28 October
2021
25 October
2021
Halloween Costumes
17 October
2021
Selling Books
This is so exciting to me.
Being in the top 100 horse care books on Amazon since Understanding Horse Whorls was released is pretty great. I looked to see my book there, because how cool is that? I know it’s not number one or anything, I would never dream of reaching that status. Top one hundred is awesome enough for me.
The thing that made this even more exciting is seeing Nashon Cook’s book Being With Horses just ahead of me! He is an amazing trainer. I’ve been watching the release of his book thinking how great it was. How he was going to sell so many copies and I wished I could be like him.
Now here we are. Right next to each other. How cool is that. I feel almost famous.
Of course there’s a unicorn coloring book way ahead of us both but hey, who wouldn’t want to color unicorns. I’m not threatened 😉
15 October
2021
Halloween Party
It was cold and windy for our Halloween party this year. That was alright, we hid in the playhouse. It kept us warm and out of the wind and gave a perfect place to carve and paint pumpkins.
The adults stayed inside at least. The children took turns between painting and carving and running out to climb on the hay bales.
As evening drew near and the sun began to set we moves out to the fire pit. There we roasted marshmallows and hot dogs. Huddled around the fire we stayed warm but managed to avoid falling in.
11 October
2021
Corn Harvest ’21
7 October
2021
It’s Official! Again
The book, my book, Understanding Horse Whorls is available. Again.
It was released some time ago. In the spring maybe? As an ebook. That went very well. Sold copies all over the world. Lots of people asked for a print version though. And there were lots more things I was still learning that I wanted to add. So, I started adding, and I started reformatting, all the things it took to get it to print form. Then there was more editing, fiddling with the cover, all the stuff. It took a long time. We were also busy with the other summer stuff and my normal work I needed to do so there wasn’t a lot of time to work on it. Thankfully the kids went back to school 😉
After a going through a few proof copies with all the waiting to be delivered that that calls for I think I’ve fiddled with it enough. All that I’m going to at lest. Until people start pointing out the errors that we all have missed. Then there will be some more fiddling.
7 October
2021
October
26 September
2021
Pumpkins
It’s been a pumpkiny sort of weekend.
Yesterday my husband called from the semi as he was hauling hay and wanted to know if I knew there were pumpkins growing in pen 4?! I did not know that. No idea what so ever.
We dump the pumpkins out there for the cows to eat when we clean up around the house in November. The horses refuse to touch them but cows seem to like them. We will often have volunteers growing out there. This year it was so dry and there were cows in there all summer. I didn’t think anything would grow!
These were in just the right spot that the end gun on the pivot kept them watered enough to grow.
The cows had been eating on them. The vines were in rough shape and all of the pumpkins have bites out of them 
Then we picked some pumpkins and took them over to the neighbors fall festival. They thought it would be nice to have some unusual pumpkin varieties available to people.
My son had said, a week or so ago, after I had talked to them about us bringing pumpkins over, that we should take some somewhere and sell them. I told him that was a great idea. How about we do that! So he was sure the whole thing was his idea and was ready to sell.
He did a great job selling, mostly because he’s so dang cute. His sister didn’t sell any. They both grew tired of it and ran around taking advantage of all the other amusements available to the small children.
Then they spent the money they made on cotton candy and cake pops.
8 September
2021
A Terrible, Awful, Kind Of Good Day
Have you ever had a terrible, awful, no good, really bad day?
I do believe that title is taken, but it was how my morning felt.
My wonderful husband got up and got breakfast for everyone, like he always does. I took a long, joyous sip of my coffee. Only to discover something in my mouth. Looking around for somewhere to spit it out, I finally decided on the table. It made a large mess, but I was relieved to find it was a moth that had decided to make my coffee its final resting place and not a fly. My toast was soggy, my coffee no longer appealing. I comforted myself with the reminder that I’d be going through town later and could get a yummy fancy coffee there.
I set about getting my chores done so I could get going and get that coffee. One thing after another caught me though. I ended up helping clean out a bulk truck and finishing laundry. I switched vehicles a couple of times ending up in the pickup and trailer with a four wheeler loaded instead of my pickup, the original reason for going to town. I need gas. Oh well. By now I was committed to town for reasons other than the original.
By the time I got to town it was nearly eleven. I walked up to the door of the coffee shop, only to come nose to nose with a closed sign. The lady was inside, but no, she was not willing to get me coffee. I consoled my self with tea from the grocery store. And a bit of chocolate. It was nearly lunch time by the time I got to the pasture to do the cow checking I had set out to do to start with.
With my chocolate for lunch and bottle of tea to take the place of the water jug I had left the house without 🙁 I got to the pasture. The cows were mostly in the new pasture I had gone to the trouble of bringing the fourwheeler to move them to. What a wonderful day. A couple of heifers and a bull were still in the old pasture, Daisy and I got them moved.
Most of them.
The bull said no. I had been told to leave the gates open between new and old pasture. The bull could stay where he was. We left him behind.
After moving the heifers and getting back to the pickup I got to thinking about that bull. He would do nothing but cause trouble. That’s what bulls do. They jump over fences, tear up fences. wander the country looking for more fences to destroy.
What if I brought him home?
I have a friend who is my hero. She regularly loads the yearlings she watches in the trailer and brings them home to doctor. All by herself. No chasing, no roping, no dragging. Just a girl out there do the job in the best way possible. I want to be like her.
Would I be able to walk a bull into the trailer though?
She brings along panels and spends time out working with her yearlings.
I had myself, a fourwheeler, the trailer, a barbwire fence, and my trusty Daisy.
It seemed unlikely. What was the worst that could happen? No one was there to see me fail. I do all the fence fixing anyway. I would have a little more to do if he went through the fence.
I pulled the trailer alongside a corner brace, unloaded my mount and we gave it a try.
It didn’t look promising to start with. The bull walked into the windmill pond and said no.
My mount couldn’t swim. Daisy ran up to him barking. He said no. She looked back at me and shrugged her shoulders, I swear she did, and said sorry.
I sat a moment thinking how sad it was to have failed so quickly. Then I grabbed a piece of wood that was laying nearby and threw it at the bull. It actually hit him! He was so offended. He looked around at me, feelings hurt, then walked slowly out of the water.
Wow, weird, but not going to question what works.
Daisy hopped on behind me, Speeding around the water hole we rushed to keep him out of it. Wet muddy Daisy laid against me soaking us both The bull walked quietly towards the trailer.
With only the trailer door for wing fence, there wasn’t much to hold him. I pulled along side, he stopped and started to back up. I jumped off and got behind him.
He stood perfectly still, looking around, judging his options. Then he walked right into the trailer! It worked! I was, almost, as cool as my friend. Only because the bull was calm and easy going. Just exactly the way bulls should be.
My terrible, awful, no good day was looking a little brighter.
20 August
2021