An....interesting... first week.

This week was the start of our official season with the horses here. Guests arrived fairly uneventfully on Sunday. We (or more specifically, I) sweep, wash, and wax all of the floors in the lodge and in the four rooms above the lodge on Sunday mornings. My back was starting to bother me a bit as I was working on them, but I figured the pain would go away once I stopped. Come lunch time, by the time I had finished, my back was really bothering me. I was dreading having to mop one last cabin after lunchtime. I was just gathering my stuff up to head over to that cabin to finish the floors, and low and behold, the guests staying in that cabin had arrived an hour early! I wasn't sure what to do with that cabin in that situation, so I started running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to find Phyllis to figure it out. Well, I couldn't find her, and so I ended up sprinting to that cabin ahead of them and trying to finish it up quickly even though the floor had only been swept. I dashed out just in the nick of time, and ran into Phyllis on the path back. By that time, my back was absolutely killing me and I had a mini-meltdown because it hurt so badly. So Phyllis and Jodey got me set up with an ice pack and some ibuprofen and sent me home for the rest of the afternoon. Not a great way to start the first week I suppose....

Monday didn't turn out to get better. My back was feeling relatively better (it's Thursday now and it's kind of back to hurting a bit more again), and the morning went fine, but the afternoon went a bit downhill. Laura, one of the wranglers, was leading a horse through a gate when a part of the saddle got hung up on the latch. In the tussle, Laura's hand got jammed somewhere and hurt her hand pretty badly. So off she went to the hosptial, chauffered by Ron. She ended up having broke her left index finger and needed stitches for a deep cut she had recieved. So that was a bit chaotic, and I ended up helping down at the corral for a bit so we could get the ride out down a person. That same day, Nancy, the cook, also cut her hand rather badly on a bad can opener. Not a grand day for injuries, or hands in particular. Very stressful day for everyone, but Tuesday would be better, right?

Tuesday morning started out just fine, thank goodness. The afternoon ride that day was to Bray's Cabin. I had some time off in the afternoon, so I was thinking of going. Laura was going along with Arlene as the wranglers for the ride, but Laura started feeling really poorly about a 1/4 of a mile in and turned back. So I got to play wrangler for the ride and was a bit stressed once again, worrying about Laura. We came back from the ride to find out that Nancy had been taken to the hospital. She suffers from Crohn's Disease (sp?) and was not doing well. So I hurridly helped to finish up unsaddling horses and ran up to the kitchen to take over some of Nancy's normal duties for preparing food for the cookouts we have on Tuesday nights. I warned the guests in advance that the presentation of food was certainly not up to par - but I tried. Things didn't run nearly as smoothly as they often do, but we were able to manage through the cookout just fine.

And of course, Tuesday night, just for a bit of last minute fun, the power went out! Jodey and I just looked at each other and started laughing at that point. Figures, doesn't it? Luckily the outage only lasted about 5 hours, and the guests didn't seem to mind playing games by candlelight and fireplace in the lodge.

The good news is, Wednesday and Thursday have been rather uneventful. As I mentioned, my back is still bothering me a bit, moreso today than it has been, but I'm thankful to have a more laid back day. Poor Phyllis, one of the owners, had been out of town (a rare occurrence) on Monday and Tuesday. I fear she'll never leave again for fear of what else could happen!

On another bright note, the guests here this week are quite nice overall. One woman here by herself is from London. I was chatting with her about my upcoming time in Ireland, and visiting London. She graciously has offered me a place to stay anytime I come to visit there. Emily - if you read this - that means we will likely have a place to stay in England now!

Anyway, I think that's the main news recently. I thought this week would go by quickly, but honestly it's been one of the longest of my life! We're hoping that since so much crazy stuff happened this week, the rest of the summer will be incident-free.

Until next time.....

Hannah