Penned Up & Pent Up

The horses have been confined to paddock turnout for two months, a negative side effect of the early spring. They are full of energy with no place to put it.

So they run circles in the paddock.

Mr. Solo is enjoying his new-found freedom as one of the geldings. Topper is giving him the snake eye as he takes a spin past him. Tops is keeping Ari and Scamper in the corner; they are mine, says he!

Weeeeee!

Bounce showing how he got his name. Yee-haw.

The Lad-Man is amazed.

I have been busy but not with anything worth writing about. I am scraping paint, pulling weeds. Not very interesting to anyone but me. And I think I am beginning to find it less interesting as the days go by. Perhaps the next photos will be of me running wildly around the paddock!

The farrier will be here for the morning, so I will hear some news as we give the beasties their pedicure. The handsome chestnut in the photo above will have his tootsies done, which means the vet will be here as well. Laddy takes great exception to farrier work. And the farrier takes great exception to being launched by Laddy. So he gets a cocktail of drugs to put him in the mood. Bad Lad.

It is a beautiful day, I have work to do. Enjoy your day good people.

As Far As The Eye Can See

White headstones. My father was interred today at Fort Snelling National Cemetery. It has been nine weeks since he died but my mother couldn't find his discharge papers, so it took longer than it should have done.

It would have been best to put a period to this process earlier, but it was a beautiful day and the place doesn't look desolate in the spring. It is very overwhelming in winter to see all of the stark white headstones in the winter landscape. My mother may have been overcome by that.

We were in a small section of the cemetery and look at all of these headstones. Your eye cannot not see where they end. Amazing. Sobering. And strangely peaceful and comforting.

Look at them all.

There were a lot of these in the thirty feet or so that we walked about in. Notice the headstone in the background as well. When I commented on this Mark said it isn't any different now. The US has the highest infant mortality rate of the industrialized nations. Still, to see so many in such a small space.

When Taps is played there is no getting away without a catch in the throat and tears in the eyes. He got a three shot salute and a full honor guard. My father didn't want to be buried so his ashes will be interred in a wall niche. There is a space beside him for my mother.

Now this chapter is closed. He became a different person in his last few years, so I will remember and miss my dad as he had been and not as he became. I'm glad he will spend eternity here, with so much company.

In a Day

I wanted to check in, so you know I am alive and well.

We've had wonderful weather and have been taking advantage of the gift we've been given, leaving me busy throughout the day and tired in the evening. I don't know why I am continuously surprised that I tire more easily as the years wear on. Somehow it does not seem fair.

There has not been one interesting thing happening in my life on the farm these days. It has been a continuation of the constant; horses, maintenance and refurbishing. And I am happy doing it. The awakening of all things green has given me a much needed lift in attitude and energy. The heat and humidity which is to come will sap me of both soon enough, but for now it is full steam ahead!

So on this lovely day Mark will spread manure, I will be busy holding horses for the farrier, getting all the news fit to pass on, and simply enjoying simplicity. Seems like a good way to pass a day. And it won't be long before these are in bloom.

Enjoy your own day good people.

Rainy Days & Thursdays

Always make me think.

The horses will spend the day in the barn again. We have had a lot of rain and the soil is sloppy and slippery. My delicate flowers don't get put out on days like this. I think it has more to do with my own reluctance to trudge through the muck, but I will continue to maintain it is for their benefit.

What a difference some rain makes. I have not altered this photo, the grass really is that green. All of the green things are sprouting, working their way out of the soil and toward the light. I wonder if the plants are as confused as I am. This is the way the landscape looks in May.

Green, lots of green. And fence boards needing paint. Fence boards always need paint.

Puddles and peony. I am a fan of the peony. No maintenance and so much beauty. I have the original farm family to thank for the many large peony plants that adorn the property.

The last day of tax season. Mark will emerge from his cave at the end of the day. I wonder if he will recognize me. The odds will improve as to whether he will now remember at least half of what I say to him.

I am lazy today. My mind is lazy and only wants to think of things simple. Like puddles and peonies.

Dancing in on Thunder's Call & Lightning's Flash

We entered spring.

Spring is quietly creeping into my life, by way of my yard. Perhaps not so quietly, as we had a humdinger of a thunderstorm overnight. If you feel tremors under you feet it would be me doing the happy dance. We needed rain in the worst way.

I bought two cold hardy repeat blooming rhododendron today, which is why they are in full bloom. We have a limited selection of azalea and rhododendron we can choose from because of our harsh climate, but I am grateful to the University of Minnesota's horticultural college for developing these winter hardy plants.

The box elder are budding.

Old fashion orange day lily making an appearance.

The asiatic lilies are feeling brave, it is April after all.

Rhubarb!

Never spring without dandelions.

French tarragon.

A favorite - delphinium.

Blurry red twig dogwood. I liked the image with the wood pile focused behind. We dig the dogwood out of the ditch and transplant it, as well as honeysuckle. They grow wild and I use the free landscape material.

I use a lot of what I have on hand; like horse manure. It makes a good fertilizer, but I also use it as mulch. The bedding is ground wood, so it works great as a mulch. After fermenting in a pile all winter you can hardly tell what it once was! I do live in the country, you know.

A Concrete Solution

We are having very temperate weather for April in Minnesota, which is wonderful if you have lots of outdoor projects to complete. It is too early to plant, so I'm taking advantage of the mild temperatures to get some big projects done.

We have a gravel driveway, but there is a concrete apron, which has an area in front of the third stall that is badly cracked. I am going to mix quick setting cement and fix it today, as well as repairing the cracks in the sidewalk with a handy, self-leveling product I found in the building department of Home Depot.

When all is dry I will use a concrete stain to finish my little repair project off. Some of you may remember I had developed an addiction to HGTV. Well this project is a direct result of my habit. Who knew you could stain concrete?

In the next week I plan to paint the garage. The front is peeling badly and it looks terrible. I usually paint in the fall, but our gift of a real spring this year will allow me to do this now. I am, as you can see, the handy person in the family. It's not that Mark can't do, he won't do. He really should live in a condo. I will set him to fence repair and listen to a long litany of complaints about the horses. As long as he fixes the fence, he can complain all he wants.

I love projects so I live in the right place. The long suffering husband does his best to stay out of the line of vision and avoid the dreaded words "I need this fixed."

It's a great day, I hope you all enjoy yours.

Morning Breaking

A oddly eerie and beautiful morning's arrival. 

Life is scurrying along, the daily grind is ground and sometimes the day's arrival is heralded with blue on the horizon.

Sunshine & Horses

Brighty, weanling

Yesterday was simply beautiful in Minnesota. If you celebrate Easter, you got a gift. If not, you still got a gift. I was in the barn for the day, but I got brief moments in the sun as I travelled the route to and from the manure pile on the skid loader. You take the good where you find it!

Life on the farm is so different from the long ago life I led in Saint Paul. In that life we would have gone somewhere nice for brunch and perhaps a drive around town to see if the ice is off the lakes. That is a couple of decades ago of memory though. Now every day starts with feeding and watering large numbers of hungry equines, all calling out to me as they hear the door slide open. Noses poking through the bars, they nicker in anticipation of the alfalfa coming their way. I have never tired of this. Listening to them contentedly munch hay is one of life's joys. Cleaning up after them, well it is just part of the deal. At least I don't have the older woman wings on my upper arms. I have manure pitching and bale lifting to thank for that!

I have felt sorry for myself quite a bit recently. I have been concentrating on the the restrictions of my life, all the while overlooking the good. I do enjoy a whine now and again, but it needs to be really good and really short. Mine has been a steady droning sound, one that just crawls under the skin and annoys. Maybe the change of season will bring about a change of mind. I think so.

It's time to move my self in the direction of the barn and let the beasties out. They are always so happy to get outside, until they realize it is another day in the dirt paddock. It seems cruel and unusual punishment that they can look across the lane to green grass. Sacrifice now means plenty later, but they don't know or care. All they know is they can smell spring. At least the geldings have mostly stopped beating each other up. Several throat latches have teeth marks. Can't eat grass says Solo, maybe I'll bite Ari.

City & Ari, two years old

Off I go for another day. Enjoy your day good people.

In Thirty Minutes

In the span of one half hour I have heard on the morning news:

* 8.2 million jobs have been lost in the past two years.

* Kids are playing the 'choking game'. Purposely choking one another or themselves to receive a brief high as they are asphyxiated.  More than 80 kids have died playing this so-called game.

* A Dancing with the Stars participant is receiving serious death threats.

* An anti-government group is ordering the state governors out of office. The FBI calls it exercising free speech.

* There has been a 250% increase in militia groups since President Obama took office.

* iPad goes on sale today. Thousands line up to buy it.

And this is just a lightweight morning show. An interesting glimpse of American society, in abridged form.

* Edited to add the other within the 30 minutes. How could I forget this one.

* The Michigan Militia members who were about to go on a cop-killing spree were arraigned.

The Road To Perdition.....

is called Wall Street.

I listened to Timothy Geitner this morning explain that Wall Street had to be bailed out, it would have been the end of the world if not. He so casually said we will have high unemployment for a long time to come. When asked about the money flowing among the few on The Street, he ignored it. 2009 was a banner year for the Elegant Thieves of Wall Street, largely due to bailout money. Some hedge fund managers saw the government was not going to let the investment banks fail, so they swooped in and bought stock. And received a 25 billion paycheck among them last year. Something is very wrong. While The Street sees plenty of this,

so many others have seen this. From President Obama on down there is this phrase:  jobless recovery. THERE CAN BE NO SUCH THING. Wall Street doing well is not a recovery. Wall Street is not the economy, frankly Wall Street is the destroyer of an economy.

Glass Steagall needs to be put back into law. Balance needs to be attained.  Congress will not do it. Unfortunately, so many Democrats have joined the Republicans in putting their hands out that it is impossible to get any kind of meaningful reform in anything.

We are likely in for another crash, larger than the last, because there is no stopping the thugs. We don't need Tea Baggers or militant militia groups. We need an engaged and informed mainstream America. An American public that doesn't get their information from Glenn Beck or Sean Hannity. A public that isn't swayed by sound bytes. It seems like a very hard row to hoe. 

I did not have a topic today. I was not going to post anything. Then I heard this soulless man speaking about something he does not have the ability to grasp in such an abstract manner. It makes me want to weep.