3 December 2021

Christmas Parade ’21

We had so much fun at a local Christmas lights parade last night. It was even more exciting to see a handful of horses in the parade. And one dog the size of a horse.
It’s always impressive to see horses taking this sort of thing well. The big draft horses walked along as quiet and well behaved as could be. Not at all worried by the lights and noise. We talked to the person with the mini after the parade she said the very well behaved little horse was about worn out by the time they walked all five blocks. That’s one way to get them to behave
The dog on the other hand we saw walking home afterwards quite a ways away. He must not have been as worn out by his load.
Maybe next year we’ll haul horses in to our local parade. Not this one. Too far to go at night down a road constantly crossed by deer and elk. We made it home without hitting any but passed one crumpled car who hadn’t been so lucky and deer grazing happily along the road who were kind enough to stay where they were instead of jumping out in front of us.
Would ours do as well as these did? It seems unlikely but it would be fun to try!
The weather for this one was much warmer than usual. We all wore coats but were perfectly comfortable with them unbuttoned. Lots of people gave out hot chocolate. It was good even in the warm weather. On the way home we drove around looking at Christmas lights while we waited to pick up pizza for the kids book-it tickets.
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1 December 2021

Christmas Pictures

At first I thought we’d do a manger scene for Christmas pictures. A somewhat horsey one. Rusty would make a wonderful angle in his wings. I could make the children play with me for Mary and Joseph.
Then things went a bit awry and we headed off the opposite direction and ended up with a Christmas snow fairy instead 🤦🏼‍♀️
And Santa on his tractor of course.
Now all we need is some snow. Why is it so hard to get a girl to put on a dress and take pictures with a horse? It seems like it would be a fun thing. At least Santa was enthusiastic. Oh well. We tried.
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29 November 2021

Trunk or Treat ’21

We hit Chadron on Friday. The annual Trunk or Treat was great, as always. We went with friends, all of us loaded in two cars together. We got the rowdy bunch and my poor beleaguered husband was happy to drop us off and run for the peace of Walmart. The rest of us enjoyed the last of the warm beautiful fall days.

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4 November 2021

This kid.
This mare.
I had thought she was going to be my daughters horse. They’ve all proved me wrong. My son enjoys her zippy quick moving ways. We all enjoy her quiet, dependable, completely trustworthy ways. She’s a saint.
Not vaulting but still gymnastics on horse back.
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1 November 2021

Halloween ’21

October has been so full of festivities that by the time Halloween proper rolled around I was exhausted. The kids weren’t and that is the important thing.

It was cold all day. We worked inside on shelling beans, freezing brussel sprouts and fitting in one last little bit of Halloween WOW and LOTRO. When evening rolled around we bundled up nice and warm then headed out into the chill.

That wasn’t actually all that chilly. I had forced layers of long underwear, coats, and gloves onto the children. They quickly discarded them. The weather was actually just about perfect. It’s supposed to be cold on Halloween. Even with the hint of mist in the air we all stayed warm walking as fast as we could, anxious to get to the next house and the next treat. We had planned on doing one street. They finished that in record time and we decided to go down the next one, then the next, and the next. They canvased most of the town and we were still home well ahead of bed time!

The littlest of the children had a hard time keeping up with the big ones. One of them crashed a few times right on his head in his rush to keep up and enjoy the fun. Luckily his trusty hat saved his face. He wore out quickly and retired to the car with his father who was as easily tired of trick or treating as my darling husband. The men followed in the vehicles, as the women ran behind the children loosely herding them along. No serious injuries were received, no children ran over by cars, we even made it home without hitting any deer!

Halloween was a success.

There’s nothing like a small town Halloween. There are houses where all the children are ushered inside. We stand on the street waiting without worry. All the children we meet we well known to each other. Even if not recognized under the costumes. They join together in bands then separate coming and going through the night. Home made treats are handed out without us worrying about who made them or what could be inside. Supper is traditionally held at the church, a combination of irony and beauty.

 

 

 

 

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28 October 2021

Fall Program ’21

The first grade class dressed up as crayons. The second and third grade classes were all cookies.

 

 

 

 

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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 😉
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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.

 

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11 October 2021

Corn Harvest ’21

Although interrupted by a very nice rain in the middle of the first try and a fairly major combine break after the rain stopped and things dried out, corn harvest went very nicely. The corn stalks still had some green to them because there still hadn’t been a good freeze.

 

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