in the north barn lot (too hot to have them without water even for a few hours) and they hung around there looking miffed that their barn was forbidden them. We raked up the fallen hay, and decided to close the north barn door, so the very strong south wind couldn't blow anything aflame out into the horse lots and start a grass fire. This turned out to be a very wise move. I hung up the second load and put the third load in. Somewhere in the morning I washed dishes, but don't remember exactly when.
John got a later start than he'd planned, but by the time he arrived we had most of the hay-wisps out of the way and the stall mats moved out from under where Illusion tosses his pellets. Other than getting down on my knees and picking up one stray stalk at a time (which I didn't do) we'd done our best. Richard meanwhile had worked on the pond, trying to clear out iris roots in the Great Iris Reduction scheme and found a snake and a bunch of toads living under the pond liner in the middle pool. The snake fled deeper under the liner; the toads just crouched there. Bad jokes were made about the snake's 'toad farm.' (Snake was probably a young blotched water snake or possibly a checkered garter snake--Richard said the markings were not bright and the snake moved too fast to get details.)
John started working on the stalls, with Richard on hand to help in case of fire. (Yes, there were little fires. Several...ok, only three...) Enough sparks from a welder onto very dry wisps of hay on a very hot day with a strong wind blowing into the barn and yes, there will be fires. But given the wind direction, none could escape the barn, there was very little fuel, and the guys stomped them out.
I hung out the third wash just before going down to pick up Michael from Cici's and also food (not pizza--barbecue) for the workmen in the barn. Got back, fed them lunch, we went back out to the barn and found places the weld hadn't taken and John re-welded those bits. Then we helped John load up his truck, and came inside to clean up for Mrs. Berry's 90th birthday party at the First Baptist Church. I was ready to go to sleep, but it was not to be...so we showered, dressed up, and all three of us went over to the church and stayed about half an hour. Very nice small party--I hope more people showed up later. She's lived down the street from us since we moved here 30 years ago and had a beauty shop in her house.
Then we came back and I took a little nap, waking up with foot cramps and a headache and the uneasy feeling in the midsection that could be either headache or "Why did you eat that cake?" Brougnt in the third wash, hoping it was late enough that the clothesline ants wouldn't be on the sheets (they were. These are harmless ants that don't bite, but they do tickle.) Richard meanwhile went out and checked both the wildlife waterers, seeing a small doe on the way over to Owl and a small buck on the way back, and gave the horses their evening feed.
Did a little routine writer-business work as well, answering emails and setting up a boatload of stuff to email to two different editors Sunday afternoon. Not nearly enough got done, though. Days would be too short even if I had the energy of 30 years ago, and I don't. The copyedited ms. of the new book is supposed to land here on Tuesday.