Mustang Saga

Christmas has come and gone and I hope you had a good one! My Christmas morning was beautiful, out in the sunshine, just me and the hoses, (yes hoses, not horses) filling troughs. I did actually spend a little time with the horses. Scout got to come out and visit for a bit when I thought I saw him kicking and looking at his belly. I put him back when he seemed just fine. Maybe he was just bothered by the sound of electric tape gate that he had knocked onto the ground.

A little later I went back out and started up the tractor, tried to use its weight to squish down the frozen corrugated mud that the horses were having trouble walking in. It kinda worked. Scout was NO help at all though. He'd get in front of the tractor, stick his nose in the bucket, checking out the various parts, and he would not move for anything! Finally I just drove into him (slowly of course!) and he'd move a step at a time, sideways or backward. He never really did get out of the way much. Goofy baby. I can't wait to ride this un-spooky horse! I bet he'd make a great police horse, not afraid to push into a big orange tractor with a hollering, arm-waving, clapping person in it.

Back to Christmas morning though. The kids got up at 4:30! Crazy. I told them they had to wait for 6:30, and they did. But they didn't go back to bed, they stayed up. They had a great Christmas and were busy with their loot all day, except when we went to John's mom's for dinner and more presents. Speaking of dinner, it's diet time now. I've been a pig.

Sorry I'm not blogging much. I'm thinking a lot, and there's something building. I think I need to make some life changes. I've been thinking a lot about how to grow as a person, how to move on with my life, build something more, and how to make the world a better place. Lots of things. One thing I really thought hard about on Christmas Eve, was how do you get out of a dark spot when so many things are going bad? All I could think of was to make something good of my own, something that spreads goodness, and heal myself a bit by helping others. Because all I seem to hear lately are the bad things going on in the world. I don't know how you people who watch the news can handle it. I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do. But I need to do something different. I'll probably post more about this in a few days, when "new years resolutions" are all the rage.

All's well here on this farm. All the people and critters are currently healthy. So far as I know. My sister, well, she's still a fighter, but she's getting tired of bad news and the cancer battle. We're in the darkest part of winter and spirits are a little low, we're having to muster our strength. I found Valentine, my Rhode Island Red hen, dead on Christmas morning. She looked to have died peacefully in her sleep, cozy in her nesting box. Still sad though.

I worry, is it wrong to post sad thoughts here on my blog? Am I just spreading the disease? I don't want to bring people down. But I have a case of "I can't help but write it."

Oh! I have a good thing to share! If you have a chance, watch the documentary "Wild Horse Redemption." I liked it a lot. It's about the Canon City correctional facility and their program where inmates train wild horses. Part of me is irritated, because those guys break the law and get to do what I yearn to do - learn from wild horses every day with no distractions - but a larger part of me is glad that they get the chance to grow, through the grace of wild horses. Netflix carries it if you don't have TV, like me.