October, 2008

Kind of a Fall day today – overcast, some drizzle. Had to move some round bales out to the youngsters – ever notice how much ‘kids’ eat? Been trying to shoot some shots of Legend eating the middle out of the round bale – apparently that’s where the good eating is but as soon as we move them out there it seems like the bale’s gone or the horse radar picks up that a camera is around and they stop doing the cute stuff! Legend’s mom (Darlene) has been asking for shots of her not-so-little boy!

I’ve been doing some updating on the site – added a bunch more wedding photos. So between the main Raindance website and here there’s plenty if you’re wanting to see more of the train and crowd aboard. Going to start adding more of the trillions of shots from around the farm as well to honor that commitment to tell you more about the residents of Raindance. Hard to keep up, you know?

Wow, it just occurred to me – this is the day I left in 1989 for Basic Military Training, USAF. Wow, so long ago now. Wonder if I have any pix from those days? If I do maybe I’ll post them.

First I’d like to say that our hearts, thoughts and prayers go out to our good friends John and Genie and the folks at Hope for Horses who are going through the loss of Rowdy, our equine friend who had to be put down yesterday. We are so sorry folks and know that we’re with you in spirit.

Whew…I don’t know if it’s raining as hard there as it is here but today we decided to let Rain live up to her name and took her riding in this weather. For over three hours we rode through a bird sanctuary, probably half of those hours we were lost, wandering aimlessly, no hope of ever seeing civilization again back in the deep woods and fields where maniacal killers and forbidden military experiments gone awry waited around every wet, soggy curve and bog we hit. Well at least it seemed that way. Rain and Dance did well though everywhere we took them. And I can’t tell you how good a cheeseburger and coffee tasted when we made it back to civilization – and wow have things changed. The cars all look so modern now, and all this electricity – wow!

That reminds me, Eilene asked where Raindance’s name came from. You saw part of the answer in the previous paragraph. Rain is my first horse (I registered her as “A Dance in the Rain – which is also one of my domain addresses), and Dance (registered name: Last Dance) is Kat’s show horse as well as a lesson horse. The rest of the reason I named it Raindance was the first month we lived here I noticed that living on top of this hill whenever it rains the rain always swirls and dances…that clinched it. Raindance it became. Though after today’s ride I wish I’d named it something like Warmweather Dance or Stay Indoors and Read a Good Book Dance Farms…

Last night we became parents again. Our youngest cat, who those with a really, really good memory will recall was named the terrifying name of “Cookie” groan (I’m apparently destined to have to yell girl chosen names for our animals the rest of my life – if guys would’ve named the cat she’d be ‘Blood fang’ or ‘Cujo’…) had a kitten yesterday. Named, yet again, the truly terrifying name of “M&M.” Sigh. Bill Cosby once said to be sure your child’s name has a vowel at the end so that it will carry when you’re yelling it…apparently we never heed that advice. Like the cats will listen anyway. Mom and baby are doing fine. Those with shorter memories like me will possibly recall that we had another kitten join us recently, a little stowaway who jumped into the truck when Kat left the truck door open at our vet’s farm  and in she climbed (sound familiar?…) so we’re up two cats in two weeks or so. After an incident involving her stealing jalapeno peppers off my plate in a mad dash drive-by (an event we all suffered for for about 8 hours or so…) she’s now called “Pepper.” For a non-cat person, I sure am surrounded by them now. Ummm, let’s see if this works in other areas…I sure don’t like money…nope, apparently it only works with annoying little furballs.

Good morning friends, the mornings sure are getting chillier, aren’t they? Yesterday morning was in the mid-20′s. Couldn’t wait for the coffee to brew. The silver lining is – man brewing coffee smells good on a chilly morning, doesn’t it? Toss in some eggs and bacon cooking and what a great way to wake up!  Kat had riding lessons from mid-morning through 6:30pm – she was unconscious by 9pm last night so not exactly a wild night with my girls here. My daughters finally got to meet mini Magic and fell in love with her. They also got to meet our other surprise – the stowaway kitten that rode home with Kat from our veterinarian’s farm. You’d think she was related to Olivia. She settled into our home routine immediately and is obnoxiously friendly. We’ve been calling her Pepper after her drive by grab of some jalapeno peppers off my plate the other night. We all paid the price for her consumption of spicy foods for the next 12 hours. Groan.

Remember when I mentioned unloading all those hay bales – here’s what the 200 bales of hay look like out in the NW pasture.

October 3rd, 1:49pm: Hey friend, this is a big day for WindChill’s non-profit! Today Magic and I hit the road in our first educational outreach with her. Magic as you already know is our equine educational outreach coordinator, in charge of hugs, petting, laughs and giggles as well as a more serious mission of reaching out to people and letting them know about the plight of horses across this country and what folks can do to help these beautiful and gentle beings. We’re scheduled at around 4pm at the youth center in Superior, WI with a brief detour to stop at a seniors complex in Spirit Valley (Duluth, MN) to drop off some smiles and hugs. If you’re bored, come on over to the Teen Harbor youth center.

I’ll hopefully have some time finally tomorrow AM to try and get some more posts up here and try to catch up with friends and family. Sorry it’s been so long – hard to fit farm, work and family into the small amount of time there seems to be each day!