Good, Good, Bad, Bad

A picture of my first strawberry of the season! I recently decided to move these out of my kitchen window and put them outside. I left them (6) in their pots and moved them into the flowerbed by the deck. This way they are a bit more protected from the cold during the night. We have still been having pretty good freezes. The average has been about 20 degrees at night. And then during the day it gets almost 70 degrees. The last few days we have not had much wind, which is really odd for here. Alas, the wind returned today.
As promised, Mac and I went to feed these two big boys. We took about 8 apples and a half a bag of baby carrots. We fed all of the apples to Mick and Ford (yes, the names are right, we checked). Then we went to find the other horses in another pen, and they had been moved. So we returned to M & F and fed them the rest of the stash. They were so gentle. Sometimes when one feeds livestock (cows or horses) the animal will nudge or butt with the head when they want more or are competing with another animal. That was not the case with these gentle giants. They took turns and were pleasant, polite, and showed their good manners- their mother would be proud! Let's see if I can get this right- Mick is the all black one (minus his stockings on the feet) and he is 10 years old. Ford is the one with the white blaze and he is 11 years old. I think they are brothers. FIL took them down to the livestock scale at our feedlot and wieghed them. They are both right at 1800 pounds! Two hundred more pounds (each) and that would be a ton! Until Sunday they only had one owner. FIL bought them at an auction in Sisters, OR for workhouses and antique horse stuff (not really sure what that is called). They are both very docile animals. They have competed in pulling contests and won hands down over hundreds of other teams. The max weight they have ever pulled is 11,000 pounds. I guess the standard is about 8,000 pounds- so these guys are awesome! They are not saddle broke (meaning they have never had a saddle on them before) but they will allow a bareback rider. So I think FIL is going to work on this. But it is a good idea to have the horse (any horse) a while before attempting any such feat- the rider and the animal should be familiar with one another. FIL and MIL want to get the wagon fixed up and have the horses pull it in the local parade with all the grandkids in the back (10 of them). The bigger ones could ride the other horses. We would put all of our logos on the wagon, horses, and of course wear our clothing advertising the different ranches and farms. We'll just have to see if this actually takes place now. Mac was getting all excited. So I hope she understands if it doesn't happen! Remember I said earlier that I felt like I got some stuff done because of the dishes and sweeping/mopping? I then did dinner too. Well, after water changing this is what I walked into the kitchen and saw! GRRR! This is the small pile in the middle of the kitchen floor.
And here is the rather large pile right at the doorway. See those boots in the pic? They are mine, and notice that they are clean? We have an outside faucet right outside of the door. I always hose mine off. Do you think DH and DD do the same? Heck no, that's asking too much. Especially this time of year when I get to do all of the cleaning! Don't get me wrong, DH will help in the winter when it is his off season, but now that he is working 15 hour days, he doesn't do many chores around the house. I can't imagine I would want to either- but still! GRRR!