Today was the best day so far this year at our farm. Well, work was crappy and the house was a mess, but I mean the kind of day that just makes you count your blessings.

It must have been 75 today, unseasonably warm. The breeze was warm, and even after dark it was balmy. I went out to bring everybody inside and give them hay and a smooch goodnight. I stood out there in the yard for what seemed like forever, just smelling the night smells-- the smell of earth, horses, grass, an awakening nature. It was magical! The frogs in the creek were croaking away, in their vibrato chorus, hearlding the end of winter.

Everywhere I've lived, I've found peace. I have stood outside and stared at each venue's version of the night sky, smelled the smells, and considered myself lucky. But in each place, if you listened hard enough you could hear the things you blocked out when you heard "nothing." Passing cars, honking buses, trains in the distance.

Not here. You hear nothing but the frogs and the wind. I could hear a horse stepping on a stick hundreds of yards away. In the distance I could hear coyotes. There is no white noise to block out, nothing to pretend you don't hear.

I am so very, very lucky.


Friday, Kitten will be leaving our farm. She is going to be leased to a little girl who will dote on her. We will be hosting Don Pecos, another Morgan, whom we know and love.

Don Pecos is a therapy horse. I had the amazing honor of helping a boy named Cody ride Pecos. Cody has what I suspect to be significant autism. He could not talk, but he did make efforts at communication.

That horse and little boy made the most amazing team. Cody would mumble his mumblings and somehow Pecos would understand. At the end of my time with him, we made signs, "walk", "jog", "stop." Cody would have to find his words to tell Pecos to stop, walk or jog as appropriate. Sort of like road signs.

And he did it! He was amazing. And even though nobody else could understand Cody without having to pay extremely close attention, Pecos focused all of his attention on Cody and understood every word. When Cody said jog, Pecos jogged. When he said walk, Pecos walked. Sometimes I wonder if horses somehow can read your mind.

I wouldn't be surprised.

We're looking forward to having Pecos here. I'll take pictures, of course.

Moving Out.

Sergeant O’Leary is walking the beat
At night he becomes a bartender.
He works at Mr. Cacciatore’s
Down on Sullivan Street
Across from the medical center.
He’s saving up his pennies for a Cadillac.
And if you can’t drive with a broken back
At least you can polish the fenders.
If that’s what you have in mind
If that’s what it’s all about
Good luck moving up
Cause I’m moving out.

That’s what we did, we moved out to our farm.

Want to hear what we moved out to? Click here.

Happy Easter.

Reflection

Resurrection.

That's the theme for today. It hit me in the face when I went out to feed the horses this morning. My hyacinths are poking through the ground. The birds were in full chorus this morning, singing to the point of chaos! You can smell the earth, it makes you want to breathe as deeply as you can and drink it all in.

Our temperature was over 60 today, so it is beautiful. We worked hard yesterday and finished the paddock, so today we spent the day doing what we wanted. I planted a few perennials around the paddock to get rid of the shaggy look of the place. I also planted berry bushes in the back - raspberry, blueberry & blackberry bushes.

I rode for a long time. Major was exhausted when we were done, and my legs were like jello! It was a great feeling, and I can't wait to do it again. Tomorrow it is supposed to be in the mid 70's. I'm supposed to have a meeting tomorrow after 5pm, but maybe I can move it. It will be a great day for a ride tomorrow as well!

I can't wait until my busy time is over. I am looking forward to so much more time in the saddle.

We'll we're about to sit down to a nice Easter dinner of ham, potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls, and pumpkin & cherry pie!

I hope your Easter is a blessed one.

Sorry. : (

I am still here. Thanks, Michael, for prodding me to poke my head in and say hello.

Work is keeping me very busy. I have not ridden (or written) as much as I have wanted to. I bring work home every day, and many days I am working right up until bedtime, which is 10:30-12:00, depending. I am preparing for two meetings. One is in New York and has been difficult. It's a difficult venue and a difficult client. The second meeting is for my new client, as a result of my promotion. That meeting is in Iowa, and easy, but I am trying to dot every i and cross every t, as I want to make an excellent first impression. I am also studying for a test for a certification for my line of work. It is very difficult, and I began studying at the beginning of the year for a test I plan to take in December.

I will be back in my down time mid April, so I expect to be back to blogging more than weekly. I hope you all stick around, because I have a lot to say. : ) I always have a lot to say, this time of year I just don't have a lot of time to say it!

I don't want to talk about work here. The blog isn't about my work, it's about my farm and my adjustment to living in the country. But work is the reason that I have not shared my insight lately, and I felt like I owed you an explanation. I can see who comes in and visits, so I know that you continue to be faithful visitors, even if I am not a faithful blogger.

So, please bear with me. I promise to be back in full cheek, insolence and impudence very soon!! I promise to provide tales of snakes, ticks and ladybugs! I promise hours of entertainment and intrigue on life in the country!

Oh, and I'm working on a bit of a surprise for you...

(Come on MK, let's do this!!)

A quick update before I go back to work (yes, I am blogging on work time, but I figure it's fair because I often work on blogging time). Things at the farm are greening up quite nicely! We finished the fence in the paddock, and Major is enjoying investigating his new surroundings. The girls often come up and taunt him, they turn around, shake their booties to get his interest, and then kick at him. Poor guy... He is finding a lot of tender new grass in there to nibble on, and he's been happily rolling in the dirt the second you turn him out.

It rained yesterday and today, I bet it will really be green tomorrow. Not only that, but it's supposed to be over 70 degrees early next week, and one day of warm weather and it will be instant spring.

I don't have any bulbs at my house. At my old house I had some tulips, daffodils, crocus and hyacinths. They really heralded spring in a big way. I often brought a bouquet into my office to cheer myself up! I will have to plant some in the fall, I really miss them.

We planted seeds a couple of weeks ago. In Wisconsin we used to benchmark the corn as being knee-high by the 4th of July. My corn sprouts are going to be knee-high by next week, since I stupidly started them inside. I rationalized that maybe they would be sturdier and resist the rabbits (wrong) when they were put out. B reminded me that the taller ones are especially appealing to deer. : ) But you know, it is cheap entertainment. If I lose them all because I planted them too early, at least I had a few weeks of anticipation of spring as I watched and waited for them to sprout. The beans, peas, cucumbers and sunflowers are all about as high as the corn. The columbines and lavender have yet to sprout. I have not yet started the tomatoes.

I hope you are feeling some spring in your neck of the woods.

Have a peaceful and blessed weekend.

I've missed blogging!

Have you missed my postings?

I hate to use the cliche excuse of work, but that is the truth. In my wish to remain somewhat "generic" I haven't revealed anything about my career. Without going into too much detail, suffice it to say that my busy times are very, very busy. I have put in some 12-15 hour days lately. Sometimes I stay at work, and sometimes I bring my work home. Sadly (or not!) when I get home, the last thing I want to do is work at my job. I would rather work in the barn or outside, or even clean my house, than do "work-work" (as I call it).

I have also not felt well. I think I had a sinus infection. I am now just about over it, and looking at all of the things that I have neglected in favor of going to bed early and resting in the afternoons.

But enough of that.

Spring is nearly here. When I left for work this morning, it was a balmy 41 degrees. It rained some this afternoon, and when I got home, it was greener. I can SEE the difference between this morning and this afternoon. It's amazing.

The horses are spending much more time grazing than with their head stuck in the bale of hay. The grass is under the dead, winter-beaten vegetation, but it is there. The horses move their top lip back and forth against the ground to push the dead grass out of the way and find the tender new growth. It's funny to watch them. I think they are anxious for spring, too. I know that the summer heat can be hard on them, but I caught Major dozing in the warm breeze in his stall the other day. I know he was wishing for spring as much as I am.

We worked hard on the paddock last weekend. We will need to finish it up this weekend, but we made a lot of progress. We tore down all of the old, and B has dug about half of the 7 holes for the new posts. I removed the cattle panel from the old posts and hauled away the rotten ones (I will use them for landscaping). I even bought plants to plant where the sections of the pasture used to be. They will benefit nicely from the nearby spigot I use to fill the horses' buckets.

I hope springtime is coming to your house. Or at least to your heart.



Believe me now?

What a Weekend!

It was a gorgeous weekend. Unfortunately, I worked hard on Saturday, "saving" my Sunday for a ride. It was forecast to be 70 degrees! It was warm and wonderful, but turned out to be incredibly windy, preventing me from riding. Now it's going to get down into the 30's again (which is still very bearable...), and I'll have to wait for another great day to ride. It's rare that they fall on a weekend.

However, we did get a lot done. We are going to make some wire partitions for the stalls, just to keep everyone in line. Cleo chews the cross tie next to her stall, and sometimes chews the wood. Everyone else has partitions in their barn. : ) We started that process, and got quite far, but didn't finish. We figured we could save that for a colder day, since it was an inside project.

We cleaned up the paddock. When the previous owners had a new septic tank put in, they tore up the fence and left piles of dirt and debris in the paddock. It soon became overgrown with weeds. We stomped them all down, and cleaned up the junk. It won't take much to fix the fence, and then all three horses can go out at once-- Major can go in the paddock. Hopefully the next nice weekend will be spent fixing that. The paddock looked like some sort of prairie set aside! We were shameful farmers... Now it will look more lived in and well-kept.

We did have a visitor yesterday. He slipped quietly in the back door, and remained unnoticed until my kids came running to tell me of his presence. He was on his way downstairs to the basement, probably inviting himself to dinner when they spotted him. We figured he wouldn't find much to eat down there, so we invited him to dine in the machine shed.

We never did catch his name...


(this picture isn't actually him, it's a distant relative, I think!)

It was positively balmy last night. The wind had died down, and it was a warm wind. It smelled so good, like earth and life. I could have soaked it in for hours.

I went to bed bone tired (and woke up the same!).

Hope your weekend was as good...


OH! I emailed Michael some interview questions. Stop by and see his answers! All of the rest of you must be scared to answer my questions!! Chickens!

The "Interview Me" Game

My friend Michael invited his visitors to play this game. One of his regular blog visitors asked him five questions, and he responded on his blog. I volunteered to play, and he has asked me five questions. Five people can respond to me, and I will ask them five questions, for them to answer on their blog.

Now, it seems that Michael, while he fancies himself a lurker, has been one of just a few of you to post comments. You think I don't know who you are, but that's not true. I know the vast majority of the 871 of you who have surfed into my website! So come out of the woodwork, and let me ask you some questions! Post a reply and I will make up some questions for you to answer!

Here are Michael's questions and my answers. And be warned, the questions are basic, straightforward questions, but I can NEVER give a basic, straightforward answer!!

1. What was the name of your favorite pet growing up?
This is an interesting question, one with a complicated answer (see, I told you!!). I have never had a deeper love for a pet than I have for my dog Raven. She has been my companion for 7 years now, and I have never known a more loyal four-legged soul.

There have been other pets that I have loved, for different reasons.
Growing up we had a dog named King. He was a mutt, some sort of collie mix, that came to our door one day. He was so loyal. We fed him and he stuck like glue. We weren't supposed to have dogs in the rental house we lived in, and we gave him to a family member who lived about 20 miles away. About a week later, he showed up at our door! He had run the entire way home! I had a cat named Daisy at that time. Daisy got hit by a car, poor soul, right after she had kittens. King loved her kittens like they were his babies. He snuggled and loved on them. King's obsession was fetching. That dog would border on annoying because he would ALWAYS want to fetch. You would be sitting there, and he would drop something (sticks, balls, even ROCKS, if he were desperate!) at your feet. If you ignored him, he would jump on it, like he was trying to get you to notice. He'd pick up the object and put it on your feet, just in case you weren't sure what he wanted. : ) We moved to our own house a few years later, and we lived on another busy highway. King, true to his nature, fetched a stick that a nasty neighbor boy threw in the highway. A semi truck was coming and couldn't stop in time for King. My heart is still broken because of what that boy did.

I have had many, many pets over the years. Cats include: Daisy, Meadows (with 7 toes!), Sniffles, Puddy, Milton, Pooky, Val and of course my current kitties: Shadow, Nic, Bub, B.B., Mark & Tippy. My dogs have been: Button, King, Abby, Woeful (he and Abby were Basset Hounds), Bozo (she liked Gin), and my current pups Raven & Rocky.

I had a guinea pig named Wilbur, and a couple of hamsters over the years.

I always wanted horses, but still don't have any of my own. I take care of my friend's horses, Major, Kitten & Cleo. We have also cared for Cosmo & Fruity here.


2. What kind of music moves you the most?
I am a fickle person. What makes me happy one day will not do it for me the next. Someone once remarked that our music collection was very vast and unusual. We have everything from Van Morrison to Madonna to Nirvana to Tchaikovsky, and a whole lot more non-mainstream musicians. I love 80's music, if I am in a silly, fickle mood. If I am needing motivation, I like Indian music. For some reason that gets the lead out. I am a definite child of the 80's, so some of the songs from that genre make me nostalgic. My parents were borderline hippies, so I grew up on the Rolling Stones and the Doors. (Mom and Dad, you guys have great taste!) At the moment I am listening to Brimful of Asha by Cornershop. Everybody needs a bosom for a pillow!


3. OK admit it, now that you got me hooked. How were you first attracted to the Corn Cam?
The answer is a boring one, sadly. I was perusing Iowa Farmer Today, and saw the corn cam. : )


4. Tell us about a happy moment.
I have lots of them. One just happened a few minutes ago- my son heard me playing Brimful of Asha, and he came down and asked me to turn it up. Then we danced together. : )

My life doesn't have a lot of powerful "turning point" moments. Of course, I will never forget the day I met my husband, the day he proposed, the day we married, the moments my children were born, etc. But anyone can get married. It takes years and years of small, meaningful moments to build the amazing partnership we have. Same with children. Your childhood is built on a framework of small moments stacked up.

I like moments that I am reminded. I have written about moments that I am reminded how God is in charge, looking at the stars, seeing a sunrise. I love riding, because it focuses me on the task at hand, not the bills, or work, or the laundry. I like spending time in the barn because it reminds me that sometimes the poop is most important. : )


5. What is the biggest snowstorm that you have seen?
Growing up in Wisconsin, I have seen a lot of snow. I can't really remember storms in terms of inches, but growing up I remember snow so high that we couldn't open the door!

My favorite kind of snow is the soft, big flakes. The ones that you can hear when they land on the snowy blanket.

Bliss

Well, I got my new girth today, and it fits!! The 48" would have fit better, but the 46" did the trick. All the parts are all stiff and new also, so after things are broken in a bit, it will be easier.

Riding in that saddle is amazing!! I always have to consciously lower my center of gravity when I ride, often I start my ride feeling like I am sitting on top of the horse, and I know I have reached the ideal point when I feel like I am one with him. I feel like I have shrunk a few inches, like I am actually shorter. Well, riding in the Stubben it was instantly comfortable. Like putting on your favorite pair of shoes or sweats. It fit well, and at first I thought my stirrups were too long. But in actuality, it was juuuuust right. : ) All that time riding in a saddle that didn't fit makes me appreciate how good a nice, well-fitting saddle feels. My center of gravity lowered instantly.

I didn't ride very long. I had a meeting after work, and I came home and a kitty invited me to pet him on the bed. The next thing I knew, B was home and waking me up. He saw that the girth had come and wanted to know why my butt wasn't in the saddle! He helped me groom Major and lunge him (to get the jitters out) and gave me a leg up.

After I was on, B had a million questions: "How did it feel? Does it feel better? Can you tell the difference?" So I told him to get on. I was proud of him, he has ridden only 2 times since I've known him (that will be 18 years this fall), and he got right on the stallion. And he didn't even need a leg up. : D

I told him to concentrate on plugging into the saddle and lowering his center of gravity, and he did really well. I led Major around, but that isn't what's important. He really did well on his awareness.

Oh, and he LOVED Tristan!

It's supposed to be 53 degrees tomorrow, and 55 on Sunday. Guess what I will be doing!!