July 1

Hard work today, unloaded everything on a fully packed truck and moved massive piles of wood around.
During this process, we found two scorpions. First ones I've ever seen in real life... they are scary, but still an incredible marvel of evolution. Mike had to kill them because we can't have scorpions around Chulito the dog.

Yesterday, Phil and Beth managed to get a halter onto Carmelita. She is a big and ornery horse... apparently it took them twelve attempts to get it on her. They both held lead ropes on her so that she couldn't overpower either one of them. Once they had her out of the stall, they called me over with the riding crop, and I walked (a good distance) behind her. She balked at the gate, so I swatted her, and that got her moving. She balked twice more, but I didn't have to actually hit her again; I just swatted the air next to her, and she moved. However, this event did earn me the nickname "Spanky". The whole event has been christened "The Great Horse Move by Spanky and Her Gang". :D

My five little herb plants are doing well. The Valerian is my most prized, and when I got it home, two of the stems had sort of folded. :(
I tried to prop them up at first, but then called it a lost cause and snipped them off. Now that it's not wasting that energy, it's putting up a beautiful new stem! :D
Still studying my plants like mad. Coming up with great mnemonic devices for them. I can't wait to get back to campus so I can actually go look around for this stuff!
I suppose that's it for now. Still looking into public transport back home- Amtrak has a pretty good route, but it's an $82 and 13 hour trip. I'd still take it though, that could be an adventure. And I wouldn't have to take all my stuff with me, because I'll be going back up later.
<3