Colt Update

Star left the area about midnight Monday night. As of today, he was in Kansas City, Kansas.

Still Going!

Well, the saga of the colt goes on! We took the colt to UPS only to discover it was too large to ship. So, it came back home to be repacked.

We measured, and calculated, and measured and calculated again. We checked freight rates and decided that was a last resort. We considered a quick trip to California over Thanksgiving, but didn't think we would make it back to work in time. Finally, we decided we could do it UPS, but there is not even a quarter inch to spare.

After taking the colt off his base, drilling holes to sink bolts in his feet into the bottom of the box and raising the one end of the box 3/4 inch over his ears, and cutting holes for the points of his ears, we finally got a box constructed. He is totally wrapped in bubblewrap and covered with a lauan box that is screwed together.

UPS says 165 dimensional inches. We have the box 39" L x 43" H x 20" W. That is exactly a total of 165 dimensional inches. We will try again on Monday. We hope this time it actually begins its journey!

The new box is significantly smaller than the original one. We spent an evening and all day Saturday repacking. We earned anything we get out of the deal. Clair was rather generous in arranging the deal, but it certainly hasn't been easy money.

Before we sell another horse on ebay, we will be wiser in stating shipping fees. I think it will be "buyer arranges for shipping" or "local pick up only."

The Colt is Going, Going, Gone!

More than a year ago Mary's brother-in-law had a colt that died several days after it was born. He had a full-body mount made of the colt. The colt made its rounds from living room, to feed mill, to basement.

Now, a year after he has it back from the taxidermist, he was ready to sell it and get it out of the way. A family with ten children needs all the room in the house without having a colt take up a few cubic feet. We listed it on ebay for him and it actually sold for more than he said he wanted out of it.


Saturday Mary took a big box and packing supplies to their house and packed the colt for shipping. The children said goodbye to the horse and then helped her pack him up. One of the little boys said, "I will never forget this horse!"

Now, the colt is packed and ready to be shipped. Monday it will begin its journey to California.

The Pursuit

Oh, the interesting things one sees along the road! Last week a local farmer was selling pumpkins. They attracted a lot of attention with their sign. Was it intentional? Did a child paint the sign? Or, was it a very dutchified adult who did it ignorantly?

Sometimes I need to restrain myself from correcting people's errors. In the last week we received two invitations that said, "YOUR INVITED." Now, I would like to know what an "invited" is. The possessive pronoun implies that I own one--whatever it is. Is it something I can carry with me or is it something that I will need my trailer to haul? Is it something that will last for years or is it perishable? Just what is an "invited?" This morning at church, the superintendent was having devotions and several times in 15 minutes used grammatical errors such as yous can . . . .

I failed. OK. Maybe I didn't have an opportunity to teach the farmer who is selling pumpkins jeap. And maybe I didn't have an opportunity to teach the one person who told me I have an invited. But the other one was from a former student who should know better. She passed all of my classes and, if I remember correctly, was on the honor roll at school. This is a person I would like to correct, but that may be the end of the existence of my "invited." The superintendent is also a former student. He is another person I would like to correct. But I certainly cannot go through life correcting all of my former students' writings and speech for incorrect grammar. I failed in teaching them to correct their own grammar. So, what can I do to change that in the future? I suppose that will be my pursuit until I retire.