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October 2000: Finished at the track for the summer. Back to the psych facility for the winter. Rich got a deer with his bow. November 2000: Winter is early snowy and cold. December 2000: Byron is skiing again. Rich got a deer with his muzzle loader. September 2000: Well I'm sorry I have been so slack keeping this news up to date. At the end of summer holidays Jason brought Byron back from his visit with them in Florida. Hope and Dean came along and they brought the two little motorbikes that Jay bought for the boys. Dean and Byron had fun riding in the woods. Hope and I went mushrooming and found a HUGE variety of mushrooms in so many colors. Can you believe we found purple ones and orange ones with dark green tops. Also yellow, red, orange, brown, white, snow white, beige, spotty, black etc etc etc. Of course we couldn't find someone to tell us which were edible and which were not so we had to toss the lot. Mom has gone back to South Africa for a holiday and her dogs are staying with me. Moms best friend took Muhzzy (a cat) and Tricksey, the miniature pony. We had to let Tricksey go to a new home because the colt is so big now and was accidentally hurting her when they played. I had a great season at Saratoga this year. I got to exercise Graeme Hall, Lodge Hill, Left Bank, Pico Tenerife, Texas Glitter, Airy Hill, Wild Over Ian, Light the Lamp, Gone Fishing, Harmony Lodge, Bushy Park, Paynes Bay, Heroic Sight, Speightstown (cost $2.3 million), Kingsland, Ekundu, Cardinal Verse, Invisible Ink and many others. Once I get my scanner working again I will PERHAPS put up some photos. Byron is back in regular school. He really wanted to go back. So far so good. Of course they are a LITTLE behind in math but I dare say that re-doing these basics will do him good. Four months later and Rich is doing well at his new job with the German company he joined. He has spent the last two weekends diving in the local lake with his cousin. Cold, boring and yuck!!! I have a gorgeous little garden at the moment. I brought home tons of flowers after the meet closed and made beds for them. I have to have a barbecue before it gets cold and the flowers die. I am still working at the psychiatric facility part time and substitute teaching part time. AND once again I am working on my novel. I am not in school this semester because I am having doubts about this direction. I didn't enjoy last semester so I am looking into alternatives. July 2000: Sarah and I went to see the New York City Ballet performance of Sleeping Beauty last Saturday. Words just can not describe how lovely it was. We also went to a concert of horrid music where the highlight was the rather cute, older, base player. Well the meet is almost upon us. We have moved barns for the duration thereof. Here is a picture of our regular barn. My brother, Jason, came to fetch Dean over 4th of July weekend. He took both Byron and Dean back to Florida with him. Here is a picture of the boys wrestling and one of them with the dogs in the kitchen. I have added a few photos to the names mentioned in the June news so I will leave it up for a week or so. I also have many new photos on my photo page so you can see pictures of our late snow storm in April, and many of the kids on, or with, the ponies etc. June 27: Here are a couple of current Saratoga photos courtesy of John Fort, owner of American Century. This one shows Cindy, and me, working American Century and Wild Over Ian. This one is of us warming up for that work. After this work AC ran second in his first race. Unfortunately he met with serious interference at the start of his race. WOI won his by ten. June 25: Ladybug has an abscess so we have had to do the soak and poultice thing every day. Gungi has decided to become friendly so he is being all sweet and manageable. He is 13.2hh now, and 11 months old. Yesterday I was boiling a can of sweetened condensed milk to make caramel. I forgot to top up the water in the pot and had a great big explosion. The can exploded with tremendous force and covered my kitchen floor, walls, ceiling, and appliances with dark sticky caramel. What a mess. It took hours to clean up the goo. I did however, find the reason why the phone wasn't working: the new puppy, Lucy, had chewed through the phone cord. One of my favorite rides at the track, 'Wild Over Ian', won his first race by ten lengths. I have a few favorites, Happy Arc and Red n Gold
topping the list. I also am very fond of 'Klondike Pete", I'm All Yours, and Crafty Lord. Oh yes! the puppy is a cocker/beagle cross. She is black and tan with curly hair on her ears. She is very sweet and quiet. 2000..... June 7: Happy Birthday Dad, for the 23rd. I don't like Clinical Psychology so I doubt I will suffer through another semester of it. I think I'll just wait until Byron goes to college and then go back to school. May 29: I am back at Saratoga, working for Todd Pletcher this season. It is great to be back with the racehorses. Saratoga is as beautiful as ever. Back to getting up at 4am and driving over an hour each way. I spend this time listening to the news and keeping up with world affairs. Byron is well. My brother Jeffrey is acting in a movie with Keifer Sutherland, shooting in Hawaii. Gungi, the foal, is big and naughty. He will be getting gelded soon. May 11: Happy birthday to my step-sister Kay. A lot has happened since I last updated. I have been sooooo busy with school and papers, presentations, etc. and work. As soon as the semester ended, I flew to Florida for a week, saw all my friends, and brought my nephew, Dean, back home for the summer. The cute little fellow had his first cuddle with a large pig, and some calves, and watched some cows being milked. He also got to ride our little pony, Tricksey. He also got his little fingers chomped by the foal (no damage). Byron is being a thoroughly horrid little boy. He is very jealous. I hope he settles down soon.(UPDATE: they are getting along better each day) Mar: Byron has had a horrid flu. School is going well. Mom is well. The animals are well. So now I have run out of news. Oh yes! I saw "The Whole Nine Yards" very funny. Happy First Birthday to my little neice, Luna. Feb: I have left the mountain to work in my new field of study. I will be working in a psychiatric facility. More news as I get it.