Michael cleaning a bridle

 Ranch Camp ended a week ago last Sunday, and the Ranch went from high speed to August speed, which is considerably calmer.

True, we had the National Down Syndrome Congress annual convention to go to, but that only involved about half of us, and this week we've geared way down.

Except for poinsettia planting, which starts tomorrow!  Several thousand of the little wonders need to go into their pots, get watered down, and tucked away to grow and become big, gorgeous, velvety Christmas plants.

Right after the NDSC convention, Marci and sister Lori hopped on a plane for the Virgin Islands for a few weeks kicking back and recovering from Ranch Camp.  This created holes in staffing so I volunteered to take the barn team for a few weeks.

Travis works cleaning Sally's cart

It's been fun!  We cleaned Sally's cart on Monday, and Tuesday undertook cleaning all the leather tack in the tack room.

Alan concentrates on a dirty spot

Hoo boy…we have a lot of leather tack in the tack room.  We're working in the Learning Center to avoid the 100+ temperatures, and the team is diligent in its work.  We're memorizing names of the many different pieces and trying to keep them grouped so we can put the puzzles back together.

Rebekah's hard work shows!

Today we learned “brightwork,” which are the brass, silver and copper decorations on some of the bridles.  Who even knew they were there?!  After an hour's work they shine like a star.

Tomorrow we will take a break and work on poinsettia planting, then back to the leatherworks on Monday.

“I miss the barn,” Travis said.  “And. this is really hard!”

‘Tis, for sure.