For Kate

   One of our dear blogging community friends has lost her husband today after their long and valiant fight together against his aggressive form of cancer.  It has been evident to those of us who observed through her blog that her unwavering strength, love and support allowed him a love- filled life and a peaceful winding down and passing.  I’d like to show Kate some support and love here in blog land and my hope is that you will join me in doing so. 

   I’m asking you to find a photo of nature in any form that appeals to you, title your post For Kate, leave her a message on your post if you’d like, or just the photo… and then leave the link to your post in the comments section of her blog.. todays post titled Just Breathe.  link below…

and Kate?.. this one’s for you…

About those Ribbons

   This year K and Max showed in a breed specific circuit – Quarter Horse.  The competition is tougher than the Open shows and the stakes are higher.  There are points awarded for placings and money earnings as you move up the ranks, travel around the country and hopefully win big.  There’s no doubt it’s big business if you’re serious about it, and most people who participate are serious about it.

    That right there is where we sorta fall off the proverbial show wagon, because truth be told… we’re just enjoying the horse we love and setting relatively small goals.  We don’t travel far from home and we don’t like to put big stress on the horse or our person or the wallet, it just doesn’t feel right.   I also think we lack the competitive drive that most horse people have that spurs you forward to achieve higher success in the show ring.  I guess it’s a matter of.. if the  boot fits, wear it. If not, find a less imposing boot.

   One other little thing –   It’s still a thrill for us when your name is called at the end of a class and you’ve learned your placing…and you grab that ribbon with joy, regardless of the placing.  Oh, the blues are definitely the best, but we love them all… blue, red, yellow, white, pink, green.  At Quarter Horse shows, the ribbons are not a priority, partly because these folks go to so many shows and have earned so many ribbons they’ve probably run out of room for storing or displaying them.  It’s more about the points and qualifying, and I totally understand that mentality.  Perhaps we show our green status when we bounce up the secretary booth stairs to pick up of those ribbons, but I don’t care, I don’t want to give up that simple thrill.

   When I was a young girl we didn’t live where I could have a horse.  I visited my Aunt in Connecticut every summer for a week or two and one day she brought me to one of her sons horse shows and put me on a friends horse. He was a big palomino and a kind old fella  name Diesohab (I’m sure that is spelled wrong, it was an Indian name). My  borrowed “show clothes” look awkward in the one picture taken but the huge buck-toothed smile on my face is evidence of the pure joy I felt that day. How I loved that horse and  that one green satin ribbon.

   So.. what to do with those ribbons as they start accumulating?  I found some neat ideas on line and took matters into my own glue-gun wielding hands…

This one is for my girl.. and includes ribbons from the different shows she has
been to over the years…
I made this one for the barn, but I just know the cob webs will smother it.
Might keep it in the house somewhere…
On a side note… little brother, who’s not so little anymore..
went with big sister to visit Max the other night. 
I love when I see this… my two children who fight more often
than not… doing something together to support one another. 
It’s a beautiful thing. 
(eye rolls and heavy sighs not permitted if either of you are reading this.)
Now that’s some serious horse power. 
Ever been on a horse?… come take a ride on Max..
this is a slow lope in western speak. 🙂

 

Things that make me go… Hmmm….

  Long time blog buddy Deborah got me to thinking the other day… in a polite way she sorta called me out on perhaps my own judgemental behavior in my recent Litchfield County Pizza post. It was intended as a kind of tongue in cheek post, but I may have made an unfair observation regarding the plethora of high end cars and clothing a certain Connecticut Townsfolk arrived in at their local pizza joint while we sat out on the porch of the place, enjoying dinner.  I also noted that even though the interior of the place was stifling hot , they all chose to sit inside to eat their dinner, rather than the much more comfortable porch where we were. I implied  it finally occurred to me that  it might be a snub, because we are of a darker ethnicity in flip flops and t-shirts.  

  Well, in hindsight, wasn’t I judging them just as unfairly as they might or might not have been judging me?  Yes, absolutely.  And lets throw  hypocrisy in there as well-  we drive nice cars/trucks at This Old House, and I do have a linen dress or two hanging in the closet.   And hey, maybe the “inside” people know the waitress personally and didn’t want her to have to step outside the door to take orders, so they were being polite by keeping it all inside.  They are an affluent community, and with affluence usually comes the high end autos and clothes, even at the grocery store and local pizza place.  That’s not a crime against anyone.

 There are several ways to look at any situation, and I like to think I’m one of those who recognizes this. Sometimes I get it wrong.   My example here is just a small  one… but the idea can be applied to so many much more important arenas in life.  Now if only everyone would be open to it. 

 – Just Sayin

Gods Country with Cows

  You folks made me laugh yesterday, I think we’d all sit out on that pizza porch and enjoy each others company very much. Thank you friends.

   So I promised you cows.. let’s go back to that day in the fine rolling hills of the very upper crust Litchfield County. Although we live in Connecticut and there is beauty all over the state if I am permitted to brag, here… those hills are truly Gods Country. We were slack jawed in amazement over the awesome views.  And the cows….. oh, those big beautiful soulful eyed cows.  They are clearly being raised for beef, but I feel comfort in the knowledge that they live so well while they are alive. All animals raised for food should be treated with the same respect. If only it were reality.  Kudos to Laurel Ridge Farm Grass Fed Beef for their exceptional treatment of their cattle.

 
I’d name this fella Rusty. 

 
 
Gods Country, only way to describe it.
 Can you see the house on the ridge below?  I could be very happy there.

 


 Now about those cows… Mike would like a few out in the fields behind
This Old House. My dilemna is… I couldn’t kill them once they had lived here for a while.
Heaving a slab of Rusty on the grill for dinner?
Not do-able.
 

… something funny happened on the way home from the Falls….

   If you stop here often you may have seen my recent post on a trip to Kent Falls on the other side of the state. Beautiful place, it is.  Kent Falls lies in the upscale Litchfield County  – which is a mix of beautiful rural landscape , upscale dairy farms, some modest  and some ultra lux homes.  I’ll share some of those photos with you tomorrow….my husband now wants some cows.
   On the way back through the county, heading home, we decided to stop at a quaint looking Pizza place in a charming New England town. It was a hot day, and we noticed they have a lovely porch where you can sit and enjoy your food.  We went inside to place our order and right away the heat inside was stifling.  I felt bad for the waitress and the cooks.  So naturally we opted to sit just outside the door on the porch where there was a pleasant breeze. Because it was now late afternoon into the evening, the dinner crowd began to roll in.  First thing I noticed were the caliber of cars… Mercedes, Porsche, Cadillacs, range rovers.   Also, in our shorts, t-shirts and flip flops we were apparently under dressed.   The women wore linen or Cotton dresses in Lilly Pulitzer prints and the men were in khakis and Izod’s.  
   In the stifling heat we encountered inside, one would think SOME of those people would come out and join us on the porch. There were several tables available.   Not a one. They all chose to sit inside in the sweltering dining area.  Across the street there is a grocery store, it’s own brand, not a Stop & Shop or IGA. The same dress code was evident in the people who came and went from the store.
    Finally, as we were about to leave, it occurred to me that perhaps we were a little more ethnically diverse than this particular crowd was comfortable with, hence our lone status on the porch.  Personally,I’d rather keep company with the cows 🙂
 

…When all is said and done…

 
   Even now I hesitate to write about it… death and dying.  We all do it, totally unavoidable…yet it’s one of the most difficult things to contemplate.   Birth and death are the two experiences we all have in common. How those things unfold and the ways in which we process them are a different story all together.
 
   I’ve often envied those who are strong in their Faith, who believe in the heavens above, the reward after a hard lived life – of existing in peace with their creator and loved ones who have gone before them.  I’m not saying I don’t believe there is any such thing.  What has always been very clear to me, though,  is that I just don’t know the answer to what absolutely is and what might not be. Science makes a heck of a lot of sense. I can’t ignore the proven truths of evolution.   Having been raised a Catholic,  I often found some of what many religions preach as fear based, hypocritical and outdated. I also have a hard time justifying the reasons for so much of the horrible, senseless suffering we all see all over the world if there is a Creator who was so powerful he could have avoided that altogether.  
 
  So it’s honest to admit I turned away from organized religion long ago.  I’ve given my children the education to make that decision for themselves, as I feel it’s their right to do so.  I live my life on good terms with kindness and good will. If I meet a maker someday for judgement, my hope is that I will have lived up to the creators expectations, although I’m no Saint.  
 
  The science of birth and death make sense to me…. but there are  those miracles that make you wonder, not to mention the essence of our being… the Soul, which I have no doubt we all possess.    (ok, some people make me wonder.)    If not for the Soul, we would all just be a unit of working parts, a robot.  What makes a -Soul-… surely not those working parts.  It’s something greater than our current understanding and right there is the wrinkle that scientific explanations cannot iron out.
 
  I recently came across the words of a very wise man, Michael ldvorsky Pupin- a Serbian-American inventor, a great educator, professor
of Columbia University, an applied physicist, an important social figure in
America at his time. He was one of the
great shining stars in the history of American science.
 
  Mr. Pupin had this, and much more,  to say on the subject in a New York Times interview…
 “Science gives us plenty of ground for intelligent hope that our physical life is only a stage in the existence of the soul.  The law of continuity and the general scientific view of the universe tend to strengthen our belief that the soul goes on existing and developing after death.”
 
   Have you ever been asked who you would choose to meet, past or present person in history, if you could choose anyone at all?   Top of my list would be Mr. Pupin. 
 
  
 
 

Hammonasset River

 We took advantage of some absolutely beautiful weather yesterday
and trucked Ruby and Torch down to a river entrance under the highway.
 
The water was murky…. bleh.. but once we got out closer to the sound
and the brackish water, the sights and lack of sounds were soul soothing.
It’s the only time I get my guy to unplug.
 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 I picked up a zombie hitch hiker along the way…

 
 
The tide was going out and wind blew in, so the paddle home
was more strenuous than the cruising out…
Two things you must always factor into your paddling..
 1. will the tide be for or against you,
2. same with the wind.
 

 

 Sunday Sauce was waiting on the stove…
 
I’m pretty sure no woman ever shot a man while he was making a Sunday Sauce.
 
– just sayin.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Horse’n around

 
Florida cousin V is staying here with family for a few days.
She’s always loved the area and is considering a move to CT to attend college
and see what she can see.
 
It’s a BIG DECISION… choosing to uproot yourself from friends and the family
you’ve always lived with to change up what you feel needs changing.
 
I did this very thing 30 years ago,only I was moving just two and a half hours up the pike,
with an old horse in tow, trading city-suburban life for horse country.
The place and the people I called ‘home’ back then were not so very far away.  
 
 
When V visits, we get the cousins together for some horse’n around…
 
  
 
 
Max and K have concluded their show year…
next weeks show is a no-go due to an equine respitory cold that’s been going around.
Thankfully our guy is healthy but we’re not taking chances.
At 17 after a long career of hauling and showing and teaching,
 he deserves good care and easy living.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The one about the Chickens

 
   Chickens tend to be thought of as not very bright.  Now that I’m three years into chicken tending, I can tell you I’ve found that not to be true. No dumb clucks in this flock.  If they’re let out to free range during the day, they don’t stray too far from the coop, always returning to lay their eggs and  roost as the light changes to early evening.  If they hear my flip flops on the gravel they come running… knowing this person always has treats for them.  When they hear a hawk screech in the sky, they instinctively duck for cover. 
 
    There is a reason for all the cliches associated with chickens… it comes straight from chicken behaviors…
 
    Pecking Order…. there is one in every flock. The boss hen (if there is no rooster) lets everyone know their place.
 
   Being Hen Pecked… that’s the chickens who are lower on the flock seniority list.  
 
    Coming home to roost … well that’s what they do.
 
    I have the answer to Why did the chicken cross the road, by the way…..  to get away from the hawk on this side of the road who just decapitated one of it’s flock mates.   good reason!  
 
 Chicken Out –  Chickens are definitely cautious.
 
  Run around like a chicken without a head. – I have no personal experience with this, thankfully!…
 
  She’s no spring chicken.  –  Older chickens don’t lay eggs. They stop being egg-productive at about three to four years of age.
 
  Chickens do have their own personalities, this is something that amazed me when I began my chicken raising journey.   My own flock of eleven are a very diverse group.  I have three of my original seven, who are now aging and not laying as frequently as they once did. There are the four that I had shipped from out west… poor things, won’t do that again. And then there are the  four that I adopted when I brought my nasty hen – the one who thought she was a rooster and routinely plucked the feathers off my other chickens – to the lovely young woman at the  Cluttered Coop.  She provides a home for wayward chickens and roosters.   Ever since that nasty hen left, my hens have flourished.
 
 
Henrietta is a small Cochin, sweet disposition
 
 
 
 
Snow is a large Cochin, a little more reserved but definitely curious.
Cochins have feathered feet!


 
 
 Dorothy is a Black Australorp..
Regal in stature and one of my originals.
The flock tends to follow her around the yard, although she is not bossy.

 
 
 I’m not sure exactly what Sophias breed of chicken is,
although I think  she is a bantam by her small size.  She came from the Cluttered Coop.
Notice the feathered feet, perhaps she is also a Cochin.

 
 
 Below are Autumn, an Auracana (blue eggs!)
And Andie.. my Blue Andalusian..
and Red, my New Hampshire Red.

 
 There are two barred rocks… Salt and Pepper

 
 
 
Rose is at the bottom left, another of my originals, an Auracana as well.
Raven is the black auracana in the background.

 
I’ve placed new sand in the coop yard.. this needs to be done periodically,
as well as a good raking out every day to keep the environment clean for the girls.
 
AND… some of  you may remember the project my guys put together for me
this summer…
The Chicken Shack!
It’s done and in place.
 

 

 
 
 I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…
if you’ve ever considered having chickens in your own back yard,
I recommend it highly.
They are a delight to care for and the eggs are divine.
 
 And there’s a reason why people refer to inexpensive things as Chicken feed.
It’s  cheap!