Musings and birthdays

Well another year has gone. Why does life drag when your young and seem to speed by at lightening speed when your older? It seems like yesterday that I was 23. Tomorrow I will be 33. Ten years just like that. At 23 I had my life figured out (at least a really good pictured of it). By 33 I was going to have a child, a good job, a big house and be reasonably comfortable. What goals have I achieved from that list? Well, I have a house (small but comfortable), comfortable enough to afford a few extras now an then, but not enough to really relax and not worry about money. The child, well thats a long story. When I was young (21,22) I found out that I was unable to have kids. At that age we were devastated. We adjusted and go back and forth with adoption. The final decision has yet to be made. If we do adopt, it will be older kids. That may or many not happen. The job, well I am working on that. If I ever get out of colleges I will be able to get it, hopefully something that I really like. That job will also allow me to take the pressure off my wonderfully supportive husband. I have no idea what the next 10 years will bring. I hope that they fill in the missing parts that I wanted at 23 as well as those that 33 wishes for. The underlying lesson I have learned is that change is good. Both good and bad. Celebrate the good when it comes and don't dwell on the bad. Here's looking at the next ten years!

Life lessons at the barn

I am really new to this. In fact this is my first official blog. Not really sure how much I will use it, but it looks like fun. I will start by writing about the day at the barn. It started with putting medicine in one of their eyes. She got an ulcer on one of her eyes. Apparently horses get them quite often, from bumping there eyes on who knows what. They can lose their eyes from the darn things. Anyway I digress, so put the medicine in her eye, followed by putting her in the field. Then we moved on to putting the rest of the heard out. Spirit, and Little Chief in the field with Beauty and Dreams and Spumoni out to eat grass. This was followed by cleaning stalls (5) and refilling water. the best part of the day was standing in the middle of the field watching all the horse interactions around us. You can learn a LOT about behavior and interactions by watching. I could of spent all day in there, listening and watching them. But alas responsibility called. We moved on to preparing the beet pulp with the vitamins, wormer and salt. This is where our routine became a bit more interesting. As you read Dreams and Spumoni were out eating grass. Well, we learned a really good lesson, put spumoni in her stall before putting hay out. She freaked out, (she is a bit of a bully) pushing dreams (and the human trying to feed) out of her way to get the hay. It was bad for a few intense seconds. Horses jockeying for position and human getting the heck out of the way. Disaster avoided. feeding continues. Then it was time move the boys and beauty out of the field for the night. I get Spirit and then stand at the gate watching as my friend gets beauty to her stall. I then make a critical decision, not to close the gate as beauty is secure, going into her stall. I get spirit into his stall and am taking his halter off when I hear I hear the thunder of hooves heading my way at a gallop followed by a scream of "beauty is loose! Jess!" I look at spirit and tell him to be good just as beauty slided to a stop in front of the stall we are in. The gate isn't latched, I have my foot on the bottom rung and am praying that spirit will be good and not try to bolt out. Luckily he decided that hay was better and he stood behind me with a rather impatient look at beauty, obviously wanting to eat but trying to be good. Beauty in the mean time, is standing on the other side tossing her head clearly unhappy with the whole deal. She was cooperative with being captured and taken to her stall. Moral of the story: LATCH the gate to the field EVERY time there is a loose horse in it! No harm done to humans or horses. Turns out that beauty was cold and not feeling well ( the eye ulcer is VERY painful). We put her sheet on and she was fine, her attitude gone. Horses are a lot like kids, if they are uncomfortable or not feeling good everyone knows about it.

I'm here, I think

Okay, I finally got on here after creating an account then losing it, who knows how. But I am here now so I can comment on your wonderful blogs. I will write more later, when I am more awake.