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Happy PlaceOctober 11 Nothing much, I suppose...I'm just passing the time here. It is a GORGEOUS morning outside, frosty and bright sunshine, but I am not awake enough to head out into it.
Oh, about that book... It was interesting. I liked it. Maybe even enough to read it again someday. It was kind of depressing. Not sure I'd recommend it to everyone.
Probably under the influence of that book, I'm still thinking of preserving food. We have only one apple tree with apples this year thanks to a late frost, but I'm considering canning them. My great-grandma Lena made the BEST apple butter. I might try to make that.
We now have 300 baby trees planted along our creek. Alders, cottonwoods, native hawthorns, native dogwoods, elderberries, and some ponderosa pine. They probably need water today, but I'm not sure how I'm going to accomplish that. I bought a big water tank, 275 gallons, and thought I would water yesterday. We ran into a problem there though. The exit nozzle on the tank is 2 inches and of course the garden hose is not. I bought an adapter but it was just a tiny bit too small. So I guess I might just let the water flow out the two inch hole into buckets and hope I don't waste too much.
Horse news. Scout was gelded and vaccinated about 3 weeks ago. We need to give him his booster shots today. That ought to be fun. Actually it shouldn't be too bad. He jumped around a little for the vet, but that was an intravenous shot, and this will be IM. Oh! and the vet thought that he's seeing out of his blind eye. So he did heal a bit after all. I still don't think it's normal sight, but any sight at all is good. I got up on Bella for the first time this week. It was great. She's comfy for bareback. I didn't ask her to move, just got on and off, and did it again from the other side. I am very worried now though. She has a strained prepubic tendon (under the belly) and my vet said it was okay to ride slowly in straight lines, but nothing strenuous, and don't do it if she might buck or shy. Well, I figured it was fine to just sit on her then. But now either I'm overly sensitive about it or that tendon is bothering her more. I'm worried. What if it never heals? I'm giving her MSM since it's the cheapest option that might help, but I might have to buy one of the expensive supplements. I did make some money sorting sheep last week, so maybe John won't mind the expenditure. I love that horse, and the thought that she won't be rideable is really depressing.
Liam is reading really well and loving it because he has a goal to work toward. Their school is finally doing the Pizza Hut Book-It program where they get a free personal pizza if they meet their goal. Katia did that before we moved here and it was a lot of fun. Liam also has gotten 100% on his first two spelling tests, and is adding numbers like crazy. He recently joined Cub Scouts and that's been good for him. John got roped into being the den leader.
Katia is learning to play the flute and reading music! Wow. I never did learn to read music that easily. Tablature, yes, music, no. I always had to think about it, she just looks at it and plays. She also reads constantly and likes to play computer games. Not an extremely active child... But I suppose that's okay as long as we limit her computer time and she goes outside sometimes. Oh, it was so funny last night. I sent her out to bring in the dogs. She's been afraid of the dark all her life, but I've made her go out into it anyway sometimes. Well, last night was a beautiful night. Clear and bright with moonlight. She came in glowing, "Mom, you have to come out and look at the stars, they're everywhere!" Actually they weren't, with such a bright moon, but it was very nice out. She thought it was so cool that we could see our shadows at night. I told her she needs to go outside at night more, there are lots of nights that are beautiful in different ways. So much more uplifting and spiritual feeling than most daytimes.
Well, I'm done with my coffee and I'm sure the horses and hens are hungry. Hope you all have a glorious day!
September 21 The end of the world (as we know it)I just started reading a book and while I'm not far enough in to say I highly recommend it, I'm immediately drawn in and don't want to put it down. When I did put it down it really got me thinking.
Thoughts like this:
And so on.
The book is called Into the Forest, a novel by Jean Hegland. About the time after the power quits working. Someone bombs strategic sites around the country. The economy crashes. I think there is an epidemic of a sort of strep that is antibiotic resistant as well. But the beginning is vague, and maybe the cause of "the end" is vague on purpose, because with little high-tech communication and the ages of the girls in the book, maybe they don't really have a clear idea of what happened.
I think my biggest challenge if something like that happened would be depression and exhaustion.
It's got me wondering if I should start stockpiling food. Winter causes me these thoughts too. I know there will be a time when I can't leave the house for days or maybe weeks at a time, thanks to our driveway. John will be able to get to work (knock on wood) most of the time, but the car, it can't always do it.
To other matters:
I have no plans tomorrow. It's very strange. Thanks to the rain I don't have to paint. I don't have to go to town. The only thing I really have to do is try to get the house in order. With all these projects going on the house has become pretty darn nasty. I might even mop. But I feel kind of light, knowing that if I did nothing at all tomorrow besides feed the kids and critters, it would be okay. I won't indulge in such sloth, but knowing that I could is kinda uplifting.
Sarah - good point about art and joy! I hadn't thought of that. Most of my most joyous moments have come in the middle of my darkest moments, so while I've created out of joy, it was still from the middle of despair. I guess I tend to think that everything must work the way it has for me. Good to be reminded that the world is wider than my experience of it. It shocks me sometimes when I realize that people are different from me. I guess it's a kind of conceit.
I think I must be tired. All the thoughts that were so clear a few minutes ago are drifting apart. So good night! September 16 Hello againI have been neglecting this blog. I decided to just go with the Mustang Saga blog for a while, since... Well, I guess I don't have a reason, I just did. But now I find myself having thoughts that are of no interest to anyone, expecially horse people, so I find myself here agian. I'm not decided whether I should buy a notebook and keep a journal, since this really isn't interesting... I could write in a journal outside. It's beautiful outside. Not so much, here at my messy desk.
Thoughts -
Is art a symptom of mental illness? So much pain involved in creation. Wow, along those lines, how bad must it have hurt God to give birth to everything? (Which isn't to say I am or am not convinced there was a deity involved, just a thought...)
Going back to the pain and anguish thing, isn't that supposed to be part of life? I heard something recently, part of a song I think, saying she never wanted her children to feel pain... Not a good way to raise a person if you want them to be able to cope. I wonder if we could all slow down if we'd have less lingering pain. Deal with it and get it over with, move on, rather than bottling it up and holding it tightly to us, but not looking at it.
Now going back to the art and mental illness thing. Della said she heard or read something recently with the idea that if techie people can be recognised as generally being socially inept, possibly artists are simply emotionally inept.
I'm painting the exterior of the house. Gives me a lot of quiet time to think...
Oh! Katia said the most wonderful thing recently. Talking about smells and how they remind us of things, and the fact that my mom hates patchouli. Katia said, "My childhood has been mostly fun, so usually when a smell reminds me of something, it's something that makes me happy." Wow! I'm not perfect, and especially lately with the teenage thing coming on I've had to be a real bitch at times, so I worry what my kid will complain of to her psychiatrist when she's 30. To have her say she's happy with her childhood made me feel so good.
I better get changed into my painting clothes and get to work. I may be back to write more meaningless maunderings later. Or I may buy a journal.
May 09 No way...I just typed a LONG entry. Well, now that it's gone it seemed long... And I don't want to do it again! So I'll be brief.
Scout is officially blind in the hurt eye, and nothing can be done about it. The vet came out Wednesday to check it. It just wasn't getting completely better. He couldn't get Scout to flinch on that side when he acted like he was going to hit the eye. He also saw some strangeness to the eye, so he wanted us to see an ophthalmologist. He pulled some strings and got us in today. The results of which I have already shared... Bummer. But really, it's kind of a relief. There was nothing we could have done differently, it would have ended up the same. And knowing there's nothing we can do now is actually kind of a relief too, instead of having to decide whether or not we can afford some expensive surgery.
He really seems not to know that he has problems. I was shocked when the vet found that he wasn't seeing, because he acts so normal. So I'm hoping he'll stay that way through all of his training, and not have any ultra-spooky tendencies. We'll see...
Here's the sweet man himself, sporting his new fly mask:
April 22 Scout is going to be fineI'm sorry, I forgot to update here yesterday! This blog tends to kind of get forgotten a lot...
We went to WSU (they trailered very well yet again for a couple of "wild" horses) and they did a thorough check. There is some abnormality in the back of the eye, but no puncture or rupture. He'll be fine. The eye looked shrunken because the muscle behind it is pulling it back due to the pain. So they gave us some pain meds for him, told us to keep up the ointment, and send us home. We've now paid them over $600 and that doesn't count the bill from my vet... Could be a lot worse though, so I shouldn't complain. I am very thankful he'll keep his eye and will be a whole horse. Now, let's see if he can keep himself out of trouble for a while...
Thank you Sarah for the reiki. I know it helped. Even after all their poking and prodding, the eye seemed to improve a lot yesterday. April 21 Scout's eyeScout hurt his eye last week and I thought it was getting better because all the swelling had gone down in the eyelid, but something looked funny… Yesterday I realized it looks like the eyeball is shrinking. Which isn’t good. We’re headed in to WSU today. Their ophthalmologist is off until May, but if it’s bad enough they’ll call her in. It’s looking like a good possibility that he’ll lose the eye. I hate this waiting and worrying… April 14 Welcome HomeSo, I don't like to write about being alone before my peoples are back. I just don't consider it safe... Although I know Angus is an excellent and fierce guard dog, you just never know what might happen.
John and the kids left last Tuesday to spend most of the week at Della and Michael's doing Seattle touristy stuff. They had a lot of fun. Every day was filled with all kinds of cool stuff. I stayed home to keep an eye on Scout, didn't want to leave him here with a house-sitter who doesn't know much about horses. So I worked on some projects and rode my horse a couple times and watched some movies. Also made a day trip up to Spokane. It was fun, but I am really glad they're home! We had a celebratory dinner and all watched Stardust together. When I brushed my teeth last night I was happy to see all the toothbrushes left around the sink. Ah, the little things...
Today it's back to reality with lots of laundry to do, kids to get off to school, bills to pay... Rain. After those last two glorious days, waking up to rain was kind of disappointing. But it got warm enough for some serious green to develop, and that's still here, with the rain feeding it. I love spring! |
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